21 replies to this topic

[Cyper23]

So the past couple of matches in MWO i've been getting destroyed ridiculously quick.
Now i favour the Heavy or Assault Mechs mainly because they can absorb insane amounts of damage.
But lately my enemy encounters haven't lasted for more then a few seconds. They all end the same.
- Encounter Enemy heavy or assault mech head on. (medium range usually)
- Enemy fires two or three shots. (I think its the A/C, but i could be very wrong)
- I'm dead.
Now i'm not sure if they are just getting lucky cockpit hits, or if there is some awesome weapon I have yet to discover.
I just wanted to know for anyone who's had the pleasure of destroying me,or anyone who has any advice.
On what kind of weapons are being used?
Are these kills just the equivalent to headshots in other FPS games which I have been the fun recipient of?

Thanks

[Redshift2k5]

Are you moving out alone? Stick to your team. always.

Show us your build and we can see if you'r doing anything wrong with it.

[Corison]

1) Look at your armor display, it will tell you where you were hit and what was destroyed.
2) Read the post screen. It tells you what weapons hit you and destroyed what.
3) Never stand still. I can 1 shot head shot many mechs. With the training ground this will become even more common as people learn the hit boxes.
4) Stay with support. ANY mech is dead in 10 seconds if its being shot at by 4-5 other mechs.

Look for a couple mistakes.
a ) Unprotected XL Engine. If you have XL pad it with heat sinks and other items that DONT explode.
b ) Review your armor. Did you allocate front/rear correct?
c ) Look for isolated exploding components. A gauss rifle, or a few tons of ammo alone in a torso is a quick death to a single crit.

Edited by Corison, 07 March 2013 - 09:36 AM.

[Sedant]

You might be getting hit from something your not seeing, I personally like to sneak behind the enemy with something like my CN9-A and smoke they're backs out with SRMs. Aside from large damage ballistics SRMs are the next biggest damage dealer at the ranges your talking about. Even a mech with a pair of SRM6's can deal insane amounts of damage in 2-3 volleys. And if something catches you off guard and gets a clean shot at your back it usually doesn't end too well, especially if your running an XL engine, then you usually get one shot from behind with SRMs.

[Koniving]

This sounds like my enemies, especially when I use flamers. They usually have little idea as to what else I'm using, can't focus their own shots, and my kills come pretty easily.

I should warn you 4 SRM-6's can instantly kill lights and mediums in a single volley if they hit center torso full-on. At max armor the Atlas only has 120 armor in the center, which no one ever has it all on the front. That is 3 volleys if all take to the center torso. Two to take off the armor, a third to kill you.

You may also have an XL engine, which will have you killed pretty fast.

Edited by Koniving, 07 March 2013 - 09:24 AM.

[Fut]

Lots of good tips already, but I want to add one thing.
If you come around a corner, or over the top of a hill..etc, and you start to take enemy fire immediately - move your torso around to try and take the hits in your arms or side torsos. Really you want to try and limit the amount of fire any one area is taking at that time. It might not work the best, but it may buy you enough time to get out of their firing lane.

[focuspark]

Fut, on 07 March 2013 - 09:15 AM, said:

Lots of good tips already, but I want to add one thing.
If you come around a corner, or over the top of a hill..etc, and you start to take enemy fire immediately - move your torso around to try and take the hits in your arms or side torsos. Really you want to try and limit the amount of fire any one area is taking at that time. It might not work the best, but it may buy you enough time to get out of their firing lane.

... and if you're in a Centurion, for god's sake turn that shield arm towards the incoming fire!

[Cyper23]

Thanks for the advice, my main mech I am using is the CATAPULT CPLT-K2.
But I sold the med lasers and machine gun. Then added a AC/10 & med pulse laser.
Now as for my play style I prefer to hide behind cover and pop out to fire off the PPC's and AC/10.
Then reverse behind cover. But its usually between this action that i've been sadly defeated.

