Ricebowl
True Bro
/u/frozenlinx
Posts: 117
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Post by Ricebowl on Apr 28, 2014 13:40:54 GMT -5
All of my friends say that electric smoke is worth having, but I like using the vortex shield and I dont get rodeoed that much. Should I use it?
You are my bro, bro.
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Post by iphraem on Apr 28, 2014 15:31:23 GMT -5
yes
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Ricebowl
True Bro
/u/frozenlinx
Posts: 117
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Post by Ricebowl on Apr 28, 2014 16:31:19 GMT -5
well alrighty then
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wittyscorpion
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All warfare is based on deception.
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Post by wittyscorpion on Apr 28, 2014 17:08:26 GMT -5
Experiment with all 3 options, all excellent with their merits.
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mannon
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wordy bastard PSN:mannonc Steam:mannonc XB:BADmannon
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Post by mannon on Apr 28, 2014 19:06:47 GMT -5
Murphy rules my games. When I take smoke I forget I have it and when I don't I get rodeoed. ;3 On the other hand lately I've been jumping out and shooting them and they don't seem to jump off until it's nearly too late and either I kill them before they land or the Titan gets 'em most of the time... Which is cool until I realize I had smoke and didn't even have to get out. heh
I also had one jump off and I couldn't find him, but was scared for my life as a grenade went off so I got back in the titan and he got back on then I got out again and the titan killed him. heh I felt pretty dumb and didn't have much armor left on the titan, but what hell, a kill's a kill right? ;p
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mannon
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wordy bastard PSN:mannonc Steam:mannonc XB:BADmannon
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Post by mannon on Apr 28, 2014 19:14:50 GMT -5
On a more serious note I think the key to smoke is not to save it for roedeo pilots but to actually put it to use defensively and tactically, then when you do need it you'll remember it's there. I used to use the vortex shield all the time, but I've pretty much found my soulmate with the grenade launcher and my goal the entire time with it is to avoid head on confrontations as much as possible. So I'm actively trying to avoid situations where the vortex shield comes in handy. On the other hand I find smoke pretty handy dandy. When I got somebody in my face if I pop smoke, backup and lay down a barrage of grenades most people are pretty reluctant to go in there, and if they do, they ain't happy.
I also used smoke to disorient a titan the other day when I was just about dead. Dashed up, hit smoke and ejected. The nuke got 'em. But I do love the vortex shield. I keep it on a few more direct in your face loadouts.
Speaking of vortex shield... does it grab grenades? I dunno, but I could swear I keep seeing my grenades just keep bouncing and rolling along at them when they use it. Maybe it only grabs them if they are up high close to the hand and shield animation, but misses them down by the titan's feet or something. I dunno. Purely anecdotal, I haven't bothered to rewatch much of my footage, and I don't have a lot recorded either.
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Will
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K/D below 1.0
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Post by Will on Apr 28, 2014 21:46:48 GMT -5
All three are equally viable, it really comes down to your playstyle in your Titan at the time. For smoke to be effective, you need to be a rush-in and get-in-your-face kind of Titan. I think it matches well with the Stryder with a spray-and-pray weapon like the quad rockets. That is definitely my favorite Titan class, by the way. I dash circles around my enemy and trap him in my smoke while I bombard him with rockets.
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Post by Pegasus Actual on Apr 28, 2014 21:47:44 GMT -5
In an Atlas the crouch and exit maneuver is really fast, and that's my preferred chassis so I don't find Electric Smoke that useful. Besides, these days it usually doesn't get you a kill, though maybe i just haven't mastered the back into a wall and look up to trap strategy. I'd rather pop out (at the risk of getting satcheled) and get my kill. I definitely have that problem that when I do have Electric Smoke I forget that I'm running it and fail to use it, but that's hardly a failure of the ability. Despite the fact that I really like Vortex Shield I've been trying to phase it out at least when I'm using weapons that have a reload. So often I use the Vortex Shield when I'm reloading which interrupts it that I've been going with Particle Shield a bit more. I still really like Vortex Shield with Arc Cannon though and to a lesser extent Chaingun Accelerator which you don't have to reload as much.
