GUIDE: Winning as Ryme, the Versatile Defender (Blue)

tedster

This is intended to be a guide to competitive Ryme play for new and experienced players. I'm not looking to explore every way you could play Blue, but rather to give a clear build and strategy for you to consider and which could serve as a jumping-off point for your own ideas. My win% with Blue is my highest of any faction, so hopefully I can help people explore some of the things I've been using and abusing so we can take this faction to the limit.

I think this build might be the among the strongest things you can do in the current (very limited) metagame. I'm sure it's not the strongest possible thing out there, but of the limited strategies people have discovered so far it feels rock-solid in every game and I have yet to see it countered. It also doesn't require tricky micro or risky gambits - there's nothing gimmicky about this build. Even if people know it is coming, you are forcing them to play the way you want them to play.

Intro

Blue is a relatively straightforward faction that excels at tanking and defensive buffs, and playing Blue means you are generally calling the shots about where and when to engage. As Blue, it's important your allies know when you want them to take a stand, and when retreating it's often your responsibility to make sure they get away. Most importantly, as Blue you don't have many ways to deal lots of damage quickly, so your teammates need to put themselves in positions to capitalize off your AOE snares/stuns and tanky, tenacious battle-lines.

Why Blue?

Blue is great for a number of reasons:

1. Tanks on par or better than what Green can field
2. Plated Shield on units negates huge single hits, limiting which units are effective against Blue
3. Extremely good midgame due to Shadows and Quadrapus along with strong Tier 1.5 tanks
4. Powerful lategame by providing some of the best tools for both pushing into enemy bases and defending enemy pushes
5. Synergizes especially well with ranged teammates
6. Has some of the best all-purpose tools to help with sniping troublesome enemy units

Why Ryme?

Ryme is an exceptional hero for a number of reasons:

1. He excels in poke wars at picking off units due to his Skillshot
2. He has access to one of the best utility Tier-1 units in the game in Glacial Rangers (who are also great for picking off units)
3. He has a significant advantage over Hydros, in my opinion, due to having a ranged-DPS/utility unit for his Basic Unit rather than a tank

The last point is very important because Blue's Tier 1.5 units are both relatively beefy units that compete for slots with Hydros' Scuttleguards and with each other. While Shield Slugs are ranged, they are not as good for utility as Glacial Rangers and it is harder (in my experience) to use them as consistent DPS than Glacial Rangers due to fatter models and lesser range (as well as the lack of a Slow to pick off targets with).

Furthermore, it is common in the mid and lategame to want only a handful of tanks, with the rest of supply being ranged, since you can only have so many tanks on the frontline soaking damage at once. This is especially true after an army wipe or trade. Since BioShards are usually limited in lategame trades/wipes, it is much easier and cheaper to rebuild an army of 3-4 Plated Warriors and 10 Glacial Rangers than it is to make 4 Scuttleguards and 10 Shield Slugs, and a force of 10 Scuttleguards + 4 Shield Slugs isn't really ideal since that's often too many tanks and not enough damage. This, coupled with the amazing snare effect of Glacial Rangers, makes Ryme extremely compelling.

What are Blue's weaknesses?

Blue is a strong faction, but there are a few things it can have trouble with:

1. Blue is reliant on its allies to follow its lead. Blue wants to establish a battle line and dig in
2. Blue is somewhat reliant on its allies to deal damage unless it adopts risky, all-or-nothing strategies
3. Blue can have problems sharing space with other tanky armies. This is another reason picking Ryme tends to be safer, since unlike Hydros he can deal respectable ranged damage throughout the game without dedicated Deckbuilding Slots or BioShards to it
4. Blue can have trouble retreating, but can usually help teammates get away
5. Blue's AOE damage is limited in scope

tedster

Part 2 - The Basics and Unit Choices

How should my game play out?

