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Landing LRMs is often a tricky business, and doing so reliably against seasoned players demands spotting assistance from your teammates. In PUGs, LRM carrying mechs cannot expect reliable spotting every game.
Being a dedicated spotter-light in PUGs is a pretty hit-or-miss affair. If your team is LRM-light, a TAG is deadweight and you must adapt your role to something else. If your team does not communicate very well even if they are LRM-heavy, you might still not be very effective.
In solo PUGs, being a dedicated spotter is generally not advisable, and the lack of reliable spotting makes LRMs less flexible.
I have some tips that have been discussed at length elsewhere, but I think are not fully appreciated by most players. You can spot very efficiently without equipping a TAG (which really isn't that critical) and without significantly changing your playstyle. These things do not match the performance of competitive spotters, but are valuable in PUGs. Two modules can greatly increase the ability of any light, with almost any playstyle, to more reliably spot for LRMs: 360 target and target decay. Target decay helps any mech of any weight in any role also contribute to spotting.
Back Facing Target Retention (really helps light mechs spot, and may become very useful in other capacities after seismic sensor changes)
LRMs and spotting:
In my personal experience this module is absolutely amazing on light mechs, not because of a combat advantage directly imparted on you, but for the purposes of incidental spotting. Anyone who has played an LRM carrying mech has had the experience of firing at a target that appears to be hard-locked by a light, only to suddenly lose the lock despite the light mech's continued proximity to the target. This is because the light mech turned away from the enemy it had been targeting. A light mech under fire has to move continuously, as a result it is sometimes difficult, impractical, or even suicidal to continue to face the same enemy mech. With 360 target, the light is able to keep targeting the enemy mech even while moving around rapidly (assuming it is withing 200m). This can make the difference of one or more salvos of missiles either hitting or missing the target, which is nothing to scoff at.
Individual benefits:
In the past, many people have used this module to keep track of targets during a furious brawl, although that role is currently better done with seismic sensors (as seismic sensors are not limited to one enemy target, and do not require LOS to initiate tracking, although you will not have target info). Since seismic sensors will soon undergo significant changes, its usefulness in keeping track of targets moving in and out of LOS may significantly increase.
Target Decay (helps all mechs spot, and may become more useful in other capacities after seismic sensor changes)
LRMs and spotting:
In my experience, this is a supremely useful module for a large variety of playstyles, I love this module. When using missiles, the advantages are obvious, and target decay allows you to reliably hit targets that would otherwise be a coin toss (e.g. moderately fast ridge humpers, mechs weaving between buildings, etc.). The ability to hold missile lock just a little bit longer when the enemy goes out of vision considerably improves the flexibility of LRMs. This module also allows you to extend your target decay on an enemy that has moved into ECM cover. The real reason I really love this module is that you get a lot (I mean a lot) of spotting assists. If you see a mech with a friendly missile incoming marker that is heading for cover, target him, and if your LRM carrying friend did not have target decay you may have just made his missiles hit. This module significantly improves the spotting and tracking capabilities of all mechs, even ones that would normally have very little value as a spotter.
Individual benefits:
This module also has some value to brawlers as it helps you keep track of enemies that have gone behind cover (what side of the building will that guy come from?), however seismic currently does a better job of this. With the coming seismic sensor changes, this module may become quite useful to brawlers trying to keep track of a target weaving around buildings. (This module also seems to sometimes give you spotting assists points for your own missiles if the enemy has moved into cover after you fired)
Sensor range module can allow you to spot from greater distances (which is sometimes useful, but not to the degree of the above modules).
So, if you are running any sort of light mech, equipping 360 target massively improves your spotting capabilities even when you are in the thick of it, and target decay significantly improves the spotting abilities of any mech. Throw in BAP and you have some ability to counter enemy ECM. Many people will be hesitant to sacrifice valuable module slots for these things, but I believe it is usually worth it. These things have practical uses outside of spotting (which will likely become much more important after seismic sensors are reeled in).
Edited for being even more repetitive than it presently is
Edited by Maxime Rougon, 27 October 2013 - 01:40 AM.
