xShammas' Post DLC Tank

Here's the 3rd adaptation of my tank playstyle. With each update, I've had to slightly adjust, but this latest update has brought about the most drastic changes yet. Most things still remain the same, the tank has the highest learning curve and is devastating in good hands. I honestly feel that I have an advantage against any other player in the game in a 1v1 fight. The tank has a useful tool at any range, but can't be a "run this and wreck" class like an assault. You need practice and skill to master any tank build and become a real force. Although, practice and skill ain't no match for bad luck.
Terminology:
Squishy- Assault, Assassin, Support, Sniper
Heavy- Tank, Gunner
Anni- Annihilator

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

A. Weapons Breakdown

Jet Gun- Still the most effective and diverse close range and bot killing weapon in the game. The death blossom can do a nice chunk of damage and brings any squishy class down to 50% health with full ammo. It also takes out any group of blackjacks if not overhealed. Death blossoming is also the most effective way to take down a jackbot, needing only 2 with juice. Yes, only 2. The primary fire is a little poor off-host due to bad hit detection, but is still your best option against heavies. On a good host, it's great and the burn damage adds on a little extra damage. Any time you get the opportunity to light someone on fire, GO FOR IT. It drains their health for a good 5 seconds and makes it take that much longer to regen.

B. Skills Breakdown

Product Grenade- Extremely useful at level 2. It's best used to start a fight by leaving your opponent blinded and open to attack, or to finish a fight by bouncing around a corner or off a wall. At level 3, it instakills a group of bots, and is a great way to build juice. It also blinds turrets for a short period of time.

Deploy- Get some juice off that lazer blazer.

Charge- Your best tool for mobility. Insane recharge, and knocks down your opponent at level 3. Tank jumping is great if you can find all the spots.

C. Endorsements

GOLD: Rate Of Fire- Makes the rail gun wonderful, and doubles the rate of fire. It also gives the jet gun a higher DPS.

SILVER: Armor- Lets you survive a sniper headshot or assassin back grapple from full health, and lets you take and extra 1.5x damage. You health is increased to 1.75x with passive 3 and sliver armor. This is very useful with the indirect buff to assaults and gunners during laggy situations, and the increase in crit builds.

BRONZE: Skill Recovery- Drastically reduces the recharge time of your charge, giving you ridiculous mobility. It also brings your grenade back faster for more frequent blinding.

D. Buy Order

1. At Start: Grenade 2
2. Save money for clutch passive opportunity.
3. Wait until at $300 if clutch passive wasn't used, and buy charge 2.
4. Charge 3
5. Passive 3
6. Grenade 3
7. Juice

E. Role

You should still be the main force in controlling the map. Even though your assassin is the main bot killer, you should still be checking the bot lanes and taking every opportunity to kill them. Launching a grenade at group of bots will take out any slims and blind/stun any black jacks. The rail gun kills a black jack in 3 shots also. It's a common misconception that the tank needs to be in the bot lanes to control them, although if they begin to get crowded you should definitely be in there with your death blossom and grenade. The jet pack is extremely important as well; I highly suggest learning to claw.
Like I said before, you really can't lose a 1v1 fight if you're good enough. This opens up plenty of holes in the enemy setup. If they take 2 people to try and kill you, this leaves someone unguarded and able to make a push. If they don't, you can freely kill everyone and everything. Once your bots are almost in the enemy base, try to have juice. Rush in 1st with your juice and take out any moneyball defense. Make sure your team is behind you leading the bots in to drop it and win the game. Having a decent team is important when playing tank, and a good assassin is your best friend, because the bots are 1 less thing to worry about. Lastly, PLAY SMART. Don't chase everything in sight. If they get away, let them be. They'll have to come back at some point to get by you, and there's no way in hell you're going to let them. Don't sit out in the open against a sniper, especially if he's staring at you. And PLEASE don't run in a straight line holding down the trigger with your jet gun while that assault backs up and ARs you.

F. Match-Ups

Support- The easiest target to rail gun due to their poor mobility and sub-par health. They also can't really avoid your charge.

Sniper- At long range, pester them with the grenade and rail gun. Up close, charge and death blossom them. Always be sure to jet pack over their traps.

Assault- I use a sort of unique tactic when fighting assaults at mid-range. I charge to get close and death blossom them, then immediately back up and pull out my rail gun. When they see you charging at them, they'll instinctively back up. With you backing up as they do, you'll be able to pull out of AR range and finish them with 2 rail gun shots, even less if they don't have gold armor. If you begin the fight at long range, keep it that way.

Gunner- Stay as far away as you can. It's possible to win a close range fight, but very risky. Mid range is no-man's land, and long range is easy mode. If you get caught up close, go for a grenade and try to use your primary jet gun fire. Death blossoming won't do enough damage to take them down.

Assassin- Charge, DB up close. Don't get too pre-occupied if they run away and aren't very hurt already. You won't catch them.

