What's the most effective way for a single player to weaken an enemy Deathball in TDM pub server?
#1
Posted 28 September 2015 - 04:22 PM
Seeing as not everybody is Healer inclined, I'm wondering what some other viable strategies.
Curious since newbies going up against a Deathball might find themselves feeling like it's not possible to win. Ragequit. Then never come back.
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#2
Posted 28 September 2015 - 04:24 PM
#3
Posted 28 September 2015 - 04:26 PM
C-class. The answer to a deathball is a bigger, more aggressive deathball. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a C-class. B's working in tandem with aggressive positioning can crack the nut.
Also, focus fire. If people aren't shooting your target, shoot theirs.
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#5
Posted 28 September 2015 - 04:30 PM
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#6
Posted 28 September 2015 - 04:31 PM
Playing deathmatch
Stop trying Meat-sama.
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#7
Posted 28 September 2015 - 04:33 PM
if i'm all by myself, i'll go for an a-class and play hit and run, get the enemies to chase me to split there numbers, slowly pick them off, flank and kill people healing, stalk the enemy spawn for 1v1's, basically scumbag stuff. then i go dm, where at most you'll have 3 people teamed up on you.
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#8
Posted 28 September 2015 - 04:36 PM
if i'm all by myself, i'll go for an a-class and play hit and run, get the enemies to chase me to split there numbers, slowly pick them off, flank and kill people healing, stalk the enemy spawn for 1v1's, basically scumbag stuff. then i go dm, where at most you'll have 3 people teamed up on you.
So basically Guerrilla warfare?
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#9
Posted 28 September 2015 - 04:40 PM
Then I'll try to kill them.. if I can't or too many follow me I'll run back to my team. Maybe they'll follow me into my team and die, maybe not.. either way I've distracted them for a time and hopefully allowed my team a chance to make a move on the rest of the enemies. This assumes that my team is aware of what's going on and trying to stay together.. if they're not I'll just stick with someone and hope it works out.
Try doing that I suppose, see if it works for you.
Edited by PsychedelicGrass, 28 September 2015 - 04:46 PM.
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What's the big fuzzy bunnyng deal? Lots of amazing people have committed suicide, and they turned out alright.
#10
Posted 28 September 2015 - 04:41 PM
Well to kinda answer my own question. Probably the easiest strategy is to press tab, find the highest scoring non-snipe/non-pred on your team, and just follow them around.
The best way to squish an enemy deathball is to have a competent team yourself. Competent teams will regroup until most players are in position to fight a deathball; incompetent teams will do the opposite.
That said, there's a few techniques to help break up a deathball that you can practice:
- Stick with allies during fights unless you are sure your allies are about to get crushed. Put another way, stick around and fight when you collectively have the advantage, but GTFO if you're going to get wiped without any real chance of taking someone with you. Determining what to do in that context is something you'll gain a feel for.
- Work on your situational awareness. That usually comes down to watching your radar and interpreting what it tells you. For example, a player who lacks situational awareness may glance at their radar, see a single enemy ahead, and charge forth to their death. The player with greater situational awareness may see one enemy ahead but refrains from advancing because they don't know where the other five enemies are.
- Work on EMP accuracy because those break up rushes and clusters.
Regarding flanking: first, flanking for a newish player isn't as easy as "I see 4 dudes looking at me, so I'm going to go around them and satisfy their butts." For example, any of the following could give away your flanking attempt:
- Enemy players that visually scan their surroundings
- Respawned players which stumble across your path of travel
- You showing up on radar because you decided to boost
- You showing up on radar because you shot too soon
If your position is given away then chances are you'll die. Since you are flanking it's likely that you will die to multiple enemy players without backup. You will probably be lucky to kill any of them. Yes, you probably distracted them, but distractions are fuzzy bunny unless they are capitalized on. Since you are having a deathball problem to begin with, then I don't think that your team could effectively capitalize anyways, hence why I advise you don't focus on flanking right away.
