xShammas' "Post-Gunked Era" Tank Guide

The tank can mean the difference between dropping their moneyball and winning the game, or a grueling 20 minute fight that ends up being decided by overtime. So I'm going to give the young aspiring tanks some helpful tips to accomplish that. I'm not going to go over endorsement builds or upgrades since those haven't really changed, and it can be tinkered with based on preference anyway. I'm just going to give you guys some guidelines on what to do in certain situations.
Before I begin, I just want to bring to your attention possibly the most useful assassin killing/pro killing technique a tank has, and I can't think of a good name for it, so I'm just going to call it the "quickdraw technique". This means lighting the enemy on fire in some way with the jet gun, and without wasting any time reloading or chasing the kill, switching to the rail gun and finishing them. I'm going to mention it a few times, so I wanted to make sure everyone knows what I mean.
MAIN OBJECTIVE- This is what you should be doing, in order of priority.
1. Push bots.
2. Kill the assassin.
3. Shoot anyone in sight (Gunner has priority).

Now these look a lot easier on paper than they actually are, so allow me to explain in detail what I mean.
BOT PUSHING-
As a tank, you have plenty of tools at your disposal to push bots. Rail gunning is generally the safest option, and should be used 90% of the time. Once you've cleared the sniper off your lane, you can jet gun (not death blossom) bots for a fair amount of juice. Juice is helpful because it makes you play better. A common misconception is that you need to be in the bot lane to kill bots. If you can find a safer option, take advantage of that. Keep in mind the the higher up you are, the more exposed you are most of the time.
Now the proper way to push bots as a tank is different than that of the assassin. Remember a few things when pushing bots as a tank.
1. To the enemy assassin, you are the bot lane troll. You decide whether or not they are allowed to pass and push bots. Bots should never be able to get past a certain point in your lane, and that point is determined entirely by where you are in the lane. Killing the assassin can be done a number of ways. This can be left up to your own creative desires. My preferred method is to surprise them and light them on fire, then immediately switch to my rail gun and finish them off with a couple quick shots (quickdraw technique). Keep in mind, this entails not missing.
2. Don't Feedle-push the bots. This means that you should not move up any further than your furthest pushed teammates. The reason for this is that you will most likely be killed. Keep in mind that you can continue pushing bots from a safe distance with your rail gun. You aren't going to get their ball down by yourself, so wait until your team is mostly set up before you try to win it.
3. Watch their gunner and assault like a hawk. If you see their gunner or assault making his way towards your lane, distance yourself accordingly. Place well timed shots in them with your rail gun to make it easier for your teammates to finish them. Who knows? If you're lucky, you may net a few kills this way.
4. Pros>Bots. If you see a fool creepin' in yo bot lane, cap dat muhfvcka. Ignoring the enemy players to shoot bots is only necessary when the bots are about to drop your moneyball. Any other time, clear the pros out first before you kill more bots. Keep in mind that if the person is in your bot lane and your bots are closer to them than theirs are to you, your bots will come to your aid in killing this person.

Now, what do you do once the assassin is gone and your bots have a hefty advantage? You shoot anyone who decides to leave their base. In order for you to make a game-winning push, your team needs to have map control. This doesn't mean that you get to take a nap and wait for Jeff to kill everyone. It's your responsibility to put shots into enemy players so your team has an easier time killing them. Their gunner and support should be your main targets. If the gunner is full health and your gunner isn't fighting him, target the support. If Jeff is about to engage Chollo and you know Jeff is going to lose that fight, put some shots into Chollo to make it easier for Jeff to come out victorious. After the Italian and the Hawaiian are dead, target the black man. This guy can be tough to hit unless you have a good rail gun shot, so go practice. Even just playing public games will improve your aim. By the time you've killed the assault, their assassin should have respawned and your bots should be getting pretty close to their moneyball, so now it's time to repeat the process.

FINAL REVIEW
Alright, so one last time, this is what constitutes grade A tank gameplay.
Push the bots in your lane, kill el asesino, and put shots into everyone else on their team. DON'T get killed by their gunner or assault, don't taunt their sniper, and pay attention to where your team, their team, and the bots are. 90% of playing tank is having a good rail gun AND PAYING ATTENTION.
This is the most important piece of advice I can give you guys. You aren't a slayer class, and you aren't a useless bot killer. You need to pay attention so that you can makes plays in the right situations and give your team that extra edge. The best way I can explain is that you're the opposite of a support. A team with a good support goes into every fight with the advantage of their players having little extra health. A team with a good tank goes into every fight with the advantage of the enemy players always having a little less than full health. So don't get distracted or sidetracked, FOCUS, and do everything you're supposed to.
Good luck!

I've been waiting for this, Shammas.

Since I've sort of adopted the general game plan you talked about throughout these past two months or so, I guess my rail gun is probably my only glaring weakness. Even though I was voted third best rail gun in the Ubies, my hitscan is still pretty bad.

