Tactics

I'm putting together some tactics that worked for me last night -- this will help alleviate (a little) a bit of that "new playerness" that we all feel.

Playing as assault: Your AR doesnt do lots of damage from afar, so get up close and either: A) Mow them down with the AR followed by a charge. Or, have your secondary gun out, charge, then grapple.

Playing as Support: Choose your role! Do you want to be the healer, the hacker, or the offensive player? upgrade whichever skill corresponds to that and play defensively to start. Air strikes are lifesavers.

Playing as Gunner: Deploy with your back in a corner -- this eliminates all but the best MNC players from getting too close to you. Then just shoot shoot shoot.

I'll update this as I go, but its a start for the folks getting ready to purchase on day #1.

Very good start Smitty!

I would also like to add that you can't forget that you have skills at your disposal! Especially when I was a Sniper, I would forget that I had skills to help me dispatch enemies that came in too close. And don't forget to continually upgrade your skills. The game likes to remind you every time you respawn if you have enough money. Listen to them cuz it makes a world of difference! Although, as you play you may learn that it's better to say....level up your Gunner passive and get the double miniguns than upgrade your grapple skill. Just a few insider tips

Thx 4 the tips guys but I plan on playing as the assassin so if u have any tips 4 them that would be nice

Shurikens are crazy awesome (like a pillow fight between 2 pillows). They bounce, have range, and if they hit can do some major damage.

Thats probablly my tactic with assassin too is use shurkiens.

Also dont charge in recklessly and get yourself killed a whole bunch, you have cloak and dash so use it XD.

Smoke bomb is also good in escaping and if im not mistaken in stuns bots also, im not sure about turrets.

(I never played as assassin but from what ive seen in vids I think I understand XD)

I look forward to playing as an Assault, purely because of the comedic value. I reckon I'm gonna have more suicides due to miss-charges. But hey at least the audience will love it!

Charges are good for a number of things, not just offensive attacks. You can charge while hovering to get to a ledge that you wouldnt be able to jump to.

Gah?! Really?? I thought it was a American Football kinda tackle, but whoo boy this brings the combat up a notch. Wonder If I can grenade launcher someone into the air before tackling him off the arena or into a wall.

I'm liking the Support class from videos. I have a feeling if I can find a good Tank we could become a wrecking crew. Have him deploy after an over heal and cover his six with my fully upgrade turret and shotty, topping for the occasional patch job with the heal gun.

I played quite a bit as the Assassin while at PAX East, from what I gathered in that period here are some tips I can give from what I experience.

Role: Assassin
Main Goal: Pick off other players.
Skill: First and foremost, before anything else, max out your passive Gear skill. Having the dagger early game gives you a much higher change of 1 shotting enemies when doing a behind grapple. Getting the sword as fast as you can only increases that chance. After you have the sword you can alternate between your other 3 skills based on what the makeup of the other team and how they are player (i.e. if they group together alot you may want smoke bomb first so you can get in then get right out, if they spread out you may want dash so you can get from one to the other faster).
Playing: With this method you have to be very careful. Trying to grab people a lot is very risky because you will need to get close, which increases the chance of being seen. So whatever you do, make sure you have a way to get out quickly. If you can, try to focus on taking out support and sniper pro, as they well go down easily and offer a lot of aid to their team. If a grapple isn't enough to land a kill you can either use your dash attack for a quick hit, or smoke bomb into the air, then shoot down shurikens.

Role: Saboteur
Main Goal: Back door and take out turrets.
Skill: Just as before, it is probably best to take the dagger first. No point in attacking turrets if you really cant do much to them. Also, the increased chance to one shot helps alot if you need to take out anyone who may be guarding the turrets. After the dagger, smoke bomb because important because if will temporarily shutdown the turret, allowing you to get in a few shots before it potentially attacks you. Dash is also important because since you will be using smoke bomb to disable the turret, you won't be able to use it to get away.
Playing: In order to do this well you have to be crafty and patient. At first, act aggressive to give the other team the illusion that you are in front of them. Then when you get the chance, cloak and move in. If you can, positions the turret between yourself then the opposing team to block line of sight (this way even if they do turn around they still may not see you).

Just as a disclaimer, I only played this game for about 2 hours, and that was several months ago. I'm not claiming to be a "pro" but this are two thing I tried when playing and found to be effective and more importantly, fun. Also, there are chances that since then, things have changed or work slightly differently that could make a big difference. So please keep that in mind, and I hope this info helps. Just remember, above all else, if you aren't enjoying yourself then you are playing wrong.

