Speeder playstyle question

Ah, the speeder.

Well, I'll start off by saying that the speeder IS the hardest boat in the game to play well. It has a high skill floor and a VERY high skill cap.

I have played speeder for about 60-70% of my time in Battle Bay. So I have three things for you: A small set of tips to get you started, a video showing what a top-tier speeder is capable of, and some resource links.

The basic tips:

• Speeders have a few general roles, and these roles decide what you'll play as. These roles are:

1. Ranger- The subclass that prefers to stay at a relatively long range. This subclass may or may not use a sniper-type build and usually pokes the enemy and annoys them, keeping them on their toes. They sometimes call the play with oceans of high burst damage.
2. Assassin- The subclass that uses hit-and-run tactics, getting into fights, killing a high value target, and running away before the enemy can retaliate.
3. Duellist- The subclass that engages in hyper-fast 1v1s. Though this particular role is played much better by interceptors these days, the duellist speeder is one dangerous subclass. It is characterized by mid-close range weapons and high defence builds.
4. Rogue- This subclass is a mix of the above three and sets itself apart by following a free flowing, smooth fighting style that switches through the techniques of multiple subclasses.

• Now, depending on these roles, you can fill almost any slot in your team. However, you must have a good idea of the role you are going to play on the battlefield. Tell me later about this and we can go into some of the finer details.

However, there are a few general tips. Let's do those:

• Understand that you are a hunter. In your BB career, except for two ships(speeder and enforcer) you always play the role of prey, and this creates psychological barriers to what your speeder is capable of in combat. Get this clear. In a speeder, you are at the top of the food chain. At the same time, however,
• Remember that your health is low. Speeders have one of the lowest HP counts in Battle Bay. And we often get into messy fights. Don't start a fight you cannot finish decisively.
• Know your prey. You need to know what target you're going for, and the exact routine you need to follow to take them down. Cooldowns, loadouts, possible vectors of movement. Know your target as well as you know your own ship.
• Know your team. Know what your teammates can do. Enforcer on your team? They can guard your fixer so you don't have to worry about your team and flankers. Fixer on your team? You need to guard them from enemy assassins. If you don't play with the team in your own way, you WILL lose. Your gear is limited. Which reminds me,
• Use your gear well. Your gear as a speeder must be precisely what you need in a combat situation. You cannot waste slots. You get two weapons, make sure they're powerful enough to pull their weight. Make every shot count. Speeder WILL beat your aim into shape until you no longer hesitate when taking a shot, and no longer waste your shots. Good luck.

Next, I wanted to show you what a good speeder can do. So allow me to self-advertize:


Finally, resource links:
1. Jumppanen: One of the legends in the BB speeder community, he made 6000 infamy with nothing but high tier rare items on his build.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-KAJRIvsrf_3UtmHx9LEGg

2. KenZer: Another God-tier player who also plays enforcer.
https://www.youtube.com/user/KenZer009

3. My "Let's Talk Heavy Strategy" thread: Contains some really good explanation of a speeder's thought process in the clutch. You can find that explanation on the second big post on that thread.
https://forum.battlebay.net/threads/lets-talk-heavy-strategy.18663/

4. Miscellaneous reference: My motherthread for all my guides. Go through them, some are very detailed indeed. Also, stay tuned for my "Hunter's Manual" series on this thread.
https://forum.battlebay.net/threads/theantisnipes-tips-and-strategy-get-them-here.23254/

 

I never went into the details of this, but I'll say it now: You will have to find a way to diverge the enemy team: Kiting and baiting are two major tactics. Kiting is where you taunt and make a high HP target run after you. Baiting is where you make a target or an entire group of targets shoot at you while you dodge. In both techniques, the basic concept is the art of making enemies lose their temper and patience as they go after you. Some will lose their temper faster, dividing the team.

 

As people before me said, Gatling Gun on any speeder build is a bad idea, it wastes a slot that could be occupied by a high burst gun. Torpedoes, again, are used in quite a few builds, but in my opinions, torpedoes, no matter how good you get, fall short on taking down fellow speeders. While that may not feel like a limitation right now, it will be one once you get high enough that speeders and enforcers become the most high-value targets except for fixers. I was a torp user myself, and I have a legendary grenade too. But the only times I use either is when I'm playing non-Ranked game modes.

Explosive+flare is one of the best assassin combos. It does fall a little short on the duellist side, but most can make it work. @Redneck Messiah put it excellently, but I'd like to add that if you're going for an incendiary build(one that relies on burn), blast+flare, blast+explosive and blast+blast rule the roost. This is because blast cannons are super reliable and rival explosive cannons in terms of single target damage. They are also absolutely devastating when assassinating. Watch this:

That was a 3933 crit. It took off more than 50% of the fixer's HP in one fell blow. I killed that fixer in 30 seconds. The joke here is that, if I was in a double blast speeder, I could've done it in 15
Oh, and flare? Beautiful weapon if you're going to be a hardcore assassin. Healblocks 30% of all heals when active. If you're good enough to not need a tesla shield, use tesla bolt+OB+nitro and you'll get a 100% healblock from the bolt. Use that one on the fixer though, there's a talent on the bolt tree that removes stuns, so using it on someone other than the fixer is not a good idea.