xShammas' Guide to End All Guides

So here comes the Grand Prize of MNC guides. I'll go over each class, maps, and team set-ups in depth. Anything you'll want to know about both public games and competitive play will be found here. This guide will be updated regularly and kept current. If there's anything you'd like to know about MNC, mostly competitively, you can find it here.

Assault Guide
Arguably the most annoying class, the assault is a master at pestering, chipping, and finishing kills. Lets go over the strengths and weaknesses of an assault-
It has a simple and straightforward weapon setup. An assault rifle to put quick damage on opponents at close range, and a grenade launcher to hit foes around corners and from a distance. The charge and jetpack are excellent tools for mobility, and the bomb takes anyone out of the fight for an extended period of time if used properly.
PUBLIC GAMES-
The best builds for public games generally involve gold RoF, with accuracy, clip size, skill pill, or armor in the mix somewhere. I prefer to use Gold RoF, Silver Armor, and Bronze Accuracy. This allows me to use my grenade launcher to build juice, kill bots, kill turrets, and harass enemies who like to hide behind cover for too long. Gold RoF also boosts the AR damage and allows you to take out most classes quickly at close range. The silver armor allows me to survive a decent amount of damage, and the bronze accuracy allows me to hit more bullets and have a tighter spread on the AR.
Upgrades: I recommend bomb 3, passive 2, charge 2, and jetpack 2 (opttional).
Skills: Use your bomb to light any class on fire (dealing a decent chunk of damage) and keep their health down, forcing them to retreat. The charge can be used to kill opponents, but it's very predictable, so I use it strictly for mobility. The jetpack is amazing for making certain jumps, or just hovering in fights.

COMPETITIVE GAMES-
The best builds for competitive games use gold armor, with a combination of RoF, Accuracy, or Skill Pill. I use gold armor, silver RoF, and bronze accuracy. This allows me to take enough damage to contend with my counters (tank, gunner, and sniper), while still having enough firepower to deal a significant amount of damage. Your role is to keep the enemies' health down, finish/chase weak players, and keep yourself alive and able to put shots on enemy players from advantageous angles. This means using your mobility to get behind them, put shots on them and force them to back up, then retreat without getting killed. You should toss the bomb at them whenever possible to scatter them and deal more damage. The charge should be used only to escape after chasing down a quick kill. Use your juice to clear out the enemy team and keep them in spawn. Your upgrades should be the same as in public games.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS:
-Jumping does not make you invincible. In fact, just plain jumping makes you an easier target, because the enemy knows exactly where you'll land and can just keep their crosshair on you. Use your jetpack to make unorthodox patterns and strafe left and right while shooting. Movement is just as important as aim!
-Getting someone hurt doesn't mean you need to chase them. Putting a tank at yellow health and wasting your charge to chase into his spawn seems fun until he clutch passives and burns you to death while the spawn turrets mow you down. Always use proper judgment and intelligence when playing as any class. This isn't something I can teach, and it's usually what separates top players from farm animals.

Assassin Guide
The main "objective" role in MNC. The assassin is an expert at pushing bots, gaining quick juice, and being able to maneuver quickly and stealthily. You have a melee weapon, an insta-kill grapple from behind, and a shuriken launcher that is severely underused by 99% of the community.

PUBLIC GAMES-
The most common assassin build is gold Armor, silver RoF, and bronze Health Regen, Skill Regen, Speed, or Clip Size. If you play a purely 1-dimensional assassin, health regen is the best bet. You can run around, kill bots, attack people with your sword, escape to cover, fast heal, and repeat. In public games, your best option is to kill bots for juice and assassinate/lunge grapple unsuspecting players. Please don't chase after tanks, it's just foolish and never a good idea.
Upgrades: Always upgrade to the katana first. Cloak 3 is a good idea, and if you didn't know, you get crit shurikens while shooting them out of cloak 3. Smokebomb is the only other thing I would upgrade.

COMPETITIVE GAMES-
The standard build is Armor, RoF, Clip Size. In order to be a top assassin, you need to be able to shoot dem shurikens. You can go from a 1-dimensional bot pusher who can't take a 1v1, to a powerful slaying force, and basically a second assault. Your job is still to push most of the bots and hit the annihilator when it's ready. Make sure that you always know when it will be up. Be able to clean up kills and use juice to kill turrets and pick up a few kills. Use your smokebomb as a safety net as well as an escape tool. If you're getting charged, shot, burnt, or anything but grappled, it reduces the damage and anchors you. EX- An enemy assassin face-grapples you. Smokebomb immediately to sponge the damage from the subsequent lunge and escape.
SHURIKEN TIP- Always lead your shots and use dem angoos. The more still you are, the more accurate your shots are, so a very tight strafe is the best option.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS-
Assassins don't need to only kill bots and live in the bot lane. You also need to pick up kills WHEN APPROPRIATE. This means, not going after every kill in sight, but taking fights that you can win (shurikens vs gunners/tanks, assassinating anyone). Never take a fight with the sword against a player who knows you're there. Always use the shurikens if they can see you already. This also keeps you out of danger for the most part. Since you're mostly pushing the bot lanes/behind the enemy, you're great at picking off weak enemies who try to retreat.

