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Under-rated tactics

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Sat, 12/07/2013 - 02:29
Fangel's picture
Fangel

There are a lot of tactics that have been tried and tried again that have been proven to work, and thus a majority of players lean towards them. But how about some other tactics, or basic knowledge that is often overlooked?

  • Poison
  • Poison is very underrated. It reduces the target's damage output by a noticeable amount. If you see an enemy that is poisoned, you can deal more damage to them, and they can't deal as much damage to you. Target them.

  • Stun
  • Although it lasts a very short amount of time, stun can completely shut down enemy knights. Dodging becomes easier for you, and harder for them. Just be careful when they use their rechargeable dodge, as they have negated a minor amount of the stun effect.

  • Be a scout!
  • If you see an enemy making a break for a certain point, or you think one of the points is in danger, tell your team! It's as easy as saying the point number.

  • Travel in groups
  • I can't stress this enough. A good team that sticks together (especially with at least one guardian) can be devastating. When the group lands on a point, it will be theirs very quickly, and if a single enemy runs in blindly, they are quickly taken out.

  • Scare tactics
  • If you are fighting for a point, and the other player runs away, don't pursue them until you have that point! There's a chance they are baiting you or trying to lead you off the point, and if they are retreating, you can wait for them to come back, and by then, you'll own the point.

  • Other armors
  • Unless you are rolling in UV's and have all your needs covered, try something new! Defense is often overlooked for offense, but having a fair amount of a certain status resistance can win you games.

There are plenty of other tactics that I've seen used, ranging from Fang of Fog charging to full recon teams. Each works in its own way, but happens so rarely. What are some tactics that you have seen or utilized that stand out? Are they effective? Cheers!

Sat, 12/07/2013 - 03:02
#1
Krakob's picture
Krakob

Back when we were scrubs, Zeddy and I used to go double guardian. He would drop bombs while I would block bullets if we failed to dodge them. We used to hold the enemy's home point and tell the rest of our team to go somewhere else because we could actually hold the point for a great majority of the game, a lot because of the guardian shield's health regen. The question is what made it work, both of us or just him because of the VT he used.

No matter, I believe going double guardian is a pretty powerful combo as it allows you to handle gunslingers while also keeping the point captured. If both have bombs, one can switch the shielder and bomber roles whenever the shielder's shield is broken. Having different bombs would also be an advantage because it means one could roles if someone able to walk through the bomber's bomb approaches to deny the area even for him.

Regarding your paragraph on stun, I do disagree. Stun isn't under rated, it's just hard to get by because it's inflicted by seven hipster weapons: Sudaruska, Callahan, Big Angry Bomb, Irontech Destroyer, Scintillating Sun Shards, Irontech Destroyer, and Fearless Rigadoon. And then there's Swagger Storm, the one non-hipster stun inflicting weapon and it's a beast because VT is more of a beast so all the Skolver clones use their money on Shock UVs so Swagger Storm is usable vs a larger amount of players.

That said, bombs are extremely hard to use as Striker because it requires UVs for at least 10k E and a Chaos/Mad Bomber/Volcanic Demo set. So all the strikers can only use Suda or Callahan for stun. Suda only has stun on the charge and Callahan is just really not a good gun because of the low mobility.

Sat, 12/07/2013 - 03:39
#2
Dutch-Oven's picture
Dutch-Oven
What kakarakob-cake says

What kakarakob-cake says about double guardian is true, you just need to buddy up with someone who knows what they're doing. Taking turns to shield and switching roles when your shield is low is a really strong tactic. If you can voice-chat with that buddy it's even better.

I would say a fundamental tactic that is very underrated is fighting inside the point. Most people just fight wherever the fight takes them, and while you can capture a point that way you might as well stay in the circle and bring the fight there. Chances are if you're focused on that point more than the other guy then it'll end up your colour.

Sat, 12/07/2013 - 03:44
#3
Feyi-Feyi's picture
Feyi-Feyi

The simplest one of them all:
backcap the enemies home point when you notice your team can't regain control of your part of the map.

Also very underrated is not being an idiot.
The times I see a whole team run DOWN towards 3 strikers waiting for them are plenty.
Few people seem to realize there's usually a way up as well.

Sat, 12/07/2013 - 06:41
#4
Leekcoco's picture
Leekcoco
Time is the most important thing. :o

Like Feyi said, during a losing game, it's a pretty bad idea to cap the slow way. The slow way being choosing the path where there are people camped, either outside your base down below with a camera-angle disadvantage, or in a hallway that a bomber has blocked off. You'll either get yourself killed or get yourself killed while taking maybe one of them down. Either way, you're not getting to a cap. Going where there are people will get you damage, but you lose time.

