11 replies to this topic

[Keffer]

Good morning everyone, I'm looking for some input on the role/tatics for a noob in a light mech. Last night I bought my first light mech, a Artic Cheetah Prime, currenlty carring (from memory) 3 SPL, 2 SRM6 and a TAG. This is what I encounted in my first few matchs

1. First match was "capture base or kill all mechs" thinking I was sneaky I skirted the map, found there base unguarded and went in, after it was down 2 points I was dead super quick by gauss from somthing so far away it wasnt even on radar, lesson learned - next time keep moving while capturing, maybe just run cirlces around the base, anything else?

2. Next match was of the "gather resources" variety, and I quickly started to like my new mech, while most of the team was center map duking it out and ignoring the objectives I ran around capping, got a kill on one light and had a great time, we won and I figure this will be my favortite use for this mech

3. OK now this is the part I am struggling on, next 3 matchs are "kill everyones" at first I try to stick with the other lights and get behind the big guys, I quickly determined that a Stormcrow is reasonably fast and will carry enough MPL to ruin my day quickly, so I try hanging with the assults and providing ECM cover and working for a back shot if it presents itself, well apparently the ECM thing seems to draw direct fire like a magnet. Next I try running ahead of the crowd and targeting anything I can get eyes on for anyone with LRM's and pot shotting anything I can, problem with this I found myself running into multiple enemies and hanging around to hold the locks got me killed pretty quick also.

So to sumarize I need suggestions/tatics for a light in a mission where the goal is to kill, kill and kill some more. Is my build bad, my tatics, or just lack of experience?

Edited by Keffer, 22 October 2015 - 03:36 AM.

[Keffer]

Follow up question please, does my TAG work if i put it on the same trigger as my SRM's or do i need to fire it before the SRM's?

[Old-dirty B]

Welcome to the light division!

As a pilot of light mechs you have a few roles you can take on, depending on mech and load out you might be better suited for some specific roles but most often you should be able switch from one to another. To list a few:

1. scout, find the enemy, lock on, relay info etc
2. support, help out friendly mechs by engaging their opponents (turn a 1v1 into a 2v1)
3. harass, bring chaos and distract enemies by charging the flanks and perform hit n run tactics
4. hunt & kill solo targets, find opportunities to solo out a target, preferably significantly slower then you and attack in the back

Some remarks and "tips":

A light mech is vurnable and its speed and manoeuvrability are key to survival. Avoid charging head on and getting focussed, be aware of cover to hide or location of friendlies to fall back to and use your low profile to remain undetected (stealth).

Although your speed allows you to operate solo pretty well, you are much more effective in a light "wolf-pack" encircling your enemies hit n run from multiple angles, engage and disappear to reappear from another direction and so on is so much more effective with a few other fast mechs.

In general avoid standing still, only to briefly hide and read your seismic sensor.

Learn to read the battlefield. A light mech pilot doesn't dictate the grand scheme of the battle / game, it should pick its own fights and dictate those because of its speed advantage. It finds opportunities to engage and perhaps even more important when to disengage (** note to self lol **)!!

To respond to your questions / remarks:
1. Base capping on your own takes quite a while and sooner or later the enemy will respond. They will already know where you are (at their base) and they will find a light mech standing still. IMO, not good at all for light mechs, you should dictate the fight and determine when and where you will battle it off, not the enemy.
2. Good idea, however you could also have helped out and support your team by flanking, harassing, scouting etc.
3. medium mechs, like the stormcrow, are dangerous opponents because you have less speed and manoeuvrability advantage and they will have the armor and firepower advantage. Helping out is very good, although its important that you stay alive (unless you sacrifice for an advantage to your team)
4. i believe TAG only works with guided missiles such as LRM's and perhaps streaks (SSRM's), i believe unguided missiles (SRM) are unaffected by TAG.

Hope this helps you further.

Cheers Klauwhamer

Edited by Klauwhamer, 22 October 2015 - 04:33 AM.

[Lord Auriel]

Hi

1) At the start of the match, rush ahead and carefully try to find out where the enemies are located - if you bump into a baddie, drop a UAV and retreat. Don't shoot, yet

2) Let the battle begin to unfold. In this stage you are usually trying to ge tcaps or capping the enemy base so half their team turns and runs back (always hilarious when that happens), but don't wait until they get to you, you won't be able to cap a base alone so don't even try to stay longer than your gut feeling tells you.

3) In the "kill all" mode, skim around the edges of the battle (usually the rear and side flanks of your own team) and shoot stuff. The ACH can be a powerful brawler (5/6 c-spl), in fact it is currently one of the best mechs in the game. Just don't facetank stuff and use your jump jets a lot.

