Strategy and Tactics discussion

PhoenixFire wrote:

I would bet that a good dodge-jumper could easily outrun someone with quickfoot 5.

Without quickfoot, I can keep up with people with quickfoot 5, but if they start dodge jumping or dodge jumping, they're gone.

PhoenixFire wrote:

DM is an excellent place to hone these skills. If anyone wants a partner, I'm always open to a DM match, although preferably not one-on-one. I'm no good at those

I'm game if you ever want to play a DM. I havn't played anything but invasion for a while, it'd be fun to play some other games. (I'm not very good at one on one either)

Here's a tip, learn the levels. Naturally, you'll figure out where things like power-ups/weapons/ammo are, but you'll be leaps ahead of other people if you learn even more about the level.

Find a good spot for you're trans. When you're in trouble a placed trans is a good thing to have in a good spot. Some good rules for finding a good spot are:
-Don't put in a middle of a room
-Don't put it where a bunch of other trans are(if more than 1 person trans' at same time, only 1 person trans to safety)
-Don't put them where lots of people are(people love to stand on trans)
-Ledges above doors or other places are good, beams up high, hidey holes, are usually good places.
-find a spot that is close to something you would like(a couple 25 health packs are nice in a bind)

Find the safe spots. If you're in trouble, go to where you know it will be safe. People usually survive alot better when they're in groups(excluding titan rounds). A safe spot could be where everyone else is or where you're trans is

. It gives you a chance to recuperate. Usually if you spectate more expeirienced players, you can find out some of the more hidden safe spots.

Figure out where the deathtraps are. There are levels that are more deadly than others. Some levels have lava, pits, cliffs,water....
If you have ghost, some of these pits, lava, cliffs,water...don't let you ghost. Also, ramps are deadly to be on when titans are around. with multi-storied levels, watch out for players where titans can fall. It's better to find out where these deathtraps are earlier than later.

On alot of levels, the spawn points for monsters are more bunched up in certain areas. So, more monsters spawn in those areas/rooms than other parts of the map. It's hard to notice where the majority of the monsters spawn, but the rewards are worth it.

As an addendum to the "Distance Weapon" post I put up a few days ago, I forgot three other important elements I use.

First is Awareness. Awareness 1 (not 2) puts a colored health bar above enemies. This makes enemies extremely easy to spot, even at a distance. Very handy for sniping. Unfortunately, when the server is full and there are a lot of pets, there will be confusion. This means you have to use both Awareness and the radar to quickly spot enemies.

Second, you might try playing with your weapon hand as invisible. This frees up a lot of screen space that is otherwise occupied by your shooter and allows you to spot the bad guys more quickly. It takes about a week to get used to not knowing which weapon you have equipped. This really goes hand-in-hand with keybinding your favorite weapons, since you will rely on the keybind and not the image of the weapon you're using to know what you're shooting.

Finally, I recommend you download the Kaus crosshair pack. This pack includes some *extremely* visible crosshairs that never get lost in the shuffle when there's a lot of activity on the screen. Also very usefull for sniping.

My favorite is Dot Reverse. This one is a bold, colored outer circle (which you define) and a black dot. I have one that's a sort of fuscia/hot pink color, another which is almost neon green, and another which is bright blue. My flak dot is considerably larger than my shock rifle dot. You might start with a somewhat large dot and gradually nudge it down. This will improve your aim. Or, the opposite, start with a really tiny dot, which will force you to concentrate on what you're aiming at, and then nudge it up slowly till you find the right size.

This also goes hand-in-hand with keybinds. As I said, I use a different color dot for each weapon, so just by the dot I can tell what I'm shooting.

For the Redeemer, I have a HUGE crosshair that says SHOOT HERE

As a result, no accidental redeemer shots.

Quick question about the Avril Invasion:

Is it possible to spawn with a magical Avril of Invasion? I know the default chance to spawn with a magical weapon is 33%, but I've played many-a-game with my Weapon Master with LW2, and not once has a magical Avril spawned in my inventory. I'm wondering if maybe that's because the Avril seems to have less range of magical qualities (Can't have all the enhancements other weapons can, correct me if I'm wrong, please?) or simply because I have horrible luck and the titans jinx me.

Icey wrote:

Quick question about the Avril Invasion:

Is it possible to spawn with a magical Avril of Invasion? I know the default chance to spawn with a magical weapon is 33%, but I've played many-a-game with my Weapon Master with LW2, and not once has a magical Avril spawned in my inventory. I'm wondering if maybe that's because the Avril seems to have less range of magical qualities (Can't have all the enhancements other weapons can, correct me if I'm wrong, please?) or simply because I have horrible luck and the titans jinx me.

If you have questions about a particular class, the best thing is to post in the "So you want to be a (Loaded Weapons, Loaded Artifacts, etc.)" threads.

To answer your question, yes, the avril can be magic. It is always magic with Loaded Weapons 4 and 5. It also has the full range of magic abilties available, including vorpal.

A couple things about queens. Someone mentioned it's frustrating when they put up their shields and won't put them back down. There's two things you can do in this situation.

The first is to shoot your flak at the queen's feet. The shots will ricochet off the ground. It might take a couple shots, but this cause the queen to drop her shield.

So what I do, if I'm playing LA and have to be damage conscious, is run up and shoot at her feet until she drops the shield and then step back to avoid some damage while I finish the job.

Another thing you can do is use your shield gun. The shield gun goes through the queen's shield. It won't always get the queen to drop her shield, though. If you have a triple, you should activate it.

