Post by Thaesarius on Sept 30, 2009 21:11:10 GMT -5
The Ryanator’s Competitive Guide to Shadowrun
Content
I. Intro
II. Learn the basics
III. The game types
a. Attrition
b. Extraction
c. Raid
d. mlg maps
IV. The Classes
a. Human
b. Elf
c. Troll
d. Dwarf
V. Weapons
VI. Magic
VII. Tech
VIII. Quick Tips.
IX. Closing Remarks
Introduction:
Shadowrun was designed purely for competitive play. To the extent that it doesn’t even have a storyline. I personally love this idea and greatly enjoy this game. That is why I was so inspired to write a guide for competitive shadowrun play. This guide should give an overall introduction to competitive shadowrun that both experienced and new players will benefit from. The Shadowrun ladder on game battles is very active (http://www.gamebattles.com/) (I’d strongly recommend signing up a team as after all this game was designed for competitive play). There are several online tournaments going on as I type. But, larger and grander then all of game battles and all the online tournaments combined is that MLG has picked up the game and I’m hoping to see a great turnout at MLG Chicago.
So as my guide is rather long you may want to checkout this thread for a quick intro to shadowrun: shadowrun 101
Before we start:
Shadowrun has a larger learning curve then your typical shooter. The game is much more complicated and this generally means your lost when you first start. You need to go into shadowrun with a willingness to learn! I've heard too many people complaining about the community being mean to you because your new and you bought the wrong tech or did something not to their liking. Although some people are just jerks and others are obsessively critical of newer players most people are actually trying to help you when they tell you what you did wrong. Listen to their advice they may know what they are talking about and most of all just don't take criticism too hard. If you get angry when somebody corrects you shadowrun probably isn't the game for you. Just make a point to listen to peoples advice. Some of it may be flawed but if you can't take any criticism your not going to get very far.
That said shadowrun is a great community that will allow newer players to play with better player in privates even if it means they will lose the game. In addition to letting you play and generally giving you tips on where you could improve (or complaining about how you mess up serves the same purpose) the community has an adopt a noob program where more experienced players help newer players get more familiar with the game.
Learn the Basics
Before trying to play competitively you’ll have to have some familiarity with the basics. Although GB matches tend to be far better then any public I’ve played in for improving things such as your rifle. I still would not recommend going into a GB match without ever using the rifle before. When just starting out play around with all the weapons, magic’s and techs until you find a build that you’re comfortable with and feel as though you have some familiarity with all the weapons. Even after you find a build your comfortable with be willing to change it slightly depending on the game your playing.
A great way to build the basic experience you need is by playing joining the adopt a noob program where older players show newbs the basics. Still a basic and even somewhat advanced knowledge is key to success in shadowrun you can find all the information you need in this guide... yes that does lead right to this page what did you expect to happen?
The Game Types
Attrition:
Attrition is a death match plain and simple. You have to kill all the opponents. I’m not going to go into detail on the strategies for attrition because they tend to be largely map depended. The main thing to remember is that bodies can’t be cleared in attrition so rez is a very important buy. Also it’s almost always beneficial to camp the bodies of your opponents, preventing the rez if at all possible.
* Extraction
o Extraction is neutral flag. You have to bring the artifact to the opponent’s base to win. But, there is other ways to win. You can also win by killing all of the opposing team or by having more kills then the other team or by making more money. This is where the game type gets interesting. Getting first grab on arty and camping becomes a much more valid tactic.
[b]* Raid[/b][/u]
o Is not played competitively (although I’d like to mention here that I believe Imitated Brutality still is the strongest 4v4 temple ground raid team in the game, which was our GB pick every time until the map got banned from mlg variant).
* MLG game types
o Everything mlg related and most of the competive clan matches will be on these 6 maps:
+ Attrition - Lobby (Small)
+ Attrition - Nerve Center (Small)
+ Attrition - Pinnacle
+ Attrition - Power Station
+ Extraction - Nerve Center
+ Extraction - Pinnacle
+ Extraction - Lobby
The Classes
* The Human
o Humans are the pretty good at everything race. They are the second fastest and they have the second most health. They are the third strongest race and have seven pips of essence.
o The race benefit of human is they start the game off with $2500.
o Another racial benefit humans have is they take no essence penalty for using tech.
o Generally you’ll see a human start the game with enhanced vision and a rifle. He should use enhanced vision to call out the location of the enemies (I prefer by mouth but on the d-pad works as well).
o It’s often beneficial to have the human player as the team coach or captain as he will know exactly the location of the opponents and thus be able to order attacks and retreats more accurately.
o Another benefit to being human is that you have more health then everything but trolls. Thus you should be able to win every even smg fight and most even pistol fights.
o update: Buying ev first round has been losing popularity although it still remains the standard more tele oriented strats have started to replace also on some maps smartlink is bought first round.
* The Elf
o The elf is one of the most popular races in the game and for a good reason. They are incredibly fun to play.
o They have the lowest health and are the weakest race but they have the fastest move speed and the second most essence (10 pips enough to rez two people and still be able to use smoke or gust)
o The elf’s racial benefit is that they regenerate health. This means that you don’t have to depend on your team’s tree which can often turn into a nade trap. But you will heal much faster on your team’s tree.
o For the first couple rounds of a 4v4 the elfs role is almost exclusively to rez. Generally they should stay a safe distance behind the troll and the human and be ready to rez them as soon as they fall so the enemies will not be able to clear or camp their corpses.
o In later rounds elves can be more aggressive as more of the team will be able to rez. Still you should avoid even smg fights against other races as you should not win these. Because of elves great move speed they tend to make strong flankers. It’s a solid strategy to set up an elf away from the group (although make sure you know where the enemy is first) to rifle from the side. At the first sign of danger the elf should retreat and the main group should attack.
* The Troll
o I play troll so forgive me if this part is a bit long winded.
o The troll has the most health in the game by a rifle shot to the body. They only have about one rifle shot to the head more health then an elf. So why are trolls so hard to kill?
o The troll’s racial ability of hardening makes them by far the hardest race to kill.
o Before I explain how hardening works let me cover the rest of the trolls stats. The trolls are the slowest race but they are also the strongest race and suffer no movespeed penalty for using any weapon. Trolls also have the least essence (7 pips) and suffer tech penalties so essence tends to be a problem.
o Okay on to the hardening ability. Normal damage done to a troll only does 85% as much damage as it normally would. Damage done to a fully hardened troll only does 17% as much damage as it would normally do.
o Trolls fully harden when they take damage from high damage weapons such as sniper, rifle, rocket launcher, grenade and shotgun will fully harden a troll but the troll will take full damage from the first shot so all these weapons are viable weapons to use against a troll just give him time to unhardened between shots.
o The main thing to remember about fighting a troll is that an smg will make the troll a god by hardening him. So for example if a friendly troll is katana fighting an opposing troll and you smg the opposing troll it will confirm that troll kills your ally. As it will take him three swings to kill your ally while your ally will need to land 5+ swings.
o Minigun has a similar effect on a troll as an smg but is a viable option as it does put up so much damage if you have a large group taking on one troll minigun is defiantly valid as the troll will be slowed by the hardening ability and most likely unable to pick off any of your friends.
o Generally the effective troll builds involve either smartlink minigun style or wired reflex and almost any weapon (I prefer katana as it does increased damage and will protect you from snipers). This means that you’ll have 5 pips of essence available.
o Because of the essence problems I don’t buy rez on my troll until very late rounds. As I will need to unequip a tech so that I can teleport with a person on rez. Then after the teleport I don’t have any essence left to harden making the troll mortal.
o The role of the troll in the competitive play is to lead charges if an ally needs to run try to get between him and his chasers. Also the troll generally will be the one put in charge of fighting the opponents troll.
o If your low health as a troll it is incredibly important that you tell your team you’re pulling out because without your protection they are minigun fodder.
o One last quick footnote spell wise a troll needs a tree they live by their tree and are the hardest to fight by their tree. I prefer using teleport when I play troll but there is logic behind a smoker troll as it doesn’t suffer the movement penalty for hardening so it can get out of tough places quickly and it is far better at avoiding nade damage then the teleporting troll. Ultimately it comes down to your team’s style of play.
o On more footnote (I’m sorry I can’t control myself) amg and strangle are your best friends for fighting trolls I’ve seen many strong trolls put strangle in there build just so they can fight the opposing troll.
o update: Popular troll builds now focus on using amg generators to beat the other troll. As a result glider is gaining popularity as a means of fighting amgs. Troll builds evolve fast in a counter oriented style so I"m sure by 08 the builds will have changed I personally am looking at a new troll build going in a completely different direction then most builds but all new troll builds seem retarted without being proven first (glider is the best example of this) so I'm going to just stick with I"m looking at a new troll build.
* The Dwarf
o The dwarf has the most essence of all the races (12 pips). The dwarf is also the second slowest race and has the second least health. The dwarf is the second strongest race so it can also use some of those heavy weapons with little movement penalty.
o The dwarf racial ability is that it has slow essence regeneration but it can take essence from anything that has essence of its own (trees, allies, enemies and strangle).
o Also dwarf’s can’t get headshotted.
o Perhaps this is from a flawed perspective and feels free to state what you think on this topic but I believe dwarfs serve no roll in competitive play.
o They are to slow and to easy of targets to serve as great rezzers.
o The main problem is with the painfully slow essence regen dwarves can't keep up with high paced games
o They can’t handle too many teleports which is the signature of many teams.
o Also they are by far the easy race to take down with a rifle while they are moving.
o They could serve as a sniper for the team but generally as there’s no difference between a body shot and a head shot on a dwarf the opponent will be able to shoot first.
o As a footnote dwarf is by far my worse race so that may influence my perspective.
Weapons
* The Pistol
o The starting weapon and one that’s always available if you hold y to drop whatever you’re wielding. I personally am not a huge fan of the pistol for the reason that during a strafe fight it tends not to be very accurate making the fight decided just as much by luck as it is by skill. The alternative would be to crouch and shoot it accurately. Although now you have increased your accuracy in a close duel the pistol is accurate enough even while strafing to always hit a crouch target. Thus strafing tends to be the best option while using the pistol. The pistol is a good weapon to clean bodies with and somewhat reliable at close and mid range.
o Generally you should try to pace your shots slow enough that you are accurate enough to take down a normal opponent (not a troll) in one clip. At the same time the key to winning a pistol fight is putting 5-6 bullets in your opponent befoe he puts 5-6 bullets in you so you'll have to experimented a little to find what pace works best for you.
