36 replies to this topic

[Bergitor]

I have only been playing for about a week and a half, and I find myself playing as if I were playing the tabletop game- which I did a hell of a lot of in the 80s-90s. I love my light mechs, and running around in a scout/support role. I try and tag/narc everything I see, and move into a flank to spot targets for the boats... Problem is my match score doesn't reflect my contribution (I feel) to the overall team. At times I eschew punching a mech in the rear with my LG or Med lasers, because I don't want the pilot to know there is someone behind him tagging him. I try to play to support the team... but it rarely works out in my favor. Is there advice to capitalize on this particular aspect of play that I enjoy, that will net me the match points I seem to be struggling to make up?

Edited by Bergitor, 14 January 2016 - 11:19 PM.

[Kotzi]

Short answer, no. Doing damage will reward you more in most cases.

[B0oN]

As Kotzi decently avoids to say : KICK EM IN THE NOGGINS

You have the most manouverable machines as light pilot, make the other guys regret their own slowness and backstab and harass wherever you can, but keep the standard sniping procedure in mind : shoot, relocate, keep moving .

Use what is your advantage against all those big and brawny boys out there .

[Palor]

At this time the support game is just not really there. If you really push your radar range, you can get extra creds from scouting and holding locks for LRM's. If you can fit one in, use an active probe, and the +radar range mod.

[Rogue Jedi]

unfortunately high damage is far more relevant to match score and cbill earnings than any other method of helping the team, that means that unless you are exceptional at dealing damage in a Light you will receive low earnings and match score compared to other weight classes, however the Light Mech roles do seem to ^{(for me at least)} bring in XP faster than the other weight classes.

this is from someone who spends about half my time in Lights because I prefer there playstyle

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 14 January 2016 - 11:52 PM.

[IraqiWalker]

Bergitor, on 14 January 2016 - 11:18 PM, said:

I have only been playing for about a week and a half, and I find myself playing as if I were playing the tabletop game- which I did a hell of a lot of in the 80s-90s. I love my light mechs, and running around in a scout/support role. I try and tag/narc everything I see, and move into a flank to spot targets for the boats... Problem is my match score doesn't reflect my contribution (I feel) to the overall team. At times I eschew punching a mech in the rear with my LG or Med lasers, because I don't want the pilot to know there is someone behind him tagging him. I try to play to support the team... but it rarely works out in my favor. Is there advice to capitalize on this particular aspect of play that I enjoy, that will net me the match points I seem to be struggling to make up?

The above posters aren't wrong, but there are ways for you to have the experience you want.

As far as C-Bills go, you will get sub par rewards for support play, unless you have exemplary performance.

Here are some tips that can help you out:

1- Teamwork. If you are playing a support mech you will need a team that can use the tools you provide the most. I recommend grouping up with people. Either through the forums, or through teamspeak servers. You will find many people eager to drop in groups. If life hasn't been so messy for me, I would drop with you ASAP. If all else fails, there are tons of units all looking for a new player to join them.

2- Damage speaks volumes. If you are spotting a mech, and it is getting hit by missiles, then shoot the legs. Legs don't have Front/Rear designation, and while they are being hammered by hits, you sneak damage that way, or if you're feeling gutsy enough, go for their rear torso, if you think you can kill them during the missile barrage.

3- Stealth, and flanking are both useful, as you already seem to know. Use your guns to flush enemies out of their hiding spots, and into your friendly firing lines. However, use the mechanics of the game to minimize your exposure. For example, PPCs are very difficult to track from the side of your eyesight. While lasers will expose you quickly. Those weapons will allow you to hit an opponent, and hide, before they know where the shot came from.

[Sheriff Cinco]

As a long time light pilot, I feel your pain. Unless you are playing with a few dedicated missle boats spotting will not be your most effective tactic. I found that good harrier tactics do wonders for your team. Rad Hanzo has the right idea. Shoot them in the back and duck into cover. Move. Repeat. If you manage to draw a few much larger mechs away from the front line to find you, you have done your job. Useing 35 tons to distract and pull 100+ tons out of the main brawl makes you a friggin hero.

