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As the complexity of MWO is very, very high, attempting to form a comprehensive guide will necessarily require great length. And great length tends to lead to great tl;dr, especially when most people will already know *some* of these. To keep things organised, this guide will be partitioned using overpowered spoiler tags - so all you will see at first is what looks like a table of contents. Unspoiler the region you need, and you can home in to whatever you don't know yet, while not wasting any time on that which you already know.
Section A: Building your Mech
Spoiler
A1: General Mech Building
A2: Weapons
A3: Ammunition
A4: Equipment
A5: Advanced Building
A6: Modules
A1: General Mech Building
Spoiler
Your Mech has essentially 4 limits you need to keep track of when building:
Your Mech has essentially 4 limits you need to keep track of when building:
- Tonnage limits - You may not exceed the total tonnage of the mech. Going under gives no advantage, so you want to max this as far as possible, unless the difference is very small - some locusts run at 19.9 for instance.
- Critical slot limits - Every piece of equipment from ammo to weapons takes up critical slots. Armor takes up separate armor slots. You cannot exceed the number of slots per location, and armor cannot be added past the allotment maximum. Rear and front armor shares the same allotment.
- Hardpoints apply for weapon systems, ECM and AMS. You cannot place a ballistic weapon in a location that does not possess a ballistic hardpoint for instance.
- Heat is a soft limit which determines your Mech's overall refire rate. You need a heat efficiency of at least 1.5 to fire your weapons nonstop for a protracted period of time. If it is below, it means heat will affect how often you may fire your weapons. It is not always bad to have low heat efficiency, if your weapons are in groups that are not fired at the same time, or if your build is specced to deal high burst damage before retreating.
A2: Weapons
Spoiler
Between ballistics/missiles and energy weapons, energy weapons always generate more heat, but have no ammunition shortage problems. Ballistics/missiles will eventually run out of ammunition, which may not be a problem if you either die or win the match before you run out. Due to this, Mech builds appropriate for normal matches may be suboptimal in Community Warfare matches as they can last much longer.
Lasers do damage over time, and have to be held on a target. Pulse lasers have a shorter duration and therefore deliver their full damage more reliably on moving targets, and usually also do slightly more damage, in exchange for greater tonnage and shorter range.
In addition, energy weapons tend to deal lower damage per second than either ballistics or missiles, even if you never overheat, between weapons of comparable damage per hit - AC/10 vs PPC, AC/5 vs medium laser for instance, and they tend to weigh less. However, as they require more cooling via heat sinks to be optimal, and the double heat sinks usually used take up a relatively large amount of critical slots, consider energy as something that takes more crits and less tonnage, and ballistics/missiles as something that takes up more tonnage and less crits. Therefore, if you have crits to spare you can probably consider taking more energy, and if you have weight to spare you can probably consider taking more ballistics/missiles.
Between ballistics and missiles, ballistics deal less damage to a point target (with the exception of LBXAC and machine guns), while missiles deal more damage to a larger area. Missiles are thus generally more effective against faster movers, while ballistics are more effective against specific components on targets with more armor.
Both LRMs and Streak SRMs can lock on to fire on a target, but Streaks cannot be dumb-fired, while LRMs can - making Streaks completely useless if countered by ECM, but LRMs still useable against Assaults that are incapable of dodging a dumbfire in time.
LRMs have a minimum range of 180m while PPCs have a minimum range of 90m, for IS. Within this, it does no damage at all, and firing is a waste of heat and ammunition.
All weapons can be improved with Pilot Skill modules, which either extend its maximum range or reduce its cooldown. Cooldown reduction on energy weapons tends to be less productive as heat is normally a greater problem, with some builds that are exceptions to this - but works very well on missiles and ballistics which are cooldown-limited rather than heat-limited. Range increase works on most weapons, but is ineffective with LRMs because firing at maximum ranges with LRMs generally leads to nearly zero damage, as your target generally has more than enough time to move into cover.
Lasers do damage over time, and have to be held on a target. Pulse lasers have a shorter duration and therefore deliver their full damage more reliably on moving targets, and usually also do slightly more damage, in exchange for greater tonnage and shorter range.
In addition, energy weapons tend to deal lower damage per second than either ballistics or missiles, even if you never overheat, between weapons of comparable damage per hit - AC/10 vs PPC, AC/5 vs medium laser for instance, and they tend to weigh less. However, as they require more cooling via heat sinks to be optimal, and the double heat sinks usually used take up a relatively large amount of critical slots, consider energy as something that takes more crits and less tonnage, and ballistics/missiles as something that takes up more tonnage and less crits. Therefore, if you have crits to spare you can probably consider taking more energy, and if you have weight to spare you can probably consider taking more ballistics/missiles.
Between ballistics and missiles, ballistics deal less damage to a point target (with the exception of LBXAC and machine guns), while missiles deal more damage to a larger area. Missiles are thus generally more effective against faster movers, while ballistics are more effective against specific components on targets with more armor.
Both LRMs and Streak SRMs can lock on to fire on a target, but Streaks cannot be dumb-fired, while LRMs can - making Streaks completely useless if countered by ECM, but LRMs still useable against Assaults that are incapable of dodging a dumbfire in time.
LRMs have a minimum range of 180m while PPCs have a minimum range of 90m, for IS. Within this, it does no damage at all, and firing is a waste of heat and ammunition.
All weapons can be improved with Pilot Skill modules, which either extend its maximum range or reduce its cooldown. Cooldown reduction on energy weapons tends to be less productive as heat is normally a greater problem, with some builds that are exceptions to this - but works very well on missiles and ballistics which are cooldown-limited rather than heat-limited. Range increase works on most weapons, but is ineffective with LRMs because firing at maximum ranges with LRMs generally leads to nearly zero damage, as your target generally has more than enough time to move into cover.
A3: Ammunition
Spoiler
All ammunition except Gauss has a 10% chance of explosion if a critical hit occurs. While Gauss ammunition does not explode, the rifle itself has a 90% chance of explosion if a critical hit occurs. Ammunition explosion deals the full sum of damage of all ammunition stored in that location to the location, and leftover damage is transferred to connected locations if the storage location is destroyed at a rate of 50% per transfer. For instance, if AC/10 ammunition explodes for 150 damage in the arm and the arm has 40 health, this is reduced to zero, and out of the remaining 110 damage, 55 is transferrred to the left torso. If the left torso has 40 health as well, this is reduced to zero, and 7.5 damage is transferred to the centre torso.
