DUST Search - The Diaries of a Noobie Tanker

TIGER SHARK1501 wrote:

Roger Cordill wrote:

TIGER SHARK1501 wrote:

After my first month playing over 2 years 3 months ago if I wasn't a logi I was putting SP into tanking. I don't know how many million SP I have into vehicles but I know I have over 20 million into turrets. Tanking in pre 1.7 was a rush fighting an enemy where you had to outsmart them. Flanking the enemy was critical making you think like in chess needing to think several steps ahead. Now tanking while it still has it's ups and downs, it isn't as enjoyable as it used to be. As a tanker many players will call you a stat padding individual in a super up armor suit. Even the last update increased the hit box for the soft spot that tanks take more critical damage.

People hate tankers much in the way snipers are hated just for the nature of what they do. Snipers can combat you from far away and you either have to catch them or counter snipe them. Tanks are right in the thick of the fight and are seen as a nuisance rather than a force backing up infantry helping to push for the win. The massive amount of SP and isk investing into vehicles and players still feel they should be able to instagank something that costs at tops 8-10 times a great proto suit.

I'm fine with the decisions I've made allocating my SP and I don't have regrets but as a fellow tanker I ask you to just sit on your SP and think about it. If you decide to continue your path I wish you the best of luck. o7 Big smile

The reason people feel as though HAV's don't contribute to wins is because they for the most part don't. A rail will sit there and wait for a random HAV to come in its path and gank it from the redline or nearby. A blaster HAV will annoy infantry, but unless they are stupid, won't kill much of any of them, and it will more often lose HAV fights. Missiles are similar to blasters, but reversed. None of these HAV's will actually contribute towards MCC destruction (or in AQ's case, data collection), and often times won't help tick down infantry kills much. They are just big redundant toys...

Perfect example of the type of player I was referring to.


