NRUBnoobynew?s guide to Stats and Units (il copy it from the RD site)
Index
i) Introduction ii) Clouter roles iii) Clout units iv) Clout stats v) Perfect PR Clout stats vi) Eduer roles vii) Eduer units viii) Edu stats ix) Perfect PR edu stats x) Higher PR stats xi) FAQ xii) Conclusion and Credits
Part I Introduction
Basically, I am writing this guide because, though NW gameplay is topnotch, some of our stat/unit choices leave much to be desired. It is also partly written in response to people saying things like:
?low pr clouters are not good? ?You?ll need more MA as a clouter? ?Moths are great eg edu sitters? ?Eduers need really high MA? ?Quorgs are good units to use?
These are just some comments that make me shake my head and laugh; sadly, they are often said and I would thus like to refute these fallacious claims.
Some parts of this guide have been ripped off from Pendarr?s sg-city guide. I will go over clout stats and edu stats geared toward high end regiment play. I will assume that people know hybrid stats should not be used until very high PR.
Part II Clouter roles You have TWO jobs: i) Poccing, by far the more important of the two. Quite a simple concept; really, you just need to put your unit onto a beacon like thing and wait for it to light up with your faction?s flag on it. I?ll discuss how to best do this ii) Sitting, your units will be very hard to clear off a poc, so just sit and block it if you can. You?ll prevent opponents from putting units on your poc.
Part III Clout units EG Poccers: Wraiths, Levis, Moths
Support poccers: Knells, medics, hydras
Misc: Sappers, Albs, Pigs, Chims
Why Mephits, Aboms and Quorgs make lousy poccers Assuming you are not pr 16, wraiths always make better phase poccers and moths always make better rolling poccers. That?s pretty much it.
Part IV Clout stats
Some rules of thumb to keep in mind 1) You should build you stats around units, not units around stats 2) Try to build stats centred around EG poccers 3) 120 clout is usually not worth the investment 4) Consider whether your units would be better with a different stat 5) There is little reason to ever drop below 100 tactics as a clouter 6) You do not need high MA or EDU for a clouter 7) Most often, the best edu levels are 5, 10, 30, 40, 42, and 82. TACTICS IS YOUR BEST FRIEND 9) Did I mention tactics is awesome yet? I tend to forget sometimes
You will notice that 60/111/42/23 has not been listed below. The reason this is not a good stat set is because it does not take full advantage of the most powerful stat, tactics. Some might argue it is a good starter stat. Well, I?ve given alternative stats that increase effectiveness while still allowing for ?starters?.
Also, you will notice that the ma in the stats I have suggested is not very high, there is a very good reason for this; that is, TACTICS IS YOUR BEST FUCKING FRIEND AND MA IS NOT. You should almost never reduce tactics in favor of ma or edu. Also, did I mention Tactics is awesome?
Some great possibilities for 0-reinc clout
i)100/110(111)/10/16(15). http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=64766 This is my personal favorite as it allows for awesome levis and wraiths (the moths aren?t bad either). Although it doesn?t offer a shield with wraiths, it more than makes up for it with the additional units you get (and just overall effectiveness)
ii) 100/108/22/6 http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=64767 This is just a variation on the stat above if you wish to use Behemoths mainly instead of Levis. However, you do lose the ability to SD on your wraiths, which you may find a little annoying.
iii) 120/80/30/6 http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=64744 This offers the best wraiths on a 0 reinc set-up. Compared to the first two, you lose some hp overall, but it allows for a shield and jorias, two great assets to any clouter.
iv) 120/84/22/10 This stat is about sheer numbers with your units. Wraiths levis and moths are all viable options.
