Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Firefall Crafting Guide

This crafting guide was originally posted by Kryyss on the Firefall Forums.

Firefall Crafting Advanced Guide

Understanding Resources

All of the resources in Firefall exhibit 5 separate aspects (ASP). These are:

ConductivityCON
DensityDEN
MalleabilityMAL
ReactivityREA
ResistanceRES

All of these aspects have a value from 0 to 1000. However each resource has special characteristics. This means some are better for crafting certain items than others. Brimstone, for example, will always have a Density between 565 to 850. Unfortunately no resource is best at everything and as such Brimstone's conductivity can only exist between 10 and 140.

On top of these resource characteristics the total quality of the material also varies. The quality is classified as the [CY-xx] isotope found next to the description. [CY-15] for example is very poor quality however [CY-700] would be amazing. These are separated into colour bands which you can see in the following table.  Sometimes you will also come across two resources with an identical [CY-xx] isotope however their ASP are totally different. This is because the [CY-xx] is a grade of the total ASP in that resource rather than a label indicating a specific isotope of that crystite that is always the same.

MIN (CY)
MAX (CY)QUALITY-GRADECOLOUR
1-167SALVAGE / JUNKGREY
168-334COMMONWHITE
335-501UNCOMMONGREEN
502-668RAREBLUE
669-835EPICPURPLE
836-1000LEGENDARYORANGE

New Eden Resources

The tables below show the minimum and maximum value possible for the resource. The ASP rank is resource specific and grades the resource on that specific aspect from 1 (best) to 5 (worst). The top 2 ASP are marked in red. In some cases two values may be so close that they are marked as sharing a rank, for example Ferrite has almost exactly the same maximum value for Density and Resistance so they are marked as joint 3rd on the table.

It also indicates the colour of the crystite so you can identify them as loot drops or from enriched rocks you find around New Eden. All resources marked with an asterisk cannot currently be gathered by any means.

Quartzite (Purple/Black)
A semi-rare form of crystite with volatile blending potential where great successes and terrible failures are possible.
Classification: Crystalline
Minimum ASP is 1687
Maximum ASP is 2742
Total ASP range is 1053

Unit ASPMinimumMaximumASP rank
CON702095
DEN593~9001
MAL1593274
REA555~8002
RES3105203

Azurite (Neon Blue)

A very rare form of crystite with significantly higher Conductivity than other Crystalline forms.
Classification: Crystalline
Minimum ASP is 1689
Maximum ASP is 2790
Total ASP range is 1101

Unit ASPMinimumMaximumASP rank
CON2454404
DEN630~9001
MAL35~1005
REA400~7202
RES3796303

Bismuth (Pale Blue/Yellow)

A very common form of crystite and one of only two types with high conductivity.
Classification: Metallic
Minimum ASP is 1670
Maximum ASP is 2810
Total ASP range is 1140

Unit ASPMinimumMaximumASP rank
CON~5007902
DEN~300~5003
MAL~600~9001
REA180~4004
RES902295

Regolith*

Unit ASPMinimumMaximumASP rank
CON


DEN


MAL


REA


RES



Ferrite (Orange)

An uncommon form of crystite. Easily the most reactive and suitable for blending with many other hybrids.
Classification: Metallic
Minimum ASP is 1695
Maximum ASP is 2820
Total ASP range is 1125

Unit ASPMinimumMaximumASP rank
CON600~9001
DEN245450~3
MAL4557102
REA1302904
RES265470~3

Brimstone (Yellow)

A common form of crystite with the highest value for Reactivity out of all types.
Classification: Crystalline
Minimum ASP is 1670
Maximum ASP is 2780
Total ASP range is 1110

Unit ASPMinimumMaximumASP rank
CON101405
DEN565~8502
MAL902404
REA600~9001
RES405~6503

Coralite (Aquamarine)

