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Before I start, I want to recognize the people that helped with the material for this guide. Thank you Modo44, Jabilo, YueFei, and Shar Wolf for your input and suggestions.
So you like driving a missile boat or a sniping machine? Done correctly, these two roles can make or break a match. It’s a simple as loading up as many LRMs/Gauss Rifles/ER PPCs/ER Large Lasers and cutting loose, right? This guide is not only about helping you be more effective in your role, it’s also about helping your Lance and Company-mates know what to look for and expect from you. We’ll go over everything I can think of, from tactics to the basics of configuration. For the more experienced of us, please be patient with me. I’m breaking this down all the way to the ground for the more inexperienced among us. For the less-patient amongst us look for the TL/DR at the end, but expect the bones with no meat.
Configuration
The most basic element of your effectiveness is your configuration. Depending on your chosen chassis, this varies widely, so I’m going to cite my own experience. My preferred fire support platforms from Assault mechs on down are the Stalker, Catapult, Griffin, and Raven. Because Assault machines are what you most commonly find in the fire support role, that’s where I’m going to focus in the interest of trying to keep this novel from becoming a misguided epoch.
Within the Stalker frame, you’ve got a wide variety of choices. My personal preferences are the Stalker STK-3H for indirect fire support and the STK-3F for direct fire support. The reasons for that are fairly simple and straightforward. The 3H’s arm missile ports are best of all available options and the 3F has the most useful energy hard-points. When it comes to missiles, the better your launchers match the available missile tubes, the better off you’re going to be. For example, the STK-3F has 10 missile tubes in the arms vs. the 20 tubes in the STK-3H. When you fire an arm mounted LRM15 or LRM20 from the 3F that means you’re actually sending two bursts. You’re shooting one flight of ten missiles and one of five or two flights of ten. For the side torso mounts on both machines, this effect is even worse, breaking your salvo into 3 or 4 launches. Not a big deal right? It makes more difference than you think.
Your missile launchers begin recycling for the next shot when the last missile leaves the tubes. This means that you’re taking longer to recycle your launchers, which lowers your DPS (damage per second) output potential. Over time in a battle, this difference does pile up. Anyone that has driven an indirect fire support mech knows that target locks come and go throughout the battle. This can easily be the difference between getting one shot in on an enemy machine and getting two. The other consideration is your target’s AMS coverage. 40 missiles coming in together are harder to shoot down than 60 missiles spread out over a second. This grows exponentially more troublesome when you have several enemy machines with AMS grouped together. From my personal experience, on two occasions I’ve had a volley of 60 missiles from a STK-3F fired on me with a clear path to impact on my machine. On both of these occasions, between my AMSs (was driving a STK-5S both times) and nearby friendly AMS, not one of those missiles impacted my machine.
There is a basic fact of driving a fire support machine that I frequently see my company-mates ignore, one that often ends in disaster for them. This in particular is specifically an indirect fire support issue. Just because we drive a fire support machine does not mean we will not see front-line action. It also does not mean that we will be on the ideal or even decent map for our role. Keep this in mind as you build your machine. Light mechs will find you. The main skirmish may, and often does, move into your position. Don’t be caught with a pair of Small Lasers to defend yourself and contribute to the fight. Are you best helping yourself and your team by packing on 60-80 LRM volleys? If you only deliver 3 or 4 of those volleys, were you really effective? The questions to ask yourself at the end of the day is this: Is it better to deliver four or five, or even ten 60 missile volleys or 25-30 smaller volleys? What happens when you’re on a map where your missiles are less effective, like HPG Manifold or Crimson Strait? The other team will watch for where the missiles come from, and you will be an easy target for them if you don’t configure for fire support and self defense. They don’t want you to do your job, and will do whatever they can to stop you from it. It’s up to you, not your team, to keep yourself from being an easy kill.
For direct fire support, there are really only two tripping points. The first is the PPC. Don’t neglect the minimum range requirement. You could find yourself roasting and doing nothing to your target. The second is “ghost heat”, and this can also be a concern for indirect fire support machines. I understand what the developers are trying to accomplish, but I do not agree with their method. Personally, I think a forced delayed stagger-firing of the weapons to simulate the power demand would make far more sense. To add ghost heat to missile launchers and ballistic weapons when we’re already severely limited by hard points and missile tubes is beyond ridiculous, but that’s a conversation for another time. To avoid ghost heat, be aware of the firing limits and group your weapons accordingly or use pairs of different weapons. Personally, after much trial and error my STK-M was configured with two ER PPCs, one PPC, and two ER Large Lasers (I’ve since abandoned this machine as I feel the STK-3F is more effective in this role). Not as effective as it could be for long range direct fire support, but no ghost heat concerns (but still hotter than the hinges of Hell’s gate) and still effective from over 1km to point blank range.
For indirect fire support you must carefully weigh your ammo. I confess that this a subject I’m not a very good authority for direct fire support. I’m not even decent with a Gauss Rifle, and the larger bore ACs lose effectiveness farther out. Anyone who has good guidelines for this area, please feel free to correct me here and I’ll throw your material in, with credit due. My general rule of thumb is 30+ salvos for missiles and 40 shots-upwards for direct fire. An obvious exception to this is the AC2, because of its fast recycle time. As with anything, some trial and error is called for. I rarely use ballistic weapons for direct fire support, so work with your configuration for the right balance. By all means, correct me where I’m off. At the end of the day, look for the balance that suits your style best.
The next item to consider is armor. As a fire support machine, typically you’re going to be at the rear of your group assuming you don’t have a team where everyone is chasing the rabbit (in which case, sorry, you’re pretty surely marked for salvage anyway). Either way, that leaves you in prime position to be flanked by a light or fast medium machine. Typical stock load outs of rear armor, in my opinion, is not even close to enough. You are far more likely to get shot in the back and because everyone tends to be facing the other way, it will take much more time to find the target and bring your front armor to bear. Shift more armor to your rear torsos to keep yourself in the fight. Don’t be afraid to pile on the extra armor when you need to *cough*catapult*cough*.
