modulated/demotivated

~ ElKarnito ~ Leave a comment

3.pngModules (and powercells), since they’ve been introduced to the game, had impacted War Robots (well, I guess Yan-Di is to be blamed for this according to WR lore) in a lot of ways. Shieldbreaker has just been recently added, leading to the god of war’s downfall.  Still, I believe that nothing is more game-warping than Phase Shift. It’s just annoying when you’re about to deal the death blow to your target only to see it go into incorporeal state. It’s not just a get out of jail card, but an outplay tool. It serves as a sort of virtual ability extender, especially on Leech. Coupled with Foolhardy Quartermaster and Last Stand, it adds a lot of invulnerability to the game, which in my opinion, shouldn’t exist in multiple forms, especially for a shooter game.

I’ve been lurking around WWR subreddit and FB groups and  have read a lot of posts regarding phase shifts and powercells and how they tend to warp the game. Personally, I believe the Phase Shift should at least be toned down.  Disabling reloads is one step to at least decrease its overall power. I think I’ve seen some suggestions like allowing a phaseshifted bot to attack another phaseshifted, which kind of makes sense as they’re probably in a same spiritual plane of sorts.

What I have in mind is inspired by my enthusiasm for Mechwarrior. In the Battletech universe, there exists the concept of heat.  Running, for example, or using energy weapons generate heat which can then slowly build up.  When a mech overheats, it needs to shutdown in order to cool up or use a coolant to reduce heat. Heat buildup can also be mitigated by adding lots of heatsinks to your mech, although I won’t be suggesting the addition of  coolants and heatsinks to WR. I will be focusing more on heat.

I’m thinking more about gating the usage of powercells by making it heat up a bot. Also, some weapons would be able to inflict “heat damage” to enemy bots, thereby limiting their usage of powercells. The concept is shown in the image below.

1.pngAs per the image, getting to 100% heat will temporarily shutdown weapon systems, while going over that would disable both weapon and bot ability systems temporarily. I said before that weapons also cause heat damage, right? Heat damage is maxed out at 75%, so that they can’t disable enemy bots by themselves. 

Let us think of a scenario. A red bot gets attacked by a blue bot with flamer weapons and got its heat to 75%. The moment it uses Phase Shift, its heat reaches critical levels. It’s still able to shift out but once it’s back, critical overheat causes its weapons and abilities to malfunction for a short duration.

Now, let’s talk about weapons. The image below shows weapons that deal heat damage.

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Why did I choose these weapons? Well, you’ll notice that these weapons have 350 and 300 ranges. I just thought that it would be good to incentivize them at least for going into that range. The 350 range plasma weapons deal low but significant heat damage. I haven’t assigned any values yet, but let’s just imagine that emptying a clip could cause 10% heat. I didn’t include Redeemer because it’s strong enough on its own. But then it’s OK too to add, I guess. Well, we’re just pooping up crazy ideas anyway.

For medium heat damage (around 20% per emptied clip), I put the Flamer weapons. Originally, I placed them at high, but thought that they have higher range than the explosive rockets. I think that giving them heat damage is also rewarding since they’re tricky to aim with.

Explosive rockets deal high (close to 30% per clip emptied perhaps) heat damage. I guess they could be some sort of incendiary rockets. My thought here is their splash got nerfed, so giving them high heat damage would somehow give them some sort of value. And since the addition of cryo, I even thought of having them deal some DOT since they’ll be the fire rockets in contrast to the ice ones. I’m thinking along the lines of reducing impact damage but transferring it to a damage resist-ignoring DOT. Although that would be bad for the burst. I don’t know. LOL. I am just making things up anyway.

Cryo rockets would be the weird ones. Instead of dealing heat damage, they lower it. Hitting your teammates too would reduce their heat damage. But what would be the incentive for using them? I thought of having them equipped reduces the amount of heat damage that the bot is going to take. In this way, those who want to go heavy on powercells would choose them.

How about other weapons, you say? Energy shotguns are already popular. I just thought that this might help other weapons stay relevant at least.

With regard to module heat generation, refer to the image below.

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I haven’t assigned values yet, but I guess ARU and Phase Shift could cause 50% heat, Death Mark, Lockdown ammo, and Shieldbreaker 30%, and Repair Unit and Quantum Radar at 20%. Last Stand and Anti-Control would generate heat upon triggering. Anyway, the values I assigned on weapons were just pulled out of nowhere.