A common form of crystite, often found near coastlines with the most well-rounded aspects of any hybrid.
Classification: Polymer
Minimum ASP is 1650
Maximum ASP is 2840
Total ASP range is 1190

Unit ASPMinimumMaximumASP rank
CON420670~2
DEN130~300~3
MAL130~300~3
REA420670~2
RES~550~9001

Silicate (Red)

A common form of crystite that is difficult to refine but makes for an ideal catalyst for refining other types or crystite.
Classification: Polymer
Minimum ASP is 1700
Maximum ASP is 2815
Total ASP range is 1115

Unit ASPMinimumMaximumASP rank
CON1402804
DEN1402905
MAL450~7502
REA3806203
RES5908751

Basalt*

Unit ASPMinimumMaximumASP rank
CON


DEN


MAL


REA


RES



The minimum and maximum ASP are values used to determine the overall potential for any resource. At the moment all types exist with the same maximum and minimum ranges although they are distributed differently. The above list has some ASP values that need improved accuracy however. Regolith and Basalt do not exist within the current world of New Eden and appear to be eventually obtained from PvP activities.

Resources themselves will commonly be found within randomly placed resource nodes under the ground. These are indicated by green areas when using the Scan-Hammer and can only be mined with use of a Thumper. Higher concentrations will fill up the thumper faster but the maximum capacity will never be exceeded, it is therefore a good idea to find high concentrations if you intend to gather resources quickly. The concentrations will change depending on player activity. Resource nodes can effectively be mined into nothingness and will require players to look elsewhere once depleted. Further to this there is also changes to the quality of materials which can be found, these will cycle periodically and the process is known as Resource Shifting.

At present a Shift is expected to change around once a week, from what developers have said. Although this may be subject to revision. At the moment any kind of server restart will also trigger a change in the resource shift. Once a Shift change takes place however it is possible for some untapped resource nodes to survive and therefore become quite valuable if they contain resources better than what is found in the current shift.

The following table looks at each ASP value and displays where every resource is ranked for that specific aspect from 1 to 7, this can be very useful when you are looking at the Refined Crafting section later in this guide.



CON
DEN
MAL
REA
RES
1
FERRITE900AZURITE900BISMUTH900BRIMSTONE900CORALITE900
2
BISMUTH790QUARTZITE900SILICATE750QUARTZITE800SILICATE875
3
CORALITE670BRIMSTONE850FERRITE710AZURITE720BRIMSTONE650
4
AZURITE440BISMUTH500QUARTZITE320CORALITE670AZURITE630
5
SILICATE280FERRITE450CORALITE300SILICATE620QUARTZITE520
6
QUARTZITE202CORALITE300BRIMSTONE240BISMUTH400FERRITE470
7
BRIMSTONE140SILICATE290AZURITE100FERRITE290BISMUTH220

As you can see, only two of the resources dominate the top 2 more than once. These are Silicate and Bismuth, however these two also end up far down the rankings for other aspects. At present maximum and minimum values are still being worked on although these figures are accurate enough to rank all of the resources.

Resource Blending

Blending is the process of combining two resources to create a unique third. It's original intention within Firefall was to clean up smaller quantities of spare crystite, however it has proven to have further uses for allowing players to control certain aspects of resources they intend to use for crafting. The blending process is very complicated and takes several factors into consideration beyond the quality of the progenitor isotopes. The process was also altered significantly in the beta patch v0.5.1432 which made blending based not just on the total ASP but has more to do with the percentage of the total possible ASP value for each resource.

Blending together resources will often require careful planning and you should never blend without the intention to craft something specific. This is also not to say that the perfect resource is purple-grade or even blue-grade, the idea is to produce specific characteristics in resources for the purposes of directly controlling the specification on items you are crafting. However by having an in-depth understanding of the blending process it is perfectly possible to produce purple-grade resources of specific resources which you didn't originally have but bear in mind that such an endeavour is extremely slow and costly if you start from low grade resources.