CASE in MWO does not follow standard BattleTech behaviour - instead of reducing transferred damage to zero, it reduces the damage from multiple tons of ammunition to one ton. For instance, if you had 10 tons of AC/10 ammunition in that arm, it reduces a 1500 damage explosion (which will destroy all components in the entire mech instantly) to 150. Inner Sphere mechs may only carry CASE in side torsos, while Clan mechs have CASE automatically installed on all components. For this cause, Clan should always carry ammunition in the arms, legs and head to reduce damage propagation to the CT, which IS should either CASE a single side torso and dump all ammunition in it, or dump ammunition in the arms, legs and head, as the first two must first pass through a side torso before they can damage a CT, and a headshot generally means you die regardless of whether ammunition is there or not. XL Inner Sphere mechs should never use CASE as an ammunition explosion in a side torso is always fatal, and should default to arms, legs and head. Never use CASE unless you're using more than one ton of ammunition in that location, or its effect is exactly zero.
If your side torsos are destroyed your arms fall off - in that event, arm ammunition does not explode. Because of this most players aim at side torsos to remove arm weapons rather than the arm itself - making arms a good spot to dump ammunition in, unless you intend to use it as a shield.
CASE in MWO does not follow standard BattleTech behaviour - instead of reducing transferred damage to zero, it reduces the damage from multiple tons of ammunition to one ton. For instance, if you had 10 tons of AC/10 ammunition in that arm, it reduces a 1500 damage explosion (which will destroy all components in the entire mech instantly) to 150. Inner Sphere mechs may only carry CASE in side torsos, while Clan mechs have CASE automatically installed on all components. For this cause, Clan should always carry ammunition in the arms, legs and head to reduce damage propagation to the CT, which IS should either CASE a single side torso and dump all ammunition in it, or dump ammunition in the arms, legs and head, as the first two must first pass through a side torso before they can damage a CT, and a headshot generally means you die regardless of whether ammunition is there or not. XL Inner Sphere mechs should never use CASE as an ammunition explosion in a side torso is always fatal, and should default to arms, legs and head. Never use CASE unless you're using more than one ton of ammunition in that location, or its effect is exactly zero.
If your side torsos are destroyed your arms fall off - in that event, arm ammunition does not explode. Because of this most players aim at side torsos to remove arm weapons rather than the arm itself - making arms a good spot to dump ammunition in, unless you intend to use it as a shield.
A4: Equipment
Spoiler
Engines are split into XL and Standard engines. The destruction of at least 3 critical slots of an engine leads to complete mech destruction. As Clan mechs have 2 critical slots per side torso, you have to destroy either the centre torso or both side torsos to kill one, whereas IS XL mechs die with a single side torso destroyed. Larger engines increase maximum speed, your ability to turn, your ability to climb hills and the maximum number of internal heat sinks you are allowed to load. Internal heat sinks take up no critical slots, but take up weight. Every 25 engine rating adds one internal heat sink slot past 250, while those below that have 25 per slot automatically.
Heat sinks increase both heat dissipation (heat loss per second) as well as heat capacity (maximum heat allowed before shutdown). MWO mandates that all mechs must possess a total of 10 heat sinks before they are considered as valid builds, regardless of whether they are outside or inside the engine. Double heat sinks take up 3 slots (IS)/2 slots (Clan) instead of 1, but dissipate 1.4 heat if they are outside the engine, or 2.0 heat if in side the engine. This makes it attractive whenever possible to run at least an 250 engine with double heat sinks regardless of your build, and larger engines for energy-heavy hardpoint configurations as it adds more efficient (and critspace-neutral) internal heat sink slots in addition to increasing how well the Mech responds.
ECM has a minor effect of increasing missile lock times past 180 metres, and a major effect of completely disallowing missile lock and target acquisition within 180 metres - making it impossible to call targets. Only specific variants of Mechs can carry ECM in a specified hardpoint. BAP can be carried by any Mech and counters one ECM per mech carrying it, in addition to decreasing missile lock times and allowing for shutdown Mechs to be targeted. AMS shoots down incoming missiles at the cost of ammunition explosion risk, weight and critical slots, and also requires a specific hardpoint.
The IS Command Console increases target information gathering speed, sensor ranges and zoom distance - and is thus generally more useful for people fighting at maximum range. Clan Targeting computers are not as efficient in the latter two, but gather information significantly faster, while also having additional bonuses for snipers by increasing crit chances, laser ranges and projectile speeds - making them very useful for sniping Clan builds.
Jump jets increase heat when activated and shake the screen, but generate lift. If possible, carry at least one, as even at that level it can nullify most instances of fall damage, and it allows for you to maintain your altitude to go from hill to hill, or to jump over a gate.
Heat sinks increase both heat dissipation (heat loss per second) as well as heat capacity (maximum heat allowed before shutdown). MWO mandates that all mechs must possess a total of 10 heat sinks before they are considered as valid builds, regardless of whether they are outside or inside the engine. Double heat sinks take up 3 slots (IS)/2 slots (Clan) instead of 1, but dissipate 1.4 heat if they are outside the engine, or 2.0 heat if in side the engine. This makes it attractive whenever possible to run at least an 250 engine with double heat sinks regardless of your build, and larger engines for energy-heavy hardpoint configurations as it adds more efficient (and critspace-neutral) internal heat sink slots in addition to increasing how well the Mech responds.
ECM has a minor effect of increasing missile lock times past 180 metres, and a major effect of completely disallowing missile lock and target acquisition within 180 metres - making it impossible to call targets. Only specific variants of Mechs can carry ECM in a specified hardpoint. BAP can be carried by any Mech and counters one ECM per mech carrying it, in addition to decreasing missile lock times and allowing for shutdown Mechs to be targeted. AMS shoots down incoming missiles at the cost of ammunition explosion risk, weight and critical slots, and also requires a specific hardpoint.
The IS Command Console increases target information gathering speed, sensor ranges and zoom distance - and is thus generally more useful for people fighting at maximum range. Clan Targeting computers are not as efficient in the latter two, but gather information significantly faster, while also having additional bonuses for snipers by increasing crit chances, laser ranges and projectile speeds - making them very useful for sniping Clan builds.
Jump jets increase heat when activated and shake the screen, but generate lift. If possible, carry at least one, as even at that level it can nullify most instances of fall damage, and it allows for you to maintain your altitude to go from hill to hill, or to jump over a gate.
A5: Advanced Building
Spoiler
Whenever too many identical weapons are fired at the same time, they generate 'ghost heat' over and above the sum of their heat production - when you have a yellow exclamation mark, look at it, as it either details the ghost heat combination, or indicates cases when you are not carrying ammunition matching the weapons you possess. Sometimes you may want to allow yourself to take the ghost heat penalty in exchange for reducing your exposure time, but in most cases you would want to nullify this by segregating ghost heat-liable weapons into separate non-ghost heat-liable subgroups.
Weapon grouping has additional functions like segregating weapons of different effective ranges, segregating arm from torso weapons in cases when you are firing above/below your torso weapons' max allowances, or firing weapons from only one side of your Mech as the other side is behind cover or worse, behind a friendly Mech. Generally speaking, the more groups you have, the harder it is to use (and the better a mouse you require), but the higher your maximum potential as a pilot will be. Three groups tends to be a recommended minimum in most cases, even if it happens to be 'left', 'right' and 'both'.
