39 replies to this topic

[Arnold J Rimmer]

Keep a closer note of your assists compared to kills, and find yourself content with your ability. My K/D rarely struggles over 1.0, but most every match I get 500-600+ damage scores and assist counts of 8 and above.

As long as the target dies, it doesn't matter who kills it.

[ImperialKnight]

2 words. BOOM. JAGER.

[The Basilisk]

I too experienced a dramatic drop of my K/D AND (feeled because previously there was no) W/L ratio since introduction of the new ELO based matchmaker system.
I also wondered why I always seem to have half of the team consistent of fairly green players who where either just walking around shooting at hills and air or at each other.
Did MWO had aunpredictably huge influx of new players ???
Sure not.

What you are experiencing is your rising ELO. The better you get the more you get punished until you are paired with players that are totaly neutralizing your skill and get facerolled by the first enemy they meet, leaving you alone barely with a chance to do anything at all.

Long story short. You will experience a continious decay of your match quality until you arrive at a rate of a little over 50/50 in win/ loose and around 1.15 to 1.2 K/D.
Outcomes of your matches will feel increasingly random and your skill meaningless
...
Until you join a team

[Dalziel Hasek Davion]

Logically there are two primary ways to improve your K/D. Kill more 'Mechs. Die less often.

Although this sounds flippant, there are a couple of observations that make it relevant. You need to find weapons/speed/playstyle that allow you to engage and damage opponents for little damage in return. Ideally you want weapons that high pinpoint or crit damage and/or from range - as far as possible. If you have to get close, you will take return fire - so you will need speed to get in and out.

Some weapons are great at DPS, but not so good at killing strokes. Small ACs, missiles, lasers. Shifting to a smaller number of more potent weapons (AC20/10, GR, LPL) will increase killing blows. Also weapons that increase crit damage (MGs, LBX) may help - although the MG and flamer have the problem that you need to be next to the enemy - therefore potentially taking damage.

LRMs are the only weapon that allows you to damage the enemy without being in LoS of the enemy. Effective use of indirect fire, while not causing many killing blow, should improve K/D since you should be able to get kills without exposing yourself to fire.

So we can theorise that the ideal 'Mech/playstyle for high K/D is high damage sniping builds (dual GR, dual AC20, even dual AC10s), fast-moving striker crit-seekers (LBX10, MGs) and LRM boats. For the fast-moving crit seeker, I would suggest finding a fast heavy rather than a light.

In all cases, support your team, rather than going solo, but engage later rather than earlier - to increase the proportion of already damaged enemies. Pick your targets and prey on the weak/damaged.

An interesting question is whether Conquest offers a greater chance of encountering light 'Mechs, which may affect the K/D of people routinely playing that mode.

It is relatively easy to focus on one stat and find a way of maximising that stat through weapon, mech and playstyle choice. And so it is an arbitrary comparison between players, like damage done.

The modern idiom is to load up with artillery strikes, leg it into an enemy camp and "drop one" it seems. You can probably do that without exposing yourself to fire too.

[BSK]

I stopped playing many other online games because people cared too much about non-teamplayer-statistics, why don't you play those games and we are all happy? There are games where people sit around on their map position and watch others die because a "lemming train" is a bad thing. In MechWarrior it is a good thing to stick together and shoot your enemies all one by one. Why would a K/D ratio be relevant? There are Mechs like the Yen Lo Wang or the Firebrand which give me 1 or 2 kills every game, but nothing makes me happier than seeing 12 assists in my Pretty Baby LRM boat with 200 xp for spotting ..

[VIPER2207]

Nick Makiaveli, on 01 December 2013 - 08:13 PM, said:

You want to improve, then set a goal of getting better damage using a weapon system you are not comfortable with. Or one that most people consider sub-optimal like SRMs.

agreed.
Or get yourself into a disadvantaged mech, like a Dragon or an Awesome. When you perform good matches (good matches are not only "do a lot of kills") in one of these chassis on a regular base, you can be happy i think

[Bhelogan]

Machine guns are good at KSing, but you have to be in the right spot to use them.

Contrary to what people are saying about DPS builds, they do have a purpose. If you want to grind C-Bills, they are great. Doing high damage, lots of component destructions per kill will get you far more C-Bills than a pin point, low damage per kill build.

Honestly though, the best way to improve your KD is to quit worrying about it. Get with a group and try to play well and have fun. The KD will take care of itself.

[KinLuu]

I have one very simple, yet very important, advice for you, if you want to boost your K/D.

Do not die.

Play it safe. Pay attention to your positioning. Do not commit to a brawl alone. Always stay near teammembers. Pay attention to the map.

These simple rules will increase your K/D way more than buying a Misery.

[Ens]

Fact:

if you don´t play with your PRECIOUS K/D in mind, it will rise by itself....

[Victor Morson]

KDR means next to nothing in MechWarrior, because killing blows aren't the big deal - it'd doing damage to critical areas that is. I wouldn't worry about it if you're outputting a lot of damage.