Bringing this section to a close, don’t neglect one of the most powerful tools you have available to check your new build out. Take it onto the testing grounds within the game. This can be found second from the bottom of the Home menu in the upper-left of your screen. Here, you’ll have dummy targets to shoot up of various sizes, be able to get a great idea of how much damage you can do, as well as what kind of heat build-up you can expect on the various maps. It has other uses, but look for more on that when we start talking about cover. Above all else, remember to be patient through the process. A single match is not an effective gauge of how well built your machine is. Give your build some time to show you weaknesses before you try to shore them up. You may have done fine, only to have fallen victim to someone else’s luck.
Tactics & Strategy
Shoot first, shoot fast, and shoot faster than they do, right? It’s rarely so simple. At the end of the day, in the fire support role our job is to deal damage. More than that, it’s our job to deal damage in such a fashion that it cannot be retaliated against. This is great for our team, frustrating for the other team. Our job is to soften targets up so that our brawlers, scouts, and flankers have an easier time putting the other team down. Our profession does not come with a high kill count. It frequently comes with a negative KDR (Kill to Death Ratio less than 1:1) which is frequently a disappointment to us. Our bonus comes in damage done and Kill Assists. Unless my team is chasing the rabbit or I get flanked and ganked early (rabbit chases happen a lot, but welcome to PUG gaming), it’s unusual for my damage count to be outside of the top three for the match and rare to be outside of the top five. Normally, I’m going back to the hanger with at least 8 assists; if I go back with less than 4 assists, it’s a bad match indeed. These are the numbers that tell you how well you did your job. Let the KDR go, and measure yourself against damage, assists, and your team’s performance.
Defensive Tactics
In a fire support role, we’re primarily about offense and tipping the fight in our team’s direction. The fact is we tend to be easy targets. Our focus is long range, and especially for the indirect fire support, our weapons definitely lack for close range defense. It’s the enemy’s job to exploit this, and they’d be stupid not to exploit it. As fire support machines, we represent maximum damage done with minimal risk taken. Anyone would be a fool to skip an opportunity to remove that from their threat board. We are a primary target, and we should expect special attention. Be proud of the fact that you were chosen over the Boar’s Head or the Boom-Jager. This is a complement to your effectiveness and what you represent. Now let’s talk about surviving being chosen.
Flankers & Scouts
The two biggest hazards to a fire support machine somewhat overlap. The first is light mechs, and the second is being caught alone. In any fire support machine, you’re geared for long-range engagement. Properly configured fire support machines aren’t all long range, but long range is what you are optimized for. In most fire support machines, you’re much slower than those light or fast moving medium *points a finger at the Cicadas* machines. You have two options that ideally overlap: Have friends, and/or have enough close-range firepower to make them rethink the wisdom of attacking you.
The best option is both, but having friends always helps the most. In my Stalkers or my Catapults, the mobility needed to track (as in rotate to keep up with, not as in hunt) and target a light or Cicada…I mean, medium machine, is lacking. Having someone else around to educate them to their folly is invaluable. Things you can do to help are to try to pin the lighter machine against yourself or terrain, or get some range and pound them with your longer range weapons once their attention is divided. LRMs are surprisingly effective from 180 to 300 meters with direct line of sight. At that range your missiles will fly in a shallow arc, making them much more difficult to evade. In fact there have been many times I’ve seen one of my team’s scout or flanking mechs engaged in a turn-fight with an enemy scout/flanker in that range, and I’ve sat to the side and helped pound the machine into running (or to a puddle running across the ground).
If you’re alone when one or more light machines catches up to you, your options and prospects aren’t so good. This is where balance in your configuration is critically important. I like to mount dual Large Pulse Lasers or four Medium Pulse Lasers on my Stalkers. Those gives me 21-24 points of burst damage per hit; on a typical light machine, that’s something that you will take notice of. In a typical Raven’s load out, two to three shots of that to a side torso is enough to blow it off. While this little floater that won’t flush is plinking away at you, remember that what they really want is your rear armor. If you have cover available, back up to it. Make it as hard as possible to get at what they want and keep them under your guns as much as you can. Don’t focus on trying to kill this little nuisance that can kill you given the chance. You’re not properly equipped for it. You want them to leave you alone. Give them a reason to run, and then get to where the friendly faces are. Alone against more than one, you’re probably done. Keep your head and protect your back as best you can. Try to squawk for help if at all possible. The fact is that you’re probably about to be scrap against more than one flanking/scout machine.
Communication
That last point leads nicely into an important point for the game in general, and this section applies equally to every single role/job in the game. To put our current in-game communications system in the mildest and most polite terms I can think of, it sucks so hard that it could suck-start a 747’s engines from the other side of the airport and vacuum the aircraft’s interior at the same time. The only time you can really communicate is either at the start of the match or during a lull in the fight that likely, and often, doesn’t last long enough to communicate anything meaningful. To communicate at all within the game requires you to stop fighting and make yourself vulnerable. Right now, the only viable real-time communication we have access to are 3rd party VOIP programs, like Teamspeak and Ventrillo. I’m sure the developers intend to address this, and for my part I hope it’s high on the list. An assist-targeting method to coordinate getting our spotter’s target would be awesome. Even if we had preset hotkey communications that we could set up and customize, it would help. This is another one of those conversations for another time, but a highly relevant one in all aspects of play.
