Guide:Counter-Tactics

This guide's all about countering the various builds and abuses you can run into in MCM. There's some nasty tactics out there, but they can be countered.

Seeker Abuse

Seekers are an anti-air missile found on the Lakota and Rumble. They are however an anti-everything as well. They will really ruin your day if you don't know how to deal with them. The general symptom is a relentless undodgeable barrage of missiles that seem to catch you around any cover. Their homing ability is unparalleled and they will give chase for an immense amount of time if you somehow stay ahead of them.

The counter: Get in close. Seekers will not lock on to anything within 20 meters of the firing mech. Get in close, force close combat. A melee mech like the hades will give this thing heck. I like to use the Harlequin on the Lakota. If you drop off the ledge as a 'quin and use the biowing to stay aloft you'll build up intense speeds. I abuse this to get in the Lakota's face fast and then it's all about the harlequin melee-dance of death. I had one lakota try a scythe and anti-melee arm on me. I just hung out in the 10-20 meter range and sniped. The Lakota and rumble do have other weapons, but you negated two of their weapons, and hopefully you still have all of yours.

Hades

The hades is a big nasty alien-looking mech with a snake tail and a pile of scythes. If you equip it with the scythe and an off-hand melee attachment of some sort it becomes the best melee mech in MCM. The warp drive lets it close the gap fast so it can be quite hard to stay away.

Counter 1: Strife-and-harass. If you get a good strife-jet mech, the hades can't touch you. You need enough buoyancy to stya airborn indefinitely. A trickster with a glidewing fits the build. Use the strife-jet in short bursts aimed straight upwards to keep you aloft, use the arrow keys to keep your motion in broad circles. Now shooting with a lot of weapons is difficult at these speeds. If you think you have the patience and the finesse to make them work right, try a set of LRM2s as your weapon. Keep a gesture hotkeyed to arm and disarm your LRM. If you fail to get a lock after a while or trying disarm the LRM, let go of the fire key, and then re-arm them. That conserves ammo. Lasers are also a viable option. Both methods will take quite while though. A couple mechs can stay in the air indefinitely after dropping off a ledge and using jumpjets to stay aloft. These are only mechs with strong jumpjets and real high bouyancy like the Thumper and ArchAngel. Those can do the same tactic.

Counter 2: Bounce. The hades does not do up and down very well. Force them to change velocity with a jump jet or jump coil enabled mech with high bounce hijinx. Then snipe the bastard. A harlequin is good for this. If you're really good with the jump coil you might even pull off evading it with something as crazy as the Flea.

Hard to hit Flier

So someone built a long range build and is hanging out in the sky harassing you. Any weaponry you use isn't quite hitting.

Counter 1: Lasers. Not the best counter, but lasers do have real good accuracy. They have miserable DPS too. If your opponent is pressing the attack consistantly and hard you'll probably melt first.

Counter 2: Adv Autocannons. Adv Autocannons are a ridiculous fire rate ridiculous attack power weapon found on the Revenge. They are omnimount. Either use them on the Revenge or put them on your favorite assault mech. They don't generate a lot of heat but they do have ammo. It will take a while to run through it all but it's quite possible in an extended fight. Get the flier in your crosshairs, pull the trigger, cut swaths of fire accross the flier's path. Use the bullet stream to adjust your aim. You'll start getting a lot of hits. Don't run out of ammo.

Counter 3: LRM. Not the best option really. LRM are finnicky. To use them properly you got to aim at the target. Hold down the trigger until you get a lock, and then let go. They can be countered with the AMS. They won't track properly if the target moves too far away. They are a finnicky missile system. They do however have a good pyschological factor. It unnerves people to get a lot of missile locks.

Counter 4: Lakota/Rumble. The Lakota and the Rumble are anti-air mechs. This is what they are designed to do. Get out there with one, point those missiles at the sky, and keep firing at your opponent until its a flamin wreck or it gets on the ground and in your face, at which point have an appropriate arm-mount ready for close combat (Those default chainguns aren't bad).

LRM

So you get a missile lock. Repeatedly, and then you take a lot of damage.

Counter 1: Avoid lock. To get a lock someone needs to hold fire with the crosshairs pointed over you. If you move around evasively enough some people will have a hard time drawing a bead on you.

Counter 2: Apply pressure. LRM are not a high DPS weapon, they require a fair amount of work to get the lock and then fire off the missiles in a fashion where they hit and don't freak out and freeze in mid air. If you just turn around and shoot at the pilot firing those things on you, the person in question will become far less effective and they likely won't have the same DPS as you.

Counter 3: AMS. Wearing an AMS negates all lockons. It does negate a shoulder slot though.