14 replies to this topic

[Frisbee_Player]

The title says it all...

[mmm_yep]

I'm in the same boat. I found these two Heat Scout guides helpful.

https://community.pl...at-scout-guide/

https://community.pl...ad-heat-cannon/

[comic_sans]

Charge when you can't see your target, practice with the uncharged, and basically just shoot it when you shoot your tow.  Wait til your enemy lands or flies near a wall for splash dmg if they're keen on the air.

[ticklemyiguana]

Woo! My guide was recommended by someone. I'm famous!

[Meraple]

comic_sans, on May 28 2014 - 03:59 PM, said:

practice with the uncharged, and basically just shoot it when you shoot your tow.

If your aim is good enough I'd reccomend spamming the Heat Cannon's uncharged mode, regardless of your TOW's reload state.

comic_sans, on May 28 2014 - 03:59 PM, said:

Wait til your enemy lands or flies near a wall for splash dmg if they're keen on the air.

A big nope from me.
Just practice making direct hits on ground targets, and you'll be able to hit aerial targets as well.



The OP didn't specify what troubles he has with Heat Scout,
thus I just made a reply expecting him to be a good/decent player that can hit people with Heat.

[Frisbee_Player]

I'm generally pretty good at getting direct hits with TOW... and heat was a bit different, but I'm getting there

I was looking for tactics and strategies, since the heat radically changes the way the Scout is played.

Edited by Frisbee_Player, May 29 2014 - 05:24 AM.

[Kopra]

Meraple, on May 29 2014 - 04:26 AM, said:

comic_sans, on May 28 2014 - 03:59 PM, said:

Wait til your enemy lands or flies near a wall for splash dmg if they're keen on the air.

A big nope from me.
Just practice making direct hits on ground targets, and you'll be able to hit aerial targets as well.

Nope on solid advice_ Even if you hit all of the uncharged shots with a Heat Cannon (projectile speed is slow, bright and thus very dodgeable), your DPS is still worse than an SMC user that hits 75%. You can't assume that you hit every single shot every time with a weapon, that is just mad.

With the Heat Cannon you have to use the environment and splash to YOUR advantage and that is where the weapon excels. If you are only going for uncharged direct hits on a midair just for the sake of it, you are just gimping yourself. Abusing charged Heat's huge splash with the environment is key and using uncharged shots to finish off your target once you have enough advantage. Say, if you have played your cards right and now the enemy Berserker is one Heat shot away from death, dodging like a madman, while you are still full-ish, you can afford to miss, perhaps it's the TOW that ultimately finishes off your target. Anyway, keeping options open is good play.

Sometimes you have to hit a midair target without having any attained advantage, sure. That's when 1337 41/\/\5 are handy, but otherwise you should use all possible tricks up your sleeve because the Heat Cannon is bad at open combat by design.

[Meraple]

Kopra, on May 29 2014 - 01:54 PM, said:

Meraple, on May 29 2014 - 04:26 AM, said:

comic_sans, on May 28 2014 - 03:59 PM, said:

Wait til your enemy lands or flies near a wall for splash dmg if they're keen on the air.

A big nope from me.
Just practice making direct hits on ground targets, and you'll be able to hit aerial targets as well.

Nope on solid advice_ Even if you hit all of the uncharged shots with a Heat Cannon (projectile speed is slow, bright and thus very dodgeable), your DPS is still worse than an SMC user that hits 75%. You can't assume that you hit every single shot every time with a weapon, that is just mad.

With the Heat Cannon you have to use the environment and splash to YOUR advantage and that is where the weapon excels. If you are only going for uncharged direct hits on a midair just for the sake of it, you are just gimping yourself. Abusing charged Heat's huge splash with the environment is key and using uncharged shots to finish off your target once you have enough advantage. Say, if you have played your cards right and now the enemy Berserker is one Heat shot away from death, dodging like a madman, while you are still full-ish, you can afford to miss, perhaps it's the TOW that ultimately finishes off your target. Anyway, keeping options open is good play.

Sometimes you have to hit a midair target without having any attained advantage, sure. That's when 1337 41//5 are handy, but otherwise you should use all possible tricks up your sleeve because the Heat Cannon is bad at open combat by design.

He basicly said to not fire UNTILL the enemy lands or nears a wall.
I'd prefer making direct hits over that.

Edit: I say that, because what fuzzy person flies near a wall when facing a Heat Cannon_

Edited by Meraple, May 29 2014 - 02:19 PM.

[Kopra]

Meraple, on May 29 2014 - 02:12 PM, said:

Kopra, on May 29 2014 - 01:54 PM, said:

Meraple, on May 29 2014 - 04:26 AM, said:

comic_sans, on May 28 2014 - 03:59 PM, said:

Wait til your enemy lands or flies near a wall for splash dmg if they're keen on the air.

A big nope from me.
Just practice making direct hits on ground targets, and you'll be able to hit aerial targets as well.

Nope on solid advice_ Even if you hit all of the uncharged shots with a Heat Cannon (projectile speed is slow, bright and thus very dodgeable), your DPS is still worse than an SMC user that hits 75%. You can't assume that you hit every single shot every time with a weapon, that is just mad.

