Best and worst Specialists to start with?

[Iso Koala]

Bad tier:

Quick Supply I feel is just a trap. At least dont waste those 200 credits on starting turn to get 1 unit more, but save them for a stronger counter later on. Supply specialist is always a better choice than this.

Rhino I feel utterly useless, I would never pick it up. It depends on the opponent layout if that Rhino will ever be useful or not. Its free 300 credits unit on round 3, but nah, not impressed.


Ok tier:

Heavy armor specialist I cannot personally use yet properly, since I dont know unit HPs well enough to tell if +17% is enough to make someone survive sniper shot or not, for example. If he allows those differences in 1 shotting, he is good, but if the HPs are in range of sniper/heavy hit killing anyway, he is pretty useless, for 100 credits you can unlock +15% hp anyway and I usually dont even bother doing that except late game if there is nothing else.

Giant specialist is free unlocks, usually meaning like 300 free credits for unlocking vulcan+something else. But it also tells your tactic to your opponent. I dont care much for her anymore even though first she seemed great. When absolutely needed to unlock melting point or vulcan to counter something right away, bank loan does the same job.

Supply specialist is simple, a neutral one take to any strategy with no drawbacks.

Marksman is safe choice if you feel like going for ranged style. Free strong guy to start with anyway and free slot to unlock other units.

Speed specialist is good if you want to go aggressive style. Works pretty well with combo of wasps+vulcans.


Good tier:

Elite specialist is bit RNG one, it depends a lot of enemy tactics and what choices you get to make later on. Generally she is still good imho, especially late game killer saving 100 credits every round and getting better units when lvl1 units are cannon fodder, but in the beginning gotta be bit careful with your choices.

Aerial specialist is very good, if you really go for air and plan tactics around it. The extra range that you get from her is permanent boost that helps wasps a lot, and is worth it. The free unlocking for aerial is a nice cherry on it.


God tier:

Cost control specialist is always a no-brainer choice for me, like why not? Just pay 200 credits on the first round to get your stats to normal, and rest of the game you get +100 credits which is a lot. I always take her, no matter what tactic I plan to use.

[Adam]

Quick supply is nice as it allows you to build momentum. In no way I think u should "save it for some later switch". The entire point of it is to get more units early than opponent -> win -> get more exp on ur units then enemy -> win harder. If u save it may as well not pick it imo.

And elite spec for me is suuuuuper bad, atucal garbage tier that I sometimes feel like its a downgrade not a bonus. Maybe I didnt figure out how to use it but having to pay 150 for disctraction crawlers or 300 for anti-missile mustang just feels sooooo bad

[Iso Koala]

Yeah, I get it that elite spec is garbage for some setups. In current meta, Wasps and Snipers are pretty strong, and for those it works. Also, it works when going for the Vulcan or Melting Point, they benefit from the extra HP a lot.

For quickl supply, I just ignore the opponent trying to give momentum with it. He might win round or two with it, but in long term its nothing if I keep my head cool and dont mind his extra unit doing some minor wins.

[ptirodaktill]

Quck supply/supply specialist are roughly the same. Credits devalue as the game progress.
I tried Rinoh a few times. Its kinda okay unless you face a hacker. Then its a disaster for you. Giant specialist for rush strategy, can be a pain to counter, most ppl don`t know how to counter. Kinda give you up to 700 credits if you build all T3 units. But i tend to skip overlords, so its just 500. Super dependant on what your opponent is doing.
Speed spec is a trap, you want your chaft to move as slow as possible to last longer.
Hp spec is like 100 credits at best. Can get out of control for improved sledges, but usualy don`t fire.
100 credit per round is probably the strongest out there. Yeah, a half level off all units sound like a huge handicap, but its not so bat if you have the right units with right tech.
Overall i prefer a start with mustangs+marks over anything else.

[Ekko Tek]

Speed spec is somewhat niche but if you get it with crawlers, sledges or steel balls, it can be good, especially vs. common stormcaller/sniper builds where you want to close the distance and can dodge arty better. Only issue is Speed Spec can also come up as a card between rounds, somewhat devaluing it as an initial pick.

