22 replies to this topic

[William Pryde]

Hi all,

I found yesterday that I am horribly out of practice in light 'Mechs and have a ridiculously difficult time trying to kill Locusts in my Arctic Cheetah. I did the 1 on 1 tournie yesterday but got stomped the first round - granted, it was not my best playing (I have been piloting the Night Gyr for the past few months and consistently get 500+ to 600+ games, regardless of winning or losing, but it handles a bit different than the Cheetah. I also made the stupid, brainless mistake of not properly kitting my Cheetah for a 1v1 duel), but I felt like I could not hit anything. Might be because I kept trying to go for the Locust's skinny legs.

So, with that introduction, I have a very noob question. Where would you recommend aiming to kill a locust? When running full speed in a light 'Mech that is armed with pulse lasers and ER meds, those skinny legs are beastly difficult to nail. Does aiming for center mass typically get better results?

[Snazzy Dragon]

Your mistake is running medium lasers on a clan light that is going over 110 kph. The burn time is way too long. Use small pulses or smalls and your damage will concentrate better.

[Y E O N N E]

I always aim center mass on Locusts. They don't have enough armor to make it worth going for legs, so just ablate through it all in the torso.

In a duel, though, Clan ER MedLas are going to lose to SPL almost every time. Clan ER MedLas will also lose to the MedLas Locust in poke almost every time.

[nehebkau]

You never go wrong with legs.

[1453 R]

Your other mistake is in fighting the Locust in the first place.

If you have to, then yes - just aim center mass. Locusts can't take a punch to save their lives no matter where that punch lands, you don't need to specifically burn their legs off to get them to go away. That being said, neither Locusts nor Cheetahs are really meant to be dealing with their own kind save as a last resort. Lightweight dogfights are a bad investment for both light 'Mechs - your job is supposed to be outflanking and harassing the fatties, ideally getting in nicely behind them and chewing on their rectums until either they turn around and stop doing rude things like shooting your teammates or die from ******-chewing related trauma.

Medium 'Mechs, in general, are the ones that should be most concerned with dealing with enemy ******-chewers, with assistance from particularly spry heavies or the occasional strafing run from friendly lights. Your Cheetah, especially, is both small enough and mobile enough that it should generally be operating behind enemy lines where you shouldn't even be encountering a properly piloted Locust in the first place, since it'll be behind your lines trying to find an angle on all dem juicy Marauder IIC buttz which is not covered by a Streakcrow.

[Yellonet]

Consistently hitting a fast and small target is dependant on more than skill (internet lag, slow PC, unoptimized game, etc.), so sometimes you just have the technology against you. The design of the Locust isn't OP, but the problems than can occur in a online game makes it a bit OP for the stated reasons.

[William Pryde]

Yeah, including the ER Meds was part of not properly kitting the Arctic Cheetah out for a 1v1 duel. Sometimes I include them for QP to give a little more poking power at longer ranges, but I forgot to replace them with the usual SPLs.

[Nighthawk513]

As someone who pilots a Locust, the biggest challenge is just hitting the thing. However, they are also going to have issues hitting you, and if they stop for the shot, it will likely hurt them much worse unless you just alpha'd them and missed.
Aim center mass, if you get most of the SPL burn on them, that's a quarter of their armor gone, possibly a component gone as well.

[1453 R]

William Pryde, on 14 December 2016 - 08:20 AM, said:

Yeah, including the ER Meds was part of not properly kitting the Arctic Cheetah out for a 1v1 duel. Sometimes I include them for QP to give a little more poking power at longer ranges, but I forgot to replace them with the usual SPLs.

Poke Cheetahs aren't necessarily awful. I've had some pretty good success with longer-ranged Cheetahs, and actually find the SPL-boat dagger rogue to be irritatingly restrictive and prone to being unexpectedly instagibbed. Nevertheless, the SPL dagger rogue is the best Cheetah for dealing with other lights and even then it's not awesome at the job. ERML poke cats have absolutely no business engaging light 'Mechs that aren't Kit Foxes or the like, and even then.

