Wave manipulation: How to be a ghost on the horizon

Waves in Battle Bay are an integral part of how the game works. Many of us, however, have a few *cough*again with this*cough* misconceptions regarding waves. Let me clear those before I begin:

1. *Waves are annoying disturbances to shooting, nothing more* *Leaves thread*

One: You're not wrong, but you're not right either. Waves ARE disturbances, but you can use them for your own benefits. Two: Waves can sometimes act as high ground from where you can take shots out of your effective weapon range!

2. *I'm so fast, I don't need this* *Leaves thread*

On the contrary, it is BECAUSE you're fast that you should stay awhile and read. You see, wave manipulation is a "lost art" in that you lose control over it as your speed increases. When you were slower, you were forced to use it. Now, you don't, thus missing an important asset to your strategic thinking.

3. *Screw this, I have tesla shield* *Leaves thread*

*A few seconds later* Back so soon? Take a seat, and read up!*Clears ash from doormat*

Now, let's get to it. Wave manipulation. I'll do this thread in this manner: I'll classify waves, and I'll classify level. Green is for newbies, orange is for intermediate level players, red is for seasoned players. The way this should ideally go is, read Green, then Orange, then Red.

Starting off. Wave classification. Pretty easy. There's small waves, there's fair sized waves, there's large waves. Then there's miscellaneous waves.

Small waves

This is pro domain. You will not understand the "tells" of a small wave if you're a beginner. It's a ghost of a wave that you'll not even feel if you're bigger than a speeder. Thus, the sole discovered application of this wave, in all my games, has been the speeder.

The Anomaly
The Anomaly is the ultra-minor bump, and it is the tiniest bump that you can take advantage of. The anomaly results in those near-misses at point-blank range. If you find yourself in this type of wave, you can relax about close snipes and rails and frost blasters. Be on guard for everything else, however. Small waves are fickle things, and there's always the chance that the wave tapers off, leaving you open. Only use it as an emergency measure on maps like Wayward Pains and Midfight Movies.
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Medium waves

This is a playground for all levels of player. So I'll start off at the obvious question: How do you recognize a medium wave? The tells are:
1. A certain rotund structure, with no well-defined peaks.
2. Just high enough to increase cannon range by something like 1.2-2.4 units on a blast cannon.

Medium waves are rather easy to manipulate, and there's three ways to manipulate them: When you're in transit, when you're on the offensive, and when you're on the defensive. So let's begin.

Transit

Slower ships like the defender can "roll down" a medium wave. This speeds you up, and, many times, I've used it to great effect when dodging torpedoes, post-3.2.

Offense

Offense utilization of waves is slightly risky, since it involves risking getting shot by an otherwise dodgeable shot for the sake of increasing effective range by a maximum of 2.4 units for a blast cannon. I recommend this to speeders being chased by assassin(s) while their target is far away. The reason this will work is because assassins are close to you at that point in time, meaning that they cannot aim at you if you keep them at a certain distance from you. As for that distance, you gotta play it by ear, unfortunately. Can't help you there. Enforcers can really use this, dancing ahead of and behind a wave. For speedforcers, I recommend orienting yourselves in the reverse direction to the waveflow, so you can get behind the wave using nitro, making "EZ"-looking shots nigh-impossible. A warning: Beware the fast-projectile guns. Pre-emptive nitro usage is a sketchy maneuver at best, I do NOT recommend it, however, if you're skilled enough, by all means!.

Defense

Using a medium wave for defense is not that hard, all you gotta do is hang behind it in such a way that:

A. You're clearly visible to the enemy(in LoS)(for speeders ONLY)

In this case, you basically just reverse into the wave, cool as a cucumber. You can basically slide down that wave as you see them shoot, because the wave actually helps you reverse. That's one of my signature annoying tricks on the speeder.
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B. You're peeking out of the wave(only your turret is visible)(for enfos, interceptors, reapers and defenders, defenders because they can't help it)

Bob and weave into and out of cover. You know how, dance. Interceptor, reaper and enfo, all have superb reverse relative to almost every other ship in the game. Defenders, try to alter your "altitude" as much as possible. You dodge shots by "ducking under" them when manipulating waves for the most part.
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C. You're in full cover(shooters)

Relax. Use your arc weapons as much as possible. This will give you a better view of arc weapons and torps coming at you, as well as give you an advantage over closecombatants without arc weapons. Plant traps if you have 'em, and place them in front of you. Helps when a speeder foolhardily tries to charge you down. Trade secret: Speeders "flow" down big-enough waves without any throttle, so you might get a free hit even if the speeder realizes that there's a mine
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Big waves

Easy to recognize.
1.They're just big enough to conceal a defender.
2. High enough to improve your shooting range by 5 units on a blast cannon.
3. Well-defined peaks.
4. Usually only seen on Subzero(though I saw one on CnB and DG)

Big waves can be used in much the same way as small waves, albeit with a coupla additions:

Transit

Even fast ships can transit significantly faster over big waves. You can use them as a launchpad for fancy jumps and stuff, and you can also use them for:

Offense

Yes, offense. This tip is for everyone, these waves are brilliant for charges into an enemy team, head-on. They completely mess up auto-targeting, and RUIN railgun accuracy. Damn near nothing can hit you, but be on the lookout for torps. And mines. Don't worry about mortars if you can ride the crest consistently. Your movement on the march should be:
Slightly behind crest when charging long, on crest when charging mid, and ahead of crest when going close. This means you dodge snipes, followed by morts followed by blasts, exes and everything else.

Defense

Pretty much the same as medium waves, with two additions: You can go downwave on a grenadier to make them miss damn near everything. You can also conceal your entire defender, easily. Super strong abilities, both of them.

Miscellaneous waves

There's only one at this point: The waterfalls on Wayward Pains.

Super strong should you choose to hide torp attacks behind them, an excellent smokescreen for mine planting.


Let's finish off with a few examples:
Here:
https://i.imgur.com/QOcUFaW.gifv

And a new piece, here, by QURORA:

 

You know, you can put it up on your guild's Discord server or something

 

Edit: Added @Qurora 's YT video on wave manipulation!