Does anybody have any good guides for playing defensive tank. I was playing on Spunky Cola playing defensively as RoF/Armor/Accuracy tank. I was doing decently, but I think I could do better. I was wondering if IM Hudson or any of the other tank beasts had made a guide concerning defensive tank. Between the ejectors, RoF rail gun, and product grenades, I was able to get a score of 15-16-8. It was my third time playing as tank, so I am still not that great. Anytime I try to play offensively, I get owned by assaults and tanks who gang up on me. When I play defensively, it seems like I don't use him to his full advantage.
IMO, gold or silver skill regen would work great. That way you would almost always have a product grenade or charge to CC anyone that comes in. Another must is Armor. Try: Gold Armor Silver Skill Regen Bronze Accuracy** **tried bronze accuracy last night for the rail gun and it works wonders for hit detection. I just used it to help chip away at enemy players that my team was engaging. It won't get you many kills but a rail gun to the face will usually get them to back off pretty quick. Went 25-15-3 with that build playing defense.
Your build is perfect if you wanna control the middle of the map by rail gunning. I run two tank builds ROF/armor/acc and RoF/armor/skill. If you have trouble hitting ppl from afar with the rail gun you can try to swap armor and acc as i used to run that also and it always worked for me.
What do you mean by defensive? I'm interpreting this as staying on your side of the map, and using the rail gun for map and hazard control. RoF Gold, Armor Silver, and Skill/Accuracy bronze works well for both offense and defense. Rail spam the bots to keep them from every getting close to your half of the map. Rail Grapple bouncers. Target gapshots as soon as you hear them. Harass any gunners who try to mortar your turrets. If you build turrets, always use Shave Ice on your outer nodes, and try your damnedest to get supports to hack them. If you level charge 3 quickly, you will have a cake walk against the shaveice slowed juiced assassins. Downfall: You will NEVER gain juice with this build while holding your position.
When I played, I basically controlled the L bridges on Spunky through ejectors, deploy, and product grenades. Those grenades take some getting used to (they arc a lot), but I got pretty accurate with them. I liked to use those to hit players and bots behind walls. One thing I thought was funny was that there was this gunner who got on top of the glass near his base and I kept railgun killing him with one of the snipers on my team backing me up. I must have got 3 kills and five assists on him alone. One thing I had to fight was a gunner support combo. I figured out how to charge them both in one shot, kill the gunner, then light that support up. If my charge wasn't loaded, I used the ejector and rung one or both of them out. It was still really annoying when I missed one or the other. The supports shotgun does a ton of damage. Another thing that bothers me about tank is the flame thrower. It can be kinda hard to gauge how far it shoots. When I tried using it, I found that half of the time I was too far away to use it. I figured out that I could easily knock down my enemies through charges and jet gun them down, but that doesn't always work because my charge isn't always loaded, and people (assaults and gunners in particular) know how to exploit the mid-range on a tank.
I played some offensive tank today, and I would say that I did decently. I lost all of the games I played, but I was always at least #3 overall. I played on grenade 3 as offensive tank. I held off all the bots in the right lane, an assassin, and a sniper for the whole game. I also held off the odd tank or assault that dared enter my domain. All of my team mates were on the opposite side of the map getting slaughtered. Why? I have absolutely no idea. It is frustrating when I single handedly hold up half of the map and the rest of the five other members of my team lose to 3 or 4 people. I started sniping the people on the other team all the way across the map towards the end of the game with my rail gun. I took several of them down to less than half health, and my team STILL WOULD NOT BREAK OUT OF THE BASE OR KILL BOTS!!!! Afterwards, I found that two of the members on my team had 10 deaths, no kills or assists, and they each had the $500 that they got with the 30 sec. $50 bonus money. I was like, OMG, you have got to be kidding me....... "facepalm"
To be fair, there was a pretty good tank on the other team, but it was a 5v3 fight. Five people on my team couldn't hold back 3 on the other team. I didn't die the entire match either, so he must not have been that great.