Here are the key points to always remember:

    1. the three key factors: ratio of resources, actual ASP value and percentage of maximum ASP.
    2. the type of crystite produced is defined by the progenitor of the largest quantity.
    3. all mixtures are unique.

Because every resource has tens of thousands of potential combinations of ASP values it is not possible to give a definitive guide on how to produce specific grades of materials every time and it takes a degree of luck to have the right combination of materials with strengths and weaknesses that will result in an overall improvement of the product when mixed.

Remember that there is a 5% loss in the overall yield due to blending so heavy refinement will have growing losses. This gradual process of refining is called chain-blending and is recommended only for advanced users who have a specific type of crystite that they want to develop. The 3 key factors are easy to understand but is the main reason why it can be difficult to get the results you want even when you understand the basics. The ratio of resources define how much of each progenitors ASP values is put into the product. A 1:1 ratio of resources will be the best place to start if you want to hit an average. The raw ASP value is very important because the larger the difference between the progenitors the less of their stats will be put into the product. Finally you have the system considering how the raw ASP relates to the maximum and minimum possible values for that type of resource. To understand this look at the image below of the resource information panel found in-game:


The two dots along each of the bars indicate the minimum possible value and the maximum value for each ASP. For this Quartzite you can see that Conductivity is near the maximum value but if you look at Density it is near to its minimum value. Malleability is a little under half-way and Resistance is well over half-way. You could therefore compare Malleability to around 30-40% and resistance to 70-80%. Assuming that you blend resources with a 1:1 ratio exactly half of these percentages will contribute towards the final product.

Understanding Crafting

Once you start to unlock Tier-2 frame upgrades you be given the option to craft weapons and gear you have licences for as an alternative to using the default ones provided to you. Always remember though that any licence which says it is for an Accord item does not grant you any nano-prints.

Crafted items are almost always superior to the ones which come free with each licence. The drawback is that with increased power and bonuses comes increased Mass, CPU and Power requirements. This means that there is a limitation on how far you can enhance your battleframe and you will find it hard to equip yourself with all purple-grade items due to these MCP limitations.

You may then wonder, what is the point of crafting if you simply over-burden the battleframe?

The simple fact is that it gives you even more control over tweaking your load-out to favour of your preferred playing style and weapons. Not to mention that sometimes the default weapons and upgrades you get with each licence will rarely use all of your maximum Mass, CPU and Power. Ideally you want to squeeze as much out of those limitations as possible to get an edge over your opponent.

Crafting is done at Molecular Printer terminals often found around outposts and other facilities. Most Tier-2 items will typically require around 500 units of any kind of resource. These new nano-prints will also have a sub-section called 'Crafting Attributes' which define how certain features of the crafted item will be affected by the material used.

For example, the Engineer's Boomerang Shot will have 3 distinct features which will alter final the specification will be influenced. These are Shot Damage, Velocity and Recharge. Under each category will be percentages which total 100% but are split between different aspects of the materials being used. In this example 70% of the damage on Shot Damage is taken from Density and the remaining 30% is from Malleability. Depending on the quality of the material used the item will be either White, Green, Blue or Purple much like the resource colour-grades which indicate quality.

The result of the crafting process is so closely tied to the crafting attributes that a perfect match can result in Green-grade resources producing a Blue-grade item however a very poor match can cause Purple-grade resources to produce a blue or even green-grade item. It is up to the operator to use the right resources for the job. One of the other factors to be aware of with crafting is that certain items have caps in place which can be hit even without resources that are at their maximum value, however this varies from nano-print to nano-print.

Refined Crafting

The following section will explain, in detail, how to refine resources to give you maximum control over the product and therefore have tighter control over MCP costs. The blending process can be used to enhance, refine or ruin resources depending on what you blend together and as mentioned in the last section it is not always desirable to maximize all features of an item since it causes the MCP costs to also increase. The key to refining is a process called chain-blending, which involves blending resources together that were also created through blending.

