The Atlas Alt+Tab Guide!

DecencyDecency Member, Moderator
edited December 2015 in General Discussion

Squads

Ryme, Frozen Sage

A control squad with many AoE slows and lots of opportunities for effective uses of spellcasting to deal damage and win fights.

  • Hero Basic: Frostbolt: Throws a projectile which damages and freezes for 4 seconds (2 on heroes) the first enemy it contacts.
  • Hero Ultimate: Absolute Zero: Places an effect in a gigantic AoE that slows all enemy units in the area.
  • T1: Glacial Ranger: A tough ranged unit with medium DPS. Can cast Cold Snap to slow enemy units in an area around its attack and refresh its attack cooldown.
  • T2: Frostcaller: A long ranged spellcaster that can cast Frostfall, a small AoE spell that deals damage and slows enemy units.
  • T3: Ancient Ice Frog: A tanky defensive mid-ranged unit with a potent attack and Icy Breath, which slows, damages, and eventually freezes enemy units in a cone

Hydros, Tidal Knight

An incredibly durable squad with powerful defensive and healing abilities. Has excellent sustain, but high spellcasting and micro requirements.

  • Hero Basic: Healing Water: Single target heal of any friendly unit, including itself.
  • Hero Ultimate: Turn the Tide: Grants 5 seconds of total immunity to nearby friendly allies.
  • T1: Scuttleguard: Melee unit with Retracting Roll which grants acceleration and resistances, and Plated Shell, which grants a damage shield that fully blocks a number of attacks.
  • T2: Quadrapus: Ranged unit that passively heals allies and causes hit enemies to deal less damage. Casts Brine Barrier: single target 90% magic resist for 4 seconds.
  • T3: Aquadillo: Close quarters initiator with a splash attack that grants it Plated Shell when hitting enemies. Can cast Cannonball to heavily slow enemy units in an area.

Grath, Primitive Engineer

A close ranged squad with good initiation and control abilities. Strong in chokes and when flanking, but weak against ranged enemies or when it can't engage.

  • Hero Basic: Harden: Target a friendly unit you own to grant it full invulnerability but disable it for 5 seconds. It heals while under this effect.
  • Hero Ultimate: Galvanize: Friendly units near the Hero when this spell is cast are granted 50% bonus movement speed for 7 seconds.
  • T1: Terrapin Trooper: Melee unit with Rocket Rush which stuns the first unstunned enemy unit it hits for a short time, plus passive out-of-combat healing.
  • T2: Howling Commando: Warrior with a short range splash attack and Shockwave, which dramatically slows enemy units in a line AoE for several seconds.
  • T3: Rustborn Rhino: Large melee unit with Trample, which after a short delay stuns and damages enemy units in its path and Devour, a single target damage+heal.

Alder, Lord of Vines

A highly synergistic squad that focuses on snares, slows, and zoning. Effective spellcasting and combinations are required to get the most out of Seed Squad's expensive units.

  • Hero Basic: Living Vines: Line AoE that deals minor magical damage and roots enemies for a short duration (units: 4s; Heros: 2s)
  • Hero Ultimate: Deeproot Terror: Transform a Seed into a Tree of Death that will deal magical damage and stun in an area around it every 5 seconds.
  • T1: Seedbot: Low-ranged unit with Grow Sapling to create a temporary immobile unit with a physical ranged attack.
  • T2: Grove Tender: Spellcaster who can transform a sapling into either a Tree of Life to heal nearby allies every 5 seconds or a Needlefern with a powerful ranged attack.
  • T3: Bramblethorn Goliath: Hulky thorn monster who can Recycle seeds with two charges to heal, gaining effects based on seed type: movespeed, healing zone, range, or splash damage.

Vex, Heart of the Volcano

A combination DPS squad which relies on its Ignite mechanic and other spells to reach its full potential in skirmishes.

