Zero IX
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Post by Zero IX on Mar 21, 2012 0:37:10 GMT -5
Introduction I want to preface this post by saying I've never considered myself an especially skilled Call of Duty player. The first time I ever played Call of Duty (Black Ops, TDM, Villa), I went a cool 7-22, and for about half of my thirteen prestiges in Black Ops, I was proud of every kill I could pick up with my "badass" dual-wield Skorpions. After a bit of a campy phase, I improved to where I can play the aggressive game I like and still maintain kill-death and win-loss ratios of over 2.0 in the three Call of Duty games I own (MW2, Black Ops, and MW3). Those two stats aren't everything, but the fact that I've started running the Nuke as my third streak in every non-TDM game mode in MW2 or that my weekly KDR in Black Ops (over thousands and thousands of kills) climbs to 2.5-3.0 should speak for themselves. I still have plenty of tough games where I struggle to go positive and I'm guilty of consciously making tactically poor decisions almost every game (more on this later), but I'm pretty consistent and always try to be an asset to my teammates as opposed to a liability.
Now, onto the topic at hand!
MW3... There are a lot of things I don't like about MW3, things that make it a far less enjoyable experience for me than MW2 or Black Ops. The frustration factor stems from the fact that even when I feel like I'm paying rapt attention to the game and making a concerted effort to win, I find myself in unwinnable situations too frequently. The funny thing is, when MW3 first came out, I thought it had potential to be the best Call of Duty yet. Sure, the maps left something to be desired from day one, but everything else seemed like the ingredients of a promising Call of Duty game, or so I thought. Nowadays, the map layouts are nothing short of troublesome, the spawns are confounding, and the wealth of ways to play that actually worked from past games feels almost entirely absent from MW3.
I'm a player who likes to kick back and play a few games of TDM as a form of relaxation; one shouldn't become annoyed or frustrated while engaging in a leisure activity! If the action is too choppy, I'll play something else, thank you very much. However, there's no denying the overall quality of players in MW2 and Black Ops has declined sharply, and ditching MW3 for greener pastures just because it's more challenging to do well makes me feel like a quitter. Whether or not it's worse from a design perspective than past games doesn't matter... I don't want to give up on MW3.
Classes: A Starting Point I want to talk tactics and map-specific strategies, as well as discuss any especially effective class configurations. I'm happy to start by sharing whatever knowledge I have. I play TDM and KC solo pretty much exclusively in MW3.
As with any Call of Duty, Create a Class is, in my opinion, the best place to start when it comes to ending a down cycle, and a variety of classes from which to choose is handy for so many reasons, from steering you away from tactics that just aren't proving effective given the particular makeup of the opposing team to just changing things up in order to keep oneself from slipping into a predictable routine.
Oh, and my KDR and W/L were steadily declining since my return to MW3 till I developed the following system. Keep in mind that I almost always play TDM and KC because I hate Dom in this game.
My two "main" classes are my not dissimilar SMG ones:
1. PP90M1 Attachments +Silencer, ExMags, FMG9 +Akimbo C4, Flashes w/ SoH, Hardline, Steady Aim Pred, Airstrike, Attack Heli (Juiced)
2. MP7 Attachments +Silencer, ExMags, FMG9 +Akimbo C4, Flashes w/ Recon, Assassin, Steady Aim Recon Drone, Stealth Bomber, EMP (Revenge)
Typically, I open with the first class and that's what I'll stick to if things go well. All my best games tend to happen with this class when I'm able to cycle through my streaks 3-4 times in one life and get lots of extra kills. However, if the lobby seems like it's going to be on the tougher side (i.e. I'm not getting my streaks and I've died a few times), I'll switch to the second class. I can't tell you how many times I've tipped the scales of a close games decisively in my team's favor with the Recon Drone in such a situation. I'll usually alternate between #2 and my next (Specialist) class at this point. I'll bypass class #2 altogether if things look to be in my team's favor but I'm not having any luck with class #1. I'll also switch to class #3 from #2 if the team pulls enough ahead and I want to transition to a mobile mainslaying role:
3. Type 95 Attachments +Rapidfire, ExMags, FMG9 +Akimbo C4, Portable Radar w/ SoH, Assassin, Stalker Quickdraw, Steady Aim, Hardline (Final Stand)
However, if it's one of those situations where my position is being constantly beset by enemy players or if I want to set up shop in a high-traffic area, I will pull out class #4, because it's good at handling multiple assailants:
4. Striker Damage +ExMags, MP9 +Silencer C4, Portable Radar w/ ExCon, Assassin, Dead Silence Pred, Attack Heli, Assault Drone (Juiced)
This class is also my class of choice for quiet flanking. The idea is to stay mobile, looking for groups of enemy players to wipe out or to repel intruders. This class was born out of my AA12 class, which was formerly my weapon of choice for patrolling popular building interiors; however, following the patch, there's nothing the Striker doesn't do a better job of.
