The First Minute

I find that in many games the first minute is second only in importance and strategy to overtime. How you do and what you do in this timespan often set up an entire match.

What do you do in the first minute? Anything from what skills you buy, what class you choose, where you go. What is going through your head at the start? What do you find most important?

For me:
I always go either support or assassin. I've leaned assassin recently but that's only because I am loving my critkin build.

If there are more than 2 assassins I go support, if there are more than 2 support as well I go something else and resign to the fact that I will most likely lose.

If I am an assassin(gold crit, silver armor, bronze rof): Buy skills 2 and 4. Run ahead and look for players to see where they are going so I can try to get to the best ejector to mess them up. 60 seconds are up, the game has started.

If I am a support(gold rof, silver armor, bronze skill): Buy skills 1 and 2. I try to get my firebase to the forward-most defensible position I can. I pray people will either back me up(almost never happens) or the enemy will be too focused somewhere else to care about me(usually the case). Get ready to hack, 60 seconds are up, the game has started.

I agree that your actions during the first minute can break the other team. This is especially true on maps like Spunky Cola and Laser Razor where a competent support can close off the major mid-field choke point.

In fact I wish I was better at getting out and influencing the battle early in a match.

As support (Regen/Armor/Skill) I buy passive first, then the other based on the map and situation and how I'm feeling. Run out, throw my fire base down near mid or the lane, and shotgun the first assassin or tank that thinks I'm easy meat.

Generally the fire base dies in short order, but that doesn't matter to me. I keep killing bots and pros to get the cash to get my second passive and upgrade my air strikes until I can get a moment to place it in a serious problem spot. I go out of my way to heal when people are damaged and all, but honestly I have given up on base defence almost entirely. If I see a turret being attacked I'll heal it if only to get juice.

As tank (Regen/Armor/Skill) I buy passive first, then charge. I tank jump to the nearest lane and kill the first assault or gunner that thinks I'm a useless lump.

Generally I get crowded out by a sniper, but that doesn't matter to me. I switch lanes and keep killing bots to get the cash for my second passive and upgrade my charge until I get juice. I then go out of my way to kill all turrets and pros in the general vicinity of their base, but honestly I have given up on lane escorting almost entirely. If I see someone harassing my lane I'll kill them, but mostly I'll just push forward on my own.

As gunner (Rate/Crit/Acc) I buy passive and maybe slam, depending on how I'm feeling. I hop along to the nearest lane and kill the first person that has the gall to show up and expect not to get shredded.

Generally I get crowded out by a sniper or good assault, but that doesn't matter to me. I switch lanes and keep killing bots to get the cash for my second passive and upgrade deploy until I get juice. I then go out of my way to kill all turrets and pros in the general vicinity of their base, but honestly I have given up on area denial almost entirely. If I see my team having trouble in mid I'll stick around, but mostly I'll just mortar bots and try to pancake people.

As assassin (Rate/Armor/Regen) I generally suck terribly and die repeatedly while trying to be clever. Yup. That's about it.

As assault... well basically it's a crapshoot because I generally suck at assault. I switch my endorsements around more often than I'd like to admit.

As sniper... I don't really play sniper any more, I don't find him fun.

Establish map control. That's what I do in the first minute.

bomb jump to enemy spawn and prevent even the first wave of bots from advancing further, and take out the 2 auto-built rocket turrets while at it.


If I don't really go for actually winning tho, I bomb jump to the enemy spawn, hopefully catch someone who took a bit too long picking skills (and thus stayed behind/left spawn late), and spawncamp that person.


Oh and sometimes, I manage to find a support that is trying to hack one of the auto-built rocket turrets. Headcrab !

This. But I've been playing a lot of gunner recently and what I do is establish complete control over a lane (or both lanes depending on the map). My mortar/minigun spam will keep most pros away from the actual lane, allowing me to usually just march directly into their base and start destroying their turrets.

Assassin. Armor/ROF/Skill ...Though i'm thinking of swapping Skill to silver as i find i get into more scraps than i used to because i'm better at knowing my limits, and i often find my skills are ALMOST recharged enough to get away with it. But not quite.

Spawn. B, 2, 4, B, Shift. Run outside, lunge off the platform, lunge further down field and i get to work depending on map. It's always some variation of "get to the ejector or bot spawn nearest the enemy base and deny the first wave". Usually end up killing either a sniper on the usual ledge, supports deploying a firebase or both. Either way, that first bot wave is never getting far on my watch. I spend most of my time near the enemy base, no matter how heavy the fighting is or how it's going (moneyball shields notwithstanding). If the bot waves dissapear before they leave the enemy base, the pressure is off long before it gets put on.

I make a note of supporting my more.. visible team members by flanking anyone they are in ranged combat with and taking them out with a dagger to the base of the spine while they're focused. Gunners are a prime target. Slow moving but high threat targets... I catch em upfield early i just wasted a minimum of 30 seconds of thier life and put back thier offensive.

Assassin Armor/ROF/Skill.

Don't Buy Anything.

Skip first wave of bots if necessary. Kill one turret immediately.
Escort your bots to money ball. Use juice that's gained from bot kills.

Buy Juice.

Keep Buying Juice.

...
If I die before the moneyball goes down, that's generally when I start going for my 2 Cloak + Katana skill build.

Pretty bad style of play you got there.

Assault: ROF, Round Hound, Skill Peelz

First minute, buy Bomb and charge.

