53 replies to this topic

[Ihlrath]

So since we're back to the long range meta, what's your best build to hunt and kill snipers?

[martian]

Loyalty Viper.

Fast to get there, offering the excellent jump capability to get to any ledge that the sniper is camping, packing enough firepower to kill smaller snipers and annoy larger ones.

And of course, sporting that magnificent lapis lazuli livery.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Agreed. Anything that moves 100kph or faster and has jump jets can get into position and rip up an isolated sniper.

[pattonesque]

personal favorite:

https://mwo.nav-alph...65e64_ACW-PRIME

fast enough, stealthy, survivable due to JJ/ECM, and spits out those 4SRM6As quickly

[1453 R]

I've had pretty decent success running snipers down in Heckwarmer. 128kph MASC'd is enough to approach quickly, and there's not a sniper born that holds up to quad ASRM-6 in close. Lack of jump jets is annoying, but the MASC also lets me juke the sniper, stutter-step around and throw off their aim. Energy snipers also get to deal with the blowtorches denying them their weapons. The thing's also chunky enough to stand up to some amount of fire and survive a sniper with actual aim long enough to rocket them up. If the sniper's somewhere I can access from the ground, Heckwarmer tends to make real short work of them.

[martian]

1453 R, on 11 September 2022 - 07:32 PM, said:

I've had pretty decent success running snipers down in Heckwarmer. 128kph MASC'd is enough to approach quickly, and there's not a sniper born that holds up to quad ASRM-6 in close. Lack of jump jets is annoying, but the MASC also lets me juke the sniper, stutter-step around and throw off their aim. Energy snipers also get to deal with the blowtorches denying them their weapons. The thing's also chunky enough to stand up to some amount of fire and survive a sniper with actual aim long enough to rocket them up. If the sniper's somewhere I can access from the ground, Heckwarmer tends to make real short work of them.

I prefer having jump jets. Some sniper rocks on Viridian Bog are unaccessible without jump jets.

Also some sniper ledges on the reworked HPG Manifold, Hellebore Outpost or Emerald Vale are accessible for jumpjetless 'Mechs, but getting there on the ground often takes too long.

[1453 R]

Heckwarmer's not an ideal sniper hunter, no. I've used her that way more'n once though, and it can be surprisingly difficult to get an Ideal sniper hunter together. You need enough meat on your bones to withstand the occasional lucky punch from a dual goose hit or a PPC salvo, you need jets, and you need to move fast. ~97 isn't generally gonna cut it, gotta clear 120 at least to be able to get to snipers in time to do anything about them. It's a lot of things to juggle and you pretty much always have to sacrifice something somewhere. The Arctic Wolf above is an excellent contender too, but it's awful thin and it's not quite fast enough. Heckwarmer is thicc and fast, but it can't jump and that presents Issues. The Viper is super fast and super jumpy, but even one solid lucky punch from a sniper can half cripple the damned thing. It's rough.

[ScrapIron Prime]

I prefer running a 7 ML Phoenix Hawk 7S. It’s alpha is lower than the arctic wolf, but it’s a bit more flexible about who it can engage and at what range.

https://mwo.nav-alph...3e15f00a_PXH-7S

Edited by ScrapIron Prime, 12 September 2022 - 09:31 AM.

[Vlads Brain]

Fle-20

fle-20

skills a57158d8d744d8a460449cdf5ee20743cc05b0000c06e134a06676c000000

432 optimal 148kph decent heat management.

Get to the rear of the enemy lines and find the snipers. Position yourself near your optimal then start working on their rear ct.

This is also ace for simply getting to the rear of the enemy blob in general then coring out ct as they are distracted by incoming fire.

You can often drop two or even three mechs before they start to notice especially if its just a pack of randoms with no communication.

Lights and mediums can sometimes be one shot if they frontloaded their armor and have low structure.

Takes a bit of an aggressive playstyle and you have to be fully aware of your surroundings as even fully structure and armor boosted you won't last long under concentrated fire.

[LordNothing]

anything that is fast, maneuverable and can take a couple hits without exploding.

Edited by LordNothing, 12 September 2022 - 10:13 PM.

[Heavy Money]

Just countersnipe them with a bigger sniper

Or annoy them to death with ranged poptarting. Spider is good for this. Also VGL and SMN with ERPPCs.

[Vlads Brain]

Or use this to counter snipe.

cda-3m

Fast enough to reposition easily and greater range and rof than clan er laser vomits even before skills.

Plus its a smallish mech and much easier to hide in terrain. Works well running with packs too.

Oh and forgot about this.

bkl-prime

Zip around at 152kph after speed tweak with masc and shoot stuff at 500m with both mg and lasers.

More than enough armor and agility to solo any sniper you ambush.

Edited by Vlads Brain, 12 September 2022 - 11:12 PM.

[Navy Sixes]

LordNothing, on 12 September 2022 - 10:13 PM, said:

anything that is fast, maneuverable and can take a couple hits without exploding.

Just wanted to second this. If they're standing off with ranged weapons and you can't out-gun them at that game, you need to close and make them play your game. It's nothing new, really. The "brawlers vs. snipers" thing has been going on since open beta.

I did want to emphasize LN's last point, though. Unless you are confident in your build and ability, be really careful engaging a big-snipe build alone in something little and flimsy. Fast and hard to hit as you may be, there are some good shots out there, and beyond that, everyone gets lucky. Against a 20 ton mech, 2xGR is ugly when it connects (and hit reg isn't jacked).

