27 replies to this topic

[Nerokar]

Wow... i'm just a bit overwhelmed.

I did not expect so much positive and constructive feedback. This game seems to have a realy nice community

Thanks a lot!

[Morggo]

Welcome Nerokar!

The others have given a lot of solid advice.

On a related note, I always like to point out to pilots just starting out to conserve those precious cbills for a while.
Last I recalled, the academy and your first 25 games should net you somewhere around 20 million cbills. That will get you, depending on the faction and weight 1 to 3 good mechs.

Unless you feel very strongly about a chassis or playstyle, etc I would recommend playing each of the trial mechs several times, maybe 3-5 drops each minimum to normalize bad matches. More if you are feeling a click with a particular mech.

It sounds like a lot, but given there are four mechs per weight class, 2 for each faction, you'll get a very wide range of mech and weapon systems under you belt (and earn xp and cbills all along the way... don't forget xp earned in a variant is yours if you every buy that variant...).

It's always a bummer to read a post from a newer pilot that dumped all their cbills early on a mech that just doesn't work for them.

Don't have to, but there's my couple pennies advice!
Good luck, pilot, hope to see you on the field some day!
cheers
Morg

[JC Daxion]

Nerokar, on 29 September 2016 - 10:22 PM, said:

Wow... i'm just a bit overwhelmed.

I did not expect so much positive and constructive feedback. This game seems to have a realy nice community

Thanks a lot!

You will find that the MWO new player forums is about one of the most helpful forums in any game around.. I want to say By far the nicest bunch... You ask a simple question then the answers take hours to read.


So keep on asking, you can learn tons..


I will just add, Playing a brawler in this game can be very hard, especially the slower assaults. If you want to use weapons like AC20, or SRM's and such, you might wanna get into faster heavies, or mediums. (though mediums with Standard engines are what many people recommend to start with. Though i will also say, Thunderbolts are another great mech for new players due to costs of engines, and builds.

having some weapons like large pulse, or large lasers, or AC5's isn't a bad idea for new players, because often you can be stuck at longer ranges.

Clan side things are a bit more forgiving, with their Medium lasers have such longer range,.. But clan mechs are really expensive..


IMO the best mechs for a new player to start with are Hunchbacks, (due to cost and just buying a single STD250 to swap around) OR, shadow Haws, which are a bit more expensive, but one of which comes with an XL-275, which is a nice engine to play around with XL builds. (loose a torso with an XL and you are dead) and they have jump jets.. Both of these are flexible mechs, that can run basically every weapon in the game through the different varraints.. the main difference is the HBK is a bit more tanky, the shadow hawk has Jump jets, and can carry slightly larger loads, but often that is just used to make it go faster, and not carry more weapons unless you run XL engine builds, which it can do fairly well.

For heavies, the thunderbolts are nice, they can be played as brawlers, or long range mechs, and have many flexible builds, though are more energy slanted for the most part. They are very solid mechs though, and the 5SS is still one of the better mechs in the game, and one of um, i forget off hand is a great sniper with PPC's

[Audacious Aubergine]

To echo what I'm assuming are other responses, keep moving as much as you can when you hear that warning.
Also, regarding Polar Highlands, that map's openness is actually quite deceptive - those low hill might not look like much, but from certain ranges onwards they're actually quite good at stopping LRMs - or at the very least, providing sight cover so that you can break the target lock

[SoulReaver7500]

Morggo, on 30 September 2016 - 01:37 PM, said:

Welcome Nerokar!

The others have given a lot of solid advice.

On a related note, I always like to point out to pilots just starting out to conserve those precious cbills for a while.
Last I recalled, the academy and your first 25 games should net you somewhere around 20 million cbills. That will get you, depending on the faction and weight 1 to 3 good mechs.

Unless you feel very strongly about a chassis or playstyle, etc I would recommend playing each of the trial mechs several times, maybe 3-5 drops each minimum to normalize bad matches. More if you are feeling a click with a particular mech.

It sounds like a lot, but given there are four mechs per weight class, 2 for each faction, you'll get a very wide range of mech and weapon systems under you belt (and earn xp and cbills all along the way... don't forget xp earned in a variant is yours if you every buy that variant...).

It's always a bummer to read a post from a newer pilot that dumped all their cbills early on a mech that just doesn't work for them.

Don't have to, but there's my couple pennies advice!
Good luck, pilot, hope to see you on the field some day!
cheers
Morg

How else is PGI supposed to make money other than letting them blow their cbills on junk mechs?

[Dalbs]

Seriously, the advice about not spending those new-to-the-game CBills is the best advice you'll get. I spent a fair chunk of mine figuring out how the customization system works doing things like buying an engine only to realize how hellishly long it takes to earn the couple million spent on it. That was my first big newcomer mistake.