The power of a light mech is its psychological potential. You can DEVOUR LRM boats, you can make people turn to face you (and thus showing thei rears to your buddies), so it's vital to learn when to engage and when to retreat. Easy rule: Trust your intuition and run when you're not sure. You can always come back 10 seconds later to kill him.

I also recommend the Panther 9R with 2 PPCs as a second light because it is totally different (ranged playstyle, sniper skillz) and simply the funiest light mech ever IMHO - and it can carry games very well too.

PS: TAG is uselesswith SRM. It wonly works with guided missiles and you want to light the target before you shoot, that means put it on a separate weapon group

Edited by Lord Auriel, 22 October 2015 - 04:36 AM.

[Lord Auriel]

oh also you NEED the "Target info Gathering" module. You have to know where to shoot.

[Airu]

If you only got Artic Cheetah Prime I would got with something like this: ACH-PRIME
Forget SRMs if its your first light, they are not worth it against armored targets, unless you are boating them. Targeting comp increases laser and sensor range otherwise you can put another heat sink.

Tag is useless on a light unless you want to spend most of your time hiding behind a hill far away and lighting enemy targets for your lrm boats - very situational and boring.

Never engage a medium mech unless the pilot is very bad or the mech is half dead. If more than 1 enemy mech is shooting at you - gotta run away and relocate. Someone here posted a thread about light mech tactis, which is very good - explains flanking and harassing very well.

When the main brawl starts is the only time you can run out of cover and engage enemy mechs head on as long as they are focused on your heavier teammates.
Also attack already damaged mechs, cored enemies usually run away behind their team to hide and redirect focus - thats where you come in in your light.

There are two essential modules for lights - info gathering and radar deprivation. The second one is a must have against lrms if your ecm is disabled.

Edited by Airu, 22 October 2015 - 11:17 AM.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Keffer, on 22 October 2015 - 03:34 AM, said:

Good morning everyone, I'm looking for some input on the role/tatics for a noob in a light mech. Last night I bought my first light mech, a Artic Cheetah Prime, currenlty carring (from memory) 3 SPL, 2 SRM6 and a TAG. This is what I encounted in my first few matchs

Welcome, and rest assured you bought the RIGHT light.

Quote

1. First match was "capture base or kill all mechs" thinking I was sneaky I skirted the map, found there base unguarded and went in, after it was down 2 points I was dead super quick by gauss from somthing so far away it wasnt even on radar, lesson learned - next time keep moving while capturing, maybe just run cirlces around the base, anything else?

ASSAULT mode. Base cap used to be viable, back when it was only 8v8 and ASSAULT was the only game mode. Times change.

First light mech lesson? NEVER. STOP. MOVING. Well, at least not while you're not 100% sure that no enemy mech has line of sight to you with weapons that can reach you. Even when you're unobserved and in great overwatch on the whole enemy force, standing still for too long is usually a bad idea.

If you have an idea of the general direction of the enemy from the point you're capturing, then keep the point itself between you and them--it's a solid object that provides COVER from direct fire. Also, standing still with the Seismic Sensor module (should be the FIRST module you unlock and buy, BTW) might benefit you here. Got me my first Zeus kill in my ACH once. (NEVER try to solo an ACH in a damaged assault mech, at least not at close range.)

The light mech's advantages are SPEED and SIZE. More of the former, less of the latter, makes a harder-to-hit target out of your Arctic Cheetah. Standing still negates one of those two advantages, and most MWO pilots are good enough to hit that small a target with Gauss from a half-mile away when it's standing still.

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2. Next match was of the "gather resources" variety, and I quickly started to like my new mech, while most of the team was center map duking it out and ignoring the objectives I ran around capping, got a kill on one light and had a great time, we won and I figure this will be my favortite use for this mech

CONQUEST. Second game in MWO, after the original ASSAULT. Lights tend to be the gatherers of their teams, as they can move quickly between resource points. If you like this mode, you may want to unlock and buy the Capture Accelerator module--IIRC, it works in CONQUEST. USED to, anyhow. There's a bit of a split in the community over whether resource gathering should be the focus of one's efforts in CONQUEST or not. I applaud you for not choosing the dark path.

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3. OK now this is the part I am struggling on, next 3 matchs are "kill everyones" at first I try to stick with the other lights and get behind the big guys, I quickly determined that a Stormcrow is reasonably fast and will carry enough MPL to ruin my day quickly, so I try hanging with the assults and providing ECM cover and working for a back shot if it presents itself, well apparently the ECM thing seems to draw direct fire like a magnet. Next I try running ahead of the crowd and targeting anything I can get eyes on for anyone with LRM's and pot shotting anything I can, problem with this I found myself running into multiple enemies and hanging around to hold the locks got me killed pretty quick also.

