48 replies to this topic

[Asmosis]

The *key* thing you have to remember in a pug game is that chasing a light will often result in you not taking much damage since there are no other mechs in the general vicinity to shoot back at you.

Given that the primary goal of pug matches is to not get shot at ever, you can see how chasing lone light mechs is a really tempting goal.

(and what reduces your damage more than chasing a lone light mech? chasing it with 5 mechs instead!!)

Edited by Asmosis, 27 April 2015 - 06:25 AM.

[Mazzyplz]

it goes way beyond chasing lights, a few days ago an atrocious player decided to tell the team it was best to stay at the door in therma (even though inside the crater you can have a semicircle and shoot the funnel of enemies at the door)

and talked down on me for trying to have the team not stop at the door


some of these fools are SO incompetent that they are oblivious to their own incompetence

[Zookeeper Dan]

Someone yelled at me yesterday for chasing a light.

Chasing them off is not the same as chasing the squirrel.

Chasing them of is needed, especially when you leave the LRM Catapult in the dust and by himself trying to catch up.

[Mark of Caine]

SQUIRREL!!!


Sorry, but I had to say it.

[Palor]

I had 1/2 my team split off to chase down a Jenner, it was sad. Then it took these guys 4 minutes to kill the solo jenner.

[Dingbat67]

Never chase the cookie.

The cookie may be warm and squishy and ooh so smells good, but the cookie is just a ruse.

You can try to slow it down a bit (by snapping a few shots at the legs) but sticking with the murder ball tends to work better in pugs.

-- Dingbat.

[Lugh]

I will sometimes chase it far enough to confirm it's the lead on a flanking maneuver (Because I'll actually let the team know)

Some pilots go after them and chase them die and quit without telling the team anything. This means telling the God of Death, Today is a Good Day to Die, instead of NOT TODAY.

[Kahadras]

Quote

I had 1/2 my team split off to chase down a Jenner, it was sad. Then it took these guys 4 minutes to kill the solo jenner.

I've had worse. I've watched half my team spliting off to chase down a Jenner that was already dead. Basically the Jenner popped up on our left flank and got knocked out by a couple of our lights. Half our team seemed to ignore the fact that his radar blip had disappeared and a message came up saying an enemy player had died. Most of them left their positions and went charging off after the deceased Jenner, got strung out and were mopped up by the enemy team.

That Jenner pilot won the match for the other team.

Edited by Kahadras, 18 May 2015 - 02:27 PM.

[JC Daxion]

i have found in pugs, if you are playing a light, or perhaps a cicada, it is often best to chase and kill it quick, before the rest of the team gets strung out..

But if half the team or more chases the light, might as well join in the chase, because it is better that the whole group stay together, who knows you it might lead to a better battle on another part of the map that people usually don't fight in..

that said, it is funny when i see slow poke heavies and assaults trying to chase a light.. some times ya just gotta laugh

[KoshiManiac]

I completely disagree. As a light mech enthusiast I love it when I could get half the other team chasing me for the 20 seconds that I am still on their radar giving my team a shot at a big advantage. Except for my Koshi Prime named Scrappy Doo for his enthusiastically engaging much heavier mechs how else am I supposed to help the team.

As a player who also has 3 Timber Wolves I completely agree and only shoot at them if they run in front of me and otherwise unload on the biggest (or most often only) mech in front of me.

Adding this here to avoid a double post but funniest MWO experience was over chat I heard someone say "(won't say the players name) you aren't shooting anything that mech is dead (a few seconds later) now you're just shooting the wall"

Edited by KoshiManiac, 17 May 2015 - 11:09 PM.

[Grey Area GCU]

You have to be playing for the win and not just for the moment. Be willing to take some damage from the light in order to focus on the real threat.

That said, when I'm pinging away at you from max range with my Spider using my single ER-PPC while cloaked in ECM, Radar Dep, and seismic modules, PLUS maxed out ER-PPC range and cool-down modules I am DANGED hard to ignore.

You better have a light pilot who's paying attention to drive me off and KEEP me off. I'm running to my lines when pursued but will come right back to ping at you at first opportunity. I deviate from this tactic only if my ECM is needed to cover my massed team from LRMs.

Play your lights the way you hate having them played against you.

Edited by Ethical Quandry, 18 May 2015 - 10:33 AM.

[sycocys]

Please keep chasing the lights, its so much easier for my Commando to maneuver against 1 mech at a time when I don't have to worry about secondary fire. Also a lot of fun dragging an entire lance of heavies away from the line looking for me while I'm already circled around and at the backs of the main force.

[Rogue Jedi]

Nightshade24, on 14 April 2015 - 03:40 AM, said:

Those inner sphere light mechs pack a punch if you ignore them. Doesn't the firestarter do 32 damage per second or so with modules? 10 seconds of ignoring them is 320 damage. If that peppers into everyones back that is enough to kill half the team....

A firestarter can get to a 40 damage alpha strike, but that would be fire then wait 4 secondsbefore firing again.
No Mech can sustain 32DPS, a Firestarter can get to about 12 DPS and sustain it for perhaps 20 seconds, before overheating, however if you have competent allies nearby a Light Mech would get off maybe 3 shots before being chased off by your friends or breaking off to cool down

[Nightshade24]

Rogue Jedi, on 18 May 2015 - 02:45 PM, said:

A firestarter can get to a 40 damage alpha strike, but that would be fire then wait 4 secondsbefore firing again.
No Mech can sustain 32DPS, a Firestarter can get to about 12 DPS and sustain it for perhaps 20 seconds, before overheating, however if you have competent allies nearby a Light Mech would get off maybe 3 shots before being chased off by your friends or breaking off to cool down

I assuming you are using non-quirked data for your 20 second estimate. even then I will pretend that is the case.

