A Guide to Gary: What you need to know about the Gareth

Welcome to the Gary Guide! Here you will find everything you need to know about owning and piloting a Gareth. This will be updated periodically to include more helpful and up to date information.


Let's get started!
We'll first go over the cost and specifications of the bot, which are listed below.

Specifications:
Price: 1250 Au (Gold)
Starting Level: Level 1
Health Points: 40K*
Speed: 49km/h
Ability: Phalanx Mode - When engaging this mode, the shield is moved to the front of the robot, protecting it from frontal attacks. The speed of the robot while engaged is reduced by 20% (~40km/h speed at level 1 with ability engaged). The shield contains twice your normal HP. So a level 1 Gareth has 80K HP in its shield.

Weapon setups:
There are two top weapon setups for this bot, plasma and mini death button. Both of these setups involve premium or workshop point weapons, so you may not have them available if you're a newer player. I will show three setups for this reason, one being a silver only weapon configuration.

Plasma Setup: Taran in the medium hardpoint and Magnum in the light hardpoint. This is the highest DPS setup for this bot, and supplies constant pressure on enemies. It is particularly effective against bots with ancile shields. The weakness of this setup is physical shields, such as the Ecu, other Gareths, Galahads, Rhino, Lancelot and the Raijin. Ecu shields are fairly easy to break through, but the physical shields on the bots referenced are much more difficult. I will cover strategies against these in more detail later in the thread.

Mini Death Button Setup: Orkan in medium hardpoint and Pinata in light hardpoint. This has less DPS overall than the plasma setup, but deals more damage in short bursts. The downfall is having to wait for the cooldown on the weapons. This setup is very effective against physical shield bots, but not effective against ancile shields.

Non-Premium Setups: Punisher in the light hardpoint and Punisher Mk II in the medium hardpoint. Also, CRV Pin in the light hardpoint with Tulumbas in the medium hardpoint is a viable option. Both of these setups are less effective than their premium counterparts, so saving up the resources to go with one of the above setups will be worth it in the long run.

The Basics: This section will cover the basic strategies one must incorporate into their gameplay in order to find the most success piloting the Gareth. These skills can be incorporated into the piloting of other bots as well, but are particularly useful for the Gareth.

Basic #1: Strafing. This is a skill essential to any bot in the game, but particularly the faster bots as it utilizes their main advantage - speed. Strafing is the movement of one's bot from side to side while going from one spot to another or while engaging in combat with an enemy. This basically creates a moving target for any enemies, and moving targets are more difficult to hit. This technique will be referenced in scenario-specific advice throughout the thread.

See also: "Using Cover Correctly"

Basic #2: Learn to run sideways and backwards. I struggled over the decision of whether to make this number one or number two most important. I went with strafing because that technique will improve your overall game the most, regardless of the bot. The reason running sideways and backwards is so essential for the Gareth is that it allows you to utilize the protection of the shield without losing 20% of your top speed. When moving from one spot to another and not engaged with the enemy, rotate your body so that the shield (left side of body) faces the enemy. Sometimes this requires running sideways, and sometimes backwards, depending on where the threats on the map are.

Basic #3: Learn the maps well. This is essential to make full use of #2. You need to know where things are on the map, not just your enemies. Because you'll be running without looking where you are going often, you need to have an idea of when you're going to run into something and how far the next cover spot is. To practice this, make sure you take a good look at where you're going to go every time you leave cover. Then face your shield towards the enemy and go. It will take some time getting used to, but it's an invaluable skill to have.

Basic #4: Practice corner-shooting. Another huge advantage the Gareth has is that both of its weapons are mounted on the same side of the robot. This allows you to use corners for protection when you either lose your shield or don't want to take damage to it. This takes maybe the most practice to master, but again is an incredibly valuable skill. When starting off, practice just hitting your enemy with your light weapon, which is the outer-most weapon on the bot. You can do this with almost zero exposure to your bot. A more advanced form of this is bobbing the corner. This is where you get the timing of your heavy weapon down, and bob just enough of your bot around the corner while you empty the medium weapon. The Taran is the hardest weapon to master this with, which is why I recommend practicing with it. Your Taran fires 4 shots at a time, with a slight pause in between. You'll want to time your bobbing so that you're only exposing the Taran for the burst, then back, then out again. It is tedious and may not seem worth it, but it is extremely useful if you can master it by the time you reach the higher tiers. Last bit on corner shooting - DO NOT hug the corner. You do not need to be right up against a corner to use it for corner shooting. It's actually better to be about 20-30m back from the corner. The reason for this is splash damage. A corner doesn't protect you against splash damage if you're right up against it. They'll be able to fire their rockets directly at the corner, inflicting damage on you. So practice the corner shooting from further back.

