Hellchick's Favorite Support Strats (And Yours)

With level 3 hacking and gold skill recovery endorsement you can have up to 4 turrets, friend or (I'm assuming) foe, hacked at once. I don't think I've had the good fortune to be able to hack two enemy turrets at once, since oftentimes they start shooting at each other and my turret blows up the other one.

Also a trick you can do is while you're hacking something, if your HH gun is pointed at it you can heal/drain it while hacking. This is handy to start overhealing your firebase while hacking it after a deploy, or to buy yourself another second or two while hacking an enemy turret.

No one will read this as it is on page 5 but here goes...

I notice no one's mentioned dropping an air strike on your team's bots. The best thing to do is have a friend making bouncers, but it can work with black jacks.

The easiest way to kill someone on top of a bridge is to drop the airstrike UNDER the bridge. They don't get to see the bomb animation and therefore just die without getting a chance to dodge.

That's a good point. I get plenty of kills, not to mention a few triple kills just by throwing an airstrike on the underside of a bridge I might be nursing a firebase under. I know it's a nasty tactic, but it works well for clearing out the ring outside a spawn room. With a little practice, you can land them on the ground under the ring and they never see it coming.

I didn't realize you could stick them to your own bots. I've often watched a bounce charging forward and thought "Man, I'd be nice if I could give you a package to deliver." I'll have to try it.

On the subject of airstrikes. They stick to all surfaces right? I was playing on Lazerazor and we had an Assault camped on the platform to the right of the spawn room. He was shooting turrets, tossing bombs, being a nuisance. I tossed an airstrike from ground level, aimed in his general direction. He jumped and hovered above the edge closest to the spawn room. I swear I saw my airstrike go past him, bounce off the glass behind him and stick him. It was a sweet stick, pure luck, but because it was so sweet I vividly remember seeing the blue trace of my airstrike make a "V" as it hit the glass and them came back to stick him. I dunno if bouncing airstrikes off glass has a practical use, but you never know.

I initially came to rave about how many kills I'm getting using the Hurt gun. I used to rely on turrets, bots and teammates for kills. The shotty is sweet at close range, but I usually end up getting beat if I miss the grapple. I started using the hurt gun, and instead of retreating, I pursue. I've more than doubled my kills. I can take on a fully charged gunner and, without outside interference, slowly drain him down to a dishonorable and comical death. Just latch on, stay in range, run around in random patterns and jump like a nitwit. They might hit you here and there, but if you stay on connected, you're healing. You also have the freedom to make random movements without having to aim. Usually they approach, seeing a support guy as an easy grapple kill. You latch on, they ignore it and attack. By the time they realize you're laughing at them as their life slowly drains away, it's too late to run.

I must say, one of my favourite things to do right now is to spawn as many gap shots as I can, then just look up at the sky and watch the shells flying across the map. It's like my little light show of death.

Loving these Support strategies, by the way!

This isn't much of a strategy, but if you run into a lvl1 lazer turret at an enemy base at your hurt gun restores exactly as much as the turret does, makes for an easy kill. I haven't tested it with lvl 2, but I'm fairly certain that you could take it out just before it kills you.

Minor, but nobody addressed it: you can't over heal a jackbot.

Also does anybody know if you can get crits with the HHgun? If so I think it'd be worth at least considering for silver or bronze.

I tend to play the Support as a lane pusher/Holder. As the match begins, pick my two endosements and just get as close to the enemy base as possible and hold the ground. From there it's only a matter of keeping my Firebase hacked and overhealed while defending the waves of bots.

This gives my bots ample time to work their way forward and because my Firebase has been doing most of the bot killing for the, it's only a matter of overhealing my bots so they can keep pushing.

Once my bots have pushed through the area I'm holding, I pack up my Firebase and establish a new holding point closer to the Money Ball. Enemy turrets will prioritize your Firebase/Bots before you, depending on your positioning and this gives you an opportunity to hack them.

With their enemy turrets in your hands, your bots and Firebase nearly on their Money Ball, the enemy team will resort to falling on the defensive. Since you're in their base already, it's only a matter of Airstrikes under the platform which they spawn on to keep them at bay.

Always remember, Line of Sight is your biggest friend as a Support. Taking damage? Get behind cover and let your Bots/Turrets do the work, keeping the enemy occupied. Pesky Sniper taking potshots at you? Line of Sight him and throw an Airstrike under the platform he's on (he'll most likely always be elavated), he won't see it coming.

When i first played support i went defensive. Building turrets, hacking them, keeping the base safe and clear.

