The Energon Pub

In the light of the next round and been debating this for a while, I ask for help in reformatting my team. I want to try a BotMax hybrid i.e. half vehicle and half animal. If I get real creative in their bios, I could make them all triple changers with one vehicle and one animal but with one form being more dominant than the other.

https://www.seibertron.com/heavymetalwar/registry.php

I would prefer a decent balance of land, sea, and air but will also consider weapon alt modes. I can't stand the gadget alt modes.

So you're looking for some new builds to use? Which goal are you more focused on, character building or building for purely hauling in xp?

I used to have mine set up to build out the character, but since returning and seeing some xp hauls i've had recently, i've turned my focus to simply going for xp for the time being, then planning to reset at a later date and time for character builds.

I almost always go for character build first but often times write more off of the alt instead of the stats. Very seldom do I have a character in mind before I reset anyone.

Just remember that it's rarely about the alt-class but the build implemented through the stats load out.

However, if you are going to include a few vehicular alts I would recommend picking 1 from the Tank, Heavy Assault or Spaceship class, as they have all have Ram and Strafe without having any prerequisites to access them.

If you're looking to gain some XP quickly, Wingz was fond of power levelling healers. From my own experience I can recommend both the Battlestation and Helpful Land Animal, as their non Repair tactics are Strafe and Ram respectively.

Additionally, don't go crazy with the weapons unless you've already built the stats for your tactics. It's much easier and simpler at your current level to stick with the XS2 Ionised Nullray (2 points in Firepower) or the Lightsaber (2 points in skill, colour of your choosing).

Personally I'm not a big proponent of low-level medics but if you're going to go that route I can suggest a couple things:
- Skip the INT, it's not worth the XP at that level (unless you have nothing better to spend the xp on)
- Skip CRG, anecdotal evidence lately has been calling into question it's usefulness at any level
- Focus on staying alive long enough to repair

- High END to lessen damage taken from ALL sources
- High Speed to prevent non-tactic damage from landing
- AVD is still legit at your level, use it
- Decent STR for Armor (but do NOT waste XP on RNK) and to mitigate Stuns

Also what TT said about weapons.
Get a XS2 or a Saber (or whatever that 3 FRP Reaver weapon is, it ain't bad until Psych nerfs it later).

As for other classes other than medic, everything I said about staying alive still applies
... and about CRG
... and about their feeder stats

Pretty much all the same until you get up about 1 Mil XP and have a solid base, then you can start worrying about feeder stats.

Also as for alts: Just pick whatever has the cheapest xp costs as the little difference in the activation rates (if any) compared to the more expensive ones likely won't matter.



But that's all just my opinion (backed by data)


***EDIT

If you're just looking to reformat for this event then I suggest making 5 Characters that ONLY care about their specific tactic (ie no dual tactics unless it's avoid) so that they don't waste time doing whatever the other tactic is when they could be getting you points.

There's also probably something to be said for having just and average weapon in the cases of the characters that need to kill opponents via a tactic so that you don't accidentally kill them via weapon.

I was thinking of scrapping my entire team. I half way expect to drop to mostly L3 though. Current average exp is sitting just below 900k. I do have a few with points in rank and/or courage. The armor thing was something of uncertainty and like many of us I thought courage had a purpose. I do want a variety of alts and tactics for my team for balancing.

Iron armour should cover your needs up to and including Lvl 5 (maybe even lvl 6), so points in Rank could be used in either Endurance or Strength for better effect.

Again, just my opinion, but if it was me I'd make this my base build and adapt from there for various tactics

ThunderThruster wrote:Iron armour should cover your needs up to and including Lvl 5 (maybe even lvl 6), so points in Rank could be used in either Endurance or Strength for better effect.

It feels weird to say this but: I agree with TT... again

I was going to post something to this, but I would be repeating everything TT and Bun has just posted.

Bun and I are on the same wave-length with INT and CRG. For Levels 0-3, focus on STR, SPD, END, and Tactic. No matter what your strategy is for your guys early on, your going to be utilizing these stats across all builds. Only exception is using strafe, then you have to focus on FRP while utilizing the others.

We chat up alot about building characters on the FB chat almost on a daily basis. Sparky also is in the same boat as you.

The other thing I noticed about my team is if I am lucky, I can average 2 tactic uses per mission when I mean lucky is a good chunk of my missions have no competition (all Bots), too much help not enough competition (usually the 1-10, 1-11), or I get slagged early on. At best I send out the same 6-8 mechs into 5 or 6 mission sets and only one or two missions I get to use my tactics. In other words, I am lucky to do .4 tactics a mission on any given day. Is there any way to increase this or is it RNG and competition, friendly and otherwise.

sumowrestler wrote:The other thing I noticed about my team is if I am lucky, I can average 2 tactic uses per mission when I mean lucky is a good chunk of my missions have no competition (all Bots), too much help not enough competition (usually the 1-10, 1-11), or I get slagged early on. At best I send out the same 6-8 mechs into 5 or 6 mission sets and only one or two missions I get to use my tactics. In other words, I am lucky to do .4 tactics a mission on any given day. Is there any way to increase this or is it RNG and competition, friendly and otherwise.

Getting slagged instantly at low level is typical though... everyone not new has been at that stage(goodness knows I have when I started playing again last year). It's tough in crosslevels, yeah.

It is rng. Raising stat/tactic levels increase your odds.