ENHANCEMENT
The goal of enhancement is to blend resources together to create an overall increase to the isotope number of the crystite. One of the issues with this process is that any nano-prints used with this type of resource will have increases to stats across the board and therefore cause the largest MPC increase. It is generally achieved through the blending of resources which compliment each other.

SPECIALISATION
This form of refinement is used to cause the smallest MPC increase possible while maximising a specific feature within the nano-print. It is best used for nano-prints where the bulk of a feature is made up by one or two ASP such as the Engineers Boomerang mentioned earlier which used Density and Malleability. This can be the most advanced form of refinement as you need to weaken the ASP you don't want while carefully managing the values you want to keep.

RUINATION
Sometimes it is better to have access to an ability for the sake of diversity even if it isn't as good as it can be. In this case you can create items with really poor resources but are exceptionally light on MCP requirements. This would be useful for abilities such as Missleshot if you only want it for sniping with a plasma-cannon but the full version is simply too demanding on your MCP with your current load out.

This can be quite confusing so lets illustrate with two resources and look at just the Density ASP, for now we will not consider the percentage of the total possible ASP these values represent.

Cy-A DEN 500
Cy-B DEN 100

If these two resources are blended with a 1:1 ratio you will suffer penalties when it comes to blending the percentages of their total ASP that these two resources have. In fact you would see a result that is significantly less than an average of the two ASP. Ideally you want two resources where the raw ASP is similar but the percentage of their total possible ASP is very, very different. Consider these two ideal resources:

Cy-A DEN 100 / 10% of max ASP
Cy-B DEN 100 / 90% max ASP

Disregard the actual Density value for the moment, that is only used to compare the resources what we want to look at here is the percentage of total possible ASP for this resource on Density.

Because the ASP value is identical there is no penalty for blending these together, so the percentages are averaged perfectly resulting in a product will be 50% of the maximum ASP. Since Cy-A is 10% of its maximum at 100 that means at 100% it is 1000. So 50% of that 1000 is 500, this means if the product of this blending is type Cy-A you have successfully enhanced the Density ASP. On the other hand, if the product is Cy-B you will have ruined the resource as 50% of its maximum will be less than what you started with.

Having three factors which influence blending can be confusing. So to explain how to do chain-blending for refining purposes the next examples will make the assumption that the ratio of materials is always 1:1 and that the actual ASP values involved are similar enough to suffer no penalties. What we want to pay attention to is the percentage of maximum possible ASP the resource has for Conductivity and Density.

Here are 4 theoretical resources.

Cy-ACON10%DEN20%
Cy-BCON30%DEN50%
Cy-CCON50%DEN70%
Cy-DCON80%DEN60%

How you chain-blend these resources is critical to getting the best results, you cannot simply throw them together and get the same outcome. Lets assume that we want some Cy-A crystite for an item which needs Conductivity and Density for its Damage feature. At the moment our Cy-A isotope is very weak on these two stats but has a high maximum possible value for us to develop it towards. How you combine these resources will determine how much you will enhance Cy-A. Here are all of the possible products you can make from these four resources. The first column indicates how they were blended. ABCD means A and B were blended together first, C and D were blended next. The final step was then to combine AB and CD.

ABCDCON42%DEN50%
ACBDCON45%DEN50%
ADBCCON42%DEN55%

If you total the percentages here you will notice that the lowest is 92% and the highest is 97%. What this means is that when chain blending the maximum possible outcome is achieved through blending the highest and lowest ASP values or the highest and lowest [Cy-xx] isotopes. The thing to keep in mind that the chain-blending process is slow and gradual, you won't be suddenly turning a low grade resource into a high-grade one within a few blending generations. Even if we were to take the Cy-ADBC isotope and combine it with more of Cy-A we would still end up with 61% CON and 57% DEN on the product not to mention that the need to match the raw ASP values makes perfect blending as much luck as it is wisdom.

