62 replies to this topic

[SQW]

Yes, you know who you are - especially the heavy and assault mechs configure for 'long distance' who are just closet turrets.

I guess because ducking around corners/crates and firing off a few pot shots or iron-sight snipe has been so ingrained in FPS, it's inevitable these 'skills' are carried into MWO.

DON'T.

Apart from the opening salvos, holding the line for the rest of the team to flank and maybe fighting a larger mech in a 1v1 duel, the peek a boo stable of FPS would more likely get you AND your team killed than rushing out screaming BANZAI!

Here are some points to why peek a boo is so detrimental and feel free to agree or disagree:

1. Picture a 6v6 scenario. On one side, the mechs are poking their heads out to snipe a few at a time while the other side marches forward line as a unit. Which side can bring the most damage onto a single target?

2. When you are in a peek a boo mentality, the first thing you do when the enemy rushes over your ridge is to back away and try to find another 'safe' spot to snipe. Your positioning is compromised, you don't know where your lance mates are, who to cover and who to concentrate fire on so your team gets scattered like ten-pins and get picked off individually.

3. When you are in x2 or x4 zoom all the time, you get tunnel vision. I bet you never look at the text box or mini map half of the time. You only realize you got flanked when you start taking damage by which time you are in a cross fire already. Do you know how funny it is seeing half of the sniping gun line trying to panic wheel about to save their sides while the other half are still playing peek a boo?

4. You are a mech. With lots of amour. You can take hits without dying.

5. You are a mech. Your slow arse peek a boo will inevitably be seen by someone and be shot before you can back off.

6. You CAN get a few free hits but so can the other side on you so your chance of winning by sniping is....

7. DO NOT crowd around a choke point, jostling each other trying to take a few pot shots, blocking each other's sight, trying to back away only to be get blocked by someone following too close, get hammered by at least 3 mechs while standing in the open. Sounds familiar? Grab a few buddies and flank if you can or just pile out as one (see first point) or retreat to a better position in relation to your team.

I highly recommend the very helpful Tactic 101 comics in the Forum. For people who just started playing (or even someone with a bit of time under their belt), it can REALLY help you.

This is intended to educate new/pub guys on basic Mech tactics so don't pile on with your match score and K/D number claiming sniping is king; there are obviously more advance tactics and situations where peek a boo is a perfectly legit way to go but for most fresh out of COD/Battlefield players, a nudge in the right direction can help everyone.

EDIT: I'm talking about pub Quick Start here. CW ppl either don't need basic advice or too green for tactical advice to matter. =P

EDIT 2: Even if you don't agree with me, take a look at this excellent tactic thread (with pictures!) @ http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/212982-tactics-101-comics/. Seriously, read it. You'll be twice as good a pilot afterwards.

Edited by SQW, 10 January 2016 - 07:14 PM.

[Navid A1]

One of my unit members runs sniper assaults exclusively... you won't believe the things we can often achieve with one sniper watching over the place we choose to brawl.

[sycocys]

Most of the snipers aren't new players, they are vets trying to get everyone else to sacrifice their armor while they score PSR passable damage then blame the loss on everyone they sacrificed while hiding for 3/4ths of the match.

[Karl Marlow]

4 and 5 seem to cancel each other out. Especially if you are sniping at long range. Return fire is reduced unless they are packing a sniper build as well.

[Navid A1]

sycocys, on 07 January 2016 - 05:49 PM, said:

Most of the snipers aren't new players, they are vets trying to get everyone else to sacrifice their armor while they score PSR passable damage then blame the loss on everyone they sacrificed while hiding for 3/4ths of the match.

unfortunately that is mostly true in pug matches.

[C E Dwyer]

There used to be corner poking in the vertical plane it was taken out because it was considered a dull and boring way to play.

It was called poptarting

But now we have mechs with Masc a way to make pop tarting on the horizonal plane even easier than the apparently boring vertical one.

Because it makes the game so much more interesting.

Right ?

[SkaerKrow]

With respect, if you want your heavies and assaults to stand out in the open or try walking into a covered position and take hits "because they have armor" then you don't understand how armor works in this game.

[Johnny Z]

I didn't read the topic or replies but I think "Peek a Boo" would be a great decal for my Raven when they add those.

[Khobai]

Quote

With respect, if you want your heavies and assaults to stand out in the open or try walking into a covered position and take hits "because they have armor" then you don't understand how armor works in this game.

This. Armor doesnt work at all. Period.

Its better not get hit at all or stay at ranges where you can hurt the enemy but they cant hurt you back.

More often than not its the idiots that charge in and try to brawl that end up losing the match for everyone else.

[Bonger Bob]

why not just toss all long range weapons in the bin, and hey while were at it, now that half the weapons are gone, lets burn half the now useless mechs.

everyone equip an LBX / large AC and load up on pulses to fill the holes, brawling is the only mode of play.

bad players will walk in places where snipers have an advantage. snipers will tend to cover long fire lines that make for easy pickings.

its like standing in open ground for lurms to rain down on you, to get upset that people are using lurms.........

[Navid A1]

Not saying peek a boo is a good tactic... but,

I have one question for the OP:
What are YOU doing while the sniper is shooting targets?
If you are not trying to initiate a brawl in an area covered by the sniper... you have some things to learn!


One other thing....

