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I didn't see this mentioned anywhere offhand, so! Those in the know, I need some build suggestions.

I've historically gone a certain way in my builds -- highest Speed and Courage I can do, plus other stats depending on the tactics involved (high Strength and Ram, for instands; Strafe builds, I don't go quite so heavy on Firepower in favor of having some Strength, Endurance and Rank for better armor and such). But I've seen a lot of builds that just scream WRONG to me, like builds where there's almost no Speed or Courage at all... and lately, they've been consistently kicking my aft all over the missions.

I admit, I may well be rusty since it's been so long since I played seriously last... but when I have builds that ought to be halfway decent that wind up being blanked on XP time and again because my only opponents seem to be level 8+, while I'm stuck in the level 4 cheap seats (and God help the poor low-levels like the 0-2 range, because there's no way they can be getting enough XP to make any real upward movement), I have to wonder what I'm doing wrong. I switched a Battle Station build from being straight Repair (which was doing so-so at best) to Strafe... and now, half the matches I've played since then, the RNG has not let me get a single attack in before being one-shot by a STR 10 Magnus Hammer or a STR 10-enhanced FRP 10/SKL 10 Fusion Cannon.

I suppose, to go along with that, some pointers on what armor is worth using at what Rank would be nice. Vanadium-Steel (Rank 3) is really not helping me much at all compared to Duranium (Rank 2). So some suggestions there would be nice as well.

Armor is an odd one, although there is some consensus that until you get your bots up to level 6 (minimum), you're better off sticking to Iron and putting your points to better use in other stats that aren't rank.

ThunderThruster wrote:Armor is an odd one, although there is some consensus that until you get your bots up to level 6 (minimum), you're better off sticking to Iron and putting your points to better use in other stats that aren't rank.

Crap... I'll have to wait a while, in that case, since it seems altmodes aren't changing up (maybe they did several days ago, but I thought yesterday or today would have been the next changeover 'cause I'd heard three days per altmode switch-up, and so far nothing yet). It'll especially suck if the 'Cons no longer get that War Within Optimus altmode, because then I'll just have to suffer through it with Incognito.

I just find it hard to believe Iron is the best option right now, especially given how I'm being typically one-shot or two-shot KO'ed (every level 8+ and their mother has a Magnus Hammer or Fusion Cannon, it seems) virtually every match. But what can I do? The only time I get missions around my level, the XP and energon are almost not worth doing. Sadly, the 1-10 and 1-11 missions are the only ones worth trying to do. I've had some good performances at times, but there's been more than a few blanks where I walk away with a 1-hour CR bill and no XP to show for it. But hey, in those all-too-rare times that my level 4s can land a hit on a level 11 (especially a Ram), or I can get a Repair from one of my team on one of the level 10 or 11 'Cons... I'm hard-pressed to say stasis-lock isn't worth it at that point.

Bunbun is currently (re)conducting his armor experiments, so he should be able to offer you more info on this, but simply put, with the game in it's current state, Iron isn't going to disadvantage you any more than other low ranking armors, so it's advisable (for the time being) to stick with it and allocate the points to something else such as Endurance or Speed.

The advice i generally give is to prioritize surviving long enough to do something over doing something well.

To that end, Endurance, Strength, and Speed are your friends. Some armor never hurts but don't go out of your way to improve it, END will always help more. Just get whatever you can once it makes sense to improve those stats.

Once you have a solid base you can worry about doing more things (ie tactics)
If you have to unlock a tactic, it's probably not worth it until you're a higher level.
Always prioritize points in a tactic over their feeder stat(STR = Ram & Bite, SPD = Avoid, FRP = Strafe, INT = Repair)
It doesn't matter if you can make a 60% repair if repair never activates.

There are very good (ie OP) low level weapons (XS2, Sabers, Shatterblasters, Fireworks launcher). Use them. No point wasting XP on weapons until you can get the rest of your bases covered and can use something like Atomic firebreath or Dualbladed Lightsaber.

Courage, Rank, & Intelligence for non-medics (and skill really) are lowest priority.

My advice is use alts with tactics that are cheaper to upgrade and be canny about which tactics they are. Personally I'd always say go with dual tactic alts as they're quicker to level up and to always level up as soo as you can. Even if you get SLed a bunch against higher level opponents, you can earn more from just a few hits compared to winning every low level mission.

