Gauss: Interesting. They increased the damage spread by a lot. I assumed that the tight damage spread was something unique to Gauss. And all of those buffs will make it a better contributor on the battlefield but is it too much? We'll see. Isida: I anticipated this and it is a welcome one. It may just put me back in the mood to be a Support Nanobots Isida again. Mammoth: Yeesh! This was not expected by me at all. 5 seconds is a small time to work with but that frequency change will be very noticeable. And thinking about it, Mammoths with the Driver drone at a nicely-upgraded level will have many Overdrives to use. Wasp: At least Mammoth's hard counter got a buff, although the Wasps wouldn't have as many bombs ready as the Mammoths will have their AT-Fields. We'll see how this plays out. I expect to see many more Mammoths and I even expect to see many players complaining that they ruined Mammoth. The way it was phrased, it sounded like a buff - an increase in the charging rate would mean an increase in the % number of the charge every 30 seconds. If they said "an increase in the charging time", then it would sound like a nerf as the overall time to reach 100% would be increased and therefore accumulate slower.

While this is only a 10-rank bracket (as compared to a 11 or 12-rank bracket), I think it's safe to say that a Master Corporal shouldn't be playing with Warrant Officer 5s.

I can't stop thinking about Tanki missing the opportunity to draw an owl on one of Gauss' ears so it can symbolise its protection module...