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Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 3	Posted - 2015.06.06 19:39:00 - [1] - Quote Hi! I've only recently started playing DUST 514, but I've decided that I want to become a dedicated Tanker. Seeing the Tankers that could be feared and unopposed across the entire battlefield inspired me, and I want to follow in their footsteps. However, I quickly realised that it wouldn't be as easy as I imagined it would be. Writing is my passion, and I think I could entertain quite a few people by detailing my progress from a noobie Militia Tanker to a monstrous force of destruction. I'll try to update this thread every time I play, though that may not be everyday. Regardless, I promise to try my best to shed some light on the role for those of you not so acquainted with it whilst simultaneously providing reprieve from boredom. I hope you're as excited as I am!
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 7	Posted - 2015.06.06 22:33:00 - [2] - Quote I got on today to play a few matches, but I'm at an absolute loss. I got destroyed so easily. Unmanned Installations shot at me from a ridiculous distance, and there was seemingly nothing I could do about it. Lord knows I didn't have the firepower to destroy them myself, so I had to resign to staying as far away from them as I could. The problem with this though is that THEY'RE EVERYWHERE. There is no escaping them. Then there were the AVers. Oh Lord, I've never been so frustrated over a lack of game balance. I know that the top Tanks cna cost around 1 million ISK. Why is it then that AV is dirt-cheap in comparison? Any regular Joe can pull out AV and turn me into scrap metal. What particularly annoyed me was the AV Grenades. They destroyed my so called 'Tank' in 3 seconds flat.I had no time to escape, and even my Modules were useless. WHAT USE IS A TANK THAT CAN'T ACTUALLY ENGAGE INFANTRY?!?! I'm finding it incredibly hard to make a profit, even by running Militia Tanks. All I have remaining is 3 Somas and 907 ISK. I don't know what I can do: I'm at my wits end. Where am I to go from here?
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 7	Posted - 2015.06.06 22:57:00 - [3] - Quote Everything Dies wrote: Azel Xerath wrote: I got on today to play a few matches, but I'm at an absolute loss. I got destroyed so easily. Unmanned Installations shot at me from a ridiculous distance, and there was seemingly nothing I could do about it. Lord knows I didn't have the firepower to destroy them myself, so I had to resign to staying as far away from them as I could. The problem with this though is that THEY'RE EVERYWHERE. There is no escaping them. Then there were the AVers. Oh Lord, I've never been so frustrated over a lack of game balance. I know that the top Tanks cna cost around 1 million ISK. Why is it then that AV is dirt-cheap in comparison? Any regular Joe can pull out AV and turn me into scrap metal. What particularly annoyed me was the AV Grenades. They destroyed my so called 'Tank' in 3 seconds flat.I had no time to escape, and even my Modules were useless. WHAT USE IS A TANK THAT CAN'T ACTUALLY ENGAGE INFANTRY?!?! I'm finding it incredibly hard to make a profit, even by running Militia Tanks. All I have remaining is 3 Somas and 907 ISK. I don't know what I can do: I'm at my wits end. Where am I to go from here? Don't even bother with militia tanks--you need to invest quite a bit of SP into tanking if you're going to survive for long. You'll need a minimum of one armor hardener, one armor plate and two reppers if you're running armor tanks (for anti-tank battles, you may want to go with two hardeners instead of one and a plate.) For shield tanks, you'll want to stick to missile or rail turrets as blasters will eat you alive. In fact, my best advice would be to equip a rail tank and stick to the outskirts of the maps until you get a sense of where the turrets are and which ones can be avoided, in addition to looking out for enemy tanks that you might be able to get the drop on. Don't forget to tag along with any friendly tanks that you may come across--even an experienced tanker will hesitate to engage two militia tanks at the same time. So far, all I can use are Militia Tanks. I've been running a Heavy Armour Repairer, a 60MM Armour Plate and an Armour Hardener (all Militia). Is it possible to destroy Installations with Blasters? Or should I be trying to avoid them instead? It just seems like there's nowhere I can go that's safe. I would try Rail Tanks, but at the moment I'm so poor that I can't even buy one!