Am i using a poor weapon combo for mid range?
Should i look into a different mech? (im kinda trying to save up for the Atlas next)
Should I change the armor settings? (i pretty much left it at default)

Thanks again

[joedawg39s]

Since you are in a catapult you have to protect the head, its a really easy target and make sure you have some armor on your rear torsos. You have good medium range weapons, i think you might be getting jumped in cover or sniped out from the side. If you are alone and running a sniping build you are an easy target, so stay with the big guys if you aren't already so you aren't a prime target.

[Team Leader]

Cyper23, on 07 March 2013 - 07:01 PM, said:

Thanks for the advice, my main mech I am using is the CATAPULT CPLT-K2.
But I sold the med lasers and machine gun. Then added a AC/10 & med pulse laser.
Now as for my play style I prefer to hide behind cover and pop out to fire off the PPC's and AC/10.
Then reverse behind cover. But its usually between this action that i've been sadly defeated.

Am i using a poor weapon combo for mid range?
Should i look into a different mech? (im kinda trying to save up for the Atlas next)
Should I change the armor settings? (i pretty much left it at default)

Thanks again

Reversing is probably your problem. You need to get out from behind ridges quick, and reverse is usually far too slow.

[MilkyMeal]

Your prolly getting head shotted if your in a catapult. I get headshots on catas often just from luck cause their cockpit is easily hit when aiming for the CT

[Cerberias]

Against good players, every time you pop out they'll mince you. You need to find a way to only be slightly in view, in view for only a fraction of a second or similar to slow down the amount of damage you take when you step out. K2's also have a VERY large head hitbox comparatively speaking, very easy to hit you as you move out, and stop for that brief second and not move your torso to stop pinpoint shots. If I know I'll be taking damage, you want to basically guide them to hit your most armored spot, turning to face a direction, general 'craziness' (wild movement of arms/torso) works quite well also because they can't aim past it and will hit almost a random luck shot.

[KMCA]

I usually drop a point or 2 of armor from the head when I design mechs. That's not a choice with the Catapult.

I've died from Gauss at unbelievable ranges before just from lucky head shots. Your head is an easy target and your center torso is (for me at least) hard to protect with L and R torso when reversing in particular because it juts out from the front.

I've had this problem more with my K2 design than my missile variant.

I know the feeling and my K2 has max armor and yet at times I feel like I'm piloting a Galahad... or a medium mech.

[Volume]

Cyper23, on 07 March 2013 - 07:01 PM, said:

Thanks for the advice, my main mech I am using is the CATAPULT CPLT-K2.
But I sold the med lasers and machine gun. Then added a AC/10 & med pulse laser.
Now as for my play style I prefer to hide behind cover and pop out to fire off the PPC's and AC/10.
Then reverse behind cover. But its usually between this action that i've been sadly defeated.

Am i using a poor weapon combo for mid range?
Should i look into a different mech? (im kinda trying to save up for the Atlas next)
Should I change the armor settings? (i pretty much left it at default)

Thanks again

I think I actually killed you today, or someone like you. First off, Catapults aren't exactly the most durable chassis. The CT is very vulnerable and the cockpit hitbox is actually quite large compared to some other 'mechs (say, an Atlas). Dual Gauss or AC/20 will bring down a 'mech pretty much instantly, and if people are getting Artemis-focused missiles on you, that hurts a lot too.

When you reverse backwards, your 'mech slows down to a crawl, then slowly starts accelerating backwards. The issue with this is that half-decent snipers will be able to land a hit on you before you get back down the hill, and more-than-half-decent snipers can land a hit on your cockpit before you get back down the hill, because of that small window of time where you're effectively standing still (before reverse kicks in).

