45 replies to this topic

[dumbcat]

hi,

partially venting. partially want to see if im doing something wrong. ive been playing this game for a few months, learned about the different weapons and targeting and general strategy. had a lot of fun meeting people in tier 5 and tier 4.

then i got to tier 3. and all of a sudden every game sucks. someone in game chat said that once you get to tier 3 you often get thrown into games with tier 1 players. and every game has a 4 man group on the other side and if you happen to run into them as a solo player you just get ganged on and deleted before you get to play.

just want to make sure: is this right? in my mind it cant be intended that someone like me who is pretty new is expected to play against tier 1 players who have been playing for 10 years or whatever AND are in a group of 4. that isn't a matchmaker, thats just using new players as sacrificial lambs to the existing playerbase.

questions: 1) how do i opt out of having to play with and against pre-made groups? 2) how can i play against other people my own skill level and not get thrown into games with tier 1s?

thanks in advance!

edit: i have played several team shooter games like world of tanks/warships, etc and i know that nobody ever likes the matchmaking system. but even though the matchmakers in other games can and do often make silly teams, it is NOTHING like throwing a new player into games with the best players around. theres a difference between haha funny matchmaker being dumb and designing a matchmaker to do something this irresponsible toward new players.

anyway, hopefully im just a moron and forgot to uncheck some settings so i can opt out of this tier 1 and group stuff. because the difference between tier 5/4 which were both genuinely fun and engaging, and tier 3 which is pretty much complete dogshit, is staggering.

Edited by dumbcat, 01 August 2025 - 08:39 PM.

[KursedVixen]

You cannot opt out of playing with groups... many people have asked for a way to seperate pre-made groups and nothing has changed...

the only way to play with lower tier players is to go back to tier 4.

I don't know if tier 3 mixes in tier 1 or not...

Edited by KursedVixen, 01 August 2025 - 09:13 PM.

[Void Angel]

dumbcat, on 01 August 2025 - 07:57 PM, said:

hi,

partially venting. partially want to see if im doing something wrong. ive been playing this game for a few months, learned about the different weapons and targeting and general strategy. had a lot of fun meeting people in tier 5 and tier 4.

then i got to tier 3. and all of a sudden every game sucks. someone in game chat said that once you get to tier 3 you often get thrown into games with tier 1 players. and every game has a 4 man group on the other side and if you happen to run into them as a solo player you just get ganged on and deleted before you get to play.

just want to make sure: is this right? in my mind it cant be intended that someone like me who is pretty new is expected to play against tier 1 players who have been playing for 10 years or whatever AND are in a group of 4. that isn't a matchmaker, thats just using new players as sacrificial lambs to the existing playerbase.

questions: 1) how do i opt out of having to play with and against pre-made groups? 2) how can i play against other people my own skill level and not get thrown into games with tier 1s?

thanks in advance!

edit: i have played several team shooter games like world of tanks/warships, etc and i know that nobody ever likes the matchmaking system. but even though the matchmakers in other games can and do often make silly teams, it is NOTHING like throwing a new player into games with the best players around. theres a difference between haha funny matchmaker being dumb and designing a matchmaker to do something this irresponsible toward new players.

anyway, hopefully im just a moron and forgot to uncheck some settings so i can opt out of this tier 1 and group stuff. because the difference between tier 5/4 which were both genuinely fun and engaging, and tier 3 which is pretty much complete dogshit, is staggering.

Tier 3 is a special tier, for the reasons you've noticed - the presence of Tier 1 players. But, it's not exactly how you might think. See, because of the size of the player base, both the top and bottom tier have a wider range of player skills than you might expect - there's just not enough players at either end of the spectrum to fill out their own tier. So on the one end, in T5, you have the people who (I swear I am not making this up) insist on playing with a steering wheel. In Tier 1, you have the literal world champions, and those who compete against them. So far, this is probably obvious to you - but here's what you might not have realized yet:

