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The spirit of Hawken presents: "G2 Assault: Guide to Dual-wielding Slaying", a guide for the G2 Assault mech, the best mech in Hawken, straight from the crucible of Hawken.
Relevant as of 2015-03-22
Relevant Imgur Gallery: "Hawken: G2 Assault Guide" https://imgur.com/a/QHWOE
#! Preface ##
Before we begin, I would like to introduce myself. I am the spirit of Hawken. I have been present since the alpha days of Hawken, alternately soundly sleeping within the crucible and raging across the battlegrounds of Illal devastating my foes. Some of you, the old guard of Hawken in particular, may recognize me as the herald of such glorious and divinely-conceived masterwork-suggestions such as: the "Penetrator" Raider, the "Chains of Fire" Rocketeer, and "Bring Back Magenta" colour picking.
In this thread, I will provide my illumination into my unfathomable insight into the G2 Assault, the mightiest mech to have graced Hawken so far, and provide the reader but a glimpse of my infinite skill in text format. In fact, mere mortals such as the reader may not in fact even possess the capacity to be able to grasp the paranormal intuition that is the spirit of Hawken's. Nonetheless, I will attempt to communicate the profound ideals and frameworks that has lead me to such grand success using the G2 Assault.
Observe the credentials of a true celestial:
As you can see, clearly my talent and skill with the G2 Assault is unsurpassed. With that, let us begin the journey into the ways of the G2 Assault.
#! Figures ##
The stats for the G2 Assault are as follows:
Compared to the original Assault, the G2 Assault has higher Armour, a smaller Fuel Tank, slower Boost Speed, slower Fuel Regen, faster Ground Speed, faster Air Speed, and the same Radar, Overheating, and Dodging.
Note that the Air Speed is greater than the Boost Speed.
It’s secondary and primary weapons are identical:
Keep in mind that a single Vulcan-XT has lower DPS Rating, Rate of Fire, and Heat Rating compared to a single Point-D Vulcan.
It is similarly a sustained, close-medium range weapon.
The G2 Assault possesses a G2 Weapons Coolant ability that isn’t particularly different from the standard Weapons Coolant Ability.
#! Basics ##
With these facts in mind, what preliminary inferences can be made about the optimal way to play the G2 Assault?
-Since Air Speed is greater than Boost Speed, it is almost universally better to opt to fly rather than boost forward in any situation that one might want to boost forward.
-In general, fuel should be used more sparingly given the smaller Fuel Tank and Fuel Regen.
-Given that flying will reduce firing accuracy as compared to walking, preferring to walk is increasingly optimal when fighting at increasingly distant targets.
-Given the relatively fast Ground Speed, walking as you fire is a good idea.
-Given that both weapons of the G2 Assault are identical and are sustained-fire weapons, one should prefer not to employ "peek-a-boo" tactics or corner play typically associated with other classes.
-Given the relatively high Armour, the G2 Assault does not necessarily need to shy away when taking attacked.
-With the convenient G2 Weapons Coolant ability, if the G2 Assault player finds themself in a sustained combat situation, they have the option of continuing to fight be using it.
#! Strategy ##
The G2 Assault is heavily dependent on positioning for both its defense and its offense. Additionally, its damage output is directly influenced by its ability to keep sight of its targets for as long as possible. Simply by holding down both fire buttons and keeping a target within the firing reticule, the player can deal massive damage. However, because the weapons have a brief startup period, it is essential that the player avoids fights in which the enemy can repeatedly fire from a position with accessible cover. The enemy might as well be invulnerable to damage from the G2 Assault.
Despite that, there are some situations in which the G2 Assault is favoured when confronted by a corner situation. The G2 Assault can pressure enemies into retreating from an area or pressure enemies into staying behind cover. This can be used for pushes and retreats.
In general, the G2 Assault player should be stealthily walking to position themself to fire at enemies that are preoccupied with another objective. Attacking as a front liner is not favourable because the player would have to divide attention between tracking an enemy for the Vulcans at the same time as dodging enemy projectiles, but entering as a second wave just behind the front line is acceptable given that the G2 Assault performs best around a short-medium range.
