228 replies to this topic

[Esplodin]

TungstenWall, on 17 April 2013 - 06:15 AM, said:

That is where they mentioned that if your moving from cover to cover (in the case, the open to a heavily wooded area/jungle) that you should attempt to move from A to B while 'Zig-Zagging.'
I don't know how well that works in real life, but I find it is very useful an almost every shooter I have played.

IRL, the eye takes 2-3 seconds to focus on a target. Hence the adage "I'm up, he sees me, I'm down" for Infantry movement while under fire. Same goes for mechs - If you are not randomly changing directions and speed ALL THE TIME you are doing it wrong. I actually had a teammate spectating me get motion sick one game.

That and use terrain people! The number of people that stand on top of a ridgeline in full view is mind boggling.

[General Taskeen]

That's why people should have been practicing ambush tactics from the beginning, rather than abusing the laggy system or trying to brawl with tiny mechs. I got 6 kills in one match last night with my Jenner, same as always.

If people have watched me play my ace scoring games, you'll know exactly what I do: Take the least traveled paths, Ambush, Use Terrain to avoid taking too much damage, and attack the weak spots of your enemies. For the last part, having seen most builds, I generally can "guess" who is using an XL or not. In any case, I go for the torso, if not the cockpit, or simply the rear armor (the path of least resistance to getting a kill).

Its also still easy to exploit ECM+Streaks, if you really know what you are doing.

Edited by General Taskeen, 17 April 2013 - 06:36 AM.

[Esplodin]

General Taskeen, on 17 April 2013 - 06:35 AM, said:

In any case, I go for the torso, if not the cockpit, or simply the rear armor (the path of least resistance to getting a kill).

Its also still easy to exploit ECM+Streaks, if you really know what you are doing.

Cockpit if they are focused on someone else, or if it is a 1 to 1 standoff. Had more then a few times where there was another mech and I standing there facing each other, usually on a cap standoff, totally still. They are shooting at my torso, me at their cockpit. Guess who's gonna win?

Legs are my preferred targets, especially if I have to stick and move. Legs may seem like a bad choice due to higher proportional armor then a side torso, but I can whittle down the same armor spot from any attack vector. Take a leg and every mech is easy pickings.

[Viper69]

My biggest thing I noticed was the lack in fire delay on the ACs. I was used to leading a target by x amount with my AC20 and had to drastically change how I aim against fast movers. Its gratifying to see a spider decide to stop messing with your atlas when you nail his CT with an AC20 and it goes orange or red.

[Mercules]

Yup, took out my Commando last night to see how it might affect my play. Not a ton. I took a few more shots from projectiles than I would have before but there was a time when I was weaving in and out of the enemy team. They were poptarting on Alpine and I offered myself up as sacrifice after flanking them so my team could advance.

The key is doing things like putting SRMs into a mech's back and then breaking the opposite way that they turn so you stay in their blindspot, moving past them onto the next, hitting him, sliding past him and into cover. Come back from another angle, use up and down terrain to make them miss even more, and use the other members of their team for cover.

NEVER run in a straight line. Never stop completely. Never circle a mech.

[Juree Riggd]

As an almost exclusive light mech pilot, I'm glad people can't QQ about broken mechanics being the only reason lights are getting kills anymore.

[jay35]

It is nice to be able to actually connect shots with the PPC and Gauss and have them register!

Keep in mind HSR also affects everyone else, too. For example, with an assault mech: What you will likely experience if you pay careful attention, is that you will traverse a slightly exposed position in LOS of an enemy, and while visually you will not feel any enemy fire impacts or see anything hit you, as you're going back behind cover, you'll look down and notice your mech has yellow or orange damage added to some of its body parts. That's the other side of HSR, when you're on the receiving end of it. So far it's been subtle enough to not be too annoying.

The upside is your PPC and AC hits will actually register now, provided you lead appropriately. Gauss is still a bit of a mystery to me, but maybe that's because I'm used to the special lag leadtime it needed in the past and have to readjust a bit more.

[Trauglodyte]

This is how you SERPENTINE!



The alternative, of course, is:

Edited by Trauglodyte, 17 April 2013 - 07:55 AM.

[Gralzeim]

I'm not looking forward to jumping into my Raven, I had a hard enough time sometimes after the first HSR phase went live. Mind you, some matches I do better, but I'll never say I'm a great light pilot. Or even a good one, really. But hot damn, after they both made HSR for lasers, and in the same patch made Raven leg hitboxes huge (larger than the model!), my goodness but I got legged almost every other match I played, by anyone with any kind of lasers, even if I used erratic paths, even at 150kph. Once had someone sweep an array of large lasers (like six of them) briefly past my legs and out went one of them, with the other orange. Total engagement time couldn't have been more than a second or two.

