General Hints and Advice
Posted: 02 Mar 2009 22:06
Having been playing Savage for about 3 years, there is quite a bit i got to share :)
Melee:
-First off, if possible weaken your opponent with ranged attacks before charging in to melee. Someone who only takes 2 hits to kill is usually alot easier and faster to kill than someone who would take 3. Having a teammate provide ranged support while you charge in with carn/rabid works too, tempest is best for added damage while surge is best for helping the melee pred get past blocks, in general i would choose tempest for added damage, incase the melee pred dies quick anyways.
- Be aware that an unbuffed and full Hp Lego and Pred can each take 3 hits from each others melee attack, and that while a lego can usually heal with Medpacks, it is fully possible to kill a lego without him getting to use them at all, distracting with ranged once again works wonders in accomplishing this.
-If you fail 10 times in a row to kill or seriously hurt someone with melee, switch to ranged.
-If you are reduced in health to risking getting one-hit killed, you should propably either use ranged or fall back, dying in this case would likely only feed gold to the enemy.
-Everyone has their own unique style when meleeing, their disposition to freeswing, switch to ranged, use meds etc. Most people are very predictable in their melee habits and this allows the observant a chance to adapt and stop someone (lterally) dead in their tracks.
-Just as the above hint tells you to watch for patterns in others, make sure you are not being too predictable yourself. For example; if you as a human always (either by reaction or choice) melee swing whenever a pred in melee range will allow the pred to trick you into swinging, by leaping close and away and as you are swinging they leap close again to hit you, something they can repeat until either you die or you learn to control you melee swings better. Varying what or how you do things will confuse and make your opponent insecure about what you intend to do, allowing you to formulate your own tricks should it provoke an unexpected or frustrated response.
-Finally always remember that "Melee skill" in this game is a very loose term, as different people inherently do things differently, don't be surprised if you one day totally destroy almost everyone in melee, while the next you yourself get destroyed. Almost everyone and anyone can be defeated if you study how they do things. Still don't be afraid or ashamed to switch to ranged. One does not always have the time to adapt to every single opponent
Ranged:
-First off, remember that your aim will always vary depending on who you are shooting at, what you are shooting at and what you are using. Tempest and coil are the hardest to aim but at long to medium range are the most damaging, flux and surge are the least difficult to aim and flux is absolutely devastating to beast, while surge alone is a mere annoyance to any non-nomad. Most other ranged weapons are moderately difficult to master and vary a great deal as to how they fire and how you should aim.
-As mentioned in the melee section if you intend to melee your target you should soften them up with ranged first.
-Out of all normal ranged weapons, mortar, launcher, ember and frost bolts are generally the most damaging and viable to use against buildings. Mortar and Launcher are always useful against beast buildings while ember and frost bolts are best used against human towers before they get shield.
-If someone is shooting you up quicker and better than you are shooting them up and you are close to a sub; retreat, regain your health quick and get back into battle. Most important if and when you are at a low-gold map using high-gold units. Gold is extremely valuable to have should your team plant a sneak garr/sub/gate and you have to quickly use siege to maximize it's use. Winning or losing is usually decided by the available team gold (and spawning players of course, generally one should assume 5+ siege to appear when a sneak garr/sub/gate shows up)
-If someone is not shooting at you and instead rushing into melee this is a clear messsage that they lack either a ranged weapon or ammo, both of which you can exploit by staying out of range as long as you can while shooting them up, naturally important against people who generally beat you in melee.
Buffs:
5 Buffs are availabe for players in this game (with gate being more of a team buff):
Human Speed buff: Seriously speeds someone up for quite a while.
Used for: Demo running, flag capping, sneak garr building, as a last resort to aid someone in battle when all other buffs have run out.
Counter with: Snare, ranged harrassing, blocking their path and meleeing. Speed buffed dudes are generally distracted by where they are going and their immensely fun speed and are usually worse at blocking both ranged and melee attacks than they usually are.