* The SMG
o Perhaps the most frowned upon gun when it comes to competitive play due to its spray and pray nature. Still the smg does have a role to play. Generally it’s a good buy second round for at least one member (IMO the troll as he is most deadly at close range) of the team to have a smg. Depending on how much close action there is and how much money I have my troll will generally have a smg (if not better) every round except the first.
o One tip to winning even smg fights is at any notable range (I’d say about a teleports distance) start using burst fire. The further away you are the more dependent on burst fire you have to be.
o One clip should be enough to take down any race but a troll. If you feel as though your not going to be able to finish the fight in one burst try to time your reload for when your opponent won’t be able to take advantage of it (example: right after he teleports).
o update: Smg's have gained much more popularity in mlg and now are pretty much considered even with the rifle as a main.
o update: One thing to pay attention to in smg figts is the one clip rule. You want to kill your opponent in one clip so if you can't consider bursting so you can also if your at a disadvantage just try to return some fire but keep as much distance as possible if they use their entir clip teleport on top of them and hopefully finish them off before they can reload and kill you.
* The Rifle
o The rifle isn’t quite the battle rifle of Halo 2 but it still is the default weapon for most competitive players. A strong rifle is essential to be able to play competitively.
o Your accuracy is improved notably when crouching. Also if you’re trying to chase and shoot at anything but a troll you’re better off just putting down the controller and asking the gaming gods to smite your opponent.
o Generally there will be considerable amount of slow rifle fights winning these just takes practice.
o I personally prefer the single shot to the burst fire but occasionally when you’re in a jam the burst fire can be useful at lower ranges.
o The rifle has more auto-aim not zoomed in so don’t zoom when it’s not needed.
o A few quick statistics:
+ 2 head shots kills an elf
+ 4 body shots kills an elf
+ 2 head shots and a body shot kills a human
+ 5 body shots kills a human
+ 5 body shots kills a dwarf
* The Shotgun
o A strong weapon generally favored by trolls (and dwarfs if such a thing existed). Other races would take a significant movement penalty.
o Using movement abilities such as wired reflexes and teleport to force a point blank fight the shotgun can decide most fights in a matter of two shots. Three if you miss one or if they are able to keep at a slight range. When using the shotgun just be very mindful of your position where the enemies will come from.
o When it comes to troll fights the shotgun is a valuable counter to katana trolls especially combined with gust you can keep a katana troll at just the right shotgun range. Still you must be wary of teleports.
o update: Shotgun is nice on dwarves
* The Katana
o In competitive games the katana is almost exclusively used by trolls and for taking out trolls. The katana does double damage when a troll is using it and it doesn’t cause a troll to harden so it’s a good anti-troll weapon. Most ninja tactics tend to be unsuccessful with decent use of enhanced vision a katana elf will generally become a free kill. Bleed outs are very rare with good people.
o update: Now elves are touching upon using the katana occasionaly on other races although definitly not a really accepted buy on anything but a troll I'd just like to say that in the next evoloution of the game the katana may pick up some popularity.
* The mini gun
o The trolls go to weapon. I generally will go minigun build about half the time I play troll just depended on how the games going. Minigun combos very well with smart link the zoom and anti-friendly fire is valuable.
o When using the minigun target the troll last as the other races die much faster to the minigun. Inversely try to force the minigun wielder to target you if you’re the troll.
o The minigun is often seen second round. I personally think there is too much risk in this but it is defiantly a valid tactic.
o If you’re planning on teleporting at opponents go ahead and wind up the barrel I’d recommend having smart link on for this as well to prevent friendly fire and help you quickly focus in on an enemy.
o update: Wired reflexes makes the minigun wind up faster (I think I actually have never tested this but I"m pretty sure its true)
o update: Minigun is also good on dwarves
* the Sniper Rifle
o The sniper rifle is one of the hardest weapons in any game to use effectively. With a 2500 price tag you’re risking a lot in buying a sniper. Still it has the ability to one shot kill your opponent this defiantly moves the game to a more deadly battlefield then the rifle fights that take place in earlier rounds.
o Aim for the head as generally the opponent will be able to heal otherwise. Also you have to shoot first. If you’re in a sniper vs. sniper shoot as soon as you can with some accuracy your shot will throw them out of scope and if you wait to long you’re getting headshotted.
o Quick Scope:
+ The sniper rifle doesn’t allow you to no scope. Also if you get shot your thrown out of zoom. A fun way to get around this is if say a troll is shooting you with a smg at medium to low range press the zoom button and right trigger at the same time. Your not going to land a headshot this way but you can generally hit a troll.
o update: The sniper is gianing popularity now that people are getting better at it dwarves are some of the best at sniper v sniper fights although they still tend to be an easy target if they aren't counter sniping
o update: Don't count on out rifling a sniper. A couple reasons for this first of all the odds that you land 3, 4 or 5 shots before they can take cover is unreasonable as when sniping they'll probably take cover as soon as they are thrown out of zoom. Also the rifle doesn't throw the sniper out of zoom immeditly so they still have a chance to blain you even if you land a quick shot on them.
* The Rocket Launcher
o The rocket launcher I believe is an undiscovered weapon of competitive game play. At the moment it serves to be more of a joke or a taunt weapon. Still more heavily defensive set-ups tend to fall victim to a volley of rockets.
o Aim for trees. Even if you don’t kill the people healing on the tree you’ll at least destroy the tree.
o The rocket aoe goes through walls so say the opponents are on the lobby ledge you can shoot a rocket under them for notable damage.
+ Geese Gone Wild has tested this and says he had notable success running rockets smoke and enhanced.
+ It seems the aoe goes through most walls but is notably dampened
o Don’t run forward while using the rocket launcher. If there is a small amount of lag you’ll basiclly end up shooting yourself in the back with the rocket.
o That said rockets should be a rare buy in competitive matches used almost exclusively to break a defensive set-ups.
o update: Rockets are now used more often although perhaps not that skillfully. Troll is the common canidate for the rockets because of the no movespeed penalty they also work well with the glider troll build because glider allows nice rocket angles.
* Grenades
o I almost forgot to mention grenades despite their major role in matches.
o A lot of teams will like to bombard you with grenades right at the start hoping for an early advantage. I personally would recommend each player throws 1 grenade in this volley (if you die one of your grenades disappears anyways so might as well make sure you can use them all). If you know they did notable damage move forward and launch another wave of grenades on their tree.
o Avoid/Use Grenade traps. The best example I can think of for this is lobby some of those side hallways. It's perfectly valid to want to rush the opponents side. Just make sure you don't get trapped in the side hallways as I've seen time and time again. Your an easy nade victim in the hallway also its incredibly easy to surround your team blocking the escape with nades as well. The result is your team will most likely be destroyed in under a minute most likely not netting kill. Just think about nade traps and try to use them to your advantage. If your team gets caught in one of these immediately retreat before they can block your escape.
o Also if see a bleeder that's a bit difficult to get to simply drop a nade on their tree. This will force them to abandon the tree for at least a second but even if they smoke avoiding the damage the gernade will cause the tree to go away much earlier and the bleeder will be left without a tree for a period of time (ideally)
* Artifact
o The artifact as a weapon is similar to a katana.
o As the artifact as a katana if your fighting a single katana opponent you can simply block their attacks and walk the score in backwards or back into your allies.
o The artifact kills minions in one hit. If there happens to be a minion on your way to score the artifact go ahead and chop him once but don't go too far out of your way to kill a minion with the artifact.
o The artifact damages smoked opponents. So if only a single heavy smoker remains you can try to hunt him down with the artifact but make sure your team isn't gathered around to close (as is natural when dealing with a smoker) to avoid any friendly fire.
o Today attrition has been updated so that you can clear bodies with the artifact. My early impressions on this:
+ This may encourage more of an artifact rush in attrition.
+ The only time this is really practical is if you rushed the artifact then you were able to kill an opponent and camp his body.
+ The artifact carrier will be able to see the opponents and at the first sign of danger should put down the artifact and join the fight.
+ Quite honestly I don't expect tactics to change that much because of this except expect to see a few more artifact rushes on poco(small) and pinnacle attrition.
o update: No one really used the artifact rush more then they did already. The only time you clear a body is when its conveint and the fight has slowed down a little.
Magic
* Resurrect
o Resurrect allows you to bring a fallen ally back from the dead attaching that players life to your own (I.E. if you die that player will bleed out).
o Unquestionably one of the best spells in the game. Elves probably should buy rez round one. Humans no later then round 4 and trolls whenever they get around to it. A key to success in both attrition and extraction is getting the rez as soon as your ally falls in order to prevent your allies being cleared or their bodies being camped. Pay attention to where it displays kills for allies to die. Some teams like to have simply be casting rez during the fights even if you haven’t had an ally die yet so that the player will be pickupped immediately. This is useful before you have anything else to drop your essence.
o update: The random casting of rez lost popularity.
o update: Getting rezzs as fast as possible tends to be important so the opponents can't hold the body this is doubly true in extraction
* Tree of Life
o Tree of Life will slowly heal any character that stands near it regardless of team.
o The best friend of both humans and trolls. In starting a push one of the best ways to go about it is to wait until your teams at an advantage in the rifle exchange or soften the opponents up with grenades. Then quickly push and drop grenades on the opponent’s trees. This tactic works better earlier on as eventually teams will have a forest to their own. Also on the defending end try to place trees where they are safe from enemy fire, close by and not easy to be naded.
o update: If you put two trees where their roots are touching the one cast first will quickly disappear.
