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Dave
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« on: October 11, 2006, 09:52:53 PM » |
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The original author of this guide asked to have his name removed from it as it proved controversial, but I thought it worth saving from oblivion and so here it is (with his permission).
This is the first part (might be the only part, but that's up to you guys) of "Tactics for Complete Gormsters". I will try and update this from time to time if requested.
(I'm sorry if I'm rude from now on, but just trying to be funny in my own barbaric viking way)
I know a lot of you people think tactics and stratagems are nerdy, unnessecary and stupid. If you do, please let me know so I can avoid teaming with you as much as possible. If you learn and adopt tactical gameplay, your efficiancy in a team will increase so much you won't believe it. If everyone in an eight man team is at peak performance the gameplay is not only a whole lot more fun, but the xp starts pouring in a lot quicker, even though the going might seem slower (although it's not) because you will avoid getting debt to a huge degree.
A few things before I start:
When I say squishies, I mean everyone who is not a tank. Yes, that also means you */inv scrappers.
This guide isn't complete. There are dozens of things to remember in order to be perfectly successful.
Even though it's not the first rule, I do think the only rule you REALLY need is the second one. If you use your head and think logically most things should be pretty straight forward.
What I say here isn't always aplicable, but cases where it is not are very few and far between.
My way of doing things may be a bit slower (though not really), but it guarantees that you won't get debt. Unless the mobs you are fighting is actually stronger. Which is VERY VERY VERY rarely the case.
Rule 1. Follow the Tank:
The thought behind this is that the tank is supposed to take the Alpha Strike and is supposed to manage agro anyway, so if the tank blunders into a group of mobs it won't be catastrophic. If there's no tank in the team, choose one person to follow, preferably a scout type character (IE someone with invisibility or some other stealthy power). The point of this is of course to make sure the team don't split up, and this is VERY important in all missions that is tougher than fighting your way out of a wet paper bag.
And LISTEN to what the leader says, and follow it. I know everyone wants desperately to be the most important person in the team, but in reality everyone is disposable except the tank and the emp. The cases where you can do without a tank and/or an emp is when the mission is so easy that the impact on the XP bar is nonexistant.
Rule 2. It is allowed to USE YOUR HEAD:
Even though this is a game, it isn't illegal to think before acting. In my own case, I think doing something well is a whole lot more fun than just getting it done.
If the team is standing around waiting for the tank to attack and some squishie starts attacking, DON'T FOLLOW SUIT! Let the moron die instead of charging in after and getting the whole team killed. I have recently started adopting this school of thought, and not only do I get a lot more laughs than before, I've also cut the debt accumulation by half.
In my opinion, when you play in a team, you have an obligation to your teammates to do your best work at all times, so playing with your ass is not an option. If you play with your behind, it's your own god damn fault if you die.
So, to sum up: LET THE F****R DIE!
Rule 3. Use your eyes!:
I don't really think this needs explaining, but I will because it is important.
Use WASD to move your character and the mouse to move the camera. Before entering a room, strafe left and right and move the camera so you can look around the edges of the door/corridor to make sure there's no surprises there. If the leading person (IE the Tank) stops, stop a little way behind him. If the person in front of you has invisibility on, DON'T FOLLOW HIM BLINDLY! If there is a group of mobs within 20/30 meters of the group you are fighting, MAKE SURE YOU DON'T AGRO IT.
If you, for some reason or other, can't use wasd to move your toon, don't charge on ahead of the group, because your movement IS INFERIOR.
Rule 4. Choose your battleground:
One of the things Sun Tzu is most adamant about is that in order to be successful in battle you must 1) find the best place to fight, 2) prepare the battleground, 3) get your enemy to the battleground of your choice.
Of course this isn't nessecary in every case, especially if there's no other mob groups in visual range. But if you charge into a room that is occupied by two or more groups, pulling/herding is a MUCH better alternative than charging in. Most often, team wipes is caused by mob groups that gets agroed by squishies after the main group is engaged.
Rule 5. Don't be a stubborn a*s!:
People in general is not likely to admit mistakes, and if they are corrected, they are likely to; 1) Argue that they didn't make a mistake. 2) Blame someone else for the mistake, and 3) Go apeshit because they are hardheaded morons. Most often in that order.
If someone have the balls to correct you, it is often in your best interest. If you die on a regular basis from the same cause, you are DOING SOMETHING WRONG. What is so nice about CoH/V is that if you die, it's invariably because of human error, not game mechanics.
Rule 6. Learn your powersets!:
Make sure you know what every power in your build does, down to the smallest effect. I like to use Rain Of Fire/ice as an example of this, because SOOO MANY use it stupidly. Rain of Whatever is an LBAoE (Location based Area of Effect) power with minor DoT damage. What this power does at first glance is proc the mobs with LOTS of damage numbers. If you look at the actual numbers you'll see it's not really a lot of damage, just a lot of numbers.
