It uses DHS and Endo Steel to use 100% of the crits and all 85 tons (the real mech lab rounds out that .06 ton).
I have seen others who play competitively drop the ML and some of the arm's armor, the side torsos are almost always targeted first, and go for a STD 305.
I pug almost exclusively, mostly because my roommate likes to sleep and I'm pretty sure I'm loud enough as it is, so that ML let's me be a bit more independent.
Tactics
I am an average player, (50% hit rate with PPCs) but love tweaking my builds and tactics. Here is a quick outline of the tactics and strategies that give you the best kills, points, or wins. These are related, but to maximise one, you end up compromising others.
Disclaimer: I did not participate in the AVW tournament. I am a bit out of practice due to midterms and have work on the weekends.
I pug mostly due to odd hours (late night early morning pacific)
This guide assumes that you have a fully mastered mech.
Getting Kills
Spoiler
As NinetyProof pointed out, this is one of the cheapest tactics and does not provide much of a benefit to your team; however, it is arguably one of the easiest things to do with a build like this and lets you practice delivering pinpoint damage to a certain component.
The key to getting kills is to hang out behind cover and near your team. My overall record is 6 kills with around 600 damage.
Your target priority should be Medium>Heavy>Assault. Lights are wild; scare them off with the ML if you have higher priority targets. If you don't see any targets besides them go for the legs. If you see any legged mech switch immediately to that mech. Take your time, unless the mech is obviously critical, wait for target info so you can pinpoint your damage
Suggested modules: Target Info Gathering, Target Decay.
Tactic of choice: Party Crasher
You want to come late and hard, let the enemy focus on your team, then jump in at the last moment to ruin the day.
You generally want to be at about a 45 degree angle from your teammates in the targets field of view. You also want to be on the open side of your target's cover so that you are the last person to see the target when they retreat. Let your team exchange blows with the enemy until the enemy's center is cored or nearly cored. It so happens that usually, unless a mech was caught out of position, all of the mechs behind a certain bit of cover generally are of similar health. As one mech moves back behind its cover, nail it's CT (or whatever part is stipped) with your PPC's in chain fire you want to snipe the kill, not do massive damage. If the rest of the mechs behind that bit of cover are similarly weak, swing around and clean up using the ML if necessary. Then run off to the next closest skirmish.
Speed is key, you have to move around the map to get all the kills you can.
Topping the Charts
Spoiler
This is a great way to grind money and xp plus there is nothing like pulling a 1000+ match. Burst DPS and component destruction are essential. I don't remember my best, I'll look through screenies when I have time to look through my folder.
I tend to not focus on class priority but more on broad mechs with easy to hit side torsos. Note that this depends on their orientation, e.g. Stalkers from the side, Trebs from the front. I also generally save assaults for last, though if there are mediums and heavys I can target first. Lights are high risk, but also high reward. Don't waste time on them unless you know you can line up the shot to leg them. Comandos often give me 3 component destructions after they are legged though, so squash them if you have a chance.
Suggested modules: Target Info Gathering, 360 Retention.
Tactic of choice: The Bipolar Butcher
You want to focus on single parts of a mech, so burst DPS is what it is all about. Stay far enough away from the team that you aren't right in the thick of it, but close enough to rely on your team to keep from being overrun. Pop out and go for side torsos. From what I have found, you get rewarded for the lost arm too if you remove a side torso. Bust using your 40 point PPC alpha then hide behind cover till you are cool enough that you get back down to around 3% by your next engagement. Don't move while you are cooling off; that 300 engine has a lots of heatsinks, but it also generates lots of heat when you are at full throttle all the time.
Always be on the lookout for mechs that are separated from the group. These are where you can really rack up the points. Test the legs with the ML. If they are soft, rip one off. Don't move unless buddies come to help your target or the target is a serious threat to your armor. You can take the damage for the few seconds and your heat is the most important thing at the moment. It's best if they are not pointed to you when you leg them. It will take longer for them to turn around and fire. If they were turned around to begin with or they have reasonable amounts of leg armor, got straight for the side torsos. After you have ripped off both torsos, check to see if anyone is coming to help the target out. If so you might want to just retreat, you can't get high scores if you die in half way though the match. If not, remove a leg if you haven't already and then go for the headshot.
You have to always be shooting or cooling off. Plan ahead and make sure you always have a target available.
Carrying the Team
Spoiler
This is actually a fairly inaccurate title. I feel carry implies that you did the most damage and got the most kills. If you want to consistently win with pugs and other four means you don't want to expect this. Instead you should expect to be a support mech, don't wait around for the kill.
As NinetyProof pointed out, Focus firing is the most effective way to dish out damage to the opposing team. The only problem is that, all other things being equal, if two sides use focus fire effectively it really just comes down to the loadout of a mech or the amount of DCs each team has.
I tend to focus fire less when doing this and instead make sure the other mechs on my team can focus unmolested.
Suggested modules: Sensor Range, 360 Retention.