* GUST
o Gust shoots a gust of wind in a direction you point.
o Gust goes through most thin boundaries so feel free to gust the smoker who's right behind that doorway.
o This has many uses so numerous that I’m going to skip on listing them all out and just note the more important ones. You can gust opponents grenade preventing much trouble in the initial nade flurry (note: this is harder then it sounds). You can killer smokers with gust (duh, but its an important use). I’ve noticed many people have taken to dropping their nades in front of them and gusting them towards the opponents. The idea here is you start the explosion timer and then gust them at the opponent making them more difficult to dodge. Also if you hit your opponent in the gust (which you most likely will) the opponent will be less able to maneuver. A tactic that hasn’t been widely adopted yet but seems pretty strong to me is random gust in rifle fights. The idea here is to simply throw your opponent off aim. Also gust is important for controlling high ground most notably in Poco.
o update: Gust is one of you most important body clearing and controlling tools. Gust bodies where you can easily controll them and where they will be hard to use. Also gust bodies off the edge whenever possible.
* Smoke
o Whether or not you buy smoke should depend on several factors. First and foremost perhaps is whether it’s your teams style of play. I’ve seen several strong teams with multiple members buying smoke first round. It has pretty solid logic in that these early rounds a player can smoke away from a dangerous situation hide back on the tree and be perfectly safe. Smoke is also the best spell for surviving the grenade volleys unhurt. Later rounds smoke becomes much less effective as a safety tool but it then gets the benefit of making you invisible to enhanced vision. This is a valuable in teams that like to run two, two person groups and focus on flanking. You will be invisible to enhanced vision at range. Once you get close to the enemy you’ll have to have smoke activate to become invisible to enhanced vision.
o update: Smoke has become a standard third buy for elves. Its actually popular to the point that some of the more innovative teams (secret weapon most notably) have stopped buying ev because of it.
* Strangle
o I’m not a terribly big fan of strangle but I won’t deny its usefulness. As dwarfs are uncommon sights in the competitive 4v4 matches strangle is considerably stronger. I’d recommend buying strangle as a late buy when you just have cash your not going to use. Also if a ninja troll is giving you trouble strangle troll is a common counter for ninja troll. And run back until their essences refills. If they are slow they may be caught in the strangle and they will be unable to teleport off fast enough. Becoming a free kill.
o update: Strangle isn't used much at all nowadays I believe the only person using it at vegas was elimite warrior who was picked up last minute becuase pure needed a fourth and although I got a few laughs out of his strangles it still seems that amgs trump it in most situations.
o update: Perhaps teams that run dwarves should consider using strangle over amg to better take advantage of the dwarf
B-fire stance explanation of the uses of strangle
Strangle
Obviously, I can't make a fair argument since Strangle is my 4th buy and I keep it equipped so obviously I'm going to try to say good things about it. Nonetheless I'd like to add reasons it could be a great buy and ways to use it. The most obvious of these is for fighting the opposing teams troll.
* Because the glider troll is more common now, in those intense troll-on-troll fights, it can often be hard for your troll to toss a good AMG on the wall or cieling above him without sacrificing damage dealt by aiming the minigun away from the troll. In this case it can help significantly to have an elf with strangle along side. The elf can cast strangle on the wall or cieling and this will actually trap the troll mid-air and throw off his aim while draining his essence. Strangle is much easier to aim when casting it high up on walls or cielings.
* Obviously, just being able to strangle a troll in general will help as well. If the troll is leading a rush and the elf happens to be in the middle of his path, you'll normally see the elf teleport away from the line of fire. A great alternative to this is by looking down and jumping back while strangling the ground and smoking. Since strangle takes a few seconds to cast and appear, the troll should end up walking directly through the strangle and since the elf's in smoke he won't be taking any damage. The troll will be left vulnerable in the strangle and the strangle will also slow down the opposing team's rush.
* One of the best uses for strangle wil appear later in the rounds once the opposing team's ressurectors are killed. This will normally leave a human or alike alive, bleeding beside a try. Obviously, a nicely placed AMG will destroy the tree in seconds, but if the human is smart he'll avoid the AMG and possibly be able to escape to another nearby tree. The alternative: strangle. By strangling the enemy while he is bleeding out by a tree, the tree will be destroyed by the strangle and the enemy will normally be trapped within it. Since he/she is bleeding out, the strangle will appear to do more damage and may even kill the enemy or force a bleed out.
* Strangle can also be used to attack a team that is caught off guard. If an elf has strangle and is able to get around behind the other team without being seen, strangle can often be a great way to maximize the unexpected attack. If an elf teleports behind two enemies with snipers, he should normally be able to take out once pretty easily with the simple gust+smg tactic. However, if this elf was equipping strangle, he could cast it before attacking and have a better possibility of actually killing both enemies. By doing this, the team is also forced to spread out a bit and move out of position and this could be a great time to initiate a rush.
* While there are many offensive uses for strangle, there are, as well some defensive techniques that can be performed through the use of stangle. Casting a good strangle on a fallen troll's corpse can often make it a very difficult rez for the other team - more difficult than with the standard AMG tactic.
* In extraction, strangle can be used to defend the score point, however I don't think it should be placed before the artifact carrier approaches. This gives the other team time to see it and time to formulate a plan of attack to avoid it. The key to a good strangle is by catching the enemy off guard.
* Another use is to force pursuing enemies away. By just throwing a strangle down behind you as you flee from an enemy, you are all the more likely to escape. The pursuer may not have enough essence to teleport through it or around it and will have to wait.
* I believe that FASA initially intended for strangle to be a defensive spell. Although I think that this is the case, I believe that strangle is more advanageous in an offensive attack. It's not something that can be used 100% efficiently easily, however. Strangle works slightly different than most magics in that once it is cast it travels almost like a rocket launcher. The strangle leaves the person who cast it slightly delayed and will take a few seconds to reach its destination. That's why it is important to be able to accurately anticipate your enemy's movement, and if the strangle is going to miss, you must be able to adapt to the new situation you've created.
* It should be noted that because strangle is a hold magic, it should be used carefully or when absolutely necessary. It is often a good idea to use this spell in combination with AMGs. If you need the two pips of essence back, throw an AMG on the strangle and it will disappear quickly. The AMG will replace the strangle and might also be in an appropriate location for something else.]
* Teleport
o Teleport is the bread and butter of lots of strong teams. There teleport lines give them a strong advantage angle wise while your team is still at spawn. They are often able to simply out teleport weaker players.
o The basics of teleport is that it allows you to teleport 10 meters in any direction going through anything in the way instantly.
o A few quick tips on teleport:
+ You can actually only teleport 10 meters in the direction you’re facing. You teleport 8 meters if you’re not facing that way.
# For the skeptics out there this vid gameroom.mlgpro.com/view/3by0...Cfhsals20.html. shows the difference pretty well while showing teleport lines on pinnacle.
+ If you stop and jump straight up you can get the full ten meters and you can teleport to heights that you generally won’t make while running.
+ You can teleport downwards while running by simply facing downward and teleporting.
+ A fun maneuver to lose chasers is to teleport through a wall then as soon as teleport cools down (or when you deem appropriate) teleport back through the same wall the teleport lines tend to be hard to follow when you do this.
o Teleport is generally my second spell buy for most races. The increased maneuverability it offers makes it that’s its nearly impossible for a non-teleporting team to finish a kill on a teleporting team if they are smart about pulling out.
o Teleport is the ultimate don’t be selfish spell. If your in a close range team fight when the opponents start focusing on you its time to teleport behind your allies. This will force the opponents to pull-out, chase through your allies or change targets.
o update: Being able to teleport makes a player.
* Summon
o Summon creates a demonic being that protects an area or attacks a certain player. For the longest time I thought this spell had no place in competitive play but recently a popular tactic is to start a charge behind a minion. Although you’ll probably not get any kills with the minion the minion will be able to take a large amount of damage and if ignored it will cause some damage in a fight. Generally the best solution for minion is either antimagic or a minion of your own.
o Also in long stand off rifle fight style games there is no point in not sending minions at them. Even if it dies without being able to damage them they have to use a considerable amount of ammo on the minion and you get a safe chance to take some shots at them.
o update: With use of amgs summon has lost any popularity it once had.
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Technology
* Anti-magic Generators
o Anti-magic Generators can be thrown like grenades and stick to stable surface they hit. All of the essence of anything near an anti-magic generator will quickly be sucked out. Currently anti-magics tend to only be used as relatively late buys as troll counters or as earlier buys against two troll teams. I personally believe that amg’s are incredibly underused in 4v4’s.
o update: WHO CALLED IT? yeah thats right I called the increased use of amgs. Now amgs are really popular and if you aren't familar with using them I'd recommend you try them out they are quick castable in most situations. The only real exception being an amg troll because the quickcast menu stops a mini gun
o amg's make trolls easy to kill so whenever you can amg a troll.
o amg's destroy trees so amg your enemies trees
o amgs drain essence so amg dwarves just to annoy them as well as opponents hoping to escape with teleport.
* Enhanced Vision
o Enhanced Vision allows you to see allies and enemies within 60m
o I believe enhanced vision to be one of the best techs in the game worthy of a human first round buy. Pretty much every strong teams runs with enhanced vision. Enhanced is best used for locating easy targets and flanks.
o I've noticed some of the best humans in the game (chillax and Gawdlike for example) often will run enhanced and use it to find good opportunities to warp close behind a team. Kill one or just cause confusion while their team picks you apart from the side.
o Then on the other hand you got some of the top riflers (acehawk for a name you'll probably recognize if you read the thread) in the game who will simply line up the shot before you even show your head and be able to pop out for a quick rifle kill.
o It’s also very beneficial for artifact running.
* Glider
o The glider allows you to glide to high places and to go from one high place to another. The glider can also be used to avoid fall damage.
o The glider IMHO is the worst tech in the game. Any thing the glider can do teleport can do better. I don’t believe I have ever seen a glider in a competitive 4v4 match. I believe it could be justified as a risky early buy on pinnacle so you can better control the upper deck but I disagree with the purchase of glider in a competitive game.
o update: I proved myself wrong on this one. With the increased use of amgs the glider has emerged as a counter. Although it only tends to be used by trolls it is definitly useful. Also I wouldn't be surprised is dwarves start to use glider to counter amgs.
