Post by Koalabear on Sept 10, 2017 21:50:33 GMT -5
So, I just made it into Diamond 2 with my mostly level 7 hangar. The only bot in my hangar right now that is 8/8 is my orkan Rog. I was struggling for several days, hovering around the D3 and D2 mark, and struggling with myself: "do I REALLY want to get into D2 with my low hangar?" Everytime I look at other profiles, people have level 9 or 10 bots. I'm WAY undergunned. But, the lure of the gold prize was enough to keep me trying.
I think 3 changes I made to my hangar finally pushed me into D2. This doesn't mean I'm good enough for D2. Just means that these changes let me consistently do more damage than the majority of my team mates, so that win or lose, I earn league points. Interestingly enough, my win rate climbed from 42% to 60%. Again, probably not much reflection on me. Just lucky with my random matches.
Change 1 was dropping the ancile for my Lancelot in favour of a thunder. Maybe when I get my tarans up to a higher level, I'll put the ancile back on. But, at level 7, I feel my Lancelot needs that extra POW from the thunder. Too many prey got away from me. Sure, it's a level 6 thunder now, but give me a couple of days.
Change 2 was learning how to use the Carnage. I still don't have a lot of love for this bot, but have to admit that if used right, it's a killer. Of course, being trapped behind a building by trebs and gekkos ain't fun, but that's the game.
Change 3 had the most impact, and is the reason for this thread. Please add your experiences here. I shelved my Rhino for a Griffin. More precise, I swapped my RDB and DB setups and gave the RDB Rhino a vacation for now.
Strange that 2 bots with identical weapons have such different play styles and usability. With the Rhino, especially as a DB, I would use it out of the gate as a centre beacon capper. I would normally have a 50% chance of grabbing that beacon an trashing whatever got there, but lately, that percentage dropped due to the number of RDB, trident and light bots with pins. I had a lot of fun steam rolling through reds, but it's not that easy to do consistently.
I think the biggsst advantage the Griffin has over the Rhino is the jump. Sure, the Rhino has speed and a physical shield, but the speed is only really usefully for getting from point A to point B fast, and in today's world of rocket madness, the shield wasn't doing much. Plus, once I got into range of my rockets, and the shield goes down, my Rhino was just too squishy. Hell, a plasma Gareth took me to half life before I finally nailed the speedy little bugger!
The Griffin's jump has gotten me into a lot of trouble in the past, but I've learned to use it better now, and when played cautiously aggressive, a DB Griffin has at least 3 good jumps before it's toast. A DB Rhino is good for 1, maybe 2 engagements, and then its scrap. Plus, the most common tactic to dealing with a jumping Griffin is waiting for it to land before unloading. That means that while I'm doing the death from above, I've starting firing at least 2 - 3 seconds longer than my target. So, even if my target was a DB or PDB setup, it's usually at least at half life by the time I land. Major damage advantage!
In just about every set up I tried - and I've done the same on both bots - the Griffin just out performs the Rhino in every one. And by out perform, I mean life span and damage dealt. I put this all on the jump ability. Once engaged, and if in trouble, the Rhino becomes a sinking ship. In fact, it does kind of remind me of the Bismark, and we all know how that ship went down! The Griffin not only can jump out of danger and range, it is the only bot in the game that can literally change battle zones with one push of a button.
Other set ups I've tried were punishers, RDB and PDB. The PDB was the worst for me. As mentioned above, once the shield comes down to use the medium weapons, this bot becomes quite squishy. Don't get me wrong. Not ranting here. In fact, in terms of pure fun, I still like the Rhino over the Griffin. But in terms of usability, I think my vote goes to the Griffin. I don't regret the WSP I spent on the Rhino. In fact, it'll become one of my rotating bots. But, as my game play seems to be moving away from beacon capping (at least the initial beacon rush type of capping, I still battle for neutral and red beacons), I'm getting way more mileage in my DB Griffin.
Please post your thoughts and experiences here.
I think 3 changes I made to my hangar finally pushed me into D2. This doesn't mean I'm good enough for D2. Just means that these changes let me consistently do more damage than the majority of my team mates, so that win or lose, I earn league points. Interestingly enough, my win rate climbed from 42% to 60%. Again, probably not much reflection on me. Just lucky with my random matches.
Change 1 was dropping the ancile for my Lancelot in favour of a thunder. Maybe when I get my tarans up to a higher level, I'll put the ancile back on. But, at level 7, I feel my Lancelot needs that extra POW from the thunder. Too many prey got away from me. Sure, it's a level 6 thunder now, but give me a couple of days.
Change 2 was learning how to use the Carnage. I still don't have a lot of love for this bot, but have to admit that if used right, it's a killer. Of course, being trapped behind a building by trebs and gekkos ain't fun, but that's the game.
Change 3 had the most impact, and is the reason for this thread. Please add your experiences here. I shelved my Rhino for a Griffin. More precise, I swapped my RDB and DB setups and gave the RDB Rhino a vacation for now.
Strange that 2 bots with identical weapons have such different play styles and usability. With the Rhino, especially as a DB, I would use it out of the gate as a centre beacon capper. I would normally have a 50% chance of grabbing that beacon an trashing whatever got there, but lately, that percentage dropped due to the number of RDB, trident and light bots with pins. I had a lot of fun steam rolling through reds, but it's not that easy to do consistently.
I think the biggsst advantage the Griffin has over the Rhino is the jump. Sure, the Rhino has speed and a physical shield, but the speed is only really usefully for getting from point A to point B fast, and in today's world of rocket madness, the shield wasn't doing much. Plus, once I got into range of my rockets, and the shield goes down, my Rhino was just too squishy. Hell, a plasma Gareth took me to half life before I finally nailed the speedy little bugger!
The Griffin's jump has gotten me into a lot of trouble in the past, but I've learned to use it better now, and when played cautiously aggressive, a DB Griffin has at least 3 good jumps before it's toast. A DB Rhino is good for 1, maybe 2 engagements, and then its scrap. Plus, the most common tactic to dealing with a jumping Griffin is waiting for it to land before unloading. That means that while I'm doing the death from above, I've starting firing at least 2 - 3 seconds longer than my target. So, even if my target was a DB or PDB setup, it's usually at least at half life by the time I land. Major damage advantage!
In just about every set up I tried - and I've done the same on both bots - the Griffin just out performs the Rhino in every one. And by out perform, I mean life span and damage dealt. I put this all on the jump ability. Once engaged, and if in trouble, the Rhino becomes a sinking ship. In fact, it does kind of remind me of the Bismark, and we all know how that ship went down! The Griffin not only can jump out of danger and range, it is the only bot in the game that can literally change battle zones with one push of a button.
Other set ups I've tried were punishers, RDB and PDB. The PDB was the worst for me. As mentioned above, once the shield comes down to use the medium weapons, this bot becomes quite squishy. Don't get me wrong. Not ranting here. In fact, in terms of pure fun, I still like the Rhino over the Griffin. But in terms of usability, I think my vote goes to the Griffin. I don't regret the WSP I spent on the Rhino. In fact, it'll become one of my rotating bots. But, as my game play seems to be moving away from beacon capping (at least the initial beacon rush type of capping, I still battle for neutral and red beacons), I'm getting way more mileage in my DB Griffin.
Please post your thoughts and experiences here.