Armor allocation should depend firstly on what is within that location, and secondly on what tends to get shot the most in test matches. If people are focusing your side torso all the time from the front, you may want to shift rear armor to front, and leave things of little value in that side torso (especially important for the Hunchback 4G), for instance. Head armor generally does not need to be very high as most players lack the required skill to consistently headshot, but needs to be of a fair level to avoid getting headshot by a wild artillery strike. Leg armor is not generally important for most assaults or heavies, but is critical to lights and some mediums. Sometimes you may wish to remove armor from a location you do not use to free up tonnage to add armor or equipment to a location you do use. Generally speaking, rear armor should be a lot lower than front armor, and the better your skill and your teammates' skill is, the greater this disparity will be. Rear armor is only really necessary to guard against backstabbing, and cases of pointless friendly fire.
You will generally want to have most of your weapons converge on the same effective range, and then pilot your Mech such that your targets are always at that effective range. An exception is that you will also want to make sure your firepower at sub90 range is never zero - so a build containing only PPCs and LRMs is a bad idea, as any light worth his salt will murder you without opposition. The effective range of LRMs is actually 180m-350m, contrary to common belief - past 310 or so, the arc of the LRM becomes more pronounced and can go over objects it would have crashed into at 200m odd-ranges. 180m is the fastest LRM speed from launcher to target, and is generally unavoidable damage - it is worth noting as well that since its arc is much less vertical, 180m LRMs can be used under low ceilings, including Crimson's tunnel, but allowing it to go to even 205m will make your LRMs crash into the ceiling and be completely wasted. Sub-180m does zero damage as mentioned before. Overly long ranges means your targets generally retreat into cover, and AMS has too much time to take them down - so much of the LRM ammunition will be wasted - and if using it in such a way, means your firepower is dramatically reduced relative to a build with less LRM ammunition that can devote more power to close/midrange weapons. If you have too many different weapon ranges, it means that you are suboptimal at every given range.
As light mechs have very little armor to take hits, it is important they are able to move behind cover as soon as possible, and thus max engine size is critical - XLs work well as they are so small that damage tends to be spread relatively evenly. Larger mechs do not benefit from this survivability effect as much, and taking an XL for slow mechs can be suicidal in some chassis as it makes them die too easily from a side/rear shot. The XL Assault is one of the kinds of builds you should probably 'never' run under any situation, as the only way they don't die is by making them full LRM boats and fighting at long ranges, which means most of their missiles are wasted entirely.
Mech variants have special quirks that sometimes make some weapons more efficient, sometimes add more armor and such. While builds that utilise a quirk are buffed by it, always bear in mind what you are using the mech for, before you think about building a mech around a quirk. For instance, a dual cERPPC stock Adder-Prime is a bad idea even with cERPPC quirks, as its damage per second will then become dismally low due to overheating, a problem a dual cERLLAS/cERLPLAS Adder does not have. These quirks can be viewed by hovering your mouse above the variant in the selection interface.
Weapon grouping has additional functions like segregating weapons of different effective ranges, segregating arm from torso weapons in cases when you are firing above/below your torso weapons' max allowances, or firing weapons from only one side of your Mech as the other side is behind cover or worse, behind a friendly Mech. Generally speaking, the more groups you have, the harder it is to use (and the better a mouse you require), but the higher your maximum potential as a pilot will be. Three groups tends to be a recommended minimum in most cases, even if it happens to be 'left', 'right' and 'both'.
Armor allocation should depend firstly on what is within that location, and secondly on what tends to get shot the most in test matches. If people are focusing your side torso all the time from the front, you may want to shift rear armor to front, and leave things of little value in that side torso (especially important for the Hunchback 4G), for instance. Head armor generally does not need to be very high as most players lack the required skill to consistently headshot, but needs to be of a fair level to avoid getting headshot by a wild artillery strike. Leg armor is not generally important for most assaults or heavies, but is critical to lights and some mediums. Sometimes you may wish to remove armor from a location you do not use to free up tonnage to add armor or equipment to a location you do use. Generally speaking, rear armor should be a lot lower than front armor, and the better your skill and your teammates' skill is, the greater this disparity will be. Rear armor is only really necessary to guard against backstabbing, and cases of pointless friendly fire.
You will generally want to have most of your weapons converge on the same effective range, and then pilot your Mech such that your targets are always at that effective range. An exception is that you will also want to make sure your firepower at sub90 range is never zero - so a build containing only PPCs and LRMs is a bad idea, as any light worth his salt will murder you without opposition. The effective range of LRMs is actually 180m-350m, contrary to common belief - past 310 or so, the arc of the LRM becomes more pronounced and can go over objects it would have crashed into at 200m odd-ranges. 180m is the fastest LRM speed from launcher to target, and is generally unavoidable damage - it is worth noting as well that since its arc is much less vertical, 180m LRMs can be used under low ceilings, including Crimson's tunnel, but allowing it to go to even 205m will make your LRMs crash into the ceiling and be completely wasted. Sub-180m does zero damage as mentioned before. Overly long ranges means your targets generally retreat into cover, and AMS has too much time to take them down - so much of the LRM ammunition will be wasted - and if using it in such a way, means your firepower is dramatically reduced relative to a build with less LRM ammunition that can devote more power to close/midrange weapons. If you have too many different weapon ranges, it means that you are suboptimal at every given range.
As light mechs have very little armor to take hits, it is important they are able to move behind cover as soon as possible, and thus max engine size is critical - XLs work well as they are so small that damage tends to be spread relatively evenly. Larger mechs do not benefit from this survivability effect as much, and taking an XL for slow mechs can be suicidal in some chassis as it makes them die too easily from a side/rear shot. The XL Assault is one of the kinds of builds you should probably 'never' run under any situation, as the only way they don't die is by making them full LRM boats and fighting at long ranges, which means most of their missiles are wasted entirely.
Mech variants have special quirks that sometimes make some weapons more efficient, sometimes add more armor and such. While builds that utilise a quirk are buffed by it, always bear in mind what you are using the mech for, before you think about building a mech around a quirk. For instance, a dual cERPPC stock Adder-Prime is a bad idea even with cERPPC quirks, as its damage per second will then become dismally low due to overheating, a problem a dual cERLLAS/cERLPLAS Adder does not have. These quirks can be viewed by hovering your mouse above the variant in the selection interface.
A6: Modules
Spoiler
UAVs and their improvements are useful for the minor effect of LRM spotting (minor because most competent teams shoot them down before you can fire more than 2 volleys of LRMs), and major effect of knowing where targets are to plan your movement. Probably the most potent consumable there is.
