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When to Upgrade What
Published on March 23, 2014 By Shiny_Man In Strategy

I've always personally wanted to make a chart representing what Titan abilities should be upgraded on each level.  So here we go.  I'm not confident on some of the choices, so feel free to comment and change.

As a basic starter:  Hull is always one of the first 2 upgrades for any titan on any level (as long as it is available).  The next ability should be one that uses antimatter (so that it at least has an ability to use), but that rule is disregarded with the Vorastra and Coronata.  As for level 2, I've always been curious as to whether upgrade weapons & antimatter, or do another ability with one of the latter (again, excluding the Vorastra and Coronata).  Here lately I've been doing weapons & antimatter and have been pleased with the results. 

When level 6 comes around, of course the ultimate ability is the first pick, but after that I've always hesitated on what to do next: primarily whether to upgrade weapons or antimatter.  Usually I just go by feel of the game and by what abilities I have previously upgraded.

Once the titan gets past level 6, it pretty much doesn't matter what you upgrade, because the game is probably over with by that point.

 

Level:                                                             1        2        3        4        5        6        7        8         9        10

Ankylon:           Disruption Matrix                   X                  X                  X

                         Furious Defense

                         Group Shield                           

                         Inspire and Impair                                                                  X

              (Hull)   Fortified Superstructure          X                 X                  X

       (Weapons)   Superior Gunnery                           X                  X                  X

     (Antimatter)   Antimatter Funneling                      X                  X

 

Ragnarov:         Scattershot                           X                  X                 X

                         Snipe

                         Explosive Shot

                         Overcharge                                                                             X

              (Hull)   High-Stress Alloys                  X                  X                 X

      (Weapons)   Composite Mounts                          X                    X                  X

    (Antimatter)   Magnetic Containment                    X                    X


Coronata:         Subjugation

                         Suppression Aura                   X                  X                  X

                         Unity Mass                                    X                     X

                         Repossession                                                                           X

              (Hull)   Psi-Reactive Armor                 X                  X                  X

      (Weapons)   Adaptive Weapons                          X                    X                  X

    (Antimatter)   Psi-Containment


Eradica:            Purification

                         Chastic Burst                         X                  X                  X

                         Strength of the Fallen

                         Unyielding Will                                                                          X

              (Hull)   Unity Armor                           X                  X                  X

      (Weapons)   Energy Manipulation                        X                    X                   X

    (Antimatter)   Reactive Containment                     X                     X


Vorastra:          Micro Phase Jump                           X                     X

                         Desperation                           X                   X                  X

                         Deploy Phase Stabilizer

                         The Maw                                                                                   X

              (Hull)   ****                                     X                  X                   X

       (Weapons)   ****                                             X                     X                  X

    (Antimatter)   ****


Kultorask:         Nano Leech                         X                     X                  X

                          Nano Remit

                          Gravity Pulse 

                          Dissever                                                                                    X

               (Hull)   ****                                  X                     X                  X

       (Weapons)   ****                                            X                      X                    X

     (Antimatter)   ****                                            X                      X

 

I probably should have just made a table in word or something, but hopefully this will work too.


Comments (Page 1)
2 Pages1 2 
on Mar 23, 2014

I dont know if this is meant to be for compstomping or competitive multiplayer against people, since there can be surely difference in approach, but anyway...

in case of stomping AIs i like my Vorastra to end up with 4 points in MPJ, 4 points in Desperation, 4 points in Spawn Phase Stabiliser, 2 points in Maw, 3 points in weapon damage and 3 points in Antimatter Regen. I dont really upgrade hull, since the Titan can have over 11000 hitpoints at max level with all the researches anyway...and you can always teleport out of harm´s way.

as far as to what to upgrade when, i usually concentrate on MPJ, Desperation and weapons at first, to improve the damage output and thus get faster to higher levels and the Maw. Then come the higher levels of Phase Stabiliser and the final upgrade are 2 points into Antimatter.

 

on Mar 23, 2014

There is no "right" way that you should upgrade titans. Like cap abilities, it is situational, meaning you need to take into account other peoples skill level and what is actually going on in the game itself. For example, you might choose to get explosive shot instead of scatter on the 1st level if theres alot of light frigates still in the game. That being said, idk why you would choose to ever get AM because i have more than enough after i get past level 2. It is puzzling you dont put at least one point into each ability because of this. Spamming scatter and explosive together is one of the most powerful combos in the game.

on Mar 23, 2014

Sinkillr
Spamming scatter and explosive together is one of the most powerful combos in the game.