Since there can be such a vast gulf in skill between Tier 1 players, you're not having match quality drop simply because someone like me gets popped into a match with you. Don't get me wrong, I do a good job most days, yet my marksmanship and other piloting skills aren't exactly superhuman. But to reach Tier 1, I have had to adapt to the presence of those top-tier players, and that means that I play the game substantially differently than you are going to be used to from the lower Tiers. It is those tactics, rather than the mechanical piloting skills (map awareness, aim, damage spreading, etc,) that throw new T3 players for a loop. The best players around are not synonymous with Tier 1, even though that's the highest matchmaker ranking. =]

Unfortunately there's no way to insulate you from Tier 1 more than the game already does. It's because of the size of the player base. That's why you (and I) can have teammates and opponents matched outside our tier, and why groups are a part of the Quick Play queue. I realize that's not what you were hoping we could tell you, but I'm afraid it's the truth. HOWEVER! It's not true that there's a 4-man on every team, or that you're just going to get ganged up on as a solo player. The maximum number of premade players in a match is 5 (3-man plus 2-man,) and frankly... some premades aren't very good. "Often," is also a loaded and nebulous term that's thrown around by people peddling more salt than wisdom.

I do have some hope to offer, though! First, there's an event going on, and people are going to be a bit stupid until it's over (or rather, until most of them have ground out the rewards.) Likely you're seeing more LRMs and similar lock-on weapons, for example, because these weapons kill inefficiently and the damage inflates match score. Like constipation, this too shall pass. The other good news is that you're unlikely to have a terribly hard time adjusting to Tier 3 builds and tactics. You're trying to figure out how to fix your problem, and asking for help and advice to do so - that alone, added to your experience with similar-ish games, should equip you to learn rapidly. There's a few of us that are always willing to advise on builds and tactics in these forums, and there are still quite a few guilds Like Mine who offer team support, training, and advice while respecting a casual playing schedule.

Edited by Void Angel, 01 August 2025 - 09:17 PM.

[dumbcat]

KursedVixen, on 01 August 2025 - 09:04 PM, said:

You cannot opt out of playing with groups... many people have asked for a way to seperate pre-made groups and nothing has changed...

the only way to play with lower tier players is to go back to tier 4.

I don't know if tier 3 mixes in tier 1 or not...

i didnt know theres a way to go back to tier 4. if you dont mind can you tell me? sorry if i missed something obvious.

[KursedVixen]

dumbcat, on 01 August 2025 - 09:21 PM, said:

i didnt know theres a way to go back to tier 4. if you dont mind can you tell me? sorry if i missed something obvious.

don't play well.... that's it. There's no magic button, if you keep doing better than the rest of your team you'll eventually get into higher tiers..... if you do worse than your team lot you'll go down.

Edited by KursedVixen, 01 August 2025 - 09:24 PM.

[dumbcat]

Void Angel, on 01 August 2025 - 09:14 PM, said:

Tier 3 is a special tier, for the reasons you've noticed - the presence of Tier 1 players. But, it's not exactly how you might think. See, because of the size of the player base, both the top and bottom tier have a wider range of player skills than you might expect - there's just not enough players at either end of the spectrum to fill out their own tier. So on the one end, in T5, you have the people who (I swear I am not making this up) insist on playing with a steering wheel. In Tier 1, you have the literal world champions, and those who compete against them. So far, this is probably obvious to you - but here's what you might not have realized yet:

Since there can be such a vast gulf in skill between Tier 1 players, you're not having match quality drop simply because someone like me gets popped into a match with you. Don't get me wrong, I do a good job most days, yet my marksmanship and other piloting skills aren't exactly superhuman. But to reach Tier 1, I have had to adapt to the presence of those top-tier players, and that means that I play the game substantially differently than you are going to be used to from the lower Tiers. It is those tactics, rather than the mechanical piloting skills (map awareness, aim, damage spreading, etc,) that throw new T3 players for a loop. The best players around are not synonymous with Tier 1, even though that's the highest matchmaker ranking. =]

Unfortunately there's no way to insulate you from Tier 1 more than the game already does. It's because of the size of the player base. That's why you (and I) can have teammates and opponents matched outside our tier, and why groups are a part of the Quick Play queue. I realize that's not what you were hoping we could tell you, but I'm afraid it's the truth. HOWEVER! It's not true that there's a 4-man on every team, or that you're just going to get ganged up on as a solo player. The maximum number of premade players in a match is 5 (3-man plus 2-man,) and frankly... some premades aren't very good. "Often," is also a loaded and nebulous term that's thrown around by people peddling more salt than wisdom.

