In ranked, in a full buy round it makes much more sense to get half armor over full. Half armor vs full makes no difference against vandals or ops. Even for phantom its incredibly rare to get dinked to 10 and have value after that. People also buy vandal 4x more anyways. And nobody is gonna buy an outlaw when they see you have enough for full armor. Its insane how much money you save with this, 600 every gun round. Lastly the damage you take from util is mostly insignificant. I check the kill reports every time and it is very rare that I die to something less than 150 with half shields
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full armor is a bait
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wallbangs
Even for phantom its incredibly rare to get dinked to 10 and have value after that.
crazy to say when most gunfights end in headshots
do you really think its worth spending 600 for wallbangs? Its very rare that it matters
imagine you buy a vandal light shield just to get 1 tapped to a 600 credit pistol
what if im your enemy and i decide on a full buy that my buy is going to be a judge + bandit
Thats rare and even then if a judge can get any value 25 armor wont make a huge difference.
the bandit will make you want the extra armour
not to mention most of the time the judge does 136 damage in 1 hit
a stinger can also leave you -149 most of the time
agreed especially in ranked people just buy what they like and thats in most cases a rifle where a light shield is often comparable to a full shield
this imo increases with higher rank because either ur dead or live there are fewer wierd gunfights that hit you for 148 in the toes
but against judge andys, odin abusers and ecos full shield is still the play or if you have maxed coin otherwise lights help maximize percentages by giving you more gun rounds
yes and they stopped doing it because of outlaw. But in ranked nobody is going to anti-strat your half buy strat because nobody knows you're buying it.
Nrg in the finals did buy lots of half shileds against fnatic because its the last game of the year knowing that fnatic wont notice and punish it
i just dont get how u guys are still thinking full armor is worth the 600 extra meanwhile fnc were already abusing it in 2023 and NRG won champs doing the same. just open ur eyes bro full armor is only good against outlaw shotgun abusers
its funny cause teams literally did this in pro play until outlaw but somehow they think it wont work in ranked
yes bro because normal ranked players are the same as pro players
you're not tenz wrap it up buddy you hit body shots 😭😭😭
whatever floats your boat man
lets see how far you can climb ranked with this strat
Im sure I'll climb more if I can convince my teammates to do it but everyone is close-minded, like you
i used to do this when i played the game still and it works well u get more money and get to actually enjoy the game more
extra 25 hp actually matters tho people love spamming, at least in asc-immo lobbies. buying a light shield when your economy is bad is totally reasonable, i usually buy light armor to have 3,5-4k for next round, but i dont see why people think heavy armor is useless. if you have the money just use it
do you mean wallbangs? why does spamming matter. Even if you have 6k you can still easily run out of money, you're never too rich until its late rounds in a half
spamming is chip damage, if combined with damaging util its pretty annoying to play against. for some reason ranked has become temu vct matches where people keep spamming the same smoke for 20 seconds
imagine a round where you try to rush from a chokepoint, get 40-70hp chipped off right from the start and then play passively rest of the round cuz rushing further is suicide and doesnt make space for your team
bodyshot spam doesn't really make a difference between half or full. If you take 39+ damage from util then it might matter but even then its not going to make a huge difference and its rare that it will happen. On the other hand you are having more gun rounds which to me is more impactful
my entire point was that you can sacrifice 1k credits if you're smart with it, it's not always black and white. for example if i have 23 armor leftover from previous round and i have 3k credits, i'm gonna buy the armor, it's fine. if i get even 5% more odds to win the round with my duels then it's worth it, we get more chances to snowball the game. if we lose the round i can't full buy, but i can buy full armor again and wait until a teammate gets me a gun (or save with my team if they don't have money too). it's really that simple and in my experience, it's way easier to kill a guy with 125 hp (chip damage, util damage, stinger/spectre run&gun, outlaw, bandit, sheriff 1shots even at a long distance)
who buys a bandit sheriff outlaw in full buy rounds? "or save with my team" you are sacrificing a round here thats my point, you dont have to
hero gun buys don't guarantee a round win + are you saying i should force again if my team is saving? you're gonna have 3k max next assuming you lose (and you will). also personally, i always assume people are buying light shield when i see 4k credits in tab, it's not that unpredictable, outlaw is easy kills (or bandit if we're saving)
nothing guarantees a win. The question is which one is better. Having more rifle rounds is a guaranteed advantage you get vs 25 armor mattering is not guaranteed and it is quite rare.
outlaw
bandit
sheriff after certain distances
phantom
ares/odin spam
mollies(specifically gekko molly because you have a chance to live on full)
judge
bucky
sova shocks
brim ult
raze ult
raze nades
honestly if you cant fullbuy when you win thats honestly s skill issue and a team issue, just request bro idk ¯_(ツ)_/¯
point still stands, another thing is that phantom 5 taps body on heavy but 4 taps on light at its 140 headshot range
that is only for 20m+ and I already talked about phantom. People buy vandal 4x more and that one bullet difference isnt worth saving whole rounds vs buying rifles. Do you not value having more gun rounds?
in the case of forcing rifles with light shields, it depends, but generally its better to save and match the other team the next round, if you force full buy with lights and you lose your team will be even more broke and most likely youll have to save 2 rounds, more full buys are good but ecos can still be strong with stingers/bandits
in the case were your able to still buy fulls but choose lights, even if people buy vandal 4x more(which at leat isnt true na ncal/oregon, its like 50/50 over here), if your hit 120 by either vandal or opp your basically dead from any chip, at least with 30 hp you can survive some util/wallbangs
also are you talking about light shields exclusively or regen? because theres definitely some benefits of regen over full but def not light imo
if you are hit 120 you are 1 hit to body anyways whether you have full or half.
