89 replies to this topic

[PEEFsmash]

Hello light players!

My name is PEEFsmash, House of Lords Light Pilot, previously Light Lance Commander for HBA, and previously starting light pilot for DV8.

I owe the readers of this thread credentials if they wish to know more about me/why this might be worth watching. Details within this spoiler tag:

Spoiler

I am now commander of the light lance at HBA (was Hell's Black Aces, now Hellborne Armored Corps). Adiuvo and Krivvan are my official lancemates, but I often use one or two more unaffiliated pilots (most often Wispsy) in my lance.

Before joining HBA, I was a first-string light pilot for DV8. While I was there they were one of the most successful competitive 12 man units in the game. We were RHoD Season 1 Playoff Finalists, and champions of LMS Bracket 1. No unit matched our collective performance in the Leaderboard Tournaments. DV8 was home to many of the most feared pilots in the queue, and I got to play with and against them on a daily basis, both as teammates, and during practice 1v1s against each other.

DV8 and I parted ways for reasons of conflict of leadership, and several ex-DV8 members now play with me at HBA. HBA has many top players of its own such as Kaffeangst, and having a leadership role has been fantastic.

In the Leaderboard Tournaments, I have played in the Light Bracket the last 4 times. Here are my results. In each tourney, I only played during two of the 3 days, and only 4 of the 7 days in the Spring Clean Em Up.

2nd Place: Assault vs World (most recent)
8th Place: Heavy vs World (testing new build)
3rd Place: Medium vs World (two months in)
12th Place: Spring Clean'Em Up (about a month after I started playing the game)

Anyway, I wanted to make a guide to light players who were really looking to push their games to the next level. When I came up in competitive gaming, I always wanted to get inside the mind of the best players. Koreanese, one of the absolute best and most dominant players in this game, recruited me a couple weeks after I started playing, and I was "blessed" to have the opprotunity to learn very quickly from him. I am hoping to give back and help some people who might want to become competitive players (or just want to dominate pugs), think they have the skills, but are looking for some extra tips and insight into the state of mind and decision making of a top light.

I decided I would do this in a very different way than the typical "light guide." I figured I could just queue up solo-pug style and play my own builds, and explain everything that I did and why. I don't go over basics, I'm assuming a working knowledge of the basics of the game. I instead try to explain any advanced techniques and especially give insight into my decision making process during live games.

So without further ado, here it is. This video is not edited whatsoever, it is just the solid 1.5 hours of gameplay, no matches left out, where I explain what I am doing, etc. Not every game is great, but every game provides something to learn from.

Light Video Guide

If you have any questions, comments, etc, just include the time on the video with your comment so I can check it out!

Feel free to ask any other questions about light play as well!

Edited by PEEFsmash, 28 October 2014 - 12:03 AM.

[kaffeangst]

Useful tips and strategies not only for Light pilots, but for mech piloting in general. If you have some free time, watch the video; you're sure to learn something.

[John Buford]

Always good to see more info on Lights. I have about 300 matches so I am past the basics now its down to learning to good stuff so looking forward to all of this.

[BookWyrm]

Funny, a fellow player had recently complimented my skills as a light pilot and said they learned a few things from me. My response was that there were better light pilots out there to watch and you were one of the ones I mentioned. Cheers for helping out your fellow players.

Edited by BookWyrm, 05 September 2013 - 07:40 PM.

[PEEFsmash]

BookWyrm, on 05 September 2013 - 07:39 PM, said:

Funny, a fellow player had recently complimented my skills as a light pilot and said they learned a few things from me. My response was that there were better light pilots out there to watch and you were one of the ones I mentioned. Cheers for helping out your fellow players.

Thank you BookWyrm, I appreciate it.

[Johnny Reb]

Nice you are trying to help the community!

[Vallyn]

I'll check this out when I have the time, but Peef is definatley one of the quality light players out there (well, players in general) so, I trust he'll have some good advice for those looking to improve their game.

Always a good thing to have him on your side. . .or alternatively, he makes a great target if you like a challenge

Seriously though, PEEF's advice should be listened too.

[Johnny Reb]

Heh, first 20 min is a great guide for light pilots. After that its EGO on the loose!

Edit: still I recommend all lights (everyone) to watch the first 20 min!

Edited by Johnny Reb, 05 September 2013 - 10:16 PM.

[PEEFsmash]

Johnny Reb, on 05 September 2013 - 10:12 PM, said:

Heh, first 20 min is a great guide for light pilots. After that its EGO on the loose!

Edit: still I recommend all lights (everyone) to watch the first 20 min!

=D I'd say its more of "alcohol on the loose!" I do think the first few matches are when I'm most focused+sober, and I can't expect everyone to watch for a full 90 minutes. I'm glad you liked it.

Edited by PEEFsmash, 05 September 2013 - 10:28 PM.

[Johnny Reb]

PEEFsmash, on 05 September 2013 - 10:24 PM, said:

=D I'd say its more of "alcohol on the loose!" I do think the first few matches are when I'm most focused+sober, and I can't expect everyone to watch for a full 90 minutes. I'm glad you liked it.

I appreciate you are a top light pilot! You just are so arrogant! Still, good vid I recommend to anybody!

[DEMAX51]

Nice video, man. It's cool of you to put something like that together.

Neat trick using standard armor to squeeze an extra DHS into the -F build, too. I normally use 5 MLs too, but with only 15 DHS an XL300 and more armor - I'll have to give your build a shot, though. Mind if I ask how you've got your armor distributed on that?