With the Heat Cannon you have to use the environment and splash to YOUR advantage and that is where the weapon excels. If you are only going for uncharged direct hits on a midair just for the sake of it, you are just gimping yourself. Abusing charged Heat's huge splash with the environment is key and using uncharged shots to finish off your target once you have enough advantage. Say, if you have played your cards right and now the enemy Berserker is one Heat shot away from death, dodging like a madman, while you are still full-ish, you can afford to miss, perhaps it's the TOW that ultimately finishes off your target. Anyway, keeping options open is good play.

Sometimes you have to hit a midair target without having any attained advantage, sure. That's when 1337 41//5 are handy, but otherwise you should use all possible tricks up your sleeve because the Heat Cannon is bad at open combat by design.

He basicly said to not fire UNTILL the enemy lands or nears a wall.
I'd prefer making direct hits over that.

Sometimes it's better to wait (as in, delay your shot for a fraction of a second) for a guaranteed hit on a landing target than going for midairs all the time. I doubt comic_sans advised to exclusively wait for enemies to land and rolling your thumbs before that. You made an extreme assumption (on that note, so did I, lul).

As for doing direct hits, if you are not near good cover (forced to dm against a flier) or the flier is focused on something else (clay pigeon shooting), sure, go all out and invoke the inner Korean FPS-spirit.

Otherwise you are at a disadvantage and more likely to lose the fight (less armor, projectile dependent). If you wait for a tiny moment (you usually have a feeling when the target is going to land), you get a momentary advantage and are much more likely to win the skirmish.

Edited by Kopra, May 29 2014 - 02:41 PM.

[Meraple]

Kopra, on May 29 2014 - 02:41 PM, said:

Meraple, on May 29 2014 - 02:12 PM, said:

Kopra, on May 29 2014 - 01:54 PM, said:

Meraple, on May 29 2014 - 04:26 AM, said:

comic_sans, on May 28 2014 - 03:59 PM, said:

Wait til your enemy lands or flies near a wall for splash dmg if they're keen on the air.

A big nope from me.
Just practice making direct hits on ground targets, and you'll be able to hit aerial targets as well.

Nope on solid advice_ Even if you hit all of the uncharged shots with a Heat Cannon (projectile speed is slow, bright and thus very dodgeable), your DPS is still worse than an SMC user that hits 75%. You can't assume that you hit every single shot every time with a weapon, that is just mad.

With the Heat Cannon you have to use the environment and splash to YOUR advantage and that is where the weapon excels. If you are only going for uncharged direct hits on a midair just for the sake of it, you are just gimping yourself. Abusing charged Heat's huge splash with the environment is key and using uncharged shots to finish off your target once you have enough advantage. Say, if you have played your cards right and now the enemy Berserker is one Heat shot away from death, dodging like a madman, while you are still full-ish, you can afford to miss, perhaps it's the TOW that ultimately finishes off your target. Anyway, keeping options open is good play.

Sometimes you have to hit a midair target without having any attained advantage, sure. That's when 1337 41//5 are handy, but otherwise you should use all possible tricks up your sleeve because the Heat Cannon is bad at open combat by design.

He basicly said to not fire UNTILL the enemy lands or nears a wall.
I'd prefer making direct hits over that.

Sometimes it's better to wait (as in, delay your shot for a fraction of a second) for a guaranteed hit on a landing target than going for midairs all the time. I doubt comic_sans advised to exclusively wait for enemies to land and rolling your thumbs before that. You made an extreme assumption (on that note, so did I, lul).

As for doing direct hits, if you are not near good cover (forced to dm against a flier) or the flier is focused on something else (clay pigeon shooting), sure, go all out and invoke the inner Korean FPS-spirit.

Otherwise you are at a disadvantage and more likely to lose the fight (less armor, projectile dependent). If you wait for a tiny moment (you usually have a feeling when the target is going to land), you get a momentary advantage and are much more likely to win the skirmish.

I guess.

[comic_sans]

Yeah woah let's not get carried away, advice is advice, not orders.  When a target is in the air near cover, I'll probably go for shooting the wall just because I will be moving so frantically that I can't afford to stop and aim perfectly, and I'd rather have an effective miss than have to mess with my movement just to land a shot that isn't all that worth it.  It comes down to preference and how good your are with your aim; I am really not very good at hitting mechs, but I'm more than ok at hitting where mechs are going to be.  I almost exclusively shoot the ground against A classes unless I have a perfect shot lined up; it really helps when you're dancing with another scout, prob a flak user, since you can pretty much drop a shield and shoot the ground near the middle for some guaranteed damage as opposed to a bunch of near misses.

Edited by comic_sans, May 29 2014 - 03:31 PM.

[mmm_yep]

ticklemyiguana, on May 28 2014 - 06:18 PM, said:

Woo! My guide was recommended by someone. I'm famous!

Thank Silverfire for the great mech guide round up.
https://community.pl...ll-mech-guides/

Edited by mmm_yep, May 29 2014 - 03:28 PM.

[ticklemyiguana]

mmm_yep, on May 29 2014 - 03:27 PM, said:

ticklemyiguana, on May 28 2014 - 06:18 PM, said:

Woo! My guide was recommended by someone. I'm famous!

Thank Silverfire for the great mech guide round up.
https://community.pl...ll-mech-guides/

I certainly have. (Thanks again, not for me, but you know, for community and stuff.)

[Stingz]

From seeing others use it (and getting hit by it), fully charged HEAT Cannon is essentially a rocket launcher, massive splash high-ish speed.

[IareDave]

Get good at killing flying zerkers, and you'll master it. Guarnteed