30 replies to this topic

[IllCaesar]

I had a 900 MS game on Polar Highlands in a directfire Hunchback with 5 MLs and a UAC10.

You can do well on almost any map in almost any mech. Polar Highlands is definitely tweaked very strongly in favour of long-range builds and clan mechs but its trenches allow you to perform well. Usually. There aren't enough of them so its a very predictable and its easy to get chokepoint'd so I would say that there should be a few more of them or just some hard cover scattered along the no man's land areas of the map but generally speaking maps are doable with almost any build. You'll tank that triple HPPC build on Terra Therma but that's less than 1% of all map engagements you have.

[Evil Elmo]

Darakor Stormwind, on 09 March 2018 - 11:47 PM, said:

I own 4 Mechs. Commando, Raven, Cicada and Griffin. All of them are short range builds and all of them except the Cicada have ECM. And I think I am really doing something wrong on this map.

I just underperform. I do low damage, I cannot get into range. I run around trying to find an opening and eventually just die with pretty disastrous damage I provided. If the enemy team sticks together, I am finished.

I really hate this map with a passion. Normally I just play the Griffin, but I am trying to skill up the Cicada and this map seems to come up at least every second match. I have no idea how to unlock it. So I am looking for pointers on what I am doing wrong.

I am doing reasonably well on other maps. I have 117/119 matches. In non Polar Highland maps my Griffin usually breaks 500 damage, often reaching up to 800. I wish there was a way to avoid this map. /sigh

On a brawler polar highlands depends heavily on your team. I just hang back and make sure no lights flank us or anything. Either the team decides to push and it's your time to shine or they get sniped to death and you get swarmed by the whole enemy team. I have few average brawling games there. It's either great or horrible.

[Evil Elmo]

Darakor Stormwind, on 10 March 2018 - 12:08 PM, said:

My main damage comes from Athena-SRM6s.

That some new clan tech?

[Dragonporn]

Plaid Ninja, on 14 March 2018 - 07:00 PM, said:

That some new clan tech?

I'm pretty sure he meant Artemis.

[Throe]

The only two builds that really excel in the current game on Polar Highlands are high mount laser vomit and LRMs. If you're not going to bring LRMs, then you're going to want to slap as many Large Lasers as you can fit, and include as many ER Medium Lasers after you run out of space for those.

Darakor Stormwind, on 11 March 2018 - 12:32 PM, said:

I can burn down lights quite nicely with this build. The only one I have problems with is the Locust, because it is often just too agile to hit. But people often make the mistake of trying to circle me, and then I just need 2 solid hits with the SRMs and that problem is solved.

Hehe, I had a Locust stand still in front of my Timberwolf the other day. He was down a fairly steep slope but otherwise directly in front of me, pretty much point blank. I lined up my 4 HML and blasted him in the face for a nice one shot kill. I think he was counting on me being unable to hit him at that angle. Lucky me.

[Spare Parts Bin]

To the OP. I can sympathize. I have always hated this map. It takes alot of games and patience to get a handle on this map. Best of luck to you.

[Throe]

You might consider something like this:

GRF-2N (2xLL, 1xLRM20, ECM, LE275)

It's kind of a bracket build, but gives you two of the best weapons to bring to that map. You're going to be short on ammo, so make sure you take both missile rack skills if you can. Your right arm having both your direct fire weapons means you're going to want to flank right pretty much the whole match. When you peek to fire your large lasers, try to get a lock, and fire your missiles as you reverse back into cover. Never do this at the same spot twice in a row. As an added bonus, you can swap out the Large Lasers for ER Large Lasers without much negative impact, especially on cooler maps, if you frequently find yourself fighting much beyond ~500m.

[justcallme A S H]

Jonathan8883, on 11 March 2018 - 06:29 AM, said:

Specifically, stay out of the I9-ish area in the very middle of the map. There's no cover there. It's the worst part of the map.

You mean the full area H8 / H9 / I8 / I9 - but only half of the box on each map.

I9, the south sie, is actually one of the better places on the map to be. It has a number of trenches that allow you to move left/right and get within 400m of your enemy if they advance too far. I actually used this area to win a Div A comp match last MRBC season by doing just this without super long-range mechs.

It is just patience. Domination is even easier as there are 3 distinct ridges to duck and weave inside the domination circle at 400m or less than opponents.

Again it is all about knowing the map, reading the minimap and being aware of where the enemy is. As the OP is in lights/meds, honestly, it should not be an issue at all to be positioning correctly. A lot of this knowledge only comes from time and being aware of what is happening

[Phoenix 72]

Athena.... Artemis... It's all the same. ;-) Some greek goddess or other. ;-)

Funnily enough, now that I am currently building up a heavy Mech with some range, I have yet to get Polar Highlands once. 8 matches, 0 Highlands. Figures.

[Water Bear]

I think you've been given pretty good advice, but I just want to add this one thing to it:

Polar *can be* a very tough map to play a Brawler. It certainly can be done, but none of the various game modes caters to short range builds. What you are experiencing, possibly more than anything, is the fact that not every map in this game is friendly to every build.

Try upgrading your SRMs to MRMs. I have an ECM Griffin that runs 50 MRMs and does just fine.

[Phoenix 72]

I think I am just incompetent when it comes to this map. It feels like my side mostly has LLs and the other side mostly LRMs, so all you hear all match long is "incoming missile". I had this map 4 times out of 6 matches today. 4 matches lost.

I am getting tired of this. I am seriously considering just self destructing every time this bloody map shows up. Or maybe some heroic and stupid suicide rush.