1 reply to this topic

[Bhodi Li773]

Everyone knows that feeling of "incoming missiles" but it doesn't mean you have to run away in fear,although that helps sometimes. LRMs/missiles are very much a part of Battletech/Mechwarrior history for direct/indirect damage and suppressing enemy mechs .

1 Equipping ECM.- ECM is only available on certain mechs so that will affect those who don't have them. This will prevent people from locking you as a target{R button ingame}and other mechs within a certain distance,. This can be countered by people using tag lasers, enemy mechs using beagle active probes within close range of you and by being narced. You can also be shot at by "dummyfiring" lrms/missiles so don't be surprised if you still get hit by missiles if your standing still. Ecm can also be boosted in your skill tree for better area coverage..

2 Equipping AMS/LaserAMS -Anti-Missile-Systems will shoot down missiles that are being targeted on you and others within a certain distance. You have two types of AMS available. Regular AMS which requires you to bring ammo to shoot down missiles and is limited by how much ammo you bring with you and LASER AMS which requires no ammo at the cost of generating heat. Depending on how heat efficient your mech build,tonnage /slots available is and how you play your mech will give you an idea of which is better for you. AMS can also be boosted in your skill tree to be more efficient at shooting down missiles. AMS can also be toggled on/off while playing . This can be handy if you want to flank enemies and don't want your AMS to give away your position to enemy players.

3 Stealh Armor- which blocks people being able to lock you{similar to ECM} but affects only you. This can be very useful but can be very situational to how beneficial to you it is. You can still be dummyfired at/spotted so mostly used by light/fast mechs for hit and run style gameplay or ninja sniper gameplay.

4 Environment- The map /terrain is one of your biggest advantages against LRM/missiles . Staying close to walls,in low lying areas where line of sight is harder to get on your mech and under bridges between you and enemy mechs. Even a very small rock/terrain will help block some missiles and extend your life in-game. Going into the training grounds and running around in your Mech will give you an idea of how long it takes to move around and where good cover is. This will go along way to you surviving in the middle of a fight.

5 Staying with your allies- If you don't have AMS/ECM staying near fellow Mechwarrriors who do will still shoot down missiles and prevent you from being targeted also. This means staying within a minimum on 90 meters or more{for ECM} and within 200 meters{for AMS} depending on any skill tree perks that have been taken.

6 SITUATIONAL AWARENESS- Being aware of the terrain ahead of you and how long it takes for you to get there. Climbing hills slows you down and makes you a good target/crossing open areas . Paying attention to where your team is and where they are moving to so you don 't get left behind. Getting used to looking at your minmap will go along way with this as you will see if your team is flanking the enemy or where the battle is moving to.

7 Mech Placement- This goes hand -in-hand with Situational Awareness. If you stand directly behind an ally being targeted whatever misses him will be coming at you. Standing to the side of your Fellow Mechwarriors will prevent this and also allow them to back up if they need to without being blocked by you ,forcing them to tank the damage/die needlessly. One of the biggest peeves of most players is someone standing directly behind them.

8 Torso Twisting- This is a good skill to use whenever you are being shot at by anything. By moving your mouse left/right repeatedly or using your A/D keys you spread the damage over multiple areas or cause some to miss you completely while moving ahead/backwards. Another trick is when you see the missiles just about to hit you hit S and A or D together or S and move your mouse to the left or right to "sidestep the missiles". Kind of like Neo in the MATRIX dodging bullets. Missiles can't swerve fast enough once they get too close, allowing you to take less or possibly dodge all the incoming missiles. Nothing like seeing that stream of missiles whip past you doing 0 damage.

9 Mobility/Range/Travel Time-All missiles have a maximum range{base LRM range is roughly 1000m to 1100} depending on skill tree perks taken. Each map grid in-game is 500m so if you see lrms coming from that direction and they are around 2 grids away the missiles may simply blow up by you simply backing up/running away for a few seconds. Missiles only travel so fast giving you up to 4 seconds roughly before they hit. This will come with more experience playing the game but if no cover is availabe running away actually does work.

10 Skill Tree- Along with using AMS overload,ECM coverage is Target Deprivation. This skill reduces the time that a Target Lock on you stays active after you get behind cover{usually 3 seconds on average}..This causes the missiles to lose you as a target and miss completely,as long as you don't move out of cover. You can be re-targeted if you move back into their line of sight so staying behind cover 7-8 seconds will cause any missiles to lose you and any target lock on you to be lost. Powering down by hitting the P key can also cause missiles to lose their lock on you but this should only be done when you are already behind cover,and not in Line Of Sight. Otherwise you become a very easy target for dummy fired missiles, direct fire weapons and can still be hit by the missiles you were trying to dodge in the first place.

I know someone may post that taking AMS is useless but when you think of how much armor your AMS is keeping on you and your Team it's very significant. If you shoot down 500 missiles thats the equivalent of a heavy mech. That number may be even more important if you are shooting down ATMs which can do 3 damage /missile=1500 armor. That's equal to 2 -100 ton Assaults mechs. That's a Lot of armor and can swing the match resulting in a victory instead of a defeat. Remember . Play The Game,Don't Let The Game Play You!! See you in-game. Until then GLHF. O7 MechWarriors!!

[xxREVxx]

Bhodi Li773, on 13 March 2021 - 09:03 PM, said:

I know someone may post that taking AMS is useless but when you think of how much armor your AMS is keeping on you and your Team it's very significant. If you shoot down 500 missiles thats the equivalent of a heavy mech. That number may be even more important if you are shooting down ATMs which can do 3 damage /missile=1500 armor. That's equal to 2 -100 ton Assaults mechs. That's a Lot of armor and can swing the match resulting in a victory instead of a defeat. Remember . Play The Game,Don't Let The Game Play You!! See you in-game. Until then GLHF. O7 MechWarriors!!

In the first Lurmaggedon many people started sporting AMS due to the insane amount of missile boating. It got to the point where AMS or ECM was a requirement on our mechs for faction drop decks. OP makes a good point about how much armor is saved, especially collectively.
If the masses started mounting AMS again, missiles would become unpopular again.
Hell, I even run AMS on my push brawl builds.

Edited by xxREVxx, 13 March 2021 - 10:53 PM.