If a queen has a shield up but is focused on another player, you should run completely behind and shoot the queen in the back. This is where that double-dodge jump comes in handy. You get a lot of shots in for free and you're not in the line of fire.

While on the subject of shields, the little sniper dudes can be injured through their shields with the sniper or lightning. The shield gun also works as well. A fully charged SG will kill the sniper dudes with one hit. I don't believe sniper/lightning go through queen shields, however.

You can hit a shielded queen on the face/head because it sticks out from the shield - at least that's what it appears to happen (and it may just be an illusion). I've used the minigun aimed for their face to make them drop their shield (again, it may be coincidence but I don't think so)

Also, shooting the Avril up and then making it turn around to hit the queen from behind works as well (if you can't get behind it)

lol...i finally found this thread

......this is a very good strategy topic(especialy the weapon combo bit.....i honestly never thought of getting speedswitcher skill b4 reading this thread

) Oh well.....for my advice.............hmmm.......learn to shoot shock combos while moving........(e.g moving forward, moving straight back, while dodging, etc.) It makes u more moblie and especially on skaarj waves when mercenaries, nalis and skaarjs are overwhelming u in one spot......u can just back dodge jump while throwing a shock ball to their vicinity then shoot the ball when u've landed and finished the dodging. It's fairly useful to me especially since i don't have cautiousness skill and i can't just use the medic tactic wherein u just spam rockets on ur feet.

I am not entirely sure about this, but it seems queens are at least annoyed enough to scream when you put grenades on their shields. I'm not sure if it damages them normally, but I think it does something, and I'm pretty sure I've killed at least one queen that way before. And if they drop the shield, well, blow them all up and they ought to be dead.

Edit -

Actually, upon further testing, grenades do NOT go through the shield. So, uh, nevermind, and sorry for wasting a post in the thread!

kyraeu said

I am not entirely sure about this, but it seems queens are at least annoyed enough to scream when you put grenades on their shields. I'm not sure if it damages them normally, but I think it does something, and I'm pretty sure I've killed at least one queen that way before. And if they drop the shield, well, blow them all up and they ought to be dead.

Edit -

Actually, upon further testing, grenades do NOT go through the shield. So, uh, nevermind, and sorry for wasting a post in the thread!

the grenades may not damage them through their shields, but you can load up the shield and wait until they drop it. once they do, BOOM

either that or one of the true advantages of the grenade launcher that I almost never see anyone use is bouncing them off the walls. bounce the grenades off the walls behind her so that they stick to her tail, then set them off, the shield becomes moot.

Honsetly, the grenade launcher is underpowered for the skill it requires to use well.

Grizzled_Imposter wrote:

kyraeu said

I am not entirely sure about this, but it seems queens are at least annoyed enough to scream when you put grenades on their shields. I'm not sure if it damages them normally, but I think it does something, and I'm pretty sure I've killed at least one queen that way before. And if they drop the shield, well, blow them all up and they ought to be dead.

Edit -

Actually, upon further testing, grenades do NOT go through the shield. So, uh, nevermind, and sorry for wasting a post in the thread!

the grenades may not damage them through their shields, but you can load up the shield and wait until they drop it. once they do, BOOM

either that or one of the true advantages of the grenade launcher that I almost never see anyone use is bouncing them off the walls. bounce the grenades off the walls behind her so that they stick to her tail, then set them off, the shield becomes moot.

Honsetly, the grenade launcher is underpowered for the skill it requires to use well.

The biggest problem is they bounce. If they stuck to the first thing they hit (like the ground) they could be effective, possibly even *overpowered*. Consider that you could line an entrance with 8 grenades, then stand just to side with the avril. The moment the titan gets near you detonate the grenades with the avril, so the titan gets 8 grenades + avril spash. Ouch.

That's why (and performance) the number of mines is low so you can't drop 8 mines and take out most anything once you switch to your flak+5.

Something else to try, speaking of mines, hang a grenade off your mine (or two or three)

with more than two it may not move, but the monsters sure feel it.

eek - that was horrible grammar but I'm in a hurry (at work) sorry!

Spike wrote:

That's why (and performance) the number of mines is low so you can't drop 8 mines and take out most anything once you switch to your flak+5.

Something else to try, speaking of mines, hang a grenade off your mine (or two or three) with more than two it may not move, but the monsters sure feel it.

eek - that was horrible grammar but I'm in a hurry (at work) sorry!

That's not a bad idea going into a titan wave. Stick a couple "super mines" where the titans tend to spawn and pick up an extra couple big kills. I'll have to give that a try with my LW char.

It is certainly a fun thing to do, especially for low-level characters in maps where the mines are available - I know I got many points like that back in the early levels.

Something else to try, speaking of mines, hang a grenade off your mine (or two or three) with more than two it may not move, but the monsters sure feel it.

I used to do that in my ons days.......but like u said 2 grenades would make the mines immobile while one would severely hamper its movement..........it's a fun thing to do as long as u have the time(i.e. in between matches when ur not trying to find the medic) It's only effective against big targets tho or unless the skaarj's walk right into it

I tried the grenade launcher mine thing today. I chucked two mines and put four grenades apiece on each one. The move really slowly when you do this. It took about twenty seconds for the mine to finally get to the titan (which was like 5 feet away) but it did finish it off.

Where this would be useful is up on a ledge where titans may spawn. There's a couple places like this on Campgrounds, for example. Set up your grenade mines at the start of the wave to hopefully pick up a couple extra kills.