Basic #5: Awareness. Again, not a skill specific to the Gareth, but a skill specifically required to pilot the Gareth. Because most of your bot's health is actually in the shield, you have to make sure it is protecting you from the most dangerous threats. Make sure you know where the most dangerous bots to you are, and make sure you're in a position to protect yourself against them. Exposing your back or an unprotected side to an enemy could end you very quickly. If you're going to engage on an enemy, make sure you're aware of where other enemies are and how far away. You should be able to use this information with some experience to evaluate your window of opportunity. If you can guess that you'll have five seconds of safety to your sides, you'll want to engage for five seconds and then be back to cover. Or make sure you can kill your target in five seconds and then turn to face the next threat. Another example of awareness is threat analysis. If you're closing in to destroy a weak bot or a bot without much firepower, and you know there is a bot with Thunders to your left, you might want to leave your shield to your left. You'll take some damage from the front, but it will be far less than you would if you had left your side exposed to Thunders.

Basic #6: Identify your enemies. This goes along with, and aids in your awareness. The very first thing you need to do in the beginning of every game is identify what bots the enemies have. Jumping bots are the easiest and quickest to identify. A small jump followed quickly by another jump is obviously a Cossack. With a slight pause between jumps it could be a Rogatka. Neither bot is seriously dangerous to you. A large arcing jump is going to be a Griffin. It's safe to assume that all Griffins are Death Buttons, until you see otherwise. For this reason, avoid being in compromising positions to any Griffin you've identified. This includes around corners from one or on the other side of a building from one, within 300-350m. Their jump will put you in their kill zone. Most non-jumping enemies will require a line of sight to identify, but you'll particularly want to look out for Trident Furies. Some bots can also be narrowed to a couple of options based on speed. A fast bot is usually a Stalker, Gerard, or Gareth. For that reason, you'll want to identify them by line of sight, because engaging the three require different strategies.

Basic #7: Know your ranges (and your enemies'). If you're a Plasma Gareth, your weapon range is 350m. Death button range is 300m. Knowing these, as well as the ranges of your enemies, is crucial. If you're a Plasma Gareth, you'll want to always engage from 300-350m away. This exposes you to the least amount of damage from most of your enemies, and there is no damage advantage for plasma when you get closer like there is for some other weapons. If you're a death button, you'll have to be within 300m, often closer to ensure a hit. Because of this, you'll want to make sure you have cover immediately after you unload. Knowing the range of your enemy is important too.

Basic #8: Use your shield wisely. Just because it's a shield does not mean it is unimportant. It is essentially part of your HP pool, and should be treated as such. When piloting a heavy unshielded bot, you wouldn't just run out in the open until you blow through 2/3 of your HP, would you? It should be used to protect yourself, but not if you are able to use buildings, terrain, or other cover to protect you.

Basic #9: Don't seek out kills. In almost every game, your role as a Gareth pilot is not as a punisher or destroyer. You will inflict plenty of damage once you become proficient, but seeking out kills, or pursuing to finish a kill on a retreating bot often draws you into unfavorable situations. Your main objective should be to flank other bots, kill them if they engage with you. Just don't go chasing a bot out into the open when you have them almost dead. Doing so will cause you to lose some of your battlefield awareness, and will usually end up in early destruction for yourself. Let the enemy run away and get finished by someone else.

Advanced Techniques: These will be more advanced techniques that will require more skill and practice. It is best to get comfortable with the basics before trying these. Many of them may be dangerous techniques to use, that could expose you to damage, so use them cautiously.

