HOW TO JUGGERNAUT: A practical guide to being fat

So you want to be fat? Fantastic. Good. The juggernaut is (to me anyway) the most satisfying class to play when you’re playing him successfully. Getting there though requires practice, a good sense of positioning, and an amazing sense of timing. The purpose of this guide is to be a general overview of the Juggernaut class as I play it. I’m not claiming to have some kind of definitive mastery of the class so, if you play him in a different way to great success, more power to you.

THE PROS AND CONS OF BEING A JUGGERNAUT:

+Incredibly powerful long range weaponry

+Devastating AP grenade

+Sustainability

+Some flexibility in terms of play style

-Limited mobility

-Somewhat difficult to learn weaponry

THE ROLE OF THE FATTY

So, now you are fat. Congradulations! But now what do you do??? Because of your limited mobility and high durability, you may be tempted to stay at home playing defensively, or to truck it to the enemy base for some heavy offense. However, you should resist these temptations, those positions are better played by a DMB or BRT. That’s not to say that you can’t play these positions, but your fellow heavies are more specifically equipped for them, so I say leave it to them. As a Juggernaut, you should be concerned with finding a midfield position that gives you coverage and control of the map. You have an amazing long range mortar! Don't waste it indoors!

For example, this position on Drydock is amazing

From here you have access to both bases, as well as the low route between them. You can easily jet up to cover the high route behind you. From this one position, you can shut down runners over a solid two thirds of the map. (and hell, if you have a buddy, have him set up on the high ridge opposite you as a Sentinel or something, COMPLETE MAP CONTROL)

So, once in position, you have a number of things you can do: Destroy enemy base assets, disrupt enemy defenders, kill enemy runners (either going to or from your base,) and on Drydock anyways you can even cover your own base. You are in a fantastic position to influence the entire flow of the game.

If you’re just starting out as a Juggernaut and don’t have a good feel for your mortar yet, focus on destroying base assets and disrupting defenders. They’ll be easier to hit yeah? The first thing you should learn is where to aim to hit CRITICAL LOCATIONS.

For example, put the bottom of your reticle right over that tree to make that turret disappear (and any techs stupid enough to repair it while you’re still on the field)

Put the bottom of your reticle just over the building on the flag base, and you’ll be right on target to clear any HOFs, forcefields, mines, turrets, etc from the flag zone. With ~4-5 shots you’ve made life a hell of a lot easier for your flag runners. VGW.

As you get a sense of the mortars timing, you can start focusing on tagging runners in the midfield. Think of yourself as your teams first /and/ last line of defense. Even a grazing hit from your mortar can throw a flag runner off his route, and leave him softened up for the folks at home to deal with easily. Alternatively, if a flag runner does make it out of your base alive, it’s not just up to the chasers to kill him. If you’re in your midfield position, you’re likely in a great position to ruin a flag runner’s day. A mortar on the enemy flag base just as he’s coming home is a good way to do it

You don’t want to be in the position to /have/ to do that though so, a basic knowledge of routes is useful. If you know where flag runners are likely to be, position yourself to hit those routes.

And that’s it really. Have a good location, kill people from it, drop a supply once neccesary, and try to defend yourself against uppity Techs and Pathfinders that get tired of you ruining their day. If the enemy has a sniper, you’ll probably get their attention too. /This is itself a small victory./ It takes an absurd amount of fully charged shots to take you down, giving you ample time to just go behind a hill or something and regen once you’re low. Think of every shot you take as a shot that’s not going into a flag runner or some other actually worthwhile target.

TANKING. IN AN EFF PEE ESS. GO FIGURE!?

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR LOADOUT THOUGH:

PRIMARY WEPONZ

Fusion Mortar:

This is your bread and butter, and it’s really what defines the class. It is absurdly powerful. A direct hit (which is actually covers a pretty large area) will do 1300 damage, enough to oneshot a medium armor. An indirect hit will still do enough damage to oneshot a light armor.

/Fucking learn this weapon/ Fucking practice with it until you’re tagging runners at 200km/h from your perch. Actually, playing from a specific position will aid you with learning your mortar at first. Considering that you need to account for your target’s speed, predict their position /after/ a second or two of mortar flight, the timing to get your shell to detonate on contact, and just actually like aim the shot succesfully, keeping /your/ position a constant will simplify the whole equation for you.

MIRV Launcher

So, the MIRV launcher may seem like a direct upgrade (it did to me at first,) but it’s really offers a set of tradeoffs that might benefit your style. The increased AOE makes it much better for suppressing enemy defenses, however the damage is more unreliable, so it may take more than one shot to take out a runner in the midfield. Additionally, the clusters are potentially affected by terrain. If the main shell lands without detonating, the clusters will eject away from the surface it was laying on. Frequently, this will be downhill, away from your target. Take this into consideration if you plan on using the MIRV

SECONDARY

Spinfusor MKD

It’s a spinfusor, what can you say :V Well, this model actually does less damage than the Soldiers baseline ‘fusor, though it does offer a larger splash radius. The lower damage combined with your amazing health and regen make it a very useful tool to increase your mobility. Don’t be afraid to use it /liberally/ to get to your midfield perch.

X1 LMG

Think of it as an upscaled assault rife, or a chaingun you need to reload every now and then. Like the chaingun, it has a slight 'spin up’ period before you actually start firing. I don’t want to shit on it too much, but I will say that I rarely, if ever, use it. If the enemy is rallying Shrikes to try to remove your from your perch you might consider it, but the loss of mobility as well as the large amount of XP required to even unlock it are some steep costs.

BELT ITEMS

Heavy AP Grenade

This little grenade will actually do more damage on a direct hit than your mortar. It’s a great tool for defending yourself against medium or heavy armors that can’t get out of the way. You can upgrade it to increase it’s already large radius.

Spinfusor Disc

HAHAHAH HOLY SHIT. Well, actually I haven’t unlocked it yet so I’m not too familiar with it. I suppose you could use it in conjunction with your spinfusor to throw out a lot of damage really fast, or bypass switching to your fusor, or use it conjunction with the LMG to keep some discs in your loadout. So, I haven’t used it but it SEEMS TO ME like it gives you a lot of flexibility. Ditching the incredibly damage from the grenades would be a tough choice for me though

PACK

Health Regen

This is what gives you the sustainability to stay out in the midfield all day. Since you regen so fast, any unsuccessful attempt to dislodge you from your perch is meaningless. If anything they just brought you more mortar ammo. HOWEVER, do not confuse this with durability. It’s not a shield pack, it does not make you any more durable WITHIN a fight, just between them.

LET’S TALK ABOUT PERKS, BABY

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOU, AND, ME

Well, tbh perks don’t seem to be such a big deal for Jugs. You’re really more defined by your weapons, and there's no go to must have perk like Reach for a flag runner or Ultra Heavy for HOF. I typically use Bounty Hunter to get credits for a supply drop quicker, and Egocentric because I discjump so much. You might consider Safety Third or Looter in slot 1, though you’ll often be too far away from the people you kill for Looter to come into play. Quick Draw is another solid choice that makes it a bit easier to defend yourself, as enemies can pretty easily get the drop on you if you’re focused on bombardment.

So, in summation, find a nice hill to stand on, be fat on it, and ruin people’s days. GL HF.