Human Shield buff: Provides serious resistance to damage for quite a while
Used for: Demo running, flag cappin/defending, general farming/killing.
Counter with: Waiting, snare (to prevent them from reaching flag, building or other vital areas) or using very high damage units like summ or behe.
Human Electric buff: Provides serious damage boost allowing for many one hit kills against most things, depending on what unit it is used on.
Used for: Building smashing, flag capping/defending, cutting a path through the enemy during demo runs, general farming/killing large close by groups of enemies.
Counter with: Waiting, either until the buff runs out or they make a freeswing, allowing a pred and others to get in a free hit, snare and ranged work great too.
Beast Fire buff: Provides a very damaging aura affecting nearby (about a little shorter than pred max melee range) enemy units.
Used for: The usual stuff, flag capping, as aid in saccing, defending, both as a counter to other buffs and against demo runners and general farming/killing of large close by groups of enemies and in conjunction with heal buff for maximum carnage.
Counter with: Immobs, relocing, ranged, shield/elec buff and of course waiting (might be difficult if they are charging right at you)
Beast Heal buff: Provides an instant 100% health and mana heal to a non-siege unit.
Used for: Saccers, flag capping, defending, as an aid for ranged units providing cover/damage and in conjunction with fire buff for maximum carnage.
Counter with: What you did to provoke the buff, just do it faster before they can do what they intend to do.
Finally, if you still lose, don't worry, you will get better if you just want to! It may take time, but most of all you should play to have fun! If you are not having fun then play a different game for awhile, others should not have to suffer because you are having a bad day and you feel like complaining about it or insulting those who beat you. In essence be nice, have fun, and everyone will have a good time!
Man that took some time to type up, i hope you guys find this interesting or atleast accurate, assuming anyone bothers to read it all :) If someone wishes to correct me or add something like exact numbers for buff durations go ahead and i will edit it in. Any other comments are also welcome :) If anyone wonders why i spent so much time on this, it is simply because i had nothing better to do at the moment and i didn't feel like playing anything.
Melee:
-First off, if possible weaken your opponent with ranged attacks before charging in to melee. Someone who only takes 2 hits to kill is usually alot easier and faster to kill than someone who would take 3. Having a teammate provide ranged support while you charge in with carn/rabid works too, tempest is best for added damage while surge is best for helping the melee pred get past blocks, in general i would choose tempest for added damage, incase the melee pred dies quick anyways.
- Be aware that an unbuffed and full Hp Lego and Pred can each take 3 hits from each others melee attack, and that while a lego can usually heal with Medpacks, it is fully possible to kill a lego without him getting to use them at all, distracting with ranged once again works wonders in accomplishing this.
-If you fail 10 times in a row to kill or seriously hurt someone with melee, switch to ranged.
-If you are reduced in health to risking getting one-hit killed, you should propably either use ranged or fall back, dying in this case would likely only feed gold to the enemy.
-Everyone has their own unique style when meleeing, their disposition to freeswing, switch to ranged, use meds etc. Most people are very predictable in their melee habits and this allows the observant a chance to adapt and stop someone (lterally) dead in their tracks.
-Just as the above hint tells you to watch for patterns in others, make sure you are not being too predictable yourself. For example; if you as a human always (either by reaction or choice) melee swing whenever a pred in melee range will allow the pred to trick you into swinging, by leaping close and away and as you are swinging they leap close again to hit you, something they can repeat until either you die or you learn to control you melee swings better. Varying what or how you do things will confuse and make your opponent insecure about what you intend to do, allowing you to formulate your own tricks should it provoke an unexpected or frustrated response.
