Review [Issue 37] Combo of the Month: Hammer/Dictator

[Kevred 1,586]

Combo of the Month

Kevred

 

 

---

Note: Unfortunately, my fellow co-worker Shedinja has, over the course of the last month, contracted the rare and severe cannotstopwritingus syndrome. He has been promptly shipped off to the faraway mountains of Yukon, in the hopes that, after spending some time with gold rocks, he will learn that procrastination is the only TRUE way of life and is what brought humanity to become rulers of Earth, which will hopefully cure him of his case. More news next month.


My First Thoughts

 

I never liked heavy/medium hulls. They're slow, big, slow, bulky, ugly, slow, useless, slow, annoying, fat, slow, and, on top of all that, they're slow. Thus, the first thoughts I had when I first used it in battle were all in caps, had more stars than the American flag, you get the point (especially when I flip just as the Gold Box notification appears; but that's another story).

As such, for the sake of keeping the content of this article PG, you are asked to disregard the above paragraph and pretend you read nothing. A fresh start sounds great, no?

Killing Stuff

 

I remember I M1'd my Hammer simply a few months ago for the same reason as everyone else: it was fresh out of the factory, and curiosity was at its highest. In any case, it was definitely not the best buy of the century.

First of all, it's not quite easy to determine the range of Hammer and whether you're hitting your opponent or not. Contrarily to other short-range turrets, 'PageUp' or, in the case of mac users, 'Q', won't work for Hammer. Thus, the question most tankers ask themselves when manning shotgun is "to press spacebar or not to press".

Honestly, I was nostalgic of the good ol' days, blowing everything up with Hornet/Twins. In comparison, Dictator/Hammer isn't even capable of taking out a M1 Wasp!

 

The truth is, *lowers voice to not hurt feelings of rejected Hammer*, Hammer's damage output simply isn't up to the task. It usually took the entirety of the three shots to take out a Hornet, the most common hull in the game. Even on Double Damage it still required two blasts, which was too much. So, the last sliver of hope was beginning to disappear, when I went for last resorts. One last chance for the combo to prove that, yes, they can rekk stuff.

Clutching on to hope, I decided to try out one of the best Tanki tactics out there, and the one that brought Hornet/Twins to stardom: circling.

The fate of the combo in my hands, I mounted Hammer, geared up Dictator, covered it with the purple diamonds of Helper, and rolled out into the sunlight as the crowd cheered and applauded. But everyone went silent when an enemy, the dreadful Hornet with the vicious Isida, appeared from behind a building. 

The audience's tensity vibrated through the air, for this was the moment of truth. The greatest, and maybe the last play of Dictator/Hammer. No one dared to even blink; the atmosphere rumbled with nervousness. Brave, determined and carrying the hopes of an empire, time slowed down as I charged towards the enemy, fingers ready to thrust onto the left-right arrow keys, aaaaaaand....

Oh wait, I forgot Dictator sucks. Never mind folks! I got completely destroyed! Nothing to see here!

No, I'm not joking: taking an enemy on a 1v1 in an open area, no matter the combination he's using, is pure suicide. Even a 7 AM waking up Shaft can catch up to and surpass Dictator in a circling standoff. The level of failure-ness is especially high when it comes to Isidas; as previously mentioned, Tanki's shotgun turret's DPS (Damage Per Second) isn't high enough to counter Isida's self-healing. In fact, it can't even compare to Firebird or Freeze. Apparently, the close-range shotgun sucks at close-range. *DUN DUN DUN*

Useless at long ranges, slightly less useless at close-ranges: I could just end the article here and call it a day. However, I wasn't going to give up so easily (but trust me, I really wanted to. The only reason I didn't is for my friend Sheddy. I couldn't let him down!). From personal experience, I knew every combo has a tactic with which it shines, and my task was to find the Dictator/Hammer's (along with smashing my computer because I'm too used to Hornet's drift so I keep driving my Dictator off edges and flip).

