LRMs are semi hated for a couple of reasons. One of the main ones and one that few will admit is that players hate to be killed by something they cannot stop. BUT WAIT! LRMs are so easy to avoid! I've gotten pretty good at avoiding them but I have recordings of "Great Players" being killed by them. I was in a game with a "YouTube" player yesterday that I recorded and he died soon with only 159 damage done.
And there is always "that guy" who tells everyone how many Missiles he has so please get him locks. I tell him to get a TAG. And his own locks.
LRMs are the only weapon that can pass over cover. Or concealment, like the teammates in front of you. So if you want to fire at someone that is ducking behind cover, you have to use LRMs. And if you want to aid your teammates when only so many mechs can be in one place, you use LRMs and fire over them.
I now have 83 mechs and only 3 and a 1/2 are set up to LRM, some only a little.
C-ERLLs, I have heard of them, lol. In fact, they are one of my favorite weapons even though their face time is very long (1.5 seconds). It is one reason I often use them as in twin mounts, so at least I do some real damage for the damage I might take. And there are a LOT of players that say never use them for that reason.
All 3 of my LRM mechs are IS. So when we are in a situation where all the enemy is 600-800 meters away, I can "wave" at them or shoot the one weapon I have that will reach, LRMs.
I call LRM's "the itch you want to scratch" and trust me, the enemy will come after you if you are making a difference.
I have poor eyesight and often I simply aim for the middle of the targetted square. I admit that this is easier using LRMs.
I need to add that there is not a single honest LRM thread in this forum. LRM's are underestimated OR hated, partially by the same people. You need to have thick skin and reveal the motivation of this childish behaviour. Even elite players don't like LRM's, even if it's hard to kill them. They need to hide all the time and they hate it. But instead of telling you this, they call you a noob, hoping that you will choose other weapon systems next time.
At the other hand, it's takes a very long time to "git gud" with LRM's. Training for lasers, SRM's or PPC is... yes, it's exhausting but you can learn it quickly. Being a LRM pro needs years and years of practise.
Being a LRM pro needs years and years of practise. ROFL LOL LOL LOL LOL
OP to be good at LRM boating takes a mech you can put 4-5 LRM20 on like a stalker ETC. and stay in the middle of your group behind some cover and bomb away I do it all the time with great success your team mates will chase away all the lights if you stay in the middle of your group and move with your group to take full advantage of targeting narc or tag is advised also.
So basically from day 1 you can be a LRM pro with just this advise you wont be liked very well except by your own team as you will be crippling there enemy's so bad they can cherry pick the kills.
P.S good luck to you OP may all your missiles find there mark.
Being a LRM pro needs years and years of practise. ROFL LOL LOL LOL LOL
OP to be good at LRM boating takes a mech you can put 4-5 LRM20 on like a stalker ETC. and stay in the middle of your group behind some cover and bomb away I do it all the time with great success your team mates will chase away all the lights if you stay in the middle of your group and move with your group to take full advantage of targeting narc or tag is advised also.
So basically from day 1 you can be a LRM pro with just this advise you wont be liked very well except by your own team as you will be crippling there enemy's so bad they can cherry pick the kills.
P.S good luck to you OP may all your missiles find there mark.
There could be no better proof that I am right. Thank you very much.
The right way is whatever works for you and still benefits the team.
Sometimes they are slow but heavily loaded. Sometimes they are fast and quick to run out. If you are slow you MUST have a way to defend yourself.
Second line mechs tend to ask for assistance in acquiring locks if their builds are somewhat fragile. However, ideally an LRM boat won't need to ask for help in getting locks. Instead, the boat should offer to provide support against targets that they are focusing.
Like this. The guy never asked us to get locks. He just provided support.
Notice no one asked for locks. The missiles just come and they are much appreciated.
A way to address it is this:
"LRM support here; Spot an enemy, I'll make it rain."
"The chef's here. Use E to spot an enemy and I'll pepper 'em nice and good, like a momma used to make minced 'Mechs!"
"Want 'em softened? Lemme know and I'll shower your target."