[ScrapIron Prime]

[redacted]

Ah, there’s nothing like an anonymous second account with only 2 posts to its name to air dirty laundry. Love this place.
But seriously, be it a fast SRM flanker or one of those tiny things with way too many machine guns, drop into testing grounds and practice first. Practice running around a target at full speed and point blank range while aiming accurately, as this is the only thing that will keep you from getting quickly gutted by dual gauss.

Edited by Ekson Valdez, 19 September 2022 - 11:15 PM.
quote clean-up

[1453 R]

Breaking news: an MG boat or SRM bomber running close escort to a sniper eight hundred meters from the fight is not contributing to the fight. It's sitting on its keister doing jack-all nada whilst being at sniper range from a fight with exclusively close-range weapons. Most such 'Mechs are not going to do that, not once a fight starts for real.

This whole Illuminaity conspiracy nonsense people keep accusing the Cauldron of is just stupid. They have a public discussion Discord, their patch notes are everywhere to see, and Piranha still has to implement this junk. They may not vet it directly, but I guarantee that if the Cauldron's changes were as disastrous as everybody claims they are, Piranha would revoke the Cauldron's input into game balancing. Just...knock it off already, eh? You're not going to convince people there's some secret shadow cabal buried within the Cauldron that's managing to bamboozle literally everybody else except for the Honorable Intelligent Gentlethems who can see the shadow conspiracy against True And Proper Brawling for what it is.

[Heavy Money]

1453 R, on 13 September 2022 - 05:04 PM, said:

Breaking news: an MG boat or SRM bomber running close escort to a sniper eight hundred meters from the fight is not contributing to the fight. It's sitting on its keister doing jack-all nada whilst being at sniper range from a fight with exclusively close-range weapons. Most such 'Mechs are not going to do that, not once a fight starts for real.

This whole Illuminaity conspiracy nonsense people keep accusing the Cauldron of is just stupid. They have a public discussion Discord, their patch notes are everywhere to see, and Piranha still has to implement this junk. They may not vet it directly, but I guarantee that if the Cauldron's changes were as disastrous as everybody claims they are, Piranha would revoke the Cauldron's input into game balancing. Just...knock it off already, eh? You're not going to convince people there's some secret shadow cabal buried within the Cauldron that's managing to bamboozle literally everybody else except for the Honorable Intelligent Gentlethems who can see the shadow conspiracy against True And Proper Brawling for what it is.

Its so crazy how they've completely forgotten what the meta was like before the cauldron. Brawling was less viable. Machine guns were still very strong. Splat was still very strong. And snipers were still very strong.

The things they complain about the most are largely the things that have not changed, or that have even been nerfed! There's more viable builds out there than ever by a huge amount. Its not the Cauldron's fault that people don't play them.

Where were SPLs before the Cauldron? SPLs are better than pure MG in many contexts. Where were heavy lasers? LBX other than ISLB10X? PPCs other than ER? IS Large Lasers?

Its a joke.

Edited by Heavy Money, 13 September 2022 - 06:47 PM.

[ScrapIron Prime]

[redacted]

Yes, but with all due respect, I’m not seeing SRM or MG builds just hovering in the backfield waiting for people to pounce the snipers so they can defend them, teams or no, highly competent/organized or no. I don’t doubt it that it happens, I just don’t think it happens often enough to serve as the basis for such a rant.

Edited by Ekson Valdez, 19 September 2022 - 11:17 PM.
quote clean-up

[Vlads Brain]

ScrapIron Prime, on 13 September 2022 - 07:13 PM, said:

Yes, but with all due respect, I’m not seeing SRM or MG builds just hovering in the backfield waiting for people to pounce the snipers so they can defend them, teams or no, highly competent/organized or no. I don’t doubt it that it happens, I just don’t think it happens often enough to serve as the basis for such a rant.

I started this account just to play the fle-20 and see how far and fast I could advance and its easy pickings until you hit mid tier 3 then you start to see exactly the stuff he is talking about as tier 1 premades start to appear around that point. Every other match it seems there is a fast srm bomber of one type or another lurking around the rear waiting for flankers or another light with a close in anti light loadout. I don't mind it as I can avoid them easily enough but it does put a crimp on farming the snipers for sure as I have to evade more and my kdr is starting to drop a bit.

[Frendly Pythagorean Natteri Tato]

Yes I see what he is saying. Just last night I was playing and a four-man group with Cauldron members was in it, two guys in Jgx were there (Is this the unit you were referring to?? Or are we not allowed to say?) and two other decent players who I don't recall. They were indeed in long-range builds and one of them was in a viper with a bunch of mgs that would shred anyone who tried to flank. I also recall before changes were made that it was possible to effect sniper groups with quick flanker mechs without being annhilated by mg spam or fast srm bombers.

Not sure if they even lost all night... There weren't really any other of the top units playing. I guess they were just stat harvesting to conquer the leaderboards. Kinda weird cauldron players would care about that.

Doesn't seem very ethical if you are trusted with a position of power to buff the preferred playstyle of your unit and weaken the counters to it that had always previously existed... Maybe it's an inmates-running-the-asylum type deal now if there is no effective oversight.

Maybe they get away with it because most of the tiers don't play against them so there are not enough people to report on it?? They switch to their known smrf unit sometimes to stay under the radar, but I guess that's allowed. Pretty bizarre.

[Ihlrath]

Caldron buffing their prefered play style while nerfing every counter to it..... I mean people have been saying this for a long time but yet nothing gets done about it and the player base just keeps shrinking and shrinking...


But hey at least they can epeen all over everyone about how awesome they are and how everyone needs to 'git gud'. That's the point of online gaming isn't it?