I think that Smoky, especially at M3, looks pretty good in general. I think Twins, Freeze, and Thunder look pretty bad.

Isida on double power is incredibly cheap. >Double your normal damage, can kill almost anything >Double healing rate, you'll have no problems keeping your teammates patched up >Double self heal amount, due to double damage; you can shrug off almost anything. Now, if you're fully drugged up: >All of the above >Can shrug off ANYTHING, due to double armor >You're incredibly fast (if you're using Wasp/Hornet), so you can close the gap really quickly A fully drugged Isida is my worst nightmare.

In case you haven't seen some M1 Titan/M0 Shaft pwnage today: Yes. I got 18 kills and 0 deaths. That is now my new D/L record. For the most part, I was camping near the small grove of trees to the right of where I am in the picture. M0 Shaft was great, even against M1 Hornets. I placed mines near the side route, and got 3 kills with them. A few Isidas kept me patched up (I actually didn't take any damage for the second half of the game), and it got to the point where the enemy team essentially stopped using open ground, but my teammates did a great job cleaning out the enemy team.

Ranger, Twins gradually deals less damage the further away you are from your target. The "damage at max distance" parameter influences how much damage Twins does at the greatest possible range you can hit targets.

I love M1 Smoky, and it's quite usable. Great knockback, and much improved crit chance compared to M0 (the base percentage is only a little higher, but I think the percentage ramp-up per shot is noticeably higher). I feel like M0 Smoky is pretty terrible unless you're a lucky person. However, there was a guy in the lieutenant ranks that was STILL using M0 Smoky, and he must be a really lucky person, since he managed to get crits frequently.

Yep. I think that you shouldn't take damage from near misses, although the bounce effect would be a lot harder to use. Maybe a good compromise would be, "near misses won't deal damage to enemy tanks, but if a bouncing shot is a near miss, then it deals damage".

Apparently the old thunder looked better. The barrel was more blocky and futuristic.

I got 100 each from The Game, and 10 each from linking my account to an email, so I'd say I have enough drugs for a while. Even before I got those bonus supplies, I had more N20s, Double Armors, and Double Powers than I could use. Mines and First Aids were always kind of tight.

I guess so, but I'm content with my current hull choices right now. A nice perk of Hunter is that the MUs are very cheap, so you can get close to Viking level health without too much of an investment.

I don't have Viking, but it seems like it's a slower Hunter/faster Dictator. I see a lot of Vikings around, but they're not usually a huge threat (unless drugged up, but hey, anything drugged up is a big threat). If I'm using Shaft, fully charged shot + arcade shot = dead Viking in still a relatively short time. I feel like Hunter is already pretty good, and I have Dictator if I need extra health, so I don't see the need for Viking.

Am I the only person here who thinks Dictator is the best looking hull? Just take a second and admire the sleek, futuristic shape. The lights on the front of the tank look more like eyes than any other hull, and if equipped with Railgun or Shaft, Dictator resembles a scorpion with a large stinger. It does look ugly when equipped with certain paints, I'll give it that, but with the right combination, it looks amazing.

The nice thing about Isida is that you can still use it in the higher ranked battles. I was in a CTF yesterday, where most players were in the Lieutenant ranks already. Isida wasn't that great for offense (although I do appreciate the ability to kill a M1 Hornet in 1 discharge), but the healing was still exceptionally useful. I kept our team's M2 Dictator/Rico flag-capper alive as much as I could, and it really paid off. And yes, that guy was using M2 Dictator to cap flags. I don't know how, but it might have something to do with his constant drugging once he was in combat.

That's not really a problem for us few Smoky users; it's so much easier to catch people off guard. Most people know how to deal with Firebird, Railgun, and Twins, but I've seen a lot of players who have no idea what to do against a Smoky, so I can circle-strafe, knock around, and crit. I barely see people using Smoky-resistant paint either.

Thanks to everyone who told me to get M1 Firebird! It's amazing. I also got a Gold Box with it, so yey. EDIT: I also ranked up, so even more yey.

Gotta love circle-strafing. I think I once circle-strafed a Shaft-Mammoth for about half a minute before he finally went down. He didn't get a single hit onto me, but to be fair, we all know that Shaft + Mammoth has terrible mobility and rotation speed.

I played a CP on Highland with M0 Rico + M1 Titan. Carnage ensued. A Gold Box dropped midway into the game, and I was VERY close to getting it, but a Wasp/Isida got it. Ah well, I'm not really mad. That Isida was really helpful in keeping me patched up, and I still got a good sum of crystals. Most of the time, I was hanging out around Point A, and Rico was exceptionally good at killing all the Firebirds before they got close. Somebody on the other team apparently got fed up with me, and switched to M0 Thunder/M0 Titan, but he wasn't too much of an issue, since my teammates were doing a pretty good job at BBQing him with Firebirds. Also, that's my record for highest D/L ratio so far.

Is M1 Firebird a good buy? I have a (fairly) steady income now, so I should be able to afford it in maybe a week or so. The issue is that I'm also tempted to save up for M1 Shaft.

Dictator can survive 3 shots from Railgun if you MU the health a little bit and equip Forester. It's my go-to combination if I'm facing enemy Railgunners. I've MU'ed my Railgun's damage a few levels, so I can BBQ M0 Wasps at medium range. Theoretically, it should now be able to 1-shot Hornets at close range, but that hasn't happened yet, so maybe everybody's MU'ed their Hornet's health.

Sales are always nice, but isn't it much more satisfying if you worked for every crystal to get it full price?

I think Shaft looks better with Dictator or Titan, but eh, I don't have Viking. Dictator-Shaft lets you take advantage of that extra height (you can fire more upwards) and has pretty similar stats to Viking when MU'd a little bit.

Like Destroy-U said, it might be related to lag. It might seem like you're not being hit on your screen, but it may not actually be the case on somebody else's. On a side note, you're using M1 Smoky against M3 Viking/Rail? You have guts.

Yep. If you're lucky (and manage to be facing a damaged enemy), though, you might be able to one-shot them. For me, Smoky tactics go like this: If enemy is NOT a Firebird/Freeze/Isida >Flank and circle strafe at close range if possible >Flank at medium range if above is not possible >Don't bother seriously engaging at long range. Always fun to knock a enemy Shaft around once in a while, though. If enemy IS a Firebird/Freeze/Isida >If at close range, GTHO, unless you've managed to attack them from behind. If so, backpedal and shoot as they turn around. >If at medium range, backpedal and shoot to knock them around until you get a crit. >If at long range, you might as well shoot at them for the heck of it. They can't stop you.

This happens a lot, unfortunately. A lot of players don't appreciate the work that an experienced Shaft user can do. Especially annoying on Esplanade. There's a ledge on the top level where, if you angle your tank correctly, you can have a view of the entire enemy ground area. I do recall being pushed off several times by an annoying teammate. But Titan doesn't care. I like to use Titan for sedentary sniping, but it also really comes in handy when you have that one jerk on your team that wants to push you off. Karma ensues.

I love Smoky, but I wouldn't say it's the best weapon ever. Smoky essentially can't do anything at long ranges, so you're helpless against skilled Railguns or Shafts.

Depends on the skill we're talking about here. With Double Power, Isida A: deals double damage to your opponent, B: heals yourself by double the normal amount, and C: heals teammates at twice the same rate. Freeze only deals double damage. Assuming that you have a head-on fight, then Isida would win, since the self healing effectively cuts Freeze's DPS by a lot. If the Freeze user takes time to circle around, then Freeze wins.