1. Your early game consists of poke wars as you slowly build up tanks and a few healers while teching to tier 2
   
   
   • My standard build is to research BioShards once at the start of the map - I cancel the initial Supply research. I build 4 Glacial Rangers, then 4 Plated Warriors, then make future units based on my opponent's army composition
   • You are not trying to win any big fights - just pick off units when possible with your skillshot/Glacial Rangers and keep your guys alive
   • Winning the first Titan is unimportant. Focus on collecting resources, hitting camps, denying resources, and supporting teammates
   • You are very good at supporting a fight in the early game due to Stuns/Snares and cheap, powerful tanks. Be willing to leave a lane to help out/sandwich an opponent
2. Your goal is to hit Tier 2 quickly and use 1-2 Shadows for a timing attack to establish map control and force opponents to play defensively while you transition into a midgame with critical upgrades and Tier-2 units
   
   
   • Blue can badly punish opponents who over-commit to Tier-1 early
   • Opponents who are playing too aggressively can be wiped completely with 1 well-placed Shadow + counterattack
   • If opponents are playing very safely and/or have rushed detection, you can easily skip the Shadow timing window and transition straight into your midgame at no loss
3. Once your Tier-2 is online, or once you have wiped an enemy army with Shadows and they are forced to rebuild, your team has a window to bully Medium and Hard Creep Camps
   
   
   • Blue's Tier 2 comes online faster than most other factions. It only takes 1 Quadrapus to turn the tide of a fight, but White wants a handful of Deadeyes, for example
   • Because Blue's Tier 2 armies are so tanky and resilient, getting interrupted while stealing enemy camps isn't actually a bad thing. You can actually use Neutral Creeps to help tank/stun enemy frontlines since they do negligible damage to your troops.
4. Once you have a resource lead, you want to begin forcing big fights and unit trades with the enemy over and over as you grind them down through dominating Titans and manually wearing down buildings
   
   
   • Blue's sustain is strong enough that they if they had a small lead in the midgame Blue can often sit at the edge of the enemy's base along with 1 teammate, holding the enemy in their base while the 3rd teammate collects objectives around the map
5. At this point, you should be adding Tier 3 and continuing to upgrade while building your lead until you can win the game on the back of a strong Titan push or a good teamfight.

What does my Unit Deck look like for this strat?

This strategy is designed to be very versatile defensively while still having the potential to contribute across the board - DPS, Ganks, Jungling, Crowd Control, and Tanking. It also seeks to abuse a few timing windows where it can punish popular openings or army compositions while bringing haymakers online before the enemy can respond in kind. As a result, most of the unit picks are fairly set in stone:

1. Hero Pick: Ryme (Basic Unit: Glacial Ranger)
   
   
   • This strat assumes you are playing Ryme, though parts of it work fine with Hydros. Glacial Rangers provide tremendous utility when combined with Ryme's pokes and let you turn opponent retreats into brutal massacres with only your basic Tier 1 forces
   • Glacial Rangers give you the option to DPS if your team has too much tankiness and are often better units to make when recovering from a wipe
2. Tier 1.5: Plated Warrior
   
   
   • These guys are premier tanks in the early and midgame and never stop being valuable in small numbers. They are also cheap and fantastic for holding a lead since they regen their Plated Armour when outside of battle. They can be used to surround enemy units that have been slowed by Glacial Rangers or stunned with your skillshot and make clearing creep camps trivial
3. Tier 1.5: Healer
   
   
   • Healers are stronger in a Blue army than in most compositions, due to the tanky nature of Blue, its desire to hold down a location, and the presence of the Quadrapus in their roster, which reduces incoming damage by a % basis which has a multiplicative modifier on the value of healing. If it takes the enemy 3x as long to whittle down each HP of health, your heals are effectively 3x as good
4. Tier 2: Shadow
   
