Alrighty! I've made my final edit on this article, merging all details from my new guide into this one. I left a comment on my new guide stating I no longer wish to have it made public - now it really would be completely redundant. Thank you all for bearing with me as I find my place in the TO writing community, and I look forward to meeting you all in the next installment.

Ah, I agree. That does sound cool. And, I certainly don’t want to offend other writers or downplay their effort.

My apologies. I didn’t mean to come across as overconfident or braggy. I’m just excited by the potential opportunity to share my guide with other players. As I seen to have misunderstood the intent and mechanism of the newspaper initiative, I will from now on simply write for the AWS and let reporters contact me independently if they decide they would like my material in the Newspaper. I will make the necessary edits and await the decision of another reporter.

I'm willing to meet whatever expectation you have. I'm just confused as to what you're looking for. Sorry my misunderstandings are frustrating! I suppose it's all part of getting acclimated to this sort of writing.

Wow, seems like some clearing up is in order! Yes, some portions of the material are the same. I'm not locked into that idea, though - if they should be more different, I can make that happen. I wrote it, so it isn't plagiarism. I'm taking my own work and claiming it as my own, I suppose. My goal in my OD guide was not to create an entirely new article, but to expand, polish, and make independent what I already had as part of a series. As such, I included what I have written above and added a lot of new material. The reason I decided to have that goal was that I feel that I have a lot of useful information to share, but my own assessment of it combined with y'all's commentary brought me to the conclusion that, as it is in this topic, my guide wasn't newspaper-ready. In order to be fit for the wider audience of the newspaper, it was best to simply recreate and extend this then try to adapt it directly. That led me to my new topic, which is rebranded and reorganized as a standalone guide for any tanker, and which contains a more complete picture of the topic. A fair point, but there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's not really a copy. What I wrote for the newspaper is much more detailed, well-rounded, organized, and formatted. In terms of quality, this article can be considered a draft for my new one, if that makes sense. The Newspaper article includes: Notes on Augments and Drones Background on overdrives An entire Step 5 that this article doesn't have New image and text layout for clearer reading. The target audience for each article is different - my AWS article is meant to convey a part of my story about fighting without a turret, while the Newspaper article is meant to give all players a complete but accessible guide to using their Wasp's overdrive effectively. One frames the information as what I learned, while the other is meant to be more teaching-centered. If I'm understanding you correctly, you are thinking that I misunderstood your request to "do a OD guide on Wasp OD that would be a standalone." I interpreted this to mean "create a similar article that didn't depend on the rest of my amateur writing series." I could very well be missing your idea, so please let me know if that's the case. I appreciate your concerns! I'm willing to: Edit this article to make it more story-like, leaving my new article to be the definitive, newspaper-style guide Edit my new article so that it conveys the information for the newspaper differently or more clearly than this one - that way you don't get the same information twice. Leave both articles essentially as they are, with this one in AWS and the other in the Newspaper Something else - I'm open to suggestions.

Oh, ok. I'll PM you something. I haven't heard from any of the editors yet, so I'm not quite sure where its headed. My hope is that it's very close as-is, and with a few changes it'll be ready for the paper.

@Viking4sand @Person_Random Alrighty, my article is written and posted! I'm excited to hear what you think about it when it becomes visible - there's more detail and tips, a better layout/style, and a stronger focus on helping a broad range of tankers. I might pull some details I added to that guide back into this article, though there are still a few that I'll save for Wasp Tips in later installments because they are most important for certain game modes.

Yes, wasp ignores the dome, but only if the dome is already there. If the dome is up, planting a bomb inside is a great idea because it won't protect them. If the dome starts while the bomb is counting down, though, the bomb is destroyed. They each counter the other, so activating second is best. Glad you liked it! I'll move the anecdotes to where they fit better; thanks for the tip. I use blaster a lot! I'm planning to write about it the article after Mammoth's OD.

