You all make good points, but this is the debate thats been carried on for so long lol...
Trial and error is key for this game, so to become the best, try everything
I personally dont care for damage, as said its really not worth anything past 200 ticks becuase it only starts attacking at round 4,
but damage isnt worthless. Later in the game they have a good purpose in some attacks using a great deal of units...
The really good informative for noobies in here is the part about looking at statistics before scanning questionable targets (or anyone at all early in the era)
Some things that should've been said, and things needed to be improven in this little guide...

Yeah... Damage seriosuly fails, build armour and range on a ratio of 1:2 or 3:7

Never 1:2, always 3:7.

I use damage and it gets me far in the rankings.

Yeah and then you meet someone with skill and you cry like a baby once you lose everything and he won't even respect you- he'll laugh at you and mock you.

Yeah, lol. You might be high in the rankings, but your screwed in the end
Its like building loads of spam, you'll get tons of score, but what are you going to do when someone send a bunch of squad builts, and pwns your a**

Thanks... i now realize my mistake of puttin damage in there... you should build damage, im not denying that... they come in handy when u have an evenly matched opponent. I should have put the ratio though:

Inf: 20:5 20 is armored 5 is damage
Veh: 10:5 10 is armor 5 is damage
Mechs: 7:3 7 is armored and 3 is damage

there u all are....

but the ultimate ratio is this
mechs: 7:3 7 armored ranged is 3
veh: 10:5
inf: 19:11

you got that noobs?!

so how DO you use your damage?
to tell the truth, i've only built damage once and then moved away from it

secret.....

I got 6 formulas involving Damaga and Range and Armor in a certain ratio that does well against a certain chassis.