Monday Night Combat

[ColaJoe]

Hehe,

 

Pheer: "Assassin, why do you even try?"

 

 

On another note, +5 Assault hatred for me.

[Baguette]

I'm only scared of snipers because mints scares the shit out of me.

[brida]

i flank snipers like a motherfucker. even minty was like breeduh was that you!?!? this one time i gloriously came up behind a sniper and while still in the air one shot them with my shotgun. feels gooood

[Pheermee]

  On 12/19/2010 at 7:01 PM, Knifington STRIKE said:

Is anyone good with the Tank class? So far I've stuck to Assassin and Sniper, but I'd like to branch out a bit and be a better team player.

 

What is the primary focus for the Tank? Who does he suck against? What endorsements work best with his particular skill set?

 

 

Of the TAY crew I am the resident Tank player. Bags is really good as tank as well, but he flats around to different classes periodically. I Welcome a new Tank player. WELCOME TO THE LEAST PLAYED AND MOST UNDER ESTIMATED CLASS!

 

Tank Sucks against Assault. And he is easy picking for Snipers since he has the second biggest model and head. But Tank has a rail gun and is able to harass snipers from afar. And if you are good you can take them out before they get you. Rail gun is like the tank's secret weapon. It takes off health in chunks and and has no range limit.

 

So far I have found his role to be area control, harassment, bot push and turret elimination.

 

I have found there are 3 builds for tank. One is the Hudson build that I use, Shammy's build and then Artic's. The other is "Balls To The Wall" build I made pre patch, so it probably sucks now.

 

Hudson's

 

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Contents:

1. Understanding the Roles of the Tank

2. Endorsements

3. Skills

4. Weapons

5. General Gameplay

6. Conclusion

 

 

 

 

1. Understanding the Roles of the Tank

 

A Tank is:

-A Farmer

-A Pusher

-A Nuker

-A Damage Soak (tank)

-A DoT Spammer

-A Pro Disabler

-A Bot Disabler

-A Turret Disabler

 

Strengths (what you should build him around):

 

-HIGHEST POSSIBLE HEALTH OF ALL PROS

-THREE AoE NUKES (Product Grenade 3, Charge 3, Blossom)

-TWO CROWD CONTROL ABILITIES (Grenade 3, Charge 3)

-THREE BOT CLEARING SKILLS (See above)

-BEST CQC (close quarters combat) IN THE GAME (Does not rely on grapples, and can hit 3 AoE NUKES every 5-6 seconds, in addition to jet gun damage)

-GOOD LONG RANGE SECONDARY

-SECOND FASTEST MONEYBALL KILLER

-BLINDS TURRETS/FIREBASES

-DAMAGE OVER TIME from FIRE

-USEFUL BOT SPAWNS

-JET PACK

 

Weaknesses (What you must overcome to play him well)

 

-Slowest base move speed

-Big Target

-Weak at mid range

-Huge investment in skill cost

-Grapples can sometimes cancel his charge and trigger the cooldown

-Builds Juice the slowest out of all pros

-Product grenade has a very high learning curve

 

2. Endorsements:

 

Gold: Rate of Fire

Silver: Armor OR Speed

Bronze: Skill Recovery

 

Gold RoF: Gives you the best possible DPS with both your primary and secondary weapon. Both let you kill pros and turrets as quick as possible with normal attacks. Most importantly, it turns the rail gun into a viable primary weapon. This is mandatory on the tank, and most of what I say in this guide will not work without gold rate of fire.

 

Silver Armor: With a maxed passive and silver armor, the tank has enough HP to survive every grapple in the game, as well as sniper headshots.

 

OR

 

Silver Speed: This may sound crazy, but hear me out. Speed is amazing for the tank. It nullifies most of his movement based weaknesses. Speed pick ups are the only other endorsement boosts that drop other than bacon and juice. By using silver speed, one pro kill is usually enough to max your movement speed through drops. A tank with Gold speed and Charge 3 gives you INSANE mobility for your damage output. Consider running Armor till you upgrade your passive, then switch to speed.

 

Bronze Skill Pill: This Build relies on effective use of Charge and Product grenade to maximize your damage output and crowd control. Bronze skill pill puts Product grenade 3 and charge 3 around a 5-7 second cooldown. This is mandatory.

 

No reload speed? No. Spamming death blossom is not a good way to play the tank (this may change after the patch). You can achieve much more damage by spraying a target with the jet gun and THEN blossoming. The only time you should spam it is when juiced (which gives you faster reload speed). Product 3 + blossom is enough to take out any bot wave, even those which have been buffed by the support passive. (EDIT: This paragraph is out of date. Reload speed IS viable now on some maps, it is just a question of what you are willing to sacrifice to take it out of RoF, Speed, Armor, and Skill Recovery)

 

3. The Skills:

 

-Product Grenade (Stickerz): When used properly, this is absolutely one of the most devastating and rage inducing skills in the game. You want this at level 2 when you spawn, and level 3 as soon as possible for the AoE clusterbombs and reduced cooldown.

