39 replies to this topic

[cervelos2]

Hi everyone,

I used to play a fair bit. Wasn't terribly good, but I had fun. Then it stopped being fun and I haven't played for 3 or 4 years I think. I was usually a light pilot as I found them the most fun, but also played a few heavies.

Had my first 3 games last night, trying to adjust to things that have changed. I just kind of waited for the fighting to start, then ran around among the enemies, or kept lights away from my teams heavies and assaults.

Anyway, at one point us lights were thanked for doing nothing. I think I was the only light, maybe one other? Got told that if we want to be assaults to pilot assaults.

I know there's always been a difference of opinion here, and there are different game modes and situations that call for different things, but just wondering- is there currently a "role" lights are supposed to fulfill?

[FatManBlue]

I figure the roles have not changed. Depending on the light your running you can, scout, spot, distract, support slow fatty, stealth snipe, you know the usual. Speaking of the "usual" Another thing that has not changed is, Napoleon Jr. wannabes growling about a game loss. My suggestion is, do what you know to be your role in the match, and ignore the peasants with pikes.

[Rondoe]

I've always appreciated the lights that were on my team that would hang out around the assualts and run interference for them (yes me included) Although it doesn't happen that often. The few times they did it saved my big hulking dumbarse from a bad situation because the opposing team member(s) would back off because of "ahh hell a light is gonna saw my 6 off while I try to deal with an assualt plunking away at me"

In the end it's all a ton of variable's and playstyle. I usually get owned cuz I like playing assaults. I'm good at it, but usually set up for brawling cuz I hate the long range sniper/missle meta. I really dislike that more than all those who say lights are to OP and need to be nerfed.

It's up to me and how I play. Adapt and survive or die as I like to say.

(but I really do dislike the sniper game)

[sycocys]

In tier 5 most of the non-smurf players are still trying to figure out how to fire their weapons while moving, not sure I'd be bothered much by their opinions of what you should be doing.

[VeeOt Dragon]

as someone who often plays LRM mechs i love having a good scout on my team. scouting is far from a waste. hell even if all you do is get out there pop a UAV and run back its information the team can use. (though try to stay close enough that you team can actually hit the targets you are spotting. nothing is more annoying than a light running out to 1500m and then crying for an assist, sorry you are to far out for anyone to help you.)

but yeah still lots of things for lights. the only real time i will gripe is when you have situation were you need fast movers to go deal with something (say an enemy light on your cap point) and they refuse to do break off and deal with it.

the only light mech i ever play is the Urbie so i can't really say much about the class as a whole. mechs that move over about 100kph tend to give me me a headache when piloting.

[Cherge]

Ultimately, your role is to finish the game with a pretty green up arrow.

Sometimes, getting a pretty green up arrow means you need to keep an eye on your assault mechs from getting gangbanged by 3 lights

Sometimes getting a pretty green up arrow means you just annoy the **** out of their assaults

But all of the time, you should listen to teammates with a grain of salt, because people love playing the blame game

[feeWAIVER]

Circle of Life.
Lights kill Assaults.
Assaults kill Heavies.
Heavies kill Mediums.
Mediums kill Lights.

[JediPanther]

Lights win the game 50% of the time yet I spend the vast majority of it waiting to see which team of timid tommies starts to show any sign of agression usually just using the ecm assult as a meat shield until 3-0 happens or 0-3 depending on which team has the smarter more agressive players. Other wise without lights on that 50% of the time this happens:

[RickySpanish]

Every class accomplishes the One Role of dealing damage differently. Since armour is at a premium on a Light, you should deal damage in ways that prevent you from getting shot at. You basically have two options - high dps low range backstabbing with machineguns and/or lasers, or peaking with good mounts. For example the Piranha is great at the former, the Incubus is great at the latter.

[LordNothing]

yea, to mess with all the range mechs at the edge of the map, to educate (read: farm) out of place assault mechs, and to cause general chaos.