=====
For fun... (Edit: Fixed link to the very first LRMs...)
Spoiler
Light LRM'ing.... from closed beta (I don't have anything more modern.)
I miss these missiles.
The good old days of Repair and Rearm, the LRMs with less of an arc (the original ones came straight down on you), cheap builds for fast cash grabs... Dang good reason to run lights back then.
One of my favorites to say when I was running LRMs quite a bit was simply '2500 air mail packages to deliver. Provide me an address and I'll be sure to get them some presents.'
I agree with Kon almost entirely. Don't ask for locks it's worthless #1 even our 'funny way of doing so' we only did to let the scouts know. The amount of hate in your thread alone should show how few people actually understand team play and strategy in this game. Especially on the forums. So you have to ignore the haters. Chances are they are the same ones that qq the loudest about getting rained on and never equip AMS
#2 You don't need someone with a narc to be incredibly effective with lrms. However to be the most effective you will need a scout dedicated to grabbing you locks. Which brings us back to team play. You'll see this in group drops, but it's much fewer and farther between in pug drops. When you do have a scout calling out a lock (not nearly enough do) make sure to take advantage of it. In my Spider I'll do this and I call it out as: 'Hotel, eyes on lock' over in game voip. I'll do this maybe three times and if each time I see lrms going after other targets then I'm done getting locks for that match and I instead go to causing havoc in the enemies back ranks. When I have 1 or two lrm toting mechs take up my locks... well each and every time it's devastating for the enemy team. Thing is that is team work. It also requires that I do VERY LITTLE damage in the round as the scout. Most scouts don't understand that when they are getting locks for lrms. The point is to not be seen, not even be known to be getting locks. Sure the 'incoming missiles' lets them know but they have no idea what is doing the lock. Could be a scout went past and popped a UAV (something else I'll do), could be someone is holding a lock for the lrms, etc.
As far as the OP is saying regarding the 'lrm boat rules of engagement' (for lack of a more humorous way of poking fun at such an idea) you are correct to effectively throw those out the window. They generally apply to group drops only and every plan falls apart at the first shot of an engagement.
As far as lrm5s... fire them in three packs. if you are running the cat A1 with 6 lrm 5s for instance you can fire the 3 left side lrm at once, and then fire the other side immediately after. this turns your 6 lrm 5s into effectively 2 lrm 15s that fire at the lrm5 rate. Much easier to manage heat, much tighter grouping of damage than firing more than 3 at once (will put almost all of your damage on their ct depending on if they are smart enough to twist with the incoming or not and even the proper twist is only going to spread a very little amount of the damage). I actually used a macro that would fire 3 lrms at a time but it was actually 1,2,3 instead of all 3 at exactly once. Best mech in game for doing this actually is the Maddog and coupling those lrms with some er small lasers in the arms. Altho since the lrm 20s got some tweaking I've been running 2xlrm20 in my maddog (actually I have two 1 with the 5s and the other with the 20s)
Knowing the maps is paramount to running an lrm heavy mech. Not just so you know how to get around but so you know if a target is going to have cover or be able to get to cover quickly. In both of those cases, and especially if you are running lrm5s with a large amount of ammo ie: 1600+, you should still fire a single pack (5lrm) because the 'Missiles Incoming' is the most effective suppression fire in game. Even at over 1100 I'll do this to slow enemy advancement giving my team more time to get into good positions for the engagement (see there all about team play). Also the farther out they are when you do this the longer they get that suppressing message
As to all the hate for lrms in the thread: It just means that good lrm boat players are doing what they are supposed to, else people wouldn't have so much hate for them (Seriously people 4 ams on a team alone can almost or even completely shut down enemy lrms... more than 4 and lrm boats really become null threat. Learn to use AMS if you don't want to refill the QQ batteries of the lrm boat players.)
