New Player Tips and tactics

[Slayerik]

Sam's Great Summary post:

do not use ER large lasers.

do not use ER PPC's.

do not use AC/2's.

do not use LRM5's.

do not use machine guns.

do not use small pulse lasers.

do not use SRM2's.

do not use flamers.

do not use any engine lower than 250 rating.

do not build any light mech that goes slower than 110 kph.

do not use any medium mech that goes slower than 80kph.

get double heat sinks for your mech always.

endo steel is always better than ferro fibrous armor. ferro fibrous armor is rarely, rarely worthwhile.

if you are buying into any mech short of the Atlas where there is one variant that has ECM, get the ECM mech and put ECM on it. Every other variant of the chassis has been rendered garbage in comparison.

most mechs can't really do XL engines because it makes them way too fragile. A handful of builds buck this trend but most of them are concertedly designed snipers or boats. Conversely, No light mech should use a standard engine.

the slower your mech goes, the more important positioning is, since you have to deliberately choose where you are going and make sure that it's a place you want to be. positioning missteps matter more the slower you are, since getting OUT of them is a much more laborious and vulnerable process.

don't chase lights. remind your team not to chase lights either. just swat them when they come close, or leave them to designated light killers or RTB defenders if they sit on your home base.

shutting down is nearly always bad, so get out of the habit as soon as possible. measure how much total heat increase you get for each firing of your weapons groups, then use that as a baseline to watch your heat gauge and know that if you fire your lasers at 80 heat, you'll keep going, but if you fire them at 81 heat, you'll shut down and be helpless for an entire shutdown/startup sequence.

shutting down on an alpha which you are positive will murder your opponent dead is acceptable. You can 'cash out' all that heat overflow in a duel.

positioning and team grouping is everything, but it will take a while to learn. stay with friends, watch cover, use cover.

the best builds in the game are either concerted brawlers, long range pokers, or area denial mechs. the worst builds in the game usually have weapons too heavy for their weight class, weapons that don't work well in concert in usually 2-3 groups, weapons which are insufficiently covered by heat reduction capacity (get. double. heatsinks.), or 'bracket' builds which spread out and suck at all ranges to try to cover all ranges.

rarely hold still. The smaller your mech, the more important this advice is. if you are in the habit of holding still to get shots off, you have a lot to learn. running and gunning should become your default state of play.

occasionally an enemy mech will hold still and give you every opportunity to demonstrate for them why holding still is a bad idea. poke them in the head.

usually, though, poking heads takes second priority over concertedly mangling a chosen side torso. Learn mech hitboxes.

torso twist constantly. ever noticed how enemies sometimes turn their torso and shove arm in your face when they're waiting for their weapons to cycle? Do the same thing. Don't let someone line up shots at vulnerable areas. get in the habit of looking off to the side if your weapons are on cooldown, or you're cooling down for your next big shot.

drop with friends. call targets. listen to when your friends call targets. get in the habit of doing the whole CHARLIE. HOTEL. GOLF. thing.

Don't be first. Follow around that big Atlas with the ECM by his name.
R locks. When you lock something, if you can hold the lock the whole team can target it (and shoot LRMs at it) unless you are within enemy ECM range.
H is thermal vision. Some call it predator vision for a reason.
Upgrades inside of your loadout are your friend. Double Heat sinks are basically amazing, as is endosteel.

More to come

[Llyse]

Stagger your fire and learn to manage your heat.
Successive LRM volleys stagger the enemy longer.
Turn off Arm Lock in your Options as soon as possible.
It locks your arms to your torso Crosshair which is bad since your Arms target much faster.

[Zaljerem]

ECM can also counter other ECM as well as disrupt.
Focus fire. 3+ Mechs attacking the same target brings it down quickly.
Don't bother using LRMs within 200 meters.
Be careful in the crater on Caustic Valley; your heat will not dissipate very quickly.

[satael]

PPC has a minimum range of 90 meters (but the ER PPC doesn't). Getting hit with PPC also disrupts ECM for a moment.
Powering down disrupts missile lock.
If a light mech starts running around your heavy/assault in circles try to find a wall or other object to cover your rear (getting a team member to help is even better but not always an option especially in pugs)

[Ironwood]

Don't bother using LRMs within 200 meters.

Tell all your friends.

[satael]

Don't bother using LRMs within 200 meters.

Tell all your friends.