Tactic of choice: The Loose Cannon
Have you ever seen (or been) an Atlas that leads a group of mechs into battle, then watch the mediums and heavys run for cover as the Atlas gets focused to death?
This tactic attempts to create this situation on the enemy team.
Stick pretty close to your group, but don't be afraid to break off to meet a flanking foe and don't be afraid to flank to get a better position. As I said earlier, don't concentrate on focus firing. Instead, make sure that the enemy can't focus fire back.
If a group of mechs pop out behind cover, give the least mobile mech a shot at the CT. Use R to target that slow mech. This give all of the other pugs the indication to start firing. Now, concern yourself with that slow mech's friendly medium and heavys. Fire your alpha into their CT, try to scare them back into cover so that there is only that big lumbering assault for your team to focus.
Your sensor range module lets you choose what will most likely be focused, since people tend to all lock on if nothing else is available, and you will have the info before anyone not running with the module. Don't switch targets as you suppress.
Flanking can be used to flush out jump snipers.
When flanking a group try to smash the sniper's rear CT while hitting everyone else's side torso. This tends to push the CT guy forward into your group as he runs away, while drawing agro from the rest of the team. Then make a run for it and link back up with your team. Unusually your team has finished off the one guy you scared into them and can now turn on everyone else as they move out of position to run for the juicy Stalker kill.
General Stalker Tips
Currently, jump snipers are very popular. No stalkers carry jump jets in game but they do have high weapon mounts. They tend to slip back down a hill if you press "x" and kill the throttle.
You can use this to your advantage to climb up almost to the top of a hill, fire, then kill the throttle and slide backwards almost as fast as a highlander drops out of the sky.
I have pretty a bad internet connection. This bit of advice doesn't affect PPCs as much now, since HSR and the previous ballistic speed increases make leading fairly trivial. When you do have to shot at a mech that is moving fast, concentrate on angular speed. Don't worry about how fast the mech is traveling overall. For instance, shoot a raven that is circle strafing a mech at the far left and far right of there circle. Without getting too deep into Fourier transforms, the best explanation is that from your perspective, the circle that a mech travels is actually a line back and forth and it's travels along that line can be defined by a sine wave.
Here is a diagram of what I mean.
Hope this helps. If you find any mistakes or have any suggestions, just reply to this thread or send me a PM.
Nice try at a guide, but you have several things that NEED to change.
1) Advising people to sit around and "snipe" kills is soooo wrong. The team needs every person to be smart / active ... sitting around *waiting* is not helping the team, and basically means your almost nothing more then an DC player.
2) Priority. If the rest of the team is focus firing down a target, you, as a member of the team, should help. If your not the *lead* in the attack, then you should be a good follower and not just pick targets willy-nilly to try to improve a worthless stat.
3) "Don't Pick the Same Target" ... your really a broken record with this regards. If *everybody* on a team followed your advise, you will lose every game against any team that is focus firing in any regard.
Basically, your entire "strategy" can be pretty much re-titled as: How to practically guarantee losing each and every match.
Seriously, think about deleting this guide till such time as you can produce a guide that will actually *help* puggies win games. Then they might stick around long enough to give PGI money, which in turns means the game stays afloat.
1) Advising people to sit around and "snipe" kills is soooo wrong. The team needs every person to be smart / active ... sitting around *waiting* is not helping the team, and basically means your almost nothing more then an DC player.
This part of the guide was specifically for getting cheap kills. I made the mistake of putting it at the top of the guide, since I kinda wrote my guide in chronological order, from my first (admittedly cheap) tactics to what I do now. I see your point though I will edit and clarify that point.
And on the stat's thing, sure some people find them useless. Others focus on them almost exclusively. I tried to present a tactic for each player type.
NinetyProof, on 25 April 2013 - 07:35 AM, said:
2) Priority. If the rest of the team is focus firing down a target, you, as a member of the team, should help. If your not the *lead* in the attack, then you should be a good follower and not just pick targets willy-nilly to try to improve a worthless stat.
I have found that If both teams focus reasonably well, the team with the tonnage advantage nearly always wins. After deciding to try out different strategies, I found that if I suppressed other enemies besides the one currently being focused, the enemy team had a far lower total damage output that my team.
NinetyProof, on 25 April 2013 - 07:35 AM, said:
3) "Don't Pick the Same Target" ... your really a broken record with this regards. If *everybody* on a team followed your advise, you will lose every game against any team that is focus firing in any regard.
Did I push this a bit too hard? I assumed if you delve this deep into the forums, you are already pretty well versed in the benefits of focus fire. That is why I made it a point to provide an alternative that I found works with a reasonably organised team.
Regrets, on 25 April 2013 - 12:08 PM, said:
If you want to 'brawl' isn't it advantageous to drop a PPC for tag + 3-4 ssrm2?
I find SRMS and SSRMs difficult to use due to my variable ping. I normally bounce from 120 to 400 ms. As you could imagine, SRMS are a bit difficult to hit with. My SSRM's are affected by the server side lock confirmation. My reticle will get to half lock, then reset since the server sees something different.