Fantastic. Thanks everyone! Newspaper-ready Wasp OD article, comin' right up!

I added pictures! What do you think? I'm not quite sure what you mean by the "newspaper style," though. Do you mean the language style, or something about the layout, look, or flow of the article?

Oh, got it. Maybe I'll submit a Newspaper-friendly edition of this that works on its own, unless Person_Random or one of the other reporters thinks it would be better as part of the series I'm writing. Time will tell. Or hopefully, one of the reporters will tell.

Thanks! I'll be looking into sending this to the newspaper soon...?

Sorry, I guess my question's phrasing was a little ambiguous. What I meant was: I have a pretty good idea of what I want the font sizes to be, but I don't know how to physically make that change. There's a button in the editor next to the font selector that pops up a color palette, for example, but nothing for size, and I can't seem to get HTML to work.

Neat, I'll have to check that guide out. Believe it or not, I haven't read it yet! I was thinking about that. How do I change the font size? I see there's an HTML button, but it seems to just display the raw code, and I don't see a button for size in the toolbox. EDIT: I added colors to highlight a few things. Thank you for that tip - they really make things easier to read! I'll probably go back and edit my first two installments to match, so it's a more complete set. Still trying to figure out font size.

Part 2: Equipment selection, Upgrades Tip #1, Wasp Tip #1 Part 4: All about Mammoth (and Mammoth Tip #1), Modifications, and Mine Tip #2 Hello, fellow tankers! Our journey through the low ranks without an offensive turret has now brought us to the great question: What is the answer to life, the universe and everything? Wait, hold on. Not that great. What you were really wondering was: How do I get any kills if I don't use my turret for that? Well, I hope you're charged up for this, because the primary answer is: OVERDRIVES! That's right. In this installment, I'll begin telling you the story of how I learned everything there is to know about maximizing the effectiveness of Wasp's and Mammoth's overdrives, and I'll be sharing a few tidbits about the other hulls, too! For today, we'll get off to the races with Wasp. Wasp's N2 bomb is spectacular. It's big, it's bright, and when it goes off, it destroys nearly everything in its vicinity. On April 11th, 2019, each hull got a unique overdrive - a special ability that charges passively and by scoring points in battle. Wasp got the much-feared (N2 Bomb: a devastating blast on a three-second timer that, when it goes off, destroys nearly everything in its vicinity. Naturally, I was thrilled - I finally had an effective weapon. However, I faced some challenges. "When it goes off" - this isn't a guarantee "Nearly" - you won't always get a kill "Vicinity" - you won't always hit everyone you expect to Here's the process I went through to minimize those shortcomings and really push the limits of this speedy hull's ability. If you can manage to follow all of these tips, you'll be an N2 beast. On average, I get about 1.5 kills per bomb and 4 bombs per battle, so I'm getting there. But first, a little background. A Brief History Three years ago, there emerged from the depths of the Developers' dungeons a new toy for us to play with: the "Zero Supply." It was an early prototype of an ability that allowed tankers to simultaneously activate some supplies without consuming any from their own inventories a couple times each battle. Shortly after, it was given the now-familiar name of "Overdrive" and added into the game permanently. A little over a year later, mysterious orange drop zones began to replace certain supply-drop zones. For a month, nothing dropped in them, and it was up to speculation what they would eventually bring. When the orange "Nuclear Energy" boxed finally began dropping, the instant overdrive charge they offered added another exciting dynamic to the game. And finally, just over a year ago, the unique, hull-specific overdrives we know and mostly love today hit the main servers. My personal favorite, and the one I'll be teaching you everything I've learned about today, is Wasp's. Get ready to have your mind (and your enemies' hulls) blown. ___________________________________________________________________________ First, if you want to go about things like I did, you'll drive around aimlessly for a while, plant a bomb, turn around to check if it has gone off yet, and be suddenly underwhelmed by the 1203 damage you do to that Titan, which promptly kills you. If you'd rather do better, follow along in step one for what I should have done the first time around. Step One: Understanding my weapon Translation: reading the wiki. Seriously, go read it! The entire wiki! Start with "Main Page." Just kidding! What I'm not kidding about, though, is this: knowing my bomb's stats gives me the ability to know who it will and won't kill, even before I plant it. The bomb takes three seconds to go off from the time it's planted. If it'll be deactivated or escaped from in those three seconds, save it for later! Patience is a virtue sometimes. How do you know if your enemies will deactivate it or escape? More details on that in steps 2, 3, and 4. The bomb deals 9999 damage at its center. The damage is only 9999 if the bomb is literally touching or inside the enemy (this took a lot of falling, shoving, and balancing on top of AFK enemies to figure out; I'll leave it to your imagination how silly I must have looked). 