I do have some hope to offer, though! First, there's an event going on, and people are going to be a bit stupid until it's over (or rather, until most of them have ground out the rewards.) Likely you're seeing more LRMs and similar lock-on weapons, for example, because these weapons kill inefficiently and the damage inflates match score. Like constipation, this too shall pass. The other good news is that you're unlikely to have a terribly hard time adjusting to Tier 3 builds and tactics. You're trying to figure out how to fix your problem, and asking for help and advice to do so - that alone, added to your experience with similar-ish games, should equip you to learn rapidly. There's a few of us that are always willing to advise on builds and tactics in these forums, and there are still quite a few guilds Like Mine who offer team support, training, and advice while respecting a casual playing schedule.

i appreciate the well thought out response! so it seems like the info i got was somewhat right but not exactly.

id say the hardest parts so far since getting to tier 3 are:
- there are way way way more people who sit at the edge of the map with long range lasers and shoot me from narnia. i have played several games where there were 3 or 4 people all grouped in one spot at the edge of the map doing this, so i ended up just getting shot to death before i even got to fire my weapons. this kinda thing rarely if ever happened until tier 3.
- there is way more group stuff. its pretty common now that if i take a slow mech, a group of fast mechs will gang up on me near the spawn and there is nothing i can do about it. i dont think this happened at all until tier 3.
- the map choices are vastly different. i dont know how many games i have played but i almost never played on the map alpine peaks until tier 3. and once i got to tier 3 i seem to get stuck on that map all the time. and whenever i do, its the same thing with people parking on the edge of the map with long range lasers and i dont get to play at all.

in general though, the biggest thing is just that the people on my team and the other team swing back and forth wildly from match to match. i go from getting shot in the cockpit by an excellent player in one match, to the next match the opponent is clearly new and fumbling around like me. i dont understand how im supposed to learn or improve in that environment. beyond that, its simply not fun.

i understand this is an older game. i saw some stuff on youtube about it and ive always been generally good at these slower kinds of shooter games so i was excited to try it. in tier 4 and 5, i thought i had found a hidden gem of a game. i legitimately had SO much fun. tier 3 makes me want to uninstall it. it undid all the positive work that the earlier tiers did. the quality of matches didnt just fall off a cliff, it fell off a cliff, went through the ground and the core of the earth, came out the earth's *** on the other side, and kept going. its legitimately horrible.

that said, another guy said i can go back to tier 4 and just stay there so I think i'll do that. Thanks for taking the time to chat, but it seems i can solve my own problem here

KursedVixen, on 01 August 2025 - 09:23 PM, said:

don't play well.... that's it. There's no magic button, if you keep doing better than the rest of your team you'll eventually get into higher tiers..... if you do worse than your team lot you'll go down.

so i have to throw matches to get out of tier 3? ooooooof. i think that will just upset the people on my team? do people actually do this?

[w0qj]

A welcome to MWO; sorry to hear your experience in T3...

I'm always bouncing T3 and T4...

When you don't do as well as your Team, and especially when your Team loses a match, then you usually get a "Down" arrow in your battle summary. Enough of these "Down" arrows and it brings you down a Tier (i.e. T3>>T4). Don't feel bad... I myself went down to T3>>T4>>T5(basement) at one point (!)

==>The point is, this system brings you back to play more with a pool of players with similar (T4) skills, especially if you're struggling with experienced T3 players.

==>When your skills get better (and when you have grinded out lots of CBills and a basic stable of suitable mechs), when you are ready for T3 and beyond! So don't feel bad. (I personally define "enough" CBills as an average monthly balance of 50 million CBills, and this is even after your monthly mech purchases with CBills).

dumbcat, on 01 August 2025 - 09:21 PM, said:

i didnt know theres a way to go back to tier 4. if you dont mind can you tell me? sorry if i missed something obvious.

[dumbcat]

w0qj, on 01 August 2025 - 09:44 PM, said:

A welcome to MWO; sorry to hear your experience in T3...