5. L86 LSW Speed +Silencer, Stinger Claymore, Portable Radar w/ Blind Eye, Assassin, Stalker Pred, Attack Heli, Assault Drone (Final Stand)
Anti-air support class that is also my LMG class. I may use this class in place of #3 on maps with longer-ranged lines of sight such as Interchange. If I'm not on a high-priority streak, I immediately suicide without hesitation and switch to this class if someone on the other team is getting air support. All it takes is one clueless split-screen guest for air support to pick up a lot of kills than it should.
And that's the general flow.
Class #6 is going to be a sniping class, but I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Confession: I detest snipers. I develop an irrational hatred for the enemy team whenever there are successful snipers opposing me. Not sure why, but that's the way it is. Nonetheless, I recognize that there is value in having a sniping class for counter-sniping. It's either going to be the Barret or MSR +Speed and ExMags backed by either Steady Aim akimbo FMG9s or a Dead Silence... silenced MP9. MSR sacrifices rate of fire for extra movement. It's what I'm using now with SoH, and the ability to switch between sniping to a fast, fairly mobile close-quarters close is certainly handy. However, since the Barret's massive recoil is much less of a drawback while crouched or prone, I may roll with the Dead Silence MP9 since the Barrett's LMG-like movement speed reduces the efficacy of the akimbo FMG9s. Hmm... tough choice. Pro snipers, what do you guys prefer in a sniping class?
A few quick notes:
-C4 is (obviously) my favorite Lethal. It packs a good enough punch to get multi-kills and is more flexible than either Semtex or Frags because it can be used to set traps, not unlike a Claymore. It's a tad trickier to toss into a window, but well-worth it. The only other Lethal I bother with is the Claymore. C4= offense or little of both, while Claymore= purely defensive classes such as LMGs and snipers. -Similarly, the only Tacticals I like are the two most effective ones: Flashes and Portable Radar. So many players fail to use Assassin. Portable Radar turns them into free kills... not just for you, but the whole team. -I don't see any point in secondaries other than the akimbo FMG9s, MP9, and Stinger. The handguns suck, and while the launchers are fun to play with, they're just not very practicool. Can't tell you how many times I've seen the RPG fail to kill and the XM25 is so situational, whereas in-your-face encounters or running out of ammo because the whole enemy team is spawning all around you happen almost every game. Even after all the patches, few weapons can stand up to the akimbo FMG9s in close-quarters. -I used to run Reapers and AC130s but they're just too gosh darn dodgy. The amount of games where the Reaper or AC130 garnered a lot of kills are far less than those in which they were either foiled by the map's own obstructions or shot down too quickly. The Assault Drone, though, is easier to get, and I've never gotten less than 5-6 kills with it because seemingly every opposing player feels the need to destroy it (not unlike a Juggernaut). Only downside: having to call the darn thing in. Ugh. I've yet to have one stolen, but it's still a hassle. -If I had to pick one gun and only one gun to use for the rest of my life, I'd be the PP90M1, no doubt.
Next post I'll talk about map specific strategies.
Feel free to share any and all specific info that could help improve performance.
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Post by randomguy987 on Mar 21, 2012 2:21:54 GMT -5
Sitrep Pro is amazing. It's like having eyes in the back of your head. And is one of the only things in the game not countered by Assassin. (And relatively few people run Dead Silence in TDM/KC.)