   
   • Shadows are the cornerstone of your midgame transition. You will probably not make more than 2 in most games, and occasionally you will not make any. However, their presence on your roster gives you access to a powerful timing window that punishes players for over-committing to ranged Tier 1 troops
   • Using a Shadow to flank an opposing Tier 1 army, especially one that has pushed too far into a lane, while simultaneously attacking with your army, will typically result in you wiping an entire enemy force almost instantly due to the Shadow's activated ability devastating low-hp, auto-attack-based units
   • An opponent who has committed heavily to Tier 1 aggression is highly unlikely to have detection online by the time your first Shadow can be in position to flank them, and is unlikely to have any spells online yet to counter the Shadow before his powerful AOE locks the enemy down for your army to slaughter
   • Shadows are great for a brief window, at which point you should transition into other troops. I rarely make a Shadow past the 2nd with this strategy as they are very easy to counter once the opponent reaches the midgame
5. Tier 2: Quadrapus
   
   
   • This unit is the other cornerstone of your gameplan, and represents the point where you are reaching the peak of your power
   • The Quadrapus is one of the most powerful and versatile defensive units in the game, able to provide huge AOE damage reduction effects that help both yourself and your teammates while healing and protecting individual, high-priority units or tanks
   • Their AOE channeled Intervention often forces the opponent to disengage, allowing you to pick off units for free
   • Intervention provides so much damage prevention that you can often sit inside enemy AOEs without losing units, allowing you to hold positions that would otherwise be impossible to hold
6. Flex Slot
   
   
   • This final slot can be virtually anything depending on need. Usually I will take a Tier 3 tank or Sentinels
   • Ice Frogs are great if your team has powerful AOEs and you want to pin down entire armies in the lategame to set up huge killshot
   • Aquadillos are great if you suspect more 1v1 engagements as they are great for picking off units and engaging during skirmishes
   • Trappers or Sentinels are great if you want/need more utility
   • Tier 3 tanks synergize best with Quadrapi, but your team may already have that covered

tedster

Part 3: Tactics Breakdown: Early Game

1. Your goal early game is to get a few tanks online while skirmishing effectively and picking off units with a combination of Glacial Rangers and Hero Skillshots
   
   
   • You will not be building up as large an army as if you were running a mass Tier 1 strategy. Often your first "research" should be BioShards rather than Supply in order to get ~4-5 Plated Warriors online early
   • Your goal is to hit Tier 2 relatively quickly while not falling too far behind. Leaving your lane to help a teammate is better than losing units without much gain
   • Losing the first Titan is very low impact. It is better to lose the Titan than to lose a fight in the early game
   • You will need to juggle increasing Supply and BioShards as you push for Tier 2. Try to keep your guys alive even if that means retreating early
   • If you are against a Red or White army that is outranging and outmicroing you, try to swap lanes with a teammate or simply go help in their lane. Better yet, go kill some Neutral Camps
2. Try to sneak in a Healer once you have a decent force. A Healer can keep your hero topped off, which lets you use them to tank and pick off units with Skillshot/Rangers more aggressively
3. Once you max out on supply, start getting BioShards aggressively until you can research Tier 2.
   
   
   • It can be right to start researching Attack or Damage upgrade depending on your role at this stage, if you have been doing particularly well and have extra Bio to spend
4. Try to time your Supply cap so you can build a Shadow the moment you finish researching Tier 2
   
   
   • If you are way ahead, you should consider skipping the Shadows and moving straight to the "Mid-Mid Game" section below
5. Begin researching Glacial Ranger range upgrade as soon as possible
   
   
   • This is your main tool for picking off units and even if you have 1-2 Glacial Rangers at a time will pay itself off in spades

tedster

Part 4: Tactics Breakdown: Early-Mid Game

1. When your first Shadow finishes, your goal is to move it into a position to flank a Tier 1 ranged army that is fighting solo
   
