MCxShammas' Tank Tutorial

So here it is, an explanation of my favorite class in the game and my most played. The best and worst class in the game, the TANK!

Index-
A. Weapons Breakdown
B. Skills Breakdown
C. Endorsements
D. Buy Order (Skills)
E. Role
F. Match-Ups
G. Juice
H.Gameplay

FOREWORD- The tank is regarded as the worst class by many because they don't know how to play it. It is viewed as the best by those who do play it. It takes intelligence, awareness, and patience to be a good tank and there is less room for error, but once you master these concepts you will be unstoppable.

A. Weapons Breakdown
Jet Gun- The tanks primary weapon in combat. It emits a short stream of flames that shreds through opponents at close range, but is easily avoided simply by staying out of range. The secondary fire is a death blossom, which is useful for taking out groups of bots and dealing quick damage to enemy pros. The jet gun's primary fire does amazing damage to pros, bots, and turrets alike. Even though coupling this with the tank's spectacular health makes him the top close-range fighter in the game, the jet gun should be used sparingly.
HOST: There is no problem with registration, so fire away and death blossom when they are about half-quarter health. You shouldn't be spamming death blossom, because it takes longer to kill someone that way than jetting them.
OFF-HOST: It's harder to register regular fire, so rely on the death blossom coupled with a charge.

Rail Gun- The tank's tool of destruction. A weapon with no range cap that deals good damage. The rail gun deals damage in chunks, unlike the minigun or AR. This means that it is great at picking off weak players or dealing quick damage to pros caught out in the open. Always use your product nade in conjunction with the rail gun if they run behind cover. Your skill with the rail gun will determine of you are a good tank or not, plain and simple. It takes practice to master and is the reason most players are discouraged from using it. The rail gun's secondary fire is the tank's hidden gem. This grapple does minimal damage, but can knock any pro but an assault out of most arenas with ease.
HOST: Your shots don't lag, so just fire them where the enemy is.
OFF-HOST: You'll need to lead your shots in order to hit people, so aim a little bit ahead of the person, but with your crosshair on them. Don't take the crosshair completely off the person.

B. Skills Breakdown

Passive- Your most important skill. At each level, it increases your overall health and health regen. It is also useful for an immediate health restoration whenever upgraded.

Product Grenade- The most useful tank skill in my opinion. At level 1 it is pretty useless other than to slightly hurt an enemy hiding behind cover. At level 2 it becomes invaluable. The ability to blind any opponent is very helpful and will save you in many situations. It is also extremely useful for blinding a turret or firebase long enough to destroy it with the jet gun. Upgrading to level 3 creates a cluster of smaller bombs that hurts anyone in the blast radius upon detonation.

Charge- Useful for dealing quick damage at close range and ringing out enemy players, but above all it is a quick means of mobility. This skill is very underrated and gives the tank tons of mobility. at level 3 it becomes almost an insta-kill because it knocks down anyone hit by it for a short period of time. Learning the "tank jump" is an important skill. Charge off an elevated ledge and use your jet pack in mid-air to continue your forward momentum and go flying. This is displayed in Arctic's tank tutorial video.

Deploy- Pretty useless in my opinion. I only use it if I have juice, their ball is down and an extra $550 to spend. Even then, a smart sniper can pick me off during juice (It only takes 4-5 headshots.

C. Endorsements

Gold- Rate of Fire
I always use rate of fire as my gold endorsement because it is necessary for the rail gun to be an effective force. It at least doubles the fire rate and makes killing enemies very easy.

Silver- Accuracy
It makes your rail gun unstoppable. You can pick off any skinny class from far away much more easily, and it destroys heavies to the point where you can't miss.

Bronze- Armor
It gives you just enough health to rambo a little and still survive. It makes all the difference since the update so you can compete with gunners and assaults.

D. Buy Order (Skills)

1. Passive 2
2. Passive 3
3. Grenade 2
4. Charge 2

This is all I upgrade and then save for annihilator and juice. Passive level 3 is necessary for the health regen speed mostly, but also for the armor. Grenade level 2 is needed, but lvl 3 doesn't warrant $400. Charge is an insanely useful mobility tool, especially with skill pill, and is almost a 1 hit kill on most classes due to the stun with lvl 3. In the second to last section, I break down the usefulness of juice with the tank.

E. Role

The tank should always be able to take top control and regulate the annihilator and juice stands. A common misconception is that the tank needs his jet gun to kill bots. The rail gun kills a black jack in 3 shots and a slim in 1. Also, the product grenade stops them in their tracks. The following is a guide to show where the tank should go on every map:

Ammo Mule- You should be on top of the dome railing anyone leaving the enemy base. You can also gun down the bots as soon as they walk past you if they manage to leave their spawn. When the annihilator is up, either keep it clear for your team or drop down and hit it yourself. You'll be able to keep their team off the juice stands too.

