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General:
the tech has the lowest health in the game, at 315. While it's not entirely crippled offensively, it is certainly more suited for a support role. most people get this intuitively, but what they don't get is that this also means you can't really help the guy who is getting attacked by 3 guys at once, because you can't heal him fast enough and once he's down, the enemy will shoot you down faster than you can say "oops".
it is fairly quick for an A class, but you won't outrun anyone who is boosting away. so if a teammate decides to break off from the group, and you think they can get away and heal by themselves, let them go. you'll be more useful to the team as a whole if you can keep the majority alive, not helping the one guy get back up and running faster. it should also go without saying that you should spread the love around. make sure you're keeping everyone in your immediate vicinity healed, not just your buddy.
something to remember is that not all players are created equal, and some of your teammates might decide to run into a deathball and try to take them on all by themselves. this does not mean that you should back them up, though. know that if someone strays too far from the group, and if they get surrounded, you can't do much to help them.
finally, I think that the most important thing a tech pilot can have is situational awareness. make sure you know how much health your teammates have at all times, and heal those who need it. do not wait for someone to press "z" to provide assistance, if you can reach them. you can prioritize healing for friends and teammates who know what they're doing, but try not to focus solely on them. also, don't try and take on the enemy by yourself. if you die and respawn, and you can't regroup with the rest of your team, then either try and avoid the enemy or wait for someone else to respawn too. that said, the tech is not necessarily useless in a firefight by itself, as it can deal plenty of continuous damage with the torch and the RPR, but make sure you know that you can win the fight or else you'd be more useful healing someone else than dying and respawning later. a good tech will probably not have a fantastic KDR, but they might have more assists than they know what to do with.
As a side note: while this is a guide mostly for what to do when playing a tech, I would also like to point out when not to play as a tech. if you join a match and someone else is already adequately filling the role of the technician, do not be a tech. the reason for this is that while one tech is helpful, two techs are redundant. if you're both trying to heal the same guy, you'll just get in each other's way. even worse, if the situation gets bad, if the person you're healing needs to retreat, when he turns around you'll both be blocking his escape. but even with all that, I think that there are two rather large reasons why it's not always good to have two techs:
1) You will irritate the heck out of each other. more often than not, when there are two techs on a team they will try and heal the same group, but they'll get in each other's way and only end up putting their beam on each other, effectively rendering both techs as useless. two techs, unless they're very well coordinated, are almost always redundant.
2) while the tech can technically (pun intended) hold its own in a fight (kind of), it does NOT have the damage output of a more assaulty class. while one tech in a team of 6 is an acceptable tradeoff of firepower, the tech is VERY firmly set in it's support role. therefore, you're effectively reducing the damage output of the team by piloting a tech when there already is one.
If, however, your team's tech is not a very good one, you may feel compelled to take over the job for him. if he knows that he's doing somewhat poorly, some (polite) conversation may persuade him to pick a different class so that you can do the job right. if not, then you're stuck with the decision of whether you think that you being a tech will benefit the team more than you being a more damaging class.
Weapons:
Redox-02: this gun is a little quirky. it shoots purple balls that travel in a slight arc (read: NOT HITSCAN), and each hit causes the target to take up to 15% more damage than they would normally. while that sounds fine and dandy, it does negligible damage by itself, and its uses are so situational that I wouldn't hold onto it if I had the choice of the tech's alternate primary weapon.
Hawkins RPR: I consider this weapon to be the better of the weapons available to the tech. it has better range and better DPS than both the Redox and the 223. while the redox requires you to lead your target and aim up slightly, the hawkins is a hitscan weapon and thus, in most situations, is easier to use. I like to orient myself so that I can fire both the hawkins and heal someone at the same time, so you can at least contribute a bit of damage.
PN-223: currently not a good choice. it has worse range AND dps than the RPR, though it does have slightly better burst potential (burst potential on a tech_ what_) and heat generation. in a prolonged firefight, you might have more luck with the 223 than the RPR, but by then you've probably been shot to bits because of the reduced dps. on the plus side though, it does look kind of neat.
