Posted 30 December 2015 - 05:05 PM
If you want some pointers on fighting in big mechs, follow the link in my signature. Otherwise here are some standard tips I give to everyone:
You need to change your mentality. I am currently Tier 3 in the PSR, mostly piloting heavy and assault mechs in solo queue, as a solo player (not that I am against playing with groups, but the group queue tonnage limits arent my thing and I dont have a group of people to play with on average).
You have to play with the mindset that you are playing solo and happen to have other people around you. All you can do is try to cover those that are around you, while hoping they do the same.
Dont be the first on the charge unless you are more than willing to be the first to die in the match. Especially if you are in an assault mech. People will give you **** for not being their bullet sponge, but if your focus is getting higher PSR, you have to play as a solo player who has NPC team members that will die quickly.
Once a fight has been committed to, swivel the **** out of your torso to spread the damage. it doesnt matter if you lose an arm or a torso as long as you can keep fighting and doing damage. AC and SRM weapons are better for swivel tanking compared to lasers. Lasers require you face your opponent to keep the laser on then, AC and SRM's dont require you to keep looking your enemy in the eye to do damage.
Use artillery and UAV's to help out your team. You get damage points/score for landing a good arty/air strike on the enemy, and UAV's not only reveal the enemies location but if team members do damage on an enemy revealed this way (as well with laser painters and NARC's) you get a lot of points for it. You may be playing solo, but your still playing with a team (a very important concept).
Another thing is that with PSR, you get queued with people 2 ranks above and below you. So if you have a PSR of 5, you will only get teamed up with (and against) people Tier 5, 4 and 3. If you are tier 3 like me, you get paired up with people (and against people) from tier 5 all the way to tier 1. So once you hit tier 3, its a real ******* slow crawl to get to tier 2 (especially when leveling up mechs at the same time). I am 1/2 way to tier 2, but its been a real slow push to make it there.
Also, dont let people peer-pressure you out of weapon types. LRM's dont suck (they really dont, but they arent as meta as the laser spam that has held the meta for so long) and are good weapons no matter what tier you are, you just have to learn how to use them. The only weapons that currently 'suck' are flamers and LB-10X (which doesnt exactly suck, but the damage spread on it is not great). Find weapon groups that really sync well with you, and stick to them.
Last bit of advice, dont worry about being a general every match. Just try to stick with the group, try not to get singled out, and just accept that there are going to be games you are going to lose (and sometimes lose very badly). The sooner you do, the sooner you can enjoy this game. If you let your blood pressure rise with every match, Faction Warfare will give you an aneurysm.