I'm always bouncing T3 and T4...

When you don't do as well as your Team, and especially when your Team loses a match, then you usually get a "Down" arrow in your battle summary. Enough of these "Down" arrows and it brings you down a Tier (i.e. T3>>T4). Don't feel bad... I myself went down to T3>>T4>>T5(basement) at one point (!)

==>The point is, this system brings you back to play more with a pool of players with similar (T4) skills, especially if you're struggling with experienced T3 players.

==>When your skills get better (and when you have grinded out lots of CBills and a basic stable of suitable mechs), when you are ready for T3 and beyond! So don't feel bad. (I personally define "enough" CBills as an average monthly balance of 50 million CBills, and this is even after your monthly mech purchases with CBills).

first of all thank you for the positive vibes and personal examples. that makes a lot of sense but at the same time im not sure that i understand how people don't hate this system.

i tend to do well in my tier 3 matches when it feels like the other players are legitimately tier 3. again, i play lots of these kinds of games and once i got used to the quirks of mw i did really well in t4/t5. that said, i tend to get 100 or less damage and/or get shot before i can do anything in the matches where the other players are way better than i am. and that's as it should be. i'm ok but not great and the guys that are better than me are much better than me. i really shouldnt be able to compete, and i cant.

but that brings me back to the original point. I should not be matchmade with players way better or way worse than me in the first place! isnt that why the tiers exist in the first place? otherwise why not ditch it all and matchmake from one single pool? the tier system seems pointless if its putting someone like me in a game with people who are actually really good.

tl;dr - its not just unfun, its they kind of matchmaker youd engineer to drive new players out of the game after making it into tier 3. it feels like a bait and switch.

Edited by dumbcat, 01 August 2025 - 10:16 PM.

[martian]

I have got a bad news for you: PGI has just increased the influence of premade groups:
8 Vs 8 Quickplay Queue Adjustment

PGI and Cauldron love premades and there is absolutely nothing you could do with it.

[w0qj]

The point is, once you get better at MWO, you will rise in your Tier!
(The secondary but important point is to set up your mech stable, and to get your CBills economy in order).

Or, be like me, "don't care about my Tier rating, and just play to have fun!".
(I just happen to be Tier 4 / Tier 3)

[KursedVixen]

dumbcat, on 01 August 2025 - 09:34 PM, said:

so i have to throw matches to get out of tier 3? ooooooof. i think that will just upset the people on my team? do people actually do this?

sadly that's how this game works... I dunno if people intestinally throw matches...

Edited by KursedVixen, 01 August 2025 - 11:47 PM.

[dumbcat]

w0qj, on 01 August 2025 - 10:54 PM, said:

The point is, once you get better at MWO, you will rise in your Tier!
(The secondary but important point is to set up your mech stable, and to get your CBills economy in order).

Or, be like me, "don't care about my Tier rating, and just play to have fun!".
(I just happen to be Tier 4 / Tier 3)

hey thanks, sorry if its unclear. i dont care about my tier. im not playing this game to try to become some kinda god tier player or compete to be at the top. im playing it purely for fun and as a change of pace from other similar-ish team based shooter games.

the point of this was that the quality and fun of this game falls off a cliff when a player goes from tier 4 to tier 3. i would happily stay in tier 4 but it sounds like i cant. i am not enjoying tier 3 and despite trying for the past half day i cant do badly enough to go back to tier 4.

maybe examples would help in this situation but this is pretty much how my tier 3 matches go::
- 100 damage
- 900 damage
- 50 damage
- 500 damage
-150 damage
- 700 damage
- 0 damage
- 100 damage

based on tier 4 & 5 ive come to believe that if i get to 500 damage that's a decent game for my skill level. and based on my experience in tier 3 its like either i get matched into games with people way better than me or way worse than me but very very rarely with people at a similar skill level. i do well one game against perhaps lesser players and think maybe i learned something, then i try to do the same kind of thing in the next game but suddenly the competition is 100x better and i die instantly.

