The Fool's Guide to Not Failing as the Support

THE FOOL'S GUIDE TO NOT FAILING AS THE SUPPORT
OR: How I Learned That the Support is a Ninja

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 1: Why You Should Be The Support
• 2: Meet the Support
• - 2.1: The Statistics
• - 2.2: The Weapons
• - 2.3: The Skills
• - 2.4: The Bots
• - 2.5: What You Do Well
• - 2.6: What You Do Badly
• - 2.7: Your Primary Responsibilities
• 3: Endorsements and You
• 4: Skill Upgrades and Purchases
• 5: What You Should Do
• 6: What You Should NOT Do
• 7: Match-Ups
• 8: The Shotgun Dance
• 9: Bursting Full of the Juices - How to Make the Most of Your Purple
• 10: Supporting the Jet Ski - A Guide to Healing
• - 10.1: Healing Pros
• - 10.2: Healing Turrets
• - 10.3: Meatball Surgery - Healing on the Front Lines

PART ONE: Why You Should Be The Support

There's a very simple reason that you should learn to play the Support: if the enemy team has any idea at all of how to play the game, you are absolutely screwed without a Support.

The Support is the single most effective class in the game when it comes to laying down map control. In addition, his bot support aura and Heal/Hurt Gun make any push with him involved almost unstoppable. He's also the only class in the game which can do perform any sort of base defense beyond "stand on the catwalk and shoot anyone who gets close".

And if you're reluctant to play as a class which is meant to act as backup for the rest rather than fighting on his own, you little K/D whore you, suck on this: the Support is one of the most lethal classes in the game if you know how to use him.

As another note, I play the Support somewhat differently than other people. Other notable guides on how to play the Support are wazupwiop's Support offense guide and SXD24's Support guide, both of which espouse a much more rigid purchasing strategy and place less emphasis on Juice. I encourage you to read them both and find out which playstyle works best for you.



PART TWO: Meet the Support



Laaaadiiiieees annnnd gentlemeeeen! He's a-bursting full of the Juices! He's the Italian stallion with the biggest Shotgun you ladies have ever seen! All the way from south-eastern Spance, it's the Support!

2.1: The Statistics

HEALTH: 400
COMPARED TO OTHER CLASSES:

• The Sniper and Assassin both have less health than the Support at 300 apiece.
• The Assault has more health than the Support, with 500.
• The Gunner and Tank both have much more health than the Support, at 700.

The Support begins the game extremely fragile. However, his Passive 2 and 3 skills make him much more durable (see the description below for more details).

SPEED: 600
COMPARED TO OTHER CLASSES:

• Tanks are much slower than the Support, with 500.
• Gunners are slightly slower, with 550.
• Assaults move at the same speed as the Support.
• Snipers and Assassins are both slightly faster than the Support, with 650.

While the Support is not a slow class, he lacks abilities which increase his ability to navigate the battlefield, like Charge and Dash. He has to rely on cover rather than movement abilities to escape from dangerous situations.

2.2: The Weapons



The Heal/Hurt Gun

• Range: Short
• Clip size: None (infinite)
• Primary fire: Heal beam. Locks on to a friendly bot, Pro, or turret and heals them continuously for as long as the trigger is held down and they are still in range. Requires no aiming. Restores 80 health per second to Pros and bots (four shots per second restore 20 health each). Restores 400 health per second to turrets (four shots per second restore 100 health each). Can "overheal" allies, temporarily raising their health as high as 150% of normal.
• Secondary fire: Hurt beam. Locks on to an enemy bot, Pro, or turret and drains their health continuously for as long as the trigger is held down and they are still in range. Drains 60 health per second from Pros and the Moneyball (four shots per second drain 15 health each). Drains 156 health per second from bots and turrets (four shots per second drain 39 health each). While draining an enemy bot, Pro, or turret, the Support regains 12 health per second.
• Note: The Heal/Hurt Gun is a powerful source of Juice. While the Support is actively healing an allied bot, turret, or Pro, he will gain Juice in proportion to the amount of healing done.

The Shotgun

• Range: Extreme short
• Clip size: 8
• Primary fire: Shotgun blast. Fires 15 pellets in an expanding cloud in front of the Shotgun. Each pellet deals 27 damage at point-blank range, for a total of 405 damage. After a short distance, the pellets suffer a severe damage drop-off, and disappear entirely shortly after. This, combined with the spread of the pellets, makes the Shotgun useless at mid- to long-range.
• Secondary fire: Grapple. Deals 75 damage to Pros and 2000 damage to bots.

2.3: The Skills

These are what make the Support a true asset to the team. Learn to use your skills. They are like a beautiful woman: treat her right and she'll always be there for you. Neglect her, and the fury of her retaliatory knee to the testicles will rupture your goddamn spleen.

HACK

• Cooldown: 60 seconds
• Activation time: 5 seconds (level 1), 4 seconds (level 2), 3 seconds (level 3)
• Duration: 2:30 (level 1), 2:45 (level 2), 3:00 (level 3)
• Effect: Hacking can be used on a friendly turret to increase its range and rate of fire. A level 1 Hack increases the turret's rate of fire by 20%. A level 2 Hack adds a substantial range boost. A level 3 Hack gives another 20% boost to rate of fire and increases the range even further.
• Special: At level 3, Hack can be used to turn enemy turrets into friendly turrets. The turret is not disabled during the Hack attempt. Hacking an enemy turret takes longer than Hacking a friendly turret.

This is the most critical of the Support's skills. It allows you to turn friendly turrets into bot-destroying machines and to turn your Firebase (see below) into a powerful defensive tool. A Hacked turret can destroy bots with impunity; a Hacked Firebase can lock down an entire lane if placed in the correct area.

The option to Hack an enemy turret, while tempting, is not generally a good idea. As enemy turrets are all located in the enemy base, and enemies spawn in the enemy base, you're practically guaranteed to come under fire while attempting the Hack. It almost never works.

Hack is a versatile skill. It can be used to strengthen a weak point in your base's defense by Hacking a friendly turret. It can also be used to lay down an impressive amount of map control via the Firebase. A Hacked Firebase will provide you and your teammates with a "safe zone" to retreat to should you come under fire. It can also be used to shut down an entire lane of bots, as a Hacked Firebase is practically indestructible without direct intervention from an enemy Pro.