9999 is almost, but not quite entirely unlike tea. It's also almost, but not quite enough to take out a minimum-level Juggernaut. You'll only get a Juggernaut kill if it's already damaged. Double armor and drone protection, including Defender, are ignored by the bomb, and there is no protection module against it. (Yay!) The damage also can't be boosted by any means, however. (Aww.) The blast radius is 25 meters. That's about the length of 5 Vikings. Because the damage decreases from the center outwards, you can estimate the damage you'll deal at any given distance. This is one of those things that only comes with practice. Though the wiki doesn't state this explicitly, I have determined experimentally that the "weak damage" at the farthest range is something like 6% - 600 damage. My favorite overdrive use yet happened a few weeks ago, when I drove through 3 relatively spread out enemies, planted a bomb, and caught all three of them perfectly on the edge of my blast radius, just barely destroying all of them. Part of it was luck, but part of it was also some expertise in judging distances, and that felt pretty nice. Worth practicing for! One prop is 5 meters, just less than the length of a viking. You can hit someone at a maximum of 5 props distance. ___________________________________________________________________________ Next, picture this entirely hypothetical situation: you fight a hard battle, constantly experiencing great difficulty scoring any points because it's a TDM and you can't kill anyone with your turret. Nobody's hitting your mines, your teammate pushed you from under the nuclear box, and everyone is dying before you can heal them. You FINALLY get an overdrive charged up. Lo and behold, a gold drops! You find the zone, and everyone is crowding near. It's the perfect storm. You plant your bomb. 3...2...1.-ZAP! An enemy hunter wastes your one chance to earn a star in that battle, someone else takes the gold, and you finish the battle with a sad 26 points. Wouldn't that suck if it happened to someone? Crazy to think about, I know. Step Two: Learning to deal with others' overdrives The star above someone's tank, to the left of any supply and drone indicators, shows when their overdrive is ready for use. Hunter's overdrive, also with a range of 25 meters, will deactivate your bomb (and you) if it's activated before t-minus one second. If you see a charged Hunter that looks like they're paying attention, save your N-2 for N-other time. The same applies to Titan: if an enemy titan activates their dome on top of your bomb before it goes off, it's wasted overdrive. Save it for later. The interaction between Titan's and Wasp's overdrives is new and a little confusing, so here it is, laid out in simple terms: If a Wasp plants its bomb, and then an enemy Titan then activates its dome, the bomb will be destroyed if it is under the dome. If a Titan activates its dome, and then a Wasp plants its bomb, the bomb will go off (even if its inside the dome), and the dome will offer no protection from it. If a Dictator activates its overdrive, you will be frozen, making it difficult to get close enough to plant your bomb. If you're trying to hit a Mammoth with a charged OD, plant your bomb a little before you get right next to their hull - if they activate their AT-field before you hit shift, you're toast and they aren't Its also best to plant a little early when approaching charged-up Vikings and Hornets - they will try to kill you before you can drop your bomb. When dealing with other loaded Wasps, the most common outcome is that both parties plant a bomb and both get blown up (your bomb will go off even if you die). You can avoid this by beginning to accelerate before dropping, so that by the time they see your bomb and drop their own, you are moving fast enough to escape while they are a sitting duck. Ideally, you fly by and drop it without ever slowing down. If you're bombing a Juggernaut, plant your bomb quickly before you get blown backwards! This might mean planting it before you get quite as close as you'd hoped. You'll deal less damage, but be more likely to hit them. Also worth discussing are the overdrives of your own teammates! If another wasp has already planted a bomb, there's no point in you planting one right after. Keep an eye out so you don't waste things. A teammate's Hornet OD can tell you how hard you have to hit an enemy - and therefore how much time it is worth taking to set up the perfect position to plant the bomb. Viking teammates can clear out enemies in the three seconds before your bomb goes off. Only you or the viking needs to activate their OD to dispatch a group of enemies, so make sure to coordinate which one uses their ability. A friendly Hunter's OD is the perfect pairing with Wasp. If you plant your bomb right after your teammate stuns all of the enemies, it's guaranteed to go off and there's no escaping it. Always be on the lookout for friendly Dictators with