How about Foolhardy Quartermaster and other module-related pilot skills? Well, for FQ, I’m thinking of having it reduce hit A BIT when triggered. 

Other ways to reduce heat

The only thing that I thought of is standing still for a while and not firing weapons would make heat levels to gradually decrease. Well, Pixonic can also add heatsink modules to reduce heat generation probably.

How will this affect the meta?

Actually, I’m not really sure. LOL. I’m wondering Tarans and Magnums might make it back at least. Same with Orkans and Pinatas. We’ll probably see more Cryo Leeches. Not really sure. I just feel this will add another layer of complexity to the game. 

How will this benefit Pixonic? This is actually a tricky question. Powercell consumption will be drastically reduced, I guess, so it wouldn’t be a benefit at all. But at least, reducing invincibility stacking would reduce the one-sided game scenarios. I don’t think invincibility is bad. It’s just that too much of it can be frustrating to most players. Yes, we can all say GIT GUD and bait abilities, blah-blah, but that doesn’t take away the fact that stacked invincibility is ridiculous.

Anyway, I’m just another player speaking out my thoughts. I still believe that Phase Shift should at least be toned down a bit as games tend to be a powercell race instead of a strategic shooter that it should be.

I guess this is it for now. Thanks for bearing with my toilet thoughts and again, see y’all in the battlefield.

 

RDB

~ ElKarnito ~ Leave a comment

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WARNING: This is by no means an in-depth guide to RDB, but just an account of my experiences playing the setup. Not for the faint of heart as it contains walls of texts. Still, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on how I play them, which might be useful to those who want to give them a try.

The RDB or “Russian Death Button” was the first “budget competitive” setup that I loved. It was way back when dashbots were the top kids. I’ve tried leadhose/rambo (punishers) griffins at first but can’t just seem to properly grasp its playstyle. Spirals dealt next to no damage while workshopping plasma would take too long.

I did some research and stumbled upon the “Russian Deathbutton.” I was skeptical at first, for some reason unbeknownst to me. I guess I did find it expensive and somehow, I’m still hoping that I’d get used to Punishers. Adding to that probably is my strange aversion to everything meta or popular. But then I was too hungry to win, and so I bit the bullet and spent my Ag into getting a pair of Tulumbas and Pins to my Griffin. I took it to the field and did my first jumpshot.

I was smitten.

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What is RDB?

As mentioned in the image above, RDB is basically a midrange rocket setup (said to be) favored by the Russian clans. It’s the longer ranged version of the legendary deathbutton setup consisting of Orkans and Pinatas. With proper platform and good piloting, it can easily bully setups below 500 range. It’s mostly used for hit and run tactics, utilizing Griffins.

Like most projectiles, RDB rockets travel in a straight line, but faster than DBs. Still, skilled players can easily telegraph and dodge them, especially dodgebots. Skilled Haechi pilots were a bane, especially with its Energy shield which absorbs most of the rocket damage. Zeus Carnage was also a problem as it has superior range and Energy shield as well, same with leveled Molot Fujins that chipped my Griffins before I can get them to my effective range.

Since RDBs are simply “burst assassins,” it’s also imperative that they’re heavily upgraded so as to make any impact in the field. Low-leveled RDBs are like gimped mages in MOBA games and are a waste of a hangar slot.

These are just part of the reasons why I decided to quit back then. I felt that I was offering nothing to my team. Seeing mostly dashbots, Ancilots, and other energy shield bots, in the field, who the fuck am I going to shoot?

Is RDB terribad?

I don’t believe they are but there are better midrange options. Dragoons, for example, shoots from 600m and can deal decent damage.  Zeus-class and Calamity-class weapons can poke from around 600, and the latter is even able to shred targets at close range. Still, I can say that there are no other options that can do instant damage with very minimal exposure like RDB does.

I just got back to the game less than two months ago. I was in Gold league then. I dusted off my hangar, finding a level 12 MK1 shotgun Golem, shotgun Gareth and PunThunder Inquisitor,  and two RDB Griffs with level 8/9 RDBs. One Griff was 6, the other was 7. After seeing the Pantheons, the Ragnarockers, and the Dragonbots, I knew my hangar needed major overhaul. I only got 5K gold (was expecting more, found out there’s no more gold for returning players), which I spent on an Avenger for Quizzie. I decided to work on it as it’s the best that I’ve got. After some matches, I immediately removed the Golem from my hangar as it’s not pulling its weight.