Cool shots should be upgraded if you intend to use them, and use them only in brawling scenarios. Never use a cool shot in a sniping contest.
Artillery strikes and airstrikes can be useful against targets that bunch up in a stationary position, or to hit a whole team that pushes by aiming them slightly in front of the lead Mechs, but generally are less useful than UAVs or Cool shots.
The main Mech modules you should get are Target Information Gathering to know what to shoot at faster and Improved Seismic Sensor for a similar effect to permanent UAV without the usage cost. Radar Deprivation can be useful for breaking LRM target lock, but isn't as useful as the earlier few as it is maximised when you are not behind cover, and not being near cover is a Bad Thing in the first place. Light mechs get additional utility out of Radar Deprivation as they break Streak locks which are especially threatening to Lights, while they get less out of Seismic sensor as staying still in a Light is generally a Bad Idea.
360 Target Retention is useful for lights at times for spotting purposes, but is otherwise generally not very useful. It can be paired with Improved Target Decay for more spotting.
Weapon-modules wise, NARC should never be used without the Improved NARC upgrade. AMS upgrade is helpful, but upgrade your primary weapons first. As for most of the other weapons, you get either range buffs or cooldown buffs. Generally, if you're not using something at max range (LLAS, ERLLAS, cLPLAS, PPC, ERPPC, Gauss, uAC/5), range is normally not that much of a buff. Cooldown buffs are useful for brawling even if your build is limited by heat rather than cooldown, as this allows you to get more shots in faster - which may kill a mech or destroy its weapon systems before they can destroy yours. If your weapons are all blown off, it doesn't matter if you're at 90% heat then.
Sensor range is generally useless given that half the time targets are under ECM anyway, and the other half the time you can shoot without locking on anyway. If you're using it because you need it to lock on LRMs at max range, you're using your LRMs wrong.
Cool shots should be upgraded if you intend to use them, and use them only in brawling scenarios. Never use a cool shot in a sniping contest.
Artillery strikes and airstrikes can be useful against targets that bunch up in a stationary position, or to hit a whole team that pushes by aiming them slightly in front of the lead Mechs, but generally are less useful than UAVs or Cool shots.
The main Mech modules you should get are Target Information Gathering to know what to shoot at faster and Improved Seismic Sensor for a similar effect to permanent UAV without the usage cost. Radar Deprivation can be useful for breaking LRM target lock, but isn't as useful as the earlier few as it is maximised when you are not behind cover, and not being near cover is a Bad Thing in the first place. Light mechs get additional utility out of Radar Deprivation as they break Streak locks which are especially threatening to Lights, while they get less out of Seismic sensor as staying still in a Light is generally a Bad Idea.
360 Target Retention is useful for lights at times for spotting purposes, but is otherwise generally not very useful. It can be paired with Improved Target Decay for more spotting.
Weapon-modules wise, NARC should never be used without the Improved NARC upgrade. AMS upgrade is helpful, but upgrade your primary weapons first. As for most of the other weapons, you get either range buffs or cooldown buffs. Generally, if you're not using something at max range (LLAS, ERLLAS, cLPLAS, PPC, ERPPC, Gauss, uAC/5), range is normally not that much of a buff. Cooldown buffs are useful for brawling even if your build is limited by heat rather than cooldown, as this allows you to get more shots in faster - which may kill a mech or destroy its weapon systems before they can destroy yours. If your weapons are all blown off, it doesn't matter if you're at 90% heat then.
Sensor range is generally useless given that half the time targets are under ECM anyway, and the other half the time you can shoot without locking on anyway. If you're using it because you need it to lock on LRMs at max range, you're using your LRMs wrong.
Section B: How to win individual fights in a Mech
Spoiler
B1: General Tips
B2: Light Tactics
B3: Medium Tactics
B4: Heavy Tactics
B5: Assault Tactics
B6: Long-ranged Tactics
B7: Brawling Tactics
B1: General Tips
Spoiler
The first thing you need to know about one vs. one fights is whether you should even fight, or if you should avoid the fight. Target information gathering modules, targeting computers and such can speed this up, but the critical information where this is concerned is the presence of any weak points, as well as the weapon loadout. This tells you what the other player can do, and what you should do to tilt the balances in your favour. For instance, a target that carries only LRMs is something you can kill without risk if you can approach within 180m without getting shot at. A target with TOO MANY WEAPONS contains an XL engine, and you will want to blow up its side torso. A target with a lot of ballistics and missiles will carry ammo, and so you will want to leg it for the chance of an ammo-explosion kill. A target with too many energy weapons is prone to overheating, and so you want to force it into a protracted conflict where you either have a lot of time to take shots your target cannot retaliate against without shutting down or blowing hirself up. Clan Mechs in general have high initial damage and low sustain, so you want to engage it nonstop, while IS Mechs have low spike damage and high sustain, so you want to use hit-and-run or sniping tactics. A target with only short range weapons is something you want to take occasional shots at while moving at longer ranges to reduce incoming damage, whil a target with only long range weapons has low sustain and is vulnerable to being charged.
The next thing is about damage spreading. To kill a mech you need to break both legs or crit 3 engine slots or destroy the head. So either you break both legs, shoot a side torso in an XL IS/both side torsos in an XL Clan, or destroy the centre torso. Your objective is to focus your damage on these kill zones on your target while making your target spread your damage everywhere on you. The easiest way to do this is to present your less damaged components/sides to your enemy while keeping damaged parts away from hir. You do this by aiming away - which means you cannot fire, so you want to make sure you fire while turned towards your target, while turning away when your weapons are on cooldown. Your effective cooldown is generally your longest cooldown, so that weapon is what you will want to put your weapon cooldown module in. Note that since lasers require a sustain duration to deal their damage, you want to make sure you deal all of the damage first before you turn your torso, or else your outgoing damage is not maximised. Since most people fire the moment they see a target, when you're in a 1v1 using energy weapons you want to let your opponent fire FIRST, as doing so means that during your opponent's cooldown you get to keep the full duration of your beam on target with no chance of having your aim thrown off by being hit. The worst thing you can possibly do is to fire lasers, and move them off the target before they complete to twist away, which is something that the vast majority of people I spectate do. Between similar mechs, the one who is better at spreading damage wins the match, while the one who just stares with an exposed CT dies very quickly. For an effective damage shield, your legs will generally be facing about 60 degrees to your target while you fire at nearly maximum torso twist - if your legs face the target, no amount of torso twist can possibly shield your CT.
Third is about circle strafing. This is a technique useable only in two narrow scenarios - one, your mech is so fast that it is difficult for your target to aim sustained weapons on you consistently, and two, if your speed exceeds your opponent's turn radius enough that you can keep yourself in a position where your target cannot possibly hit you. You do not ever want to circle strafe in a confined space as getting stuck on a rock or wall necessitates that you use reverse throttle or turn without moving, and in that time, a competent player will destroy your rear centre or side torso before you get to have any regrets. It also creates the chance your circle wanders into your enemy's team, which is usually an instant destruction mistake. Otherwise, it is possible to spread damage without moving too much. Never circle strafe for the sake of it, or you will die more often than you should.
