Super MNC Assault Guide

Super MNC Assault Guide by Zanarias

I.-Overview
II.-Skill Order
III.-Endorsements and Products
IV.-Skill Information
V.-Chasing
VI.-What to Do at Each Stage of the Game
a). Early Game (Levels 1-5)
b). Mid Game (Levels 5-12)
c). Late Game (Levels 12-15)
VII.-Intricacies (The Good Stuff)
a). Survival Maneuvers
b). Damage Maximization
c). Weapon Usage
d). Jungle Presence
e). Team-based Maneuvers
f). Leveling
g). Annihilator Control

I. Overview
The Assault is officially categorized as a Striker, who excels in 1v1 situations and can pursue opponents pretty much anywhere. He is excellent at denying areas, harassing opponents, and doing pretty much anything that the team requires unless they ask you to die which is impossible for this class.

Most of his usefulness comes from his mobility tool, Fly. This skill is what allows him to solo turrets from afar, keep entire teams off the Annihilator while staying relatively untouchable, chase opponents across the map, escape in some of the most absurd ways possible, and cross mass distances in seconds. Keep this in mind as you continue reading.

II. Skill Order
Finalized Glass Cannon Build:
Level 1:Bomb
Level 2:Charge
Level 3:Offense
Level 4:Bomb
Level 5:Fly
Level 6:Fly
Level 7:Offense
Level 8:Bomb
Level 9:Fly
Level 10:Offense
Level 11:Charge
Level 12:Defense
Level 13:Charge
Level 14:Defense
Level 15:Defense

This is the preferred leveling order for highest potential usefulness and damage output. As I’ve gotten more experience at Assault, I’ve learned that Fly is always more valuable than offense, no matter what. The maneuverability allows you to survive any situation, and without it you can’t even put out the damage that you need to deal in order to influence the game.

With that said, an earlier level of Offense is beneficial since it gives you more wiggle room later if you want to mess with the build.

Charge at level 2 is REQUIRED. The cooldown is significantly lowered (by 8 seconds, I believe) and the damage is increased. Charge is an incredibly useful tool to get you out of crap that you accidentally got into and can’t get out of just by flying. Please, if there’s anything in this build that you follow, let this be it.

Jessep pointed out that I should clarify that this skill build probably won’t work too well if you’re new. Sadly, this entire guide is mostly based around this build. While the tips and tactics later on will probably help you as a player, you may not end up doing the best you can do with this skill order as a newcomer. When you finally know when to go into a fight and when to retreat from one, you should give this order another shot.

III. Endorsements and Products
Endorsements: I still can’t really advise on Endorsements, and I still haven’t built anything for Assault. If you’re going to choose anything though, I’d suggest you focus on maxing Skill Recovery and perhaps Crits.

Products: I currently run:
-Can’t Slow This
-Money Magnet
-Critically Late/Spunky Jumpy (for funs, mainly)/InSpire

If you choose to follow any of them, make sure that choice is CST. It will stop you from getting gang-grappled by a team when a Support decides to slow you, it will stop Knee Caps, ejector slows, and a ton of other similar things. You may not see it activate often and it’s hard to actually notice when it takes effect, but you can be damned sure that it WILL save your life and grant you ever more leeway with your attack options.

Slows are one of the Assault’s hard counters, so please please please use CST!

IV. Skill Information
Bomb: The Assault’s bread. This is the skill that does everything. It displaces opponents, it annihilates light classes, it shreds bot waves, keeps people away, whatever you want it to do, it does. When in combat with an enemy Pro, your goal is to lead the Bomb to try and get a headcrab. These do significantly more damage than non-headcrabs, and are usually enough to make an opponent backoff.

Fly: The Assault’s butter (nope.jpg). This is the ability that makes Assault’s world go round. Fly allows you to maneuver yourself more rapidly and allows you to stay in the air for 12 seconds at max level. The strength of this skill is in its rather simplistic design; it puts you in a position where YOU most benefit during a combat situation, which can be a number of places: above the opponent, backpedaling away from the opponent, flying in circles around the opponent, whatever. Without this skill, Assault would not be worth picking up.

Charge: Fly’s best friend. Charge is a quick dash in the direction you are aiming, nothing fancy. You can use it to damage opponents or flee, or just arrive at a location more rapidly. Long charge jumps can be accomplished by flying, charging in mid-air, and dropping the fly skill before the charge duration ends. If you are using this move as an attack, make sure that you are confident the skill will kill the opponent or put them in a position where it will be possible to kill them rapidly. You are very vulnerable without charge. Having a full meter of fly helps alleviate this to an extent.