The fact is we have to work with what we have, rather than what we wish we had. If you’re running in a PUG (Pick Up Group), resign yourself to not being able to call for help. Resign yourself to not knowing what’s going on with the scouts. Resign yourself to not being able to coordinate your actions with others except in the broadest possible terms. With this in mind, let your company-mates know what you can do and what you’re set up for. Try to use the typical 30 seconds or so before the match starts to figure out between you what you’re going to do. Keep it simple, because you won’t be able to make changes on the fly once the stuff hits the stuff-spreader. Knowing who might be able to help you means you can run in the right direction when you need help. More important, knowing what everyone else is doing means you can more effectively support them.
As you try to work together, patience is absolutely key. Several times, I’ve seen a company systematically picked apart by sheer lack of patience. The best example on this is a fight in a bottleneck, like on Crimson Strait at the D4/D5 border in the mountain pass. Often the skirmish will form here with one team on the D5 side and the other on the D4 side underneath the docks. One at a time, a person from one side or the other will charge to the top of the rise and get ripped to pieces. There’s nothing wrong with making a charge. A One vs. Nine+ charge is a shortcut to spectating, and hobbles your team. If you’re going to charge, do it together. I’ve seen this dozens+ times from both sides of the fence. While this is the most visible example of the value of patience, there are more to be found. From moving together to fighting together, patience will win battles.
As a side note to communication, if you’re shot out early in the match consider hanging out rather than disconnecting. Spectate from someone’s machine and try to communicate to the rest of the company what’s going on. This is not an invitation or suggestion to try to drive from the backseat. Communication is what you’re after, not Command. Just tell everyone else what you see (radar contacts, hiding snipers) and what you know (detail damage done to mechs you were fighting with before you were marked for salvage). The folks you’re riding with or who are still in the fight may be too busy to notice what you see and they probably won’t know what you do about your targets. Just because you’re shot out doesn’t mean you have to be out of the fight or useless in the remainder of the fight.
Teamwork
For indirect fire support machines, try to team up with each other and direct fire support machines. This way, if one of you gets jumped by flankers or scouts, you can help each other. The little jerks can’t target both of you nor stay inside minimum range on both of you. Paired with a direct fire support machine, you want to try to take up a cover position in front of them by 200-300 meters depending on their optimum and maximum hit ranges. That leaves them in a sort of “over-watch” position for you while being able to feed target locks for you when the enemy machines are in range. In an ideal world, you can add your missiles to the damage that they’re doing in return. If you can’t work that or something like it out, pick a covered firing position reasonably close to the Heavy & Assault brawlers. That way if you’re jumped, you don’t have to hold out for long. That assumes that the brawlers don’t have their hands full of their own fight and can help you. Always remember that help may not come because the “helpers” need help of their own.
Situational Awareness
Last in the defense section is what appears to be the most underused tool available in our cockpits, and I’m just as guilty of this as the next guy. Do not neglect your Radar! It’s easy to get caught up in what you’re doing and lose track of the big picture. Look for problem spots both by what your radar shows you, and what it doesn’t. I can hear what some of you are saying now: Wraith, lay off the pipe or share it, okay? I’m serious, what your radar doesn’t tell you can be just as important as what it does. Let’s say you’re sitting in the middle of a loose wedge formation, 4 mechs on either side of you. The left side is engaged with 3 mechs that you see on radar, and the right side is clear. Then one company-mate dies on the right side. That suggests one of two things: An ECM-covered force is moving up on the right side, or a direct fire support team is working outside of sensor range. Probably the former, as fire support at the range it would take to be off of everyone’s radar would need incredible coordination and focused fire to do that any kind of fast. My overall point is the importance of situational awareness. Tunnel vision will kill you quicker than alpha-striking with a laser boat in the big volcano crater of Terra Therma (Don’t ask how I know that). Cultivate a habit of looking at the radar for every kill report you see. While this may not tell you where the enemy is, it will tell you where the danger is relative to your position, allowing you to respond as needed.
Offensive Tactics
It’s easy for anyone to get lost in the heat of the moment. Our blood is rushing, we have the target in our sights, and we want to finish it. We all get caught up in the chase, and I’m no exception. In a fire support role, we have to remove ourselves from this mindset. We have to remember that we aren’t wolves on the hunt. We’re death from above; we’re the hawk in the sky picking our target. The difference from nature is we’re working with the wolves. We don’t dart in at the target, instead we pick our prey apart from where they can’t touch us.
Enough of the “Hunts-with-a-Fist” metaphor, you’ve got the idea by now. Ever heard the expression “If you fought a fair fight, you planned the fight wrong.”? This is big part of what fire support is all about. We even up the odds where we have to, but our job is to tip the odds in our company’s favor for zero risk. We feel dirty and cheated when it happens to us. This is the nature of war, which we are simulating. We’re not fighting for fair, we’re fighting to win.
Cover
This next subject is the perfect bridge from Defense to Offense. Anyone who drives a fire support machine should know that we’re rarely good for a point-blank range fight or comfortable in a pitched fight. This is the price that you pay for specialization. The same thing happens to the Boom-Jagers and Splatter-Cats when they’re caught out of their element. The only exception to this is perhaps the direct fire support machines, but even they have to make sacrifices to be more effective at long and extreme range. Cover is how we balance that equation. This subject is a lot about defense but in my opinion, it’s crucial to good offense and that’s why I’ve listed it on this side. I know this next part is remedial for a lot of us, but this guide isn’t just for those of us who have an idea of what we’re doing. Please be patient or feel free to skip down a little until you hit something that doesn’t bore you.
