I noticed that on both sides, there’s a lot of…spirited…bickering about which positions are best to take at the start of the match. So I figured I’d create a thread that might be helpful for newer players decide where to go without being screamed at. Could also help people who are experienced, but have outdated information.
Which position is best to take at the beginning, and why?
Hangar and Workshop were both buffed in BfA, so docks has fallen to the wayside a bit. Docks used to be the 100% go-to.
The majority rushing workshop with a couple of people going docks seems to be the best route, at least for Alliance. Hangar isn’t something I ever see the Alliance take and keep for more than like, a minute, so I don’t really have much of an opinion on it.
Whichever way is chosen, it’s always important to get Refinery and Quarry, because of the gate damage bonus.
This 100 times over.
Feels like alliance has less uptime on the “usual” gate when running hangar strat and is a lot more difficult to convince people to swap gates.
Workshop primary then push docks. Hangar is good only if you have a predetermined group that can hold themselves up in the oppositions base and run those bombs, if not then docks and workshop all day. Protect your vehicles and destroy those turrets. A good side not, if you cant take out the boss, corner their team in a base and farm them with glaives and siege engines.
Hangar by far, you can kill gate with turrets alone with no counterplay and only need minimal defence to stop enemy vehicles at your base.
hangar and oil + quarry will win if you also kill their demo or glaives
you can’t defend against sieges that come from workshop because someone will always park one across from the tower and 1 shot you.
workshop is too good and shuts down any kind of defense because you can’t defend.
It is also way easier to re-take hanger later.
Hangar doesn’t put out enough damage to be worth taking. Hangar relies on enough of your team jumping into the enemy fort running bombs but even then the sieges from workshop and docks will probably out-dps the bomb runners. This is assuming the enemy fort doesn’t have any defenders which most of the time a few players are always defending the home fort.
I believe all three bases are equal if you play them correctly. 1 base played correctly + quarry and refinery wins the game.
It’s just as important that you have a solid defense force that wrecks the enemy siege.
Workshop is 100% the play.
Hangar is better, but only if you defend the keep in numbers after capping it. The issue with hangar is that random players can’t help but to board the ship and leap into the enemy base to watch four players run bombs for pitiful damage.
People are far faster to grasp the concept of pushing with demolishers and keeping them safe than to fall back and destroy enemy vehicles.
If you get hanger then you’ll need some defense to destroy the vehicles. When the team does that they typically win. But I will often see a group grab hanger and do no defense.
The workshop will get down the gate a lot quicker but it requires a lot of protection on the vehicles which is hard and it really benefits from glaives as well. If the other team does not protect their base well enough though this will typically win.
Your game will be decided not on which one you took first but how many people you have deciding it was the wrong choice spending the rest of the match complaining in chat.
THHIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. This constant phenomenon is the bane of my IoC games >_<
No node is insta-win. Each has a strategy that is required to use. Namely involving the Demos/Siege, whether you’re defending against them, or defending yours.
If you go Hangar, the enemy will have Demos and Siege. You MUST defend the wall and destroy them. Every Demo, every time.
If you go Workshop you MUST defend the Demos and Siege. Do not allow them to be wasted, particularly the Siege. Docks aren’t critical by any means but Glaives do pair well with a Workshop strat. The catapults are also useful in getting people on their walls to hassle the cannon repairers.
Also, as mentioned, Quarry and Refinery give a 15% vehicle damage buff EACH so controlling both (and denying them to the other team) is critical. A lot of people seem to ignore them like mines in AV because they think it’s just a trickle of reinforcements, but NO. They are subtly causing more damage to the walls than they realize. If the enemy has both, 30% of the wall damage is from those.
I believe early game, Hangar is more valuable since it’s less foolproof. All a Workshop strat needs to screw things up is an idiot grabbing the Siege engine and allowing it to be destroyed immediately. Or driving off before people jump in the turrets (which is more than half of it’s value)
Late game, when a team is on the boss or about to be, Workshop is more valuable than Hangar since it’s helpful in clearing out the base. Either yours on defense, or theirs on offense. Switching strats to Workshop late in the game is very, very helpful.
TL;DR version: Best strat in my opinion is to take Hangar at start, defend base against workshop vehicles while 5-6 parachute in and run bombs. When the wall goes down, rush Workshop and take demos with you into the base to clear it out and defend the graveyard. Hold both Quarry and Refinery the entire game.
Looks like the consensus so far is that while hangar has the best potential, mid is the strongest. That said, I agree that no node is an instant win. Sadly, it’s common on both sides to hear people crying loss after losing the initial fight at their node of choice.
Hangar is only strong if the rest of your team wipes the glaives/demos. If not, then glaives/demos are significantly stronger. Your glaives defense crew on alliance are also guarding the refinery right beside it.
Hangar requires the most coordination from your team. Getting glaives/demos and halfway afk’ing while they destroy the west gate requires the least amount of coordination.
With 40 random people on the internet, which do you think is better?
In my experience, I have seen most wins come from the team that successfully controls the Workshop. Only a few wins from controlling the Hanger
Hanger requires more coordination and usually ends in a loss if you focus it as your main attack.
Dock? I view this mostly as a defensive target. You try to control it just so the opponent can’t use them against you. Because the glaives are so “squishy”, any offensive damage you get is just a bonus.
Just to reiterate, this based on my experience.
This. I about cried when someone asked in bg chat, “Why are we getting them, seriously?”
false. 100% percent false. Its so easy to kill demos. Like dont use the turrents? Im not sure why people feel the need to use the turrets so much. Take the port and start hitting demos, get some kind of dot on them. Even if you die the GY is right there, so rez and go back out there and hit them again. Also Once the Demos spawn people should be trying to damage them ASAP. Not wait for them to get to the wall.