  • Hero Basic: Scorch: Fires a projectile in a line that explodes when hitting its first enemy unit, applying Ignite, a damage over time, to any nearby enemies.
  • Hero Ultimate: Volcanic Fury: Allied units near the Hero gain a large attack speed and attack damage buff for 12 seconds.
  • T1: Sparkbot: Powerful ranged unit with Backdraft, which increases its attack speed each time it attacks, granting up to 5 stacks of 5% each.
  • T2: Ignitor: A long ranged spellcaster with Conflagrate, which turns an ignited enemy unit into a bomb with a 4 second fuse, and Ignition, which applies Ignite on attack.
  • T3: Pyrosaur: A tanky medium ranged unit with Flamethrower, a channeled cone of flame which will Ignite and deal damage over time to any enemy units inside.

Eris, Bringer of Chaos

A ranged DPS squad with huge amounts of burst damage. It effectively uses a hit and run style of play to choose good skirmishes and end them quickly.

  • Hero Basic: Sandblast: Minor line AoE that deals minor damage and lowers the physical resistance of enemies hit
  • Hero Ultimate: Chaos Bolt: Launches a slow fireball in a line that deals 'ludicrous damage'
  • T1: Sandstinger: Highly mobile ranged unit which can cast Stinging Surge to dash a short distance and refresh its attack cooldown.
  • T2: Devilkin Dervish: A ranged support unit with the War Dance activatable, which increases nearby units' move/attack speeds.
  • T3: Apocalyte: A ranged unit with Destructive Prophecy: a small AoE skillshot that deals huge amounts of damage to enemies caught in it.

Celesta, The Shadow Rose

A damage-oriented squad that controls space extremely well and has great scouting. It is able to push effectively, but is very vulnerable to overextending.

  • Hero Basic: Vision Shot: a minor damage + reveal global useful for scouting.
  • Hero Ultimate: The Nuclear Option: A small AoE Nuke (enemies only) with a 5-second delay that instakills most enemy units.
  • T1: Wisp: A high attack rate ranged unit that deals good DPS but is vulnerable when not protected or grouped.
  • T2: Purifier: A long range unit which can Siege, immobilizing itself in exchange for even more range and a splash attack. Can Unsiege to revert forms.
  • T3: Precognitor: A Spellcaster with Hamaliel's Blessing, a 90% damage reduction for 6 seconds, and Blinding Smoke, an AoE cloud that reduces range to 1

Vela, Elegant Assassin

A glass cannon squad which relies on long range and mobility to pick away at the enemy. It demands good positioning to find optimal positions for combat and retreat.

  • Hero Basic: Fair Warning: Applied Marked to enemy units hit by the AoE, causing them to take increased damage from Snipe Squad. Grants temporary vision of targeted area.
  • Hero Ultimate: Peaceful Resolution: Fast projectile attack which deals damage to the first enemy unit in a line that it hits. Deals quadruple damage if the unit is Marked.
  • T1: Raptor: Ranged unit with powerful attacks. Can cast Eagle Eye to grant significant bonus range for the unit's next attack.
  • T2: Deadeye: Ranged unit who can Take Aim an enemy. If the unit moves far enough away or the caster is damaged during the channel, it cancels.
  • T3: Windray: Ranged unit which can toggle Lifting/Accelerating Winds to grant either +2 range to nearby allies or 8% movespeed (both effects can stack).

Comments

  • DecencyDecency Member, Moderator
    edited December 2015

    Mechanics

    • Starting resources: 500 coin, 12 gems

    Neutral Weapons

    These units are spawned from your Hero and can only attack structures and other neutral weapons.

    • Sensor Wards (2 Gems) - Place a visible ward that can see a large area until destroyed. Sees uphill and into brush.
    • Cubelet (2 Gems) - A small, cheap, weak, fast-attacking cube.
    • Healing Totem (3 Gems) - Place a temporary healing zone that restores health to nearby units.
    • Mini Glass Cannon (4 Gems) - Spawn a high damage cube with 8 Plate (each blocks 1 attack) with long range.
    • Mini Ion Cannon (4 Gems) - Construct (in 60 seconds) a tough, immobile unit with long range and splash damage.
    • Glass Cannon (16 Gems) - Spawn an incredibly high damage cube with very long range and 20 Plate.
    • Ion Cannon (24 Gems) - Construct (in 60 seconds) a tough, immobile unit with very long range and splash damage.

