Rumors around the water cooler and how they might affect your raid

Vindicator for T3 of the raid, and Rumors of major help to the player base!

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

The January raid event is shaping up to be a major headache for many of us. I can only speculate what might be the final targets for the siege targets. You can only speculate what will be done with the mountains of feedback the players are giving on the forums and in Facebook groups. With all this speculation and chatter there has surfaced a rumor that I hope is true and makes it to the final iteration of the raid this month. Before I get into that, I wanted to share my Vindicator fleet.

Vindicator and Tier 3 of the Raid.

I know that many of you are still waiting for the final video of this fleet in action and I can only say I am close to having a fleet of these able to take a level 60 mining base. While this might not be the best time to release this fleet with the changes to the siege targets coming in a few short months. I still wanted to show how you could take technology that is won through normal gameplay. The fleet features all technology that is gotten through either the campaign system, research labs and no farther than T3 of the Forsaken missions.

The idea behind the build was to maximize building damage and defenses. You will want R4 Vindicators at a minimum, and I hope that most have that by now. This can be done by hitting level 30 and 40 mining platforms. My recommendation is to do so in yellow sector threat at the minimum. The reasoning for R4 is that you get a 4th special slot and that helps the build tremendously with the addition of siege battery.

For the Damage on this hull, I settled for Crossbow 3. The building damage of this weapon is just below the Arbalest and should help in Tier 3 of the raid format. Coupled with Harden barrels 3 your range will be just shy of any other ballistic hull with a 50 range cannon and 40% range boost. Also by taking the hull to R4 you will get some much-needed aid in siege damage boost. The Seige battery three is much needed special due to the resistance against turrets and the boost to damage to buildings.

Armor is D2-R armor. This armor can be retrieved through the campaign system or the Forsaken mission. That will allow you to boost your radiation resistance against the Wendigo turrets in the mining platforms. As well there are radioactive turrets in the new raid format that can hurt a great deal with mini booms that can drop your health fast.

You could easily go with Reflective coating 3 from the campaigns and D2-C or D1-C if you wanted to boost radioactive instead.

Last piece of the puzzle

I know that the Aegis is not easily obtained but the help this can give to your fleet should not be underestimated. You can get the ability to build one of these by reaching R13 of the R&D. My plan will be to show the mining platform without and with this piece. It is not necessary, and I hope you will come to that conclusion as well. It does help with two key areas, though. First, it gives a 40% boost to resistance. Second, it has a field that puts out the ice fields from the Wendigo. An honorable mention would be the Frostburn interceptor. While it does not have the defense boosts it has a larger aura that can let your ships get further ahead.

The video is still coming along, and I needed to finish my raid fleet for this raid, so the final refits to this fleet have taken a back seat. I hope to have them ready to go by next week as I just have to finish adding a few Crossbows to the build.

You could build this to match the speed of the Vindicator and then add in some hails and phalanx with a launcher to help you trigger remote targeting fleets. The key here is to have this hull trailing behind your vindicator to give it that 40% boost to defense.

Rumor for the January Event

As promised there is a rumor I am hearing and was able to share. It is not a sure thing yet, but there is talk that we will have the ability to have two different campaigns at our towers that will grant raid points. Now, these campaigns will be lower tier stuff (think B tier and C-tier) and will be subject to the point reduction that we have in the regular raid. But, the exciting thing about this rumor is that one campaign will be reavers, and one will be legion assault forces. This idea of having older raid formats in the campaign for our younger and less advanced players is an interesting one. It is also one that gives me hope they are listening to feedback and finding a way to help everyone.

That means that if you have fleets that worked the last eight months, you should be able to get some raid points through grinding at your base.

It is complete rumor at this point and subject to change. But, it was too good and the possibilities to share something good too substantial to hold.

Review of the January Raid Preview

Mauser will make your life easier

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

As many of you have already learned the preview was a PITA and most of our older weapons were not very effective. I have put my video up of the progression of me attempting to get the Centurions to work in the level 57 target (this would be T4 I think) and it was a mess with PAC. You can find the video at the end of this article.

Centurion –

What I found was that to do the T4 decently you need a bit more Arbalest. I know that I recommended a build that was working on the level 97 mining bases. It the assumption that the targets would be similar to those, not have enough health on the turrets to withstand multiple blasts from the secondary weapon. I know it sucks and that there is not much time left to get some refitting in if all you have is the Centurion. That knowledge had me taking a night to sit and think and collect thoughts so that I did not get all ranty here. The goal was to get my readers a build that could do at least T4 in the raid, and unless the targets change a bit with the lowering of health in T4, you will have a hard time with the PAC, Earthshaker, and D110.

We have roughly 4 days, if you get your tokens from the Forsaken mission, I will refit at least 4 arbalests to your Centurion at a minimum. If you were able to get the Mauser, I would build the build that did the best for me in the preview.

The Best Centurion for the Raid

Centurion for lower tech levels

Centurion for the low tech level I know might still not cover all players. If you do not have the Nuclear Accelerator then use Harden Barrels 3. You can get Reflective Coating 3 in the Sea of Flames Prize pack 1. You can get D2-R in the Ashes to Ashes Prize pack 1. Both are available to level 50 players.

You will need a siege battery, if you only have 2 or lower then stick to Tier 3 targets. 

Cannoneer –

What can I say about this? It did T4 with the Mauser, could do T5 target with the Mauser. After the Centurion failing with the older tech, I did not even bother testing them on this hull. I did not get the video with the Millenium, but I did manage to auto a 75 for almost the whole fleet health due to connection issues.

