2 replies to this topic

[Fobhopper]

So to continue on with 'Gist' threads, here is a rough gist of how to brawl. Just a heads up, I finally got the Game DVR to record my audio, unfortunately it recorded all the audio going on (my wife was playing sunset overdrive) so you are going to hear bits of that and her talking to me with this plays. Just bear with it if you can. I know I dont exactly have a great sounding voice, so feel free to mute it if you want, but at least you can hear me coordinating with other pug-quickplayers.



Some basic tenants of Brawling:

• Brawling mechs primary weapons tend to be most effect within 270 meters, so keep this in mind before you engage. That often requires you get very close to the enemy and enemy firing line before you can start bringing your weapons to bear. This puts you in a very precarious situation, especially since most brawling mechs dont have fast speed or acceleration.
  
• Torso twisting is an absolute MUST. Its honestly the only way you can survive longer than a few minutes.You will see me twisting many times (especially after I fire a full salvo) not only to spread the damage throughout the entire mech, but to also ensure that my weapons last long enough to fire again. You will see that I time the torso twisting just long enough to bring my weapons to fire again and get back to torso twisting. Getting the timing down right takes time and experience. but pulling it off can utterly suprise and devastate enemies. Just take a look at the highlander 2C I dropped in on. With good weapon timing and torso twisting I out damaged and out survived his dps (with a little help from my team mates).
  
• As a brawler, you rely heavily on the terrain to protect and conceal your movement and mech. You will see in most of the video that I almost always have my back or side next to a wall. Not only does it make it harder for you to get ambushed, it also makes it harder for the enemy to get a good firing angle when above you, and it also reduces the avenues of attack the enemy can make against you. You want to try and force the enemy to fight you on your terms, not theirs. So positioning is key. being out of position can result in your quick death. So try to commit the map to memory as you approach the enemy team. The better you know the map, the better you can force engagements on your terms.
  
• Try to stay mobile, dont just sit and stand around. At around the 6:20 mark, I do something stupid, I tried to force the mech in the hill to engage me (hoping he saw my weak CT) to pop and try to take another shot, but in doing so I was also standing in an open kill-zone and gave the enemy free damage on me. Luckily it was on the side that still had plenty of armor, but it was still a stupid mistake that luckily didn't cost me the game. Had I died right there, we more than likely would have lost the match. (As such a long veteran of this game, it was really stupid of me try and force an engagement right there with the enemy team literally around the bend, try not to repeat my mistake in the future)
  
• Most brawling mechs have lots of armor, mostly front-loaded (usually 10-14 armor in the back, everything else in the front) so you are expected to lead charges and absorb the brunt of the enemy teams fire. You see in the video around 4:10, I had the choice of possibly rushing the enemy team, without any support from the lance that was with me. Instead I took a few pot-shots and decided to re-position myself instead of rushing the enemy team like you see the other king crab do (while also stopping my movement, and walking right into an artillery strike). Same thing happens at 5:30 in the video (this time I had the support of the lance), but the enemy was too well entrenched. Rushing into that, or forcing a push would have resulted in us getting wiped out. Instead I reposition myself by going entirely around the mountain to attack from another angle, while getting the warhammer to assist me, and telling my other team mates to push. With that change in position, we wiped out the last remaining mechs, instead of us getting wiped out because of our own poor positioning.

Now you see that I kind of tend to play a little risky when it comes to Assault mechs. My early rushing to secure a solid position probably would be decried as heresy for most unit players (and rightfully so), but because of that early positioning, we forced the enemy team into a pigeonhole instead of them dictating our positions. It was a very risky play (thats often met with a quickly killed mech in any other situation like faction warfare or even a group drop), but it worked so well because the enemy was also uncoordinated. So use this as a cautionary tale. Risky plays with assault mechs are a huge gamble, sometimes they work (like in this case) other times you get a face full of alpha laser spam and you are instantly dead.


If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask

Edited by Fobhopper, 30 April 2016 - 12:46 AM.

[Rogue Jedi]

Just bear in mind a brawler Mech does not have to be a slow assault, some of the best brawlers are Mediums and heavies, with the likes of the GRF-3M and the HBK-4G you can, if you know what you are doing, out brawl the Atlas or King Crab using your superior speed and agility to win the match against their overwhelming firepower.
Many times in my GRF-3M have I won a close in brawl against an Atlas 1v1, and on one occasion I killed 5 assaults (3 of which were 1v1 kills against fresh Mechs) in a match in a HBK-4G.

for a brawler I prefer speed and agility to heavy armor

[TooDumbToQuit]

I'm going to watch this. I'd also like to know how those little fast guys run around you.