Bear in mind this is based on experience I have (a lot) and my play style and what I have found to be effective. In no way do I see this as the end all be all of Support Guides, nor do I feel that this is the best the community has to offer. Anyone can feel free to post questions or opinions in here, and I will address them as best I can. With this game having just come out, and with future updates that may nerf/buff elements of the game, this shouldnt be trusted as your only source of info. No guide should. Experience is the key, and since I have it, Im sharing it. Good luck. Pros +Great at keeping teammates alive +Good close range game +Excellent abilities +Great bots Cons -No range game -Low health -Poor movement Abilities Hack (X) Great ability that boosts the effectiveness of turrets, whether in your base or your firebase. When it is leveled it increases range and fire rate, can be used to hack enemy turrets, and completes faster. All around a good ability, use it whenever the cooldown ends. Firebase (Y) Your own personal turret. When leveled it increases armor and damage, and gives a heal aura to teammates and yourself. Amazingly useful when placed well. Try to put it in the path of bots to get lots of cash, and around a corner or under an overhang to make it hard to be grenaded/airstriked. Hack and overheal it. Airstrike (B) My personal favorite. Toss it forward and watch everything blow up. Sticking it to people is satisfying, and use it to kill people on bridges above you. As it levels, it increases in damage and radius, and decreases in cost and cooldown time. Use liberally. Weapons Heal/Hurt Gun Keeps people alive and has decent range. IS NOT AFFECTED BY RoF ENDORSEMENTS! Is useful for upclose encounters, just jump around and watch people miss. I tend to use it aginst turrets/the moneyball when juiced just so I can stay as mobile as possible and throw aistrikes everywhere. Shotgun Great close range weapon. It is ONLY useful at close range. The slow RoF can cause a struggle, but the power is ridiculous. It 1 shots assassins with Gold Armor. Makes quick work of anyone, but best used as a surprise weapon, because if they see you coming, they outrange you and can kite. Endorsements Rate of Fire Effects only the shotgun, so probably shouldnt be used unless youre going for an aggro build. Generally not used. Armor You cant keep other people alive if you arent. This is a great endorsement for Supports. Crit Not really a good idea, pretty obvious. Id kinda like a specific explanation from the devs as to how crits work and what the damage increase is. Accuracy With no long range or even mid range game, forget about it. Speed With no real movement options like a jetpack or a dash ability, speed can come in handy, especially since you have a shotgun. Can be thrown into the mix. Health Regen Same theory as the armor endorsement. Keeps you alive and kicking longer, so its never a bad idea. Ability Regen With the main focus of the support being his abilities, this is a great endorsement. Use it. Reload Speed Nope. You wont be reloading your shotgun enough to waste an endorsement on this. Juice Makes it even easier to get full juice. Since you can juice up from simply healing turrets, bots, and teammates in your base with literally no risk, this makes juice VERY easy to get. Clip Size No. Just throw in some combination of Armor, Health Regen, Ability Regen, Speed, Juice, and maybe RoF. Just experiment and find your personal favorite. The default class is pretty well set up, but I have all six custom classes set up as different support builds and I constantly experiment. Do your own thing! Skill Upgrade Order I play Support fairly aggressively and enjoy putting on the pressure and being on the enemies side of the field. At the beginning of the match I buy passive and airstrike. The main reason being the beginning of the match is all about gaining map control as quickly as possible. Passive helps me heal people and gives bots a buff aura, which can help us get into their base. I dont recommend running around with bots into bot fights unless you are going for juice or in a match with kids that suck. I use airstrike to limit map movement and kill turrets the enemy has. I stick with a gunner or tank if we have them, or an assault if he needs it. Once I find a good choke point that can be used to put shots on bots and players fairly easily, I set up a firebase. I upgrade firebase next, and I usually have the money to at this point. I hack and overheal it, then run around to assist teammates. I upgrade passive again next for a health bonus to stay alive, then airstrike. Afterwards I will upgrade hack to 2. I normally dont put hack or firebase past that, mostly because the money spent on it could be better used on juice or bots. Level 3 Firebase just adds healing which I can do just fine, and level 3 hack is only useful if you want to take an enemy turret over. You can do that with 2, but it takes so long and turret worth taking will kill you. But this is just a framework, and I tend to flow with how I feel the game is going. Support classes arent the main slayer for the team, but they can definitely do plenty of damage and, in pubs, can put up ridiculous numbers. Though definitely limited in the offensive department, when coupled with a gunner or tank you can do some serious damage. Dont let anyone else tell you how to play. Figure out your own playstyle that fits you, and roll with it. Anything you want to know feel free to message me on XBL or invite me to a private. Im much easier to reach there, though my little brother (who is better than Aspence) plays a lot as well. My GT is aka Myrick. Feel free to post your own builds in here.