its the worst "supposedly" player quality based matchmaker ive seen in any similar game. the strategies and tactics in this game are hard enough to figure out without getting yanked all over the map in terms of opponent skill level, my team's skill level, the presence of groups of 4, etc. i said it earlier but i'll say it again to reinforce the point: this matchmaking/tiers situation is actually irresponsible toward new players. if you wanted to design something to get new players to quit in tier 3, youd design this. its dogshit. unless the point is to get people to quit in tier 3, in which case its brilliant. lol.

the annoying part is fixing this would not be hard. give the people who want to play in groups their own queue so the try hards can fight each other instead of beating up on solo players. then eliminate these tiers that apparently dont actually create fair opportunities for all players, and pull every game together from one single pool based on balancing overall team ELO for both sides. ez. its not a new problem and its been solved so much better in every other game. clearly there is still at least some development effort going into this game so why this hasnt been done is beyond me.

the ironic/hilarious part is that people in this thread have been trying to explain how this system is necessary because of a low player population. gee, i wonder why the game has a low player population. lol. maybe the new players who come in and get to tier 3 like i did all quit because of the very thing i'm describing here? and if this is how its been for awhile, how on earth will you ever NOT have a low player population? its so short sighted that its laughable, honestly.

Edited by dumbcat, 02 August 2025 - 03:41 PM.

[Nikushimi]

martian, on 01 August 2025 - 10:08 PM, said:

PGI and Cauldron love premades and there is absolutely nothing you could do with it.

Yep reducing it to 8v8 without getting rid of soup queue is a terrible idea.

[Half Ear]

Leaving the bullet points but the OP has been playing since May 2025 (originally stated) under this name, with a greater than 2:1 K/D ratio and average MS 300+

• Groups take the average PSR rating to determine their "Tier"
  
• Damage only contributes/converts less than 50% of the damage done into Matchscore, tis about 46%, so 200dmg = 92 MS pts.
  
• The player that seeds the match first determines the starting point for the teams. Tier 2 will grab Tier 2 then Tier 1 through Tier 3, or would it be Tier 4.
  
• The up/down arrow at the end of the match indicates if you earned positive or negative matchscore points.
  
• And unless you are the top person or the bottom person, those PSR pts are anywhere from +/-1 to 10/15 while the equal sign are the PSR points +/-0.49 to 0
  
• Of the above, the most important part of the game is whether the players play as a team or not. Even those who group up, many times they do not even try to play competitivity.

Wait, when did I move into Tier 1? Frak

Edited by Half Ear, 02 August 2025 - 06:27 PM.

[dumbcat]

Half Ear, on 02 August 2025 - 06:26 PM, said:

Leaving the bullet points but the OP has been playing since May 2025 (originally stated) under this name, with a greater than 2:1 K/D ratio and average MS 300+

• Groups take the average PSR rating to determine their "Tier"
  
• Damage only contributes/converts less than 50% of the damage done into Matchscore, tis about 46%, so 200dmg = 92 MS pts.
  
• The player that seeds the match first determines the starting point for the teams. Tier 2 will grab Tier 2 then Tier 1 through Tier 3, or would it be Tier 4.
  
• The up/down arrow at the end of the match indicates if you earned positive or negative matchscore points.
  
• And unless you are the top person or the bottom person, those PSR pts are anywhere from +/-1 to 10/15 while the equal sign are the PSR points +/-0.49 to 0
  
• Of the above, the most important part of the game is whether the players play as a team or not. Even those who group up, many times they do not even try to play competitivity.

Wait, when did I move into Tier 1? Frak

ooo thanks, i didnt know there were stats. i clicked around and found them. never would have looked if not for you. i also looked through the list of top players and have seen many of them in my games despite being less than two weeks into tier 3 as a new player. so this helped me confirm that i am in fact being matchmade with some of the very best players.

as to my stats, whether good or not, im sure the vast majority or anything good ive done is from tier 4 and 5. it very much seems like the super short range mechs i enjoy are not good in tier 3 and above. its more common that i die with less than 200 damage than kill another player these days.

regardless, my original point stands. as a tier 3 i should be matchmade with people "like me" or whats the point of having tiers? putting me in a match with the top players is not good for me or them. and moreso, this experience legitimately sucks. and if it sucks for me as someone experienced with similar games, i'm sure its worse for other new people.

