[ AGENT DEEP DIVE ] Ember and Her Tanks

Who is Ember?

Ember is a Defender. She can absorb and hold damage to the same standard as any other vehicle in the class, but what sets her apart is the area control and crowd control layered on top of that durability. Her Trait lets her physically shove obstacles and enemy vehicles out of the way, and her ultimate can deny sections of the map. Put simply, Ember is a Defender who controls space: she decides where the fight happens and forces the enemy to deal with it.Ember, HEAT's Season 2 Defender.

Grand Slam

Ember's ultimate calls in a large unguided bomb delivered by aircraft. The bomb penetrates intervening objects and detonates underground, producing a seismic blast wave.

Once you fire it, colored smoke marks the target location as a warning, then an aircraft passes overhead at high speed, giving anyone in earshot a moment's notice before the bomb lands. The bomb punches through anything above the target, drives into the ground, and disappears from view just before the blast hits.

The blast breaks tracks and deals a high amount of direct damage. Enemy vehicles within the blast radius are displaced away from its center, and a dust cloud then settles over the site for several seconds, obscuring visibility for anyone still in the area.

These values are accurate as of patch 1.2.0, but are not final and may change with future balancing:

• Blast radius: 25 meters
• Direct damage: near fatal damage
• Slow: 1500 slowed status

Grand Slam detonating.

Juggernaut

Her vehicles are fitted with dozer blades and high-output engines that push through physics objects which would otherwise slow or stop other vehicles, such as wrecks, and that same force can be applied to enemy vehicles. This lets you shove an enemy into an unfavorable position, or clear one out of ground you intend to occupy.Juggernaut pushing through an obstacle.

M1150 ABV

The M1150 ABV is built to control the ground directly in front of it. Explosive reactive armor along its sides compensates for otherwise thin side armor, while the turret carries additional protection against frontal fire.The M1150 ABV, one of Ember's two tanks.

Main gun: overheat, dual fire mode

The M1150 ABV's main gun runs on an overheat mechanic with two selectable fire modes. The primary mode shoots fire, and the secondary one shoots grease. Managing the gun's fire modes, and the heat buildup that comes with them, is central to using the weapon well.The M1150 ABV's main gun firing.

Ability 1: Line Charges

Launchers at the rear of the turret dispense munitions forward along two parallel lines, oriented to the turret's current facing. On impact they arm after a brief delay, then the full lines detonate at once, producing fire zones that apply status effects to anything caught inside. The main gun cannot be fired while this ability is active, and activation can be interrupted by Jamming. The M1150 ABV also cannot move while this ability is launching.Line Charges detonating.

Ability 2: Incendiary Launchers

Fires a set of projectiles that land roughly 40 meters from the vehicle. The projectiles can be intercepted by APS or physics objects before landing. On impact they produce both a fire zone and a dense black smoke screen that blocks vision, including thermal vision, isolating anyone caught inside from allies trying to support them. Activation can be interrupted by Jamming.Incendiary Launchers landing.

How to play it

• Fire standard rounds for general engagements and switch to grease rounds when the situation calls for their specific effect, managing heat buildup between the two.
• Use Line Charges as a faster, close-range area-denial option when Grand Slam cannot be set up in time.
• Deploy Incendiary Launchers to isolate an enemy from their team, both visually and through the fire effect.
• Follow Incendiary Launchers with Juggernaut to further separate an already-isolated enemy from support.
• Account for Jamming, since both abilities can be interrupted mid-activation.

XM1V

The XM1V is built around deliberate, high-value gunnery and area denial launched from the turret.The XM1V, one of Ember's two tanks.

Main gun: single shot

The XM1V is armed with a single-shot main gun, prioritizing deliberate, high-value hits over sustained fire. Its two abilities are both projectile-based area-denial tools launched from the turret.

Ability 1: Demolition Charges

Launches a set of charges in a ballistic arc toward a targeted point, fired in the direction the turret is facing. You set the travel distance of the charges before launch. Enemy APS or physics objects along the flight path can intercept the charges before impact. On landing, they detonate and slow anything caught within range. The main gun cannot be fired while this ability is being aimed or launched, and activation can be interrupted by the Jammed status effect.Demolition Charges detonating.

Ability 2: Minefield

Launches a set of mines in a ballistic arc onto a targeted point, using the same turret facing and adjustable travel distance as Demolition Charges. Mines can likewise be intercepted by APS or physics objects before landing. Once deployed, each mine is an independent, destructible object with its own hit points, and detonates on contact with an enemy vehicle, damaging its tracks. Because each mine does so much damage to tracks, one is often enough to immobilize its target. The main gun cannot be fired while this ability is active, and activation can be interrupted by Jamming.Minefield deployed.