So you think having -25 armor is worse than having sherrifs/stingers vs vandals? To me not having save rounds is better than the 25 armor which is most instances doesnt matter at all. Still one shot headshot from vandal, still 4 shots to body, 20m and less phantom also doesnt matter at all and 20m+ only one bullet difference. The 4x thing I pulled from a site so its not 50-50
can i see the site? just want to check for myself
also in general if your in the position where you cant afford 3900+util, forcing a full buy is generally not the play, better to half buy/full save and be able to match them next round. even with worst guns if you play it right their still very potent if used right, in ranked rotates and stall are going to be worse so rushes with close range weapons are very strong.
imo regen over heacvy is valid, ive def stuck with regen on full buy rounds over buying heavy, but buying light over heavy or evenr egen is not worth the econ value imo
also the reason i added the phantom point is because with light shields it becomes the better rifle at all ranges, giving a faster ttk than vandal where vandals supposed to be better, than one shot is a lot
https://www.valofessor.gg/weapons/competitive/rifle , https://youtu.be/KBgQic-jOT4?t=110
that one bullet is nothing compared to having more gun rounds instead of saving
alright suppose you win that round where you forced lights, the only way this is sustainable is flawless/plant spike every round, which is impossible if not improbable. if you win with 3+ people dying, your going to eventually run out of cash, whilst if the other team has been winning for 3+ rounds, they have some econ to fall back on.
if you lose, the other team can snowball assuming you force again, and since you forced
also, how much is 600 creds going to change the fate of the game/half? creds cap at 9k, and 600 isnt even able to make up for a lot of agents util. better safe than sorry, you cant always assume theres going to be no minor chip/ wallbangs and always assume everybodys using the vandal/opp.
also one bullet is a LOT in TTK, objectively the phantom is better than vandal at short/medium and fades off at long range, but if the vandal user is on lights then theyve essentially put themselves at a disadvantage to phantom users, bodyshots and headhsots, because now he phantom user can headshot them at any rnage. You cant assume val ranked is going to go smoothly, better safe than sorry, more gun rounds =/= more round wins.
I dont get your first point sorry, wdym by sustaining by flawless? That one bullet accuring AND mattering is nothing compared to having more gun rounds vs save rounds yes. Saving money gives you a guarenteed advantage vs spending might not even change anything. And even if it does, its not going to be the same impact as having 5 rifles vs sheriffs/stingers. Agree to disagree I guess
it's true, people bring up all the weapons and utility and wallbangs but in ranked the majority of the time you're just going up against vandal/phantom. if you know the enemy are the type to buy outlaws or odins which is uncommon, you can adapt and go full shields. utility usage is uncoordinated even in high ranks so you rarely take util damage even in higher ranks
the real problem is you're gonna have a teammate going "buy full shields" "stop throwing" "that's it I'm throwing" in every game
the thing is, no one is gonna complain about you having half shield if you have low money. people start mentioning it if you have 4k+ but still keep buying light armor/regen armor cause... economy? your brilliantly saved up 600 credits per round are gonna add up to another full buy in 6 rounds minimum
wdym 6 rounds? in 2 rounds you save 1200 which is going to save you from saving. You barely have to save with half shields unless it is earlier rounds like 2nd round 3rd round. Literal pro teams did this and won tournaments but util in ranked will somehow matter more than pro games? In what world
"literal pro teams" did this when it was actually meta. name literally any team who kept buying light shields to save up extra money in 2025/2026. it's not viable anymore and back when it was, there were no outlaws, bandits and mostly single controller maps
The only difference is outlaw and bandit which nobody buys during full buy rounds, what is your point
yeaah let's just ignore the 3 years of meta change cause it's just what? 2 new guns that counter light shield buys if your enemy has at least 3 active braincells, various map additions and rotations that favor heavy shield buys, new agents that could cause significantly more problems if you have a light shield (vyse thorns, tejo missiles, waylay outlaw players, iso vulnerable, clove decay, etc.), phantom gaining more popularity and causing more spammage.
ALL i'm saying is that you WILL need those 25 hp more times than not. you're literally choosing to get a slight disadvantage and more risk cause it'll save you a bit of credits to play another round with a slight disadvantage with even more risk (or a BIGGER disadvantage if your team is saving and you decide to be the hero gun) INSTEAD OF playing a round on equal footing and then snowballing the game if you win. if you lose it's just a round with a disadvantage but that's why you need to learn to play with other fucking guns - so that eco rounds or half buys aren't that much of a disadvantage to you.
actually you do you big bro, it's your choice, i don't even care anymore, keep clinging on to an idea you suddenly thought about 3 years later after it expired
Is that why nrg used it to win champs? THE 2 NEW GUNS DONT MATTER FOR FULL BUYS STOP MENTIONING THEM
"you WILL need those 25 hp more times than not" literally wrong. I keep track how many times I get punished for it and its very rare. You are just listing rare exceptions
idk about your lobbies but unless you have it from a previous round people complain for me as long as you can afford it, so if you have 600 credits left over they'll say buy shields
I'm diamond/ascendant for reference, maybe in immortal they don't care as much
if a person is obnoxious enough to tell you how to buy up in the middle of a game then i'd not bother listening to that person at all, their comms won't be as valuable as your mental after the game
nah its really common, try it in a few games. Just yesterday I was getting flamed by 2 people
lights>heavy in almost all cases, people in here thinking of obvious exceptions when everyone knows you shouldnt buy lights against an eco or half buy
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