 

It HURTS like hell, blinds the target (including turrets, firebases, and ALL bots) and then forces them to move or take even more damage from the cluster bombs. The nuke + cluster bombs does enough damage to kill most of the classes other than the gunner/tank (results vary depending on armor, and passive upgrades no matter what, they will be in the red after taking cluster damage unless overhealed).

 

It can be banked around corners to force people out from behind the glass on the bridges on grenade 3 and other similar locations. It absolutely shames any deployed units, and in conjunction with your jet gun, is the best firebase killer in the game. A well placed grenade will stun and wipe an entire wave of blackjacks. On maps like ammo mule, you can nade the bot waves as soon as they spawn, completely shutting down a lane from almost any point on the map.

 

Product 3 is also the best way for the tank to build juice at range, due to the damage from the cluster bomb. It also does AMAZING damage to the jackbot while stunning it. With its low cooldown, you can virtually immobilize a jackbot from range while your team focuses it down. Spam this at the first useful opportunity every time the cooldown is up. It also damages the money ball, so blast away at it when its down.

 

- Deploy: I have neglected you far too long and I'm sorry. You are the best level 2 skill in the game, should be taken whenever you have a spare 150 and it feels like you could use extra health regen. The deploy stance makes you immune to crowd control, grapples, and ring outs. It also grants damage reduction. Most importantly, YOU GAIN JUICE WHEN TAKING DAMAGE WHILE DEPLOYED. Please consult this video to witness the amazing power of this skill:

 

-Charge 3: Your second most important skill. Charge needs to be upgraded to level 2 when you spawn, and level three after you max product grenade. Charge needs to be maxed for the cooldown reduction and the knockdown ability. It also apparently increases the damage at rank 3 to a point that will one shot most snipers and assassins. It will bring all other classes below half health and knock them down for about 2 seconds, which is plenty of time to finish them off.

 

Use charge both offensively and defensively. This is probably the biggest basic mistake most tanks make. If you are losing a mid/long range battle, charge away from your target if it allows you to get some cover between the two of you. If you are losing a close range battle, ALWAYS charge at your enemy, best case scenario: you knock them down and kill them. Worst case: Your dead body knocks them down and/or makes them suicide.

 

You should also use this to navigate the map quicker. If there are 3 enemy supports healing a jackbot in the middle of the lane on ammo mule, I’ll use charge to traverse the bridge and hit the ejector. I’ll use charge to knock people off the Annihilator, or simply beat them to it. The “tank” jump in arctic’s video is mandatory for all tanks. I've also taken the liberty to post a few helpful "tank jumps for the steel peel map, here The key with using this ability to navigate the map is to time the cooldown so you never get caught with your pants down (IE: Don’t blindly charge around the corner into their base, only to be stranded between 3 turrets for the next few seconds).

 

Passive: MOAR health, MOAR regen. Worth upgrading to level 3. With silver armor, you can survive assassin back grapples, AND sniper headshots. You can also survive support Air Strikes while juiced. (Not sure if armor is required for this one). It also makes it harder for all pros, bots, and turrets to kill you.

 

To give you a baseline of the tank’s health, we turn to the railgun. Unarmored, the tank is killed in 5 rail gun shots with no passive, 6 at passive 2, and 7 at passive 3. With bronze armor, he is killed at 6, 7 (passive 2), and 8 (Passive 3) shots. With silver OR gold armor, he is killed at 7, 8, and 9 shots.

 

Skill Order:

-Stickerz 2

-Charge 2

-Stickerz 3

-Charge 3

-Passive 2

-Passive 3

-Juice

(Note: Skip passive if you are facerolling the other team)

 

4: The Weapons:

 

I won't go into extreme depth here, because the weapons are very straight forward.

 

Jet Gun: A flame thrower. It has a maximum range (further than the shotgun, possibly shorter than the heal/hurt gun.) Consider every person that is 2 steps or so outside of this range to be at mid range. You suck at mid range. Close the distance if you can (charge/speed), or run if they are likely to kite you (decent/good assault players). If they are inside the maximum range, keep in mind that the jet gun does more damage the closer your target is. If they have their backs/sides to you, always try to get point blank. If they can grapple you, use the jet pack and keep them out of melee range, but still in flame thrower range.