V. Chasing
Chasing is the simple act of sticking on an enemy Pro’s behind and keeping up the harassment on them as long as possible.

Few Pros have the capacity to fight an Assault head on, and will typically be forced to flee when you even get close to them. This is when you begin chasing. Keep on the enemy as long as you can, using the Assault Rifle and Bomb to harass them continuously.

Effective chasing does not necessarily mean you follow their path down to the letter. Your goal is to find a path that most benefits you in the process of whittling down a Pro. Side passages meant for flanking are prime pathways to stick on someone when you don’t want too much attention (such as the Gun Mountain left-side jumppad out of spawn). Even though these paths take longer to traverse, as an Assault, you are still moving faster than the opposition with proper use of Fly and Charge. If you have good prediction of your opponent, it is easy to intercept in this manner.

VI. What to Do at Each Stage of the Game
This assumes that you’re doing well and keeping up level wise. It does not assume for negative results and I can’t be bothered to do that right now.

a). Early Game (Levels 1-5)
Your goal is to be at level 6 before the Annihilator fight begins. This means lots and lots of bot killing. Use your bomb and Assault rifle when bots are nearby in order to kill the slims and damage the shadys. If you see slimbots on another lane, use the Grenade Launcher to snipe them. PICK UP DROPS. PICK UP DROPS. PICK UP DROPS. PICK UP DROPS JESUS PICK UP THE DROPS. EVERY CHURRO, EVERY ARMOR PLATE, EVERY COIN. DO IT. Also, try and get first blood or a couple kills. Prime candidates are overextending light classes, who you should headcrab. You can also occasionally land Charge or grapple ringouts on enemies early game if they’re not paying attention, although neither of these work too well in laggy situations.

If you decide to go to the jungle early game (more on this later), try and get the first gremlin and an early slim wave. This will give you a great starting level advantage.

b). Mid Game (Levels 5-12)
Mid game begins after the first Annihilator. Presuming that you’ve successfully activated it and are level 6, your goal is to start putting pressure on turrets and continuing to blow up literally every slimbot and shady.

At level 8-9, the true fun begins. Instead of prioritizing bots, you are now more focused on pressuring other Pros. Fly over them, drop bombs, harass them on their turrets, do whatever you want to do to them. CONTINUE TO KILL BOTS. You have to keep your advantage, and while you SHOULD be focusing more on Pro killing by this point, it is not a guaranteed source of experience or income. Keep up bot kills and you’ll be in a fantastic spot.

c). Late Game (Levels 12-15)
Pro hunter extraordinaire. Chase down anyone or anything you feel like and do what you can to contribute. Juice chain and use the Grenade Launcher + Fly to find safe positions to knock out any turret you want. At the enemy Moneyball ring, fly over enemies to harass them and keep them from fighting back and stalling the game. Blow up the Moneyball.

Epic win.

VII. Intricacies (The Good Stuff)
This is probably what most of you have actually come here to read, so I’ll try and be specific as possible. Doing all of this together is what makes you a powerful Assault. Before we begin, let’s cover two essential moves that you’ll need to know in order to perform some of what I cover.

Bomb Jump: Necessary to gain entrance to the jungle at level 1. Before doing this, make sure Bomb is at level 2 or higher, it is much easier to perform this way. Drop the bomb on the ground on your level next to a higher level (such as the top of a jumppad). Fly over the bomb. Detonate the bomb while keeping Fly enabled. You will slowly rise to a higher point, and when you are safely at your destination you can exit the elevator. Er, turn off Fly. Same thing.

Charge Cancel: Ala MNC. Charge while flying and disable fly before the Charge max distance is reached. You’ll continue going off in the direction you were headed as long as you disabled it in time.

a). Survival Maneuvers
Your usefulness as an Assault is 100% PROPORTIONAL TO HOW LONG YOU ARE ALIVE. This is THE MOST VITAL part of playing Assault. If you are dead, you can’t contribute or level. Losing an Assault for 30 seconds can be game changing if he was the one keeping the Annihilator platform clear or keeping a lane safe or clearing the jungle. You MUST survive.

There’s a variety of ways to do this, and they’re not all that hard. They’re just something people haven’t really thought about all that much.

Fly and Charge: The easiest one! Fly all of the time. This stops grapples, and it’ll stop Ring Outs. It’ll stop you from being moved around too much when an explosive goes off next to you. It’ll keep you alive.

