Posted 08 January 2013 - 03:32 PM
Apologies if this sounds elitist. But it will improve your win ratio.
List the mechs you have, the loadouts, your peripherals used.
Premium on/off ?
Mentality when playing the game, are you looking to relax, or do you concentrate as if each battle was life and death ?
Here are my stats from pugging / grouping with friends who are newbies (sub 100 damage )
2,049 / 645
Kills / Death
80,724,560
C-Bills
1,390,089
XP
1,098 / 463
Wins / Losses
3.18
Kill / Death Ratio
184,023.46
Accumulative C-Bills
Per Match
890.51
Average exp.
Personally I find the mentality you take towards the game is fairly important. If I play EVE or read forums and go afk, I lose more.
When I go all out with no distractions I win more.
The other thing is whether one understands the battlefield as well. If you're a bad player, by all means try and take damage for a better player. I say this because if I die without causing more than 100 damage (first to get focused), the pug team I'm on pretty much has an 80% chance to lose. If I stay alive it's the reverse.
Try and befriend a good player you meet. Communicate with them, stick close, and let them use you as a meatshield by being the first in when he/she pushes.
I find the size of a mech also tends to correlate with how bad a player is. They generally tend to use bigger mechs to compensate for their lack of ability. I'd suggest getting in an medium for optimal win ratio if you're one of the bad ones. (not lights because of lag shield)
This way you will have less impact upon the outcome of the battle. The bigger the mech, the more you have to pull your weight.
Damage required:
Lights: 500
Mediums: 400
Heavies: 600
Assaults: 700
This is my benchmark as to whether one has successfully pulled his weight in a battle.
I find that if I want to win, I have to work for it. Relying on others just doesn't cut it when you have people using joysticks, poor tactical sense (campers coming from human fps games like battlefield/counterstrike, whatnot), poor mech and weapon choices (6 ppc stalker, 9 flamer hunchie etc).
Basically do not rely on anyone. Many a game has been won because of sacrifice (at the expense of kd ratio, cbill rewards) when I dive in to lead a nobrainer charge (4 mechs against 3 mechs who are all long ranged but pugs are still trying to slug it out with only 1-2 long ranged weapons for example) because pugs are still cowering behind waiting for someone to take the damage for them. (everyone hates getting hit by lrms, but someone has to get hit !)
If you know for sure that a combined push will tilt the scales in the team's favour, by all means, try and communicate it to the team and lead it.
There is much, one can do to affect the outcome of a game. I generally try not to blame pugs nowadays (well I still do when I see a full HP assault lose to a light with red armour) and instead ask myself, how much more can I improve and what can be done better as well as continue to set new goals. For example, my new goal is to break the 1.2k damage barrier in my hunchback and the 2k barrier in my stalker.
I used to blame pugs but I realised that no amount of raging or blame pushing would win me games. No amount of whine would get me my victories. So the only way to win is to improve yourself.
You may think, there are 7 other guys so why am I still losing ? Fact is, once you understand human mentality, it works this way.
Here are a bunch of mentalities I have observed. Try to avoid these if you're doing it.
1. "Doomsday"
6 vs 8
Oh no, game over, no chance, then people start to play like idiots. Almost everyone I know gives up really quickly and do not make every last bit of effort to win.
2. "My precious"
I am superior to you scrubs ! Hence all of you should go in front and take the damage for me while I safely shoot from the back. Even though chances are, there's someone usually better than you in the team. I tend to notice good players are the ones who die first.
3. "Stubbornness"
Many times I have come across people who insist that so and so mech and weapon is effective but combat results always prove otherwise. Take for example lrms mixed mechs. Say... A dragon with 10 lrms and a bunch of lasers.
These people spend most of the game trying to play "support" when they're desperately needed on the frontlines. Or atlases who have much more utility as a meatshield than a lrm boat which stalkers/aws 8r do better. Or lights trying to play "scout" but not feeding the info back to the team and just running around the enemy like a headless chicken. Etc etc.
Basically, people are set in their beliefs and refuse to adapt to how the game should be played to win (even though it may not be their ideal playstyle)
And YET, expect to win just because, you know, it's their god given right. Adapt, start by making a difference yourself.
Anyways, every person, even a bad, is critical. If you can stay alive and be a meatshield, you will have done your job. Chances are you're most likely hiding behind the others or rushing in at wrong moments or choosing the wrong battlefield to engage in. Mwo is not so simple as just, group up stick together, rush.
Another tip, stay away from lrms, streaks, flamers, machine guns, ppcs, large pulse etc. They currently have no place in the game.
Generally you want to be in the thick of the fray to soak up as much damage for the team. Do not stop moving and split the damage amongst your mech to ensure you soak up every bit of damage possible.
Sorry for the long post :X