 

Death Blossom: Alternate fire for the jet gun. Use this as a finisher (less than 20% health). Use this to clear bot waves. Use this to damage the jackbot. Use this constantly when juiced (1-2 hit kills on every pro, and you have boosted reload speed from juice) Don't ever only hit the reload button when using the jet gun. Use this instead, as you automatically reload after.

 

Rail gun: Your mini sniper rifle. It is hitscan, meaning there is no travel time for the projectile (just like the sniper). Always body shot with it. Clear bot lanes from a distance. Keep in mind the projectile travels through your target, letting you hit multiple bots with each shot. Harass turrets. Harass/finish off pros. The guides I posted above have better sections on how to aim this weapon. Consult them. What I can tell you is how many shots it takes to kill each class depending on armor.

 

Railgun # of Shots to kill legend:

 

Class: No Armor/Bronze Armor/Silver Armor/Gold Armor

 

Assassin, Sniper, and Support (no passive): 3 shots/3 shots/4 shots/5 shots.

 

Assault: 4 shots/5 shots/5 shots/6 shots

 

Support (w/ passive 3): 5 shots/5 shots/6 shots/7 shots

 

Gunner: 5 shots/6 shots/7 shots/7 shots

 

Tank (No Passive): 5 shots/6 shots/7 shots/7 shots

 

Tank (Passive 2): 6 shots/7 shots/8 shots/8 shots

 

Tank (Passive 3): 7 shots/8 shots/9 shots/9 shots

 

Also keep in mind that you have an amazing ring out grapple as an alternate fire for the rail gun. Use this if you get caught with the wrong weapon out, and you don't have charge 3's knockdown to buy you enough time to switch weapons.

 

 

5: General Gameplay:

 

On every map: Pick a lane, push forward, railgun the bots as soon as possible. Rail gun kills the slims in 1 shot, the blackjacks in 3. Stay with your bots unless the ejector is up. Stay close enough to a lift or cover so that you can change positioning with charge. Farm your first 400 as quick as possible for product grenade 3. Watch for snipers in your lane. Switch lanes if he is giving you trouble, and you can’t counter him with a rail gun/grenade.

 

Grenade any pro that even thinks about fighting you. It is very demoralizing to be hit with a face full of stickers any time they catch a glimpse of you. Even without the cluster bomb, the disorienting effect is usually enough to make them retreat or take lethal damage from you or your teammates.

 

If you see an opening, run straight at the spawn rockit turret, wait until it moves to acquire you, and hit it with grenade 2, then burn that mother down with your jet gun. You will kill it in 1 clip if its not overhealed. It will start shooting you, but you should survive with over half health. As you retreat, death blossom any bots in your lane.

You are much more of a harasser than a pro killer early game, unless you have a support that travels with you, or suicidal assassins rush you and try to stab you in the face. Focus on getting product 3 and charge 3 as soon as possible.

 

After you get product 3, the game changes.

 

Mini Guide to Product 3:

 

-Shoot it at every opportunity. Bots, turrets, pros, whatever.

 

-The blind is area of effect, you don’t need a direct hit to blind people (but it is usually better).

 

-You can blind multiple targets.

 

-Once you learn to bank it, no place is safe from your harassment.

 

-You can use it simply to force area denial of a sniper’s perch. Shoot it so it comes to rest on the ground next to the sniper instead of right at him.

 

-If a target is juking while retreating, shoot it so it comes to rest in the door way he is running towards.

 

-Exception: Always aim right at targets such as stationary snipers, or any tanks and gunners. They are fat. This is good for you.

 

-Use it at close range as well. Against heavier targets, don’t be afraid to blind yourself at point blank and charge through him (you’ll knock your target down in your cluster bombs, and move safely through them.

)

-Hit bullseye with it when the enemy is partying with him, it’s a huge panic inducing buzzkill.

 

-When the jackbot spawns, every single product grenade you have needs to be spent on him. Railgun when it is on cooldown. Death blossom when he gets close.

 

Once you have charge 3, enjoy 1 shotting assassins, snipers, and supports who are too dumb to grab their passive/armor. If any of these classes survive charge, just follow with a death blossom for an easy kill. Don't do it until the charge animation completes though, or it won't deal any damage. Continue making money for your maxed passive. Don’t go for the Annihilator unless your Assassin/sniper is absolutely fail at farming. Do consider guarding it for them though. Grab any speed upgrades you see dropped to make you even more menacing.

 

Firebases: You laugh at them. Get as close as you can to them without them shooting you. You can corner cheat a lot of them with the jet gun. For the rest, get into range, product grenade them, and then jet gun them to death. You can kill even overhealed firebases with this technique. Don’t be afraid of firebases. Especially once you have your passive. You can also railgun/nade spam them to death if they are in too problematic of a location. You will out damage the heal rate and all they can do to counter you is fail at hitting you with airstrikes.