I remembered the last bots that I enjoyed most before taking a break were Docs with Tulumbas/Orkans, so they went in. One of the Griffins became plasma DB. After several tests, I noticed that I’m still not doing good with my hangar.  My shotgun bots would do good on some games and shit the bed on others, especially the Gareth which would either go John Wick or gone in 40 seconds. I needed consistency very badly.

While Doc Tulumbas/Orkans were very close to my heart, I noticed that it underperformed. On the other hand, the single RDB Griffin did most of the lifting, taking down two to three reds before going down. I decided then to go with two RDB Griffs, turning the Doc into an Orkan 1:1 bot (kills one red and then dies immediately afterwards).  I decided to invest more into my RDBs instead of the others as I felt that the only way for me to match the newer bots is to go outside of shotgun range. I just utilized the Inquisitor as a beacon defender since the RDBs are poor in holding down beacons especially against tanky bots.

The hangar that got me from Gold through Diamond looked like this:

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In case anyone’s wondering if I got meta bots, the answer is no. As I’ve said before, I have a strange inclination to non-meta setups. I’d refuse to play a meta setup unless I’m having fun with it. This is my current hangar:

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I was only able to get MK2s from the 1g event. My original plan was to get all RDBs to level 12, MK1 and get another Raven. The recent changes to MK2 made me consider getting my weapons enhanced.

I can say that the true MVP of my hangar is the Raven although I have the Inquisitor as a backup whenever I need a brawler. I believe that every hangar needs a brawler and close-quarters combat is a fundamental aspect of the game that needs to be learned by every pilot.

Piloting the RDB

As mentioned above, RDB is a burst damage midrange setup. Its advantage over other setups is the ability to deal high damage in a very short amount of time, with the downside of long reloads. Because of this, it’s best to go with peek-a-boo and hit and run tactics, using covers whenever reloading. Staying outside of brawl range (350m) is highly encouraged as weapons on this range are stronger than RDB in terms of damage and/or reload.

Rocket Splash

It is important to note that RDBs deal area of effect damage. This gives it the ability to damage enemies behind cover as shown in the image below.

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The splash radius is significantly large (I’ve read somewhere that it’s 20m to 30m but can’t find the source) and you’ll be able to hit most enemies behind structures as long as you can trace a straight line from your bot to the “red box.” I feel the splash can go farther than that. But to be safe, stay within the box. You can fire a “tracer shot” instead of releasing an entire salvo, but run the risk of enemy repositioning to avoid splash. You can hit a target at 510m if you will manually aim, but if your target at 500m suddenly moves outside RDB range, there is a tendency that your turret would tilt up and you’d end up firing at the wrong direction.

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RDB’s AoE is strong against grouped up enemies, especially those who huddle in enclosed structures like Yamantau center beacon. In the above game, I basically went for “exposed red boxes” and was able to take some enemies down or “flush them out of the hole,” so my teammates can finish them off.

If you don’t have QR equipped, you can use rocket splash against Stealth bots. You can use walls, bots, or terrain elevations to trigger rocket explosion.

Positioning and Zone Control

RDB is excellent in zone control. On the images above, I provided supporting fire. My goal here is to soften up the enemy beacon defenders, so our team can make a run for it. 

Some players may hate this playstyle of outfighting, but this is the way to play to your strengths. You’ll be heavily outgunned when you go in brawl range, so I’m heavily stressing the importance of not brawling against a legit brawler.

The image below gives a rough idea about zone control.

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Why is this important? Well, controlling a strategic zone allows your team to technically mark the area as your own. Controlled areas around a beacon will help your team easily defend, while controlling red beacon areas gives access for beacon liberation. You can also make some zones impassable to the enemy team without them taking heavy losses. In TDM, having a larger owned territory allows a team to slowly suffocate the enemies off the map.

Positioning plays an important factor in controlling zones.  Having a good high ground with covering structures gives an RDB pilot a safe area to reload or wait for cooldowns. Jumping RDB setups favor these types of terrains as they can just pop up, shoot, and get back in cover before the enemy can retaliate. Jump pilots should be wary though since the enemies can mark them anticipate the jumpshot.