FIREBASE

• Cooldown: 60 seconds (level 1), 40 seconds (level 2), 30 seconds (level 3) (no cooldown while deployed)
• Activation time: None to place, ~4 seconds to deploy once placed
• Duration: Until destroyed or picked up
• Effect: Places a portable turret on the field. This turret will automatically fire on any enemy bot, Pro, or turret within its range. It functions identically to other turrets once deployed, meaning that it can be Hacked by Supports or stunned by any effect which stuns a turret. It also generates cash for the Support who deployed it with every kill or assist it gets. The Support can only deploy one Firebase at a time, but can pick up a deployed Firebase by approaching it and pressing Y again. This will restore a portion of the skill meter. At level 1, 25% of the meter will be filled; at level 2, 50%; and at level 3, 75%.
• Special: At Level 1, the Firebase has 1000 health, fires ten times per second, and deals 15 damage per shot at close range (dropping down to 5 at long range). At Level 2, it has 1250 health and its maximum damage increases to 20 damage per shot. At Level 3, its health increases to 1500, and it gains a healing aura which will heal all nearby friendly Pros at a rate equal to 10% of their maximum health per second.

This is your Firebase:



Short of Hack, the Firebase is the Support's most powerful skill. When combined with Hack, it becomes the Support's principle source of map control and cash. A well-placed Firebase essentially shuts down an opponent's bot lane, as a Hacked Firebase is pretty much invincible to most breach bots. It can destroy them much faster than they can destroy it, and the occasional visit from the Support to heal it up will ensure a steady stream of cash.

The Firebase should be deployed somewhere that it cannot easily be attacked by enemy Pros, and should not be deployed on an Ejector. This usually means placing it next to a corner on a bot lane. If at all possible, it should also be placed under some sort of shelter to prevent enemy Supports destroying it with an Air Strike - a Firebase will die to a single hit from one of those.

Deployed properly, the Firebase provides you with a stream of cash from enemy bots that it destroys as well as somewhere for you and your allies to retreat to should things get nasty. If you come under fire, retreat to your Firebase. If your enemy tries to follow you, they'll be treated to some rapid-fire lead to the face.

Try to deploy your Firebase somewhere that you plan to visit often - some part of the map which is critical to control. This both gives your team a boost in their attempts to keep control of that area and ensures that you'll be passing through there frequently, so you'll always have the opportunity to heal your Firebase should it become damaged.

Even an un-Hacked, Level 1 Firebase is more powerful than a Level 3 LazerBlazer turret when firing on Pros, and does damage on par with a Level 1 RockIt. It has a shorter range than most turrets, though. Hacking it with a Level 2 or above Hack skill effectively doubles its range, as well as making it that much more formidable. A Level 3 Firebase is almost as dangerous to enemy Pros as a Level 3 RockIt, and a 2.3 (or 3.3) Firebase is the single most damaging anti-Pro turret in the game, save for a Hacked Level 3 RockIt (and you don't have to shell out more than a thousand dollars every time you want a Firebase). The only real weakness it has is its lack of armor, which makes it vulnerable to Tanks and Assassins.

AIR STRIKE

• Cooldown: 60 seconds (level 1; 60 seconds per use), 80 seconds (level 2; 40 seconds per use), 90 seconds (level 3; 30 seconds per use)
• Activation time: None to throw, 2 seconds until impact
• Duration: Instantaneous
• Effect: The Support throws an air strike beacon in an arc in front of him which will stick to the first enemy or structure that it touches. Two seconds later, a bomb drops from above, dealing 2500 damage to the target. If the target is below something, the bomb will strike that thing rather than the target, making it possible to avoid an Air Strike by ducking under an overhang. Upgrading the Air Strike increases the radius of the explosion. The Support is vulnerable to his own Air Strikes, but no other allies are affected by it.
• Special: Upgrading Air Strike increases its overall cooldown time, but divides the skill meter into sections, reducing the cooldown time per use and allowing for more than one Air Strike to be used at a time if the meter is full enough.

KABOOM!

While not as critical as the Firebase or Hack, Air Strike is a versatile and useful weapon in the Support's arsenal. It'll kill pretty much any enemy Pro in one shot. It can wipe out huge crowds of enemy bots with a single use. It does a nice amount of damage to Jackbot XL and the enemy Moneyball. It is, in other words, the ****.

Try to hit people with this when they're out in the open to avoid having them duck under an overhang. Hitting someone with an Air Strike when they aren't looking is both easier and more effective, as they generally won't notice that they've been hit until it's too late to find cover. Alternately, don't stick them with it, and simply drop multiple Air Strikes around them. A lot of players will wander into them.

Because you aren't immune to your own Air Strikes, you need to be careful about Air Striking Bouncers and other fast, chase-y bots, as they will often just rush towards you and catch you in your own explosion (you can avoid this if you know it's going to happen, but still - be aware). A few players will also do this; upon realizing that they've been Ground Zero'd, and that the end is nigh, they'll use their Charge skill (or whatever variant of same that they might possess) to get in close and go for mutual destruction. It's usually a good idea to throw your Air Strike beacons well away from yourself.

The Air Strike is a powerful weapon against enemy turrets, as well. A single Air Strike will take out a level 1 LazerBlazer or LongShot, and two Strikes will destroy them at any level (unless they're overhealed, in which case they'll still be about dead when it's over, and a third Strike can finish them off). ShaveIces and RockIts can be killed by two Air Strikes at level 1 and severely damaged by three Strikes at levels 2 and 3.

PASSIVE

• Cooldown: None (permanent)
• Activation time: None (permanent)
• Duration: Permanent
• Effect: At level 2, the Support gains a 40% boost to health regeneration and a bot support aura. Any bot nearing the Support will gain a purple antenna, indicating that they have been improved by the aura. All bots with this improvement will take only half damage from any attacks and gain a 25% boost to their rate of fire. At level 3, the Support gains a bonus 200 health, bringing his total up to 600 and making him much more durable.
• Special: Bots retain their boost from the Support's bot support aura even after leaving the aura's radius. The Support essentially gives friendly bots a permanent upgrade simply by walking past them.

