Post by tarbomb on Oct 5, 2012 22:43:35 GMT -5
Here's an analysis of the tanks in the game.
I'm hoping that this will both help new testers in figuring out how the tanks perform, and to help the devs in tweaking the current tank designs.
Here we go!
Silver: The starter tank. The all-around shield is decent, and the armament is a mid-range twin cannon that does decent but not spectacular damage. It's a very simple tank for newbies, but really isn't that useful once you unlock other, more specialized tanks in the game.
Corsair: A pretty natural progression from the starter tank, which introduces directional shields and multiple weapons. It seems to be a bit faster than the Silver, and the range is better, and is a bit easier to use due to the longer range and frontal shield, which makes it safer to charge head-on at something. After a while, as you start getting up against stronger enemies (supertanks and buffed enemies) the Corsair becomes a lot less useful, mainly because the frontal shield is not very conductive to maneuvering. It's usable as scout, due to its speed and range, but like the Silver it suffers from being mediocre in everything and excellent at none.
Mustang: A fast, defensive tank with long range and decent shields, but fairly wimpy offense. In battle the multiple cannons can handle weak minions fairly well, making it a good farming tank close to towns, but where it shines is in scouting and doing frontier exploration - the multilayered shields and speed make it pretty good for surviving. It's critical weakness is the lack of rear shields, which limits its use as an exploration tank - supertanks taking shots at your behind will end your life fast.
Hurricane: A moderate-speed tank with an all-around gun. It can farm tanks spawning off buildings fairly well, but the single-target DPS sucks. The linked shields introduce the concept of battle rotation - since this tank is the easiest to use offensively (you don't need to really worry about whether the gun is shooting at the minions or the enemy - it's shooting at both!) you can focus on using rotation. Unfortunately, not many enemies are mobs right now, so the tank is of limited use. This tank could be made more useful a number of ways - I'd like to see some ability to chain lightning for longer range, coupled with a slight boost in speed, rather than a straight-up DPS boost. Or, when mob enemies are introduced, hurricane could be kept as is.
Hercules: Ah, the infamous pooper. Most people say that it sucks pretty badly, but I'm personally rather fond of using it as a wilderness explorer due to its toughness - it just keeps going and going after sucking up tons of enemy fire. The clusterbomb ability, though, is simply useless - positioning the tank to "poop" the bomb out is a maneuver that often exposes you to enemy fire, and the bomb itself does lame damage. Perhaps the bomb could be changed to a grenade-launcher type weapon with a really short range (2 squares) that has a 360-degree firing arc.
Scorpion: Long-range missile tank with limited shields. There isn't much to say about this tank - it's a well-executed long-range sniper that isn't OP (missiles targeting minions vastly lower the effective DPS of the thing).
Cobra: Short-range shotgunner. Excellent farmer and simple to use, but its complete lack of rear shields makes it comparatively useless once shields have been buffed to over 200% (maybe make some really weak rear shields to make the tank useful after a shield buff?). Also, the scattergun should do more damage when your're up close than when you're firing from afar.
Spectre: Really powerful long-range tank that does really great damage without shabby shields. It isn't a great tank when fresh (no buffs), but when offense is buffed a bit it reaches the verge of being OP. It's one of the most common tanks around due to it's great offensive power and range. A small nerf to damage or range might be considered, but strong long-ranged enemies might make this unecessary.
Avenger: My favorite battle tank - tough, good firepower, and 360-degree fire arc. An excellent all-around battle tank, but a bit crummy for rushing.
Wolverine: A lot of people love this tank for some reason, but I'm not one of them. It just feels too bland to me - sort of like the Silver or Corsair Mk. II - a mid-range tank with decent shields and equips, but nothing really special. Back when it had a handling advantage over the other tanks it was fun to drive, but now it's simply feels bland. Like RotMG's necro, it's a decent, well-liked class that's simply too bland for my tastes. I don't think it needs a change, but you just won't see me around in one often.
I'm hoping that this will both help new testers in figuring out how the tanks perform, and to help the devs in tweaking the current tank designs.
Here we go!
Silver: The starter tank. The all-around shield is decent, and the armament is a mid-range twin cannon that does decent but not spectacular damage. It's a very simple tank for newbies, but really isn't that useful once you unlock other, more specialized tanks in the game.
Corsair: A pretty natural progression from the starter tank, which introduces directional shields and multiple weapons. It seems to be a bit faster than the Silver, and the range is better, and is a bit easier to use due to the longer range and frontal shield, which makes it safer to charge head-on at something. After a while, as you start getting up against stronger enemies (supertanks and buffed enemies) the Corsair becomes a lot less useful, mainly because the frontal shield is not very conductive to maneuvering. It's usable as scout, due to its speed and range, but like the Silver it suffers from being mediocre in everything and excellent at none.
Mustang: A fast, defensive tank with long range and decent shields, but fairly wimpy offense. In battle the multiple cannons can handle weak minions fairly well, making it a good farming tank close to towns, but where it shines is in scouting and doing frontier exploration - the multilayered shields and speed make it pretty good for surviving. It's critical weakness is the lack of rear shields, which limits its use as an exploration tank - supertanks taking shots at your behind will end your life fast.
Hurricane: A moderate-speed tank with an all-around gun. It can farm tanks spawning off buildings fairly well, but the single-target DPS sucks. The linked shields introduce the concept of battle rotation - since this tank is the easiest to use offensively (you don't need to really worry about whether the gun is shooting at the minions or the enemy - it's shooting at both!) you can focus on using rotation. Unfortunately, not many enemies are mobs right now, so the tank is of limited use. This tank could be made more useful a number of ways - I'd like to see some ability to chain lightning for longer range, coupled with a slight boost in speed, rather than a straight-up DPS boost. Or, when mob enemies are introduced, hurricane could be kept as is.
Hercules: Ah, the infamous pooper. Most people say that it sucks pretty badly, but I'm personally rather fond of using it as a wilderness explorer due to its toughness - it just keeps going and going after sucking up tons of enemy fire. The clusterbomb ability, though, is simply useless - positioning the tank to "poop" the bomb out is a maneuver that often exposes you to enemy fire, and the bomb itself does lame damage. Perhaps the bomb could be changed to a grenade-launcher type weapon with a really short range (2 squares) that has a 360-degree firing arc.
Scorpion: Long-range missile tank with limited shields. There isn't much to say about this tank - it's a well-executed long-range sniper that isn't OP (missiles targeting minions vastly lower the effective DPS of the thing).
Cobra: Short-range shotgunner. Excellent farmer and simple to use, but its complete lack of rear shields makes it comparatively useless once shields have been buffed to over 200% (maybe make some really weak rear shields to make the tank useful after a shield buff?). Also, the scattergun should do more damage when your're up close than when you're firing from afar.
Spectre: Really powerful long-range tank that does really great damage without shabby shields. It isn't a great tank when fresh (no buffs), but when offense is buffed a bit it reaches the verge of being OP. It's one of the most common tanks around due to it's great offensive power and range. A small nerf to damage or range might be considered, but strong long-ranged enemies might make this unecessary.
Avenger: My favorite battle tank - tough, good firepower, and 360-degree fire arc. An excellent all-around battle tank, but a bit crummy for rushing.
Wolverine: A lot of people love this tank for some reason, but I'm not one of them. It just feels too bland to me - sort of like the Silver or Corsair Mk. II - a mid-range tank with decent shields and equips, but nothing really special. Back when it had a handling advantage over the other tanks it was fun to drive, but now it's simply feels bland. Like RotMG's necro, it's a decent, well-liked class that's simply too bland for my tastes. I don't think it needs a change, but you just won't see me around in one often.
