62 replies to this topic

[Damon Howe]

Narcissistic Martyr, on 10 April 2013 - 09:57 PM, said:

That's right I'm one of the few mad enough to run an AC20 raven, the only practical build in the game that uses SHS while having ES, FF, and an XL engine.

Somebody knows me too well....>_>

[StalaggtIKE]

A lot of great tips here. A few I want to add, sorry if it's already have been posted:

• Don't stand still; unless you're 110% sure you can't be struck
  
• Use elevation to your advantage; most shots are targeting your legs (elevation makes it more difficult for your enemies)
  
• Don't break away from team unless scouting and don't do so for too long.
  
• Try to isolate enemies in numbers, avoid doing so alone
  
• Know when to back off

[M U A D D I B]

Mech: JR7-F
Matches Played: 21 (from stats ... I dont play as much anymore ... working full time does that)
Wins 15 / Losses 6 ... Ratio 2.50
Kills 28 / Deaths 9 ... Ratio 3.11
Damage Done: 5922 .. per Match 282
(Mastered OC)

Weapon Loadout ..
6 Medium Laser
DBL HEAT SINKS 12
XL Engine 300
5/5 Jump Jets

Alright ... I'm not going to lie ... my play style is ALOT more aggressive then most of these guys suggest to do ... I did most of my play before they dropped stats but ... Its mostly the same ..

I'm not going to say what the others have ... using cover and what not ... it's obvious to you at this point ...

I am that guy ... who runs off solo .. I'll tell you now that is a horribly bad habit ... One that I suggest you don't do ... However when you get good at being a light pilot (its not something you think you might be ... when you are ... you WILL know) it's not the single sin of the world.

My personal tactic is being a Heavy / Assault killer ... Most Assaults don't really have all that much back armor (and lets face it ... 6 ML is well ... 6 ML ... They do some damage when fired In a Single shot). Come round from behind and let them have it ... in a Jenner ... vs Pugs ... None of them have all that good communication so take advantage of it ... You rip the assault in the back from behind and BOOM ... the rest of the team doesn't even know, so move on to the next one.

Going vs a 4 man on the other hand (you will know the second all 4 of them turn on you ...) back off and let your team come in first, then while they are focused on your team ... Hit em hard and run ... When your facing an organized team you HAVE to play hit and run (which even vs pugs you do this but its 150% of what you need to be doing vs an organized team...). As they will know your there and not think twice about keeping an eye out for you .. Make sure you completely get out of their memory then come back again and hit them harder (as they should be bleeding from your team at this point.)

Then you have the lights ...

Staying behind them and not letting them get lock on you is 100% your priority ... if the choice is letting them have lock and getting a full burst on them ... chose getting off lock.

Most of Light piloting is following your gut ...

And having a lot of them.

Edit: I 100% pug ... So this is 100% pug experience.

Jay Z, on 12 April 2013 - 04:57 PM, said:

I started with the Jenners and they are still my favourite mechs. You will learn through experience. When you die, don't DC, watch one of the surviving lights. See what you can learn from their techniques. Jumpjets U-turns FTW.

Also this is GREAT advice.

Edited by Codylove, 15 April 2013 - 05:35 AM.

[bmortime]

Since ya brought it up Codylove, I'll admit I too often run off on my own.
Don't Judge me! I know its a terrible idea, and its reckless and all that. I do.
However, I have found it usually works out for me in terms of flanking the enemy, especially those LRM boats. I also will join the brawl as soon as the team needs me.

As codylove put it, it takes following your gut, instinct, to understand when to run off and when to dive into the melee.

[bmortime]

Some things since the patch yesterday.

So, cover is even more important now. Autocannons and PPCs are now going to hit you if you stick your head out. Running away when you even THINK you might be getting targeted.

My best friend called it, "Move like a Runner in AvP2." Squishy, Fast, and Unpredictable.

Watch yourself out there, and if ya ever want to drop hit me up.