Some decent starter stats (not optimal but worth mentioning): I say these are not optimal because of the alternatives I?ve given above. However, they are okay stats geared more for beginners who need to get used to higher tact.
v) 80/108/42/6 This stat is geared toward a starter who wants to work with slightly more edu for an orbus shield, slightly tougher singular wraiths, and tougher singular moths. It does offer less poccing power overall but it is easier to use than the stats I?ve discussed above. Moths are better under 100/108/22/6. Wraiths are better under 120/80/30/6
vi) 80/110/40/6 Similar to 80/108/42/6, but geared more for levis instead of moths.
vii) 80/120/5/31 http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=64909
This is for clouters who feel they want to play a more relaying kind of role. I don?t really recommend this, but if you feel like playing a relaying role, it is a viable option. It is far harder to use and does not offer any real solid poccers for EG. It offers great medics, Hydras, knells. (All relay poccers)
Why tactics is your best friend (and some exceptions) Since in most cases, it is not single unit health, but set health that matters, tactics works to your advantage. Also, the more units you have, the easier it is to poke holes into a poc block, and the easier it is for you to block a poc yourself. Also more units allow you to attempt multiple pocs (vs wulu, not recommended vs pro). Imagine 80tact wraiths, 2 roc 8 wraiths(6 wraith 2 orb) vs 120tact, 2 joria 10 wraiths(8 wraith 2 orb). 120 tact, that?s 50k more hp for a poc. Look at a set of 100/110/10/16 levis and ask yourself if you could do better with lower tact (The answer is begins with an ?N? and ends with an ?O?).
Why low pr clouters are very useful
Once you get even one reinc, your effectiveness can increase greatly. Even with two points, 120/108/5/5 is a great option.
Part V
Perfect Pr 10: 120/108/5/7 (or 120/110/5/5) http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=64905
This first is the stat I personally run and I can tell you that it is very effective because of killer wraiths and moths, (two of your three best poccers as clouters who incidentally work with low ma). It fully utilizes tactics and the fact that clout units don?t need ma
10 x 24.6khp 40 armour wraiths + 2 Jors 12x 19khp 108armour moths Cloak, Emp 21k/5 wraiths + jor
The first stat offers slightly better moths (add a sensor?) while the second offers non-ball shield levis.
Perfect PR 11: 120/110/10/15 or 120/108/22/5 First stat gives better levs + sd on wraiths second stat gives better moths.
Perfect PR 12: 120/110/30/10 This is arguably the best pr-efficient clouter. It offers great levis, orbus and sd with wraith, and great moths. Chims, sappers, and knells are also very good,
Perfect PR 13: 120/111/42/12 Tougher moths and wraiths than above, allows for tl80 weapon with wraiths (12 ma bp).
Perfect PR 13 120/120/10/35 This stat is made mostly for medics. They do not improve much from perfect pr 13. Levis, wraiths, and hydras work well too.
These perfect PR stats are very good reference points when designing post reinc-stats. If you?re going into PR X, look at perfect PR X-1 and PR X to compare your potential effectiveness. For example if you?re going to be pr 12, look at perfect PR 11 stats and see if you?re more effective, then look at perfect PR 12 to see if you?re comparable.
Part VI Edu roles Eduers have more roles to play in any given battle. Thus, it is usually helpful to have more eduers than clouters. Clearing- Often, enemy pocs will be sat by enemies units. With this in mind, go kill those units as quickly as possible so your clouters can poc.
Sitting/Defending- Enemy units will try to poc on you, by sitting and defending, you can kill those units and keep pocs safe
Anti-air- There will often be aerial units that need to die. Kill them with your AA units
Hunting- This is by far the hardest role as an eduer. This role entails killing artillery, phasers, and other such units; however, when being a hunter, you must also help with pocs if the occasion arises. As I am not proficient at hunting, I will refer you to other guides as soon as I find them. YRUstupid?s guide to shees on LOW forums is quite helpful
Part VII Edu units Sitters: Revs, Wights, Imps (NO MOTHS, NO QUORGS)
Clearers: Arbs, Pigs, Vults, (Wights and Imps are decent too but should not be your only set of clearers)
Anti-air: Nix, Balls, Falcons (better with higher tactics)
Hunters: Banshees, Eagles, (ghasts are okay too)
Part VIII Edu stats Some rules of thumb for designing edu stats 1) You need to kill, not live longer, so design your stats around units that will kill faster 2) Tactics is your best friend 3) You should build you stats around units, not units around stats 4) Try to build stats centred around 1 or 2 main sets, but still fit really well with your 3rd and/or fourth max set 5) Consider whether your units would be better with a different stat 6) There is little reason to ever drop below 80 tactics as an eduer 7) You do not need high clout as an eduer 82, 102, and 120 edu are the main breakpoints. 62 and 92 are occasionally valid
Some Comments:
The only units that really require 120 edu are falcons shees wights and eagles If you are not using these units, you are better off with more tact and less edu. Also, in general, falcons and eagles are not units to build stats around.
