109 replies to this topic

[Murku]

Getting PUGstomped is making you a better player, stick with it. I'm getting close to 1000 games and my ratio is not very different. Here's a few things to keep in mind:

Are you dying first, somewhere in the middle or last on a loss? Keep an eye out for how long you last. If you die early you're not lasting long enough to deliver much damage. Tone down the enthusiasm a little, follow an assault around as support, and don't stay where you get focused. The eventual goal is to be a useful presence the whole fight and die last on a loss.

Does your much suit your play style? I began in a cicada, moved up to cataphracts and eventually splashed out on FLAME. 101kph is my run/target twitch ideal, I'm better with an LBX than a gauss. Finding the much and weapons that work for you makes a HUGE difference.

When do you play? When the PUGstompers come out you can expect to get pwoned often. Playing at a different time of day may give you a chance to do better vs proper PUGers. Also try which game mode works best for you. I'm lame at conquest so tend to spend more time on assault.

Bandicamed or frapsed your matches? Reviewing gun cam footage is really insightful. Also whenever possible stay on and spectate. This is really useful to get smarter.

Its only in my last 100 matches or so that I feel I've got up to speed. Keep at it, and most importantly, have fun!

[mekabuser]

tnks for replies. ~S~
for full disclosure, Im a family man and quite often I just gotta get up mid battle. Also, i made it a point until recently to run the trial mechs just to "beta test" the full pug experience. On top of that i run a dual core and my mouse has a loose wire and disconnects all too often<ordered one yesterday> Never used a gauss except on the trial atlas, nor ssrm spam. Actually never ran a jenner but a few times as trial..
I avoided all the OP weapons and mechs.. So I have a fairly good perspective on what its like to be on the other end.
Yeah, ive done it hard mode , because I know i will be good eventually without any crutches.
that being said, I really noticed theres a problem with how im looking at this mw as opposed to how i played mw4 and mwll. Namely the assists...
The playstyle that worked before, just doesnt seem to be the way to go.. So, Im gonna focus more on oNE target. at a time..
Also, doing a quick search through the guides, WHich i should have been doing all this time, really made me realize , im running some sub optimal builds..

Its funny, in mw4, i used to test builds in mercs solaris.. I think it was the hard setting. The build had to be able to sweep the field in order to know it was a good one to bring to multiplayer..
I remember i made quite a few that i "thought" should be damn good, but they just didnt cut it in actual battle for whatever reason <the solaris test i mean>/
My point being, for me, the difference between 2 or 3 kills in game and zero kills m dead is very small.
Appreciate all the advice.. Cant wait to play.

Edited by mekabuser, 08 January 2013 - 02:12 AM.

[Barghest Whelp]

Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread.

Anyways, it's not that bad. Here are mine: 632 / 880

Now, I've played a few pre-mades, but I hardly feel that those made a huge difference, since I've mostly been puggin, and we don't always win when I'm with the guys on TS. One thing I've noticed is that there's not always a big drive to get the wins on pugs, as victory hardly means much.

Generally speaking most people would rather just be shooting at giant robots than running from a to b in order to stand there for a while so that they can read the letters: "You win!" on their screen. However, certain players don't seem to care about anything else.

My best bet is that you just got unlucky and ended up on a lot of teams that were more in to shooting than winning. Besides, it's not that many games. In the beginning my stats were a lot worse. Same with my K/D rating. After playing a lot of matches it's finally picking up.

[Accused]

K/D ratio isn't important.

Look, you do want to get better though right? Pick an enemy that is alone and vulnerable. Then crush him.

The best way to support your PUG team is to kill an enemy so the rest of the team doesn't have to. Often it'll be the only kill that team gets. Also, and I hate to say this, you'll need to play some more popular builds. We're talking streaks, ecm, etc. You need to level the playing field as best you can, however you can. Whether its by using terrain to your advantage, shooting someone's leg off when they're out of bounds, maiming a lrm/streak boat who can't lock on to you, etc. Because they'll certainly do it to you.

[Karl Split]

Bad Luck?

