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Introduction
THIS IS FOR ALL YOU NEW PEOPLE!
Listen up recruit! You're as green and soiled as your moms fuzzy bunny, your piloting is atrocious. If I had my way I'd kick you out of my army and off my battlefield! Since I can't do that and since more and more grub recruits just like you are falling ded in the mud, we need all the bodies we can get! Now step up Pilot and DO YOUR JOB! Who in the hell trained you to pilot!?
RECRUIT ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION? There are several points that we will go over today. All of them will keep you and most importantly your team alive. Hear this recruits: Just because your momma told you how to do something does not mean you know how! Piloting takes dedication, training, skill, and a dash of luck.
DO NOT FORGET IT RECRUIT!
Now to begin! Today we will be going over how to be a supportive teammate. First off, what does it mean to be a good teammate? If your answer is anything but "Keeping my fellow pilots alive" you're wrong. Keeping your teammates alive keeps you alive and your team in the lead.
For now recruits, we will throw mech combinations and counters out the window, many pilots only have 1-2 mechs so your options are limited. This is not an instruction on what is overpowered or on mech tiers.
Listen up recruit! You're as green and soiled as your moms fuzzy bunny, your piloting is atrocious. If I had my way I'd kick you out of my army and off my battlefield! Since I can't do that and since more and more grub recruits just like you are falling ded in the mud, we need all the bodies we can get! Now step up Pilot and DO YOUR JOB! Who in the hell trained you to pilot!?
RECRUIT ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION? There are several points that we will go over today. All of them will keep you and most importantly your team alive. Hear this recruits: Just because your momma told you how to do something does not mean you know how! Piloting takes dedication, training, skill, and a dash of luck.
DO NOT FORGET IT RECRUIT!
Now to begin! Today we will be going over how to be a supportive teammate. First off, what does it mean to be a good teammate? If your answer is anything but "Keeping my fellow pilots alive" you're wrong. Keeping your teammates alive keeps you alive and your team in the lead.
For now recruits, we will throw mech combinations and counters out the window, many pilots only have 1-2 mechs so your options are limited. This is not an instruction on what is overpowered or on mech tiers.
Finding Your Team and Staying Alive
1: [This is an exception to Alpha Striking (for the most part)] Tread carefully when engaging an enemy(ies) on your own. A well trained pilot will rip you to shreds in an extended battle, even with low armor. An enemy cornered and hurt can be even more ferocious. Engaging an enemy on your own is extremely high risk but can be greatly rewarded.
If you're worried that a low KDA or D/R shows your skill or lack of skill, think again. The field of battle is not just about doing damage and getting kills.
- A: Going one-for-one does not help your team, even if you do kill your target your risk is negligible since the enemies' teammates will be inclined to clean you up.
- B: "But Mr. LoC sir, what if I'm behind enemy lines and blocked from my team?" Either because you spawned away from your team or just got cut off, you have one mission: get back to your team without dying. That last part is important. In the case where it is impossible to get back to your team safely: Harass-Harass-Harass, and stay alive. Chip away armor, distract the enemies from your main force especially if you think you may die or if you can outrun them eventually. The reason for this is so your team may have a chance to obtain greater numbers then the enemy.
- C: Do your best to stay off radar when getting back to your team. Boosting, flying, and proximity will alert the enemy on their radar.
If you're worried that a low KDA or D/R shows your skill or lack of skill, think again. The field of battle is not just about doing damage and getting kills.
Sacrificing Armor for the Team
2. Blocking enemy fire is just as important as giving it.
- A: A retreating friendly with low health is a priority target for the enemy. The worst thing you can do is obstruct your teams retreating path. For instance, if you have full armor (or close to it), block that incoming firing so it hits you instead of friendlies. Post-steam; With the new TTK i cant recommend this strategy for A classes, hehe :D
- B: In the instance where a retreating friendly is being hunted by an enemy. Block that enemies path with your mech, obstruct his path or face hug, do whatever you must so that the hunter does not gain a clean shot on your ally.
- C: Your precence alone is a threat on the battlefield. Draw the enemy teams fire from healing or escaping teammates.
Using items as Support
3. You have multiple items in the same life, it is a mistake to be frugal with items when you can die so quickly. It is wise to have fallback areas for you and your team, and have at least one escape route.
- A: Drop healing orbs or shields on repairing teammates to protect them and get them back in the fight sooner.
- B: Before you engage an enemy, drop shields and repair orbs behind your firing line, so you don't have to wait on cooldowns and this also buys you time to escape or counter attack.
- C: Blockades are excellent support items and are underused. They block all incoming fire and items, so you can use them to guard teammates in open fields against SLUG RIFLES and HELLFIRES. Well not all fire.. An EMP will bounce off the blockade but does take it out if it is within range.