Oh and I do agree with the sentiment that nothing bigger than a heavy should be a dedicated lrm boat. Warhawk and Stalker can do it well but that is just way too much armor taken out of the main fight. Atlas make horrible lrm boats.. you might have 1 out of 10 good matches with one but that equals a bad lrm boat not a good one. LoL I still remember a match where it was just me and an atlas at the end I was in my Jester and because of the heat of battle had miss read the opposing Atlas's load out and thought they were an lrm boat. I stripped him of every part I could before killing him (he actually had to face hug me to force me to kill him before I was able to strip more parts ). Best part was this was a friend on TS in another channel lol. Oh the crap I caught for doing that to him but we all laughed.
Edited by Bellum Dominum, 13 February 2017 - 10:44 AM.
LRMs are probably the most forgiving playstyle in MWO and it's kind of silly to say it takes years to get good at it when the game is only three years old.
One match that went really well is hardly an indication for LRMs being a secretly OP playstyle that no one wants you to use. If it really was, everyone would be using it, but in reality many of the common complaints are common for a reason.
However in the end, as long as you have fun playing it, who cares?
Edited by Guile Votoms, 13 February 2017 - 10:44 AM.
Guile Votoms, on 13 February 2017 - 10:44 AM, said:
LRMs are probably the most forgiving playstyle in MWO and it's kind of silly to say it takes years to get good at it when the game is only three years old.
I have been playing 4.5 years, I started August 2012, the game was in closed beta for about 6 months, then open beta for a year before "launch" about 3 and a half years ago.
you can get reasionable with LRMs pretty quickly, but to get great does take a long time.
LRMs are the easiest weapon to use, but the hardest to master.
Yes I would say years would be an exaggeration, but...well it depends on how much you play I guess.
LRMS are very situational and gathering the experience to recognize what to do, quickly, in a given situation does take time like any other weapons system.
You also have to decide to get better with them, and weather the criticism.
I find, as has been said here again, that supporting yourself first is the best way to go. I always carry a CAP on mine and outfit that and "secondary" weapons first, sacrificing ammo for weight if necessary.
My only current "boat," the Vulture carries enough fire power to be useful even if you can't get a lock you can still trade and the CAP helps your team out a bit. I run pretty close to the front, sometimes on the front line, but usually in the middle-back of the pack. Do not stay in one place and lob missiles just over ridges. I hunt for targets at less than 600 and really like 400 or less.
I avoid firing at anything over 800 unless its all there is. The reaction time is too long. Artemis can be a really nasty surprise if you can spare the weight. I notice a distinct improvement in kills with Artemis, even when overall damage is less.
Oh I forgot. The most important stat is solo kill if you want to improve I think. KMDD just means you splattered the kill more, but solo kill means you really did the work for that kill.
Trying to look at the stats objectively can help, but they are really skewed towards just doing damage.
Guile Votoms, on 13 February 2017 - 10:44 AM, said:
LRMs are probably the most forgiving playstyle in MWO and it's kind of silly to say it takes years to get good at it when the game is only three years old.
One match that went really well is hardly an indication for LRMs being a secretly OP playstyle that no one wants you to use. If it really was, everyone would be using it, but in reality many of the common complaints are common for a reason.
However in the end, as long as you have fun playing it, who cares?
Little more than 3 years It went gold (official launch no longer beta) in 2013
Dandred, on 13 February 2017 - 11:26 AM, said:
Oh I forgot. The most important stat is solo kill if you want to improve I think. KMDD just means you splattered the kill more, but solo kill means you really did the work for that kill.
Trying to look at the stats objectively can help, but they are really skewed towards just doing damage.
This isn't CoD. Most important stat in this game actually is Kill Assists and then Damage done.
I just made this and first time out it did well, I wish I had recorded it. I think I will keep it.
I know most of you will hate it. And REALLY if I put the Clan AC 5's back on it. I like the fact that their jam rate is zero and they have a longer range. But I'm having fun
Edited by LikeUntoGod, 13 February 2017 - 03:45 PM.
As an lrm boat you got 3 things you need. Speed, ammo, and an ecm breaker (tag or probe or maybe both). Your concerns are getting your shots on taget with as little spread as possible.
Personally, i think the linebacker is a great lurm boat, with tag in the upper right torso energy slot and 2 lrm 10s w/ arty. That tag lets you get tag locks from cover, and your fast enough to move around and harrass from all angles.