So, yeah, It's going to be even rougher for those of us who don't mainly play lights, or those who just aren't very good with them (myself falling into both categories). Hopefully they'll be implementing the reversion of that leg hitbox nerf like they said they would, soon. I really don't think it was necessary with HSR in, and it's really not necessary now. xD

I mean when I engage a Jenner, yeah, I fear Jenners on my Raven, because they just carry enough lasers to quickly eliminate a Raven's artificially-easy-to-hit legs. 4 ML or an array of SL is usually enough to do the job, faster than my pair of MPL and pair of SSRM2s can whittle down their armor.

I don't mind this though, I'll be glad to get back to using a Raven for its intended purpose; Electronic warfare/recon, not a primary combat mech. That striker/harasser role is for Jenners and Spiders. Especially Jenners. I usually get more cbills/xp on my Hunchback and Cataphract, anyway.

[Apnu]

Mercules, on 17 April 2013 - 06:44 AM, said:

NEVER run in a straight line. Never stop completely. Never circle a mech.

Truth.

[MaddMaxx]

syngyne, on 17 April 2013 - 06:12 AM, said:

Last night, our entire team was wiped on an Assault match except for a single spider with an ERPPC. Remaining team was two Hunchbacks, a Dragon, and an Atlas, with varying states of damage.

The Spider killed them all and won the match for us. It was a thing of beauty to watch him dance around and pick them apart.

I am terrible light pilot, so for me it's always fun watching a really good light pilot at work.

That wasn't on Tourmaline by any chance?

[Apnu]

Gralzeim, on 17 April 2013 - 07:54 AM, said:

... I'll be glad to get back to using a Raven for its intended purpose; Electronic warfare/recon, not a primary combat mech. That striker/harasser role is for Jenners and Spiders. Especially Jenners. I usually get more cbills/xp on my Hunchback and Cataphract, anyway.

Truth.

[AlmightyAeng]

Thank you OP.

"Man, it's easier to get hit now. Guess I should change tactics and play smarter."

The lack of 'OMG LIGHT NERF AIMING IS OP AGAIN!' was incredibly refreshing.

[ElLocoMarko]

theDeimos, on 17 April 2013 - 01:07 AM, said:

...
I got GIBBED so fast its not even funny. Forget about running past the whole enemy team without getting barely any damage. The difference is HUGE.
...

It always seemed wrong that a light at 130 kph can run straight by a gang of eight with little damage. I used to do it in a Cicada. But if you took a Dragon or Centurion at 100 kph you would make about 1/4 pass before you were a smoking husk. Something in that was non-linear. I suspect the tipping point had to do with the difference between aiming at a target and hitting the back edge as compared to a complete miss. The actual speed would depend upon mech width, speed, ping... but there is a magic number. The lights seemed to be on one side while the mediums were on the other.

That said if anyone wants to help me test yet another damage bug which could be cutting light mechs lives extra short... I am on the scent of something and need someone with an AC20 to do a few minutes of testing around 9 PM mountain (GMT - 6) some day this week. (Message me if you want to help)

Edited by ElLocoMarko, 17 April 2013 - 09:46 AM.

[syngyne]

MaddMaxx, on 17 April 2013 - 09:08 AM, said:

That wasn't on Tourmaline by any chance?

It was. The pilot's name was Ch33s3M0nster or something similar.

[Coolant]

Thontor, on 17 April 2013 - 06:05 AM, said:

"running past the whole enemy team without getting barely any damage."

Should have never been able to do that in the first place.

agree...how many times did we see a Raven meander through an entire enemy team and go unscathed with armor barely showing orange...

[Tragos]

You STILL can be extremely strong in a light mech, had quite a few rounds in a X5 today with 600-800dmg (since most enemies are assaults...) What you CAN'T do any longer and should never have been able to do is run right into the middle of ~700 tons of enemy mechs and SURVIVE.

Just because the 3L had 2 shields (hitboxes and anti ballistic/ppc lagshield) doesn't mean it was ever intended to behave that way. Now you have to play it again as a light mech and not as an unstoppable force of nature .

Well done PGI, loving it.

Edited by Tragos, 17 April 2013 - 10:17 AM.

[dyndragon]

One Medic Army, on 17 April 2013 - 01:21 AM, said:

Stop circling people.

Many a new pilot need to learn that circle strafing is NOT effective. Get behind and stay behind them.

[Corbon Zackery]

The tactic for light mechs are still the same there are 2 main builds.

Light mech killers: High speed with low heat builds small lasers and streaks.

Heavy mech softeners: M. laser, Large lasers, SRM 2, 4 , 6, 134 to 150 KPH.

If your moving any slower than 134kph your going to get you legs shot off very quickly there are a lot of crack shots out there who are hitting lights with ac 20. At some point they need to take the speed restrictors off light mechs. Were doing 85 to 93.3 miles per hour over open country. Yet were still being hit by most or all weapon systems.

Most heavy mechs are going 40 miles per hour over open country.

Edited by Corbon Zackery, 17 April 2013 - 11:06 AM.

[Corbon Zackery]

dyndragon, on 17 April 2013 - 10:45 AM, said:

Many a new pilot need to learn that circle strafing is NOT effective. Get behind and stay behind them.

We use to call it the circle of death because you would just trip the light and mass fire at him.