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 7	Posted - 2015.06.06 23:30:00 - [4] - Quote I was able to buy two Railgun Tanks and I managed to destroy two other Tanks with them. It just seems pointless though, and I don't feel like I'm helping my team at all by running a Railgun. The reason why is because all of the Tanks that I destroyed were also running Railguns. So we were both running AV for each other, so it just became pointless, and neither of us were killing infantry or helping at all. It's so frustrating. Nobody is willing to squad with a new player like me, and I'VE LOST 9 MATCHES IN A ROW. It seems like I'll never be able to improve.
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 8	Posted - 2015.06.07 00:45:00 - [5] - Quote Is it a practical option to initially call in a Railgun Tank to destroy Installations, then if there are no other red vehicles on the field, swap to a Blaster Tank?
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 8	Posted - 2015.06.07 01:01:00 - [6] - Quote I'm seriously considering just giving up and quitting this game. Absolutely nobody is willing to squad with a new player; not even in the Learning Coalition. It's just so frustrating. How am I supposed to do anything when there are other players who have infinitely better Tanks than I do??? It's not fun, and it's not good for the NPE. If anything is to save this obviously dying game, it's tiericide.
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 9	Posted - 2015.06.07 01:36:00 - [7] - Quote jane stalin wrote: Azel Xerath wrote: Is it a practical option to initially call in a Railgun Tank to destroy Installations, then if there are no other red vehicles on the field, swap to a Blaster Tank? I don't know , I sent you a million ISK so you could give it a try, I find it problematic to use tanks, maybe get some av yourself so you can attack tanks that gank you. Thank you so much! At the moment, I have 0 SP invested in infantry though.
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 9	Posted - 2015.06.07 01:48:00 - [8] - Quote I lose every single match. How can that be?!?! How can just my mere presence on the team as a Tanker cause my ENTIRE team to lose?!?! Am I supposed to carry all of them??? Am I the pivotal player that the matchmaking balances the teams around? I've been playing DUST for 2 DAYS. This is just ridiculous. I think that being a Tanker is a detriment to my team.
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 9	Posted - 2015.06.07 02:45:00 - [9] - Quote Ace Ravager wrote: Azel Xerath wrote: I lose every single match. How can that be?!?! How can just my mere presence on the team as a Tanker cause my ENTIRE team to lose?!?! Am I supposed to carry all of them??? Am I the pivotal player that the matchmaking balances the teams around? I've been playing DUST for 2 DAYS. This is just ridiculous. I think that being a Tanker is a detriment to my team. Try joining my corp, they can help you out and give you tips on being a better tanker. Though you never see me using tank try joining up with other tankers, try and support you teamates and they will help you by doing things like hacking installations Funnily enough, I already sent in an app to your corp.
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 11	Posted - 2015.06.07 16:21:00 - [10] - Quote Things have been going a bit better for me today, mainly because I've been running Madrugar G-1s, but I have to be double-Hardened to even be able to do anything. Installations are still a big problem for me. Most of my time in a match is spent o trying to destroy them. I've developed a deep hatred towards any blueberries who hack the Installation just before I get to destroy it. I also realised that neutral Installations don't fire back. I'll have to try to make sure to seize the opportunity at the beginning of the match to destroy as many as I can. I should be able to unlock Enhanced Armour Mods by the end of today, so hopefully the endless downtime I have to wait between activating Mods will feel a little shorter... I've also accidentally activated the wrong Mod at the wrong time, and I've suffered greatly for it.

Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 11	Posted - 2015.06.07 17:19:00 - [11] - Quote This is just so stupid. I'm in a match where our team is completely redlined. We have 16 clones left, compared to their 127. That's not all though: they're also using Officer AV. How am I expected to be able to cope with this? It's ridiculous.
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 17	Posted - 2015.06.08 00:34:00 - [12] - Quote True Adamance wrote: I'm currently using a 500,000K ISK Advanced HAV and usually averaging around about 300,000 ISK per match in gains. Not often I lose a tank unless I am doing something particularly unintelligent since I usually limit myself to 1 HAV per day before logging off. Can most often make 900,000-1.2M ISK per day before losing that HAV. I dream of the day when this can be me... What do you do about Installations? Do you destroy them with Blasters?
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 20	Posted - 2015.06.08 13:57:00 - [13] - Quote I had a very good match today by following True Adamance's advice. At the beginning of the match, I called in a Rail Tank and set about destroying as many Installations as I could. I managed to destroy 3, then I retreated and called in a Blaster Tank. I played smart and managed to get 8 kills! I also skilled into Enanced Armour Mods, and I'm now running two Enhanced Armour Hardeners on my Madrugar G-1. It's nice because my cooldown time doesn't feel so long. I only lost one Tank, and so I managed to make about 60K profit. I lost the Tank though to a Grimsnes which had a passenger who was manning a Railgun. It chased me all across the map and stayed above me so that I couldn't shoot at it. Whenever I was able to briefly position myself so that I could shoot at it, it would just fly up again. Eventually, I drove past some Swarmers who weakened me enough for the Grimsnes to get the last shot in. Any advice on how to counter Drophips like these?
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 20	Posted - 2015.06.08 13:59:00 - [14] - Quote I also want to try out running Missile Turrets, but they take so much SP that I'll probably play some Caldari Factional Warfare to buy the 'State' ones. At the moment, I'm still running Militia Turrets.
Azel Xerath Bragian Order Amarr Empire 20	Posted - 2015.06.08 15:02:00 - [15] - Quote Just had an absolutely fantastic match where I went 12/0 and came first place with 1865 WP! At the start of the match I called in my Rail Madrugar and set about destroying the Installations. However, I quickly noticed that a blueberry had joined me in my HAV and wouldn't leave. 'Great', I thought. 'Now I won't be able to recall my Tank whilst he's still in there'. So I instead played the rest of the match in my Rail Tank. I love it! Installations weren't so much of a problem anymore, and it's really effective against vehicles! I destroyed two other Tanks, two LAVs and a Dropship with my Rail Turret! It's also deliciously evil to snipe infantry with them, and it's not even as difficult to do as I thought it would be. It may even be more effective against AVers than Blasters because of the OHK capabilities. I dare say I prefer Rail Turrets to Blasters...
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 20	Posted - 2015.06.14 01:59:00 - [16] - Quote I came back to DUST after 3 or 4 days to see that I'd built up around 250K SP, but everything took so much SP to skill into that I decided to just let it accumulate a little more. I joined a squad from State Task Force in the hope of buying some State Missile Launchers. I did buy some, but I found some problems with them. Firstly, sometimes they seem to fire full auto, but other times they don't. I don't think it's an issue with my controller. Sometimes when I hold R1, only 1 missile is fired, but other times it empties my entire silo(?). I've also found that they're not very effective against infantry. They can be useful against vehicles, but I find them to be situational. Overall, I've been doing much better than I did when I started out. I've developed a neat little tactic. Firstly, I call in a cheap Rail Soma at the start of the match to deal with Installations and other vehicles. Once all the vehicles and Installations are taken care of, I retreat into my redline and call in a Blaster Tank so I can be effective against infantry. I think that the key to successful Tanking is to be adaptable. I had much more success when I realised that I didn't have to be in the same Tank for the entire match. Railgun infantry kills are extremely satisfying, especially when you're in the 3rd-person view. TL;DR: Things are improving.
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 23	Posted - 2015.07.17 22:41:00 - [17] - Quote Hopefully I've built up quite a lot of passive SP since I've been away. I might hop on a little later to see how things are.
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 25	Posted - 2015.08.04 00:59:00 - [18] - Quote I'm back! I returned to find about 1.2M of passive SP had accumulated, and I used it to unlock Advanced HAVs and Proto Armour Mods. I also took Armour Fitting Optimisation to Level 2 to improve fitting space. The break has done me good, and I'm suddenly a much, much better Tanker! It feels much more natural to me. I remade a couple of my fits too. On my Madrugar, I'm running a 120MM Plate, 2 Armour Hardeners and a Heavy Armour Repair Mod, with only a Scanner in my Highs because I can't fit anything else. I'm still using Militia Turrets though. And you know what? I haven't even died yet. That's right! I haven't even died once! I've amassed a total of 42 kills since my return, and not a single death! That puts me in the 20th spot for Weekly K/D. My best match was when I went 18/0. It was remarkable being able to fend off multiple AV and still have a presence on the battlefield. My strategy in matches is to call out a Rail Soma at the start of the match and use it to destroy as many installations as possible and to gauge the status of the enemy team's vehicles. Once the installations have been destroyed and I'm convinced that there are no enemy Tanks on the field, I retreat to my redline and swap into my Blaster Madrugar. So far, this method has worked superbly for me. I even have a grand total of 1,248,025 ISK in my wallet! Things are looking up!
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 25	Posted - 2015.08.04 01:31:00 - [19] - Quote Mejt0 wrote: Positive spirit is a very good thing. Though I have to ask (because nobody asked before). are you driving using a controller? Because driving using a controller and a keyboard makes a significant difference (especially when we talk about Madrugar). With a keyboard, Madrugar maneuvers much more smoothly etc etc. Look at your daily missions to see if there are good ones to earn extra SP and ISK (r1 in quarters). You can get from 500k to 1m ISK and up to 50k sp from daily missions. Not always, but often enough. I'm using a controller.
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 25	Posted - 2015.08.04 01:35:00 - [20] - Quote Unfortunately, I just died whilst in my start-of-match Rail Soma to an Advanced Madrugar with Blasters. I quickly put together a Standard Rail Madrugar though and reengaged. i got him to about 200 Armour, then a blueberry finished him off. Then I died again when I passed a hostile installation on my way back to the redline whilst my Hardeners were on cooldown. I hadn't gotten the chance to destroy it because my Rail Soma had been destroyed by the Blaster Madrugar.

Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 30	Posted - 2015.08.04 22:20:00 - [21] - Quote Maximus Mobius wrote: Azel Xerath wrote: Hi! I've only recently started playing DUST 514, but I've decided that I want to become a dedicated Tanker. Seeing the Tankers that could be feared and unopposed across the entire battlefield inspired me, and I want to follow in their footsteps. However, I quickly realised that it wouldn't be as easy as I imagined it would be. Writing is my passion, and I think I could entertain quite a few people by detailing my progress from a noobie Militia Tanker to a monstrous force of destruction. I'll try to update this thread every time I play, though that may not be everyday. Regardless, I promise to try my best to shed some light on the role for those of you not so acquainted with it whilst simultaneously providing reprieve from boredom. I hope you're as excited as I am! Join the channel ASFMM pub. I am a dedicated tanker for a year in a half. If you want my help that is... It's password protected. Edit: I didn't read the 'pub' part.
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 30	Posted - 2015.08.05 00:49:00 - [22] - Quote Maximus Mobius wrote: Azel Xerath wrote: Maximus Mobius wrote: Azel Xerath wrote: Hi! I've only recently started playing DUST 514, but I've decided that I want to become a dedicated Tanker. Seeing the Tankers that could be feared and unopposed across the entire battlefield inspired me, and I want to follow in their footsteps. However, I quickly realised that it wouldn't be as easy as I imagined it would be. Writing is my passion, and I think I could entertain quite a few people by detailing my progress from a noobie Militia Tanker to a monstrous force of destruction. I'll try to update this thread every time I play, though that may not be everyday. Regardless, I promise to try my best to shed some light on the role for those of you not so acquainted with it whilst simultaneously providing reprieve from boredom. I hope you're as excited as I am! Join the channel ASFMM pub. I am a dedicated tanker for a year in a half. If you want my help that is... It's password protected. Edit: I didn't read the 'pub' part. I'll be on later tonight. Well, I've given up for the night. My Tanks can't stand up to Officer Swarms.
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 30	Posted - 2015.08.09 04:24:00 - [23] - Quote Is it just me who's getting this glitch where sometimes when using missiles, the entire silo will empty if I hold the fire button, but other times only one missile is fired?
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 30	Posted - 2015.08.10 04:55:00 - [24] - Quote OMFG. Ok, I'm going to have a rant here. Tanks are absolute **. They really are. I can't tell me how much it pisses me off when I lose my 200K ISK Tank to freaking Militia Swarms. It's absolutely ridiculous. There is basically no discernible damage difference between Militia and Proto Swarms. They all *** destroy me. People complain about *** double hardened Tanks, but you know what? THAT IS LITERALLY THE ONLY VIABLE FIT. Seriously, I can't do if I'm not double hardened, because, oh look, *** Militia Swarms. Then you've got the long-ass cooldown where I'm doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help my team. Installations are a freaking joke because they literally shut down AN ENTIRE *** AREA because they fire automatically, so I genuinely have to spend half the match trying to destroy the things. That's half the match I'm not doing anything useful. If there are any other Tanks on the field, you can kiss your chances of being productive goodbye. Why? Well, you'll now have to spend the rest of the match trying to destroy each other. You're having ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT on infantry or the outcome of the match. You exist solely to destroy each other. THAT'S IT! That's all you're doing! It's so pointless! It's as if the battle raging is completely separate from you. If, by some miracle, there are no other Tanks on the field, you may retreat to your redline (after having spent half the match mindlessly shooting at Installations) to switch to a Blaster Tank. But hey, LOOK OUT FOR THOSE MILITIA SWARMS! They shoot from further than you can render, and you can't tell where they're coming from! The driving controls are so confounded that any sort of maneuverability is absolutely impossible. The Tanks are so big that you won't be able to touch any AVers because they hide themselves in tiny nooks and crannies. Oh, what's that? Why don't I get closer, you say? Well, then you've got the problem of *** AV GRENADES. These things are stupidly