[StraferX]

Fear not my Fellow Mech you will improve as we all will. My k/d is 641/761, Kdr 0.83, w/l 536/636 and Avg XP 353.08

My stats have dropped significantly since Christmas as I have been experimenting with alternative builds and mastering chassis that I really don't care for. I have also been trying new techniques ie: flanking the LRM boats, LL tag with lag sheild scouts. I pug exclusively and in general people suck and this makes it tough however as many have stated find a partner and stick with them, stick with the herd and try to live longer. Remember to Focus your fire like on the same spot say the ® Leg and you will get component damage bonuses. Don't worry about that Cent's Ac'20 arm as most of them cant hit you any way.

Remember to Focus Fire, Focus Fire and Focus Fire and play a more supportive roll until you find your Groove and Build.

[The Amazing Atomic Spaniel]

I only pug and don't use comms. My W/L is 490/693 (= 0.7) and my K/D is 1.08.

Quick points:

1. One player, no matter how good or bad isn't going to dramatically alter the outcome in pug matches. If you are a member of a solo pug group without comms and you face an organised team on comms then you will lose almost every time no matter how good you are. It's not a sign that you are a bad player, just that the other side has a huge starting advantage.

2. Pugging solo and without comms we should expect to lose more matches than we win because we are much more likely to be have organised teams on the other side than on our side because if a 4-man team is in a match on one side then there are only 4 solo slots left to fill on that side, but there are still 8 on the other side and we are randomly assigned to available slots. In that example you are twice as likely to face the organised team than to have it on your side.

3. I'm sure we can all improve. My own K/D started out well below one and is now probably 2:1 or better - but this partly reflects the mechs I drive. If I go into a game with a Stalker with 4 LL and 5 SSRM2 I will usually get a 2/1 K/D ratio. But I actually prefer to drive an Awesome because it's more fun. However, the Awesome is nothing like as good as a Stalker or Atlas so my K/D tends to go down when I do. If you drive an Awesome, Dragon or non-ECM light you will die more than if you don't.

4. Because W/L is determined much more by who you drop with than your own performance, a better measure of success is damage done and/or the number of kills/assists.

5. Success can be wildly erratic. I have used a 3 PPC Awesome 9M recently; in some games I have been top of the scoreboard with 600+ damage and 4 kills, and in others I have been at the bottom, dead with no kills and having dealt 60 damage. Much of the reason for these fluctuations is just chance.

[Fat Samurai]

If you aren't happy with how your team is playing, try taking control of it in teamchat. Sit back a little while pointing directions, targets to focus on and such. What you are doing personally probably won't influence the result of a match as much as getting the other 7 members to gather at one location and focusing fire on one enemy mech.

Sometimes it even works. Not a lot of time, but sometimes.

Also, your K/D ratio depends mainly on the mechs you run, so don't fret about that. You can only die once per match, but if you're running an Atlas you're going to be killing much more robbits than a Commando.

Finally, while luck does play a part, I think you can't just blame everything on unlucky drops and/or the other team using teamwork. If you can get 5 of the other 7 guys to follow a plan, you're already head and shoulders over an unorganized team. Try to do something about it instead saying "I'm unlucky" and shrugging it off (and I don't mean you specifically, but the posts saying it's mainly luck).

Corbon Zackery, on 07 January 2013 - 08:12 PM, said:

Everyone's win lose record is taking a hit.

That is statistically impossible, isn't it?

Nightcrept, on 07 January 2013 - 09:46 PM, said:

@meka
Dont fret man. Your stats r about avg.

No, they are not, at least the W/L and K/D ratio. By definition the average is a 50%, unless you mean the median instead of the mean, which you don't.

Edited by Fat Samurai, 08 January 2013 - 04:10 AM.

[Shismar]

The ratio is bad but not horribly so. With the mix of premades and pugs, which I quite like even though I pug almost exclusively, that is the expected outcome.

I used to be at 2/3 w/l while mostly playing my Hunchbacks. Then it became better while I got the elite levels for the 3 Atlas variants. Now it is at 3/4 w/l but took a hit from leveling elite on the Raven variants recently. 3L and 2x were ok but I cannot get a hang of the 4x .

So, my teams seem to do better when I am in a bigger mech. I guess I need to drive a lot of Atlas if I want a 50/50 ratio

Still may want to try some other mechs. We are not always best in what we like to drive.

[Musashi Alexander]

I was there too after about 500 matches OP. I think I had a .33 W/L ratio and close to a .25 K/D ratio.