Fly’s strength is in using it to juke your opponent or take routes COMPLETELY INACCESSIBLE to any other class, allowing you to survive or gank however you feel like. Charge is a helpful accessory to this. Some basic juking/escape strategies include:

-Taking a jumppad, hitting fly, and landing somewhere other than the destination of the jumppad.
-Interrupting jumppad jumps altogether with fly enabled when you touch it.
-Faking routes by breaking LOS and using Charge to bypass an opponent.
-Flying out of map bounds or in locations with no ground access (in between the bridges on Gun Mountain, or around the side of Gun Mountain back into the Moneyball area).
-Disabling fly when at a significant height to put rapid distance between yourself and an opponent.
-Bomb jumping to gain height to an inaccessible location.

These are all very important. Knowing when to do these is essential to surviving.

Bomb Wall-Kick: Another essential move that keeps you alive. On occasion, you’ll be rung out or punched out of the map. You’ll be able to activate Fly before you hit the Z-kill line, but you aren’t able to get back onto the map. If you’re fast enough and have sufficient skill meter to do it, drop a bomb on the wall of the map in front of you, fly over it, and detonate it. The bomb will kick you upwards and back, which will allow you to fly back onto the map. This can similarly be done by using slanted terrain, however, this is not always available.

Annihilator Cancel: An important move as Assault. You are the only Pro in the game that can stop your Annihilator activation. If you are put into a situation where you have to activate the Annihilator (it’s usually best left to someone a little heftier), drop a Bomb where you will stand when you activate it. You have the ability to detonate this bomb during the Annihilator activation, which will stop it. This move is very very useful when an enemy with high weapon DPS (Sharpshooters in particular) decide to kill you while you’re activating instead of grappling or charging you away. This will save your butt many times in more skilled matches.

Gamesense: An all-around term for knowing where your team is, where your opponents are, where the bots are, and what’s going to happen in the upcoming moments. This isn’t really something that can be taught and it’s something you’ll just have to force yourself to do. Pay attention to everything, and try and anticipate what’s going to happen. Learn your enemies’ habits, and abuse the flaws in those habits. Learn your Pro’s limits, his/her cooldowns, and capacity to escape. Figure out how far you can push yourself health wise and what risks you can/cannot take. Gamesense is what makes the difference between a great player and an excellent one, and having it is exceptionally valuable.

I’m sure I have more to add, but can’t recall everything right now. More will be added if I remember it.

b). Damage Maximization
The Assault is all about this. Using all of your skills together fluidly is the main selling point, and something you should be striving to learn. Maximizing damage is pretty simple in and of itself, it’s when you have to intertwine it with Gamesense is when it goes downhill.

The easiest combo to pull off combines the Assault Rifle and Bomb. Headcrab an enemy Pro, and stick to them, dealing as much damage as you can along the way. When the enemy Pro is at 3/4HP (Sharpshooters, Commandos), 1/2HP (Strikers, Defenders), 1/4HP (Enforcers) or less, detonate the Bomb, which should result in an easy kill.

If you do the above and you’re close to the opponent and they somehow survive, try to Charge them for the killing blow. It’s a good source of damage that people neglect, and even if THAT doesn’t kill them, they’re most likely further away from their escape route (if you Charged them properly), giving you more time to fire at them.

Ring Outs are another easy death trigger that the Assault can cause. His Grenade Launcher grapple does this very easily early game while he is laning, as does his Charge. Easy targets for Charge Ring Outs are Tanks, Gunners, and Veterans using their jumpjets. Charging them in this state causes them to go flying away rapidly, and if you hit them off the side of the map it’s almost a guaranteed kill.

Damage maximization ties into to team play as well, which I’ll cover in another section.

c). Weapon Usage
The Assault Rifle is your mainstay. This is your primary weapon and it’s what you want to use for pretty much everything except for late game turret killing. Use this weapon at short to medium distances, prioritizing slim bots, weak (HP-wise) Pros, weak (class-wise) Pros, and so on, with heavier bots being tied in when you are not busy. Use it early game against turrets if you’re close enough, as it is relatively powerful against them. As clarification, you DO typically want to use this against bots, except when they are significant distances away from you and you won’t be traveling in that direction. If that’s the case, use the Grenade Launcher to snipe them.

