Let's Discuss Augments

[Tani_S 736]

and thunder...?

 

Yeah right, I forgot to mention the Thunder alteration  :huh:  :P I just used it for a short period on the test server, but it's a really interesting alteration. You shoot really fast with it and it often gives you the opportunity to hit your enemy once more, when he tries to hide from you. So in general you are able to hit your opponent twice, once he gets out of the cover and again when he wants to cover again after his shot. Another advantage is that other players don't expect this fast fire rate from a thunder. If you want to compare the damage output between the standard version of Thunder with the Thunder alteration, I think that the "damage per second" is a good measure, because the alteration trades fire rate for damage. I did some calculations to compare Thunder with its alteration and you can look it up here. I hope I made no calc errors tho :-) The new dmg numbers were divided by ten to the old system and ignore all the commas in there and replace them by dots please (I was too lazy to switch my excel options for this). So you see that the alteration does a bit more damage in a direct shootout than the standard. You can also see that the damage output (considering reload time and damage) for M3 standard was improved and for M4 standard was lowered through the balance update.

 

Another very important advantage of the thunder alteration is, that you can shoot a railgun tank twice, while he can shoot you only once (on all M levels). This way it will work in the rebalance and you can even more outperform the railgun reload time before the balance update is through (you can fire 2,65-2,75 shots while railgun shot you once). I considered here the total reload time (incl. delay railgun time to shot). You can also nearly compete with the hammer reload time (if he's loading his empty mag, you can even shoot twice in the meantime, when you both are M4). When you use the alteration you are also not in such a bad situation when you miss one shot as with the standard.

 

There still might be some cases, when you just have a small timeframe to shoot (i.e. when someone can cover well), so then the standard thunder will be better. But I think they will be minor and if I had to choose, I'd equip the alteration on my tank. There is still the question, when is the best point in time to buy it. Because it is quite expensive I would go for it after you have done a bunch of MUs on your M3 thunder, so maybe after 30/50.

Edited October 15, 2016 by Tani_S

[Tani_S 736]

So in short for a ranking that considers the benefits and the costs, I recommend it like this:

 

1. Fire
2. Twins
3. Hammer
4. Thunder
5. Rico
6. Vulcan
7. Railgun
8. Freeze
9. Shaft
10. Smoky
11. Isida

 

It may be essential to possess the Railgun alteration for the format battles after the rebalance to kill the risk of needing 3 shots for hornet tho. Number 3 and 4 are very close together. Anyway, it's just my point of view, but it may give some orientation.

Edited October 15, 2016 by Tani_S

[AshsPikachuDwij 1,035]

Alterations don't work on battles with micro upgrades off

 

I didn't know that :P And I play most of the battles with mu off -_-

Yeah right, I forgot to mention the Thunder alteration  :huh:  :P I just used it for a short period on the test server, but it's a really interesting alteration. You shoot really fast with it and it often gives you the opportunity to hit your enemy once more, when he tries to hide from you. So in general you are able to hit your opponent twice, once he gets out of the cover and again when he wants to cover again after his shot. Another advantage is that other players don't expect this fast fire rate from a thunder. If you want to compare the damage output between the standard version of Thunder with the Thunder alteration, I think that the "damage per second" is a good measure, because the alteration trades fire rate for damage. I did some calculations to compare Thunder with its alteration and you can look it up here. I hope I made no calc errors tho :-) The new dmg numbers were divided by ten to the old system and ignore all the commas in there and replace them by dots please (I was too lazy to switch my excel options for this). So you see that the alteration does a bit more damage in a direct shootout than the standard. You can also see that the damage output (considering reload time and damage) for M3 standard was improved and for M4 standard was lowered through the balance update.

 

Another very important advantage of the thunder alteration is, that you can shoot a railgun tank twice, while he can shoot you only once (on all M levels). This way it will work in the rebalance and you can even more outperform the railgun reload time before the balance update is through (you can fire 2,65-2,75 shots while railgun shot you once). I considered here the total reload time (incl. delay railgun time to shot). You can also nearly compete with the hammer reload time (if he's loading his empty mag, you can even shoot twice in the meantime, when you both are M4). When you use the alteration you are also not in such a bad situation when you miss one shot as with the standard.

 

There still might be some cases, when you just have a small timeframe to shoot (i.e. when someone can cover well), so then the standard thunder will be better. But I think they will be minor and if I had to choose, I'd equip the alteration on my tank. There is still the question, when is the best point in time to buy it. Because it is quite expensive I would go for it after you have done a bunch of MUs on your M3 thunder, so maybe after 30/50.

