What's the current Automaton meta build?

[Wartime Photographer]

I'm sick of dying on higher difficulties man.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Stalkyr:

What's the current Automaton meta build?
I'm sick of dying on higher difficulties man.

No meta.

What I use to survive most of the time with less than two deaths:

Trailblazer Light Armour Scout
Eruptor - if you do not own Premium then Slugger, alternatively Dominator/Sickle
Senator
Smoke Grenades

Laser Canon / AMR / Spear, depends on what the rest of your team bring along
Eagle Airstrike
Orbital Railcannon
Orbital Laser

Stamina Enhancement/Muscle Enhancement, preferably the first if you have to choose

While I get it where it is coming from that a lot of people recommend the shield pack, I recommend not taking it.

Reasoning
First: the bubble is bigger than your body - which means it gets hit even if you might not getting hit, making it an unreliable protection
Second: you do not want to get hit in the first place, so you sneak and run and dodge
Third: it is more bothersome than helpful having a bubble which exactly does not work when you need it - so it is better to use that Stratagem for something to take out enemies which cause you a lot of troubles. Either in form of Orbital Laser as mentioned above, or Recoiless rifle etc. which lets you take out heavies and canon turrets easily.

With the Eruptor/AMR you need to keep your cool. If you manage it, most enemies do not need more than two shots at the right place, and even canon turrets are easily killable before it makes a full turn.

Smoke Grenade people sleep on. I have played with players 100+ who were stunned by how useful they are when they saw me using them to protect them for certain death against machine gun devastators.

Do not aim to fight and win. Aim to win without fighting. That is my motto.

[EternalAutumn]

DO NOT listen to the scrubs - eruptor is only good as long as there's only one man wielding it in a team.
Core loadout is next:
1)Primary - Plas(most preferrable), Dominator, Eruptor(situational)
2)Heavy armor is mandatory
3)Support weapons /w grenades - there are few variations

a)RG+Shieldpack+stun nades - combined with Plas this is the best loadout one could ever possibly have to deal with ALL kind of automatons' ground forces except for factory striders and gunships, you also need 110rkt barrage for this build to quickly dispatch tanks. It's my personal go-to for each raid.
Stun nades' sole purpose is to quickly deal with hulks by immobilizing them with further aiming for the red visor.

b)one man with a Laser Cannon+smoke is an awesome support addition to your squad - it is best for taking down gunships(aim for one engine straight), turrets and tanks(vents) without being an ammo hungry teammate.

c)Autocannon+stun nades is a good substitute for option A, allowing you to be more versatile cuz you can bring down gunships and factstiders if you manage to get under the belly. But it leaves you way too vulnerable due to not having a shield.

d)The most missed out build to take down swarms of devastators is Grenade Launcher + Supply backpack. People have no idea how powerful it is, just don't be shy to shoot GL as if it is your primary weapon - supply pack will cover all expenses. The main con of this is being utterly helpless against hulks.

Ppl mentioned AMR - it's a good substitute for RG/AC only for long ranges! Both of these outperform AMR and mid and closer ranges.

Honorable mentions goes to HMG and smokes. Perfect for CQB but has a heavily misaligned sight. This one can take down almost everything that's going to come close to you.
The second one could be anything, but it allows you to live way more longer cuz you cannot be specifically targeted by bots if there is a smoke screen between you and them and some distance as well

And god forbid to take sickle or scythe with light armor, I instantly kick those ppl at the highest diff lvl. Ultimately useless teammates

[kebabsoup]

Recently I had a lot of fun with eruptor, laser cannon, redeemer, shield backpack, stun grenades, then orbital laser and simple airstrike.

[GGandBYEBYE]

what matters more is your playstyle instead of builds, u should know how to choose ur fights instead of kill on sight, more fight = more bot drops = more bots = more signals = more bot drops again , if u need to fight u should do it as fast as u can like using air strike or something like that to clear majority or them

of course builds can make your job easier
on primary weapon i recommend scorcher, dominator for taking down devs easier. some people recommend Eruptor but i didn't use much to give any comments on it

secondary i personally use grenade pistol for destroying bases (although i will just use air strike/ orbital laser for quick work) so i can use stun grenades. BUT if u chose to use Eruptor i recommend smg as sidearm otherwise u gonna have trouble when jetpack bots get close.

stun grenades for easy kill on hulks or groups of Mediums
hulk just one stun greanades and free steady headshot with support weapons

on support weapon quaser , autocannon , laser cannon , EATs , RR, AMR. They all do similar jobs well or good enough so just choose which suits u best

support backpack i loved using supply pack, using with scorcher can deal with it's only downside which is being ammo hungry. and also having almost infinite stuns and stims, near infinite stims does better job than using energy shield backpack on keeping alive, also doing combo with GL makes it horde cleaners (until u meet hulk or smt bigger than hulk) and using supply pack basically frees out resupply stratagem for teammates if you are the lone wolf type
energy shield backpack , inconsistent but does its job good enough to prevent accidents
ballistic shield backpack , surprisingly good when using with smg primary but u might need to stick with teammates for being ammo hungry + dealing with multiple heavies

[GunDoneCheg]

Punisher + Autocannon\Quasar, med armor explosive protection

[Cipher Esteria]

Depends on the Playstyle and what your team looks like.