We all know by now that clouters don't really need any edu or ma to be effective. They have 2 roles that require essentially the same build of units, thus the unit and stat design is much simpler and often gives clear-cut "right" answers. Eduer stats are a little more complex due to having 4 roles to choose from and each role requiring unique kinds of unit types. Fear not, for I shall guide you...
When to select 82, 102, or 120 edu (or 62 or 92).
Think of units you want to use. A good rule of thumb is to go for the edu required for the most edu intensive units.
62 edu: Imps Balls Pigs Vult 82 edu: Arbs revs Nix 92 edu: Balls 102 edu: Imps Nix Vult 120 edu: banshee wight falc eagle
I've listed some units twice. That's because I really cannot judge where they are PR-optimal
Say you want wight imp nix pig. Because wights need 120 edu, you would choose 120 edu. However, if you don't want to build stats around them, you could drop wights and play 102 edu with more tactics.
In general, I say that 120 edu is not for non-reinc players. Because sacrificing tact for edu turns out to hurt pretty much all sets except for wights and banshees. These two units are also better around pr 12-14 because players with 12-14 pr end up being able to have high tact as well.
Basically, TACTICS IS YOUR BEST FRIEND!
Some non-reinc possibilities
i)100/6/82/48 http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=66109 This stat offers great revs, nix, arbs, pigs as eg units. This is arguably the best non-reinc edu stat.
ii)80/6/120/30 http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=66114 This stat offers good revs, arbs, pigs. However, revs and arbs are clearly better with the first stat. And pigs end up doing 8 dmg less overall with this stat, so pigs are about the same as with 100/6/82/48. This stat offers more units from which to choose, making it a decent, albeit sub-optimal, stat set.
Depending on unit selection, you'd likely be strictly better off with 120/5/62/49 or 100/6/82/48.
iii)80/5/102/48 http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=66115 This stat is geared more toward having nice imps and nixes. The revs, arbs, and pigs are also good. This stat should only be chosen over the first if you wish to build stats around imps and nixes more than other units.
iv)120/5/62/49 [URL=http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=68965] http://www.sgtofu.com/units/lab/?stat_id=68965[/URL] This stat provides great pigs, imps and balls. You maximize your dps for all three sets by using this stat. Vults are a viable option too. Eagles (with 6 clout instead of 5) are very good.
As you can see, I have only listed 80+tactics, and 5/6 clout stat. This is due to the fact that TACTICS IS YOUR BEST FRIEND, not to mention that eduers have no need for clout higher than 6 (Some exceptions below).There is no viable reason to not go 6 clout with 236 points.
One commonly recommended option is 60/6/120/50 I really don?t recommend this stat except in very rare cases. My justification is as follows:
Revs: better with any of the stats listed above Arbs: better with any of the stats listed above Pig: better with any of the stats listed above Imps: better with 80/6/102/48 Balls: better with 80/6/120/30 or 120/5/62/49 Eagles:Better with 80/6/120/30 or 120/6/62/48 Nix: Comparable or better with 100/6/82/48 or 80/6/102/48 Basically, you?ll NEED to use wights and banshees justify this stat. But with only 9 units, you're likely better off to leave these to slightly higher PR players
Part IX Perfect PR 10 120/6/82/32 revs arb pigs
80/6/120/34 balls eagles pigs arbs revs A little sub-optimal but a decent choice
80/6/102/52 Imps nix rev arb pig
120/5/62/53 Imps Pig Ball are probably best under this stat. Eagles are decent too.
Perfect PR 11 120/6/82/47 Rev arb pigs nix
80/6/120/49 wights rev arb pig nix balls eagle
100/5/102/48 imps rev arb pig nix
120/6/120/9 This stat has not really been tested, but it does give very nice revs pigs arbs and phasic trebs. The wights are slightly tougher than revs, have higher range, have 2 more dps, but deal less damage overall. I will be testing wights on x/x120/low stat soon, but I'm in favour of them at the moment.
Perfect PR 12 100/6/120/44 Wights revs arbs pigs balls nix falcon eagle This stat is basically built for having wights falcons and eagles, while not hurting other sets too much. However, other units would be slightly better with different stats.