I'm now well over 2k matches and that's up to about 1.05 W/L ratio and 1.15 K/D ratio. I learned a lot after I started playing with a group as well as pugging. Though I do both 4 man and 8 man, I still probably Pug about 80% of my matches.

It took me a while to find my feet so there's no reason to get discouraged. Stick with it and try to find your groove. Sometimes there's no point in expecting to be the best pilot but rather accepting the role of a useful pilot.

[The Amazing Atomic Spaniel]

Fat Samurai, on 08 January 2013 - 03:44 AM, said:

No, they are not, at least the W/L and K/D ratio. By definition the average is a 50%, unless you mean the median instead of the mean, which you don't.

The average is going to be 50% if you consider both solo droppers and teams together. But since the teams will win more than they lose, then the solo droppers must lose more than they win.

This explains why solo-pugers like me and others will always have a W/L less than 1.0; unless we were individually such astonishingly good players that we could single-handedly carry the whole match. In my dreams.

I'm sure we could actually use the statistics of W/L for a solo pugger to estimate the fraction of games featuring organised teams (whether impromptu or pre-arranged).

[Teralitha]

without actually spectating you for several games, no one could see what mistakes your making...

[Lufos]

i read your post and thought: yeah, thats pretty much what i am experiencing as well. it feels like i am on the loosing end most of the time. then i checked my profile to confirm and found the following stats:

K/D: 1.38
W/L 453 / 435
this is 100% PUG, never played with a premade

so obv. the PUG matchmaking works. W/L is about 50/50 as it should be with a balanced matchmaker. it feels like i am loosing, but in reality its 50%...speak of selective perception. :-)

so i guess, its not the matchmaker. it must be your skill. as other said, try a different mech or put in more streaks. XD

[Shazarad]

As both a pugger and a team player, what tends to happen most pug matches is the aforementioned snowball effect.

If your team has the first loss, it is a good chance your team will lose the match entirely, with numbers ranging from 1-8 to 3-8 or even 7-8 but that is extremely rare.

I don't usually toot my own horn, but even if I stick with the group we usually get outflanked or outmaneuvered and I end up dealing most the damage on my team and ending up with 1-3 kills. No matter how good a pilot I can try to be, it won't matter most pug games.

I have no idea what the rest of my team is doing when I'm the middle of fighting tearing up the other team, but I'm gathering they just can't place shots or aren't as good at piloting yet. That's fine with me, everyone has to learn.

People also have a nasty tendency to poptart (pop over a hill, fire some weapons, pop back down when being shot at) and this leads to getting too much damage for too little result. Face to face brawling would lead to better results but most pugs will not attack together as a group and are (rightfully so) afraid of advancing the enemy position.

Knowing all this, most matches I play in pugs are losses, but I go in expecting that. Instead of focusing on how bad we are going to lose, I always focus as much as I can on being the best pilot I can be (that doesn't mean running off alone and glory fighting). If I can walk away from a defeat and say I played as best I could (and the stats show) and we still lost, then it was the other people's fault, not mine.

[Joseph Mallan]

mekabuser, on 07 January 2013 - 07:51 PM, said:

Im just curious, even if I was the worst mwo pilot in history, how do I wind up with a win loss ratio so atrocious.

Use all your powers to resist trolling.

Seriously.. At least 25 of those wins are with premades back in cb, where I incidentally never lost a match, they were just TS pickups with random pilots, nor did i ever die i think. oh , nvmnd, that got wiped.

So , this is pure pug, so what gives. ?
I dont think Im affecting the outcome of the match too much either way, so whats with the horrific ratio?
I can understand running into 8 mans back b4 phase 1 ok, but even still over the last several weeks its like over and over again, Im on the team that gets steamrolled..
How can this be ? I love mechwarrior.. alot... Ive also been pretty damn successful at it in previous incarnations.. yes i played ffp in mw4.
But this is starting to wear thin.. Premade is no fun for me because its literally a foregone conclusion that its a win, yet the pug pool is just crazy.. I mean i can handle 50 /50 or even a little less, but my numbers are trending towards two to one losses to wins.. thats crazy.
So , anyone tell me what im missing statistically speaking?

