77 replies to this topic

[PocketYoda]

Lately i've been losing interest in MWO due to the sniper meta, i personally do not find it fun at all, anyone have some good counters to this meta..

I'm talking whole teams setup for this frankly boring meta.. Blue lasers and similar are far too long range imo.

I understand or at least it seems this is what the Cauldron seems to find fun and promote but i'm not feeling it myself.. Thinking about taking another extended break at this time.

Edited by PocketYoda, 22 April 2023 - 10:01 PM.

[Heavy Money]

There is no sniper meta. The meta in QP is laservomit and dakka at medium to long range.

You fight snipers by denying them lines, or by getting closer where you'll out damage them. Or go gank them with a fast light/medium.

[Meep Meep]

Play fast ecm mechs and don't worry about psr or top damage and go harass the ever living fk out of them. If you want to be extra annoying then use a spider d or a fle20 with lppc and counter snipe them from ecm cover. Spider is more effective since it can mount three and still get two jj and 142kph but something about masc and two lppc that makes zooming around in the flea and popping shots at anything in range every two seconds irresistible.

[Leadpaintchips]

Snipers in this game are countered by speed, terrain, and fast cycling weapons. Just compare an IS PPC to IS MLas. 2 MLas matches the damage, is less heat, less tonnage, and has a lower CD then the PPC. Clan tech is (almost) in the same boat. SRM 6's + 1 ton ammo are the same thing. Boat some SRMs, MLas/PLas (or smaller), and get an engine that will get you there quickly.


Close the distance while using terrain in a way that doesn't get locks on you, and hope you have backup because you can be sure as soon as you start eating one sniper, they're all going to turn on you. One pilot isn't going to be able to do much in the 12v12 if the snipers decide to all focus the fast brawler who decided to flank them while that pilot's team is all hill/corner humping trying to counter snipe.

[RockmachinE]

There is a long range/slow meta. The games are way more dragged out and sluggish than they used it be. I hate this. Constant Direwolves at 1200m are a good symptom of this.

[VeeOt Dragon]

an LRM mech with some good scouting. rain on the snipers from behind cover. (still requires getting into at least 1k of them with the right LRM quirks. closer the better). if nothing else it keeps them hiding and if they are hiding they aren't shooting. teamwork is what you need. (had a good match today where the other teams entire assault lance were sniper mechs. we got lucky and had a light mech with NARC. i ended up with over 1k dmg in an LRM Hunchback. their snipers barely got to fire without getting Lurmed. fired every round of amo then went in to work with my 4 ER SLs to help clean up) what is funny is when you are running one of hose LRM mechs with the nice range Quirks and the ER LL sniper thinks he is safely out of range only to get pummeled. (i run BAP on my LRM mechs for added sensor range even though i much prefer using them under 500m sometimes you just have to rain on something in the distance and it helps if you can get the lock yourself since so many players don't seem to know how to use the R key)

Edited by VeeOt Dragon, 23 April 2023 - 06:57 AM.

[PocketYoda]

I'm not going to debate if there is or isn't i'm seeing a lot of sniping type mechs these days.. Its whole teams at least in tier 4 and some what 3.. The fast mech up to them makes sense but alone is tough, they are whole teams copying each other. its become a thing and they tend to go up high and snipe from large distance. getting to them fresh is tough.

VeeOt Dragon, on 23 April 2023 - 06:55 AM, said:

an LRM mech with some good scouting. rain on the snipers from behind cover. (still requires getting into at least 1k of them with the right LRM quirks. closer the better). if nothing else it keeps them hiding and if they are hiding they aren't shooting. teamwork is what you need. (had a good match today where the other teams entire assault lance were sniper mechs. we got lucky and had a light mech with NARC. i ended up with over 1k dmg in an LRM Hunchback. their snipers barely got to fire without getting Lurmed. fired every round of amo then went in to work with my 4 ER SLs to help clean up) what is funny is when you are running one of hose LRM mechs with the nice range Quirks and the ER LL sniper thinks he is safely out of range only to get pummeled. (i run BAP on my LRM mechs for added sensor range even though i much prefer using them under 500m sometimes you just have to rain on something in the distance and it helps if you can get the lock yourself since so many players don't seem to know how to use the R key)

I suppose i could un-shelve some lurm boats.. As i said though not exactly what i find fun..

Edited by PocketYoda, 23 April 2023 - 07:05 AM.

[VeeOt Dragon]

yeah LRM play isn't for everyone. i have some physical handicaps (hand tremors mostly) that when they act up make hitting a stationary Union dropship hard so i fall back on LRM on those days. that said there are a few nice medium and heavy LRM platforms now days. the Dervish-6MR is nice as well as the Hunchback-4J (both can carry 2 LRM-15s with enough extra room for plenty of ammo 4 ER SLs and a big enough engine to keep your mobility up. akso LRM mechs are some of the few mechs i feel comfortable running XL engines in). as for heavies well there are always the old standbys in the Archer and Catapult family. (no idea on Clan mechs since i don't play them.)

Edited by VeeOt Dragon, 23 April 2023 - 07:13 AM.