Indeed it is. At least with frigates. Scatter shot to the face then pop an explosive shot in the middle and bye bye frigate fleet.

on Mar 23, 2014


Scatter shot to the face then pop an explosive shot in the middle

I couldnt help laughing at that one...

on Mar 23, 2014

One important consideration is if you will be leveling your Titan first at the pirates, via militia, or a planned wail/rb...as an example, if you have an eradica then purification is going to be better than a hull upgrade if you are at lvl one and will be fighting another player...but if you are going to the pirate base, you are better off getting an AM upgrade so you can quickly chastic burst them...also remember AM upgrades reduce ability cooldown so it's not just about AM supply...

on Mar 23, 2014

Putting points into abilities directly also reduces cooldown so that is a moot point... 

on Mar 23, 2014

Disruption Matrix, Furious Defenses, Scattershot, Explosive Shot, Chastic Burst, Unity Mass, Repossession, The Maw, Nano Leech, Nano Remit, and Dissever all have the same cooldown at each level, so it certainly is not moot...

I'd say Snipe, Purification, and Micro Phase Jump are the only three significant abilities that have decreasing cooldowns with each level...spawning phase gates does too, but since the cooldowns are so long to begin with, I'd still find the reduction useful...besides, these aren't competing things -- you aren't picking an AM upgrade over another level of a key ability, you are picking an AM upgrade over a hull or damage upgrade...

What would you rather have, chastic burst 10% more often or 15% more base damage?  I know what I'd pick....

Especially for TEC, who have no passive abilities, AM is an issue at the lower levels...you may not necessarily plan on going for all 4 AM upgrades, but 1 or 2 are very nice for the first three or four titan levels...I've even ran out of AM with low level Eradica's or Vorastras in the past, but I haven't had that issue since picking an AM upgrade at lvl 1 or 2 (usually 2)...

on Mar 23, 2014

Seleuceia

What would you rather have, chastic burst 10% more often or 15% more base damage?  I know what I'd pick....

*Checks wiki for chastic burst numbers*

*Sees it progressing from 500 damage to 715, an increase of 43%*

*Shakes head at being trolled by Seleuceia again*

 

And dude, would it trouble you to use at least one period? Lol.

 

on Mar 23, 2014

Seleuceia
you aren't picking an AM upgrade over another level of a key ability, you are picking an AM upgrade over a hull or damage upgrade

Reading comprehension?  Reading context?  Do you have these?????  Base damage of titan weapons, not damage of the ability....

 

on Mar 23, 2014

Wtf dude? In the context of your post and this entire thread we were clearly talking about AM upgrade vs ability upgrade. On one hand the former makes the antimatter pool bigger and reduces cooldowns for all abilities while the latter buffs each ability drastically.

Maybe its you who needs to learn how to read. And classic dodging by Sel, not even bothering to acknowledge my point about chastic burst. It doesnt come as a surprise though, seeing how he dodged in a similiar fashion in the rebellion balance thread.

on Mar 23, 2014

As a level one titan, you cannot pick anything but level one upgrades...that means that you are not going to be choosing between chastic burst lvl 2 or an AM upgrade, but an AM upgrade and some other lvl 1 upgrade....you could pick chastic burst and the first weapon upgrade (which gives you a bonus of 15% to the titans weapons), or you could pick chastic burst and the first AM upgrade (reducing the cooldown of chastic burst by 10%)...

For a level two titan, you still can't pick the 2nd level of any of your abilities...in fact, even if you select all 3 abilities, you still are going to have a 4th point for one of the three base stat upgrades, so the question becomes which 1 or 2 stat upgrades are you going to want to invest in?  I believe one or two levels of the AM upgrade are well worth it simply because of the bonus to ability cooldown -- getting to use your titan abilities more frequently is going to be more useful than the damage or hull base stat upgrades since they are the main sources of your DPS (or survivability in the case of things like purification or furious defenses)...

Even if you save your points to avoid base stat increases, eventually you will have no choice but to invest in at least 2 of the base stat increases (unless you never spend the points even at lvl 10, but that'd be silly)...