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wittyscorpion
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Post by wittyscorpion on Mar 21, 2012 3:05:39 GMT -5
First of all, great post.
I am still trying to get out of the campy phase so I can use some general advice in that area if how you got through it is still fresh in your memory. What specific things did you do that helped you the most, so you can start "playing aggressive games you like" while still maintaining good ratios?
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Zero IX
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Post by Zero IX on Mar 21, 2012 9:19:28 GMT -5
randomguy987I consider SRP to be one of the top perks in the game, but I hardly ever use it to its full potential because I don't own a headset and if I'm not chatting with a friend I'm listening to music. If I hear footsteps, I always check the mini-map to establish the relative positions of teammates which is usually enough to determine whether or not an enemy is incoming; it's not clear enough on just my TV for me to accurately pinpoint where exactly the enemy is like I was able to in MW2 with a headset, but the early warning is usually all I need. Ultimately, I tend to value Steady Aim and Stalker more than DS and SRP because of the former's high utility for me. PP90M1, for example, isn't the same to me without SA and the same goes for the Type 95 (or any AR/LMG, really) isn't the same without Stalker. Sometime I may add a USAS + SRP class to the rotation even though I don't have a headset just to try it out because it's true relatively few players use DS outside of SnD. @wittscorpion I feel it's a fair bet that almost everyone goes through a campy phase to one degree or another when they first begin making active, conscious attempts to improve their performance. It makes sense: if you want do consistently well, you have to limit your deaths. However, for me, this tended to result in limiting the average number of engagements per match, which meant less kills and really, no one is impressed by someone who only dies one or two times but gets less than ten kills. Three main pointers I learned the hard way: 1. Getting lots of kills with little deaths ultimately has far less to do with gunskill or choice of gun than it does map knowledge and tactics. Even if you can beast 90% or more of the players in this game in a straight-up gunfight because of prior FPS experience or top-notch aim, never assume your aim is better than that of your enemy's! There's always someone better than you out there, and besides, seeing as how Call of Duty does everything it can to mask the effects of lag, the target might actually have an unseen advantage due to the nature of the game. 2. Map knowledge and tactics mean situational awareness and not only being able to predict the flow of the game (because part of this is pattern recognition and mini-map interpretation i.e. having a good idea of where the enemy will spawn based on your teammates' positions), but being able to respond in an effective manner. One of the first steps towards improving for me was to start seeing my classes not as my "AR class" or "SMG class" but instead as vehicles to accomplish certain tasks. I began creating classes geared towards fulfilling specific roles and promoting inter-class synergy. The more tools in your toolbox, the better. 3. Do everything in your power to give yourself an advantage. Ideally, you want to attack your opponents in such a way that they don't have an opportunity to counter, i.e. you want to be shooting people from the side and back, not the front. Most players run around the map trying to get into gunfights; this is almost never a good idea. Move around the map with purpose and a plan because without a plan you will find yourself in disadvantageous "I should have died there" situations. You can get by relying on the relative weakness of the opposition to see you through, but you will run into trouble as soon as you hit a lobby with other decent players or a host that's unfavorable to you. High risk, high reward can be fun, and hey, it's just a game, but low risk, high reward is, without a doubt, the smartest way to play. Don't expose yourself unless you have to. It's always better to flank the enemy than to meet him head-on or engage him in close-quarters, where engagements are harder to control due to the nature of the game. A sub-point to #3 there is that if your goal is to