 

Juice: If they have many turrets build up, and you find yourself with juice/500$, go wreck them all with your jet gun. Death blossom anyone who tries to stop you. (It will 1 hit most pros and 2 hit all pros.) The juice also increases your reload speed, making you a tornado of death. Blind any hacked turrets you encounter. I commonly get 3,4, and 5 man multikills on a jet gun juice rush, in addition to taking most/all of the turrets in the base.

 

If they have NO turrets, push bots in, go back and buy juice, and return with your railgun to melt the enemy moneyball in insanely OP fashion. Keep your distance from the money ball while you do this, forcing the enemy to choose between killing your bots/other pros, or traveling across the map to engage a fully juiced tank. You can take sniper headshots and (depending on armor/passive level) even airstikes while juiced. If you must engage the money ball at close range, be sure to still use the railgun.

 

Bots: I don’t bother. The bouncer is not unique to the tank, and a juiced tank is much more of a game ender than bot spam. The gunner is probably spending less on skills than you anyway.

 

 

6. Conclusion:

 

This is the general way I play tank. I’ll post an advanced section where I do things like Class vs Class breakdown, map strats, as well as a tank + support combo guide for crossfire (IE: Blinding a turret and tanking the shots while a support hacks it). For now, just realize that the tank is well equipped to take on the following classes at the following ranges:

 

Long Range: Strong against all but the Sniper. Passive 3 + Silver armor makes this a more even fight since you can survive a head shot. Snipers take between 3-5 railgun shots to kill depending on armor. Product grenade hits will drastically change the course of this fight, so start practicing. I have very little issue with gunners at this range due to my abilities with product 3, but until you get good with it, they are probably a threat.

 

Medium Range: Run, or close the distance if you don’t think they can kite you. You will not beat a good assault at mid range, and likely will lose to a gunner unless you blind him before he gets any damage on you. All other classes can only kill you based on how well they can kite you.

 

Close Range: Does not afraid of anything other than headcrabs/charge 3 from the assault. Gunners should not be slamming you since you have a jet pack, and he should be on the ground and blind anyway. Supports should not be an issue after charge 3. Don’t go out of your way to step on sniper traps and you’ll be fine. If you get trapped and its not a skill drain, just blind the sniper before he headshots you/jet gun him as he tries to get into grapple range. If you do get trapped and drained, shame on you. You have a jet pack. Use it.

 

Assaults are your biggest challenge with gunners/snipers being a distant second. Everyone else is cake.

 

 

Advanced Strategy:

 

-Tank Jet Jumping:

 

-"Clutch" Passive Selection: A little known/used trick with the tank's passive is that leveling it up INSTANTLY restores your health to its (upgraded) maximum capacity. If you are quick, you can tap "Up, Down, A" and restore to full health a maximum of twice in one match. After perfecting this, don't level up your passive as soon as you have the cash. Instead, wait until you need the INSTANT health regen, to get the full benefit of the passive. I commonly use it while being chased, and bait enemies who think I'm in the red. Upgrade the passive and come out guns blazing with a full health bar. If you are extremely daring, and you have the cash to upgrade twice in a row, all the better. You can even string this together with juice to restore your health to maximum 3 times in a row! This takes a bit of practice, but is great for keeping a streak (or more importantly, your juice bar) alive. Video illustrating this can be found here:

 

-Earning Juice: The tank is a slow MoFo when it comes to earning juice. The rail gun barely gives any (even with RoF), and death blossom gives close to NONE, regardless of how many targets you hit. So how should you go about earning juice?

 

1. Juice Pickups: You want every single one of these that drops, even if it means blowing charge to get it. 10 of these gives you a full juice meter.

 

2. Jet Gun Regular Fire: If you don't NEED to clear the bots as quick as possible, don't death blossom them. Use your regular jet gun fire, as it builds far more juice.

 

3. MELEE: If the other team has poor map control, you can melee the bots to build juice faster than any other method. The issue with this is you need to stand behind the bots so you don't take damage, and you don't get melee hit by the blackjacks. This means you must stand with your back to the direction from which enemies pros will be coming. Your best bet is to start by jet gunning the slims, walking behind the blackjack, meleeing him until he dies, then immediately charging back through your bots towards YOUR base. If you get caught while meleeing the bot, immediately charge towards your base and put cover between you.

 

4. Deploy: Little known fact about the "useless" deploy. In addition to the damage reduction you are granted, you GAIN JUICE EVERYTIME YOU ARE HIT BY AN ENEMY. The best use I've found for this is to deploy in front of unprotected jackbots and unguarded laser turrets. (You can use product grenade to escape when you have low health and full juice). See above videos.