[Raffen Volt]

Lights are small and fast, so they are best used as harrassers and scouts/spotters. Take potshots at already damaged enemies, act as bait to lure enemies towards grouped up teammates, and call out enemy locations. TAG/NARC will help with missile locks and disrupt enemy ECM mechs from range. You can launch UAVs and drop airstrike/artillery strikes while scouting. While this playstyle can be fun, it is not going to get you high damage numbers or do much to increase your PSR. You will be the MVP of your team or clan if you can master it.

[feeWAIVER]

Raffen Volt, on 17 April 2023 - 07:01 PM, said:

While this playstyle can be fun, it is not going to get you high damage numbers or do much to increase your PSR. You will be the MVP of your team or clan if you can master it.

I regularly get 600dmg and 2-3 kills in my locust. I rarely exceed 1,000 damage.

[Raffen Volt]

feeWAIVER, on 17 April 2023 - 07:58 PM, said:

I regularly get 600dmg and 2-3 kills in my locust. I rarely exceed 1,000 damage.

If you don't mind sharing, what is your Mech build and what skills do you use?

[feeWAIVER]

Raffen Volt, on 17 April 2023 - 08:05 PM, said:

If you don't mind sharing, what is your Mech build and what skills do you use?

Snub Locust 1v or Locust 3m with 2 med pulse 3 er small.

Max armor, structure, cooldown, speed tweak..the rest is whatever you want.

Biggest xl engine.. no ams.

Edited by feeWAIVER, 17 April 2023 - 08:14 PM.

[RickySpanish]

Raffen Volt, on 17 April 2023 - 08:05 PM, said:

If you don't mind sharing, what is your Mech build and what skills do you use?

Even Light 'Mechs with low burst and dps can make up for it by being fast and small enough to always shoot when heat allows. Bringing a pair of strikes and/or cool shots is often a requirement too.

[Curccu]

Yep, deal damage and kill.

[Leadpaintchips]

Lights have the same problem that they've always had, where the game doesn't give them the role they're supposed to have. The maps aren't big enough to really pull off scouting, and there's nothing smaller then them to suppress.


So they have the same roles that they had when you left. They punish assaults that don't put defense weapons on their arms by humping their legs. They punish LURM boats for not having defense weapons by humping their legs. They punish people for dropping their back armor by hitting them from behind. They punish poor communication by being enough of a nuisance to have half the group chase the squirrel.

[cervelos2]

Thanks everyone, sounds like things haven't changed that much then. Just gotta get used to the maps and new mechs, plus get lots of practice in again. Fingers crossed!

Cheers

[Brizna]

In my mind lights have two basic roles in MWO:

Brawler Skirmishers: Armed with short range weapons like smallish lasers and SRMs mostly, they go in dish out a surprising high DPS and get out as soon as things get too hot.

Harassers: Armed with medium to long range weapon they take advantage of their increased mobility and pelt the enemy with a constant rain of PPCs or large lasers, the damage does add up if you play a whole match but due to this game style tending to have you switching targets all the time and the difficulty of focusing a component from afar leads to low kill ratios. That said harassing the right enemy mechs can keep them suppressed for the whole match which can be immensely useful for your team to take the lead. The key to play this type of mech is to remember you are to disrupt the enemy long range DPS dealers, if you don't then the reduced DPS you bring to the table will be a handicap for your team.

[Foeman-77]

I'm trying to see how high I can juice my leaderboard position, so since there is a score boost for them I am only playing lights these days even though I don't have the patience to effectively play the fast zoomy ones or builds with low range.

As such, I play lights much the same way I do heavies, fighting from cover and/or the flanks in frontal engagements against enemies that are looking in my direction and shooting back, with occasional brawls with weakened or unexpected opponents. This requires slower tanky lights that can carry actual firepower. I'm having a grand old time with my COU-E and KFX-C with the stock omnipod quirks and big energy weapons. Both of those have pulled multiple 1000+ damage games (and I don't use strikes) and countless top match damages aside from that. So, for me lights fulfil the damage dealing role of heavies without the expectation of standing at the front sharing armor.

However, after trying all IS lights, I'm embarrassed to say that I can't get any IS light to work well. I just can't get a good mix of firepower and range from them. Also, all three of their engine choices have serious drawbacks when trying to shove one in a fragile little mech with low available tonnage. Basically, any game where I drop in an IS light I would have done 30-50% better in a Clan light.