improve, there's no reason not to use the most advantageous combinations of weapons and tactics. Unorthodox classes can be neat but if they're more gimmicky than useful forget about them. Like I said, it's a game first and foremost and should be played in whatever way gives you pleasure, but the biggest source of my frustration when I first started playing Call of Duty with Black Ops was a misguided desire to be different (thus the akimbo Skorpions). The average opposition is clueless enough to where a knowledgeable player can get away with using anything, but if you just want to see improvement in your scores, there's no reason not to take advantage of everything the game makes available to you. For example, I don't bother with handguns nor do I attempt to make use of the disadvantageous manual-action shotguns any longer, and instead of trying to make my classes as different as possible, I try to make each of them as broadly useful as possible while still equipping them to carry out their designated tasks effectively. (Another example: I am always surprised by how many players do not run Assassin in MW3. I have yet to run into any all-Assassin lobbies in this game, whereas in Black Ops, I do recall several all-Ghost lobbies, which strikes me as strange because there is significantly more incentive to run Assassin in MW3 than there was to run Ghost in Black Ops. Frankly, if you don't have Assassin and there's just one savvy player with a Portable Radar opposing you, you are highly likely to die more than you have to.) One of the biggest things in MW3 for me is knowing where the enemy is most likely to attack from. On these maps, the spawns can change at seemingly any moment, so I have to always be aware of where my exposed flanks are. Rule of thumb: never leave yourself open to attack for more than a moment unless you absolutely, absolutely have to. Finally, personally, I feel like there's not much to be gleaned from watching commentators because typically they only post games where the opposition is lacking, which allows them to get those "impressive" commentator scores. When I get 35-40 kills and only two or three deaths in a game of TDM, I know it's the other team and not me. I have one game on my fileshare that illustrates just that point; I go 40-3 in KC and it's obvious from watching the other team that they flat-out gave up. That said, there's a guy on YouTube who used to post Call of Duty videos under the handle Gravity81688 (iirc), and especially his MW2 videos are probably the best instructional videos I've seen on YouTube to date. Those videos helped solidify the mindset I have now, that is, smart play > flashy play. splooshIRL is another commentator who has some MW3 videos which actually break-down his decision-making process. If you want, I could dig up the links to some of the ones I really liked.
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Post by mrjones on Mar 21, 2012 9:33:28 GMT -5
No one thing has improved my K/D ratio more than Recon +Pro. Real time Advanced UAV on anyone you hit is extremely useful (and it lasts 12 seconds!).
Don't lean on Sleight of Hand so much; try out Recon... I think you'll be happy you did. Recon not only helps you dominate, but is a very team-friendly tool.
Only downside... you will get called a hacker because of your "uncanny enemy awareness" from time to time.
Blitz Striker - Damage - Ex. Mags Stinger Semtex - Flashbang Recon - Quickdraw - Steady Aim UAV - Counter-UAV
This is a very powerful class. It allows you to move around the map very aggressively; you throw flashbangs very quickly (Quickdraw) to find your prey - then quickly close in and eliminate them. As you blitz around the map, you're constantly improving your teams' awareness via UAVs and Recon while protecting yourself and your teammates by disabling enemy minimaps with Counter-UAV. Try this out some time.
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Post by -3055- on Mar 21, 2012 9:40:04 GMT -5
^ yes. When I play s&d with my clan, we all have recon pro and the tags probably call for at least 50% of our kills.
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Zero IX
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Post by Zero IX on Mar 21, 2012 9:47:53 GMT -5
Recon is definitely awesome, which is why I run it on one of my two most used classes... and I've definitely been considering popping it on my PP90M1 class, too.
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Doc H.
