Let's Discuss Shaft!

[Tani_S 736]

What's the point of Shaft M2 alt. now? I think this change yesterday will only stir up a new change...

[fefitata_online 4]

Yeah, instead of making new maps, new features, using their creativity for making game more fun, they fkk up weapons, reduce angles...  Great.

[Amagi 1,728]

1-shotting Vikings is the best feeling in the world! Haven't experienced that since 2013! 

 

Yeah, instead of making new maps, new features, using their creativity for making game more fun, they fkk up weapons, reduce angles...  Great.

Why would they try and make new maps, when the same 10 are always used. Why would they introduce new features, if no one's gonna use them anyway (see assault mode). Instead of whining at forums, people should try to adapt to these changes cuz you can't reverse 'em no matter how much you try, trust me, I've tried. Open your eyes man!  <_<

[marcoagf 47]

Shaft was already the most insignificant weapon of the game

Practically defenseless against the other weapons

I could only play on a few maps

And only slaughter someone in the long distance if it had already been broken.

Now that nerf at long range, it's over!

R.I.P Shaft

(google translation)

[DESTRUKCO 51]

 

Shaft was already the most insignificant weapon of the game

Practically defenseless against the other weapons

I could only play on a few maps

And only slaughter someone in the long distance if it had already been broken.

Now that nerf at long range, it's over!

R.I.P Shaft

(google translation)

 

I find shaft to be better than ever. It is definitely not helpless.

[realbigred 101]

slowing down the swing makes it virtually impossible to track anything except at the longest ranges. Undo the 'fix' it wasn't broken.

Also noticed a lot of instances where a direct sniper hit with full charge does zero damage - not even 1 point. Is this a new glitch cunningly introduced by the programmers to piss us off? if so then its working. If not then where can I get some of that magic invincible armour.

 

Slowing the reload makes it virtually certain that you only get 1 shot at anything close (non sniper mode) as by the time its reloaded the other tank has got of at least 4 shots. This 'improvement' has made shafts into fixed artillery pieces only able to sit way back

[bwana 16]

Shaft is designed as a sniping weapon and is best used as a sniping weapon. This means that when positioning yourself, you should make sure that at least two sides of your hull are closed off by walls or barriers, so that other tanks can't sneak up on you. You can also use shaft as a designated marksman rifle, or a mobile sniper, by joining team battles and positioning yourself in the center of the map.

Pro tip for shaft users: do not go into sniping mode until you see a target, and do not stay in sniping mode to look for one. Especially since the changes to shaft, sniping mode has a horribly slow rotation speed, so you will not have any peripheral awareness.

[OverLock321 0]

IMO, Shaft can be pretty powerful if placed in the right hands. Imma get it as soon as I turn Major, and when I have the crystals needed. Or, I might get Firebird M2 which is also pretty deadly. Choosing between 2 of the most powerful turrets D:

[railguniz4noobz 2,394]

Shaft is designed as a sniping weapon and is best used as a sniping weapon. This means that when positioning yourself, you should make sure that at least two sides of your hull are closed off by walls or barriers, so that other tanks can't sneak up on you. You can also use shaft as a designated marksman rifle, or a mobile sniper, by joining team battles and positioning yourself in the center of the map.

Pro tip for shaft users: do not go into sniping mode until you see a target, and do not stay in sniping mode to look for one. Especially since the changes to shaft, sniping mode has a horribly slow rotation speed, so you will not have any peripheral awareness.

1. This means you have nowhere to run if a firebird gets to you. Cover is good but only from the side the enemies are on, tanks can move around walls you know.

 

2. Its a very good tactic to go into sniping mode before you see any enemies and use your own cover to hide the laser. You cant get a full charged shot if the enemy is only there for a second. (especially with the m2 alt)

 

3. Unless youre being circled by a freeze wasp, the slow rotation speed makes sniping more controllable.

 

.

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

Shaft is designed as a sniping weapon and is best used as a sniping weapon. This means that when positioning yourself, you should make sure that at least two sides of your hull are closed off by walls or barriers, so that other tanks can't sneak up on you.

 

Pro tip for shaft users: do not go into sniping mode until you see a target, and do not stay in sniping mode to look for one. Especially since the changes to shaft, sniping mode has a horribly slow rotation speed, so you will not have any peripheral awareness.

If two sides of your tank are blocked, you'll have problems if you need to run from an approaching enemy. In my experience, one piece of hard cover is enough for transient sniping.

 

It's fine to enter sniping mode in advance if you anticipate that enemies will be approaching soon. If you need to give teammates covering fire, it's best to prepare a shot first so any enemies that expose themselves can be swiftly dealt with. Same goes for blocking off an area. Really, you should be using your judgement. You ideally shouldn't be in scope mode 24/7, but you shouldn't abstain from charging up whenever possible either.