I’ve stressed a lot of times in this writeup that RDB, especially Tulumbas, has long reload times compared to other weapons. Because of this, making every shot count is crucial to be able to contribute to the team. Wasting rockets lowers your burst potential, which is what you bring to the table. Be wary of the environment as rockets can tend to get entangled on terrain elevations.

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It really sucks not being able to finish your target just because some rockets hit the ground instead of making their way in. And because you failed to take the enemy down, it might even have the chance to close in and retaliate while your weapons are reloading. Rolling hills can often be a problem, so try to be on a higher ground and imagine a straight path from your weapons to your target.

Targeting

Prioritize low HP damage-dealers like Ares, Ao Jun, and Leech. If possible, try to mark them and get a good flank to take them down. With my setup, I focus on Ares and wait for them to use their shield. If I have a perfect shot, I’d immediately activate Shieldbreaker and empty my rockets just to be certain that they won’t be able to panic press their shields. Most of the time, I wait for them to go out in the open and activate their shield. That’s usually where they’re most vulnerable and don’t have time to back off.

For Ao Jun, it’s a waiting game. You’d have to wait until they land (unless you have QR). Some Ao Juns would wait for you to fire your rockets and then carefully time their flight to avoid them. That’s why I try to make sure they’re not aware that I’m marking them. You can also bait them out by firing a rocket or two.

Leech are tricky ones. You’re screwed if they carefully timed your rocket release and then Repulse you. I try to take them down if they’re preoccupied with my teammates. I make sure that it’s not latched on a teammate though.

Avoid hitting tanks. Traditional Falcons and Fenrirs are the bane of my RDB’s existence. Most of the time, they can outsustain your damage output. Energy shields and anciles can also be a problem, but since Shieldbreaker came, they were not much of a threat.  

EDIT: As of 5.6 patch, Titans were introduced into the game. I’d include them to the list of things to not prioritize unless they need to be disposed of. If possible, just outplay them by getting beacons as they’re rather slow to respond anyway.

Platforms

What are the things to keep in mind when choosing an RDB platform?

I believe Redundance is the first thing to consider when looking for an RDB platform. What I mean by this is does the bot’s hardpoints allow you to place multiple rocket launchers? Since you’re basically stacking up damage and that means carrying more weapons, being able to spam launchers would mean a lot. Personally, I would set the baseline to the classic RDB Griffin — two Pins + two Tulumbas. The setup has been proven to work and is easily accessible by newer players. Three Tulumbas would also work, with a close damage output to 2Pins/2Tulumbas.  However, a four-Pin setup, in my opinion, lacks damage output to be significant. It might work in lower leagues, but as you go up, you’ll gradually notice the difference and you’d want power in your salvos.

Mobility is my second consideration on setting up an RDB bot. 500m is easy to close in especially on newer bots and with the mobility creep. You should be able to reposition quickly after unloading your clips while waiting for full reload. Also, having good mobility lets you to be more creative with your shots. You can flank enemies and rain rockets from their blind spots or move from cover to cover, bursting down enemies when clips are full. Lastly, RDB range is short compared to other midrange setups. On a mobile bot, you can close the gap and be able to deal damage and flee for cover.

The last thing that I thought of is durability. In the absence of mobility, your bot should be at least able to take return fire while waiting for full clips. It would be a waste if you’re only able to do one alpha strike and immediately get blown up. In lower leagues, Leos and Fujins can be possible platforms. Durability is not much of a factor though for mobile bots with a good pilot.

So, from these, what would be the perfect RDB bot? I’d say Griffin is the best, not power-wise, but budget-wise, since you’re most probably just using RDBs due to lack of other options and would be switching once good comp weapons are available. For overall RDB specialization, Raven would be the best platform for me as it possesses both redundance and mobility. The 20% damage bonus on jump is like a free MK2 (or an MK3 if you have them maxed). You can check out Lottie-Rose’s page if you want to see RDB Ravens in action.

Next would be the Spectre. Damage-wise, it edges out Ravens with its four medium hardpoints. It’s beaten by Raven in terms of mobility, having the same movement speed at max. Stealth gives it a safer jumpshot in the absence of Quantum Radar in the opposing team.