Finally, about heat management. You should always attempt to deal as much damage as possible to the enemy team before you die. If you are at 90% heat, have 6 large lasers and your CT is red internals, hit the override button, alpha the large lasers and make sure if possible that all 6 are held for full duration on an enemy Mech's centre torso. If you are going to die anyway, die helping the team. I've been asking for a modification on this such that overheat death grants the max damage enemy Mech a kill so that this is not perceived as griefing in the minority of the time that your enemy fails to kill you before you overheat-blow up, but as of now this is not yet the case.
The next thing is about damage spreading. To kill a mech you need to break both legs or crit 3 engine slots or destroy the head. So either you break both legs, shoot a side torso in an XL IS/both side torsos in an XL Clan, or destroy the centre torso. Your objective is to focus your damage on these kill zones on your target while making your target spread your damage everywhere on you. The easiest way to do this is to present your less damaged components/sides to your enemy while keeping damaged parts away from hir. You do this by aiming away - which means you cannot fire, so you want to make sure you fire while turned towards your target, while turning away when your weapons are on cooldown. Your effective cooldown is generally your longest cooldown, so that weapon is what you will want to put your weapon cooldown module in. Note that since lasers require a sustain duration to deal their damage, you want to make sure you deal all of the damage first before you turn your torso, or else your outgoing damage is not maximised. Since most people fire the moment they see a target, when you're in a 1v1 using energy weapons you want to let your opponent fire FIRST, as doing so means that during your opponent's cooldown you get to keep the full duration of your beam on target with no chance of having your aim thrown off by being hit. The worst thing you can possibly do is to fire lasers, and move them off the target before they complete to twist away, which is something that the vast majority of people I spectate do. Between similar mechs, the one who is better at spreading damage wins the match, while the one who just stares with an exposed CT dies very quickly. For an effective damage shield, your legs will generally be facing about 60 degrees to your target while you fire at nearly maximum torso twist - if your legs face the target, no amount of torso twist can possibly shield your CT.
Third is about circle strafing. This is a technique useable only in two narrow scenarios - one, your mech is so fast that it is difficult for your target to aim sustained weapons on you consistently, and two, if your speed exceeds your opponent's turn radius enough that you can keep yourself in a position where your target cannot possibly hit you. You do not ever want to circle strafe in a confined space as getting stuck on a rock or wall necessitates that you use reverse throttle or turn without moving, and in that time, a competent player will destroy your rear centre or side torso before you get to have any regrets. It also creates the chance your circle wanders into your enemy's team, which is usually an instant destruction mistake. Otherwise, it is possible to spread damage without moving too much. Never circle strafe for the sake of it, or you will die more often than you should.
Finally, about heat management. You should always attempt to deal as much damage as possible to the enemy team before you die. If you are at 90% heat, have 6 large lasers and your CT is red internals, hit the override button, alpha the large lasers and make sure if possible that all 6 are held for full duration on an enemy Mech's centre torso. If you are going to die anyway, die helping the team. I've been asking for a modification on this such that overheat death grants the max damage enemy Mech a kill so that this is not perceived as griefing in the minority of the time that your enemy fails to kill you before you overheat-blow up, but as of now this is not yet the case.
B2: Light Tactics
Spoiler
Light mechs cannot take damage, and have limited tonnage for weapons. They fall into two varieties - the close-range high alpha light, and the long-range low alpha light. The general tactic is always the same - you want to be in a position where you can shoot your target, while your target cannot shoot back. This is usually behind your target, though occasionally it can be above or below if your target does not possess arm-mounted weapons. The close range type will get in their maximum effective range for their weapons, alpha repeatedly until the target starts to turn, and head for cover at full speed when that happens. The long range type can afford to fire more directly as tracking lasers at long range on fast targets is virtually impossible, and projectiles take long enough to reach that unpredictable movement will virtually guarantee never being hit. Never run directly towards or directly away from any target with direct fire weapons, as doing so leads to an easy one-hit kill on you - when going for cover, run perpendicular to your target (with a bit of zigzagging) both to make it harder for them to aim, and also to ensure any hits tend to be wasted on your arms. Sustained damage is not an important factor for close-range types; having a higher alpha is more important. Longer range-types need better sustain as those weapons will be fired far more often. The main skill you need is knowing where to fight and how to run, light pilots with predictable paths or who get stuck are generally dead.
B3: Medium Tactics
Spoiler
Medium mechs have some level of damage resistance and manoeuvrability, but not as much by the way of speed, with the exception of the Cicada. The idea is again similar to the light in that you will want to hit a target's back or side whenever possible, and disappear behind cover. As you have little or no survivability, it is not generally a good idea to use sustained-fire weapons like the uAC, small pulses or streaks, and better to use spike damage types like SRMs, large lasers and AC/20s. Your ability to damage-shield using your arm/side torso differentiates an elite Medium pilot from a bad one, as your centre torso generally has very low damage resistance, and you are not fast enough to dodge out of the way unlike a light.
B4: Heavy Tactics
Spoiler
Heavy mechs have increased damage resistance and greatly increased damage, reduced speed and manoeuvrability. The momentum effect starts to set in, where it is better sometimes to continue moving while turning than to use reverse throttle, as reversing gives targets a stationary target to alpha at for about 4 seconds. You now have enough survivability to start using sustained-fire weaponry, but you will still want to torso twist to spread damage against targets with AC/20s, Gauss, PPCs, and SRMs. Lasers are now tankable, and dealing out damage is more important than twisting away from lasers.
B5: Assault Tactics
Spoiler
Assault mechs should rarely if ever attempt to twist away unless using very high cooldown weapons, as the rate of torso twist is so slow that all that does tends to be to throw off your aim - while any MechWarrior worth hir salt can still easily hit your CT anyway. Sustained fire weapons like uAC/5s and AC/2 are recommended to keep up the pressure on your target to make it impossible for them to aim properly - the cockpit shake effect can be more important than the damage you deal at times. The strongest Assault for this purpose is the 4 uAC/5 King Crab and 2+ uAC/10 Dire Wolf - using AC/20s is not generally recommended unless you can back them up with enough SRMs to one-shot targets, or else you take too much damage in between alphas.
Bear in mind that your rear armor should usually be weaker than your front armor, so your limited turn radius may lead to problems if a light mech flanks you. In these situations, you want to be able to back yourself into a corner where light mechs cannot be anywhere except in front of you, where you can shoot them. Also, since your speed is limited and momentum high, you need to move decisively, not twiddle with repeatedly reversing your throttle. So make sure you know where a safe corner you can back yourself into, and where a high wall between yourself and enemy LRMs is, all the time.