Damn ECM users spreading false information! 
Use LRM at 180-200m range when you can actually hit those pesky ecm mechs that keep jamming your lock (if you are unfortunate enough to not have TAG/NARC).

[Samprimary]

do not use ER large lasers.

do not use ER PPC's.

do not use AC/2's.

do not use LRM5's.

do not use machine guns.

do not use small pulse lasers.

do not use SRM2's.

do not use flamers.

do not use any engine lower than 250 rating.

do not build any light mech that goes slower than 110 kph.

do not use any medium mech that goes slower than 80kph.

get double heat sinks for your mech always.

endo steel is always better than ferro fibrous armor. ferro fibrous armor is rarely, rarely worthwhile.

if you are buying into any mech short of the Atlas where there is one variant that has ECM, get the ECM mech and put ECM on it. Every other variant of the chassis has been rendered garbage in comparison.

most mechs can't really do XL engines because it makes them way too fragile. A handful of builds buck this trend but most of them are concertedly designed snipers or boats. Conversely, No light mech should use a standard engine.

the slower your mech goes, the more important positioning is, since you have to deliberately choose where you are going and make sure that it's a place you want to be. positioning missteps matter more the slower you are, since getting OUT of them is a much more laborious and vulnerable process.

don't chase lights. remind your team not to chase lights either. just swat them when they come close, or leave them to designated light killers or RTB defenders if they sit on your home base.

shutting down is nearly always bad, so get out of the habit as soon as possible. measure how much total heat increase you get for each firing of your weapons groups, then use that as a baseline to watch your heat gauge and know that if you fire your lasers at 80 heat, you'll keep going, but if you fire them at 81 heat, you'll shut down and be helpless for an entire shutdown/startup sequence.

shutting down on an alpha which you are positive will murder your opponent dead is acceptable. You can 'cash out' all that heat overflow in a duel.

positioning and team grouping is everything, but it will take a while to learn. stay with friends, watch cover, use cover.

the best builds in the game are either concerted brawlers, long range pokers, or area denial mechs. the worst builds in the game usually have weapons too heavy for their weight class, weapons that don't work well in concert in usually 2-3 groups, weapons which are insufficiently covered by heat reduction capacity (get. double. heatsinks.), or 'bracket' builds which spread out and suck at all ranges to try to cover all ranges.

rarely hold still. The smaller your mech, the more important this advice is. if you are in the habit of holding still to get shots off, you have a lot to learn. running and gunning should become your default state of play.

occasionally an enemy mech will hold still and give you every opportunity to demonstrate for them why holding still is a bad idea. poke them in the head.

usually, though, poking heads takes second priority over concertedly mangling a chosen side torso. Learn mech hitboxes.

torso twist constantly. ever noticed how enemies sometimes turn their torso and shove arm in your face when they're waiting for their weapons to cycle? Do the same thing. Don't let someone line up shots at vulnerable areas. get in the habit of looking off to the side if your weapons are on cooldown, or you're cooling down for your next big shot.

drop with friends. call targets. listen to when your friends call targets. get in the habit of doing the whole CHARLIE. HOTEL. GOLF. thing.

[Shannow]

Why do erppcs and erlls suck so much? Just wondering. I was tweaking my founders Atlas last night and took out a ML to put an erll in so I could poke at the ecming ravens. (Also has ac20 and two lrm15s and 3mls).

[satael]

I actually prefer ERPPC over PPC due to no minimum range on it if I can afford the extra heat (usually by not taking extra close range weaponry and using those tons for heatsinks)

[Ironwood]

Oh and for those that don't know, a letter will appear in the enemy Red Targeting box.  This is what Sam refers to as call targets.  Alpha, Bravo, etc, etc.

I've met quite a few people who've never noticed the letter.

[Arthur_Parker]

There's a lot of really excellent info in Samprimary's post and it's probably the best summary post on the subject I've seen.

[Goreschach]

Why do erppcs and erlls suck so much? Just wondering. I was tweaking my founders Atlas last night and took out a ML to put an erll in so I could poke at the ecming ravens. (Also has ac20 and two lrm15s and 3mls).

I recently tried 4xERPPC. One thing that became immediately obvious is that long range sniping is futile in this game. Zoom is shit. Past around 750 meters, any mech is going to be nothing more than a blurry blue smudge. And that's when you're in one of the few map areas that actually allows for combat at that kind of range. Add in the fact that you have to deal with convergence and everybody moving, and you're taking a huge heat overhead for very little actual damage increase. If you want to poke ravens, just mount an LL.