The third place I’m probably giving to Ao Guang. With three medium hardpoints, it has good damage output while its homing missiles allows it to finish off low HP reds. Its flight capability gives it more airtime to get better firing angles. Damage Resist while in the air ensures that it will not get quickly vaporized when doing bombing raids. Still, most players would advocate a Scourge setup rather than RDB for Ao Guang. But if you’re thinking of a safe, budget setup for this dragon bot, RDB is a good consideration.

Avalanche/Tulumbas Inquisitor has been in my drawing board before. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to Avalanche plus I’m not sure if it’s that worth to workshop. Adding to that is the unload time of Avalanche which doesn’t match Tulumbas’. If anyone has given it a try, please share your thoughts. 

How about Docs, Leos. or Fujins? Or Avalanche Butch/Fury/Behemoth/Falcon? Or even Tulumbas + Avalanche Inquisitors? Well, I am by no means discrediting other setups. I just believe that in WR, you should aim to get the bang for your buck. Cost-efficiency is essential especially with the game economy. I just feel that RDB Griffins are too easy to get and if you want an upgrade, just get a Raven, transfer the weapons, and voila! You got yourself the best RDB setup without wasting too much resources. You don’t even have to upgrade your Griffin unless Pixonic decides to give incentives on maxing out old gear. Also, I think that Tridents would be better for bulkier bots as they have farther range and are cheaper to get.

If you’re planning to get RDB Spectres (for whatever reason), Docs would probably be a good starting platform as you won’t be wasting resources on Pins. Doc moves faster than a Griffin and can maneuver easily on the ground. Just be careful on switching weapons since the other mode has a wider gap between the two arms. Doing a burst-switch-burst could get tricky here as the wider wingspan tends to make missiles get tangled up in pixels. Also, there are times when the enemy repositions before you can switch and fire your secondary weapons. I’m not sure if it’s just psychological effect of having narrower arms, but I feel that Doc can do more “through the hole shots” as its rockets more compact. I even called this surgical shots as they felt more precise plus it fits the Doc.

All in all, it’s just a matter of getting the most out of your bot. Quad Tulumbas Leech might have the damage output of a Spectre RDB, but is it worth it? With its ability to effectively brawl, it would be a waste of a bot, especially with Storms being relatively cheap. For me, if a bot’s forte is brawling, it should be set up as a brawler.

Modules, Pilot, etc.

Personally, I have only used Shieldbreaker and Quantum Radar. I consider my RDBs as specialized setups, with the specific aim of countering a meta strat. At the moment, I’m running solely Shieldbreaker to take Ares and the occasional Anciles down. I just love the way Ares pompously struts in the field, seemingly puffing its chest out only to get blown to kingdom come by a salvo of rockets. I can even imagine their surprise and frustration while they decide to back off or use panic Phase Shift.

I used QR before against Lokis and Ao Juns but felt its duration to be too short to be effective.  The wonky targeting also messes up a lot, you’ll end up wasting much of the duration cycling through enemy bots. Against Ao Juns, I just bait their flight and back away, waiting for an opportunity to strike back. 

Phase Shift is probably the best outside of QR and SB. It gives you some respite while reloading if the enemy manages to close in. It’s also quite handy in surviving deadly jumps when in Griffins or Ravens. I just personally dislike it due to the amount of powercells that it consumes.

Deathmark is a good option too if you want to boost your damage some more. Haven’t tried it though. Perhaps if I feel that I don’t need SB or QR, it would be the next in line.

For passive modules, Nuclear Reactor or Thermonuclear Reactor would be the best since you’ll be doing hit and run tactics anyway, plus you need every possible tool to amp up your damage output.

Pilot skills would always depend on the bot. The cookie-cutter setup of Roadhog, Armor Expert, and Mechanic would work. For my Raven, I’m using Wonderworker. The legendary pilot, Adrian Chong, adds more ooomph to your burst damage output.

Camp Nights

RDBs are often seen as campers and I believe they potentially are. Still, it all depends on how you pilot it. To be effective, you must be aggressive. It’s as simple as that. Being aggressive doesn’t mean charging in towards the reds and going down after taking an enemy. That’s just plain stupidity. Don’t just wait for opportunities. Make them. Instead of hiding behind a wall and wait for the enemy to come into range, how about trying to circle around them and find a good sniping site?

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A successful flank can benefit your team by being able to take enemies down or forcing them to reposition. Some reds may also try to take you down and this might relieve some pressure in a contested zone. 