Damage output is the focus of the G2 Assault, not kills. However, the G2 Assault is still good at catching low-Armour enemies from a flanking position due to the very low punishment for poor aim. Overall, the G2 Assault performs best in a laid-back position that allows the player to concentrate on keeping the enemy in a sweet-spot that is both far enough to prevent a nimble enemy front closing in quickly and dodging the sustained fire by exploiting the capped turn rate in Hawken and close enough to deal significant damage.
#! Tactics ##
There are general tactics the player may choose to employ: keep spinning, keep firing.
-Keep spinning entails holding down the firing buttons briefly to spin up the Vulcans and then releasing before they actually fire. Continuously starting up the Vulcans will not trigger their heat increase but will allow the player a chance to begin firing without waiting for your weapons to spin up first, whilst in the worst case scenario, the player waits the normal amount of time for the weapons to spin up.
-Keep firing entails continuously firing at the corner from which the enemy is expected to approach. The downside is that the player will generate heat – however, this tactic is very useful when fighting an enemy that is also expected to be at low Armour, as they risk immediately dying when coming out from cover, as well as simply making the enemy feel pressured to remain in cover, securing a retreat, or putting enough pressure to force the enemy to retreat. Shields are easily destroyed by Vulcans within a matter of seconds and because of the sustained fire, the player can simply plow through a shield to surprise a fleeing or pursuing enemy.
The following tactics concerns corner and how best to engage on an enemy hiding behind one.
-When confronting corners, always “sweep” the corner. That is to say, imagine the corner as a pivot point for a pole. The G2 Assault is at one end of the pole and the enemy is at the other end. Typically, the enemy will be very close to the pivot, i.e. corner, itching to dash out of corner, fire, and then dash back behind the corner. As the G2 Assault, the player should distance themself from the pivot as far as possible and then round the corner. This provides more time for the player to react if the enemy boosts out to fire a burst weapon. This tactic applies either for attacking or defending a corner.
Diagram:
-When chasing an enemy, keep a clear line of sight of the most likely path the enemy will take to escape and keep firing along that line of sight! If the enemy has very low Armour, there is a high likelihood that they will risk running through the line of sight to their only escape path, only to be caught in the player's continuous fire. Else, they will be forced to take more time to repair, while the player can simply keep chasing or switch to a different target.
#! Outfit ##
This is my personal outfit:
Items: Repair Charge Mk-III, Shield Mk-I
Internals: Advanced Repair Kit, Armour Fuser, Basic Extractor
Rationale: The strategy has already been determined to be keeping enemies in sight for as long as possible and maintaining consistent damage output. Given the G2 Weapons Coolant ability, the Heat Generation bottleneck is loosened. Keeping enemies in range wrt one's own movement is relatively easy due to the G2 Assault's fast walking speed. The next major bottleneck is survival. Being ded means not dealing damage. To maximize damage output time, the best item-internal combination is as above.
The Repair Charges, Advanced Repair Kit, and Basic Extractor all go toward keeping Armour up and recovering Armour as quickly as possible, minimizing time needed to repair. Any repair orbs available are quickly consumed by the Basic Extractor so that even repair orbs dropped mid-battle can be quickly utilized to keep firing.
The Armour Fuser is chosen because of how easy it is for the G2 Assault to land assists. Assists will provide 38 Armour over 20 seconds while Kills will provide 76 Armour over 20 seconds. While not a grand amount by any measure, it will provide the player the option to repair to near-full Armour after a battle and then letting the Armour Fuser finish the difference.
Other viable item and internals include EMP, ISM, and Air Compressor. EMPs and ISMs offload the survivability bottleneck by controlling the enemy's ability to respond. The Air Compressor is an option given the high Air Speed of the G2 Assault. Other mobility options include the Evasive Device and Power Surger since the G2 Assault can be played primarily on the ground.
#! Closing ##
To summarize, use the G2 Assault as a sustained-fire, close-medium range damage output mech and outfit it according to its strengths. Hopefully, at least some portion of my transphysical-transspiritual comprehensive understanding has elucidated the best methods for the G2 Assault mech.
Edited by WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, 29 March 2015 - 04:47 PM.
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