I am the Demo Man of my regular Squad, so I run everything that removes armor quickly.
Eruptor, RR, Redeemer (for personal space protection), Stun Grenades.
Then Railcannon Strike, Eagle Airstrike and either 500kg or Laser based on how my feeling currently is.

Armor with explosive resistance is amazing for bots, it lets you survive so much stuff that would otherwise kill you.

If you want a good all round tool to deal with the majority of Bots, it's the Auto-cannon.
If you run this, I would recommend a Primary good for clearing smaller enemies, like the Scythe or any of the Automatic weapons.
Pistol of your choice.
And Grenade of your choice.
Eagle Airstrike is never bad, Railcannon Strike lets you deal with Armor quickly, the last slot can be used for whatever you think will help.
I like Airburst Strike, but that can be very meh against Bots.

[Thoz]

the xbow

[Cipher Esteria]

Originally posted by EternalAutumn:

DO NOT listen to the scrubs

you also need 110rkt barrage for this build to quickly dispatch tanks.

Calling other Scrubs while saying you need 110mm Rocket Pods.
Probably the worst Airstrike next to the strafing run.

Great, another example how the most kick happy fool are the biggest reasons why the team fails at the end.

[Katitoff]

I'm running Adjudicator/Eruptor/Diligence as primary, depending on the mood and what team brings, Railgun if I'm lazy, AMR if I'm not, stun nades, secondary supplementing primary and nades(default pistol vs nade pistol).
Supply backpack or jump backpack.
ALWAYS HEAVY ARMOR, either with resistance to explosives and recoil reduction or heavy medic armor.

And that makes me look at difficulty during the game to make sure I'm on 8 and not lower.

[Zheppon]

autocannon + airstrike thats what you always want to bring you can use railcannon too for big target that move fast (hulk) for tank airstrike can do the job for the fourth slot up to you

main weapon anything besides shotgun you want to keep your distance from bot so shotgun is no no

[Tam]

just discover stun nades
it made my game absolutely different, now its easy to deal with hulks

[Zheppon]

Originally posted by EternalAutumn:

DO NOT listen to the scrubs - eruptor is only good as long as there's only one man wielding it in a team.
Core loadout is next:
1)Primary - Plas(most preferrable), Dominator, Eruptor(situational)
2)Heavy armor is mandatory
3)Support weapons /w grenades - there are few variations

a)RG+Shieldpack+stun nades - combined with Plas this is the best loadout one could ever possibly have to deal with ALL kind of automatons' ground forces except for factory striders and gunships, you also need 110rkt barrage for this build to quickly dispatch tanks. It's my personal go-to for each raid.
Stun nades' sole purpose is to quickly deal with hulks by immobilizing them with further aiming for the red visor.

b)one man with a Laser Cannon+smoke is an awesome support addition to your squad - it is best for taking down gunships(aim for one engine straight), turrets and tanks(vents) without being an ammo hungry teammate.

c)Autocannon+stun nades is a good substitute for option A, allowing you to be more versatile cuz you can bring down gunships and factstiders if you manage to get under the belly. But it leaves you way too vulnerable due to not having a shield.

d)The most missed out build to take down swarms of devastators is Grenade Launcher + Supply backpack. People have no idea how powerful it is, just don't be shy to shoot GL as if it is your primary weapon - supply pack will cover all expenses. The main con of this is being utterly helpless against hulks.

Ppl mentioned AMR - it's a good substitute for RG/AC only for long ranges! Both of these outperform AMR and mid and closer ranges.

Honorable mentions goes to HMG and smokes. Perfect for CQB but has a heavily misaligned sight. This one can take down almost everything that's going to come close to you.
The second one could be anything, but it allows you to live way more longer cuz you cannot be specifically targeted by bots if there is a smoke screen between you and them and some distance as well

And god forbid to take sickle or scythe with light armor, I instantly kick those ppl at the highest diff lvl. Ultimately useless teammates

1.sure as long its not shotgun
2.heavy armor is not mandatory

a. wrong this load out just a meme and a glory load out by bygone ages
b. stop trolling using smoke but laser cannon is good yes
c. dont bring stun grenade bring impact
d. stop bringing grenade launcher and just bring autocannon
Honorable mention - stop using weird unconventional tactic that designed to troll your teammate so no smoke bring EMS instead and bringing HMG is a sure way to ask your head be blown off by rocket

[EternalAutumn]

Originally posted by Cipher Esteria:

Calling other Scrubs while saying you need 110mm Rocket Pods.
Probably the worst Airstrike next to the strafing run.

If you're having a skill issue with using that strat I feel sorry for you. It's quite usefull in terms of getting rid of turret towers, tanks and fabricators. Yet I can agree that 110 is kinda bad against bugs.
But the worst? No way. Situational? Certainly, and when it come its area of use this strat excels.
This is not a "throw and forget" stratagem unlike braindead orbital laser which is overestimated for its easiness to use but ppl completely overlook 5min CD which is garbage.

[Silverstein]

stealth.

do not engage when you do not need to.

[Raymond]

the thing is about the bot front, whatever you bring with you will most likely going to work. Grenade launchers? MG? Laser? they all gonna work. You aren't limited to a meta loadout as you do with bugs, instead you need to know which fight you want to take, which fight to back away, how to get objectives done quickly and how to aim for weak spots.