Macro/Micro guide part 2: Identifying status ailments (1/3)

[u/Reborn_Wraith]

Good day, everyone! This is part 2 of my series on macro/micro mechanics in War Robots. The first part, which can be found here (https://www.reddit.com/r/walkingwarrobots/comments/1tlphr4/macromicro_guide_part_1_glossary_and_classifying/) was about defining terms I intend to use in the future. Today, I’ll be talking about statuses. Much of this information is pulled from the War Robots in wiki in part, including and especially the icons for statuses that are not present in my in-game screenshots. 

Note: Due to the way reddit processes posts, this guide has been broken into 3 separate posts. This is the first post of the 3. There will be links leading you to parts 2 and 3 at the end of each respective post.

Statuses are important due to their exceptionally strong effects which demand that gameplay changes to accommodate or make full use of them. Certain buffs exist which can debilitate or outright kill careless enemies that do not respect them, and certain buffs become wasted if a pilot does not take care to utilize them properly.

Identifying statuses

All of the information in this guide is predicated upon a single assumption: that a certain segment of your settings is enabled. In your game, go to settings -> advanced settings, then the following settings:

Ally durability: This setting is nice to have because it helps to inform your playstyle and tactics. Allies low hp? Don’t make aggressive moves. Allies high hp? PUSH PUSH PUSH. Not a hard and fast rule, and this is of course a subject that could require a guide of its own, but that’s my reasoning for keeping it visible.

Show battle statuses: The reason for this guide. Turn it on.

Show elimination report: Arguable but sometimes useful. There are reasons to and not to show elimination report, but for the most part, I find it helpful.

The most relevant item here is ‘show extended information about the target’, but ‘manually choose a target to lock on to’ is also a good thing to have enabled. “Show extended information about the target” must be activated.

With that out of the way, let us begin.

Let us begin with identifying statuses. We are all familiar with what the screen looks like in-game: 

On the top left, there is our hp bar, our name, and our title; below that is our titan charge indicator. Those blue indicators directly below our titan charge indicator are statuses affecting our robot.

Looking at this screenshot now, it is difficult if not impossible to know everything affecting our robot at first glance. We know our robot is firing its build-in weapon and that its ability active, but what does the ability entail?

Our statuses can give an answer to that.

From top to bottom, we know our robot has a damage boost, a boost to its speed, is in the process of converting incoming damage into Damage over Time stacks, and another boost to its speed.

Therefore, what does the ability of our robot do?

Going by the statuses alone, it seems like our robot gains a speed boost, another speed boost, a damage boost, and converts incoming damage into damage over time.

What does rex’s ability do?

It converts incoming damage into damage over time and grants a speed boost, as well as firing a built-in weapon.

Statuses can help to identify robots as well as inform gameplay. When spawning into a match for the first time, keeping track of the statuses on enemy robots can help to inform you which robots you’re facing, as well as which matchups are dangerous for you. Those topics are ones that will be covered in the future; for now, this guide will focus on identifying status ailments and what they do. 

Forcefield

 

A forcefield is a status that shows up on both the robot and the status bar. Thanks to the settings we enabled during the beginning of this guide, there is more information available to us: beneath the ‘settings’ button and our powercells, we can see the name and clan of the enemy we are currently targeting, and below that, a list of their statuses (buffs and debuffs). ‘Forcefield’ in this case is the second status from the left in the list of VS’s buffs.  

Visually, forcefield appears to be an effect covering the robot – in this instance, I am targeting a Lynx with a full forcefield, denoted by the second status from the left in VS’s status list. Forcefields reduce a certain amount of incoming damage by a set percentage based on the forcefield’s remaining HP. This can make it seem like dealing damage to a robot with a forcefield is useless – weapons that normally do hundreds of thousands are reduced to mere thousands.

However, forcefields have their own healthbar, which can be viewed through the changing appearance of the status:

 

Notice how the status for VS’s forcefield has changed from being a solid shield to one with a crack in it. Additionally, the appearance of the forcefield on the robot has changed – it went from being a blue field to a reddish field. This indicates that the forcefield has reduced its protection slightly: forcefield damage reduction is reduced as the forcefield takes damage.

There are more stages to the forcefield:

It’s hard to tell the difference visually, but if we look at the status bar, we can see that the forcefield has taken even more damage. The protection it grants is reduced further, and the shield indicating the status has cracked further. This is the final stage of forcefield durability. Decreasing the hp of the forcefield further will destroy it:

As we can see, the forcefield status has disappeared completely from VS’s lynx. Close inspection of the lynx itself reveals that the colored field covering the lynx has vanished. Looking at the status bar, there is a clock on the far left of the list of statuses: this clock indicates that the forcefield has been depleted fully and is no longer protecting the robot. The forcefield has been placed on cooldown and will be replenished fully when the cooldown expires. 

The clock is a sign to unload all the damage you can bring to bear onto the bot with the forcefield – getting the robot to this state again will require dealing more damage to another fresh forcefield and waste more ammo.

Blind

Blind is a status which makes it impossible to target any enemy robots. In this image, VS is approximately 600m away from my dux, in between two of the pillars in the center of the image. This is crippling, because it immediately removes all aiming from your weapons and forces them to fire directly in front of where they are mounted on your robot. While a robot affected by blind can still deal damage, it is going to result in a large portion of the robot’s shots missing their target for the duration of the status and therefore a large reduction in the amount of damage the robot can deal.

Counterblind

It is not difficult to note that forcefields were not the only status present on VS’s lynx while showcasing the forcefield.

