31 replies to this topic

[TripleEhBeef]

Liberally apply AC20 rounds to face.

More seriously, a light mech is not going to hang around after getting its armour stripped by a big autocannon. However, unless you're using a mech with velocity quirk bonuses, landing those shots is not going to be easy. LBX cannons are much easier to hit lights with, but they spread their damage across many components. Their critical damage potential means that they can finish off a mech pretty easily once armour is gone. SRMs don't have the same raw crit potential, but they have the same shotgun effect, but with lower range and velocity. However, launchers with Artemis group really well, and you can deal some pretty significant damage once you get used to leading missile shots.

Lasers are good, however you risk splashing damage all over multiple components and doing no significant damage. But with enough practice and a steady hand, you can hold those lasers on a specific component for most of their duration. In most cases, you want to drill the leg. Nothing will make a light mech disengage like a stripped leg, because if it get destroyed, they're dead. Had a game where I drilled a FS9's rear shoulder with six lasers for full duration and cored it.

And don't overheat when fighting a light, because he will just run behind you and core you.

[Heisenbug]

Lorgarn, on 28 December 2014 - 08:06 AM, said:

I have no team, I am alone. Pugs dont care for that, PUGS dont stay together, PUGS dont protect each other. I am trying to find others to play with but since then I am stuck in the PUG hellhole and I am on my own there.

...I've pug'd thousands of matches. All I do is pug. There is always a way to deal w/lights...

Even in pugs, your team will generally have a center of gravity to the group. Find it. Stay there(ish). Lights are exactly the reason not to wonder away from your teammates. Lights are like wolves looking for the sheep that stray from the heard.

Seismic sensors are crucial for knowing when a light is hovering around/behind you.

Aim for the legs, not center mass: a moving light that you hit will usually have the damage distributed among the various upper body hitboxes (due to how that's calculated presently when they're at speed). Shooting thier legs limits the damage to just those two hitboxes. A light with no leg armor is a light that's almost dead.

You need to improve your piloting so you can master a reverse circle, and then be ready to reverse your turn in the opposite direction to catch the light coming around from the other side.

In settings, consider lowering your mouse sensitivity: you need to be accurate with your fire, and I've found that mouse sensitivity makes that more difficult.

It's difficult to hit lights with balistic weapons... except for the LBX10. That little baby is excellent for hitting lights. Mounting two of them is even better.

Machine guns are useful for driving lights off. It won't often do that much damamge to a light, but it does unnerve many light pilots and encourages them to find other targets.

Pulse lasers are excellent against lights. You don't have to lead your target, and each pulse puts all of it's damage on the single body part hit.

...lastly, keep in mind that light pilots are some of the best players in the game. There's no shame in having trouble with them.


A few words on what doesn't work:

Putting your back to a wall: you're rarely gonna have a wall immediately available when you need one.

SSRM's: given the time it takes you lock onto a light (and how often you'll fail to do so), PLUS how often those missles actually fail to hit the target (stricking some building or ground feature), they're just not worth it in my opin.

Non-pulse lasers: the upside of lasers is that you actually hit the light (instead of missing, like with balistics), but the downside is that you rarely can keep the beam on the light long enough to do much damage. It's not as cut and dry as I'm making it out to be here, but keep in mind that beam weapons are not the automatic end-all-be-all of anti-light weapons (although pulse-lasers are).

[Kraven Kor]

Lorgarn, on 27 December 2014 - 01:22 PM, said:

Thanks for the feedback.
I really dont know how to do positioning in that way. I cant see behind my mech so I dont know, how to position it next to a wall. Many times the map simply does not provide me with a wall near me.

Regarding support from others: I play in PUG, there is no such thing as support! I am on my own.

Not true.

While PUG's aren't great at coordinating, most of that is an individual onus. In other words, it is your job to stay near them. Learning positioning is challenging but will come to you - basically, stay close to a wall or cover as much as humanly possible so you have that wall / cover to back up into.