But it got boring, so i started playing my Support more offensively. I use about the same tactics as the poster above. And i get better results doing it! (better than my previous tactic, not better than the other poster, well, maybe i do, but that's not what i meant....ok!??!)

I haven't read through all the post, some small tips:

1. You can throw the Airstrikes pretty far by aiming up (not sure if moving forward while throwing helps). This seems logical, but i have had players asking how i throw it that far.
2. Anti-assassin strategy:
When hacking keep your back to the turret.
When overhealing keep your back to a wall or a turret.
Occasionally press the hurtgun button, you will find assassin's that way (you don't hurt them). Keep "hurting" them and make sure he doesn't get behind you.
An assassin that attacks you from the front is a dead assassin!!
3. Try to place Fireturrets in a tunnel. That way it cannot be air-striked. It also makes it possible for you to (over)heal the turret from a safe position.
4. You got your turret in a nice position, raking up kills, but the opposition is trying to bring it down and your healing is falling just short. Find out where it's coming from and throw an airstrike to him, even if you miss, it sometimes scares them off. While throwing the airstrike, you can keep healing the turret. If it doesn't work, pick the turret up before it dies!

So simple, but so many just watch their turrets run down and blow up. It's worth a shot to collect it.

One great tactic I saw used involved two Support characters. One would over heal the other, who would then run out to hack the rocket turret near the moneyball. The second would follow him out healing him the whole time.

Once done, they would run back to cover and heal each other back up. Rinse and repeat. Needless to say when you have two rocket turrets shooting the ball, it did not take long for them to win.

This is an awesome thread. Like others, my first impulse was to play Support defensively. I still do that a lot, but I'm creeping out more, and doing more damage while I do it.

The Air-Strike-Under-the-Bridge is possibly the most valuable tip I've seen here. My team was pushed back into our base on Steel Peel, but every time enemy support tried to set up on the upper ring of mid-field (or every time I saw it) I lobbed an Air Strike directly under them. *blam*

One thing I haven't seen addressed in the forum - the support's passive says something about enhancing or helping bots. Does anybody know precisely what that means? I know I can overheal anything but a Jackbot, but the way it was worded was something like a 'bot-support aura' I think.

This is a lot like others posted here but i figured i'd be long-winded about mine. YAY! Enjoy!

Immediately at spawn start over healing. you can get a lot of ppl overhealed while they choose skills, before they run off. Once you run out off team mates to heal, choose your skills.

I always choose hack and turret to start.

On the ground around the money ball there are 3 rings. A dark inner and outter ring and a lighter ring between them. I throw the turret between the 2 gray rings on the exposed side of the money ball, directly between the 2 rocket turrets and hack the turret while it sets up.

A hacked turret at that location can hit any bot (other than Jack Bots) that comes close enough to attack the rocket turrrets on either side and the firebase is protected from enemy airstrikes by the catwalk above.

I spend the first couple minutes overhealing turrets/players/bots around the spawning area till i'm at about 80-90% juiced.

RANT>> You should always be healing if you aren't hurting. PERIOD. Everything you run by, even if it is fully overhealed, should be healed unless there's a better target in range of your gun. I see way too many supports just runnin from a to b.... it costs you nothing.

Anyway, after hitting 80% juice... Then i choose the next bot spawn on whichever side seemed to have less enemy traffic. I follow/overheal that spawn untill i'm fully juiced and then i make a b-line for the enemy base. I know i'm going to die.

I throw my air strike at the closest enemy turret i can see (making sure it lands beside the turret if it's protected by a catwalk) and set my hurt gun on that turret as i run past it and towards the next turret. Unless overhealed, it will usually be destroyed shortly after the strike hits. I try to hold out on juicing until after the first turret goes down but if they have a heavy defence then that usually isn't an option. Either way i turn on the juice by half health. DO NOT use your juice before you take damage!! That is a waste of juice IMO.

If it looks like i can make it to the other turret and hack it before anyone can get close enough to grapple me, i try to hack it. If not, i try to destroy it with the hurt gun.

Remember to jump, turn, strafe, giggle, etc and do whatever you can to make yourself a hard target, stay out of grapple range during this entire suicide mission... even if you see no one...assassins are everywhere >< Usually i just barely get the other turret down before i drop.

Rinse/repeat. If they have no turrets and the money ball shields are up, just try to stay alive and kill as many as you can.

If you hack your sentry after each death, you will have the ability to hack again just about the same time you get full juice giving you that option once you get to the enemy base. Your hacked sentry should keep your base fairly safe during your suicide run.