The final point here is how to perform ruination, which is aiming to create as close to the [CY-1] isotope as possible for the sake of getting MCP demands to the minimum. To perform this you simply blend resources which are so utterly different in their raw ASP that you suffer significant penalties, you would also ensure that you start blending the poorest resources together rather than combining the lowest to the highest.

Nanoprint Suggestions

The following section of the guide is to make suggestions for resources to be used with each Nano-print. This is by no means a definitive suggestion as the characteristics of resources vary widely and sometimes you may want to get the most of out specific feature of the item and will therefore choose to focus totally on that at the cost of being less than optimal in other areas.

These tables are an incredibly simplified summary of the information most users will want. However if you want to see the details and breakdowns on how these results were created you can find more information on this GoogleDoc spreadsheet.

While this is an itemized list of all nano-prints there are some general commonalities between their crafting attributes. Jets and Rifles typically work best with Metallic resources such as Bismuth for example, once more nano-prints are added to the guide there will be a separate table for easy reference.

NANO-PRINTTIERBATTLEFRAMEATTRIBUTESOPTIMUM RESOURCE
KISUTON ASSAULT RIFLETIER 2RECONRATE OF FIREBISMUTH (55%)
KISUTON ASSAULT RIFLETIER 2RECONRELOAD SPEEDBISMUTH (82%)
KISUTON ASSAULT RIFLETIER 2RECONACCURACYSILICATE (56%)
KISUTON ASSAULT RIFLETIER 2RECONOVERALLBISMUTH (193%)





ACCORD SNIPER RIFLETIER 2RECONRATE OF FIREBISMUTH (55%)
ACCORD SNIPER RIFLETIER 2RECONRELOAD SPEEDBISMUTH (82%)
ACCORD SNIPER RIFLETIER 2RECONHEADSHOT DMG.SILICATE (70%)
ACCORD SNIPER RIFLETIER 2RECONOVERALLBISMUTH (151%)





OMNIDYNE-M SERVOSTIER 2RECONRUN SPEEDCORALITE (59%)
OMNIDYNE-M SERVOSTIER 2RECONSPRINT SPEEDSILICATE (37%)
OMNIDYNE-M SERVOSTIER 2RECONJUMP HEIGHTSILICATE (92%)
OMNIDYNE-M SERVOSTIER 2RECONOVERALLSILICATE (188%)





KISUTON L.RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONCHARGE DMG.QUARTZITE (85%)
KISUTON LONG RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONCHARGE RADIUSBISMUTH (84%)
KISUTON LONG RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONCHARGE RECH.BISMUTH (75%)
KISUTON LONG RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONOVERALLBISMUTH (174%)





KISUTON JUMPJETTIER 2RECONENERGY COSTQUARTZITE (75%)
KISUTON JUMPJETTIER 2RECONTHRUSTBISMUTH (82%)
KISUTON JUMPJETTIER 2RECONENERGY RECH.BISMUTH (65%)
KISUTON JUMPJETTIER 2RECONOVERALLBISMUTH (172%)





OMNIDYNE-M L.RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONCHARGE DMG.QUARTZITE (85%)
OMNIDYNE-M L.RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONCHARGE RADIUSBISMUTH (84%)
OMNIDYNE-M L.RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONCHARGE RECH.BISMUTH (75%)
OMNIDYNE-M L.RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONOVERALLBISMUTH (174%)





ASTREK EXECUTE SHOTTIER 2RECONSHOT DAMAGEQUARTZITE (85%)
ASTREK EXECUTE SHOTTIER 2RECONEXPLOSION RADIUSBISMUTH (84%)
ASTREK EXECUTE SHOTTIER 2RECONSHOT RECH.BISMUTH (75%)
ASTREK EXECUTE SHOTTIER 2RECONOVERALLBISMUTH (174%)





