A Family of Learned Doctors

I'll eventually develop Sonics for use on Mender and Demeter, but I'm finding the use in status effects as a Doctor, so that might be a while. At the same time, I have very little direct experience with them. On paper, it's a great aggressive, fast healer so I'll go with that assumption. Seems like it would really underscore the 'do well or die violently' nature of the offensive Demeter.

While I don't play much on the test server, I'm really looking forward to Khepri. Four lights aren't much in comparison to a Revenant or Fafnir, but it'll be enough to keep Red's head down and provide fire support to whichever Blue you wanna make your friend. I'm not sure what range I wanna work it at, but I'm thinking between 350 and 500 meter armament is gonna be the sweet spot for my purposes. 

Also, it's ugly enough to make it kinda cute.

The only thing I've noticed about sonics that I don't like is the 200m range. That, at this point, is a lot closer than I want one of my precious support machines to dumb and clumsy Red. I suppose that'll be the learning curve when I finally make them usable, but a learning curve is just a skill you don't have yet.

...Because this is a game of skill.
...Usually.

@dr.H.Jekyll, I was wondering. Have you noticed teammates recognize you better with the medical red and white paint job? I ask because it seems Reds always point me out so I become a target, eventually. But I have noticed not always have folks looking to me to heal. I position strategically and within range for them to heal but stay in cover or in a fight. But yea, been thinking of a paint job switch to more identify my healer. Granted it will also let the opposition know me as well. Just curious…

Oh I hear you. I’ve just been giving these punchers a run, they work amazingly well. Must suck getting ghosted by a healing retro bot like a Weyland in todays matches. But I do have other weapons nicely leveled in my heavy arsenal I swap around, both long, medium,  and some short. 

Uniformity, yes! Kinda why I got into the spiders and all. The paint jobs are cool, I don’t run with the red invader though, makes a bright target in my opinion. But for weyland, I just get the feeling sometimes a lot of bots don’t know I’m a healer, or don’t understand how his healing works only in stationary position. I may buy the paint and give it a go. 

@fester :



Dang, that's a tidy little phrase. I'm stealing it for my Managing Morale workshop that I do at work.

NOTES FROM THE FIELD IV - I'VE BEEN DRINKING

At one time in my life, I was enlisted in the US Army. Best and worst job I ever had. I was a Cavalry Scout and one of our skills, on paper anyway, was to kill armor. Armor is tanks. We didn't fight armor, we didn't harass armor. We killed armor or ran away. In this story, 'armor' is Luchador and 'I' am probably you. 

Killing armor with anything less than more/better armor or a directed artillery barrage is kinda tricky, as is killing or containing Luchador. There's a thing called a 'mobility kill,' and that's where you break track on a piece of armor so it can't move anymore. That means, more or less, you use some kind of weapon to break the length of tread that the armor runs on. This is a viable tactic with Luchador. Make it stand still and/or take away its abilities, then dump your payload and run away. Mobility kill. You trackin'?

In addition, there was straight up ambushing armor with TOW missiles. More is probably better, as this is a task of fire superiority. One of my gun trucks trying to wreck a T90 probably wouldn't go well. Three or four? We were gonna chop 'em up and keep moving. Do that. Shoot, move, and hopefully communicate. If you're with a section of randoms, make the attempt to work in tandem. Let other Blues see you do it and they'll probably get the idea.

Cavalry Scouts also have a rather unique skill at the 10-level, which is calling fire. Right out of Fort Knox, I has the ability to call fire from artillery, mortars, aircraft or, the one I wanted to do most, naval guns. There's less of a direct comparison here, but I'm mostly talking about motherships and Blues that are bigger than you. Drop a Monarch blast and Luchador will feel it. Drop several and, well... that sucks. Also, walk a Blue Luchador over to it. A Bluechador, if you will. Or a couple Minos. Or a Typhon and two Fenrir. You get the concept, I'm sure.

Cinder/Grom Luchador is dumb and if you lean too much on it, you are also dumb.

I've stepped away from my clan for a little while to reorganize my hangar and develop meta weapons. Playing with only healers is something of a handicap and I believe that well developed meta weapon sets will help offset the lack of heavy weapons and non-offensive abilities. Also, drones. I need more drones. Good drones. Cool drones. Doctor drones.

