A mechanically-challenged (not-so) gamer/theorycrafter/tactician doing his best to climb if not trying out unusual stuff, making use of AI-taught macro skills to compensate for poor micro, and preaching that being easy to carry is of equal value to being able to carry.
After some time of maintaining a good Rafaela ranked win streak, I finally got a string of losses. The first loss was kind of okay, as I thought I was just going to play one more game to take back my lost star. The second game went poorly as I was forced to mid Uranus vs a good Luo Yi. The Angela support stayed in my lane while our marksman soloed top vs Layla and Khufra. Needless to say, the game ended tragically. It was only our Gusion who fared okay. I actually felt bad for that player as I played really badly. Tried to force unneeded fights. Being forced to build magic def also didn’t help as the Layla got fed.
The third game, I was a bit tilted. I went for Rafaela once again, but I had a bad feeling as our comp lacked damage. I was too focused on babysitting our Miya that I didn’t pay attention to our top Balmond getting stomped by Natan. The enemy Johnson who laned with a Layla got a lot of picks midgame. With our comp, I knew it was over as they marched with the Lord in their last push.
The last game, I was ready to lose a fourth star. I gave up my S1 to a Chang’e, and I ended up S5. It was too late when I realized that we don’t have a jungler that I reluctantly switched battle spell to Retribution. I have already locked Gloo. I felt really bad, especially after I got killed early and gave up two turtles. I tried to focus on objectives and was able to secure most of them. I felt a little better when we won most skirmishes. Turns out the enemy jungler is AFK, so it didn’t really matter if I played badly or not, I guess.
A loss is only a loss if you’re not able to learn anything from it. I got three losses, so I should learn at least three things from them.
First, I can’t always lock Rafaela. It seems that focusing too much on her made me kind of forget how my other heroes play out. Even though Uranus and Gloo are eazy-peezy heroes, I am not mechanically skilled enough to just pick them up after long periods of disuse. The Uranus game, I failed to rotate properly and forced a lot of unnecessary fights, thinking that we’re winning while in fact, we’re not. I have played Uranus mid before vs a skilled player and I was able to do it properly. I am not defending my pick. It actually sucks, but I guess I could have played it properly.
Second, I need to be quite observant. I can probably blame it on the tilt for not paying attention, but I shouldn’t be playing in the first place since I was already tilted. I was too focused on what heroes to use that I was not able to properly adapt.
Third, I need to learn how to jungle. I don’t want to blame my teammates but all three losses, our jungler failed to secure all objectives even though they were playing proper jungle heroes. I guess I’m still anxious after my bad Balmond jungle game, but I think I can probably pick a tank jungler at least that can be flexed to another role if ever. I am considering Baxia or Uranus.
I feel that I need to watch my replays if I want to improve my gameplay some more and avoid these lose streaks. Also, I need to strengthen my mentality some more. Well, that’s if I really want to rank up. Okay, rant over. Time for bed.
Since my device is unable to handle War Robots Remastered, I dabbled into other games. One of the ones that I tried was Strike Royale.
For those familiar with Brawl Stars like me, Strike Royale would be an easy pick-up, having similar style game modes. To those who aren’t familiar, it’s a fast-paced 3v3 action game. The win objective depends on the game mode. There’s the usual team deathmatch, X-item collection, and base defense. Unlike Brawl Stars though, Strike Royale has an escort mode where you’re tasked to move a cargo towards a specific location.
[I guess I took the wrong moment to make a screenshot. My ping is usually okay though.]
After some weeks of playing, I’ve listed some of the things that I liked and didn’t like.
THE GOOD:
CHARACTERS AND CUSTOMIZATIONOPTIONS
Personally, I like the way the characters move compared to Brawl Stars. I can’t blame Brawl Stars though for sometimes feeling slow as it’s really a slower-paced game anyway. Heroes can be bought too and you don’t have to get lucky and get them from chests.
Each hero has one unique ability aside from the ultimate. In Brawl Stars, you need to get a gadget from a chest before you get a unique ability aside from your normal shots and ultimate. As you can see on the screenshot below, there are three buttons aside from the normal attack button.
[A screenshot from Coop game mode.]
Aside from unique hero abilities, you also get to choose a tactical gadget to further augment your setup. I guess the game kind of got it from the usual MOBA skills. Players can choose from an array of gadgets that provide Healing, Shield, Damage, Brush Detection, Cooldown, Reload, or even short invincibility.
Another layer of customization can be found on the Chip system. It’s similar to League of Legend’s and Arena of Valor’s Rune system. For some players, this would be a turn-off since this could turn the game into a grind-fest. The good thing though is you automatically get ALL the chips in the game. The downside is you’d have to level them up if you want to maximize their potential. Still, I feel having all of them unlocked from the get-go is a great help to players.
FREE-TO-PLAY FRIENDLY
As previously mentioned, Heroes can be easily bought with Gold (the basic currency) or Hero Shards. The game is very generous with gold that I was able to buy most of the heroes, even those purchasable by shards that I no longer have any use for Hero shards (which is a downside for me as I have no use for Hero shards now). In three weeks of playing four to five games a day, I only have 6 heroes left to unlock. I have enough gold to unlock two of those, but the other four are unlocked either by topping up (top-up bonus), spinning Gacha, and through an event (not sure if I got this one right). Of those four, only one is a meta choice, I believe.