 

5. Product Grenade 3: The safest way for the tank to build juice. Simply shoot it at a turret, bot wave, or moneyball. You get juice from the inital explosion + each of the cluster bombs.

 

-When should I use deploy besides for building juice? Use it WHILE juiced if you are trying to railgun the moneyball, and do not have a streak built up. Level 1 deploy makes you immune to ring outs and crowd control grapples. Make sure you deploy under a roof, and at an angle snipers will have a hard time head shotting you at. You will likely die if you have not killed the ball when juice has worn off, but you will take 90% of its health with you.

 

 

 

 

 

Shammy

 

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Index-

A. Weapons Breakdown

B. Skills Breakdown

C. Endorsements

D. Buy Order (Skills)

E. Role

F. Match-Ups

G. Juice

H.Gameplay

 

FOREWORD- The tank is regarded as the worst class by many because they don't know how to play it. It is viewed as the best by those who do play it. It takes intelligence, awareness, and patience to be a good tank and there is less room for error, but once you master these concepts you will be unstoppable.

 

A. Weapons Breakdown

Jet Gun- The tanks primary weapon in combat. It emits a short stream of flames that shreds through opponents at close range, but is easily avoided simply by staying out of range. The secondary fire is a death blossom, which is useful for taking out groups of bots and dealing quick damage to enemy pros. The jet gun's primary fire does amazing damage to pros, bots, and turrets alike. Even though coupling this with the tank's spectacular health makes him the top close-range fighter in the game, the jet gun should be used sparingly.

HOST: There is no problem with registration, so fire away and death blossom when they are about half-quarter health. You shouldn't be spamming death blossom, because it takes longer to kill someone that way than jetting them.

OFF-HOST: It's harder to register regular fire, so rely on the death blossom coupled with a charge.

 

Rail Gun- The tank's tool of destruction. A weapon with no range cap that deals good damage. The rail gun deals damage in chunks, unlike the minigun or AR. This means that it is great at picking off weak players or dealing quick damage to pros caught out in the open. Always use your product nade in conjunction with the rail gun if they run behind cover. Your skill with the rail gun will determine of you are a good tank or not, plain and simple. It takes practice to master and is the reason most players are discouraged from using it. The rail gun's secondary fire is the tank's hidden gem. This grapple does minimal damage, but can knock any pro but an assault out of most arenas with ease.

HOST: Your shots don't lag, so just fire them where the enemy is.

OFF-HOST: You'll need to lead your shots in order to hit people, so aim a little bit ahead of the person, but with your crosshair on them. Don't take the crosshair completely off the person.

 

B. Skills Breakdown

 

Passive- Your most important skill. At each level, it increases your overall health and health regen. It is also useful for an immediate health restoration whenever upgraded.

 

Product Grenade- The most useful tank skill in my opinion. At level 1 it is pretty useless other than to slightly hurt an enemy hiding behind cover. At level 2 it becomes invaluable. The ability to blind any opponent is very helpful and will save you in many situations. It is also extremely useful for blinding a turret or firebase long enough to destroy it with the jet gun. Upgrading to level 3 creates a cluster of smaller bombs that hurts anyone in the blast radius upon detonation.

 

Charge- Useful for dealing quick damage at close range and ringing out enemy players, but above all it is a quick means of mobility. This skill is very underrated and gives the tank tons of mobility. at level 3 it becomes almost an insta-kill because it knocks down anyone hit by it for a short period of time. Learning the "tank jump" is an important skill. Charge off an elevated ledge and use your jet pack in mid-air to continue your forward momentum and go flying. This is displayed in Arctic's tank tutorial video.

 

Deploy- Pretty useless in my opinion. I only use it if I have juice, their ball is down and an extra $550 to spend. Even then, a smart sniper can pick me off during juice (It only takes 4-5 headshots.

 

C. Endorsements

 

Gold- Rate of Fire

I always use rate of fire as my gold endorsement because it is necessary for the rail gun to be an effective force. It at least doubles the fire rate and makes killing enemies very easy.

 

Silver- Accuracy

It makes your rail gun unstoppable. You can pick off any skinny class from far away much more easily, and it destroys heavies to the point where you can't miss.

 

Bronze- Armor

It gives you just enough health to rambo a little and still survive. It makes all the difference since the update so you can compete with gunners and assaults.

 

D. Buy Order (Skills)

 

1. Passive 2

2. Passive 3

3. Grenade 2

4. Charge 2

 

This is all I upgrade and then save for annihilator and juice. Passive level 3 is necessary for the health regen speed mostly, but also for the armor. Grenade level 2 is needed, but lvl 3 doesn't warrant $400. Charge is an insanely useful mobility tool, especially with skill pill, and is almost a 1 hit kill on most classes due to the stun with lvl 3. In the second to last section, I break down the usefulness of juice with the tank.