I might try this as i like to play the support class, usually i play defensive putting up turrets overhealing teamates and stuff until i get juice then charge the enemy base take out their turrets and some of their team then rinse and repeat. Endorsements: Gold: Juice (helps get juice up so much i average between 5-10 juices per game with this.) Silver: Armor (helps if people get close but can be changed out) Bronze: Movement speed (just helps generally as the support class is pretty slow but as with the armor endorsement it can be changed out) If your doing this and your team isn't doing too well you can spend some of your cash spawning bots which helps your team out immensely and can turn the tide of a match. Also i upgrade hack first just to help me upgrade the turrets to defend our moneyball then the support passive then i dont bother with the other 2 as my style of play doesnt use the firebase or the airstrike.
My loadout: Gold: Armor Silver: Speed Bronze: Health And it works quite well, sometimes backstabs don't even fully kill me. I'm going to try out using Ability instead of speed, and see where it goes from there.
I do pretty well with Support. I don't think the hack and fire base get enough credit. I stay busy during a match, over healing everything I can, and hacking every chance I get. The air strike is nice and, with practice, can be a very nasty offensive tool. Don't neglect your turrets though. Good support, that stays busy, overhealing teammates, turrets and bots while hacking at every opportunity, can make a team very tough to beat. I don't worry too much about getting kills in crossfire, I prefer to win.
I've found that I do best as support and that the best way to open as me is as such. First I use some of the $350 at the start to buy a hack upgrade. Then I hack a rockit turret that's pointing at an open area. Then as soon afterwards, I buy a Gap Shot on both sides. This way I can quickly destroy any turrets the opposing side creates, which allows me to focus on getting the bots to the money ball. The only stage I don't do this on is the dome, since the scenery makes the Gap Shots useless. However, in exchange I use the $200 to buy an extra rockit turret, making sure to put it in a spot where I can heal it in case it comes under sniper fire.
can't really do better than this guide, so I'll add how to handle different classes: Assassin - Assassins obviously try to charge in and grapple you, preferably from behind. Cloaking is also a friend of theirs one-on-one, as it makes it impossible to target them with a hurt gun or fire base. As soon as you see or hear one, keep jumping, this will make it harder for them to grapple. Then, you've got two options: wait for them to get to point blank range, then shotgun them for a one-hit kill, or if they're being stupid and trying to slash at you, hurt gun them and keep dancing. Usually a shotgun blast, or two if you're far away, is enough unless they've got armor upgrades. If you see a couple assassins around, stay near your fire base - even if you die, most don't cloak quickly enough to avoid dying to the fire base. Assault - Assault has a few options to kill you: besides his gun (which hurts at any range) he's got a charge move and a bomb, both of which can ring you out. He's going to try to charge you and get a ring out. I recommend using your hurt gun and dancing around him, especially if you're near your fire base. Throw out an air strike if he's being really obvious about it, and that should keep him strafing you as well. Gunner - You're going to lose in a one-on-one fight, unless he's particularly crappy. Besides his mini-gun, he's go a slam that can ring you out, and a grapple move that can do some serious damage, plus put you at point blank range for his mini-gun. Your best bet is to strafe away with a hurt gun, and look for a team mate to assist. Air strikes can be a decent bet if you can stick one. If air strike is at rank 3, try to place one just in front of him to get him to back off - if hes really stupid he may keep running in, and subsequently die. A deployed gunner will tear you a new one if you're in front of them, but if you're positioned right you can sneak behind them for the easy air strike stick. Just make sure to get away before he can redeploy and slam you. Sniper - You're going to lose at range, period. If you're in close range you have a couple things to watch out for. Their freeze traps will slow or root you, letting them either get close and grapple you or get a head shot. You can avoid them by looking for a small red or blue marker on the ground - for the most part they're not hard to spot if you're looking. The frag grenade is more of a range issue - but even so, its not going to kill you unless you camp out underneath it. Grapples will only kill you if they, obviously, are close enough to grapple you. For options, if you're close range take out your shotgun for a 1-2 hit kill, or use air strikes to get the stupid ones while they're trying to snipe someone else. Support - Well you'll go against them occasionally, won't you. Air strikes will take out their fire base in one hit, regardless of how leveled the fire base is (and the same goes for their air strikes against you). Hurt gun fights largely come down to who fires first. Hurt gun drain effect isn't enough to overcome its damage, so if you can catch one off guard with a hurt gun you should be ok. If its even close, switch to a shotgun for a 1-2 hit kill. Tank - As with gunner, they'll tear you a new one if you're one-on-one. Try to get to your teammates, your fire base won't save you here. Their jet gun causes serious hurt, and a burning effect, and their death blossom range isn't much shorter than your hurt gun. Their rail gun is almost as accurate as a sniper rifle, but they can't zoom. They'll laugh off your shotgun unless they're close enough to kill you - which means, well, they're close enough to kill you. And the hurt gun is basically useless - range is too short and the damage is minor compared to their huge health bar. In therms of tactics they'll use, they'll try to charge into range (or even hit you with it, causing serious damage) then finish you with jet gun. Product grenade isn't much of an issue (even blinded you should be able to run away) and deploy is even easier to deal with than with gunner's version - theres no increased damage. To deal with tanks, run away while throwing an air strike or two, or maybe throw your fire base if its available, to try to get their attention away from you.
