Gearfrieds guide to Support

Gearfrieds guide to playing Support.

I've read all the other Support guides on these forums and while i've found them helpfull they haven't gone into all that much detail on turrent placment and good skill usuage, this guide aims to fix that.

The Basics

Okay, you want to play Support? The first thing you need to know is that it's a defensive based class. The second thing you need to know is, it's an offensive based class. You have fantastic versititily when you play support and can switch from defense to offence in seconds.

The Skills

Hack;
Hack seems to be vastly underrated at the moment but I find it to be too good not to use on every cooldown. In fact, with the right use of this skill you can and will single handedly win the game for your team. Hack basicly increases the range on all turrets you use it on and at level 3 will almost double the fire rate of most turrets. ALWAYS keep your FireBase hacked. ALWAYS.

FireBase;
Your money maker skill, FireBase will rake in the cash from bot kills and player kills if you place it right (more on that shortly). At level 3 it can provide a constant heal stream to nearby friendlys as it rips your oponents to pieces. Enemy turrets will attack your FireBase first should you deploy it near them, with a level 3 hack you can run up to a turret, dump the base and hack it before it gets a chance to kill you. A very handy tactic.

Airstrike;
The bane of all other players lives. Airstrike is a one shot kill on everything that's not a turret or a Jackbot XL. This is the God skill and I expect will be nerfed soon. Enjoy it while it lasts. With proper use of Airstrike there's nothing you can't hit, regardless of where it is.

Support;
Your passive skill. This little beauty will give your nearby bots a slight boost in strength, good if you spend a lot of time on the front lines charging in with your bots.

The Weapons

Heal/Hurt Gun;
The gun that makes support able to actually support. You have the ability to overheal anyone on your team to an extra 50% of thier max health. Ditto that with turrets. Overhealing also provides Juice. The hurt side of the gun is very handy to drain off the last bits of health from someone that's running away from you. But shouldn't really be used in a 1v1 with any compotent player.

Shotgun;
The Assassin killer. This little beast can 1shot Assassins even with Gold Armor. A very good gun for taking out just about anyone if you can get close enough. The Taunt for this gun is also my fav in the game.

Tactics

How to get full use from your Airstrikes;
Airstrikes will always hit the center of the airstrike marker on the floor, but will infict damage to the full target circle, knowing this if aimed correctly you can hit anything hidden under ramps, such as the rocket turrets next to the Money Ball or a well placed FireBase. These things can also be thrown some distance, i've found a lot of people don't pay a lot of attention when there is no imediat threat around and you can catch them unaware with a long distance Airstrike. Also, if you get into a 1v1 with someone using glass to hide behind, try throwing an airstrike eitherside of them, often they will back away from the first straight into the second.

How to win a game on your first Juice;
This is a really bastard tactic but one I have found to be very effective. When you get your first juice head towards your oponents base and juice up just outside, run straight to one of the rocket turrents next to the money ball and hack it. 8 times out of 10 an unorganized time won't recover and your bots and hopefully the rest of your team will storm in and win the game.

Good FireBase locations; (Hopefully screen shots to come)

LaseRazor;
This one is tricky, there are many good spots here, I found sticking it on the ring near the anihilator to be quite effective. 2 Supports working together can be utter arseholes should they choose and put two under the bridge of the other teams base and camp them for quite awhile.

AmmoMule;
In the center indoors section, in the shadow of your entrance arch, if placed properly can avoid most airstrikes, shoot anyone that enters and can shoot out the doors either side of it.

GrenADE III;
Anywhere along the top looking down on the bots really. A good Support on the other team will Airstrike it most of the time, but if not, it can hold out quite a long time.

Steel Peel;
From spawn take the jump pad on the left to reach the top outer ring quickly, run along to the left and place the FireBase just past the jump pad. From there it can look down upon all the bots that come out of the door and rack in a surprising amount of kills. You can also back around the corner next to the circle and heal it from there should it face bombardment.

Suggestions, comments and criticism welcome.

Cool, another nerf airstrikes thread, this time pretending to be a guide.

This is my favorite post so far on these forums.