There are two basic types of cover each with their own bonuses & drawbacks. First, you have wall cover. A good example of this is the buildings on the Frozen City maps. This type of cover is great for one hemisphere of cover for both direct and indirect fire provided its tall enough and you’re close enough to it. As your distance to your cover increases, the coverage arc you benefit from decreases. Its drawbacks are it is vulnerable to flanking, and it can interfere with your own fire. Also, for both types of fire support, you typically have to come out of cover to fire a shot. This type of cover works well in a mobile fight, so be ready to move and reposition as the fight moves. Keep in mind your nearby cover options because you will have to move from this type of cover sooner rather than later. When you find yourself in the middle of the skirmish, you’re in trouble not matter what type of cover you’re using.
Depression cover is where you settle in a lower-elevated part of the terrain for cover. Good examples of this type of cover are the crater areas on the Tourmaline Desert map, the fights that tend to occur around the rim of the caldera on the Caustic Valley map, or the center west area of C2 on the Forest Colony maps (though there are more examples of this type of cover on those maps). Depression cover is great in that it provides good cover from many directions (usually 270 degrees+), and generally you have lots of mobility/egress options from this type of cover as the main fight moves. Its chief drawback is that it’s vulnerable to fire from positions on higher ground; for example, the location I referenced on the Forest Colony maps is very vulnerable to fire from the higher ground at north C2, South B2, and South B3. Also of note, Depression cover typically offers little to no cover from indirect fire.
In some cases, you can find combinations of both wall and depression types of cover. In a lot of cases, this can be great but it can also be limiting. Personally, I approach these areas with caution. While it provides great protection, it’s also very easy to get cornered with no escape. A good example of this type of combined cover is the craters on top of the small volcanoes found on Terra Therma scattered around the main volcano in the middle. If you make a habit of using this type cover, in my opinion you should mount jump jets to give yourself another out as well as a reliable way to unload ordinance. Either that or choose a location with a good plan to escape if things get dicey.
Personally, I’ll lean towards depression cover while the main skirmish is far away; say 600-1000 meters to the nearest enemy. As the skirmish moves closer, into the 300-600 meter range, I prefer to switch to wall cover as it is available. As always, make a habit of checking your radar. If you see flankers moving in, get set to move and try to anticipate where they are going. Communicate it to your company-mates if you can. Nothing ruins a Flanker’s day quite like walking head on into a mouthful of guns. Most will run when they know the surprise is gone.
As discussed in the configuration section, the testing grounds are an invaluable tool for getting to know the terrain and picking out your cover locations. By taking the time to learn your maps, you automatically give yourself an advantage in situational awareness. This way you’ll know where you can run and where your next shot can come from, making you that much harder to anticipate.
Over time, you’ll learn to read the available cover and use it as second nature. If you make a mistake, don’t sweat it. The other team will point it out to you. No, really, I’m serious, outside of the obvious you’ll-get-shot-out. Most of our community is great. More than once or twice, I’ve gotten forum messages from people that have shot me out explaining to me what I did wrong. I’ve also gotten messages from company-mates who saw me making a mistake and offered similar feedback. Several times I’ve sent questions to people that have dropped with me, and no less than half the time I’ve gotten honest and helpful answers in return. Just because they were on the other side of the fence and our in-game communication system is lacking does not mean you can’t get valuable feedback to help you learn. Don’t get frustrated; reach out to the rest of us. The vast majority of our community is a collection of good mature people that just want to have fun, and more importantly want to help you. Next time, you might be dropping in with them on their side of the fence.
Target Delivery
So you’re in position, target locks are coming in and you’re flinging missiles. You’re doing your job, right? No, it’s usually not that simple. This particular area is more for indirect fire support, so feel free to skip on to the next section if you’re not interested.
There is one thing you should always be looking for as you’re loosing your missiles. After you fire a volley of missiles, watch the crosshairs in the center of your reticule. When your missiles impact your target, the reticule will flicker red for a couple of seconds, even if you no longer have a lock on that particular target. Whenever you loose a volley, watch your reticule to make sure you’re hitting your targets.
When the reticule doesn’t change from the normal light brown color, it’s a good indication that your target has what all missile boats hate for their targets to have: good cover. There’s only one thing that you’ll learn to hate more than good cover, and that’s overhead cover. There are other reasons you may not be connecting with your target, but we’ll cover those later in target selection. Overhead cover is an enormous obstacle that is often insurmountable. Good examples of places like this are the center complex area of the HPG Manifold map, the cargo docks area of the Crimson Strait map, and the main volcano area on the center of the Terra Therma map. There are others, but these are three of the most infamous for LRM users. Now the bad news; in a lot of cases, there is nothing you can do. On Terra Therma you can change your delivery angles, but I’ve met with limited success on this tactic. On Crimson Strait or HPG Manifold there is absolutely nothing you can do but wait for your targets to come out. It’s lame for us but it’s a fact of life, and it’s a valid and smart tactic for them. Whenever possible, watch your missiles on their way to your target. Look for telltale detonation before they get to the target, and be ready to switch targets if needed.
Another hated factor for target delivery is ECM (Electronic Counter Measures). ECM is beautiful when it’s in your corner, but it’s a salivating demon on a flaming Harley Davidson carving up your perfectly manicured lawn while chasing your dog and ogling your wife when it’s used against you. There are a limited selection of mechs that can mount these beautiful pains in everyone’s rear, but when they are present they wreck targeting. Wrecked targeting = Wrecked Missile Locks; you get the idea. So pack it in and run for the barn when someone brings out the ECM? There is a trick that will at least let you mess with their day.
Did you know you can dumb-fire your LRMs? If you fire your LRMs without a lock, they fix and traverse to the point where your reticule was aimed. Naturally, this works best against stationary targets. It’s also better than not shooting at all, and absolutely awesome for getting targets that you can’t lock onto to move. Just keep an eye on your range to the place where you want to drop the volley so you don’t try to shoot outside your missile range.