SQW, on 07 January 2016 - 05:40 PM, said:

4. You are a mech. With lots of amour. You can take hits without dying.

That statement is light years away from the reality.
An assault will NEVER lead the charge unless there are 8 more mechs are charging with him... and that never happens in pug matches!


and lastly... if the sniper has done 900 damage at the end and you still manage to lose, it would not have mattered anyway if he was on the front in that match

[LordBraxton]

Is there anything in MWO besides peek-a-boo sniping at this point?

Actual brawling died like... 3 years ago now?!?!

Not sure what OP is talking about. If you dont like-

hit and run
hill humping
peek-a-boo
high alpha or go home

youre playing the wrong game.

[Aresye]

sycocys, on 07 January 2016 - 05:49 PM, said:

Most of the snipers aren't new players, they are vets trying to get everyone else to sacrifice their armor while they score PSR passable damage then blame the loss on everyone they sacrificed while hiding for 3/4ths of the match.

Tis true, but let's not kid ourselves here, the rest of the team isn't usually going to win the match.

You might have 1-2 solid vets on each side per game, and they're going to not only do a ton of damage, but they're going to be doing effective damage, either by coring mechs to the point they're 1 shot away from dying, or stripping one-sided mechs of their important weapons.

For example, if I'm playing CW and I end up facing Fission from EmP playing with a bunch of pugs, my #1 priority for that game is to take him out ASAP, while his priority would be to take ME out ASAP.

We'll let the team soak the majority of the damage, but we're definitely not hiding 3/4 of the match. That's a surefire way to lose, and we don't like losing. We're just not stupid enough to put ourselves out in front, because if we go down early, 99% of the time that means game over for the team (at least in solo queue and solo CW).

Yes, this is an elitist viewpoint, and I likely sound like a douche saying it, but if 3/4 of my team could actually pull their weight and do fine without me, I wouldn't need to play conservatively.

[Deathlike]

The problem with peeking is that most players peek at random intervals... instead of peeking together.

Peeking one at time makes for a different version of "filing in one of at time" ("whack a mole" is kinda similar to "fish in a barrel").

Go figure. It's become Lostech along with proper firing lines.

[sycocys]

Aresye Kerensky, on 07 January 2016 - 06:20 PM, said:

Yes, this is an elitist viewpoint, and I likely sound like a douche saying it, but if 3/4 of my team could actually pull their weight and do fine without me, I wouldn't need to play conservatively.

Hate to have to say it, but this is pretty much exactly why I decided to never play in the standard pug queue again.

[Homeskilit]

It is frustrating to die and cycle through your team to find your assault mechs in the back, playing sniper, with full armor...

then the match ends and you out damaged him and nearly everyone else despite dieing early.

Those same guys in back sniping are usually the same guys that complain you left them behind when the opposing flankers roll them.

[sycocys]

Homeskilit, on 07 January 2016 - 06:30 PM, said:

It is frustrating to die and cycle through your team to find your assault mechs in the back, playing sniper, with full armor...

then the match ends and you out damaged him and nearly everyone else despite dieing early.

Those same guys in back sniping are usually the same guys that complain you left them behind when the opposing flankers roll them.

Also rarely do they have the common courtesy of even shooting down uavs for the rest of the team that's trying to flush out the opposing force.

[Homeskilit]

sycocys, on 07 January 2016 - 06:34 PM, said:

Also rarely do they have the common courtesy of even shooting down uavs for the rest of the team that's trying to flush out the opposing force.

Lol right? If your getting Lrm'd to death, odds are it is because of a UAV, but no one ever seems to look up.

[Deathlike]

Aresye Kerensky, on 07 January 2016 - 06:20 PM, said:

Tis true, but let's not kid ourselves here, the rest of the team isn't usually going to win the match.

You might have 1-2 solid vets on each side per game, and they're going to not only do a ton of damage, but they're going to be doing effective damage, either by coring mechs to the point they're 1 shot away from dying, or stripping one-sided mechs of their important weapons.

For example, if I'm playing CW and I end up facing Fission from EmP playing with a bunch of pugs, my #1 priority for that game is to take him out ASAP, while his priority would be to take ME out ASAP.

We'll let the team soak the majority of the damage, but we're definitely not hiding 3/4 of the match. That's a surefire way to lose, and we don't like losing. We're just not stupid enough to put ourselves out in front, because if we go down early, 99% of the time that means game over for the team (at least in solo queue and solo CW).

Yes, this is an elitist viewpoint, and I likely sound like a douche saying it, but if 3/4 of my team could actually pull their weight and do fine without me, I wouldn't need to play conservatively.

When people claim the the solo queue is "good", it's really the ultimate "dumbing down" of MWO. I'm not saying lopsidedness in the group queue is easy to deal with, but actually recognizing what good and bad you did in a match is paramount to getting better... while doing the least useful things in the solo queues translates really poorly in CW.

But hey... "everything's fine".

[Clownwarlord]

Depends on the mech an the build if peek a boo sniper is good or not.

Example in CW my Battlemaster 1S is great at sniping on some maps when I can do full ER Large damage at 900 meters, but in pug drops when many matches you do not get to use your range against the enemy it isn't worth it.

Another example in CW my Summoner with 2 ERPPC and 2 SRm4s is horrible at peek a boo sniper because of the velocity at extreme ranges like 900 meters. But then in pug matches poke around corner shoot fade back when most fighting in pug is 600m or closer.