The original article from igonnalose is located in sg-city forum. He allow me post it on our site. Big thanks.
With exams over and with no access to SG, I've decided to write a nice in depth guide to my favorite type of units, support units.
Ah yes they are the sole unit that can effectively stop a poc. One liche, one spirit, or one rayok (etc) can single handedly stop pocs or help save pocs. To manage your set of units well is one thing; to manage your set and use a support unit is another entire thing.
In brief the definition of a support unit is a single unit that tags along with your main set that usually helps using a special ability that that unit has. You obviously must sacrifice one unit of the main set, but the benefits you can reap are well worth it!
Ok now down to the nitty gritty of support units. Also note, I will not talk about phasers since I'm not quite experienced with them. I will not talk about the orbus as a phaser.
My absolute favorite of all support units. Liches are used to block nukes, BUT they are more important to blocking nearby phasing abilities.
Whenever you see a Phaser like an Orbus/Joria/Roc come near a poc immediately put a liche shield as close to the poc as possible. The highest tl shield is 70 so hopefully you have 22+ edu. When deployed that shield will cover about 75% of the length of a screen and the entire width even though the visual is much less than that. The best shield can also be placed away from the liche body more than the other shields, about halfway across the length of the screen from the liche. The only other use for the shield is to block nukes. By far the most interesting way to block phasing is the put a shield over the units that are being phased as this works as well.
Equipment: Get cloak, best sensor, best shield, then the best stock. Do NOT pick any gamma nor solar since that 200 energy drain will most likely deplete before the enemy phaser is destroyed, though you can block nukes. Pick the best methane or cell. Last thing you really need is a weapon so I wouldn't equip it.
As with any other support units hotkey the liche to 1 for easy access and keep your finger on the letter D since that's the hotkey for the shield.
I've heard rumors that nukes can slip through the shield, but this is most likely the result of the crappy lowest tl shield that covers an area barely larger than the visual. As far as my use on shields, I've never let a nuke through if it's within the shield effect and I've never seen a phasing get through so I can determine that the effect is constant as long as the shield is activated.
(actually I am no longer sure about this) REMEMBER THE SHIELD IS TWO WAY! Just like the orbus shield it will block any ally nukes and will stop allies from phasing to the phaser or from the unit being phased.
Note: I am NOT writing about medic sets nor about pocing with them, etc.
Honestly, and most people would agree, medics are not the most useful unit you could have. Creslin explains why living longer is indeed not very important (for eduers) in his stat post. Otherwise medics are used to either repair or heal units. Healing for infantry and organic, repairing for mobile and aviation. Medics can help your squad live longer and be an annoying pain in the butt for the enemy if you micro them well. The bioscramber only works at around 2-3 range so it is utterly useless.
Also remember there is no graphic for the medic to repair; so if you really want a medic, use it to repair mobile units instead of infantry. And medics work better with longer range units that are tough so you can heal them before they die and hopefully your medic can be out of range of enemy units.
Equipment: Obviously the best health restore item you can get (space pending) and cloak. Then get a good stock and if possible, armor.
The great spirit, A unit to HnR, hunter, and support unit. A support spirit utilizes their shortcircuit or mindwarp ability to disable enemy units almost instantly.
Equipment: Get the best sensor and cloak. Also a battery is a must. Do not equip a weapon so you can right click a unit instead of having to hotkey before mindwarping/shortcircuiting the unit. Then simply beef up the spirit with everything you can.
Mindwarp (MW) — For MindWarp the best to equip would be the H-TL 60 gamma collectors but if you plan on using this to MW rapidly and all over the place then use the best cell you can find. To mindwarp, always seek the most important most microed target. Obviously this includes the JORIA as the primary target then the Mlortha, Abom/Quorg, or Knell being microed on poc under splash fire. Always use MW as extensively as you can relative to your energy. If you have gamma then keep it handy on any infantry or organic you see nearby.
ShortCircuit (SC) — Since ShortCircuit take so much energy always equip the best cell you can get. ShortCircuit is just as useful in victory maps as mindwarp is. Though your energy may deplete fast, still use it extensively. Your primary targets should be Rocs and Orbus as well as any other support units you can target. Now lest you have the best SC then remember it will fade faster than the MW will so you should actually cast it twice for every one MW (considering you're using the best MW).