Advanced #1: Circling an enemy. This is a technique most effective against heavy bots, particularly shielded ones like Lancelots and Rhinos. If you find yourself stuck in a 1v1 engagement with a heavy bot, and you don't have enough cover to stay protected through the entire engagement, you may want to consider tight circling them. This is basically the technique of getting as close as possible, basically hugging them, and running circles around them. The key is getting close enough without dying, and it helps if you can use cover to get somewhat close. You'll want your shield facing them as you close in. You can do this by having the shield engaged and strafing in close until you're against them, or you can have the shield disengaged and run sideways towards them so you can utilize more speed. In either case, once you're up in their face, you'll want to disengage your shield, because you need your full speed for this to be effective. And if you do it correctly, the opponent won't be able to hit you, so having your shield facing out is better anyways.
Once you've closed on them, you'll want to run as tight of circles around them as possible. Keep your weapons facing them so you can keep firing at them. To do this, you'll have to run sideways/diagonal. It will take practice to get the directions down perfect. The point of this is to stay ahead of their rotation. Most heavy bots, especially Rhinos and Lancelots, can't turn quickly. You'll be able to run circles around them quicker than they can turn, so their weapons will never actually be facing you. The added bonus with Lancelots and Rhinos is that this technique often keeps you in a position where you're shooting their sides or back, so their shields are useless. Because you don't have to worry about the bot being able to hit you much, having the shield face outwards is better because you might get lucky and block incoming fire from other sources.
Now, in the instance that the bot's rotation is catching up with you, all you need to do is switch directions. They will get a couple hits in, but then they will be behind your circle again. Keep in mind that if you let them back into a wall or corner, you won't be able to run full circles anymore. Keep an eye on the direction they're going, because you may need to disengage if a wall is coming up. If they're almost dead, you can do half circles back and forth while they're against the wall. You'll take some damage, but if you judged correctly on their health, you'll be able to finish them first.
As I stated, this technique is dangerous. It's extremely hard to remain aware of your surroundings while doing this, so you can easily find yourself being attacked from a side while doing this. You'll have to decide whether to finish your kill, or disengage. By the time this technique makes it into your repitoire, you should have enough experience and knowledge to make this kind of decision.

Weaknesses:
-Splash Damage. The number one threat to Gareths is splash damage. Usually in the form of Death Button Griffins or Russian Death Button Griffins. The latter does less damage, but can hit you from 500m out. Splash damage ignores your shield, so you effectively have 1/3 of your normal health when facing these bots. This is the only bot-specific weakness.
-Shields. If you're in a Plasma setup, you're weak against other shielded bots. If you're in the Death Button, you're weak against ancile shields.

Specific Scenarios: Most of these scenarios will be for Plasma Gareth, because I think this is the best Gareth setup, and it is the one I have the most experience using. If you have a specific scenario you've encountered or thought of, that I haven't already included, leave it in the comments. I will further edit this post in the future to keep it updated and as useful as possible.

Scenario #1: Plasma Gareth against a Death Button Griffin. This scenario was mentioned in the basics, but this provide more detail on how exactly to handle a death button. There are two things you need to worry about, and thus, monitor. Jump cooldown and weapon reload. The jump cooldown is 23 seconds and the reload time for the pinatas is 15 seconds. Because the Orkans reload continuously, there's no good way to tell how many they have left.
The first thing you'll want to do is keep your distance. If you're able to engage between 300-350m, do that. If not, keep as much distance as possible, and do not back into a wall. You need room to move sideways and backwards to avoid a salvo if they shoot at you.
If you have a corner available, use it. Not only as cover to corner shoot, but as a ploy to bait them into firing. Remember to not hug the corner. From a safe distance back, act like you're going to come out, firing at them. Sometimes this will bait them into firing their pinatas. You will then have 15 seconds of relative safety to engage. On the same token, make sure they fired their pinatas. The more experienced DB users will fire a few Orkans to make you think they unloaded, and then they have most of their salvo still ready for you.
If you're using a corner or a building for cover, keep track of when they will be able to jump. If you haven't already seen them jump, assume they have it available. If you have, count 23 seconds in your head. If they have a jump available or soon to be available, make sure you aren't close enough for them to jump on top of you, and be ready to strafe and backpedal to avoid as much of their salvo as possible.

Scenario #2: A Gareth against a Trident Fury. When there is one or more Trident Furies on the red team, your job in the game becomes very different. Your job isn't to capture beacons recklessly or seek out bots to kill. Your job is to keep all of the Tridents busy as long as possible, or flank them if you get a chance. You will need to use cover, and use it wisely. Tridents have a large splash radius so you'll want to be 50m back from the cover you're using. Your advantage is psychological. Trident Furies see your little shielded bot as an easy target, and will often focus too much attention on trying to kill you. Dance around their effective range when you're that far away (about 630m). Make sure you can get back behind safe cover when you bait them into firing. You have 10 seconds in between each round. Use that wisely to move to your next cover. You'll want to basically get them to fire, then move to closer cover. Do this until you're within your effective range, and then you can start engaging them between their fires. BASIC #5 - Stay aware! Just because your main objective is that Trident Fury doesn't mean you ignore other bots. While behind cover or during that ten second window, you need to scan the field for other red bots and make sure you don't get flanked or backstabbed. You can get into trouble quick if you let a bot get too close to your exposed sides. This is a long and tedious task, but when you do it to perfection, you can completely neutralize the enemy Furies, giving your team an advantage. In some cases you make even kill the other Fury and be able to switch back to a more involved strategy.

