6
Disclaimer:
Lrms are one of the weakest weapon systems in game, as any tier 1 player will tell you, this guide is to help players make best of a bad weapon, if you actully want to "git gud" make a laserboat or guass mech.
Also this guide is very longwinded, and may involve alot of preaching about bringing narcs on lrmboats.
PLEASE HOLD LOCKS FOR ME! aka why noone holds locks for you.
Spoiler
The most powerful builds in mwo are pinpoint high alpha builds, there typical gameplay involves poking out of cover, alphaing laser or guass into a specific component, twisting a arm into any returning fire and backing into cover immediately.
These guys will only be out of cover and looking at the enemy for a second or two, they have no reason to hold a lock as it actively harms them to do so since it would stop them from twisting or finding cover.
Lights can spot very well for you, but the rewards(spotting cbill rewards) for them are also terrible, and while spotting they likley aren't shooting, that would give away there spotting position and expose them to return fire, thus killing there ability to spot.
Basically lights get paid very poorly barely atall for spotting, they will do it but mostly only if they aren't currently capable of getting in there and murdering people themselves.
The most powerful builds in mwo are pinpoint high alpha builds, there typical gameplay involves poking out of cover, alphaing laser or guass into a specific component, twisting a arm into any returning fire and backing into cover immediately.
These guys will only be out of cover and looking at the enemy for a second or two, they have no reason to hold a lock as it actively harms them to do so since it would stop them from twisting or finding cover.
Lights can spot very well for you, but the rewards(spotting cbill rewards) for them are also terrible, and while spotting they likley aren't shooting, that would give away there spotting position and expose them to return fire, thus killing there ability to spot.
Basically lights get paid very poorly barely atall for spotting, they will do it but mostly only if they aren't currently capable of getting in there and murdering people themselves.
Weaknessess of lrms.
Spoiler
One of few weapons in game with hard counter. ( ecm, ams, anything taller then a mech.)
there are map area where you are very weak or even useless.
Your weapons get less effective as your opponents get more skilled:
As it takes alot of time for lrms to reach anyone, there very easy to twist and spread, and they get a warning which makes it even easyier to do so.
Cannot be aimed at specific components, also has terrible dmg to kill efficency, it you can usally kill a mech with maybe a third of the damage using a directfire mech, as you can just shoot lethal components like the ct or side torso, whereas lrms will hit the entire mech and often the ground around it.
One of few weapons in game with hard counter. ( ecm, ams, anything taller then a mech.)
there are map area where you are very weak or even useless.
Your weapons get less effective as your opponents get more skilled:
As it takes alot of time for lrms to reach anyone, there very easy to twist and spread, and they get a warning which makes it even easyier to do so.
Cannot be aimed at specific components, also has terrible dmg to kill efficency, it you can usally kill a mech with maybe a third of the damage using a directfire mech, as you can just shoot lethal components like the ct or side torso, whereas lrms will hit the entire mech and often the ground around it.
Skill tree:
Spoiler
skill tree is a huge buff to lrms and it both nerfed ecm, and gave us a way to mitigate lrmboats greatest weakness in the form of velocity.
Skills to priortize.
Velocity, makes you lrms fly faster and thus gives the enemy less time to seek cover, utterly essential.
heat gen reduction.... good on basically every mech.
range: if you use narc beacons on your lrmboat its super important, if you don't its redundant, more range doesn't matter as hitting someone near max range would require them to be afk, or asleep, or narced on polar.
Other stuff.. target decay in sensors is obviously very good and you should stack lots of it, thou if you use a narc you could also just ignore it and get narc bonsues from misc skill tree.( I don't use sensor skill tree atall becuase i shoot narcs at targets)
survivability mobility and coolrun are obviously all good, personally i tend to grab all coolrun, a bunch of hardbreak and kinetic burst and a handful of hard armor from survivability tree.
skill tree is a huge buff to lrms and it both nerfed ecm, and gave us a way to mitigate lrmboats greatest weakness in the form of velocity.
Skills to priortize.
Velocity, makes you lrms fly faster and thus gives the enemy less time to seek cover, utterly essential.
heat gen reduction.... good on basically every mech.
range: if you use narc beacons on your lrmboat its super important, if you don't its redundant, more range doesn't matter as hitting someone near max range would require them to be afk, or asleep, or narced on polar.
Other stuff.. target decay in sensors is obviously very good and you should stack lots of it, thou if you use a narc you could also just ignore it and get narc bonsues from misc skill tree.( I don't use sensor skill tree atall becuase i shoot narcs at targets)
survivability mobility and coolrun are obviously all good, personally i tend to grab all coolrun, a bunch of hardbreak and kinetic burst and a handful of hard armor from survivability tree.
Artemis: Im sick of people not understanding that it only applies to direct los.
Spoiler
Important parts from wiki.
Improves the lock-on-time and tracking strength of LRMs by 50%.
Does not work on indirectly fired missiles. Line of sight from the firing unit to target must be present.
Artemis replaces all bonuses from NARC even if Artemis does not have LOS[2]
Now on when and when Artemis is and isn't useful.
Artemis requires line of sight, which means los during any time the lrms are in the air, not the whole time. Artemis is best used in conjunction with tag, to take tracking strength up to 75% aswell as lockon time.
