Need suggestions for my fixer and infamy peculiar issue

Hi,
I main as a fixer and am currently around 1800 infamy. The following is my fixer loadout in case anyone wants to have a look
I play with rudder since it allows me to manoeuvre the ship effectively and avoid a lot of mortar shots, thereby negating all the issues of reduced self healing. I have been building for the long term i.e mk6+ with focus on weapons such as carronade, napalm, missile laucher, good old sniper. Also i plan to second as a defender, if i get bored with fixer and hence have those explosive canons.
Some of the questions for me are

• Is this a good setup to go up the infamy ladder?
• What are people thoughts on having a standard shield in place of epic rudder?
• From mk5 onwards i plan to go pulse + heal + box? How viable is this at higher infamies?

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Now this is something i have observed. I have been trying for about 1.5 weeks to go above my highest infamy which is currently 1,874. Everytime i come close the matchmaking system puts me in matches with difficult team mates. I come up again to the top infamy in the next 3-4 matches and again the same thing. Mind you it will match me with great teammates who know how to play as a team till i go till around 1,870 and then it matches me with flaoters, afk's and generally teammates who want to do their own thing. Its like the system doesn't want me to pass this infamy level (maybe Gandalf has put a "you shall not pass" sign, i don't know tbh).

Has this happened to you? Is this how the game is meant to be? Does the system on purpose gives you a challenge match when you want to better your best infamy?
Will fleeting with a higher infamy player help or would it make matters worse?

Would like to hear from some of the experienced fixers on the forum regarding the same..

 

My mk4 a box,pulse and rudder with turbo I got to ace league ( 2315 was the highest I got)
I also like being able to manoeuvre away from mortars and torps.
I now have my mk5 and would love to try the bolt but it's not appearing yet. The box, bolt pulse seems to be a very power combo as you can run away to box yourself and still throw heals. I am running tape (*gasp*) box and pulse at the moment. Tape is tier 1 epic, box and pulse tier 3 rares. Currently on 2516 highest this season.
My own thoughts are if trying to keep yourself alive with a pulse and no shield, your gonna have a bad day. A box and pulse might keep you alive a bit longer.
Pretty much all fixers swear by a shield, especially high levels. As sniper crits and big torps (and their splash damage) pretty much make it a requirement to not be 1 or 2 shotted.
But until I feel that's the point I am at I am happy with my rudder.

 

It'll be hard climbing high in infamy with that amount of health, so personally I'd go with a shield if you're able to find a decent one. You can help others only if you stay alive yourself When I had mk4 my setup was Standard Cannon - Nitro (couldn't find a good Overboost) - Pulse - Duct Tape - Turbo - Shield and I was able to pass 3000 infamy with that.

Healing Bolt is a new item so high level players don't have powerful enough bolts yet for it to be that popular, but there's starting to be more and more mk5's using pulse - bolt - box and it seems to work pretty well.

 

I am running pulse box bolt and I love. The box helps me survive (I tried double bolt, but I need to be able to recharge my health quicky if I get targeted and that happens a lot). If the rng keeps giving me epic tapes I might switch my box for it, but ultimately I aim at running bolt and double pulse at mk6, so I don't see much point in levelling it up.

Turbo+rudder doesn't seem feasible to me after you hit 3k infamy cause you wil start getting matched versus top players and without a shield they can literally one hit you (my health with shield is over 4k, without ia below 3k).

However, I love rudder! I have substituted turbo for it and I think I have dropped slightly in infamy (from 3400ish to 3200ish), but hell, it's too fun to run. Ideally I wil switch back to turbo once I gain more agility bonuses through training, I suppose.

 

Bolt box pulse here and my bolt is very subpar for the infamy range I am fighting in and I still think it's better than a second box, especially if it was on par with my other gear!!

The infamy wall you are talking about is not peculiar at all. Over certain cut offs it seems to more often step up a bracket then down. So you will go from being the top player or there snouts in your fleets to being the bottom player. There's walls leading up to every 500 area, so 500/1000/1500/2000 etc. The close you are to the top the more likely you are to get pulled up.

