3 replies to this topic

[Puggin]

Back in November I started this account after they gave founders the premium time activation button, to see how a totally free player would fare. Phase 1 matchmaking was in effect, so I decided this account would be purely solo pugging. No premades, no TS or C3. The cadet bonus had yet to be implemented, so I was stuck with the trial grind. Played a few drops intermittently in various trial mechs, most reasonably terrible, and earned a few million, not quite enough to buy any "decent" mech though.

I put the account away after a few dozen drops, but after they added the cadet bonus, I logged back in and took all the cbills they gave me retroactively for the first drops, and bought a raven 3L. In retrospect, probably not the best choice since equipping the thing is deceptively expensive for anyone who hasn't played lights. Between the XL engine and all the upgrades, it adds up fast, so I essentially had to upgrade it piecemeal. Still, it was better than a trial mech, and I started to kill more, die less, and win more.

I essentially stopped playing MWO on either this or my main account over the Christmas holidays, but when they announced they had improved the netcode somewhat in late January I decided I'd give it another try. Went ahead and bought the 2X and 4X ravens and ground out the basic pilot skills, allowing me to put elites in my 3L. Those two variants were clearly inferior, and would always be so, so I didn't bother min-maxing them, leaving them with largely their stock builds. I think I invested in DHS, but otherwise left the original engine and whatnot. Died a bit more, lost a bit more.

After getting elites, I decided this account would probably never get enough GXP to unlock all the modules, so I didn't bother doing elites for the 2X and 4X, instead opting to play the 3L. Conquest had been introduced, and so as a light I played conquest more often than not. Saved up money, until mid February where I had enough for a Cataphract 3D. Kitted it out like a jump sniper, and started playing it instead of my raven, assault instead of conquest. And man, did I start killing things. Phase 3 matchmaking had also now been implemented, so the quality of competition was questionable. Ran into a few premades, some pretty terrible, but I suspect most were solo pugs like me.

And then here we are, with a patch that arguably starts us on the road to pay2win, spelling certain doom for the purely free player. So how did I do?

As of late December, basically playing trial mechs and maybe a dozen drops as a 3L
K/D 75/23 = 3.26
W/L 31/30, or a 50.8% win rate

Fast forward to mid February, now mainly the 3L with just enough drops in the 2X and 4X to finish basics
K/D 287/55 = 5.22
W/L 120/94, or a 56.1% win rate

And then today, a few drops with the 3L but now mainly the phract 3D
K/D 519/68 = 7.63
W/L 200/126, or a 61.3% win rate


looking at the interims,
between December and February, my K/D was essentially 212/32 = 6.63, W/L 89/64 for a 58.2% win rate
between February and today, my K/D was 232/13 = 17.85, W/L 80/32 for a 71.4% win rate

Again, pure solo pug, pure free player, but admittedly using fairly proven builds. specifically,
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ff1553deb40608c
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...249fedc93942f64
and the crap 2X & 4X ravens that no one cares about

how'd i do tonight?


So who cares? Probably no one. Just wanted to throw this out there for any solo free players. With the right mech and experience, you can be as successful as you want.

[xDeityx]

Good post, kudos on taking the time to grind it out and thanks for sharing it.

However, this is specifically a skilled and knowledgeable player's free solo experience. It is a good look at what is possible, but definitely not what is probable or what your average new player can expect. It does not accurately reflect the position of a new player who has no idea what to spend their cbills on. Your average solo free player won't take the time to research the most efficient builds or even if they do chances are they won't have the ability to pilot those 'mechs as well as you did.

I think your last sentence really illustrates this, but at the same time is fairly unrealistic. How many new solo players will have the experience that you had when you started the account? I think a large portion of them are simply overwhelmed with the amount of choice they are faced with, even if a lot of it is illusory.

Your point stands though. If someone does their research and plays well, the experience isn't nearly as frustrating as some of the feedback we've seen here would lead us to believe.