Before I move on to the next section, I want to share two more little techniques for delivery, both related to wall cover:
If you have enough room and your wall cover is low enough, you can back up while locking your target, loose your volley over your cover and immediately move back up. This limits your exposure and doesn’t require you to come out into the open to fire. The downside is you must have enough room for your missiles to clear what you’re using for cover. Also, you will get some angular exposure from the front sides, depending on your circumstances.
Lock your target while moving into a firing position to the side of your wall cover, loose your volley, and immediately back up behind your cover. It can be a little tricky to coordinate, but done right you’ll be exposed for a bare second, probably less. The downside is that using this tactic more than once or twice, especially with a predictable rhythm, will reward you with a barrage of ripple fire from the other team. Depending on your circumstances, pop out the other side and vary the rhythm but your best bet is to use it once or twice per side of your cover and change positions. Try to avoid doing this with another mech in the same place as it will invite more attention to both of you. Ideally if you can coordinate it, two or more people doing this at the same time from different positions could drive the other team nuts. Think whack-a-mole with mechs, and the moles hit back.
Pop-up Shots
Pop-up shots are great for surprising your target and immediately going back into a cover position. There are two types of Pop-up Shots; Terrain assisted and Jump Jet Assisted. Jump Jet Assisted Pop-up Shots are fairly self explanatory, but I find them much harder to execute so this information is contributed by Jabilo and Shar Wolf.
Terrain Assisted Pop-ups are simple, and you’ve probably already seen them used if you’ve played on either the Canyon Network or Caustic Valley maps. Very often on Caustic Valley, around the caldera in the middle (the big smoking hill), you see this as a prolonged engagement. It’s as simple as walking up slope until your weapons clear the rim of the caldera, fire your weapons and duck back down. As with other tactics, repetition and rhythm will kill you. Usually, I’ll pop up once or twice from one general area, and then shift positions.
Jump Jet Assisted Pop-ups are the same, only you are launching under your own power for the elevation to take your shot. Because you’re using jump jets, this lets you do a jack in the box routine from places a mech would not normally be able to attack from. While your jump jets are active, your reticule will shake like crazy, interfering with your shot. Be certain when you use this tactic that you wait to fire until after you have let off of your jump jets. The reticule shake will throw off all weapons, some more than others. Also be aware of your peak elevation relative to where your landing spot. If the difference is too significant, you may need to save a little bit of fuel to cushion your landing to prevent leg damage from falling.
There are two items to note with using either of these tactics: First is to be aware of your damage levels. If you’ve taken damage enough to cause your machine to vent smoke, it will give your position away before you pop up to make your shot. From the defensive side of the pop-up tactics, that smoke column is your marker for where the next shot may be coming from. Second, for both tactics but especially Jump Jet Pop-ups, predictability will kill you. Reposition often, preferably after every shot, or your opponents will reposition you to the spectator’s lounge.
Medium & Short Range Fights
Medium to short range fights are generally where we don’t want to be. For direct fire support machines, our main problem here is heat and weapon cycle times. For indirect fire support in a medium to short range fight, our main problems are minimum range on our LRMs and limited direct fire weaponry. But if we’ve built our machines the best we can, we’re not exactly DRT (Dead Right There, for those of us unfamiliar with the Black Thorn novels).
For both types of fire support, your lifeline will be picking targets in your sweet spot, while trying to stay out of your opponent’s. For direct fire support machines, this means knowing what range you’re optimized for and what your target can do. Remember that 4 seconds in a brawl can be a lifetime, so ration those Gauss slugs for maximum impact. Soften the spot you want to blow out, then hit it with the big pain. For indirect fire support machines, this depends on what you loaded as secondary weapons. You know that your LRMs are useless inside of 180 meters, so pick a target outside of that. I’ll use my own configurations and typical approaches to demonstrate both methods to my madness.
First, I consider my target. LRM carrier? Then I want to be at less than 180 meters. SRM boat, like a stock Golden Boy? I want to be outside of 270 meters and stay there. Look at your sensor data from the target and plan accordingly, but plan for your own strengths as well.
I usually carry 4 ER Large Lasers and two SRM 6 for direct fire support on my STK-3F. I definitely can’t Alpha, or I will be an overheated sitting duck. So I keep moving, keeping my target at 100 to 350 meters and pound them as best I can as my heat allows. I can maintain 14 DPS and change for about 10 seconds before I have to back off or shut down. Focusing fire with another company-mate means in that time we should be able to drop at least one machine, maybe two. Focus on the slower, heavier targets whenever you can. They can hurt you worst, and you’ll have more trouble keeping your weapons on lighter, faster machines to get your best damage potential. Let the Light machines circle and plink away, just keep them out of your rear as best you can. You can always turn on them when the Assault and Heavy machines are down.
Up against a machine like a Golden Boy in a stock configuration, I’m going to exploit my better ranged weaponry and stay farther away. Yes, I lose the damage from my SRM6s, but I gain the advantage in that my ER Large Lasers are more effective than the Golden Boy’s Medium Pulse lasers. Our mobility is comparable, so my target isn’t going to be able to do much about it. In this fight, time is on my side.
Swapping the Golden Boy for a CPLT-C1, I’m going to want to push in much closer to my target. My lasers make me more effective close in, plus I can bring my SRMs to bear, and I take his LRM15s out of the equation. Once again, mobility is comparable leaving the CPLT-C1 in an unhappy place. If I watch my heat and be patient, all things being equal, the Catapult is going down.