Special weapons can only be purchased to further augment your hero choice. Each hero has access to a gold weapon and an ultimate weapon. Both of which add a small bonus damage plus a special passive that boosts a skill, adds damage, or gives extra ammo clip. I think of it as an Aghanim’s of some sort. Gold weapons can be bought with Gold weapon shards that can be gotten through daily quests, events, and achievements. Ultimate weapons can be bought with Ultimate weapon shards or could easily be obtained in certain events. As a matter of fact, I’ve gotten three Ultimate weapons through events in my casual gaming sessions.
HERO BALANCE
[The yellowish weapon icon denotes Gold weapon while the reddish one is for Ultimate weapon.]
Personally, I find heroes to be very well-balanced. I’ve seen complaints about a certain artillery hero, but I believe that hero strengths can easily be counteracted by their weaknesses. Heroes are categorized into Tank, Fighters, and Shooters, and I feel they’re like Rock, Papers, Scisssors. Shooters are the usual glass cannons and can be quickly bursted down by Fighters which play like assassins or bruisers, while Tanks can usually survive bursts from Fighters and can reverse the tide of battle depending on how one plays a Tank hero. Team composition still plays a huge factor in games and a well-balanced team can destroy DPS spammers.
MULTIPLE GAME MODES
The game features multiple game modes. Skirmish is the traditional team deathmatch. Sabotage is similar to Brawl Star’s Heist, where the objective is to destroy the enemy core. Rogue is like Brawl Star’s gem grab, where you need to gather energy bars and hold onto them for a certain length of time. Escort is where you try to “push” a cart to a certain point. Unbounded Skirmish has multiple objectives and you gain points by killing neutral camps, controlling an area of the map, and killing enemy heroes.
Aside from these modes, the game has an Arcade mode which has a number of rotating games, depending on the day of the week; Coop mode where you team up with players to kill waves of insectoid monsters; and Extreme Battle mode, which is a regular survival type game.
THE BAD:
LOW VOLUME OF PLAYERS
For a game that is good, I am surprised by the lack of players. To speed up matchmaking, you could end up playing with bots to fill in for missing players. This could sometimes lead to bad experiences, although there are times that bots play even better than humans, so I guess you could call it even. Still, it would be good if the game picks up in popularity, so you’ll get matched more with human players rather than AI.
CURRENCY
Aside from the regular gold, the game has coupons, which can be used to open gacha for Chips; shards for hero and skins; and other sorts of shards for weapons and chips. Honestly, I got confused at first by the amount of currencies. Gold can only be used to buy heroes and once you get all, you’ll have no use for it. The same goes with shards. I just wish there is some sort of a way to exchange resources, so you won’t have tons of them lying in a pile that you won’t use.
SKIN STATS
Similar to Mobile Legends, skins provide 2% damage boost. Although this would seem miniscule, this is a turn-off to some players since between two players with equal skills, that 2% would still be an advantage. I guess having an option for skins that could be purchasable by gold could solve this at least.
GRINDINESS
I mentioned earlier the grind factor that could be associated with Chips. I believe that could be a turn-off too for other players. Also, Heroes can be leveled up to 10 and I guess some players won’t like this either. Still, getting a hero to level 8, is just a breeze.
FINAL THOUGHTS
“Give the game a try” is all I can say. Even with the occasional bot matches, I find the game fun and could be casual and competitive at the same time. It’s sad that such a fun game has low player volume, and if you like the game, share it to your friends so that the community could grow.
In games where content is being updated from time to time, there is a tendency that the older characters, no matter how strong they are, become obsolete. This is usually referred to as power creep. Although there are occasions too when older stuff are stronger than newer ones (usually on TCGs like Magic: The Gathering), this is not the case with War Robots.
You’ve probably heard stories of old-generation bots being the top dog. Griffins even had different meta builds before they finally became outclassed by stealth-jump and dashbots, which were also pushed aside by pantheons and dragons.
How does power creep affect the game?
Depending on how strong newer-produced game content is, power creep can slowly or rapidly phase out the popular stuff, in case of WR, weapons and bots. Using the above example, Griffins used to dominate the field with rocket death-button and plasma death-button setups. When dashbots came, some of the Griffin setups were adopted by the usurpers newcomers, pushing them aside from popularity. The same can be said with the dash and stealth-jump bots when even newer bots came later.
I call this the Mjolnir scenario. This time, you’re owning everyone and their mothers and entire extended family up until the Patch hits the servers.
It’s all fun and games until a Hela decides to invite herself to your party. GLHF, Commander!
One might notice that as newer bots come, their mobility and ability outclasses the older ones.
MOBILITY
Griffin used to be the most mobile heavy robot to ever walk the battlefield. Well, it was a time when bots used to just walk and there were no dashes. Running is limited to lighter bots which are combat-limited by durability. If you wanted mobility, you’d have to sacrifice toughness for it. Griffin, even though it’s a heavy bot, was squishy for its weight, especially when compared to Leos and Natashas, but this is just a slight drawback for its mobility.
