1.3.3 Spire

[Spud Nick]

Here is a thread where you can talk about the 1.3.3 Spire. Discuss your new load outs and how to position your crew. Talk about the fun of quad gunning and general love for the Spire.

[The Djinn]

I haven't gotten a chance to mess around with it yet, but I've been considering the following Sniper Spire:


Top Deck
Forward Merc + Side Artemis
Pilot with Burst + Wrench
Wrench/Spanner/Extinguisher Engie with Charged (Merc Gunner)

Mid Deck
Heavy Flak + Side Artemis
Wrench Gunner with Lochnager, Charged, and Burst

Bottom Deck
Wrench/Buff/Extinguisher (maybe?) Engineer with Burst Rounds


The high arcs on the Artemis makes 4 guns incredibly easy, while the combination of long-range component disabling and the Merc/Flak kill combo should enable you to pin down and destroy targets at very long range.

[Spud Nick]

Will be interesting to see how pilots setup there spires now. I am still a bit nervous about taking off the flare and mine launcher on my sniper builds in order to quad gun it.

[Dutch Vanya]

The new layout and the cake made me so very happy.

[Crafeksterty]

I will definetly see spires being played in the competetive.

But...


Some builds are downright threatning. Galleons and junkers, mobulas and  other spires. Watch out!

Lumberjack + tripple/Double artemis is going to hurt and disable so freakin bad. It is probably the most universal spire build.
Im grabbing this ahead as an issue because if you dont have a tripple artemis, you then have a double along with either a merc on the front, or a mine launcher on the sides to combat pyras and Goldies.

There is also the bit difficult Merc + Hadez Combo along with the heavy flak. Save the 4th spot for the minelauncher. An easy to dispatch pyras/galleon build.
Now all builds for the spire to be super effective requier at most times all crew to be manning a gun. And in most ways a good thing in my eyes because that is what i pictured the spire to be, a very well cordinated crew ship.


The hull and baloon placement, i cannot say. As a pilot, i do find it very nice to personaly save my hull and survive for a bit longer, but is now a must on holding the drougue chute if there is something that will take away the baloon on the battlefield.   The hull and baloon placement is mostly something for the engineer to take an opinion.

For example, the build that i mentioned (Merc + Hadez) has 2 poeple on top deck, meaning when the hull is down, and or right after a kill and the hull is down, we quickly tackle the hull.


Why do i think the glass cannon that is the spire is now a threatning piece of balance?
Double spire.



There are other changes that helped the spire alot. For example the gattling has been a pain in the butt but now that it is different,   the spire can now combat it easily.




TL;DR
The spire now has a good footing on the battlefield. Im just afraid that it will eventualy be complained about. Hopefully not so i can continue to devestate on this new spire change.

[Subarco]

I've been playing around with triple Gatling and Hwacha. Disable with Hwacha+Heavy, mow down armor with the Gats, and then finish with another Hwacha+Burst. It's very much a CQC Spire. Dies easily, but kills easily as well.

[NoWuffo]

I feel as if this spire buff was a long time coming, and I welcome it to the competitive scene. I think it'll do mainly as a sniping platform since it is still made of glass, but it's got the same 4gun potential as a mobula, plus a heavy gun being one of those weapons, which makes it very scary. I can't wait to see what comes of it.

[Simplex FourOhNine]

Greatly confused by this update. As the pilot on the Spire, I'm used to turning occasionally to give the balloon a whack. Logged on last night and jumped straight on the wheel to set off. Turned to whack the balloon a bit later and was very much "What the-? Wait, did someone Steal our Balloon?!?"

Realised the change and adjusted for it now, of course, and am loving the alterations... Just goes to show, you should read the update notes more carefully than just "Ooo, I get a new Hat!"

Loadout is similar to Subarco's; Gats and Hwacha. Thinking of switching out to longer ranged weapons than the gats, though. Maybe Hades? We'll have a play and see tonight Need to take it into the sandbox and check what the angling of all the guns has changed to; what can work with what.

[Subarco]

Loadout is similar to Subarco's; Gats and Hwacha. Thinking of switching out to longer ranged weapons than the gats, though. Maybe Hades? We'll have a play and see tonight Need to take it into the sandbox and check what the angling of all the guns has changed to; what can work with what.

