This is Pery's Guide through the clockworks! I will post these guides daily. These can help recruits or even experienced players who need help! There are some difficult monsters out there, so I will point out strategies and tactics for each monster family.
Beasts: When you are about to engage a wolver, either wait for it to come to you, or make it teleport. After it teleports, attack. For gunslingers, use a magnus, because each shot deals a lot of damage.
Fiends: When there are yesmen, kill them first. When there are over timers from the pit boss, kill the pit boss first. When there are devilites with a pit boss, let the pit boss go to one of them, and kill the others. When greavers are about to attack, you have 3 options: Dash, Shield, or attack.(for bombers, use shield bash.)
Undead: When a howlitzer comes at you, throw a pot or shoot your gun to stop it, but make sure it's not close.
Slimes: Shorten your combos to all but one hit.
Gremlins: If you have a gun, corner the gremlin, then shoot it. When there is a gremlin mender, use your charge attack on it, or make it use the bubble, because once the mender uses it, the mender can't use the bubble again.
Constructs: When fighting a construct, wait for it to attack, then start attacking, so you won't get hit.
I hope this helps!
-Pery
Pery's Guide through the clockworks. I: Strategies against monster families.
Thanks! I learn a lot of things while exploring.
-If healers are about, and one of you has a Maskeraith or Venom Veiler, take advantage of it. Poison the enemies and aim for the poisoned enemies. (Heck, if there's three Silkwings and someone has a Venom Veiler, it might be best to aim away from the Silkwings. They'll cause a lot of damage to the poisoned enemies.)
-If you have freezing weapons, try to "lock" big monsters like Trojans and Deadnaughts. Similarly, if you see someone trying to freeze a monster, help them out by aiming away from that monster (unless you've got a heavy-damage charge attack).
-DO NOT SET OILERS ON FIRE. That makes them VERY dangerous. In the event of an Oiler catching fire, you can put them out with Water globes or Freeze. Alternatively, just kill them with Normal or Shadow damage.
-If you have fire, use it on Ice Cubes! They take more damage from fire, and it also "de-spikes" them, keeping them from using Thorn Root attacks and removing the Piercing component from their normal tackle. Ash of Agni is your best friend in the Ice Queen's lair.
-Shock wisely! Shocking Quicksilvers will supercharge them, which can endanger your team, but while a Quicksilver is supercharged, it also becomes a menace to its own team. Try sucking them into an Electron Vortex with other enemies and running away; the Quicksilvers will damage their allies if the explosion shocks them.
-Don't try to circle strafe a Polyp. It just won't work. Shield, dash, or keep your distance. That said, you can circle strafe a Gun Puppy or Howlitzer, at least in Tier 3.
-Shield frequently when Toxigels and Lichen Colonies use their spin attack; this will spread spines in random directions.
-Shielding next to a Rocket Puppy as it fires will render the rocket useless; its explosion will not damage you or your shield if you shield right next to it. But be aware of other enemies; it might be better to put them between you and the Rocket Puppy, as rockets will be stopped by (and cause damage to) other enemies. Explosions will destroy Rocket Puppy rockets (and Howlitzer heads).
-Use cover against ranged enemies like Turrets and Devilites. In the latter case, good cover will also give you time to slash at any Greavers that may be chasing you down. If another Knight needs some cover, you can make some with your shield, provided it can last long enough under fire.
-Fight patiently! If, say, twelve Mecha Knights and two Retrodes are chasing you down, run away from them while shooting or laying bombs, don't run straight at them and spam the full combo of your sword. Doing the latter will get you killed.
-Stock up on Poison and Curse Vials. Poison vials are powerful tools in areas with healers, while Curse vials pack the most damaging status effect in the game (one vial will usually kill off a turret). However, this is subject to change in some areas; FSC, for example, has few healers and many Curse-immune enemies, so try for Shock or Freeze vials instead. (Hopefully I don't have to tell you why Fire Vials don't help in Firestorm Citadel.)
-Be considerate! If you kill an enemy far away from your teammates, let them know so they can go grab the loot- this might save you if they pick up something like a Curse Vial or Health Capsule. Definitely let them know if you broke open treasure blocks or downed a Giant Lichen Colony. (And by the way, TF2 players, this also applies to money in MvM. Scouts can't read your mind.)
-Use your Dash wisely! Dash through bullets, and they won't hurt you till the end of the dash; use this when a bunch of Gun Puppies are spamming shots at you. You can't dash over floor traps, so don't try it.
You're being too specific. No one in their right mind attacks an attacking mechs knight. Just say retrode in that case. Slimes actually do best with brandish combos. Etc. Should I add more?
Actually, if I actually have a sword on me (I'm usually a gunner), on occasion I'll go for a direct sword slash against a Mech Knight when he's preparing his attack, though I usually only do a hit-and-run tactic with that, slash it, shield, run a bit, slash again (unless I get lucky and he falls over when I slash, then I slash a few more times).
It tends to work fine, granted when I use a sword, it's usually the Dread Venom Striker, which is a very fast sword.
New recruits should also be aware of the damage types monster are weak to. Monster resistances wiki page
This guides proving to be good advice. Nice job Pery!