[Duke Falcon]

T3 is strange. Usually one-sided stomps (no matter if my team or the reds win, stomps 17 from 20 matches statistically is just crazy)...
T4... Now that I returned I plan to stay for a while. Since I learned how to climb back to T3 swiftly I enjoy my stay in T4 for a while (just a few more matches and my Bane-3 would be fully skilled! \o/).

[w0qj]

Have 2 or more mechs that you really like to play set up and ready.

Play QP with your Mech #1. If/when you die early, just quit the QP game, go back to MechLab and select Mech #2, then play Quick Play again, while QP #1 session is still going on. Talking about multitasking! (I have 2x DWF-A(P) for this very purpose).

That said, as a newer MWO player, it's useful to spectate in other players' cockpit after you die early. You get to:

1) See their MWO tactics in real time!

2) See other players' mech layout, and note their mech's top speed (hints at: what engine size they are using? Are they using Endo/FF?). At the end of the fight, take note which team member did the most kill/damage. Try to recall that player's mech layout, and why. Also look at why that mech variant was chosen.

dumbcat, on 02 August 2025 - 02:54 PM, said:

hey thanks, sorry if its unclear. i dont care about my tier. im not playing this game to try to become some kinda god tier player or compete to be at the top. im playing it purely for fun and as a change of pace from other similar-ish team based shooter games.

the point of this was that the quality and fun of this game falls off a cliff when a player goes from tier 4 to tier 3. i would happily stay in tier 4 but it sounds like i cant. i am not enjoying tier 3 and despite trying for the past half day i cant do badly enough to go back to tier 4.

maybe examples would help in this situation but this is pretty much how my tier 3 matches go::
- 100 damage
- 900 damage
- 50 damage
- 500 damage
-150 damage
- 700 damage
- 0 damage
- 100 damage

based on tier 4 & 5 ive come to believe that if i get to 500 damage that's a decent game for my skill level. and based on my experience in tier 3 its like either i get matched into games with people way better than me or way worse than me but very very rarely with people at a similar skill level. ...

Edited by w0qj, 02 August 2025 - 10:48 PM.

[dumbcat]

w0qj, on 02 August 2025 - 10:33 PM, said:

Have 2 or more mechs that you really like to play set up and ready.

Play QP with your Mech #1. If/when you die early, just quit the QP game, go back to MechLab and select Mech #2, then play Quick Play again, while QP #1 session is still going on. Talking about multitasking! (I have 2x DWF-A(P) for this very purpose).

That said, as a newer MWO player, it's useful to spectate in other players' cockpit after you die early. You get to:

1) See their MWO tactics in real time!

2) See other players' mech layout, and note their mech's top speed (hints at: what engine size they are using? Are they using Endo/FF?). At the end of the fight, take note which team member did the most kill/damage. Try to recall that player's mech layout, and why. Also look at why that mech variant was chosen.

i just get my builds from streamers and youtube. i only have one that i made up that i really like playing. its a summoner with like a bajillion srm. its so fun. but the fact that i made it up and still play it is probably why i suck in tier 3.

legitimately this was not a hard game to pick up. i watch others play alot of games while i work, and ive watched a bunch of mw stuff before trying it. some of the things that have been really helpful, i just stole from good players. i think thats why i had a pretty fast start in tiers 4 and 5. things like heat vision, putting all your armor on the front, staying with the team, not getting in the way of the assault drivers, stuff like that anyone can pick up from just watching.

the hardest thing overall getting into this game is just the maps. i got stuck on everything on the city map the first few times. i get lost because i cant tell by the map what is high ground or low ground. i dont know the sneaky spots people hide in, that sort of thing.

other than that its not too different from say wows. hide behind an island. dont shoot people if they are looking at you. dont block people. only take fights that are unfair in your advantage if you can.

thats why tier 3 is so frustrating. because the games make no sense. one game people are in a bunch doing something predictable. the next game its people hiding and doing nothing. the third game you get swarmed by fast mechs and die. the game after that you get nuked by long range stuff without ever seeing the people. its just too much different stuff all of a sudden. its not a difficulty spike going tier 4 to tier 3, its a completely different game.

there has to be a better way.