The typical situation where its most useful is when your within 300 meters of a hill humper, if you tag them, with artemis and target decay you can lock and fire and hit them with a volley after they jump behind cover and just before the lock wears off.
If you have more then two launchers, or only fire indirectly then Artemis becomes much less useful.
When artemis is useless.
If you only fire indirectly all Artemis gives you is less tons to work with.
It does not stack with narc, so if you bring your own narc beacon (recommended) or have a narcer then its not useful.
On lrm 5's they all hit the same component anyway, Artemis is a waste of 6 tons of on lrm6 boats.
Important parts from wiki.
Quote
Improves the lock-on-time and tracking strength of LRMs by 50%.
Does not work on indirectly fired missiles. Line of sight from the firing unit to target must be present.
Artemis replaces all bonuses from NARC even if Artemis does not have LOS[2]
Now on when and when Artemis is and isn't useful.
Artemis requires line of sight, which means los during any time the lrms are in the air, not the whole time. Artemis is best used in conjunction with tag, to take tracking strength up to 75% aswell as lockon time.
The typical situation where its most useful is when your within 300 meters of a hill humper, if you tag them, with artemis and target decay you can lock and fire and hit them with a volley after they jump behind cover and just before the lock wears off.
If you have more then two launchers, or only fire indirectly then Artemis becomes much less useful.
When artemis is useless.
If you only fire indirectly all Artemis gives you is less tons to work with.
It does not stack with narc, so if you bring your own narc beacon (recommended) or have a narcer then its not useful.
On lrm 5's they all hit the same component anyway, Artemis is a waste of 6 tons of on lrm6 boats.
Engagement range: SUPER IMPORTANT
It seems counter intuitive but shorter ranges are better, you may have 1k range, but the longer the range the easier it is for an enemy to find cover, or break lock.
Obviously you don't want to be in srm range, but shooting stuff at 800 meters is mostly a waste of missiles, unless you have a dedicated spotter, or there narced on a map like polar.
Using narc as a lrm boat.
Spoiler
Most people who lrmboat don't do there own spotting or carry narc beacons, and this often cripples them and makes them less useful to a team.
On sphereoid lrmboats narcs are pretty useless, on clan ones you should always take a narc, as clan narc + lrms combo is amazing.
It also lets to practice poking, with good rewards, it also makes you alot more versatile.
Not to mention its a much more active and fun playstyle.
Several mechs this works excellently on are as follows.
Timberwolf.
can sortof poptart, and can have a narc point above its head.
warhawk b
hardopoint above its head(narc has to be in second slot to be above head.), insane narc quirks, can pack decent laser backup and 45 tubes of lrms with the narc.
with skill tree and quirks can shoot narcs out to 740m, and tyrust me you will find plenty of kodiaks and atlai standing out at about that range staring into the distance.
hunchback iic
Is fast, can poptart narc beacons, and can carry 40 tubes with decent ammo.
weaknessess.
basically no laser backup.
Most people who lrmboat don't do there own spotting or carry narc beacons, and this often cripples them and makes them less useful to a team.
On sphereoid lrmboats narcs are pretty useless, on clan ones you should always take a narc, as clan narc + lrms combo is amazing.
It also lets to practice poking, with good rewards, it also makes you alot more versatile.
Not to mention its a much more active and fun playstyle.
Several mechs this works excellently on are as follows.
Timberwolf.
can sortof poptart, and can have a narc point above its head.
warhawk b
hardopoint above its head(narc has to be in second slot to be above head.), insane narc quirks, can pack decent laser backup and 45 tubes of lrms with the narc.
with skill tree and quirks can shoot narcs out to 740m, and tyrust me you will find plenty of kodiaks and atlai standing out at about that range staring into the distance.
hunchback iic
Is fast, can poptart narc beacons, and can carry 40 tubes with decent ammo.
weaknessess.
basically no laser backup.
On launchers.
Spoiler
Information that was contained here is now out of date.
Information that was contained here is now out of date.
Target choice:
Spoiler
In an ideal world we'd only lrm narced targets, but since this isn't an ideal world.
SO:
Use the q key, this will let you see whats closest to the target so you can make a educated guess on how long the lock may last.
Danger targets first, a direwolf is super dangerous to your team, as a lrm boat thou its possibly the most laughably easy to kill mech in the game, slow mechs with alot of firepower are priority targets, and then any mech is disproportionate firepower for its class.
Fire on good locks, this takes experience to recognize, using the q key will help.
Support where your team in in trouble, you can stop a push, or make people really suffer for it, in doing so you may save a teammate, they wont say thanks but it contributes to your survival aswell.
In an ideal world we'd only lrm narced targets, but since this isn't an ideal world.
SO:
Use the q key, this will let you see whats closest to the target so you can make a educated guess on how long the lock may last.
Danger targets first, a direwolf is super dangerous to your team, as a lrm boat thou its possibly the most laughably easy to kill mech in the game, slow mechs with alot of firepower are priority targets, and then any mech is disproportionate firepower for its class.
Fire on good locks, this takes experience to recognize, using the q key will help.
Support where your team in in trouble, you can stop a push, or make people really suffer for it, in doing so you may save a teammate, they wont say thanks but it contributes to your survival aswell.
Target choice: Narcer edition.