 

The Game Styles
 
Ambushing

 

Here he comes...an expecting enemy tank. Hehehe...my Hammer will turn him into dead meat. Wait for it...he's almost here...wait for it...and...CHAAAAAR- OH WAIT IT'S AN ISIDA DARN IT I'VE MADE A MISTAKE ABORT MISSION ABORT MI-
 

Peek-a-boo-ing

 

*waits midfield, behind cover next to enemy base*
 
*pops out, shoots enemy*
 
*hides*
 
*pops out, sees Isida approaching with Double Armor*
 
NOT AGAIN! MAYDAY! MAY-
 
As you may have guessed from the above very slightly exaggerated depiction, peek-a-boo-ing isn’t our combo’s cup of tea. Sure, you can get some hits on enemies without taking any damage yourself for a while, but as soon as an Isida (or pretty much anything that does more than 1 hp per shot) finds you, you can forget about that awesome D/L record you were trying to beat.

 

I had a D/L of 34! 34! And then an Isida rams me and steals my hp through my Double Armor! I could've finally gotten a REAL record in the Tanki World Records!

 

Hit-and-Run
 

Eureka! I found it! I found the tactic at which this month's combo excels at! I might have grown a beard in the meantime, but I finally found it!

 

Yes, indeed, Dictator/Hammer's secret lied in the classic hit-and-run tactic. Jump out of cover slowly drive out of cover and hope to not flip in the meantime, storm the enemy base drive into the enemy base, trying to keep up with the rocks and still hoping to not flip in the meantime, then hit as much enemies as possible with three loads of iron-strong pellets, then run when you recharge (‘Run’ in the figurative form, of course. If you’re using Dictator, you’re not going to be doing much running).

 

With this well-known but rarely used strategy, I managed to defeat a lot more tanks, compared to the other tactics, at least. (What can a Hammer do against five Isidas? But let's look on the bright side: the Isidas were too busy healing each other to bother killing me.)

 

Of course, the sloth pace at which I was cashing in kills was getting more frustrating by the minute. Just like any human, I eventually gave in and began drugging around the clock. With Double Damage, I was expecting to nab a bunch of one-shot kills, but, obviously, just like always, Hammer pretty much let me down for the quintillionth time.

 

As mentioned before, it just so happens that Hornet has just enough hp to require two drugged shots from Hammer before exploding into a million pieces, wasting much of Double Damage’s potential. It wasn't too troublesome though, so I kept drugging (and ignoring the angry enemy team in the chat). With twice the firepower, I could manage to kill one or two tankers on my ‘hits’ before needing to recharge on my ‘runs’, compared to the usual 0.5.

 

If you read between the lines, you'd know that at this point if wasn't about trying to get a win - it was about trying to salvage a loss. I said everything I needed to say about Hammer’s ability to kill stuff: it can’t. Simple as that.

 

So let’s move on! *said in overly-enthusiastic Dora the Explorer voice*

 

Heart stricken with hopelessness, I joined a Serpuhov Capture the Flag, prolonging the long-winded day of failures and catastrophes. But a miracle happened!

 

Ha (I'd say 'sike', but I feel like vomiting every time I see that word). You were expecting me to say that there were no Isidas in the opposing team, that I wrecked everyone with my blasts, that I brought my team a series of five victories, that I saved the inhabitants of Serpuhov from an alien invasion and that using the combo I uncovered a global conspiracy and discovered that Darth Vader isn’t Luke’s father? Keep dreaming, because it takes more than a miracle to save Dictator/Hammer from the literally negative rating I’m going to give it. (Oops, spoiler alert!)

 

The saddest part is that I’m not even joking. The rather 3vil and cool-looking machine is polished dirt. Imagine spending twenty seconds merely to reach the other end of the map, then getting shot at right off the bat by a Ricochet too far for you to reach:

 

 

 

Then, having your health nearly entirely depleted on your way to him and shooting him half-heartedly because you know it’s useless since he’s a Titan and there’s five Isidas on his team.

 

 

 

 

 

I mean, seriously?^ They were literally stumbling upon each other to get to me first. Wouldn’t you feel like swearing at the game and calling everyone a noob too?  not that I did that, because, I’m nice and I respect my teammates. btw,  completely off topic, don't listen to SipoComp_1 if he tells you that I called him a noob. Just look at his beady eyes, his messed up hair, and his M0 Railgun and M0 Hornet; he's clearly gone nuts.