 

E. Role

 

The tank should always be able to take top control and regulate the annihilator and juice stands. A common misconception is that the tank needs his jet gun to kill bots. The rail gun kills a black jack in 3 shots and a slim in 1. Also, the product grenade stops them in their tracks. The following is a guide to show where the tank should go on every map:

 

Ammo Mule- You should be on top of the dome railing anyone leaving the enemy base. You can also gun down the bots as soon as they walk past you if they manage to leave their spawn. When the annihilator is up, either keep it clear for your team or drop down and hit it yourself. You'll be able to keep their team off the juice stands too.

 

Steel Peel- Stay on the ring of death in the middle and rail anyone leaving the spawn, including bots. Again with the annihilator and juice stands, keep them in your team's possession.

 

LazeRazor- You can float around from the mid ring to the surrounding bridges, but always keep the other team out of the middle. Annihilator, juice, possession.

 

Grenade 3- This map is interesting because you can't directly control the mid. Instead take one side, preferably right, and control that bridge and bot lane. You can also rail across to the opposite bridge. Try to allow one of your teammates to grab the annihilator when it comes up. Rail the enemies who go for it and be ready to hit the ejector.

 

F. Match-Ups

 

Assault- Keep them back out of AR range and you should have no problem railing them 4-5 times. If they get close, the jet gun will destroy them. Your charge will cancel theirs out, so keep that in mind.

 

Support- Keep them back and they are easy pickings. I usually just back away from the shotgun and keep railing rather than trying to jet gun them.

 

Gunner- Stay away and rail them. Try and stay behind cover whenever you aren't shooting them. Up close, jet gun them and make sure to avoid the slam.

 

Sniper- Try and distract them long enough for your team mate to kill them. Any smart sniper won't stay out long enough for you to finish him. The best thing to do is spam product grenades and keep shooting to keep him low health.

 

Tank- Stay back and try to stay ahead in health as you rail them. Always be the first to product nade them. Make sure to charge so you can cancel theirs.

 

Assassin- Pretty easy. They won't even go after you if they know what they're doing. But if they do come near you, jet gun them for about a half second.

 

G. Juice

 

Team with good juice management=93% win rate. As a tank, I always upgrade my passive to lvl 3 and my nade to lvl 2, then buy juice or annihilator if my team can't get it. With juice, 1 death blossom kills any non-overhealed class, the jet gun kills turrets just by looking at them, and the rail gun kills people in 1-2 shots. Also, the rail gun with juice is the 2nd fastest moneyball killer.

 

Hopefully I can get some videos up soon to better demonstrate this strategy. If you guys follow these guidelines, you should be able to wreck people as the tank all the time!

 

H. Summary

 

My style of play revolves around competitive games in which you have team mates to help with other roles. This is the reason I use my rail and control the map. The assassin on my team is more than capable of controlling both lanes and pushing the bots. If you want to play more of a bot pushing tank that gets a little more aggressive, read Hudson's guide- viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3133

I recommend this build for public matches or playing solo:

 

Gold-Speed

You are insanely fast and can keep up with anything.

 

Silver-RoF

You still want the rail gun to be useful if needed, so this allows you to do so.

 

Bronze-Armor

For the same reasons listed before.

 

POST PATCH:

I still kept my Gold RoF and Silver Accuracy, but now instead of skill pill, I've been using armor on bronze. The improved hit detection makes gunners and assaults more deadly, so armor has helped me deal with that. Reload speed is a viable bronze endorsement, but I don't recommend repeatedly death blossomming. I now use the death blossom as a finisher if someone gets close after I damage them with the rail gun. Assassins are just too easy. 2 death blossoms will kill 1 even with gold armor.

 

H. Gameplay

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_RW7nnjXHw

 

 

 

 

Artic

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

[Knifington STRIKE]

Oh...oh my god.

 

This is exactly what this thread needs.

 

Thank you, Pheer. You've enlightened me and made me wet.

[Minirova]

  On 12/19/2010 at 10:14 PM, brida said:

Also you'll remember the front grapple for sure, it's p embarrasing...she slaps you like 10 times If I didn't MOTHERFUCKING HATE ASSASINS WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING then I would think it's hilarious.

 

 

Actually that's what happens if they grapple you w/ shuriken equipped. And yes, it's fucking hilarious.

 

Basically you know which way they grapple you from by which way they start in the animation. If they're in front of you at the beginning of the animation then it's a front grapple. If they start from behind, it's a back grapple. MAJOR differences in damage on each.

[Pheermee]

  On 12/20/2010 at 12:26 AM, Knifington STRIKE said:

Oh...oh my god.

 

This is exactly what this thread needs.