The tactics that I ended up using that worked best was to go counter-clockwise the whole way around. This strategy allowed the base to fully rise from the depths. That also helped me to avoid the danger of a platform pushing me into the shorter range turrets. The video I got did not show this as I found this path just as my connection became unstable and I lost connection. I think this path will allow me to do the target for 0 Damage with the Millenium cannon.

My combat speed was about 50 the whole time and that allowed me to dodge the big Launcher in the middle and move out of the way when platforms were coming up. I think you could get by with the mid-40s though and might try that at the start of the Raid.

The build presented is the one I used in the preview. I think I have an idea for a better one, but I want to test it before I share it. 

Best theory idea for the Cannoneer

Mauser build for the Cannoneer

IronClad

In the video, you will see that I could auto the T4 targets with the Mauser. It took a little more damage than my Centurions with a similar setup. But that could have been the build. I would think to increase ballistic resistance and use the Reflective Coating 3 for my specials. That would increase your resistance a bit more and give you less weight.

IronClad build

Summary

Overall I liked the idea behind the targets. I was very discouraged by the fact that the older tech was not so useful. The health of the targets seemed over the top and I am hopeful they tune that down when the raid launches next week. It will be a nasty grind for those without the Mauser, and even with that weapon you will be limited to T4 targets for your Centurion and Ironclad to keep repair time down. That is not to say that you cannot do T5, but just know that the health and damage in those targets is much higher and you should reserve that for the cannoneer builds with the Mauser or Millenium cannons.

The good thing is that the splash was not so noticeable so you could go with just the cannon system 4 and not worry about boosting splash much higher on the Ironclad.

Video

IronClad and Mauser Make a Splash!

And a Second Harlock TideSeeker? Yes! Please!

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

I say take the thing home and worship it! It resembles nothing on the earth, or in the seas or in the skies, so you can't be accused of idolatry.

Today we got to see the much-anticipated IronClad and Mauser Cannon. These two prizes have been the source of much discussion since it was announced that we would have Siege targets for January Event. The Mauser for the update to the current cannons we have, and the IronClad because it has been billed as the TideSeeker for the Siege Targets. Along with these two much-discussed pieces to our arsenal, we have a chance at a second Harlock Tideseeker and an upgrade to our cannon systems. Overall this update was a very exciting one for me as a player.

The IronClad is the hull that will mimic the TIdeseeker for the current raid set to start January 12, 2017. That means it will be auto Tier 4 targets for a coin cost.  This TLC is one that you are going to want to attempt to do if your goal is to auto the raids. The Mauser cannon is a must pick up and matches perfectly with the Cannoneer and The IronClad. The only question we have is Nuclear Accelerator or the Cannon System IV?

IronClad

I will build the Ironclad for testing purposes, my Tide fleet could do Tier 6 by the end of the event on auto, and I suspect that I can reduplicate that success with this fleet.

If we look at the hull a bit closer, we will see that it has all that we expect from a siege class hull. The biggest positive I see is the splash bonus. That will help with taking out the cluster of buildings. Other than the bonus to resistance at max stack, reload and damage will help with auto hitting the targets. The biggest negative I see is the range boost at 30% it will be below the 100 range of the Cannoneer. We saw how important the max range was in the last raid series where you hit the sweet spot for 0 damage or 30 minutes for just inching too close. I fear this will be the same with this hull compared to the Cannoneer.

That is probably why it has 100% stun resistance, and we should expect something to stun our ships while we are attacking these targets. And why this hull is being billed as our Auto hull. 

Mauser vs. Draconian Arbalest/Arbalest vs. Particle Accelerator Cannon

This Mauser cannon is a thing of beauty. Paired with the 200% splash bonus on the Ironclad this cannon will shine. The Arbalest could out DPS it in some instances on single target I think, and this will require some testing. But, I think on the IronClad you would want most of these and maybe one or two Particle Accelerator Cannons for the special it delivers to knock out clusters fast. My sweet spot seems to be 10 PAC per fleet.

By comparing the cannons, the Mauser is king taking out buildings then in order;

• Arbalest
• Crossbow III
• Railgun D-110
• PAC

PAC if you can get the special to go off is nice, but we cannot count on that reliably. I would go for a mix in this case.

I am not sure I will put this on my Current Cannoneer as I am using arbalest and PAC so while I will not be best in the show, the Cannoneer does not have the bonus to splash to make this cannon shine in my opinion. Therefore I will not be spending time in refitting before the raid.

Cannon System IV vs. Nuclear Accelerator

The Cannon System IV tops the Nuclear Accelerator in every way in my honest opinion for the Mauser. It boosts splash, it matches range and increases damage. It is also lighter by 11%. To bad we cannot match it with drum loaders, that would be an excellent combination.

I enjoy the zooming around the map as much as anyone. But, If you get this special then I would definitely go with this over the Nuclear Accelerator. Mostly because in my current build on even the cannoneer I am at max weight without full armor or weapons.

Grab the Harlock Tideseeker

If you have tideseekers you will want to attempt to get the Harlock Tideseeker this time too. It will boost that fleet of three to four tides to be able to auto the level 75 reaver armadas for hours ( was able to go 2 hours and still not have to repair) allowing you the ability to gain Uranium for a days worth of repairs while at work or sleeping.

Bug Fixes -

I could not finish the article without at least mentioning these as one fix was something that was most aggravating for the last week or so.

• Corrected an issue with the calculations being done to determine the movement speed of fleets on the world map. This should address a problem where fleets would appear to reach their destination, then jump back a certain distance and continue traveling to the target.

• Cleaned up some additional cases where stats were incorrectly showing both a plus and minus sign ahead of the bonus value.

While we do not have a fix to the diagonal land tiles yet, we at least got the map speed fixed and of course the confusing +/- signs on some blueprints.