Then came the dashbots. Not only were they mobile, but they were durable as well, especially Bulgasari with physical shield and Haechi with energy shield. They didn’t only replace the Griffin, but the faster, lighter bots as well.
Let’s take Rhino. Mobility-wise, it used to be one of the fastest bots in shield mode, but at the expense of very limited turn rate and inability to use its top-mounted weapons. Fast forward to now, Fenrir does what Rhino does, albeit slower. But ability-wise, they both disable their weapons, activate a shield, and gain a speed boost. Still, Fenrir is among, if not the strongest tank in the game while the poor Rhino hasn’t seen battle in quite a while.
Some bots have a “better clone.” Griffin has a better version, the Raven, which is good in every way (Griffin has higher HP but this advantage is negligible). Another example is Stalker. It was a decent beacon runner and/or assassin. Then came the Pursuer, which is a Stalker with one extra weapon slot, longer ability duration, and tougher hull. Why would you use Stalker if there is a better version of it. Now, even the Pursuer could be replaced by Phantom, although they differ in ability and playstyle, but almost the same function.
ABILITY
Again, we will be using the Griffin. You might wonder I am bias with the bot. Yes, I would admit that I love the bot, but I’m using it an an example as I see it as well-balanced when it was meta. It has a basic jump with long cooldown good and hardpoints with the drawback of being squishier than other heavies.
Now, Raven gets two jumps with almost the same cooldown as Griffin’s. Inquisitor and Spectre both got Stealth jumps, with a little longer cooldown than the Griffin’s, but at least they don’t get insta-killed in the air.
In case of Stalker and Pursuer, the latter even has a longer duration Stealth. Is it sad? Yes. Is it justifiable? I think so. Stalker is a 500 gold bot, while the Pursuer is a 10K component bot. It’s normal to have more features if you have to pay for premium, right?
MODULES
Older bots have lesser passive module slots while others have no slots at all. With modules being gamechangers, limiting bots to their usage already puts them in a disadvantage.
Why invest on older bots?
I guess some of the older bots would just serve as training hammers wheels. Both Griffin and Stalkers teach you when to use your abilities, properly timing when you go in and fight, etc. Leos introduce players to brawling, depending on the build. These bots can temporarily serve as placeholders while waiting for your workshop to churn out comps for your premium bots.
I feel it’s OK to have players use them to get a good feel of the game. The problem is when you end up investing too much on them as they’d end up being resource sinks, which is pretty normal since most of us want to level up our hangars. Some players would defend them and would say that skills beat meta. Well, skills are important, but in a fight between two equally skilled players, the one with the better tools would still have the edge. Also, the cost of making them viable, would probably be too steep, especially for free-to-play players. You might have to spend a lot of resources upgrading your Golem to turn them into MK2s, but even lower level Ao Juns could dracarys them to heaps of molten iron.
Would you spend on blinging your training wheels? Personally, I won’t. But I’m not discrediting older bots. Actually, I want them to get buffed!
How to make old bots viable in higher leagues?
You just can’t. Seriously. Again, I’m not saying that they’re worthless. There are players who still play in Champions with old bots, but they’re usually head over heels with their pet bots. They ‘re having fun with their setups. If you are a competitive player and trying to climb by emulating what they’re doing, things won’t go well for you. Trust me. Just get a meta bot. It will save you from a lot of heartache and your silver as well.
So, am I offering a solution or just ranting? If given a chance, what would I do to make old bots viable?
It’s actually easy to say to just buff old bots. But then, if they become too strong, who would spend on newer content? If I’m Pixonic, of course I’d see things from a business perspective, I won’t just directly buff the old bots. I’d probably fiddle around with MK2. Yes, MK2.
MK2ing a bot like Griffin only gives it 20% more HP, which is probably just a single burst from a full shotgun setup, so it’s not a lot. Still, you can see players going that direction just because they like the bot. So, why not reward them? What if when you upgrade an old bot to MK2, you unlock module slot(s)? I’m sure Leo would welcome that extra space for another HAK. At max level, they can even add a little something to their skills?
Would you like to see a Cossack having 1-second phase shift in the air? Or the Griffin having energy shield on jump or just an extra boost of speed upon landing? How about the Rhino being more Rhino-esque, with ramming damage depending on the distance it ran?
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m not expecting Pixo to go with my suggestions. (Actually, I even had ridiculous what if thoughts of having faction-based specialties at max level using old factions, like Brit bots having shield repair; Russian bots having an extra active slot, but doubles all powercell usage; Wild West bots having innate bonus damage upon Quickdraw instead of pilot skill; German bots having an extra slot for HAK only, etc.) I do hope though that they revisit older bots as it feels it’s a waste to just let them collect dust or be just training wheels. Of course, I’m not expecting them to be at par with the newer ones, but at least give them some fighting chance. Or at least throw a bone for those who devoted time and resources for a bot that they love.