The main purpose of the Support's Passive skill is simple: making him more durable. As the Support doesn't have much health, the bonuses to armor and health regeneration from this skill are very helpful. Passive 2 is equivalent to a Gold Health Regeneration Endorsement, and Passive 3 sits just between Silver and Gold Armor. A Support with Passive 3 is surprisingly resilient.

The bot support aura from his level 2 Passive serves a secondary purpose in helping your team push more effectively, as it ensures that any bots you buff will win any shootouts with the enemy's. It also makes them slightly more lethal towards enemy Pros, though this effect is usually negligible.

2.4: The Bots


Gap Shots

• Health: 750
• Speed: 150
• Rate of Fire: 2 seconds/shot
• Damage: 250 vs. Pros and bots, 1000 vs. turrets

The Gap Shot is a slow-moving, lightly-armored bot with an artillery cannon mounted on its back. It can shell the enemy base from afar, dealing massive damage to turrets and everything around them. The Gap Shot is the most effective bot at destroying turrets, making it a great tool for pushing.

2.5: What You Do Well

• Healing. You're the only class in the game which can, actually. You should be doing this a lot.
• Map control. The Support's Firebase is arguably the single strongest source of map control in Monday Night Combat.
• Base defense. The Support is the only class which can repair damaged turrets without paying massive amounts of cash to do so. This makes him invaluable in base defense.
• Ambushes. The Support's Shotgun is an absolute monster in close quarters. An unwary opponent will find themselves mulched in seconds if you get the drop on them.
• Turret destruction. The Support's Air Strike skill allows them to destroy most turrets in a flurry of explosions. What turrets don't succumb immediately will usually be weakened to the point where they can be finished off by teammates or the Heal/Hurt Gun. In addition, the Support can spawn Gap Shot bots, which destroy turrets with ease.
• Team pushing. The Support's bot support aura and ability to heal his teammates can prove invaluable in the attempt to lead a bot army into the enemy base.
• Juice-gathering. The Support has one of the most reliable sources of Juice in the game in the form of his Heal/Hurt Gun. A Support who knows how to gather Juice effectively can reliably Juice three or four times a game, at least.

2.6: What You Do Badly

• Mid- to long-range combat. The Support has little to no ability to deal with enemies beyond the range of his Shotgun. If an enemy has you in their sights at a distance, you're best off running towards your Firebase, your turrets, or a teammate who can protect you.
• Solo pushing. The Support's only weapon which can reliably destroy crowds of bots is his Air Strike, which has limited uses and is better off being used against enemy Pros, Jackbots, and turrets. While the Support can lead a team of bots into the enemy base, he's not the best man for the job, and he has extreme difficulty if there are any enemy Pros in the area. Leave this to others.
• Moneyball destruction. The Air Strike can do quite a bit of damage to the enemy Moneyball, as can the Shotgun. However, due to the Support's lack of ranged capability, he has to get up close and personal to do anything to the Moneyball. Unless the final push is underway, you're better off letting the Pros with ranged capability take care of business; they can hit the Moneyball from positions of relative safety, while you have to run into the meat grinder. The exception to this is when you are Juiced (see below).

2.7: Your Primary Responsibilities

• Healer. Your teammates are going to get shot a lot. It's your job to heal them up, allowing them to get back into the battle that much faster.
• Map control. The Firebase is a vital part of any team's map control arsenal. Use it well and your team can keep the entire map locked down with ease.
• Moneyball defense. As the only class which can repair turrets without spending cash to do so, the Support is going to spend a fair amount of time keeping the home base safe and secure.

PART THREE: Endorsements and You

GOLD Rate of Fire
SILVER Armor
BRONZE Skill Regeneration

Rate of Fire is the single most critical Endorsement for upwards of ninety-five percent of Support playstyles. Ordinarily, the Support heals for 80 hps. With a Gold Rate of Fire Endorsement, this jumps to 96.8 hps - nearly a hundred health per second - which lets the Support's healing target get back into the fight much faster. This also increases the rate of healing on turrets to 484 hps. This makes any turret which the Support is healing almost invincible. It also increases the Shotgun's rate of fire to .79 seconds per shot, making it much more lethal.

Armor is less critical for the Support than other classes. As the Support relies heavily on ambushes, cover, and "safe zones" in order to score kills, any time that he's caught in a situation where retreat is impossible, it doesn't matter how much armor he's got. If you haven't downed your opponent in the first few shots, and they've got their gun on you, you're probably going to die anyway. So Armor isn't critical, except for one thing: Assassins. An Assassin facegrapple deals 400 damage - just enough to kill an unarmed Support. This might mean that a Support should run Bronze Armor, except that - as I explain below - Silver and Bronze Skill Regeneration are roughly equivalent, while Silver Armor is a large improvement over Bronze (Silver Armor gives 200 extra health, while Bronze only gives 100). Since we can afford to put Skill Regeneration in Bronze, Armor can go to Silver, increasing the Support's total health to 600, giving him just enough health to finish off his opponents - or escape them - in a pinch. Once Passive 3 is purchased, the Support has a massive health pool.

Skill Regeneration should be fairly obvious. As I've said above, the Support's power comes from his skills, but they all have massive cooldown times - a full minute. The Bronze Skill Regeneration Endorsement reduces that to 48 seconds. Twelve seconds is a long time in MNC. Because skills are so critical to the Support, you might think that Skill Regeneration should be Silver, but the difference between Silver and Bronze Skill Regeneration Endorsements is miniscule: three seconds. Three more seconds of skill cool-down is well worth it in exchange for a Silver Armor Endorsement.

Other viable Endorsement setups vary depending on playstyle, but most utilize the three I listed above in various orders. Sometimes you see a Support running a Juice or Critical Shot Endorsement, but I find that they aren't as useful as the others are. Most of the other Endorsements are utterly useless for the Support, and can be ignored.



PART FOUR: Skill Upgrades and Purchases

The Support's skill upgrade order is one of the most situation-dependent ones in the game. Mine usually goes something like this:

Spawn: Hack 2, Firebase 2
Passive 2
Air Strike 2
Hack 3
Passive 3
Air Strike 3
Firebase 3 (optional)

This purchase list should suffice in most situations. However, it shouldn't be set in stone. The Support is one of the most flexible classes in the game, able to fill a variety of roles depending on what the team needs at the moment. The purchase order should be altered to fit the situation. The only thing which really should be set in stone is the initial two buys of Firebase 2 and Hack 2, because these allow you to utilize the Firebase early on. Without those upgrades, the Firebase is extremely weak, and having a weak Firebase deprives the Support of his most reliable cash generator.

