104 replies to this topic

[Piney II]

If you're boating lasers and running the top end of the heat scale in a battle, don't be afraid to select chain fire.

It will save you some heat and you will still be doing damage.

I've spectated lots of laser boat pilots that insist on alpha only shots....................and watched them shut down to die when they could have chain fired and disengaged to cool off a bit.

[Saiphas Cain]

Shar Wolf, on 22 November 2014 - 09:33 AM, said:

The Raven CAN - but you have to hit it at just the right angle

Was it a particular raven or loadout? I've tried grinding mine into the tallest part with no success. Granted, I didn't try more than a few seconds because I'd have been shot but I did try multiple times. If you can get one under there the Raven may be the perfect height to just make it a bad idea in a firefight.

Also, on the BAP question I feel they're great for front line fighters regardless of your own missile use. They negate enemy ECM, and improve your lock range regardless. Personally, having my ECM disabled by hordes of enemy BAP's irritates the hell out of me when in my D-DC. It also negates my ability to shield friendlies from missiles and makes me especially vulnerable to LRM spam with my low speed. I'm not sure of the utility of damaging teammates to "teach them a lesson". This is mainly because an enemy stepping in front of you means you have time to cool so you can fire more when they step back into cover. ( You're not running heat neutral builds, right? ). Also consider that regardless of your individual achievements your XP and payout are severely hamstrung by a loss. You may be worth 4 mechs in fighting ability but on a loss you're not rewarded for it. Be a team player and go for the win, rather than the glory. I've seen suicide runs in lights that achieve nothing, but I've seen just as many that draw the enemy so far out of position that victory becomes nearly impossible for them.

Edited by Saiphas Cain, 25 November 2014 - 10:54 AM.

[Tim East]

Mr Huge, on 25 November 2014 - 05:30 AM, said:

As for not mounting BAPs on direct-fire mechs, my reasoning is; the mechs on which it would be valuable, i.e. those that can cover much ground and thus have a fair turn of speed, are all down in the lower weight classes and pressed for tonnage. 1.5 tons and 2 slots may not seem much, but it can make a critical difference between a better weapon or a worse one. And on larger mechs where you have the tonnage to spare, you can't cover that ground and you should have the direct-fire capabilities to take him out directly using good aim and vision filters.

I fit one in my Locust 3M, no problem. Even in fatties it seems worth it because if an enemy ECM light tries to gank you you can negate their cover and they become LRM bait. Especially good after the ECM negation range buff.

[ShinobiHunter]

3xnihilo, on 22 November 2014 - 07:08 AM, said:

Arty/Air Strikes come from the sky (Duh). . . so if you can get under the enemy, say the party deck on Crimson, you can drop an arty on yourself and it will land on the enemies above you.

Also works for clearing out campers at the cathedral in River City. Just get under the platform and plant an arty at your feet

[Alaskan Nobody]

@ Saiphas (on account of this PC not letting me quote anyone)

All of my ravens actually - but the angle I have to put my legs at makes me wonder if it is a bug.

[LordMelvin]

I love getting in behind fleeing mechs and body blocking them. I got stripped but not killed in a catapult and spent the rest of the game running in behind enemies who were brawling and blocking them. Surprisingly, my teammates had decent aim and I only took damage from stray srms.

Edited by LordMelvin, 26 November 2014 - 09:54 AM.

[Zephonarch II]

When facing an Atlas-DDC with ECM: Hit their RT. It doesn't matter if they have an AC20 or gauss, if you quickly deal damage there you'll do a great favour for your team by destroying the ECM on a DDC because team's generally gravitate to the assaults for cover and support. You'll destory the bubble most players would be in.

If you're really feeling ruthless: If you're in an enclosed space and your enemy is being attacked. Bully them. Block their exit. It may make the game resort to an else if condition where it will still push them out to where they were moving towards BUT they'll need to re-coordinate and familiarize themselves with where they were. It's like forcing a lag spike on them, though it makes you spike also. Hey, at least they die confused not knowing they ran into that building/rock because you ran into their path.

But that's just very aggressive, don't do this all the time. You'd likely get a bad rep, getting in the way of teammate's line of fire. That's the risk.

Edited by Zephonarch II, 27 November 2014 - 09:00 AM.

[MechWarrior679696]

Zephonarch II, on 27 November 2014 - 08:53 AM, said:

If you're really feeling ruthless: If you're in an enclosed space and your enemy is being attacked. Bully them. Block their exit. It may make the game resort to an else if condition where it will still push them out to where they were moving towards BUT they'll need to re-coordinate and familiarize themselves with where they were. It's like forcing a lag spike on them, though it makes you spike also. Hey, at least they die confused not knowing they ran into that building/rock because you ran into their path.

