Pop Quiz

You're alone at your base. Your Money Ball is up.

Incoming is an enemy Support Pro and two bots - with nothing too scary behind them.

Let's say you've only time to kill:

A) The pro
B) or 1 Bot

Who do you attack - the pro or the bots?

B

If both bots hit your moneyball, it's going to go down.

Right answer.

Next question:

When faced with the scenario, how many people will actually do that?

This happened to me the other day, and it's why I wanted to bring it up. A buddy watching my screen yelled at me because I went for the bots. I found myself yelling back. After a few seconds of thought, he realized I was right - but the impulse of this game is very PvP rather than Tower Defense. I think it's worth thinking about.

Further, when the MB comes down, that Pro's buddies would come in. If you take the bot and can't take out the support, he'll probably leave to find another bot, giving you time to situate yourself.

I'd say 1 out of 5.

Many people don't know 2 Blackjacks can drop your shields.

Not if it was two Slimbots.

I'm fairly certain two bots, regardless of what sort they are, will lower the money ball.

Also, if you have an inner turret, assuming it isn't near dead, targeting the pro would actually be the wiser choice. But yeah, I get the point.

Nope. It takes 4 Slimbots to drop the shields.

I think this is true.

Do you say this because you think the Pro will take out the turret, and you think you would rather save the turret than the money ball?

Well, plenty of times (i think) I've seen 1 blackjack and 1 slimbot take the shield out.

And, thinking more, I'm not sure I've ever encountered slimbots alone at the MB in numbers. Which makes sense, as they die so fast, and are accompanied by heartier black jacks.

I guess this is easy to test on a local blitz, assuming the shields have the same strength as on crossfire.

C) take one step towards them and watch the support - who's been overhealing the whole way - immediately Juice and kill you

I say that because the bots, assuming slims/blackjacks, should stop and target the turret before proceeding to the ball. Of course, sometimes they don't (glitch), so maybe you should go for the bots anyway.

Unless the devs have said something of this nature, that would be a pretty odd thing to know considering that it would be a pretty rare occurrence for four slims to hit the ball consecutively.

Ah.

I don't think they do stop, but are they supposed to stop if the inner turret in question is on the other side of the MB? (this is what I thought you meant).

You have to kill both of them. If you only kill the bot, the pros will just keep killing you and eventually you'll lose if you don't push out.

The only thing you have to do is protect money ball. Everything else is speculative. In this scenario, you can't count on killing the pro too, which was the point - choosing. Naturally you'll want to do both. It's which you go after on purpose, which reveals if you're playing with strategy or if you're playing a death match.

Further to the point, enemy pros can dance around your base all day long, even if you have no turrets, and you won't lose if their bots aren't there. As long as the sheilds are up, Pros in your base = no big deal. Bots in your base = big deal.

I'll simply counter-speculate that help arrives soon after (from your team mates dying) and you can fend off the pro, and everyone can run back into the arena.

You guys are correct. Two of any bot will drop the shields. I guess what I first seen was over a set amount of time or something. It was something I thought I figured out when I was still new to the game.

My mistake.

I say we start with some more MNC trivia?

So, who wants to ask the first question?

If the pros are in your base and you have no map control, then you can kill 132938493483984 bots and you'll just lose in OT. Killing people is just as important. The objective is to win, and contrary to popular belief, it takes more than just killing bots.

See, that's the entire point right there. Killing people is not primary. Killing people is secondary to your main objectives, which includes getting YOUR bots to their moneyball Which is what "map control" is. Map control isn't PvP out in the middle.

And I'm certainly not saying just kill bots.

1) Keep bots off your MB
2) take out enemy turrets so you can
3) get your bots to THEIR MB so you can
4) attack their MB so you can
5) win

No where in there is "seek out players". PvP is secondary so you can achieve the above.

This example is just an illustration that people pass up killing bots in favor of killing players, which is (in this case) immediately detrimental. Both wasn't an option at this split second scenario. Your team may be winning or losing, but somehow there were 2 bots and a pro, and you had to go for one or the other.

People pass bots all the time to go player hunting, with zero strategy. Just want people to think about it.

Exactly. Far too many times when the enemy team has a good push and the bots are barley there people player chase. If there is 5 Pros and 2 bots I would suicide to those bots. As long as my shields stay up.

It takes 2 bots, of any type, to drop the shields.

Hey look! He gave us an exact number.
:!:

A number that can be directly observed and verified.