If you really want to steal kills though, LRMs work fairly well at insuring you get the last shot.

[Rabbit Blacksun]

basically what victor said ... though the other option is Gauss rifles ... they seem to effectively end the long range arguments

[Urdasein]

PenitentTangent, on 01 December 2013 - 05:07 PM, said:

Honestly, I don't think we should care about K/D whatsoever. It's a worthless stat imho. for a game like MWO, it should be about teamwork, functionality, effectiveness, and objective completion, not "how many casualties were brought about in your wake."

That being said, I find a constant cycle of lasers are the best at Kill stealing.

My TDR-5ss has a nearly heat-neutral all-laser build and a staggering 2.20 K/D. None of my other mechs surpass 1.20.

I dont care about objectives. Really not. It's just a win/loss screen and some c-bills.

The real victory is all about exterminating the reds.

So for that:

Jagger AC40, target info, UAV, seismic. UAV is like a legit wallhack for the entire team. Use it, its not only for lrms =). My best mech, the boomjag.
Misery 2PPC AC20
Victor JJ 2PPC AC20

PS: having a high dmg ratio means nothing. You can kill a mech with 60 points in the CT and let him alive with 300 points everywhere but not in the CT. Thats why high alpha weapons are FOTM.

Edited by loupgaroupoilu, 02 December 2013 - 06:15 AM.

[Urdasein]

KinLuu, on 02 December 2013 - 04:12 AM, said:

I have one very simple, yet very important, advice for you, if you want to boost your K/D.

Do not die.

Play it safe. Pay attention to your positioning. Do not commit to a brawl alone. Always stay near teammembers. Pay attention to the map.

These simple rules will increase your K/D way more than buying a Misery.

Excellent advice. So true.

[Mechteric]

Rather than just shooting all over the enemy mech, go for the kill shots almost exclusively. There are exceptions, when disabling a mech is a better idea (such as legging lights or fast mediums), but generally just go for the sweet cream filled cored center torso.

Also certain weapons help that coring along, such as an AC20. While avoiding LB10x's, they spread damage around too much.

[Itsalrightwithme]

CapperDeluxe, on 02 December 2013 - 06:28 AM, said:

Rather than just shooting all over the enemy mech, go for the kill shots almost exclusively. There are exceptions, when disabling a mech is a better idea (such as legging lights or fast mediums), but generally just go for the sweet cream filled cored center torso.

Also certain weapons help that coring along, such as an AC20. While avoiding LB10x's, they spread damage around too much.

To add to this, if you really want to get more kills, or let's say you want to better capitalize the damage that you deal into kills, there are a few things that can help.

• Get higher alpha weapons -- as others have suggested: AC20, PPC, Gauss, etc. Some like to run crit-seeking weapons, it's your choice depending on your style. I find crit-seekers like MG and LB-10x okay for pugging but bad for serious drops.
  
• Practice aiming for specific locations on the target mech.
  
• Practice recognizing weak points on a target mech -- this suggests running the Target Info Module, to speed up target info acquisition.
  
• Practice recognizing which mechs are more feasible to kill. This requires good battlefield awareness.
  
• Practice recognizing when the odds are in your favor, or when they aren't. Lots of players get too greedy for kills and in the end get killed in the process of getting it, or worse while they fail to get their kill. In pug games, this suggests playing like an opportunistic ******* sitting behind your own lines.

Hope that helps. I'd say your KDR is pretty damn good for somebody who pugs.

[Mogney]

Mahws, on 01 December 2013 - 05:13 PM, said:

Step 1: Turn off your computer
Step 2: Find your closest mountain and climb it
Step 3: Meditate until you learn not to care about a meaningless number only you can see
Step 4: Return to playing the game and have fun

Quoted for Truth.

[Charons Little Helper]

K/D doesn't really mean much. For example - take a brawler & sniper who are equally skilled and help their teams an equal amount. The sniper will have much better K/D.

The reason? When the sniper's team wins, he rarely dies. When the brawler's team wins he still often dies because he often leads a push. Extremely useful for the team, but it makes him the prime target for the enemy.

[DONTOR]

Tooonpie you might want to try a Misery with 2PPC and an AC20. Its easy to get the kil,l and stalkers are hard to kill so win win.
Or a Jenner they are also easy to get kills with and stay alive.

[Eaerie]

Havent figured out why so many people are so stuck on a personal stat that has very little meaning in a team based game. Who finally lands the killing blow means so little in MWO. It is more about effective DPS (hitting what you want. when you want for max effect) and assisting your team. It doesnt matter who gets the kill, you, me or some random body, the goal is to get that mech killed as quick as possible.

[Mogney]

Very true Eaerie, the other day I had 800+ damage in a mech with 10 assists and 0 kills. I think I had a pretty significant effect on the outcome of that match, but it helped my KDR not at all.