[Yegolev]

I should be able to jump into this balls-first, then.

[Lantyssa]

If you have the heat capacity, go ERPPC.  If not, go PPC and keep in mind shooting people under 90 meters doesn't do much but raise your heat level.

[Merusk]

Why do erppcs and erlls suck so much? Just wondering. I was tweaking my founders Atlas last night and took out a ML to put an erll in so I could poke at the ecming ravens. (Also has ac20 and two lrm15s and 3mls).

I recently tried 4xERPPC. One thing that became immediately obvious is that long range sniping is futile in this game. Zoom is shit. Past around 750 meters, any mech is going to be nothing more than a blurry blue smudge. And that's when you're in one of the few map areas that actually allows for combat at that kind of range. Add in the fact that you have to deal with convergence and everybody moving, and you're taking a huge heat overhead for very little actual damage increase. If you want to poke ravens, just mount an LL.

Detailed Nerdy answer:

ERLL problems:
 * Sniping with lasers is fairly useless in MWO.  If players are moving you're going to "splash" damage across a mech at 1350 meters instead of focusing it on one point.
 * Most maps are built so you don't really have a clear LOS for that additional 450m vs a large laser.
 * If YOU have a clear LOS at 1350M that means LRMs have a clear LOS to YOU and they're MUCH more effective, even after being nerfed.
 * 2.5 more heat per firing for zero additional damage.  Most fights happen at 300-0m (brawling) range so you're overheating sooner for no gain.

PPC vs ERPPC
*  If you're fighting at 0-90m a lot because you can't get away, yes the ERPPC looks like a better choice, however:

* There's better weapons you can load to deal with that.
* The 3 heat difference is going to shut you down quick
* Get a faster mech/ engine so you can maneuver in to that 90m distance
* Large lasers are a better choice.  - Maths: 3ERPPC = 30 dam, 33 heat, 21 tons.  3LL = 27 dam, 21 heat, 15 tons.   Yeah, the LL cycle slower but heat and tonnage > dps unless you're getting deadeye shots on the same point with each firing.

[Slayerik]

Only correection is that LRMs do not work over 1000. I think. I don't use the puss rockets :)

[Slayerik]

http://themittani.com/features/mwo-fine-art-staying-alive

[Goreschach]

How criticals work:

Whenever you do a damage 'tick' against a location that has been stripped of armor, a critical roll is performed. MG's and streaming weapons do something like 10 ticks per second. LBX does 10 1 point ticks. Everything else does one tick.

Most weapon ticks have a 25% chance of doing 1 critical, 14% chance of doing 2 criticals, and 3% chance of doing 3 criticals. Flamers, MG's, and LBS have a 39, 24, 6 chance.

Each critical will hit a random component in the affected section. The probability of an item being selected is the ratio of the size of the item to the total used slots in the section. Stock items like actuators and endo steel don't count yet. When an item gets critically hit, the damage tick, in addition to doing regular internal damage, does equivalent damage to the item.

Flamers get a 1.1 critical damage multiplier, LBX gets 2.0, and MG gets 12.5.

Every item has 10 hp except for AC20(18), engine(15), Gauss(3) and ECM(3). After an item's hp is depleted, it suffers a critical failure. Weapons and ECM no longer work, ammo has a 10% chance of exploding. Engine and heat sink failure currently has no effect.

Because each tick randomly selects it's own item to hit, the crit seeker weapons tend to spread their damage out over a section's internals. A weapon that does 10 or more damage to an armor-stripped section, however, has a nearly 50% chance to immediately destroy some component.

Short version:
Fishing for crits is still pointless. Weapons that do 10+ damage are better at doing criticals. If you have extra room available, heatsinks should first be placed outside the engine bonus slots, and you can fill space with items like heat sinks and CASE to 'absorb' criticals and protect important items in that section. DHS is even better than you thought, and FF is even more useless.

[Samprimary]

Why do erppcs and erlls suck so much? Just wondering. I was tweaking my founders Atlas last night and took out a ML to put an erll in so I could poke at the ecming ravens. (Also has ac20 and two lrm15s and 3mls).

You're paying a significant premium for the benefit of the weapon having an improvement that rarely ever comes into play even remotely enough to justify the excruciatingly reduced heat efficiency of the weapon, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of both weapons in all ranges in which the ER benefit does not apply, and in which most of your engagements will happen.