If i get intercepted before i make it to the enemy base, i use my juice, kill my attacker and try to clear a path before my juice expires. I usually play very aggressively after i get intercepted as my main goal is to get back to our base and get the steady stream of juice pouring in again.

Once you have rank 3 air strike you can usually throw 2 on the first turret, one on the second turret (while using your hurt gun as you run past it) and take out the 3rd turret while juiced for a total of 3 turrets down in under 20 seconds. It's very hard for the enemy team to recover from that and if they do, you'll prolly be making your way back again by then.

No, you probably won't be top for kills but you'll make it extremely difficult for the enemy team to accumulate a turret defense plus you'll be making your base extremely hard to assault since you'll be there keeping everything healthy.

Cheers!

PS. Can anyone confirm that lvl 2 of support skill increases juice generation due to increased heal amounts? I swear i see a difference but then sometimes i wonder.

Good strategy, i use a lot of it myself, but i usually rush towards the other base, putting my firebase in one of the locations below. If that works out, you put a lot of early pressure on the other team.

I am not sure if you knew this (or maybe if i am wrong), but you do not get juice from healing a fully overjuiced target.

Depending on the situation you might consider bringing along your fire-turret that's currently in your base. The situation is when your base seems to be ok.
You can either drop it in the middle of their base (i would suggest under their spawn area), or just outside their base under a bridge (possible in each of the four map, I have marked my favorite locations for three of the maps, i don't like SteelPeel so i didn't bother drawing that one).

Once you stop juicing, i try to use that as a safe have to retreat to. From their i can rain down airstrikes on their base, while my turret gives me protection from pros that try to get to me and it's destroying any bots spawning on that side as well.

I did indeed already know that juice isn't obtained from healing an already maxed target. The reason why i urge everyone to keep healing anyway (unless there's something that actually needs healing or hurting) is that there's no good reason NOT to have your beam on that target anyway. It may seem inconsequential since all you're doing is keeping the target from losing about 2% of their over-heal bar through degeneration but there is no reason NOT to keep it at max as you pass by it either. There have been countless times that i had my beam on a max'd turret that i was passing and right before it was out of my range it got bombarded by 2 enemy air strikes and was down to about 5% health. Because my beam was already on the turret i was instantly healing that turret and their attempt to use their hurt gun to finish it off failed. It's little things like this that can really make a difference int he long run especially if it's an expensive rocket turret.

I am going to have to try some of these other tactics i see on this thread such as spawning gap shots right off the bat and actually moving my turret with me during the suicide run. I always like the comfort of knowing it's back at my base tho, protecting the other turrets and the money ball.

I'm glad this thread is here. I love to see different strats!

Cheers!

Not necessarily. I've grappled many Supports from the front as an Assassin, and then proceeded to kill each one with the sword. Fact is, Assassins move too fast for a Support to get 2 shots with the shot gun in. And when they try to use the hurt gun, I just laugh because there's no way they can kill me before i get enough slashes in to kill them.

Fireturret

Shh, if it makes them feel safe, don't correct them. :twisted:

Honestly, it may not be foolproof, but it's at least better than leaving one's back exposed and practically volunteering to be stabbed.

Smoke bomb.

Smoke doesn't last that long btw.

i like to hide back at the base with gold juice until i get full juice then i get to their base then juice rush their turrets and moneyball if the shields are down

I've been using a lot of Lazer Blazers. At 3.3, they can mow people down super quick, especially if they're not expecting it. Plus, the range with the hack is long enough that the nub placement on most maps can cover a lot of the usual "camping" spots unhacked turrents can't reach.

Plus they're super cheap and very quick to upgrade, so even if you get that Assassin who juice rushes you and knocks down all your turrets, you can get the defense back up pretty quickly. You can have a 3.3 Lazer Blazer back up in seconds. I find the extra armor on the Rockit Turrets is like comparing paper to cardboard versus machine gun fire. Turrets tend to be all or nothing as far as health. Either a player is smart/good enough to take one down fast or he's not. There's very little middle ground.

I've also stopped building longshot turrents. For the money, I find Gapshot spawns are much more effective. Again, Longshots are just too fragile and cost too much money/time to upgrade. One level 3 Longshot (75/150/300) costs more than 5 Gapshots, and will probably last just as long. Plus, it saves my nubs for more 3.3 Lazer Blazers

And finally, you can't damage a turrent while it's being upgrade. If I do hear or see a juicer running in, I try to tap a couple to upgrade. Usually it's enough time to save an extra turret or two.

That's not true. Area affect weapons will hurt it mid upgrade.