FiercelyFuzzy's Tank Guide

I don't claim to be the best tank, but with this combo I've seem to be able to rack up kills. My set up is

Gold endorsement: Rate of Fire
Silver: Armor
Bronze: Reload Speed

Playing the Tank.
The first thing I upgrade is my Passive Ability. This will give you more health to survive both back-stabs and damage in general.
The second ability you should upgrade imo is the Product Grenade. This will make sure you can kill Turrets and Firebases with ease. My combo is to launch a Product Grenade at a Turret/Fire base, then run in and Jet gun it. Don't forget to upgrade the Jet Charge, it is a great way to kill both Assassins and Snipers quickly.

Killing Assassins. They are one of the easiest one's to kill. With the Silver armor an Assassin can not kill you with A back-stab or a front stab. Put some fire on him and stick to him. The Death Blossom works the best against assassin, if they try assassinating you, press Left Trigger for a Death Blossom.

Killing Supports. Supports can be a problem, but only because of their Air Strike. Do not fall victim to a Supports Firebase, it CAN kill you and easily. The best way to take on a Firebase(Or any Turret) Is to launch your Product grenade, and Jet gun it. The Support himself is a little trickier. His shotgun will destroy you if he can get of 3-4 shots. You want to stay at the range were your Jet Gun can get him, and his shotgun can't get you. Do NOT backup, if you can't get him with your Jet Gun his Hurt-Gun will kill you.

Killing Assaults. Assaults Charge ability, when upgraded will Ring-out you like crazy. Best bet for these guys is to side step their Charge by throwing a Product Grenade at them, which will blind them and make it easier to dodge. Do not try taking the long range advantage here like you would with a Gunner, their Machine Gun can be deadly accurate. try getting up close.*If they have poor aim, you can Railgun them from afar*

Killing Gunners. NEVER fight a Gunner head on. Always get behind him, or fight at long range with your Railgun. Just because you're a tank doesn't mean you can soak up the damage of his Minigun. Railgun is your friend, use it.

Fighting Snipers. A sniper at point blank range does nothing. You can fight him just like an Assassin with Jet Charge/Death Blossom combo. However if you encounter a heavily defensive Sniper with Ice Traps set up, don't be afraid to step on it. You can spin around and a Sniper CAN NOT get a head shot on you from behind. However if he is fully upgraded he will get you low, and a Flak will kill you, make sure you have cover near by. Use this tactic to scare him away.

Fighting Tanks. Fighting another Tank can be very annoying seeing as how they have the same skills as you. Whenever I fight a tank I switch to my Railgun, not just because of the range, but because it's Grapple(Left Trigger) can Ring him Out. You should also lock down when fighting a Tank. This will give you that extra range with your Jet Gun. You hit him before he hits you=you win.

There are very few times you want to lock down. Locking down gives you an increase range of your Jet Gun, the best time to use this is when attacking the opponents base Lock down on a bridge and shoot down at the turret.

Extra Tips. The are only a couple of times you want to lock down, basically the only time is taking down Turrets.
Use the Jet Gun's Left Trigger. That spin does great damage, especially when combined with Your Jet Charge. (Press the B button, while charing press left trigger for a Charging Death Blossom).
Supports are your friends, stick near one and keep him alive, he will most likely return the favor.
Just because you're a tank, doesn't mean you can't die, take cover and use your railgun to weaken Bots.
Death Blossom does great damage to bots, use it to lane push.
Disclaimer- This is how I play the Tank, it may have different results for someone else.

What do you guys think?

Sounds like a good endorsement set up. I've been experimenting with rate of fire as my bronze for the railgun and it does seem to increase the DPS of the jet gun, but I pretty much endorse the gold and silver endorsements (though I sometimes switch them around for a change of pace).

Question though, are you impossible to backstab in one hit with gold armor, or as long as your passive is level 3? In other words, I do I need gold armor to survive back stabs?

Also, for the sake of contribution, I tend to play in a defensive/support role as tank since I have trouble flanking as a tank and charging head on isn't the best idea. I usually upgrade passive at the start then spend the rest of my money on long shots or a bouncer to net some assist cash. I pretty much want assist cash flow until I have enough to upgrade more skills, play escort with bots and play the round out after that.

With the armor for Gold endorsement you CAN survive a back-stab without any health upgrade, however if you do not have Armor on at all you will die.