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Post by Doc H. on Mar 21, 2012 13:11:54 GMT -5
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Post by iw5000 on Mar 21, 2012 13:48:24 GMT -5
3. Do everything in your power to give yourself an advantage. Ideally, you want to attack your opponents in such a way that they don't have an opportunity to counter, i.e. you want to be shooting people from the side and back, not the front. Most players run around the map trying to get into gunfights; this is almost never a good idea. Move around the map with purpose and a plan because without a plan you will find yourself in disadvantageous . ^^^ This. I've posted this before. The single best thing i have ever done for my CoD game skills, is when I started viewing my gameplay through the prism of say a sporting contest. That is, ...view it like a basketball perspective for example. A good team doesn't just run up the court and just fire a shot off....a good team runs set plays. Well designed, crisp, well excuted 'sets' where everyone knows exactly where they are moving...at all times. CoD is no different. I know the above sounds robotic, even 'stiff', but you evolve your game where the above becomes second nature, you aren't even thinking about it, your game will elevate. I play the above way (when playing Domination)....and my numbers have gone up each year. A game starts...I know what i am going to do. Every spot in the game, no matter what the score...i know what sets to run, to improve the game situation. There is rarely, if ever, ...just random 'running around' killing people. If I spawn here...i know just what plays to run.Sometimes that running to this tactical loitering spot. Sometimes it's rushing and doing loops/laps around their spawn. And if three don't work...i have a fourth to do (class switch, etc..) But looking back....MW1, i sucked. I got it in Dec, two months in, and got my butt kicked for months. Three months in, my KD was 0.59. Took me all year to break 1.00 in a KD. WaW, got a bit better, got my KD up to around 1.41 or so. MW2? Got it up to 1.65 or so, and Blops 1.83. MW3....I'm at a 1.95 now, ....but...that's while still maintaining a 28.0 WL ratio and playing Dom.I routinely suffer a few negative games now and then, ...just to get the win. If I slacked a bit on that, I could easily still have a 10.0WL...and a 2.50 KD. But all that improvement, happened imho...because i started playing the above way. Two main lessons" 1. Move with a purpose, run your pre-set 'plays' 2. Make yourself SLOW DOWN. Nothing good comes from hurrying.
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wittyscorpion
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All warfare is based on deception.
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Post by wittyscorpion on Mar 21, 2012 13:50:12 GMT -5
Zero IX & iw5000: Thanks a lot for the great insights. Just to echo what you said: the best way to improve skills is to have high number of encounters per game, provided that you have a decent success rate (i.e.: KDR). I am at the stage that when I am trying to increase the number of encounters per game by playing aggressively beyond my current "power tactical loitering" style (patrol a portion of the map and ambush enemies passing by. Still on the move all the time, but the impact radius is limited to a known area), my success rate drops significantly when the enemy team has >= 3 good players. Looks like the crucial area for me to improve upon is to "predict the flow of the game". Whenever I am trying to be aggressive, I don't have a clear sense of where to go and how to prepare myself to handle sudden encounters: - when to stop sprinting and start cautious walking
- when to stop moving and think about ambushing
- when to pre-ADS
- what corners to check for campers
- when to change directions of movement
- where the enemies are likely to spawn next (this is most useful when my team is dominating the game)
- etc.
The hard part, is these decisions are very dynamic, based on many factors that are constantly changing (especially in TDM and KC, when game flows are not influenced by objectives): - Teammates' whereabouts at the moment - green arrows on mini map
- Enemies' whereabouts at the moment - red dots on mini map, sound, warnings from teammates on mic
- Teammates' recent deaths - skull indicators
- Enemies' play styles learnt from previous encounters and/or previous games from the same lobby: aggressive CQC / Campy / mid range pre-ADS / long range sniping / like to prone on the floor / etc.
- etc.
Because the sheer amount of information to process and crucial decisions to make in real time is overwhelming, breaking the skill celing is very difficult. IMHO it is the biggest barrier than separates "advanced" players from "average" players (2 stereo types: a) campy average players like me who have bad SPM, and aggressive average players who have negative KDs). Nobody, even the best players, can "predict" with 100% accuracy because the game is designed to be random. However, advanced players have much higher success in doing that. I have some limited success of playing aggressive in some recent games. However, most of the time it feels more like I am just getting lucky (e.g.: running into a cluster of enemies from their flank), than I was proactively predicting and guessed right. To make an analogy to money making, it feels more like gambling than investing in stock market. I understand that this is an area that no "magic bullets" exist. But guidance on how to be more effective in breaking this ceiling will be great: tips / rules of thumb to use, pitfalls to avoid, etc., more like what you have already suggested in the posts above.
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Post by Voice from the Basement on Mar 21, 2012 15:13:43 GMT -5
Sorry for being impolite, but… Are you enjoying playing only with OP guns (MP7, PP90M1, akimbo NoobMG9, MP9, Striker, and Type 95)?
As for me, it's much more interesting to bash FMG9 noobs with the help of PM-9 w/ RF and EM. They just can't understand why are they killed if they're using "P®@ G@N".