 

Thank you, Pheer. You've enlightened me and made me wet.

 

 

I have since been informed that Hudson now plays with a new build that I am trying out. It is VERY similar to my "Balls to the Wall" build of yore.

 

It works but it takes some gettin used to.

 

Gold Speed

Silver Armor

Bronze Skill (I am considering replacing this with reload speed for Death Blossom)

 

And you never use the rail gun.

You use your speed to really catch up to most pro's and use charge to close the distance/damage them. But and encounter should go like this give or take creative routes and sneaking up on the enemy.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

1. Spot your target and begin your approach

2. Hit them with a product bomb. (BTW upgrade skills in this order. (PB, Charge, PB, Charge , Passive, Passive)

3. While blinded you should be able already close enough to hit with your jet gun. If not use charge to close the gap.

4. Then use death blossom at full clip if possible to finish them off. If they are too far still use jet gun to damage them as you still close the gap or rail gun just to harass while you escape.

 

LV3 Charge and full clip Death Blossom is enough to kill any pro.

except for gold armor tanks... They take a bit more

 

As for the particular pros..

 

 

Assassins - unless they are running Gold Armor charge LV 3 will kill them immediately. And since you are running silver armor, as long as you are at full health, you have nothing to fear from them. In fact they are easy free kills. LET THEM GRAB YOU! Even from the back. Before they can recover from it you can either charge and annihilate them or death blossom and if they live the fire will take them out.

 

Assaults - The only way you are going to win this match up is if you get the drop on them. If you are medium to long range and he has decided to take you out, plan on dieing. If the Assault is bad or already injured you may be able to win a medium range fight or turn into a close range match, which he cant win. Beware Headcrabs

 

Gunner - Previously the best way to fight gunner was long range sing he can tear you to shreds as you approach, and you were too slow to out maneuver his guns. Now you have speed, which can give you the edge on him, But generally you want to get the drop on him if you can. The key to this battle is keeping him blind. When he is blind, change your approach path and close the distance as quickly as possible! This will keep you from you being turned into confetti by blind fire at your last known location. Once you get in close you should be fine. Just keep moving, making him re-aim.

 

Sniper - Only a threat if he is looking for you and he is an excellent shot. You have the second biggest character model and head in the game so you are typically a big ol bulls-eye. Once again, speed is the game changer here. With your new speed, lining up headshots is gonna be rough especially if you zig, zag, and float. With the exception of the Assault, Speed Tank is the most erratic mover on the field. You don't have to fear body shots. It takes 3-5 to take you out. By which time you are already aware of the damage, and able to get to some kind of cover very quickly. To get a sniper off of you, hit him with a Product Bomb. Snipers run like hell whenever they are blinded. They typically WAAAAY over react. If you ever get in close, the die really really fast. Lv3 Charge or a full clip Death blossom is usually enough to take them out. Don't forget about their Ice Traps. You can float over them. I can't tell you the number of times I have seen a Sniper scope in on me waiting for me to hit his trap. But then I just float over it and suddenly go into panic mode.

 

Support - Tanks Specialize is disabling and taking out turrets. But that doesnt mean you dont have to use strategy. Supports them selves go down really fast, but they have a few tools at their disposal you need to be very cautious of. First the Shot Gun. 2-3 hits from this and you die. If he has his shot gun out, you need to finish him fast or get the hell away. Air Strikes are also a biggy. Just be very familiar with the sound and visual cues that an air strike has been thrown. Then get away from it. Your speed and charge are invaluable here. If you have been ground zeroed, there are 2 things to do. First FIND COVER! If you can place yourself underneath a bridge or a platform, the Air Strike will hit that and not you. If you cant get to cover, get as close to the support as possible and try to kill him with his own Air Strike. That is really humiliating. Lastly are Firebase and Turrets. Your Product Bomb will disable turrets for a short bit. And at LV 3 it will deal a butt ton of damage to them as well from the scatter bomb effect. As a rule of thumb, you can't expect to take out a Turret or Firebase that a support is attached to it. So you need to scare them off or take them out. Usually a Product Bomb is enough to scare them into hiding, But they will never be far from a Turret or Firebase, so they will be back. Just be ready. They have a decent bit of health so Charge + DB if possible. Usually Fire takes them out for me.

 

Tank - This is an odd matchup. Best tactic is to get the drop on them or harrass from afar. Be prepared to face the same dirty tricks you are using on others. To kill a Tank you need to go all out. FIRE WILL NOT KILL A TANK! It goes out almost immediately. Tank battles usually boil down to a long battle of attrition.

 

 

 

Learn the art of ambush.

 

Your 4 tools are Rail Grapple, Charge, Product Bomb, and Float.