[Kahadras]

First thing to do is not to panic. Don't attempt to break contact as it just offers the light mech an easier target to harry. A light won't take you down in a couple of shots unless you are badly damaged (at which points it's gg). First thing to do is make is difficult for your opponant to get at you rear armour so use terrain as much as you can. If terrain isn't an option then try to maximise torso twist to spead incomming damageas much as possible.

The second thing to do is shoot him back. His fast movement will make it harder to hit him but practice makes perfect so keep plugging away. Lights can't take the punishment that heavier mechs can take and if you deal out enough damage he will probaly decide to break off the engagement (aiming at the legs is a good move as most light mech pilots are paranoid about being legged).

Third thing is to run with the pack (or at least close by). Going off solo is a good way to get swarmed by lights especialy as they have speed on their side. Remember to help out others when it comes to lights as well. If it looks like a few of your team mates have the situation in hand then don't bother but if somebody looks like the need help then lend a hand.

[Urdasein]

Short answer:
Storm crow with cheated hitboxes
3 Clan Streak SRM 6 + range module (400m range lol)
4 ER medium laser

At the begining of each game, i'm running toward the heavy lance and escorting them... Then, it's easy to spot a light harassing a friend on the mini map (fast moving/blinking red arrow around a single blue)... I prioritize heelping teamates over standing my ground. Thanx the 106 kmh of the stormcrow.

I love SSRM6 such a no skill weapon to harass lights and medium brawlers... at range!!!I mean shooting them without entering at close range is great ! Legging ECM spider, making the rage quiting and being gratz by the assault lance; PRICELESS !

I'm always pulling 700 ish damage with that mech and at least 2 lights kills.

So, find a friend with a light hunting mech is my best answer to deal with them.

Edited by loupgaroupoilu, 30 December 2014 - 09:32 PM.

[Tarl Cabot]

Heisenbug, on 30 December 2014 - 11:49 AM, said:

...I've pug'd thousands of matches. All I do is pug. There is always a way to deal w/lights...

Aim for the legs, not center mass: a moving light that you hit will usually have the damage distributed among the various upper body hitboxes (due to how that's calculated presently when they're at speed). Shooting thier legs limits the damage to just those two hitboxes. A light with no leg armor is a light that's almost dead.

Just highlighting the important points.

The most important feature of a light is not necessarily their small size but their speed, and not just for avoiding hits but also from getting in and out of LOS. Lights have small hit boxes so hitting the torso area will tend to have the damage, especially any sort of laser, spread its damage. Hitting and destroying a leg will allow you to kill that light.

Beware though, especially for jumpers. If you first leg a light (spider) then you concentrate on the torso, that pilot will be jumping high and fast, making it difficult to hit, again. Back off and hit the other leg, or that one-legged spider may be the one walking away.

Edit - this also goes for CW matches, most mechs. The need to slow them down from reaching their target or from giving chase. Almost everyone played either MPBT or MW games. In most destroying a leg killed a mech. In this instance destroying a leg cripples a mech, slowing them down to be killed. The slower a mech is the easier it is to be targeted and eventually destroyed.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 31 December 2014 - 08:39 AM.

[Sonny Black]

Quote

How To Defend Against Light Mechs?

2 things come to mind...
1. Don't be in a Stalker
2. Don't be in a Stalker, out by your lonesome...he said speaking from personal experience.

Nothing good can come of this.

[Athousandson]

I notice you're constantly mentioning PUGS being a problem. I only play in PUGS as well but honestly I have not much of a problem rolling with the rest of the team. Almost three quarters of the time my matches are just murderballs with everyone clumping together and fighting whatever comes along the way so I don't really see how you're having a problem staying with the rest of the team. It's not that hard to look at the general direction that everyone is going in, since your minimap shows little green arrows that point where your friendlies are facing. Just check the map frequently.