CM901 is also a fun gun to use, cause no one understand why are they, with their ACRs, Types 95 etc., are killed with such a POS.
Yeah, nowadays, when I'm playing for M.O.A.B.s, I'm using OP guns (no akimbo NoobMG9, but MP7, MP9). I get them sometimes, I get high scores, but I have no fun while using this doo-doo. The game with the CM901 and more than 2 K/D, without any hackers and laggers in lobby (10% chance), is MUCH better, than a dull M.O.A.B. with MP7 w/ Silencer & RF.
Yeah, I'm a coward myself, so I am a semi-camper. My "business" is to camp some area, like fortress on Seatown or C flag on Fallen. Yeah, while using Extreme Conditiong.
Also, I aways run away, if I understand it's too hot right now. That's why I love DS Pro ("evacuation" is my one of the most favorite thing in MW3).
Yeah, I ALWAYS use Specialist, cause I have bad aim (17% of accuracy - and that's with MP7 and MP9!), bad tactics etc., so I can't win any good player in an honest gunfight. So I'm using strafing, dropshoting (N@@b DR@PSH0TER!!11), and, ofc, Specialist's bonuses (not the Specialist Bonus, 8 pointstreak reward, but every perks' advantage). I always use Silencers, Assassin, SitRep Pro (if I have good headsets) etc., to stay away from the gunfights and get most kills from the behind.
I prefer MW2 to BO and MW3, cause, if there are no hackers in lobby (20% of happening for a usual TDM, 50% - for Mercenary), stealthy rushing is the best thing in the game .(Nearly 50% of players are tactical loitering, and you are a pain in their ass, cause they can't detect you.)
The funniest thing is that when I'd just started to play CoD, I was a typical rusher. I was a knife-monkey myself (my first CoD-game was MW2), I used akimbo Rangers on every map. Yes, I almost every time had bad K/Ds, but it was interesting to play in such a way. Then I became a camper, a f***ing rat, and then - a semi-camper.
P.S.: Sorry for: 1) retarded post; 2) being impolite; 3) bad English.
That's because I'm a clown!
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wwaa
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Post by wwaa on Mar 21, 2012 15:23:35 GMT -5
@ zeroix
I do not use SMGs, you do not use ARs, so we have nothing in common, nothing I can add to your playstyle, I play DOM, not KC or TDM.
[in MW2 I used SMGs & LMGs & SRs & Shotguns & Handguns /no boring ARs/, in MW3: AR & sometimes SR ... really really sad game ... so many effective tactics removed ...]
my strategy is:
[AR+EM] + (Silencer or RDS) + Scavenger = 45 + 270 rounds. No need to have MP as I avoid CQC anyway, so a free slot for a launcher. I use SMAW: to kill that guy hiding and reloading that cannot be killed with my AR. To get 3-4 kills to get Predator in DOM it is worth a slot if it saves your killstreak, even if it is only 1 rocket .. C4 useless for me as I prefer automaticly triggered traps, I do not waste time, , ... & I do not throw C4 as I do not get too close to the enemy.
If I rush in MW3 ... I take Five.Seven + Tac Knife and Extr Cond, Assassin, Dead Silence ... and SMG I do not even fire once.