charged ODs! The Bonus 50% charge you'll get is very valuable, and the dictator will appreciate the seven battle points they get in return. Be careful with friendly Titans. They're bulky and it gets crowded under their dome, which can make it difficult to maneuver into a good spot to plant your bomb. Make sure that a sizzling Mammoth isn't already n the way to eat up your enemies when you plant your bomb. It's fun to watch them get barreled over, but it's a shame to see your bomb go to waste. Your team's juggernaut, if they aren't paying attention, can blast your enemies away from your bomb. This doesn't happen often though, so just be aware of what they're about to do and you'll be fine. ___________________________________________________________________________ Now picture another situation that I totally haven't been through over and over again: You plant your bomb right in the middle of a throng of enemies. There's something like 6 of them nearby, and they're all going to get blown to smithereens. There's a flash of light, a mushroom cloud...and six unharmed enemies staring down your (now rather sheepish) barrel. Every one of them just moved out of the way. Grrrr. This happened over and over again, until eventually, I got to here: Step Three: Keeping my enemies close Here are some of the best places I've found to light the fuse: Under a Titan's dome. Once it's up, it draws many enemies close, and it can do nothing to protect them from your explosion. The perfect storm. A gold drop zone. You'll either destroy who is about to take it or make them back up so far that it's yours. A siege point. This can really put a wrench in their plans. A rugby ball drop zone. People covet that ball to no end. Make them pay! A nuclear drop zone. As a bonus, you'll get another overdrive shortly after. Essentially, anything that is going to draw several people close together is a great place to start the countdown. They won't realize that their greed led them to a nasty surprise until it's too late. Now, lets say there's nothing particularly special going on - just some enemies cruisin' for a bruisin.' Who do I hit, you may ask? Plant a bomb near stuck enemies. Anybody with restricted mobility is easy prey. A crowded defending team in Assault 2 or 3 times, I've destroyed 5 tanks with a single bomb in an MM battle. How? Attacking a crowded base in Assault. If I remember correctly, I did it on the Barda and Highways maps, and maybe Wolfenstein, too. A partially-wedged Juggernaut Don't you just love seeing that big red number where a once mighty foe stood? Someone in a narrow area that you're blocking escape from Frozen tanks - wasp/freeze is a deadly combo, or you can rely on teammates to slow your targets down Prioritize stationary enemies over moving ones. If someone is already cruising along, all they have to do to cover enough meters to survive in 3 seconds is keep cruising. If they're in place, though, chances are they won't be able to react, accelerate, and get far enough away in time. Interestingly enough, it's not usually the size of the hull that determines the chances of it getting away from an initially stationary position. Heavy hulls won't get as far, but they can take a bigger hit. What does matter is the hull's acceleration. Here's a list of the tanks who have the best chances of escaping (given the same initial distance and reaction times), based on how quickly they can get moving: Juggernaut Hornet Viking Hunter Titan Wasp Dictator Mammoth This isn't mathematically calculated, just what I've experienced. I prefer to plant a bomb near the tanks low on the list. Hit people with no means of escape If someone can duck behind a wall, crate, or building, or if they can dive to a lower elevation, they'll be spared by the bomb even if they're within 25 meters. The N2 is most effective in enclosed but flat and uncluttered spaces. ___________________________________________________________________________ A quick note on Augments: I've never been lucky or rich enough to get my hands on a hull augment, but I have had a bit of experience attempting to bomb tanks with them.The heavyweight augment for any hull will give it a harder time escaping, though they won't be affected by the impact of the explosion as much. On the other hand, enemies with Cold Resistance, Cold Immunity, or Stun immunity will have a better chance of escaping. Observing that level of detail is rarely practical in battle, though. Just do a quick assessment of who's moving and what hull they're using, and if it doesn't look like they'll get away, blast 'em. This gets easier with practice. ___________________________________________________________________________ Since the last two complete hypothetical situations have been downers, why not lighten the mood? Close your eyes, and allow your mind to drift into a Juggernaut battle. The enemy Juggernaut is fighting off your teammates, and about to get away. It sits in place looking at your friendly Dictator for a couple of seconds too long, and you blow it up with a bomb planted right under to the side of its nose barrel. Or what about this one: You sneak around the back of the Kungur map with a flag, attack the base, plant a bomb, and pick up the nuclear box that nobody noticed. 