[Iso Koala]

With upgrades, ive gotten 21 speed vulcans, its pretty wild when they just go and kill.

[Nathan the Dwarven Shark]

I am not a fan of the Elite specialist. Honestly, I think if it made you buy level 1 units (like normal), but those units start with enough XP to then be levelled up to level 2 would make it far stronger as it means you can place down more units earlier on without suffering due to higher unit costs.

[Phoenix]

I honestly have never pick Cost Control spec because they seem so terrible. Your logic doesn't work out because your opponent will upgrade their units themselves and then have higher stats than you. You're essentially trading raw unit stats for more unit techs, and a few more unit levels and like one or three more units in the game. I don't think that trade seems worth it.

Originally posted by Iso Koala:

Bad tier:


God tier:

Cost control specialist is always a no-brainer choice for me, like why not? Just pay 200 credits on the first round to get your stats to normal, and rest of the game you get +100 credits which is a lot. I always take her, no matter what tactic I plan to use.

[ZynnHavik]

I've only been playing for 4 days, but I was tired of getting stormcaller'd to death and started playing with rhinos a lot Since then I have gone 18 - 1 the only person to beat me slammed his steel balls in my face over and over

In short rhinos are very underrated

[puschit]

Cost Control is better than most people think but certainly not god tier. As Phoenix pointed out your reasoning is totally flawed. The reason why Cost Control is a good choice in some occasions is very different: The stat decrease doesn't mean much for certain units and matchups. For example Marksmen and Phonix usually have enough kill power and don't care much about the lowered attack. And units like crawlers are mostly used as decoys and are squishy no matter what. Basically, Cost Control is worthwhile if you manage to create situations where the stat reduction just eats into the overkill puffer. But it isn't easy to use and certainly not god tier or "no brainer".

I also don't get behind your reasonings for Aerial and Giant SPCs because what you list as a negative for giant also applies to Aerial - the opponent will know from the get-go what he'll face. And there are only 3 aerial units to pick from but 4 giant units.
You also seem to imply that the giant SPC is mainly to field a giant unit as soon as possible - which isn't true. It is also NOT the same as an emergency bank loan - bank loan is a net deficit of 100 resources and should only be used in the very last round. No, the benefit of SPC is it's versatility. You can actually unlock more than one giant for free. Just play normal and unlock giants whenever you don't need to unlock something else. Later on you'll be free to counter with whatever you need and can field an offensive giant at the same time.

Rhino isn't useless either. What I like about free turn 3 Rhino is that it allows for a very hefty flank attack where you can put this extra unit together with your regular purchases all at once. The threat of a turn 3 Rhino is also a great deterrance for many opponnents to buy Crawlers early on which is great - he should buy Crawlers. Yes, it got nerfed, but people always overreact. Rhinos weren't the OP before and the nerf wasn't that hard. You don't see them much anymore but I am pretty confident that that's just a matter of players misjudging the situation.

My experiences with SPCs so far are that all of them have their uses and whenever I think one of them is bad I force myself to expriment with it and after a while I have to change my judgment. I haven't used speed and aerial much yet so I can't say much about them. Quick Supply is the only one that I think is useless/bad and should be avoided. All the others are probably on par with each other. Personally I love the simplicity and freedom of just gaining 50 res extra each turn without any drawbacks so the Supply specialist is my favourite but I don't really think I have an advantage over others.

[Liringlas]

Originally posted by puschit:

Cost Control is better than most people think but certainly not god tier. As Phoenix pointed out your reasoning is totally flawed. The reason why Cost Control is a good choice in some occasions is very different: The stat decrease doesn't mean much for certain units and matchups. For example Marksmen and Phonix usually have enough kill power and don't care much about the lowered attack. And units like crawlers are mostly used as decoys and are squishy no matter what. Basically, Cost Control is worthwhile if you manage to create situations where the stat reduction just eats into the overkill puffer. But it isn't easy to use and certainly not god tier or "no brainer".