Pardon me for the cringey title, but I’m trying to calm my insides as I’m expecting a job interview call as I’m writing this (although I would’ve gone with the same even in a relaxed state. Plus the original one feels too nerdy. HINT: A reference to an icy dragon from one of RA Salvatore’s books).
What is deathbutton?
You might have heard or read about your grandpa older players talking about “death-button” setups. To the unfamiliar, ask one of the old pilots commanders and you’ll probably hear responses along the lines of, “It was way, way, way back when Griffins ruled the skies and brought pain and demise, blah-blah.” Before you say, “OK Boomer,” hear them out. I’m certain they can summarize deathbutton with “OK, BOOM!”
Death-button setup is or WAS as it says in the name. Press the red button to kill a red. There are variations like the RDB or PDB (plasma deathbutton) but they follow the same principle as the classic death-button setup: Pinata/Orkan Griffin.
Classic to cryos
Back in the days (yes, I’m what of em), the classic setup (Pinata+Orkan) was Da Bomb. Shotguns existed but I’m telling ya, you ain’t gettin that 100m sweet range of yours. Once you enter that 300m, it’s curtains close for you, unless you can Gepard-shuffle away from the death-button kill range.
Yep, those were the days. The best part? You can easily get Orkans with gold!
Even with the release of newer weapons and after some nerfs, the Orkan was still the go-to weapon, especially for F2Ps. Well, you can’t go wrong with them as they’re easily acquired and can still tango with the newcomers. But that’s until the final nail in the coffin hit the servers. That clip size reduction from 32 to 25 finally hammered and sealed the casket shut, totally burying it (along with the efforts of those who heavily invested in Orkans). R.I.P., Orkans. You will always stay embedded in our metal hearts.
When an old thing passes on, a younger, sleeker, more colorful one takes its place. The classic death-button got its eye poked and its baton snatched by the cryogenic rockets. They have the same 300-meter range, slow-moving rockets, and splash damage. The old deathbutton rockets vary in clip size depending on weapon type, with Orkans having the most clips.
In the case of cryos, they all have the same clip size and reload time, but varies in damage per rocket. This would eliminate the awkward feel of waiting for all your clips to go full.
A major feature of cryo rockets is its ability to inflict Freeze status, which slows a target by 60% and places a Death Mark debuff into it. This will make the target receive 20% more damage from all sources. This makes cryos a good addition to a team as it just doesn’t bring damage to the table but also status effects, thus pissing on the classic death-button’s grave.
So, what happens to the death-buttons? Well, Exodus still outbursts Glacier and it should since they share the same upgrade cost. In the case of Pinata/Orkan versus Rime/Cryo, the latter outbursts the former by 50%/30%, sidelining the classic DB into training wheels in preparation for acquiring a cryo setup.
How to make classic DB great again?
This is a tricky situation in my opinion. With cryos locked behind a massive silver paywall, buffing (or reverting the nerf, in case of Orkan) the classic DB could make players opt out of cryos, especially if they become highly effective against Arthur. Unless Pixo decides to drastically reduce cryo upgrade costs, I feel that nothing can really be done to Pinatas and Orkans without affecting cryo sales. They’d probably bump up the upgrade costs of classic DB to compensate, but this defeats the purpose of them being some sort of beginner-type weapons. I guess they’d really end up to be training wheels after wall.
I once had the idea of turning Pinatas, Orkans, and Exodus into incendiary rockets, with DOT burn damage to at least give them some oomph against DR. Another thought was to increase their splash effect but reduce its damage the farther away from the center and put an “impact damage” for direct hit (although I think this would suit Tridents more).
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m not totally dismissing the potential of classic deathbutton. Lottie-Rose ran DB Ravens in her hangar. Still, I feel that what’s keeping them viable is the Raven’s jump bonus. Also, IIRC, Lottie has recently been shifting her DB Ravens to cryos. So, is this the end for Pinata/Orkans? Sadly, that might be the case if you’re aiming for higher leagues. But if you’re still enjoying the classic death-button setup, then by all means, just play them. After all, our goal of playing is to have fun.
You’d probably notice that in my pocket guides, shotguns are the most suggested loadouts. Well, it’s not that I am too lazy to put other weapons. It’s just that shotguns are currently meta. For those who aren’t familiar to the term, metagame pertains to the most proven effective approach. Think of META as Most Effective Tactic Available, although its rootword is not really an acronym. Just think of it as a means to remember what it is.
Why shotgun?
So, what makes the shotgun so popular? These are the reasons that I thought of:
Damage. Since more damage means more silver, shotguns can almost pay for their own upgrades (provided that you grind) as they do tons of damage at 150m and less.
CTTO. In the diagram, it can be noted that Storm, Igniter, and Corona deal the highest amount of damage. Igniter only edges Corona by a bit. One should take note though that Igniter requires precise aiming to maximize its DPS. Potentially, Corona could edge it potentially in most cases.