4 kills. The base repopulates, and nobody looks your direction as you sit quietly at the edge of their base. Another teammate comes, all enemy attention is concentrated on them, and boom! Another bomb, another 4 kills. When I learned the strategies detailed in this next section, I really started to rack up kills, and my D/L went on the rise. Step Four: Preying on the inattentive It doesn't matter how many counter-overdrives are ready or how easy it would be to escape if my targets aren't looking my way or are preoccupied with something else. This is arguably the most important thing about using this ability, so pay attention to this one! Here's what I learned to do: Looking at where their turret is turned. Nine times out of ten, this is where they are looking, so if I come up to the side of behind their field of vision, they're toast. Using my bomb at times when there is a clear objective: catch the gold, kill the flagbearer, and so on. Many people won't pay attention to a lowly Wasp when there are more important things at hand. Many people get blown up because I know this. Making sure I'm not the primary target: if they see you, and they see that I have a bomb ready, they will kill me, run or both. It's best when I make sure they have someone else to shoot at. This is one of the things that not using my turret to attack really helps - I'm not letting them know I'm there. Enteingr their base from the side or from the back. If they don't see me coming, I have time to position myself right in the middle of a group of enemies, setting up a very effective explosion. ___________________________________________________________________________ Lastly, I picked up a few other tricks in my experience fighting with this big boom-boom. Don't use 'em all in one place. Actually, do that. I'll be very impressed. Step Five: Making the most of the bomb's secondary characteristics Using the high impact force to flip enemies or blow them off course. Enemies (including the Juggernaut, hint hint) near the edge of my explosion won't be killed, but will experience significant knockback. If they're unstable or on a slightly different elevation, they stand a good chance of being flipped, or at least delayed in approaching whatever I'm defending. I'm not one for parkour, but it's a spectacular way to send someone flying, though hard to use because they'll die if they get just a little too close. Using the bright light and mushroom cloud to make a quick escape. It's really hard to see when you're near the explosion, and it can function as an effective smokescreen to hide my movements for a few critical seconds after taking a flag. Intimidating my enemies. Even if I don't get to activate it, sprinting at someone with a charged overdrive is sure to hold their attention long enough for a teammate to escape with a flag or score a goal. The sight of the star above my tank can also deter attackers from the base in Assault. Using it to shake off chasers. If I'm being followed, dropping this behind me forces my pursuer to abandon the chase, take a slower route, or be killed. "But NoDestroyWithTurret," you complain, "isn't that just using it as a glorified mine?" "Yes," I answer cheerily. ___________________________________________________________________________ A quick note on dealing with Drones: The lifeguard drone is really annoying to deal with, because you can deal massive damage with a bomb and your enemy will still survive and get a nice bit of HP. If you see someone using lifeguard, kill them once and then plant your bomb to kill them again (for real, this time). If you're using the overdrive for parkour, though, it's wonderful to have. When the Chaos drone comes out, watch out for the increased speed it can give your targets! They'll be able to zoom away quickly, so it'll be even more important to catch them stuck or unawares. The armor and damage effects won't affect the bomb, however. Be careful around enemies with the Blaster drone - if you are right next to them when your bomb blows them up, you'll get hit pretty hard too. All supply-related and passive damage boost/damage reduction affects of drones are ignored by the bomb ___________________________________________________________________________ Wrapping Up That was a lot of information! Luckily, it's not all interconnected - while learning to use this surprisingly elegant and complex weapon, you can build your skills and experience one step at a time, and in whatever order is the most comfortable for you. Don't worry if this all seems very difficult when you first try it out! It took me a whole lot of practice, and a fair amount of luck. Despite wasp being my main hull, I still miss or fail to properly assess my enemies sometimes. I'm slowly getting better, though, and so can you. ___________________________________________________________________________ Stay tuned for next time! I'll be doing what I just did with Wasp for Mammoth, as well as sharing a few other fun tips and stories. Hoping you find this useful and entertaining, and always welcoming feedback, This is NoDestroyWithTurret, going out with a bang. ??? P.S: My next installment may be delayed due to my current hangup in trying to calculate why people like dried leaves in boiled water. I'll keep you posted.

