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This guide is meant to teach you how to play a Highlander like an ASSAULT mech, as in, a mech who walks up to some uppity piece of **** Atlas and jump kicks him in the balls.
Have you ever gone into a game and seen a bunch of ERPPC+Gauss Highlanders doing nothing but sitting behind hills and sniping? Or worse, strapping a bunch of LRMs to the torso and pressing m1 once in a while? You know that term "Highlander Burial"? The burying part isn't referring to 200 tons of missiles; it refers to a 90 ton ******* monstrosity falling down from the sky to crush your face like the angry fist of a Scotsman who drank too much.
What I'm trying to say is, if you follow this guide, you won't have a high KDR, or play an optimal build, but you WILL have lots of fun, and be completely confident in the fact that your balls are so huge they have their own hitboxes.
I. THE BUILDS
HGN-HEAVY METAL:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...928df9d10130976
HGN-733C:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...7be8530dba08063
HGN-732:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...9f07013e52e0c08
Another HGN-732:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...bf9e621705e093d
You'll notice they're generally the same: one giant ballistic cannon for penetrating enemy ablative armor, a swarm of SRMs to carry your genetic lineage, and one or two lasers to set the mood. But the heart of playing the Highlander with maximum testosterone isn't the build, but the attitude, and that's what this guide will focus on.
II. ADVANCE!
Hanging back is for pansies, but that doesn't mean you should be running straight into a hail of PPC and gauss fire. Here's how the matches usually go. Both teams will advance bravely until they see the other team in the horizon, and then the entire game stalemates. Unless you're on Mordor, in which case you can go the whole game without meeting a single enemy until one team somehow inevitably caps, but **** Mordor.
Anyway, once the stalemate happens, you'll need to quickly identify three things.
1. Where the enemy's long range fire power is concentrated.
2. Who has the higher tonnage.
3. Which direction they are pushing.
If your team has a solid tonnage advantage, then you'll want to end the game ASAP before the lights can harrass you down, so call out the advance in team chat and lead the way! This can be a bit challenging in a pug, but that's where your charisma comes in. Coax your team to follow you to victory by saying things like: "FREE IPHONE FOR THOSE WHO FOLLOW ME! CHARGE!" or "HEY ATLAS! THAT STALKER IN E3 SAID YOUR MOM HAS A HUGE TORSO HITBOX. GO GET'IM!" You know, get creative. Charge the other team's leading elements head on and annihilate them.
If your team doesn't have a solid tonnage advantage, then advance anyway. Find the direction from which their heavy elements are pushing, and lead the charge from the other side of the map. Get to their flank, where your lighter mechs can go cap or harrass. Your entire objective, as an Alpha-Male Highlander, is to close with the enemy and try to deal a decisive blow to their backline.
III. **** Missiles.
Dear whoever came up with the idea of strapping explosives to a tube filled with rocket fuel: Eat a {Richard Cameron}. LRMs suck. They're boring, they come in bunches of 20s, and they will make your advance a living hell. But if you want to play like man, you'll need to learn how to eat LRMs like a man, so here's a primer for getting through the hail of explosives with enough armor strapped to your arm to rip that catapult's ear right off his torso.
1. USE COVER! This is pretty straightforward. If you want to advance on the enemy, you'll need to minimize your exposure to their targeting beams. If the hail of missiles are already in the air, look for overhangs like a bridge or a particularly steep wall, and hug it. Never run out into the open. Stick to canyons and debris.
2. Rapidly twist your torso to distribute the damage as the LRMs come down. This, again, should be pretty straight forward. You want to distribute damage, so make sure you're spreading it out.
3. Here's how the LRM trajectory works. They'll curve up, come down, and then, if they land in front of you, they'll curve back up and "sweep" the ground towards you. This means, if you see the hail of missiles coming down, you should reverse throttle. Then, at the last moment, gun your throttle forward and jump! The idea is the trick the missiles into "sweeping" then jumping over them. If the missiles are coming in at a high arc, you'll be able to juke them pretty easily. If they're coming in from a low arc, then you're out of luck; just brace and prepare to eat them.
4. Find the son of a ***** and call him out. That's right. Find out where the LRM boat is sitting, then get a few more buddies packing AMS on your team to advance on him and introduce him to your Autocannon.
IV. ER PPC stands for Extra ******** Prissy Pansy Cannon.
The other heavy hitter from a long range, is, of course, the ERPPCs and Gauss rifles. Pushing through a few dozen PPCs and Gauss barrels aimed your way won't be easy, and just saying "flank them" doesn't exactly feel very useful. Once again, advancing under cover is the proper way to avoid them all together, but there are a few other tricks you can use when being painted by a sniper.
1. Zig zag. Yes, it sounds stupid trying to zigzag in an assault mech that only goes at 57 kph, but it works.Twist your legs in an unpredictable fashion. The highlander has a fairly narrow side profile (for assault mechs anyway) so may as well make use of it.
2. Time the ERPPC/Gauss shots. Get a feel for the cooldown. If you know the next volley is coming, JUMP! You'll usually take the shots in the leg, which is far better than taking it in the gut.
3. Don't go full throttle all the time. Vary your throttle a bit, in conjunction with your zig zagging. Won't help you avoid shots taken at under 700m, but it helps juke crosshairs beyond that,
V, Leadership.
Your goal is to push the enemy, get into knife fight range, and unload. That usually requires some degree of cooperation from your team. Simple commands usually work - like "push on E5", or "Push on Kappa". Use the command feature from within the match, and work your team into a frenzy. Remember, sitting back and lobbing LRMs/Gausses/PPCs all day long isn't that fun, so push the enemy and take the fight to them.
And for those of you who enjoy putting ERPPCs/Gausses/LRMs in your Highlanders, I'm not saying you're wrong, or that you're pansies; all I'm saying is when you get cored by an AC/10 shot to chest at point blank, and the valkyries sweep down to carry your soul away, they're not taking you to Valhalla; they're taking you to Weenie Hut Junior.
Edited by Balls McManly, 17 August 2013 - 07:35 AM.
