Guide to supportive ClassesPlease feel free to post this to other forums, as long as you credit me for it
IntroductionSupportive classes in Savage 2 are Builders and Healers. Humans have "Builders" and "Chaplains", Beasts have "Conjurers" and "Shamans". Each has different skills and uses. As with all, the human units are more defensive, while the beast units are more offensive.
As you can't play a healer from the start of the game (I actually commanded several games where we won before I could even get healers), I will explain the builder-units first.
Building-UnitsGeneral InformationBuilding-Units are great for supporting the rest of the team through the whole match!
Too many of them can ruin it, though, especially when they are not played correctly.
A common mistake is to stay around at the base all the time, waiting for the commander to start a building and then rushing to it and being idle or even bugging the commander to build the rest of the time. If you want to help your team, go with them!
For example: at the very beginning of the match, the commander needs to build the base-mine and a forward garrisson/sublair. Unexperienced players like to "stay at home" and build the base-mine, which is not needed, because the comm can easily spawn an NPC-worker (Journeyman or Sapling) and use it to build the mine. Players should instead rush to the outpost the comm wants to take. Most comms ping a certain mine right at the start or draw or chat about it. If a commander sees a builder going to that mine, he will probably even speed him. So go there, kill the NPC that guard it and prepare to help building the forward outpost. This thing has to go up as fast as possible, so your team can spawn from there after their first rush at the enemy. Also, you are responsible for fighting back any lonely enemies that try to attack the outpost. A good commander will mark them for you. After the outppost went up, it has to get a mine for additional income. Sometimes your commander is busy de-/buffing the troops in the first battle, so you might want to join that battle instead of waiting. Ususally the base-mine is finished by now, too and the commander can get his NPC-worker to build the outpost-mine.
Got the idea? Great! Apply it to all outposts through the whole match!
Additional hint: building-units do additional melee-damage to enemy-buildings, so they are valuable for destroying the forward-outpost of the enemy.
Both classes have a "Build" ability, which is only available if the team has no commander and should as such only be used by experienced players, because you can fuck up a lot of things with it!
ConjurerOfficial description.
The conjurer has lower HP but more armor compared to its human counterpart. Additionally, he does slightly more melee damage and has faster attack-speeds.
His ranged attack also does more damage, but is significantly slower, so be sure to switch to melee soon enough. As a "special feature", this attack applies poison to the target, so they lose health continously. Because of that, you should always try to apply one hit before you go melee.
The "Entangle Trap" is usefull if there is a group of enemies running close together or a scout who tries to get away (in former times and maybe again in the future, it was also used against Maliken): It is an AoE (Area of Effect) -Spell and all enemies in that area will be unable to move for 3 seconds. They can still attack, though, so don't get into their melee-range, use your ranged weapon instead and/or place a Venus.
The "Poisonous Venus" is like a small turret. It lives for 20 seconds and shoots at enemies. Its projectiles travel quite slow and it has a slow refirering-rate. Because it applies poison, too, however, its potential DPS (Damage Per Second) is higher than the turret of the human Builder. Your team needs a nexus to unlock this tool.
A "Mana Fountain" is a most valuable gadget during the later phases of a match. Players can refresh 50% of their mana here, so it is important support for Shamans and Tempests (the ranged beast-siege).
BuilderOfficial unit-description.
The human builder is a very important unit to learn, because you cannot only spawn it from the start, but you also get it, if you abandon your siege-unit!
They have two ranged weapons: The "Scattergun" (often called shotgun), which is available from the beginning, does higher damage, but has a lower fireing-rate and low accuracy, and the "Semi-Auto Rifle", which becomes availble through the armory.
