So far I’ve found the best way to spend your points seems to be dumping everything in Dash Charge from the start until you have the first two levels. Spending your points any other way usually sets you back a fair bit.
My upgrade path is usually as follows:
05 Points - Dash Charge Lvl 1 - (05 total spent)
10 Points - Dash Charge Lvl 2 - (15 total spent)
05 Points - Jump Lvl 1 (20 total spent)
05 Points - Dash Power Lvl 1 (25 total spent)
20 Points - Dash Charge Lvl 3 (45 total spent)
10 Points - Jump Lvl 2 (55 total spent)
After this point, it’s really up to you where you put your points as you’ve maxed the only skill that really matters, Dash Charge. I usually put a point in Shield as it has situational uses, but due to the nature of the game it’s usually just better to dash away from danger.
How the build works:
You’re going to be moving around primarily by dashing. Jump and Dash constantly. If you stop moving and anyone else is near you, you’re probably already dead. The ‘Q’ key is your friend. Use that to “unlock” from a target once you’ve started charging your dash to avoid flying off in a direction you don’t want to go. Assuming your Dash Charge is maxed out, it should only take a second or so to charge. This means you can lock on a lot faster than anyone else playing unless they have also maxed out their Dash Charge. It means also that even if you miss a dash, you can re-lock on and re-charge the person in a second while they will take a lot longer to recover and redevelop a lock on you.
Some skills to avoid investing any points in:
* Warning - Assume you’re being targeted at all times and don’t stand still. Dash constantly and on most maps you’ll rarely even touch the ground.
* Shield Recharge - You’ll be pulling the shield out rarely enough as it is and the recharge is already pretty good. Ignore this skill.
* Shield Power - The first level of this shield protects you for ages and the shield itself should only be used situationally (Baiting them to attack and then dashing them after they’ve been blocked for example). If you’re using the shield long enough for it to run out then you’ve made yourself a sitting duck. Get dashing!
* Run Speed - What are you doing on the ground for? Get dashing or get dead.
Some skills to invest points in only if you’ve maxed out Dash Charge:
* Recovery - Seeing as you’re going to get repelled a fair amount by people counter-dashing you the extra recovery is helpful, but usually not critical. After being blocked you can still move, jump and dash away so this skill doesn’t usually have a huge effect on gameplay.
* Detonate Speed - I’ve never really had an issue with people killing me before I detonate. In fact, the time it takes for you to detonate usually acts as a lure to draw people in. If someone has found a better use for this skill let me know. Otherwise only put points in here if you have nothing else to do with them.
* Jump Lvl 3 - Any extra mobility is great, but Jump 3 is pretty darn expensive and overkill a lot of the time (Dash Charge and Power is much more useful). Only sink points in here as a last resort.
Let me know what you think and if anyone else has had more success with a different build or strategy.
My upgrade path is usually as follows:
05 Points - Dash Charge Lvl 1 - (05 total spent)
10 Points - Dash Charge Lvl 2 - (15 total spent)
05 Points - Jump Lvl 1 (20 total spent)
05 Points - Dash Power Lvl 1 (25 total spent)
20 Points - Dash Charge Lvl 3 (45 total spent)
10 Points - Jump Lvl 2 (55 total spent)
I actually do tend to start out with a similar pattern.
I also mix it up a little bit.
I also agree that Warning, us a paranoid persons dream, and worthless, if you can pay attention to your surroundings, and maintain.
Your view on detonate speed seems odd, it is more important than you think.
The main thing I’d like to say about these builds, is that the shield, seems to me, like a decent skill to learn to use, but honestly not near as effective as just a pure movement/speed based build.
I have entered a server with the leader at 30 points, and in less than 1 minute, obtained well over 100 points, simply using my play style.
Honestly though, different combos work well for certain people.
I have a friend that does very well using the defense skills.
Fire Sword ftw!
I usually go:
Shield or Det Speed 1
Shield Recharge 1
Dash Charge 1
Det Speed 2
Jump 1
Det Speed 3
Recovery 1
Shield 2
Shield Recharge 2
Dash Charge 2
Dash Charge 3
Dash Power 1, 2, 3
Jump 2,3
Recovery 2,3
However, I usually change my build frequently depending on the map and just what I feel like doing and what I see others using.
