Advice for New Players

Key Features

  • Battle Tanks (Warcraft 3 custom map) is a 5 vs 5 moba with two forces: Dark Force and Light Force.
  • The main goal is to destroy the enemy base.
  • Every player has to pick a tank in the beginning. During the progress of the game, you switch to different (more expensive) tanks with more HP and more powerful abilities.
  • The bases are located bottom-left (Dark Force) and top-right (Light Force) and 3 lanes (top, middle and bottom) connect the two bases. Both forces spawn creeps, which fight on the lanes. Additionally, each lane has 1 control point for each team. A control point heals allied tanks and it allows you to teleport to the base and to different control points controlled by your team. You can also conquer enemy control points. You usually need to conquer the enemy control points, before you have access to, and before you can destroy their base.
  • The midlane spawns more creeps than the sidelanes (top and bottom). That’s why the best line up is 1v1 top, 3v3 mid and 1v1 bottom.
  • Your tank doesn’t have an attack, but instead you can buy weapons (items) from several shops. Each weapon has a custom range, damage and cooldown. Your weapons fire permanently, even while walking or channeling abilities. They attack random targets in range and with the position of your tank you can kinda control what your weapons attack.
  • There are several support items which e.g. increase your HP or your movement speed (combinable)

Goals in the early game

  • The most important thing in the early game is farming creeps. It’s nice if you can kill your opponents, but not that important. On the other hand it’s also important to survive without dying (often refered to as ‘feeding’).
  • To properly farm in the early game, you could buy, for example, a Scout (a tank with a special anti-creep-cannon as an ability) or the Multi Bow (weapon). This weapon attacks only creeps and has therefore higher damage. I would not recommend it to you. First, this weapon will be useless later and you can barely hurt your enemy. 2nd, you get more farm than usual, which can hurt your allies in the midlane. If you take all the farm, but can’t carry the game your team will have a hard time. And the last thing I want to mention: By varying your position, you can control which creeps or tanks you attack (your weapons have a limited range). Training this, you will get a good feeling of how far your weapons can attack. A skilled player can easily get the same farm with either a Multi Bow or a Basic Magic.
  • So… what should you do to farm properly? The most important thing is the Tank-Cannon (T). Each tank has a tank-cannon as an ability, which is basically another weapon. You should get the tank-cannon in level 1 and upgrade it to level 2 when your tank reaches level 4. The Tank-Cannon level 2 is comparable to a Upgraded Basic Magic and therefore really worth it in level 4. This goes for all tanks! The next time you should upgrade the Tank-Cannon level is in level 8 or 9 (depending on the tank).
  • How to skill the abilities? As explained above, in level 1 and 4 the Tank-Cannon is a must-have. Personally, I prefer to get in level 2 a 2nd ability (like Tripple Rocket with Light Tank or Helicopter) and in level 3 I save my skillpoints. Then I have 2 remaining Skillpoints in level 4 and I upgrade Tank-Cannon to level 2 and e.g. the Tripple Rocket to level 2. – Upgrading items: If you buy a new weapon or hull in the early game, its usually good to upgrade it as soon as possible.

Useful Builds for New Players

  1. Scout + Electro Cannon (if you randomed) otherwise 2x Basic Magic
  2. Light Tank + 2x Basic Magic
  3. Helicopter + Light Plasma Gun
  4. Antigrav + Molotov
  5. Medivac + Poison Blaster
  6. Distributor + Basic Magic
  7. Raider + Basic Magic
  8. Demolisher + Basic Magic

Extended builds:

  1. Light Tank + 2x Basic Magic
    • Upgrade both Basic Magics
    • Buy 1 Iron Hull and upgrade it
    • Buy 1 Basic Magic and upgrade it
    • If you have problems surviving, you can upgrade the Iron Hull to the Kinetic Shield now (not necessary)
    • Save for a bigger tank, e.g. Airship or Heavy Tank. There is no such thing as a “best tank” – it depends on the situation. Usually you try to farm as long as possible without feeding. This means if you can farm 10.000 gold without feeding you should get a Demon Tank. If you have a hard time, you might wanna go for the cheap Airship (4500 gold). I would not recommend anything below the Airship.
  2. Helicopter + Light Plasma Gun
    • Upgrade your Plasma Gun
    • Buy 1 Iron Hull and upgrade it
    • If you have lots of gold, buy another Light Plasma Gun – otherwise one Basic Magic. Upgrade it.
    • Same goal as the Light Tank: Save for a bigger tank.
  3. Demolisher + Basic Magic
    • Upgrade the Basic Magic
    • Buy another 1 Basic Magic and upgrade it
    • Now two possibilities (you need to find out which suits you best): Another Upgraded Basic-Magic and then an upgraded Iron or Steelhull (depends on how much gold you have). OR: 1 Iron Hull and then another Basic Magic.
    • Now save for a bigger tank. With demolisher you can usually save for a bigger tank with 7500+ gold.