Spoiler
alot of stuff has changed since origional guide so ive removed this and am writing a cutdown version.
anything ecm or Big scary assultmechs since ecm has been nerfed its nolonger so vital to assassinate ecm mechs first.
alot of stuff has changed since origional guide so ive removed this and am writing a cutdown version.
anything ecm or Big scary assultmechs since ecm has been nerfed its nolonger so vital to assassinate ecm mechs first.
Alpha vs chainfire.
Spoiler
Chainfire gives you screenshake which is super disorienting to newer players but totally ignore-able by vets, it also avoids ghost heat if you have 3 launchers or more.
alpha fire is better, in that it hits all at once, giving less chance for a enemy to twist, it also means one large blob of lrms which is less vulnerable to ams.
Chainfire gives you screenshake which is super disorienting to newer players but totally ignore-able by vets, it also avoids ghost heat if you have 3 launchers or more.
alpha fire is better, in that it hits all at once, giving less chance for a enemy to twist, it also means one large blob of lrms which is less vulnerable to ams.
Movement: Slow assult/heavy missileboat
Spoiler
Always stay with the group, sitting behind them only seems safe, it leaves you open and in the path of every flanking maneuver, it almost guarantees lights will hit you at some point.
Bonuses of being inside the blob:
Safe from lights
can add your lasers to the fire of your friendlies to focus anything pushing in.
for anyone to hug you would be being in the firing line of multiple friendlies.
Most fights, even brawls, happen beyond lrm min range, so you don't need to sit 300 meters behind the friendlies, being with them and closer to the enemy is fine, it means there life to close on you if you're in the blob.
Always stay with the group, sitting behind them only seems safe, it leaves you open and in the path of every flanking maneuver, it almost guarantees lights will hit you at some point.
Bonuses of being inside the blob:
Safe from lights
can add your lasers to the fire of your friendlies to focus anything pushing in.
for anyone to hug you would be being in the firing line of multiple friendlies.
Most fights, even brawls, happen beyond lrm min range, so you don't need to sit 300 meters behind the friendlies, being with them and closer to the enemy is fine, it means there life to close on you if you're in the blob.
Movement: fast medium or very fast heavy missileboat.
Spoiler
This is more complex, you will wan't to range out from the blob but never get too far away, circle a lil, poke with a narc beacon, cricle back while firing or move to find a angle to force a enemy out of cover, or alternatively try to bracket them with other lrm fire so anyway they move they get hit.
This is more complex, you will wan't to range out from the blob but never get too far away, circle a lil, poke with a narc beacon, cricle back while firing or move to find a angle to force a enemy out of cover, or alternatively try to bracket them with other lrm fire so anyway they move they get hit.
General lrm advice:
Spoiler
Closer is better, the further you are away the longer it takes to hit, the longer your allies have to wait for support, the longer your allies take fire, the more likely you are to lose lock, or the enemy to find cover.
Be just far enough away that your lrms can arc over the cover, the less time the enemy has to react the better.
The closer you are the faster your spotter gets support, the more your spotter will survive, and we want to keep those guys that hold target locks alive, lets face it we aint got many of em to spare.
Closer is better, the further you are away the longer it takes to hit, the longer your allies have to wait for support, the longer your allies take fire, the more likely you are to lose lock, or the enemy to find cover.
Be just far enough away that your lrms can arc over the cover, the less time the enemy has to react the better.
The closer you are the faster your spotter gets support, the more your spotter will survive, and we want to keep those guys that hold target locks alive, lets face it we aint got many of em to spare.
Money and lrm boats.
Spoiler
Due to the ease of getting a high number of assists lrm boats make decent money on average, combine this with the splatter damage which means they tend to have to destroy most of the components to kill a mech, this means high damage and alot of component destruction, balanced by the fact it takes alot more time for you to get a kill as opposed to someone using directfire.
How to make more money:
Spotting assists can be stacked up indefinitely for extra cash, so spotting is worth it for a lrm boat.
Tag + narc assists. This can push you over the edge and get you 400k cbill games, although narcing and tagging was by far more profitable before the rewards rework, it still worth it to bring a narc on your lrm boat.
Due to the ease of getting a high number of assists lrm boats make decent money on average, combine this with the splatter damage which means they tend to have to destroy most of the components to kill a mech, this means high damage and alot of component destruction, balanced by the fact it takes alot more time for you to get a kill as opposed to someone using directfire.
How to make more money:
Spotting assists can be stacked up indefinitely for extra cash, so spotting is worth it for a lrm boat.
Tag + narc assists. This can push you over the edge and get you 400k cbill games, although narcing and tagging was by far more profitable before the rewards rework, it still worth it to bring a narc on your lrm boat.
Cover and lrm avoidance.
Spoiler
If lrms are coming at you from a right angle to your cover, it just barely needs to be taller then your mech, if its coming in from a different angle thou the cover will have to be far taller.
So...
Know where the lrm boats are, otherwise you don't really know what is cover and what isn't.
Don't wait for missile incoming when you're poking, assume you're being locked up and immediately dive back into cover after firing.
Break los, and change direction, if you move straight backwards to break los lrms will still hit you, you need to go backwards and then turn the second you're out of los, that way the lrms will track and slam down harmlessly where you would of been if you kept backing.
