5
First off, lets start with a bit of history and definition.
"Follow the blue blob" was one of the first "tactics" I can recall being used almost universally in MWO. When a new player or a solo player would jump into a game with me, or with a group I was dropping with, and asked "Where do I go?", the easiest answer was "Follow the blob"
This helped keep new(er) players in with the main force so they didn't accidentally wander off and get blown up immediately after starting the round leaving them with a bad taste regarding MWO and leaving the team a mech down early on. This quickly became the "normal" strategy employed with solo players and affectionately became the "blob" strategy.
Unfortunately a lot of players tend to make the mistake of thinking that this is all they need to do in order to win. "I followed the blob and we got stomped!".
How did this happen and how can you avoid it?
Well, there's a few factors that go into it. It could be better loadouts on the other side, a little more teamwork, or simply just running into a team that was better than yours. Regardless of why, I am hoping to give a few tips and tricks that will help new players get more accustomed to how groups work together. These tactics can be used regardless of premade, pug, voip, etc. It just takes a little patience and practice.
Focus Fire:
This is the single biggest reason you see mechs melt quickly in the field. Ever wonder why your 100 ton Atlas was destroyed 10 seconds after engaging the enemy force? This is probably the culprit. 1v1 against most mech an Atlas is going to come out on top, if all things are even such as piloting skill.
2v1? eh.... maybe
3v1? not so much
4v1? Not a chance
and so on and so forth.
So what is focus fire? Focusing fire is nothing more than concentrating as much firepower as your team can muster on one single enemy mech as opposed to shooting at 4-5 targets of opportunity.
I know I know, "But Sand, how do I focus fire when I'm not on voip and can't communicate easily with my teammates?"
I'm glad you asked! This is where a little patience and practice some into play. Even though you may be a solo player, you have 11 other teammates to help support and that will help support you. Next time you get ready to engage the main enemy force, wait to see which mech your teammates are shooting at. If you have 2-3 other teammates shooting at one mech, join in with them and add your firepower to theirs.
You will always bring down a mech faster if you have more teammates firing on it.
It is also fairly easy to type "Charlie" into the text, that lets your teammates know that you are going to focus on Charlie and hopefully helps get their attention drawn to it as well.
IraqiWalker, on 17 July 2014 - 06:29 PM, said:
Even if you are not on comms, when scanning the enemy team there are red triangles over every hostile mech. Solid red triangles mean that the enemy mech is being targeted by an ally. As such, you are more likely to help your team by shooting down the mechs they are already targeting, and most likely, attacking.
Essentially what Iraqi means here is that if you see an enemy mech with a solid filled in red triangle over its head, that is a good indication that at least one of your other teammates already has that enemy targeted and is probably lighting them up. Essentially it's a visual indicator that helps you determine what mechs to shoot at.
If you see 9 triangles like this, chances are your team is not focusing fire very well.
Combined with target prioritization, focus fire cannot be emphasized enough when it comes to taking down mechs quickly.
Target Prioritization:
One of the biggest mistakes I see players (new and old alike) make is not prioritizing their targets better.
Nothing is more frustrating than pushing into an enemy area with a few teammates in order to create a diversion, only to watch 8 guys blobbed together spending 5 minutes trying to shoot one Spider. Meanwhile the Atlas, Victor, Stalker, Orion, etc. are steamrolling the rest of the team.
Know when it's time to let that pesky squirrel be so that you can take down larger threats. If you round a corner and there's an Atlas, Spider, and Cicada standing there, your best bet is always start taking down that Atlas first. It's going to chew you up a lot faster than the other two can. Also, keep in mind that tonnage isn't always the only factor involved. If you round a corner and see an AC40 mech along with a another mech of equal, or even bigger, size, it's probably a good idea to take your shots at that AC40 first.
Void Angel, on 17 July 2014 - 05:50 PM, said:
People tend to fall into formalism in lots of things if they're not careful. It's important to pay attention to principles like the ones outlined in this thread, rather than treat combat like a baking recipe.
On the subject of targets, it's all about damage output v. toughness. An Atlas is better to kill than two lights - but not better than a Timber Wolf or Orion, since their toughness/firepower ratio is often lower.
It might, however, be advantageous to spend your first shot trying to cripple the Spider, because lights who know they're being ignored will camp in your rear arc and butcher you, if your team lets them. That's more advanced tactics than you're probably going for, however.
On the subject of targets, it's all about damage output v. toughness. An Atlas is better to kill than two lights - but not better than a Timber Wolf or Orion, since their toughness/firepower ratio is often lower.
It might, however, be advantageous to spend your first shot trying to cripple the Spider, because lights who know they're being ignored will camp in your rear arc and butcher you, if your team lets them. That's more advanced tactics than you're probably going for, however.
I touched on this briefly when talking about target prioritization. Bigger does not always equal "better" when choosing your target. Remember the AC40 example?
That is what Void is getting at here. You have to learn how to judge the biggest threat. An Atlas with one remaining Large Laser can wait if you still have a relatively healthy medium mech running around shooting up your teammates. A lot of players get caught up in getting the kill. It's not uncommon to watch players run around trying to finish off a mech that has no weapons and therefore represents no threat instead of concentrating on taking down the remaining mechs that can actually shoot back at you.
This is also plays right into the importance of hitting "R". The target information gained from actually targeting an enemy mech can quickly help you assess which mechs are the bigger threats.
Situational Awareness:
This is huge. I cannot stress this one enough. This has ramifications across every aspect of the game. If you're preparing to sprint across an open area and the other team has LRM boats, consider your position, your team's position, the position of available cover, and whether or not those LRM boats are already engaging a target. (see prioritization above). You don't want to be the only target available to them because you WILL get rained on every time without fail.
Know where your team is at all times. Don't disregard the mini-map. It's a valuable tool that often gets overlooked. Even when no enemies are present it still shows you the locations of nearby friendly mechs. If you see a couple of your teammates following you in, don't jsut stop in the middle of the road blocking their path. All you've managed to do with that is bottleneck your team, make for easy targets, and forced teammates to adjust movement, which isn't always the easiest thing to do in a big assault mech.
HIT R:
This is another one I cannot stress enough. Even if you feel there is no benefit to you for hitting "R" to lock a target, it is extremely beneficial to teh rest of your team. It allows support mechs to rain down LRMs. It also gives you damage information regarding enemy mechs.
If you're facing off against an enemy mech and you're shooting at it's left torso when it's right torso is hanging by a thread, well you're not taking full advantage of the tolls available to you. It also lets teammates know enemy positions without having to stop and type.
I promise, if you start practicing these tips you'll see improvements in your w/l and see far less stomps in your gaming sessions. It won't, by any means, be the absolute best when it comes to tactics but these are some fairly simple tips that will help you improve your overall game experience, help out your team, win more games, and above all else have a little fun.
These tools require minimal to no actual communication from your team and even if you're on a team of complete solo players who don't want to act as a team, doing things like focusing fire, hitting r, and knowing the situation will quickly infuse more natural teamwork into your games.
As always all comments are welcome. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. I'm not the world's greatest mechwarrior by any means but I have spent over two decades playing team based games, Battletech, Mechwarrior games, and various other PvP style games. If you have anything you would like to add to this please feel free! Please keep it on topic though and check the egos at the door. This is all about getting out some guides and strategies to help players get acclimated to a game with a very steep learning curve.
Edited by Sandpit, 17 July 2014 - 06:46 PM.
