14 replies to this topic

[War Kitten]

Greetings All,

Just bought a Griffin 2N and it comes with a Guardian ECM package and I know it does 'disrupt' and 'counter'. I have no experience with this device as the Firestarters I have didn't come with any and so I have never used them.

When should I be on 'disrupt' and when should I be on 'counter' ( I know to use the 'J' key for both)?

Thank you all for any help!

War Kitten

[Leone]

Disrupt: Disrupts targetting. You, and allies within 90 of you will not have targetting boxes, so no lrm or streak locks, and no paperdoll for easy targetting or for weapon loadouts. Also, if you get close to an enemy, (like, 90m, not sure,) it'll disrupt thier ability to have any locks. (Pro tip: when sneaking up behind someone to knife em in the back, an ecm mech may want to toggle off their ecm so as to avoid warning an startling their prey.)

Counter: Locks down one ECM within range. It 'counters' it, effectively. Used to allow streaks or Lrms to lock onto enemy ECM mechs.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 14 May 2016 - 10:47 PM.

[Cholesterol]

Hi.
If you are on

disrupt Mode -as I usually do, you are cloaked from enemy detection. Means - there is no no red square around your Mech in enemys hud, even he is in sensorrange. That is good. You can stand and shoot at your enemy while he needs some skill to take knowledge of your Position. Know that Laserbeams are easy to See - as longer the beams AS fester you will be recognized. Taking PPC or Gauss makes it hard to recognize you. Every Mech in 90m around you is also cloaked. I take my cicada 3 M with ECM, 2LPulse, Peking around corners, it is pretty hard to see this mech, he is pretty fast by cornering. If your are not visible, you will not be targeted and you will stay alive significant longer than without ECM. If you disrupt an enemy Mech, he is not able to make logons for ssrm and lrm, his weapon systems are useless. Unless he counters your ECM by UAV, Tag, Beagle Active Probe, staying out of ECM range. With your Griffin it is important to stay under cover, so that you can not be locked in with ssrm. And 4 it maximizes your surprise factor when engaging your enemwith your 4 ssrm6!

COUNTER-MODE. You can neutralize enemy ecm. Enemy can be locked on. Red square appears. You can usw LRM and SSRM. In my cicada scenario I usually do not use this counter mode. I stay in range and peek... But with your grf2n you will be. protected Form ssrm-crows in scouting mode, to do so you have to keep yourself cloaked - unless you are countered^^.

[War Kitten]

Thank you for the help, another question....didn't know I could shut off ecm as stated above...how do I do that?

Thanx again....

War Kitten

[Ace Selin]

War Kitten, on 15 May 2016 - 12:37 AM, said:

Thank you for the help, another question....didn't know I could shut off ecm as stated above...how do I do that?

Thanx again....

War Kitten

You cant, he means change your ECM to counter which effectively is cancelling your ECM.
As ECM shows on the enemy as "disrupted" and whilst they may not know where you are they will know an enemy is near and be more cautious. Going counter effectively turns your ECM off and thus doesn't let an enemy not looking at you (ie when backstabbing a mech) know that you (an enemy) are somewhere near.

Edited by Ace Selin, 15 May 2016 - 01:07 AM.

[Cholesterol]

AS Ace dass you have to toggle ECM. Disrupt/Counter. But - ECM was nerfed to 90m Range --> I think you will not have to do this to often. Maybe you have to do this if you take ssrm with you, and your enemy is ecm-cloaked. But IS SSRM2 are pretty useless for your GRF.

[Koniving]

Depends on missile count and experience. But from what I see it'd be great! But... This requires experience and being used to toggling ecm. (Streaks on ecm)

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Pro tip:
If you are trying to sneak up on an enemy mech it may be a good idea to switch your ecm to "counter." Why you ask?
An astute mechwarrior will take instant notice of his signal being disrupted and will announce this and his physical position on the map to his team. This effectively destroys your element of surprise and gives away a rough idea of your position.

[Rogue Jedi]

If you want to counter ECM ^{(e.g. because you have lock on weapons, or have crit seeking weapons so need to see where the enemy is weak)} an Active Probe has a far longer counter ECM range than an ECM set to counter ^{(I think 240m as opposed to 90m)}, unfortunately if you take both ^{(Beagle or Clan)}AP and ECM the APs counter ECM effect is deactivated.

[War Kitten]

Yes, earlier I was on HPG in the basement and coming up to a doorway and immediately noticed the 'low' on my map and I was in 'disrupt' and switched to 'counter' and it cleared right up!
Too bad ecm and bap don't stack.....

War Kitten

[Zerberus]

Boogie138, on 15 May 2016 - 02:28 AM, said:

Pro tip:
If you are trying to sneak up on an enemy mech it may be a good idea to switch your ecm to "counter." Why you ask?
An astute mechwarrior will take instant notice of his signal being disrupted and will announce this and his physical position on the map to his team. This effectively destroys your element of surprise and gives away a rough idea of your position.

While true and a good tip, this isn´t as important as it used to be for 2 reasons:

1. ECM now only has 90(?)m range. you are well within weapons range before your "victim" gets teh "low signal" text on his minimap
2. Many if not most tend to equip the Seismic Sensor module, which will let him know exactly were you are long before your ECM would disturb his sensors, assuming he´s standing still.

Therefore these days most just leave it on disrupt unless they´re actively countering an enemy mech.

[mailin]

Run your ECM in disrupt, which is its default mode. ONLY switch to counter when you need to counter an enemy ECM. Also, as previously mentioned about sneaking up an enemy, just stay in disrupt mode and check your range to target. Keep the target at greater than 90m and you're fine. Switching your ECM to counter means that EVERYONE can see your dorito and target you. You want to stay hidden as long as possible with ECM.

One more tip, some people choose to not equip ECM in preference for other things. DO NOT DO THIS! If a mech can equip ECM, make sure it has one. If it won't work with your build, make a new build. ECM is that important.

[Rogue Jedi]

mailin, on 15 May 2016 - 09:18 AM, said:

One more tip, some people choose to not equip ECM in preference for other things. DO NOT DO THIS! If a mech can equip ECM, make sure it has one. If it won't work with your build, make a new build. ECM is that important.

in many cases I will run an ECM capable Mech without ECM, e.g. I have Kit Fox, Shadow Cat, Hellbringer and Arctic Cheetah builds which do not use it, in some cases there is a situationally superior non ECM pod but in general if you are in an ECM capable Battlemech yes you may as well use it.

since the range reduction ECM while still rather useful is no longer the super powerful piece of equipment it used to be.

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 15 May 2016 - 02:24 PM.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Zerberus, on 15 May 2016 - 08:03 AM, said:

While true and a good tip, this isn´t as important as it used to be for 2 reasons:

1. ECM now only has 90(?)m range. you are well within weapons range before your "victim" gets teh "low signal" text on his minimap
2. Many if not most tend to equip the Seismic Sensor module, which will let him know exactly were you are long before your ECM would disturb his sensors, assuming he´s standing still.

Therefore these days most just leave it on disrupt unless they´re actively countering an enemy mech.

Fair points but off the tip of the bat not everyone is always running seismic 100 percent of time (for the record it is tied with radar derp for most valuable module)

And in some builds you may want to sneak within 90m to fire your weapons - ie several racks of SRMs that you want to concentrate on the rear Ct (or wherever)

[mailin]

Also, there's a really easy counter to seismic. If you're sneaking up behind an enemy get sort of close and close the distance slowly only when he moves. Remember that seismic only works when you're standing still.