ASTREK L.RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONCHARGE DMG.QUARTZITE (85%)
ASTREK L.RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONCHARGE RADIUSBISMUTH (84%)
ASTREK L.RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONCHARGE RECH.BISMUTH (75%)
ASTREK L.RANGE CHARGETIER 2RECONOVERALLBISMUTH (174%)





KISUTON RESONATING BOLTSTIER 2RECONBOLTS DMGQUARTZITE (85%)
KISUTON RESONATING BOLTSTIER 2RECONBOLTS DURATIONQUARTZITE (45%)
KISUTON RESONATING BOLTSTIER 2RECONBOLTS RECH.BISMUTH (75%)
KISUTON RESONATING BOLTSTIER 2RECONOVERALLQUARTZITE (155%)

Resource Gathering Tips

- Azurite can only be typically found near the edge of the Melding if you want to mine it
- Sifted-earth will give you resources for the current shift, stockpile it and wait for a good cycle
- It is easier to defend Thumpers on the edge of cliffs or with a cliff-face behind it
- Remember that scan-hammers only scan an arc in front of you, turn around to scan as well
- Test a dig site with a small thumper to see how hard it is to defend before using a larger Thumper

Credits

In alphabetical order...
Actionman - tips on Azurite mining
Bolverker - blending R&D and continued R&D
Cruzze - for corrections
ChojinMD - for the (yet to used) Dreadnaught nanoprints
Dethbringa - general R&D
Draco18s - lots of hard work on the maths used in crafting
Fippe - tips on Azurite mining
jams - Quartzite min/max corrections and generally productive criticism
Mavoc - for the more precise quality-grades
McWaffle - for the (yet to be used) Biotech nanoprints
Nerfbane - tons of spreadsheets and the man who cracked the blending formula
Jerry Thomas - additional Bismuth data
KarbonKitsune - Recon nano-prints and general support
KingBradley - Quartzite min/max corrections
Sayan - proof of Azurite blending
Starlightgamer - general R&D
Zprotoss2 - work-around for splitting stacks in beta milestone 1

And of course, the folks at Red5 who designed and built the crafting system. A huge thanks to Imbalanced, Virgil, Nic and UltimaSage for their hard work and support of RAWR.

Firefall Dreadnaught Build PvE (Mammoth Bomber)

1. Introduction & Goal.

Hello there, and welcome to a new series of guides. Now that I have a few frames to call my own, and after spending quite some time in the tank, I have come up with a few builds for frames I use. The first entry will get right into the thick: The Mammoth Bomber is a fast and agile Dreadnaught that uses himself as a volatile piece of hurt.

The goal is to turn the usually rather slow Dreadnaught into a fast-responder during Thumping session and a spearhead when on Chosen hunt. To achieve this, we'll need to overcome the speed penalties this class has and give the frame the ability to put down the hurt at AoE - another thing the Dreadnaught isn't that great at.

This build uses the currently available Ferrite 772, which is more common than Aranha Workers on a weekday. Reglith 493 can be used for Jets, but is not necessary. Some parts are deliberately printed with weak ores (such as Coralite 37, for example), to give them an edge over the unprinted versions without blowing the constraints. Nevertheless, the core principle does not rely on those ores and can be replicated with other ores, too.

2. The Build.
A quick run-down of the requirements:

Basics:
  • Tech Level: Tier 2
  • Frame: Dreadnaught Class, Omnidyme-M Mammoth
  • Unlocks needed:
    • Astrek HMG
    • Astrek Ammo
    • Kisuton or Omnidyne-M Repulsor Blast
    • Astrek Teleport Shot
    • Accord Absorption Bomb
    • Kisuton Plating
    • Astrek Jumpjets
    • Kisuton Servos
Weaponry:
  • Primary Weapon: Astrek HMG (Ferrite 772)
  • Primary Ammo: Astrek Ammo (Ferrite 772)
  • Secondary Weapon: Accord Grenade Launcher
  • Secondary Ammo: Accord Ammo
We're saving constraints on the secondary - given the speed this build has due to other factors, our HMG should almost always be in range. With a reload of 2.7s and a clipsize of 383, you should experience little downtime.