[GunslingerMongoose 198]

Shaft is designed as a sniping weapon and is best used as a sniping weapon. This means that when positioning yourself, you should make sure that at least two sides of your hull are closed off by walls or barriers, so that other tanks can't sneak up on you. You can also use shaft as a designated marksman rifle, or a mobile sniper, by joining team battles and positioning yourself in the center of the map.

Pro tip for shaft users: do not go into sniping mode until you see a target, and do not stay in sniping mode to look for one. Especially since the changes to shaft, sniping mode has a horribly slow rotation speed, so you will not have any peripheral awareness.

I personally prefer using bushes with good camo paints. This is because as the range gets farther and farther, it become harder to pinpoint where in a bush you are. If you have a massive group of bushes (Forest or Sandbox for example) you're even safer using a camo paint. The only flaw to the bush camping is that when someone gets too close, your nick will render into view, effectively revealing your position. I wish they would change the render range from 15 meters to 5 meters, making it possible for Shafts to continue sniping for that extra 10 meters. It would save a lot of pain.

[railguniz4noobz 2,394]

I personally prefer using bushes with good camo paints. This is because as the range gets farther and farther, it become harder to pinpoint where in a bush you are. If you have a massive group of bushes (Forest or Sandbox for example) you're even safer using a camo paint. The only flaw to the bush camping is that when someone gets too close, your nick will render into view, effectively revealing your position. I wish they would change the render range from 15 meters to 5 meters, making it possible for Shafts to continue sniping for that extra 10 meters. It would save a lot of pain.

Unless a tank is in the forest of a cliff on kungur, i can easily see them. You have to look for the paint.

[bwana 16]

As far as the bushes are concerned, they do work very well, except against striker, which will automatically alert the user to the presence of your tank.

 

The two sides of cover are meant for using shaft on a slow hull, such as titan and mammoth, and, to an extent, dictator and viking, where you are far more likely to survive by having your opponent in front of you and killing him than by retreating and using mines, which, by the way, are an excellent weapon for snipers.

[LittleWillie 3,199]

The recent boost to sniping shots is turning out to be bad for the game ... well for the 11 soon 12 turrets that are not names Shaft. Getting 1-hit is something basically that should not happen to an undamaged tank. Because why? Because having no ability to react is not game play, That is why clay pigeons are for.

 

As an Isida player not ony was my turret nerfed to hell in the same patch,  1-hits negate any efforts to heal. (That's IF I can get close enough w/o being 1-hit myself.  And if the lag is low enough my newly nerfed beam manages to stay on the tank being healed.)

 

The changes made in 2017 are sucking the fun out of this game. 

Edited February 28, 2017 by LittleWillie

[realbigred 101]

exactly willie - if it isn't broken don't try to fix it.

 

so what will be the next "improvement" turrets that only turn to the left on Tuesdays and right on Wednesdays ? or maybe they will nerf shaft to blow bubbles randomly.

 

There is so much that could be improved in the game that they should be concentrating on instead of meddling with the tanks. Getting rid of lag for example or getting rid of the endless procession of loading screens.

[Amagi 1,728]

The recent boost to sniping shots is turning out to be bad for the game ... well for the 11 soon 12 turrets that are not names Shaft. Getting 1-hit is something basically that should not happen to an undamaged tank. Because why? Because having no ability to react is not game play, That is why clay pigeons are for.

There's always that laser to warn you for the next 5 seconds...

 

exactly willie - if it isn't broken don't try to fix it.

 

so what will be the next "improvement" turrets that only turn to the left on Tuesdays and right on Wednesdays ? or maybe they will nerf shaft to blow bubbles randomly.

 

There is so much that could be improved in the game that they should be concentrating on instead of meddling with the tanks. Getting rid of lag for example or getting rid of the endless procession of loading screens.

Achieving complete balance is a daunting task that is not accomplished easily, and the devs are constantly mixing things up to find the best "balance" for the game, and along the way there will be OP and UP turrets/hulls. Lag is another complex problem with so many factors that it's almost impossible to completely fix. If the devs spent all their time optimizing servers for less lag, there would be no new content, which would end up in complaints anyway. 

[deathfromabove_tanki 92]

There's always that laser to warn you for the next 5 seconds...

 

Achieving complete balance is a daunting task that is not accomplished easily, and the devs are constantly mixing things up to find the best "balance" for the game, and along the way there will be OP and UP turrets/hulls. Lag is another complex problem with so many factors that it's almost impossible to completely fix. If the devs spent all their time optimizing servers for less lag, there would be no new content, which would end up in complaints anyway. 