Flamer Tyr is unpleasantly powerful. The movement of Tyr into a close support platform has been fun with Lockdown Tyr, so now I'll swap utility for pure damage. It also seems like it'll be able to keep up with the fast-moving blitzkrieg that is the meta. I very much enjoy it so far. And it looks really neat. The Coronas will, when I build another, end up on Plasma Demeter. That seems like a good fit and all those purple pellets are sick to throw around. I think too, when I can aquire another Mender Lady❤, I'll build another Mender with lockdown shotguns. That was a great machine.

I like playing at the juncture of Champion and Master because you can really, really tell who bought their hangars. I have nothing else to speak about that.

Get paint. 

Support rulez.

Meta dr00lz.

PBR me.

hehe. nice Doc. very nice.

Pilot Yuion Needs more healers, dude.

REGARDING THE USE OF HEALING MODULES ON HEALING MACHINES

Born from an exchange between munkeeee and Oliver Kloesov and spurned on by a slow night at work, I would like to discuss my rationale for not running healing modules on healing machines. I'm certain that most of your non-healing, ratchet 「bum-bum」, scrub machines have utilized the healing modules to great effect. I am here to dissuade you from doing this with your precious, valuable, uber-sick, better-than-meta support machines.

Healing comes organic to healing machines. Built in function, no modification necessary. Our very good friends Demeter and Mender can heal grey damage belonging to themselves and other Blues. Mender Lady❤ heavily benefits from the skills Deft Survivor and True Ace, while Demeter Droid benefits from a purple shield and the ability to teleport away to heal. That combined with Phase Shift will make your gray healer neigh untouchable for a period of time during which you should be retreating or mopping up Red. Healing modules are overkill.

Nightingale can fly, heals itself and other Blues while it does, and does so under the cover if stealth. With proper movement and tactics, such as keeping pace with a Blue movement and/or nullifying Red weapons, you will almost certainly land amongst friendlies when you do drop. Master the Nightingale and a healing module becomes unnecessary. My favorites include Shieldbreaker, Phase Shift, and Quantum Radar. Also keep the pilot skill Destroyer in the back of your mind. If a beaten Red gets 'sploded from the air, it's not a threat on the ground. Healing modules are a wasted spot.

The case for a healing module can be made for brawling Tyr, particularly with Nebula and judiciously applied defense and shield chips. A quick, massive boost of health can be the difference between holding and losing a beacon, killing a Red Titan, or generally surviving a bad situation. Still, though, I advocate for increased utility. A mid-range Tyr, in my opinion and experience, has no use for a healing module. Physical shields will soak up plenty of damage and you should have positioned yourself adjacent to cover anyway. Because... ranged fire support. Read the manual.

Weyland is the real table topic. There are new methods of deploying our loveable support spider unfolding as we speak, so the best outfitting must be ground out. Now, while I haven't yet tuned Weyland for speed and equipped a Jump module, I will argue that Jump is more useful for Weyland in this meta than a healing module would be. Weyland can already heal itself, heal Blue, and carry the dreaded Puncher. Combined with a faster recharging Jump module and careful observation of the field, Weyland can jump in/out, survive the encounter and convalesce back to the point of combat effectiveness along with the rest of the participating Blue forces. Since gray damage is not healed with a healing module, and Weyland is a stout machine anyway, I believe a healing module would again be unnecessary.

*Someone once said in regards to support machines, "You don't need healing, dude. You are healing." I will defend this statement in favor of keeping support machine more useful and survivable in a diverse way as opposed to having too much of a good thing with supplemental, often unnecessary, healing capabilities.

I certainly don't disagree and if it ends with a win, then it's all the same anyway. Mender can come through in the clutch, especially when it can keep a big, murderous friend alive. If you can establish a good rhythm with up to three serious heals at a shot, keep doing it and keep healing.

Neverheless, I encourage module experimentation, specifically with Mender and Demeter. They're both incredibly dangerous inside and outside the box. By the by, I understand you're building a support hangar. I applaud this course of action and would happily discuss any experience or theory I have regarding its development and use.

As always, Oliver Kloesov, you rule.

I have 5 hangers and am always trying to figure the best way to set them up (recent post on map based setups was my latest quandry:  war-robots-forum.freeforums.net/post/673090/thread). I currently try to put a healer in each hanger which I base on bot capability and weapons load out. Your take on full medic hanger is interesting and something I may toy with. Healing/support is one of my favorite roles so this may become a bit of an addiction.

