22 replies to this topic

[Riverboat Sam]

Got tired of being pounded into dust by LRMs lately, so I grabbed one of my Kitfoxes and put ECM, triple AMS, two mg's, two CERML, and one LRM 5 on it. I played half a dozen matches as, "Mr. Support Dude".

For the first half of the match I did nothing other that stand near the center of my team and try to keep as many of them in my ECM bubble as possible. Barely paid attention to the enemy. I might fire some LRM's just to cut the boredom. Last half of the match I would try to get on the firing line and help a bit.

First thing - my team won every match. Not by a little either. I know that a dozen matches is not much of a sample - but, hmmm..... None of my team inside my bubble got touched by LRMs. My AMS's never fired. Starting to wonder if I should just strip them off.

Second thing - I scored less than 100 dmg in every match. Hmmm.... Got some kills, but very little damage.

My question is - should I be more aggressive and try getting more damage, or am I playing support the way it should be played?

[El Bandito]

Whatever that allows you to win. ECM right now is disproportionately strong. You can swap your LRM launchers with ERLLs or ERMLs.

[Kushko]

I've been doing pretty much the same thing on my Cicada-3M. It's not glamorous work and most of the time noone will even know how much you really contributed, but propper ECM cover can turn the tide much easier than an extra 300damage.

One thing i do is i try to tell the assaults i will do my best to cover them so they know who to thank and more importantly they dont run off in 3 different directions making my job impossible.

*edit* If i were you id think about equipping a NARC instead of the lrm5. You'll be even more of an asset to your team. This is how id run a KFX: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...12f1e9713e7f457

Edited by Kushko, 12 October 2014 - 06:32 AM.

[Alistair Winter]

Yeah, ECM can have a huge effect if played right. It's not so easy to see by just looking at match score statistics, because a lot of people use ECM mechs because they want to run off on their own without being targetted. So a lot of them are just mavericks who don't provide any ECM cover.

But ECM mechs that consciously try to provide as much ECM cover to their teammates as possible have a huge effect.

The downside is, you're not getting paid a lot unless you're either doing damage, or using TAG / NARC and getting assists. But using TAG / NARC puts you in harm's way a lot of the time. UAV helps your team a lot too, but really hurts your income and can sometimes get you killed too. Your ECM is way more valuable than your UAV.

[Xiomburg]

When I am not LURMing, I enjoy bringing my three AMS, ECM capable Uller.

[Wintersdark]

Sadly, this is one of those roles that lights can play exceptionally well and act as a force multiplier - even slower Clan lights. If anything, slower Clan lights are better at it because they'll pack more weaponry while doing it, and the high speed is less necessary.

But, the game doesn't reflect that. There's no benefit from shooting down missiles targeting allies, or masking your team's movements... Except for... well, winning. But as Alistair says, doing that is a thankless job that doesn't pay well, and baring the more skilled and observant players even your teammates will probably just look at the match end screen and see you did little damage and thus assume they carried you.

(yet another of the many reasons that damage done is a terrible metric for anything)

[Kaspirikay]

ECM is great, keeps you off the enemy's radar. Allows for easy flanking maneuvers.

[Pariah Devalis]

Indeed, I tend to bring my ECM Kit Fox around quite a bit. I built it for 4v4 RHoD Matches and found it is a blast to play in normal ones, too. As a support mech and oft overlooked close range beast, the Kit Fox is a fantastic force multiplier. Given I generally prefer to run Clan mechs, however, I am itching for my Hellbringer so I can bring a support mech that can also provide some serious offensive capability.

[Celthora]

If you think about removing amses and wanna make damage, i suggest erppc lrm20 ecm. It works very well when you stay with your team and also you can go finish enemies near death and come back. I remember i did some 800ish damages with this and enjoyed it. Also I stripped the head armor to use 0.5 ton more for weapons-ammos, only have lost cockpit one time with an airstrike. Other times it became yellow rarely.

Edited by Celthora, 12 October 2014 - 06:55 AM.

[Sorbic]

I bounce back and forth between running and not running AMS when I'm on my KF. I generally don't exceed 1 or 2 AMS modules because ECM alone will sometimes mean they don't fire a lot and I could use the ammo weight elsewhere.

Had a "heh" moment the other day in which a team mate asked me why I wasn't running AMS (had ECM) on my KF to support the team. Of course he wasn't running AMS either and expected that coverage to be provided for him...

Something else to remember is to try, when sensible, and bubble a narced team mate taking LRM's to the face.

[Angel of Annihilation]

In my opinion try to do both instead of just one thing.

I run a couple ECM Kits

1 x LPL
2 x ER ML
2 x MG
Max JJ

and

3 x ER ML
1 x UAC/2
Max JJ

My goal is always to try to be near the main grouping of my force but this doesn't mean that I can't actively participate in trying to damage the enemy. My main Kit has a 2.36 K/D, 33 kills for 34 matches and averages 311 damage per match. What I usually do is wait for the enemy to focus on one of my bigger friendlies then pop out and fire at them. Also bobbing and weaving in and out at unpredictable points to take a few shots can not only hurt the enemy but it adds to their confusion.

