29 replies to this topic

[Theodore]

Terrain is your friend. terrain can act as free armor for your mech. terrain can block incoming missiles. Terrain can help remove enemy locks. Terrain can elevate your mech above or below the maximum aiming height of an enemies torso mounted weapons.

Even simple movements like hiding behind terrain, and then peaking out to shoot, and then retreating back to terrain can help win trades.

Terrain terrain terrain.

[Alexander of Macedon]

loopala, on 05 March 2021 - 08:32 PM, said:

PSR is a Lie!!
Fun is king!
I am tier 5 cause I like playing mechs I like vs META mechs.....

This is not true. PSR is basically an exp bar. I just came back after the reset (?) and I'm rising quickly when half of what I play are wildly far from meta (or were last meta like four years ago).

There's really just two rules:
1. Don't use bracket builds.
2. Play smart.

Any build, even a meme build, maybe even a straight-from-tabletop build, can put up 400-500 damage if you play carefully. That's enough to rise on wins and break even on some losses. Hell, one of my favorite assault builds is a massive meme, it's a brawling BNC-3M with 2x LLas, 6xMlas, a STD350, and 10+23 SHS. It's undergunned and not a meta weapon mix, but it's tanky and runs cold enough to fire on cooldown almost forever. You don't need a meta mech or build, just one that doesn't lose the game in the mechlab paired with enough common sense to not die less than a minute after contact.

Rising in PSR doesn't mean being able to beat comp teams. It means not being one of the guys who runs out and dies with <200 damage every match.

Edited by Alexander of Macedon, 16 March 2021 - 04:02 PM.

[Tarl Cabot]

iie, the current PSR setting is no longer an experience bar like it used to be. A player with a low avg MS (171 or so) could grind his way to Tier 1 by brute force through 10s of thousands of games. That person now is in Tier 5 and not moving up, which when thinking about it is a good thing for everyone. He is now rarely dropping into combat where players are both sides are avg 300+ MS, unless he groups up or potentially during a time period when the population is low. For said player he is no longer necessarily the low man on deck majority of the time.

Of course players returning or starting an alt may make things interesting but those who do well are quickly moving, such as yourself, avg 400 MS with 18 played. Just remember, with the PSR reset and adjustment, you are being measured against the other 23 players instead of being matched against a static PSR scale.

[Alexander of Macedon]

Tarl Cabot, on 16 March 2021 - 04:14 PM, said:

iie, the current PSR setting is no longer an experience bar like it used to be. A player with a low avg MS (171 or so) could grind his way to Tier 1 by brute force through 10s of thousands of games. That person now is in Tier 5 and not moving up, which when thinking about it is a good thing for everyone. He is now rarely dropping into combat where players are both sides are avg 300+ MS, unless he groups up or potentially during a time period when the population is low. For said player he is no longer necessarily the low man on deck majority of the time.

Of course players returning or starting an alt may make things interesting but those who do well are quickly moving, such as yourself, avg 400 MS with 18 played. Just remember, with the PSR reset and adjustment, you are being measured against the other 23 players instead of being matched against a static PSR scale.

I'm not convinced the changes are going to make that much of a difference vis-a-vis match quality. The player pool is small enough that unless PGI hardlocks it at the 1-3 | 2-4 | 3-5 brackets you're going to end up with plenty of bleed either way.

Additionally, the number of people on the forums is a slim minority. The vast majority of people who are playing in seriously detrimental ways are never going to get advice on how to improve, so anyone who actually pays attention will be able to rise at least to T2-3 just by running decent builds and not doing pointless suicide marches.

It's not theoretically possible for the entire playerbase to be T1 any more, but there's zero reason for anyone who has any grasp on the game to be stuck below T3 so long as there's the existing pool of clueless silent solo players.

[PocketYoda]

First of all enjoy your gaming, PSR is not a requisite (the higher the PSR, the less fun the game becomes) Very important!

