26 replies to this topic

[Moldur]

I got a headshot on an Atlas today unassisted save for my advanced zoom. Guy stood still too long, didn't notice me, took 54 damage to his brain.

That was my 13th headshot since I started playing MWO, and it got me wondering.

How many headshots do you have?
Does anyone reading have the Guillotine title?
Have you ever even seen anyone with the Guillotine title?

And of course, we can always discuss consumables headshotting people.

[Xetelian]

Got my 10th headshot after steam release

Been playing since forever

[DarthHias]

I have 17, been playing pretty long. But I never really tried, think most were double Gauss luckshots.

[Mcchuggernaut]

Been around since the open beta days, and I haven't gotten very far with this either, with 22. I know I have had plenty of opportunities to cockpit lots of people who have shut down in front of me, but honestly in the heat of battle I rarely ever think about doing it. On top of that, since the cockpit rarely ever gets hit, most people are going to have all the armor they put on it still intact, and if they run the full 18 points you can smack them right in the dome with an AC20 and it won't kill 'em (maybe even with dual gauss). If it doesn't kill them, and they start back up and begin moving again, good luck hitting that cockpit a second time and finishing them: you have in essence wasted a shot you could have put into their CT. You also lost a second or so lining up your shot and potentially miss out on a second shot while they are still shut down because they may start back up and torso twist before you can blast their CT again. The final problem with going for headshots is your potential to miss the enemy mech with all or part of your shot because your target is smaller, instead of just going for center mass. This is especially true when peeking and trading. You want to dump an alpha into someone and then get back in cover as fast as possible, so sitting there lining up a headshot will often just get you blasted by the enemy.

In short, there are a whole host of reasons that you should rarely go for an enemy's cockpit. Sure, purposely shooting at cockpits just to try and troll people is fun, but it's far from the most effective way to play the game. I don't think the devs took all this into account when they set the guillotine challenge numbers. They should have set it lower, because almost nobody is actually ever going to achieve this. Maybe a select few REAL tryhards at most.

Edit: Forgot to point out that I use heat vision a lot, which doesn't help promote headshots either. The cockpit doesn't show up well at all in thermal, so actively targeting it is hard. Thermal makes up for it with some powerful advantages though. It's great for dark maps, or any map where there is a lot of smoke/brush/falling snow/etc. It has better range than night vision. It makes mechs you might not notice immediately or at all instantly stand out like a sore thumb, and I know there have been many times I have smacked someone with an alpha and gotten away with it unscathed because I was using heat vision and the enemy wasn't. Seriously, try it out on Caustic if you haven't figured that trick out yet. I have blasted so many people that couldn't see me through the caldera smoke it's sad. Really, the only times you shouldn't be using heat vision are: On Terra Therma (it just whites out because it's too hot), if you are sniping at long range where targets are too far away to show up on thermal, or if you are on a brightly-lit map without a lot of confusing cover such as Polar Highlands, Alpine Peaks, or the Frozen City daytime and clear version. Even then I often run it when I don't have to just because it highlights people so I notice them a fraction of a second more quickly when peeking, and sometimes that makes all the difference.

Edited by Mcchuggernaut, 22 June 2016 - 02:12 AM.

[Red Shrike]

I have none.
I shoot at either the arms, legs or center mass. But never the head. Too small.

[Blowfeld]

Every time I think: "Yeah, headshot!!!" it turns out to be "Oh, center torso...."

Maybe I should consider playing with gauss, I simply don't like it's mechanic.

[Dogstar]

I'm at 1000 matches with 2 headshots recorded, so for me the chances are 1/500. I generally aim high to damage the CT so I'll occasionally damage the head incidentally.

[Kanil]

3 in about 1200 matches.

Typically speaking when I whack someone in the head with the AC/20 that's 20 damage that didn't end up in their CT, and is strictly a negative event to be avoided at all costs.

[jss78]

I started playing in February 2015, and have exactly 7 headshots in about 3400 games. I think most came while I was levelling a dual-gauss Jager, some from air strikes.

A linear extrapolation predicts that I'll get the achievement sometime in December, year 3919.

[adamts01]

Every long once and a while I get a double peep headshot kill in my Nova or Adder. But it's all luck. I suck *** with PPCs, it's literally complete stupid luck.