I play a semi-defensive rail-gun focused tank and have success so maybe my experiences could help you out. I'm not 'beast' tank that you are probably asking for, but I feel I have a good grasp on the tank's abilities and shortfalls, as well as how to play him objectively in a role that allows my team to win. (Warning; this gets long, as if any of my posts are short, lol) In most pubs you won't have any support healing so staying on your half of the map and strategically locking down map control is usually the key to victory. You won't have a dramatically high kill count but your deaths should be low and controlling the map will give your team the means to push forward and win. Endorsements for pub-scrub matches; Gold - RoF Silver - Speed Bronze - Accuracy RoFire on the Railgun is essential for getting that 'last shot' in on an opponent and helps your otherwise sub-par DPS become mediocre enough to harass the enemy. Speed - when you are staying behind the line you don't get many speed pickups and when you do, only one will bump you to gold. Sure, you will be a one hit kill with to an assassin, but if you are playing correctly you shouldn't have a problem with an assassin sneaking up on you. Since you are playing defensively, you shouldn't be getting shot at too much anyway, and if you get overwhelmed you can tank-charge jump to safety easier, which should allow a teammate to clear up the exposed enemy that decided to push 'too far' up. Accuracy - Helps hit detection dramatically past mid range. You can get into a sniper battle and even make him back off (or kill him) if you make quick poke shots from behind cover. However; take note of 'good snipers' on the other team because they will drop you like a fly if you even poke your noggin out Basic play-style; Buy product grenade 2 and Dash 2 (optional during early game) from the start First half of the match, focus on bot farming and establishing map control through high ground. An example of a early game opening on Lazerazor; If you charge right from the spawn and jet-jump on one of the moneyball walls you can watch the classes that come out of their spawn and which side of the map they are going. Other maps aren't as easy to see into their spawn but scouting helps you prepare for what is coming, what direction and how strong / mobile that force is, as well as the position you should be taking to best counter this. Take note of snipers and harass them first whenever you see them with your product grenade and RG combo. If you don't kill them and they drop back to heal, move to a different area because you are probably on the top of their kill list now. Listen for any enemy assassins killing your bots and clear them up. Between harassing pros you should be clearing bot lanes and continue to establish map control if possible. Try not to be the first on your team to move up, and if you do decide to move up make sure you have a teammate moving up with you. Contrary to the 'Tank' name, you have limited abilities to push forward solo and live afterward without a teammate close. It is possible to push up with success, but people know the tank's weaknesses and can exploit them easy. The mobile classes have a much easier time pushing forward so it's generally better to wait for them to start pushing up and cover them with your railgun and product grenades or jet gun if the situation calls for it. Try to stay alive and keep the enemy bots in check. If your team-mates happen to have any game sense and are helping clear the bots, you can focus more on the enemy pros, but never forget the objective game. This doesn't mean focus 100% on bots, but if they start building up and their bots are pushing into your half of the map, take them out. If you are the only one keeping the bot lanes clear and your bots alive, try to stay alive yourself because if you die and the enemy is pushing your bots back, their bots will probably be knocking on your door by the time you respawn. Now your team is behind on map control and you're going to have a tougher time pushing back out. Don't be afraid to build a few turrets (I prefer shaved ice) when their bots are getting too close for comfort. Once they spawn contain you, its pretty much GG. Do your damnedest to not allow them to spawn contain you, even if that means making suicide runs. I define spawn contain as not being able to leave your moneyball area (as in not being contained into the spawning room itself, but the area outside it). Since you are the defensive tank, it is one of your jobs to listen for any juiced assassin that enters your base to kill turrets. A surprise charge 3 + RG grapple throw is usually enough CC to have them run away before too many turrets are dropped (if any). On the other side of things, once your team has control over most of the map, you can start playing more offensive and taking more risks. If you die now you can still clear the bots and pros that may have pushed out of their base easier than if the bots were on your half of the map and you died before your team established map control. This is at the point where you shouldn't be playing 'defensively' as much as you are trying to push for the spawn contain. Once the spawn contain is established, the game is basically won, barring any strong push out on their side. At that point, the cycle repeats until the game is over. TL;DR; Stay towards the back of your team, support them, kill bots, CC juiced base destroyers, push offensively once your team has established map control. Disclaimer; this is how I play the game, and I found more success playing this style than other styles during solo-pub matches. My playstyle may vary from yours and that's fine. If you have anything to add I'm willing to listen, but spiteful comments will be ignored. Hope this helps.