PPC's in particular are already really hot and this is one of its suite of premiums you pay on the weapon (alongside its steep tonnage to damage ratio) for a range that already covers, effectively, most non-brawly engagements you will have in the game. Yes, their minimum range sucks, but even the removal of that is not enough of an incentive to cover for its grotesquely negatively impacted heat to damage ratio.

speaking of heat to damage ratio: the large pulse laser retains a lot of tonnage premium, but its heat to damage output is killer awesome.

[Falconeer]

* Large lasers are a better choice.  - Maths: 3ERPPC = 30 dam, 33 heat, 21 tons.  3LL = 27 dam, 21 heat, 15 tons.   

Not necessarily disagreeing with you in general, but it's worth nothing that one the point of choosing PPCs (and ER too) over lasers is that they are gonna deliver the whole damage to one part, while lasers are most likely not. So 30 damage to one spot versus 27 over a few (still one spot if you are good though).

[Njal]

Don't PPCs disrupt ECM?

[Ragnoros]

The first 25 matches give you a a huge, flat spacebucks bonus, after which you will have like ~9mil. Make sure you are POSITIVE about liking that first mech you buy, because getting the next one will take much longer and could break you.
 
With that said, the Atlas D-DC is basically the best mech, period. Plus, with it having at least two of every hardpoint you can try basically every weapon/configuration on it and see what you like.
Swat lights with streaks, LB-X10's and pulses, you bet. Rain death with 50 LRMs, why not. Brawl with UAC5s, Larges and SRMs, absolutely. Only downside is that with only two/three of each hardpoint you can't really boat it at all.

Don't PPCs disrupt ECM?

Yes, for like 5 seconds or something, non stacking

[Hoax]

You can alter your FOV, somewhere in the 9X range is getting to the point where you see the edge of the viewscreen/windshield. I like it you might not but its probably better to try it out early so you don't have to readjust from the default if you like it.

To change it go to the user.cfg file in your main MechWarrior Online folder and add the line: "cl_fov = ##"

You can go up to ninety something if you want. It does give a very tiny tactical advantage I'd say because you can see a wider view in some mechs but its not huge by any means.

[Zaljerem]

Hit SPACE to skip through the splash screens ...

[Megrim]

You can alter your FOV, somewhere in the 9X range is getting to the point where you see the edge of the viewscreen/windshield. I like it you might not but its probably better to try it out early so you don't have to readjust from the default if you like it.

To change it go to the user.cfg file in your main MechWarrior Online folder and add the line: "cl_fov = ##"

You can go up to ninety something if you want. It does give a very tiny tactical advantage I'd say because you can see a wider view in some mechs but its not huge by any means.

I'm about to dive back into this, is there like a handy guide on *.ini tweaks for MWO? Last I played they didn't even have in-game mouse sens adjustable.

[Hoax]

I use this:


Here's where I got most of that info from the /mwog/ threads on 4ch:

[Megrim]

Thanks bro.

So what's so bad about AC2s?

[Falconeer]

AC2 has been great for a few weeks at some point when it inflicted the craziest shake on hit to targets. It was a pure troll weapon, or actually a great support one, it was like debuffing enemies by making their aiming impossible. I'd say it's still OK for long distance plinking but quite hard to hit anything with it at close range, and it's really heavy for the (little) punch it brings to the field.

[Slayerik]

Its real problem is you have to face your target THE WHOLE TIME. With good weapons you burst, then torso twist to absorb damage on your arms while waiting for cooldown. AC2s can be effective enough, but for their weight/heat I don't really run them much. Most the time I take the 7-8 tons and put it into engine and heatsinks. But that's just how I play.

[Kageru]

Since there's lots of PUG players trundling around in heavy mechs it seems tempting to make a scout / harasser. A large part of it is I want to play with the mech lab but would prefer to buy a decent chassis to mess around with. And you are sort of buying blind because you can't experiment before you buy and it is going to be a while before you buy another chassis.

Medium pulse lasers look like a sweet spot since you don't have to carry ammo (either that or SRM/SSRM) and don't have to linger. I can see the benefits of ECM if only for your own missile protection, and beagle probe for scouting. The skirmishers and missile boats can do the narc and target painting.

does this SDR-5D look moderately sane / fun?

(edit)

Nm, got damn bored of running the one decent trial mech and bought a Raven to play with..

[Slayerik]

I personally love my spider o doom. Very similar build, cept XL 255