Bear in mind that your rear armor should usually be weaker than your front armor, so your limited turn radius may lead to problems if a light mech flanks you. In these situations, you want to be able to back yourself into a corner where light mechs cannot be anywhere except in front of you, where you can shoot them. Also, since your speed is limited and momentum high, you need to move decisively, not twiddle with repeatedly reversing your throttle. So make sure you know where a safe corner you can back yourself into, and where a high wall between yourself and enemy LRMs is, all the time.
B6: Long-ranged Tactics
Spoiler
There are two ways to use extended range effectively. The first is to shoot a target that doesn't know you are there, which tends to be done more with lights and mediums that can change sniping positions easily, as well as with mechs with Jump Jets (this is known as 'poptarting'). The second is to deal high damage in a short burst - more damage than your opponent can return fire with. Key weapons are Gauss, (ER)PPC, (ER)LLAS and cLPLAS (IS LPLAS isn't long-ranged enough to work as well, autocannons tend to have lower damage at that kind of range). You will miss more shots than at shorter ranges, so having energy weapons for this kind of tactic helps as you lose no ammo, and you have all the time you want to wait for the heat to dissipate behind cover. This technique is not viable the moment your location is known. A poptart that only goes directly up and down at the same area will be CT-cored by any capable opponent within 5 jump jet activations.
In assaults, you do not want to move out, shoot, and move back, as your movement is so slow you tend to take more shots than you can deal. Rather, you often want to stand in an area where only one other mech can hit you at range (all other approaches are blocked by cover), and keep crosshairs on the target. Alpha when a target walks into that area you can snipe at, then turn away, as at long range projectiles will never hit you before you move an arm in its way, and lasers will be forced to spread damage. Doing the forward-back-forward-back thing in assaults is nearly always a very bad mistake - and the number of long ranged assault snipers I've seen so far that actually know to use torso twist in this situation is unfortunately very, very small - partially why they're usually easy kills.
Whenever at long range, you want to make sure you have a high wall between yourself and your target at all times, as targets that see you will acquire target lock, and if you do not have the Radar Deprivation module, LRM boats with targeting computers will have enough time before the lock breaks to hit you with LRMs. Conversely, if you are an LRM boat, you do not want to ever fire at long ranges at anything near cover, as capable targets will reduce your damage to zero, while still wasting your ammo, putting your LRMs on cooldown and spiking your heat. If the cooldown does not affect you, your position in the boat is wrong; if the heat or ammo does not affect you, your boat's loadout is wrong. Advanced target decay is not as good as it sounds for an LRM boat as you are rarely the one doing the spotting - the snipers normally are.
Also, always bear in mind relative builds. If you are IS fighting against Clan targets, you generally don't ever want to use longer ranges against anything but Streakboats, as you will always lose given your main advantage of sustain is nullified, while Clan's greater range and damage per alpha is preserved. Conversely if you are Clan you will want to bait IS mechs into doing ranged fights with you.
In assaults, you do not want to move out, shoot, and move back, as your movement is so slow you tend to take more shots than you can deal. Rather, you often want to stand in an area where only one other mech can hit you at range (all other approaches are blocked by cover), and keep crosshairs on the target. Alpha when a target walks into that area you can snipe at, then turn away, as at long range projectiles will never hit you before you move an arm in its way, and lasers will be forced to spread damage. Doing the forward-back-forward-back thing in assaults is nearly always a very bad mistake - and the number of long ranged assault snipers I've seen so far that actually know to use torso twist in this situation is unfortunately very, very small - partially why they're usually easy kills.
Whenever at long range, you want to make sure you have a high wall between yourself and your target at all times, as targets that see you will acquire target lock, and if you do not have the Radar Deprivation module, LRM boats with targeting computers will have enough time before the lock breaks to hit you with LRMs. Conversely, if you are an LRM boat, you do not want to ever fire at long ranges at anything near cover, as capable targets will reduce your damage to zero, while still wasting your ammo, putting your LRMs on cooldown and spiking your heat. If the cooldown does not affect you, your position in the boat is wrong; if the heat or ammo does not affect you, your boat's loadout is wrong. Advanced target decay is not as good as it sounds for an LRM boat as you are rarely the one doing the spotting - the snipers normally are.
Also, always bear in mind relative builds. If you are IS fighting against Clan targets, you generally don't ever want to use longer ranges against anything but Streakboats, as you will always lose given your main advantage of sustain is nullified, while Clan's greater range and damage per alpha is preserved. Conversely if you are Clan you will want to bait IS mechs into doing ranged fights with you.
B7: Brawling Tactics
Spoiler
The first thing you need for a brawl is a good loadout, which is detailed in the earlier section. Unlike long ranged situations, you need to assume that you need to be able to operate without any time in between for cooling down until after your target is dead, so your loadout has to avoid overheating for at least 3-5 alpha strikes. Assaults can take enough damage for sustained fire loadouts to be viable, while mediums and lighter heavies are usually more optimal in something that deals all of its damage in a short time, allowing for you to torsotwist-spread the damage in between alphas. When moving, you need to know where your enemy team and friendly team are - do not accidentally wander into enemies while focusing on a single target near you, and do not accidentally block your teammates from moving out to support you. The worst brawling happens when friendly Assaults block choke points allowing for the opposing team to focus fire down people one by one. Circle strafing is generally unnecessary and inferior to twisting your torso properly. Whenever possible, choose movement paths that lead from cover to cover to reduce situations where you get focus-fired by opposing teams, and fire while moving. Never stop unless you are an Assault in a corner fighting a Light that has nowhere to be except in front of you. Effective brawling is not about shooting 3-4 different mechs shooting at you, it is about trying to make sure you can have yourself plus several other teammates shooting at one target.
Section C: How to make fights unbalanced in your favour
Spoiler
This section details how your group should move for maximum effectiveness, rather than just single mechs. PuGs must know this better than premades to use them at equal effectiveness.
Before we begin talking about separate strategies it is important to note why these work. When you fight two targets, you are not fighting a doubly difficult battle, but a quadruply difficult one, as you have to deal twice the amount of damage in order to kill two mechs, but your targets have double the damage against you. A 1v3 situation favours the more numerous side 9:1. A 1v12 situation is 144 times as difficult, which is insurmountable. If you do not use teamwork correctly, you'll constantly be fighting with odds stacked greatly against you, which guarantees your loss regardless of how good a pilot you are. Most good pilots tend to be good at working together with their team as well, so it can be literally impossible to win if a team does not coordinate. However, coordination does not require VoIP, though it helps, or even text chat - if your team all knows what each other is doing, you can act on a common strategy even without specifying one. On the other hand, if you use your VoIP exclusively to insult the other PuGs in your team, you will fail even with voice communication. The point of all of the later strategies is to force the enemy team to split their numbers, while increasing your own. It doesn't matter how many mechs are left, it matters how many are left together. if a team of 8 charges a team of 2 one at a time, the odds of the team of two winning are roughly 50%. If they charge all at once, the odds of the team of two winning are 6.25%.