To maximize your points try to do alittle damage to everyone. If you get chased down by their lights, string them back to your team so they can make short work of them.

Good luck

[el piromaniaco]

Scout, Tag, Narc, backstab, harass those mechs already beat up, place UAVs, etc.

You MatchScore can be higher than your damage done if you play it right, and if all the other things just fit right.

Greetings

el piro

[Rogue Jedi]

in Assault mode you can go for the base, just let your team know what you are doing, the enemy will usualy send 2-4 Mechs to chase you off, if you tell your teammates what is happening and they push then they will have a significant advantage, you can ether run from or fight those sent after you, I usualy fight them and often get one or more kill doing so.

this in my experience wins the match for my team more than 3 times out of 4, and gets me decent rewards because even if the Mechs sent back manage to kill me I have usualy done a few hundred points of damage before going down, but then again I do tend to do well in Light vs Light duels.

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 15 January 2016 - 02:57 AM.

[FlipOver]

Bergitor,

First let me congratulate on your posture in the battlefield!

Really! People use lights for their own benefit and usually lose the match, blaming the team.
You are working to and for the team and that's how you should be doing, imho.

About your situation I have one little (but important) tip:
When the enemy you are spotting is being hit by your teams fire, and no enemy mech is looking at your relative position, it's safe to shoot the targeted enemy.
This way you will do some more damage and keep getting all the benefits of keeping the lock for your team.

Also, think about the possibility of using a UAV and dropping it behind the enemies lines when possible.

This will prevent the enemy from knowing they have a uav above them (unless someone with brains and behind cover, finds it strange still seeing the "Incoming Missile" warning) but that's a gamble.

People will argue a light can brawl and can be in the middle of a blob of friendlies fighting the enemy, but to me, what you are doing is exactly what should be done.

So use my tip and see how it works. Even if you manage to do a small amount of damage, it will certainly be more than you are currently doing.

[Bergitor]

Thanks gents... Had one of the best games ever just a bit ago. I got credited with 5 of the 12 kills with over 500 damage, but I felt a little out of the comfort zone as far as the support play. But I definitely need to find a unit to group with, I'm already losing my mind with pugging... I'm going to try out some different tweaks to try and maximize my performance, I haven't used consumables yet, I'm hesitant to. They're one time use are they not?

[epikt]

First thing first: light mechs are not scouts.
The maps in MWO are so small we don't need scouts.

Most light mechs are harass/flankers/finishers. They rely on their mobility and high firepower to either distract the enemy and/or to snatch a kill on a mech that retreated behind their friendlies. Those mech must deal their full share of damage, it's not because they're small they can't shoot.
Few light mechs are spotters, they will obtain locks for the missiles. TAG is garbage for this purpose, it forces you to face the target the whole time and basically all you're doing is exposing a weakly armored mech instead of an heavily armored one - bad trade! Spotters use NARC, it allows you to break line of sight immediately. Those mechs will deal less damage that the average mech, but still, it's expected they fight as much as they can.

[FlipOver]

Congrats on that!

Depending on the consumables they are either one or 2 time use (cool shot consumables, have a 2x usage).

For your kind of play, mostly UAV and ARTI, in those cases they are a 1 shot consumables.

They cost 40k each (that's the reason I only said previously something about UAV and not the ARTI, gets expensive to use both - they can work well when both used, but you need to know where and when to use them to get the best out of them, and mistakes can be made and cost you).

You can trigger them to be replenished at the end of any match so your mech has another one to use on the next match (you see it when you fit in the module, let's say UAV, ticking the right side box will auto-replenish it).

[Tezzereth]

They are one time use, yes.

There is both a C-Bill version and a MC version. The MC is better, but it's not terribly much, but it does require real money, so keep that in mind. The versions that require C-Bills can be upgraded with GXP after you play for some time; but I would wait until you unlock key modules first.

If you are scout, I would certainly get a UAV. Just use it when you think it will let your team win, and will pay for itself. Once you get better, 40k won't be much yo worry about (and you can always switch to a mech that is strong to grind out some bills, too).

[VATER]

epikt, on 15 January 2016 - 02:08 AM, said:

First thing first: light mechs are not scouts.
The maps in MWO are so small we don't need scouts.