I play an Atlas and naturally I face the problem of getting circled by a light. What I normally do is just walk backwards and try to walk backwards into whatever wall there is. If there isn't a wall, I'll try to "counter-circle" by circling in the opposite direction of the light, while walking backwards. As the light starts to circle, you can roughly predict where he's going to appear next. For example, he runs up to you and starts an anti-clockwise circle around your mech. So naturally you'll point the upper torso and arms of your mech towards the left to try and hit him. Once he's out of sight and gone behind your back, you'll know that he's going to appear on your right next. So all you need to do is to point your mech's upper torso and arms to the right in anticipation of him coming. And when he does appear you can try to blast him or hit him. With some luck you can leg him and finish the fight. I've managed to leg a number of lights this way using my 3x SRM6+A. One good hit is all you need.

But really, just as everyone says, you're better off not getting separated from the group. It'll save you a lot of trouble.

[Duja]

Luckily the current matchmaker doesn't seem to be dropping a lot of Firestarters on us...

Standard lasers are tough to use against light mechs unless you have the torso swing of an HBK-4P.

I don't use streaks either.

You want to do burst damage in increments of 10 or more to the legs and back (when they run away).

Inner Sphere:
AC20's
Gauss Rifles.
Paired AC5's/UAC5's
AC10's, LB-10xAC's (I kind of find the LB-10xAC debatable here - but my mech who uses it backs it up with 3MPL's and is a dedicated light mech hunter/ambusher)
ERPPC's
Pulse Lasers.

If these weapons are not on your machine and a dog-fighting light mech trips you up - you'll probably just be going 'gg' and going to find a new match.

I've found the light mechs much harder to deal with in clan machines. These generally are not as good as their IS counterparts at popping limbs off light mechs.

A clanner's pulse laser isn't much faster than an IS ML so you potentially lose an option here.

You get ERPPC's (heat restrictive)
Clan LB-10xAC's
Clan LB-20xAC's
Clan Gauss Rifles

I'd like to give artemis clustered SRM's an honorable mention for both sides - but hit detection and spread rarely work in their favor vs fast moving light mechs.

[jper4]

Lorgarn, on 28 December 2014 - 08:06 AM, said:

I am trying to but I have to play in PUGS. And PUGs frigging dont care for that and spread in any direction.

i PUG 99% of the time and there is always some cluster of mechs that will stay together even if it's only one lance. find the friendly mech cluster on your map and go over to them. if not, find the nearest ecm mech and follow it- makes you a little harder for them to find when there's that nice non ecm covered atlas to harrass, or find the biggest mech on your team and become their best friend. people like shooting the biggest mechs first so they may ignore you to shoot your friend instead

in PUGs you have to react to the group instead of at times doing what you want to. without comms no one knows what the other person is doing usually in PUGs so you have to adapt to that. if 8 mechs go left when i know right is a better choice- i'll go left rather than risk being isolated and hunted down by lights. (see terra- mount doom aka the PUGzapper). it's all about presenting better options for the lights to shoot at then you- then when they're doing that you shoot them

finally- sweep the leg- speed is life for lights so as soon as they run across someone who can hit their legs and take their speed from them- suddenly that mech on the other side of the map looks more appealing.

[JC Daxion]

Lorgarn, on 27 December 2014 - 01:22 PM, said:

Regarding support from others: I play in PUG, there is no such thing as support! I am on my own.

Yea, this can be a problem.. But honestly, just watch the radar, and if they won't come to you, then goto them.. I often will run right into, past, by, around my team until either they see them, or the light runs off.. often a lone light just running into a huge group will send them packing. The other part is hope your buddies will help..


Outside of that, Some take great pride in building mechs that are specific for the destruction of lights, and other fast movers. Often heavier mechs will add a couple streaks+bap+tag for super fast lock, and they do a good job. Or machine guns, and Lasers sweeping at their legs is the best bet.. aim just behind them and sweep forward.. Or just in front and let them fun over them while you sweep back.

another thought is to use LBX10's they really shred lights well.

T
The best thing is time, and learning the game, but over all a good light pilot is a force, no mater how good you are one on one so don't get discouraged.... Good luck!

Edited by JC Daxion, 06 January 2015 - 07:21 PM.

[Rehl]

See? It works.