   
   • Ideally this army will be pushing past the middle of its lane, possibly bullying a teammate (or you) due to superior numbers
   • Your Shadow should be on a different hotkey than your army and attack from the side/rear
   • Try to be sure your opponent has no detection If they do, try attacking a different lane. If that doesn't work, your Shadow timing was probably too slow or your opponents were not playing aggressively enough and you should skip the Shadow next time you encounter this situation. Save him for an army fight if you can, he still has use for now
   • Don't try to catch more than 1 army at a time until you get a feel for when it is correct. It is very easy for 2 armies to pick off a Shadow before it accomplishes anything, but very difficult for 1 army to do so once the AOE has started
2. You should send your army in to engage the enemy just as you pop your Shadow's AOE. If possible, a teammate should assist
3. If you timed it right, and correctly IDed the situation, you should be able to wipe all or most of the enemy's troops without losses
4. Build a second Shadow and roam around the map assisting teammates and bullying lanes while the opponent is forced to rebuild. Until they get detection online they will be unable to safely move far from their towers. Eventually they will get detection and kill your Shadows. DO NOT rebuild them, resources are too scarce and they have done their jobs
5. Begin building your first Quadrapus and another Healer or Two as soon as resources allow
6. While this is going on, start upgrading Healers and possibly Plated Shell while getting Supply (and occasional BioShards, if needed)
7. Once you have map control (and presumably a Quadrapus either present or on the way) start working with your teammates to steal the contested Neutral Camps around the middle of the map and transition into your Mid-Mid Game

tedster

Part 5: Tactics Breakdown: Mid-Mid Game through Early Endgame

1. You should have a Quadrapus or two online and 2-3 Healers. Try to keep at least a handful of tanks in your army at all times, and supplement them with more Glacial Rangers, Quadrapi, and Healers
   
   
   • It is worth maxing out on casters before worrying about teching to Tier 3. 4 Quadrapuses > 3
2. If you haven't already, research Attack and Defense upgrades whenever resources and production allows
3. Try to research Supply as often as possible at this point. Your midgame does not take much BioShards to run smoothly, so building up your army size is more important to prioritize
   
   
   • If your team lacks tanks, consider going up to 6-8 Plated Warriors. They synergize extremely well with Quadrapus
   • If your team has lots of tanks or lacks DPS, consider making extra Glacial Rangers. They are cheap and powerful utility units that do decent DPS and take up little space
4. Your goal is take as many of the Contested Camps as possible while abusing Intervention to make pitched battles a nightmare for the opponent
   
   
   • Intervention is so strong that you can hold a position much longer than is normally possible and with smaller numbers of tanks
   • Intervention works on all damage types, including AOE nukes, while Plated Shell nullies direct attacks and gives you spot healing to negate focused fire on tanks or important units
   • Your upgraded Healers work overtime under the effects of Intervention since you are absorbing so much damage
   • Don't forget Intervention (and Healers) work on your teammates! If you can form a solid battle line you can often have an Intervention pulsing on whatever part of the line your opponent tries to attack
5. Try to encourage team fights by sticking with at least 1 teammate while pursuing aggressive objectives - like killing towers, or stealing Hard Camps from under the enemy's nose
   
   
   • While you can definitely win 1v1s as Blue in the midgame, you are even more powerful when you combine Intervention and your tanks with teammates
6. When you activate a titan, send it to one of the side lanes (they have less towers). Then either support that Titan with Intervention + 1-2 teammates or go with a teammate to the opposite side and threaten the tower/buildings there while your 3rd teammate continues to take Titans and take objectives
   
   
   • It is very hard to kill a Blue army + 1 ally in the midgame due to Intervention coming online before big, splashy Tier 3 damage effects. It will often take all 3 players to dislodge you from a position if you are careful not to get flanked. Even if you lose the fight, it will take so long that you or your Titan will typically have destroyed buildings and done a ton of damage while your 3rd teammate took multiple camps/other Titans
   • You also will probably be able to retreat from a lost fight without too many losses due to the strength of your defenses
7. When you have established a clear momentum in the fight over Titans and base pressure, begin your transition into the Endgame as resources allow while continuing to grab Upgrades

tedster

Part 6: Tactics Breakdown: Endgame

1. For the most part, this should be similar to your midgame, but idealy you'll spend a lot more time parked next to the opponent's base keeping them pinned down and away from objectives
2. If you have access to Tier 3 tanks, get 1-2 online as resources allow. These aren't necessary but help close out a game with less variance if you find yourself able to afford them
3. Army trades will occasionally happen. When they do, try to quickly evaluate whether momentum has shifted and what you will need to combat this
   