Sorry, but that statement is just wrong. Some maps are too small, I agree. But most of the maps provide enough cover and possibilities for scouts.

[epikt]

I don't know what "possibilities for scouts" means. I just say we don't need dedicated scouts.
A bit of scouting is ok. Fast mechs are the best equiped for this but it's the role of most of the team, as a whole.

But I'm lazy so I'll just quote someone known as one of the best light pilot out there. Kind of a cheap shot, I know.

Quote

Let's begin by addressing something that is brought up frequently when Light 'Mechs are spoken of; the claim that their purpose in MWO is largely scouting. This is an oft repeated misconception that even exists on the game's own website. Scouting is important, let there be no doubt, but it is less important in a typical quick play match than for organized competitive leagues. To begin, the player should definitely not treat scouting as if it were the only role for a Light 'Mech: They must pull their weight in combat, and are surprisingly efficient at doing so.

Quote

Finally, don't ever fall into the trap of thinking that you should "spot" or "hold locks" for your team. That's not what scouting means. Spotting and holding locks for other mechs simply transfers the risk of doing so from them to you, and you are in a mech that cannot take as many hits as them. Just don't do it, it's not your role.

(source)

[Rogue Jedi]

epikt, on 15 January 2016 - 02:52 AM, said:

I don't know what "possibilities for scouts" means. I just say we don't need dedicated scouts.
A bit of scouting is ok. Fast mechs are the best equiped for this but it's the role of most of the team, as a whole.

But I'm lazy so I'll just quote someone known as one of the best light pilot out there. Kind of a cheap shot, I know.

(source)

I agree we do not need dedicated ^{(as in they do nothing else)} scouts but scouting can be extremely useful, if one of your scouts finds where the enemy are early in a match that can make a significant difference especially if there is a lance off on its own which you can pick off, but even knowing the makeup of the enemy team early can have a significant impact on the game. but I agree the "scouts" should carry some weapons and should contribute in other ways, weather as a spotter, distraction, harasser, capping, fire support or any other role you can think of.

what I cannot agree with is what you seemed to be suggesting in the earlier post, that scouting is pointless

[epikt]

Rogue Jedi, on 15 January 2016 - 03:06 AM, said:

what I cannot agree with is what you seemed to be suggesting in the earlier post, that scouting is pointless

Scouting is not pointless. Dedicated scouts are pointless.

[TercieI]

OP: It's a sad truth of this game that it's really all about doing damage. Mechs that can't put out their fair share of damage are a detriment to their team. Scouting is useful, but it's a first couple minutes thing and then you gotta do work. Lots if new players have the idea you have (I did too) but it doesn't really work very well. "Support mechs" are considered a waste at high levels of play. The blunt truth is that a low match score does reflect your contribution in that sort of mech. Sorry.

Edited by TercieI, 15 January 2016 - 05:07 AM.

[MechWarrior3671771]

What kind of light mech are you running?

I would replace the TAG and Narc (especially Narc) with weapons. At your level of play TAG/Narc are too dependent on other pilots who are still figuring things out, so you won't be getting the most bang for your buck out of them. And as lights are already starved for firepower, adding Narc just makes the problem worse. I usually prefer Med Pulse lasers and SRMs.

As others have said, scouting can be very useful in MW, but its not your primary role. I build lights with max speed so I can scout early in the game but then get back to the main line undamaged. From there I pick away at flanks, try to turn the enemy away from my assaults, get heavier mechs to chase me away from the main battle, and use my scouting to locate mechs that have isolated themselves and relay that info back for the team to jump on.

There is a guide to match rewards that should help you increase your match score. I keep meaning to bookmark it but I've lost the link again. Maybe someone else can post it. But the Reward Display shows up in text in center screen (or lower left) when you do stuff that helps your match score - keep an eye on that for ideas of what you are getting rewarded for and do more of it.

But in the end, as others have said, your match score is primarily dependent on how much damage you put out, in the form of kills, solo kills, most damage for kill, assists, components destroyed, etc.

Edited by Fen Tetsudo, 15 January 2016 - 08:37 AM.