The one downside I have with healers is I play solo most of the time and not all blues know how to maximize the relationship to the healer. Can't count the times a Muro or Faf has taken off after I activate my mender heal. Doubly frustrating if I didn't really need the heal but they did. I get overtaken by adrenaline/opportunity all the time, so not blaming, just acknowledging reality. 

As I am thrice a reasonable person, a crazy person, and a Doctor, I made an agreement with myself to keep my occasional obscene vitriol and boundless hatred confined to this little corner of the forum from which I have vanquished dumb and clumsy Red and claimed as my own. You may disagree. You may feel insulted. You may have choice words for me. That's just fine. Blow up my PMs. Get my Discord and we can scream at each other like idiots. Don't care. Gotta rant.

-

A NOTE FROM THE DESK OF MR. E. HYDE

"Oh no, Fafnir is getting nerfed. Whatever will I do? The sky is falling, dude. I literally can't even right now!" - some meta scrub probably

Your Fafnir and your dependence on it makes me smile. Your Fafnir and the false confidence that comes with it makes me chuckle. Your Fafnir falling under the guns of my Tyr makes me laugh an evil laugh. And this is even before it gets wings broken further by the inevitable nerf hammer. Bury me deep after I die laughing or I'll come back same as I left, pointing and cackling like a mad man. 

"Oh no," says the reprehensible scrub, "My pair of MkIII airborne assault machines with four MkIII meta weapons, gold drones with gold chips, and maxed legendary pilots are useless now!"

Two words, dude.

Get good.

Get good, scrub. If you can't use a Fafnir to extreme effect on the field, regardless of meta status, you are lame. You put all your eggs in one basket and proceeded to trip on your own success, go face down in that basket, and come up with egg on your face. Good job there, turbo. You're willing to forsake a killer robot with multiple great advantages purely because it's getting trimmed back a little? You're lame. You wanna whinge and cringe and wring your hands over it? You suck. Get good.

"Oh no," says the scrub whom doesn't pay attention to things, "This is so unfair! I paid money to smash other players and now I'm gonna freak out because I paid to win and I'm not gonna win anymore!" 

Welcome to War Robots. Give me your wallet. No mask, scrub. I'm just gonna take it.

Are you new? We're you born last night? Are you intoxicated? You must be, because no one is that dumb. You paid to win in a mobile game? A mobile game? Paid? To win? Put it down. Put it down and walk away. You ain't about this life. And before any of you self-righteous weenies come at me about spending money myself, I assure you, its different. You pay 2 win. Or is it whine? Tough to tell anymore. I pay 2 fun. I pay 2 Doctor. I Pay 2 Rule.

I may not always win, scrub, but I always, always Rule. Be like me, not like you.

"Oh no," says the scrub with the nine-volt brain, "But now the hammer got smaller and the nails got bigger! I have to know what I'm doing now."

This is the one the irks me the most. I use healers. Not main them. Not like them. Not have one in all my hangars. I use only healers. And yet somehow, since putting four full hangars and three Titans through robo-medical school, I've managed to jump from a strong solo, to a leading scorer in a top-ranked AAA clan (shoutout ROD,) to having stripes in an old, reputable S-clan (shoutout Raptor Tactics.) And you can't figure out how to at least put up Master numbers with a developed Fafir with which you have experience? Or is it too hard? Go back to Farmville, scrub.

In realization that I haven't been terribly vulgar yet, I'm gonna waste all that goodwill right now ans paraphrase a meme format that makes me smile -

Are you gonna cry? Are you gonna piss your pants? Are you gonna 「dookie」 and 「man juice」?

Adapt or die, scrub.

I care not which you choose.

I now decree that you, shawngonakillyou, and your children, are truly reformed wallet warriors.

May you go forth and Rule mightily.

Nice rant, Doctor! Or should I say, statement of the truth? Playing (or paying) to win is a valid way to enjoy War Robots, but it is disappointing that people here still remorse over the nerf hammer. I get being sad that the meta bot one was enjoying being nerfed, but complaining it is utterly useless because it is no longer meta or that the nerf is uncalled for is a bit naive. I would think that people on this forum would know the reality of Pixonic’s tactics and know what’s coming, yet they feel, like the Doc said, entitled to win forever. It honestly boarders a god complex in my opinion! But the majority here are in the same page and I’m grateful for that, and maybe the others can come their senses in due time!