* Smart-link
o Smart-link as described by the internet: While active, Smartlink confers a number of advantages, but also adds a laser sight that makes you more visible to opponents. Smartlink helps to make firing your weapons more accurate, adds an additional level of zoom to each ranged weapon, and adds smart targeting that prevents you from damaging your teammates. Once activated, Smartlink remains on until you use it again to deactivate it.
o The extra level of zoom makes your reticule smaller thus increasing accuracy. This differs depending on what gun you are using.
o I disagree with the general population on this one. Most players believe that smart-link is a newb item. I also think smart-link is a valid late round buy for a human. As humans suffer no tech penalty smart-link will generally give you a small advantage in even smg fights especially if you use as complicated strafing as possible and the zoom whenever possible.
o When you have smart link on it has a red light pointing where you are (and more then likely your team is as well). The point is don’t run around with smart link on.
o If you’re zoomed in and turn smart link on you’ll be forced out of zoom so turn it on before you zoom if your planning on using it for a fight.
o update: Smartlink is now more readily recognized as an acceptable buy. Although smartlink troll isn't popular at this point in the game humans can reguraly be seen buying smartlink
* Wired Reflexes
o I believe the only race I’ve ever seen this on in a competitive match is troll. Wired reflexes increases your general movespeed reload time and other good stuff like that. Also it allows you to block more bullets with the katana and if you activate it you’ll have a speed burst at the cost of some damage to you (I’d say about a pistol shot to the body but I’m not sure).
o The logic of running a wired troll is pretty solid. Trolls have the lowest movespeed so the speed increase helps keep them from being just completely ran around. With the speed boost trolls can keep pace with elves. As trolls have so much health the damage from the boost isn’t something trolls need to worry about. Trolls tend to fall victim to the sniper wars rather easily. So the wired reflexes can be used to make sure they don’t get a free kill on you.
o update: Wired also makes the mini wind up faster
o update: When running a wired troll don't kill yourself with wired generally just use it to get chase people when teleporting isn't neccary.
Quick tips:
A few quick tips that I didn’t mention elsewhere.
*Economy breakdown I originally didn't post this instead I said buy the strat. guide as the economy and damage breakdown are the only real purpose of the strat guide. Well I decided to be nice
*Damage breakdown Heres a damage breakdown done by xenox.
* Weapons Gambit (I came up with a clever name for this tactic I hope it sticks) It was a common tactic for a while (I think it was Texas finest who started it but I’m not sure). Anyways the tactic was that a player drops out two clicks of money to each of his allies. This allows everyone to buy guns and all but one person to have the normal magics. In running this I’d recommend buying smg’s and just overrunning the opponents focusing on the rez races first (rendering their magic useless hopefully). The spelless player should be the most aggressive as he’s pretty much worthless. This tactic has obvious risk and I’d recommend not running it if you don’t have an aggressive team. Also be sure to give back to clicks second round to the donator so he doesn’t fall behind in his buys.
* General Extraction Quick tips
o A lot of competitive teams tend to play extraction the exact same way as they play attrition except they are able to clear bodies. I wouldn't recommend this in general because running artifact is a solid strat.
o On the other hand a lot of teams tend to play a purely artifact oriented game. This is okay to do sometimes but when you rush the artifact the second or third time they'll be ready for you and while your holding artifact your one gun down for fights. You can often take advantage of overaggressive teams by getting them to over focus on a non artifact carrying player.
o Generally I find the best time to run the artifact is after people have been fighting for a bit. Generally this will force the people to leave the fights there in or not be able to defend.
o There are times you must learn to recognize as golden opportunities to run the artifact. These are more notable in the early rounds because players don't have teleport to get back and defend quickly. The most common example of this is on nerve center extraction. If a team rushes sky bridge early rounds you should be able to grab the artifact run it up hangar ramp. As soon as you grab artifact your team should push towards the opponents sky bridge from their elevator bank. Your team will be able to hold a stable front for a little bit just by using gernades to force the opponents back. In this time the artifact runner should be able to run the artifact up hangar ramp for an easy score.
o The decision of when should I run the artifact is common. Generally I would only recommend running if the opponents are distracted to the point that you should be able to run in unnoticed assuming none of them turn. On some maps you can simply push the artifact in past a light defense. Also if your planning on just forcing the artifact in a troll will make a good runner.
o update: Its now really common to see an artifact rush on extraction. The reason for this is teams want the extra 100 dollars for having first grab in case the game comes down to a cash tie break
* Winning with the artifact This section is devoted extraction only.
o The extraction victory order goes Escaping with the artifact> killing the opposing team > winning based on kills > winning based on money earned
+ I'm not positive if those last two are right I posted a thread a while ago hoping for an explanation but never got one so I'll leave a CITATION NEEDED sticker for that
o The last two are surprisingly key. A solid tactic for extraction fight from a generally defensive position and simply win on the tie breaker.
o Another similar tactic is to rush the artifact thus earning 300 dollars (100 for first grab 200 for holding it). Now that your winning on money your opponents are forced to make the next move.
* Pinnacle A lot of teams have taken to have a human give out one click to an elf first round and sending 2 people upper decks first round. Decent tactic. The artifact can be thrown up there as well. Again this is a bit risky and people can simply grab the artifact and run it to there base rendering the upper deck worthless. So if your going to run this first round just be careful. Skies the limit started this tactic I believe.
* Jumping reasign I've been using this more and more lately. The basic concept is that you jump (keeping your forward movement) and while in the air press b to go to the menu and simply reasign a magic or tech. I find this to be more useful for techs as they can't be quickcasted but its defintly valid to reasign gust using this tactic.
* +1400. Every round you make 1400 dollars just for playing. Consider this when your making your buys. If you have a team willing to dish out money you don’t have to manage your money that well but sometimes say if you have 500 left you should hold off buying the second gun.
* +1400x2 I think this probably a glitch in the game and most likely will be removed. If you win by possessing the artifact you get an extra 1400 in addition to the 1400 you get for playing.
* Clearing In extraction its essential you clear your kills if it’s a high pace fight I’d consider putting two people on a body to ensure a quick clear. Be smart when clearing though if you’re in the middle of a fight or they have the artifact you may just have to leave the body. Make sure to take the players ammo and grenade though so he won’t be too dangerous once rezed. I believe it takes two sniper shots to clear a body so if you wiped an opponent say on the crane you may be able to clear him from a safe distance before his team can pull the rez.
* update: Clearing faster: You can clear bodies faster by shooting them in the head. Clearing and quick rezzs are what decides the winner of extraction a lot of times
* Camping The attrition version of clearing. If you killed a loner take the corpse. Take all of the player’s ammo and consider scattering the guns either by hand or with gust. Once you’ve sufficiently devalued the player place a couple amg around the corpse to make any quick rez attempts difficult.
* Work Together. Your entire team doesn’t have to be standing on top of each other but you should have a general idea of your entire team’s location and their situation. If you use the two group strategy this is even more important.
* The Artifact. The artifact can now clear bodies. So when opportunity presents itself clear a body
* Think and adapt Don't always send people to the exact same places eventually the other team will catch on. On the same note watch to see if they tend to run the same routes every time its not uncommon for a team to have the same guy rush artifact by himself every round. Use this to your advantage to get a free kill.
* update: Reduced reload time the value of this trick is arguable on anything but the minigun and sniper rifle. If you reload before the gun is completely emptied it takes less time to relaod. A good demonstration of the value of this is in vegas we were hanging out in sw room and chillax mentions in explaining that while elamite warrior was smart and a good shot but he didn't know a lot of things like the "reload glitch". After a pause I beleive panik, gawdlike, mirage furykx and probably some more admit to not knowing that while me, fraction enraged and probably a couple others had a good laugh at chillax for his views on the "reload glitch".
* Adapt to your opponents If a team runs the normal builds on a two elf, one troll and an elf team then you shouldn't have to worry to much about changing your builds. But if a team varies from the normal you shouldn't just assume the normal builds will beat them. Probably the best example of this is venom.
* Venom runs two trolls a human and an elf.
* These guys won the first online tourny partially because they were good but also because didn't know how to fight two trolls.
* On the other hand ip probably the best team at fighting two trolls simply change their buy order to fight two trolls focusing on strangle and amgs and rarely lose more than 2 rounds to venom.
* I personally think if venom ever went to a lan tourny they wouldn't have done as well as people think just because a lot of teams can beat them and with the more important situation of being a lan I think teams would actually bother figuring out what they shoudl do to win.
* update: I changed the example to venom. Although I have nothing against the team I do think they make a good example for this also they tend to be overestimated and this bothers me.
To get you started in the right direction here are some very basic money management and racial builds.
PLEASE READ THIS PART:
This not mean to be the end all build guide. More just a basic idea of simple money management. I tried to leave lots of options on what to buy but still there are many more builds and money management strats that are effective.
My team doesn't even run this money management but its a gives people a good idea of the basics.
Very basic team set up:
/ means buy one or the other
if you have extra cash buy guns generally depends on if you won the other rounds or not
races:
Troll, Human 1, Human 2 and elf
round 1:
Troll: tree
Human 1: rez + rifle
Human 2: rez + rifle
elf: rez
round 2:
Troll: clicks out to everyone so they can get tele
Human 1: tele
Human 2: tele
elf: tele
round 3:
troll: tele, amg, wired/glider and a mingun/smg/rifle (buy as many of those as you can afford but consider giving back money for your team to get guns if you have it)
human 1: clicks troll
human 2: clicks troll
elf 1: clicks troll
around here it gets less organized as money really sways depending on how much you've been winning.
around round 4 through 8:
troll: weapons consider rez if you have cash
elf: smoke consider gust and or amgs
human 1: smartlink/ev/smoke/gust/tree
human 2: tree, smartlink/ev/smoke/gust
later rounds:
Ev human considers getting sniper
consider stacking troll for rockets especially if its a glider troll
To summarize:
basic builds:
Troll:
tree, tele, amgs, glider/wired, minigun and smg/rifle
Human: rez, tele, tech, preference ability (gust, smoke, smartlink, ev, amgs a lot of stuff works on humans) and tree before too long. Use smg and rifle as main weapons.
elf: rez and tele then help build other players. Then get smoke to avoid ev and smartlink followed by either amgs or gust. Use smg and rifle as main weapons.