Right before I started seeing a sharp increase in Magnum protections after the buff, I dominated in battles. I barely went against enemies with protection against me in that short time and I produced great results. After that short time, I saw Magnum protection littered around in battles whether it was on my team or the enemies' team. Immediately, my efficiency went down because I wasn't able to cause enough damage to kill them or assist my team in stopping pushes so my team can win that CTF battle. What made me dominate again? Hornet's Overdrive, that's what. It ignored protections and for 20 seconds, it brought me back into the days where there weren't as many Magnum protections around. With it, I was able to stop large pushes or a pesky enemy that was detrimental to my team's success. And it's important to know the type of Magnum I'm using because... ...I use a Reinforced Gun Carriage Magnum as seen in the photos. I don't use vertical aiming, I use horizontal aiming. The only M3 hulls I have are Hornet, Hunter and Titan. I'm not going to use Titan with RGC Magnum because I can't stay in my base and shoot enemies with that; I can do that with vertical-aiming Magnums. Now most of my experience with this alteration was before the...change to it. I'm not sure if that was a nerf or a buff. I was able to shoot far but with the 2-degree decrease, my range has been reduced. So I had to get comfortable with the decrease and now, I know how to maneuver the hull to get to different targets. I had used this alteration mostly with Hunter back when it had a 5-degree elevation. It produced good results because not many players used Magnum protection back then (from what I've experienced). I tried it with Titan and it ddin't produce good results because it was slow and I missed out a lot of action. So I realised it needed speed, but I didn't want to sacrifice so much HP for speed by using Hornet. I caved and put it on my Hornet, got the feel of it and then started to do great with it. RGC Magnum requires you to get in closer to the enemy. Using a light or medium hull is recommended. My Hornet is 4/20, which translates to 1,812 HP. That's almost 200 HP less than the M4 light hulls frequently face. That 200 HP is enough to withstand getting one-shotted by a LCR or Round Destabilisation Railgun. That also translates to 1 less Sledgehammer Thunder shot I can endure; to me being possibly one-shotted by a Stock M4 Striker, and those numbers increase when I'm wearing double armour. In small maps, I die frequently but because many players use double damage when they spawn, I'm able to get a kill before I die and possibly spawn somewhere safer. Legend players use so many things that can one-shot me or kill me without me fighting back. So I'm taking a risk by using something with relatively less HP. And that risk...is worth, thanks to its Overdrive. You say that my "saving grace" was Magnum. Yeah, it's powerful with that reload...if you get it to 100% velocity and actually hit the target. Not all targets require 100% velocity shots, especially when you're using a Reinforced Gun Carriage Magnum. The decreased projectile gravitation along with a fixed angle of elevation require different %s for different enemies in different positions and platforms. In many cases, if I were to fire a 100% velocity shot, I'd miss the target totally and not even do splash damage. And then we have my Magnum's damage. My Magnum's average damage is 1598 damage, yet I hit below 1,500 many times. My average damage is enough to take off about 55% of an M4 medium hull's HP. That is both of us on equal footing. Now if I use double damage, there is supposed to be a good chance that I one-shot them. But as you know, it's Legend battles and everyone is using supplies. So it's not often that I'd see many enemies unprotected. So if I were to be hitting players with double armour enabled, I wouldn't one-shot them. I'd take away half of their health. So where does my high score come from? It comes from Hornet's Overdrive. I make sure to activate it where I'm safe and I get many kills, sometimes I take out both enemies who are fighting each other at melee range with one shot. I use it with double damage because that's how you get the most out of Hornet's Overdrive. Magnum protections are becoming more common and they will be nullified when I have my Overdrive active. Sure, the majority of my kills are from non-Overdriven shots but that's because Hornet's Overdrive lasts only 20 seconds. I get about 3 per game. That's only a minute of Overdrive in a 6-7 minute battle. If I were to just use Magnum without the Overdrive. I wouldn't be getting good scores. I'd have a hard time dealing with protection modules. All turrets are powerful when not faced against protection. And they're each powerful in their own way. Thunder with being able to send strong projectiles quickly; Smoky, the same way; LCR Railguns, Magnums and Shafts being able to send one powerful shot, Vulcan being able to rip through their HP steadily but surely, Hammer taking their enemies' HP by large chunks etc. Yes, I've been seeing an overload of Vikings, Titans and Hunters. I do see light hulls but yes, the majority are medium hulls. In the Legend ranks, you'd see more Hornets than Wasps as opposed to seeing more Wasps than Hornets in the lower ranks. And why do you think they use the 1 to 2-shot turrets with Hornet? How is it pointless? If you just looked around a corner and see an enemy driving away after a confrontation, you would know what happened there? No, you wouldn't. You can have an idea of what took place but you'll never fully know unless you have all the details and that is what Hornet's Overdrive does: give you the details as the the result of the confrontation. How would you know if the guy has almost full health or not. You could sneak up behind the person and shoot a powerful shot, yet it didn't kill him, and then he turns around and sends you to a spawn point. There are many things that I pay attention (or HAVE to pay attention) to in these DM battles. I have to pay attention to who is using what; how much of a threat are they to me?; do I have protection again them?; where are they in the map now?; how will I survive an encounter with them?; Did they change their turret or hull?; which protection modules do they have now?; how many of each turret are there in the battle?; what drones do the enemies have equipped?; what alterations do they have equipped? All of those questions I ask myself and I'm observant of each player. I make sure to look at the killfeed every chance I get. I take risks given the limited knowledge I know of a confrontation that took near me but out of sight. Hornet's Overdrive doesn't answer those questions but it makes it easier for me to make the right choices as I have insight on where they are as well as their remaining HP. When you're using particular turrets, it's important to know its damage when used with double damage so that you can make the right choices in who you're going to assault. My damage range is more than 1,000 damage wide. I take a risk every time i directly hit someone from the front or behind. With Hornet's Overdrive, I can more safely make the right decisions that will sustain my life longer and also make the most out of the Overdrive. About that not being able to see thing, I've been killed because of that by particular turrets. I would be looking straight forward and see a Viking + some turret. I would take aim and by the time I'm about to shoot, it kills me with its Railgun. So that's why I make sure to look at the killfeed regularly so when I see the player's name, I'll instantly know what turret they'd be using at that time and how to react to it. Other times, the death could be unavoidable. If they'r eon a higher elevation, the symbol can cover their entire tank and you wouldn't know if you're shooting a light hull or a heavy hull. It wouldn't mean that it's invincible, but it would mean that its survivability would be heightened while its fellow light hull, Wasp, would be as visually tangible as ever. Invisibility would make Hornet's Overdrive way better than Wasp's Overdrive. Exxxxxxactly. If you even know where it is. Why should there be extra effort to locate something already as swift as Hornet? They can hide behind buildings and then pick off enemies safely you're not going to notice that thing that Thunder and Smoky does when they shoot. It'll be far away and it would be constantly moving. This is almost guaranteeing the Hornet lives until its Overdrive finishes. Why should it not be as killable as the others? It already ignores ALL protections, including Titan's dome for crying out loud! Having it go invisible just adds extra uncertainty and paranoia in battles. How can you fight something you can't see. And what if the enemy doesn't have a Hornet? What if one team uses its Hornet's Overdrive and the other team's Hornet's Overdrive isn't ready yet? And what are the chances that an invisible Hornet that ignores all protections would attack close to an enemy Hunter? Especially if they are using a mid-long range turret. The turrets that require you to get in close and personal can kill the Hunter before it reacts with its Overdrive. Invisibility is too powerful and unfair for the other hulls. Hornet's Overdrive already has the fastest recharge time. Yes, it is still a great combo. And I see them shredding through enemies' HP with their Overdrive. Freeze itself is powerful now and if you're unprotected, you're going to die if it touches you from behind and there are no teammates for you to get helped by.