Hi everyone! As you may know, I've started writing some story/guide articles over in the AWS, and I just found a stickied post there saying that I could submit them for consideration for the newspaper. However, I couldn't find any information about what the submission process actually looked like. Is there a form to fill out, or should I be PMing someone? I'm in no hurry; I'll probably write a couple more before I'm ready to actually submit one, but I'd like to know what the procedure is when the time comes.

Could be. At least I don’t mind playing defense most of the time, given the frequent opportunities to heal teammates.

Can you be more specific? I know it’s trying to make more balanced matches, but is there something about the equipment I can change that will make the MM system not favor defense so heavily?

I would expect that to be a 1 in 512 chance, and while I could just be unlucky (I was trying to complete a capture flags mission so wanted to attack), I have a feeling something else is at play. This is not the first time something like this has happened - I've gotten 6 or 7 defending teams in a row a few times before.

Part 1: Introduction, Mine Tip 1, Isida Tip 1 Part 3: All about Wasp's Overdrive! Salutations, Fellow Tankers! We reembark on our journey with renewed vigor: Isida is in our grasp and the release of new overdrives is just around the corner. With that in mind, let's get to it! ________________________________________________________________ With a few thousand XP under my belt, it was time to make some final decisions about what equipment to use. This is pretty detailed though, so here's a TL;DR: Here are the details if you're interested. The Turrets section is pretty straightforward, and I analyze the hulls from the standpoint of "what can this hull do without a turret's assistance?" Do what you will with this information, or don't; I can't make you. Enjoy! Smoky: Yes, because everyone gets it for free ?. I haven't upgraded or used it since getting Isida, though. Isida: Yes, for obvious reasons. Yay for healing! Magnum: Maybe someday? The Mortar augment does make it possible to plant extra mines, but I doubt I could score as many points that way as I can by healing. Also, there's a high risk of accidentally killing somebody with the blast. All other turrets: That's a no for me, dog. Unless... ?? Wasp: This is by far my favorite hull, not just because of that sweet N2 overdrive, but because it's super fast, making it great for catching teammates to heal them and for carrying flags and balls. Also fun for Jug hunting, but that's a story for another day... Hornet: In my exalted opinion, this is not useful. It's slower than Wasp, and the overdrive, while powerful, is useless without killing people with your turret. I'll give it points for maneuverability, but for my purposes, it's not worth it. Viking: Not a fan. Not only do I not really like how it drives (sure it's fast, but it's light and slides around a lot), but its overdrive turns it into a turret-utilizing killing machine. Or healing machine, I suppose, but how often does that really come into play? If anyone has tested this out, I might reconsider my evaluation: Is the range or damage of the Blaster drone increased when Viking's OD is active? Hunter: Well, I've got it whether I want it or not. A few weeks ago, we had a mission to activate its overdrive 50 times, so I bought Hunter Mk2 and messed around with it for a while. Overall, I really like this hull. It drives very comfortably, isn't too slow, and the EMP is