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.

December Raid Preview Server review

No coin needed for Hellwraiths and Tigersharks
By Specialist_AKA_Specs

Got into the preview server this afternoon to test the new 107 target, the 105 I guess is going to be the same as last raid so what worked with that will work this raid again. The 107 was kind of interesting and had a different setup and path than the 105. This pathing and structure did not make the target more difficult; the extra cost will come from having to hit two targets to get the full bonus. I did not test the hellwraith out, but others did and here is a path from TheHolsh that allowed him to do the target with subs for almost 0 damage (Think he had 10 minutes). The tideseekers I tested came from others, and I used my current fleet makeup. The costs ranged from 7 coins to 10 coins for my testing time. I think I could have gotten that lower with more time to practice, but I ran out of time and had to go.

Hellwraith pathway – 0-coin repair

First here is TheHolsh brilliant pathing with hellwraiths that allowed him to do two coins free. Hopefully, the targets do not change much, and this works come raid time. If you mess up, it can hurt a bit. I am sure he is running a standard Hellwraith build from the last three events. If he reads this. Maybe he will feel generous share his build.

It should be noted that if you have tiger sharks you can do the same thing here just mind your timers and go to town. Much like the 105, the path for the hellwraith will work for TigerSharks allowing more people to do the elite targets for the bonus points and seat time.

Harlock Tideseeker and Tideseeker

If you happen to have the Harlock Tideseeker you can auto the targets. This method will be ideal for those without access to the net from a PC or Laptop, and they only have a phone or Ipad to play. The costs for me to auto was between 7 coins and ten coins, and I think that can come down with some changes to my build, or the builds I used from Dragon_Bane. He sent me three to test, and I wanted to make sure I did that for him as he was unable to get into the preview today.

The best setup was with the Mayhem torpedo. That weapon was as reliable as the Calamity and with the splash it had if the reavers grouped well you could kill more than one at a time. It was a stunning experience. The video has all the builds that I used so; please view it and get an idea of how the Tideseeker performs.

The first video is of my current build, driving and I think it was just over 4.5 hours and I hit like a newbie crashing into everything I could. After that, I got into Dragon_Banes builds and tried to do the targets on auto. I never failed in a single target with any build I tried and all were done in a single hit and about 4 to 5 minutes.

Have a great weekend, and I would not worry so much about refitting your fleets. Everything that had worked last month worked this month in the new elite targets. We just need a prize list now and hopefully we can get something soon.

My build

Three of these normal tide seeker

One of this normal tide seeker

Change for change sake is bad

Change that is done purposefully and with a plan is good

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

97% of the fun in this game is because it changes. By now many of you have read that change is coming to the map targets this month. I suspect that change will happen after the raid and we will get the current raid targets for our Uranium fleets. Yes. Some have said that this is a bad thing. The new players will not keep up and be left behind. There are even some rumors that the Forsaken Mission targets are changing. I will explain why I never worry when a change is coming and how best to navigate through this if you are a non-coiner and new player to the great game of Battle Pirates.

Changing Map targets

Change in the game has happened since its inception. The game has undergone many changes, and they always happen every few months. Some do not like these changes, even I have not liked some, but for the most part the changes keep the game fresh, and engaging. If the game never changed, I suspect many of you that are reading this would have left already to a different game that was newer, and more of a challenge. So, it is not that change in the game is bad, it is the perception of that change that makes players think it is bad.

Our Uranium targets are going to change. We were told this almost a year ago when the new plan of separating the PvE and PvP hulls came into focus. The reasoning then was to allow our Raid fleets to hav3 a longer shelf life than a couple of months. This change allows new players that are just starting to build these critical fleets still and have them for eight months to a year without fear of falling behind in other aspects of the game. If you can do the current raid the next change to map targets should not scare, you the littlest bit.

We will be seeing our Draconian Armada being changed to the Reaver Armada. So we will need to have our subs or tide seekers ready to go for this change. I know many of you that are reading have your tiger sharks, you have hellwraiths and even at least three to four tideseekers ready to go and possibly ranked. You will be able to keep going with these fleets and get Uranium when you need it.

I understand the fear of change. It is not like when a change happens in the game it has led to issues for players. Sometimes the decision makers decide to push the envelope, and the damage is outrageous and unacceptable. In those times they have rethought and redesigned targets so that they were easier with the technology of the players in mind, not what they felt the players had.

How to cope with these changes

First, you have to understand that every four months something is going to change in the game. That is the way it has been since the beginning of the game. As players we will not be able to stop this, it is going to happen so we might as well accept it. To help with this thought process, remember to build whatever raid fleet is dominating in the current raid series. For this, that would be a sub fleet or Tide Seekers.

Secondly, The Reavers at the change will be susceptible to the same damage they are now. So this is concussive weapons. It also means they should deal the same damage type of Concussive and Explosive (I said ballistic to one when I was tired, sorry about that). That means you will want to defend against those damage types. As a non-coiner or new player you are going to want to attempt to get one of those three hulls I mentioned and then either the Charon torpedo, Mayhem torpedo is a good choice too for these targets. The Tideseekers you will want the Garwood or other concussive type weapons.

Third, if we read CM Doomroosters post and understand it right, the new targets will even wipe the old Reaver targets off the map. This one statement gives me hope that we will see targets more familiar to the last few Raid formats and not the raid setup with the floating mortars and death explosions.

Forsaken Mission change rumors

Beyond what many have tried to push on Facebook and the Forums. The map target changes should not be affecting the Forsaken missions. We are not going to have to battle Reavers for our points and will still have the current targets we have. Yes. We have seen those targets progress since their inception as the game team seemed to tackle with the hulls and weapons they released before the change. Hopefully, they are done tinkering with that target set until we get the new Garrison style raid in the future.

Summary

Remember change for change sake is bad, I will always agree with that sentiment. But, I have not seen the game change for change sake. It is always done along the same general path and if you pay attention to it and have a grasp on the history of the game you can predict which way the game might be going and then plan accordingly. The best pirates never sit tight and hope for the best, they take a gamble and then adjust if that gamble did not pay off.