On that note, also mind your weapons placement in this situation; if e.g. your arms carry most of your firepower and aren't fully articulated, getting up in someone's face can be a really bad idea. I had this issue driving a Jager on Crimson Strait; I'd cornered a Vulture and stripped his CT down pretty far, and then saw a chance to crowd him in between a couple of houses near their base. I managed to trap him, but once I was up in his face I had only my AC/2s and a pair of lasers to bear due to range limitations... and I couldn't hit his CT anymore, whereas his arms had no problem swinging up and blasting me in the center. Was a bit sour about dying like that, but at least he didn't live many seconds afterwards...

On another note, while we're on how best to murder Clanners; take some time and get yourself familiarized with their layouts. Because the Clan mechs have a lot of fixed, unchangeable slots due to the omnipod design, a lot of them are carrying around some fairly glaring flaws, particularly concerning ammo stowage. For instance, if you see a Timber Wolf that's got both jump jets and ballistics, chances are he's going to be keeping a helluva lot of his ammo in his arms. Rip them off, and you'll both remove the lasers he's usually got there, and rob him of the ammo which he needs for his torso guns, making him less wolf and more of a sad puppy.

Edited by Mr Huge, 27 November 2014 - 11:23 AM.

[Saiphas Cain]

Zephonarch II, on 27 November 2014 - 08:53 AM, said:

When facing an Atlas-DDC with ECM: Hit their RT. It doesn't matter if they have an AC20 or gauss, if you quickly deal damage there you'll do a great favour for your team by destroying the ECM on a DDC because team's generally gravitate to the assaults for cover and support. You'll destory the bubble most players would be in.

Do you mean hit their Right side as their facing you?

The D-DC's layout puts the ECM in the Left Torso where the missile tubes are, not in the Right Torso where the gun's are. If they're properly rolling damage it won't matter where you aim of course, but when i'm running my DDC I'd actually rather lose the RT than the LT because the missiles hit just as hard, it preserves my ECM, and people suddenly aren't as afraid of me anymore. People are terrified of that gun and will focus on it even if the left side is facing the enemy. Best bet on a DDC is aiming for the head so you hit the CT. DDC's don't generally run XL's and losing a Torso only chops their offensive ability in half. You still need to core it for the kill. Aiming for the gun, you trade exceedingly nasty for still pretty nasty. Hit the CT and make that into DEAD instead. It takes more damage of course, but if you strip a side torso instead of the CT you have to start from scratch to finish them off.
( Technically focusing on the legs, which is the first place DDC pilots start stripping armor when they need "just one more ton... or two... or three" is the best place for kills, but the rest of your team isn't going to do this so leg kills on an atlas are usually solo affairs. I can't recall a single time I've been leg killed in an atlas despite lightly armored legs in many cases.

Edited by Saiphas Cain, 28 November 2014 - 08:56 AM.

[Ertur]

3xnihilo beat me to my comment: the best use for the Spider 5V is as a BAP platform to disrupt enemy ECM.

Not like it's got much by way of firepower.

[Zephonarch II]

Saiphas Cain, on 28 November 2014 - 08:54 AM, said:

Do you mean hit their Right side as their facing you?

The D-DC's layout puts the ECM in the Left Torso where the missile tubes are, not in the Right Torso where the gun's are. If they're properly rolling damage it won't matter where you aim of course, but when i'm running my DDC I'd actually rather lose the RT than the LT because the missiles hit just as hard, it preserves my ECM, and people suddenly aren't as afraid of me anymore. People are terrified of that gun and will focus on it even if the left side is facing the enemy. Best bet on a DDC is aiming for the head so you hit the CT. DDC's don't generally run XL's and losing a Torso only chops their offensive ability in half. You still need to core it for the kill. Aiming for the gun, you trade exceedingly nasty for still pretty nasty. Hit the CT and make that into DEAD instead. It takes more damage of course, but if you strip a side torso instead of the CT you have to start from scratch to finish them off.
( Technically focusing on the legs, which is the first place DDC pilots start stripping armor when they need "just one more ton... or two... or three" is the best place for kills, but the rest of your team isn't going to do this so leg kills on an atlas are usually solo affairs. I can't recall a single time I've been leg killed in an atlas despite lightly armored legs in many cases.

Really? Oh man, I've been aiming at the wrong side of every DDC I've seen then. I could of sworn they had an AMS slot on their LT, and then have ECM placed in their RT. But checking Smurfy now, sigh. Sorry, my mistake.