If there are a lot of shields around, recovery is good so I can attack quickly if I am blocked and will surely need a good dash charge.
I have very good results going with jump 1 and jump 2 first. It seems insane to some, but as positioning is so critical, I’ve been able to do very well with it. You can charge your dash all you want, but if I can jump half way across the map while charging mine, totally out of danger in the early match because everyone else is building up charge or power, and then get you from behind, it’s at the very least even.
I think which skills end up working out the best in a given game depends a lot on the map and on what other players are choosing. Pay attention to how other people are killing you, and then compensate. Evolve or die!
I’d really like to see some of the less-used skills either become cheaper, or somehow made more powerful. Don’t know anyone who invests in block recovery. Maybe the block stun time should be greatly increased? But then shields would be too powerful, and I don’t want to see a shield-heavy game, personally.
Also, run speed would be nice to see as just “movement speed”—in all movement you’re faster. Running is near useless in this game as most people know.
Oh, and if you invest in jumps early, I also suggest switching the drop key with the block key. I have drop on right click and it surprises a lot of people when I’m way up in the air, then suddenly plummet down and attack from underneath.
When I am playing, I tend to wait until I get 10 points before I start leveling anything up. After that, I get the first two charge ones. Five points later, I tend to either go for the jump upgrade or the shield depending on the round. After this, I get the det a lot faster and then work on finishing up the rest in no particular order. The one thing that I tend to ignore though is the recovery, but that’s because I don’t need it in every game.
Your view on detonate speed seems odd, it is more important than you think.
Yep, you’re right here. In the past I’d usually have to preempt what I thought the other people were going to do and detonate ahead of time which occasionally led to premature detonations when they didn’t do what I expected them to. After I wrote this though have played a few games and found that moving some points in from things like Dash Power to Detonate Speed early on allows you to use your detonation a lot more offensively.
So at the moment the most worthwhile skills seem to be:
Dash Charge > Jump > Detonation Speed
qan - 10 April 2010 04:11 AM
I have very good results going with jump 1 and jump 2 first. It seems insane to some, but as positioning is so critical, I’ve been able to do very well with it.
Depending on the map I sometimes pick Jump as my first option too. Both Jump and Dash Charge are invaluable, with Jump allowing you to avoid dashing into detonations and others charging you among other things.
Going to be playing around with some different kinds of builds to see how they work out (Pure Defensive among others). Tarnith’s focus on Detonation Speed as his first pick has me interested and I’d like to see how that plays out.
Eh, i usually mix up my builds. Sometimes i like getting shield/warning first, along with dash charge and power. other times i just get jump and dash charge, mostly cause then your one fast little robot xD
Changed my build order and found this pretty effective so far:
05 Points - Jump Lvl 1 (The extra mobility is more useful at this stage than starting with Lvl 1 Dash Charge)
05 Points - Dash Charge Lvl 1 (Starting to invest in Dash Charge)
10 Points - Dash Charge Lvl 2
05 Points - Detonate Speed Lvl 1 (I’ve come to love this skill fully leveled. Allah’u Akbar!)
10 Points - Jump Lvl 2
10 Points - Detonate Speed Lvl 2
20 Points - Dash Charge Lvl 3
20 Points - Detonate Speed Lvl 3
I don’t usually bother putting any points into shields anymore (Never get a chance to use it most of the time). Only time I usually have to get a shield is if I’m up a against a good player whose reflexes are better than mine and is implementing exactly the same build and strategy as I am :D. Dash Power is another that I can usually afford not to get.
A question I have for anyone that might know, does Dash Power affect the range of your lock? It doesn’t seem to, so I’ve dropped upgrading it for the most part (Dash Charge by itself is more than enough).
Habluka - 10 April 2010 05:58 AM
Maybe it would be good to make some sort of compilation of these build orders to help out people who are new to the game.