[Eboli]

I think lights are one of the best mechs to play if you are doing solo work or pugging. Run your game using gut feelings and make the choices you think are best. I love this freedom. Especially when things go pear-shaped (it happens in PUGs) having the speed to at least get out of there and change tactics.

I have recently made a foray into assault mechs and working as a group is definitely required. Nothing worse than to be in a group and then all the faster mechs all leaving/retreating you in their dust to be picked off by lights etc. Probably one of the reasons why heavy/assault mech pilots hate lights so much

Cheers!
Eboli

Edited by Eboli, 17 April 2013 - 03:55 PM.

[Phoenix Gray]

Jiggle the little stick thingy.

[Shuyen]

Lately I've been piloting a SDR-5D with TAG and ECM. Just as an experiment I've been flanking the main enemy group, staying under cover, and then TAG'ing them with impunity from behind. Sometimes the LRM equipped mechs take notice and let fly, other times they don't. It is hit and miss (literally) depending on the quality of the pilots in the drop. It's an extra 25xp per successful TAG, which can add up in a good group.

The little SDR blends into the terrain incredibly well. I sit totally still and am not even noticed. I've even TAG'ed mechs 100m from me while sitting on a ledge above them. At times, when they are in the midst of a slug fest, I can get off 4,5,6 or more salvos of ML fire on them before they even notice it's happened, because they are concentrating so hard on what's in front of them.

I like the Ninja stealth action of this kind of play. It's pretty fun.

Edited by Shuyen, 18 April 2013 - 03:17 PM.

[Vanguard319]

I have had some luck with the following loadout:

2 LRM 5 w Artemis
2 sm lasers
TAG
BAP
ECM
AMS

Modules:
Capture Accelerator
Adv. Sensors
360 Target Retention or Artillery Strike
Air Strike

Pretty much turns my RVN-3L into a long range harbinger of death, use the strikes on massed camping enemies for maximum effect. I only have two tons of LRMs, but I can still provide target info to other missile boats on my team.

Edited by Vanguard319, 18 April 2013 - 04:49 PM.

[IraqiWalker]

Okay, I have clocked over 600 matches with my Commando 2D alone.

Here's what I can tell you:

Most people going into this game are thinking max damage and getting kills. Let me tell you what getting kills on a light does, it does diddly.

Your job is not to get as many kills as possible. Your job is to make sure your team wins. Understand the mentality of a scout. Your run around, spot the enemy, give your team as much info as possible. get the spotting bonuses. Chase off enemy lights from your heavies and assaults, cap the enemy base, and provide other forms of support.

You are not gunning for a 1.5 KDR, while nice, that means you're busy running around trying to get a kill and not doing all of the other things that your team relies on you to do. Lights move fast, and can gather information better than the other weight classes. If you're running around dealing 15 points of damage every salvo, you're gonna get kills, it's just gonna take you 10 times longer than it would take your Atlas to do. That's time wasted trying to do another guy's job, not yours.


I'm not saying never go for kills. Just make sure you understand that they are close to the bottom of your list of to-do things. In fact, one common task for lights is to turn a fair one on one into a two on one. Sometimes the enemy will try to ignore you, so you take their back armor off completely as punishment. They turn to focus you, and your teammate whom you're assisting, now has no one shooting them, and a clean chance for a point blank alpha strike, and possibly a kill on your enemy.

Your job is to be the artillery spotter, because honestly, no matter how much fire power you cram into a light mech, you're made of tissue paper and spit, and you really don't have much firepower. Sure you can strap an ERPPC on a COM-2D and snipe people from a mile away, dealing 10 damage every 30 seconds. That's ****** DPS, meanwhile, your team, which is counting on having a scout, is running blind, because their scout is way in the back trying to play Sniper Elite in MechWarrior: Online. Fun as it may be (did an 8 man where we all had PPC Spiders) it's going to cost your team the game.