This is also why I generally don't brawl.
I focused on a 4 PPC build instead of the entire 3F because it is definitely one of the more flexible variants and there are many ways to effectively make use of it's strengths. Due to the greater torso twist, I would imagine this would be the best brawling variant as well.
I will add this build to my post, since I admittedly don't have much variety up there right now.
I find SRMS and SSRMs difficult to use due to my variable ping. I normally bounce from 120 to 400 ms. As you could imagine, SRMS are a bit difficult to hit with. My SSRM's are affected by the server side lock confirmation. My reticle will get to half lock, then reset since the server sees something different.
This is also why I generally don't brawl.
I will add this build to my post, since I admittedly don't have much variety up there right now.
Thanks for the reply. Sorry hope your ping gets better soon. I can feel you, no sniping for me, I try a bunch but never works out with my shaky mouse.
It's good advice, Hobie. Don't let the haters get you down. I've always felt the 4-6 PPC boats were most useful for picking off the wounded mechs, and your advice to shoot a circling mech at the apex of its circle is spot on. It's the easiest way to get max kills, if that's your thing.
Thanks NRP, glad you liked it. I'm thinking about switching up the order of the strategies. The 4 PPC stalker can fulfill many roles, and I definitely don't want to make it out as a one trick pony.
Maybe if I add a few more strategies for different roles, I'm thinking light mech deathtrap next, it will be a bit more comprehensive and live up to it's namesake.
I am a big supporter of mixing them. It gives you some close range firepower as well then, but is still better on your heat.
I was thinking about this its a lot of control groups, 1, left click - tag; 2, right click - 2 ppc + tag; 4 - mousebtn1 - 2 x LRM10 + tag; 5 - mousebtn2 ERPPC + tag.I only use 4 really my middle mouse tends to click the right and left mouse... I guess I could use Q and E for 3 and 6...awkward buttons to hit while moving. I'll try it out at any rate.
I was thinking about this its a lot of control groups, 1, left click - tag; 2, right click - 2 ppc + tag; 4 - mousebtn1 - 2 x LRM10 + tag; 5 - mousebtn2 ERPPC + tag.I only use 4 really my middle mouse tends to click the right and left mouse... I guess I could use Q and E for 3 and 6...awkward buttons to hit while moving. I'll try it out at any rate.
Your control groups are not your problem. The fact you have LRMs on your build is.
Your control groups are not your problem. The fact you have LRMs on your build is.
I have found that LRMs are actually not too terrible if you change up your strategy a bit. The reason why is their accuracy with Artemis. Approximately 90% of your LRMs hit the center torso of most mechs if you TAG and maintain line of sight.
I role with a stalker 3H with 2 LRM 10s and 2 LRM 20s. That is 60*.7 damage per salvo so about 42 damage. With a 90 percent hit rate you have approximately 38 damage to the CT.
Sure, that's 2 less than a 4ppc alpha. But it also allows you to carry 3 MLs. The trick is to keep just inside your 270 meter range and now you are talking 38 damage from missiles and 15 from medium lasers. It's hard but not impossible to succeed as a close support mech.
I have found that LRMs are actually not too terrible if you change up your strategy a bit. The reason why is their accuracy with Artemis. Approximately 90% of your LRMs hit the center torso of most mechs if you TAG and maintain line of sight.
I role with a stalker 3H with 2 LRM 10s and 2 LRM 20s. That is 60*.7 damage per salvo so about 42 damage. With a 90 percent hit rate you have approximately 38 damage to the CT.
Sure, that's 2 less than a 4ppc alpha. But it also allows you to carry 3 MLs. The trick is to keep just inside your 270 meter range and now you are talking 38 damage from missiles and 15 from medium lasers. It's hard but not impossible to succeed as a close support mech.
Two LRM10's and two LRM20's occupy more crit slots and require more tonnage than four LRM15's.
I went a different route with my Stalker and I find it more effective. I'm a little torn about showing this build given it's effectiveness, but it's worth it for others to go try out.
4x PPC's, 4x SSRM2s, 2x ML's, 17 DHS.
For this build you are a little hotter and a little less armor on the arms and legs, but I am usually cored in the torso more than I lose a limb even today.
The key to this build is to be constantly moving in and out of different cover positions. the 4x PPC's are deadly and when they close thinking that's all you got, the SSRMs and ML's are a great counter to make them back off a little. I also use the Streaks and ML's to keep cool but it isn't that much more heat efficient. Plus the Streaks keep the light mechs from having a field day versus a stalker.
Cool shots 6 and 9x9 are the biggest boost to this build, but it is manageable even without them.
Interesting. I don't use cool shot because I am too lazy to equip it. Talk about a first world problem.
I'll have to try that out though. 2MLs sound like a bit of fun. I don't like to use streaks because I get frustrated with the server conformation issues. I will get a lock, then my reticle will half rewind then hang and then lock again.
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