Borrok's rule of thumb. (Battle guide)

Taken from the official forum, and copied and pasted onto here for your viewing pleasure.



BORROK'S Rule of Thumb , Section 1.


"i thought id help out a few people by giving a little advice when fighting...i saw a couple attempts at this so il just add to it. for starters the basic common ships

-Ships-

herc
ryu jin
apollo
odin
runners
queens
fodders
c class <-- too much
fallen
dominions
hammerhead
eel
shark
topaz
emerald
tourm
ruby
hun li
hun xe
moniter
pinnace
arag
hal
livid
lictor

pretty basic ships for every race...but a huge problem seems to be actually using these ships to your advantage.

-Usage- (quick)

Terran - the rule of thumb here is p class is your best friend, dont misuse these, ministers are almost as important as the ships...use a minister to compliment their weapon or help reduce enemy weapon. a good place for p class is in the last 3 stacks, a lot of people say this without giving a good reason why...here is the reason. the last stacks obviously have the least pr(which is why they are last) making them the best target, they are usually offensive which means not only they have less pr, but they have lower hull as well...with odin and thors range and weapon, getting a first hit could win the battle. if i left something out you should be able to fill in the blanks.

Aspha Miner - arag, livid, hal, and lictor are the main ships of a miner stack, problems same with every race...people dont know how to use their ships. arags are offensive, rule of thumb is they have lower hull because they are offensive. using them in a higher stack like 2nd or 1st could easily lose you the battle, they do well in middle to last stacks, lictor and livid could go either way because of their shield and weapon/hull. a lot of people tend to use either defensive ships or energy ships in the first stacks, lictor usually does well there depending on the rest of your stack. hals do wonderful up top, basically to absorb the damage, they act a lot like ryu jins.

Collective - these ships are the weakest in the game in general, but the moniter and pinnace are actually pretty good. DONT spam moniters or pinns...use a balanced stack mixed with c class and straf if you want to win. moniters do best up front or in center stacks, and pinns do well in mid to last stacks, they are opposites.

Marauder - the most under rated race in the game is the marus...better than guards and miners(not saying much on the guard end)...but never get the credit. marus do well with the ships they have, p class is their only problem, but that can be avoided with neutrals. if you want to be successful with maru do not use more than 3 d class in your stack and no more than 2 in a row...in other words dont stack like this

d class
d class
d class
d class
d class
d class

the first 2 stacks and one in the last 3 works just fine, mix e class in there as well...but never have a solid one class of ship stack, break it up for the best offensive effect. too many people misuse their ships...also never very fast build, that will debt you really fast. fallens and doms are great defensive ships, use them up front to take the damage, or in back to take out runners/queens...be very careful with hammerheads...like queens they will either give you the win or lose the battle for you. eels are excellent ships, they can be used ANYWHERE in the stack. pyths and pikes are excellent ships for basic fillers or decent counter ships.

Guardian - this is a fun race because its a challenge...but a pain to get going, topaz and emerald are your center pieces to your stack, they hit harder than any other guardian ship and have the greatest range. use them just as a terran would use p class, but be careful, they have too much pr(power rating) for their hull and you dont have to lose many to cost you the battle. Using them is best in the lower stacks unless countering. hun xe can be a monster, runners and queens can NOT fight against these ships, use them to your advantage always. there are few ships that can fight on par with these so make good use of them, hun lis are a different story. k class is over rated in the sense that...they arnt that good, the hun xe is one of the best guardian ships, but its because they can take damage and still fight, hun lis can take damage but dont deal much back. they are very useful though, so rather than holding them on a platform or dismiss them because they arnt the best and have a massive turn cost...just know what they can do. they fit anywhere in the guardian stack, but the best place is usually up top. tourms and rubys are basicly the counter ship for guardians, never put them against livids or lictors, they will lose...but they rip arags to pieces, rubys seem to do the most damage so make use of them.

Neutrals - every campers favorite ships come from this class. the 2 to look for is strafez and c class though. c class exels at defense, so keep them up front or mid stack and avoide letting them flank(they do very little damage). strafez has the highest and lowest on both ends, fodders have the highest hull but lowest weapon(0, along with scouts), while runners and queens have the highest weapons and lowest hulls in the game. by now you should understand that highest weapon does well in back or center stacks, defense up front.


BORROK's Rule of Thumb , Section 2, logic.

The logic behind stacking is obviously to win, knowing how to stack is simply knowing how to win. you win by knowing how to place your ships, which is what il go over in this section...i already covered the basic ships and usage and tips on placement...so il go a little deeper and explain the reasons for it.