Yah, I'm thinking of switching out one or two gats for longer-range pierce weapons. So far, my problem is dealing out enormous damage way too late, so I'm thinking perhaps even a mercury for the front gun to deal weaken armor a bit while closing in before blasting it with the gats.

[Castus Crios]

My experience with spire asofar is that you can easily have a flexible engineer on the ship due to the hull switch, gunner/buffengi can easily man the balloon engi gun if balloon engi can't shoot or vice versa if hull is down but balloon is solid. With so many crewmen assigned a gun (often the same gun) repairs can be ignored in some cases if the risk reward is there. #quadswag

I've used lumber/art/art/art, lumber /art/art/flak, hwacha/gat/gat/art, and my favorite flak/hades/art/art.

I think a galleon/junker/spire is a good companion but that a big speed disadvantage. Need kerosene for the spire in my opinion also.

-CC

[N-Sunderland]

Played a bit on the Spire yesterday, and here's what I'm thinking in terms of crew positions/loadouts.

Helm: pilot: spanner, kerosene/claw/third tool. Can assist on hull rebuilds if needed.
Top right gun: main engineer: mallet/spanner/extinguisher + gun-dependant ammo. Runs to hull when it takes significant damage, using the rail jump to save time (I'll post about that some time, though it's pretty obvious).
-Top left gun: gungineer with mallet/spanner/buff and gun-dependant ammo. Buffs the top deck, spends most of their time gunning, but can assist on hull or balloon.
-Main gun: I'm a bit torn on this one. If it's a lumberspire, then a gunner is nice, but what happens to the balloon? You can't have a gunner keeping that thing running. If it's a flak, then engi with mallet/spanner/buff and charged is my choice. They buff the bottom deck, and get the balloon when really required to.

[Spud Nick]

I have found it much easier to have my main engineer on the top deck shooting a gun because the hull is so close by and easy to rebuild.

[Echoez]

Since I had a run with it in a higly competitive match against our own Gents team, here is my input:

Of course, we lost the match, but I mainly blame this to some poor choices mid match (ally getting out position and me foolishly following in.. yeah ), not to the ship.

Here is what I MISS from the old Spire:

Hull bottom, yes, I do, but ECHO WHY?!?!?! you will ask, well because having that thing there allowed the main engi to stay bottom deck, which meant an extra hand to repair the main gun when needed, right now it's JUST the Gunner down there and I think that this encourages engineer usage JUST to get your gun up and running faster, if not the balloon as well. I've had my gun go down multiple times and VERY easily due to how the Spire works and getting it back up and running was a pain with just one person since the main had to focus on top deck guns and hull.


What I like on the new Spire:

Well, it's realy going to be a beast in this patch I'm sure of it, Mid-Long range builds are sure gonna be awesome with some experienced Hades gunners and Artemises plus a Hwacha/Flak/Lumber, just don't use the Light Flak, I've come to believe it's realy not worth it on a Spire since you want your trifecta to be effective at all times (maybe quadfecta~)

[NoWuffo]

Echoez, you may want to try throwing an engi down to the lower light gun. This way he/she's right there for the balloon/turning engines if they go down, can help out with the gunner's heavy gun, and can still fire with the side gun. The trick is to be way more active as a captain with actually hopping off the helm (personally, I love doing this!). If the hull goes down, the pilot can hop off and help, but more importantly I can also gun with the front right gun, getting that oh so sexy quadfecta going!

On a random note, the (real life) engineer in me has been kinda bothered by something about the new Spire build... why the HELL is the balloon hard-point at the BOTTOM of the damn ship?! The Spire is like a mile and a half tall, that seems so inefficient to pump the gas that far up to get to the balloon at the top of the ship?! Look at every other ship (minus the Mobula, Mobula is weird), the balloon hard-point is at the highest point on the ship so that it's that much closer to the balloon! The new Spire just reeks of inefficiency!

[Subarco]

I like the new placement because the captain can also help out with the hull, and the gunner can now focus on using the main guns. However, I do kind of wish the hull was moved to where the old balloon point was instead. It's still quite a considerable distance from the steering wheel to the hull for a captain to help out with repair. There were many times where I'm literally one whack away from rebuilding the armor before turning into fireworks. Now that the Spire has a even weaker armor, it's pretty much going to die from being sneezed at. Although I suppose this to off-set the new quadfecta power of the Spire.