Key to lurming is remembering you can control the field. If a guy wants to cross a space you dont want him to cross, a lock and a volley does the job 80% of the time. That power makes lurms good, but its gotta be combod with the speed to be anywere your needed, the ammo to do it for a while, and the tactical knowledge of knowing what to shoot.
Oh I forgot. The most important stat is solo kill if you want to improve I think. KMDD just means you splattered the kill more, but solo kill means you really did the work for that kill.
solo kill does not mean you did the work for a kill, all it means is you did the most damage and got the killing blow, literaly you can get solo kill for less than 10% of the total damage done to the target
lets say 12 Mechs are shooting at the target and 11 players each do 8.3% of the total damage, you do 8.4% of the damage and also get the kill, in that case you realisticaly did no more work for the kill than anyone else, and probably did 1 more point of damage than the others, but as you did the most damage and got the kill that is a solo kill.
if you have Spider, Viper, Summoner and Dire Wolf all firing at a target which is most likely to get the most damage, even if the Spider and Viper had been harrassing it for 20 seconds before the Summoner and Dire?
the Dire has a far higher damage output than the other Mechs I mentioned, so even if it has only half the time firing it will probably get the most damage, and as it is firing lots of weapons its chance of getting the kill is far higher, but it is pretty much helpless if a Mech gets into brawling range, and is completely reliant on its team suporting it, so is it realy doing more work than its teammates despite the higher damage and kills?.
Being a LRM pro needs years and years of practise. ROFL LOL LOL LOL LOL
OP to be good at LRM boating takes a mech you can put 4-5 LRM20 on like a stalker ETC. and stay in the middle of your group behind some cover and bomb away I do it all the time with great success your team mates will chase away all the lights if you stay in the middle of your group and move with your group to take full advantage of targeting narc or tag is advised also.
So basically from day 1 you can be a LRM pro with just this advise you wont be liked very well except by your own team as you will be crippling there enemy's so bad they can cherry pick the kills.
P.S good luck to you OP may all your missiles find there mark.
No, that's how you build a decent LRM boating mech. There's a difference between using a weapon system, and being good at it.
ANYONE can slap LRMs and fire blindly like an idiot. The good ones are the ones that can tell if the enemy is in F5 on Tourmaline, then they shouldn't be firing from the G line, or F6, F7, because the wreckage while tiny, will block their shots.
The good ones will be able to know where to fire on which grid to get the shot through. Instead of firing blindly. So you can be a LRM player from day 1. LRM pro takes countless hours on each map, weeks, even months to memorize the vertical aspects of the terrain, something you never have to train for when using literally all other weapons.
Unlike direct fire weapons, where you shoot at what you see, you have to visualize your missiles' entire flight path, and arc. All the way to where your target is, in order to decide whether to fire on that guy, or another one. Because any structure, tree, or rock outcrop can block your shot.
I find the best way to use LRMs, if at all, is to use them as a closing weapon. Whne I spot a focused mech on the field I lock them and rain the LRMs, all the time moving closer, when I get in range I blast them with my UAC20, finishing them off, since the LRMs softened them up for me. (not that a UAC20 needs a mech softened up before hand, but it does help...)
Basically, whoever your team is focusing on, rain the pain, while moving in to help clean up the weak and crippled. Ive never liked sitting in the back lines, raining LRMS, which only a few actually do any damage (due to AMS and obstacles) and never moving to support my team, like some players ive seen. Their fate usually ends up being the last person left and swarmed by a group of hungry brutal mechs who finish them off, while the victim weakly lashes out at them with the one medium laser they brought for close up fighting......
Like all weapons, they have there uses and time, But i find that while people complain about them all the time, they love it when the LRMs fall on the one mech blasting at them.....kind of a "Love giving them, hate getting them" thing....
Ive also heard that once you get to the upper two teirs LRMs become next to useless...however even in teir one players who stream on youtube ive seen large amounts of LRM fire being called for...I suppose its just how there used and how effective they are that changes the higher up you go in the tier system.
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