I must say...I like the stock assassin build the best. My play style with the assassin ends up being a hit and run gank style where I find people to pick off and then book it. I agree with hildogen completely in maxing out the passive first for easy kills, and my order after that is getting max cloak next, then max dash after that, and for some reason I never max out my smoke. With good communication this allows you to easily pick off players with either no armor, or those who have been crippled on the battlefield. They end up being easy pray and many end up being either ganks or cleanup kills. However I've also had moments where I've done total base rushes and stealth mid grapple to make my retreat...and it works some times...

any vids yet?

Yes, it stuns turrets too.

The reload button (Right bumper) when you have the sword/dagger out is a little dash attack that helps you finish off guys that didn't die from you grapple. Actually, it's best to weaken buys before you grapple them so they die in the grapple. That way you can find you next target while the grapple animation plays out. That goes for any class!

With Assault if you are quick enough when falling or being thrown off the arena, you can sometimes use the jetpack to boost back onto the edge. Especially useful when you have upgraded your skill.

I played as Support for the first time last night, mostly used the healing gun and hurt gun. I never made it to hack any turrets.

I'd say for tactics in general, it seems from what I've seen that the team as a whole has to strike a balance between personal progress and bot/turret progress. While maxing out all your skills and wracking up kills is nice, you're not doing as much as you could to be a team player.

Just my 2 cents based on what I've seen so far.

Thats nice 2 know thx

Another advice I have is play the classes in blitz too, it gives you an idea of the skills and you can also practice fighting against bots and try out different moves to see what your class can do before you actually go out and get owned.

I have to totally disagree with your support tactics, been playing as them all day and I am getting MVP nearly everytime.

Being a medic isnt nearly as effective as you think it will be, overhealth a tank and it will still get mowed down if there 2 people shooting it, then you will be stuck in the open and get mowed down too.

Also forget about the shotgun, you will want to be using you heal gun all the time, its awesome against weak armour classes like assassins, snipers and even soldiers, and you should alway be healing your turret.

Now onto turrets, the best thing about a support, I always hammer into the enemy frontlines straight away and find a good spot for my turret (in fact because there is only 4 maps I know the best turret spots on every map now). Put it somewhere where it can kill all the robots coming towards it but also where you can stand back in cover and heal it.

Now all you have to do is let your turret deal with robots and pros, and use the anti heal on pros and use your airstrike to take out pros too, this will get you loads of cash and let you fully upgrade your stats really quickly. Here my usual build
Firebase lvl 2, Airstrike lvl 2 (with your first 300)
Hack lvl 2 and support lvl 2 (to make your turret fire further to make more money and support becuase its only $150 and you get more health)
save up for Firebase 3 (healing turret = AWESOME)
Hack 3 (Make that turret amazing)
Airstrike 3 (great end game for taking out Jackbots and enemy base turrets to let in your bots)
support 3 (just cause theres nothing left!)

I cant stress how important it is to stay with your turret, also remember you can pick it up, if the enemy is retreating, pick up your turret and move forward, you should always be just behind the frontlines, also when your turret gets healing dont forget to tell your teammates, and use the fact that airstrike come from the sky to get easy kills, by placing them underneath bridges when the enemies are above, or throw them really high when your close to the base to get the spawn point and kill all the newly spawned pros and the moneyball!

This.
This is pretty much word-for-word what I do as support, and I got 4 MVPs in a row earlier.
Also, as soon as you've upgraded all your stats, make sure you get back and upgrade/build turrets there when you die, or have a second or two. If the game goes into overtime and there's no defence, you're going to be destroyed.

I liek the assualt as my first and I use a custom class for it, it goes

Gold-Rate of fire
Silver-Clip size
Bronze-Accuracy

Now with this build I normally upgrade the bomb and the passive skill right off the bat when we start, I absolutley love the bomb.just put it where a lot of bots or Pros are and detonate it off. I just got a 16 kill streak with it a few games ago and 1 death at the very end in overkill mode.
When someone is chasin you if possible go up on a jump pad and put the bomb where you land and detonate once they land there. The Bomb is really powerful against assassins if you know how to use it right. Watch them go cloak(if you see them) and put bomb inbetween the last known position and detonate a second or two late, it probably wont kill them but it will make them visible for a few seconds and you can riddle them away. I normally get in the top two with this build.
Also only build turrets if you have a lvl 2 or 3 bomb and passive. The flight is nice and so is the charge but I only use the charge for a speed boost to get away if your nearly dead or to boost while flying. The flight is just awesome to get around though it's saved my life from fallin off more than a couple times.