A bucket full of patience to go with it is desired.

Phasewing wrote:A bucket full of patience to go with it is desired.

And frequent deployments to see results

sumowrestler wrote:The other thing I noticed about my team is if I am lucky, I can average 2 tactic uses per mission when I mean lucky is a good chunk of my missions have no competition (all Bots), too much help not enough competition (usually the 1-10, 1-11), or I get slagged early on. At best I send out the same 6-8 mechs into 5 or 6 mission sets and only one or two missions I get to use my tactics. In other words, I am lucky to do .4 tactics a mission on any given day. Is there any way to increase this or is it RNG and competition, friendly and otherwise.

I feel you here on this most of mine are around the same spot you are. Personally(and if psychout or burn wanna peep on this message ) I think we could use some missions that are like 2-5, 3-6/3-7/3-8.


But i'll mostly echo what everyone else is saying as i noticed some this upon my return(even taking the advice they've given that i saw in another thread) and i can vouch for these guy's suggestion on the 2 into Skill with the Lightsaber, i've started that since my return and it's done amazingly well for me.

As for the missions, burn is waiting on the community to write new ones. I think the new ones will have greater payout. I do use the weapons suggested but the builds probably need reworked since I was in a hurry to get higher levels.

Looks like base level is 3 for the entire team. This is a good thing because I was afraid some were L2 base. I will wipe names and bios as well so starting from scratch.

Very little is looking appealing and what does has some higher entry tactics. We have 47 tactics which are at 1k with avoid 16, bite 3, ram 14, repair 4, strafe 9 and I am missing one or counted wrong. Now I know why most of my teams have had an abundance of avoid on it.

sumowrestler wrote:As for the missions, burn is waiting on the community to write new ones. I think the new ones will have greater payout. I do use the weapons suggested but the builds probably need reworked since I was in a hurry to get higher levels.

I think we've all been in that place, where we think the faster we level up our teams the better things will be.

IMHO, plowing through the levels with which ever cheapest stat load out to get you to the next level is not good, as you're more than likely getting beat on pretty badly (even if some of the XP from it might be good).
I'm at a point now where I'd rather languish at a slightly lower level, slogging away for the XP to get a stat which is more beneficial to that bot, with (hopefully) a better build on the stats, which makes for better input into the missions.

sumowrestler wrote:The other thing I noticed about my team is if I am lucky, I can average 2 tactic uses per mission when I mean lucky is a good chunk of my missions have no competition (all Bots), too much help not enough competition (usually the 1-10, 1-11), or I get slagged early on. At best I send out the same 6-8 mechs into 5 or 6 mission sets and only one or two missions I get to use my tactics. In other words, I am lucky to do .4 tactics a mission on any given day. Is there any way to increase this or is it RNG and competition, friendly and otherwise.

Various thoughts:
1. For some reason (or randomly) I see a huge difference in tactic uses when going from 6 points in a tactic to 7.
2. I also have a hard time finding opponents using my level 5s and lower, I was glad to get some to level 6 because the 6-11 missions usually have great competition.
3. I used the Code Of Wingz (C.O.W.) strategy to make a couple of high-endurance repairers and always send them to the 1-11 missions to level up, then change them to something else when they have lots more points.
4. I like Atomic Fire Breath with a strafer, because it is a good weapon and firepower is needed for strafe anyway. A screenshot of one with your points range I had in September, probably less courage and more speed would be better, 86788 has been reformatted to lots of other things since then including repairer.

5. If you have a crazy idea for a build, try it out.
6. HMW contains nuts.
7. Replicating actual TF tech specs from the toys tends to fail in the game.

Since this thread has opened up and we've touched upon rank attribute, I've been wondering at what level should we start to consider putting points into rank?

I dunno about what level but I wouldn't bother until Strength is maxed & Endurance is darn-near maxed.


That being said that's just my personal opinion/preference.

Considering un/armed damage is more prevalent than tactic damage at lower levels (assuming you're fighting others of your general level and not going for 1-11) using rank and some higher armor may have more benefit at lower levels than at higher levels... Then again it's SUCH an xp drain that you get NO other benefit out of it just doesn't make sense to me (Great now I have an idea for another experiment I'll never have time to run)

Bun-Bun wrote:- Skip CRG, anecdotal evidence lately has been calling into question it's usefulness at any level

Yeahhhh, i think i can just about echo this after this mission

You look at how many attacks each person had, then check out our courage stats

rank 5 n t s

Bun-Bun wrote:I dunno about what level but I wouldn't bother until Strength is maxed & Endurance is darn-near maxed.

I can see the logic in that.

Considering un/armed damage is more prevalent than tactic damage at lower levels (assuming you're fighting others of your general level and not going for 1-11) using rank and some higher armor may have more benefit at lower levels than at higher levels... Then again it's SUCH an xp drain that you get NO other benefit out of it just doesn't make sense to me (Great now I have an idea for another experiment I'll never have time to run)

Glad I could help spur another distraction for you

Well, I'm glad I took the time to read this thread! I think there's a mass reset in my team's future ...

Pathogen7 wrote:Well, I'm glad I took the time to read this thread! I think there's a mass reset in my team's future ...

Might I suggest a little more reading:
bun-bun-s-lab-autobot-edition-t112025.php

-tag-team-results-thread-an-extension-of-bun-bun-s-laboratory-t111139.php