Other tips:
If you're fast enough you can easily MW/SC any phaser coming your way and eliminate it without them reacting.
Hot key them to "1"! Remember you can't use it instantly after you used it once, there's about a second or so delay between each time you can use a sc/mw so good timing means you can get the most units stopped. If you see any single spirits on the enemy side then ELIMINATE it as quickly as possible.
If you want to be a bitch then you can leave one enemy unit and repeatedly MW/SC until they are forced to get an ally to kill it. Easy way to take out a fatty PR person.
Same as the medic only they can also camo and their repair has a visual, so they are easier to see.
I'm not even going to write anything for this... seriously.
Other than the obvious phase ability many people use, the orbus can also link gate and use an orbus shield. Almost nobody uses the link gate but I've seen it used quite well sometimes but it most likely isn't worth the hassle. If you want to try it and you manage to be effecitve with it, then by all means post about it here.
The orbus shield is the bane of arbs. When deployed it negates ALL ground to ground damage going in or out of the shield regardless of friend or foe. Units firing from within in the shield to another unit within the shield will still cause damage. The only exception are misc weapons such as nukes or nades which will cause damage no matter what. Remember the shield also blocks your allies' damage, so be wary when setting it up.
The best uses of this shield is to singlehandedly poc when nothing but arbs are defending it. It'll negate all damage and can support poccers for quite a while. An enemy that isn't equipped with units against an orbus shield will easily lose that poc.
A counter use of this is to put the shield over set of arbs which effectively negates any damage they'll deal and they would have to waste several seconds to move when you can easily move the orbus faster than their arbs. Thanks to avder for that.
A use for eduers is for the orbus to sit in the middle of a poc you will sit and activate the shield once the enemy tries to clear your poc. Then they're forced to get into your face to clear the orbus or get air to clear it. Good with wights as you can just let loose your shield and overloader once they get into range.
Equipment: Armor, engine, and stock are of the utmost importance. No one of them can be considered the most important, so do what you please. Do note cloak is possible!
All in all, orbus shields are one of the more underrated support units that aren't used enough IMO.
Mmmmmm. The handyman of reconnaisance! The useful tools are the scanner, tachyon sweep, and the radar jammer. The useless ones are the shield (same as orbus above) and the unit identification.
Scanner — The most useful of the abilities (well maybe); the scan of the redeye will reveal all enemy units on the minimap except for SE spirits and (I think) SE hawks. This of course is an exceptional way for seeing through fog of war or locating enemy arbs or nukers and the such. This ability alone is worth the while for the redeye.
Radar Jam — Ever notice how wonderful that minimap is? Oh WTF?! I can't see jack shit! This is due to the fact that the enemy is using a redeye to jam your radar. The minimap goes blank and you no longer can see your allies' field of vision anymore. This ability takes a lot of energy (1330 and 1200) and lasts for a few seconds. The jam lasts for exactly four "blips" that you see on your minimap when you jam them. A blip would be when your minimap looks slightly warped for a split second when you hit the jam button.
Tachyon Sweep — This is the equivalent of the manta's ability to reveal cloak or camo, but cannot reveal infil. This has an insane range equivalent of your redeye's view range, which is farking big enough. It takes quite a lot of energy (150). Also the redeye is used most often in conjunction with arbalests in order to reveal cloaked units so they can be arbed.
Unit Identification — Um... useless. This comes with the items that give your redeye more view sight.
Redeye Shield — same as orbus but takes up the slot that the tachyon sweep uses, so get the sweep instead.
Equipment: The absolute best battery/cell you can get, followed by the goodies you want (radar, jammer, sweep) and then the best engine you can fit.
Triage for health, Volte for energy, need I say more? Both are the mass hp/nrg replenishers. Neither are used extensively nor are very useful but can be used in some cases.
The triage has an amazing phaser! You can get creative with this and use that to your advantage in various situations. Triages can be used to sit pocs and put the main set on top of them, providing hp all around. Other strategies that can be useful is to use the phase in tandem with albs, condors, and even sitting a medic on them while repairing the triage becomes a pain to take out.