Gunner Guide

The gunner has the highest firepower of any class in MNC, so your main job is to kill stuff. And turrets. The minigun outdamages any gun other than a sniper headshot within its effective range. The mortar kills turrets faster than any other weapon also. No class is more deadly at close or medium range, or against multiple enemies.

PUBLIC GAMES: The most common build to be successful in public matches is gold Armor, silver RoF, and bronze Accuracy. This allows you to withstand all kinds of damage (being a big target with no help), while still putting out tons of damage. You should play smart as a gunner, being that you have limited mobility and are a big target. Keep yourself in favorable situations, and be aggressive. Your goal is to get in close enough to shred them with your minigun. You can use the mortar to harass enemies from long range and pick off snipers. Basically, you want to kill everything, kill turrets, and use your money solely for passive 3 and juice. It sounds simple, but it takes practice.

COMPETITIVE MATCHES: The best builds are built around gold accuracy, and RoF and Armor on bronze and silver. RoF for more damage, armor for more health. You have gold accuracy so you can pick off enemies from long range and keep their health down if they are trying to flee. You basically want to be able to chip away at their health from anywhere in the map, while still being able to tear them up within your comfort zone. Gold armor isn't necessary because you'll have a support who can keep you healed. Basically your job is the same; kill everything, but buy more juice. You're the main juice-buyer.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS:
-Clawing. You don't NEED to claw to be an amazing gunner, but it does help. Also, clawing does not mean holding down "A" until your jetpack runs out, then repeating. Against a good player, this is effectively the same as standing still. You need to mix up your jumps and movement.

Sniper Guide
The sniper is extremely well rounded, gains juice quickly, and is an excellent slayer AND bot pusher. The only problem is that it's one of the two classes that requires gunskill.

PUBLIC GAMES:
The universal sniper build for any type of match is Armor, RoF, and Accuracy. Armor to survive, RoF to shoot faster, and accuracy to make quick-scoping easier. Some public snipers use skill recovery, clip size, or health regen, but it sacrifices accuracy of your shots, which is the deciding factor in a good sniper. The most important aspect of sniping can't be taught, and that is being able to hit shots. Quickscoping every shot in the chest region is your best bet, because you'll hit body shots and you may land a lucky headshot here and there. Other than that, abuse juice, place your ice traps wisely, and use your flak like a grenade.

COMPETITIVE GAMES:
The same principles apply, except you should be more aggressive, but more aware. For snipers like myself who don't always hit every shot, you can still be effective. Place ice traps aggressively, such as around the annihilator, or at popular choke points. Target the gunner and tank mostly, and don't spend too much time trying to hit smaller classes. Finish weak enemies with the flak and SMG. And don't be afraid to snipe bots for juice. Another handy trick is to explosive snipe your own bots to kill the enemy assassin.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS:
-K/D: Even though snipers are considered slayers, they don't have to show up on the scoreboard to do a good job. Using ice traps constantly is very important, as well as chipping damage on everyone.

Support Guide

As the support, your job is to heal everyone and literally support your team. Your job is more behind the scenes and less obvious, so you'll never be fully appreciated and will constantly be made fun of by your team for playing the most useless class.

PUBLIC GAMES:
A good pub build would be gold Armor/RoF, silver Armor/RoF, and bronze skill recovery. You want to run around shotgunning everyone, tending to your firebase, and only healing teammates if you're about to have juice. Heal lots of bots though, they give more juice. Use your juice to go on shotgun killing sprees.

COMPETITIVE GAMES:
Now, you get to play the opposite role. The best build is Skill Pill, RoF, and Armor. You should keep behind your team and heal anyone whose name you see turning red. Stay near your gunner and tank, because they are most dependent on you. Set your firebase up at a good choke point to slow down bots or defend the annihilator, or on some maps, both. Always put down your firebase AFTER the opening push and establishing map control. Use your air strikes to force enemies out of cover, or defend the annihilator when it spawns. Also, use them to take out the enemy firebase.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS:
-Turrets. They're useless in serious matches. There's no reason to build them, and the more time you spend in your base, the more time your team is getting pushed back because no one's being healed.
-Be aggressive. Supports shouldn't be leading a charge, but they should be moving with the team. If they hang back too much, their team has a harder time pushing in.