How to play it

• Use Demolition Charges to slow an advancing push or force enemies to divert from a direct approach.
• Set the travel distance of charges and mines to the specific chokepoint you are defending, rather than defaulting to maximum range.
• Deploy Minefield across likely approach routes so enemies either take track damage pushing through or are forced to reroute.
• Use Juggernaut to clear wreckage from a path or displace an enemy from their position, including into an existing Minefield or Demolition Charges area.
• Account for Jamming, since it will interrupt either ability mid-activation.

Get started

Ember is a Defender first, able to absorb and hold damage on par with the rest of the class. What sets her apart is the control she exerts over the space around her: Grand Slam denies a large area and displaces anything caught in it, while Juggernaut lets her physically clear a path or reposition enemies at close range. The M1150 ABV applies this up close through Line Charges and Incendiary Launchers, supported by its dual-mode overheat gun, while the XM1V applies it through area control with Demolition Charges and Minefield.

Recommended Agent skills

The build below is a guide, not necessarily the most optimal one. Feel free to adapt it to your own playstyle. These are the Agent skills we build Ember around:

• Thickhead: +5% to frontal hull armor. A flat durability increase to the front of the hull, reinforcing Ember's ability to hold a position and absorb fire from the direction she is facing. The XM1V's weak point is its vulnerable window armor, which this skill helps shore up.
• Overclocked: −25% ability cooldown, at the cost of −10% ability damage. This brings Demolition Charges, Minefield, Line Charges, and Incendiary Launchers back online much faster, at the cost of some of their damage. Since Ember's abilities are built around denial and disruption rather than raw damage, faster uptime generally matters more than the damage lost.
• Well Oiled Machine: +10% to hull and turret traverse speed. Improves how quickly Ember can turn to face a new threat or target, which matters given how much of her kit depends on aiming abilities at a specific point before firing. Both of Ember's vehicles can feel a little sluggish at times, and this helps in that area.
• Adrenaline Rush: +1 Ultimate Energy for every 250 damage dealt with the main gun. This ties Grand Slam's charge rate directly to your own gunnery rather than to passive regeneration alone, so landing main-gun shots brings the ultimate online faster. A well-placed Grand Slam can swing a team fight, so having it up more often is a real advantage.

Why it works together: this loadout is built around getting Ember's kit back into play faster and keeping her responsive while she does it. Overclocked shortens the cooldown on all four of her abilities; Well Oiled Machine lets her track and aim those abilities more quickly as fights develop; Thickhead reinforces the frontal durability she needs while holding a position; and Adrenaline Rush means the main-gun damage she deals along the way is also building toward her next Grand Slam.Ember's recommended Agent skills loadout.

M1150 ABV module build

1. Ability Slot 1 (Line Charges): empty
   This build leaves the Line Charges ability slot empty. The combined power draw of the other five modules leaves no capacity for a Line Charges mod, so running this build means trading away any modifier on that ability in exchange for the mobility, durability, and Incendiary Launchers upgrades below. Treat that as a deliberate trade-off rather than an oversight.
2. Ability Mod: XM903 (Incendiary Launchers)
   Enemy vehicles become Vulnerable on contact with the Napalm areas it creates, reducing their status resistance and speeding up further status buildup while they are affected. Napalm area lifetime is increased by 18.1% (to 18.9 seconds), at the cost of a 5% longer charge cooldown (36.75 seconds). Napalm areas differ from standard fire zones in that they cannot be put out by water or smoke, and contact with one builds Fire status on anything standing in it. This substantially raises the value of Incendiary Launchers as a zone-control tool: anything caught in the Napalm area doesn't just burn, it is also takes status effects faster from every other source while inside, and the area itself cannot be cleared the way ordinary fire can.
3. Mobility Mod: X-1400
   Grants Overdrive while the vehicle is out of combat, which doubles acceleration, increases Boost mode speed, speeds up Boost Energy regeneration, and grants full slow resistance. Hull traverse is increased by 27.1% (27.34 degrees per second), at the cost of 5% reverse speed (28.52 km/h). Because Overdrive only applies out of combat, this rewards disengaging cleanly between fights rather than staying locked in prolonged exchanges, giving a much faster return to position afterward. It is also a great boost for driving to capture zones and repositioning.
4. Toughness Mod: LERA-7
   When the vehicle's HP drops below 25%, remaining ERA plates automatically collapse and convert into temporary HP, with the amount scaling to the percentage of ERA plates that collapsed. This resets once the ERA plates are fully repaired. Side hull armor is increased by 10% (126.5mm) and frontal hull armor by 5%, at the cost of 13.5% hull traverse (27.34 degrees per second). This gives the M1150 ABV a built-in emergency buffer at low HP, turning armor that would otherwise just be destroyed into a temporary HP cushion at the moment it matters most.
5. Toughness Mod: ISAC
   Grants a stack of Warded for every 20% of Fire status buildup on the vehicle. Hit points are increased by 10.3% (3088.4) and fire resistance by 50%, at the cost of 20% shock resistance, 20% radiation resistance, and 20% slow resistance. This is a direct answer to the M1150 ABV's own fire-based kit. Since Line Charges and Incendiary Launchers both apply fire effects, and enemies can return the favor, the fire-resistance boost plus Warded generation from fire buildup makes the vehicle noticeably harder to burn down, at the cost of being more exposed to the other status types. Given how fire-oriented this vehicle is, it is also common to take damage from your own fire, so always keep an eye on it.
6. Utility Mod: ECR-23
   Reduces equipment cooldown by 16.4%. Faster equipment uptime, which compounds with the ability and gun improvements elsewhere in the build. As with the XM1V, your Repair Kit and Phantom Curtain, both of which this vehicle needs to survive, come back more often. Phantom Curtain can also put out fires, making setting yourself alight less punishing.