Mobility creep and nerf to other brawling weapons. With most newer bots having high base speed and other mobility or shielding abilities, getting up close into shotgun range is now relatively easy. Kinetic shotguns existed way back but other brawling weapons held them at bay. Plasma’s 350m range was not hard to maintain and can easily chip away an SG user’s HP while staying outside SG’s kill range, while deathbuttons can just kill at 300m, which is still outside SG effective range. Back then, there were few options to get into effective range without being melted into slag, but this changed since the coming of dashbots.
Plasma and deathbutton setups then got nerfed. The combination of mobility creep and these nerfs pushed shotguns into the limelight.
Utility/lockdown. With the introduction of energy shotguns having the ability to immobilize targets, the weapon-class did not only bring damage to the table, but a chance to cut off a target’s mobility. Getting locked down in front of an enemy squad is a death sentence and this only incentivized clans to form kill-trains.
Modules, pilot skills, abilities. Modules like phase shift not only gave a means to escape death but to outplay enemies. Players can just phase shift when in dire straits and close in while invincible. By the time PS wears off, their shotguns have almost fully reloaded and they’re in position for a kill.
Pilot skills provide not only movespeed for closing but a chance to increase DPS as well. The Sharp Shooter skill reduces the scatter of shotgun particles, thus increasing its overall accuracy and extending the shotgun’s effective range.
Newer robot abilities either provide some form of virtual invincibility (like shields and stealth) or mobility which makes it easier to close in.
Versatility. Although shotguns are not an auto-slot in every bot (due to mobility and other factors), we can’t deny the fact that any bot with a shotgun setup could potentially win a duel IF (and it’s a big IF) it can get close enough to an enemy. This IF is possible in Beacon Rush games. Even a slow, antique bot like Leo can spawn-raid-boss the enemy base given enough chance to capture a red home beacon.
Older speedy bots like a Gepard can still wreak havoc to the enemy lines when piloted well and equipped with shotguns. I’m not recommending this, but I’m saying it’s possible.
Simplicity. Shotguns are very simple to use. Get close and shoot. That’s it. Well, getting close could be a challenge, but at least, once you’re in range, you just have to mash those buttons.
Smart reload. In addition to quick reload times, shotguns can reload while firing, because of this, you don’t lose that much DPS when out of ammo. This is one of the reasons why brawlers prefer shotguns.
Pros/Cons
PROS:
High damage potential, reload while firing, making them perfect for brawlers.
Can hit stealthed bots without QR.
Storms are cheap to upgrade and can compete with other pricey setups in terms of damage.
Lockdown with energy shotguns.
CONS:
Needs to get close to maximize damage. DPS drastically drops when out of 100-m to 150-m range.
High upgrade cost for energy shotguns.
Shotgun types
There are currently two types of shotguns in WR. Kinetic and energy.
The good old original shotgun. If there is a perfect example of beauty in simplicity, it would be the kinetic shotgun. When there’s some knocking needed to be done, you can count on it on finishing the job. It is the budget brawler’s quintessential weapon where all you need to do is butt heads with the enemy and empty your clips. Shields? Get close and shoot em until they break. For purple force fields, walk through it and season your target with death pellets. That’s how silver and gold shotgun boys deal with reds.
The kinetic shotgun’s pricier cousin, energy shotguns provide the luxury of going through blue shields and the chance to ankle-break a bot to immobility. The lockdown potential kills off mobile bots’ speed advantage and helps the team catch fleeing reds. Its damage output is nothing to scoff at as it can also melt targets at close range with relative ease. The energy shotgun class has been the go-to weapons for higher leagues. It’s so powerful that even older bots get some fighting chance when equipped with them. Energy shotguns are a lot more expensive than kinetics though and takes a while to upgrade.
Note: There will be upcoming lockdown changes for Halo, Corona, and Glory. I’m not sure how it will affect energy shotguns’ popularity.
Optimizing your shotgun setup
Upgrade.When you get close to the enemy, you want to make sure that you’ll be landing a haymaker. Upgrading your weapons would ensure that you’re dealing high damage to quickly take a target down.
Sharp Shooter/Shot grouping. This is quite a handy pilot skill for shotgun setups. As mentioned before, this simply increases your accuracy and effective range.
Platform. Choose the right bot for your shotguns. Yes, I’ve mentioned that almost every bot equipped with a shotgun can kill up close, but you’d have to consider the bot’s ability to get close. You can either choose a highly mobile bot or a tanky bot that would be able to take hits and get into effective range. Bots with abilities like jump, flight, or speed boost could be good platforms. Likewise, abilities that provide some sort of pseudo-invulnerability like shields or stealth can allow the bot to come close in.
Mixing up. Instead of going all energy (lockdown) or all kinetics (budget), you can mix weapons up. A popular combination is Halo and Storm (especially after the Gust nerf) providing you with lockdown and damage, plus it’s cheaper than going Halo+Corona.
FINAL THOUGHTS
With the coming changes to energy shotguns, would I still make them? Well, currently, I have Halo in my WS. I honestly have no idea what the lockdown change implications would be. Damage-wise, I think Halo still outperforms Gust, so it wouldn’t be much of a deal. I would still suggest getting Storms though. It’s a bang for the buck with its lower upgrade cost.