Tank Guide

The tank is the most skill-dependent class in the game, meaning that you simply can't be effective with it without being good at the game. You have the potential to outplay any class in a 1v1 situation. You're the most deadly class at close range, and the second most deadly at long range. But the thing that separates the tank from any other class is his high health, and the ability to hit every class but a sniper from beyond their effective range with relative ease (once you get used to it). This makes is effectively the only true assault counter (without help). You're also arguably the best bot killer, being able to effecively push at any range.

PUBLIC GAMES:
In public matches, you can pretty much do what you want. Be a sneaky tank and assassinate people with charge/death blossom, reign death from above using tank jumps to get in close, or snipe people with the rail gun. Any of these playstyles should include a healthy dose of bot pushing though. Close range tanks earn much more juice than long range ones do, so that's another reason to use it here. Armor, RoF, Skill is a great build, as is RoF, Armor, Skill.

COMPETITIVE GAMES:
This is where it all gets tougher. You can't run around freely without getting mowed down, so you'll need to learn to use the rail gun. The best builds contain gold RoF, and a combo of Armor and Accuracy on silver and bronze, usually armor on silver. But it's not the only thing you need to do. You need to be the main bot pusher alongside your assassin, but still be able to assist your slayers, and even slay a little yourself. You'll need to learn to hit shots while pestering enemies with your grenade and keeping the bots forward whenever you're clear. As a tank, you should stay up top to be able to hit better angles on enemies. You need to hold down an area, and essentially act as an anchor and intimidate. But you need the skills to back up that intimidation, otherwise it's in vain. You can kill any class trying to push you, even 2v1 with enough practice. Clawing is also an important part of playing tank, mostly to avoid being sniped. But it's also extremely useful to dramatically improve your mobility, allowing you to strafe with the rail gun and gain an automatic advantage with the jet gun. The same misconception applies to the tank as well as gunner. Using up your jet pack all in one burst is not the best way to "claw". Lastly, you should use your juice to make the main push into the enemy base. The tank is the most devastating with juice, and you should be able to kill as many turrets and players until you die.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS:
Clawing- See gunner section.
Railgun- Having a good railgun does not automatically make you a good tank. You need to be aware of many things and be an overall intelligent player.

Maps, Team Set-Ups, and General Tips

GENERAL TIPS-
Be Aware: The means constantly knowing where your enemies are and will be, where your teammates are will be, where the bots are and will be, when the annihilator will be up, when your juice meter will be full, when the enemy spawns gremlins, when the enemy will have juice, when the jackbots come out, etc.
Play Smart: Don't chase every person you damage, keep yourself in advantageous positions, don't take a fight you don't think you can win.
Be A Team Player: Help your teammates in need, be aggressive, take a death when it will benefit the team during a push. A team of 6 slayers won't beat a team of 5 slayers and 1 bot pusher.
Assassin/Tank/Sniper Chemistry: Your assassin should lock down and push one lane, while your tank just locks down the opposite. If either of them die, they should alert the sniper to take control of that bot lane until they respawn.
Support/Gunner/Tank Chemistry: Your support should always be looking for either of these players to be hurt, because it's the first place they'll go when they're hurt. This also means for the support to be aggressive, not hiding in the base.
Tank/Assault Chemistry: Your tank is able to push anyone back, but any smart player will back off before being killed. So your assault should follow the laser beams and finish the kill at the end of that rainbow.

TEAM SET-UPS:
There are basically two dominant team set-ups, and they're pretty straightforward.
Well Rounded: The best set-up is to have one at every class, because every class is very important in its own respect. The tank is basically the deciding factor. You get extra bot pushing, extra long range damage, and an assault neutralizer.
Two Assaults: When your team doesn't have anyone good enough to play tank, they use an extra assault to fill that gap. This set-up will beat any team that isn't skilled, or isn't coordinated, but in the end it won't stack up to a good team.

MAPS:
Lazerazer:
Tank- Control the right bot lane from either on the bridge or in the lane. Feel free to push up right bridge and get a flank with the rail gun. Use your tank jump into the base when you need to get your bots in the base.
Assassin- Control the left lane, and try to finish the push on either lane. Don't be afraid to sneak up a jump pad and pick up a quick assassination.
Sniper- Push top right at the start and work your way towards the mid, throwing ice traps on the ring and enemy bridge.
Gunner- Push straight to and lock down mid. Once locked down, move up to their bridge.
Assault- Push straight to and lock down mid, keeping an eye on the left flank. Throw your bomb on the mid ring or enemy bridge. Once locked down, move up to their left bridge.
Support- Follow the gunner, but go bottom mid and buy the annihilator jump pad up. Try to get your firebase down here as well to stop bots and shoot anyone who gets caught in this pit of death.