Abilities:
  • #1: Kisuton Repulsor Blast (*)
  • #2: Astrek Teleport Shot (*²)
  • #3: Accord Absorption Bomb
Teleport Shot is our gap-bridger and 1000dmg "snipershot". Takes some practice to get used to. Repulsor Blast is a quick wipe and AoE, Absorption Bomb can cover a reload, distract or obliberate a thick group of hostiles.

Other:
  • Reactor: Omnidyne-M Reactor
  • Specialty: none
  • Plating: Kisuton Plating (Ferrite 772)
  • Jumpjets: Astrek Jets (*³)
  • Servos: Kisuton Servos (**)
We need the added power to support the Absorption Bomb, which gives us some issues with weight, but the Accord GL/Accord Ammo makes up for it. The rest gives us 12.2% damage reduction, a good chunk of hitpoints and 13hp/s regeneration. We're dropping the speciality (1.5%DR, 50HP, 3hp/s reg) because it weighs 925kg - don't have room for that. The servos get us around faster, the jets can be used for hoversprinting or getting a better angle for Teleport Shot.

*: You want the largest radius possible here, given your ores.
*²: Printing is optional, but might need to be unprinted. The Repulsor Blast is more important.
*³: Print these as good possible - they are our secondary means of movement. Regolith 493, if you have it.
**: You want these to add as much Run Speed as possible - 0.6 m/s or 0.7 m/s would be good.


3. Playstyle
The Mammoth Bomber is basically a teleporting package of trouble. Given Chosen Droppod A and angry Juggernauts B to F, you fly above them until you are in range for Teleport Shot (around 75m). Using Weapon Range really helps there. Then, as you teleport in, you trigger Absorption Bomb, and the Chosen will blast you. When the Bomb goes off, the ~6000 damage or more should take out the majority, and a quick Repulsor Blast gives you the breathing room to get out and wipe out the rest.

When Thumping, your best option is to use Teleport Shot to get close to chunky targets, like Treshers, or to finish off Siegers/Stormers. You can also one-shot Tidal Scavengers or do a 1-2 punch for Terrorclaws, with Teleport Shot and Repulsor Blast, which takes a good chunk out of Terry. Absorption Bomb optional - but make sure Terry is between you and the Thumper so he shockwaves away from it. Your HMG chews through targets, Repulsor Blast eats Aranhas for breakfast. Absorption Bomb can cover a reload or, more importantly, take the fire of the Thumper for it's duration, as it has a taunt that draws the mobs to you instead of your precious Thumper. Remember, Absorption Bomb has a fairly long runtime, so make sure someone else guards the Thumper, too. Not a solo ability while Thumping.

Play fast and agressive, stay in the thick (the 12%DR helps a lot with that) and use your abilities whenever you can. Especially Teleport Shot's 1000dmg are nothing to sneeze at. Don't save it for later, use it. The combined abilities and HMG should give you a high damage output and always something to shoot at. Don't be afraid to get further away from the Thumper - Teleport Shot gets you home fast, even if you use it on a puny Aranha to travel. With added runspeed from fast servos and strong jets, you should always be able to get around. Just make sure you don't use Absorption Bomb when you don't have anything to distract or kill with - because during that time, you're immobile and cannot shoot. You can reload, though.

Give it a try, maybe you like.

Firefall Assault Battleframe Build PvE/AoE

Firefall Assault Battleframe Build

PvE/AoE Build

In this build you will be focusing on the skill Bombs Away, which is exactly how it sounds, an AoE Bombing ability from above. Although Bombs Away appears at first to do low damage, it is doing area of effect damage which is great for groups of enemies. The Assault Battleframe already has AoE abilities with his Plasma Cannon and Crater ability, making this a welcome addition to the combo.

