I tried to use the trader recently (with the tips of TKF). it worked but im not sure if I understand everything.
Ill tell what i did
I quickly buyed a trade-zep (teleported fast to CP with the tinker then blink over those 2 marines)
Then, i buyed 10 golds to get more than 20 woods
After, i did the trade circle that a guy mentioned in the trader's topic of TKF : goldmine>lumbermill>fountain> (dont remember the last one) (i got 1300gold each trade)
nway... all i wanna know is if i need to know something else.. do i need to combo trades ? and if some1 can send me a good replay of a trader.
Thx u so much
the tooltip guy you start with is able to teleport to the trade master. you dont have to buy a tinker and run to the trade master anymore.
anything else you described seems to be right. i dont have a trader replay, but i dont think you will see anything surprising in it.
one more hint: get a speed upgrade as fast as possible.
One thing that I do as a trader is I take the tool tip guy there and get the tinker and stick a troop module in the center tower to give a slight edge to my team if they are pushed that far back. Other than that I typically trade to 150 wood then trade 3 factories at that point I have 7k. You can set down 2 factories and push with the rest of your team and drop the 3rd strategically behind them. My choices on what to flip to are typically: Guard (as long as they dont have an exploder), Ghost (if a guard is present), or load up on explosives with my zep... you have to cloak or barrier in but you cant tele into their base anyways.
Other than that the 5k mine is great for griefing opposing traders... it's a one hit kill that never changes (the first mine can wear out it's usefulness if troop weapons arent upgraded fast enough) and many times the trader is looking for mines so they get sniped by a teammate.
If you decide to trade, it's tactical that you stay trader for the rest of the game. Your teammates gets more and more gold, and you can spend your gold at boosting force upgrades.
But I always buy speed after 5-6 min as highest priority, it speeds up the trade. Then you might decide your own strategy on which item you should save for. It could be troop command, orbital control, mines, speed pack.... These are just example. You can also buy laser towers on recently captured CP's to reinforce the position.
General trade hint:
If you are dark force. Trade at right lane; after collecting 20 wood in mid/near area
Right lane is important!
If you are light force. Trade at left lane; after collecting 20 wood in mid/near area
Left lane is important!
If you are dark force. Trade at right lane; after collecting 20 wood in mid/near area
Right lane is important!
If you are light force. Trade at left lane; after collecting 20 wood in mid/near area
Left lane is important!
Yes and no. You are right about the lanes, but not about the woodcollecting i think (not sure, since its been a long time now). I used to do this too, but i once saw someone going straight for the seller at the left (for dark force, light force is just opposite). And now i think that is best, because you cant go faster then the 'shop' reloads its item availability but the value you get from that shop is better then the one you get from the mid shops (and mosly less risks of getting caught up in the battle). However if you go mid, you might get more xp (from fights around you) earlier on, so that may be a plus for mid.
Batto Wrote:Yes and no. You are right about the lanes, but not about the woodcollecting i think (not sure, since its been a long time now). I used to do this too, but i once saw someone going straight for the seller at the left (for dark force, light force is just opposite). And now i think that is best, because you cant go faster then the 'shop' reloads its item availability but the value you get from that shop is better then the one you get from the mid shops (and mosly less risks of getting caught up in the battle). However if you go mid, you might get more xp (from fights around you) earlier on, so that may be a plus for mid.
what u mean by going straight for the seller at the left ???
and, do the combos at trade master (like teleporter) are valuable the prices ???
TKF Wrote:If you decide to trade, it's tactical that you stay trader for the rest of the game. Your teammates gets more and more gold, and you can spend your gold at boosting force upgrades.
There should be a lot of 'ifs' attached to this statement. It could just be the big disparity of the quality of players on Azeroth. Typically by the time I get to 150 wood I'm just the nail in the coffin. Beyond that 15 trades a round takes quite a while even with a speed pack and cp teles so spreading gold around isn't a big issue at that point.