You were unprotected. Each modification of Gauss is able to one-shot an unprotected medium hull of that same modification when used with double damage. If you had double armour enabled, then a Hornet who had its Overdrive active used double damage and one-shotted you.

Viking isn't the only hull you can use EA"S" Railgun on. And M4 Accelerator "Scout" Railguns shoot a projectile every 2.18 seconds which is faster than M4 Thunder's reload time...wow.

Yes, that's what the "explosion impact force" parameter does. All splash damage turrets have this parameter, but it is more pronounced on Gauss and Magnum and it is a defining feature of Gauss. I got invited to a Silence battle where someone was dropping golds. One of them was dropping near one of the three ramps on the left side of the blue base. I locked on to a Wasp that was ahead just ahead of the others and when I shot, the players behind the Wasp got pushed back . Someone had cursed me in the chat when that happened. :P

This is not always a good idea to do with Gauss. First things first, its auto-aim. It has the smallest auto-aim of all turrets in the game which is tied with Railgun's auto-aim numbers. Now, Railgun's projectile is an instant hit. Gauss' arcade projectile isn't an instant hit but basically works the same way. That doesn't translate to its sniping mode mechanic. You have to lock on to the enemy and the best way to do that is to do that is to sit still. Now, I'm not doubting that you've used Gauss in MM battles but looking at the account you're posting on, you've used it for 1.1 hours and you've earned 0 EXP with it which makes me assume that you used it in Parkour battles. Striker has better up and down auto-aim numbers. It can afford to move and lock-on. What makes it even more affordable? A laser. Gauss not having a laser isn't a flawless "upgrade". It has a drawback: harder aiming because you have no laser to guide you. Couple that with decreased auto-aim numbers, and you'll find yourself having a bad combination for moving while aiming if the enemy is lower or (worse yet) above you. If you're shooting it from afar, it is worse since the enemy is smaller and you have to look even closer to line up your turret's snout on them. Viking + Gauss: For aiming and shooting on level ground, this is the best combination. Dictator + Gauss: For aiming and shooting on level ground, this is the worst combination. \ I use my M1 Gauss on Dictator the most. The extra height is compensation for its horrid upwards auto-aim, but not so good for its downward auto-aim. I've tried to aim and shoot with it but that does not work out. Most times, I would have to stay completely still. And you know how the tanks rock forward and backwards when you accelerate in both directions? Well that's even worse with Dictator since that pushes up the auto-aim cone angle which makes driving and aiming less desirable and rewarding, and this is not even factoring in the enemy noticing you or shooting you with high-impact force turrets. Sure, Viking's low profile allows it to be the best at aiming and driving but when that starts to get hit with strong impact force frequently, just hope you can still aim.

Hmm? How so?

Gauss should be given the ability to one-shot a light hull on equal footing in the lower modifications since that sniping shot reload is heavy in the lower tiers. The sniping damage range becomes wider as you progress throughout the tiers. Being able to one-shot light hulls without double damage makes it able to one-shot heavy hulls with double damage. So to be safe, I would increase the sniping mode damage to figures where you'd have to hit above the average damage to one-shot the light hull and just increase the higher tiers' figures to deal significant damage against them, say...1,900 for the most at M4. I tried to create figures but there were too many things to factor in.

Isida just gets a damage boost that seems to be equal to about 3x damage. I had tested this in a parkour battle a week or two prior. I'm not sure if it gets a range increase like Firebird and Freeze get because every Overdriven Isida I encountered were up on me. I can't pinpoint Thunder's damage boost but yesterday, my Hunter with 2541 health and 27% Thunder protection had 50% of its health taken away by one shot from a (visually) M2 Thunder (without double damage) using Viking's Overdrive. That seems like a 2x increase assuming that the Thunder was M2 10/10. Stock Thunder is able to shot 12 shots in those 7 seconds with a 2x increase in damage.

And that is why I hate that Wasps seem to target me when I'm Mammoth. Instead of dropping it on a group of my allies, they drop it solely on me. They seem to have an innate prejudice against me because I'm using a Mammoth. It's probably because I'm slow. Is it because I'm slow? It's probably because I'm slow. But no biggie, I get to mow them down with Vulcan because they keep throwing themselves on me.