Scenario #3: Plasma Gareth against a Thunder Carnage. Remember your advantage, range, and awareness here. These are crucial basic skills that will ensure a very high success rate against Thunder Carnage users. You'll be able to spot the Carnages from the beginning based on the ancile shield and speed. You'll basically have an advantage over any Carnage except for a Trident Carnage right out of the gates, so identifying the weapons is important. In the case you find that they are a Thunder Carnage, try to engage them from as close to 350m as possible. They will have to charge you to have any chance at all, so try to engage from a place where you can either corner shoot, or you have a safe zone to backpedal and strafe to. This is where your awareness comes into play. You want to know that there aren't reds behind you or to the side of where you're going to backpedal. If you stay aware of where other bots are, you can make your attack plan in a way that won't expose you to other enemies. You'll want to just keep unloading Plasma into them while back pedaling or corner shooting. Most good Carnage pilots will hide from you quickly, or disengage entirely. Do NOT pursue them. They are trying to bait you into a closer encounter. If they hide or run, let them and move on. Keep an eye on what they do after that and if they expose themselves to you again, re-engage. Just don't let them get close, and they are usually easy kills. It'll take about 10-15 seconds of sustained fire to drop one from full health, which usually isn't going to be enough time for them to close to a dangerous distance on you. You have an inherent advantage over them, so just make sure to use it wisely, while being aware of your surroundings.

Scenario #4: Gareth against multiple opponents. We are going to come back to our basics again. That will be a recurring trend in these scenarios, which emphasizes the importance of the basics. Your awareness and map knowledge will come in handy here. This scenario involves two or more red bots engaging on you at the same time, which usually comes from two different angles. First, keep in mind that you will not always survive these types of encounters. Many times, your objective will become to stay alive as long as possible. It will depend on what bots/weapons are engaging on you, how much health they each have, and the overall game scenario. Your first action is going to involve you map knowledge and awareness. Determine where the threats are and where your nearest cover is. If you have cover, get to it as quickly and safely as possible. It will become your best friend. Your next action is going to be identifying the bots. Do you have an inherent advantage over one or both of them? Do you have an inherent weakness to one of them? The answers to both of these will affect your strategy. Let's say you have an advantage over Bot 1, and a weakness to Bot 2, and you don't have nearby cover. You're going to want to pick one to shoot at first, and while you are shooting, you want to strafe towards Bot 1. The goal here is to get Bot 1 in front of you, and Bot 2 behind that one. Essentially, you are using Bot 1 to block his stronger teammate. This will, for short periods of time, turn it into a 1v1 with a bot you have an advantage over. That will give you the best chance to take out one of the bots while staying alive for a good amount of time. Keep in mind there is going to be another bot, so keep trying to backpedal and strafe, keeping Bot 2's line of sight obstructed, while also making your way towards cover hopefully. You should be able to heavily damage or destroy the first bot in this scenario. If you DO have cover, you'll basically want to use it to stay alive as long as you can. Do the same thing as out in the open, try to move to the opposite side of the weaker bot, so that they both engage from the same angle. Use your cover to corner shoot, hide, and put damage into them as you can. Don't get too brave. The basic goal of this scenario is to keep both bots engaged on you as long as possible. In some cases, you'll be able to stay alive for 2-3 minutes with multiple bots trying to finish you off. This entire time, the rest of your team has a 5-4 advantage. Unless you have an advantage over both bots, you'll want to play defensive and just stay alive. Keep "cause and effect" in mind. If you engage aggressively and die quickly, you risk both bots being able to live through the encounter and return to the battle quickly. If you play defensively, you force both bots to remain engaged for much longer than they'd hoped, leaving their team overall at a disadvantage. Keeping that goal in mind, if one or both of the bots decides to return to the game, use that opportunity to smack them a few times. That will put some damage on them, and likely refocus their attention on you. You will more often than not end up losing to a double team, but you can turn that loss of your bot into a huge advantage for your team if you draw it out long enough.