Will add this to your main post!

 

 

So in short for a ranking that considers the benefits and the costs, I recommend it like this:

 

1. Fire
2. Twins
3. Hammer
4. Thunder
5. Rico
6. Vulcan
7. Railgun
8. Freeze
9. Shaft
10. Smoky
11. Isida

 

It may be essential to possess the Railgun alteration for the format battles after the rebalance to kill the risk of needing 3 shots for hornet tho. Number 3 and 4 are very close together. Anyway, it's just my point of view, but it may give some orientation.

 

Thanks for this! Will add this too!

Edited October 16, 2016 by AshsPikachuDwij

[Tani_S 736]

Will add this to your pain post!

Thanks a lot for adding! Tho I hope your spelling wasn't intended and it wasn't too painful to read my post  :D

[sm0ky 92]

The Smoky Alteration: does +27% impact really make a difference in "bumping" the enemy hull? And for a Smoky-M1, what is the heaviest hull it can "bump" with the alteration?

[AshsPikachuDwij 1,035]

Thanks a lot for adding! Tho I hope your spelling wasn't intended and it wasn't too painful to read my post  :D

It was a mistake :P Fixed it.

[Tani_S 736]

The Smoky Alteration: does +27% impact really make a difference in "bumping" the enemy hull? And for a Smoky-M1, what is the heaviest hull it can "bump" with the alteration?

The higher impact does make a difference. You can see the difference between those two in this sequence here (sorry it's only German). After the rebalance, on the one hand the impact force of Smoky will be a bit nerfed, on the other hand most of the hulls' weight will be reduced also. It also depends on how the enemy's hull are positioned towards you and how well you can hit the outer corner. So it's hard or nearly impossible to tell, which exact impact it will have on each turret. 

Edited October 16, 2016 by Tani_S

[sm0ky 92]

The higher impact does make a difference. You can see the difference between those two in this sequence here (sorry it's only German). After the rebalance, on the one hand the impact force of Smoky will be a bit nerfed, on the other hand most of the hulls' weight will be reduced also. It also depends on how the enemy's hull are positioned towards you and how well you can hit the outer corner. So it's hard or nearly impossible to tell, which exact impact it will have on each turret. 

Thanks. Still undecided because the impact is highly useful in melee. I guess I will see if it has at least a little nudge on a heavy hull after the rebalance.

[Tani_S 736]

Well if you want to test it out, you can rent it for $1 a week. Yes I know, you have to buy then... It would be really cool of TO, if we can rent an alteration by trading in a Goldbox from your garage (also $1).

[Tani_S 736]

Do we have any information at all, when the next batch of alteration will be released? I mean it would be really helpful for planning to buy items if we know that it will take only some more days or some more months.

[Tani_S 736]

The Alterations were changed a bit.

 

positive

+ Vulcan's Auto-aim reduction is less strong by 10% change, so -50% now 

+ Shaft's max. damage improved by 5% to +30%

+ Isida's range cutdown reduced by 10%, so it's -30% now.

+ Smoky's impact force improved by 3% to +30%

+ Twins & Rico slower reloading time improved by 5%, so it's only +20% reloading time.

 

negative

- Thunder's damage (min.&max.) is 5% further reduced to -20%

 

neutral

Railgun's change is different. New standard railgun's max. dmg. is about twice the min. damage. Its old alteration narrowed the difference, but with still 40 % difference between min. and max. dmg. Railgun's new alteration dissolves the difference between min. and max. dmg. completely (just 4% on M0 till 0% difference on M4).

 

There were no changes for Hammer, Freeze and Fire.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Tani_S

[NamesAreForNoobs 324]

My freeze alteration rent week just finished, here's what I have to say about it.