If this is anything like what a good number of pugs experience, thats bad.. Like I said, as far as I can tell, even if i was the worst pilot, the ratio shouldnt be so bad..

you've only played 400 matches. I have more than that(near double) in losses since open beta. Folks have more experience playing this game than you do. That is how you have you 1/3 win loss. When I had that few games in I was a .14 K/D and that sir is a terrible stat. I hadn't kept track of my W/L cause to me, if I died I lost.

[p4r4g0n]

35% or thereabouts is what I would expect for solo PUGging to be honest. Let's see what Phase 3 brings to the table.

Edit: Noticed a lot of people seem to be calculating the win percentage wrong. Just FYI it should be (Wins / (Wins + Losses)) X 100. Not Wins / Losses

Edited by p4r4g0n, 08 January 2013 - 06:31 AM.

[Remarius]

Not sure I buy some of these comments as primarily a pugger (90% at least on my own, w/o voice etc). I won't argue I'm the most professional of players but my battlefield perception is decent and I can hold my aim. I'm running at a slowly improving 324/275 W/L, 475/268 K/D (1.77), and 652.26 avge xp per match. Usually I'm well up on the damage tables even on a loss. I play a variety of medium/heavy mechs (Cicada's centurions and dragons). Often the team I'm on will get hammered by well coordinated groups but you can still perform to the best of your abilities and concentrate fire with other people. Its not a solo game and saying "its because I pug" sounds too much like an excuse for not accepting responsibility for improving tactically and twitch wise. Believe me if I as someone in his 50's can improve everyone can!

In all honesty to the OP: pick a handful of mechs and stick with them. Learn what weapons best suit you and how they're best used on the battlefield. Try to track what your enemies and team mates are doing so you can spot dangers and opportunities. Always focus fire with at least one other person - if you manage to knock someone out their firepower is instantly decreased and your team has an advantage. Learn each battlefield and don't be the ***** that crests first at the dropship on the icemap because there's a 95% chance they're all waiting on the other side for you!

For me I have to curb my instinct to try to halt enemy advances solo and to let others engage first so that I can concentrate on using my weapon of choice - aka large lasers - as I have to hold my fire on them rather than snap off shots and instantly manoeuvre behind cover. Also have to curb my instinct to rush back to defend the base when it gets pinged and our lights are off show boating!

Just keep working at it and we'll all improve.

[Gregore]

Have to disagree with one comment above.
One player can make a tremendous difference in a pug. If you have a skilled player that can take out 3 or 4 mechs on his own, it allows the rest of the team to gang up on others,

I find myself to be an above average player (read: not great or phenomenal, just, above average). When I am playing in my favourite mechs my w/l is close to 2/1, when I am playing in other mechs ( I am attempting to get all mechs mastered) that I am not familiar with or comfortable (or have not fully kitted out due to cbill shortages) my w/l drops to 1/3.

My k/d in favourites is easily over 2-1, but in others it is closer to 1-1. My Kdr has suffered since the economic changes as there is more money in assists so I tend to cripple other mechs instead of killing them, lol.



My stats as of now are:
kdr 1021/620 1.65
if it showed my assists they would be over 3000 easily, probably closer to 5000.

w/l 460/596
avg xp 561.6
avg cb 117,006.35

[siLve00]

Lufos, on 08 January 2013 - 06:01 AM, said:

i read your post and thought: yeah, thats pretty much what i am experiencing as well. it feels like i am on the loosing end most of the time. then i checked my profile to confirm and found the following stats:

K/D: 1.38
W/L 453 / 435
this is 100% PUG, never played with a premade

so obv. the PUG matchmaking works. W/L is about 50/50 as it should be with a balanced matchmaker. it feels like i am loosing, but in reality its 50%...speak of selective perception. :-)

so i guess, its not the matchmaker. it must be your skill. as other said, try a different mech or put in more streaks. XD

you have to been damn lucky with your teams or you are simple lieing.

if you say it must be him.. please post a screen of your stats.

Edited by siLve00, 08 January 2013 - 07:21 AM.

[Broceratops]

siLve00, on 08 January 2013 - 07:21 AM, said:

you have to been damn lucky with your teams or you are simple lieing.

if you say it must be him.. please post a screen of your stats.

i believe him. his claim is not outlandish. i can definitely do at least 60% win pugging, maybe 70%. I'd have to use a DDC though.

Edited by Broceratops, 08 January 2013 - 07:25 AM.