-Finally always remember that "Melee skill" in this game is a very loose term, as different people inherently do things differently, don't be surprised if you one day totally destroy almost everyone in melee, while the next you yourself get destroyed. Almost everyone and anyone can be defeated if you study how they do things. Still don't be afraid or ashamed to switch to ranged. One does not always have the time to adapt to every single opponent
Ranged:
-First off, remember that your aim will always vary depending on who you are shooting at, what you are shooting at and what you are using. Tempest and coil are the hardest to aim but at long to medium range are the most damaging, flux and surge are the least difficult to aim and flux is absolutely devastating to beast, while surge alone is a mere annoyance to any non-nomad. Most other ranged weapons are moderately difficult to master and vary a great deal as to how they fire and how you should aim.
-As mentioned in the melee section if you intend to melee your target you should soften them up with ranged first.
-Out of all normal ranged weapons, mortar, launcher, ember and frost bolts are generally the most damaging and viable to use against buildings. Mortar and Launcher are always useful against beast buildings while ember and frost bolts are best used against human towers before they get shield.
-If someone is shooting you up quicker and better than you are shooting them up and you are close to a sub; retreat, regain your health quick and get back into battle. Most important if and when you are at a low-gold map using high-gold units. Gold is extremely valuable to have should your team plant a sneak garr/sub/gate and you have to quickly use siege to maximize it's use. Winning or losing is usually decided by the available team gold (and spawning players of course, generally one should assume 5+ siege to appear when a sneak garr/sub/gate shows up)
-If someone is not shooting at you and instead rushing into melee this is a clear messsage that they lack either a ranged weapon or ammo, both of which you can exploit by staying out of range as long as you can while shooting them up, naturally important against people who generally beat you in melee.
Buffs:
5 Buffs are availabe for players in this game (with gate being more of a team buff):
Human Speed buff: Seriously speeds someone up for quite a while.
Used for: Demo running, flag capping, sneak garr building, as a last resort to aid someone in battle when all other buffs have run out.
Counter with: Snare, ranged harrassing, blocking their path and meleeing. Speed buffed dudes are generally distracted by where they are going and their immensely fun speed and are usually worse at blocking both ranged and melee attacks than they usually are.
Human Shield buff: Provides serious resistance to damage for quite a while
Used for: Demo running, flag cappin/defending, general farming/killing.
Counter with: Waiting, snare (to prevent them from reaching flag, building or other vital areas) or using very high damage units like summ or behe.
Human Electric buff: Provides serious damage boost allowing for many one hit kills against most things, depending on what unit it is used on.
Used for: Building smashing, flag capping/defending, cutting a path through the enemy during demo runs, general farming/killing large close by groups of enemies.
Counter with: Waiting, either until the buff runs out or they make a freeswing, allowing a pred and others to get in a free hit, snare and ranged work great too.
Beast Fire buff: Provides a very damaging aura affecting nearby (about a little shorter than pred max melee range) enemy units.
Used for: The usual stuff, flag capping, as aid in saccing, defending, both as a counter to other buffs and against demo runners and general farming/killing of large close by groups of enemies and in conjunction with heal buff for maximum carnage.
Counter with: Immobs, relocing, ranged, shield/elec buff and of course waiting (might be difficult if they are charging right at you)
Beast Heal buff: Provides an instant 100% health and mana heal to a non-siege unit.
Used for: Saccers, flag capping, defending, as an aid for ranged units providing cover/damage and in conjunction with fire buff for maximum carnage.
Counter with: What you did to provoke the buff, just do it faster before they can do what they intend to do.
Finally, if you still lose, don't worry, you will get better if you just want to! It may take time, but most of all you should play to have fun! If you are not having fun then play a different game for awhile, others should not have to suffer because you are having a bad day and you feel like complaining about it or insulting those who beat you. In essence be nice, have fun, and everyone will have a good time!
Man that took some time to type up, i hope you guys find this interesting or atleast accurate, assuming anyone bothers to read it all :) If someone wishes to correct me or add something like exact numbers for buff durations go ahead and i will edit it in. Any other comments are also welcome :) If anyone wonders why i spent so much time on this, it is simply because i had nothing better to do at the moment and i didn't feel like playing anything.