With Briq on this, don't post a guide proclaiming things need to be nerfed. Anyway, airstrikes are the only decent form of offense we have, and anyone mindful of their surroundings can get out of the way, unless they're stuck with one and way out in the open. Only stupid players die to air strikes.

Damn I got found out.

But Yeah, I love Airstrike, hope it never gets nerfed. But it so obviously will at some point.

Uber obviously didn't think airstrike was overpowered when they released the game. If they're going to nerf it, they're going to do so because of the community saying it should be nerfed. So, please explain to me your logic where you love and use the airstrike, yet you proclaim it should be nerfed, thereby adding to your own demise. :evil:

I like the airstrike. I think it's just right. If they nerf the airstrike, they GOTTA change that jetski taunt, just so he's not a total sissy.

Yeah, I agree with what was said above. "Only stupid people die to Airstrikes." I know everyone will get hit with one here and there but to say it needs to be nerfed? Crazy talk. Yeah, I know it is a strong attack but you can SEE IT COMING! Stop QQing and get better.

lolz u have a OP shotgun, an OP turret, and basically any turret on the map cna also be ur weapon. btw its fun to get stuck with airstrikes and have no way to save urself as a max defense tank

Playing tank and support as my two main classes, I can respond to this with knowledge from both points of view. While being stuck as a tank is heart breaking, you're far from having "no way" to save yourself. Your jet charge gives you a lot of versatility. There are bridges, buildings, and overhangs all throughout each map and if you get stuck you have time to jet charge under the nearest roof to save yourself. I've also survived sticks without getting to a roof, but I need to do more research with that. I think if you jet charge and the airstrike drops during your charge you survive.. or it could've just been a random bug. I'll post back when I find out for sure.

our shotgun is overpowered? we need to be right on top of people for it to do any damage, which is more than close enough to get killed. Firebases, even hacked, can be out ranged by any class. And yes airstrikes do massive damage, but if you run under something you're fine, even if you get stuck. And have you ever tried sticking a moving target? Unless you're getting stuck while deployed, then you're just asking for it.

Last time I'm posting here, don't wanna feed the retarded OP.

Let's review quickly, where exactly did I say it should be nerfed?

Expect? Yes. OMG NERF OP SKILL NOAW!!! ? No.

When I wrote the above guide I tossed the nerf line in as an after thought, but clearly the internet is serious buisness and not a place for such things.

My apologies.

Any turret on the map can only be a weapon if the opposing team has shitty defenses. yeah, I can hack your lazer turret or whatever, but only if it doesn't kill me first, let alone all the pros who could potentially kill me.

There are all sorts of situations that any class can get stuck in w/little way of getting out. All these complainers on this forum act like support is indestructible - it isn't. Whenever a gunner or a sniper catches me in the open: I'm gone. Whenever an assassin grapples/backstabs me: I'm gone unless a teammate kills me mid grapple.

Bottom line: stop complaining. Just up your gamesmanship.

Nice guide. I didn't see anything about endorsements. I see a lot of people pushing for ability regen, armor, and speed or health regen.

Is it possible to run a shot gun build with Accuracy, RoF and Crit? Just got the game yesterday so I'm still experimenting with stuff.

The shotgun is deadly enough with no endorsements for it. The only thing that would be nice for it is more range, but I'm pretty sure the accuracy endorsement just tightens the spread for the existing range, rather than adding more.

Everyone seems to winge and whine about the support air strike, with a strong push towards 'it's a one hit kill' the assassins grapple is more often than not a 1 hit kill, but because the assassin got over played people now know how to counter it and defend against it, eventually and inevitably the players will adapt, it's how the game evolves.

No one complains about the tank and gunner being able to drop you at mid-short range in under 2 seconds, with only one button, or how a sniper headshot can KO any enemy. Makes no sense to me.

generally in blitz i place my firebase right in the middle of the exclamation point and hack it, takes things out from both those doors PDQ, I also usually go with Skill regen, Armor and HP regen, or speed, keeps me up and movin most of the game.

QFT

If you want to build up money fast juice and taunt for 300. Supports all about building your skills as fast as you can, the turret is for kills more than the shotgun