   
   • You will always need a minimum of 2 Quadrapi back online ASAP. You will probably want 2-3 Healers as well. Usually it seems best to get a few of each before maxing out either.
   • You will usually want at least 2-3 Plated Warriors online quickly to help soak up autoattack damage and clog up lanes. Usuaully these are lower priority than the first few Quadrapus but can be higher priority than the Healers
   • Decide quickly how much Energy you want to spend on Glacial Rangers. There's no hard and fast rule on this, but you don't want to overspend on them if you've got or are going to have the BioShards to make a more important unit. However, it is often right to simply make a ton of Rangers after a trade just to keep momentum rolling and because they are really good at picking off valuable units when the opponent doesn't have a full army - especially if they have only a handful of high priority targets to pick off, which happens often after a wipe and rebuild
4. At some point it's going to be correct for you to push hard into an enemy base with your team and set up shop. Usually this will involve a Titan, but there are times when you can do it without one as Blue if you have the right support. This is usually the point where the game is close to wrapping up
   
   
   • Try to protect your Quadrapi at all costs. Keep them on a seperate hotkey with your Healers and constantly reposition them
   • Your main army doesn't require a lot of repositioning since you have the luxury of standing in your Interventions. Use this extra time to micro important tanks, snipe enemy spellcasters with your Rangers and Hero, and keep your Quadrapi safe
   • Shield your allies! Many opponents will recognize that attacking tanky Blue units is unwise and will focus on your squishy friends. Most of my interventions are aimed at my teammates and their big DPS blobs! This also lets you keep your Quadrapi even safer: better to be waaaaay in the back behind the ranged dudes that just a little in the back behind the front line
   • Many of your Plated Shields will be cast on your Healers or the Quadrapi themselves. I'd usually rather have my hero die than a Quadrapus in these fights, though it's situational
5. Intervention on top of a Titan. Enjoy.

tedster

Wrap-up

Blue, and Ryme in particular, feels very strong right now, and Quadrapus feels like it's on the short list for "best unit in the game". Blue has timing windows that hit quite early and can hard-counter a number of popular strategies at various points in the game. It synergizes well with coordinated teammates but can also just play heroball, as long as you understand that your damage capabilities are limited compared to most factions (unless you go Kingpin/Transport, but that's outside the scope of this guide).

I hope this strategy guide helps aspiring Ryme players hold their own in the evolving metagame. Ryme is a tremendously versatile Hero and I'm sure there are other great strategies out there for Blue to explore that involve totally different unit compositions and timing windows. I hope you find this one a great springboard for your own exploration of the Blue faction, and of Atlas in general!

Replays and Questions? Comments?

I'll be posting replays here as I dig through them or record new ones. Check back for cool vidz and hip stratz, or post your own!

tedster

Replays and Reserved Space

Ge944da894d96402b81730f7a07778e06 - 33 minutes - Standard game using this strat
Gd562df43e1e14307a54e1570c021d6b8 - 36 minutes - Taking over midgame with Shadows
Gbdb410ea60b442bba4147130af9d9876 - 10 minutes - What happens when everything goes right

I'll be posting replays here as I dig through them or record new ones. Check back for cool vidz and hip stratz, or post your own!

tedster

Chillers: A Tier 3 Option

I've found some success lately using Chillers for my Flex spot in my deck instead of Tier-3 bruisers. Chillers offer some great utility for a tanky Blue army - specifically, they help perform long-range snipes on critical enemy casters without having to dive deep into enemy forces.

Chillers help solve some of the problems Blue has when its teammates are unable or unwilling to snipe specific high-impact units and Blue is trying to hold a tank line. Gunning down Igniters or Apocalytes from far away can really help maintain a siege for long periods of time, and Chillers have enough health to survive a few nukes and keep on shooting. They are also relatively cheap, making them much easier to add to your army!

I recommend trying out chillers with this build and seeing how it works for you.