Keep your eye on the situation and buy things as necessary. The Support is a flexible class. You need to be a flexible player to make the best use of it.



PART FIVE: What You Should Do

• Understand the difference between having a high K/D spread and actually helping your team. The Support is very dangerous to other Pros at close range, yes, but this is not what a good Support player will focus on. The Shotgun is not what makes the Support class so vital to the team. You are probably not going to be the player with the most kills or the fewest deaths. Get over that. Keeping the rest of your team going strong is more important than racking up kills.
• Prioritize. The Support can fill any one of a dozen potential roles on the battlefield at any given time (directly, anyway; see below). Because you're so flexible, you need to learn to figure out which role is the most important for your team right now. Do you need to be the guy defending the base? A frontline healer? A turret destroyer? If you can get that figured out, you'll be much more help to your team.
• Multitask. The Support can be in more than one place on the map. All Pros can do this to some extent, but the Support takes it to a whole new level. An effective Support can simultaneously stop enemy bots from even getting out of the enemy base on one lane, stop a push on the other, kill enemy Pros at the edge of their base, destroy enemy turrets, and ambush enemies around the map through the use of the Firebase, a Hacked turret, an overhealed Gunner, a few spawned Gap Shots, and his Shotgun. That's what I mean by "the Support is a ninja": the Support's influence is felt everywhere, but he is only seen for the brief instant before you die.
• Heal your teammates. You're the only class that can do this, so do it. Healing and overhealing your teammates not only makes it easier for them to win, but gains you Juice. You should also learn to prioritize your targets for healing. You should usually heal allies in this order of preference: on fire -> heavily damaged and not being shot -> damaged and not being shot -> damaged and being shot -> slightly damaged or fully healed. If a teammate is already fully overhealed, ignore them; they don't need any more healing and you don't get Juice for healing allies who are fully overhealed. Your attention is better turned elsewhere.
• Use your Firebase. The Firebase is your principle source of income, a powerful barrier against bots, and a great source of map control all in one package. The difference between a Support who's leading the scoreboard in terms of cash and a Support who has to service lonely men in dark alleyways for pocket change is that the first has learned to use his Firebase effectively.
• Fight dirty. The Support isn't the most durable class in the game, particularly before you get Passive 3. Your Shotgun can kill enemies in a few shots, but it's attached to your squishy fat Italian body, and heavy-hitting classes like the Gunner can shred you faster than you can blink. So ambush people. Lure them towards your Firebase or a friendly Assault. Shoot them in the back. Drop off ledges onto their heads. Never, ever fight fair.
• Perform regular turret maintenance. This includes Hacking important turrets as well as healing damaged ones. You're the only class in the game that can heal turrets without spending stupid-large amounts of cash to do so, so do it. Whenever you respawn or pass through your team's base, take a few seconds to heal any damaged turrets. If you have the time, overheal them for good measure. Buying and upgrading turrets is also important. Not only does it make your base more secure - which, as a Support, you should be concerned with - but it provides you with another source of cash.
• Spawn Gap Shots. Gap Shots are even better than the Support's Air Strike when it comes to destroying enemy turrets. A few Gap Shots can cripple an enemy's base from across the map. If you purchase a Gap Shot, you're practically guaranteed at least one turret kill as well as several bot kills, with perhaps some Pro kills thrown in for good measure. To top it all off, they're only $100. Use them to allow your team's push to force their way through the enemy team's final defense.
• Be a cash whore. You are as desperate for money as a single-mother-of-twelve career stripper. All your skills are useful, so you're going to want to upgrade them all. You're the base defense guy, so you're going to upgrade turrets a lot. Your bots are extremely powerful when it comes to taking down enemy turrets, so you're going to buy them a lot. That **** adds up, so learn how to milk the absolute largest amount of cash out of everything you do. An easy way to snag some extra cash is to taunt with your Shotgun. It has the fastest taunt in the game, and taunting after a Pro kill is worth an extra $50. Just make sure that you don't do it while out in the open.
• Farm Juice. The Support is one of the fastest, most reliable Juicers in the game. Because of the constant supply of Juice from his Heal/Hurt Gun, he can gather Juice more reliably than almost any other class. Augment this Juice supply with melee attacks on enemy bots and Juice pickups, and you can reliably Juice several times per game. Heal allied Pros and bots, particularly those with low health; the more health you restore to them, the more Juice you get in return.

