So I like playing Tanks. I'm also kinda new to the game, so excuse my noob impressions. But Currently, when I play Tank I feel that the most effective way to play him so to max Charge and just Spin to win. To maximize the effectiveness of this strategy I run with Gold Reload Speed. Thats all I really need honestly. Anything else in the other two slots seems to work just fine. Though going a more resistant rout with Armor and Health regen makes things a little safer. Now even though I play Tank, I honestly think that they need some kind of redesign for a number of reasons. 1. Tanks share a really similar skill kit to Gunners. Deploy doesn't give you the same kind of bonuses that it would for Gunner but its still the same skill because you become stationary. 2. They are extremely mobile thanks to Charge and its short cool down despite their slow walking speed. 3. They deal massive amounts of AoE Damage on a short cool down (the cool down being your reload time). 4. They do become vary Tanky thanks to their Tank Skill. The issue is the Sum of its parts. Each part is fine in a vacuum but when you let them play together they become a big issue. The Spin effect on his main weapon can happen to fast and deals to much damage for it being an alt fire ability. At the same time though, I really enjoy using it. In contrast to this I really hate using the deploy skill that he has. I feel that deploy works against everything I like about the tank. Going stationary means I can't Spin or Charge at anyone and in most cases (for me) ends up getting me killed. Because of these issues I feel the tank needs a kit redesign to help balance his skills while making his play style more unique to the class. My Proposal would be as fallows: Blue Skill Changed from a deploy skill like the gunners to a Weapon based skill. Primary Weapon will do a spin attack much like the current alt fire. Longish cool down at level 1. Each level brings the cool down closer to its current speed. Does not eat ammo of the weapon. Secondary Weapon fires a charged shot that fires through its targets dealing massive damage. Red Skill No Chage Yellow Skill Change to a more Tank style skill. Not sure what to make this skill. Maybe something that redirects Turret and Bot Attacks while boosting his armor. This would then leave the tank with no Alt fire on his primary weapon. Could passably make a Nade style skill that blinds and does medium damage. Anyway, those are just my thoughts. Anyone else feel the same way about his kit?
Deploying on a tank is used to quickly regenerate health after you managed to duck out of cover or to go for the "deploy in front of moneyball and juice the jetbeam" (only works on Deploy 3) The way I play tank rarely involves using the jetbeam at all, I upgrade Product Grenade in the beginning for the blind effect and make a mad dash for territory in order to contest, overpower and control mid. The Railgun is a really effective deterrent, also nice to snipe Snipers without armor. Granted Deploy might seems rather useless at first and most of the time I do not even upgrade it but I can't think of any decent replacement right now since the tank is singlehandedly the most versatile class in the game. (Bit opinionated but I've seen this view being shared) Edit: Gold Rate of Fire, Silver Speed and Bronze Skill Recharge.
There's a number of ways to play him. I like to focus on the Railgun, so I'm RoF, Armor, Accuracy (Gold/Silver/Bronze respectively.) In terms of upgrade order, I start out with Product Grenade Lvl2 + Passive Lvl2. Then Charge Lvl2. After that, I will upgrade either Product Grenade or Charge to 3, depending on what type of combat (longer-range vs closer) I'm generally engaging in. I generally go for Lvl3 charge first, especially if there's a decent Assassin on the enemy team (once revealed, I don't like letting them get away..which is quite honestly WAY too easy for them to do when they're using Gold Armor.) Though it's also fun to Rail-Snipe them out of the air when they do their bomb jump with low health :lol: .. I must have 25-30 kills from that. The Railgun is great for pushing lanes..between the Rail and the Product Grenade, you can wipe out any bots in your field of vision almost instantly. You can generally lock a lane down without even worrying about being fired upon. I have the Railgun out most of the time (have the 1k Rail kill tag), but I find that I still get a large portion of my kills from the Jetgun and Charge. I don't Death Blossom all that much, though. Charge+Spin isn't the only way to play.
Simply put - the Tank excels at pushing lanes. Slaying Pros is pretty hard to do because your slow speed means you have to ambush them, and get the job done quickly (oh man, don't read too deeply into that).
I have a LOT to say here but since I am tired it will have to wait until tomorrow. the Tank is my main class and I feel I can offer you a lot of insight. I will say this right now he "blue skill" the Product Grenade his is real money maker.
I think that the tank class is mostly fine. He's a beast, that is true. But he definately has counters. I really like this class because it adds a lot of flavour to the game. He's much more than just a tank (i.e. bullet catcher) and he can fill many roles. The only gripe I have with the tank is his rather useless deploy skill. Okay, it can regenerate your health and net you some juice. I has uses, I'll give you that. But it really does not what you expect out of a deploy skill. A deploy skill implies "Okay, I'm going to park my *** right here and if you get near me, you're toast". It really does not do that in the slightest. It just makes you a fat target that regenerates health, but only when people aren't shooting you (which is never when you do it in the middle of combat). Now I don't think that the tank needs any buffs, so I don't know if changing the deploy skill is a good idea (anything that makes it more viable would be a buff), unless you nerf something else. It might be interesting to change the deploy skill in such a way that it becomes really awesome with the right endorsements. I don't really know what, but how about giving the tank a constant health regen at lvl2 while deployed (even when being hit)? If you would combine that with gold health regen and silver armour, you'd have a REAL tank-tank. That would give you the option to choose between playing the tank tank-style (I park my *** *** here and you'd better stay away) or going with different endorsements and playing him like you would do now. Gee, typing the word "tank" so often really makes it seem like a very strange word indeed... Tank... . I mean... Tank... come on, that's not a word .
This type of deploy behaviour would support a slower pace of game though. I park here, thou shalt not pass until oh wait I can just headshot him out of confidence. Mobility is a driving factor in this game, promoting a slower pace, turtling or other slowing effects more than there are already in the game (ShaveIce, FreezeTraps, Jackbot Slam) would adversely affect it. Instead we should promote a more aggressive and faster paced playstyle, I am currently unable to put out any suggestions and will just say: leave tank alone.
Tank is my main, and I have no gripes about him, other than the fact that on rare occasions he gets stuck in place due to a bug, and the product grenade doesn't always stun bots or scatter correctly. As for those saying that the deploy is useless, I couldn't disagree more. It's mostly useless in the early game, unless you're looking to park yourself somewhere and use the rail gun. It's mostly useful as a deterrent to grapples. In the late game, or any time the enemy's money ball is down, it's the best thing you could ask for. As such, it's usually the last thing I upgrade. Get juiced, park yourself in front of the enemy money ball, and start shooting with the jet gun. Then, as soon as your health starts going down, activate your juice and destroy the money ball in a matter of seconds. The Tank's deploy ability is awesome in those regards. You can't be grappled, you have better defense, you regain health quickly while deployed (meaning you're even harder to kill), and you don't have to reload. A tank with fully upgraded deploy and juice is the best money ball crusher out there.
When it comes to endorsement builds, the tank is similar to the assault in which you can really diversify what you use for varying degrees of usefulness, as opposed to snipers and assassins who'll always be using armor at all times. I usually upgrade product grenade and charge right out of the gate because his combination of railgun and product grenade let's him push bots with ease without even needing to immerse himself in danger. Pushing bots as tank will get you lots of money which can be spent on further upgrades.