I feel that Pixonic is trying to make cryoweapons more appealing. I won’t be surprised if they become the next meta, especially with Arthur being a popular choice for titans. Cryo rocket splash is effective against Arthur’s physical shield. Outside of titans, if it comes to cryos vs shotguns, I feel that brawlers would still choose the latter, especially those that have already invested. Skilled pilots can anticipate and dodge rockets while shotgun particles are hard to avoid.
Personally, I believe that shotguns will stay, though might lose some popularity. Well, that’s if its damage output will remain untouched. We’ll never know though. I guess all we can do is hope and wait.
Mine’s probably when I had a Zenith Fury teammate who spent the first minutes of the game standing next to an uncapped beacon.
I noticed an uncapped one at the beacon score and I searched for the uncapped one. Lo and behold, I found it next to a teammate and I ended up capping it myself. The Fury must have thought he’s a planet-killer and can’t be disturbed, even though he’s firing a Nerf gun.
With the titans coming to the game, I’ve noticed the increasing importance of having a good beacon lead early on. Back then, without the titans, if the enemy team has no tank in their lineup, they’ll be forced to hold and defend their beacons with whatever bots they have.
Now, every player has a giant defender. Imagine if you’re four beacons behind and you decided to do a mid or late game beacon run. It’s more than likely that the enemy has a titan fully charged to defend. Titans might be slow but they can just stand on top of a beacon and you won’t be able to get it. And if ever you try to 1v1 the said titan, its tons of HP would probably be enough to buy time for its teammates to spawn on that said beacon.
This is what I’ve experienced in most of my games. It’s harder to get a comeback beacon run since most players have titans up their sleeves. I guess this is just one of the ways titans could impact the meta.
While searching for ways to get a skin for my Gareth, I found some links that might be useful for newer players. Most of these I found in Meet Arnold YouTube channel. I tested them out if they work and luckily, they do. The only catch is you can only use one link to get a reward. So, you must choose wisely. I added screencaps of my tests for evidence. Unfortunately, I was not able to save one for Aero Patton. I’m certain I got it once, but I was not able to screencap it for reasons still unbeknownst to me. I tried it again and again to no avail. Now, I’m not even sure if I really did it or I was imagining stuff. LOL.
Anyway, the links are in the video descriptions. The vid links are shown below with the screencaps.
Why didn’t I just put the link directly? Well, I spent time skimming through the vids to find out what the rewards are. Put on some effort at least, you lazy bag of bones! 😀
Aero Patton + Punishers – As mentioned, I don’t have a screencap for this and I’m not sure now if this even works.
For new players who want to maximize this, I would suggest the Leo or the Griffin. Both can carry you to higher leagues (a level 6 RDB Griffin got me to Expert while a Leo could be built as your first brawler). Personally, I wanted the Vermilion Boa since they’re out of the market and I want to keep one as a souvenir. Unfortunately, I got the Vermilion Patton for my account and was not able to get Boa.
Anyway, I hope this helps the new as well as the old players (100 Au and 400,000 Ag ain’t that bad after all).
The art of pugilism has existed since the ancient times. In War Robots, brawling existed way, way back. Magnum Gepards slugging it out with Thorkan Boas, Plasma Griffins against Punisher-Thunder Leos, where fights were decided at knife range. As clunky as their bots seemed, pilots fought with more finesse back then, making use of covers and corner-shooting to outgun their opponents. This is a far cry from what duels are nowadays, which are often decided with powercells and brute force.
What is brawling?
It’s probably what you have exactly in mind. Basically, it’s just squaring it out at 350m or less. A simple knife fight. You get your bot close enough to your weapon’s effective range and shoot it out. Very simple, eh?
Well, as simple as it may sound, in the early days of WR, you will not win a brawl just by standing and shooting. Powercells didn’t exist to back you up. You have to work for your own survival. You weave in and out and dance around your opponent. Dirty dancing boxing is where the money’s at because the longer you stay swinging and handing out the damage goods, the more you earn your purse in silver. It’s not uncommon for old-school pugilists to take down an enemy bot only to jump in to another slugfest.
First of all, a brawler is often defined by how hard it hits. Its weapons should deal high enough damage to be a threat to enemy robots. Short reload time is also factor. Sometimes, you’ll be facing tough enemies that an entire clip is not able to finish off.
Shotguns are probably the most popular choice among weapons, whether it be kinetics or energy. Energy shotguns even give a chance to pin down your target, allowing you to kite enemies or simply catch them. Kinetics on the other hand, are chosen for their raw damage output. They can also provide some sort of support by breaking down physical or blue shields (deals double damage to physical). Take note though that shotguns have the least optimal range among the brawler weapons. But if you could get into a headbutt range, you can take down targets with relative ease.
The Sharpshooter pilot skill increases shotgun damage.
Explosive Rockets used to be a popular choice but the Orkan nerfs hurt deathbutton setups a lot. Adding to that is the long cooldown. Exodus seems fine though and sees more battles than the classic Orkan/Pinatas. The arrival of cyro rockets could probably get the 300m-range rockets back into the meta. Their ability to apply slow and deathmark status to targets make them good support weapons and are especially useful in taking down tanks.