Note: I'm not talking about voltes as a squad such as empers or weapon ones.
Voltes are normally used with units that take up vast amounts of energy, ie Wights sappers levs, etc. Sit them on a poc and put the main set of wight/levs and then you can overload or NS forever till the volte dies. Usually sets that need a volte should have a nice battery and would die before they run out of NRG which is why voltes are not used so much.
Equipment: For the triage, the best stock and armor is the most important. For the volte, get armor and engine (not much of a choice for a stock).
Hmmm the only aviation unit that can actually be called a support unit (not including roc). Condor's only purpose in this case would be to clear air mines. And of course the only way to get fast dors is to be a 118 clouter. Anything below 118 clout and you miss on the top MK (make it 120 though). Also hopefully the clouter has 40+ edu since the hiab is tl 80. That makes it either a low tac clouter (ineffective) or just a high reinc player. Low PR clouters can still receive decent dors without 118 clout or 40 edu.
Condors as a mine clearer can still be used by eduers though they'll be slower and not quite as tough.
Condors of course are not a unit that should be used like the other support units. They should only be brought out when the air is blanketed with mines or albs are nearby. They can still be used with a main set of units but you'll just need to sacrifice one or two to get those dors in.
Equipment: Altcharge Eradicator, best AB, best cell, and best armor. Weapons or sensors will be fairly useless as you shouldn't be attacking with them.
The airborne organic detector, manta, is used in the same fashoin as the redeye, only in a portable use. Their range of sight is much less than a redeye but they can actually fly and move so they can serve to detect units farther than a redeye can reach. Also as an added bonus they can detect infils, something redeyes lack.
Mantas are commonly used with pelicans as hunters to reveal things such as trebs or apps or simply to fire upon cloaked ground units. Mantas can also serve as an alternative to redeyes when using arb sets but the majority of the population would agree that redeyes are better since they can scan the map at the same time.
Mantas are used quite a bit with vults.
Mantas do have weapons... but guess what they suck! Also always equip the minor carapace since mantas have a crapload of hp and a mere 15 armor can mean a lot.
The Charise and Dythe are the two superorgs for 120 clout stats. Both are used in battle in the same purpose as mantas, their primary detect function. They also have neutron shields and cloak, but only one or the other. Both are very tough and deal tons of damage (but only one means they can't do much). The only difference? Dythe is AA while Charise is AG.
People will use the Charise in the same way as mantas and clouter vults will almost always have a Charise. Dythes however are aa and aren't quite as useful. They could be used with clouter owls to provide extra firepower or to detect or use NS to clear mines.
Which brings a good point. NS (neutron shield) and cloak can be used quite creatively with them. People have actually successfully pocced with infil imps and used a charise to NS or cloak over them, causing much anger and frustration for the enemy. Probably the best infil tandem unit.
I honestly debated whether I should include these. Instead I'll just say what they are capable of doing. They are 120 ma units that nobody would get except to have fun and be relatively useless.
Both have an ENORMOUS sight range and both can detect, serving as extremely mobile redeyes that can also dish out hellish damage. They are also incredibly tough to kill too.
In the same fashoin as the charise/dythe, they can also serve as infil covers and they even have the same transport function as rocs!
Equipment: Hell if I know... I guess the best armor, weapon, and stock. Batteries that use the blue pads are better than the methane since they are fast and you can easily move to a battery pad to refill your tank faster than a methane.
The 120 edu Rayok actually serves as a clouter-type unit! Maxed Rayoks are tough and have a 40 second warp they can utilize. Rayoks will prove useful to start or finish pocs from far away. Sit a rayok at a port while your main set goes and does its business. As eg approaches keep an eye on all pocs and if a poc needs assistance, warp that rayok in and hopefully it'll be strong enough to poc it. Be aware in such victory maps for open pocs that your Rayok can start before any of your allies can start it.
Rayoks can reach upwards of 14k/130
Rayoks do have a short ranged flame weapon, but don't expect to be killing with them.
Equipment: Equip the best armor/biodrive and always include the warp. A fallout reactor would be recommended as you could be left stranded with a rayok since they have tons of hp. Include a weapon if possible but don't sacrifice endurance for a miniscule boost in damage.