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Zero IX
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Post by Zero IX on Mar 21, 2012 15:55:28 GMT -5
@witty MW3 is definitely the most random-feeling Call of Duty to me. I don't think anything short of playing with strong or at least competent players will change that. For myself, one of the biggest things that's helping is willingness to adjust my tactics. Sometimes, it takes me far longer than it should to adapt. Following the prescribed flow set forth in my first post helps me with this. As for predicting enemy movement, I can't resist the chance to take a page from Morrison's Batman: In Call of Duty's case, the players make the map and the map makes the players. Some patterns are easy to spot; the popular lines of sight, the ones that attract snipers, for example, are well known at this point in the game's life cycle. Take notice any time you die more than once in the same general area, and who killed you; if it's the same guy, expect him every time you pass through that particular area. Think about the layout of the map. Based on your teammates' positions and red dots from gunfire or radar sweeps, where is the enemy, and what routes are they most likely to take? Have they assumed a defensive posture or are they attacking? Sometimes it can be hard to parse all the available info rapidly enough to respond in the best possible way, but making an effort to actively analyze the map's "grid" gets easy and easier the longer you hang around Call of Duty. You will still get surprised from time to time, but it will happen a lot less. By the same token, a player you have killed a couple times in a row is likely to be on a deathstreak next time you kill him. Anticipate this. It's just as easy as noting who you just killed. Certain areas of some maps are prone to becoming "meatgrinders." That's another easy pattern. Take Lockdown's hallway of death. If the enemy is aiming down their sights down this hallway, flank them. Sure, if you play your cards right, you might be able to take them out head on, but the odds are against you. Stack them in your favor by not doing what you're expected. If most fights are tending to come down to close quarters, switch to a longer ranged weapons and don't be coaxed into CQB areas... soon you'll find yourself picking up kills. Other little things: -Every time you kill someone, expect him to be coming back for the revenge kill. -One small thing that helped me back when I was struggling was to lower my sensitivity from 7 or 8 to 3 or 4. Huge help. -Playing with just one trusted partner makes a world of difference. Perhaps the other players are just a blueprint to create you, their new worst nightmare. @clown I prefer to work with the best tools for the job. As cool an idea as the XM25 is or as much as I like the Magnum, they're hardly optimal.
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Post by Megaqwerty on Mar 21, 2012 16:34:03 GMT -5
MW3 is definitely the most random-feeling Call of Duty to me. I don't think anything short of playing with strong or at least competent players will change that. This entirely sums up my MW3 experience: I am increasingly finding that I cannot tolerate this game unless I'm playing with at least one other friend as the great sense of helplessness that develops when playing by myself is too much a pain to bear otherwise.
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Post by Broadband on Mar 22, 2012 1:21:04 GMT -5
Assassin on all but one class? Tsk tsk.
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Post by reader on Mar 22, 2012 1:45:34 GMT -5
Akimbo FMG9 on 3 out of your 5 classes, maybe you should think about frustration factor of other players.
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Zero IX
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Post by Zero IX on Mar 22, 2012 8:14:24 GMT -5
Q/AwwaaI echo your sentiments about effective strategies being removed. It's probably just me, but MW3 feels like the most one-dimensional Call of Duty yet to me. Besides Strike Packages which are more gimmicky than anything else, almost everything about this game feels like a step backwards, or at least, not a step forward: map layouts, spawns, inter-category weapon balance, and hell, even the networking sometimes... BroadbandI don't find Assassin's competition to be compelling enough to give up Assassin (especially for a mostly solo player who can't always stop the enemy from getting their streaks). My take on the other red perks: HardlineI always have at least one Hardline class with Pred, Airstrike, Attack Heli for the opening rush or for when my team and I are clearly dominant. QuickdrawNot bad. AR ADS time feels sluggish without it, and being able to rapidly deploy C4, which I'm a big fun of, is awesome. I've got nothing bad to say about this perk. It's the red equivalent of SoH, which I also like, in that it's ultimately a perk of convenience, however. Just as any player with a modicum of foresight can manage his reloads and time his weapon swaps without SoH, a player places himself at no major disadvantage by not running Quickdraw because pre-ADS is a more favorable tactic. It's better to already be aiming down your sights in anticipation of an engagement than it is to merely ADS faster, and the normal speed for grenades and C4 is perfectly adequate for their application. One of my favorite grellow perks, Stalker, highly encourages