The armory also gives access to the "Steam Turret" and the "Shield Generator". Some words on the shield-gen first: It creates a shield, but it is completely different from shield-towers! Shield towers strengthen the buildings, so they take less damage from any attack, Shield-Generators, however, block
ANY ranged attacks! Yes, also those from your team! Yes, also those from your towers! Yes, also siege! So, NEVER place a shield-generator next to one of your teams towers, because they cannot attack enemies then, NEVER place a shield-gen next to a steambuchet (ranged human siege), because it will block its attacks. Usefull places for shield-gens include (but are not limited to) enemy towers (place a shield-gen right next to it and it can't fire anymore), endangered forward-garrissons (you can shield them while they go up), tech-buildings under siege (yes, a shield-gen can block meteors).
The "Steam Turret" is basically a standalone repeater (first rifle of the Savage-unit), which fires for 20 seconds.
The "Supply Depot" (or ammo-depot) provides a full reload for the ranged weaponry of other players, and is as such valuable to marksmen and Legionaires, who attack an enemy base with ranged weapons to take down the towers.
Human builders can repair siege units!
Healer-UnitsGeneral InformationKnow the items! In Clan-Matches, you probably won't be allowed to use persistant items, so you need to know the mana-effects of the other items! Stack up on potions and other stuff, as soon as you can! You don't lose them when you die anymore! Mana is your most important resource, so you want to spend a lot of points on intelligence if you plan on going healer exclusively.
Healer-units are quite weak, so try to stay close to your teammates who can defend you (but not too close
).
Both units do equal melee-damage. They do additional damage to Hellbourne-units.
The healing- and resurrection-spells can be used on anyone anytime, but you should focus them on officers, as they can place portals and increase the preassure your team may apply that way.
ChaplainOfficial unit-description.
Unless his beasty counterpart, the chaplain has a ranged attack, called "Holy Bolt". The projectiles travel slowly and are quite visible, so the can be dodged by almost all units. However, after a Malphas or Devourer has used up his charge, they are very slow and can easily be attacked with this.
The "Heal" ability restores 120 HP over a period of 2 seconds in the target. This means that the effect is NOT instant!
The "Group Heal" ability restores 50 HP over 1 second and is AoE. As it has more than twice the cost of snap-cast heal, it should only be used if you can hit 5 or more teammates or in emergencies (you can heal yourself with it or save an officer from death).
However, "Resurrect" costs slightly less mana and brings a dead teammate back to life with 50% of his HP restored. But be aware: this spell has a long casting-time and you and your target can be attacked in this time! And neither you nor your target are able to defend yourselves!
Last but not least, "Will of God" reduces the armor of an enemy by 75% for 20 seconds. This is extremely usefull against Behemoths who are coming into your base. Debuff them as soon as they are in tower-range, so they take higher damage!
ShamanOfficial unit-descriptionThe Shaman is a most valuable support-unit for every beast-offence!
He has no ranged weapon and is quite weak, so he should stay in the background.
With his "Entangle" spell, he can demobilize enemy units for 3.5 seconds. So it lasts slightly longer than the counterpart from the conjurer, but it's only snap-cast! It should be used on charging enemies (hard to aim), especially those incoming for your towers.
"Mind Warp" is mostly useless against experienced players. It keeps them from using special attacks, but with some training you can easily ignore the "warp"-effect and aim your attacks precisely. However, it is great to confuse newbies and reduces the enemy-speed by 33%.
The "Storm Shield" protects any teammate from any ranged attacks for 20 seconds and is as such very usefull if your comrades attack towers. Like most buffs, it can't be applied on siege, though. If you plan on applying it on a shapeshifter, be sure to wait until he activated his sacrifice ability, because the shield will be dispelled by activating it. Generally you should shield him about 10 seconds after he activated it, so he can savely travel to the tower and bomb it.
With "Reinvigorate" you can heal a single player by 120 HP over 3 seconds. Note that this is slower than the Chaplain's heal! Also, it costs more mana.
"Reincarnate" is the Shaman's resurrection-spell. Same rules as for Chaplain apply.
Additionaly, the Shaman has two auras: Health- and Mana-regeneration. They are quite expensive (starting costs and constant mana-drain), so they should only be used when you can affect a lot of teammates or in special situations (Healing aura also heals yourself, Mana-Aura to support Tempests).
Shamans can heal siege units!
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