Difference between revisions of "User:Aquanim/UnitTierList"
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<span style="color:#44f">'''A Tier'''</span> | <span style="color:#44f">'''A Tier'''</span> | ||
− | '''Thunderbird''': I want to put this in S tier really badly, but it just doesn't connect as often as it used to. Of course, if | + | '''Thunderbird''': I want to put this in S tier really badly, but it just doesn't connect as often as it used to. Of course, if the stars align this can still end a game in five seconds flat at a premium price. |
'''Raven''': Not the game-defining unit it once was, but there is nothing wrong with the Raven of today. Does the job it is designed to do. | '''Raven''': Not the game-defining unit it once was, but there is nothing wrong with the Raven of today. Does the job it is designed to do. |
Revision as of 04:58, 29 October 2023
Contents
Preface
S Tier: I would happily make a new factory to make only this unit
A Tier: I feel good when I make this unit
B Tier: I feel OK about making this unit
C Tier: I am a bit unhappy if I have to make this unit, other factories have better options
D Tier: I am quite unhappy to make this unit
F Tier: I do not make this unit, and you should not make it either
Unclassifiable: Too weird or specialized to give a sensible grade
Ratings are for a mid-size teams game on a land map unless otherwise indicated. 1v1 ratings would be different.
Constructors
A Tier
Convict: Borderline S tier. Basically a combat unit in its own right, between supporting Felon and protecting its own turrets.
Welder: Also arguably S tier. Strong at all stages, although the cost is a little annoying early game.
Constable: Very good early game constructor. Fragile and inefficient in late game.
Conjurer: As a constructor it is B tier at best... but it enables some cloak shenanigans.
B Tier
Weaver: Sometimes you need to build things on a hill.
Mason, Quill: Meh.
C Tier
Conch: On land it is slow and expensive. When underwater it is absolutely goated, S+ tier, better than mex.
Wasp: Useless as a combat constructor, but decent at expanding if it doesn't die to Swift.
D Tier
Crane: I guess expand with this if you absolutely have to... but it's pretty ass.
Strider Constructors
Funnelweb: A Tier, although its construction is less important than its shield.
Athena: Unclassifiable. Practical efficacy lies anywhere from A to F tier, depending on the vanity of the person using it.
Commanders
A Tier
Recon: Does not die to Placeholder. Dies a lot to Lance though. S tier if it enables expansion for you (like on Quicksilver).
B Tier
Guardian: Dies to Placeholder, but at least it has HP so it's less likely to die to Lance. The free drone is quite handy, use set-target to tell it where to go and scout.
C Tier
Strike: Dies to Placeholder and Lance.
Engineer: Dies to Placeholder and Lance.
Raiders etc.
A Tier
Scorcher: When you need sheer DPS, accept no substitutes.
Glaive, Bandit: Throwing some of these into almost any army composition makes it better. Good screening, good DPS.
B Tier
Kodachi, Pyro: Very good early game, but they lose value a lot quicker than the A tier raiders. I have a serious skill issue with both of these units.
Scythe: I also have a skill issue with this unit. At its best this is maddening. At its worst you are just punting metal. YMMV.
C Tier
Dagger: Good flex-AA and has good matchups against other raiders... but this just does not have the DPS to do a lot of raider jobs, and Hover suffers for it sometimes.
Duck: Just less efficient than the other bot raiders, unless there is water involved.
Blitz: Pretty poor in low numbers outside the very early game. A big ball of these can be scary, but eventually they tend to run into something they can't stunlock and then they get mauled.
Anti-raider / Escort
Bolas: A Tier. Descending towards B tier for me recently, but it's not there yet. Of the units in this role, retains most value against non-raiders.
Venom, Archer: B Tier. Decent, but loses a lot of value when the other team is no longer making many raiders.
Scouts
Flea: S Tier. Has no competition at its job.
Dart: A Tier. Maybe a generous grade, but this is surprisingly versatile. Gives vision, baits shots, sets up for Scorcher.
Puppy: A Tier. Placed in this list for lack of a better classification. If you need to deny your opponents reclaim quickly, this is the tool for the job.
Dirtbag: B Tier. S tier at inflicting EMOTIONAL DAMAGE. But if you want to attack, the Dirtbag gets in your way as much as the opposition.
Skirmishers and Fire Support
A Tier
Fencer and Scalpel: Good cookie-cutter early game units.
Buoy: Beats a pretty big variety of things while taking minimal attrition.
Felon: Obviously this has the potential to be really good, but the style it fits into is pretty inflexible.
B Tier
Recluse: A tier on some maps. Good damage, but a little too flimsy for my taste.
