Any build or game type!

For me that moment was the second day skirmish matchs in the Chakram. For those of you who don't know or remember the Chakram was the old Caldari Black Ops Tank. The old BOTs promised the world in their description and gave almost nothing, a story we're all use to by now. I was promised a tank that would almost never show on radar, could spawn friendly infantry around it, and tank damage like a champ all without using any slots. It delivered on none of those. This was in the old days of everyone's radar showing everyone's spotted and scanned targets so you could see basically everyone on the map at any given time. The BOT's HP was lower than normal and had ****** fitting space for its slot layout. It did not come with a built in CRU like the logi DS did. All for the low low price of several million isk per hull. My crushing initial underwhelment wasn't helped by Lv 4 and 5 of the HAV skill being at 12x and not providing any bonus or other unlocks.

Why was here that I found the best moment of my entire DUST experience? There were two reasons. The first is that Chakram was fast, maneuverable, and had a 4/4 slot layout. The second was that I was able to get a proper crew of corp mates on coms with me. I was able to combine these two things into a thing of beauty. I had TEX in the missile turret blasting infantry off me with the old AOE missiles one moment and using the map to provide me limited omniscience of where everything was at any given time. Combine that with 4 nanos in the lows and the right combo of shield boosters and other tanking mods and I was in heaven. I could fly across the battlefield with the speed of a plated LAV and WAY better traction!

My tank crew was able to keep me informed of exactly where I needed to be to either apply the hurt or get to safety when my boosters were on cool down. I was able to absolutely wreck the opposition if they ignored me and my team could roll them if they devoted too enough people to actually provide zone containment because they couldn't surprise me with my intel or ambush me with my speed. I was in hit and run heaven. I would almost fly around SL and Forge users driving them mad only to finish them off as I lapped that part of the map. I could zoom out to an ongoing firefight and provide a good quick ten or so seconds of heavy fire support to force the enemy into the killing field for my Blues to finish off. I could quickly respond to almost any event in the match. Tex was so good at watching the map and giving my intel that we could even use my naturally low HP and speed to draw the odd tank or two skilled enough to keep up into heavy AV tank traps. The panicked actions of those tank crews and they realized what was happening filled my heart with joy.

That was my moment. The realization and understanding that I had found my roll. The understanding that even if I was made of glass with my crew by my side I could put our combined skills to use to make a meaningful impact on the battlefield. I felt vindicated. All the work was worth it and I had my place.

A week or two later we got hit with a closed beta SP reset and I was back to started SP and the BOTs were removed from the game entirely.



Well that was my moment, what was yours?