1
Turn Off Arm Lock
Seriously. I am not even kidding. Do this right now. [Go to options, bottom left]
What is Arm Lock? Arm lock is the practice of having your torso and arms always point to the same location. The issue with this is the greatly reduces your ability to aim and look.
What you need to understand is that some weapons are on your arms, and some are on your torso(Head, Chest). The weapons on your arms will shoot where ever your circle radical it pointing. While everything else will shoot where the 4 cross marks are pointing.
Left Shift, while holding, will turn on arm lock for the times that you want your weapons to all line up for that strike.
Left Ctrl(Free Look), will allow your to only move your arms, leaving your torso as is. This becomes very important for some for the more advanced ways not to die.
Weapon Grouping
Grouping is possibly the single most important thing to get a handle one. At the bare minimum you should have your torso weapons and arm weapons on separate groups, so you can manage your new found body parts.
But don't stop there, its good to group by weapon type(Lasers, Missles(LRMs/SRMs), Ballistics) as well as mount location. Left vs Right groups are pretty useful for firing when behind partial cover. Weapon grouping is whats going to allow you to manage your heat in a respectable manner.
To edit weapon groups, while ingame use the Arrow Keys to change selected weapon and Right Ctrl to toggle the selection. Your primary mouse will always fire the selected column/group and secondary click will fire Group 2.
Its also important to note the chain fire setting. Chain firing is the practice of cycling through a weapon group. When fire is held on a chain-fired group, it will fire each weapon after each other. You can use this to turn 4 Medium lasers into a single non-stop stream. But when chain fire is clicked, it will fire the next weapon in the list. If you have say 6 medium lasers that heat you up real quick, you can use chain-fire to allow you to click to decide how many of those 6 lasers you want to fire. Very useful for heat management.
Dealing with Light Mechs
I don't care where you think the best place to shoot a light mech is. Unless you can kill it in a single volley, shoot the legs! A good light mech pilot can take down just about anyone. But the moment you blow off one leg, its as good as dead. Then to just finish it off, shoot the other leg(its probably already heavily damaged by this point). If your engaging something big, with a light mech circling you, take pop-shots at the legs when you get a chance. You may still die, but that leg damage will save someone on your team.
Stay with the Group
I not sure how I can really say more on this. The concept is simple power in numbers. Their are exceptions to this rule, like light mechs that go and cap and scout. But honestly, there's not as many exceptions to this rule as you might like. Even a bad tactical call can be saved by teamwork.
When you get heavily damaged fall back a little. The goal is to rotate out who is getting hit and taking damage. You want to keep all the friendly firepower on the field for as long as possible. A mostly dead mech with a gun, is better then no mech at all.
Focus Fire
Everyone in the group needs to shoot the same thing. Now, there can be debate on what mechs you should target first. But everyone should shoot at the same target. Your goal is to reduce their firepower as quickly as possible. 1000 damage across 8 mechs is useless, 1000 damage across 1 mech is dead mech.
How Not to Die Tips
Heat management, don't over heat. If you do that is an easy head shot for someone. Their are times when an overhearing alpha strike will save your ***, but those times are rare. Even if you are going to die, prolong it as long as possible. Every extra bit of damage you get on the board it useful to someone else on your team.
Always Move, If your in a fight you should be moving and not in a straight line. You want to cut across the targets line of sight. If your moving straight back away from a target, its the same as standing still. Zig Zig, Jumpjets, Cartwheels... Just do something to add to the angular velocity. Your trying to make them miss, and not kill you.
Plan the damage, Your going to get hit. That's just a fact of MechWarrior, but you can live without an arm but not without your engine or head. Remember arm lock, this is where that gets important. You can look, or use free look, to shoot the target, then turn back and eat the damage on your arms. Some 'mechs are even designed for this. Let me show you with some bad art:
When firing your going to have to turn that toward your target, but the moment after your fire(and before they fire) you turn 90 degrees blocking your torso from fire.
See now your protected from the rounds. When one arm gets hurt, rotate the other way so the other arm can soak it up. Try not to lose your arms, but its better to lose them then be dead.
Edited by SirWolfgang, 19 April 2013 - 09:55 AM.