Content
I. Intro
II. Learn the basics
III. The game types
a. Attrition
b. Extraction
c. Raid
d. mlg maps
IV. The Classes
a. Human
b. Elf
c. Troll
d. Dwarf
V. Weapons
VI. Magic
VII. Tech
VIII. Quick Tips.
IX. Closing Remarks
Introduction:
Shadowrun was designed purely for competitive play. To the extent that it doesn’t even have a storyline. I personally love this idea and greatly enjoy this game. That is why I was so inspired to write a guide for competitive shadowrun play. This guide should give an overall introduction to competitive shadowrun that both experienced and new players will benefit from. The Shadowrun ladder on game battles is very active (http://www.gamebattles.com/) (I’d strongly recommend signing up a team as after all this game was designed for competitive play). There are several online tournaments going on as I type. But, larger and grander then all of game battles and all the online tournaments combined is that MLG has picked up the game and I’m hoping to see a great turnout at MLG Chicago.
So as my guide is rather long you may want to checkout this thread for a quick intro to shadowrun: shadowrun 101
Before we start:
Shadowrun has a larger learning curve then your typical shooter. The game is much more complicated and this generally means your lost when you first start. You need to go into shadowrun with a willingness to learn! I've heard too many people complaining about the community being mean to you because your new and you bought the wrong tech or did something not to their liking. Although some people are just jerks and others are obsessively critical of newer players most people are actually trying to help you when they tell you what you did wrong. Listen to their advice they may know what they are talking about and most of all just don't take criticism too hard. If you get angry when somebody corrects you shadowrun probably isn't the game for you. Just make a point to listen to peoples advice. Some of it may be flawed but if you can't take any criticism your not going to get very far.
That said shadowrun is a great community that will allow newer players to play with better player in privates even if it means they will lose the game. In addition to letting you play and generally giving you tips on where you could improve (or complaining about how you mess up serves the same purpose) the community has an adopt a noob program where more experienced players help newer players get more familiar with the game.
Learn the Basics
Before trying to play competitively you’ll have to have some familiarity with the basics. Although GB matches tend to be far better then any public I’ve played in for improving things such as your rifle. I still would not recommend going into a GB match without ever using the rifle before. When just starting out play around with all the weapons, magic’s and techs until you find a build that you’re comfortable with and feel as though you have some familiarity with all the weapons. Even after you find a build your comfortable with be willing to change it slightly depending on the game your playing.
A great way to build the basic experience you need is by playing joining the adopt a noob program where older players show newbs the basics. Still a basic and even somewhat advanced knowledge is key to success in shadowrun you can find all the information you need in this guide... yes that does lead right to this page what did you expect to happen?
The Game Types
Attrition:
Attrition is a death match plain and simple. You have to kill all the opponents. I’m not going to go into detail on the strategies for attrition because they tend to be largely map depended. The main thing to remember is that bodies can’t be cleared in attrition so rez is a very important buy. Also it’s almost always beneficial to camp the bodies of your opponents, preventing the rez if at all possible.
* Extraction
o Extraction is neutral flag. You have to bring the artifact to the opponent’s base to win. But, there is other ways to win. You can also win by killing all of the opposing team or by having more kills then the other team or by making more money. This is where the game type gets interesting. Getting first grab on arty and camping becomes a much more valid tactic.
[b]* Raid[/b][/u]
o Is not played competitively (although I’d like to mention here that I believe Imitated Brutality still is the strongest 4v4 temple ground raid team in the game, which was our GB pick every time until the map got banned from mlg variant).
* MLG game types
o Everything mlg related and most of the competive clan matches will be on these 6 maps:
+ Attrition - Lobby (Small)
+ Attrition - Nerve Center (Small)
+ Attrition - Pinnacle
+ Attrition - Power Station
+ Extraction - Nerve Center
+ Extraction - Pinnacle
+ Extraction - Lobby
The Classes
* The Human
o Humans are the pretty good at everything race. They are the second fastest and they have the second most health. They are the third strongest race and have seven pips of essence.
o The race benefit of human is they start the game off with $2500.
o Another racial benefit humans have is they take no essence penalty for using tech.
o Generally you’ll see a human start the game with enhanced vision and a rifle. He should use enhanced vision to call out the location of the enemies (I prefer by mouth but on the d-pad works as well).
o It’s often beneficial to have the human player as the team coach or captain as he will know exactly the location of the opponents and thus be able to order attacks and retreats more accurately.
o Another benefit to being human is that you have more health then everything but trolls. Thus you should be able to win every even smg fight and most even pistol fights.
o update: Buying ev first round has been losing popularity although it still remains the standard more tele oriented strats have started to replace also on some maps smartlink is bought first round.
* The Elf
o The elf is one of the most popular races in the game and for a good reason. They are incredibly fun to play.
o They have the lowest health and are the weakest race but they have the fastest move speed and the second most essence (10 pips enough to rez two people and still be able to use smoke or gust)
o The elf’s racial benefit is that they regenerate health. This means that you don’t have to depend on your team’s tree which can often turn into a nade trap. But you will heal much faster on your team’s tree.
o For the first couple rounds of a 4v4 the elfs role is almost exclusively to rez. Generally they should stay a safe distance behind the troll and the human and be ready to rez them as soon as they fall so the enemies will not be able to clear or camp their corpses.
o In later rounds elves can be more aggressive as more of the team will be able to rez. Still you should avoid even smg fights against other races as you should not win these. Because of elves great move speed they tend to make strong flankers. It’s a solid strategy to set up an elf away from the group (although make sure you know where the enemy is first) to rifle from the side. At the first sign of danger the elf should retreat and the main group should attack.
* The Troll
o I play troll so forgive me if this part is a bit long winded.
o The troll has the most health in the game by a rifle shot to the body. They only have about one rifle shot to the head more health then an elf. So why are trolls so hard to kill?
o The troll’s racial ability of hardening makes them by far the hardest race to kill.
o Before I explain how hardening works let me cover the rest of the trolls stats. The trolls are the slowest race but they are also the strongest race and suffer no movespeed penalty for using any weapon. Trolls also have the least essence (7 pips) and suffer tech penalties so essence tends to be a problem.
o Okay on to the hardening ability. Normal damage done to a troll only does 85% as much damage as it normally would. Damage done to a fully hardened troll only does 17% as much damage as it would normally do.
o Trolls fully harden when they take damage from high damage weapons such as sniper, rifle, rocket launcher, grenade and shotgun will fully harden a troll but the troll will take full damage from the first shot so all these weapons are viable weapons to use against a troll just give him time to unhardened between shots.
o The main thing to remember about fighting a troll is that an smg will make the troll a god by hardening him. So for example if a friendly troll is katana fighting an opposing troll and you smg the opposing troll it will confirm that troll kills your ally. As it will take him three swings to kill your ally while your ally will need to land 5+ swings.
o Minigun has a similar effect on a troll as an smg but is a viable option as it does put up so much damage if you have a large group taking on one troll minigun is defiantly valid as the troll will be slowed by the hardening ability and most likely unable to pick off any of your friends.
o Generally the effective troll builds involve either smartlink minigun style or wired reflex and almost any weapon (I prefer katana as it does increased damage and will protect you from snipers). This means that you’ll have 5 pips of essence available.
o Because of the essence problems I don’t buy rez on my troll until very late rounds. As I will need to unequip a tech so that I can teleport with a person on rez. Then after the teleport I don’t have any essence left to harden making the troll mortal.
o The role of the troll in the competitive play is to lead charges if an ally needs to run try to get between him and his chasers. Also the troll generally will be the one put in charge of fighting the opponents troll.
o If your low health as a troll it is incredibly important that you tell your team you’re pulling out because without your protection they are minigun fodder.
o One last quick footnote spell wise a troll needs a tree they live by their tree and are the hardest to fight by their tree. I prefer using teleport when I play troll but there is logic behind a smoker troll as it doesn’t suffer the movement penalty for hardening so it can get out of tough places quickly and it is far better at avoiding nade damage then the teleporting troll. Ultimately it comes down to your team’s style of play.
o On more footnote (I’m sorry I can’t control myself) amg and strangle are your best friends for fighting trolls I’ve seen many strong trolls put strangle in there build just so they can fight the opposing troll.
o update: Popular troll builds now focus on using amg generators to beat the other troll. As a result glider is gaining popularity as a means of fighting amgs. Troll builds evolve fast in a counter oriented style so I"m sure by 08 the builds will have changed I personally am looking at a new troll build going in a completely different direction then most builds but all new troll builds seem retarted without being proven first (glider is the best example of this) so I'm going to just stick with I"m looking at a new troll build.
* The Dwarf
o The dwarf has the most essence of all the races (12 pips). The dwarf is also the second slowest race and has the second least health. The dwarf is the second strongest race so it can also use some of those heavy weapons with little movement penalty.
o The dwarf racial ability is that it has slow essence regeneration but it can take essence from anything that has essence of its own (trees, allies, enemies and strangle).
o Also dwarf’s can’t get headshotted.
o Perhaps this is from a flawed perspective and feels free to state what you think on this topic but I believe dwarfs serve no roll in competitive play.
o They are to slow and to easy of targets to serve as great rezzers.
o The main problem is with the painfully slow essence regen dwarves can't keep up with high paced games
o They can’t handle too many teleports which is the signature of many teams.
o Also they are by far the easy race to take down with a rifle while they are moving.
o They could serve as a sniper for the team but generally as there’s no difference between a body shot and a head shot on a dwarf the opponent will be able to shoot first.
o As a footnote dwarf is by far my worse race so that may influence my perspective.
Weapons
* The Pistol
o The starting weapon and one that’s always available if you hold y to drop whatever you’re wielding. I personally am not a huge fan of the pistol for the reason that during a strafe fight it tends not to be very accurate making the fight decided just as much by luck as it is by skill. The alternative would be to crouch and shoot it accurately. Although now you have increased your accuracy in a close duel the pistol is accurate enough even while strafing to always hit a crouch target. Thus strafing tends to be the best option while using the pistol. The pistol is a good weapon to clean bodies with and somewhat reliable at close and mid range.
o Generally you should try to pace your shots slow enough that you are accurate enough to take down a normal opponent (not a troll) in one clip. At the same time the key to winning a pistol fight is putting 5-6 bullets in your opponent befoe he puts 5-6 bullets in you so you'll have to experimented a little to find what pace works best for you.