Well in that case, I think I'll roll with Reload/RoF/Armor just to have more stopping power without losing too much in the laughing-off-damage-until-I-find-cover department.

Other than my personal opinion on my own endorsements, the guide seems pretty much spot on if not valid. Though I think you're right about passive being your first upgrade. Being slow and big, you need all the health your passive will afford you.

Reconsider getting into that freeze trap. Flak + even non head shots from the rifle will down a tank usually just has the trap breaks him loose.

Assuming the sniper sees you coming into the trap.

I'm assuming with the Sniper is at a range that a Flak will not reach, and the trap won't last long enough for the sniper to kill you if you can get in cover afterwards to actually kill you.

Don't forget Death Blossom. Kills bots and Assassins very quickly, so it does.

I talk about it. The "Charging Death Blossom". Which is were you use your Jet Charge and press Left Trigger.

Gold: Rate of Fire - increases your damage an incredible amount
Silver: Armor - lets you survive backstabs
Bronze: Reload Time - with gold rate of fire it empties faster, plus you're going ot want to use death blossom alot, and you have to reload each time you do

These sound nice, basically same set up, but since you can survive a Back-stab with Silver armor I can see how RoF for Gold would be a better choice.

On the topic of tanks and the death blossom, does an increased clip size mean more damage?

No, the amount of fuel in the gun doesn't affect how much damage a Jet Gun deals.

I'd just like to add that a Tank's ability to deal with bots is almost unmatched. The Tank can push a lane up easily with a little Jet Gun damage and a Death Blossom. Large clumps of bots go down swiftly to a level 3 Product Grenade as well. Not to mention Product Grenade + Jet Gun against turrets, or a Railgun from a distance. With Gold RoF the Railgun can do some work to a turret.

Also, a Tank is nearly even with the Assassin when it comes to Jackbots, as long as you have at least lvl 2 Product Grenade. Blind with the Grenade, get in close (though not point-blank!) and unload with your Jet Gun. When you see him reach back for a slam, hop over it. Get shooting your Grenade when you can and unload with your Jet Gun and it'll go down in short order.

Enemy team turtling? Going into overtime? Make sure you have level 3 Deploy and save up for some juice. Drop $500 into juice, charge into enemy base, activate juice, deploy, DESTROY that moneyball. It drops seriously fast. Assassins can do this really well with juiced-up shurikens, too, since they can get in unnoticed, way easier than a tank.

You do not do more damage with Clip Size, however Armor will decrease the damage you take from it.

I do like how well the Death Blossom works on Bots. Like you said it can make lane pushing a breeze.

I'll post what I put into another tank thread earlier this morning...

Playing tank effectively is all about knowing your environment and using it, you have to be sneaky. And mobility is key. Always keep moving, you're a big fat target.

Use jump pads to get behind your opponent. I often hug walls out of line of sight and slowly peak around corners to ambush pros coming down a lane. Make them come to you.

I used to take passive and charge right off the bat, but have since switched to grenade. I've gotten pretty surgical with pegging people at long range with the grenade. I use it on almost every cooldown.

Remember, you don't have to be on the ground to use charge. It's great for stopping the momentum of a ring out and flying back in. I can usually get right back into the arena with a charge followed by jets. Using jets first will not stop the backward momentum and you'll always land short of the arena.

Assassins have gotten smarter since they know they can't usually take a tank toe to toe. Often grapple and run. But they usually always dash in a straight line. After they eat your charge they usually have a sliver of life left if not dead. Pull the railgun out and pop them in the back.

I don't engage gunners unless my grenade is up and I can easily get into range. Trying to go head on vs one is suicide. Open with grenade, lite em up, then charge usually does the trick.

I avoid snipers unless I can get the drop on them. And even then traps make things difficult.

Assault give me the most trouble because they can stay out of range while still doing damage and being very mobile. Sneakiness comes in handy here.

I use armor/regen/speed.

I don't know if it's 100% accurate or not but from my experience it works really well. When ever you know an assassin is coming for you, or any pro with grapple intent, just keep jumping up and down or stay in the air with your jumpacks. The assassins will reveal themselves trying to grapple you and you can easily deal with them and the assault becomes more manageable, not having to worry about ring outs.

This is true, neither Assassin's nor Sniper(Not sure about Assault) can grapple you while you are in the air/jumping.