 

              Overall, I like the freeze alteration. The damage increase at range is clearly noticeable with the new show damage feature, and horizontally, the cone angle seems perfectly fine. Vertically, it becomes a pain, and if you don't have a ramp to position yourself perfectly on, it's hard to do damage. This makes it one of the more map designed alterations in the game, If you decide to use this on Massacre, you will have to pay full attention because you can have your turret almost right beside an enemy tank and not freeze them. If you get most of your crystals from Arena CP, then there is no big drawback from using this. After the recent change to firebird and freeze, where they no longer deal damage right through tanks, the alteration will make it much harder to achieve good crowd control with this turret, which was originally a strong point. However, it is hard to hit two targets, but it is relatively easy to keep hitting two targets if you have got them both locked down with the freezing effect. I find this alteration very good for DM mode, the extra damage at further distances is guaranteed to net you some extra kill steals. For Defence in CTF mode (excluding Noise blue team) I also like the alteration. Not only will you slow down enemy light hulls, but you will deal extra damage to them as they run away. If you have only one target to focus on, like a flag taker, then you'll want the alteration as you will deal more damage to that one target. For CP Mode, the normal freeze does offer better crowd control. If you are using a heavy hull, the alteration may be more helpful, because if you will only touch one target at a time, might as well do more damage to them. If you are confident in your ability to hit two or more targets at once, then you can use the alteration, you will do well with either. If you are on of those Neanderthal cavemen who still play TDM mode, just choose based on map. Is it more flat, or does it have multiple different elevations or platforms. How many of those platforms will you regularly traverse?

 

               So, after all that. Is it worth it? For me, I'm not so sure. It does give welcome boosts in lots of areas, but they are much more subtle than other alterations, and some are given when you use a speed boost. Like everything else it also depends on personal preferences. If you win a contest and freeze is your favorite gun, by all means get it. It is not a bad thing to have, it grants your freeze some versatility. Let's not forget the cost of 50,000 crystals. For a low ranker, that is impossibly high. For a medium ranker, that is a hefty sum indeed. If you have been a generalissimo for a year, then it is a micro-upgrade. You might be wondering, after having rented it for a week, Will I get it?​ The answer to that is I do plan to, yes, but not right away. I will micro-upgrade my favorite freeze viking combo first, as there are more important things to get than alterations. Once I am done that then I will buy it if plans don't change.

 

Thank you for reading and I hope my adventure with the freeze alteration helped you. -​​NamesAreForNoobs

Edited November 2, 2016 by NamesAreForNoobs

[fordmustang12345 3,910]

My experience with my Firebird Alteration is very good, it is Super OP and i lov eit

[Albrt_Gaming 2]

I got alterations for twins m2 and lets just say equiped with titan m2, its op and that any map, however large, is not a problem anymore.

[AshsPikachuDwij 1,035]

I got alterations for twins m2 and lets just say equiped with titan m2, its op and that any map, however large, is not a problem anymore.

Glad to hear that :D

Edited November 9, 2016 by AshsPikachuDwij

[T.e.n.z.i.n 11]

Railgun's shell stabilization for M4 doesn't make any sense because the max damage it deals is the same as M3 rail (with alteration) which is 1200 (without protection) . I guess it's a total waste to make your rail M4 if u already have the alteration for M3 :)

The alteration itself is pretty good though because your shots are consistent through out and you can damage the same to any number of tanks that's lined up through your shot.

Edited November 12, 2016 by T.e.n.z.i.n

[AshsPikachuDwij 1,035]

Railgun's shell stabilization for M4 doesn't make any sense because the max damage it deals is the same as M3 rail (with alteration) which is 1200 (without protection) . I guess it's a total waste to make your rail M4 if u already have the alteration for M3 :)

The alteration itself is pretty good though because your shots are consistent through out and you can damage the same to any number of tanks that's lined up through your shot.

I guess when you have the alteration at M4 its 1200 but at M3 it will have much low( as M4 deals more damage) so if players want the alteration and deal good damage they must make it m4 . This is what I think and am not sure.. do you still think its a waste?

I will add your comment to the main after you confirm

Edited November 12, 2016 by AshsPikachuDwij

[Tani_S 736]

Railgun's shell stabilization for M4 doesn't make any sense because the max damage it deals is the same as M3 rail (with alteration) which is 1200 (without protection) . I guess it's a total waste to make your rail M4 if u already have the alteration for M3 :)

 

The damage (both min. & max.) of Railgun's alteration is ~101 for M3 and 120 for M4. I believe the purpose of this alteration is to eliminate the risk that you have to fire 3 shots on some enemy tanks, i.e. Hornet on the same M level, so this would make sure that you will always need two shots instead.

[Epic_Space_Mango18 592]

I encountered my first enemy with the alteration for M1 Smoky on a Future DM battle. He was using Mammy M1 as well, and from a safe distance, hoping to not have me position figured out as I fired, but he saw me anyway. I got three shots out of him before he faced me. I was thinking that I got a few shots before he noticed me, so maybe I can kill him with at least a little life to spare, but nope!