Find the first bot wave and get ahead of them. if necessary get to the high ground or cut through the mid-field. Take out the first wave if you tried keeping ahead of your bots.

If you decided to rush in undetected find a spot where you can down a turret.

If you spot a heavier class try to catch them off guard with your riffle from a small distance. You should have the cash now to spend on jump pads and ejectors freely. Try not to engage pros that don't know your there. But if you leave them be take note of where they are.

When you are killed your cash from turret blastin' should make it easy for you to build new turrets.

TDLR: Get to the opposing teams turrets fast and scout out ahead for potential threats.
Thats how I play.

The first minute in every game should consist of you buying your skills in less than a second and then getting into the middle as soon as possible. Before the first bot wave spawn. Use this time to take map control via spam or killing the other team.

Do not even think of purchasing a turret.

Except that my strategy results in a five minute victory 90% of the time in public matches, so I'm now in the top 70 in number of wins, having only played the game for a month. But no, I agree, you're "establish map control" is flipp'n brilliant.

Crit is a pretty useless endorsement and you should not use it.

I find that the first minute of play is not that important in determining the outcome of the game (unlike DOTA/HoN), although certainly the order in which you buy skills is. And with a good amount of the classes needing to get a rank 3 skill as fast as possible, I believe just farming bots early and fast is the most effective thing to do regardless of class. Of course if you can get a kill, go for it.

My usual skill ordering:

• Tank -> Charge, Charge, Grenade, Grenade, Passive, Passive
• Gunner -> Passive, Passive, maybe slam if I feel like it, sometimes I don't upgrade anything other than passive. I probably don't respect the slam enough, however.
• Support -> Hack, Firebase, Airstrike, Airstrike, rest of stuff in any order
• Assault -> Bomb, Charge, Bomb, Charge, Passive, Passive, Jetpack, Jetpack. May get level 2 jetpack earlier depending on map and amount of enemy assassins.
• Sniper -> Passive, Passive, Flak, Ice, Throw, Flak, Ice, Throw. Will put rank 2 throw on higher priority depending on map/opposition but not before rank 3 passive.
• Assassin -> Passive, Passive, Charge, Stealth, Charge, Stealth, Smoke, Smoke

Read your original post. Definitely an interesting concept being as purchasing juice is stupidly OP. You don't find the lack of rank 3 passive to be that much of a deterrent in the strategy?

The worst assassins to play against are definitely the ones who focus on farming, juicing and base destroying, and NOT killing players.

A) You have apparently never played against anyone halfway decent or you play against two players tops all the time. You basically assume nobody is trying to stop you or is on your lane.
B) If you wanna pull the leaderboard card do it when you know the person you are trying to impress is not better than you (I'm higher on everything than you)
C) You are a gimp

Critical Hit (Base Critical Hit Duration lasts 1 second, so it adds up for automatic weapons)
Bronze: +2% chance of Critical, 1.1x damage
Silver: +3% chance of Critical, 1.15x damage
Gold: +5% chance of Critical, 1.25x damage

Assassins have guaranteed crits on cloak level 3. The fact that you get random crits before that is just a bonus. Crits are also a method of adding average DPS after RoF. Accuracy only increases dps at further ranges with automatic weapons, and has no real effect on launchers/shotguns/shurikens/railguns. It's a viable option IMO, people just tend to like consistency.

And I BELIEVE, not sure though, that crit enhancements help your juiced crits as well. Actually, a full definition on what crits actually DO would be nice. I checked the wiki page and it was kind of uninformative.

I disagree. I find that a good/bad first minute often sets the tempo for the entire game. It takes a lot of work to get out of a bad position.

And why can people never just agree to disagree. Play the way you want, if you disagree with someone say so and give reasons beyond "YOU DUMB." If you are going to insult someone, at least do so properly.

If my initial juice rush does not succeed, that's when I change the strategy up and go for 3 passive and if necessary, 2 cloak. At that point, I start playing the game in a more traditional way.

But yeah, if the moneyball rush succeeds and you're a halfway decent assassin, it's pretty much game over at that point. During the rush, you can quickly gain juice by destroying the turrets and bots, and not having spent anything on skills, after you use your first juice, you'll have at least enough money for second and likely a third if you're playing well. If you juice-shurikan the moneyball 2 to 3 times, you win.

Also, it's worth noting that Passive 2 and Cloak 2 do not yield any truly substantive advantages for a bot-smashing assassin. You might as well hold off on buying skills until it's necessary - when you save up that $250 after the match starts, you now have several options to choose from - go directly to katana or use the money on juice/whatever else the situation calls for. More options at your disposal to fit the specific situation ain't never a bad thing.

And Vlane:

A) I obviously play against good people :roll:
B) The difference between being ranked in the top 100 and being ranked in the top 10 is not so much a difference in skill as it is a difference in time management. I'm sorry that you're evidently more antisocial than I am :roll:

I believe that if you can apply a certain amount of pressure as soon as possible in the mid field you should not only get your opponents on the defensive but if you succeed and only die once in a while you can fortify your defenses upon death and get back to the established front line.

Apparently not seeing as how you don't encounter any resistance in your strategy. No support taking care of the turrets, no tank escorting the bots, no assault being pretty much unkillable, no sniper/gunner blocking your path and no assassin doing his job.
Your strategy relies on the enemy team being full of bad players which is not always the case.

Then why even bring it up when a rank 99 player is just as skilled as you?
Leaderboards mean nothing in terms of skill as how you think it does.

Unless you're the assassin this is what you do.