As far as upgrades go I have the same trader experience as many others. Where I'm just throwing money away on a lousy team or my team is pwning and the extra gold and upgrades are marginal at best. Upgrades aren't what they used to be with the troop summon nerfs so I don't even bother with them. Gold is much better spent on mines and orbital control imho.
My worst experience as a trader is that going through the upgrade w/ me as a trader and a mediocre team vs a good player and a decent player and a couple of feeders that dropped. I was able to prop my team up and destroy everything but the castle at which point the other team bought a few factories and barricades and my team just fed as they were double or trippled healed. Once the other team amassed enough gold to get an infernal and a frost bot and a couple of lasers and a frost laser on the infernal they toasted my team and took over the map. Eventually I let the other team push into my base and released a ton of mortar teams and troop reinforcements as well as troop command and a seige pack for the buffs and debuffs and again took them down to just their castle when the frost infernal got the time to tele'd back and killed me. ... the point is... gold and upgrades will not win you a fight and gold and upgrades will not make a mediocre player a good player.
Other than that I trade to understand the trader and because most people don't understand the impact it can have in a 5v5 game.
edit: btw... the combos I like because you don't cut the combo trade in half and split it with your team. So if you're looking for a trade that only benefits you rather than the team then the combos are where it's at. That said... the bomb used to take too long and the speed pack you can upgrade to easily now. So the only one that I would do consistently was the factories... both on light and dark. I don't like the way the factories feed now so often I'd trade them but not set them down until I know we could win with a single hard push.
Batto Wrote:Yes and no. You are right about the lanes, but not about the woodcollecting i think (not sure, since its been a long time now). I used to do this too, but i once saw someone going straight for the seller at the left (for dark force, light force is just opposite). And now i think that is best, because you cant go faster then the 'shop' reloads its item availability but the value you get from that shop is better then the one you get from the mid shops (and mosly less risks of getting caught up in the battle). However if you go mid, you might get more xp (from fights around you) earlier on, so that may be a plus for mid.
what u mean by going straight for the seller at the left ???
Well, i meant the SHOP on the left. If you are dark force, you can start either with going to the 2 shops/sellers in the mid (gold and iron or something like that) OR you can go for the shop/seller on the left (i forgot what it sells, oil maybe?). It is the one that is closest to the left dark force factory. Hope you understand now what i mean.
Here's a replay of one of my trading games. Nothing special about it just that I noticed a drop in my gold when an ally was killed next to me. I'll be posting it to the bug forum once I watch it for the time sequence in which it happens.
Other than that I'm not sure if I did it in this one but lately I've been going upgraded speed, low lvl mine, 4 creep upgrades, sell low lvl mines for troop command, then save for Huge mines, more upgrades...
I've also been dropping items when doing circuts to complete combo trades. I.E. Dropping salt dark side close to the trade master after doing salt>water>wood circuits and then doing separate runs for cheese, and fossils to complete factories. Or dropping wood from the previous circuit to go back and do analysis results and skeletons for the troop command center.
BTW... the huge mines are nice to place in the other force's main base to destroy buildings when they trigger it. Since the explosion damage isn't reduced like explosive tanks are.
the most profitable trading spots are the ones in the half of the map opposite from your trader's half. If you just loop the 3 closest ones to your opponent, that's the best route.
A teleporter is also nice for when players are hunting you down or when you have to go into enemy territory to get a particular resource.
It's not just gold ... early game you need to stay mid to sponge exp. You also need to take into account wood and travel speed and travel time. Late game it's mostly gold but by then your team should have a severe lead. Teleporters and make no area safe and dropping items should be the norm.
Early on you also need to burn your shadow walk as much as possible to take advantage of the speed boost. Only when you go into enemy territory do you need to save it. Also you need to understand the mechanics of farming. Buying a troop command for farming and defense will help you upgrade faster especially if you sell the reinforcements back to lower your upgrade costs.
Lastly if your guys are having trouble picking up territory well placed mines can help them out by quite a bit whether or not the other team sees them... btw Traders are the best mine layers since they can shadow walk and place them anywhere and the other team has to look for them rather than just observing movements.