Tank- Jet packing is useful to avoid the charge close up, or counter with your own. Same thing as gunners, use your primary jet gun fire. At long range, it takes way too long to kill one, so you're best off getting a team mate to help you, or whittling their health down.

G. Juice

If you get juice, hold onto it and use it as a safety net. If you don't end up using it, use it when your bots are knocking on the enemy door. Rush in and take out anything between your bots and the enemy ball.

H. Maps

LazeRazor- Set up around the anni, preferably to the right. This gives you right hand advantage and a nice bot lane to fall back into. You also can survey their top right.
Vid- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-KOaXdqAqo

AmmoMule- Top dome is the sweet spot. You can pin down everything from up here, and the juice is close by.

Steel Peel- Set up on the right side of the anni ring. This gives you a clear shot all the way to their spawn.
Vid- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwVe5A1x8JM

Grenade III- The right side bridge is your best option on this map. You can lock down the right lane completely and even hit shots across to the left bridge.
Vid- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_RW7nnjXHw

Spunky Cola- Head to the enemy L-Bridge and rail gun across to the middle and bot lanes.

That sums up my new playstyle, hopefully you can all achieve some success using it. It takes practice and dedication above all. Don't just play 1 time, get destroyed and give up. Your aim will improve with time, and you will learn more the more you play.
If anyone is wondering, I play on 3 sensitivity with tactical button layout.

Good guide. Very good advice at the end. You don't get good at stuff without getting your *** kicked in it first. Don't quit out after one fail.

Your guides have really helped me sort out my random Tank game, I've just got one question:

What's clawing?

i completely agree with this guide and my playstyle is close to yours the only main difference is i dont level product grenade because im not that good at aiming it and i also use reload speed for bronze but im trying skill recovery

p.s i also have trouble clutch upgrading passive

use your middle finger to shoot, use your index to hit the jump button, and the thumb aims. allows you to shoot accurately while in the air as gunner/tank

wow ive never thought finger placement will make me a better/worse player but now i think about it what you said is much more practical than what ive been using which is thumb for aiming jumping and skills

I play with tactical button layout too, so the skills are on LB, RB, and RS click. this also lets me aim the product nade while shooting it.

wow ok so i should learn how to claw on tactical setout???

p.s ive gotten use to the layout already but the clawing is HARD

Updated with gameplay videos.

What if two people who are "good enough" meet in a 1v1 showdown? Nah, just kidding, I get your point though!

Great guide btw, I'm sure it will help me out tons when I'm trying to master some other classes besides the gunner that I've played about 90 % of the time.

I emailed this tank guide to my brother and he responded with his own tank guide...

-----------------------------------

My Tank guide:

-There are some bots... I'm going to go up and jet gun them and then use the death blossom to kill them all.
-Cool, that worked.
-Hey, there's a bad guy. Wait, what color am I? Yeah, there's a bad guy. I'm going to shoot him with my rail gun.
-A little to the left... too far... there you go... hit him again... no, come on, stay on him.
-Okay, he sees me and is firing back, move side-to-side a bit so its harder to hit me.
-No, keep hitting him. Stop missing!
-Wait, am I getting hit from the side?
-Turn and bring up my jet gun on this guy right next to me.
-Reload? I didn't finish reloading after killing those bots? F---.
-You're almost dead! Dodge!
-What are you doing? Dodge so he doesn't hit you!
-Quick, turn and use your charge to escape!
-Not directly into a wall you idiot!
-Oh, goddammit! There was a firebase there??? What the f---!? Goddam supports on my team don't do s---.

Also, use gold rate of fire, silver armor, and bronze skill pill.

This helped me a tonne! I still can't aim my railgun at all well but dispite that I am comfortable meeting any class at this point.

Didn't know tanks could do those things that you pulled of in laze razor. Pure awesomeness.

How do you keep your accuracy while playing with the claw hold? I just cant hit anything when I've tried it. How long did it take for you to learn it? Pressing the A button with your index finger just feel so awkward, I wish i could maybe bind left trigger for it and A for death blossom.

I started in CoD4, and it only took me a couple days to get used to, but I've been doing it since then.

Nice guide with the videos. It's a much smarter playstyle than I usually go for with tank (Rambo ability spammer) and it shows with your killstreaks. I'm going to give this style a try. Cheers for taking the time to put it together.

seriously i don't know how you can claw but it improves your overall tank and gunner gameplay if you do learn, good guide, i will use some of the tips, still wish you would upload more videos

Also, lately I've been using bronze reload speed sometimes, and accuracy if the host isn't very good.

I finally gave bronze accuracy a shot. All this time, I thought you were just imagining that it improved hit detection on the rail gun. It turns out, it actually does and not just a little bit. The second game trying it, I got 36 kills in a row, and I never had gotten an uber streak before. I recommend all rail gun heavy tanks try it out. It makes a big difference.

I can verify bronze accuracy being a huge help on poor hosts. It sucks to sacrifice skill regen or armor for it though.

Great tip though.

Re: xShammas\' Post DLC Tank

Ammomule Gameplay- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5N1EjmmaO8