Killing isn't the main objective. Especially for a scout. Here's a typical scout objective list:
1- DON'T DIE
2- DON'T DIE
3- DON'T DIE
4- Win Game
5- Spot Enemy team
6- Support your team however necessary.
7- DON'T DIE

If all of that is fine with you, welcome to the ranks for the proud Light mech corp.

PM me, if you have any more questions about piloting lights, or the Commando specifically, or joining up with a big group to play in an organized fashion with real team mechanics.

[FallenSeraphim]

IraqiWalker, on 20 June 2013 - 02:18 AM, said:

Okay, I have clocked over 600 matches with my Commando 2D alone.

Here's what I can tell you:

Most people going into this game are thinking max damage and getting kills. Let me tell you what getting kills on a light does, it does diddly.

Your job is not to get as many kills as possible. Your job is to make sure your team wins. Understand the mentality of a scout. Your run around, spot the enemy, give your team as much info as possible. get the spotting bonuses. Chase off enemy lights from your heavies and assaults, cap the enemy base, and provide other forms of support.

You are not gunning for a 1.5 KDR, while nice, that means you're busy running around trying to get a kill and not doing all of the other things that your team relies on you to do. Lights move fast, and can gather information better than the other weight classes. If you're running around dealing 15 points of damage every salvo, you're gonna get kills, it's just gonna take you 10 times longer than it would take your Atlas to do. That's time wasted trying to do another guy's job, not yours.


I'm not saying never go for kills. Just make sure you understand that they are close to the bottom of your list of to-do things. In fact, one common task for lights is to turn a fair one on one into a two on one. Sometimes the enemy will try to ignore you, so you take their back armor off completely as punishment. They turn to focus you, and your teammate whom you're assisting, now has no one shooting them, and a clean chance for a point blank alpha strike, and possibly a kill on your enemy.

Your job is to be the artillery spotter, because honestly, no matter how much fire power you cram into a light mech, you're made of tissue paper and spit, and you really don't have much firepower. Sure you can strap an ERPPC on a COM-2D and snipe people from a mile away, dealing 10 damage every 30 seconds. That's ****** DPS, meanwhile, your team, which is counting on having a scout, is running blind, because their scout is way in the back trying to play Sniper Elite in MechWarrior: Online. Fun as it may be (did an 8 man where we all had PPC Spiders) it's going to cost your team the game.


Killing isn't the main objective. Especially for a scout. Here's a typical scout objective list:
1- DON'T DIE
2- DON'T DIE
3- DON'T DIE
4- Win Game
5- Spot Enemy team
6- Support your team however necessary.
7- DON'T DIE

Agreed! It's critical as a light pilot to know when to shift from one role to another - scouting, harassing, assisting team mates, capping, etc.

It is possible to kill often in a light mech, but it requires a different mentality than other classes. Think of yourself as a kid scooting around on a skateboard holding a small scalpel and a pair of binoculars. Your scalpel doesn't do much harm but it's sharp and precise. Up against the schoolyard slow lumbering bully one on one you're screwed - sure you can slowly cut away at them... until you get an alpha punch to the face. But once the chaos of a fight brakes out (after you've scouted with those binoculars of yours of course) you can make swift cuts that help your friends out.

DPS alone for lights is foolhardy to focus on - key thing is where you can deal the most damage while taking as little to yourself. Your mobility and speed allow you to maneuver to the vulnerable parts of your opponents and put precise damage to those areas. Strike accurate, fast, and smart. Good pilots will shield their damaged parts with torso twisting - heavies and assaults have a much harder time dealing with this so they waste time shooting through more armour. But a light can quickly move in there and finish the job, allowing your teammates to go put their big guns to better use.





I'm not whipping out my epeen here - but it's just to show that it is very possible to do kill often, do lots of damage and win in a light mech if you play smartly as part of your team.

Edited by FallenSeraphim, 26 June 2013 - 01:21 AM.