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qupie
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Post by qupie on Apr 29, 2014 7:11:24 GMT -5
I have tried the other two tactical abilities, but couldn't live without the vortex shield. It is just to good when combined with activating your core ability (Your shield recharges when you activate it, until you get hit --> vortex shield + core will give you your full shield back). This lets me kill full health titans while my atlas is almost doomed. Combine it with multi target ordnance and you can prevent your opponents shields from recharging. Changing a 1v1 battle from:
You: 1 bar health no shield enemy: full health no shield
TO
You: 1 bar health full shield enemy: less than full health and no shield
I might be biased though because I never really got the hang of the other two. I only used them for like 10 games both but the vortex is just master race in combination with damage core IMO. The core + vortex combo can also be done with the wall and smoke, but it is harder to achieve (your opponent can still hit you through smoke to interrupt the shield recharge or he can move around the particle wall)
Other than that, the three abilities are somewhat on par with each other I guess. If you want smoke your best bet is a stryder or maybe a mobile atlas class with hard and fast hitting power (Quad rocket + cluster missile). If you want the particle wall I don't see a reason not to take the ogre (normally it is my least favorite chassis though), because you lose all your maneuverability behind your little wall anyway. Another problem with the wall is that it is really easy to counter in one vs one titan battles. Just move away so he can't use his wall anymore. It does have its place in LTS I guess.
While rodeo can be extremely annoying, disembarking and shooting him off has about an 50% kill rate at least, and an 10% getting killed change at most. It only becomes a problem when you are both in a titan-titan fight and get rodeo'd. When that happens you are screwed without smoke. But depending on my titan health at that moment, I choose to just eject, even before my health is up (to avoid the termination death) or jump of and kill the pilot and let my titan do as much damage in auto mode before blowing up. It is not that big a deal though, as it is not that common (for me) to be both rodeo'd and attacked by an enemy titan, and you should try to stay away from rooftops and try to stay with the titan pack as much as possible.
(this all is from xbox 360, so my opponents might not be that good yet, as it is only out for about 2 weeks now)
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mannon
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Post by mannon on Apr 29, 2014 9:26:05 GMT -5
I dunno. I've easily killed a bunch of rodeoing pilots lately. I've been crouch exiting and I guess maybe they just don't expect me to be able to get out that fast so they hesitate to jump until I've put some bullets in them. A few got away last night when I was playing late with a higher skill ceiling, but even then they hesitated. I probably could have gotten them, but I'm still visually unfamiliar with some aspects of the game and I'm only just now learning how to recognize quickly where and what to shoot at when a pilot is on my titan. Due mainly to only having seen them on it from the front a few times, all during battle conditions, and being in near panic when I can't find them. heh (PTSD from jumping out and never seeing them before they kill me in earlier days... grrr)
I might have to experiment with vortex some more with my guerrilla tactics grenade launcher Atlas. I can see how that would be quite useful, particularly 1v1. (Or more if they're clustered instead of flanking.) I'm still getting the hang of smoke and finding it quite useful for my tactics, though. I generally duck behind cover or disengage in cases where I'd normally vortex. My whole strategy is to use cover and wherever possible engage titans 1v1 with cover so I can hit them indirectly and prevent them from hitting me. I'm not afraid to run away, either. heh That's where I love smoke. It's great for disengaging. They can't lock or see you, and are reluctant to go charging through it after you so it's a good chance to put distance between you and enemy titan pack, find some cover, then start lobbing aerial bombardment on them. Okay so I do like it when they're clustered and I can AoE them, but it's risky if you draw too much attention. That's the other good thing about firing over buildings and such. As long as they don't see you, they usually have a hard time figuring out where the grenades are coming from.
I can't wait to unlock Stryder and try it out with that chassis, though I'll miss damage core.
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Ricebowl
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/u/frozenlinx
Posts: 117
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Post by Ricebowl on Apr 29, 2014 10:17:34 GMT -5
Thanks for the advice everyone!
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