Radar dep. Get it if you're bad at avoiding lrms, it will make it far easier.
Always check the rear and the sides, kill the spotter and you're safe from lrms, seeing the spotter first is a huge advantage.
Alertness is everything, don't let that raven circle behind you, nuke the narcer the second you see it.
Always check the sky anytime anyone fast pops up close to you.
Common mechs to expect narcs from.
Ravens, jenner D, stormcrows, anyone i've convinced that they need a narc on their assault lrmboat.
If lrms are coming at you from a right angle to your cover, it just barely needs to be taller then your mech, if its coming in from a different angle thou the cover will have to be far taller.
So...
Know where the lrm boats are, otherwise you don't really know what is cover and what isn't.
Don't wait for missile incoming when you're poking, assume you're being locked up and immediately dive back into cover after firing.
Break los, and change direction, if you move straight backwards to break los lrms will still hit you, you need to go backwards and then turn the second you're out of los, that way the lrms will track and slam down harmlessly where you would of been if you kept backing.
Radar dep. Get it if you're bad at avoiding lrms, it will make it far easier.
Always check the rear and the sides, kill the spotter and you're safe from lrms, seeing the spotter first is a huge advantage.
Alertness is everything, don't let that raven circle behind you, nuke the narcer the second you see it.
Always check the sky anytime anyone fast pops up close to you.
Common mechs to expect narcs from.
Ravens, jenner D, stormcrows, anyone i've convinced that they need a narc on their assault lrmboat.
Ecm (lrm survival part 2)
Spoiler
How to use it.
A ecm mech can save a team, its up to them to do it thou.
ways to render lrms useless.
1: run to any mech that has incoming missiles
2:toggle ecm on and off repeatedly when you know enemy has locks, just to make peeps waste lrms.
3: run to any narced target.
4: stay near the center so its near impossible to safely narc you
5: shoot down every uav, instantly.
How to use it.
A ecm mech can save a team, its up to them to do it thou.
ways to render lrms useless.
1: run to any mech that has incoming missiles
2:toggle ecm on and off repeatedly when you know enemy has locks, just to make peeps waste lrms.
3: run to any narced target.
4: stay near the center so its near impossible to safely narc you
5: shoot down every uav, instantly.
BAP.
Spoiler
kinda pointless since skill tree and lrm nerf imo but useful to have reguardless.
kinda pointless since skill tree and lrm nerf imo but useful to have reguardless.
Avoiding narcs.
Spoiler
3 ways basically
1: kill the narcer
2: stay near ecm, and keep ecm mech in center of formation where its hard to narc.
3: engage from over 600 meters.
4: stand next to a direwolf, i can say with a certainty as a narcer that you have a 0% chance to be chosen over a direwolf as a narc target.... unless your a ddc.
3 ways basically
1: kill the narcer
2: stay near ecm, and keep ecm mech in center of formation where its hard to narc.
3: engage from over 600 meters.
4: stand next to a direwolf, i can say with a certainty as a narcer that you have a 0% chance to be chosen over a direwolf as a narc target.... unless your a ddc.
firing over/around stuff/directing your lrm volley more onto a chosen side of a mech.( new video demo)
Spoiler
Often your missiles just won't quite go over something, however you can solve this by moving your aimpoint higher just before firing, you can swing quite far up before losing lock, and then you fire, slightly higher, or can attempt to curve missiles around something by swinging out sideways.
As long as you get back on target before lock fades your good.
For instance, if the enemy has a weak left torso, you can throw your aimpoint out to that side, making your lrms arc slightly towards the enemy left before coming back in, meaning more missiles will hit the part you want.
First shows directing fire onto one side, then shows firing around a building.
Often your missiles just won't quite go over something, however you can solve this by moving your aimpoint higher just before firing, you can swing quite far up before losing lock, and then you fire, slightly higher, or can attempt to curve missiles around something by swinging out sideways.
As long as you get back on target before lock fades your good.
For instance, if the enemy has a weak left torso, you can throw your aimpoint out to that side, making your lrms arc slightly towards the enemy left before coming back in, meaning more missiles will hit the part you want.
First shows directing fire onto one side, then shows firing around a building.
Weaknesses you bring to the team.
Spoiler
a mech not rotating into a firing line ever will mean the rest of the team reaches that critical damage threshold earlier, and then they'll all start dying in droves being fresh wont help you.
This is also true of snipers as they tend to sit back and not take their fair share aswell.
If the enemy has 12 mechs there rotating into the fire to spread damage out, there gonna stomp the team that has 8 guys there rotating into the firing line to soak damage.
So be with the blob, get in close, lrm quickly and use your lasers to drive back the enemy, use a narc to do your own spotting, every exchange, every time someone grabs a lock for you there taking damage, and direct-fire kills faster then lrms, so you need to be in there fighting with your allies, not the front obviously, but be in the second rank, not 800 meters away where your volleys will be too late.
a mech not rotating into a firing line ever will mean the rest of the team reaches that critical damage threshold earlier, and then they'll all start dying in droves being fresh wont help you.
This is also true of snipers as they tend to sit back and not take their fair share aswell.
If the enemy has 12 mechs there rotating into the fire to spread damage out, there gonna stomp the team that has 8 guys there rotating into the firing line to soak damage.