Wasp was able to deactivate Mammoth's Overdrive since its first buff after the Cosmonautics Day celebrations. Here is the link to the patch notes.

I'm peeved by the Thunder discrepancy. Sledgehammer Thunder is already the most prominent Thunder alteration and it receives a boost while the other alteration that has a (very close I might add) reload decrease as well doesn't get a boost. And then you have that Autocannon nonsense. They said in a V-Log that it would be reverted to Stock Smoky when using Viking's Overdrive. I remember the very scene where they said it. They were playing with Viking + Autocannon Smoky in a Polygon MM battle on the left side of the Blue base. But look at that, it still deals 85% less damage and even shoots 2 fewer projectiles. They're not consistent and all of these different mechanics have different outcomes on a FIXED platform (Viking's Overdrive's boost). I'm rather disappointed.

No no no, I didn't (couldn't) buy it at M2. I was just saying that since the statistics change from M2 to M3 is high, upgrading it to M2 10/10 is desirable if you want better results. And the only Gauss I have is the M1 version and it's currently M1 9/10 going on 10. Yes, I upgraded and sped up the process during the MU sale. I had many gold boxes I dropped for myself to increase my budget. It was mainly to see how good M2 Gauss is three ranks before its M2 modification unlocked. It's not really that good. It's fun to play but I get better scores with Vulcan.

How many upgrades does your Gauss have? Its statistics at M2 are relatively low, hence the low price at the M2 modification. Having it at M2 10/10 is great...but mainly for the arcade shots, not really the sniper shots.

It looks like they've caught on to what Stadium is really all about. My team: 6 Shafts, a Thunder and a Railgun. Enemy team: 2 Shafts, 3 Railguns, a Magnum, a Freeze and a Thunder.

On the Test Server, I tested these turrets and turrets with their reload-changing alterations equipped with Viking's Overdrive and got these results. These are the number of times they were able to shoot from start to finish of the Overdrive. Hammer: Smoky: Thunder: Shaft: Striker: Railgun: Just for experimentation, I decided to use it with the Plasma Torch alteration: All it did was just let me shoot bullets unlimited bullets until the 7 seconds were up. There was no projectile speed increase, or rate of fire increase. Nothing at all. All it serves is being a refill for your Plasma Torch Ricochet. And while I was at it, I decided to time Viking's Overdrive's recharge time. I entered a 5 minute battle and the Overdrive charged to 100% when the timer reached 0:44: I'll guess that it started charging when the timer was on 4:56 so that would put Viking's Overdrive's recharge time at 4 minutes and 10 seconds. What can I deduce from this? It seems as if they played favourites with some alterations. Sledgehammer Thunder has a 25% reload decrease and shot 4 projectiles more than Stock Thunder. Small Calibre Charging Machine Thunder has a 20% reload decrease yet shot the same number of projectiles as Stock Thunder. There is definitely an error in logic there. Then we have the Railgun's alterations. Now I was surprised. I expected "Death Herald" Compulsator Railgun to shoot more projectiles than Large Calibre Rounds Railgun but nope, they both shot the same amount, meaning that LCR is better than "DH"C Railgun with Viking's Overdrive. EA"S" Railgun shot more projectiles than Stock Railgun which I expected. I don't understand why Autocannon Smoky shot 18 projectiles while Stock Smoky shot 20. That just doesn't make any sense. And added that Autocannon Smoky already has a defect with Viking's Overdrive where the damage is still decreased by 85% when the Overdrive is active. Only the critical shot damage is increased by Viking's Overdrive. And in case you're wondering, yes, the duration is still at 7 seconds.

Wait, what? I'm on here testing turrets with Viking's Overdrive and I didn't notice it being so long. Edit: Tested it and it is still 7 seconds.