For these to work optimally your team must work as a dictatorship, not a consultative democracy. Any tactic done in a half-hearted way will fail, but even a really badly thought strategy can work if the strategy is followed. If you have a premade team you can and should generally designate a dictator before the start of the match, and hir decisions are divine law until the end. You can tell your dictator how bad a leader ze is and how ze should have done things AFTER the match, but having a fractured team is worse than having the worst possible tactician as your dictator.
C1: Pushes
C2: Firing Lines/Arcs
C3: Pincers
C4: Conga lines
This section details how your group should move for maximum effectiveness, rather than just single mechs. PuGs must know this better than premades to use them at equal effectiveness.
Before we begin talking about separate strategies it is important to note why these work. When you fight two targets, you are not fighting a doubly difficult battle, but a quadruply difficult one, as you have to deal twice the amount of damage in order to kill two mechs, but your targets have double the damage against you. A 1v3 situation favours the more numerous side 9:1. A 1v12 situation is 144 times as difficult, which is insurmountable. If you do not use teamwork correctly, you'll constantly be fighting with odds stacked greatly against you, which guarantees your loss regardless of how good a pilot you are. Most good pilots tend to be good at working together with their team as well, so it can be literally impossible to win if a team does not coordinate. However, coordination does not require VoIP, though it helps, or even text chat - if your team all knows what each other is doing, you can act on a common strategy even without specifying one. On the other hand, if you use your VoIP exclusively to insult the other PuGs in your team, you will fail even with voice communication. The point of all of the later strategies is to force the enemy team to split their numbers, while increasing your own. It doesn't matter how many mechs are left, it matters how many are left together. if a team of 8 charges a team of 2 one at a time, the odds of the team of two winning are roughly 50%. If they charge all at once, the odds of the team of two winning are 6.25%.
For these to work optimally your team must work as a dictatorship, not a consultative democracy. Any tactic done in a half-hearted way will fail, but even a really badly thought strategy can work if the strategy is followed. If you have a premade team you can and should generally designate a dictator before the start of the match, and hir decisions are divine law until the end. You can tell your dictator how bad a leader ze is and how ze should have done things AFTER the match, but having a fractured team is worse than having the worst possible tactician as your dictator.
C1: Pushes
Spoiler
A push is when a large amount of mechs - usually a full team, sometimes a nearly-full team minus snipers and light backstabbers - move in the same direction towards an enemy team in order to displace them from a good defensive position. It works better if enemies are scattered. The most important thing about a push is that everyone must move together - any form of cowardice guarantees the ones who are not cowards are slaughtered with no support, leaving the numbers so thin that the cowards die shortly in an enemy counterpush. A good push has the following characteristics:
- Assault mechs with high front armor go first.
- The front line of the push has at least 2, and preferably 3 mechs. This is so that enemy pilots have to choose which one to shoot - which makes the odds that they focus on the same target far lower than if a single mech led the charge. Heavies and mediums behind generally fan out slightly behind the Assaults so they can fire past them.
- The entire push travels at the same speed. Heavies and mediums behind use their speed to manoeuvre into firing positions. A push where faster mediums/heavies run past their Assaults tends to be ineffective.
- The frontline carries sustained fire weapons so their targets cannot shoot back accurately, while their supports carry high alpha weapons so they can deal high damage per second without exposing themselves such that an opposing team is forced to allocate their damage into the frontline rather than waiting to alpha the mechs behind.
- LRM boats, if any, walk behind the mediums/heavies doing supportive direct fire, and fire at ranges between 180m to 350m. Being too far behind (say, 600m behind cover) is at best wasting missiles into hills, and at worst, a delicious target for high-alpha lights to backstab, given that most boats have negligible damage at close ranges.
- ECM/AMS mechs should walk in the middle to cover the entire group with ECM/AMS.
- Backliners watch for UAVs above to avoid having the entire push being targeted by LRMs.
C2: Firing Lines/Arcs
Spoiler
Firing lines are purely defensive formations used to maximise the amount of mechs pointing their weapons at a choke point. For them to work, you need a choke point flanked on both sides with cover. If a target attempts to walk through, they will be in the sights of multiple mechs the moment they leave cover, which leads to death before they can possibly back away. Pushes can displace firing lines at great risk, but depend entirely on the team not being cowards, as the moment any lead Mech stops, the other leads will die, and a firing line will generally begin a counterpush against the now-retreating team. A good firing arc has the following characteristics:
Between a firing arc and a push used by people of equal ability, the firing arc is more powerful, but is immobile. The push can thus be reconfigured easily, but the firing arc can be revealed by a single light/jump-jet capable Mech or a UAV, allowing for a counterstrategy to be used.
- It must be at a choke point. You cannot form an effective firing line at the top of a hill unless hillclimbers all climb at the same spot.
- Your arc must be wider than the entry arc. That is to say, if a choke point allows 3 mechs through, your firing arc must accomodate at least 4 mechs who can all shoot at the same time. There are positions on some maps (particularly Viridian Bog) that allow for a full 12-man firing arc to be formed, which literally nothing can assault from one direction without complete annihilation.
- Your team must not move. They can and should torso twist to spread damage, but they must not move, as crossing an ally's firing line leads to either no damage with good teammates, or friendly fire damage with bad teammates. This bit takes discipline - if your people abandon their positions in order to attempt a kill steal, the firing line fails and everyone dies to the push.
- Assaults should be the closest to the choke point, heavies at the end, and mediums in between. People generally fire at the closest target to them, so you want the closest targets to have the most survivability. Some others may attempt to charge through to allow their backlines to move into position, and the easiest way for them to do this is to fire at those close to their movement path - which is the end of the firing arc. Nobody shoots at mechs in the centre of an arc. ECM mechs should be located immediately behind an Assault next to the choke point so that they can disrupt enemy electronics as soon as possible. LRM boats should be located at the end of an arc to give them maximum time to fire before a target can enter minimum range.
- It should be in an area with sufficient cover to avoid behind shelled by LRMs while in an immobile spot.
Between a firing arc and a push used by people of equal ability, the firing arc is more powerful, but is immobile. The push can thus be reconfigured easily, but the firing arc can be revealed by a single light/jump-jet capable Mech or a UAV, allowing for a counterstrategy to be used.