With that in mind, I recommend you learn how the presence of your team creates zones of control. Afterwards learn how to influence those zones of control through positioning. Once you got that down then apply it to the enemy team to determine how they can be exploited. Then apply that knowledge to become effective flanker.
Edit: made some clarifications and cleaned up my wordiness
Edited by TheButtSatisfier, 29 September 2015 - 05:41 PM.
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#11
Posted 28 September 2015 - 05:21 PM
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#12
Posted 28 September 2015 - 05:43 PM
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#13
Posted 28 September 2015 - 07:01 PM
What's the big fuzzy bunnyng deal? Lots of amazing people have committed suicide, and they turned out alright.
#14
Posted 28 September 2015 - 10:44 PM
Leave the game. No enemies to kill, no deathball to form.
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#15
Posted 28 September 2015 - 10:50 PM
Also, if you play against tech, heat cannon can help. You can damage healer and he friend with one shot, yes, you firerate is very slow to kill they both, but your charged shoot just a deactivated their heal. But your team should help you, and kill them, or nothing happens :D
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Edited by nepacaka, 28 September 2015 - 11:08 PM.
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#16
Posted 28 September 2015 - 11:07 PM
It really depends on what keeps the deathball rolling.
If it is a tech, you can hop in a Pred or Infil, sneak up on him and alpha-strike the bastard — not only do you kill their key guy, but you also force some of them to chase you, which means there's no deathball anymore. Rinse and repeat.
If it is a very strong sniper that keeps suppressing your team and facilitating the deathball, the same classes can do the job.
If the problem is one very strong player that other enemy team players gravitate to thus forming a deathball, you need to focus on that guy — you need to pick a mech that counters his mech, depending on the map and other circumstances.
If the deathball is just a bunch of good players walking around the map together, a Rev-gl Gren can work wonders. You walk around the corner, pop your ability, EMP them and unleash the fury of a thousand gods.
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#17
Posted 28 September 2015 - 11:32 PM
#18
Posted 29 September 2015 - 12:03 AM
Flanking is good if they are not aware of you doing that. Reveal your self just at the right moment let's say when the enemy team advances
into your team mates. Surprise sandwich! m-faka! They forced to turn back get confused disoriented. Example below at 2:40 while im not doing much killing my self as I miss alot of shots surprise factor makes them split turn around etc.. also I could have turned left and gone for 1v1 but that would not benefit the team as much.
#19
Posted 29 September 2015 - 12:28 AM
One good sniper can change the tide. Only 2% hacks enabled of course.

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#20
Posted 29 September 2015 - 12:48 AM
2. Same as above, but a Shield. Especially if the enemy is low on armor and near an escape path (extra panic and confusion).
3. Pepper with SMC at an over 150m distance with your unnoticed flanking close range weapon wielding teammate, they will appreciate the extra damage you provide and make for easier kills for sure!
4. Do not use Q or Z, if there's a lady screaming Enemy Sighted, you can't hear where the bullets are coming from.
5. Always go for 1v2 (or more) situations: if you kill them both, you get double the points and a double kill bonus! Extra points help you gain MMR and MMR is a direct correlation with skill, so get your MMR up to have better skills!
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#21
Posted 29 September 2015 - 05:53 AM
Heat Scout, Yoloraider and EMPs. Bonus points for getting in the middle of them before using the EMP.
Also, I'm not advocating exploiting glitches, but here's a super-secret antideathball tactic. There's a bug with Raider that ignores the item cooldown while Blitz is activated and you are boosting. I'll just say that and "EMP rain" and you should figure out what can be done ![]()
Edited by neon, 29 September 2015 - 05:57 AM.
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#22
Posted 29 September 2015 - 06:01 AM
#23
Posted 29 September 2015 - 06:30 AM
I'm willing to argue that the existence of a deathball kinda just throws the chance of having a decent team out the window. I'm mostly talking about mech comp here not skill level. It's like the sniper effect on bunker. Your team could be two down and the enemy has a sniper, so naturally a teammate just HAS to go sniper to lock that sniper down and lookie there! You're still grossly outnumbered but now, you have one less teammate paying attention to backing you up!