So be with the blob, get in close, lrm quickly and use your lasers to drive back the enemy, use a narc to do your own spotting, every exchange, every time someone grabs a lock for you there taking damage, and direct-fire kills faster then lrms, so you need to be in there fighting with your allies, not the front obviously, but be in the second rank, not 800 meters away where your volleys will be too late.
LASERS, bring them, use them, use them lots.
Spoiler
Not bringing lasers on a lrm boat is a little insane if you have energy mounts, there a decent amount of extra firepower, they can be fired instantly and have decent range, decent damage, and can be used to carve off weak points, or create them.
Pick a side torso you like, keep hitting that torso side on anyone that pops up and then hitting them with lrms, the lrms will sand Armour off there mech evenly more or less, but the laser will weaken that spot, once any side torso is open a mech really starts to suffer, and its ability to mitigate damage is limited.
Not bringing lasers on a lrm boat is a little insane if you have energy mounts, there a decent amount of extra firepower, they can be fired instantly and have decent range, decent damage, and can be used to carve off weak points, or create them.
Pick a side torso you like, keep hitting that torso side on anyone that pops up and then hitting them with lrms, the lrms will sand Armour off there mech evenly more or less, but the laser will weaken that spot, once any side torso is open a mech really starts to suffer, and its ability to mitigate damage is limited.
Blindfire:
Spoiler
Is firing lrms without a lock, asin using them as a normal directfire weapon.
If a enemy is standing still, aim between there legs and slightly behind them for the best hit, as aiming directly for a mech tends to result in missile hitting there legs or overshooting them.
Hitting a moving enemy is different, it takes practice, and skill, you need to lead a target perfectly.
This takes more skill then any directfire weapon, it is harder then hitting someone with a guass rifle... many many times harder perhaps on a scale of 20 times to 1.
You do have a big projectile to hit people with, but it is very slow, fires in a arc, and you generally have to aim it at the ground slightly behind where the enemy will be if you dont want to just land a glob of missiles at there feet.
This can be very useful if you know a enemy is going to pop up in a specific location, or to land that first volley before you get a lock, or if there just no locks to be had because of ecm.
This is notably less effective in clan mechs, thou the stream effect makes it easier to get some hits.
Is firing lrms without a lock, asin using them as a normal directfire weapon.
If a enemy is standing still, aim between there legs and slightly behind them for the best hit, as aiming directly for a mech tends to result in missile hitting there legs or overshooting them.
Hitting a moving enemy is different, it takes practice, and skill, you need to lead a target perfectly.
This takes more skill then any directfire weapon, it is harder then hitting someone with a guass rifle... many many times harder perhaps on a scale of 20 times to 1.
You do have a big projectile to hit people with, but it is very slow, fires in a arc, and you generally have to aim it at the ground slightly behind where the enemy will be if you dont want to just land a glob of missiles at there feet.
This can be very useful if you know a enemy is going to pop up in a specific location, or to land that first volley before you get a lock, or if there just no locks to be had because of ecm.
This is notably less effective in clan mechs, thou the stream effect makes it easier to get some hits.
Rage!!!!!! the tears of our enemies and how they are delicious.
Spoiler
As a lrm boat you will cause rage, people with insult you, claim you have no skill, make slurs about your sexuality, tell you to use real weapons, tell you to learn to aim, and any other number of responses.
Enjoy this, this means you truly defeated them, and you made them feel so defeated that all they could do in response was throw harmless and impotent words back at you.
Remember there names, they might be in your next match, and they just screamed out there inability to counter and avoid lrms at the top of there lungs, they also tend to be the ones that wont learn from there mistakes, simply screaming its unfair and then doing the exact same thing again.
As many will tell you, you know you have truly defeated your enemy when they run to the forums and complain afterwards.
As a lrm boat you will cause rage, people with insult you, claim you have no skill, make slurs about your sexuality, tell you to use real weapons, tell you to learn to aim, and any other number of responses.
Enjoy this, this means you truly defeated them, and you made them feel so defeated that all they could do in response was throw harmless and impotent words back at you.
Remember there names, they might be in your next match, and they just screamed out there inability to counter and avoid lrms at the top of there lungs, they also tend to be the ones that wont learn from there mistakes, simply screaming its unfair and then doing the exact same thing again.
As many will tell you, you know you have truly defeated your enemy when they run to the forums and complain afterwards.
Lrmboating as a tool to learn the game.
Spoiler
The narc + lrms + lasers is the perfect way to learn the game.
The lrms let you feel like you're kicking *** becuase you get to shoot alot, and at low elo levels or in pugs will let you get damage and assists relatively easily.
The lasers will let you practice lasering, and after a while let you seamlessly convert over to a laserboat.
The narc will allow you to master all the skills you need for ballistics, if you can lead and hit a target with a narc, any other projectile weapon is easy to hit stuff with, you can practice firing snapshots back at people with relatively low risk, and relatively high rewards.
The narc + lrms + lasers is the perfect way to learn the game.
The lrms let you feel like you're kicking *** becuase you get to shoot alot, and at low elo levels or in pugs will let you get damage and assists relatively easily.
The lasers will let you practice lasering, and after a while let you seamlessly convert over to a laserboat.