Don’t stay in one position for too long. Map out strategic areas where you can safely shoot reds then move from cover to cover to that destination. Always remember that damage is the only thing that you can bring to the team. You got no heals or disables (unless you have a weird lockdown ammo setup). Make sure that you’re always dealing damage. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Why do I RDB? Well, they’re fun (for me, at least). Ask the Griffin Girl and she’d surely say the same. There are times that I get frustrated with fighting shifty metabots and tougher-than-nails TraFalcs. I just enjoy the small victories that I get and try to play smart (except for occasional lazy tunnel visioning). When I lose, I make sure that I’m at least at the top.

Do I recommend RDB? Hell, yes, especially for newer players who want access to midrange damage setup. RDB Griffins are rather cheap to come by and you can have one in your hangar. But if you’re a highly competitive player and want to go up the ranks, I don’t think it’s the best option for you. Stick with Avengers and shotguns and use a metabot. I’m not saying that RDBs are impossible in champs. Niche setups do work, but then the climb wouldn’t be easy.

Anyway, if you’re still reading, thanks for the time and the effort. I hope you enjoyed or at least learned something from this. 

See y’all in the battlefield.

Like and follow my Facebook page for updates.

 

Pocket Guides

~ ElKarnito ~ 3 Comments

Bots included are Ao Jun, Blitz, Falcon, Fenrir, Invader, Leech, Loki, Phantom, Pursuer, and Tyr.. More to come (hopefully) soon.

UPDATE HISTORY:
11/14/2019: I got 5 at the moment—Ao Jun, Falcon, Fenrir, Leech, Phantom. My plan is to make one for each bot. At the moment, I could probably make one a week. Hopefully, I can increase that rate when I have more free time.

11/15/2019: Rearranged images alphabetically by bots. Added Pursuer.

11/18/2019: Edited Pursuer and Falcon guides — took out the “Damage Resist” sections as its not implemented in the game. Thanks to /u/Pirate_Leader for pointing this out.

11/20/2019: Added Loki.

11/21/2019: Minor revisions to Falcon

12/06/2019: Added Blitz.

12/11/2019: Added Tyr. Yay! Raganarobot squad is complete!

12/20/2019: Added Invader. Added Glacier to Ao Jun guide.

Hope this would be helpful. Don’t hesitate to leave feedbacks and suggestions so as I can make the guides better. Again, thanks for the support.

Ao Jun

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Falcon.png

Fenrir

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Leech

Loki.png

Phantom

Pursuer

Tyr.png

welcome to omnisci.tech

Featured ~ ElKarnito ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to my walls_of_texts.doc sort-of gaming blog. Just a disclaimer, I don’t consider myself a hardcore gamer in the usual, um, hardcore sense. I mean, I could end up doing nerd stuff, like keeping a notebook for builds or making an Excel sheet for item comparison in League, but nothing in the likes of real heavy grinding (although I do that too sometimes). I did this mostly for hobby and for the love of the game(s), I guess. I started out with Arena of Valor, and you’d find different guides of sorts from way, way, way back. After that, I think I picked up War Robots and played it until the game demanded more smart-mojo, which my phone was unable to give. I think those two games are the ones that I did a lot of guides. Currently, I am sort of retired from gaming, although I recently just picked up Gods Unchained, and before that, played some Legends or Runeterra. I guess I am kind of missing Magic: The Gathering, but lacking motivation to pick it up. I’m not sure if I will be updating this blog. Heck, I don’t even know if the guides that I made are still applicable. Maybe I’ll just treat this as a journal or diary as I’m probably the only one reading this anyway. I mostly just drop by from time to time to look back into the stuff that I’ve created.

If you’re reading this, you are probably me or (if not) you’re really, really bored. Anyway, thanks for the time, kind stranger, and may your mana pools stay full.

ConTROLLED

~ ElKarnito ~ Leave a comment

controllin

TL;DR:  Don’t be a control freak.

There was this story that I’ve seen many times in social media about a guy (or a girl in other versions) telling a priest/pastor that he does not want to go to church anymore because he is disgruntled with the other attendees.  The priest/pastor asked him that before he totally leave the church, to try and carry a glassful of water and walk around without spilling it.  The guy did so and upon returning to the priest/pastor, he told him that he didn’t lose a single drop.  The priest/pastor then asked him, if he noticed the people around him, to which he replied, No. 