[Devrij]

Having finally elited my jenner, I have to say I've changed my play style a lot. With my Com 2d I used to run and cap, maybe chase off lights (spiders!) with my ssrms, but couldn't do much else. Now with 6ML and 150kph plus nearly full FF armour, I have changed things up a lot. I managed to do 1045 dmg in my jenner by doing the below (mostly from step 4).

As above, my main priority is to stay alive, but my role changes throughout the game. In chronological order:

1. identify where the enemy team is going for your team, run away if you meet the main force (seismic helps here)
2. spot targets for lrm boats
3. help pick off strays if you have a couple other lights supporting you. (if you get this happening to you, kite them back to your team to be picked off and save your ***)
4. once your team is engaged, take advantage of the fact that enemy mechs will target the more "dangerous" heavy/assault mechs on your team. Shoot them in the rear CT (or go for jager side torsos to pop their XL). Generally you'll be left alone to do this if you strafe by, although with single targets you can even wander about slowly popping 30dmg a go into their rear CT. At worst, they'll turn for you and get killed by your teammates.
5. DON'T OVERHEAT! EVER!!
6. if your team is winning, continue to help clean up, but carefully.
7. if you're losing, try to deliver more cbills and xp to yourself/team by capping and going for the points win (mainly applies for conquest). Unless the odds are severely against you, don't stary from the objective. If there is no hope, duke it out like a man and take it as it comes to speed things up.

Skills you'll need:
-Know when to run (superior light build/group chasing you, running into main force)
- AIM! Use your limited firepower wisely. Always shoot for the CT or side torso of the fatties, legs on the opposing lights, side torsos of suspected XL engines or to quickly destroy a powerful weapon on an assault/heavy.
- know the maps and use them to hide yourself until you attack. keep your jets quiet unless you're running away.
-Jump turns. Circling can get you killed unless you are able to stay behind the mech you're shooting. If you're behind him, stay there. Use your jets to turn quickly.
- Brains. You can't wade in and punch it out. Play smart.

Edited by Devrij, 28 June 2013 - 02:55 PM.

[Ordate]

aaaaaaaahhhhhhHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......
aaaaaaaahhhhhhHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

^ What my opponents hear as I go streaking past them holding onto the piloting controls for dear life because it is running so fast.

[Kissamies]

What I have to say on the matter has already been said, but I'll repeat anyways:

• Use your superior mobility to fight on your terms. If the odds aren't to your liking, you shouldn't fight unless you are sacrificing yourself for the team, speeding up the inevitable loss, or something.
  
• Know when to break off and run. It's tempting to take one more shot, but you must stay alive and running is your main tool for that.
  
• Situtational awareness is important for any mechwarrior, but especially for ones piloting lights. You must do quick decisions on very fluid situations. Be fast, be flexible.
  
• You can get kills, but that shouldn't be your first goal. Helping your team by scouting, spotting, distracting and going for the objectives should be.

Usually when I go scouting, at least some of the enemy team really wants to kill me. I usually use this to distract them and lure them out of positions. Some enemies don't realise that they are shot from behind when you aim at their arms or legs. I've taken out a cat's both missile boxes before it finally dawned to him that he's being shot from back. If you want to be especially sneaky, shoot at them when they are taking fire from the front too.

[Mootrix]

I may have missed this in the three prior pages but one of my own thoughts is not to load your light up with a lot of long range weapons.

Long range firepower can be useful but I find that a lot of the time my speed (150kph ECMspider) brings me into knife fight range and out again VERY quickly. This means that a lot of my targets are within 150 – 200m so I don’t need weapons that go out beyond 270/300m

Being up in the enemy’s face (or preferably back) gives you the advantage of both speed and manoeuvrability and if you cannot get position then you can break off and either come back or just hit someone else.

I do tend to be fairly aggressive but speed and good terrain use does act as fairly good armour if you are smart – very few pilots can hit a jinking fast light at range even in the flat.

[Biplane]

One thing that a lot of scouts (myself included all too often) run into is the "enemy scout pack."