You may actually want to consider cMPLs. I've run a few experiments with them; there's actually a lot to be said for the burn time/range compromise on cMPLs for less dagger rogue-y Cheetahs, at least down in the pits where I play. You have to work harder for your phat damaj numbuhs post match with a typical* 3x cMPL set-up than the 6/7x cSPL set-up, but I find myself dying a [o]lot[/i] less often on pokey Cheetahs than on dagger rogues.

[JediPanther]

I ran locusts and fought achs all the time. Just hit it ct. Assuming the locust went for even armor it only has ten armor sts. Many lcts have xls for max speed. Blow the st and dead lct. Also never fully stop your mech in an duel as that moment is where many experienced pilots will get that aimed alpha that disabled your mech.

[LastPaladin]

Nighthawk513, on 14 December 2016 - 08:30 AM, said:

As someone who pilots a Locust, the biggest challenge is just hitting the thing. However, they are also going to have issues hitting you, and if they stop for the shot, it will likely hurt them much worse

Yep, another Locust pilot here... if I want to get a kill with the Locust, at some point I am going to have to either pause to take a clear shot or add a "head on charge" into my maneuvers so I can approach them straight for a second or two. So pay attention to the Locust's weapon cycles and try to anticipate when the pilot is going to try to get a clear shot at you, and save your own shots for that moment.

[Y E O N N E]

JediPanther, on 14 December 2016 - 09:18 AM, said:

I ran locusts and fought achs all the time. Just hit it ct. Assuming the locust went for even armor it only has ten armor sts. Many lcts have xls for max speed. Blow the st and dead lct. Also never fully stop your mech in an duel as that moment is where many experienced pilots will get that aimed alpha that disabled your mech.

Most of us front-load the armor.

[Xiphias]

Usually best to shoot for the hips. Since the legs on a moving mech are taking steps the bottom of the legs will move faster and cause you to waste damage as it goes around the legs. If you aim at the top of the legs near the hips the legs are nearly stationary (relative to the rest of the mech) and it's easier to get more of your burn on the target. Also, damage that misses the legs is likely to go into the torso which is an added bonus.

The Locust is going to be one of the harder mechs to kill with laser since it's so nimble. You're definitely better off with SPLs if you want to duel. It's going to be quite hard to get a full ERML burn on target if the Locust is a decent pilot.

[Aiden Skye]

Doesn't really matter where you hit it...couple good hits and it will come unglued.

[Ex Atlas Overlord]

1453 R, on 14 December 2016 - 08:16 AM, said:

That being said, neither Locusts nor Cheetahs are really meant to be dealing with their own kind save as a last resort. Lightweight dogfights are a bad investment for both light 'Mechs - your job is supposed to be outflanking and harassing the fatties

And this is why team quality is so bad lately, light pilots actually believing this drivel.

[1453 R]

Ex Atlas Overlord, on 14 December 2016 - 11:34 AM, said:

And this is why team quality is so bad lately, light pilots actually believing this drivel.

*sigh*

Atlas, I know your assault bias is absolutely overwhelming...but riddle me this, ne?

If every single light 'Mech's primary/sole job is to defend its fatbros from enemy light 'Mechs...how do they do that job?

The enemy light 'Mechs will be vigilantly chaining themselves to their Fatbro Masters and never bothering to try and flank or end-run or backstab anything, because their job is to accomplish absolutely nothing save ensuring that your team's light 'Mechs never get anywhere near their Fatbro Masters' juicy, juicy backsides. And since your light 'Mechs will be doing the same...then both teams' lights will have, theoretically, Done Their Job...except they have actually contributed nothing at all to the fight and may as well have stayed home for all the good they did.