This build is constrained and you won't be able to take some of the skills you may normally like to equip though. This is a specialty build that revolves around the single trick of AoE damage. For Ores you will want to use Ferrite 772  for max capacity on everything and make sure to get as many bombs as possible.

Requirements:

Tech Level: Tier 2
Frame: Assault Class, Astrek Firecat

Unlocked:

Astrek Multicannon
Astrek Ammo
Kisuton Bombs Away
Astrek Crater
Accord Afterburner
Astrek Plating
Kisuton Jumpjets
Omnidyne-M Servos

Weapon:

Primary:
Weapon: Astrek Multicannon
Ammo: Astrek Ammo

Secondary:
Weapon: Accord SMG
Ammo: Astrek Ammo

Abilities:

Accord Afterburner
Kisuton Bombs Away
Astrek Crater

Equipment:

Reactor: Accord Reactor
Plating: Astrek Plating
Jumpjets: Kisuton Jets
Servos: Omnidyne-M Servos

Firefall Assault Battle Frame Build How To:


All of the items and equipment for this Firefall Assault Battleframe Build have been chosen to maximize AoE damage by using Bombs Away. Pretty much if you are single target you will be using the SMG to do most of your damage since it is a powerful weapon. When you hop around gathering targets into groups you can start shooting down Plasma in conjunction with Bombs Away. This will be enough to kill off a lot of mobs since you will be hopping around dropping it regularly, but in case of a nice cluster you can pepper in Crater for that additional damage.

The key with this Assault Battleframe build is to hop around in small patterns to drop off bombs on groups of enemies and realize that this build is for groups, not individual enemies. It's particularly nice in groups with Thumpers since you are able to utilize all of your AoE for the elimination of the incoming enemies.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Dreadnaught Battleframe

Firefall

Dreadnaught Battleframe


Dreadnaught Battleframe Firefall

The Dreadnaught Battleframe is artillery with legs. Although a bit slow the Dreadnaught Battleframe wields the biggest guns in the game to dish out heavy damage to enemies across the board. The Dreadnaught Battleframe is a favorite of people who want to play the tank and dish out large amounts of punishment while doing it. Although they are a easy to hit they can take a beating.


Dreadnaught Battleframe:


HP: 2000

Weapon:

Minigun - The minigun is a high speed, high velocity, high damage gun. Although it doesn't do as much damage as Plasma/Sniper per shot, it's extremely high rate of fire and high ammo gives it some major destructive power.

Abilities:

Heavy Armor: Slows projectiles and if timed right it will also give you a residual energy shield. This is one of those abilities that makes you a tank.

Thunder Dome: The Dreadnaught Battleframe creates a force field over his location that can protect allies, or more importantly trap an enemy inside with him. Two man enter, one man leave.

Gravity Field: Creates a gravity field pulling enemy bullets toward its center, saving teammates from the incoming damage.

Turret Mode: The Dreadnaught Battleframe plants its feet turning it into a living siege weapon. You have increased accuracy and fire speed while using this ability making you devastating.

Engineer Battleframe

Firefall

Engineer Battleframe


Engineer Battleframe Firefall

The Engineer Battleframe relies more heavily on help from robotic minions for dealing with enemies than his own weapon damage. Engineers serve as more of a support class than anything else with a plethora of abilities that are used to help a team secure objectives, but can still throw down with the help of his turrets.

Engineer Battleframe:


HP: 1250

Weapon:

Repair Gun - The Engineers guns rarely do very much damage, but are capable. They are medium to low damage weapons. Primary use is really to repair your robots and abilities.

Abilities:

Turret: The Engineer Battleframe summons a turret that shoots at enemies that are in your SIN. This is your primary damage dealing ability.

Forcefield: The Engineer Battleframe lays down a force field that blocks enemy bullets. Friendly players can fire and pass through the force field.

Repair Station: This station is a lifesaver in PvP and PvE. The Engineer Battleframe lays a station that heals allies around it and charges ammo and energy.