* The SMG
o Perhaps the most frowned upon gun when it comes to competitive play due to its spray and pray nature. Still the smg does have a role to play. Generally it’s a good buy second round for at least one member (IMO the troll as he is most deadly at close range) of the team to have a smg. Depending on how much close action there is and how much money I have my troll will generally have a smg (if not better) every round except the first.
o One tip to winning even smg fights is at any notable range (I’d say about a teleports distance) start using burst fire. The further away you are the more dependent on burst fire you have to be.
o One clip should be enough to take down any race but a troll. If you feel as though your not going to be able to finish the fight in one burst try to time your reload for when your opponent won’t be able to take advantage of it (example: right after he teleports).
o update: Smg's have gained much more popularity in mlg and now are pretty much considered even with the rifle as a main.
o update: One thing to pay attention to in smg figts is the one clip rule. You want to kill your opponent in one clip so if you can't consider bursting so you can also if your at a disadvantage just try to return some fire but keep as much distance as possible if they use their entir clip teleport on top of them and hopefully finish them off before they can reload and kill you.
* The Rifle
o The rifle isn’t quite the battle rifle of Halo 2 but it still is the default weapon for most competitive players. A strong rifle is essential to be able to play competitively.
o Your accuracy is improved notably when crouching. Also if you’re trying to chase and shoot at anything but a troll you’re better off just putting down the controller and asking the gaming gods to smite your opponent.
o Generally there will be considerable amount of slow rifle fights winning these just takes practice.
o I personally prefer the single shot to the burst fire but occasionally when you’re in a jam the burst fire can be useful at lower ranges.
o The rifle has more auto-aim not zoomed in so don’t zoom when it’s not needed.
o A few quick statistics:
+ 2 head shots kills an elf
+ 4 body shots kills an elf
+ 2 head shots and a body shot kills a human
+ 5 body shots kills a human
+ 5 body shots kills a dwarf
* The Shotgun
o A strong weapon generally favored by trolls (and dwarfs if such a thing existed). Other races would take a significant movement penalty.
o Using movement abilities such as wired reflexes and teleport to force a point blank fight the shotgun can decide most fights in a matter of two shots. Three if you miss one or if they are able to keep at a slight range. When using the shotgun just be very mindful of your position where the enemies will come from.
o When it comes to troll fights the shotgun is a valuable counter to katana trolls especially combined with gust you can keep a katana troll at just the right shotgun range. Still you must be wary of teleports.
o update: Shotgun is nice on dwarves
* The Katana
o In competitive games the katana is almost exclusively used by trolls and for taking out trolls. The katana does double damage when a troll is using it and it doesn’t cause a troll to harden so it’s a good anti-troll weapon. Most ninja tactics tend to be unsuccessful with decent use of enhanced vision a katana elf will generally become a free kill. Bleed outs are very rare with good people.
o update: Now elves are touching upon using the katana occasionaly on other races although definitly not a really accepted buy on anything but a troll I'd just like to say that in the next evoloution of the game the katana may pick up some popularity.
* The mini gun
o The trolls go to weapon. I generally will go minigun build about half the time I play troll just depended on how the games going. Minigun combos very well with smart link the zoom and anti-friendly fire is valuable.
o When using the minigun target the troll last as the other races die much faster to the minigun. Inversely try to force the minigun wielder to target you if you’re the troll.
o The minigun is often seen second round. I personally think there is too much risk in this but it is defiantly a valid tactic.
o If you’re planning on teleporting at opponents go ahead and wind up the barrel I’d recommend having smart link on for this as well to prevent friendly fire and help you quickly focus in on an enemy.
o update: Wired reflexes makes the minigun wind up faster (I think I actually have never tested this but I"m pretty sure its true)
o update: Minigun is also good on dwarves
* the Sniper Rifle
o The sniper rifle is one of the hardest weapons in any game to use effectively. With a 2500 price tag you’re risking a lot in buying a sniper. Still it has the ability to one shot kill your opponent this defiantly moves the game to a more deadly battlefield then the rifle fights that take place in earlier rounds.
o Aim for the head as generally the opponent will be able to heal otherwise. Also you have to shoot first. If you’re in a sniper vs. sniper shoot as soon as you can with some accuracy your shot will throw them out of scope and if you wait to long you’re getting headshotted.
o Quick Scope:
+ The sniper rifle doesn’t allow you to no scope. Also if you get shot your thrown out of zoom. A fun way to get around this is if say a troll is shooting you with a smg at medium to low range press the zoom button and right trigger at the same time. Your not going to land a headshot this way but you can generally hit a troll.
o update: The sniper is gianing popularity now that people are getting better at it dwarves are some of the best at sniper v sniper fights although they still tend to be an easy target if they aren't counter sniping
o update: Don't count on out rifling a sniper. A couple reasons for this first of all the odds that you land 3, 4 or 5 shots before they can take cover is unreasonable as when sniping they'll probably take cover as soon as they are thrown out of zoom. Also the rifle doesn't throw the sniper out of zoom immeditly so they still have a chance to blain you even if you land a quick shot on them.
* The Rocket Launcher
o The rocket launcher I believe is an undiscovered weapon of competitive game play. At the moment it serves to be more of a joke or a taunt weapon. Still more heavily defensive set-ups tend to fall victim to a volley of rockets.
o Aim for trees. Even if you don’t kill the people healing on the tree you’ll at least destroy the tree.
o The rocket aoe goes through walls so say the opponents are on the lobby ledge you can shoot a rocket under them for notable damage.
+ Geese Gone Wild has tested this and says he had notable success running rockets smoke and enhanced.
+ It seems the aoe goes through most walls but is notably dampened
o Don’t run forward while using the rocket launcher. If there is a small amount of lag you’ll basiclly end up shooting yourself in the back with the rocket.
o That said rockets should be a rare buy in competitive matches used almost exclusively to break a defensive set-ups.
o update: Rockets are now used more often although perhaps not that skillfully. Troll is the common canidate for the rockets because of the no movespeed penalty they also work well with the glider troll build because glider allows nice rocket angles.
* Grenades
o I almost forgot to mention grenades despite their major role in matches.
o A lot of teams will like to bombard you with grenades right at the start hoping for an early advantage. I personally would recommend each player throws 1 grenade in this volley (if you die one of your grenades disappears anyways so might as well make sure you can use them all). If you know they did notable damage move forward and launch another wave of grenades on their tree.
o Avoid/Use Grenade traps. The best example I can think of for this is lobby some of those side hallways. It's perfectly valid to want to rush the opponents side. Just make sure you don't get trapped in the side hallways as I've seen time and time again. Your an easy nade victim in the hallway also its incredibly easy to surround your team blocking the escape with nades as well. The result is your team will most likely be destroyed in under a minute most likely not netting kill. Just think about nade traps and try to use them to your advantage. If your team gets caught in one of these immediately retreat before they can block your escape.
o Also if see a bleeder that's a bit difficult to get to simply drop a nade on their tree. This will force them to abandon the tree for at least a second but even if they smoke avoiding the damage the gernade will cause the tree to go away much earlier and the bleeder will be left without a tree for a period of time (ideally)
* Artifact
o The artifact as a weapon is similar to a katana.
o As the artifact as a katana if your fighting a single katana opponent you can simply block their attacks and walk the score in backwards or back into your allies.
o The artifact kills minions in one hit. If there happens to be a minion on your way to score the artifact go ahead and chop him once but don't go too far out of your way to kill a minion with the artifact.
o The artifact damages smoked opponents. So if only a single heavy smoker remains you can try to hunt him down with the artifact but make sure your team isn't gathered around to close (as is natural when dealing with a smoker) to avoid any friendly fire.
o Today attrition has been updated so that you can clear bodies with the artifact. My early impressions on this:
+ This may encourage more of an artifact rush in attrition.
+ The only time this is really practical is if you rushed the artifact then you were able to kill an opponent and camp his body.
+ The artifact carrier will be able to see the opponents and at the first sign of danger should put down the artifact and join the fight.
+ Quite honestly I don't expect tactics to change that much because of this except expect to see a few more artifact rushes on poco(small) and pinnacle attrition.
o update: No one really used the artifact rush more then they did already. The only time you clear a body is when its conveint and the fight has slowed down a little.
Magic
* Resurrect
o Resurrect allows you to bring a fallen ally back from the dead attaching that players life to your own (I.E. if you die that player will bleed out).
o Unquestionably one of the best spells in the game. Elves probably should buy rez round one. Humans no later then round 4 and trolls whenever they get around to it. A key to success in both attrition and extraction is getting the rez as soon as your ally falls in order to prevent your allies being cleared or their bodies being camped. Pay attention to where it displays kills for allies to die. Some teams like to have simply be casting rez during the fights even if you haven’t had an ally die yet so that the player will be pickupped immediately. This is useful before you have anything else to drop your essence.
o update: The random casting of rez lost popularity.
o update: Getting rezzs as fast as possible tends to be important so the opponents can't hold the body this is doubly true in extraction
* Tree of Life
o Tree of Life will slowly heal any character that stands near it regardless of team.
o The best friend of both humans and trolls. In starting a push one of the best ways to go about it is to wait until your teams at an advantage in the rifle exchange or soften the opponents up with grenades. Then quickly push and drop grenades on the opponent’s trees. This tactic works better earlier on as eventually teams will have a forest to their own. Also on the defending end try to place trees where they are safe from enemy fire, close by and not easy to be naded.
o update: If you put two trees where their roots are touching the one cast first will quickly disappear.