Helix Repair Torch: the secondary weapon of the tech repairs teammates (and to a lesser extent, yourself) and can damage enemies using the middle mouse button to switch firing modes. note that you cannot heal yourself with the repair torch unless you have someone else to use it on, but it does heal you when both healing teammates and damaging enemies. the heat generation of the repair torch is pretty high, though it only generates heat while it's healing or doing damage. it doesn't do a significant amount of damage by itself though, so it's usually better to let a teammate do most of the offensive work. one should note that the heat generation is significantly higher if both you and your teammates are damaged, but it synergizes well with the incinerator, due to the incinerator's heatsink abilities, allowing nearly continuous healing.
Ability: Amplification
this significantly boosts the speed at which your repair torch can heal or do damage. it can bring a near-death ally back to life, or keep someone who is getting pummeled by enemy fire alive. while it doesn't last very long, it can turn the tide of a battle. note that it also increases the rate at which your repair torch heals yourself as well. using amplification wisely is key to being good at the tech. turn it on whenever an ally's health is starting to get low, and use it to rapidly heal yourself when putting out a repair drone is not an option.
Recommended items:
The tech works very well as an item mule, given its passive and non-confrontational role. therefore, there are a lot of items that it can use to the advantage of the team. however, I wouldn't use offensive items like the EMP or the detonator, as while those are very good items, they just don't seem like the best use of an item slot on this particular mech.
Bubble shield: use this to provide some security to yourself and a teammate if your teammate decides to repair himself. however, note that your repair torch CANNOT go through the shield, so don't accidentally cut yourself off from your team.
Barrier: I use this as portable cover for myself to hide behind while a teammate does the heavy lifting. it doesn't last forever, but it can keep you from getting damaged for a while, especially while defending objectives. try to place it so that it doesn't block you from your teammate, and especially don't place it where it blocks an escape for you or your teammate.
Repair charge: it should go without saying that this item is very useful for a technician. you can use it to quickly heal a heavily damaged teammate, or to help keep a team healed around key objectives. an example of how I would use this item would be to drop it behind the wall of the AA in siege where teammates often retreat to in order to heal, so they can heal themselves faster without my direct presence.
Portable scanner: this can be used to provide situational awareness for the entire team, and to help make sure you're not flanked. being caught from behind is a guaranteed quick death for a tech.
Radar scrambler: I would use this item with the scanner, as they are two items that seem to mesh well together, giving your team better situational awareness while being an annoyance for the opposing side. the best place to deploy the scanner and the scrambler are around objectives that your team will spend a lot of time around, given they have a somewhat long lifespan and fairly good range.
Note that there are many other items, but most of them are offensive and don't jive well with how the tech is intended to be played.
Recommended Internals:
while there are many different ways to set up your internals, I will list my optimal setup and then talk about ones that definitely should not be used.
Armor fuser: the technician will usually rack up a lot of assists, and the little bit of health that it gives with each assist goes a long way. it can augment the repair torch's self-healing by quite a bit.
Replenisher: THIS IS ESSENTIAL. the replenisher decreases the amplification ability cooldown by 12.5% on every assist. this means you can use your super-heals more often, and I consider it to be a must have for every tech build.
Basic deflectors: this blocks 10% of damage while boosting or dodging. many other guides speak praises of the deflectors, and for a good reason. there are a lot of situations in which this can be used.
alternatively, one can use a replenisher and the Air Compressor. the Air Compressor and the Replenisher are both 3 slot internals, so if one uses them both, then that's all they can use. the Air Compressor is excellent for doing dodgy maneuvers in the air, making you harder to hit, so if you like to air dodge than this might be a good setup for you.
Honorable mention: Evasive device. this increases run speed when your health is low, and thus makes it good when trying to get away from the enemy in order to heal yourself. however, it doesn't change boost speed, so it isn't as useful as it could be.
NON-Recommended Internals:
Reconstructers: all forms of the reconstructors are useless, not due to the time it takes for them to start but due to the fact that using your repair torch will keep them from activating. they'll do you no good. (NOTE: I will have to test this further to make sure I'm not just talking out of my butt)
Power surgers: due to the fact that the tech is not an offensive mech, you won't be getting enough kills for this to do any good.
and that about wraps up my thoughts. if you have any suggestions or if you disagree with what I've said here, don't hesitate to leave a comment and tell me what you think.
Edited by SquirrelDash, May 12 2014 - 07:57 PM.