PART SIX: What You Should NOT Do

• Do not Medibuddy. This is not Team Fortress 2. Medibuddying is not a viable strategy. For those of you who don't know, "Medibuddying" is a Medic player teaming up with another player - usually a Heavy - and just following them around the map for the entire game, healing them to the exclusion of everything else. In Team Fortress 2, the Medic could do this while still arguably being a credit to team, as he healed his buddy fast enough to render them almost invincible and had few other abilities worth mentioning. In Monday Night Combat, not only can you not heal at that speed, but you have too many other things to be doing. Healing one player for a little while is fine. It gets them overhealed and gives you Juice. Following the same player around the map for the entire game is idiotic. Once they're fully overhealed, they don't need you to heal them any more, and you don't get Juice, so you can't even use the excuse that you're "building your Ubercharge". You need to be healing multiple people, destroying turrets, performing base maintenance, using your Firebase, gathering Juice, et cetera. You can't do any of this if you're Medibuddying. Your healing is supplemental. Heal your teammates when you get the opportunity, then move on.
• Do not attack enemies directly. Running towards another Pro is simply asking for death. An enemy Pro who looks at you attempting to close the distance with your Shotgun is just going to think "Gee, thanks for walking to my bullets" and paste your internal organs all over the nearest wall. Ambush them at close-quarters.
• Do not attempt to lead pushes on your own. In serious games, anyway. In most public games, you can get away with this, because most players in public games suck. Strictly speaking, the Support isn't a terrible pusher. He's just not particularly spectacular. Having him as a supplement to a push by another Pro is great. Having him lead one on his own isn't. He can get the job done, particularly after upgrading to Passive 2, but he's slow about it, and it's usually a better idea to be doing something else.
• Don't use open ground. The Support has absolutely zero mid- to long-range capability. If you get caught somewhere without cover, you are absolutely screwed. Unless you have a Pro escort - or, at the very least, some friendly bots to provide a temporary distraction - you should always be somewhere that you can dodge behind cover at a moment's notice. Fight on your own terms, not theirs.
• Don't deploy your Firebase in open areas. A Hacked Firebase has a long range, but not an infinite one. The Sniper in particular will shred your Firebase if it isn't behind cover. Other Pros can also destroy it due to the Firebase's simple-minded targeting: once it picks a target, it will fire until that target is dead. If that target happens to not be the Pro currently destroying it, oh well. It'll ignore them. Place your Firebase somewhere that will force your enemies to come to it in order to attack it, then use your Shotgun to mulch them.
• Don't attempt to Hack high-level enemy RockIts or LazerBlazers.Even LongShots should give you pause. And never, ever, ever try to Hack a turret that's already been Hacked. It takes a long time to Hack an enemy turret. It's more than enough for you to die to a random Pro. Subjecting yourself to fire from a powerful turret at the same time is simply asking for death. In fact, most of the time, you simply shouldn't attempt to Hack an enemy turret. That is something that is usually done strictly for the lulz. It usually results in your death.
• Don't taunt with the Heal/Hurt Gun. The Shotgun has a fast taunt. The Heal/Hurt Gun has an ungodly slow one.

PART SEVEN: Match-Ups

7.1: Bots

• Slim Bots: Juice waiting to happen. Melee them. They die in one hit, and it's faster than Shotgunning them.
• Black Jacks: Grapple them if you need them dead. Shotgun them if you need them dead and your grapple is recharging. Otherwise, melee them for Juice.
• Jackbot XLs: Air Strike them, then run away. Leave this one to the other classes. The Air Strike is about all the help you can give here.
• Bouncers: Grapple, then Shotgun them while backpedaling. Try and lead them towards your Firebase, a turret, or another Pro.
• Buzzers: The hurt function on the Heal/Hurt Gun is your best weapon here. As long as you see them coming, you'll be fine. The lock-on feature of the gun makes short work of them.
• Gremlins: Not actually as scary as people say they are. Sure, the Heal/Hurt Gun doesn't do much to them, but the Shotgun kills them in a single blast. Just backpedal while firing, and they'll be scrap in no time. Alternatively, melee them for Juice. They die in one hit.
• Scramblers: Leave these to others. Your skills recharge slowly already. You can kill Scramblers easily, but it's usually not worth the drain to your skills.
• Gap Shots: Shotgun, Grapple, Heal/Hurt, Air Strike, whatever. They're dead.

7.2: Pros

• Assault: These guys are extremely dangerous. They excel at mid-range combat, which you suck at. Their Assault Rifle will shred you in seconds, and does lots of damage to your Firebase for some reason. Don't engage these guys unless you can ambush them. If they're chasing you, run towards your Firebase or a friendly Pro.
• Gunner: The only class that is worse for you to fight than the Assault. They can kill you faster than you can blink. It's almost never a good idea to engage these guys. Hit them when they're wounded and looking the other direction. Air Strike them, if they're out of range and looking the other way; their large size makes them perfect targets. If they've got you in their sights, though, don't even try it. Just run. Preferably towards your Firebase or a friendly Pro.
• Tank: While dangerous, the Tank is not the most difficult class for you to kill. Sure, he takes a lot of hits compared to the other classes, but he's not invincible. His Jet Gun is brutal if he can get it trained on you, but you'll be ambushing him. Use the Shotgun Dance (see below) to avoid their Jet Gun, and you'll be fine. Try and get them near your Firebase or a friendly Pro, as well; the added damage will make short work of them. Like Gunners, you might consider Air Strikes.
• Support: An intriguing match-up. You're both lethal at close range. This battle really comes down to which of you can get the first hit with the Shotgun. If your opponent is using the Heal/Hurt, laugh at them and blast them in half. Lure them to your Firebase, if you can. If you see his Firebase, Air Strike it, as that's the most efficient way any class has of removing it. If it can't be Air Striked, it's usually a better idea to retreat than to attempt to destroy it. Leave it for the Tanks.
• Assassin: The single easiest class in the game for you to kill. As long as you're not blind and deaf, they should never get the drop on you, and one or two Shotgun blasts will send them packing.
• Sniper: You should almost never run into these guys. You simply don't operate in the same areas of the field. If they're at long or mid-range, simply run. If they're at close range, Shotgun them. As always, watch out for ice-traps.

In short, if it's anything but a Sniper or Assassin, Shotgun them, dance around their attacks, and try to lure them towards your Firebase or an ally.



PART EIGHT: The Shotgun Dance

This is the most basic tactic that a Support should be able to use, and yet very few Support players actually use it. The Shotgun Dance is the simple act of dodging around an opponent's attacks while simultaneously blasting them with the Shotgun. It is called the Shotgun Dance because the perfect pirouettes and beautiful leaps that the Support makes during the process are so balletically perfect as to make any theater-goer weep.

It's an extremely simple process. Start by getting up close to your opponent, then shooting them in the face with your Shotgun. Then jump away from their weapon while remaining in a semi-circle around their body. Keep your Shotgun aimed squarely at their face throughout the leap. Then, when they aim at you again, jump again. Continue the dance until they are dead.

While this is incredibly simple process in theory, it is harder to execute than one would expect, requiring hair-trigger reflexes and a good aiming thumb. It gives you a huge advantage in a firefight if you can pull it off, though. You know where you're going to go next. Your opponent doesn't. This lets you aim at them while making it very difficult for them to aim at you.

Some players will learn to anticipate the coming Dance when they see you, however. They will anticipate your jumps, but not necessarily the direction; be sure not to jump in any pattern so as to keep them guessing. Advanced students who are especially confident in their Dancing prowess may attempt a "fake-out" by refraining from a jump when one would be expected. This is a risky maneuver, but against an especially skilled Dance partner, it can pay off.