I also don't get behind your reasonings for Aerial and Giant SPCs because what you list as a negative for giant also applies to Aerial - the opponent will know from the get-go what he'll face. And there are only 3 aerial units to pick from but 4 giant units.
You also seem to imply that the giant SPC is mainly to field a giant unit as soon as possible - which isn't true. It is also NOT the same as an emergency bank loan - bank loan is a net deficit of 100 resources and should only be used in the very last round. No, the benefit of SPC is it's versatility. You can actually unlock more than one giant for free. Just play normal and unlock giants whenever you don't need to unlock something else. Later on you'll be free to counter with whatever you need and can field an offensive giant at the same time.

Rhino isn't useless either. What I like about free turn 3 Rhino is that it allows for a very hefty flank attack where you can put this extra unit together with your regular purchases all at once. The threat of a turn 3 Rhino is also a great deterrance for many opponnents to buy Crawlers early on which is great - he should buy Crawlers. Yes, it got nerfed, but people always overreact. Rhinos weren't the OP before and the nerf wasn't that hard. You don't see them much anymore but I am pretty confident that that's just a matter of players misjudging the situation.

My experiences with SPCs so far are that all of them have their uses and whenever I think one of them is bad I force myself to expriment with it and after a while I have to change my judgment. I haven't used speed and aerial much yet so I can't say much about them. Quick Supply is the only one that I think is useless/bad and should be avoided. All the others are probably on par with each other. Personally I love the simplicity and freedom of just gaining 50 res extra each turn without any drawbacks so the Supply specialist is my favourite but I don't really think I have an advantage over others.

In which situation would you use the heavy tanks over the steel balls? They seem similar to me but steel balls are so scary provided enough support.

[Surrey]

Here: https://mechamonarch.com/guide/mechabellum-starting-specialists/

[Stormlock]

Some notes:

Speed is excellent with the right builds. It's not about making your crawlers go faster (although that can be nice) but rather about making other terribly slow things go faster. Vulcans and melting points are a lot scarier when they don't spend half the battle walking between targets.

Extra 17% hp value depends heavily on what you're using. Some stuff, like crawlers, go from 2 shotting eachother to 3 shotting with just a sliver more hp. Generally it's stuff like that you're looking for. Also just generically good with really tanky stuff.

The Rhino is indeed pretty awful. Would only use if you plan on also getting a hacker to keep it on your team. It's just a bad unit, honestly, especially when telegraphed.

Elite has a huge drawback: it makes a lot of otherwise excellent subsidy type cards way less useful or outright useless. 100 credit phoenix spam with shields and quantum assembly can be a powerful option, but with this card they'd still cost 200 anyways making it pointless. There are others builds that make it basically pointless too, like suicide balls or, presumably, motherships/fang fortresses (haven't tried those.) If you really need leveled units it's probably worth it to use the command power. Remember even using it two or three times costs about the same as the credit bonuses give you.

Away stats for resources isn't often a good plan unless you intend to rely on things that don't need attack. Melting Points and Balls will just have to fire an extra split second to scale further, and stuff like burning and acid obviously ignore attack. Not sure if it's worthwhile, only managed it wiith melter cheese so far.

Early momentum is nothing to sneeze at. Yeah, you can just eat the loss, but you'll still need to counter at some point, which makes you predictable. When you start out with the lead, you can branch into pretty much anything as the match goes on.

Corollary to the above: Pay attention to the starting HP of the cards! Having 4500 hp instead of 3200 means you can literally just not build anything for 2-4 rounds while your opponent makes his build then you can make exactly what you want to counter him with. Hell, you can even sell your units off during those rounds and get a blank slate to build really good stuff all at once after you see what the opponent did and which cards you managed to get.

[Antpile]

Originally posted by Iso Koala:

Bad tier:

Quick Supply I feel is just a trap. At least dont waste those 200 credits on starting turn to get 1 unit more, but save them for a stronger counter later on. Supply specialist is always a better choice than this.