    Gemming

    • Gems spawn periodically across the map and can be gathered by your hero.
    • You can attempt to gather a gem with your hero every 5 seconds. After ~10 seconds, you capture it.
    • Enemies can kill the flag placed on the gem to prevent the capture.
    • Gems in the first two waves are worth 2, the next two waves are worth 4, and the next two waves are worth 8.
    • After those six waves (~17 minutes), gems no longer spawn on the sides and instead spawn in the middle of the map.'

    Towers

    Towers cost 2 gems. They can be upgraded to three different types, and can be upgraded up to two times (max level 3)

    • Splash towers will deal splash damage.
    • Range towers have extended attack range (equivalent to the range of a full-sized Glass Cannon).
    • Generic tower upgrades give greater stat increases.

    Expansions

    • Expansions cost 10 gems and produce x coins per minute income.
    • Expansions take 60 seconds to construct and have 2000 health.
    • Each will automatically spawn up to two workers, which take 30 seconds to build and drop a gem if killed.
    • Expansions mine out after approximately 14 uninterrupted minutes of mining.
    • Expansions may cast the Gem Fortify ability, allowing them to attack nearby enemies for 30 seconds.

    Titan Camps

    • Titan camps protect expansions and currently consist of two neutral units:
    • Bruce the Moose: High-health melee attacker with Bruce Smash, which attaches a laser to a target and after a few seconds deals heavy damage to the unit if it has not moved out of range.
    • The Saboteur: Lower-health ranged attacker with Explosive Charge, which places an AoE damage mine. Avoid the explosion or attack the Mine once to disable the explosion.
    • Titan camps are displayed on the minimap as a dot correlating to their difficulty; Green camps are Easy, Yellow camps are Medium, Red camps are Difficult.

    Upgrades

    • You can build four Tier 1 upgrade buildings (100 coin each) by selecting one of the four Armories in your base.
    • Each upgrade building can be upgraded into a Tier 2 (200 coin) and then a Tier 3 (400 coin).
    • You may not have two of the same upgrade building simultaneously.
    • Each squad also has 6 researchable ability upgrades that grant bonus effects or abilities to certain units from that squad.

    Siege Zone (Art Map Only)

    • The timer at the top counts down the time until the Siege Zone opens.
    • Each time the zone unlocks, you can begin to capture it by standing on the location with your Hero.
    • When a team captures it, they are granted Siege Heroes which deal massively increased damage to buildings.
    • Multiple allied Heroes do not increase the speed of the capture.
    • Enemy Heroes standing on the zone prevent your capture from progressing.

    This page is intended to be a reference for players interested in quickly understanding the basic units and playstyles of each squad, plus other game mechanics. Numbers change pretty frequently, so this page mostly focuses on effects, which tend to stay more consistent from version to version. The goal is to allow you to quickly learn or look up information that is important for making correct decisions during a playtest, so that we can all be better gamers and have more interesting and high level interactions.

    If you're interested, detailed information and statistics can be found on Atlaspedia.

    Last updated: 12/3/2015 [Playtest 176 and Technical Pre-Alpha]

  • Day9Day9 Member, Administrator

    Holy shit. You legend. <3

  • BerreckBerreck Member, Administrator

    awesome, thanks Decency!

  • EnjoiedEnjoied Member

    This is great

  • staticostatico Member, Administrator

    Awesome! Gonna make this sticky :+1:

  • Day9Day9 Member, Administrator

    For anyone who doesn't know, Decency is part of our Daily Test group <3. Decency fightiiiiiiiing.

  • DemoDemo Member

    Very helpful, thank you!

  • TfAv2890TfAv2890 Member

    Decency, could you expand on the upgrade building paths potentially via Flow Chart?

  • DecencyDecency Member, Moderator

    @TfAv2890 Nice idea. I think that would work best as an image rather than text, probably in a Flow Chart/Tech Tree style like you suggested. Will do!

  • ArchibobArchibob Member, Administrator

    this is great! WOOHOO!!

Sign In or Register to comment.