Wolf packing with other lights CAN be very effective. Your speed leads to surprise leads to backstab kills. Done well, you can ruin the enemy's day by stalling their attack, distracting their focus from your own team's heavier mechs, and doing some real damage. Even a lone light can wreak havoc this way, but 3-4 of them can be terrifying to the enemy if he didn't see it coming. Getting TO the target without being spotted, and from an angle that works to your advantage, is HUGE. It's also not as easy as it may seem, and it requires some experience.

Doing the ECM escort thing DOES draw direct fire. After all, you're a weakly-armored light mech that's keeping the ECM shield over those big, juicy targets. And you're obviously moving slower because you're sticking to the BIG mechs. Great target. IF you pull escort duty, keep moving. Circle your friendlies a lance at a time, or weave between them when there's more open space to do so. Move around a LOT. Watch for that incoming missiles icon over your friendlies, and get to the ones that are taking fire QUICKLY so as to break the locks and spare them the LRMpocalypse. Save your weapons fire for later in the match, when it devolves into a closer-range brawl and the enemies are more worn-down by your own teammates, and then they are easier prey.

Ah, scouting. It's about to change A LOT. For the time being, though, the others are right that TAG makes for a kind of boring match. Also, the TAG laser is visible to the enemy, so using it kinda gives you away--you have to have line of sight within a certain range, so there are only two places you can be. That said, IF you have LRM boats on your team, they'll appreciate the help A LOT. The key? Spot the enemies from where they don't see or expect to see you. MUCH trickier to do than to say, but that's the real trick to reconnaissance overall. No one likes to be watched by his enemy, so don't let him know you're watching. And when he figures out that you are, keep him guessing as to WHERE you're watching FROM. And again, be prepared to abandon this and dive into the heart of the fight once it devolves into a close-range brawl.

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So to sumarize I need suggestions/tatics for a light in a mission where the goal is to kill, kill and kill some more. Is my build bad, my tatics, or just lack of experience?

Your build ain't great. I'd suggest either a lot of SPLs (5 or 6), ECM, and maybe an extra DHS or a TComp, OR a single ERLL and a few ERSLs for backup, and you can poke a little from range. At any rate, ECM is one of the strong points of the ACH. USE it. Ditch the missiles. The Cheeter is a laser boat light, and a fairly survivable one.

Good luck!

[Lord Domino]

Don't get caught out alone-- you are in a light mech. Just because you can get to the enemy base in under a minute, doesn't mean you will live to tell about it. Personally I'd recommend 6 x SPL and an ECM for a build. Stick with your heavies and assaults and learn when to switch your ECM to counter mode-- anytime you see "low signal" and your radar starts flickering. It's the same as basically any team game -- if you go off by yourself, you better be a damn good shot and extremely lucky, or you will be decimated quickly. Stay with the team.

[Audacious Aubergine]

One thing I'm learning very slowly myself when using lights (and considering that I've recently started attempting to use Firestarters, it's probably something I need to learn sooner rather than later):
- don't be afraid to run away, you're fast enough that you can generally outrun people
- know exactly where you're going to run away to, since if your escape route is through a cliff that you can't run through then you're dead anyway
- know when it's a good idea to run away, regardless of your firepower, if you have to stand still to unload onto front armour of more than a couple enemies then they're just going to murder you dead.

[Kali Rinpoche]

One thing to remember, speed is life for a light mech. Pick your battles wisely until you have the mech fully elited. A well played light can cause havoc that can disrupt a push in PUG games. Not so much is group matches where you will get focused fired to death.

The pressure you put on the Op-For can often help sway the tide of battle. Don't be a light that spends 2/3rds of the match hiding behind terrain waiting on someone to poke their head over

Edited by Kali Rinpoche, 23 October 2015 - 04:18 PM.

[Halvar Freysson]

O7.

I'm a noob too (first post, woot!) so I'm really hesitant to even bother responding, but from my experience in other PVP games I find that it's really dangerous to do any scouting at all until you get a really good grasp of the layout and meta for each map. It's SO easy to run around a corner at 125kph and find yourself in the middle of a lance of reds. A more experienced player will have a better idea of when they're likely to bump into those reds and they'll be prepared for it, but as a noob that situation tends to surprise and lead to panic.

Then again, I tend to be a really slow thinker and panic easily so I apologize if that doesn't describe you at all.

***edit*** Just to clarify; if you enjoy scouting then by all means PLEASE continue to do so. We'll all love you for trying even if you fail miserably. But if you do try and it just frustrates you then don't feel pressured to do so just because you're in a light mech. Generally speaking, you want your most-experienced light pilots to scout rather than the least-experienced.

Edited by Thankful Knight, 26 October 2015 - 02:35 PM.

[LiGhtningFF13]

Never stop moving in light chassis. Always be mobile and serve as a scout via ingame team chat or via modules like UAVs or Tags. Use sensors or ECM to stay covered visual (out of enemie's sight and radar). No solo actions stay close to your group.