Steel Peel- Stay on the ring of death in the middle and rail anyone leaving the spawn, including bots. Again with the annihilator and juice stands, keep them in your team's possession.

LazeRazor- You can float around from the mid ring to the surrounding bridges, but always keep the other team out of the middle. Annihilator, juice, possession.

Grenade 3- This map is interesting because you can't directly control the mid. Instead take one side, preferably right, and control that bridge and bot lane. You can also rail across to the opposite bridge. Try to allow one of your teammates to grab the annihilator when it comes up. Rail the enemies who go for it and be ready to hit the ejector.

F. Match-Ups

Assault- Keep them back out of AR range and you should have no problem railing them 4-5 times. If they get close, the jet gun will destroy them. Your charge will cancel theirs out, so keep that in mind.

Support- Keep them back and they are easy pickings. I usually just back away from the shotgun and keep railing rather than trying to jet gun them.

Gunner- Stay away and rail them. Try and stay behind cover whenever you aren't shooting them. Up close, jet gun them and make sure to avoid the slam.

Sniper- Try and distract them long enough for your team mate to kill them. Any smart sniper won't stay out long enough for you to finish him. The best thing to do is spam product grenades and keep shooting to keep him low health.

Tank- Stay back and try to stay ahead in health as you rail them. Always be the first to product nade them. Make sure to charge so you can cancel theirs.

Assassin- Pretty easy. They won't even go after you if they know what they're doing. But if they do come near you, jet gun them for about a half second.

G. Juice

Team with good juice management=93% win rate. As a tank, I always upgrade my passive to lvl 3 and my nade to lvl 2, then buy juice or annihilator if my team can't get it. With juice, 1 death blossom kills any non-overhealed class, the jet gun kills turrets just by looking at them, and the rail gun kills people in 1-2 shots. Also, the rail gun with juice is the 2nd fastest moneyball killer.

Hopefully I can get some videos up soon to better demonstrate this strategy. If you guys follow these guidelines, you should be able to wreck people as the tank all the time!

H. Summary

My style of play revolves around competitive games in which you have team mates to help with other roles. This is the reason I use my rail and control the map. The assassin on my team is more than capable of controlling both lanes and pushing the bots. If you want to play more of a bot pushing tank that gets a little more aggressive, read Hudson's guide- viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3133
I recommend this build for public matches or playing solo:

Gold-Speed
You are insanely fast and can keep up with anything.

Silver-RoF
You still want the rail gun to be useful if needed, so this allows you to do so.

Bronze-Armor
For the same reasons listed before.

POST PATCH:
I still kept my Gold RoF and Silver Accuracy, but now instead of skill pill, I've been using armor on bronze. The improved hit detection makes gunners and assaults more deadly, so armor has helped me deal with that. Reload speed is a viable bronze endorsement, but I don't recommend repeatedly death blossomming. I now use the death blossom as a finisher if someone gets close after I damage them with the rail gun. Assassins are just too easy. 2 death blossoms will kill 1 even with gold armor.

H. Gameplay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_RW7nnjXHw

Very good guide. It makes me wanna use the Tank more now. Though im really scrub with him lmao.. :lol:

I'm going to give your tank a try, considering you and I are obvious tank enthusiasts, yet approach him almost completely differently despite both advocating rail gun usage and rate of fire. I build him completely around ability usage/crowd control/area effect damage, and use product 3 to wipe waves of blackjacks the instant they spawn from insane distances. I tend to be escorting the bots up a lane rather than controling the middle of most maps.

(Do you play competitively (GB, MLG, etc)? If so, I completely understand the map control portion of the guide. I DON'T play competitively though. )

I don't doubt for a second that he can be an absolute game ender with only his passive, blind, and juice due to the railgun's overpowered damage against the moneyball. (especially when a fully juiced tank with passive 3 and silver armor can survive an airstrike!).

Could you provide a link to Arctic's tank video?

I do play competitively. Arctic's vid is here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9stqW6zTkD0

Even if he wasn't (GB, MLG, etc) he could be giving advice for people who are, or even want a good win ratio.

Oh i know, I just know that all of the things I do to be effective in pubs would not likely be nearly as effective at the competitive level. IE: I'm pretty dang good at hitting cross map product grenades and surviving in low health situations by baiting people into charge 3, but against an organized and disciplined team I would be destroyed by a tank who knew just to hold the center of the map and rail me to death.

The difference between map control in pubs and map control in competitive matches probably goes along the lines of this:

Pubs: Middle is largely ignored except on ammo mule, and to buy juice. Assassin/Tank/etc runs to hit the ANHI when it is announced that it is ready, hoping they have 250 cash on hand.