* GUST
o Gust shoots a gust of wind in a direction you point.
o Gust goes through most thin boundaries so feel free to gust the smoker who's right behind that doorway.
o This has many uses so numerous that I’m going to skip on listing them all out and just note the more important ones. You can gust opponents grenade preventing much trouble in the initial nade flurry (note: this is harder then it sounds). You can killer smokers with gust (duh, but its an important use). I’ve noticed many people have taken to dropping their nades in front of them and gusting them towards the opponents. The idea here is you start the explosion timer and then gust them at the opponent making them more difficult to dodge. Also if you hit your opponent in the gust (which you most likely will) the opponent will be less able to maneuver. A tactic that hasn’t been widely adopted yet but seems pretty strong to me is random gust in rifle fights. The idea here is to simply throw your opponent off aim. Also gust is important for controlling high ground most notably in Poco.
o update: Gust is one of you most important body clearing and controlling tools. Gust bodies where you can easily controll them and where they will be hard to use. Also gust bodies off the edge whenever possible.
* Smoke
o Whether or not you buy smoke should depend on several factors. First and foremost perhaps is whether it’s your teams style of play. I’ve seen several strong teams with multiple members buying smoke first round. It has pretty solid logic in that these early rounds a player can smoke away from a dangerous situation hide back on the tree and be perfectly safe. Smoke is also the best spell for surviving the grenade volleys unhurt. Later rounds smoke becomes much less effective as a safety tool but it then gets the benefit of making you invisible to enhanced vision. This is a valuable in teams that like to run two, two person groups and focus on flanking. You will be invisible to enhanced vision at range. Once you get close to the enemy you’ll have to have smoke activate to become invisible to enhanced vision.
o update: Smoke has become a standard third buy for elves. Its actually popular to the point that some of the more innovative teams (secret weapon most notably) have stopped buying ev because of it.
* Strangle
o I’m not a terribly big fan of strangle but I won’t deny its usefulness. As dwarfs are uncommon sights in the competitive 4v4 matches strangle is considerably stronger. I’d recommend buying strangle as a late buy when you just have cash your not going to use. Also if a ninja troll is giving you trouble strangle troll is a common counter for ninja troll. And run back until their essences refills. If they are slow they may be caught in the strangle and they will be unable to teleport off fast enough. Becoming a free kill.
o update: Strangle isn't used much at all nowadays I believe the only person using it at vegas was elimite warrior who was picked up last minute becuase pure needed a fourth and although I got a few laughs out of his strangles it still seems that amgs trump it in most situations.
o update: Perhaps teams that run dwarves should consider using strangle over amg to better take advantage of the dwarf
B-fire stance explanation of the uses of strangle
Strangle
Obviously, I can't make a fair argument since Strangle is my 4th buy and I keep it equipped so obviously I'm going to try to say good things about it. Nonetheless I'd like to add reasons it could be a great buy and ways to use it. The most obvious of these is for fighting the opposing teams troll.
* Because the glider troll is more common now, in those intense troll-on-troll fights, it can often be hard for your troll to toss a good AMG on the wall or cieling above him without sacrificing damage dealt by aiming the minigun away from the troll. In this case it can help significantly to have an elf with strangle along side. The elf can cast strangle on the wall or cieling and this will actually trap the troll mid-air and throw off his aim while draining his essence. Strangle is much easier to aim when casting it high up on walls or cielings.
* Obviously, just being able to strangle a troll in general will help as well. If the troll is leading a rush and the elf happens to be in the middle of his path, you'll normally see the elf teleport away from the line of fire. A great alternative to this is by looking down and jumping back while strangling the ground and smoking. Since strangle takes a few seconds to cast and appear, the troll should end up walking directly through the strangle and since the elf's in smoke he won't be taking any damage. The troll will be left vulnerable in the strangle and the strangle will also slow down the opposing team's rush.
* One of the best uses for strangle wil appear later in the rounds once the opposing team's ressurectors are killed. This will normally leave a human or alike alive, bleeding beside a try. Obviously, a nicely placed AMG will destroy the tree in seconds, but if the human is smart he'll avoid the AMG and possibly be able to escape to another nearby tree. The alternative: strangle. By strangling the enemy while he is bleeding out by a tree, the tree will be destroyed by the strangle and the enemy will normally be trapped within it. Since he/she is bleeding out, the strangle will appear to do more damage and may even kill the enemy or force a bleed out.
* Strangle can also be used to attack a team that is caught off guard. If an elf has strangle and is able to get around behind the other team without being seen, strangle can often be a great way to maximize the unexpected attack. If an elf teleports behind two enemies with snipers, he should normally be able to take out once pretty easily with the simple gust+smg tactic. However, if this elf was equipping strangle, he could cast it before attacking and have a better possibility of actually killing both enemies. By doing this, the team is also forced to spread out a bit and move out of position and this could be a great time to initiate a rush.
* While there are many offensive uses for strangle, there are, as well some defensive techniques that can be performed through the use of stangle. Casting a good strangle on a fallen troll's corpse can often make it a very difficult rez for the other team - more difficult than with the standard AMG tactic.
* In extraction, strangle can be used to defend the score point, however I don't think it should be placed before the artifact carrier approaches. This gives the other team time to see it and time to formulate a plan of attack to avoid it. The key to a good strangle is by catching the enemy off guard.
* Another use is to force pursuing enemies away. By just throwing a strangle down behind you as you flee from an enemy, you are all the more likely to escape. The pursuer may not have enough essence to teleport through it or around it and will have to wait.
* I believe that FASA initially intended for strangle to be a defensive spell. Although I think that this is the case, I believe that strangle is more advanageous in an offensive attack. It's not something that can be used 100% efficiently easily, however. Strangle works slightly different than most magics in that once it is cast it travels almost like a rocket launcher. The strangle leaves the person who cast it slightly delayed and will take a few seconds to reach its destination. That's why it is important to be able to accurately anticipate your enemy's movement, and if the strangle is going to miss, you must be able to adapt to the new situation you've created.
* It should be noted that because strangle is a hold magic, it should be used carefully or when absolutely necessary. It is often a good idea to use this spell in combination with AMGs. If you need the two pips of essence back, throw an AMG on the strangle and it will disappear quickly. The AMG will replace the strangle and might also be in an appropriate location for something else.]
* Teleport
o Teleport is the bread and butter of lots of strong teams. There teleport lines give them a strong advantage angle wise while your team is still at spawn. They are often able to simply out teleport weaker players.
o The basics of teleport is that it allows you to teleport 10 meters in any direction going through anything in the way instantly.
o A few quick tips on teleport:
+ You can actually only teleport 10 meters in the direction you’re facing. You teleport 8 meters if you’re not facing that way.
# For the skeptics out there this vid gameroom.mlgpro.com/view/3by0...Cfhsals20.html. shows the difference pretty well while showing teleport lines on pinnacle.
+ If you stop and jump straight up you can get the full ten meters and you can teleport to heights that you generally won’t make while running.
+ You can teleport downwards while running by simply facing downward and teleporting.
+ A fun maneuver to lose chasers is to teleport through a wall then as soon as teleport cools down (or when you deem appropriate) teleport back through the same wall the teleport lines tend to be hard to follow when you do this.
o Teleport is generally my second spell buy for most races. The increased maneuverability it offers makes it that’s its nearly impossible for a non-teleporting team to finish a kill on a teleporting team if they are smart about pulling out.
o Teleport is the ultimate don’t be selfish spell. If your in a close range team fight when the opponents start focusing on you its time to teleport behind your allies. This will force the opponents to pull-out, chase through your allies or change targets.
o update: Being able to teleport makes a player.
* Summon
o Summon creates a demonic being that protects an area or attacks a certain player. For the longest time I thought this spell had no place in competitive play but recently a popular tactic is to start a charge behind a minion. Although you’ll probably not get any kills with the minion the minion will be able to take a large amount of damage and if ignored it will cause some damage in a fight. Generally the best solution for minion is either antimagic or a minion of your own.
o Also in long stand off rifle fight style games there is no point in not sending minions at them. Even if it dies without being able to damage them they have to use a considerable amount of ammo on the minion and you get a safe chance to take some shots at them.
o update: With use of amgs summon has lost any popularity it once had.
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Technology
* Anti-magic Generators
o Anti-magic Generators can be thrown like grenades and stick to stable surface they hit. All of the essence of anything near an anti-magic generator will quickly be sucked out. Currently anti-magics tend to only be used as relatively late buys as troll counters or as earlier buys against two troll teams. I personally believe that amg’s are incredibly underused in 4v4’s.
o update: WHO CALLED IT? yeah thats right I called the increased use of amgs. Now amgs are really popular and if you aren't familar with using them I'd recommend you try them out they are quick castable in most situations. The only real exception being an amg troll because the quickcast menu stops a mini gun
o amg's make trolls easy to kill so whenever you can amg a troll.
o amg's destroy trees so amg your enemies trees
o amgs drain essence so amg dwarves just to annoy them as well as opponents hoping to escape with teleport.
* Enhanced Vision
o Enhanced Vision allows you to see allies and enemies within 60m
o I believe enhanced vision to be one of the best techs in the game worthy of a human first round buy. Pretty much every strong teams runs with enhanced vision. Enhanced is best used for locating easy targets and flanks.
o I've noticed some of the best humans in the game (chillax and Gawdlike for example) often will run enhanced and use it to find good opportunities to warp close behind a team. Kill one or just cause confusion while their team picks you apart from the side.
o Then on the other hand you got some of the top riflers (acehawk for a name you'll probably recognize if you read the thread) in the game who will simply line up the shot before you even show your head and be able to pop out for a quick rifle kill.
o It’s also very beneficial for artifact running.
* Glider
o The glider allows you to glide to high places and to go from one high place to another. The glider can also be used to avoid fall damage.
o The glider IMHO is the worst tech in the game. Any thing the glider can do teleport can do better. I don’t believe I have ever seen a glider in a competitive 4v4 match. I believe it could be justified as a risky early buy on pinnacle so you can better control the upper deck but I disagree with the purchase of glider in a competitive game.
o update: I proved myself wrong on this one. With the increased use of amgs the glider has emerged as a counter. Although it only tends to be used by trolls it is definitly useful. Also I wouldn't be surprised is dwarves start to use glider to counter amgs.