Basic stacker knowledge breakdown - if you look at almost every winning stack, the offense is always in the back and defense in the front. have you ever wondered why that is? its because when your in low pr most new players spam, if they even have 6 stacks they are horribly uneven, smart players noticed this and capitalized on it, placing high offense ships in back to destroy the weak ships then flank heavily, using defensive ships to block the opposing spam, this became a stacking habit that nearly EVERYONE follows. put simply its using common sense to protect your heavy offensive ships while letting them flank, look at high pr stacks, notice the highest offensive ships are flanking. knowing this, you should know that most people stack with very similar styles, and stack using the ships that i showed in the earlier section. its the general rule of thumb that in order to win, you need to destroy the enemies offense to minimize damage on your end...this is good because their offense is the easiest to destroy. now think...how can you destroy their offense even if you know what ships they are using? you dont need to out gun them completely, you just need to out range them, and deal enough damage to kill enough ships to stay alive. for example...if your opponents 6th stack is a queen, you want to use something with higher range than the queen, and just enough weapon to get the job done, something with a high weapon is preferred, they sooner it dies the better...if you were to counter that queen with a queen, you will lose. for new stackers, keep this in mind.

Minister------

The war minister is the difference between losing and winning in every battle, think very carefully how you use them, and what combination of traits you use to compliment your ships. dont use a +60% hull minister when using offensive ships for example, try to amplify their strength while keeping their weakness from becoming too much of a problem. rather than go over how to create a good minister, il post some that i have created in the past to give you a good idea of whats good and whats not.

balance
Traits

Foresight Lvl 10
Causes reduces enemy ships hull by 1% per level

War Monger Lvl 10
Likes war a lot, causes ships to do 1% more damage per level

Engineer Lvl 10
Able to fix ships during battle, causes ships to be able to withstand 1% more damage per level

Anticipation Lvl 10
Causes enemy ships to deal 1% less damage per level


+10% your hull and weapon

-10% your enemies hull and weapon

hard core offense
Traits

Aggressive Lvl 10
Causes your ships to do +2% more damage and -1% to hull per level

War Monger Lvl 10
Likes war a lot, causes ships to do 1% more damage per level

Suicidal Lvl 10
Causes your ships to have +3% to damage but -2.5% less hull per level

Foresight Lvl 10
Causes reduces enemy ships hull by 1% per level


+60% weapon

-35% hull

-10% enemies hull

mild offense
Traits

Aggressive Lvl 10
Causes your ships to do +2% more damage and -1% to hull per level

Fear Lvl 10
Instills fear to the enemy ships during attack, causing enemy ships to inflict -2% damage but +1% to hull per level

Foresight Lvl 10
Causes reduces enemy ships hull by 1% per level

War Monger Lvl 10
Likes war a lot, causes ships to do 1% more damage per level


+30% weapon

-10% hull

-20% enemies weapon

lower enemy weapon
Traits

Engineer Lvl 10
Able to fix ships during battle, causes ships to be able to withstand 1% more damage per level

Fear Lvl 10
Instills fear to the enemy ships during attack, causing enemy ships to inflict -2% damage but +1% to hull per level

Foresight Lvl 10
Causes reduces enemy ships hull by 1% per level

Anticipation Lvl 10
Causes enemy ships to deal 1% less damage per level


+10% hull

-30% enemies weapon

hard core defense
Traits

Defensive Lvl 10
Causes your ships to have +2% to hull but deal -1% less damage per level

Engineer Lvl 10
Able to fix ships during battle, causes ships to be able to withstand 1% more damage per level

Fearful Lvl 10
Causes your ships to have +3% to hull but -2.5% less damage per level

Anticipation Lvl 10
Causes enemy ships to deal 1% less damage per level


+60% hull

-35% weapon

-10% enemy weapon

Main Breaker
Traits

Foresight Lvl 10
Causes reduces enemy ships hull by 1% per level

Aggressive Lvl 10
Causes your ships to do +2% more damage and -1% to hull per level

War Monger Lvl 10
Likes war a lot, causes ships to do 1% more damage per level

Anticipation Lvl 10
Causes enemy ships to deal 1% less damage per level


+30% weapon

-10% hull

-10% enemies weapon & hull

Lower theirs, raise yours
Traits

Anticipation Lvl 10
Causes enemy ships to deal 1% less damage per level

Fear Lvl 10
Instills fear to the enemy ships during attack, causing enemy ships to inflict -2% damage but +1% to hull per level

Foresight Lvl 10
Causes reduces enemy ships hull by 1% per level

War Monger Lvl 10
Likes war a lot, causes ships to do 1% more damage per level



+10% weapon

-30% enemies weapon


these should give you a good understanding of the amount of combining minis.

Interesting