[Brizna]

I can count with the fingers of one hand the times I beheaded a mech on purpose, most of them were accidental lucky shots.

My most lucky head kill is one time I destroyed a jumping Timberwolf mid air from 500 meters distance just as the battle started, both me and the poor unfortunate target had some laughs about it. Good sportsmanship of him.

[Tralik]

I am at 24 and have been playing since February, but I tend to play sniper builds. It is hard to do from any distance, but I have had a few out past 1000m with dual gauss +2xERLL combo. Most come from other players face hugging me and then overheating. They are pretty easy to get when that happens.

[Jaster Me Reel]

If you check out Proton's twitch stream, he is currently at/around 692. He has a little sidebar on his twitch stream where he has a headshot countdown. If you are unfamiliar with Proton his ingame name is prtN_spz.

[Zarock]

Im at 572 currently, searched for this to find a quicker method ^^
Used Flamers in combination with lasers so far, in mediums mostly (shut them down and then aim for the cockpit)

[Mole]

I don't know. I'm not at home right now and I can't install the MWO client on my work computer. I just wanted to share a couple of my most memorable headshots. First one was on a Marauder IIC back before new tech. It was Frozen City, and we were in the brawling phase of the match fighting amongst the buildings. I was in my Cataphract armed with an AC/20 and 4 Medium Lasers. I came around the corner face to face with a fresh Marauder IIC. I fired my AC/20 and began to back off before I noticed that his cockpit just went bright red. The AC/20 shot landed in his cockpit. Smelling blood, I fired my lasers and raked them over his cockpit, hoping to graze the cockpit hitbox and push it over the edge. It worked, and the Marauder IIC went down, with its pilot promplty accusing me of aimbotting. Another one was fairly recent in my Thanatos with two Heavy PPCs. We were on Polar Highlands and a King Crab tried to peek on me. Aiming for his Center Torso, I fired my Heavy PPCs only to watch the fresh King Crab crumble before me and my warhorn sounded. Then I looked down at his paperdoll before the target blip disappeared. I apparently hit him right in the cockpit. It's a great feeling when an accidental headshot happens.

[Xavori]

I have exactly 1 headshot. It happened during the event where we had to get a headshot which is the only reason I even made the attempt. Fittingly, it was an Atlas and I mounted the Atlas head in my Black Widow since she's the one that put the 2 UAC 20's into his left eye.

The rest of the time, I shoot for open components or CT. It's not worth the extra aiming time.

[xVLFBERHxT]

How sad. i thought this thread was about the Guillotine .

[Dr Cara Carcass]

Zarock, on 29 November 2017 - 09:13 AM, said:

Im at 572 currently, searched for this to find a quicker method ^^
Used Flamers in combination with lasers so far, in mediums mostly (shut them down and then aim for the cockpit)

Meh easy way - do it the double gauss long range way....

[Zarock]

Cara Carcass, on 01 December 2017 - 05:02 AM, said:

Meh easy way - do it the double gauss long range way....

Oh yes, its sooo easy, it can like, never fail, Im getting 4 headshots per game at least.. Except if Im the first one spotted and they run after me. Or when I shut one down, my team kills him. Or if another enemy is nearby and shoots me, so my cockpit shakes too much, or shoots off my weapons. Or my team is lurming the enemy and I cant see ****. Or he has non-heat-weapons. Or if he just walks away without shooting. Or he calls for help and gets assistance. Or I aim 3 pixels too high or too low and the enemy now knows my plan. Or I try to flank and my team just dies within 2 minutes. Or there is no enemy alone, all in a pack and I cant get one alone. Also I have to facetank them so close, I sometimes get teamkilled. So yes, its the super easy way, thats why we see everyone running around with the Achievemnt ;:
Dual Gauss only works if the enemy stripped cockpit armor. Especially since the skill tree, mechs can have up to 41 (or 42?) Cockpit Hitpoints with maxed out armor quirks. Dual Heavy Gauss works, but then you dont have llong range, have to get into Brawl And its way harder to hit the enemys head when youre being shot than waiting for the right moment 600m away from him while he didnt even noptice you. So.. meh to the dual gauss idea.

[Davegt27]

I have 17 also

someone did get a head shot against me this morning

as usual I was pretty shocked since I was moving
but all I did was type "nice head shot"