To follow up on the "don't be afraid to die."
Often you'll see mechs with no weapons left providing themselves as bullet shields for allies. In fact in one 2 versus 2 battle (at the end of a rather epic 8 vs 8 back in the day), I'm the last guy alive on my team. I'm sporting a Misery (Stalker Hero) with two PPCs + UAC/5 + 1 SPL + 2 SL + 1 SRM-6. They are: An Atlas with 4 ER PPCs and a Gauss Rifle and a Stalker with 4 PPCs. Basically it was a battle of massive damage alpha strikes (fire all weapons at once) where a single blow would kill most mechs, and we're using the tankiest mechs you can possibly have (my ally was a literally identical build but by this point he had perished because he was just a little too far away from the Stalker when the Atlas and Stalker both focus-fired him). We're each down to 20% overall health or less. I'm personally riding somewhere below 13%.
Screenshot provided to show that surviving absolutely brutal damage is commonplace for me in my Misery (or any Stalker; in the case of this image I survived a 3 on 1 fight against a Banshee, a Firestarter and an LRM Catapult and came out triumphant, marching to the nearest capture point to take it for the team. No allies around).
Unlocked in a single match the very day those rewards came out.
Suffice to say we were all Completely Devastated from head to toe.
I disabled the Stalker entirely (an effort largely done by both me and my teammate's clone build. Stalkers are freaking hard to kill, especially back then). No weapons left. No side torsos. Just a walking husk with no purpose in life other than to be distracting. The Atlas had his Gauss Rifle explode. He was in bad, really bad shape. I was in bad shape. Just one SL left, UAC/5 and a single PPC and the biggest thing about this fight is we kept about 40 meters from each other. I had to keep that close to make sure the Stalker was neutered or I'd have been dead several minutes before.
The Atlas runs super hot, so that 4 ER PPC combo quickly turned into the occasional single ER PPC. He's only got 2 left and no doubt from how rarely he's firing he has lost a LOT of heatsinks from my peppering of damage and crits. My UAC/5 is low on ammo. My laser makes a hit. He blocks it with his destroyed side torso and turns to make a shot and misses after firing a single ER PPC. Rather I wanted him to but even so I twisted to protect myself. He didn't actually miss, he got a destroyed arm hitbox of a destroyed torso. At the time that was a reduction of 50% followed by another reduction of 50% before it went to my CT. (2.5 damage received to my CT). I'm cherry red and raw. I should be dead. I twist back to line my shot up. 2 bullets left in my UAC/5. Just at 93 meters. It was time. One shot, 15 damage, he'd be disabled for sure and then I'd win by default, free to pick them off with my small laser and a PPC if they'd be so nice.
I fired.
Edited by Koniving, 24 March 2017 - 07:33 AM.