Scenario #5: Plasma Gareth vs. Plasma Gareth: Here we cover the interesting, but inevitable scenario of a Plasma Gareth facing itself. Assuming equal bot and weapon levels, neither foe has an inherent advantage. Pure skill and tactics are the only way to come out on top. One might say (and I used to) that you should just avoid this encounter altogether. Many other Gareth pilots feel the same, and they will simply leave each other alone I order to remain useful to their respective teams. A very smart player told me why this isn't a good option. A good Gareth pilot can have huge impacts on the outcome of the game. So whenever you see a Gareth on the opposing team, you want to do what you can to limit their impact.
So how do you engage a Gareth? By ignoring one of the tactics I've mentioned previously, for starters. Do not try to circle an enemy Gareth. While it may be tempting as a tactic to get around their shield, this tactic also exposing your own sides to your enemy. It's a zero sum game in a Gareth vs Gareth brawl, and will often result in you relying on luck to outshoot your foe.
Keep a safe distance. Your effective range is 350m, so stay inside of that. There isn't much reason when facing a Gareth to get any closer unless you have to. Keep your shield facing them, but don't be wreckless with it. Your main tactic should be using cover and corners wisely. In a true 1v1, the winner of this will be the one who preserves their shield longer. So use cover to protect your shield, while putting as much damage into theirs as possible. You want to wear them down without damaging your own shield.
Use your situational awareness. Perhaps the most effective tactic to use in this scenario is to draw or push the engagement to where you want it to go. Know where their enemy support is and know where your support is. You want to draw the engagement to a spot that will leave the red Gareth's sides exposed to your teammates. Keep in mind, that he could do the same thing to you. If he appears to be baiting you, don't bite. Your goal is to bring him out in the open, not the other way around. So don't over-extend yourself.
Your goal in this scenario isn't necessarily to take them down 1v1. The most effective and efficient way to win the engagement is to push the fight to a spot you can get help. Use your team. Make sure you protect yourself with your shield, and protect your shield with cover. If it turns into a Mexican standoff, where you are both corner shooting and not biting each other's bait, you can make a decision. You can either move back and focus on another objective (which may draw them out to chase), or you can stick it out. Do not get impatient and try to close in, as that may be exactly what they were trying to get you to do. Gary vs Gary is a very dangerous matchup, and will usually be somewhat drawn out unless you can get help early. Always look to turn it into a 2v1 from different angles, and make sure you don't expose yourself to a 1v2. Using these tactics, you should experience somewhat consistent success in neutralizing enemy Gareths.

Scenario #6: Plasma Gareth vs. Plasma Galahad: This situation is handled similar to above, but more leaning towards getting help from your teammate. Some specifics to the tactics in this scenario are courtesy of petevb, who commented this later in this thread. As always while piloting Gareth, you need to be aware of where the reds are and where the blues are. The goal against a Galahad is to force him into a 2v1, with your teammate engaging from a different angle. Most Galahad pilots will engage and follow you, because you're essentially a weaker version of themself. You'll want to use this, and your own speed, to stay just outside the 350m range. This means that the Galahad has to chase you, but can't hit you.
Once you have brought the Galahad into a 2v1 situation, you'll want to hover around 360m away. He can't hit you, so he will have to face your teammate. As soon as he does that, close to 340m and start shooting. He will either ignore you, in which case you continue shooting, or he will turn to you, in which case you back off to 360m again. So he's perpetually exposed to either yourself or your teammate, and he can't hit you because of the speed/range.
This tactic will have a high success rate, as long as you're aware of your surroundings. Make sure you have room to stay 360m away, and make sure you're not exposing yourself to reds on the side. If you end up in a scenario that you are exposed on a side, you may have to close in on the Galahad to get in front of cover. You will take damage to your shield while your teammate finishes the Galahad, but taking shield damage is always better than taking damage to your sides. Being aware of your overall situation in the first place should help you avoid taking too much damage, however.

As I said, I will add more scenarios as time goes. I already have several in mind and will update as I have the time.

Additional information: Go to YouTube and search for Lloyd LeMar. He is arguably the best Gareth pilot in the game, and has a tactician series in which he shows gameplay and explains his thought processes throughout the games. It is extremely informative and helpful.