The narc will allow you to master all the skills you need for ballistics, if you can lead and hit a target with a narc, any other projectile weapon is easy to hit stuff with, you can practice firing snapshots back at people with relatively low risk, and relatively high rewards.
Running teams based around lrms.
Spoiler
I often see lrm heavy teams, usually from pugs, but ofttimes from groups, and they do it horribly and get stomped, they bring no spotters, bring lrmboats incapable of self spotting, or relying on suicidal to use tag lasers to spot.
If you watch my videos on youtube you will see i have been part of organized lrm teams, i know what makes them work, what makes them fail, i know the weaknesses and strengths of lrms.
Upsides of lrms teams:
Ability to focus fire from dispersed locations.
Ability to mass fire in any direction without noticeably altering formation.
Ability to fire indirectly on enemies spotted by others.
Downsides:
cannot push into or through other mechs
Poor survivability.
inferior in any direct fire situation.
Warning before your projectiles hit.
Very slow projectile speeds.
can be rendered inert or very hard to use with ecm.
Can be rendered completely useless by terrain. (ie cannot push into center on terra therma, or basement on hpg, or fight effectively in river city.)
Common mistakes:
Placing too much skill burden on spotters
If you only have 1 spotter, or 2 spotters, you're placing your entire hope of victory on just two people, who then have to take far more risk then they would if there were many spotters, and are even more likely to suffer a early death because of this, rendering your team crippled at the loss of one mech.
Ontop of this its inherently unfair to place the whole skill burden on 2 people.
Not using narcers.
Narcs are the only spotting method worth a damn vs any worthwhile team, tag works vs pugs, uavs work vs people not paying attention… but vs any good team, narc is the only spotting method low risk enough, and effective enough, and the ability to fire and then have 30 seconds of guaranteed locks works, whereas other methods are far more iffy and far more risky, tagging is especially risky vs even semi organized groups.
Not prioritizing ecm mechs.
narcing/tagging/uaving/countering ecm is ahrd and risky, if one if hittible destroy it immediately, as it can render your whole teams weapons ineffective.
Ecm lights should especially be a priority, as they can rush about countering narcs, and there far harder to hit with narcs, or hunt out in the middle of a blob, not killing on immediately is something you will come to regret.
Too many lrm 5 trollboats.
while stunlock seems good, it does not have the power to really put people down quickly like massed lrm15’s, slamming someone with 200 or 300 missiles immediately is better then a constant rain.
Not aggressively spotting/playing defensively.
I don’t mean charge into a brawl, but lrmboats, have to spot and start firing as soon as possible, waiting for someone to come to you is an incredibly bad idea even if it works sometimes.
To be effective you have to start narcing, and start raining as soon as possible, and never, ever, let up the pressure.
I will note on some maps thou it is better to hold up and force them to cover open terrain, then sally out to narc, and then rain on them.
How to build a effective team.
Narcs on every mech, I can’t stress this enough, if every mech has a narc you can basically can’t fail to have targets, also it renders you immune to slow death by peek a boo, as you can narc anyone that trys that, and then have whole team rain hell on them.
Also everyone can simply cycle through narcing jobs, with the damaged guys backing off and lrming, while fresher guys move forward and lay down narcs/laser fire.
Alot of lrm 15’s, there the most efficient, and when massed are by far the most lethal.
If whole team is lrms. cut down on ammo a bit to take more lasers, with alot of lrmboats you won’t all need 2k missiles, consider the total tonnage worth missiles across the team rather then the tonnage in your individual mechs, taking some er larges or other lasers is good, as just mediums can leave you in bad situations sometimes.
Don't all blob up in one spot, rather form multiple mutually supporting lances, so any attempt to charge and finish you will either require the enemy splitting up, or leaves a lance of lrms hammering fire down unmolested.
CW:
6 narcer lights rushing like maniacs.
6 lrm 60 assaults, laying down that 360 missiles that will melt anything in seconds to make the lightswarm really scary.
Setup so everyone has 2 narcer lights and 2 lrm boat assults, alternate who is lrms and narcers, rush hard with lights and push up behind the light skirmishing line with lrms nuking everything to death.
I can guarantee you’ll stomp most groups like this, thou comp teams or elite groups in metamechs will probably roll right over you still.
I often see lrm heavy teams, usually from pugs, but ofttimes from groups, and they do it horribly and get stomped, they bring no spotters, bring lrmboats incapable of self spotting, or relying on suicidal to use tag lasers to spot.
If you watch my videos on youtube you will see i have been part of organized lrm teams, i know what makes them work, what makes them fail, i know the weaknesses and strengths of lrms.
Upsides of lrms teams:
Ability to focus fire from dispersed locations.
Ability to mass fire in any direction without noticeably altering formation.
Ability to fire indirectly on enemies spotted by others.
Downsides:
cannot push into or through other mechs
Poor survivability.
inferior in any direct fire situation.
Warning before your projectiles hit.
Very slow projectile speeds.
can be rendered inert or very hard to use with ecm.
Can be rendered completely useless by terrain. (ie cannot push into center on terra therma, or basement on hpg, or fight effectively in river city.)
Common mistakes:
Placing too much skill burden on spotters
If you only have 1 spotter, or 2 spotters, you're placing your entire hope of victory on just two people, who then have to take far more risk then they would if there were many spotters, and are even more likely to suffer a early death because of this, rendering your team crippled at the loss of one mech.