* Smart-link
o Smart-link as described by the internet: While active, Smartlink confers a number of advantages, but also adds a laser sight that makes you more visible to opponents. Smartlink helps to make firing your weapons more accurate, adds an additional level of zoom to each ranged weapon, and adds smart targeting that prevents you from damaging your teammates. Once activated, Smartlink remains on until you use it again to deactivate it.
o The extra level of zoom makes your reticule smaller thus increasing accuracy. This differs depending on what gun you are using.
o I disagree with the general population on this one. Most players believe that smart-link is a newb item. I also think smart-link is a valid late round buy for a human. As humans suffer no tech penalty smart-link will generally give you a small advantage in even smg fights especially if you use as complicated strafing as possible and the zoom whenever possible.
o When you have smart link on it has a red light pointing where you are (and more then likely your team is as well). The point is don’t run around with smart link on.
o If you’re zoomed in and turn smart link on you’ll be forced out of zoom so turn it on before you zoom if your planning on using it for a fight.
o update: Smartlink is now more readily recognized as an acceptable buy. Although smartlink troll isn't popular at this point in the game humans can reguraly be seen buying smartlink
* Wired Reflexes
o I believe the only race I’ve ever seen this on in a competitive match is troll. Wired reflexes increases your general movespeed reload time and other good stuff like that. Also it allows you to block more bullets with the katana and if you activate it you’ll have a speed burst at the cost of some damage to you (I’d say about a pistol shot to the body but I’m not sure).
o The logic of running a wired troll is pretty solid. Trolls have the lowest movespeed so the speed increase helps keep them from being just completely ran around. With the speed boost trolls can keep pace with elves. As trolls have so much health the damage from the boost isn’t something trolls need to worry about. Trolls tend to fall victim to the sniper wars rather easily. So the wired reflexes can be used to make sure they don’t get a free kill on you.
o update: Wired also makes the mini wind up faster
o update: When running a wired troll don't kill yourself with wired generally just use it to get chase people when teleporting isn't neccary.
Quick tips:
A few quick tips that I didn’t mention elsewhere.
*Economy breakdown I originally didn't post this instead I said buy the strat. guide as the economy and damage breakdown are the only real purpose of the strat guide. Well I decided to be nice
*Damage breakdown Heres a damage breakdown done by xenox.
* Weapons Gambit (I came up with a clever name for this tactic I hope it sticks) It was a common tactic for a while (I think it was Texas finest who started it but I’m not sure). Anyways the tactic was that a player drops out two clicks of money to each of his allies. This allows everyone to buy guns and all but one person to have the normal magics. In running this I’d recommend buying smg’s and just overrunning the opponents focusing on the rez races first (rendering their magic useless hopefully). The spelless player should be the most aggressive as he’s pretty much worthless. This tactic has obvious risk and I’d recommend not running it if you don’t have an aggressive team. Also be sure to give back to clicks second round to the donator so he doesn’t fall behind in his buys.
* General Extraction Quick tips
o A lot of competitive teams tend to play extraction the exact same way as they play attrition except they are able to clear bodies. I wouldn't recommend this in general because running artifact is a solid strat.
o On the other hand a lot of teams tend to play a purely artifact oriented game. This is okay to do sometimes but when you rush the artifact the second or third time they'll be ready for you and while your holding artifact your one gun down for fights. You can often take advantage of overaggressive teams by getting them to over focus on a non artifact carrying player.
o Generally I find the best time to run the artifact is after people have been fighting for a bit. Generally this will force the people to leave the fights there in or not be able to defend.
o There are times you must learn to recognize as golden opportunities to run the artifact. These are more notable in the early rounds because players don't have teleport to get back and defend quickly. The most common example of this is on nerve center extraction. If a team rushes sky bridge early rounds you should be able to grab the artifact run it up hangar ramp. As soon as you grab artifact your team should push towards the opponents sky bridge from their elevator bank. Your team will be able to hold a stable front for a little bit just by using gernades to force the opponents back. In this time the artifact runner should be able to run the artifact up hangar ramp for an easy score.
o The decision of when should I run the artifact is common. Generally I would only recommend running if the opponents are distracted to the point that you should be able to run in unnoticed assuming none of them turn. On some maps you can simply push the artifact in past a light defense. Also if your planning on just forcing the artifact in a troll will make a good runner.
o update: Its now really common to see an artifact rush on extraction. The reason for this is teams want the extra 100 dollars for having first grab in case the game comes down to a cash tie break
* Winning with the artifact This section is devoted extraction only.
o The extraction victory order goes Escaping with the artifact> killing the opposing team > winning based on kills > winning based on money earned
+ I'm not positive if those last two are right I posted a thread a while ago hoping for an explanation but never got one so I'll leave a CITATION NEEDED sticker for that
o The last two are surprisingly key. A solid tactic for extraction fight from a generally defensive position and simply win on the tie breaker.
o Another similar tactic is to rush the artifact thus earning 300 dollars (100 for first grab 200 for holding it). Now that your winning on money your opponents are forced to make the next move.
* Pinnacle A lot of teams have taken to have a human give out one click to an elf first round and sending 2 people upper decks first round. Decent tactic. The artifact can be thrown up there as well. Again this is a bit risky and people can simply grab the artifact and run it to there base rendering the upper deck worthless. So if your going to run this first round just be careful. Skies the limit started this tactic I believe.
* Jumping reasign I've been using this more and more lately. The basic concept is that you jump (keeping your forward movement) and while in the air press b to go to the menu and simply reasign a magic or tech. I find this to be more useful for techs as they can't be quickcasted but its defintly valid to reasign gust using this tactic.
* +1400. Every round you make 1400 dollars just for playing. Consider this when your making your buys. If you have a team willing to dish out money you don’t have to manage your money that well but sometimes say if you have 500 left you should hold off buying the second gun.
* +1400x2 I think this probably a glitch in the game and most likely will be removed. If you win by possessing the artifact you get an extra 1400 in addition to the 1400 you get for playing.
* Clearing In extraction its essential you clear your kills if it’s a high pace fight I’d consider putting two people on a body to ensure a quick clear. Be smart when clearing though if you’re in the middle of a fight or they have the artifact you may just have to leave the body. Make sure to take the players ammo and grenade though so he won’t be too dangerous once rezed. I believe it takes two sniper shots to clear a body so if you wiped an opponent say on the crane you may be able to clear him from a safe distance before his team can pull the rez.
* update: Clearing faster: You can clear bodies faster by shooting them in the head. Clearing and quick rezzs are what decides the winner of extraction a lot of times
* Camping The attrition version of clearing. If you killed a loner take the corpse. Take all of the player’s ammo and consider scattering the guns either by hand or with gust. Once you’ve sufficiently devalued the player place a couple amg around the corpse to make any quick rez attempts difficult.
* Work Together. Your entire team doesn’t have to be standing on top of each other but you should have a general idea of your entire team’s location and their situation. If you use the two group strategy this is even more important.
* The Artifact. The artifact can now clear bodies. So when opportunity presents itself clear a body
* Think and adapt Don't always send people to the exact same places eventually the other team will catch on. On the same note watch to see if they tend to run the same routes every time its not uncommon for a team to have the same guy rush artifact by himself every round. Use this to your advantage to get a free kill.
* update: Reduced reload time the value of this trick is arguable on anything but the minigun and sniper rifle. If you reload before the gun is completely emptied it takes less time to relaod. A good demonstration of the value of this is in vegas we were hanging out in sw room and chillax mentions in explaining that while elamite warrior was smart and a good shot but he didn't know a lot of things like the "reload glitch". After a pause I beleive panik, gawdlike, mirage furykx and probably some more admit to not knowing that while me, fraction enraged and probably a couple others had a good laugh at chillax for his views on the "reload glitch".
* Adapt to your opponents If a team runs the normal builds on a two elf, one troll and an elf team then you shouldn't have to worry to much about changing your builds. But if a team varies from the normal you shouldn't just assume the normal builds will beat them. Probably the best example of this is venom.
* Venom runs two trolls a human and an elf.
* These guys won the first online tourny partially because they were good but also because didn't know how to fight two trolls.
* On the other hand ip probably the best team at fighting two trolls simply change their buy order to fight two trolls focusing on strangle and amgs and rarely lose more than 2 rounds to venom.
* I personally think if venom ever went to a lan tourny they wouldn't have done as well as people think just because a lot of teams can beat them and with the more important situation of being a lan I think teams would actually bother figuring out what they shoudl do to win.
* update: I changed the example to venom. Although I have nothing against the team I do think they make a good example for this also they tend to be overestimated and this bothers me.
To get you started in the right direction here are some very basic money management and racial builds.
PLEASE READ THIS PART:
This not mean to be the end all build guide. More just a basic idea of simple money management. I tried to leave lots of options on what to buy but still there are many more builds and money management strats that are effective.
My team doesn't even run this money management but its a gives people a good idea of the basics.
Very basic team set up:
/ means buy one or the other
if you have extra cash buy guns generally depends on if you won the other rounds or not
races:
Troll, Human 1, Human 2 and elf
round 1:
Troll: tree
Human 1: rez + rifle
Human 2: rez + rifle
elf: rez
round 2:
Troll: clicks out to everyone so they can get tele
Human 1: tele
Human 2: tele
elf: tele
round 3:
troll: tele, amg, wired/glider and a mingun/smg/rifle (buy as many of those as you can afford but consider giving back money for your team to get guns if you have it)
human 1: clicks troll
human 2: clicks troll
elf 1: clicks troll
around here it gets less organized as money really sways depending on how much you've been winning.
around round 4 through 8:
troll: weapons consider rez if you have cash
elf: smoke consider gust and or amgs
human 1: smartlink/ev/smoke/gust/tree
human 2: tree, smartlink/ev/smoke/gust
later rounds:
Ev human considers getting sniper
consider stacking troll for rockets especially if its a glider troll
To summarize:
basic builds:
Troll:
tree, tele, amgs, glider/wired, minigun and smg/rifle
Human: rez, tele, tech, preference ability (gust, smoke, smartlink, ev, amgs a lot of stuff works on humans) and tree before too long. Use smg and rifle as main weapons.
elf: rez and tele then help build other players. Then get smoke to avoid ev and smartlink followed by either amgs or gust. Use smg and rifle as main weapons.