Plasma weapons hit fast and hard. With the ability to go through energy shields, Magnums and Tarans—the plasma deathbutton—used to be the go-to brawling setup for Griffin pilots.
The 350m-range plasma setups are the out-boxers among brawlers, usually just dipping in and out of the 350 range while hitting reds with high-temperature plasma barrage. They got good reload times plus the sound that they make is quite satisfying.
Tasers (or deathfibrillators as I call them) are actually midrange to close, but could be used in brawling, especially with their high damage output in knife range. I consider them as electric shotguns and I sometimes make the noob mistake of getting too close fighting them. A perk of these weapons is not having to aim once the target is locked and this could be godsend against dashers, jumpers, and fast bots.
Bulgasari was a notorious one at this, frying off reds with force lightning while hiding behind a big-ass shield and dashing around. It could also be used by jumpers as you could just lock on a target and avoid hits by leaping around. Getting a target lock could be irksome though and skilled opponents can break your lightning grapple by using covers and then just dance around you. Guidance Operator helps with the lock-on time.
Machine guns are probably every WR commander’s “gateway drug” to brawling. Punishers are the usual go-to weapons for newer players and our first teachers to going rambo. I would suggest every new player to master this weapon as it will automatically teach you to be a good brawler. Machine guns have an accelerated state that give them 50% increase in rounds per seconds, increasing the DPS. To reach accelerated state, they must be fired for 3 secs without stopping. Accelerated state stops when you stop firing for 1 sec. Priming up your machine guns is a good idea before going into a brawl, so you’ll enter battle in accelerated state. Like shotguns, their accuracy increases the closer the target is.
Punishers are accurate at 200m while Avengers need to get to 100m to get to 90% and 50m for 100%.
Shredders and Pulsars are classified as energy machine guns. However, Pulsars are more of midrange weapons since they got 600m max range and 550m effective range. On the other hand, Shredders behave more like Punishers, with accuracy increasing as you get closer to target. Still, it seems to fight for position against Halos, with the latter being a better lockdown choice at the moment. If lockdown changes go through and Shredders go untouched, they might gain more popularity.
Flamers share plasma cannons’ 350m long brawling range. They can penetrate both physical and blue energy shields with flame streams capable of doing high DPS. The major drawback though is its projectile speed which is very slow and can be problematic against mobile bots. Because of this, it can be tricky to aim and require anticipating where the target is going.
Lockdown effects and the new cryo-rockets synergize well with flamer-class weapons, allowing you to cut down target’s mobility. Blaze, Igniters, and Embers are examples fall into this category.
Brawlers might vary from pilot to pilot, with different preferences ranging from bots to weapons. Still, they have one thing in common: the extreme hate for campers.
DURABILITY
The ability to take punishment and withstand barrages gives you a chance to fire your weapons some more. It would be really a shame if you lose your bot without even getting to shoot. Having a big HP bar helps with this and surviving a fight to take another fight would help the team a lot. Sometimes, being tough as nails is enough to give a bot brawling potential, even though it may lack in firepower compared to other bots. Traditionalist Falcon is an example of this. Even though it’s a tank, it can definitely brawl by just being able to soak damage and retaliate with its single heavy weapon.
COMBAT ABILITIES
Some robots can brawl just by the virtue of having special abilities. Such abilities can even give brawl potential to squishy bots. Abilities that give mobility, buffs, or debuffs can help swing the battle into your favor. Back then, Jump and good piloting skills were enough to make Griffin the apex predator and subdue tough enemies like Leos and Lancelots. They were able to minimize damage with mobility and use of covers.
Dashbots, when they came to meta, also relied on their mobility. Stealth gives bots some virtual invincibility and breathing room when needed. Shields—physical and energy—give damage mitigation and allows even squishier robots to brawl. Other bots even have damage resist, enhancing their ability to soak damage and live long enough to finish their targets.
When relying on abilities though, players should take note of ability cooldowns as it’s stupid to just wade into battle and get stomped because your Repulse is on cooldown. It’s not necessary to have all three qualities to brawl. I’d say having good firepower and durability OR combat ability would be enough, depending on how you pilot your bot. Still, having three would be the best as it would make brawling a whole lot easier. I am not mentioning the perfect brawler here as I believe that it depends on a player’ playstyle. It doesn’t matter if you got the “best setup” if you don’t even enjoy playing it. After all, we’re still playing a game.
Still, if I have to choose or make a brawler, I’d get an Invader. I am currently running an Inquisitor with this setup:
I’d probably try to upgrade it to level 9 just to get max speed and some extra HP (that synergizes with Armor Expert and the Armor Kits) if I get extra Ag. The weapons need upgrading if I want to keep up with the meta. I am at Expert II (jumping from II to I). On average, it could take down a bot or two before going down. On some occasions, it can pull off a John Wick on the enemy team before getting sent to the trash bin.
I got an extreme love for jumping bots, hence the choice of Invader. I thought that the Invader would perfectly replace my Inquisitor in terms of playstyle. Both jump and get some seconds of pseudo-invincibility in the air and on landing.