Moderator: When you are ahead this is A tier. When you are behind this is terrible.
Crab: Extremely strong if it is not countered... but everybody knows its counters.
Rogue: Really, really bad at defending itself. Decent DPS if it gets to do its thing.
C Tier
Ronin: Occasionally good in the early game. Gets outscaled VERY quickly though.
D Tier
Dominatrix: Overrated. You have to have a lot or they don't pose a meaningful threat, and even if you do have a lot they tend to die all at once.
Bulkhead: Fills a hole in Amph, but if you have access to any other factory it probably has a better option than this.
Riots
A Tier
Reaver: Range is a bit of a liability here, but this chews up raiders quite nicely and has strong synergy with cloak/Lobster/Charon.
Mace, Ogre: Expensive, good at bullying in the early-midgame, tend to be a bit too flimsy late-game. A few of these go a long way.
B Tier
Redback: Gets kited by a few too many things, and not as explosive as Reaver if it gets mobility help, so this doesn't quite make A tier. Quite strong if it gets a good fight though.
Ripper: Unexciting, but it gets the job done.
Outlaw: Does the job it is supposed to do for a shieldball.
Dante: If you need a bunch of small (maybe cloaked) units fried at a moderate distance, Dante is your guy. A bit too fragile to be used as a generic unit.
C Tier
Scallop: This would probably be D tier if it wasn't in the same factory as Lobster.
Claymore: Occasionally solves problems for Hover on land. Remember that they can shoot over terraform for no particularly good reason.
Assaults
S Tier
Cyclops: Difficult to kill, effective against almost anything that costs more than 250 metal and enters its range. An absolute chad of a unit.
A Tier
Minotaur: Has enough HP that a commitment is always required to kill it. What more do you want?
Thug: Good at protecting other units that actually do something.
B Tier
Halberd: This is fine. Not amazing. But fine. Can spot for Lance if you don't have air.
Jack: In the right situation it's incredible. Otherwise it chases things and makes sad melee noises.
Grizzly: Good if you are fighting things it cleanly one-hits. Can be quite dubious otherwise.
C Tier
Knight: Strong if it gets a fight it actually wants. But being slow makes that difficult.
D Tier
Hermit: Decent range I guess, but 1500 HP is just not a lot.
Ravager: Reasonably fast, but that's really its only redeeming feature.
Artillery
S Tier
Lance: I don't think that Lance is game breaking, but it has almost no competition in the "delete one unit at a distance" category.
Impaler: Less versatile than Lance, but peerless at prying open defences from a safe distance.
A Tier
Phantom: Lance's only real competition in its role, and a very good unit in its own right.
Firewalker: Clunky, but unless you are willing to spend for Dante this is the best way to clean up small units and detect cloakers at a distance.
B Tier
Sling: Reasonable early game option. Some people like to make these in bulk in the midgame, but in my experience the blob gets punished eventually.
Badger: Occasionally somebody makes this look really good. Most of the time it is the better-at-decloaking but worse-at-killing cousin of Firewalker.
Merlin: Fragile and has an unfortunate tendency towards friendly fire. Sometimes the big old missile barrage is just what you need though.
C Tier
Emissary: I want to rate this higher, but it is a hard unit to make work in a Lance and Impaler world. Terraform helps a lot against Lance at least.
Unclassifiable
Tremor: Make this when faced with bad terrain (typically terraform) or sometimes against mass shields. Otherwise not worth the metal.
Anti-Air (mobile and static)
A Tier
Angler: The best anti-bomber AA at anything like its price point.
Razor: Single-handedly makes Gunship a bad factory.
B Tier
Ettin: A tier if you need its area of effect attack. C tier if you don't.
Crasher, Tarantula, Vandal: All quite serviceable missile-based AA. You need a really gigantic blob of Vandal which can be awkward.
Toad: In any other factory this would get built a lot more, but in Jumpfac it competes with Moderator and Jugglenaut.
Artemis: This shuts out enemy air in a way no other AA does... but it is an expensive, flimsy target.
Chainsaw: An unexciting compromise between cost and impact. It's okay.
C Tier
Thresher: Static, unarmoured and short range is a pretty bad combination. Ettin is almost always better.
Flail: Below average, but not awful.
D Tier
Gremlin: This disappoints me every time I build it. You get to scout and ambush with it, but its effective damage is just... really bad.
Hacksaw: Once in a blue moon you need this. You don't enjoy needing it. But you make one anyway. Even at this thing's one job it is often worse than Newton.
Anti-Heavy and Bombs
S Tier
Widow: Unmatched impact for cost.