Last, let’s say instead I’m up against a HGN-733C. This is not a happy place for me. While this target is slower than me, it’s more effective than I am from short and medium ranges, has superior terrain mobility with its jump jets, and has more burst damage weaponry to bring to bear. For this target, my superior ground speed is going to be crucial. I could track the shot-timing of the AC20 as much as I could so I can try to spread the damage out between locations as much as possible, since it’s going to be a factor in close or out to range. I can hope to force this target into a turn fight where I can limit its firing options as much as possible at close range. The HGN-733C’s sweet spot is 180 to 270 meters, and that’s the absolute last place I want to be caught. I can try to go longer range, but that would allow the Highlander to bring it’s LRM20 into play, and I have to give up my SRM 6s. It might only have about 12 seconds before overheating, but it can do 180 damage to me in that time. That’s more than enough time and damage to blow a torso off. This fight will be ugly no matter my choice, but in this case, I’d opt for the close-in turn fight.
On my STK-3H it can get a little trickier. With that machine, I’m either carrying four Medium Pulse Lasers or two Large Pulse Lasers, with a pair of LRM20s. With the Large Pulse Lasers, I can pretty much choose my range in to 180 meters, but I don’t run that configuration as much anymore. In spite of the range advantage, I’ve moved away from it because the heat buildup limits my damage output in about 10 seconds. With the Medium Pulse Lasers, I can operate between 180 to 400 meters, but my best damage is from 180 to 200 meters. With a sweet spot this narrow, maintaining it is going to be almost impossible as I maneuver, so I will have some damage fall off. Worse, I have almost no option to avoid my opponent’s sweet spot, since my optimal range starts at 200 meters for my secondary weapons. The key is going to be keeping as close as I can to my sweet spot. At 300 meters, a Medium Pulse Laser loses half of its damage capability. At 210 to 220 meters, I’m only losing about 15-20%, meaning I’m doing about 5x4 damage rather than the optimum 6x4 damage on top of the 22x2 damage of my launchers. As before, keep moving and focus fire. I can hand out between 14 and almost 16 DPS, only this time for as long as 16 seconds before it’s time to back off for heat management. That’s 220 to 250 damage in that time frame. Coupled with someone else on the same target, that’s definitely one kill, almost certainly two machines down. As before, focus on the heavier, slower machines.
Using the same examples as above: For the Golden boy, as long as I stay out of his SRM range, the advantage belongs firmly to me. With the CPLT-C1 I want to close because that leaves me with both the armor and damage advantage with the least damage done to me, though this fight could work both ways. The HGN-733C’s weapon spread presents an ugly choice, but I’d try to use my better ground speed to push the fight out to 400 meters and hope I can take it down faster than vice versa. The Highlander has the advantage of armor, but I can probably use my mobility advantage to spread its damage out. I’ll still get tagged by the AC20, but it will lose about 20-30% of its effectiveness. This fight would be just as ugly as for the STK-3F, but I think my chances will be a bit better.
Another nifty trick that will help you here is to split your fire if your primary is too close for your LRMs. You’re too heavy to race a medium or a light machine, especially in reverse. Turning your back on the main force with no cover is an invitation to eat some dirt through your cockpit glass. Target someone farther away and launch on them, while you use your lasers on the closer target. Using the CPLT-C1 example above, I could close on it and use my Medium Pulse Lasers on it while loosing volleys at another target farther way. Cycle all of your weapons on enemy targets as fast as your heat dissipation will allow. If you can’t focus all of your weapons on one target, it’s better to fire on two targets than lose that potential damage, especially when your launchers are the better weapons.
In thinking about this while I’ve tried to describe this to you, it has occurred to me that the most important element here is not to panic. Keep your cool, keep your head, and wade in as you need to. Try not to commit to the middle of the skirmish, but do what needs to be done. If you’ve built your machine for both self-defense and fire support, you’re going to have enough damage to throw around to help. Sometimes we turn the battle, and other times the battle turns on us: It’s the nature of what we do and the role we have chosen. The difference rides more on how we meet that challenge, not so much in the outcome; that will take care of its self. Remember that even though your armor balance is more rear than normal, you’re not made of glass. You can take a few hits, and those hits are shots that your company-mates don’t have to take. That helps them as almost as much as what you throw the other way.
Mobility
In my experience, mobility is a badly neglected element by most players I’ve played with in the game. Light mechs are the general exception. Generally, if it’s in the Heavy or especially the Assault category, you can count on it being ridiculously slow. This is one area that fire support machines are prone to sacrifice for weapon performance. In my opinion, any mech that can’t keep up with the main group is one that will fall to flankers and/or scouts. Fire support machines are already habitually at the back of the group and should be; with that said, it’s not a good idea to hang a “Kick Me” sign on your own back.
The problem that arises is how do you get to help the fastest when you need it? By running right into the middle of the main group, where any scout or flanking machine would be absolutely crazy to follow you (Spoiler: They do it anyway, and sometimes they get away with it). The faster you can reposition, the less exposure you have to unfriendly fire. The faster you can move between firing points, the better you can take your opponent by surprise and the harder you are to anticipate. In my opinion, mobility can be just as important to your effectiveness as weapons and armor. If you can’t easily keep up with the majority of your group, you will at some point or another get caught alone.
The balance between weapons, armor and mobility is delicate. Finding the right balance for you personally is important, but be cautious about sacrificing too much of one for the other. If you’re going to sacrifice one for the other, always keep in mind how it can haunt you and avoid those circumstances as best you can.
Using mobility to your advantage in an offensive context is a combination of choosing the right target while minimizing your own exposure. Using the example of the Short and Medium Range fights; if you’re hitting a slower target make them shoot at you where you are strong. With a faster target, more mobility helps you to take the damage where you can withstand it and makes it easier to get on target with your response. These principals apply both offensively and defensively. Mobility most often dictates your posture as offensive or defensive in a line-of-sight battle. The bottom line is that Mobility translates directly into time in a fight. Mobility can buy you time, it can save you time, and it can give you time. No, I’m not repeating myself. Recognizing those distinctions and what they mean is for you to decide and define in your own terms, and in doing so you’ll find your own balance.