[Konril]

Right. Raven + ECM + Lagshield = I win, still. Guess I know which mech I'm buying after the next patch, and it's not the X5. [Redacted]

Seriously, I am not really a "free" player anymore since I have bought a few extra mech bays and a bit of paint to put on my mechs. But I have only had one account since I picked up the game. So far I have bought and mastered the Centurion mechs, keeping the CN9-D, the Cicadas, keeping the 3M (if it isn't obvious), and Atlases, keeping the D-DC. For that matter, I am elite in Trebuchets and working on mastery of the 7M. I have purchased Advanced Sensors and Advanced Targeting Decay modules, all strictly from the C-bills and global XP earned from just playing. I haven't spent a single MC on either mech purchases or XP conversion.

My current kill/death as of this writing is 820/1,107, or 0.74. My win/loss is currently 896/1,162. That would be a 0.77 win/loss ratio according to my calculator, or about a 42.6% win rate. I remember back in the early days, when it was just me and the Centurion and Cicada my kill/death looked a lot like 0.5, and didn't start to improve until I had actually saved up enough to purchase and customize my AS7-D-DC. Ironically enough, my win/loss ratio has been rather ironically constant the entire time I've been playing, though obviously I actually have more wins and losses now than in the past.

With the D-DC, I've been noticing three things happening. Sometimes my PUG "team" leaves me in the dust to go where the enemy isn't and I get stuck defending the rear line against the 4 mechs that have moved to cap the base or flank the team, and I'm the first casualty of a PUG stomp. If I'm not the first one targeted, I can actually get close to or exactly 200 XP for my first kill, and another 200 to 300 in assists. Yet somehow the rest of the team folds like tissue and I'm alone against the 5 enemies that are left. And maybe about a third of the time the premade seems to drop on my side of the field, or at least some actually competent pilots, and I get to enjoy being on the giving end of the PUG stomp.

I had one particularly memorable battle where after securing Epsilon, I noticed that there might be a light heading to our starting place. I doubled back to check, and sure enough, there was and then some. In short order I took out a Commando and a Cataphract, earning the full 200 XP for each kill before the third Cataphract popped up over the hill and ninja's me. All this time, my teammates were arguing with each other about teammates shooting each other in the back. Fortunately the team shaped up really quickly after I told them what just happened. It turned into a very hard fought win, but a win nonetheless.

If you can honestly claim a 71.4% win rate, then you have somehow done better than every single one of the Be A Hero winners except in endurance. So, are you really "B L A D E S?" (73.2% and #24 on the light list?) If you have some tips on how to consistently win when your PUG team runs off in all directions and shoots up everything except the enemy I really want to know.

[Vividos]

Konril, on 05 March 2013 - 08:27 AM, said:

If you can honestly claim a 71.4% win rate, then you have somehow done better than every single one of the Be A Hero winners except in endurance. So, are you really "B L A D E S?" (73.2% and #24 on the light list?) If you have some tips on how to consistently win when your PUG team runs off in all directions and shoots up everything except the enemy I really want to know.

my account is sitting at 558/506 w/l ratio right now. this is my only playing account and includes all my playtime as a new player and all the time spent using not-quite-optimal mechs and builds. i have only ever solo dropped. ive never even had one other person to play with.

however, last night i was playing ONLY my phract 1x, griding out the last 2 elite skills. my build was fully optimized, and i had the 2 elite skills i was most concerned with already. last night i won at LEAST 3/4 of my matches. so his 71% win rate in mainly the 3D (a better mech than the 1x) and 3L (a known borderline OP mech) is not unrealistic, from my point of view.

also, during the be a hero challenge i peaked at 15th overall when i finally decided to call it quits since i didnt see myself having the endurance to get in the top 3. dropped to 21st by the end while offline iirc. my w/l ratio was decently above 50% in overall, but if you looked at the medium category my w/l ratio was indeed closer to the 71% our OP is claiming. the mech i was using in the medium category? my cicada 3m, fully loaded and elited. the first mech i decided to invest in. the one i've been playing the longest. and also, an ECM capable mech (like the OP's 3L)

mechwarrior is indeed a game where one person can make a huge difference in pug drops.
i know this because i've seen it first hand, before ever coming across this post.

just my 2cents.

Edited by Vividos, 05 March 2013 - 09:12 AM.