Learn the Shotgun Dance well. It is your primary tool in close-range combat - which is the only type of combat you'll be engaging in. Dance well, and it shall bring you victory. It shall also turn you into what is quite possibly the most lethal close-range class in Monday Night Combat.



PART NINE: Bursting Full of the Juices - How to Make the Most of Your Purple

I'm one of the most Juice-oriented Support players out there, I think. As I've mentioned above, the Support is one of the best classes in the game for gaining Juice. But what do you do with your neon?

For those of you who don't know, Juice does the following:

• Sets your base health to 1000 (not counting extra health from Endorsements and skills)
• Instantly refills health to the new maximum
• Reduces damage taken by two-thirds
• Increases rate of fire by 25%
• Sets critical shot chance to 100% and critical shot damage multiplier to 3x
• Halves reload time

So obviously it's very powerful, and Juice can give your team a huge boost. There are three things that you'll want to use your Juice for:

• Damage the Moneyball. This is the best use for a Support's Juice. A Juiced Shotgun will shred the Moneyball incredibly quickly.
• Kill troublesome Pros. While this is technically less beneficial to your team than turret or Moneyball destruction, the Support can do this very well. The Heal/Hurt Gun is the best weapon for the job here. Though it does less damage than the Shotgun, it still kills most Pros in less than a second, and, because it doesn't require aiming, you can jump and dodge to avoid any counter-Juice actions your opponents might decide to take.
• Destroy turrets. The Support isn't all that great at this. It's usually more efficient to use your Air Strikes. For those turrets that your Air Strikes can't reach, rely on the Assassins and Gunners of your team. You simply don't deal enough damage to turrets to justify using Juice on them. High-level turrets, particularly RockIts, simply take too much time to destroy.

So obviously the main use for your Juice is going to be Moneyball destruction, with a side of clearing the base of enemy Pros in preparation for the final push. Just remember to use your Heal/Hurt Gun against Pros and your Shotgun against the Moneyball and you'll do fine.

PART TEN: Supporting the Jet Ski - A Guide to Healing

Remember way back at the beginning of this guide, when I went over the basics of the Heal/Hurt Gun and the rate at which it could heal your teammates? If you don't, you should. The Heal/Hurt Gun is probably your most powerful weapon.

Yes, that's right. It's a weapon. It's just an indirect weapon. The Heal/Hurt Gun is one of the most lethal things in the game. It's just that it's lethal because it enables other people to kill for you.

But there's more to healing than simply pointing your Heal/Hurt at anything that's the same color as you and pulling the right trigger. You actually have to think in order to maximize its effectiveness. This section of the guide will go over your teammates' relationship with your Heal/Hurt Gun, the pros and cons of healing them for extended periods of time, and give more detail on what factors should influence your choice of healing target.

As a quick review, you can heal Pros at a rate of 96.8 health per second and turrets at a rate of 484 health per second. This is assuming that you have a Gold Rate of Fire Endorsement. If you are using any other Rate of Fire Endorsement (or, for some reason, none at all), not all the numbers here will be accurate.

10.1: Healing Pros

This section will go over each Pro, explaining why you would want to travel with them, and why you would not want to travel with them. It will also rank each Pro from Excellent to Terrible as a Support buddy.

You may be wondering why I am including a section on who makes the best Medibuddy when I have railed against Medibuddying previously. The answer is that I'm not. Not exactly. While this section does cover who the best Support buddy is, it is not an instruction to go out and heal that person to the exclusion of all your other duties. You still have to heal the rest of your team, use your Firebase, farm Juice, Air Strike turrets, et cetera. You just have someone that you tend to stick with and heal often while you are doing the rest. Sure, you can heal your primary patient more than the rest of your team - you can even go so far as to put them on a leash for extended periods - but it should still be far from the only thing that you're doing.


THE ASSAULT
Pros of Healing: The Assault excels at mid-range combat. When paired with an Assault, you have someone to defend you from everyone that is outside your pathetic range.
Cons of Healing: The Assault's greatest strength is his mobility. He flies. He charges. He runs. He is just flat-out faster than almost anyone else, and that's what makes him so dangerous. You are not fast. If an Assault is with you, he has sacrificed his mobility. That makes him vulnerable.
Overall Buddy Rating: Poor. The Assault is handy to have around, but for the most part, he's too busy running around the battlefield to partner with a Support. If he does partner with a Support, he's much more vulnerable, and he simply doesn't have the defensive capability that other potential buddies have. Heal him when he passes, but don't follow him.


THE GUNNER
Pros of Healing: The Gunner is a monster. He has one of the most damaging weapons in the game. Alone, he can kill almost anything in a one-on-one match-up. With a Support, he can kill anything in a one-on-one match-up. He has all the firepower that you lack. You have all the healing powers that he needs. It's a match made in heaven.
Cons of Healing: A Support-Gunner pair is slow. Neither the Support nor the Gunner has any real ability to retreat with anything approaching alacrity. Because you are also one of the most lethal pairs in the game, you'll be drawing a lot of attention. It's just a matter of time before you die.
Overall Buddy Rating: Excellent. Being paired with a Gunner practically guarantees your eventual demise, but the key word here is "eventual". A skilled Support and Gunner can stay alive for massive periods of time, each providing the other with mutual protection. And even when they finally do kill you, you've done so much damage that it doesn't really matter.


THE TANK
Pros of Healing: The Tank is already the most durable Pro in the game. When paired with a Support, he becomes practically invincible. A Support-Tank pairing can hold almost any position against almost any attacker, decimate bot waves, and destroy turrets with ease.
Cons of Healing: The Tank is slow. Ridiculously so. Even slower than the Gunner. And he has a lot of health. While this is definitely something in his favor, it also becomes somewhat of a weakness. To keep the Tank at full health, you have to do nothing but heal for extended periods of time. It's a matter of opportunity cost. He also lacks the supreme firepower of the Gunner, so you won't be doing as much damage with him as with his fellow heavy.
Overall Buddy Rating: Good. The Tank isn't quite as good as the Gunner, but there are certainly worse options. You can do a lot of damage when partnered with a Tank who knows what he's doing.