#24
Posted 29 September 2015 - 08:00 AM
Since he asked for the best way for a "single player" to break up an enemy deathball...
I try to feign an attack and then run away. I try to tease some of them into breaking formation to follow me. You have to be a persistent chicken-s#!t until you make some of them mad enough to do the wrong thing - to leave their group and come after you. Even if that isn't enough to "break" the deathball, every player who breaks from the group makes the ball weaker, thus allowing your teammates an easier time of breaking it.
So, don't let yourself be killed by it. Don't assume your team will 'have your back' where deathballs are concerned. Deathballs only work if they can get the enemy to engage - so it's best to deny them what they feed on. Just get away and stay away until some of the enemies get tired of not getting kills - then kill them instead.
Edited by StubbornPuppet, 29 September 2015 - 11:22 AM.
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#25
Posted 29 September 2015 - 08:08 AM
AKA Allahu Mechbar
Naw that's reserved for the Incinerator Buttstomp

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#26
Posted 29 September 2015 - 08:18 AM
Incinerator Buttstomp
It Hulk Smash!

Edited by Sorroritas, 29 September 2015 - 08:19 AM.
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#27
Posted 29 September 2015 - 10:45 AM
EOC rocketeer with air compressor + air 180°, 3x holo +1x ISM

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#28
Posted 29 September 2015 - 10:52 AM
#29
Posted 29 September 2015 - 12:13 PM
Plenty of people have given good answers, especially kirk whom I completely agree with, but I also greatly enjoy flanking. The way I view deathballs is, well, as a snowball, in that it melts faster with more surface area exposed, which includes splitting the ball in pieces. Basically, I completely stop caring about my team as anything more than targets that aren't me for the enemy, which usually isn't hard since if we're getting rolled I probably don't know any of them. Then, I treat the match as hard mode practice and play to survive more than to kill. This usually leads to one or more the enemies breaking off from murdering my team to follow me exclusively, which gives my team enough of a numbers advantage to do some work. Once I perceive enough of a good situation for combat, I either kite the enemies if there's a few of them, or go balls-out DM on the guy if there's only one. Once I take out one of my pursuers, I can usually get back to my team from the backside of the enemy team and turn the tables.
It helps to be both good and confident in your ability, but remember: no matter how skilled you think you are, you ain't chopped liver and the opportunity is always there for you to succeed and out 1v1 anyone. Listen to your gut when it quietly whispers a creative idea to you and you will get a lot done and probably have taught yourself a new thing to do.
Also, a good skill in general: just throw a tow or a gl out whenever you have a hunch it might hit someone, even from a mile away. Utterly inspired things sometimes happen, and people will ask you: how did you know I was there? Are you hacking? And you can respond to them by telling them that you had no idea and it will bewilder them and en-smuggen you.
Edited by cringe_smells, 29 September 2015 - 12:18 PM.
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#30
Posted 29 September 2015 - 12:50 PM
I completely stop caring about my team as anything more than targets that aren't me for the enemy
So, standard TDM?
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#31
Posted 30 September 2015 - 03:26 AM
I'm just gonna throw in some things I do, when I encounter a deathball and most likely having a team that is not able to break it apart.
I just ditch all thoughts about KDR. I'm gonna choose a mech that is most annoying for the enemy to encounter while deathballing, then I'm gonna go around them and let em have it from behind, die and repeat. It's kinda fun to disrupt their close formation and forcing them to turn around a spread out.
… and If my own team is capable of grasping whats happening they can start to pick the distracted enemies apart. This is also a rinse and repeat procedure.
May not work everytime but it's way better to give them a hard time then to be walzed down by the ball the whole time.
My favorites are raider, especially rewarding when you have the chance to kill their tech in your yolo run, the EOC predator when you just spam mines at their feet and If your really good with a classes an eoc infiltrator can also be annoying as hell, provided you manage to survive long enough to make a couple of approaches. Also some interpersed ISMs and EMPs work great to a make the enemy turn their focus away from your overwhelmed teammates.
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