OP. Shockingly, they're even more OP than Swarms. Especially the Lai Dai Packed AV Grenades. All three of them can be thrown before you can even get your hardeners up. They'll pop a Proto Tank in THREE SECONDS FLAT. You know what the worst thing is, though? Lai Dai Packed AV Grenades cost 23,610 ISK. Proto Tanks cost several million ISK. DO YOU SEE THE DISCREPANCY HERE?!?! People complain about Proto Tanks, but that's literally the only tier that can stand a chance against infantry. OBs are another thing. As a Tanker, you need to CONSTANTLY be moving at all times because you never know when someone's going to drop an OB on you because they can see you from the FREAKING OVERHEAD MAP, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Enjoy getting insta-popped. You know what the saddest thing is? I get a higher K/D on my infantry alt than on my Tanking main. That really says something about the state of Tanks. If I see an enemy Proto Tank on the field, I have to leave the match. A Proto Tank will beat any other tiered Tank EVERY SINGLE TIME. There's literally nothing that can be done to kill it if you're not also in a Proto Tank. I will die every single time. The discrepancy in performance between how a Standard Tank compares with a Proto Tank, and how a Standard Dropsuit compares with a Proto Dropsuit, is absolutely staggering. With Tanks, it really is go Proto or go home. THE NEXT TIME YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT 'OP TANKS', YOU SHOULD THINK TWICE, BECAUSE US TANKERS HAVE IT FAR, FAR HARDER THAN YOU INFANTRY CAN EVEN BEGIN TO COMPREHEND.** /rant Dedicated Tanker
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 30	Posted - 2015.08.10 05:04:00 - [25] - Quote True Adamance wrote: Hmmmmm Thoughts? Dedicated Tanker
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge No Context 40	Posted - 2015.08.13 01:46:00 - [26] - Quote I just fell through the map in a 200K ISK Madrugar G-1. I didn't even bring up the overhead map or anything. I was just rolling along, not even in a socket, and then I just fell through the map, falling until I somehow ended up in the redline and I 'committed suicide'. Dedicated Vehicle Specialist
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge 40	Posted - 2015.10.29 21:41:00 - [27] - Quote I'll come back and try Tanks again later tonight. Dedicated Vehicle Specialist
Azel Xerath Horizons' Edge 42	Posted - 2015.10.30 05:08:00 - [28] - Quote TIGER SHARK1501 wrote: Roger Cordill wrote: TIGER SHARK1501 wrote: After my first month playing over 2 years 3 months ago if I wasn't a logi I was putting SP into tanking. I don't know how many million SP I have into vehicles but I know I have over 20 million into turrets. Tanking in pre 1.7 was a rush fighting an enemy where you had to outsmart them. Flanking the enemy was critical making you think like in chess needing to think several steps ahead. Now tanking while it still has it's ups and downs, it isn't as enjoyable as it used to be. As a tanker many players will call you a stat padding individual in a super up armor suit. Even the last update increased the hit box for the soft spot that tanks take more critical damage. People hate tankers much in the way snipers are hated just for the nature of what they do. Snipers can combat you from far away and you either have to catch them or counter snipe them. Tanks are right in the thick of the fight and are seen as a nuisance rather than a force backing up infantry helping to push for the win. The massive amount of SP and isk investing into vehicles and players still feel they should be able to instagank something that costs at tops 8-10 times a great proto suit. I'm fine with the decisions I've made allocating my SP and I don't have regrets but as a fellow tanker I ask you to just sit on your SP and think about it. If you decide to continue your path I wish you the best of luck. o7 The reason people feel as though HAV's don't contribute to wins is because they for the most part don't. A rail will sit there and wait for a random HAV to come in its path and gank it from the redline or nearby. A blaster HAV will annoy infantry, but unless they are stupid, won't kill much of any of them, and it will more often lose HAV fights. Missiles are similar to blasters, but reversed. None of these HAV's will actually contribute towards MCC destruction (or in AQ's case, data collection), and often times won't help tick down infantry kills much. They are just big redundant toys... Perfect example of the type of player I was referring to. But it feels like he's right though. I do feel completely useless in my Tank. I feel like I'm not contributing at all. Dedicated Vehicle Specialist