 

These were my end-game results:

 

For comparison, these are the end game results of the following match in the same battle, same map, same average level of modification, and around the same amount of drugs used, but this time with Thunder/Hornet:

 

 

Catching Golds

 

From the overly-nice-and-enthusiastic-children-show-narrator-who-is-surely-only-so-enthuastic-because-the-show-producers-have-her family-hostage's perspective (warning: traumatizing content): Its just another day in Candy Fluffy Land...the nice and happy Dictator/Hammer is taking a stroll through the candy cane forest...Oh look! What is that? *children reply in unison*: "It's a Gold Box!" Yes, it looks like its a Gold Box! *children cheer "yaaay"* What should he do? *children answer: "take the Gold Box"* Louder! *"Take the Gold box!"* Great idea! Quick, nice little purple Hammer/Dictator, go find the nice and pretty gold mark on the grou- NO DON'T FLIP YOU MORON!

 

From the Dictator/Hammer's (me) perspective:

 

Playing Parkour

 

I still hate parkour.

 

My Rating

 

Is Dictator/Hammer good at defense? No. Is it good at offense then? Neither. is it good at midfield? Not exactly, but at least it doesn't fail miserably anymore. Then what is it good at? It's good if you're looking for an excuse to buy a new computer.

Dictator's rating: 0/10

 

Hammer's rating: 0/10

 

Final rating: 0/10

 

Yes, yes, I know, I can't let myself be guided by emotions, you need to think like a Vulcan, be logical, blablabla, etc. etc., *insert more meaningless stuff here*. Fine. I'm going to have Dora come over and she's going to give you my rating instead.

 

The extremely optimist rating of the definitely not optimist combo of this month is...0.5/10. THAT'S BEING VERY GENEROUS, SO SHUSH.

 

That's all folks. No, that wasn't a 'joke' rating. That's the real, thought-out rating. Dictator/Hammer really doesn't have any desirable qualities. The morale of this article? Trying to make a two-word long article ("it sucks") longer than a thousand words is harder than listening to the entirety of Hog's Monster parody video.

 

I swear, I bet next month Shed's going to have a super good combo, like Railgun/Hornet or something. That always happens, with the luck I have.

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Hexed

[anuclearbomb 220]

great article, going to buy hammer now'

just kidding (37k? get lost)

Edited July 31, 2015 by anuclearbomb

[Darren4Turbo 4,913]

I had saw that now many players are using Twins and Titan.
 

Nice article Kev.

[BlazingCoder 108]

0/10  :P

[Legolover3 91]

Bro. Get M2 Hammer and M2 Dictator. Try again on a small map. Pick up the splattered remains of your brain from the floor where you dropped it after getting 100 kills in 15 mins. :D

 

P.S. M2 1-shots M2 hornet with DD. And no, I don't have M2 Hammer OR Dictator. I speak from experience with a heavily MU'ed M1 Hammer. And I've seen plenty of people excel with Hammer-Dictator in Poly CPs. :P

Edited July 31, 2015 by Legolover3

[Kevred 1,586]

Bro. Get M2 Hammer and M2 Dictator. Try again on a small map. Pick up the splattered remains of your brain from the floor where you dropped it after getting 100 kills in 15 mins. :D

 

P.S. M2 1-shots M2 hornet with DD. And no, I don't have M2 Hammer OR Dictator. I speak from experience with a heavily MU'ed M1 Hammer. And I've seen plenty of people excel with Hammer-Dictator in Poly CPs. :P

M8, when someone who always used Hornet/Thunder or Hornet/Freeze tries Dictator Hammer, expect to not see him talk about getting 100 kills and 15 mins

 

And, yeah, of course, small map, Polygon CP, duh it'll work better there.

[Legolover3 91]

M8, when someone who always used Hornet/Thunder or Hornet/Freeze tries Dictator Hammer, expect to not see him talk about getting 100 kills and 15 mins

 

And, yeah, of course, small map, Polygon CP, duh it'll work better there.

Well, the point of using a certain combo is to use it in an environment that suits it. In this case, that's pretty much all medium/small maps. A combo is bad if it doesn't work well anywhere or only in extremely rare situations. This combo can be used well on the right map, i.e. NOT large maps. Using Dictator-Hammer is violating the rule (in my mind) of no short range weapons on heavy hulls on large maps (unless you're a defender sitting on the flag, of course).

[Sleek 43]

Lol nice article Kev, on what used to be a great combination. Just reading your "Game Styles" paragraphs, it seems like you could do with some more Isida protection :P

[momy950666 960]

you are just right

[Cor7y 13,862]

"I never liked heavy/medium hulls. They're slow, big, slow, bulky, ugly, slow, useless, slow, annoying, fat, slow, and, on top of all that, they're slow."