Perfect balance will never be achieved. This game is no more balanced than it was 4 years ago when I started playing tanki, but now, different turrets are OP, and some old fav's are weak now

[LittleWillie 3,199]

The laser does not help you when you spawn under the laser and cannot reach cover before you "solidify". Or on maps like Highways where you might reach a scrap of cover... might. Then you can sit there for 2 minutes and hope the Shafts have forgotten about you. Or you can try to head for the next bit of cover and get 1-hit.

 

Popping DA does no good  since Mr Shaft can still 1-hit your medium with his DD up or your light hull even w/o DD.

 

I'm also hearing some Shaft users talk about charging up their weapon but not using the laser until a target is spotted. Then boom laser shoot onehit death is a split second.

 

This does seem to be true because I have died several times recently with no idea what hit me. So I look in the upper-right conrer and see a red crosshairs next to my name.

 

All I know with firm certainty is this: Before the patch Shaft was a royal PITA especially on certain maps. But even w/o a Shaft module I'd get 1-hit a number of times that seemed "fair".  After the change the number of Shafts has gone way up and the frequency of being 1-hit has gone up even more.

 

As I said in my OP ... I do not expect any Shaft users to agree with me. But users of 11 other turrets probably do.

Edited February 28, 2017 by LittleWillie

[GunslingerMongoose 198]

The laser does not help you when you spawn under the laser and cannot reach cover before you "solidify". Or on maps like Highways where you might reach a scrap of cover... might. Then you can sit there for 2 minutes and hope the Shafts have forgotten about you. Or you can try to head for the next bit of cover and get 1-hit.

 

Popping DA does no good  since Mr Shaft can still 1-hit your medium with his DD up or your light hull even w/o DD.

 

I'm also hearing some Shaft users talk about charging up their weapon but not using the laser until a target is spotted. Then boom laser shoot onehit death is a split second.

 

This does seem to be true because I have died several times recently with no idea what hit me. So I look in the upper-right conrer and see a red crosshairs next to my name.

 

All I know with firm certainty is this: Before the patch Shaft was a royal PITA especially on certain maps. But even w/o a Shaft module I'd get 1-hit a number of times that seemed "fair".  After the change the number of Shafts has gone way up and the frequency of being 1-hit has gone up even more.

 

As I said in my OP ... I do not expect any Shaft users to agree with me. But users of 11 other turrets probably do.

I agree with you but at the same time I don't (Big surprise, coming from a sniper)

Here's the thing... You have noob Shafts and then you have veterans. If you have noob Shafts, you'll have people scoping in and then staying put for up to a minute trying to find a oneshot target. These guys are easy to deal with. If you have a infinite/long range weapon, you simply play peekaboom with them. Poke out of cover, go back in. Rinse and repeat. With veteran shafts though, things get a little trickier. If you play peekaboom with them, they'll probably lose but not without shaving off a large amount of your armor in a short amount of time.

 

I'm that mid-way for Shafts. I'm definitely not a vet, but I'm not a noob. I know the ropes, all the tricks, everything you can do to and with a Shaft... But, again, I still agree. An M1 ¹/₂ Shaft shouldn't one shot kill my M1 Hunter. But, it is what it is.

 

Btw, LW, just know that if I find you in a match and it's a match that I'm sniping on, I'll make sure not to kill you.

;) :p

[railguniz4noobz 2,394]

There's always that laser to warn you for the next 5 seconds...

 

Achieving complete balance is a daunting task that is not accomplished easily, and the devs are constantly mixing things up to find the best "balance" for the game, and along the way there will be OP and UP turrets/hulls. Lag is another complex problem with so many factors that it's almost impossible to completely fix. If the devs spent all their time optimizing servers for less lag, there would be no new content, which would end up in complaints anyway. 

Oh really, theyre trying to maintain perfect balance? How many years has it been again? And the laser doesnt do much good if it kills you before you can see it.

[DESTRUKCO 51]

To all of those that are saying the shaft is op: Have you even tried shaft? From a shafters perspective i find hammers to be very op. They constantly knock off my aim.

 

Every turret has its advantages and disadvantages. Shafts is high damage per shot. Most people in the past who used shaft shot a viking and left it with 600 health at m4 or 1/5 of its health. Then the medium hull would just use health and you would have to recharge. Although, I used a arcade shot first and then a fully charged sniping shot afterwards so they didn't use health.

 

I think the shafts damage was increased because I remember trying a viking in test server and when I saw a shaft at full health I knew they couldn't one shot me so I just took the hit, pressed health and annihilated the shaft. Buffing the sniping damage makes the shaft shot more relevant so that people won't just laugh when they see a shaft laser pointing at them, like they probably did before the buff to sniping damage.