Rhino I feel utterly useless, I would never pick it up. It depends on the opponent layout if that Rhino will ever be useful or not. Its free 300 credits unit on round 3, but nah, not impressed.


Ok tier:

......

Marksman is safe choice if you feel like going for ranged style. Free strong guy to start with anyway and free slot to unlock other units.

Speed specialist is good if you want to go aggressive style. Works pretty well with combo of wasps+vulcans.

....


God tier:

Cost control specialist is always a no-brainer choice for me, like why not? Just pay 200 credits on the first round to get your stats to normal, and rest of the game you get +100 credits which is a lot. I always take her, no matter what tactic I plan to use.

All vastly oversimplified. You downplay quick supply and Rhino, also ignoring that rhino unlocks the unit for you on top of the free unit, so it's 350 in total that it saves you. Then you immediately switch stances and claim the free lvl 3 marksmen, a value of 200 (and marksmen are a free unlock for everyone), is good.

Then move on to talk about cost control specialist like that is how math works. Two issues with your math. You are treating the debuff and then the buff like they are additive instead of multiplicative. Are you sure that is the case?

Example: Unit has does 100 damage. Cost control reduces it by 12 or 13%, can't remember right now. Let's say 13. Okay, unit now does 87 damage. Buy upgrade for +10%. If it is multiplicative, unit now does 95.7, not 97. Let's say the buff was for 13%. Additive, it goes back to normal. Multiplicative, it becomes 98.31. That's because 13% of 87 is less than 13% of 100.

Also, you are conveniently ignoring that everyone else can buy these buffs too, once again setting them up so their units are just always better than all of yours.

The major points here are that starting with an extra 200 isn't as simple as saying that cost control will overtake that by round 5. A lot can happen in 5 rounds. That game is half over by that point, if not more than half decided.

It ignores momentum. It ignores that while you were in the lead those first 4 rounds, you had the opportunity to gain more xp. XP is also a resource, and quick supply can easily be ahead on it by that point. Your extra 50 bucks won't matter if his sledges are already level 3.

I'm not claiming cost control is top tier. I'm making no claims on balance of specialists because it's a bit too complicated for me to reason out. The only way to really know is to somehow get access to winrates with a large sample size.

Edit: Except Rhino specialist does kind of suck. Mostly because the rhino sucks. It needs to have interference module somehow built into a tech upgrade. Maybe power armor, which I've never seen anyone use, needs to come with interference module as well. That'll solve the hacker aspect, at least.

[puschit]

Originally posted by Liringlas:

In which situation would you use the heavy tanks over the steel balls? They seem similar to me but steel balls are so scary provided enough support.

Sorry I missed that, but better late than never:
The more smaller stuff my opponent has, the better Sledgies are. I also like to use them vs Stormcallers because of their HP regen that works whithout needing to be in range of something. Also, don't forget that their slower speed and better range means they don't advance that much, so they are better for defending and when you turtle up. They are also the better starting unit because they are more versatile. If you start with balls right away and keep on buying them, the opponent has it easier to counter them. Sledgies don't really have a hard-counter since they aren't scared of hordes of Fangs/Crawlers, can regen Stormcaller fire without being in range etc. They operate well from beneath a shield (be that from Fortress, Hacker or the regular shield) - Steelballs would run away too much.

[Garuda One]

I can’t comment on balance of the specialists, but I will say the overwhelming majority of the time (easily 85%+) supply specialist (50+ a round) features in just about every game I play. It’s my go-to one unless the unit combinations for it are not my preference and there’s a card with units I prefer+aerial specialist/defense specialist or such.

I would like to see more variety in the game, or remove the +50 option if only to spice up the selections I see in matches. As it stands it seems like if supply is an option, it’s the go-to choice.

I don’t think any are particularly bad either. The only one I actively avoid is the Rhino card, but, I didn’t particularly care for it as a unit even before the nerfs. Now I feel like it’s a liability on my board more than anything.