I suggest trying to not edge over the ridge too much if at all possible. Some people have been practicing headshotting Catapults since they're one of the most hated chassis due to the A1streak raidbosses, splatcats, KC20, and other such high-threat builds that need to be eliminated ASAP. I think that you might have a better chance staying alive in a Cataphract. The CT doesn't jut out in front as much as a Catapult, but the head hitbox is still vulnerable. I hope the Orion is the answer to our lack of heavies with decent hitboxes, but we'll see. The Catapult is a great candidate to put an XL engine in, since the side-torsos are so hard to hit compared to the CT. A faster engine might get you down the hill faster, giving you a better chance of survival against a good sniper.

Good hunting.

[Jam the Bam]

Mu current favourite mech is the K2, I'm managing good survivability in it just now, but as the guys above say, you head is VERY vulnerable. Don't think i've come through a match with armour on my CT at all recently. Despite that I am having some very successful, high damage matches. I play it is a PPC sniper with a back-up ballistic weapon.

But no matter what your build you need to remember 2 things:
- Your arm guns are great, if you can see it, you can shoot it, so edge over the top as little as possible, practice controlling this and you can expose very little of your mech and still get shots off.
-TWIST. If you start taking fire twist your torso left and right to spread the damage around, this is particularly easy in the catapult due to its good torso twist range and speed. If you have to reverse twist to the side while you do it to minimise head exposure.

[Thorqemada]

I never drop points from my Head Armor bcs there are to many Hotshots around that can Headshot anyone at any range in any Mech.

I have so many matches with a crit Head its insane...

Edited by Thorqemada, 08 March 2013 - 02:09 AM.

[CmdrPoopyPants]

Yes, the stock armor distribution on -most- mechs is complete crap. One of the first things you should do after buying a mech is adjust the armor.. use http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab to plan your build to see what fits and what upgrades you need.. you can save the final build and bookmark it in your browser, then bring it up and compare it to what you have in the mechlab to make sure your build is exactly what you want it to be.

Any time I strip a mech to reuse bits, I -always- bring up my saved build from smurfy when I refit the chasis for use. ... I also tend to make 3 or 4 stages of "build" with a new chasis so I can see what I can do for "free" when I buy it while I'm saving for DHS and Endo if needed, etc etc. The only stock chasis I think I've run were 2 Atlai, otherwise it's always a matter of stripping one weapon or another, adjusting armor, swapping engines (for ones I already own), adding ammo, etc etc.. all for "free" (or cheap) before I get to my final build.

[Mercules]

In a Catapult I have to agree that it is likely a head shot taking you out. I know I killed one the other day by pumping a PPC and then three Medium lasers into his head which was already yellow from earlier sporadic fire he had received from someone else. I was as shocked as he was.

Another thing to consider is that you might be taking fire from more than one mech and not knowing it. With my Treb sniper I've taken to hanging back about 300-400 meters behind something like an Atlas and focus firing on whatever they are shooting. It's not obvious that my weapons are added into the mix with all the fire coming from the other mech.

[Alan Wagner]

I'm getting really upset with this game. I've only managed to win 3 out of almost 40 games now. The enemy team just completely utterly and brutally stomps my team every time it seems unless we have five atlases or something ridiculous like that. There's always the early sniping matches and then suddenly our team is overrun and we collapse in seconds. I almost never have time to bring any of my weapons to bear even. I usually am lucky if I walk away having dealt 20 damage before I go down, and I'm in a god damned atlas. I don't know if it's me, I can't believe that I'm the only beginner in all my games and that there's no one on my team capable of keeping up with the enemy team. I just don't know what to do anymore.

One time a single Jenner ran through our team and nearly crippled my atlas and took out two mechs before his team arrived and mopped up the rest of the mess. How is this even possible? =\

Edited by Alan Wagner, 09 March 2013 - 12:37 AM.

[nungunz]

Hey Alan, I guess first what is your build for the Atlas (also what type is it?). Use the following site to save and share builds as well as research weapons: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/

How are you playing the game.

Also what are your internet connection (ping) and specs (computer hardware, mouse DPI settings, ets)?