Scrims/Competitive: Middle is always at least somewhat contested. Designated people camp/monitor the ANHI/Juice stands well before it is up if possible.

I'm not saying his guide should be valued any more or less because he plays competitively, I'm trying to figure out the things that influence the difference in our play styles despite both loving the tank and knowing how powerful he is.

Edit: Thank you for the link.

Very good point sir.

I LOVE playing with/against good tanks, not only is it amazing seeing such an underrated class do well but as an assassin main i LOOOOOOVE the huge challenge of taking one down

Nice write up. I play my tank similar to how I play my Assault, which is pretty similar to what you describe, map control and locking down the annihilator. Grenade combo'd with the Railgun is a powerhouse.

The tank left a bad taste in my mouth because I played it early on and under pressure (I was playing on a popular livestream) and barely had any idea of how to play the actual game. because of that I avoided it.

I just came back to it though after reading this and I LOVE it. I was trying some unusual classes for me (assault, tank) and I'm glad I did give it another shot. I can own with it and it's so much fun. Probably the most underrated class.

Fellow tank enthusiast myself. I don't play this way; I tend to stay back and defend the base with my product grenades and railgun, moving forward to push lanes and destroy turrets. I don't consider map control too often though (except for Steel Peel, can't be successful without it), so this could be a useful guide for that.

Quick question: How often do you play as host?

We did the forced host pull today, and the railgun felt downright ABUSIVE as host. I was 3 shotting people with amazing consistency even at mid/close range, and I was pretty money at long range as well. Granted, I've been using it a lot more recently, but my efficiency with it as host seems to go up a considerable amount.

i'm ragequitting if you're host and i'm your opponent then XD hudson with host = bad

What? You DON'T want to get hit by the railgun grapple then get one shot by the rail gun while you are still flying off the map?

As much as you don't want to br facegrabbed and shurikined

If we are playing a serious match, I take host for my team because of the rail gun advantage and no one ever seems to lag on it. I know a few people who can host though and it's basically the same as if I'm host.

Ha. So much fun to die after I round the corner when I play in a private with you.

I've been using a different build lately and liking it a lot:
Gold- Speed
Silver- RoF
Bronze- Skill Regen

You have insane mobility while still maintaining a high fire rate with the rail and quick recharging skills. I realized that I don't need accuracy as much, because the rail gun isn't too necessary at extreme ranges and the benefits from the other endorsements outweighs it. I've also been using a different buy order that works insanely well, but I'd rather not release that information at this time...

Very similar to my build. I actually think Gold speed makes a lot of sense for your tank, since you will be railing from far away most of the time and have less opportunities to pick up speed drops from pro/bot kills. I never saw a lot of benefit in reload speed, even on a hybrid tank that was using both the jet and rail gun a good amount. Skill regen is by far the best bronze endorsement for the tank.

Since I play a hybrid sort of tank (rail and jet gun about the same amount), I prefer silver speed, as 1 speed drop takes you to gold for a good duration, and lets you rock max speed AND rate of fire, which is just scary scary scary.

I'd be interested in your buy order if you ever do post it.

Tanks ftw... If you don't have the patience and discipline to stick to the shammas gg strategy, i could suggest a build that revolves around the use of primarily the jet gun, although rail gun use for safety and range is still highly encouraged.

Gold Armor/RoF
With gold armor you truly hold your name as a tank, absorbing massive amounts of damage. Since you will often be leading the charge on turrets/firebases, the armor essentially allows you more room for error. RoF has the obvious perks shammas has already mentioned, but also allows you to destroy in 1v1 tank jet gun battles (as well as decimate turrets/firebases incredibly fast, especially with juice).

Silver Armor/RoF
Both extremely important to the way I play, as explained previously.

Bronze Clip size/Health regen/Skill pill
Clip size drastically increases the amount of ammo in your jet gun (as well as slightly less effectively for the rail gun). For taking out those overhealed turrets, this build makes it unbelievably easy, even as slightly incompetent supports heal it . When juiced you will notice a lot less time wasted reloading and a lot more railing on everything in the enemy base. One clip on an upgraded/juiced tank can seriously wreck an entire base with ease, not to mention the option to switch to the rail gun after your ammo is out, to maximize juice efficiency. I would recommend HR for those of you who know when you've lost a battle and need less down time when recovering HP (or for competitive players, need less down time when switching in and out with your teammates for map control). The less time you spend regenerating, the more you are able to have a positive influence on your team. Skill pill has already been explained, so no need to elaborate there.

These are just some of the factors that I use to choose which endorsements go best with my play style, so take it for whatever it is worth to you and your own style.

~Buddy