Teer5, on 18 August 2016 - 12:40 PM, said:
Does the games change much when you advanced tiers? (in regards to other players)
Yeah it does. Sidenote: The whole tiering and match making system is pretty messed up. By right, you are supposed to see only players 2 tiers apart. i.e. tier 1 fighting with max tier 3 however recently I've seen tier 4 with tier 1 etc... maybe its due to the loosening brackets due to events.
Before the recent events though, while I was moving up, the playstyle and weapons used differed. There is this period of Lurmers at the lower tiers then it kind of disappears around mid tier. Then at high tier, some lurmers come back but its not a concern. Its really odd and I can't explain it.
In lower tiers, players are of course pretty oblivious, you can backstab with impunity in a fast mech since some of them can't react or can't read their loadouts. Sometimes you can flank even in an assault and backstab a lot or even from the 45 degree angle especially if they have tunnel vision.
Also again oddly and as some people have pointed out, Tier 4 & 5 tend to follow better for some reason if there is a commander. I guess everyone feels better following someone when they are new. However this paves the way for loud vets who are bad to lead everyone to their deaths.
Tier 3 is like a teenage rebellion stage where people do what they want however I kind of understand where they are coming from as Tier 3 seems to have mixed bag of experiences between T4/5 playstyles vs T1/2 playstyles. I've encountered really good talkers in comms who don't know what they are doing in terms of map positioning/leadership under fire but they offer up the usual platitudes i.e. stick together etc etc... Frequently I would check back on the leaderboards and find out that they have really low WLR and KDR. And some of these were unit guys. You would think they are good but apparently not as I see them in low tiers. You can even find this thread on the forums about this one guy in the lower tiers (unit guy mind you) who will talk a mile a minute over everyone else, detailing out every little tip on how to play the game. However because of this verbal diarrhea, no one can feedback about enemy location during game. Low WLR and KDR. Vets does not equal good. I'm lucky I have not met this guy much since I moved up as he seems to frequently rile up ire from other players ingame. Usually I squelch and do my own thing if I encounter crazy people.
Lower tiers, you'd also encounter mindless chargers who are very proud of leading the charge and dying first in an assault. Discretion and situational awareness is the better part of valor. Most higher tier play I've observed is that better players with more damage capability will try their hardest to stay alive and carry. There's a lot more positioning and poking rather than charging.
Mid tier 2 to tier 3, I sometimes encounter mindless nascar/push without regards to map and have no idea how to reverse the push when the situation calls for it.
And to my surprise, I also find that in higher tiers, there is pretty much no comms except for alerts like i.e. pushing left/right, enemy location. Comms seem to be much more efficient. In tier 1 and 2, basically the paths are pretty set. Its the same plan of attack almost every game and people kind of know what to do or expect. Perhaps it is also because they tend to look at minimap more and note where they are in relation to the group. Do take note though that my experience is mainly in Oceanic and Solo Pug so, NA & Group should be different.
Hmm as a side note, I find Oceanic play to be more standard and teamwork seems to be better. Maybe its my ping. NA play seems to be a bit more haphazard to me with really different styles of pushing a map and it seems to have a wider variety of skill levels as well. I dread playing domination on some servers because at a certain tier, they all hang back and snipe...
Anyway just my opinion.
Edited by UnofficialOperator, 18 August 2016 - 04:49 PM.