The Grenade Launcher is typically used as a “last resort” kind of weapon against exceptionally weak Pros that you cannot pursue, or long range bots. You can also use it to harass people hiding behind corners by firing at walls and forcing the grenades to bounce off of them. Late game you’ll want to use this weapon juiced against Rocket and Laser Blazer turrets, as the damage is significant and noticeable and you can place yourself in safe locations (such as flying over the Z-kill line) while firing at them. It is a great tool to use in these situations, and while some people consider it useless, I find it to be a very strong weapon in the appropriate situation.

d). Jungle Presence
Assault has the capacity early game to jungle, although he is much more suited to the laning environment. Getting the first gremlin propels you ahead in leveling on the lane, which is the primary reason why it is a good idea to Bomb Jump up there at level 1. If you have another dedicated jungler such as Assassin/Spark, you’ll want to head up there anyway to protect them from the other team’s jungler. As Assault, you are a powerful deterrent, and being there might just allow the jungler to pull off some early kills.

Late game, the jungle is your preferred area of operation. It instantly gives you a height advantage, which mixes with the Assault’s playstyle. It is easy to look down and fly over enemy Pros, turrets, and the Moneyball without too much counter-harassment. Try and keep yourself in the jungle for much of the latter half of the game.

e). Team-based Maneuvers
Obviously, Assault becomes 30x stronger once he’s got some teammates in the mix. There’s some easy moves you should know that’ll help you and your team secure kills and push bot waves.

Existing (Flying): Guess what? Flying over your enemies’ head is now a team-based move. Here’s why. Let’s say you and your team push right lane together, with two of your teammates are on the ground in front of a turret area with a bot wave. You are flying above this zone, firing down on the enemy team, the turret, and their bots. This forces the enemy team to make a decision against you. Do they start firing at you specifically from the ground? If they start doing that, your teammates are no longer taking damage. On top of it, your opponents aren’t maximizing their damage either, as they’re missing a whole bunch as you fly erratically. This gives your team a free pass to push them. This almost always forces your opponents to fall back, or pull someone from another lane to come deal with you, neither of which is very optimal. You, of course, also aren’t invincible, so your timeframe of doing this is limited.

Grapple Headcrabs: Easy move. Throw a Bomb on an opponent as they’re being grappled by a teammate/bouncer or when they’re grappling a Jackbot/teammate (make sure to aim below their level/HP indicator, NOT where they are physically). DO NOT DETONATE THE BOMB WHILE THEY ARE IN THE GRAPPLE. Once the grapple has finished completely, detonate it. Usually, it’s a free kill. It’s easy to land with coordination or that dreaded Gamesense, so just paying attention is the harder part of this maneuver.

Slam Dunks (Thanks Rogue!): Slam Dunks are a slight twist on the typical headcrab/grapple headcrab. This move abuses some sort of Ring Out type move (ejector, Charge out, throw out, etc.) and then utilizes the headcrab’s explosive force to propel the enemy into the Z-kill line. While it is quite flashy, it does have practical application against any class that can potentially recover from a Ring Out, as the combo reduces the amount of time to use an escape mechanic (Spark’s Arc Flash) or completely eliminates an escape mechanic’s usefulness (Tank’s Charge can’t go up). Make sure that the opponent is off the physical terrain first, of course. Useful teammates to try and pull this move off with include Karl, Spark, and Tank. You typically won’t see a Sniper anywhere close to a position to even attempt it but if you do you can try it.

Probably more to add here too but can’t recall at the moment.

f). Leveling
Maintain control of slim bots. Killing these is the main focus if you want to out-level your team or your opponents. Use Fly and Charge to keep control on both bot lanes at a single time, and use the Grenade Launcher if you can’t change lanes for some reason. PICK UP EVERY SINGLE DROP I THINK I SAID THIS ALREADY BUT I CAN’T STRESS IT ENOUGH. YOU NEED DROPS BECAUSE YOU NEED TO PICK UP ARMOR DROPS SO YOU CAN PICK UP MORE DROPS. This is how you over-level. Getting early Pro kills and turret kills also help out a ton when it comes to beating people in the leveling department.

g). Annihilator Control
Pretty simple, but Bombs and Fly micromanagement. Your goal is to stay up there and keep people off of it so someone else can activate it. On Loco Moco, use Fly to block people who take the jumppad, forcing them back down to the lanes. Land on the heightened platforms on Loco Moco to recover Fly without being too vulnerable. If you are forced (on either map) to activate the Annihilator, make sure to prepare before hand in case you have to trigger an Annihilator Cancel.

I hope this has helped you better understand how I play Assault. Have fun!