pre-ADS, too. Finally, my main classes carry SMGs, which ADS fast enough compared to other weapons to not derive any significant advantage from Quickdraw, in my experience. Blast ShieldExplosives and tactical nades aren't nearly enough of a threat in this game to make BS attractive to me. OverkillLol. Lastly, like I said, I know how common Portable Radars are on my own teams, and how effective they can be. It's not something I like to have turned against me. I'd much rather protect myself and have the capability to flank freely versus trying to be a unique and special snowflake by not running Assassin. When it comes to my classes, I'm only interested in optimizing. readerI play for fun. Winning and being a good teammate is fun. Akimbo FMG9s are certainly not nearly as dominant as they once were after all the patches, but they're still super-handy in a pinch and are a great complement for a longer ranged weapon such as the MP7 or as a backup to a closer-ranged weapon. The PP90M1 and Type 95 are far more odious weapons than the akimbo FMG9s. I have been toying with the idea of putting Rapidfire + ExMags on my PP90M1 and pairing it with a silenced MP9, though... in fact, I'll probably try it out next time I play. PP90M1 with Rapidfire + ExMags just might be too good to pass up. P.S. Does any bro happen to know what the current RoF is for akimbo FMG9s? I looked around but perhaps I missed it. On another note, the frustration level of other players is not something I can control or care about. Other players will get frustrated if you're doing well no matter what. Everyone wants to win and anything in the game is fair play. I once ran into a party whose strategy involved two of them sniping and the other two guys going to any length to defend them. The randoms on my team didn't realize this and these guys were racking up killstreaks without even having left their starting spawns! After that game imagine if I had complained about how their camperiffic tactics had frustrated me. I'd just be yet another sore loser because the truth is these guys had worked out a decently effective strategy and had outplayed my team. Not only were they taking me away from the action by forcing me to take out a near constant stream of air support in a vain effort to protect my team, but even when I realized what they were up to and would kill them, they would just set up shop elsewhere. This wasn't some kind of sucker-punch. I had the same options as any player who might be frustrated by say, my akimbo FMG9s: develop an effective counter-strategy, or give up and leave. Speaking of sniping...I am sooo bad at sniping in this game. I'm thinking of just foregoing a sniping class altogether. I always get waaay too fidgety and end up using my secondary just as much as my sniper rifle... might as well have a different primary. Anyone here a full or almost full-time sniper?
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Post by Marvel4 on Mar 22, 2012 11:23:49 GMT -5
Anyone here a full or almost full-time sniper? I sniped a bit in my early levels. It was quite effective on maps like Bakaara, Fallen, Interchange and Mission. I got a crazy killstreak on Mission with the Barrett, cycled through my killstreaks multiple times and unlocked "The Mastodon" title.
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eLantern
True Bro
"Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned! Ask not for whom the bone bones, it bones for thee!" - Bender
Posts: 10,761
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Post by eLantern on Mar 22, 2012 15:11:52 GMT -5
Speaking of sniping...I am sooo bad at sniping in this game. I'm thinking of just foregoing a sniping class altogether. I always get waaay too fidgety and end up using my secondary just as much as my sniper rifle... might as well have a different primary. Anyone here a full or almost full-time sniper? I cannot claim to be a Sniper player myself, but that doesn't mean I don't have a Sniper class that I'm not afraid to use on a variety of maps. Thing is though that my preferred Sniper setup is to equip an ACOG and use the Stability Proficiency on the MSR, so I don't know if that's the same thing as being a "true" Sniper as I tend to run around doing lots of Quick Scoping with the occasional hard line-of-sight watching on heavily traveled (longer-line-of-sight) paths.
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Post by mrjones on Mar 22, 2012 15:36:18 GMT -5
All-Pro Team Player G36C/Attachments/Silencer/Ex. Mags Stinger Semtex/Flashbang Recon/Quick Draw/Steady Aim UAV/Counter UAV/Empty (or Recon Drone)
This is the setup i use the most by far. The G36 has essentially only vertical recoil, tremendous fire rate, and good damage. Stinger has obvious functionality. Recon for marking/spotting. QD for quick room breaches and less vulnerable time while tossing. Steady Aim for the instances that you end up in CQC.
I get a double/double (double digit assists and kills) every single game with this class. I think my best game last night was 20-24-7. Some people only care about their own kill counts; be a team player and you'll dominate two parts of the scoreboard.
If you're struggling to get a good K/D ratio, try this out - you aren't penalized for dying so you're not on pins and needles all the time and if you can't get a kill, you will at least paint the enemy for your teammates to eliminate.
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