Advent Need early game help

New patch has taken away all options for Advent rushes

Currently Advent have no hope on the rush, untill they get a battleball going they cant fight off the other 2 races early game fleets.

Illums are good but on the rush they will get beaten by other things because they have poor forward dmg (as they should have)

Lfs are easily countered because all races tech up to lrfs quickly for the rush. scouts still work, but are not viable unless you already have a 3-1 ratio of scouts out otherwise you wont be able to keep up.

The only other option that seems worthwhile is Bomber rush with flack. I have tried this and it is ok on the rush, but is not really near as strong as a dual cap lrf spam that the other 2 races use. And Lfs mixed in with enemy fleets make it difficult to really use bombers, especially since advent cant compete with Vas and skinantras bombers.

Advent late game is quite good, with pacts from other races you can easily get HCs doing 33+ dmg and with gaurdians and sheild restore it makes a nice end game fleet. But early game i beleive they are lacking. Any thoughts on how this can be fixed? or am i just being a noob like usual and missing something?

[_]-Uber

p.s. i am not asking for buffs to illums or anything, just allowing Advent to compete somehow on the original rush.

10,490 views 10 replies
Reply #1 Top

Advent were never really supposed to be a powerful early game race. Quick start reversed that, but now that the illum has been toned down, they're a little more like they used to be. I don't really see that as a problem other than that people who are used to being able to stomp other races early as Advent now have a fairer fight on their hands. I haven't really noticed much of a disadvantage for Advent on the defensive side of the rush, but on the offensive side they're much weaker now. 

The forward damage isn't great for the illum, but that just puts them back to the old engage point blank strategy for them, or even the circle and shoot with sidebeams strategy. Old school most certainly. Advent can still kick some arse. I still see people doing dual halo rushes, with seekers and illums accompanying, and having some success.

Yeah they aren't the early game powerhouse anymore, but IMO they were never supposed to be so I got no problem with it.

Something startling that I have noticed is how bad Assailants murderize cap ships now, even without the Evacuators nanites. Maybe they'd just been overshadowed by how fast illums used to do it, but to me it seems like these days theyre eating cap ships faster than fat kids eat cake.

Reply #2 Top

Well all that changed was what needed to be changed in my opinion.  Illums were ridiculous, so the bug was fixed.  Scouts were ridiculous, so all of them got nerfed.  Skirms were ridiculous, so they got buffed.  Scramble bombers was a poor ability so it got a little buff.

It seems that your complaint is that you are having trouble rushing other players successfully with Advent, not that you are having trouble fending off a rush?  If it is the former, I really don't think anything should be changed at this point.  If it is the latter, I have a little more sympathy, as I believe it should be possible to defend a rush.

Either way though, I've always thought it wrong to balance the game around rushes, *ESPECIALLY* rush games played on crowded rush maps on ICO.

Reply #3 Top

Maybe they'd just been overshadowed by how fast illums used to do it, but to me it seems like these days theyre eating cap ships faster than fat kids eat cake.
End of quote

I've been saying it, I will continue to say it:  Caps cannot properly support the fleet because of lrms and bombers.  They can have an early role before substantial numbers of lrms and bombers hit the field, but once that happens, your caps will be sitting on the sidelines, or they will be dead.

If Sins 2 is ever created, they need to address this.  The best solution is probably to make it so that caps are essentially only countered by other caps.  As for now, I've gone back to super old school of just building colonizer cap, and using it strictly for colonizing.  It doesn't see battles, therefore it doesn't get killed, and when opponents fight me, they have no cap to target.

The assailant thing might be more noticeable now simply because in the last patch, you really couldn't field assailants, as outrageous as that sounds.  They got slaughtered by seekers or illums, so personally I had no choice at that time but to push starbases and build tons of flak.

Reply #4 Top

True.  However, I consider them about where they should be.  And yes, Assailants are awesome late game, but they always were, its just that Illums were so OP that you never really noticed...

Though Agent, the reason of course is that more of these balance changes aren't going to do much for the average player on SP.  They are only going to make a difference for those on MP, and on MP, people rush.  People want to win as quickly and as effectively as possible.  That means rushing.  For that reason, the game will be balanced around it.  Sorry, but that's the way it is.

Reply #5 Top

Good, the Advent's main strength was always supposed to be synergies, and this pretty much means that they should be weaker early game. Besides, they still have the Halycon rush, with should be able to counter early lrf fleets if you pick fighters. I'm afraid I need some real solid numbers to even agree they are a lot worse early game than the other two.

Reply #6 Top

People want to win as quickly and as effectively as possible. That means rushing. For that reason, the game will be balanced around it. Sorry, but that's the way it is.
End of quote

Actually, I don't think the devs will balance the entire game around less than 1% of all their customers who like to play multiplayer on crowded rush maps.  We are talking about a couple hundred people here.  They will listen to MP folks about unit to unit balance and things of this nature, but not anything else, nor should they (and by the way, I only play MP).

Good, the Advent's main strength was always supposed to be synergies, and this pretty much means that they should be weaker early game.
End of quote

Well maybe so, but either way they were just ridiculously over the top last patch, in all phases of the game, especially on the rush.  I say they deserved the smack-down they got.

Reply #7 Top

Quoting Agent, reply 6


Actually, I don't think the devs will balance the entire game around less than 1% of all their customers who like to play multiplayer on crowded rush maps.  We are talking about a couple hundred people here.  They will listen to MP folks about unit to unit balance and things of this nature, but not anything else, nor should they (and by the way, I only play MP).


Good, the Advent's main strength was always supposed to be synergies, and this pretty much means that they should be weaker early game.


Well maybe so, but either way they were just ridiculously over the top last patch, in all phases of the game, especially on the rush.  I say they deserved the smack-down they got.
End of Agent's quote

 

So what you are saying is that advent deserves to be lower than everyone else because you thought they were OP in previous patches and balance be damned.....nice.  Also I like the fact that you say you only play MP despite your many MANY rantings against multiplayer in various threads.  Its very classy of you I must say. 

I don't mind being a little weak early game myself if I make up for it in other ways.  Advent used to be the weak one anyways early game before quick start because of lab/neutral advantages that vasari had.  Advent could use some love though or the buffs given to other races can be nerfed some(I mean 900 tax free supply from pacts are a bit crazy while advent gets crap relatively). 

 

[_]-Greyfox

Reply #8 Top

If Advent were not weaker in the early game, then they never would have been kicked out of the Empire and the Solar Empire would have never Sinned. =D

Reply #9 Top

Also I like the fact that you say you only play MP despite your many MANY rantings against multiplayer in various threads.
End of quote

But that's the point, dumbass.  Yes, I play MP.  Yes, I'm willing to criticize MP.  That makes me more objective than, say, an SP who does nothing but slag MP.