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This occurred to me this morning. Do Eldar have mechanics or are most eldar competent enough to fix anything that breaks down? The IoM seems to have more prominent mechanics, if only because we field them on the battlefield with actual soldiers instead of always leaving them home.

Eldar stuff either gets destroyed in battle or suffers no damage - this means they dont need mechanics

However, many of their devices are made from psychoreactive material; they have bonesingers and other such people who can repair and manufacture their constructs and machines.

Spiritseers have usually been on the field too. Do you mean a guy with a spanner? On the one hand, that requires them to build things by rolling out sheets of metal, cutting out forms from the metal, and fastening the forms together, which they don't do. On the other hand, there have been Eldar gunnery models who carried sort of mechanical tools.

Bone seers are the ones who would get blessings of the elvnissiah. Vaul, actually. They just don't appear.

Bonesingers are the closest they'd have to a mechanic. Most of their devices are made of Wraithbone, so a Bonesinger would be needed to repair the damage.

Its possible that a Bonesinger is viewed as too valuable to risk on a battlefield so they never enter the battlefield, although Forge World does/did make a model for them. Not sure if he had rules.

Bonesingers are pretty much mechanics.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Bonesingers are the closest they'd have to a mechanic. Most of their devices are made of Wraithbone, so a Bonesinger would be needed to repair the damage.

Its possible that a Bonesinger is viewed as too valuable to risk on a battlefield so they never enter the battlefield, although Forge World does/did make a model for them. Not sure if he had rules.

I think the model you have in mind was an Army-box exclusive back 2 books ago, I don't think FW has done any Bonesinger

Bonesingers have had at least 3 editions of rules. None of them recent.

Could wraithbone perhaps repair itself?

Dunno if this lore has been updated but:

I'd agree with bonesingers being close to mechanics. Their main job is guiding how Wraithbone grows. Dunno if wraithbone can grow itself, or if that is a special effect of the Infinity Circuit.

They're there, you just can't recognize/ID them. All comes down to the psychic training, special helmets, and Khaine that give craftworlders split war/peace personalities.

All Eldar go through basic training. When Eldar go to war:
Peons who have never been on the path of the Warrior become basic Guardians. No official cite, but would be reasonable that Bonesingers would have extra talent with wraithbone equipment, so maybe they use war walkers & gun platforms.
If you were on the path of Warrior, left, and took a non-psyker path you are a Guardian officer.
If you're on the path of Warrior now, you become an Aspect warrior.
If you left the path of the Warrior and are now on a seer path (including bonesinger), you go back to your Aspect Shrine, get a special helmet, and become a Warlock.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
Could wraithbone perhaps repair itself?

In 2nd ed, eldar vehicles could get a wargear card that gave them the ability to self-repair immobilised or weapon destroyed results (little crystalline spider-things that would repair the wraithbone). Wraithbone itself doesn't seem to "self heal" but can be "encouraged" to do so.

Here:

Wraithbone is an immensely resilient substance, far stronger than the strongest plasteel and more difficult to damage than adamantium. If it is damaged, it will gradually repair itself, although the process can be accelerated under psychometric pressure.

p. 5, 2nd edition Eldar Codex

Bonesingers as given in Gav Thorpe's Path of the Seer novel are Path trapped so they cannot ever be just Guardians. They use song and music to create and shape the Eldar psycho-plastics. A Bonesinger miniature (but no rules) was released by GW and a simple Google search will find it. They have crested helmets and rune armor similar to that of Warlocks. The miniature holds a set of pipes though the novels depict other instruments as well.

Bonesingers are the mechanics.

Iracundus wrote:
Here:

Wraithbone is an immensely resilient substance, far stronger than the strongest plasteel and more difficult to damage than adamantium. If it is damaged, it will gradually repair itself, although the process can be accelerated under psychometric pressure.

p. 5, 2nd edition Eldar Codex

Bonesingers as given in Gav Thorpe's Path of the Seer novel are Path trapped so they cannot ever be just Guardians. They use song and music to create and shape the Eldar psycho-plastics. A Bonesinger miniature (but no rules) was released by GW and a simple Google search will find it. They have crested helmets and rune armor similar to that of Warlocks. The miniature holds a set of pipes though the novels depict other instruments as well.

They make good stand ins for Farseers, they're hard to find but a nice model making the hunt worth it. Mine isn't so great, but the picture shows it from both front and back.

Not sure how much this helps, but in DoW the eldar builder unit is a bonesinger, and can repair stuff. Besides the fact that every builder unit can repair stuff in that game, it does point to them being the closest thing to mechanics.

Whilst bonesingers are lost on their path in a similar way to farseers being lost on the path of the seer and exarchs and such. It is not unreasonable to assume that some eldar have trod that path and so will have some skill in the manipulation of wraithbone. They also appear to have a way of autonomously stimulating wraithbone to repair it'self (the ability possessed by wraithguard in DOW 2). I would assume that vehicle pilots would be versed in basic repair in order to keep the machine going so that a tank isn't crippled by a thruster that was bashed on a boulder etc.