This is a general guide to get new players into CW and give them a fair shake on there way in. If you read through this and abide by it until you are experienced and/or find a team then you will have a vastly more rewarding time with CW mode.
Most of these will be applicable to any faction, feel free to copy/repost elsewhere if you like, I will also continue to update it as things that I missed come to me or get suggested.
1. This isn't standard queue. Teamwork, strategy, and the ability to react to/follow commands is necessary. If those things aren't for you, you won't get much enjoyment out of CW.
Use LFG, the FRR hub, faction chat or messaging friends to form groups and set up decks/basic strategies in advance of matches. This will make your matches run a million times more smoothly, and form much more quickly.
(Also note - if you LFG/Group for standard queue your enjoyment of that mode will increase dramatically as you will run into far fewer tkers and terrible players, in other words your match difficulty will be far more constant rather than the pure randomness of solo dropping).
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FRR TS HUB - lots of players online here with a fairly diverse range of commanders and units in the mix, if you join and look around you WILL find a team to run with.
Server address: 162.243.239.158:9725
Password: Dragon
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OLD - we're on Raidcall more often than TS, because we are old.
Generally a few to full group or more of us online in the afternoons.
Anyone is welcome to join in and experience our way of doing things as long as you are mature enough to respect the fact we are a group mostly of 30+'s that don't have the patience for the ragey xbox live nonsense over comms. Fun bunch that is casually competetive.
Room ID - 4913355
Make sure to announce yourself if you hop on!
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2. LRM boats -
If you are pug/solo dropping, just simply don't bring them. 90% of the time you are going to completely waste a mech.
If you are dropping with a team AND the others as well as the commander are willing to alter their decks and strategy to support a boat, then by all means go for it - but at least bring another weapon with you, the lights will charge.
The reason for this is that ecm stacks instantly counter the ecm counters - possible to counter pugs, very hard to get enough concurrent counters in the appropriate places on the field to counter clan teams. Ton for ton, direct damage + bap is going to crush lrms in CW (even if you have a team that adjusts for it because your are sacrificing a lot of dps to enable lrms).
Lastly, when using LRMs if you choose to as a support weapon, or pre-determined boat - they are about 500 times more effective in the 200-500 meter range than anything over that. The time to hit is greatly reduced giving the target much less time to duck for cover or break LOS. Ideally you'll want to be about 50 meters behind your brawlers at the most so that you can cycle in to soak damage while they cool off.
Additional side note from further discussion -
-- I'd still recommend new players to CW to avoid LRMs unless you've actually mastered using them at brawling range. Most teams are not going to bring additional counters or narc/ppc to try to get you shots, unless you find a good slot in a defense team maybe because it's somewhat easier to force a straggler out. If you aren't 500% confident you can keep your own locks and range at under 500 meters there are better choices out there.
Basically put, scoring 1k+ damage in standard drops with lrms doesn't make your lrm machine viable for CW. You need to be practiced in getting your own locks/choosing targets you will not miss, know the terrain of these maps up down side to side, be able to function in a brawl while firing those puppies without losing your locks, and maybe the utmost - not give away your position to mechs able to close on you as IS LRMs do 0 damage under 180m.
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3. Armor - you need this. You also need to be using it by cycling who is taking damage from your opponent. This is the most alien concept for new players, but yes you actually need to at various cycling points be the point man and sucking up some damage so that your teammates can cool off and keep your dps potential at maximum for as long as possible.
It is also a good thing to take account of on the gate breaks and pushes that every single person needs to go through together to the designated hold point regardless of what your armament is. Everyone needs to be there displacing damage so no single person gets focused down and pushing the defenders into cover so the team can make their rally point.
My experience says that on most mechs you'll want to be heavily front loaded with your armor - 80-90% on the front torsos, and generally no less than 80% on your legs. You shouldn't need much on your back because your team is there to protect yours, just as you are there to protect theirs. I generally run 12 or 16 armor on the back plate, 8-10 if I'm running an xl.
4. DPS/heat management- very important in CW. This is the one thing that sets us apart from clan mechs, so you need to be able to pour out your dps much longer than your opponent, as well as learn when to push around your teammate to take over his fire when he's running hot. Running with teams that run consistent decks is the only way to really learn that last part.
Most teams aren't going to care much what you are running so long as its effective in your hands, dropping with (multiple) flamers will probably get you removed from your team in other words but most teams will talk to you about it before hand to try to get you set up and moving on the right path.
Some people like to run hot, others like to run cool - that's all a matter of how you like to play both styles work well in cw and more so when they are combined.
5. Have fun- most of the FRR teams are casual competitive, very little role-play and lots of joking around between drops. Winning is great, but almost all of these guys are having a blast no matter the outcome of the match. If I had to pick one thing that is wildly different from running pug/solo to running with organized teams this is the one. People don't get 1/100th as frustrated because they are dropping with people with the same goals and tactics in mind and working together whether it succeeds or fails - that means the level of engagement into the matches is way more and the chances of dropping with the guys everyone dreads in standard is almost non-existent.
If you want the role-playing you are welcome to form a group here or find Mech-the-Dane, otherwise I'm sure someone can point you into that direction just as well to get you a place you'd have that kind of fun.
6. If you are new and don't know what to do ASK! Doesn't matter if you text or comm questions in, veterans will help you here in the FRR they want to see you doing better and enjoying the mode as much as they do. You won't learn everything in a match or probably even a dozen, but the basics you'll pick up on quickly and our players will help you keep improving.
I'm sure there's plenty more to be added but an Ice Ferret laser-ed the duct tape off my reactor earlier today.
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additional notes -
7. Avoid using XL engines in mechs above lights. ST armor is easy to hit on most and many clanners (past the noobs) can tell you are running XL just by seeing what you fire if not your weapons load out on info gathering. It effectively cuts your armor value by 1/3 which you won't offset no matter how fast you are. There are probably 1 or 2 exceptions that have super quirked ST armor, but my estimation is that you will likely not overcome your loss of effective armor rating unless you happen to be a true master of that build.
8. Radar Deprivation and other modules.
Radar derping is essential on your first two waves where you'll see the bulk of the clan LRMs when they are fielded. Highly recommended to get at least 2 for those mechs.
Seismic is also quite helpful for picking out guys on the other sides of walls/gates.
Advanced sensors is fantastic for mechs running BAP (extended further by CC if you are really tuning things to the brink) - I'd take BAP and this over Seismic in many cases, but a lot of it comes down to the mech you are running.
Those will be the 3 most useful/essential modules to get onto your mechs. Some of the others can still be useful under certain conditions and with specific builds or teams but these are the ones to start with.
Weapons - Range first, CD second. If you multi weapon build it's probably more useful to get range for both weapons -or- range for the shorter distance and cd for the longer. Very good tool to have equipped once you have the c-bills for them.
Consumables - definately equip and use these!
Arti strike seems to be slightly more effective as it drops into a ball/circle where the air strike drops a line/strafe of fire. Either are really great for pushing down enemies and inflicting some amount of damage.
UAVs - the one counter for ECM that actually works 100% of the time! Unfortunately the uptime is generally short, but it will give you a great view of the enemy location and heading.
Cooldowns - I'm either or on these, I can see their usefulness but the cost vs the reward just isn't there for me. The other two give tactical advantages for the entire team which makes the 40k a bit easier to swallow.
Edited by sycocys, 22 April 2015 - 06:16 AM.