quite handy. No offensive capabilities, but it's great for Assault mode. Dictator: Dictator bad lol Just kidding! Seriously though, I almost never use this hull. I probably should - the overdrive is beneficial for my team, scores me points, and drops a mine. It's also cool for catching golds. The only reason I haven't used it is because I really don't like the low speed and the massive hitbox. Do you think I should start using it? I don't really have a medium hull otherwise. Titan: Mobility is key for my success in battle. Unless I have a really good reason for sitting in one place (such as under a dome with a heavy hull), it's not helpful. I rarely have such a reason. Mammoth: This is my 2nd favorite hull! Though I can practically nap while driving, it's a tank of a tank, if you catch my drift. The overdrive makes it a monster, and that makes it an exciting Juggernaut hunter despite the slowness. Ares: Heavy hull with (allegedly) a massive front-facing cannon? Sounds like it's right up my alley. We'll see! ________________________________________________________________ SO ANYWAYS, I kept on fighting, and noticed something really cool: Because I only had a very small amount of useful equipment to upgrade, I was very quickly able to max out the micro-upgrades on Wasp M0, Isida M0, and the early-unlocking Mammoth M1. This proved to be one of the most fortunate actions I took: When the new modifications system rolled out, my maxed out M0s were converted to stock Mk3s, and my maxed out Mammoth M1 was converted to a stock Mk5! This meant that at an extremely humble rank, I could micro upgrade Mk3 equipment that normally wouldn't even have been obtainable yet! I was effectively using Mk4s against Mk2s, and this really helped make up for my turretless fighting style. What's more, I had a Mk5 Mammoth in Mk2/Mk3 ranks, and while maxing out Mk5 is too expensive for the moment, the Mk5.2 mammoth that I'm using is still a major help. The moral of the story is: Upgrades Tip #1TM: Specializing in a small number of pieces of equipment allows you to easily upgrade them to a high level. ________________________________________________________________ Lastly, as promised, here is Wasp Tip #1TM: You are very unstable, fast and light, and if you aren't careful, you'll end up on your side or on your back. One easy way to avoid this is to release the forward or backward key as you reach the top of a ramp, coasting onto the high ground instead of flying. When you do this, your tracks stay on the ground, and you won't get flipped by shot impacts or collisions. ________________________________________________________________ That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for the next installment, which will be all about how I utilize Overdrives to get a good D/L. NoDestroyWithTurret, signing off. ???

Thanks, glad you like it! I most definitely use overdrives, and I'll be telling y'all all about them in future installments (which I will link to this post when they come out). ???

Thank you so much! I'm going to have a whole installment on my K/D at one point - it's tricky to maintain without killing people with my turret, but certainly possible. I'll be elaborating more as I go on - that was just the beginning. I do have a question, since I've never done an amateur writing series before - is it better to add everything to the post a the top, or should I make more posts in the same thread to continue the story? ???

Thanks! I forgot that section was a thing. I appreciate the interest you all have shown! ???

