7 replies to this topic

[multisoul]

sniping in cw is possible, however beware the difference:

in regular matches you move around the expected enemy location, show yourself slowly, then shoot and hide, so that if the enemy turns he does not know where you are, then you repeat. still like in CW if you take too long between shots you are the last standing against 12 mechs.

In CW:
you DO NOT hide when you see on the minimap your team fighting
you DO NOT move around, because there is omega and the enemy is moving towards it, flanking and moving around has a very limited use. flanking means moving all the way around some big obstacle to get to the enemies back and when you arrive your team is dead, the enemy turns around and "how did i die from 1 shot in my ct at 100% health?". you know where the enemy must be and so do they
sniping during combat means just firing from a long range, meaning that while your short range mates are being squatted like flies you have to non stop fire to save them, the moment you hide - your team is dead. the best is if at this moment you draw fire so the enemy is shooting at you at 700m distance instead of the AC20 mechs next to him. DO NOT HIDE, help your team stay alive. you can also chain fire at newcommers if the crowd is to dense to get a clear shot - getting chain fire while approaching combat makes them hide instead of helping the team even if the damage is low.
sniping in CW means you do a little damage per shot, so you must shoot a lot
find a long alley and hold position, fall back only if you team has done so as well
seeing the guy who is farthest away still run from battle because some gauss did 2 damage to him from 2000m makes me want to TK
if you aim shot fall back with a sniper it means at the 3rd shot you are already back at the drop zone and useless to the team

... whats the point, those that have to will not read this loi

Edited by multisoul, 13 January 2016 - 06:58 AM.

[sycocys]

Unless you are putting up 45+ damage and not having to constantly stop firing to cool down - sniping is basically removing yourself as a threat to the enemy team.

Especially if your plan is to snipe in a damage/heat deficient light mech that could be pestering non-stop in brawling range and taking actual focus off of your teammates your threat level is minimal and most teams will flat out ignore your 1-2 ERLL while they dig into your team's supply of mechs. There's a reason why the sniper/lrm players are usually the last ones left and with multiple drops/half the damage of the next lowest scoring player on the their side.

[Armando]

sycocys, on 15 January 2016 - 06:54 AM, said:

Unless you are putting up 45+ damage and not having to constantly stop firing to cool down - sniping is basically removing yourself as a threat to the enemy team.

Especially if your plan is to snipe in a damage/heat deficient light mech that could be pestering non-stop in brawling range and taking actual focus off of your teammates your threat level is minimal and most teams will flat out ignore your 1-2 ERLL while they dig into your team's supply of mechs. There's a reason why the sniper/lrm players are usually the last ones left and with multiple drops/half the damage of the next lowest scoring player on the their side.

I couldn't agree more.

Listen, no one know how powerful fire support load outs are in a match or supports their use more in drops than me. That said, fire support needs to move with their team, present with their team, and most important...focus fire with their team.

If fire support is not presenting with their team, they are not soaking damage with their team. This can (and likely will) cause the teammates 'on the line' to crumble in seconds instead of minutes, with the ultimate result of a team loss.

To put this another way:

[snark] Congratulations on posting 5K damage during a losing match, if you would have presented (and soaked damage) with your team you 'would' CRUSHED the other team even doing 1/2 the overall damage....but you didn't, and now your team will get no bonus Faction Rep, no bonus C-Bills, and any(all) teammate(s) who have situational awareness now hates you. [/snark]

Edited by Armando, 17 January 2016 - 02:19 PM.

[Khereg]

I can't tell you how many times I've been in a match where one opponent snipes, hides, and protects their first mech for an extended period of time while their teammates are up front taking damage and spending mechs. The sniper often comes out on top for damage and kills, but frequently winds up the last person alive with 2 or even 3 unused mechs when the rest of the team has been completely wiped. Those last mechs are essentially useless because that player is going 1 v 12 against us and lives for about 3 - 5 seconds on those last drops, rarely even getting a shot off.

They might as well have dropped with only one or two mechs. They definitely didn't get full use of their assets - depending on how you look at it, I suppose. If I was their teammate I'd be a little miffed they weren't in the fray with the rest of us. If I were feeling particularly snarky, I might even accuse them of using the rest of us as meat shields while they stayed safe in the back.

Not good teamwork, IMHO.

Edited by Khereg, 15 January 2016 - 02:55 PM.

[StonedVet]

I enjoy the sight of enemy snipers. It makes it that much easier to focus fire the lesser number of priority targets directly in our path. Mmm tasty

[Khereg]

Khereg, on 15 January 2016 - 01:46 PM, said:

Not good teamwork, IMHO.

Upon further consideration, I'm going to commit the heinous offense of quoting my own post and discussing an exception to the above...

You've probably all seen various players post up really gaudy CW scores: 3k, 4k, or higher damage, etc. A dirty little secret is that these scores are often achieved using exactly the technique I described as being poor teamwork. You generally can't do this kind of thing by brawling, because you can't get the really, really lopsided trades you need to hit these kinds of numbers if you're standing 200m or less from your opponents.

The difference here is, the players doing the sniping are really, really good at it and tend to be rock star players outside of CW. Now, here's the controversial part: It can make more sense for a team to keep that player alive and unhurt for as long as possible because this gives them the best chance of winning. But this assumes everyone knows who this player is, what they are capable of, and are willing to put themselves out there as a meat shield to protect them and let them do their thing. When these players show up in pug CW drops, you don't really know if they are THAT kind of player until the match is over. In the meantime, they just look like some a-hole using your team for meat shields.

Edited by Khereg, 15 January 2016 - 03:11 PM.

[sycocys]

I guess if you want to be effective as a teammate and have something resembling that "sniper" roll what you need is a mech with high weapon mounts so you can shoot over your teammates (with good positioning, if you shoot their arms off they will probably turn and kill you) about 450-500m of EFFECTIVE (ie not anywhere near maximum) range with quirk/modules - that means AC5/10, LL/LPL - and you need enough ammo/DHS to keep your output up while the front line engages and does cooling cycles.

You should also be well prepared to have times where you are going to sustain a little damage to take the heat off of your team so everyone can get as much done per mech as possible. This is how you will be most effective in adapting that role into a wide range of teams.

[DarklightCA]

Sniping can be pretty handy on map's like Boreal, especially as attackers. A example of doing it effectively would be to have 2-3 long range traders positioned on Alpha gate while the rest of the team stacked on Beta. The long range traders would deal initial damage before the big push and provide good distraction and split attention from the defenders to allow the mechs on Beta to take down the gate without taking as much damage.

From there how it play's out completely depends on the defender's team position. If they are hiding in the back you can allow your sniper mechs to continue there long range trading from Alpha while your team pushes in Beta and clears the initial area. Where they can sweep to Alpha and quickly open the gate to allow the long range traders to position themselves closer up to more effectively support there team and deal damage.

If the defenders are stacked more towards the gate, you can allow the distance traders to keep dealing there damage for a little while if they are still effectively trading then have them reposition to Beta gate for a full team push against some fairly damaged mechs. It's a different approach otherwise you are pretty much just murderballing the gate every time and hoping your murderball is better than there defensive focus fire. Obviously this only applies to Boreal because the other maps are either focused on mid range or close range and long range really loses its effectiveness.

Edited by l)arklight, 15 January 2016 - 03:48 PM.