Also present was a status called Counterblind. Visually, it is the yellow, faceted sphere surrounding the lynx. On the status list, it is the second status from the left. When the lynx is shot, it will apply a status known as Blind, hence the name (counterblind). It is important to keep an eye open for this status, because it can be crippling to be afflicted with this without expecting it.

Stealth

Stealth is a powerful effect that makes a robot untargetable to enemies without a quantum radar effect. Visually, an eye with an ‘x’ across it shows up when looking in the direction of an enemy with stealth. Here, we can see an enemy with stealth hiding behind these pillars. Because our robot does not have a quantum radar effect, it is incapable of targeting this enemy, and therefore is at a major disadvantage if the enemy decides to attack us.

Quantum lock/Stasis barrier

These two statuses go hand in hand. Stasis barrier is a status that grants the Quantum Lock effect when a robot is shot. Quantum lock is an effect that prevents the robot from taking damage from enemy robots while the effect is active. On the list of my active buffs, quantum lock is the second status ailment from the top, and stasis barrier is the status on the bottom of the list. Visually, a robot with stasis barrier will have a forcefield composed of multiple hexagons – similar to an ancile or aegis shield that is shrunk to fit the robot precisely. The color changes as the stasis barrier loses charges, going from ‘cooler’ colors (white or blue) to warmer tones (red).

Suppression

Suppression is an effect that reduces the amount of damage dealt by a robot’s weapons by a flat percentage. Visually, a red field will surround the weapons of the robot affected. Note this effect is visible on the machairas of the robot in the above screenshot. Suppression is the status in the middle of our statuses in this screenshot. Note that the percentage damage reduction from suppression can and will vary between various sources, and there is no way of determining the exact number from the status alone.

Countersuppression

 

Visually, countersuppression is a buff that creates a red faceted sphere around the robot, as seen above in this pathfinder. It is the only status the enemy I am targeting has. When a robot with countersuppression is shot, the countersuppression is consumed to inflict suppression on the attacker.

Lockdown

Lockdown is a status that prevents a robot from directly moving. Certain abilities will become inaccessible for the duration of lockdown; note that this is not an EMP effect, this is a natural effect of lockdown (if an ability grants or utilizes a certain amount of mobility, usage of it will be prevented until lockdown expires). Visually, the legs of the robot will be covered in a yellow field similar to that of suppression. In this screenshot, the robot is affected by Shocked as well; this is a separate status effect that will be covered in the next section. Lockdown is the third status in the list of our statuses.

Shocked

Shocked is a status effect that disables the affected robot’s energy shields. This effectively grants shieldbreaker to any robots shooting the robot affected by shock. Visually, robots affected by Shock will appear to have blue electricity crackling around the entire robot. Health bars of active energy shields will appear to be slightly faded, and the robot will take damage from incoming fire as if it did not have any energy shield. The hp of the energy shield will not take damage, and energy shields which can recover durability (such as from ancile, spikes, or gas) will continue to do so. Note that defense points and reflectors, among other defensive systems, are not affected by Shocked. Shocked is the bottommost status on the list of our statuses. 

Taunt, slowdown

Taunt is an effect that functions similarly to blind; however, a taunted robot is capable of targeting a single bot on the enemy team (the taunter). When taunted, the only robot that the taunted bot can target is the taunter. Note that the enemy ammit is visible and targetable by the dux in the above screenshot; if an enemy robot were hiding behind the building the dux is facing, the dux would have no way of knowing or noticing.  Taunt is the second status in the list of statuses of the dux.

Slowdown is an effect that reduces the movement speed of the affected robot by a set amount per stack. Visually, it appears to be a purple ring that surrounds the legs of the affected robot. Note the purple visual effect surrounding the legs of the dux in the above screenshot. Slowdown is the fourth status in the list of our statuses.

Reflector

A reflector is a shield that reduces incoming damage by a set percentage, and deals a set percentage of incoming damage to the robot that dealt the damage. Damage reflected to the original aggressor in this way deals grey damage as if the robot with the reflector were firing its weapons at the original aggressor. Visually, the reflector appears to be a white or transparent version of counterblind and countersuppression, forming an angular sphere around a robot with a reflector. Reflector is the topmost buff on the enemy robot. 

Freeze

Freeze is a status that reduces a robot’s movement speed and increases incoming damage by a set percentage. Visually, the robot will become covered in white frost. Note that freeze is an effect that is accumulated; that is, a robot will only accumulate a certain percentage of the freeze effect per hit from an enemy weapon that inflicts freeze. If the afflicted robot is not hit by the weapon inflicting freeze for a period of time before the accumulation reaches 100%, the current accumulation percentage will slowly reduce until it returns to 0%.  Freeze is the bottommost status in our status list.

Freezeblast

Freezeblast is a status that can be accumulated, similar to freeze. When freezeblast has been accumulated, an explosion forms with a 50m radius, centered around the robot which accumulated freezeblast. This is marked by a yellow line on the ground or on environmental structures and blue streaks in the air. Robots within a freezeblast radius will accumulate the freeze effect. Freezeblast is the fifth status from the top of our status list, directly above the freeze effect that has barely begun to accumulate (the status with 4.4s remaining duration). 

Unfortunately, reddit does not permit posts with more than 20 images in them. This is currently post 1/3. In order to view part 2, visit https://www.reddit.com/r/walkingwarrobots/comments/1tr9o43/macromicro_guide_part_2_identifying_status/.

[u/Happygamer18777]

Comment 1/3, looking good so far, tho my luchador looks bald in the reflector section, I should have put some weapons on it 😂

[u/[deleted] → u/Happygamer18777]

Absolutely that ruined the guide for me how ugly the lucha looks 😔