M1150 ABV module loadout screen.

Why it works together

This build commits fully to the M1150 ABV's fire-and-durability identity, at the cost of losing an ability mod on Line Charges. ISAC and XM903 both scale off fire specifically, making the vehicle harder to burn down while making its own fire zones considerably nastier to stand in. LERA-7 backs that up with an emergency HP cushion at low health, X-1400 gives a fast recovery window between engagements, and ECR-23 keeps equipment cycling quickly throughout.

XM1V module build

1. Ability Mod: LFS-2 (Demolition Charges)
   Destroying enemy tracks with Demolition Charges applies a Track Repair Penalty, increasing track repair time by 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Using a Repair Kit removes the effect. Blast radius is increased by 7.4% (to 5.91 meters). This turns Demolition Charges from a one-time slow into a lingering denial tool against tracks specifically: an enemy who loses tracks to it is not just briefly immobilized, they are meaningfully slower to get moving again.
2. Ability Mod: M87G2 (Minefield)
   The minefield can be rotated before placement, giving you more control over how it lines up against a chokepoint or approach angle. Minefield gains an extra charge, for 3 total, and its energy cost is reduced by 5.5% (to 30.24). The extra charge is the headline change, letting the XM1V cover two separate approaches or restock a chokepoint after the first minefield is cleared or expires, without waiting on a full cooldown. Even more valuable than the extra charge is the ability to rotate the minefield, giving you more freedom to cover chokepoints and deny an area more effectively.
3. Toughness Mod: MKIII ATDS
   Grants Patch Up, which triggers when you are above 25% HP and out of combat for 5 seconds, healing over time until interrupted by taking damage again. Also grants Adamant when below 50% HP, a defensive buff at that health threshold. Frontal hull armor is increased by 5.2% and frontal turret armor by 9.2%, at the cost of 10% hit points (2849.76 total) and 5% turret traverse speed. This module rewards disengaging rather than pushing through a bad fight: breaking contact for a few seconds triggers passive healing, and Adamant gives a safety net if the vehicle is already low, in exchange for a smaller overall health pool and slower turret tracking.
4. Utility Mod: AVDS1790
   Reduces equipment cooldown by 12%. Straightforward faster access to equipment items, which stacks with the ability charge and cooldown improvements elsewhere in the build. It brings up your Repair Kit and your Phantom Curtain faster, both of which are vital to your survival.
5. Firepower Mod: WS/AN1
   Grants Retribution for 10 seconds after you damage an enemy vehicle with a shot. While active, Retribution reduces main-gun reload time by 10% and increases damage by 5%. Since the XM1V's main gun is single-shot, landing that one hit matters more than usual, and this module rewards doing so by making the follow-up shot come around faster and hit harder, provided you hit the target again within the 10-second window.

XM1V module loadout screen.

Why it works together

This build leans into denial that outlasts the initial hit, and survivability that rewards disengaging rather than trading. LFS-2 and M87G2 both extend how long Demolition Charges and Minefield keep punishing an area after the fact, MKIII ATDS gives the XM1V a way to recover HP and gain a defensive buff by breaking contact, AVDS1790 gets equipment back faster to support that playstyle, and WS/AN1 rewards landing the single-shot main gun by speeding up and strengthening the next one.

---

Ember rewards players who think about the ground as much as the enemy. Take her into a match, run the M1150 ABV up close or the XM1V at range, and see which one fits how you like to control a fight. The builds above are a starting point, not a rulebook. Tell us how you run her, and share your own builds with the community on Discord.
Join the Discord