As far as a compilation goes, I’ve really only got a single “build” which I’ve found to be the most effective. Mobility seems to be where it’s at and detonate speed is pure win. The purely defensive skills are too difficult to use currently due to the twitchy nature of the game and the way people are currently playing it. Easier to dash around to get a good lock on someone rather than making yourself less mobile by using the shield. The game is new though, so as people start playing it more and get experienced with some of the skills we may see shields being used more effectively. At the end of the day if you focus on leveling Dash Charge, Jump to level 2 and Detonate Speed and prioritize based on your own play style you can’t go wrong.
The purely defensive skills are too difficult to use currently due to the twitchy nature of the game and the way people are currently playing it. Easier to dash around to get a good lock on someone rather than making yourself less mobile by using the shield. The game is new though, so as people start playing it more and get experienced with some of the skills we may see shields being used more effectively. At the end of the day if you focus on leveling Dash Charge, Jump to level 2 and Detonate Speed and prioritize based on your own play style you can’t go wrong.
Well said man,
Basically, right now I feel the shield is good, but for my style of gaming, my background in games, I think the shield/latency issues create a confusion when trying to learn the defense. Honestly I think the Repelling and Blocking, are confusing a lot of players.
It takes patience at the moment to learn shield, but eventually I think it may make or break some fights. Already I have a difficult time fighting those who do use shields so well.
dazaris - 10 April 2010 07:51 AM
A question I have for anyone that might know, does Dash Power affect the range of your lock? It doesn’t seem to, so I’ve dropped upgrading it for the most part (Dash Charge by itself is more than enough).
As an answer to your questions about Dash Charge and Dash Power, I think that the main benefit of good Dash Power, is the ability to take out targets at a closer range, faster, with less lock on.
The strange thing about all this is, due to realizing that some people play great defense, while others are getting good at killing those who collect stars and kill energy quickly, I have crafted my play style to deal with it.
jump 1
jump 2
run speed 1
dash charge 1
dash power 1
run speed 1
dash charge 2
the rest is to fill the important (for me jump, run speed, dash both, detonate)
maybe shield is sometimes bought before something i have no straight plan
I usually go straight for shield and warning one. Then double jump. I usually try and go for the defensive mega perk as getting it makes you very hard to kill.
I like seeing the names of people discussing this, cause I’ve watched boy of enders run by me grab a star and then lock and kill me (more times than i’d like to admit)
Personally i find the shield only moderately useful, but I’ve gone up against people who i simply could not kill because they used the shield so effectively.
I just wanted to point out that you guys are missing the biggest perk about warning; using it to tell when nobody is after you. Why you ask? Because if no one has a lock on you and you have some points, there is no point in detonating at that moment. You might as well wait until you have that exclamation point over your head to set those points off
I never got jump before but i’m thinking it might be useful after reading this. Though, If you a dirty B@#$%!@ about it you can just exploit the drop cancel for unlimited double jumps (very useful in capture the flag ).
i go for dash charge and speed straight away, after I get both of them up to 3 I move onto jump. It’s then not too hard to get the vacuum bomb mega perk - this brings me joy :D
I’d say that warning becomes much more important for when to detonate, as was already said. And it goes into detonation speed on its own. I have definitely blown my load prematurely because I also detonated faster than I realized I was going to. However, I do rarely get warning since I also assume that I am always half a second away from death.
But my “build” sort of looks like the one originally posted. Although depending on the board, I do find run to be useful instead of jump. Someone can jump all they want, but they are often expecting me to jump with them, or not expecting me to run them down. So on levels where I have good areas to get speed and run straight, I usually go for run. On levels where height is more important, than I go for jump.
For Deathmatch I like to start with dash charge and dash power, then sometimes I’ll upgrade jump if needed but if not I’ll save until I can add another on to dash charge. The quicker you can charge the quicker and further you can attack so after I take care of that I’ll add jump (if I didn’t already). Since its DM its helpful to know when your being locked onto so next I’ll get warning - that way I don’t waste a good explosion and I know when to be moving it double time! Shield is optional but its helpful after you jump in a cluster of people all trying to kill one another. That’s what seems to be working well for me right now, it’ll be interesting to see what other strategy come out of new features
).