Also, having juice when your team has map control is critical. Especially on Steel Peel, you can tank-jump from the left and right rings by the L-bridges, juice, surprise a decent chunk of the opposition's team and destroy a turret or two. Hopefully the ball will go down after the fact.

What is this "quickdraw technique" that you mention, and how do you do that?

One thing that I have always had problem with - how do I do those ledge charges? When you ledge charge, does it carry the charge effect that extra distance, or is it just a fast form of movement? I feel that my charge game in general is weak, so any pointers using it would be much appreciated.

Specific to a map - Ammo Mule seems to be a really bad place for me as anything other than assassin, and I get stuck in a bot lane holding bots all the time when I play tank. Where do you position on that map to keep from being a slow moving target for the sniper and assault?

Quickdraw is where you shoot a rail shot before the animation of switching to your Railgun is truly complete. The more you play tank the more you get used to it.

I would describe the quickdraw more as abandoning your jetgun to clean someone up. You are able to shoot before the rail gun is out though, which always helps. It goes like this-
Instead of: Burn someone, reload, pull out rail gun, shoot them and finish them.
It should be: Burn someone, immediately pull out rail gun before they even begin to run away, shoot and finish them.
Just because you're a big fat egg, doesn't mean you can't be quick and fluid in your movements! Rely on your motor skills and your intelligence more than anything. These are critical when playing tank.
In regards to RandomToon, where you position yourself is up to you. If you feel like you're getting torn up in the lane, try moving to your stoop/landing (the area between your two bridges), or try setting up on your bridge. Pay close attention to where your gunner is, because you can usually follow him safely. Don't be afraid to pitch in a few shots here and there on his targets either. This is usually what separates good tanks from "zombie tanks".
Let me just coin this term right now.
Zombie tanks- Tanks who mindlessly sit in the bot lanes rail gunning bots and do nothing else.

So don't do that. Pay attention and stay alert more than anything else. Work with your team, and this goes for every class. Don't just do your own thing, make every move in relation to where your team needs the help. It's about getting the win, after all.

QQ - How do you counter Gunners? I can't remember playing against your tank (I haz a bad memory). Most of the time tanks ignore me and get roflstomped, do you hide or hunt Gunners?

I always pay attention to where the gunner is, keep my distance, and put shots into him appropriately.

when would you find it apporiate the push and drop the ball? Once you hit 25-43-6? What about when the other team consists of two new players, and has someone who doesn't main assassin?

just kidding, it's a good write up. it sucks man, it's like we found out so much and really broke this game down to a science, and now we have nobody to tell it to. I could only imagine how things would have turned out of if we knew everything we know now, but a year/year and a half ago.

I tried telling people these things a year/year and a half ago and they were all too stubborn because "private players are assholes and we just want to play pubs". People just wouldn't open up to playing competitively until recently, and even then everyone thinks they're the best and isn't open to learning from other players.
Never deny yourself a chance to learn something new!

Oh, uh, Randomtoon -- the ledge charge thing is fairly straightforward. You charge off of an armament/overhang/elevated position, and hold down the 'A' button to quickly ascend. It's a useful technique for surprising Assassinos and other random classes littering the bot lanes, and, obviously, dramatically increasing mobility. Combine the ledge charge with the death blossom and Shammas' quickdraw technique, and you can pretty easily kill Assassins from random overhangs.

Yeah, it rarely works for me. I almost always complete the extra jump like everyone else, and then immediately rubber band back to where I should have been :|

That's most likely a connectivity issue, so fix yo in'a'nets. I've never had to put up with anything remotely close to rubber banding during a tank charge, just ascending randomly off the ground shortly after a regula' charge.

it takes practice honestly, but sounds like connection can be an issue.

The "ledge charge" doesn't even require a ledge... It's possible to charge out of the spawn(flat ground) and fly up on top of the glass walls all in one motion, for lack of a better term.

Are you talking about jet packing up on the spawn walls? Or are you talking about some lag-influenced super charge that I don't now about?
If you guys want to learn any jumps, PM me on xbox, I know a fair amount of cheeky spots and jumps on each map.

How do you cope with Gunners on LazeRazor, Shammas? I find that I'm unable to escape a Gunner regardless of my awareness if I'm holding up around the midway point of the right lane quite a bit.

It's a tricky map. Usually, it's a good idea to chill up in the area behind the L-shaped wall with the windows in it. You can peek down at the lane and shoot at people and you can just turn and charge into your base if Mr. Gunner chases you. If they have a smart sniper though, it's a bad spot to be in. If you need to chill in the lane and the gunner chases you, either push the lane hard (because this forces the gunner to chase you back into his base, even if he kills you), or just bait him down into the bot lane (this will give your whole team a clear mid and it gives your gunner height and wall advantage once he engages). You may end up taking a few extra deaths either way, but it's being beneficial to your team, which is what playing tank is all about!

:mrgreen:

this looks like some new meta to me

oh wait

god you really are gonna become one of the private match haters :shock:

wouldn't it be a lot easy to play a match and see how ridiculously different they play then the old matches?

How am I a private match hater? Just saying people are stupid for thinking the meta has changed.