Sat, 12/07/2013 - 07:50
#5
Rezzler's picture
Rezzler
Heres a decent tactic: Wear a

Heres a decent tactic:

Wear a set that doesnt have too many accessories. It psychologically affects the enemy into thiking you are not as much of a threat, and they wouldn't try as hard to kill you.

How do I know this? Just think: Iff you saw a naked Snarbo guy, and a Snarbo maxed out with Shadow D wings, Hacked Aura, Spike Mohawk, and Crest of winter, who would you assume is better? It would have to be a quick decision, since in the heat of things you do not have much time to think.

Disregarding name or rank, most would immediately think the maxed out snarbo is better.

This is an extreme example, but something as simple as a mohawk or wings or vertical vents affects the attacker subconsciously, and forces them to play a bit more defensively.

Talking about simple at-a-glance decisions made by LDers, accessories typically correlates to "better or more dangerous player". And because of this, they play smarter or harder to kill them.

Sat, 12/07/2013 - 12:24
#6
Sirius-Voltbreaker's picture
Sirius-Voltbreaker

A great tactic for gvg is for everyone to go as a guardian/ recon in one big group. For recons, the enemied might get one but they will be overwelmed. For guardians, you stay in a big group with bombers gunners and hybrids, so you are constantly healed, defended and there are no weak points to group since if a person tries to go in they get smacked by 5 different things.

As for UVs I don't use em. I am a half chaos user and am staying that way.

Sat, 12/07/2013 - 17:17
#7
Retequizzle's picture
Retequizzle
Play smarter, not harder.

Be annoying enough to draw attention to yourself and maintain that attention for as long as possible, especially if your team is on the losing end. The more people focused on you, the easier it is for teammates to either shut down the push, or slip by to help out on another point. Conversely, if you can maintain this when your team is winning - either by fighting on their homepoint, or making sure none slip past you, then go for it. It's more useful in RLD than in GvG, since RLD rarely has more than one or two people coordinating with each other, but if you can capitalize on an enemy team in GvG with it, then it's a bit more effective since your team's also likely to be a bit more cohesive.

Note: I'm not saying camp their base if you're winning on the offensive. Rarely can a striker - hybrid or not - hold their own in a freshly spawned wave by standing right outside of their base. Hanging back far enough to where the enemy team takes different routes to mitigate the swarming factor, but close enough to be a direct obstacle between them and the base point being captured. There's a difference, and if you don't know it, don't do it.

Be smart about your kills - keeping an eye on when your own teammates respawn is a good indicator of when the enemy team has also respawned. Dropping your opponent within the first few seconds of that respawn is going to force them to sit out for upwards of 15-20 seconds. This can give you enough time to make the big play on capping a point, especially if you're smart about who you drop - killing the kid in 4* Cobalt armor is cool, but shutting down the stronger players with this should be your goal.

Don't brute force your way through everything - too many times I've seen strikers run in on a point from below and land one swing with a Gran Faust on multiple people, and then get subsequently mopped up because they went in half-cocked. It's better to have them scatter off the point than have them all swing back at the same thing, so force the scatter, then fight accordingly. You're preventing the capture of the point, and with them scattering even for a couple of seconds, you should be able to fight your way around them, through them as they close in, whatever.

Lastly, force your opponent to overextend their class mods. If they're striker, make them run out of boost. Guards? Break the shield, or goad them into dropping it to land a sword swipe. Recons? Either restrict where they can attack you from, or watch for footprints on maps that allow for it.

Sat, 12/07/2013 - 20:09
#8
Deleted-Knight's picture
Deleted-Knight
Play striker like a

Play striker like a guardian.
Instead of getting into a slap fest with another striker. Try minding your own business capping the point. The key is to make sure you're always a safe distance away. When the enemy comes too close, swipe your toothpick to either hit them or ward them off.

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 03:30
#9
Tenkii's picture
Tenkii
Map reading!

+1 for "backcapping" (capping the point closer to the enemy base).
Would also like to add the reason that by being there, it can split the enemy team away from the group that's camping your team, meaning they have a better chance to fight back. And if not, then the ones who are more likely to be there are the ones on the enemy team that have died (so they tend to also be the weaker links).

