Well, let me add my 2 cents, from a new player's perspective - and I guess a bit of whining about how hard life is in the MWO universe
I just started playing a couple of weeks ago, did the first 25 cadet matches in a trial mech, then purchased and outfitted my first mech, and started grinding PUG matches. The initial idea was to play for a while, improve my skills and my equipment, participate in a couple of events, and then decide whether I want to move on to CW, join a team and start playing MWO
seriously 
That plan was going along quite nicely until I hit the last 2-3% before Tier 3 (it's hard to be more specific as the progress bar does not display actual percentages). At that point, I ran into a huge difficulty spike, the matches suddenly started feeling like I was going against some sort of superhuman terminators with nerves of steel, or at least professional cyber-athletes who have been honing their MWO skills for the last 20 years or so. It definitely did not happen when I
moved into Tier 3 - it happened when I started
approaching Tier 3. The game dynamics changed drastically. Before, I was able to be active and aggressive, press the enemy hard, and I generally enjoyed the playstyle I've developed, which could be briefly described as "be everywhere and nowhere at once, strike from the shadows and do unto others before they can do unto you" (I'm playing a HBR-PRIME with pretty much a "glass cannon" build, overgunned and under-armored, heavily reliant on speed and stealth). Now I spend most of my matches literally crawling on my belly, sticking close to the fatties, and thinking twice before even attempting to peek over a hill or execute a flanking maneuver because it usually ends in a disaster. The drive is gone, the enjoyment is gone, the sense of achievement at the end of the match is gone. I don't feel like I'm contributing to the team anymore. Just yesterday we had a 12:0 win in a skirmish in Polar Highlands, but that victory felt empty to me.
We did not win -
they won while I was hiding behind cover and trying to avoid getting shot at. I've stopped running out of ammo, now I usually have more than half ammo left at the end of the match, because I spend more time trying to stay alive than dealing damage to the enemy. And what's worse - match performance is gone, too. Just a couple of days ago, I could easily get 700-800 damage and a match score of 400+ out of a good match. Now I'm very happy if I finish a match alive with something like 300 damage and a match score of 200. So, my "event grinding" plan is going out the window, because events points are awarded based on match performance, and I cannot deliver that performance anymore. Frankly, I'm frustrated and pretty close to ragequitting. I don't want to beat up on Tier 5 newbies, I realize that I'm well past that level, but I clearly don't belong in Tier 3 either. Tier 4 felt right at home, but I guess I can't go back unless I intentionally lose a few dozen matches, which I don't even want to discuss. Bottom line is, I feel I'm being PUNISHED for advancing too far instead of being REWARDED for it, and it sucks...
Well, those were some of my disorganized thoughts based on a new player's subjective experience. I don't really know why I wrote it - I can't change anything, so I guess I'm just venting my frustration. "Tier 3 hell in a Hellbringer", yeah
Edited by DGTLDaemon, 22 January 2016 - 12:46 AM.
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