This turret is similar to Shaft in that where you get shot from tells you where the Shaft or Gauss is, even more so Gauss. With Shaft (if you even have the time, proper knowledge, or if your team is even winning to even do this) can make it difficult to spot it if it's hiding and you don't see its laser before it shoots you (you have to still be alive after the shot for this to be effective) because it can actually choose where it hits you. First, if your tank is straight forward on the terrain and a Shaft shoots you from nowhere, look at the way your tank is displaced. If you see the shot collide with the back left of your tank but the back of your hull gets pushed to the left, then the sniper was to your right and vice versa. For Gauss, it's way more difficult to the same thing Shaft does. For one, Shaft can zoom in from far while Gauss doesn't. If the Gauss is almost perpendicular to the enemy, they can shoot at the back left or right of it but doing so to trick the enemies like how Shaft does it is almost improbable. Another factor is Gauss' sniping projectile. You would see the projectile hit you and at what angle it did. That alone tells you exactly where the enemy is. In that same case for Shaft, only the laser (assuming that it was visible to the enemy just before they get hit) would serve as an indicator as Shaft's projectile, when it just hits, doesn't give much if any insight as to where the Shaft would be. It's important to look at the relation of where the shot hit you and how much your tank was displaced in a certain direction. That alone (at least, for me) is enough for me to deduce where the shot came from.

I consider the sniping shot less effective compared to the arcade shots in the lower tiers. A sniping shot is basically 2 and a half arcade shots throughout all the modifications. Only the M1 modification has the smallest sniping shot to arcade shot ratio of 2.3 arcade shots per sniping shot. Since the rime it takes to lock on to the enemies and to reload after the sniping shot decreases throughout M0 - M4, it is better overall at the M4 modification since it can fire a sniping shot and reload quickly. I'm a sitting duck waiting to be destroyed if I didn't kill the enemy with M1 Gauss. I expect them to buff its sniping damage because if it's mainly effective against one enemy (because of its splash damage being weaker than it is stated), then a buff in the sniping damage seems plausible. I tried it in the Test Server and M4 gauss with the Booster Drone can one-shot an M4 medium hull with double armour enabled (no protection module). It did about 3,500 damage on average to the double-armoured-medium hull. That's a max-levelled Booster Drone. This turret doesn't really allow for great Booster Drone usage. I had tried this turret in JGR and it definitely isn't a turret to use if you want a safe chance at killing the Juggernaut. I went after the players trying to kill the Juggernaut since they like to use speed boost and/or double damage when they spawn leaving me to one-shot them.

RLC? Do you mean RGC (Reinforced Gun Carriage)? How did you like it? After playing with that alteration for so long, I've lost my touch with aiming on the angle and power Magnums.

My Vulcan is still M2.2 (because back then, I didn't need upgrades) and my Mammoth is M2.2 (bought it during the sale). I used it with my M2.2 Dictator (because I didn't need upgrades back then) previously. Still has a long way to go before being even more effective. I need more protections but they're rather expensive. And I can't remember the last time an ally Isida touched me on that account; 'twas probably last week. Hornets with their Overdrives usually two shot me in a very small space of time.

Something about Gauss' sniping shot's splash damage: I had this scenario in a Parma CP battle where there was Titan Smoky, a Titan Gauss and a Hornet Isida. The Titan Smoky was in the middle and I was locking onto him. The Titan Gauss was a good bit away but still in range of the splash damage and the Hornet Isida was no more than 7 metres away from the Titan Smoky. I released the shot and the Titan Smoky received about 1,300 damage while the Hornet Isida received 134 damage. This makes me ponder on the intended use of the sniper shot. Is it primarily supposed to be used on one sole target or is it recommended to be used on one sole target? That Isida was within the range to receive about 45% of the total damage yet only received about 10%. If the sniping shot is for single targets primarily, then that changes my perspective of the turret.

Heh, would ya look at that. My Brigadier account also uses Mammoth Vulcan. With Vulcan, I like to be in the middle or inside their base, no matter the hull. If I'm defending the flag, I'll put it on Freeze but their speed would still be higher than mine when I'm trying to Freeze them since my hull would be too slow to keep them in the stream long enough to put them down to 10% speed. On Sandbox and Sandals, I dominate (given that the enemy team doesn't out-equip us), especially Sandbox. For Deserts...there is a problem because I face too many enemy Railguns here and I don't have much protection. This Brigadier account didn't ply during Tanki's transitioning face with all these supplies and stuff and it got neglected. The only good protection I have is 22% Firebird protection I got from the Storm paint. Thanks to the weekly containers I saved up and the containers I got from missions + Tanki's birthday celebrations, I'm getting the account back on track. Protections are the only thing I don't have enough of. I only have 3 protections above 15%. I had bought Thunder protection during the sale so I'm good there. My Railgun protection is 15% (M0 5/5) so it's unfortunate that I couldn't buy the M1. These Railguns one-shot me in Desert battles and there are so many of them. So I don't go after the flag because there is always this one Hunter guarding it.