I won’t be talking about religion here so I’d stop at that.  I just thought that this could be applied in our games.  How many times have you tunnel-visioned in raging on your troll teammate that you didn’t notice your large minion wave doing the fighting for you? 

Focus on the glass.

The “glass” contains your main goal, which is winning (unless you have other things in mind), and with this comes stuff that you can control, not just your hero but objects and occurrences in the map.  The other stuff that you have no control like teammates, lag, etc. are the “people around” you.

For example, from my experience where I mostly play support, there are times when a laner roams all too often or decides to just leave the lane and play second jungler.  In this case, I can’t control my teammates to clear the waves and save the turret unless they will listen to my pings.  But what if they didn’t?

In cases like this, I take matters into my own hands and clear the waves.  I would then quickly go back to supporting the teammate that needed it the most.  Sometimes I would even get Heart of Incubus in order to speed up my clear.  I will also try to get items that can boost my MS.  This way, I can go for a very quick sweep and scoot.  From this, the pseudopush tactic was conceived.  Why not go push then?  I actually would if I am using a hero with decent turret takedown capability like Omega.  If not, just clear the waves as forcing a turret will do more harm than good if your hero lacks turret takedown potential.

In the end, it’s still a matter of focusing on what your hero does best.  Always play to your strengths even though you have to do stuff outside of your role.  Don’t force a push if your hero lacks tower takedown potential.  Chances are you’re just herding a creep wave for your opponents to slaughter.  If you’re playing a hero who excels in splitpushing and sucks in teamfighting, avoid teamfights and observe the waves while planning for a splitpush.  If you’re a teamfighting hero, don’t go solo.  All it takes usually is one good fight to come back to a game.  Focus on controllable stuff and don’t blindly grasp on things that you have no control of.  In the end, you’ll only get miserable if you tunnel on uncontrollable factors and miss on things that really matter.

As always, observe, formulate, adapt.

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For more guides, visit the Academy. Also, everyone is welcome to join the Squirrel Nation, a discord server where players motivate one another to improve, plus coaches to analyze gameplays, correct mistakes, and give helpful advice.

A Not-So-In-Depth Guide: TeeMee

~ ElKarnito ~ Leave a comment

COMMUNITY BOARD

Credits to BK Yung Rocks for the info and tips.  What was originally intended to be a quick guide turned out to be a not-so-in-depth-but-about-to-get-there guide.  I tried to make it not as lengthy as the other guides I’ve made before and focused more on stuff that BK Yung contributed as injecting my thoughts would turn this into a roundabout writeup of novelesque lengths.  Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy reading this.  For questions, you can drop by the Oak Tree Lodge in our Squirrel Nation discord and ask away.  Perhaps you’d even find BK Yung online and the other helpful guys too to respond to your query.  Their fund of AoV knowledge has helped many confused and beleaguered players see the light.

WHY TEEMEE?

TeeMee can bring a lot of stuff to the table — poke, harass, initiate, peel, dive, tanking, invade.  They can only be limited by the user’s and team’s skills.
TeeMee are perfect in aggressive comps thanks to their very strong initiation, their tower dive abilities (stuns + revive meaning it doesn’t matter if someone “dies” because of the tower), and top notch early invading power (S1 broken in invades).
They can also shine in defensive comps as well thanks to their ability to counter tower dives.  Since the main objective of a tower dive is not kill itself but the objective after it (usually the tower), having the defender respawn after 2 seconds somehow defeats this purpose and puts the divers at risk from tower shots.  Sidenote: Wiro is almost impossible to dive because of this.
TeeMee , with their ult and having lots of CC make them fantastic in peeling.  Their passive also helps speed up the item power spikes of teammates.  Thus, TeeMee can help a teammate just by being present.

ARCANA

arcs

TeeMee can utilize either the regular support set or the AP set.  If going with AP, take advantage of TeeMee’s incredible damage potential to cheese the early game, and abuse their poke.  Movespeed is a must and you should aim for least 4%.  

