(MA) Hangar Thread

Juggernaut over Paragon?

I have Ares and Lancer also...

Oh ya, its on now!

Every once in awhile I pull my Lancer out (that just sounds wrong), and it’s a lot of fun. It’s one of the faster bots, which the devs have managed to make that feature actually useful against heavier, more powerful loadouts. 

New hangar setup... I like it more... don't really enjoy the Shadow yet... need to upgrade weapons for it I think... and since I play more tourney than casual, beacon stealing isn't really that important yet. If I can ever sit down and squad though... I might throw it back in.

Debating a 5th hanger slot...no real pressure until I get access to Guardian.

Then, I would either open slot 5, or junk Killbot, Panther, Jiggie, or Ares...

So, of course the wife, after playing three days, gets Guardian on a random pull...

I HAD BRAIN SURGERY UNIVERSE!  WHAT IN THE 「fluffernutter」?

So, after much deliberation and playing around with setups at the rank 3 level, I've come to the most bare-bones, jack-of-all-trades hangar that I'm going to bring to rank 3, level 7, before using said hangar to farm the resources to bump everything else up to the same level, and work on the next tier of gear/A-Coins for the rank up process:

The Generalist. Chip damage and suppressive fire can be underrated, but attached to one-way cover, it's a good all-rounder for traversing open arenas, saving teammates, and weathering down whatever it can lay eyes on. Pulse 8 will eventually find a home on Rank 4 Tanks to take advantage of their chunkiness.


The Nuisance. This is more for mid, to late game, when most of the enemy  Killshots have been dispatched, and I really need to pick up some control points. RPGs because it's going to inherit one of the RPG 6 that are on Killshot when it makes it to rank 4, and because it's consistent damage that I can chuck from any distance to the same effect, on a short reload.


The Scout. Useful as an opener on most maps, and adept at hunting down attackers and other fast bots that aren't Killshot(All the ones I face deal 18k damage or more with their dash. Not a bright idea to 1v1 them). I chose RPGs over Javelins because Javelins can run into map constraints in tournament, and often end up situational against bots that can soak them up. Javelins do nothing against the army of Shadows that tend to rush at the beginning of the match, and I see A LOT of Shadows.  RPGs put out more damage, more reliably, than Javs at this threshold, and RPG6 is going to take up one of the RPG4 slots on the lancer once everything starts getting moved over to rank 4.Missile Rack 8's will get thrown onto Killshot when he breaches R4.



Fatboi. It has more health than Ares, and I don't have to worry about it's shield expiring outside of combat. This being paired with how short Jug's shield recharge is makes me prefer it over the wall-boi. If Ares' shield is broken, the remainder of it's shield duration is actually added to it's cooldown, so if the shield on Ares goes down quickly, it's exposed for up to 20 seconds without protection. Jug is just more reliable, shield stays up until it's destroyed, cooldown after that is always ten seconds. Plasma Cannons will probably go on Shadow come rank 5, because score bonus is nothing to scoff at.


and

The Sniper. Paragon gets a bad rap for being the first bot in the game, and unspecialized. I've gotten to the point of consistency with landing my Long Arm shots, that being where I want to be to actually cook light bots/killshots and put pressure on tanky enemies is more important than what the other Heavy bots can offer with long arms. Can't cheese out with the wall, but I can take full advantage of the bonus damage modifier when hitting enemies in their flank, and that's more important. Being squishy just means I won't be in a sniper any longer than I need to, where Guardian's ability doesn't mesh well with range, and a Panther that isn't helping in team play isn't using it's whole toolset. I might go Javelin6 and Mortar 12 when Paragon reaches rank 4. Just to be a terror at mid-range.




It's not the best at everything, but it will be good enough to perform in Tournament to get the next rotation of rewards, and earn the resources to bring everything else up to par.

These are my two main tournament bots.  The Jugs is used for maps where there is lots of vertical cover like the map from yesterday and the other is used for maps with little vertical cover.  The Missile Racks were just raised to rank 4 after the tournament.  I was able to win my Grand Champion bracket last night with this.  I hardly ever have to play more than one bot per match if I use cover well.  Last week with a similar but lower level pair (one for vertical cover maps and one for no vertical cover) I placed second in Grand Champs.  

Since tournaments are really where you get your resources, I would suggest people focus their resources on only two bots like I did.  That will get you the most resources that can be later deployed in filling out your hangar.  

Killshot with Javelins I think is the best for maps with little vertical cover.  Great mobility and ability to curve rockets into people that are hiding.  I would get any cheap deals I could for either of these and have them at rank 3 or 4.

For the vertical cover map a lot of choices exist.  I run a Jugs for the shield but it was expensive to upgrade to rank 4 so it could hold two level 8 weapons.  I think the Jugs could be replaced either with a Guardian (there is a cheap deal out there for it) or a Panther.  I like missile racks for the short tournament maps as flight time is less of an issue and people tend to crowd some areas (blast radius is 3 meters) but longarm 8s also work well.

There was a post on another thread talking about trying to lose on tournament on certain days to manage your level.  I don’t think that is necessary if you build a 2 bot tournament hangar.  You should get more resources by being more aggressive every day.  Note that I did buy keys (20 for 100 Acoins) and I ground a lot starting around 2pm CDT... I finished around 12000 points and averaged around 200 points per game.

That Fatboi, tho... Ooof!

So, after some thought... figured I'd try moving some things around and try something new:

KS = Missile Rack 8

Panther = Long Arm 8

Guardian = Jav 6 + RM 8

Ares = Pulse Cannon 8

Jug = Pulse Cannon 6

So... basically I took the MR 8s from the Panther and put them on the KS... then threw the LAs on the Panther, and am trying that hybrid build that Redfiend mentioned... RM + Jav on the Guardian. The Ares and Jugs are the same... they just rock too well with those laserhose builds.

Will report back with any successes or failures with the new builds! With the way the MR 6s acted on the KS, I expect the 8s to just decimate folk... at least until the MM engages BOHICA mode

Yup... it's not quite ready to do that, but that's a great idea... good thinking.  I will say that having that +15% accuracy on the 6s does narrow the gap between them and the 8s.

Updated hangar, enjoyed the stalker 2.0 enough to add the 5th slot for it. So far the Guardian (during CPC) and Shadow (during tourney) are up for the bench when the Zephyr gets unlocked.

lol there is going to be an influx of frozen reds in a few weeks

it's good enough to take you very far