Sinkillr
classic dodging by Sel, not even bothering to acknowledge my point about chastic burst

I have dodged no such point made by you, you simply have failed to understand my statement and where the numbers I used came from...picking the first weapon upgrade will increase titan weapons damage by 15% while picking the first AM upgrade will allow you to use chastic burst 10% more frequently...similarly, picking the first hull upgrade will give you roughly 1500 more hull and shield points on the Ankylon while the first AM upgrade will allow you to use furious defenses 10% sooner...you can argue which is best all you want but I must certainly did not "forget" your point, which is not relevant to the issue I brought up....

If you really want to be petty though, I could say you conveniently forgot to address all the abilities that don't get better cooldowns at higher levels....for your convenience, I'll repost them:

Seleuceia
Disruption Matrix, Furious Defenses, Scattershot, Explosive Shot, Chastic Burst, Unity Mass, Repossession, The Maw, Nano Leech, Nano Remit, and Dissever all have the same cooldown at each level, so it certainly is not moot...

Your beloved scattershot and explosive shot are in that list, but I think you already knew that...I think you are just trying to troll me because you can......perhaps you just can't let go of one disagreement we had, and have been on a mission to try and disagree with me as much as possible...perhaps you are just insecure and feel compelled to make others hate me....perhaps you just are really really bored and having nothing else better to do....

Or perhaps you are just Riddleking....

 

 

 

on Mar 23, 2014

Seleuceia
I have dodged no such point made by you

I count at least 4 threads where you dodged my responses. 

I tried reading the rest of that post Seleuceia but too many run on sentences hurt my brain and prevented me from comprehending it. Perhaps if you replaced all your ellipses with periods people could read it better. 

 
on Mar 23, 2014

And let the trolling begin.

on Mar 24, 2014

I am replying mostly b/c I'm curious about other people's upgrade pathways. I don't play that often, so I'm no expert, but I wouldn't follow most of your pathways, KSSSWM. I am cutting out the tables to avoid taking up needless space--also, I agree with the above posters, that no hard-and-fast scheme applies to every game situation.

KSSSWM
Ankylon: ...

This build focuses on expanding the Ankylon's survivability and passive weapons, rather than its ability to defend your other ships. I think this is a mistake, since the Ankylon barely does any real damage of its own (except with disruption matrix, which doesn't benefit from weapons). Thus, having just your Ankylon getting bonuses to hp and damage isn't too great. Conversely, if you put into Group Shield, you can make your more dangerous ships survive for longer.

Of course, I am not sure I've ever used the TEC Loyalists in multiplayer, but I probably would put 0 into hull, and instead put into group shield. I'd also favor AM over weapons. (Keeping in mind that AM reduces cooldown, so you end up using disruption matrix and other abilities more often.)
KSSSWM
Ragnarov: ...

Putting only into scattershot+passives is a waste, I think, b/c as said above explosive shot is a great ability--it also synergizes with scattershot. I also think at least one point in snipe is pretty valuable for knocking out cap ships. I would not put so much into hull, although I guess this titan is flimsy at low levels.
KSSSWM
Eradica: ...

You will get more bang for your Chastic burst if you put into AM. I don't see much use for unyielding will unless you need to suicide your titan as a distraction (maybe you have a really strong eco on your team, but weak fleet?).
KSSSWM
Vorastra: ...

I always put one point into a free phase stabilizer by level 6. If your enemy is doing so much damage you need to put into hull every other level on the Vorastra to keep it alive, then you've probably lost already.
KSSSWM
Kultorask: ...

Gravity pulse is a great move when comboed for Nano Leech--it can be the difference between your enemy running away in shambles and dying a shameful death at the edge of a gravity well. Not to mention the interrupt and short damage reduction. Moreover, the Kultorask does very little damage of its own (except with abilities), so putting points into weapons and hull is likely to be a waste. Plus, Nano Leech already makes it ridiculously durable unless it's disrupted (or not fighting frigates). Instead, keep your fleet alive and use its anti-frigate abilities more; Nano Remit and AM are more valuable.

I almost never play Advent Loyalist, so I won't burden you with my opinions about their titan.

on Mar 25, 2014

The more i look at KSSSWM's chart the more I realize this is a cleverly disguised troll thread. I mean, he only gets one out of the three abilities but stacks up on antimatter??? No scattershot and explosive shot combo? Hull upgrades on ankylon? LOL.

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