Ontop of this its inherently unfair to place the whole skill burden on 2 people.
Not using narcers.
Narcs are the only spotting method worth a damn vs any worthwhile team, tag works vs pugs, uavs work vs people not paying attention… but vs any good team, narc is the only spotting method low risk enough, and effective enough, and the ability to fire and then have 30 seconds of guaranteed locks works, whereas other methods are far more iffy and far more risky, tagging is especially risky vs even semi organized groups.
Not prioritizing ecm mechs.
narcing/tagging/uaving/countering ecm is ahrd and risky, if one if hittible destroy it immediately, as it can render your whole teams weapons ineffective.
Ecm lights should especially be a priority, as they can rush about countering narcs, and there far harder to hit with narcs, or hunt out in the middle of a blob, not killing on immediately is something you will come to regret.
Too many lrm 5 trollboats.
while stunlock seems good, it does not have the power to really put people down quickly like massed lrm15’s, slamming someone with 200 or 300 missiles immediately is better then a constant rain.
Not aggressively spotting/playing defensively.
I don’t mean charge into a brawl, but lrmboats, have to spot and start firing as soon as possible, waiting for someone to come to you is an incredibly bad idea even if it works sometimes.
To be effective you have to start narcing, and start raining as soon as possible, and never, ever, let up the pressure.
I will note on some maps thou it is better to hold up and force them to cover open terrain, then sally out to narc, and then rain on them.
How to build a effective team.
Narcs on every mech, I can’t stress this enough, if every mech has a narc you can basically can’t fail to have targets, also it renders you immune to slow death by peek a boo, as you can narc anyone that trys that, and then have whole team rain hell on them.
Also everyone can simply cycle through narcing jobs, with the damaged guys backing off and lrming, while fresher guys move forward and lay down narcs/laser fire.
Alot of lrm 15’s, there the most efficient, and when massed are by far the most lethal.
If whole team is lrms. cut down on ammo a bit to take more lasers, with alot of lrmboats you won’t all need 2k missiles, consider the total tonnage worth missiles across the team rather then the tonnage in your individual mechs, taking some er larges or other lasers is good, as just mediums can leave you in bad situations sometimes.
Don't all blob up in one spot, rather form multiple mutually supporting lances, so any attempt to charge and finish you will either require the enemy splitting up, or leaves a lance of lrms hammering fire down unmolested.
CW:
6 narcer lights rushing like maniacs.
6 lrm 60 assaults, laying down that 360 missiles that will melt anything in seconds to make the lightswarm really scary.
Setup so everyone has 2 narcer lights and 2 lrm boat assults, alternate who is lrms and narcers, rush hard with lights and push up behind the light skirmishing line with lrms nuking everything to death.
I can guarantee you’ll stomp most groups like this, thou comp teams or elite groups in metamechs will probably roll right over you still.
LRMS ARE INFERIOR TO DIRECT-FIRE IN ALMOST EVERY WAY.
Spoiler
I can't stress this enough.
Lrms are good at killing bad players, they slaughter anyone that can be forced onto the back footing, if you can get people to the point they are hiding and retreating other then killing people these are awesome weapons.
But vs any very aggressive team they are VERY WEAK.
The ability for skill to multiply the effectiveness of weapons favors directfire, at high level, and even to some extent midlevel play that actully involves teamwork directfire trumps lrms.
The reason is most mechs with directfire can kill enimies faster, often much faster, autocannons, guass are much harder to twist and spread damage from, even lasers are good at picking components and very easy to use, and these weapons fire instantly and require no locks, meaning a person is 100% free to twist and spread damage, between volleys.
Most directfire mechs should be capable of killing, or removing a side torso of a enemy within 3-4 alhpas, meaning 3 mechs pushing onto 1 should basically cripple, or kill it in 1-2 alphas, this is different to dps mechs like dakkaspam, but they'll also kill people in a relatively short time when focus firing.
Now you might say "but zortesh, i am safe behind this hill, where no enemies may hurt me, and all i need do is wait for a lock"
This is true, but you need teammates to spot for you, which means you have los, now an aggressive team pushing, means when you're spotters have los, they'll have los on mechs moving together and focusing fire on anything that shows up.
Now unless narc or tag are in play this is 1.75 seconds, and then there flight time.
Ill give you an example, say you 500 meters back from the target(A shorter distance then i see most lrmboats attacking) thats 3.125 seconds, so thats a 4-5 second time before you missiles are in play depending on tag.
Now with multiple lrmboats sitting back this means when they push in, and good aggressive teams will push in and push in fast your team will always be fighting outnumbered, atleast for those first 5 seconds before the missiles arrive.
This may not seem like much but it is, holding locks for you is not in there interest, to hold locks they need to look at enemies, whichs means they can't be torso twisting, which means the enemy would be able to fire consistently into ct or side torso or whatever they chose and would kill them in seconds.
Which leads to intermittent locks, since people need to twist, and individual mechs holding the lock may be killed in seconds by a team pushing and focusing fire.
The second reason is there situational.
Fights happening in a tunnel?
forget about it your now a inferior joke of a direfire mech.