Ammomule:
Tank- Push top middle from the right side of the dome. Be able to drop down and get healed by the support. Be sure to lock down both lanes as well.
Assassin- Work on pushing in both lanes, while assassinating stragglers.
Sniper- Set up on your right bridge, and throw ice traps at the dome while putting shots on the opposing gunner and tank. Don't be afraid to push up into the lane and get better angles.
Gunner- Push the top middle and push back the enemy team. Don't be afraid to die in the process, just as long as you take some of them with you. Once your team is established, try to take their right bridge.
Assault- Push the top mid from the left and throw your bomb at the people pushing, or try to get the sniper on the bridge. Take control of this bridge also if you can.
Support- Push inside the dome and try to get your firebase up once it's safe. Again, this forms a pit of death for the enemy team.

Steel Peel:
The first person out on this map (usually gunner or support) should buy the main jump. The next person (whoever didn't pay yet) should buy the one to the ring.
Tank- Push top middle and burn enemies off the ring, then put shots on anyone on the outskirts. Stay on the ring and control both bot lanes while damaging anyone in sight.
Assassin- Sneak into their base and try to sneak your bots in either side. Take out anyone who falls down on their side as well.
Sniper- Push the right side of the ring and throw ice traps at the middle, while putting shots on anyone there. Once locked down, put ice traps at the top of their jump.
Gunner- Push the middle and clear them out. Once established, take their top ring and shoot into the base through the main window.
Assault- Push the middle and clear them out. Once established, take their top left ring and shoot down into the base through the window there.
Support- Push the middle and stay on the ring. Either put your firebase on the mid ring where it can see down at one bot lane and kill people pushing the annihilator, or put it on their top ring where it can see both bot lanes as well as their top jump.

Grenade 3:
Tank- Push the right side and hold the middle bridge while keeping the enemies and bots back long enough for the left lane to get pushed in. Don't be afraid to get aggressive if you get them on their heels though. Also, shoot across to the right.
Assassin- Aggressively push the left lane in.
Sniper- Push right with the tank and work to hold the enemy back. Throw your ice traps on the bridges. Also, shoot across to the right.
Gunner- Push the top left and try to keep them off. Once established, push up and take down the turret.
Assault- Follow the gunner and use your bomb and GL to keep them out of cover on the bridge.
Support- Follow the gunner and keep him and the assault healed. Put your firebase on their bridge behind the wall. Later in the game, when you have hack 3, place it on the outside glass facing the annihilator.

Spunky:
Tank- Jetpack up to your own wall, then tank jump to their bridge. Put shots on anyone who tries to push mid hallway. Once hurt, drop down and begin killing bots while staying alive and distracting them. Their bridge is your main spot later in the game.
Assassin- Try to spawn kill their bots, and also lead yours in. A good opening tactic is to wait for them to push mid, then smoke bomb in and pick up a quick assassination.
Sniper- Push the middle and throw ice traps towards their hallway. Keep them pushed back in the hall and camp the middle.
Gunner- Push their hallway and clear them out. Once settled, stay in their hallway.
Assault- Push middle at the start, and try to get on the outside of their hallway. Once your gunner goes in, follow him.
Support- Follow and heal the gunner. Put your firebase in the window of their hall.

These are just basic guidelines, you should be able to come up with your own based on your team's playstyle. A good team will be able to adapt on the fly and be versatile as well.
I hope you enjoyed the guide, please use it to improve your own personal play, or show it to your team so you guys can have a shot out there against some of the better teams.

Can't wait for this to be finished! Already has a nice start

This will be an excellent source of information for all kinds of players seeing as how he is giving guides for public and private matches. Lets try to keep senseless flaming to a minimum because quite frankly, this guide is closer to fact than opinion. Hopefully this will spark good conversation from players interested in learning how to get better and seeing which class(es) suit(s) them best.

this is one of miracles alt accounts.

No it's The JoshF92, he's the best mnc player.

Whoever it is, I'm looking forward to completion. Wish it was done a while ago. Thanks for making this.

You get a one week deadline to finish this "Guide to End All Guides." Though I am not sure who would read and take advice from someone called "De Troll."

its an inside joke. it isnt a reference to him trolling in the internet fasion, but in reality his preferred class in shadowrun.

Is bronze clip on the assassin really that effective? I'd much rather be able to recover more quickly than have three more shrukens in my clip.

For people who can effectively use the shuriken launcher, yes. I am not one of those people.

Also, you get 50% more shurikens, IIRC.

I am aweful with shrukens.

Armor/Health/RoF

Chief, this guide is for those hoping to actually improve.