80/14/120/56 Banshee Wights revs arbs imps pig ball nix falcon eagle This stat is built for shees, other units are better with different stats. I'd only recommend this stat for someone running 2 sets of shees.
120/6/120/24 Revs Arbs Pigs Balls Trebs Yes, I said it, trebs. Phasic trebs with 2 jors is going to be deadly with just pr 12. All the other sets listed are also optimized under this stat.
100/6/102/62 Imps Nixes Vults Revs arb pigs
This is one of the only stats I'll list with more than 60 ma. It gives the best imps for a pr 12 eduer. Nixes are also great under this stat.
Perfect PR 13
120/6/120/39 Balls arb pigs rev non-phase wights eagles falcs
120/6/102/57 Imps arbs pigs revs nix
100/14/120/51 shees imps arbs pigs revs nix wights eagles falcons
Perfect PR 14
120/6/120/54 Pretty much all edu units
Support Units The most common support units are liches, mw spirits, orbus, red eyes, and jors.
Liches are awesome because they block out all phasers when their irbm shield is deployed. I highly recommend keeping one with each set of sitters, particularly wights.
Another option instead of liches are mw spirits. They can disable jors, and can also hinder enemy clearing or poccing attempts. I recommend keeping these with revs if you are confident in your mwing abilities.
Orbuses can act as phaser and/or shields. It really isn't necessary or recommended to keep shields with your sitter sets because that means 1 less unit for killing power. Phase orbuses are useful with clearers and balls if jorias are not available
Red-eyes can jam, scan, reveal cloak/camo units, and identify units. Jamming is probably the most annoying for the enemy. It disables friendly view and the minimap of all opponents. This is particularly useful with nixes and miners because you can sneak up to pigs (nixes) or sneak to port (miners). The nice thing is that you can equip jam and scan at the same time, meaning hunters will find them to be an asset too.
Arbs users will find the tachyon sweep (camo/cloak detect) very useful as well. I recommend having 1 sweeping eye or manta with each set of arbs.
The little used ability of red-eyes is to identify units. It is generally underpowered and/or useless, but I really enjoy using them with my emp wraiths. When you equip and sensor and a scanner on your red-eye, you can scan the map and identify units. You are able to see the maximum energy of units when you identify them, meaning it is easy to tell which units are solar and which units are not. This saves you the trouble of trial and error, or going after units some distance away only to realize they are solar.
Why behemoths are bad edu units (taken directly from Pendarr?s SG-city guide)
Behemoths are never a good choice for edu. This is one of the only bad choices I will discuss, but it bears discussion because so many eduers use Behemoths. Behemoths do a lot of damage and have high hp/armor, so a lot of people like them. The problem, though, is that as an eduer, you don't need hp/armor, you need to be able to kill things quickly, and Behemoths, while doing a lot of damage per shot, do really horrible damage per second (dps), because their weapons have an absolutely horrendous cool down (time between shots). The relevant numbers: Gold H-TL120 Behemoth weapons do 776/3.0 = 259 dps (This is 9 higher than the DPS apps can do). Gold TL101 Revenant weapons (not even TL120; just 101) do 670/1.8 = 372 dps. That's more than a 40% increase in dps. Revenants are also faster, able to equip cloak or be phasic more easily than Behemoths, and get worse but still comparable hp/armor. There is never a reason to use Behemoths instead of Revenants if you're an eduer. Remember enemy must be on poc to get it so range does not matter (this is especially true in vic maps).
Exceptions to the 5/6 clout rule Here I will discuss the exceptions to this rule. We all know that clout is next to useless for eduers, reason being that your job is not to live longer, but to kill faster.
i) Hunter/AA stat sets. If you?re building your stats around having great hunters and/or aa, clout can actually be very helpful. This is because as hunter or aa, you?re dealing with mostly units that move about but don?t require a long time to kill, thus getting to your target faster (which clout allows you to do), is actually an advantage rather than having more firepower.
ii) When you already have 120 tactics and edu. Well, I?m discussing this as an exception even if I don?t believe in high PR eduers. The reason is that at 120/6/120/42+ (PR 14), you?ve pretty much already become as effective as you?re going to get as an eduer. Any more points into clout allow you to live longer, not do more damage (which isn?t necessarily a good investment of PR). That said, if you insist on playing edu as high pr, you can pump some clout because you really have no where else to put your points.