Target Selection
Choosing your target is both a factor that limits and defines your effectiveness. In any fight your choices are limited early by who you can see, or more accurately for indirect fire support, who your company-mates can see. Every time you have a target, you have a choice. As the fight evolves, your choices open up and better options come available. This is an area where you must keep in mind the difference in our role on the battlefield and others.
For Indirect Fire Support, our shots come packaged in spreads of various sizes, and we don’t get to choose how or where they hit the target. What happens are diffuse hits all over the target, usually on the top half of the target (and usually with at least a missile or two that misses wide). For Direct Fire Support, you do get more options in the placement of your shot, but this can be very difficult at the long and extreme ranges that you’re optimized for even with the advanced zoom optics. In this aspect, it’s more important to land the shots than try for a head or leg shot and miss, wasting damage on the dirt.
In the end, you’ll need to decide for yourself what your most effective target choices are. Think about it before the drop so that you can act on the choice, rather than decide and act. As an example, my current targeting priorities and the reasoning for them are as follows:
Top Priority – Assault, Heavy, & Specialized Mechs (Fire Support, Boom-Jagers, Etc.)
You want to hit these machines early and hard for obvious reasons. The Assault machines, no matter how they are configured, represent the biggest threat to your team. They also carry the most armor, making them harder for your team to put down. The specialized machines are just as big of a threat, but with them you have an opportunity to cripple them before they can line up the circumstances to take advantage of their specialty.
Do not neglect Heavy machines as threats to your team. They represent the next level down of damage to your team compared to Assault mechs, and they tend to be slow enough to be easier to hit than medium and light machines. Their superior mobility to Assault machines can make them as dangerous, and their lack of Assault Mech armor tends to make them fall faster. Early or late in a fight, these make good candidates to park everything you can throw, as fast as you can award it to them.
Second Priority – Slow Medium Mechs
Early in the fight, this is where you start questioning the value of sending ordinance to the target. Some Medium Cicadas, I mean, Machines… are fast enough to run right out from under your missiles or are difficult to lead with your ballistics. Specifically the Hunchback and Black Jack cannot mount engines big enough to give them the speed to outrun a missile volley, making them viable targets. My thoughts here are if you’re carrying lasers, by all means cut loose, but Missiles or Ballistics? That’s a tough call. Early in the fight I would hold what I have and award it to a heavier target. Later in the fight, especially if my team is struggling, let them have it.
Last Priority – Light & Fast Medium Mechs
In my opinion, Light Mechs and Cicadas, I mean, Fast Medium Mechs….are your worst targets. The only times I like flinging ordinance at a light or fast medium machine is when they’re in close and otherwise occupied or when they’re in a spotting position over my team. Most light mechs can run right out from under a missile volley or run to cover before the volley gets to them, and they are very difficult to lead and anticipate for ballistics at range. The best equipped opponent for this type of adversary is a burst-damage brawler. Outside of that, the best opponent is teamwork and focused fire. Other than discouraging them from attacking you, save your ordinance for bigger and better targets. By all means, give them the beams where you can.
Closing target selection up: Guidelines are great for figuring out what you need to do, but no plan of attack survives first contact with the enemy. When you’re carrying ammo off of the field, that’s damage you could have done that didn’t get used. If you’re always carrying ammo back to the mech lab, rethink your configuration. The overall idea is to put ordinance where it will do the most good. If my guidelines don’t work for you, that’s not a big deal. My guidelines will change over time anyway. The whole idea here is for you to figure out what works best for you to make the most of every shot you carry into battle. At the end of the day there is no hard and fast rule that is going to work in every situation, and the choice you make is what will define your contribution to your team and the battle.
Working and playing well with others
This will be the last section I get into before I go into the TL/DR summary. For everyone that waded through start to finish, thank you. To everyone that skipped through picking up what they needed, thank you. I put this guide together to help you, and if you take only one good idea away from it, you’ve justified the time I put into it. This last bit is more about the common mistakes I see made in-game, and ideas on how to avoid them. It applies equally to every class of machine, every combat role, and every team that drops.
The number one most common mistake I see made is that everyone tends to scatter. You’ve seen me refer to this as chasing the rabbit. This is where it’s important to talk before the match starts. It’s good when lances stay together. It’s better when lances reorganize to their strengths and stay together. It’s best when everyone (except the scouts, they have a job to do) stays together. It’s painfully easy to kill one mech with 4. It’s just as easy for 10 mechs to kill 4 mechs. It’s not so easy for 10 mechs to kill 10 mechs. 12 people doing their own thing cannot win a match.
The next mistake down the list that I see that is almost as fatal is failure to respect line of sight. I fully realize that this is most often not intentional, but I regularly see people step right in front of a company-mate engaged with a target and park. I can’t tell you how many times someone’s poor timing has cost them at least half of their rear armor. I’ve seen innocent folks end up with a team-kill through no fault of their own this way. Once those beams are started, they don’t stop for up to a full second. I can’t tell you how many dozens of missile volleys I’ve lost this way. Once we’ve fired, we can’t take it back. If you have to cross the line of sight, you have to. Just cross it and be done, don’t stop. Worse than this, when you cut off someone’s line of sight on purpose, you’re preventing their damage. You are helping the other team when you do this. You just cut off friendly damage, likely with superior cover to yours. Your reward for this is likely going to be lots of damage (if not a spectator’s seat), possibly a load of damage in the back from a friendly source, and a difficult exit from a bad situation. Last, for the love of all that’s holy, unholy, and atheist, don’t complain about the result when you do cross someone’s line of sight and get the worst of it. You did this to yourself.