Stay in the team..
Focus on enemies players call out and objectives.
Always try to hit r before you attack something to see if and where its damaged.
Try to finish an enemy if possible not start new ones
If an enemy hasn't seen you wait a few seconds and try to pick a favorable area (back damage)
Keep an eye on you map and be aware of the teams movements
Always try to run with consumables (UAVs)
Try to hit and move so the enemies don't focus you too much.
Weapon slots on mechs do not have to be filled to the brim to be competitive.
Safe IS heat is 1.3
Safer Clan heat is 1.4-1.5
Try not to show your back to the enemies
Face time can be deadly so pick and choose
Higher weapon mounts are helpful.
Try to limit your damage of teammates.
Skills are as important to a build as weapons are.
Jumpjets in the legs make you go up Jumpjets in the back make you go forwards slightly.
XL Engines will kill you instantly if you lose a shoulder on Inner sphere not Clan

Edited by Samial, 29 March 2021 - 11:08 PM.

[The Basilisk]

Alexander of Macedon, on 16 March 2021 - 04:20 PM, said:

I'm not convinced the changes are going to make that much of a difference vis-a-vis match quality. The player pool is small enough that unless PGI hardlocks it at the 1-3 | 2-4 | 3-5 brackets you're going to end up with plenty of bleed either way. Additionally, the number of people on the forums is a slim minority. The vast majority of people who are playing in seriously detrimental ways are never going to get advice on how to improve, so anyone who actually pays attention will be able to rise at least to T2-3 just by running decent builds and not doing pointless suicide marches. It's not theoretically possible for the entire playerbase to be T1 any more, but there's zero reason for anyone who has any grasp on the game to be stuck below T3 so long as there's the existing pool of clueless silent solo players.

I wouldn't say that I am a completely clueless player but I got a pretty nasty streak on the loosing side of this game.
No matter how many dmg (500; 600; 700) and or matchscore my team looses miserably and I got either = or down arrows. When I win I get either killed early on by beeing focused and match score is low, or game is over before I am able to do more than 200-300dmg.
My theorie on this is the culprit could be the player base beeing online during the timeslots I am playing in.
In my timeslot (17h - 22h ME(S)Z) the players are already either T1and better or T5/4 with little or nothing inbetween.
That would explain the extremes.

[AnAnachronismAlive]

The Basilisk, on 30 March 2021 - 04:55 AM, said:

I wouldn't say that I am a completely clueless player but I got a pretty nasty streak on the loosing side of this game.
No matter how many dmg (500; 600; 700) and or matchscore my team looses miserably and I got either = or down arrows. When I win I get either killed early on by beeing focused and match score is low, or game is over before I am able to do more than 200-300dmg.
My theorie on this is the culprit could be the player base beeing online during the timeslots I am playing in.
In my timeslot (17h - 22h ME(S)Z) the players are already either T1and better or T5/4 with little or nothing inbetween.
That would explain the extremes.

General advice for QP-drops: call out power positions / counternascar on voice early and use the "need assistance" command at least twice while heading left. Afterwards check if at least 3/4 of the team is following you. If that ain't the case, you see the first blue blips afterburning off to the right and ain't sitting in a 100kph+ mech yourself => find yourself a spot behind cover and let the enemy team pass / start shooting the opfors players that got left behind. You often end up at the head of your own circle-commoners that way, as long as you are careful.

Exposing yourself early or tanking for your nascaring team, is generally of no use in the random QP-environment. Once ye start dropping in numbers, this may change things - if done right.

Start gaming the match-score system if you feel like tier is of any value to you.

[Shatterpoint]

It's just a race to out damage the stupidity of your team, you need to farm something like ~400+ and ideally get a kill before they crumble, that's your 50/50 of going up/neutral instead of down.

[chevy42083]

I know this is an older thread.... but still.
Its based on match score, and damage.
Look at the final match screens. Look at where you rank for match score and damage. Chances are, you're low on damage.
You may be hitting people... but make sure you are in the CORRECT range for your weapons to do the max damage, rather than just pinking off at so far away you aren't really doing much but registering a hit.

[martian]

The Basilisk, on 30 March 2021 - 04:55 AM, said:

I wouldn't say that I am a completely clueless player but I got a pretty nasty streak on the loosing side of this game.
No matter how many dmg (500; 600; 700) and or matchscore my team looses miserably and I got either = or down arrows. When I win I get either killed early on by beeing focused and match score is low, or game is over before I am able to do more than 200-300dmg.
My theorie on this is the culprit could be the player base beeing online during the timeslots I am playing in.
In my timeslot (17h - 22h ME(S)Z) the players are already either T1and better or T5/4 with little or nothing inbetween.
That would explain the extremes.

What about using a different 'Mech or arming it differently?

Or perhaps changing the playstyle could help.