 

Get what is the error in this sentence ? ;)

[Penguin40 1,714]

What is the next Combo of the Month, Kev? 

 

(i didn't read haha!) (and add me in one of your combo testings. )

[Kevred 1,586]

"I never liked heavy/medium hulls. They're slow, big, slow, bulky, ugly, slow, useless, slow, annoying, fat, slow, and, on top of all that, they're slow."

 

Get what is the error in this sentence ? ;)

*facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm*

 

 

(i didn't read haha!) 

DIE

[emrakul 7,801]

You are right, it very bad. ...wait just on big maps like serpuhov, even there it is ok. Problem is, you can't excel with m1 combo at your rank. (playable till 2nd lieu, i think) If you tried m2 in any of smaller maps, you'll be amazed how OP it is. Battle mode doesn't matter.

Parkour: hammer is gr8, dictator too. I don't like it much tho, it takes too long to do get somewhere.

Gold boxes: OMG... awesome. Just one more time, small or mid maps. With 30 sec. update even mid maps like noise became goldhuntable for m2s and m1s, chance for finding mark in time raised. I used that combo on my alt from wo3 till 3rd lieu (then bought boar kit). Yes, I have to say, I drugged alot (wanted to rank from wo4 (halfway to wo5) on 3rd lieu for kit :D in less than one week), and it was great. Even now I sometimes change from rico m2 to hammer m1, it's good for goldhcatching.

Everything you wrote is ok, just applicable only for bigger maps.

PS: excuse grammar mistakes if any, am on mobile :)

[Cor7y 13,862]

*facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm*

 

 

DIE

Oh sorry *facepalm* but the grammar is still incorrect.

[genak138 950]

Yeah, people were complaining about Hammer being OP (which is wasn't) and wanted it to get hugely nerfed (which it did) and now they're still complaining about it being OP (which it most definitely is not.) I remember when it was actually fun to play with hammer :(

[iamthebadboy2 168]

Soo funny! Love it chicken!

[lukey0 27,543]

When I saw this I was like; yay my favourite combo is getting interviewed. Turned out to be not what I was expecting. :LOL:

 

Use M4 Hammer Dict like me, the only thing the can take you down is Tiger, the rest is history. ))

[Cyrus92 3]

Bro, Dictator may suck like no other, but Hammer has good ability if you pair it with a medium or light. Not a heavy. AND NOT SOMETHING AS LARGE AS DICTATOR IT MAKES YOU A GIGANTIC TARGET!!!

[jack2b111 130]

hammer is an alright gun but can be improved

[GHOST68INVINCIBLE 152]

I GHOST68INVINCIBLE grant kevred(also who likes chicken a lot :D )the gold medal for writing the funniest,most hilarious post i have ever see in this forum.SERIOUSLY BRO THIS POST FUNNY LIKE HELL!!!!!

i laughed hard by reading this also great job,btw use hammer with a medium/light hull and also pleasw stop hating isida or just hate them :D

[M1Abrams_123 0]

I don't agree with your review one bit.

 

First you selected a really bad map for the combo.

 

Second, i purchased the boar kit (dict m1 hamm m1) on the test server and got 350 kills in 60 minutes in massacre.

 

Third any combo in tanki online sucks if you present it that way.

 

Fourth i use mammoth/hammer 80 percent of the time and don't have a problem.( i play in sandbox dms) and any ctf.

 

Fifth i got 5 gold boxes with it.

[M1Abrams_123 0]

Sixth dictator/hammer has its own pros and cons and its like saying a glass of water is half empty instead of saying it is half full. I can write an even worse review for hornet/rail, than your review.

 

Seventh as for the range thing, you need approximation of the distance, which automatically comes with repeated use, and is really necessary for any turret in tankionline. I would rather say i find it more difficult to calculate how much damage my thunder is doing to my oponent at a distance.

 

Eighth, if you observe properly you can always see those pellets hitting your opponent's tank and causing sparks to fly.

[M1Abrams_123 0]

All turrets are well balanced in tankionline and i hope there are no more extremely negative reviews for a combination, at least in the to newspaper.

Such reviews have a very bad effect on low ranking players.

 

P.S

 

I know that the views presented were the author's personal views and i respect it. I apologize if I said something wrong in my frenzy. 

[fightermalikio20115 374]

good one,but honestly 0.5/10

[ksa_enus 248]

hw cn I rply 2 poztz

Edited August 3, 2015 by ksa_enus