THE SUPPORT
Pros of Healing: The Support is a vital battlefield role. Keeping him alive helps your team.
Cons of Healing: ...You are a Support. Why is there another Support on your team? Come to that, why are you stopping to heal him rather than just cutting out the middleman and going to heal the others yourself?
Overall Buddy Rating: Terrible. Aside from the fact that there flat-out shouldn't be another Support on your team (at least in a competitive game), healing another Support is pointless. All you're doing is giving him the opportunity to get back to healing the people you should be healing. It's healing by proxy, and it's just a waste of time. For the most part, let the other Support take care of himself.


THE ASSASSIN
Pros of Healing: The Assassin is an important member of your team, and she's incredibly fragile. Boosting her health makes it easier for her to push the enemy bots back into their base.
Cons of Healing: The Assassin has no serious offensive capabilities against Pros. She can't defend you, and you probably can't defend her. As if that wasn't enough, the Assassin, like the Assault, draws her strength from mobility. Partnering with you forces her to stay put, which usually means death for an Assassin.
Overall Buddy Rating: Terrible. Heal her when you get the opportunity, but don't try and buddy up with her. She just isn't tough enough to make it worth your while. It cripples both of you.


THE SNIPER
Pros of Healing: None.
Cons of Healing: The Sniper fights from a distance. Hence the name. He's in the back, where, y'know, he doesn't get shot.
Overall Buddy Rating: Godawful. Why are you healing this guy? The Sniper doesn't need your help. He doesn't get shot. He's nowhere near the other guys, so you can't heal anyone who's passing. The Sniper isn't a bad class. He just isn't one that you need to heal.

10.2: Healing Turrets

Healing turrets is much simpler than healing Pros. Is it sparking? Heal it. There are some things to keep in mind when doing so, though.

The most important thing to remember is that turrets are not all equally valuable. If multiple turrets are under fire, save the one which is more valuable to your team. Generally, this means saving the highest-level RockIt turret. If no RockIts are under fire, save the ShaveIces. LongShots and LazerBlazers can generally be allowed to die, because they're dirt cheap. Note that this doesn't mean that you shouldn't heal LongShots or LazerBlazers. It just means that you shouldn't heal them if it means sacrificing a RockIt or ShaveIce.

Secondly, know what you can and can't outpace. You can heal turrets for 484 health per second. This allows you to out-heal a lot of damage sources. The things which you cannot outpace are:

• Tank's Jet Gun, at 3150-5775 damage per second to turrets without a Rate of Fire Endorsement.
• Assassin's Shuriken Launcher, at 610 damage per second if all the shurikens strike home.
• Gunner's Mortar Launcher, when they've purchased Passive 2 or Passive 3, at 600 and 900 damage per second to turrets if all mortars strike, respectively.
• Sniper's Flak. A Sniper with any level of Flak above 1 can outpace you. Level 2 Flak deals 600 damage per second to turrets, while Level 3 Flak does 900.

This neglects the possibility of combined fire, of course, but if a turret is being fired upon by multiple enemies, it's probably going to go down (assuming the attackers aren't being absolutely retarded and using Uzis or some such). When facing such an attack - or one of the above Turret Banes - heal the turret as best you can to buy some time for your teammates to kill the attackers.

Thirdly, know how much punishment your turrets can take. Turrets have a lot of health, but they aren't invincible. Here is a quick rundown of the turrets' health by level:

LazerBlazer: 1500->3000->4500
ShaveIce: 5000->10000->15000
LongShot: 1000->2000->4000
RockIt: 5000->8000->13000

10.3: Meatball Surgery - Healing on the Front Lines

As I mentioned above, one of the most critical things to learn as a Support is who to heal and when. Generally, you should heal those who are on fire but not actively being shot first, followed by anyone who is in low health but not being shot. People who are actively being shot are generally pretty low on the priority list, because you can't actually heal them fast enough to save their lives in most cases.

The real question, though, is whether or not you should heal people who are under fire at all. The answer is yes, but it depends on the situation. People who are under fire and at low health are probably going to die. Most classes in Monday Night Combat simply don't have enough health to survive under concentrated fire, even when you're healing them.

So when should you heal someone that's actively being shot? There are two main cases where you'll want to do this:

• When the person being shot is your primary patient
• When that person is attempting a retreat

In the first case, it's likely that you had already fully overhealed this person, who then stepped around a corner to attack the enemy and is suffering returned fire. Healing them in this case is fine. They have plenty of health from the start, and your healing slows the rate at which they're getting wounded. When they get to low health, they can simply back around the corner again. This is a good strategy - in fact, it's pretty much the core of the Support-Gunner tag-team.

The other is when you come across a teammate who is under fire and who is trying to run rather than return fire, like an Assault who is ducking for cover when a Gunner is firing on them. You can afford to heal them then, because they'll either die almost immediately (meaning that you haven't wasted any time) or manage to escape due to your intervention (in which case you have just saved the life of a teammate, who can then go on to kill people in your name).

Your Heal/Hurt Gun can effectively reduce the enemy's damage per second output by 100. Use this to your advantage, but don't make the mistake of thinking that you should rush out to save every single teammate who gets into a bad situation. You simply can't do it. You can buy them maybe half a second, but that's it.

Criticism/comments appreciated. I will probably edit this guide later.

Fairly decent guide. IMO, the difference between Bronze and Silver Skill Regen isn't very large, that is why I use Skill/RoF/Armor, but still, you have a strong guide for the support. I would try to make your support strategy down to a science, for example:

1. Upgrade A and B

2. Build/Buy C and D

3. Etc. on and on until end game.

Admittedly, the difference isn't very large - only three seconds - but I think RoF is too critical to drop to Silver.

I would, except that I don't think the Support really works like that. Like I said in the guide, the Support's upgrade/purchase path is extremely situational. In most public games, the purchasing order doesn't really matter. You can do whatever and still win if you're any good. In competitive games, the Support will have to fill one of several roles depending on what's happening in the game so far. The role in question will greatly influence which of the Support's skills should be upgraded, or whether or not he should purchase Gap Shots. Each of the possible purchases has a wildly different effect on his capabilities, which means that they each should be bought when that capability is needed.