(dps) x (number of shots) = (damage)
32 x 20 = 640 damage.

That's enough to kill half a team of atlases/ battlemasters/ direwolfs/ king crabs.
And there is many situations your team can't/ refuse/ don't attack the light.

Refuse: "Do not waste time on the lights!" / "Don't chase the light mechs...". Does not think it's a good idea to attack it because waste of time and/or effort.

Can't: "it won't be effective... let someone else do it". They can have a very poor build to handle for lights.

LRM boat (due to spread of LRM's, only an LRM 5 with artemis is good enough for light mechs... and who the hell puts Artemis on an LRM 5?!?!?".... also min range and the fact a light mech going 150 kph+ can get behind cover in seconds reguardless of area... or even run so far away that they get out of range in mere seconds.

Sniper (due to the fact of slow fire rate, misses are much more problematic for this thing, as well as some snipers being high in heat or ammo dependent. Also charge up mechanics/ 90 meter min range etc gets into effect.

LBX/ SRM (due to spread, it's hard to do effective damage to a light mech with these weapons.)

Machine guns (due to being purely DPS, it has issues effectively damaging light mechs as damage spreads everywhere)


Etc....



Don't...

They can have other pressing matters at hand... Attack fire starter or attack an atlas?
Focus fire on locust or attack that direwolf.
Chase the light mech or help defend your teamates against an assault or a push.

etc. many situations leaves you distracted then torso turning to slow to hit a light mech for mroe then a split second.

[lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol]

mrripley9, on 11 April 2015 - 07:36 PM, said:

Every match I'm in, no matter HOW much I ask my teammates not to, they always chase the lights. If you're in a 100-ton Daishi, DO NOT CHASE HIM. If you're in a hunchback, DON'T CHASE HIM. If you're in any heavy mech, DO NOT CHASE HIM. If you're a light, you may go after him, IF you can actually kill him. ONLY if you're a light. I am sick and tired of having an entire firing line go done because of a pesky light and half the team wants to go chase it. Then they blame me, the lone assault mech, because we lost the match.

When will we learn to NOT chase the freaking light? If you're a light killer, which would mean you're either a light mech, a streak medium, fine. Do so and kill it fast and come back. You should not be chasing lights if you're in an assault mech that doesn't even go 60 KPH. Stop being an idiot, you're never going to catch it and you won't kill it. Stay at the front of the line and hold that. You'll be able to murder plenty of faces there.

Thanks,
A disgruntled MechWarrior

I never chase a light in my Dire Wolf... I let my Gauss Rilfe slugs do the work.

[Rogue Jedi]

Nightshade24, on 18 May 2015 - 08:04 PM, said:

I assuming you are using non-quirked data for your 20 second estimate. even then I will pretend that is the case.

(dps) x (number of shots) = (damage)
32 x 20 = 640 damage.

That's enough to kill half a team of atlases/ battlemasters/ direwolfs/ king crabs.
And there is many situations your team can't/ refuse/ don't attack the light.

I did the Maths properly,

the FS9-A with 8 SPL has as good a DPS (Damage Per Second) as a Firestarter can get, it is able to put out a 32 damage Alpha Strike.,
Small Pulse Lasers have a burn time of 0.5 seconds and a cooldown of 2.25 seconds.
The FS9-A has energy heat reduction quirks of 10% (which will be reduced after todays quirks)
If you mount SPL cooldown 5 that allows them to fire 12% faster, however that does not affect the half second discharge, they can recycle in 1.98 seconds after taking 0.5 seconds to discharge, so can fire every 2.48 seconds

If you are brave/crazy enough to forgo jumpjets and armor you can fit an XL 285 with 9 extra DHS to the FS9-A, that allows it to deal 32 damage every 2.48 seconds for 35 seconds, in that time you could fire 14 times dealing 448 total damage before overheating, or you could slow your rate of fire (and therefore DPS) so you do not overheat.
Assuming you chose to take near maximum Armour you could get 4 heatsinks on the Mech, that means you will overheat in 22 seconds, firing 8 times for 256 damage before overheating or reducing rate of fire.

This is properly calculated and allows for maximum possible DPS (12.9) and maximum possible (without armor) or maximum realistic (taking near maximum armor) cooling rates, as you can see the Firestarter cannot get anywhere near 32DPS.

if you think I am wrong, and a firestarter can put out almost 2.5 times the DPS I have calculated to be possible please provide some numbers to back it up, because it is definitely not possible with 8 lasers.

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 19 May 2015 - 04:14 AM.

[LordDante]

i use my WANG to smash lights !

[Wreckreation]

I agree with the do not chase, generally speaking. There are occasions where it is a necessary evil. Spotting for missile boats that are doing tremendous damage needs to be stopped asap. Using minimal resources in the process as mentioned by others is the way to go. Just chasing them off usually means they will be back - along with the hailstorm of LRMs.

[MechWarrior3671771]

And omg the tunnel vision! I spectated a Hellbringer last night trying to chase down a Raven. Enemy heavy was carving out his back armor and he just kept focus on the Raven. Of course, he died and the Raven lived.

[Raziberry]

As a light pilot, I cannot believe how often it works that I lure reds back to my waiting team just by dangling the notion that they might kill me in front of them.

Seriously, fatties, for your own sake:
STOP CHASING ME. I'M NOT RUNNING SCARED, I'M DIVIDING YOUR TEAM.