31 replies to this topic

[Amsro]

I power down in a few scenarios;

-In a large brawl and need to look dead to avoid focus. This usually allows me to relocate.
-Mid-Air power down to avoid LRM's or fake death. Some players just can't be fooled, LRM's always can.
-While being chased find an out of view spot, power down and let the enemy walk past your location, now you have the advantage.
-If you are getting LRM'd from anywhere you've been NARC'd so power down in a safe place.

That's pretty much the limit of my power down tactics. They work more often then you would assume!

Edit; The most important one; Power Down face first into the water to maximize your K/D ratio! Don't want that dropping.

Edited by Amsro, 14 January 2014 - 01:42 PM.

[Hoaggie]

Power-up mech ambushes are really difficult to pull of, more so now that they changed the vision modes and gone to 12 player matches, but it's still possible if you get really lucky.

It does take some prep work (everyone really needs to pack close range weapons), there are few maps you can do it on. River City Night is a good one, but only if you actually start in the south, and really isn't worth it unless you are in assault mode.

No matter what, it's going to hack off the rest of your team, since they will be down a lance and generally get steamrolled. And if they dont deal enough damage before they die then you are kinda SOL, because it could end up 12 on 4.

[Arahantius]

Sable Dove, on 20 December 2013 - 07:29 PM, said:

My crippled Atlas (no arms, no LT/RT, CT critical) rammed into the derrick and powered down on Theta on Caustic Valley. Held the point and won the game. Enemies couldn't figure out why the point wasn't capping for them.

Only time I've used or seen powering down in some useful capacity.

Wow, just learned a major lesson there. Next time I can't cap, I know what to look for.
Cheers

[990Dreams]

Kroxloq, on 20 December 2013 - 01:01 PM, said:

I think the mechanic needs a little work myself. If you power down while missiles are incoming, the missiles still had the lock on your "last known location" and so will still hit you even though you are powered down.

When you are powered off you stop moving. Your last known location is your current location. Just as when the missiles keep falling when you overheat they will keep falling when you power down.

Other than that I don't really power down much. I think it makes me too vulnerable (mostly since I take really big or really small Mechs mostly, not many Mediums XD)

[MrRaaaager]

Was in my Jager going over the crest of a hill when 3-4 enemy mechs see and shoot me. They blow off an arm and damage damn near everything else. At this point I back up and power down, hoping the smoke from my arm and me being powered down would make them think one of the other guys killed me. So I power down and sure enough 2 of them come looking for me and walk right by.

I power back up and gib one of them from a rear CT shot, but then all the others see me.

[luxebo]

Although most guys already commented, generally, there are a bunch of ways to use Power Down.

1) Power down while capping in conquest or assault. This is to prevent detection, and many times in a spider I could power down and the enemy would think it's actually glitched.

2) Power down while defending in assault. This is a really good way to destroy the enemy on say Alpine or Terra when everyone uses it well. It's a great strategy if everyone follows the leader. Had many 12 to 0 wins with this strat.

3) Power down when someone starts launching missiles. This is to lose their lock of missiles.

4) Power down when overheating to relief some heat and disable your signal along with that. It helps a bit, as your not doing anything, though it's often best to just take cover and run.

5) Finally, power down to hide, simply put it may work to kill off many enemies down in skirmish, although controversial.

[Darth Futuza]

1) Hiding on top of the wall in HPG Manifold.
2) As a safety measure, its sometimes very tempting for me as a light mech to go out and wander around. Usually this results in me walking into a trap full of enemy mechs. If I power down for a good two minutes, it removes this temptation and generally keeps me safe and useful for the more critical parts of the match.
3) To disburse heat rapidly. Can be useful on Terra Therma.
4) Power down inside of a much larger enemies corpse, no one ever see's you!
5) To loose enemy focus. If I power down I no longer stay in the enemies current radar, and they tend to switch to different targets more equipped to deal with heavy enemy fire. As a light this is immensely useful since almost all of the time when I'm scouting the entire enemy team seems to want to kill me.
6) Pretending to be afk. Players will often take extreme risks to kill an AFK-er since they figure its safe, if it comes alive though...they might have just screwed themselves.

[TygerLily]

1) You're the last one alive. Powerdown on a dead smoking mech and they will think YOU are the dead mech...then you power up and try to get a kill...lol. It's worked numerous times...

2) It also worked once on Forest Colony when I powered down next to a disconnect...the guy came around the corner, presumably saw the DC pop up on his radar but disregarded it without looking closely. I basically had to be hugging the DC mech but I was able to power up and get some free shots in before we finished the match.

3) Also, back in the day you could escape a streak boat (the Cat A1 with no backup weapons) by powering down so they couldn't lock-on. Most streak boats now are Kintaros and Shadowhawks and have at least a few lasers...and even if they don't have backup, BAP makes you targetable. Worth a mention I suppose.

Edited by TygerLily, 22 January 2014 - 07:07 AM.

[Hauser]

Power down in a brawl is a great way to hide for a few seconds. Long enough to get some on ones rear. Works better in darker maps.

[Wildstreak]

I remember the time on River City, I dropped off the platform with the dropship into lower city and accidentally hit the P key. I decided to see if any enemy noticed. An enemy Mech came right by, I was out in the open, and passed me showing his backside. You know what comes next.

[oldradagast]

Interesting posts here!

I had probably my first (somewhat) useful instance of using Power Down in a match just this week. It was Skirmish mode on River City. I killed an Orion in my Victor, did some other damage... and then those rude people on the red team had the nerve to shoot off all my weapons! Well... in Skirmish, it's not as if capping was an option. So, I started a long retreat back around through the city, and managed to get the attention of a few slower enemies, which was the goal. They turned and started to lumber after me... by which point I had looped around the center fortress area, dived into the water, and powered down while looking "dead." As the match went on, and victory was assured, I powered back up and basically spent the rest of the match hanging around behind the last enemy mech (at Atlas) getting in his way.

Not a brilliant use or anything, but I can only assume the enemy spent some time wondering where that "nearly dead victor went," and any time spent looking for me - I was "right there a moment ago" - was time my team could spent more easily killing them.

Edited by oldradagast, 24 January 2014 - 09:15 AM.

[MIHAc]

How power down saved my life... or well extended it for a minute or two....

After reading this thread, yeasterday i had a match in my Jenner... where in the middle of it i got interupted by a phone call.
I harrassed a med just moments ago, so i took cover and powered down, while i was on the phone. Luck had it the med came looking for me... but although he came into my view, just 10 meters or so away, he simply turned and left me alone.

Done with the call i returend to the match. Unfortunately we were loosing badly already so not much i could do.

Today i tried the trick again, when my victor lost both sides... and was weaponless. Unfortunately it didn't work. The mech that was shooting at me earlier came checking and cored me with one last shot.

So i'd say it might be useful, from time to time... but very situational.

Edited by MIHAc, 25 January 2014 - 12:47 PM.