Shooter Basics with Redneck Messiah (or FB Spammer/Suicider Help Center)

This is long overdue... please share this with any abysmal shooter mains you happen to be acquainted with. This guide is divided into two parts: Basic Playstyle Information and Loadout Help.

Basic Playstyle and Tactics for the Shooter​

So... Shooter. Probably the easiest ship to play, but difficult to play WELL. A vast majority of Shooter "Mains" like to suicide or spam firebombs. Suiciding is bad in any mode... handing the other team free TDM kills, and taking out your own offense early in ranked. I have no problem with TDM FB spam to farm coins, but in ranked... you're just useless. So how SHOULD you play a shooter? I'm going to cover basic tactics here, and you can find specific ideas for loadouts further down. Shooters can be played at any range, and I'll cover each in turn.

Generally, shooters have one job, and that is to put out damage and lead a team's offense. Shooters need to play with some sense of self-preservation, because if they go down, so does a large chunk of their team's offensive power. As a shooter, brawling is alright, but have an escape route ready, watch your HP, and stay near your teammates, especially helpful fixers and guardians.

Short Range Play: There's a difference between a suicidal shooter and a brawling shooter, despite the popular opinion. A suicidal shooter suicides. A brawling shooter performs hit and runs on weak enemies. As a brawling shooter, you should seek out weak opponents, get in their face, overwhelm them with sheer firepower and close range weaponry, and get out if the situation turns in the unfriends' favor. Brawlers should have at least one long ranged weapon, so they're not a waste of a team spot in situations where it isn't practical to get into a brawl with the enemy... but more on loadouts later.

Mid Range Play: A mid range shooter is definitely the most versatile of shooters, able to brawl and snipe with ease. These ships can choose to keep their distance or go in depending on the situation, and perform equally well in either scenario, unlike full brawlers or full snipers. Mid-rangers carry a mix of close and long ranged weapons, some ideas for which can be found below.

Long Range Play: Sniper is probably the most popular shooter playstyle. Interceptors, speeders, enforcers, even reapers... all of those can brawl. But shooters are the pinnacle of long range play, with a ridiculous amount of red slot points. Long range shooters are geared towards staying back and using their weapons to destroy boats that may not even be able to strike back at the shooter due to distance. These ships should probably have something for close combat, because a speeder or speedforcer could absolutely dominate them. Now, on to some loadouts...

Loadout Suggestions for the Shooter​

Shooter loadouts vary by the range the shooter decides to play, so this portion of the guide will also be sectioned off by range.

Loadouts for Brawlers: Brawling shooters specialize in close combat, and this is reflected in their loadout choice. Carronades, Flare Guns, Grenade Launchers, and Explosive Cannons are all excellent choices, and a Mine couldn't hurt as well. For a long range weapon (all brawlers should carry one), Cannons are a great option, because they have decent range and reload extremely quickly, both good qualities for what could be your only long range weapon. Swift Torpedoes are also phenomenal, because they have the smallest activation distance, reload quickly, and are extremely easy to hit shots with. Sniper Cannons are also a decent choice due to their unrivaled range, lower reload time, and overpowered crit chance and damage. Missiles are effective at basically any range, making them a fine complement too.

Loadouts for Mid-rangers: Mid-rangers use weapons that can work at any range, or an even mix of long and short range weapons. Missile Launchers, Fire Weapons, most Cannons, Railguns, and all Mortars or Torpedoes work well here. Carronades are effective for the more brawl-oriented, and Napalm or Mines are excellent if you want to create a trap. The Cannon is not recommended, because in a setup this versatile, its only benefit (reload time) isn't needed. As a Mid-ranger myself, I'll list my own setup: Carronade. Flare Gun, Explosive Cannon, Railgun, Fire Bomb. This loadout is fairly easy to learn, and can dominate a brawl or a sniper duel. Teammates with the appropriate perks can also snag some nice benefits from the two fire weapons. This is just a sample Mid-ranger loadout to help you create your own, or to use yourself if you find it intriguing enough.

Loadouts for Snipers: Sniper is a common shooter playstyle ( probably the most common), and favors long ranged weapons. Torpedoes, Mortars, Sniper Cannons, and Railguns are (obviously) phenomenal weapons for a sniper. A weapon that can work at close range, such as a Carronade, Cannon, or Blast Cannon, is recommended. This style can be very slot point intensive, so choose your weapons wisely. I play a bit of Sniper, so here's my loadout, which may be a bit advanced: Big Torpedo, Sniper Cannon, Railgun, Ballpark Mortar, Missile Launcher. This here setup packs an unrivaled long range punch. Its one drawback is a lack of close range firepower, but you could easily replace the missiles with one of the above short range weapons, what with missiles being hard to use and limited brawling capabilities a very good idea. This setup is a bit hard to learn, because of how exclusively long range it is and its heavy use of advanced weapons. Use this if you're up to it, or design your own Sniper loadout however you like.

This concludes the basics of the Shooter ship. Feel free to leave feedback.

 

Fixed. Not sure how I missed that... I love brawler missiles. That's what I get for trying to write something long and coherent whilst jet-lagged and sleep deprived...

 

My shooter main setup is as follows:
DUAL FIREBOMBS,Dual Snipers with MISSILE LAUNCHER/GRENADE LAUNCHER

Well,my setup is basically a long range setup and I'm pretty good with that. Most of the time in ranked matches,I would use Missile Launcher. Sometimes,in events,I would use Grenade Launcher for burst damage. All I have to do is to play at long range only and it helps me a lot.

 

My setup would be:
Oh no! Forgot to select my fixer! Now I have a firebomb Epic lvl 1, 2 mines, a fb epic lvl 23 and no shields

 

Doctor, I think I might be feeling suicidal!
Don't worry you're just a shooter.

(No offence to the shooters who play well.)

 

lmfao

 

Shooters are like any herd animal stong in a pack but vulnerable if they get separated. It's a good ship if you and, more importantly, if your teammates can remember that. Above 2k and particularly above 2.5k infamy it generally works. But the first piece of advice I give to anyone who is stuck under 2k and can't break theough is to try speeder or enforcer where you have a few more opportunities to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Really turning 4 losses into wins each week for a month would be enough to break many who are stuck theough that 2k barrier, bit with a shooter main that's a tall order.

 

I should add that the best advice I've received, even better than specific weapon or strategy tips, is very simple:Stay Alive. I know it sounds obvious but in watching people play it clearly isn't. And yes there are times when dying for a kill might be a the best option but those are rare and shouldn't be sought out. Just simply being alive at the end of each match has the potential to increase your win percentage significantly.

 

Haha... this is what I always say, yet it always seems to be my teammates dying first in the match. By percentages I actually see more Defenders commonly roll into the enemy by themselves and die, followed by the scouting speeders who engage the enemy instead of returning to safety. But there are more Shooters, and by sheer numbers, they are the biggest suiciders. So annoying.

 

I'd like to add that my best advice isut the game down. It's more applicable to ranked than anything but still whether it starts off as crappy teammates or bad luck for me I tend to go straight to playing like crap when I get into a losing streak. I start getting overly agressive, taking risks that I would never take when I'm "on". I also stop planning ahead and building a strategy. The biggest tell for me on this one is when I notice that I didn't even look at the ships in the battle before it started. The lineups of each team dictate how I play for about the first minute so if I don't even look it's a hot mess.