One of the keys is being aware of the minimap so you know where your teammates are and what the enemy is doing. In fact being aware of the minimap is one things I consider to be a key skill and one, once developed, that becomes invaluable for all mechs you might use.

[Diablo Intercepter]

Right now LRMs are veeeery powerful in PUGs. They allow people to punish any attempt at offense (*stick head out to line up a shot* "incoming missile"). A lot of people seem to cry about how OP ECM is, but when I've noticed my team losing to an ECM team it's mostly because 1/3-1/2 of my teams builds depend on LRMs. Denying the other team all that free damage is what usually makes the difference, not flanking or any other ninja tactics (although they can be very effective).
Anyway if you don't like long range you could load up some SRMs in place of the LRM, make sure enemy lights learn they're not welcomed. You should stray too far from the group, but you can move around a bit. Due to how slow the clan lights are compared to IS ones I think you should either focus on snipping or keeping harassers away.

[Jeffrey Wilder]

Enlil09, on 12 October 2014 - 06:20 AM, said:

Got tired of being pounded into dust by LRMs lately, so I grabbed one of my Kitfoxes and put ECM, triple AMS, two mg's, two CERML, and one LRM 5 on it. I played half a dozen matches as, "Mr. Support Dude".

First thing - my team won every match. Not by a little either. I know that a dozen matches is not much of a sample - but, hmmm..... None of my team inside my bubble got touched by LRMs. My AMS's never fired. Starting to wonder if I should just strip them off.

Second thing - I scored less than 100 dmg in every match. Hmmm.... Got some kills, but very little damage.

My question is - should I be more aggressive and try getting more damage, or am I playing support the way it should be played?

Just be careful of that because by winning every match with so minimum 'earnings', you will go through a few rounds of rolls because of higher ELO in time.

You will still get rolled even if you do 1K damage by yourself every round; trust me.

[Felio]

Kushko, on 12 October 2014 - 06:28 AM, said:

*edit* If i were you id think about equipping a NARC instead of the lrm5. You'll be even more of an asset to your team. This is how id run a KFX: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...12f1e9713e7f457

Trouble with NARC is that you have to get close, and people tend to shoot back at you. So you need to be either fast (the Kit Fox isn't) or heavily armored (the Kit Fox isn't).

Other than that, I would say not to undervalue the 3x AMS. Sometimes it gets a lot of use even with ECM active. It's very feast or famine, though. Sometimes it won't go off the whole match, and other times you can go through 3 tons of ammo.

Edited by Felio, 12 October 2014 - 08:02 AM.

[Dracol]

Felio, on 12 October 2014 - 07:54 AM, said:

Trouble with NARC is that you have to get close, and people tend to shoot back at you. So you need to be either fast (the Kit Fox isn't) or heavily armored (the Kit Fox isn't).

Other than that, I would say not to undervalue the 3x AMS. Sometimes it gets a lot of use even with ECM active. It's very feast or famine, though. Sometimes it won't go off the whole match, and other times you can go through 3 tons of ammo.

Agreed. Your ecm can protect you most of the time, but if faced against a LRM heavy opponent who has at least one player with the smarts to drop a UAV on your allied group, you and your allies will be thanking the heck out of your triple AMS.

Also, as you get higher in ELO, your slow mechs will start taking dumbfire missile shots, which ECM has no affect on. Then your AMS kicks in.

Edited by Dracol, 12 October 2014 - 08:15 AM.

[Clit Beastwood]

I can't do it, man (not that it can't perform, but that I hate it). Running a support KFX is incredibly boring to me. I've yet to find a drop where I was glad to bring a kitfox instead of a jenner or ember. I run lights for the excitement, and the KFX doesn't deliver on that front. Another 20kph or something and I'd be happy, but as-is... just not enjoyable. Not bad, etc. just boring.

Edited by Fierostetz, 12 October 2014 - 08:34 AM.

[Training Instructor]

UAC+3xCERML+ECM+JJ

It was my experience mastering three kitfoxes that the triple AMS only really came in handy if a NARCer was working hard.

[Riverboat Sam]

Pretty much everything you guys commented is true.

By the way, I changed out my LRM5 for an SRM6 with Artemis. I can Alpha 2xCERML, 2xCMG, 1xCSRM6 about 8 times in a row and it just chews through armor. Problem is, I tend to keep so many of my of my team alive that they run down all the kills.

Funny, just had a hard fought match and the only survivors on our team were the 5 mechs that stayed close to me. We won 6 to 12. At the end of the match one of my team mates messaged me, "what were you doing? Just standing around the whole match?" Sheesh! LOL!

[CycKath]

Its what my 3L Raven was literally built for.

[Variant1]

Wow lady luck smiles upon you. Winning every match, and not even one had tag/narc/uav counters? i wanna play your elo man. Maybe most of those matches did not contain heavy lrm buils or lrms at all.

edit: other than that you are playing support fine

Edited by Variant1, 12 October 2014 - 04:05 PM.