 

Use Float and your speed to take alternate paths and get to place you arent supposed to be. Like on top of walls or Floating around the edge of the map around obstacles.

 

Rail gun grapple is a great way to waste people's juice or throw them off the map.

 

Product Bomb is great for generally targeting an enemy or for deny access to areas. no one is going to willing walk into an un exploded bomb. Mainly the dont want to be blinded but they typically forget about the LV3 sactter effect. It keeps them at bay at the very least, and usually either blinds them or damages them.

 

Charge can knock them flat on their ass for a second or 2 giving you enough time to Death Blossom or jet gun them down. Or Simply Just push them off the map.

 

One of my best ambushes went like this.

 

On Ammo Mules I was in the outside rooms area, and being chased by a Gunner, Assault, and a Support. As they were chasing me, I hid behind a wall and used my camera to watch their approach. When they got close, I bounced a Product Bomb off of the wall and blinded them all. I then floated off the edge of the map and around a wall to get behind them. I Charged and pushed the Assault off the map. Switched to my Rail Gun and threw the Gunner off as well. Then switched to Jet Gun and was able to Death Blossom the Support who was throwing Air Strikes and missing. As he was running away my Charge recovered and I bowled him over.

 

 

 

Ok so that is Pheer's Speed Tank "Balls to the Wall" guide.

Edited December 20, 2010 by TheMightyEthan
added spoilers cause it's long

[Knifington STRIKE]

Tried playing as a tank a little bit today. I definitely need a coach. :/

[Pheermee]

  On 12/21/2010 at 1:02 AM, Knifington STRIKE said:

Tried playing as a tank a little bit today. I definitely need a coach. :/

 

If you are on anytime I am, I would be more than willing to help you out. I am on right now actually...

[jimmuhpage]

Finally got the game today. Played about 4 games. Kinda getting the hang of it, but I still suck.

 

Quick question:

 

I believe I was on a hot streak when all of a sudden, a bunch of posters/ads/something filled my screen and I couldn't see shit until I died. What the hell was that? Is it an ability from another class? I've only been playing Assault, so I don't really know much else...

[mintycrys]

Tank's Product Grenade. When you get hit by it, immediately turn 180 degrees, jump, and Assault Charge directly away from the direction it came in.

[jimmuhpage]

Ah, thanks.

I'll keep that in mind next time

[TheMightyEthan]

Unless you're a gunner. If you're a gunner and you get hit by a product grenade just keep shooting like nothing happened. 50-60% of the time you'll kill the tank that hit you with it, and they'll only kill you about 15-20% of the time.

 

My hypothesis is that if you keep shooting like nothing happened they assume that they missed or it didn't affect you, and so run away and hide.

[Mister Jack]

I finally have a day off tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have some time to actually PLAY this damn game now that I own it.

[mintycrys]

We played awesome matches (did not lose), I hit level 200, and I got neg repped for some reason that doesn't appear on my rep profile! Joy!

[mintycrys]

Very important reading for health/armor stats!

 

We should do some testing of our own with regards to armor usefulness. Pheer and I tested Sniper gold armor vs. silver armor and concluded that it wasn't worth the drop in rifle/skill effectiveness. Maybe we should try something a little more comprehensive!

[Pheermee]

hmmm very very interesting.

I am up for some testing

[Baguette]

Does this gold vs silver armor apply to all classes or just the sniper?

[brida]

Pheer, I'm curious...how much of a bastard is a tank w/ gold armor silver health regen and the health upgrades in game?

 

The idea sounds absolutely insane.

[c hoertjes]

I guess I better go start downloading it.

[Shadowstep]

As far as I can tell, bronze speed does very little for an assassin. I also don't notice a difference between having armor in gold or silver, or with rate of fire in gold/silver. Not in normal play, anyways. If another assassin face grabs me, gold armor just means my sliver of health is a bit bigger. Next time we play, I'm totes going to try RoF/speed/armor, see how that plays out.

 

Oooh, if you guys are still playing and going to do the testing, can you test bronze armor on an assassin? I'd be interested to know how much health I would have left if another assassin face grabs me with both dagger and sword.

 

Also, I got my 3-fer achievement today. Woot!

[Mister Jack]

I would finally try to play this now that I have free time but the GODDAMN SNOW KEEPS KILLING MY INTERNET!

[mintycrys]

We didn't test today. 3:

[Pheermee]

we shall test tomorrow.

 

And Brida yes that would be a bastard build for Tank. He wold be neigh impossible to kill, BUT you are sacrificing all of the things that make a viable killer. ROF for railgun needs to be silver or gold, and Skill bronze needs to have speed to be really useful.

[brida]

hey i mean my go to build for support is completely unorthodox (armor health speed) but when i have it on i consistently get kills in the 20's