10 replies to this topic

[Languid Mass]

Hey all,

New-ish player that is just thinking about getting into faction play. I have 13 total mechs, 12 of which are max skilled. I have joined an IS clan. To get as close to the max tonnage as I can, I will bring Blackjack x2, Quickdraw x1, Banshee x1. Each of these mechs has 1-2 mods each, will get more as I get more money.

I would basically like to know what are some good tips for faction play vs. quick play.

For example, in quick play, LRMs are flying like crazy so Radar Deprivation is a MUST. I get the impression that people don't use LRMs very much in faction play (could be wrong but I played one faction play match and didn't see any).

I just want to come to the table prepared so I don't hurt my team. Any advice or suggestions relating to how Faction Play is different from Quick play would be really helpful.

Thanks!

[Leone]

Just so you know, there is no hybrid Inner Sphere/Clan. We call the IS factions Houses, to help differentiate. Your either with the Inner Sphere, or with a Clan. (Just sos you know, your showing with House Liao, which is Inner Sphere House.)

Faction play is a lot more team oriented than quickplay. In quickplay, some folk'll try to team up or deathball. In Community Warfare, you should always be attacking in waves and working together. Things to think about are keeping clear lanes of fire and movement, since it can get alot more crowded than most folk are used to.

Also, be aware that'll there'll be more focus firing more often.

Now, not every team you face'll be a cohesive group, but more often'n not, even a few of the random pugs'll know how to work together, so be wary, an have fun out there.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 12 February 2016 - 07:32 PM.

[Languid Mass]

Thank you for the correction, I knew that but did type IS clan! Duh!

Any specifics? Ballistic heavy builds for heat or particular mods etc...

[MechWarrior4023212]

Languid Mass, on 12 February 2016 - 05:49 PM, said:

I would basically like to know what are some good tips for faction play vs. quick play.

For example, in quick play, LRMs are flying like crazy so Radar Deprivation is a MUST. I get the impression that people don't use LRMs very much in faction play (could be wrong but I played one faction play match and didn't see any).

CW is about team work much more than quick. You must be willing to sacrifice yourself for the team to win.

LRM in CW basically are a waste of space, dump them!

[Languid Mass]

I have 13 mechs and not a single LRM in the bunch, hate 'em really. I do have one Timber Wolf with some SRMs streaks and one of my Artic Cheetahs has 2 SRM non-streak, but that's about it. Good to hear I'm on the right track, thanks!

[DrRedCoat]

Languid Mass, on 12 February 2016 - 07:44 PM, said:

Thank you for the correction, I knew that but did type IS clan! Duh!

Any specifics? Ballistic heavy builds for heat or particular mods etc...

I tend to lean towards energy builds for CW since ammo can become an issue every now and then when I get lucky enough to live long enough to run out.

[Gruinhardt]

If you haven't already, download Teamspeak. I would suggest dropping Liao and going to Rasalhague. Rasalhague has a TeamSpeak hub and is on the Clan border. More players and more enemy's to fight, fewer ghost drops. Finally, I would suggest finding a active unit to join.

[Kyynele]

You do run into LRMs in faction play as well, so if you have the money, having Radar Deprivation on all your mechs is good to have. Even if the enemy team doesn't have LRMs, it's always a good thing to disappear from their radar as fast as possible, so that it's harder for them to anticipate your actions. Seismic is the other good module to have, especially before pushing through the gates, you can get a hint of where the enemies are.

I'd advise to bring an UAV with all your mechs. Even if your team has no LRMs, awareness is power, it will help everyone in your team to do smarter moves if your UAV reveals the exact enemy positions. UAVs are best coupled with Seismic Sensor, so you know you'll be revealing enemies without risking yourself by peeking.

So, my recommendation for module unlocks would be: UAV Upgrade and Improved UAV (these first, because UAVs only cost 40k to equip, so you can have them on all your mechs right away), Radar Deprivation and Advanced Seismic Sensor. These are universal and useful for all mechs, IS and Clan, all game modes. Go for specific weapon modules only when you have excess money and xp for it.

Your drop deck looks good, a strong lineup of currently good mechs. Be aware that in next tuesday's patch, the Blackjacks are going to get nerfed, so you should probably consider having some alternatives if they don't remain competitive.

Shoot at enemy mechs and you should be good. The worst things you could do is go solo open gates that don't need to be opened when your team is fighting somewhere else. Turrets hurt, destroying those that are shooting your team is helping. Otherwise, unless your team explicitly plans to rush generators or something, the safe bet is to just shoot enemy mechs like it's any other mode.