Guarding Repairing Teammates
4. You are at your most vulnerable when you are repairing, wouldn't you want a teammate watching your back? After an engagement make sure to stick around a little longer so that your allies may heal safely without any pesky stealths sneaking up on you and your team.
Flank Security and Area Denial
5. Protecting your flanks is a fundamental on the battlefield. It's not enough these days to just death-ball and steamroll when facing a good team.
- A: Challenge enemy flankers for territory on the battlefield. DO NOT LET THE ENEMY GET BEHIND YOUR FIRING LINES. These enemies are the ones that will cause your death ball or firing line/zone to collapse.
- B: If an enemy is already behind your firing lines it is imperative that you regroup and hold your ground. This can be the straw that breaks the camels back and can result in a full team wipe. I reiterate the importance of standing your ground and challenging players to take space away from you.
Preparation Over Impulsiveness
6. The risk and rewards of getting into combat quickly or prepared. When a team has slow movers (ie: the Brawler) on their team it is important to be patient before running off into battle and leaving your teammates far behind. To be honest this is based on your situation, but when the choice arises, the decision should be easy. When you spawn find your team and stay with them.
- A: Gas management is important here, if your team is engaged on the other side of the map getting to them quickly with no gas may be risky since this leaves you with little maneuverability. Take advantage of wave dashing to get to them quicker.
- B: Don't be afraid to take your time and walk somewhere instead, if the need is not urgent. Walking will keep your team in a tighter formation and keep your gas full. It gives you time to recoup, and wait on cool-downs. It also gives you time to think and plan things out.
Teamwork (The Anti-Tech)
7. Now-a-days the tech can be an imposing mech on the battlefield, and it always feels that if the enemy has one so must you. That is not true. A tech sacrifices a lot of fire power and can end up hurting a team in some firefights. Post-Steam; I think most people would disagree now, and that your better off having a tech too, but it is still a very weak armored mech.
- A: Focusing the tech down as a team is important, even if you don't kill the tech, keep it away from its teammates. Techs are fragile and can be destroyed or deterred with a couple pokes from a pointy stick. If you get distracted and fail to kill the tech, it can easily punish you.
- B: When attacking a force that includes a tech it is immensely important that you try to skirmish before you completely engaging said force. See if you can kill or at least wound your target. I never said it was easy, but it's the only thing you can do.
Using Armor Effectively
8. Using your armor effectively is a good way to eek out a kill or assist for your team. No matter how low your armor is it does not depreciate your would-be combat efficiency. You can still do as much damage as if you were at full health. What I mean by this is it's not always a wise decision to run leaving your teammates behind. In fact I would say the majority of the time that is the worst thing you can do. The farther you go the longer it will take you to get back, and you are alone, that is all bad.
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- A: Instead of running away from combat, stay with your team, pepper, poke, chip away at the enemy if you must. Every bit of damage helps. If you run, don't be surprised if the enemy hunts you down.
- B: Staying in combat as long as you can WITHOUT DYING can buy time for your team to heal so that you may do the same.
- C: If your chances are favoring death, see if you can't sacrifice that last bit of health instead of running, it just may be last bit allows your teammates to clean up remaining enemy forces.
Map and Hud Awareness
9. Your map, like all fps games, is your greatest tool. If you're not paying attention to this I guarantee you'll hurt your team in more ways than one.
- A. First off keeping an eye on your map helps you visualize your spacing in relation to your allies. The purpose of giving your allies space is so you're not blocking their shots and reducing their visibility.
- B. Bunching up next to your allies is NEVER a wise decision, you'll reduce mobility of your team and can take huge amounts of splash damage from explosive weapons.
- C. Don't just use visibility to track enemies and allies and by extension react to the movements of enemies and allies, use your map to determine position. Especially if your team or the enemy is behind and/or beside you where you can't actually see them.
- E. Use your radar to track would-be flankers and to prepare yourself for simultaneous attacks.
- D. When you sit down to repair you lose the ability to track players on the radar. Instead use your teams HUD indicators to determine positions. If your team seems to be in a solid spot and has plenty of health it may be safe to assume that they have you covered and you can repair safely. If your team is taking damage and is moving a lot it may be safe to assume they enemy is close and your team needs your help.
Outtro
Did you learn anything? Feel free to ask questions about anything HAWKEN related. All of this is based on my own experience. Hopefully this helps expand your battlefield awareness. I intend to add to it as I continue to get better myself and think of more things.
LISTEN UP PILOTS! THIS IS YOUR BEST WEAPON AGAINST ANY ENEMY: Have fun, don't let a bad death or game get to you, take those fuzzy bunny games for what they are and move on to the next.
LISTEN UP PILOTS! THIS IS YOUR BEST WEAPON AGAINST ANY ENEMY: Have fun, don't let a bad death or game get to you, take those fuzzy bunny games for what they are and move on to the next.
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