C3: Pincers
Spoiler
These are used by a team to defeat a firing arc. While the term 'pincer' suggests two approach vectors this is a minimum. The more vectors there are, the more effective a pincer strategy is. The idea is that since a firing arc attempts to focus fire at one direction, it is normally ideal only for that one direction. If you attack it from an alternative approach vector, the firing line must reposition to account for the new vector - which renders it ineffective against the previous vector. If done well, a firing arc will be forced to reduce to 1-2 mechs that can fire per direction (the rest are blocked by teammates), while you have 3 per direction advancing inwards.
There is no area in ALL of the maps that have only a single approach vector, so pincers are always possible. In Community Warfare, it may require taking down more than one gate for attackers to use a pincer, but the reason why there are still two gates is this, even if both gates appear to be next to each other. A good pincer has the following characteristics:
There is no area in ALL of the maps that have only a single approach vector, so pincers are always possible. In Community Warfare, it may require taking down more than one gate for attackers to use a pincer, but the reason why there are still two gates is this, even if both gates appear to be next to each other. A good pincer has the following characteristics:
- Each vector in the pincer is a mini-push, so all push characteristics apply.
- The vector away from the choke point the firing arc is aiming at must be used first. If the flanking vector shows up only after the choke point vector has already been destroyed by the firing arc, it is useless. The flank must happen first, forcing the enemy team to reposition, before the choke point vector happens (which now becomes a flanking attack of its own.
- While it may seem tempting to shoot people in the back, only one vector can shoot any given back, while all vectors can shoot the same leg. Fire should always be focused on one leg regardless of vector - decide this before the pincer happens. This allows for very quick kills as one leg can be effectively focused by 6-9 mechs at a time.
- Voice comms and counter-ECM/BAP is very useful, as coordinating who is primary target among the whole team makes this more effective.
- The more approach vectors you use, the more powerful this becomes, as it increases the number of mechs on your team that can fire on the same target.
- You want the enemy team to split fire, so everyone, including LRM boats, must charge. LRM boats need to be conscious of the minimum range limit, but they must also charge, or else the direct-fire Mechs will take disproportionately high damage.
- Jump-Jet capable Mechs should not use the same vectors as everyone else, as they can create entirely different vectors using the Jump Jets over cliffs.
C4: Conga lines
Spoiler
These are essentially moving firing arc. It is used to fire past a choke point when the choke point is being used by a different target - commonly used as a strategy to limit Mech damage when opening CW gates. The idea is to move in a line with 1-2 (preferably 2) Mechs being able to fire at any given time. They fire, then move into a predetermined path away from the choke point so the people behind them can fire next, and so on and so forth. The entire group regroups past the choke point at a given location for a push/pincer to follow it up. Good conga lines have the following characteristics:
- Every mech has high-alpha low-sustain weapons to use on the pass.
- No mech stops or gets stuck. If one does, the one/two mechs that are exposed will die to focused fire. No exceptions.
Section D: Things you must never do
Spoiler
There are things that work some of the time and not in others, there are few that work all of the time, but there are some that work none of the time. These are as follows.
- Never question your commander in the middle of a manoeuvre. If you have information or feedback, give it before it starts, or after it fails/works. Conflicting information bleeds momentum, and without momentum all tactical manoeuvres are guaranteed to fail.
- Never use single heat sinks. If you have spare tonnage and limited critical slots, upgrade your engine and dump DHS in that.
- Never carry so much LRM ammunition you are unable to finish using it in a match. If you take too long to use your missiles, your team takes more damage than they should have. If you run out of ammunition when you used it well, you should be able to finish the job with just medium lasers.
- Never put double heat sinks in critical slots without first filling up all the internal engine heat sink slots. It not only wastes space, it's also less effective.
- Never use Ferro-Fibrous armor without also using Endo-Steel internals. You can go all standard, Endo only, or Endo+Ferro, but Ferro only is a waste of critical slots.
- Never stop in the middle of a push, conga line or pincer. If you must die, die. Your one death is not going to be as detrimental as the whole team dying.
- Never peek at an enemy team. While doing 1vs1 at range, sniping vs sniping, can be effective, attempting to do this when there is more than one target on the other end is blatantly ineffective. Move together with your team.
- Never fire LRMs at long range unless your target has zero cover and you have someone maintaining constant spotting on it. If you waste ammo on cliffs, you will run out - if you don't run out, your launchers are too small - if you have max launchers and you don't run out, your lasers/ballistics are too small.
- Never fire when a teammate is in the way. If you're not sure whether your arm weapon will hit your teammate, hold fire.
- Never use Trial Mechs in Community Warfare. None of the trial mechs, which were designed for TT, are optimal in the MWO environment.
- Never shoot in a brawl if you cannot hit the component you are targeting. Waiting 1 second to hit the correct component is better than wasting an alpha on a pointless one. If you want you can use a weapongroup with a pointless weapon (say, a single medium laser) to bait your target into turning to attack whereby you actually use your real alpha, but don't use your alpha on a pristine arm when there's a CT to core.
- Never get stuck when walking. Keep track of your environment at all times. If you can't do this with thermal vision, use Light Amplification.
- Never attack base turrets in an Assault type match unless there are no enemy mechs you can hit.
- Never fight outnumbered unless there is no possibility of rejoining your team.
- Never separate from your team unless you have a way to rejoin them very quickly (light mechs only).
- Never run directly away from people shooting at you unless a teammate is covering your retreat. Otherwise, it's better to either back away with reverse movement, or die fighting if your position is really that bad.
- Never chase Light mechs in a Heavy or Assault chassis. You can and should shoot them if they stop in front of you, but turning your back to their Assaults to chase a squirrel is a hallmark of the worst players.
- Never shut down if you have no chance of winning. Throw yourself at the enemy team and let them kill you. Wasting time reduces xp/C-bill gains per unit time to both teams with no chance of changing the match result. If there are no enemy Mechs near you and you have no weapons/ammunition, run out of bounds of the map to end it if you have to.
- Never give up if there's even a small chance of victory.
- Never fight alone. If you have to, use your base turrets as allies and bait targets to positions where the turrets can back you up.
- Never fire weapons pointlessly, even if they're lasers. You are unable to predict your teammates' movements, and a light Mech can cross your path where there was nothing before. Shooting weapons into the air is worse, as it broadcasts your location to the enemy team - as well as your team's location if you are not alone.
- Never use weapons beyond their maximum range, as it wastes heat/cooldown you could have used when that Centurion nobody saw feeds your face with AC/20s.
- Never use redundant engines.
- NEVER leave a match when you are still alive. I don't care if they're an obvious 12-man premade. Leaving when you can still help your team is the worst thing you can possibly do short of team-killing. Conversely, you can leave a match as soon as your Mech is dead and drop in another without having to wait for this match to end, if someone got a lucky headshot in.
Guide last edited 22 March 2015.
P.S. Hir and ze are not spelling errors. Google them if you need to.
Edited by Hayashi, 23 March 2015 - 10:10 PM.