 

Your setup looks fine for mk4. I would also start building shield though, at mk5 a solid shield will net you well over 1k health.
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At mk6 you are looking at Pulse+Pulse+(whichever of the 3 1p you have/prefer). For weapons Id aim for a ranged 'fire and forget', fx Napalm or Big Torpedo, combined with a point damage weapon, Sniper/Carrronade/Blast could all work I guess.
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Mk5 has plenty of viable healing item setups, run whatever you have really. I pushed to 4k with Pulse+double Bolt. My dreamsetup at mk5 would be Pulse+Bolt+Tape, but I do not like Box as much as most fixers (and never managed to find enough to make a box viable).

 

Thank you all for reading the post and giving your valuable inputs

Yeah i have noticed the crits have started to increase as my infamy keeps on climbing. And with legendaries making its presence felt at ~1700 infamy taking a big berta takes out half of my health. I have a rare tier 2 standard shield which i will start upgrading and try to get it higher. Luckily for me the game RnG has given me healing bolts and heal boxes from various common boxes and quest reward boxes. I have scrapped a lot of rare duct tape, in the hindsight it looks like a error of judgement from my side

Yeah that was exactly my thoughts with regards to using a shield as opposed to rudder since in some matches i have been taken out in 3-4 hits from snipers and mortars. What i like about the bolt is easier to use than the box, however there is no self heal which is the downside. Also i assume nitro would be great at dodging mortars, but does it really help to get across when team mates are scattered.

 

Yeah defenders mostly lock on to the fixers as a target and its difficult once all the team notices and starts targeting you. If you have more than a 1,000 health with a shield are you running an epic standard shield with rare or epic health perks or the same could be done with a rare standard shield? Also without turbo doesn't the fixer feel kind of slow? (i know you can compensate temporarily with overboost)

Yes after reading all the inputs i think the shield makes much more sense against higher tier weapons. Even i don't like the box as i find it clunky to throw in short spaces and also the teammate has to go towards the box which wastes a lot of time according to me.
So end game (i.e. mk7 currently) double pulse is still a preferred which is no brainer. I also think the bolt will be fabulous at higher levels as it can remove the stun and frost effects as opposed to the box.
Would you ever replace your yellow slot from overboost to something like a tesla bolt or frost blaster or overboost is the way to go?

 

Waveblower is playing around the top 50 with Tesla Bolt, so it can be done. I would miss OB, but Tesla, Nitro and Frost Blaster might suit others more.

 

like everyone : wipe rudder for a shield...
A fixer with 2K health??? i ran the map for kill him ... rudder will serve at nothing against this.
look at all captain training for up your HP

wipe your ob... a green one at MK4 serve at nothing for me... too low.
explosive canon is good, why you don't up your epic one? or rare?

after 1800 infamy for a MK4 is not really strange, i stayed at this range until mk5 (well sometime i'm a suicidal tactical guy, or don't care of game)

 

Would you say it's more due to the varied playstyle between fixers i.e. waveblower a more of damage dealing healer as opposed to maybe brizo or bergster who are mainly focussed on healing?

 

Waveblower is also a much higher captain level and there's a lot of extra speed that comes from crew talents and he has a maxed or at least t4 epic turbo as well.

 

Yes, I miss turbo badly. And probably I will have to put it back in if I move higher in infamy. But playing with rudder is also very good to learn positioning: you can't make crazy runs and that teaches you how to utilise your movements and overboost at the best. If anything, it's truly a teaching experience.

My shield is rare tier IV, rare perks. And I don't even have deck trainings for it yet, so yes 1k is definitely achievable with rare items

 

I used to have this problem in my shooter at 700 infamy. I switched to speeder and I'm at 1200 so I guess you should try that

 

" Also i assume nitro would be great at dodging mortars, but does it really help to get across when team mates are scattered."

It's great for dodging mortars and torpedos when you're on ice. You can even dodge a close range cannon shot if you time it right If your team plays together you should be able to reach your teammates with a nitro. Mine does +524.5% and has a cooldown of 5.5s so I'd say I can also cover long distances as fast as someone with a good overboost

 

Lets fleet and do a race

 

Sure lets try in some point! Would be interesting to see

 

Well would be fun to watch healer drag between both of you. Maybe there would be a sandbox mode to try this and also a viewer mode for others !!

 

@Kitterini. Who won yalls race.