I've played an engie my whole AO career and Engies weren't always the worst profession but they are now. I'm talking about Engies in the current environment who team and are level 100 or higher. I'll explain why..
1) Vast majority of teams 100+ do team missions.
2) Pet pathing is so bad that it takes aproiximately 10-15 second longer for an expert pather to get the bot to a mob than a player. Also, there will be times where it will get stuck and 30 secs-1 minute of downtime will be needed to get to the next mob. Let alone pathing it several rooms away.
3) High level groups kill mobs in 5-30 seconds depending on team skill.
Conclusion A: Engies are going to do less damage than anyone else with their bot.
4) Engies are at the greatest natural disadvantage as a profession for weapon using. We can use a weapon and do damage that way, but we have dark blue skills and no buffs to improve our damage via weapons. In addition, pathing time often takes away from shooting time.
Conclusion B: Engies will do less damage than others with their weapons.
Conclusion A+B=C: Engies do less damage than any other class.
5) Engie buffs stink. Sympathetics stink. AC stinks. Dmg shields stink. Only reflect shields are any good because they absorb damage, but we don't even have the best ones. I can self-cast any buff but nobody in their right mind wants anything but reflect(there are NCU considerations here that are beyond the scope of this article).
Conclusion D: There aren't buffs (like mp mochams or crat speechs) that are good enough to justify having an engie in a group.
Conclusion C+D= Engies are the worst profession in any team situation.
While other "gimped" classes are being pumped up, their situation is nowhere near as bad. Adventurers can at least use their bad heals and Agents can turn into someone useful and buff. Fixers shoot for more damage and own at least 1 buff that people want. NTs have a useful buff or two, and aren't going to be on the bottom of the damage curve. I'm not saying these profs are great but currently there is no reason to pollute your group with an engie.
FC needs to revisit this situation immediately. Thank you for your time.
Munchausen RK-2 Engie 170