Ask Specs Anything July 20,2016

How do I build my Vanquisher?

This week’s question I am sure you can imagine goes to the Vanquisher and what should you put on it. My answer to my friend Sirens Sweet Song.

Her question was:

OK got this hull now what?

My answer was as follows;

Hey SSS,

Congrats! I will tell you that you want to avoid anything that adds armor weight to the hull as it starts with a high base. As well it has a 100% defense handicap which does not allow for any armor that might add resistance. So, this leaves us with three choices for armor, evade, bulkhead, and cadmium. You know I am not a fan of the bulkhead so that means I would consider cadmium and evade. Now, Cadmium has some nice armor, but the speed bonus will not help this hull as it does not move. We also know that people will try to use suicide Tigers for the next month or two to take it out. So, this leaves the choice to Evade armor.

Weapons

For the weapon slot, we should look at the hull and see what it gets for bonuses. It has a big bonus to countermeasures. With increase accuracy and range, as well it has a generic boost to accuracy on the hull. It also has a nice boost to launchers, 100% reload and 10% range boost. I hope you took the new launcher as well for this build will require it. You will want some counter measures in the defense fleet so that you can reduce the effectiveness of Vendetta. If you did not get the new launcher, D98 is next best choice.

Specials

Specials, this hull, sports five special slots. We cannot move so we do not need an engine. You will want an evade special; I would go with Agility system so that you can get some pinch resistance. If you were lucky and got the emission generator, you will want to use that. If you were one of the unlucky ones that got hit with the prize redemption bug and got the special for the Apollo, you could use the barrel system 3. You will want to use countermeasure loader for the boost to reload, and of course, increase to our anti-mortar weapons. If you have cryo battery, you can use that to help lower the attacker’s resistance, and you can stack more evade bonus to help increase evade.

Summary

With all that said I would give you two possible builds (5 variants of those two) and depend on how you wish to go in your base, either can help you out. Before I give the builds, I hope you read the article on how to rank your fleets and you will have at least one or two to rank this weekend.

Five different options depending on your technology level

You might be tempted to do five of these for base defense, I would caution against that and maybe go with two so that you can diversify your defense fleet against other possible attackers. Below is the one I think I will go with at this time, and I will go with a second that is mostly gale 3.

I hope this helps and you love the hull.

Ask Specs Anything July 13, 2016

What should I take in the raid Vanquisher or Apollo?

Today the questions are centered on the raid, been getting asked the last few days repeatedly about the raid and those issues heated up yesterday and this morning when the prize list was released.

This choice is a tough one and one that should not take lightly. If you have not had the chance to get the Apollo yet, I can see how you might want it for at least the August raid as that will be the last in this series. But, you might want the newest defense hull as your base is suffering. The Vanquisher has some fascinating potential and should replace the Enforcer in the majority of base settings.

I feel the Apollo is more of a needed hull in the game. I think that if your focus on the game is doing the PvE stuff, then you have to take this hull. Sure, it might only be useful for the assault map targets after August, but those map targets will allow you to get easily and upgrade the Rhino. I do feel that the Apollo is a must have in the game today, it is crucial for getting pieces for the Gantry and Mega Hulls that will be released later on. So, with that, I am led to believe that they might have the hull in August hull raid. There is a precedence for this by the way, and they have done that with other much-needed hulls in the past. Of course, they have refused to put in these hulls in the first hull store too. We cannot be 100% sure what they will do this far out.

With all that said, I would take the Vanquisher this raid and take my chances with the Apollo offered in the August raid. It might come back to bite me, but I think that it the safest choice this time around as I like to develop my base defense the best I can. With five specials, same range as Enforcer with Launchers, very nice accuracy base boost, anti- weapon accuracy boosts, and 500K base armor at 2-hour repair (1 hour in the defense slot) and all at under four days for a bare hull. You could have one ready by VXP weekend and run it with a gunboat to pull things towards it so that it can die or kill.

Do not get me wrong; I love my Apollo fleet. I think that everyone should have them. But, I feel that it is more relevant to the direction the game is going and that we have a greater chance of having that in the August raid than we do the Vanquisher. As always, keep an eye on official statements from CM Doomrooster and other kixeye employees posting in the forum. Often you can get some inside information on what might come from their postings. They have not stated one way or another on this issue so I am going on what I think is more important in the game and they have a habit of offering things we need in the raids.