14 clout: banshees and SC spirits (12 clout) 22/24clout: imps balls vults arbs pigs (FFS NO MOTHS) 34/36clout: revs eagles wights 42 clout: Banshees
Mechanical Aptitude Sucks (Why tactics >>MA) I have mentioned several times that tactics is the best stat. This is because as an eduer, more total damage supersedes per unit damage; and as a clouter, more total hp supersedes per unit HP. As a clouter, you?ll never really need more than 5 ma (maybe 9 ma for tl101 arbs). As an eduer, you won?t need MA higher than 50 in most cases.
The prime examples being 120 edu Wights: 42ma tl119 weapon, 70% Overloader, 18k cell + ultra cell Dps = 1150 dps
And
108 clout Wraiths 5ma, 5edu: 24.6k 40arm phasic, Tl 60 weapon.
Part X High PR stats
As eduers, you?re effectiveness is really at its peak at pr 14 120/6/120/54, or arguably PR 15 120/14/120/61 (just for shees and Tl 120 weapon on wights really). With this in mind, I recommend always playing clout/hybrid at higher PR?s.
Things to remember: ? Tl101 arbs with sensor require 9ma ? Moths, Wraith, and pigs only require 5 ma ? Tl81 phasic arbs require 41ma
Perfect PR 14 (100/108/82/10)
This stat is geared towards behemoths so to make non-120 tactics viable you are encouraged to run at least 2x behemoths.
Behemoths: 21k hp/ 147 armor TL 100 weapon TL 100 sensor SD or cell
Arbalest: 7k hp/ 15 armor TL 101 weapon TL 2 sensor TL 60 SD or solar
Wraiths: 25k hp/ 61 armor TL 60 SD TL 60 weapon + Orbus with cloak and cell
Perfect PR 15(120/108/82/5)
2x moths Wraiths (no cloak on orbus) Pigs instead of arbs
Perfect PR 16 (120/111/82/12) 2x moths, Wraiths Levis Arbs
Perfect Pr 15 (120/111/42/42)
This stat is made for phasic arbs+jors, which can be very deadly Levis, wraiths and moths work well too.
PR 17 and higher should just add to ma (for arbs) and clout as seen fit.
Part XI FAQ
1) Q: low pr clouters are not good, why do you suggest them? A: I think I?ve shown that low pr clouters can indeed be effective. Their poccing power is just as good as their higher PR counterparts. The only thing they lack is clearing capabilities, which is more of the eduer?s job
2)Q: Don?t you need more MA as a clouter? A: No, you never need more MA as a clouter. Refer to some low MA guides if you?re still unconvinced
3)Q: Moths are great eg edu sitters, why would you say otherwise? A: They just don?t have enough DPS compared to revs. See the above section on edu moths if you?re still not convinced.
4)Q: Eduers need really high MA, why would you suggest low MA stats? A: Eduers rarely need more than 50ma. Tact is far more important
5) Q: Quorgs are good units to use, they can poc and sit really well can?t they? A: For poccers, wraiths or moths are better. For sitters, revs are better (non-ballistic damage, higher dps, does not hit random air units when trying to stop a poc, comparable oughness).
6) Q: Why choose tl119 wights over tl120? A: Generally if you equip tl120 weapon then you can only equip the 40% OL (955 dps). Where as with tl119 weapon and 70% OL you get almost 1200dps. If you can equip tl120 with 70% OL and 120 tactics please play clout/hybrid.
7) Q: Why are you recommending edu stats with less than 102 edu? A: Units such as revs pigs arbs balls are strictly better with more tact and less edu. They end up blocking better and/or doing more dps with 62 or 82 edu. http://www.sg-city.com/ibf/index.php?act=S...t=0#entry213354
This post shows why tl119 is comparable to tl120.
Part XII Conclusion and credits I hope by now you realize how important tactics is and how overpowered it is. I hope you also realize why it is important to specialize and how to do so. If there?s one thing you should get out of this guide, it?s that Tact>>ma
While I, NRUB, did almost all the work for this guide, special thanks go to Destryer for his help with suggestions, the high pr section, and editing . Thanks go to Pendarr as well, as I have taken some parts directly from his guide on sg-city