Part 2: Equipment selection, Upgrades Tip #1, Wasp Tip #1 Greetings, fellow tankers! Long ago, I read a post about a tanker named Smeargle, who reached a high rank using pacifist methods only – never killing a tank. And I thought to myself, "Hey, that's pretty neat! You know what else it is? Really time-consuming and already done before." Nonetheless, I wanted to take on an interesting project, and now that I've reached the rank of Warrant Officer 1, I'd like to share it with you all. I'll also teach you some battle techniques along the way that, turret or not, you will find very useful. Think of it as a guide with a story. Or a story with a guide. Or whatever, really. Let's get to it. WE BEGIN with the creation of the account. I initially made an account called OnlyDestroyWithMines, but shortly thereafter decided that, due to the upcoming release of new overdrives, that name would be rather limiting. I then set forth once more on my journey, this time under the more flexible, but still interest-piquing name of "NoDestroyWithTurret." Any method of scoring points - game objectives, healing, assists, drones, bribing the devs (just kidding haha plz no ban) - is fair game, except for one very important one: I will never kill anyone with my turret. The first few battles were slow going. There I was: no bomb (this was before new overdrives), no mines, and no Isida. What's more, I could only play TDM at that rank. The only way I could possibly score points was through assisting kills. I had to be very careful: one shot (especially a critical) on the wrong tank could blow them up and render my endeavor a failure from the start. But I didn't screw up. I found a tank that had just spawned, shot it once, then waited for someone else to make the kill. 5 points. Rinse and repeat. Slowly and somewhat unsurely, I worked my way up through a few hundred experience points and a couple of ranks, and things got a bit easier from there. ________________________________________________________________ THE EARLY DAYS were all about picking up momentum as I worked for that light at the end beginning of the tunnel: Isida M0. I gradually unlocked supplies and other gamemodes, beginning to capture flags and points, and finally blowing up my first couple of tanks with mines. Which brings us to: Mine Tip #1TM: People want to kill you. It's fun! Driving around, destroying enemies - it's a great time! And in the low ranks, they don't watch where they're going. They also don't have double armor. See where I'm going with this? One of the best ways to get a kill with a mine is to appear killable (or just, you know, appear), wait for someone to rush you, plant a mine, and run. Or you can start running before you plant the mine. Either way, blinded by their bloodlust, they will roll right over it. It's a real feel-good moment. ________________________________________________________________ So anyway, I went about capturing flags, capturing points, attacking the base, and (when Rugby came out) scoring goals. Game objectives like those are the best way to score points, but as I gradually got better at using mines, they landed me a few kills too. At this point, my D/L was around 0.20 (and I was thrilled by the noobiness and low HP of lower-ranked tankers that made it so easy to get mine kills). And at long last, I got it: ISIDA M0. No, not Mk0. That's available now at Gefreiter with the (excellent) new modifications system. M0 isida though? That wasn't available until 7 100 experience at Sergeant. But nonetheless, I bought it and got crackalackin. All of my team battles became so much easier now that I had this delightful little turret. Need I say more? What was that? Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of me saying more, so here we go with Isida Tip #1TM: Stay out of the way. This is a critical thing that many people fail to do. Isida's range, while limited, is not zero, and you should use it to it's fullest extent. Here's why: You are less likely to die while healing someone if you stay a few meters back. You'll be out of splash damage range for everything but Gauss and Wasp's bomb, and even those won't hit you hard. If you're healing a flag bearer or a ball carrier, being too close can impede their motion. Even if you're behind them or to the side, it's hard to predict when they will need to maneuver. You or your teammate can get flipped if there's a pileup and you've got no recoil or impact force to save you, so it's better to stay away. Enemies can't target you before going for your teammate. You can keep them alive longer and get more healing points that way. ________________________________________________________________ I'm tired of writing for today, so here is NoDestroyWithTurret, signing off. Check out the link at the top for the next installment! I'll be posting my strategies for choosing and upgrading equipment tomorrow, as well as Wasp Tip #1TM! ???