[Half Ear]

https://leaderboard.isengrim.org/

Jarls provides a historical view without having to click lots of buttons. That you watched lots of streams/video is definitely good and that you have been scoring well, especially with a Summorer bomber. Stats-wise, it made it appear that one may have started an alt instead of being new to the game.

Tier 4/5, most players are not disciple enough, knowledgeable enough, effective to utilize Gauss Rifles with its charge up mechanism while also being aware of how a map can play out. You likely have already seen it but all of the maps are available to drop in the Testing Grounds.

There isnt a better way at this point in time, And a match is usually won/lost in the mechlab, then groups on whether they leave tonnage on the table. And depending on time of day can have a heavy influence with general "tactics" with Europeans being more passive while NA tend to be more.. aggressive, though there will be several drops where one side is not aggressive enough.

[dumbcat]

Half Ear, on 03 August 2025 - 08:20 AM, said:

https://leaderboard.isengrim.org/

Jarls provides a historical view without having to click lots of buttons. That you watched lots of streams/video is definitely good and that you have been scoring well, especially with a Summorer bomber. Stats-wise, it made it appear that one may have started an alt instead of being new to the game.

Tier 4/5, most players are not disciple enough, knowledgeable enough, effective to utilize Gauss Rifles with its charge up mechanism while also being aware of how a map can play out. You likely have already seen it but all of the maps are available to drop in the Testing Grounds.

There isnt a better way at this point in time, And a match is usually won/lost in the mechlab, then groups on whether they leave tonnage on the table. And depending on time of day can have a heavy influence with general "tactics" with Europeans being more passive while NA tend to be more.. aggressive, though there will be several drops where one side is not aggressive enough.

thanks, can you clarify what about the summoner made you say "especially with a summoner"? is it bad?

the tactic that got me through tier 5 and 4 was pretty simple. wait somewhere for like 5 minutes off the grid. the teams engage and i get a sense for where the fight is happening because it shows up on the minimap. then go in and quickly kill people that arent looking at me. it kept me from having to know the maps since if the teams are engaged i can just follow the red and blue on the minimap. for this to work i needed a mech that could hold a crap ton of srms so i could delete people before they damaged me too much, and the summoner seemed the best for that since its fast compared to the other options. the core idea is kind of "be able to delete anything faster than you, and fast enough to run away from anything that can delete you"

idk. from your comment it seems like youre surprised. maybe im not giving myself enough credit but i didnt think it was too hard to pull off more often than not. it let me create situations where i could pick a target where i would have an advantage and wouldnt need a lot of skill to win. i dont have a lot of skill anyway.

that said, in tier 3 when i try to do this, my team is already down 0-10 before i can engage and its pointless. if i try to help out earlier with such short range i get deleted by ranged people and its also pointless. or i get put on long range maps and i never get the chance to play. or the guy i pick as a target is part of a group so his friends rush in to help.

edit: if youve played wows this kind of tactic is pretty common. you want to position somewhere to create a situation where your opponent has to choose between fighting you or fighting something more dangerous than you. then you usually get to fight a panicked enemy who is at a disadvantage. if you see me in game i usually try to hang out around the most dangerous allies so that i can help them and people dont shoot me as much.

edit 2: i checked out the jarls list. does this mean that when i started in may i was 97 percentile for tier 4 and 5? just by surprise nuking people with srms? i feel confused. obviously i knew i was doing pretty well and killing people but on average i was moving up quite slowly. if true it definitely makes the case that i was doing too well to stay in those tiers but i would still contend that tier 3 is a horrible place. just for some perspective, i had actual mw world champions in my matches last night. and not just a couple of times. probably 6-10 out of 20 matches had world champions in them. and i dont even know the maps, game modes, or most of the mechs. to be fair i never had enough currency to try a lot of things anyway. maybe srms are just op and i got lucky, i have no idea.

edit 3: i reread your post to check out the link again and i am not following the comment about gauss rifles. is there something special about it? i have not tried them at all. i have tried lasers which i hated, some of the ballistics but they are so heavy its awkward to get a lot of them, and ppcs which i rather liked. ppcs and srms are definitely my favorites so far.

Edited by dumbcat, 03 August 2025 - 01:19 PM.