Additionally, I too was INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATED knowing there is a perk in the game, that makes your enemy be able to hold target on you for 2.5 seconds even after you're gone from vision, which is prohibitively expensive to a newcomer... I thirsted for a radar dep module for many a salty tier5 game. In fact LRM's are still annoying, but not as bad as AC boats aiming for the head making my screen black with smoke and shaking my mech to the point of blindness. (and I have to replace radar dep with gyros to stop the shake? eff that crap....)

Second big mistake I made starting out was buying a King Crab(100 ton assault IS mech) thinking I'd be cool, tough, and all-powerful only to learn quickly how easy it is for a light such as a Jenner or Arctic Cheetah to run around your back and small laser you to death without you being able to do ****. This was compounded by the fact that most people didn't look out for teammates AT ALL in T5, and can't hit lights because they're not used to aiming in the game.

I probably drifted off topic a bit...

Dealing with LRMs is still frustrating in the top of T4 (lights spotting you out for their team) and you deal with this in the aforementioned ways:
GET COVER-Find a building(like on Crimson Strait, or Grim Plexus) and put it between you and where the missiles are coming from as soon as you hear that awful "Incoming Missile" message. On other maps like Canyon Network, the natural landscape has nice plateaus that work great for this. Some maps even have nice places with overhead coverage to sit under while your team figures out where to move from.
MAKE FRIENDS WITH ECM BUDDIES- If there's an ECM mech on your team, be his friend. Stay close by(within 90m) but don't sit behind him all the time (people often like to peek&poke, then reverse back behind cover, don't be trying to poke them from behind, it's not polite). Defend your teammates, and move together.
ALWAYS BE ON THE MOVE- if you hear that "Incoming Missile" alert, you better be moving to cover. Assess where the missiles are coming from and use the above tip. If there is no cover attainable before you really start getting pummeled, run to your team, and run like you're running from bees with left and right jukes. One teamie might have AMS to help, and one might have ECM as mentioned above. Once you have Radar Dep, if you hear that damned alert, start running out of vision. They will lose lock quickly, and the missiles will land at the last place the enemy had lock of you.
KILL THAT PESKY LITTLE SPOTTER- This is a considerably harder to do while your screen goes thick with smoke and your mech shakes uncontrollably. However, if you can take down that one little mech, you will be saving your team considerable effort. If you can't kill it, get the heck out of its vision/lock so their team can no longer rain on you.

I started playing this game towards the end of last year, and I'm by no accounts a veteran of the game. These techniques though are what really save my *** from the LRMs so long as I don't let the "Stupid Target Decay module *grumble grumble*" "F2P but Pay-to-Win model" or "WHAT THE **** WHERE IS THEIR SPOTTER!?" thoughts get to me.

Enough rambling on.
If you REALLY feel like you can't take it, join em.... play the stalker missile boat trial mech thats up, and be the lame-o that cause so many people trouble. Sometimes you can't figure out counterplay until you play the thing you don't think you can counter.
Read the forums, use resources like http://metamechs.com/ , and consider chatting with players over voice chat about tips tactics and whatnot.

Enjoy, and happy giant robot killing!

[Nerokar]

Hi again!

Your tips and tricks worked out realy well. I'm sticking with team at the first half of a match in SDR-5K poking with LPL now and then, spotting enemy spotter and flanker and as soon as the LRM rain is over move at full speed to back of those evil missile boats and let the 4xMG speak if enemy has no flanker that could attack my teams havies and assaults.

With knowledge of maps and some (forced) teamwork lrms are still dangerous, but not as deadly as in my first ten matches.

Now i have more problems with other lights... but this is a matter of training i guess.
And streak boats like StormCrow... if i see one, i run as fast as i can

@Dalbs:

I will NEVER play an LRM thing

[Morggo]

Nerokar, on 05 October 2016 - 03:36 AM, said:

{snip}....
With knowledge of maps and some (forced) teamwork lrms are still dangerous, but not as deadly as in my first ten matches.

Now i have more problems with other lights... but this is a matter of training i guess.
And streak boats like StormCrow... if i see one, i run as fast as i can

Glad to hear things are going well so far!
Oh, and now you've hit another general rule of thumb... "lights don't brawl/duel lights"

Now, there are clearly exceptions to this however generally, the winning Light in a Light vs Light brawl is quite often tore up something terrible. Not always, but often not worth the risk. (I still make this mistake often even now... sometimes I get lucky, usually I'm stripped on legs and torsos and am not long lived once I get back to working the flanks and rear.)

My Hot Ride this month has been my Huginn. Not sure why it gets so much forum hate but that thing is a ridiculously fun ball of fury.... I've heard Spiders are super fun, just haven't tried them.

Edited by Morggo, 05 October 2016 - 06:27 AM.