Snitch: Combined with areacloak this solves an awful lot of difficult problems. Even without a cloak you can sometimes get these to connect for big damage, if you're wily enough.
A Tier
Imp: Arguably better than Snitch in the early game; the spider movetype is more useful and you can hide one under a commander. Late game you would prefer to be killing things though.
Limpet: Suffers from being in a slow and unpopular factory, but this can turn the tide of a midgame fight.
Racketeer: The safest but lowest-impact unit on the anti-heavy list.
Scorpion: This unit is NOT an assault. This unit is NOT a raider. Stop using it like one. Quite poor at defending itself if caught out of position, so don't let that happen.
B Tier
Ultimatum: I can't get this to connect reliably, but when it does...
D Tier
Skuttle: Incredibly unreliable. I would only build this in desperation.
Support and Utility
S Tier
Lobster: From rescuing stunned units to facilitating an assault to throwing enemies in lava, the utility is endless.
A Tier
Iris, Aspis: Maybe these should be S tier, but I do sometimes find that these give you a false sense of security.
Placeholder: Potentially completely broken, but its range and HP are poor enough that something generally manages to kill it.
Djinn: I get far more use out of this in a logistics role than its sneak attack applications, but either way this is quite useful once you can afford the price.
Charon:
B Tier
Hercules: Not a fan of most uses this gets put to, but occasionally you do need one.
Planes
S Tier
Swift: Intercepts bombers, holds its own against most other air, scouts, cleans up raiders in its spare time. Defines how the game of Zero-K is played.
Likho: There are very few things this is not good against.
Owl: Knowledge is power, and Owl both gives you a lot of information and denies it to the enemy.
A Tier
Thunderbird: I want to put this in S tier really badly, but it just doesn't connect as often as it used to. Of course, if the stars align this can still end a game in five seconds flat at a premium price.
Raven: Not the game-defining unit it once was, but there is nothing wrong with the Raven of today. Does the job it is designed to do.
B Tier
Raptor: I genuinely think this is OK, if your job is to fight Swifts and gunships with help rather than chasing down bombers. I would always have some Swifts though.
C Tier
Phoenix: Sometimes in the early game one or two of these are indicated against certain threats. Don't make these lategame, just find a way to get the job done with Raven or Likho instead.
Unclassifiable
Sparrow: If your team has an air factory, you're much better off begging for an Owl, but sometimes you have to make do.
Gunships
A Tier
Nimbus: I don't know that the meta is doing this any favours at present, but it's still decent at putting on pressure.
Revenant: I'm not terribly good with this, but it is getting popular as of late.
B Tier
Trident: Really quite good against planes, Swift in particular.
Harpy: The workhorse of Gunship factory.
Gnat: Niche, but if your opponent slacks on AA to protect their strider this is the punishment. Also has some early game uses.
C Tier
Locust: Doesn't seem very good at the moment, but maybe it's just unpopular. I could never get this to work even when it was objectively strong, so how should I know?
D Tier
Blastwing: Has an awful tendency to blow up before it does the job it is supposed to do.
F Tier
Krow: This flying metal donation is so bad that nothing else deserves to be in F tier alongside it.
Tactical Missiles
S Tier
Shockley, Eos: These solve problems that nothing else in the game, short of a superweapon, can solve.
B Tier
Inferno: Stop firing these at shields and other stuff it is useless against, I beg of you. Properly used this is fine.
Zeno: Throw these at armies in the late game if you have nothing better to do.
Unclassifiable
Quake: You'll know when you need this. Otherwise quite useless.
Endgame
S Tier
Trinity: At worst, forces single points of failure on your opponent. At best, ends the game on the spot.
A Tier
Paladin: For bullying your opponent around with the EMP missiles and safely getting attrition with the laser, Paladin is unmatched. Not the greatest unit in a pitched battle, though.
B Tier
Zenith: The standard superweapon at the moment, mostly on the basis of its cost. You don't have to be losing a game all that badly for Zenith to be unable to save you, in my experience.
Starlight: Obviously the best superweapon, if you can afford it. It would have to be a pretty weird game for this to be better than getting a Zenith 22K metal earlier, but stranger things have happened.
C Tier
Bertha: Does not end games. Can be okay on maps I do not choose to play.
Detriment: Giving this the benefit of the doubt. On the rare occasions a Detriment is in competent hands it can look pretty decent. Nevertheless, you are sinking an awful lot of metal into something that goes into enemy territory.
D Tier
Disco Rave Party: I am told this is terrible now. Not sure I 100 percent buy that, but I guess I will defer to the experience of people who actually make superweapons. If it's good anywhere it is when it won't have to traverse its turret much.