-----------
Decap when you're losing
Instead of completely sitting on a point and trying to fully cap it, try decapping (removing enemy control of a point) instead. By decapping, you can extend the game long enough to make a comeback.

ex:
If your team has 350 points and enemy team has 440 points and control 2/3 of the points, they are gaining 8 points every 5 seconds, versus your team's gain of 5 points every 5 second (so relative to you, they make 3 points per 5 seconds).
If you decap 1 point so both teams own one control point, they're still closer to the end of the game but they don't gain any larger of a lead.
If you completely remove their control and only own one point, the game doesn't get closer to ending AND your team starts starts to catch up by 5 points, letting you close the gap and maybe even overcome it.

Numerically, it's the better choice. Strategically, just like backcapping, it can split up the enemy team and pull back the other team's offense so the rest of your team can cap.

-----------

Here's a crazy one:
Read your allies on the minimap for hints about what the enemies are doing
You can make really good guesses about situations from how the teammate dots move on the minimap.

a- If they're on a point and suddenly they start doing start-stop movements, they're probably boosting+stopping to slash: enemies are there, and they're in a fight.
b- If a teammate that was moving around has stopped moving, and someone just died, that's the one.
c- If you can see which teammate went off alone in some direction, watch their health because if they start taking damage, you'll know the enemy's there. I tend to tell my teammates which points I'm on for this reason as well. It's usually something like "I'm at 1. If I die, then I've lost the point". If they read it, they can react before the point's even lost.

- If you're using a non-striker class, you can combine b/c to determine if there are enemies ahead.

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 03:34
#10
Leekcoco's picture
Leekcoco

About the map, it's helpful to watch the capping by the enemy team too. On big maps, especially in GvG, it might turn into a cap-war, where you're just capping and uncapping with the other team. Rather than doing just that, you can read where the enemy team are headed next, and block them (if you have decent survival skills). They don't need to be all killed, just held up long enough for your team to recap most of the points. I've spent a whole game intercepting bombers and cappers before when we were neck-in-neck and it helped to widen the point gap later on in game.

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 03:41
#11
Blue-Flood's picture
Blue-Flood
Uncapping

@Rezzler +1

Something I stress a lot. If the enemy has two points and you have one, they're getting a steady 3 point lead per tick. If you uncap both points rather then fully cap only one, you will gain a 5 point lead per tick by having a single point and the enemys point increase will stagnate. Naturally you'd want to fully cap both points, but with people fighting and dieing there is a slight wave motion and push back on the caps throughout the match - provided the enemy team is not just shut down. Uncapping both points is faster in a sense that you'd be gaining an advantage per tick, but by uncapping you also prolong the game since the race to 500 or 900 has slowed down.

Either way, if you have a chance to deny the enemy team any points even temporarily do it. You'd get a great lead as it takes time to recap - and also spreads their team out as it's near impossible to coordinate in RLD on the fly. Reading your teammates is just as important as reading the enemy, as typing takes ages in a game where you can die before typing "brt".

This method works ok for GvG, but it's more viable for RLD since an individuals independant decision can make a huge difference in a game where there's rarely any vocal coordination.

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 04:10
#12
Feyi-Feyi's picture
Feyi-Feyi

Good thread, great advice, but I feel like by now the title doesn't represent the content anymore.
These are not just underrated tactics but judging by the people posting here they are essential tactics to be good at LD.
Most experienced played do all this and then some more, at least that's how I feel.

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 08:23
#13
Dreathuxy's picture
Dreathuxy

Rotten-Tomato has told me a useful strategy.

Surprise.

Not the "go under him and smack him", or "go recon". Do something that the enemy will not expect. For example: You are guard bombing, happily dropping haze bombs wherever you go. It's a good tactic to keep your opponents away. But sometimes they find a way to break your defenses. You are helpless - if you don't know this trick.

While guard bombing, ALWAYS bring a GF.

The enemy will think that you are the average bomber stereotype, who only uses bombs. They will get close and exploit your weakness. If you pack a gf with you. You will have the element of surprise on your side.

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 15:09
#14
Feyi-Feyi's picture
Feyi-Feyi

Eh that's just called not being stupid.
I can't even count the amount of bombers who are so surprised when I just walk trough their haze (yes, I'm a UV ho)
that they just stand there trying to charge their bomb in panic.

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 15:34
#15
Bluebladez
-

under rated?
uhh...
Callahan opener as recon.
AoA as guardian while you kite (you have to be good at dodging and blocking)
switch playstyles from hyper aggressive to very passive.

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