Also, the Invader fits the three qualities that I mentioned—firepower, durability, combat ability—and the idea that it kind of plays like a tankier Inquisitor makes it the best choice for me. Still, I have a loooong liiiiiist of stuff to do about my hangar, so I’m not sure when to start replacing it.
How to play a brawler?
Well, you could ask brawlers for tips. I won’t put high grades on my brawling skills because honestly, I play more RDBs than brawler bots. But if you’d ask me, my answer would be…
Yes, I’m quoting a line from 80’s cartoons inspired by a toy. Why? Because knowledge will get you far. Piloting skills can’t really be taught, but playing smart could be.
Know your loadouts
Before you master the enemy, master yourself first. It’s important to know your bot and your weapons, their strengths and their weaknesses. Always play to your strengths and try to make up for your weaknesses. Using my Inquisitor as the above example, I’ll only go in against one enemy as much as possible and maximize my stealth jump. While I’m on stealth, attacking my target, I can get an idea if I’d have to distance myself once the stealth fades or just continue to brawl and just use Repair afterwards. I try to fight it out in 100m at least since my weapons are much more effective at that distance.
Know your enemy
It is important to gauge your target’s strength before picking a fight. Don’t bite off more than you could chew. With my Inquisitor, I only try to slug it out with squishier bots. I know that I’d have trouble against a Traditionalist Falcon or an Invader. I’ve taken down Fenrirs before (but probably low levels).
Make sure that your “qualities” can exceed that of the opponent’s. If you know that your firepower is not enough against the enemy’s durability, wait for another chance (a teammate might be nearby to assist) or just find another target. If you’re piloting a tanky bot with lower firepower and facing a squishy enemy with high firepower, you could duke it out if you feel you can win through sheer tankiness. If you have an ability that gives some sort of invincibility or damage mitigation, make sure that its duration would be enough for you to survive.
Know your surroundings
Environment plays a big factor in the game. You can use buildings to your advantage, especially if piloting a mobile bot. Corner-shooting is also a part of a dirty boxer’s playbook. For those who are unaware of corner-shooting, it’s simply shooting using a part of your bot, like peeking with a Griffin’s left-hand weapons and hiding your hitbox behind a wall. Your damage output might be reduced but you’re taking minimal hits in exchange.
Always look out if there are enemy reinforcements coming your way. Avoid fighting near a red beacon, especially in beacon rush. You’re fighting a war, not a duel, so don’t expect that a red would just come to watch you fight 1v1 with his/her teammate.
Know your limits
Well, this just sums up all of the above. By knowing your limits, you’d know if you can win a fight or not. Always focus on your survival. Getting kills don’t matter if you’ll also get killed in the process, unless you’re doing it to secure a win. Don’t pick fights that you won’t win. Jumping into an enemy train and getting instakilled isn’t bravery. It’s not a mosh pit, for crying out loud.
Practice, practice, practice
The only way to get used to playing a bot setup is through playing hard. Doing so would make you learn the ins and outs of that certain setup. So, I really, really highly recommend just grinding.
Building your first brawler
Leo is the best training wheel for newer brawlers in my opinion. They’re rather slow but it’s usually enough in the lower leagues. Its innate tankiness allows it to take shots while closing in. Punishers or Pinatas can be used for light slots while Thunder would suffice for heavy in low leagues.
Griffin, with its jump ability, is a more mobile alternative and can be set up with Punishers. It’s not as tanky as Leos, so pilots must be careful in going in.
From here, players can go raise Ag for shotguns or Avenger. One go-to route is two Avengers and workshopping an Ao Jun. For a tanky brawler, Traditionalist Falcon has been a popular choice for FTP pilots, although the titan tends to push them away from the meta because of their ability to pierce through damage resist. For those who are able to get kinetic shotguns, I’d suggest Invader (I might be bias, but what the heck, I find it really good). Fenrir can also be a carrier for the Avenger if you’re only able to get one. Still, I don’t have a specific bot recommendation since it would highly depend on player preference. One tip that I could give though is to play Skirmish mode when they have brawlers available to be able to test drive some bots.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you got to this part, you’re probably patient or just have too much time on your hands. Whatever your reason is, I’m grateful that you read through my text walls. What could I say more about brawling? Nothing much really except it’s an integral part of the game. I’m sorry if you’re expecting an in-depth brawling guide. My only tip is just get out there and brawl, son! Seriously, you’ll learn a lot just by doing it and correcting your mistakes.
I used to post it here but decided to transfer it to Wattpad as it makes editing easier when I decide to make re-dos.
This is still in progress. Will be updating as soon as I am finished with my to-do lists or if I’m able to squeeze it in my daily chores. I hope I will have the time to do so though.
As other fanfics go, this is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Robot, faction, and weapon names and some places created by Pixonic.
What is power creep?
Pardon me for the cringey title, but I’m trying to calm my insides as I’m expecting a job interview call as I’m writing this (although I would’ve gone with the same even in a relaxed state. Plus the original one feels too nerdy. HINT: A reference to an icy dragon from one of RA Salvatore’s books). 
The Omniscientist 