Underground?
well you can hit them at 200-240 meters.. .... ... ... good luck.... also refer to above.
Tall buildings?
well the enemy might forget cover exists... its been known to happen.
5 ecm mechs?
have fun using dumbfire, or you can tag and get focus fired as the enemy charges, or that uav might give you lock long enough to--- oh nevermind they shot it down because there a good team.
I can brawl in my lrmmech!
No No unless your clan you can't and even if clan you are a crap brawler, you threw away a bunch of good tonnage that every other mech used for kickass directfire killing power, oh and you're filled with explosives... clan lrms are light and have built in case, but are still not upto par against a directfire team pushing in... that said clan lrms aren't bad.
Enemy engaged from 1k away with firing lines, massed erll, and stacked ecm?
kiss your *** good bye, anyone that tries to spot for you will be unable to lock anything up and will be focused by 6-20 erll every time they poke there head out.
peek-a-boo snipers?
You can win this one, depending on the enemy, and if you have a good narcer, but if they do it well it wins more then it loses.
Lrms can win, they can win often, but they wont win consistently, and they only tend to win when the enemy is not agressive, loses its nerve, or lacks the teamwork or cohesion to really push, or move aggressively and together.
With good, coordinated teams these problems are rare
I can't stress this enough.
Lrms are good at killing bad players, they slaughter anyone that can be forced onto the back footing, if you can get people to the point they are hiding and retreating other then killing people these are awesome weapons.
But vs any very aggressive team they are VERY WEAK.
The ability for skill to multiply the effectiveness of weapons favors directfire, at high level, and even to some extent midlevel play that actully involves teamwork directfire trumps lrms.
The reason is most mechs with directfire can kill enimies faster, often much faster, autocannons, guass are much harder to twist and spread damage from, even lasers are good at picking components and very easy to use, and these weapons fire instantly and require no locks, meaning a person is 100% free to twist and spread damage, between volleys.
Most directfire mechs should be capable of killing, or removing a side torso of a enemy within 3-4 alhpas, meaning 3 mechs pushing onto 1 should basically cripple, or kill it in 1-2 alphas, this is different to dps mechs like dakkaspam, but they'll also kill people in a relatively short time when focus firing.
Now you might say "but zortesh, i am safe behind this hill, where no enemies may hurt me, and all i need do is wait for a lock"
This is true, but you need teammates to spot for you, which means you have los, now an aggressive team pushing, means when you're spotters have los, they'll have los on mechs moving together and focusing fire on anything that shows up.
Now unless narc or tag are in play this is 1.75 seconds, and then there flight time.
Ill give you an example, say you 500 meters back from the target(A shorter distance then i see most lrmboats attacking) thats 3.125 seconds, so thats a 4-5 second time before you missiles are in play depending on tag.
Now with multiple lrmboats sitting back this means when they push in, and good aggressive teams will push in and push in fast your team will always be fighting outnumbered, atleast for those first 5 seconds before the missiles arrive.
This may not seem like much but it is, holding locks for you is not in there interest, to hold locks they need to look at enemies, whichs means they can't be torso twisting, which means the enemy would be able to fire consistently into ct or side torso or whatever they chose and would kill them in seconds.
Which leads to intermittent locks, since people need to twist, and individual mechs holding the lock may be killed in seconds by a team pushing and focusing fire.
The second reason is there situational.
Fights happening in a tunnel?
forget about it your now a inferior joke of a direfire mech.
Underground?
well you can hit them at 200-240 meters.. .... ... ... good luck.... also refer to above.
Tall buildings?
well the enemy might forget cover exists... its been known to happen.
5 ecm mechs?
have fun using dumbfire, or you can tag and get focus fired as the enemy charges, or that uav might give you lock long enough to--- oh nevermind they shot it down because there a good team.
I can brawl in my lrmmech!
No No unless your clan you can't and even if clan you are a crap brawler, you threw away a bunch of good tonnage that every other mech used for kickass directfire killing power, oh and you're filled with explosives... clan lrms are light and have built in case, but are still not upto par against a directfire team pushing in... that said clan lrms aren't bad.
Enemy engaged from 1k away with firing lines, massed erll, and stacked ecm?
kiss your *** good bye, anyone that tries to spot for you will be unable to lock anything up and will be focused by 6-20 erll every time they poke there head out.
peek-a-boo snipers?
You can win this one, depending on the enemy, and if you have a good narcer, but if they do it well it wins more then it loses.
Lrms can win, they can win often, but they wont win consistently, and they only tend to win when the enemy is not agressive, loses its nerve, or lacks the teamwork or cohesion to really push, or move aggressively and together.
With good, coordinated teams these problems are rare
How running a narc on your lrmboat will make you: more lethal, richer, capable of playing incredibly aggressively, and much more useful to your team, and far more versatile and less reliant on team members. (ie you wont need to ask for locks.)
In video form.
narc is the difference between intermittent locks you can't really control, to having 40 second long locks on anyone that steps into your los and you're skilled enough to hit.
Don't be a slave to random locks, bring a narc, it'll make you happier, it'll make your teamates happier, it will make your enemies cry like little girls.
https://www.youtube....E7q_UykG9X9vHd8
Edited by zortesh, 01 June 2017 - 02:24 PM.
. Actually, those are very good maps you've prepared.