[LittleWillie 3,199]

I agree with you but at the same time I don't (Big surprise, coming from a sniper)

Here's the thing... You have noob Shafts and then you have veterans. If you have noob Shafts, you'll have people scoping in and then staying put for up to a minute trying to find a oneshot target. These guys are easy to deal with. If you have a infinite/long range weapon, you simply play peekaboom with them. Poke out of cover, go back in. Rinse and repeat. With veteran shafts though, things get a little trickier. If you play peekaboom with them, they'll probably lose but not without shaving off a large amount of your armor in a short amount of time.

 

I'm that mid-way for Shafts. I'm definitely not a vet, but I'm not a noob. I know the ropes, all the tricks, everything you can do to and with a Shaft... But, again, I still agree. An M1 ¹/₂ Shaft shouldn't one shot kill my M1 Hunter. But, it is what it is.

 

Btw, LW, just know that if I find you in a match and it's a match that I'm sniping on, I'll make sure not to kill you.

;) :P

 

Well first off thanks for the mercy.  :lol:

 

I do not have problems with the vet Shafters. These are the people who just like sniping. I do myself. When I was new to tanki I did my fighting at long range when I could. But when I learned to drive better and fight on the move I liked that too much to stick to the sniper role.

 

Anyway in a roundabout way we're kind of on the same page. Before this change almost all the snipers I saw were vets. After the change the rookies have come out of the woodwork. Most players are drawn to the OP equipment like moths to a flame, and words gets arunf dast.

 

When the map is full of instant-death laser beams it stops mattering if the gunner is a vet or a rookie. There's just so many the 1-hits grow quite tedious. Escape one sniper and the nexy one gets you.

 

 

To all of those that are saying the shaft is op: Have you even tried shaft? From a shafters perspective i find hammers to be very op. They constantly knock off my aim.

 

Every turret has its advantages and disadvantages. Shafts is high damage per shot. Most people in the past who used shaft shot a viking and left it with 600 health at m4 or 1/5 of its health. Then the medium hull would just use health and you would have to recharge. Although, I used a arcade shot first and then a fully charged sniping shot afterwards so they didn't use health.

 

I think the shafts damage was increased because I remember trying a viking in test server and when I saw a shaft at full health I knew they couldn't one shot me so I just took the hit, pressed health and annihilated the shaft. Buffing the sniping damage makes the shaft shot more relevant so that people won't just laugh when they see a shaft laser pointing at them, like they probably did before the buff to sniping damage.

Hammers are in the same boat. Both weapons are 1-hitters too often. 

 

I don't see anything wrong with your tactics. You arcade to weaken and snipe to finish off a wounded tank. That takes some strategy and it leaves unwounded tanks with the ability to react. Why should not Shafter users also have to work for the kill?

 

To fight back I have to (  A ) cross the map without getting sniped. (  B  ) evade all your team mates too. ( C ) then when I get close enugh I have to still beat you with my Smoky against your arcade mode. I admit if I can get to C my chances are good. But they are not assured.  But ABC certainly means "working for" the kill.

 

The notion that unwounded medium hulls should be one-hit as a matter of routine is quite simply poor design.

 

 

PS: I forgot to mentoin that when I heard of this change I was OK with it. When the survey came out I gave the Shaft change high marks.  It is only over time that I have seen in game play that my first impressions were wrong. The new power is turning out to be have a major effect, and the extra charge time does not seem to matter much if at all. Not at teh bottom line.

Edited March 1, 2017 by LittleWillie

[Amagi 1,728]

Oh really, theyre trying to maintain perfect balance? How many years has it been again? And the laser doesnt do much good if it kills you before you can see it.

I said "achieved" not "maintain". There's a huge difference.

Anyway, the developers added the laser to decrease the likelihood of "campers" getting kills by staying in scope mode for extended periods of time. The game was way more hectic during the days of no laser scope mode, and it frustrated the heck out of many people for a long time. So ya better start training your reaction time.

[wolverine848 13,097]

Most people in the past who used shaft shot a viking and left it with 600 health at m4 or 1/5 of its health. Then the medium hull would just use health and you would have to recharge.

 

Buffing the sniping damage makes the shaft shot more relevant so that people won't just laugh when they see a shaft laser pointing at them

"Just use health"? Simple as that?

- Health kits are temporary. You can re-charge shaft again before another RK can be used.

- Many tankers like no-supply battles so using an RK not an option

- Dying one second after spawning is ridiculous.

 

I doubt many (any?) tankers were laughing when 1 shot took away 80% of their health. The next tickle destroys them.

[railguniz4noobz 2,394]

I said "achieved" not "maintain". There's a huge difference.

Anyway, the developers added the laser to decrease the likelihood of "campers" getting kills by staying in scope mode for extended periods of time. The game was way more hectic during the days of no laser scope mode, and it frustrated the heck out of many people for a long time. So ya better start training your reaction time.

How does one train their reaction time if the shaft kills you before the laser even comes up? What if they hide it like any skilled shaft?