Currently is a good time to go and learn faction play. At the moment, it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever in any regard, so the worst you could do is make someone in your team feel like he wasted 30 minutes of his life. The results don't mean anything. It doesn't matter if your faction owns 1 planet or 500. That may (hopefully) change in the future patches.

Remember, Faction play has no matchmaker, so everytime you drop you may be put in a game with the best, worst or something in between. As a solo player, if you do 1000 damage with your 4 mechs, I'd say you did your part. If you regularly do less than 500 damage with 4 mechs, you're likely doing something wrong and should look into it.

For now, just go in, shoot mechs and have fun. Good luck.

[habu86]

Languid Mass, on 12 February 2016 - 07:44 PM, said:

Thank you for the correction, I knew that but did type IS clan! Duh!

Any specifics? Ballistic heavy builds for heat or particular mods etc...

Check out Kin3ticX's CW guide for many solid suggestions on builds and drop deck planning. Flip to the second half of the guide for the technical stuff.

Without getting into specifics, the CW meta shifted after the last balance pass and various tonnage adjustments since. Your loadouts will depend on the map you drop on and whether you are attacking on defending. For both IS and Clan, I tend to skew towards more energy-based builds on colder maps and more ballistic builds on hotter maps; I like to bring faster mechs when attacking (i.e. 75-80+ kph), but lean more towards tanky and heavily armed on defense (i.e. open with an assault/big heavy and go from there).

Laser vomit (+optional gauss) used to be the meta for both sides prior to the latest balance pass, for both long and short-range work.

Heat capacity nerf has limited Clan ability to brawl with lasers, so the new Clan short range meta focuses on UAC/SRM builds, which as we've found out, have ludicrous DPS potential. In fact IS, has taken to countering it with their own dakka-based assaults and it is not uncommon to see IS running 6+ assaults per wave during the first two waves.

Long range builds still focus on laser vomit, but mostly due to easier aiming mechanics. Range quirks give IS an advantage here at the moment, with ERLL optimal range reaching out to almost 1000 meters on some mechs; quite a few clan players have abandoned cERLL altogether under these circumstances and shifted to cLPL, with a focus to getting within 600-700 meters, where they can better match IS laser vomit DPS. With the global energy range quirk pullback to 10% on Tuesday, ERLL max range will be pulled back to even for both sides, so it will be interesting to see if Clans will go back to cERLL as a viable weapon.

Something interesting will also happen on the Clan side on Tuesday as negative quirks will almost entirely go away for the SCR, TBR, and DW omnipods with multiple laser mounts, which will make fitting such omnipods viable again. My guess is that you may see clan SL and SPL laser brawlers take to field again. I don't think laser vomit will dominate the clan meta to the same extent as before the balance pass though, because the heat capacity limitations are still there. I've run a laser vomit Ebon Jag with 2 LPL and 6 ML for a long time and, while it did good work, I had to work hard in order to manage heat. Basically, more energy hardpoints are a double-edged sword.

Lastly, on the question of whether to bring ballistics and/or srms and how much ammo to bring, I believe they have their place in the lineup. The pinpoint damage potential of a ballistic boat is very real and they can wreak a lot of havoc when played correctly. Also, have I mentioned how much fun they are?

Now, with respect to ammo, I find that the usual 3 tons/ballistic weapon (SRMs are a bit different) is a good rule of thumb to follow, unless you become very tonnage constrained. Basically the way to think about it, is to see the ammo that you bring as the potential damage you can dish, and the weapons you mount as the means of delivery. Do you want a higher damage potential or do you want to be able to dish it out faster? There's nothing more useless than having lots and lots of ammo left over when you get killed because you couldn't put it out there fast enough. On the other hand, only putting out 200 damage per mech before you run out of ammo is equally useless. Try starting with 3 tons per weapon and adjust from there based on how you see things working out for you. Just don't let the "what if i run out of ammo?" mentality keep you from bring ammo-based weapons when their deployment is appropriate. If you can put out 600-800 damage per mech across 3 mechs, and some more on the last mech, you've more than carried your weight on the team.

Edited by habu86, 13 February 2016 - 08:15 AM.

[Languid Mass]

Amazing answers, thanks all.

[Lupis Volk]

Greetings commander. Now i am biased for FRR since they were my first faction and i had a ot of fun it in. But i can say that FRR is probably the best faction for a beginner. If you have TS then you can go to the FRR TS hub and there are many people there who would go out of their way to train you in the ways of CW.