Passive 2 and 3, for example, should be purchased when your team is pushing into the enemy base and needs a front-line healer. Air Strike 2 and 3 should be bought when the enemy is pushing, but hasn't yet reached the base, and has large groups of bots. Hack 3 should be purchased when none of the above conditions are met, the team doesn't currently need Gap Shots, and the Support has money to burn, since it can be used on the Firebase. Gap Shots should be purchased when the team's push has run up against a wall of turrets.

EDIT: So basically, I try to play a more flexible Support. This is something that I could clarify in the guide, though, so thanks for your comment.

Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. The support is a healer. That is his primary job, and healing your teammates is THE MOST important job you have. I wouldn't say you want to stay completely glued to one character the entire game, but you should be able to go heal your gunner within 5 seconds at any given point in the game. Other than that, look for teammates with low health, and try to heal them.

Shotgun should ONLY be taken out defensively. In other words, if you're alone and nobody else can protect you, take it out and shoot anybody chasing you. The only other time it should be taken out is to grapple somebody with juice.

Basically, tl;dr. Heal your teammates, bunny hop around, get juice, rinse, repeat.

Please read what I've written. I would place map control slightly above healing in the order of priority, but I never said it wasn't incredibly important. In fact, my Endorsements are set up specifically to maximize the Support's healing capabilities.

I will probably make another guide for support seeing as how there are many different play styles, but anyway.

Foolamancer is a good support. I played several games with him yesterday and he knows what he is doing. In a few cases, he juiced faster than Organous who was also running support. His support playstyle may be slightly different than most, but it works. He healed me several times, we only lost one game, and he knew what he was doing. My support playstyle is much more Firebase/Airstrike centered and his playstyle is more juice centered. After playing with foolamancer for an hour and a half yesterday, I am going to say that you should listen to him because he knows a thing or two about the support.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, wazupwiop. Minor nitpick on this bit, though...

While I would say that I'm definitely more Juice-centered and less Air-Strike-happy than you are, I think we both use the Firebase about the same amount. We might tend to put it in different areas, but we both definitely use it.

EDIT: After looking at my setup some more, I'm going to experiment with switching the Armor Endorsement and Skill Regeneration Endorsement in my Support. Three more seconds of skill recharge might be worth it for an extra seventy-five health. Fortunately, I keep a backup custom class slot specifically for experimental Support setups.

I'll be testing it later today.

All in all, a very good guide Fool

The Shotgun taunt is the fastest taunt in the game. Use it for easy money after Firebase kills and the like.

Gah! How did I forget that? Thank you.

Adding now.

After experimentation, I think I much prefer RoF->Armor->Skill. The +75 health makes a real difference, and another three seconds of skill cooldown doesn't usually do that much.

Updating again.

Armor rate skill. rate 3 and rate 2 on the heal doesn't make much a difference.

It doesn't on Pros, but it does on turrets (484 hps versus 456), and the Shotgun needs the RoF boost.

I've tried playing with Silver Rate of Fire, and there's definitely a difference in how well you can keep your turrets up, as well as how you perform in Shotgun battles.

EDIT: And, like I said in the guide, the Support either kills in a few shots or dies. If the enemy doesn't die to the first few blasts, they can retreat to mid- or long-range and kill you from there. The only classes which can't do that are the Gunner and Tank, both of which will simply kill the Support in a few seconds no matter what Armor Endorsement you're using if you don't take them out immediately.

Armor is also a lower priority for the Support because of Passive 3, which is essentially a free Armor Endorsement.

Also, Juiced Shotgun absolutely rips up the Moneyball.

It absolutely makes a difference, especially if you're trying to heal pros that run gold armor. You play with people that run gold armor, right?

+1. It's a very well balanced setup.

Updated with a section on Juice usage/gathering, the new Endorsement setup, and a slightly altered section on purchases.

I disagree, Foolmancer. Healing is more important than map control. Against good people, firebases don't stay up that long, even if you're sitting there healing them. You're better off dropping a firebase, hacking it if necessary, and running around healing your team. If you keep a gunner overhealed, that's how you get map control. The firebase comes back every 30 seconds. Just drop it...hack it if applicable, and heal your team.

Not trying to be a ****...I'm just telling you the way that most competitive level players would tell you to play support. Healing is #1 because healing is going to help you keep map control better than turrets and firebases.

Unfortunately true, but the difficulty of a task doesn't affect its importance.

Which I said to do in the guide. It seems like we're on the same page here when it comes to what to do. I just think one is more important than the other. I still do both, just like you still do both even though you consider the other more important.

And I think we can both agree that map control and healing are both very important. I just think that map control takes slight priority, while you think healing takes priority.

Slight nitpick: it's one minute, not thirty seconds. All of the Support's skills have a sixty-second cooldown (except for Air Strike; its cooldown length changes depending on its level).

I know you're not. And believe me, I really do appreciate the advice. I just think you might have misunderstood what I was saying a little.

Healing is incredibly important, which is why I kept talking about it all throughout the guide. I just think that proper Firebase usage is equally important.

Where I think you misunderstood is in taking "proper Firebase usage" to mean "focus on the Firebase". That's not what I meant (though it's probably my fault that you thought it was; I'm not always good at getting my ideas down on paper. I know what I mean, anyway :mrgreen. Proper Firebase usage is, like you said, generally throwing it down, Hacking it, maybe overhealing it, and then moving on, coming back occasionally to heal it if you have the time. If you're using it right, it'll be in an area which you'll be going through a lot anyway, so you should have the time.

Hope this clears it up.

When you place a firebase, you want to avoid airstrike-destroyable locations and ejectors. The firebase is okay if it is exposed to enemy fire as long as it can fire back at the enemy to kill them. The usual problem is that people will corner-hack the firebase and that is something you should try to avoid if possible. I don't think there is one perfect firebase placement on any map, but as long as firebase placements meet 3 out of 4 of those conditions, it is probably a good placement.

Now, if you deploy it out in the open, that is an okay thing to do. As long as it is hacked, it will give most pros a hard time. The key is not to let enemy supports get in the proper distance to airstrike it. So if you are playing against a defensive support, you can probably place your firebase anywhere without resistance. However, if you are playing against a mildly offensive support or the enemy has longshots or gapshots, you probably want it in a sheltered area.

I am considering making a guide to proper firebase placement because you have no idea how many firebases I have destroyed that I shouldn't have because of someone else's stupidity.