Avoid is most useful the lower the level you are. 50xp per avoid is peanuts for high levels but massive for a L0-1. Also helps that it helps keep you going longer by not getting hit.

Repair helps you level up quickest once you're out of the L0-1 doldrums and is generally worth investing in L2 and over. Wang repairers into cross level missions with the highest level allies you can. Even a 1% repair on a L11 will give a nice payout.

Ram/bite is your next best for a mid level build and just fine for a low level too if, like me, you want a mix of builds and character appropriate ones. Payout is fairly good whatever level you're at.

Strafe is harder to make work the lower level you are. Needs firepower to deliver much punch on top of all the other stats you need for a good build.

Broadly speaking Speed, Strength and Endurance are always worth investing in regardless of what tactic you use. Personally I'd skew things towards strength for a rammer, speed for an avoider and endurance for a repairer but worth having a mix of all three.

Firepower is only useful for alts with strafe as there are plenty of decent weapons that don't require (m)any stats as Bun has said.

Intelligence is only useful for repairers and even then not at the expense of the more useful stats above.

Rank, skill and courage aren't really worth investing in below L6 except as a means to level up faster.

I can't stress enough overamping your offensive tactics if you're doing cross-level missions (1-10, 1-11). You can pull down tremendous gains here if you can hide behind HC, Soundwave,and Dark Ops. It may seem at times like it's costing too much energon wise, but overall you'll gain more than you use. With strafe, don't worry too much about firepower, Strafing 10 times for one damage on someone like Steve will net you way more than shooting him with a bigger gun. Don't worry about better guns until you have your defenses in place.

For ram/bite, definitely push the Strength because that armor is gonna let you live long enough to ram/bite. End/STR/armor are the best for surviving those Fusion Cannon hits just long enough to accomplish your mission, leeching lots of xp.

Courage is worthless down here. Same for RNK. Better to stick with iron until you're in a better position xp wise, like HC said. Don't skimp on SPD too much, though. Better to hit someone once then not at all. Build more balanced if you plan on going into more at Level missions, though, but remember that FP, CRG, SKL, INT, and RNK should be lower priorities for the time being.

Ugh. The more I look at this, the more I fear that I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and expect one or two of my characters to continue to mostly suck (with the occasional farming off of high-levels), while resetting every other character I have in the vain hope that emulating every other build I see will be enough to (hopefully) be more consistent. I just hate losing altmodes that I've had for years (in most cases), and feeling like I'm reverting to being one of "those people" that I got so annoyed with when I played regularly years ago -- the ones who have more than enough XP to be at least one or two levels higher, but are intentionally making their characters lower level, so as to farm the lower-level missions.

Given how the playerbase has fallen off, it's not entirely like that now, but I have noticed one or two Autobots that should easily be top-tier level 5, but instead they're middling to low-end level 4s, and sometimes 3s, because they're going all-in on STR 10, SPD 5, END 7 and a Ram tactic. The worst part it, you'd think I could dodge some of the attacks because all of my characters have a higher SPD, but it's worthless. It's... disheartening, I guess, that what used to work is absolutely worthless now.

Your builds aren't terrible, they are quite serviceable. Invest more in END going forward. Most of the level 4s I encounter are underpowered. Kaiju being one of the big Exceptions (his builds are pretty solid) My 3s can take on most level 4s, and they are by no means overamped. Check the rotator every 3 days (today was the rotation). Only reset the ones you can. Don't just reset for the hell of it. I have a few characters with janky builds myself, sometimes it's more fun. You also don't need to overamp like "those players" as it doesn't matter in the Hell type missions.

Whatever build you go with, I still think it's worth leveling up as soon as you can, even if it means putting some xp into the stats that we're saying aren't really worth it. It gives you higher level targets to fight and allies to repair. Yes you'll likely get SLed a lot but the xp payout will be better.

Definitely agree with HC on this. With the reduced player base, there really is very little benefit to staying at lower levels aside from improving win/loss ratio. A level 11 will kill you just as dead whether you are one upgrade from level 5, or at Level 5. But hitting him once worth way more xp than killing 3 level 4s (as much of a badass as that does make one feel they are).

High Command wrote:Kills don't mean squat if you aren't earning xp.