[ThreeStooges]

I use the lrm bomber. Wolf night star with lrm 80 and a tag. 40kph slug that does any where from 15-20 armor percent off when they hit if you can get past all the ecm. The game is boring as hell and has been for months. Teams in low tiers are so dam timid with all the power creep. Bet that new clan lbx 60 mech/build is great for the ones who bought it. IS have nothing that can do that or similar.

Some days I just go to one of my mechs and max out the sensors and ams and just orbit the lrm ecm sniper assult turret for most the match. It's rare for a match to last longer than six minutes or a team not to lose once that 0-3 hits. 0-2 you might win if only the team grows some brains and balls to focus fire and death ball which is a rarity.

[PocketYoda]

I'll jump in my Supernova.

[evil kerensky]

it used to be fast armour quirked splat (srms and large lbx) brawlers, but kdcm but the fear of god and roughneck/linebacker rushes into jgx, so they wont buff them. but the 5 cerll/2gauss direwolf needed buffs. forsure. and so did both the uac 10 and ppc poptart summoners... apparently.

[Widowmaker1981]

Louis Brofist, on 23 April 2023 - 06:43 AM, said:

There is a long range/slow meta. The games are way more dragged out and sluggish than they used it be. I hate this. Constant Direwolves at 1200m are a good symptom of this.

I think this is confirmation bias. I want slower paced trading matches, if im being honest and, to me, it feels like there is a marked trend away from that and toward more mobile deathball matches. I remember the games that annoy me, and you remember the ones that annoy you.

Id much rather face sniper Dires than swarms of Fleas and Locusts.

[MTier Slayed Up]

Feels more like a PPC/Dakka meta than anything. Only laser vomit builds I'm consistently seeing are on Timber's.

[An6ryMan69]

When I notice massed numbers of enemy snipers (Yeah a full lance+ of Dire Wolf ERLL snipers really is a thing...) I just refuse to play into them and hunker down and wait for them to lose patience and change their ways. I don't like doing it, and I wouldn't chose to drop into a game I knew was going that way, but it works - and it's a bit of a "screw you guys" to the snipers.


Other techniques people have listed can work too, but you're taking your chances trying to maneuver into close range when facing large numbers of sit-and-wait snipers. As others have mentioned, I have definitely seen 50% or more of a team take up sniper positions up high, or on the edge of a map, and just wait for someone to try and foolishly close the distance.

I've also been having much less fun in MWO in 2023, partially due to this phenomenon, and to the generally very poor match making.

[BLACKR0SE]

meta changes instantaneously. 2 match lasers will be on the agenda. 2 match ballistics. lasers have no effect on a hot map. or on a small map. so it is ineffective. and ballistics are powerless on a long and wide map.

just 1 2 matches wait for the map to change.

Edited by TAMTAMBABY, 24 April 2023 - 07:39 AM.

[BLACKR0SE]

sometimes it drives me crazy. entering the incompatible map with an incompatible machine.

[sycocys]

PocketYoda, on 22 April 2023 - 09:43 PM, said:

Lately i've been losing interest in MWO due to the sniper meta, i personally do not find it fun at all, anyone have some good counters to this meta..

I'm talking whole teams setup for this frankly boring meta.. Blue lasers and similar are far too long range imo.

I understand or at least it seems this is what the Cauldron seems to find fun and promote but i'm not feeling it myself.. Thinking about taking another extended break at this time.

What we used to do in FP against the flood of clan erLL is full daka (4xac5 x12) or full mpl vomit in faster heavies. quirks have changed but there's still some mechs to field that can operate that way fairly well.

In QP I generally run ML + SRMs or MPL + SRMs or my Deathwish that runs 5 ML + uac20. Running a reasonable speed with solid damage and cycle seems to do the trick for me.

-- Also when I get bored I'll drop in a VGL-4 with mpl or BJ-1X (iirc that's the model). Just since I pretty much only pilot mediums those two are the pulse boats I shift to. And that goofy ecm trashcan with 5 mpl is stupid broken if you don't mind piloting "light".

Edited by sycocys, 24 April 2023 - 12:22 PM.

[Vonbach]

Lockheed_, on 22 April 2023 - 11:59 PM, said:

There's no sniper meta.

Lol ok.

[TheCaptainJZ]

It depends on the map and what your teammates end up doing. The best counter for snipers is to rush them but that's not always possible depending on what mech you are playing. ECM and target derp might help make you less of a target (less noticeable--true as a universal rule). Maneuvering to flank might be possible, but it's generally dangerous to go at it alone. Laser vomit is harder to counter in some respects. They can usually get 3-4 full shots off before overheating but that does a significant amount of damage and is still quite deadly up close. Recycle times are faster than sniping weapons. Best counter is again at least one teammate.

[PocketYoda]

MT Slayed, on 24 April 2023 - 06:28 AM, said:

Feels more like a PPC/Dakka meta than anything. Only laser vomit builds I'm consistently seeing are on Timber's.

Actually nearly all clan mechs these days are er large and long range ballistics.. Not just Madcats..

Edited by PocketYoda, 24 April 2023 - 07:31 PM.