Picture this:
You're on Alpine Peaks, Conquest mode, capping away happy as can be in your RVN-3L/JR7-F/COM-2D/whathaveyou, when suddenly(!) from around the corner comes two RVN-3L, a CDA-X5, and a JR7-D. Aw crap. What now? You're on the other side of the map from the rest of your team. You die, that's what. You have no hope of fighting them, and they can run as fast as you can.

Capping is important for lights, but it doesn't have to be done IMMEDIATELY. Before straying too far from support ALWAYS make sure you know roughly what your enemy's "catch me and kill me" capacity is. IraqiWalker is right: objective one is always DON'T DIE. If your plan is to cap (and on Alpine Conquest it really should be), make sure that either you pack up yourselves, or a few of the enemy scouts are killed first. Bad things happen to lonely scouts when they are unable to run away.

[Shepherd]

A light mech is best suited two two o the four primary roles:
1) Scout. Speed first, armor second, weapons last. Your job is to go and see.
2) Striker. Weapons first, speed second, armor last.

As a scout you want to be running patrols around your lance. Keep around 500-1000 meters out, and make sweeping patterns. check likely routes the enemy could be taking to attack your lance. Don't stay put in any one place, because your job is to keep aware of all possible threat vectors.

As a striker you're going to be sticking closer to your lance. Within 500 meters for sure. Your job is to assist the fire support (typically direct fire support here) in dealing damage. However your speed gives you the ability to seek out the best location to attack from - something that the heavier fire support mechs may not be able to do. As a secondary goal, you can rush to assist the other lance(s) in your team, and you can be valuable at defending a base cap attempt

I agree with the others who say "don't die" is your first goal. You accomplish "don't die" by not running like a crazy person right into the enemy force, and by not straying too far from your team. If you keep to within 1000 meters you can dash back to your allies if you get into trouble. Wander 2 or 3 kilometers away on Alpine... probably won't be so lucky. When engaging, try not to stick around if the enemy is paying you any attention. You simply don't have the armor to survive heavy firepower. One of those large laser Stalkers will take you out super fast. If the enemy is engaging your allies, that's the perfect time to jump in, shoot them up a bit, and get out of dodge before the enemy starts looking at you.

Your objective is to survive to the end of the game. A light mech that survives more or less intact and in good repair to the end of a match is an unholy terror to all of the heavier mechs that are missing most of their armor. When the Atlas that managed to survive with exposed internals all over gets jumped by a Jenner late in the game, it goes down fast and hard!

[Karazyr]

Aggressively, im not afraid of the fattys they are far to slow, i will admit recently my performance has been lower since the terrain changes.

[zraven7]

Ok, I main lights. I have 3 that I tend to consider my "Go-To" Mechs, and they all play differently.

My Jenner F is my flanker/striker. Some would call it a harasser, but i don't tend to think of something that can 3 shot a Cataphract to be a "harassment". With this guy, I tend to wait til the fight starts, and start ripping back-plates off of enemies, or targeting already-weakened sections. Lots of speed from a 300xl gets me around, and a jump jet keeps me more mobile than everyone else. 6 medium lasers gives me lotsa damage.

My Spider 5D is my scout. He's got a Jump Jet, an ERPPC, ECM, and the biggest engine I can cram into him. I run recon with him, finding the enemies and letting my team know where they are. In conquest, I do a lot of capturing with him. in combat, I do lots of fade-away attacks since I don't have to maintain aim with a ERPPC.

My Raven 4x is my sniper. He still has the largest engine I can cram into him, but moves slower than the rest of the lights. a Jump Jet helps me position. I usually find a handy rock to hide behind and start sniping. Support fire, hide, support fire, hide, run away, support fire, etc, etc. He's also good for cleaning up a damaged mech who's getting away.

[B0oN]

Aiming for rear torsos/weak spots (hmmm, yummy XL engines) with an evil grin on your face, some exhilarating music on your system and erratically jinking all around.

Edited by Rad Hanzo, 10 July 2013 - 07:54 AM.