 

He fired.

 

I was on shock at the sheer force at what the 30% increase in Impact force can do, that I sat there for a second, quite dumbfounded. The second shot told me I'd die soon and I better get back in the game, so I went to take another shot. As soon as I got on aim, I was blown back a good 80 degrees to the right, and with only two shots left before I'd be dead, I decided It'd be best to just run away. Taking a fourth and final shot, I was able to get to safety where I had to gather me wits back together.

 

To be honest, I nearly bought this alteration, but I'm planning on buying the Vesuvius kit at First Lieutenant, since I have made up half of what I need already. Besides, the alt is 50k crystals, thus making me poor again if I were to buy it. 30k crystals is still a lot, but means I'd have to work harder to get one M2 turret. Sadly for me, I won't be getting to experience this alt for myself to use, but I know the next time I come across a player with this, I'm not going to stick around to ask for a tea party.

[Devin_The_Armageddon 30]

The way impact force is calculated a 30% increase is about a 15% effectiveness increase against mammoth, and an 200-300% increase against light hulls.

[AshsPikachuDwij 1,035]

I encountered my first enemy with the alteration for M1 Smoky on a Future DM battle. He was using Mammy M1 as well, and from a safe distance, hoping to not have me position figured out as I fired, but he saw me anyway. I got three shots out of him before he faced me. I was thinking that I got a few shots before he noticed me, so maybe I can kill him with at least a little life to spare, but nope!

 

He fired.

 

I was on shock at the sheer force at what the 30% increase in Impact force can do, that I sat there for a second, quite dumbfounded. The second shot told me I'd die soon and I better get back in the game, so I went to take another shot. As soon as I got on aim, I was blown back a good 80 degrees to the right, and with only two shots left before I'd be dead, I decided It'd be best to just run away. Taking a fourth and final shot, I was able to get to safety where I had to gather me wits back together.

 

To be honest, I nearly bought this alteration, but I'm planning on buying the Vesuvius kit at First Lieutenant, since I have made up half of what I need already. Besides, the alt is 50k crystals, thus making me poor again if I were to buy it. 30k crystals is still a lot, but means I'd have to work harder to get one M2 turret. Sadly for me, I won't be getting to experience this alt for myself to use, but I know the next time I come across a player with this, I'm not going to stick around to ask for a tea party.

Sorry for replying late... I will add this to main post tommorow when i get time as now i am on phone

ADDED TO MAIN POST!

Edited November 18, 2016 by AshsPikachuDwij

[AshsPikachuDwij 1,035]

The Alterations were changed a bit.

 

positive

+ Vulcan's Auto-aim reduction is less strong by 10% change, so -50% now 

+ Shaft's max. damage improved by 5% to +30%

+ Isida's range cutdown reduced by 10%, so it's -30% now.

+ Smoky's impact force improved by 3% to +30%

+ Twins & Rico slower reloading time improved by 5%, so it's only +20% reloading time.

 

negative

- Thunder's damage (min.&max.) is 5% further reduced to -20%

 

neutral

Railgun's change is different. New standard railgun's max. dmg. is about twice the min. damage. Its old alteration narrowed the difference, but with still 40 % difference between min. and max. dmg. Railgun's new alteration dissolves the difference between min. and max. dmg. completely (just 4% on M0 till 0% difference on M4).

 

There were no changes for Hammer, Freeze and Fire.

Completely forgot to add this :P Added it just now :)

[fordmustang12345 3,910]

First battle i had with the Firebird Alteration . It was a Massacre, i completely destroyed everyone , Some (mostly light hulls) died from a half second puff from me , i was so shocked that i won that easily ,and with such a high K/D (it was somewhere around 30) with DD not even a Titan or Mammoth M2 stood a chance against me......

[r_I_already_won0 2,339]

First battle i had with the Firebird Alteration . It was a Massacre, i completely destroyed everyone , Some (mostly light hulls) died from a half second puff from me , i was so shocked that i won that easily ,and with such a high K/D (it was somewhere around 30) with DD not even a Titan or Mammoth M2 stood a chance against me......

Actually, it was much better before.  The firebird with alteration now feels like the old stock firebird.  And the stock firebird now feels like a damage-machine with no afterburn.

[Amagi 1,728]

Purchased the "Slugger" alt for Hammer a while back, really good for throwing off aim of a lot of turrets. I'm used to the slow turning speed anyway cuz I use shaft anyway. For me it was 50k well spent.