[PEEFsmash]

DEMAX51, on 05 September 2013 - 10:28 PM, said:

Nice video, man. It's cool of you to put something like that together.

Neat trick using standard armor to squeeze an extra DHS into the -F build, too. I normally use 5 MLs too, but with only 15 DHS an XL300 and more armor - I'll have to give your build a shot, though. Mind if I ask how you've got your armor distributed on that?

Thanks!

And here is the armor:
Head - 6 (I've been headshotted one time ever in the Jenner, and it was double AC20, so I would have died anyway. I lose my head armor quite a bit, but I never lose the cockpit internals.

CT - 36 Front, 8 Rear (I have gone as low as 1 back armor and as high as 14. 36 seems to be a sweet spot for my more conservative playstyle where I don't need to show back very often. The only reason I have even 8 is to get me one free pass against a light or two who finds me in the open and I need to get out. Other top lights like Banananutmuffins that play more aggressively than me tend to run up to 10-18 back armor. Fit your own playstyle, because CT is just about the only way you will die in a Jenner)

Side Torso: 21 Front, 6 Rear. (Yep. I cut Side Torso armor. Sounds bad for an XL engine, until you realize that it is absolutely tiny and never gets shot.)

Arms: 20 (Cut a little bit here, but losing arms doesn't happen much either).

Legs: Full ofc

As far as I know, nobody else runs a build like this, or even any type of Jenner without Ferro. I'm not sure it will catch on because of the sacrifices it makes and the narrow optimalities it seeks, but it is right for me. I like to take shots from 400 meters with med lasers. I like spending time in that range. In a standard 6ML Jenner, you simply cannot take shots from that range because you need all of your heat for the in-close fights/to save your own life if it comes to it. I tried a few ways to adjust a build to my 400m shots, either through a separate group of 4 that I could shoot from distance, or something else, but I found it too important to be able to shoot from 400 meters with all 5 medium lasers in order to finish off mechs or soften key parts. Getting in close was too dangerous. So I made this build. It skimps on a bit of armor, and it runs a 295 instead of 300. I had doubts about the 295 switch until I played with it for a whole day ACCIDENTALLY because I was switching things around the night before, and I never even noticed. If I couldn't notice a difference between 150.2 and 152.7 throughout a whole day...I might as well spend that difference + strip some armor in order to get an extra heatsink that I notice right away, and now absolutely cannot play without.

So that's the build and its story =]

Edited by PEEFsmash, 05 September 2013 - 10:51 PM.

[Johnny Reb]

Prolly cause from I read speed is capped at 150 no matter what it tells you.

[PEEFsmash]

Johnny Reb, on 05 September 2013 - 10:52 PM, said:

Prolly cause from I read speed is capped at 150 no matter what it tells you.

Not true, tested this as well via a straight-line run with myself in my 295 and a teammate in the 300. 152.7 is faster than 150.2, and both speeds are accurate. The in-game difference? After 30 seconds of running it was something like a couple mechlengths, maybe a few.

Edited by PEEFsmash, 05 September 2013 - 11:01 PM.

[DEMAX51]

Thanks for the armor info, I'll give that a shot the next time I play.

And hey, let me know if you and/or BNM ever feel like trying to sync drop for some duels. I always love a good Light v Light fight, and you are two pilots I like to think of as friendly rivals.

[Reginald Lansing]

PEEF, great video. Learned some great tips.

One question: Any reason for not putting a DHS in your engines?

[PEEFsmash]

Reginald Lansing, on 06 September 2013 - 07:37 AM, said:

PEEF, great video. Learned some great tips.

One question: Any reason for not putting a DHS in your engines?

You never want to put DHS in your engine if you can put them with some other item. DHS are important, but not as important as your actual weaponry. Your DHS fill several crit slots, which means that having them in the same component with your medium lasers or your JJ makes it so that if you lose your armor, your are less likely to lose the lasers or the JJ to item crit damage.

The only time you should put your DHS in the engine is when you have no space for another DHS, or when the only space you have for DHS is in a component with nothing in it. In that case, its better to just stick it in the engine because it can't absorb for anything anyway.

Edited by PEEFsmash, 06 September 2013 - 10:07 AM.

[DEMAX51]

PEEFsmash, on 06 September 2013 - 10:05 AM, said:

You never want to put DHS in your engine if you can put them with some other item. DHS are important, but not as important as your actual weaponry. Your DHS fill several crit slots, which means that having them in the same component with your medium lasers or your JJ makes it so that if you lose your armor, your are less likely to lose the lasers or the JJ to item crit damage.

The only time you should put your DHS in the engine is when you have no space for another DHS, or when the only space you have for DHS is in a component with nothing in it. In that case, its better to just stick it in the engine because it can't absorb for anything anyway.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't putting it in your engine give your CT structure a buffer too? It adds the chance that any damage to your internal CT will be applied as a crit to the DHS, and then only 15% of the damage would actually be applied to your CT structure.

Edited by DEMAX51, 06 September 2013 - 10:18 AM.

[Scandinavian Jawbreaker]

Cheers, PEEF! Gonna watch the whole video and practice the lights.

[PEEFsmash]

DEMAX51, on 06 September 2013 - 10:16 AM, said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't putting it in your engine give your CT structure a buffer too? It adds the chance that any damage to your internal CT will be applied as a crit to the DHS, and then only 15% of the damage would actually be applied to your CT structure.

I don't think you are right about this. If you are, then nobody else knows about it. I know that Engines cannot be critted, and DHS in engine is considered nothing other than part of the engine, no extra slots are taken up by the DHS, so...there should be no benefit to DHS in the engine.