Light 'Mechs only have to defend against other light 'Mechs because the actual primary job of a light 'Mech - the thing narrow-minded, heavily biased assault drivers keep demanding their own lights waste their time and energy putting a stop to - is harassing and disrupting the enemy line of battle. You have a 'Mech whose greatest strength is its superb mobility. Why would you demand that this 'Mech sacrifice that advantage to serve as nothing more than a glorified guard Chihuahua to your Fatlas lurming from the back?

Medium 'Mechs are the guards and escorts. They're bigger and slower, which makes it much harder for them to survive behind the enemy line, but they're fast enough to catch enemy lights, sturdy enough to survive their fire, and punchy enough to make those lights hate their life. Mediums are fast enough to operate on the wings of a battle, through which enemy lights are trying to find routes to Big Juicy Backsides.

This is basic tactics, man. You don't hamstring your skirmishers, and you don't waste your skirmishers countering other skirmishers unless you don't have a better option. That's what outriders are for. That is literally what outriders are for, and medium 'Mechs are your outriders.

[Y E O N N E]

Oh I deal with Lights if I see them harassing my bigs. That actually *is* part of my job as a Light. What I will not do is go hunting enemy Lights with my Light; if I engage one, I want it to be near my team and not a fair 1 vs 1 confrontation.

[JediPanther]

Yeonne Greene, on 14 December 2016 - 12:59 PM, said:

Oh I deal with Lights if I see them harassing my bigs. That actually *is* part of my job as a Light. What I will not do is go hunting enemy Lights with my Light; if I engage one, I want it to be near my team and not a fair 1 vs 1 confrontation.

You and I are opposite pilots it seems. My lights are all geared to encountering enemy lights and either wining that 1 vs 1 or doing heavy damage to that light. As a light fighter I have my armor nearly even instead of front loaded.

As for baby sitting the slow assaults I don't bother often unless they or I decided in team chat that is the plan for the match. Some times I'll just shadow an atlas at random. It's **** like when an assault types or tells me on voip demanding I keep enemy lights off them that I ignore them and do my own thing. Any mech regardless of weight that tries to tell me *how* I should play is ignored unless they are politely trying to make a plan.

If I notice on mini map the assault not moving or moving strangely I'll do a quick run by to see what the heck is going on if it is afk,walking into a wall, trying to back into a wall with an enemy mech on its butt(that I'll go rambo on because hey I get to fight that much sooner) or if it is a disco.

At best in pugs some one types "go scout" so I just go find and give the location of first enemy mech encountered then rejoin the others. At worst you have some raging assault demanding lights protect it then tells the others to act as cannon folder.

[Lily from animove]

that works too

[Y E O N N E]

JediPanther, on 15 December 2016 - 10:04 AM, said:

You and I are opposite pilots it seems. My lights are all geared to encountering enemy lights and either wining that 1 vs 1 or doing heavy damage to that light. As a light fighter I have my armor nearly even instead of front loaded.

As for baby sitting the slow assaults I don't bother often unless they or I decided in team chat that is the plan for the match. Some times I'll just shadow an atlas at random. It's **** like when an assault types or tells me on voip demanding I keep enemy lights off them that I ignore them and do my own thing. Any mech regardless of weight that tries to tell me *how* I should play is ignored unless they are politely trying to make a plan.

If I notice on mini map the assault not moving or moving strangely I'll do a quick run by to see what the heck is going on if it is afk,walking into a wall, trying to back into a wall with an enemy mech on its butt(that I'll go rambo on because hey I get to fight that much sooner) or if it is a disco.

At best in pugs some one types "go scout" so I just go find and give the location of first enemy mech encountered then rejoin the others. At worst you have some raging assault demanding lights protect it then tells the others to act as cannon folder.

Oh, I don't babysit. I am always seeking angles to engage the enemy. It's just that if I see in my minimap or in chat that somebody is getting harassed by any 'Mech and they can't deal with it, I will often peel off to assist unless what I am currently doing is more important to the win.

The only suggestions I take in chat are those pointing out target location and status.

Edited by Yeonne Greene, 15 December 2016 - 10:13 AM.