[InspectorG]

Ertur, on 28 November 2014 - 09:11 AM, said:

3xnihilo beat me to my comment: the best use for the Spider 5V is as a BAP platform to disrupt enemy ECM.

Not like it's got much by way of firepower.

^This. Thats what ive been doing. You have the mobility to swing behind near their LRM boats to strip them of their ECM blankie. Specially on maps that are crowded with lots of vertical terrain.
Report to teammates to LRM HERE! Backstab as the LRM hit. Rarely do they notice you if they are in bad position.

Sometimes, on rare occasion, you can just follow that ECM 2ERLL Raven around who thinks he is invisible. Troll that troll. Fun times.

[Saiphas Cain]

Zephonarch II, on 28 November 2014 - 10:50 AM, said:

Really? Oh man, I've been aiming at the wrong side of every DDC I've seen then. I could of sworn they had an AMS slot on their LT, and then have ECM placed in their RT. But checking Smurfy now, sigh. Sorry, my mistake.

No worries man. The AMS is actually in the arm on those ( weird ) but there's no point in shooting that off without taking a torso with it.

[Sonny Black]

Mr Huge, on 23 November 2014 - 04:33 PM, said:

Mr. Huge's Scumbag's Guide to MWO


- It's Easy Being Green
Don't paint your mech like you let Liberace loose on it. There's no "camo value" here; mech camouflage is limited to texture color. If you paint your mech a glaring neon pink, you will get spotted and Gaussed in the face first on your team. Buy some blacks and greens out of the military color palette and apply these to all your machines; statistically, given the mech textures, the maps and their color palettes, you are best off with going with "Camo Dark Green", "Camo Dark Brown" or "Phranken Black".

Absolutely!!! I have a Jester and the very 1st thing I did was lose that paint job. Not being noticed is your friend.

[Tarogato]

Mr Huge, on 23 November 2014 - 04:33 PM, said:

- It's Easy Being Green
Don't paint your mech like you let Liberace loose on it. There's no "camo value" here; mech camouflage is limited to texture color. If you paint your mech a glaring neon pink, you will get spotted and Gaussed in the face first on your team. Buy some blacks and greens out of the military color palette and apply these to all your machines; statistically, given the mech textures, the maps and their color palettes, you are best off with going with "Camo Dark Green", "Camo Dark Brown" or "Phranken Black".

What statistics? Have you piloted duplicate builds in duplicate mechs with the only variable being camo and played at least 50 matches in each, keeping track of amount of time in battle, match score, kills/damage/deaths/general observations?

Because if you haven't, I might. I've always been curious how much camo matters in this game. I'm of the opinion it doesn't really make a difference... all the enemy mechs look the same to me. Can't say I've ever noticed a purple enemy or a yellow enemy, they're all enemy coloured to me, especially at a distance, you can't really tell the difference.

[Tim East]

I wear the brightest green I could find on my Locusts. When you die to the guy in brilliant neon green, or because you chased him, you deserved what you got. Kinda like when I get one-shot because I wear brilliant neon green, I deserved what I got.

[MechWarrior679696]

Tarogato, on 30 November 2014 - 12:00 PM, said:

Because if you haven't, I might. I've always been curious how much camo matters in this game. I'm of the opinion it doesn't really make a difference... all the enemy mechs look the same to me. Can't say I've ever noticed a purple enemy or a yellow enemy, they're all enemy coloured to me, especially at a distance, you can't really tell the difference.

Actually, I've just been taking mechs and comparing colors against the most predominant background textures on the maps, and then I just did a median over which ones you'll probably need. I thought it'd be more of a khaki color, but no, turns out that it's mostly gray. At Alpine Peaks generally you can't hide anyway, and everything gets "sympathy-tinted" on Caustic Valley. Of course, we didn't have Viridian Bog back when I did this, so...

[GeistHrafn]

Mr Huge, on 01 December 2014 - 02:24 AM, said:

Of course, we didn't have Viridian Bog back when I did this, so...

The Bog just "sympathy-tints" everything green tinged. It's a lot like Caustic.

[Raziberry]

Saiphas Cain, on 21 November 2014 - 09:31 AM, said:

loss of durability from taking hits on open doors.

Hold the phone…I thought the opening missile doors were just a stylistic choice. Does an exposed launcher take extra damage or something?

[Alaskan Nobody]

Raziberry, on 02 December 2014 - 06:38 PM, said:

Hold the phone…I thought the opening missile doors were just a stylistic choice. Does an exposed launcher take extra damage or something?

Closed launchers take 10% less damage - edit: but take longer to launch the missiles. (0.5 seconds delay)

Edited by Shar Wolf, 02 December 2014 - 06:44 PM.