The third big problem that I regularly see is folks not checking their line of sight and/or range to target. I see at minimum of five examples of this per match. It’s not uncommon to see 4 or 5 people (not examples, people) trying to fire on targets well outside of their missile range (by outside I mean the target is 1300-1400 meters or even more away), through terrain, or even through each other all match long. It’s that pervasive. Treat your line of sight as if you were hunting in real life: If in doubt, don’t shoot. Accidents happen, and I’ve had accidents just like anyone else that has played the game. When you become more of a hazard than the enemy, it’s a sad state of affairs. For example:
About four days ago, I was in a match on Canyon Network. This map is great for pop-up attacks, with plentiful cover of every kind everywhere you turn. I was driving my CPLT-A1, camped out on a ledge one level down from the main plateau level, in the middle rear of my team’s group. We’ve caught a T-bolt and a Battlemaster out in the open, and we blasting them for all we’re worth. Suddenly, a “friendly” Jagermech runs in and situates himself between me and the lip of the plateau, taking out 20 outbound LRMs….with 30+ meters of open space on the same ledge on both my left and right. Thinking it was a mistake I wait, and wait, and wait for this guy to move. After about 60-90 seconds of this, I send a quick “Really, So-and-So?” or something to that general effect (no, there was no profanity or name calling) in team chat and reposition to the left. Another couple of minutes pass, and a Dragon and a medium mech I didn’t tag start coming up the canyon from our lower-left. I turned to engage and assess the situation, and I started taking hits on my back. Turning to face the new threat, there’s my “friend” the Jagermech, pounding away on me with the help of another mech further down near the base of a column, and they keep shooting even after I turned around! All of this because I was in the line of sight to the Dragon that had flanked us. Guys, accidents happen to and because of all of us, but friendly fire is not friendly. EVER.
Most, if not all, of these issues are addressed with situational awareness. Situational Awareness combined with a little communication, cooperation, and respect will win more matches for you than anything else you can bring to the battlefield.
Thank you for taking the time to read through. I hope you gained something from the time you invested. Please feel free to shoot me a message with your own thoughts, comments, ideas, or feedback in general. As promised, TL/DR is up next.
Wraith0177
TL/DR Breakdown – See the individual sections for more detail
[color="#000000"]Thank you Modo44, Jabilo, YueFei, and Shar Wolf for your input and suggestions. [/color]
Configuration
• Load your launchers to match your available missile tubes as best you can for your best DPS and AMS penetration.
• Build your mech to your specialty and to defend yourself.
• Self-defense is your job, not your team’s job.
• Keep your weapon’s limitations in mind and respect ghost heat.
• Be sure you’re not carrying too much or too little ammunition.
• Consider shifting more armor to your rear torso and add extra armor to your machine as needed.
• Make use of the testing grounds in the home menu for testing the damage output and heat build-up of your machine.
• Be patient when testing your build. Give it a fair shake before tweaking or scrapping your build.
Defensive Tactics
• Build for self-defense to discourage, not necessarily kill, scouts and flankers.
• Having friends nearby is the best way to deal with scouts and flankers.
• Communication is key, but impossible when the match is on. Communicate before the drop. Keep your plans simple.
• Be patient in combat & out. Patience makes the difference in a company charge and a charge to the hanger alone.
• Consider spectating in a friendly machine after you’ve been killed. Communicate what you see because everyone else may be too busy to notice. Don’t try to Command.
• Team up with other Fire Support machines when you can for defense and better offense.
• Help isn’t always available, no matter how close to the main group you are.
• Situational awareness is your best defense. Cultivate a habit of checking the radar frequently; at least as often as you see kill reports.
• Know the different kinds of available cover and use them to your advantage, both offensively and defensively.
Offensive Tactics
• Know the different kinds of available cover and use them to your advantage, both offensively and defensively (deliberately duplicated).
• Make use of the training grounds in the main menu to learn your best cover, and the terrain of the maps in general.
• Make sure your ordinance is finding its target by watching for your reticule to change colors. Change targets when you need to as a result.
• Be aware of ECM on the battlefield, on your side and the enemy’s side.
• Know where overhead cover is, as it will completely neutralize your LRMs.
• Remember that you can dumb-fire your LRM’s if you can’t lock on, but watch the range.
• Use pop-up shots to get line of sight to target with minimum exposure.
• When using Jump Jets for Pop-Up shots, wait to fire until you have disengaged your jump jets.
• Be aware of differences in elevation when jumping and save some fuel to cushion the landing as needed to avoid leg damage.
• Look for smoke on damaged enemies to anticipate pop-up shots.
• Using the same location for repeated Pop-up Shots of either type is an invitation to get shot.
• In short range fights, pick your targets and engagement range to maximize your damage and minimize the damage you take.
• Keep your cool and do your best in a short range fight. You’re out of your element, but with the right configuration you’re not scrap.
• Balance your Weapons, Armor, and Mobility to your piloting style. Know your weaknesses and avoid allowing them to be exploited.
• Mobility translates to time and initiative on the battlefield. Don’t neglect it without careful consideration.
• Choose your targets carefully and well. Damage the most dangerous targets first and work your way down. Choose a method for prioritizing targets that works best for you. Don’t hesitate to change your method to suit yours and your company’s circumstances.
Working and playing well with others (Universal)
• If you’re going to scatter, at least scatter in groups and/or to a purpose. Best yet, don’t scatter. Chasing the rabbit kills any company, great or small.
• Respect each other’s line of sight. If you must cross line of sight, do it quickly.
• Interfering with someone else’s established line of site is the same as volunteering to be a shield for the enemy team. Usually, it’s a short-term low-pay job.
• When you get damaged by friendly fire because you interfered with someone’s established line of sight, pat yourself on the back. Your back is the one that earned it.
• Always check your line of sight for range, terrain, and friendly targets. If your line of sight is in doubt, hold your fire.
Thanks for reading. All feedback is welcome to my forums profile.
Wraith0177
Edited by Wraith0177, 20 May 2014 - 12:33 AM.