Secondly, this power makes mobs run away from the location of effect. Is this bad? If used as an offensive power, YES. Why? Because it makes the mobs run away from the tank's meleč range in every direction, meaning that the tank won't be able to hold agro (as easily), and this will cause random agro in the team and that SUCKS.
Rain of Something is VERY good as a defensive power if you get swarmed by mobs. I'll agree that this isn't apparent at first, but that's why I tell you to KNOW YOUR POWERS.
Well, that's it for this episode of "General Anonymous's' Tactics for Complete Gormsters". This is 6 easy and very basic guidlines for youse peoples to meditate on.
Part Two
As my last guideline post seems to have been recieved fairly well, here goes for the second edition.
The first post was about fairly general and basic teamplay. This one is more specifically about combat but not exclusively so.
Again, these are guidlines (despite my naming them "rules"), and they apply most of the time but not always. Spotting when they do and when they don't is completely up to you and your respective brains.
Rule 1: You don't HAVE to attack RIGHT AWAY!:
Considering that all the "rules" from the first guide is followed, the tank will be the first to engage the enemy. However, waiting just half a second before you attack isn't always a good idea (hardly ever actually), especially if you have mainly AOE powers. Most likely, the tank can take the heat on his own for a few seconds, and as a squishy it's a good idea to let the tank use these precious seconds to build agro before attacking. Plus, if your first attack usually is an AOE root it is specially important to wait. Why? Because the average mob group aren't gathered up nice and cozy within meleč range of the tank, so the tank will have trouble agroing all the mobs with his/her initial attack-cycle. If you wait, say five-six seconds before attacking, the tank will have all the mobs gathered around himself, and this is the ultimate time to AOE root. If you root outside the tanker's meleč range it is in effect a wasted root, as they'll be outside the PBAoE (player based area of effect) range of many powers, but the mobs won't be out of ranged attack range.
Waiting five to six seconds before attacking will in most cases mean the difference between debt and no debt.
The main reason why you should wait is that the tank power "Taunt" have a 5 target limit, meaning that the tank needs around 5 seconds to be able to build agro on all the mobs. Many tanks will argue that Gauntlet (or punchvoke) is suficient to hold agro and that taunt is unnessecary. This is plain WRONG and I'll explain why in the next part of the guide.
Attacking an un-taunted mob is the perfect way of directing danger your way, depending on the mob you attack, this can be catastropic.
Rule 2: If you are an emp, be an emp:
By this I mean that your powerset choices pretty much dictates your role in the team.
If you are an empathy defender, your team will expect you to be an empath and not a blaster. When choosing the powersets for your new toon, go through all the powers, consider them carefully and decide if that is the role you want to play. If you play a different role than your powersets tell you, you'll NEVER be as effective as a person that plays the same powersets in the role it is intended. A defender will never be as effective blasting as a blaster is. A scrapper will never be as effective tanking as a tanker is.
The only exception I've found to this, is blappers, and this is only to a very small degree. The damage from a blaster's ranged attacks doesn't become any less in close range, and in close range a blaster can utilize the meleč powers which increases the damage by around 70% (not a correct figure It is an uneducated guess). However, without the defensive powers from the scrapper secondaries, a blaster's life expectancy drops exponentially the closer he/she gets to the enemy.
Rule 3: Pay attention to what is going on in the team:
If, during a fight, the tank (or anyone) takes the time to type "MOVE BACK!" or "RETREAT!" or "INCOMMING" or something similar, it's probably a good idea to listen. If the team gets ambushed during a fight, it's almost always better to make a tactical retreat. Pulling BACK the way you came almost always guarantees that you don't have to be afraid of agroing more mobs. If you pull back around a corner or two you will always know where all the mobs are; in front of you. Being besieged by mobs on all sides is a recipe for disaster, because then all the members of the team is a potential target for the mobs.
Rule 4: Pay attention to what is going on in the vincinity of the battle:
Being completely engrossed in your own work is good if you are a brainsurgeon or a highrise window-cleaner. When you are a part of a team you must be able to concentrate on several things at the same time. Spotting an ambush before it is sprung can (and in most cases will) save you from team-wipe. Same thing applies when a teammate unintentionally get within range of an unagroed group. Some times the adds will take a pot-shot or two at the player and if he/she gets out of the way in time, they'll stop at that, but this happens so rarely it can't be counted on in any way.
Rule 5: Act on unexpected situations ASAP:
As a tank, if you notice that a teammate agroes another group of mobs you have to react immediately, taunting the closest mobs in the new group and pull them off the teammate in danger. As a squishy there are several ways of acting in situations like this. If you are quick on your feet you can attack one of the new mobs, then bolt out of range as fast as your little feet will carry you. This can save your teammate without putting yourself in too much danger. Shouting "PULL BACK" is also an option, but not as effective if rule 3 and 4 is not followed. What is the best course of action depends heavily on the situation, but most often a combination works best.
Hope you like the guide (I did) and agree it was worth saving.
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