ITEMS

Item build isn’t set in stone especially with supports as you have to build accordingly since you have to get the most value from items.
TEEMEE.png
Support items will depend whether you’ll be roaming or duo laning.  Still, going with the duo lane support item doesn’t mean that you’ll be staying forever in lane.  Use the cooldown window to do a quick roam.
For the wind items, Ring of Fiend currently provides a significant amount of stats and can overshadow the Essence of the Wind.  Also helps with revealing Quillen especially now that he’s rather popular.  For water items, Tidecaller’s Mark is generally a good pick and useful in most situations.  Just remember to “touch” your teammate to trigger the aura.  Purifying Bracers can be used in niche situations when the enemy team is loaded with CC. 
Gaia’s Standard not only provides MDef and some regen but also movespeed as well.  Helps a lot with mitigating early magic damage.  The regen and MS helps a lot with early skirmishes.
The Aegis gives a lot of needed stats for support.  The big chunk of armor helps with tanking while the CDR allows you to maintain skill uptime.  Also helps some with mana.
For boots, Gilded Greaves and Sonic Boots are good choices for combating MDef and physical damage, respectively.  Sonic Boots can also help against AA heavy heroes while Gilded Greaves helps shorten CC time.  Hermes’ Select is perfect for heavy roaming.  
Because of his good AP scaling, TeeMee can utilize Tome of the Reaper as anti-heal.  Also helps give a lot of ooomph to his skills.
Against a heavy magic damage team, Medallion of Troy is a good buy.  Also helps some with CDR.
Mail of Pain can be picked up for more armor and against AD assassins.
Rock Shield boosts survivability when engaging.

SKILLS

Following is a quick rundown of TeeMee’s skills (thanks to Samurai Gamers) along with some notes/tips regarding their usage.
passive
  • While most supports take care to let all the farm to their carries, TeeMee can actually “leech” because of this passive without compromising the carry’s gold income.  Can even generate a lot of gold advantage and one of TeeMee’s strengths.
s1
  • Spam this. High damage, AoE, and low cooldown makes TeeMee an early game monster, especially in invades.
s2
  • Accuracy is A MUST with this since this along with fart makes his engage combo. If you can’t be accurate with this skill, then you will be relying on Flicker which is bad.
  • Do use it on allies to escape.  Requires coordination on their part, however.  You can also hook Lindis’ wards (not sure about Elsu’s).
s3
  • Always use this on allies, never on self.
  • Just like the revive item, it doesn’t count the ally as ‘dead’, meaning Quillen, Butterfly and Veera CAN’T REST on it (which actually makes TeeMee a good Quillen counter). The target will be resurrected with a set amount of HP and then healed depending on TeeMee’s AP.  The set amount of HP is NOT AFFECTED by anti-heal.
  • When facing a TeeMee, always check if he doesn’t go full AP.  If he does, DO NOT camp the dead body.  The Ult has ridiculous AP scaling and can kill you easily.

GAMEPLAY

ROAM:  Great invader, great midlane harasser thanks to their S1 which can also help clear the wave very fast.  Stealing some mid farm doesn’t really hurt the midlaner much thanks to the passive.  Lategame, he suffers some from being a bad facechecker, which can be mitigated by the vision support item.  Early game, he can facecheck with a preloaded fart.  The shield item helps him control the moment when he’ll ult.
DUOLANE:  Go blue support item and feed your ADC.  The gold advantage you’ll generate is often enough to win the game alone.  It’s not unusual to have a TeeMee game where everything seemed to be balanced — same amount of kills, 1 drake vs 1 tower taken, but with your ADC at 2K lead over the opposing ADC.

COUNTERPLAY

TeeMee offers little to no counterplay.  However, the fact that the ult is bugged can be abused, and TeeMee often cannot ult while stunned.  TeeMee can also be CC’d and killed before they can even cast their ult.  Also, refrain from killing an ulted target.  Just let the ult duration end and then kill it.  TeeMee’s hook is also tricky to land.  Oftentimes, the ease of playing against TeeMee will depend on their user.

FINAL THOUGHTS

TeeMee offers a lot of stuff to the team and is a highly recommended pick.  Their only limits are the skill of the user and the team, but with good coordination, TeeMee will wreak havoc to the enemy ranks while also providing good peel for the team.  

To those who will pick TeeMee up, I’d advise to master the rats’ skills.  It might be tricky at first but I’m sure it will be worth it.  

For more AoV-related stuff, visit AoV Academy.  You can also follow me on Facebook.  Would appreciate to hear comments and suggestions from you.  Thanks!