Thread: Pro Mod Scrim

I had a blast, hope to play more.

Meh, it was a tough tank to play and they ran all the way back to safe room. It wouldn't have mattered at all had we all done a better job with LOS and killing their tank the round before.

so botto posted about having trouble with the tank, and I meant to post a REPLY, but somehow EDITED BOTTO's post instead....I didnt even know that such a thing was possible....
sigh... this is why I should just stay off of the forums

Blonde fixes all!

I used to hate gettin tank too (so much pressure) and I felt like I couldn't never hit anything but with lots of "constructive" criticism from friends (Blonde mostly, and a few other PM nerds) I've been getting the hang of it better.

Some things that I keep in mind that really help:

-Rocks

IMO this is the hardest part of playing Tank: you have to have a feel for where the best place to throw from is, how far you need to be to avoid too much chip, You gotta know which toss to use and how they fly, but I typically just use the "R" toss (different keys do different throws in PM), and you have to work with your team to time their hit with your toss/ pay attention to when SV are distracted / out of cover so you can land without rocks just getting skeeted. I don't think that there's really a "trick" to rocks, you just have to put the time in and practice so you get a feel for it, but esp at the higher levels of players, landing a few rocks can drastically alter the outcome of the game. I still suck at rocks.

-Before you go in:

hit TAB and take another glance at who's who and what HP and items they have. Obv, it there's a slow one with no pills handyy, you're gonna go for him. But if they're all green then things get a bit tougher. If they have no room to dodge / you think that you can trap and hit them, then I always try to go for the best player in order to take him out of the fight ASAP. But if they've got some room to dodge and run away, then I will usually go for the least-best and hope that he get's tripped up and is easier to catch.

-When you go in:

-You want to take the most direct path. Don't waste a lot of time / chip trying to go from cover to cover because you usually end up eating more lead than if you'd just run straight

- DONT touch your strafe keys!!! This was one of the hardest ones for me to learn, but strafing slows you down. Just used FWD, and steer with your mouse.
- Who you end up going for may need to change from who you initially picked based on where they are all positioned when you go in, but once you make your decision of who to go for, DONT 2nd guess yourself and Dont' say "there's no way Im going to catch him, because the tank is faster than you think and all it takes is one common to block or 1 map object to snag his shirt, and you'll get your chance to clock him.
-Think about using the map or the common to help you corner him
-hes going to want to run in a circle around you so he doesn't get too far from his team and you want to be constantly trying to cut off his circle so he has to run in a straight line away from you.
-Even if you dont ever get close enough for a punch, you've accomplished something just by occupying one player and forcing the remaining ones to fight SI alone.
-When you DO get close enough for punch take your time: aim above the waist so he cant jump over it, swing your mouse a bit in the direction hes moving (like a mele weapon). DON'T swing early. Good players will often use the time right after your missed swing to dodge past you.
-When you land a punch, stay on him until hes down, and, if you can, think about where you're hitting him: better to have him down in a confined space that's easy to defend than in the open with no place for AI to spawn / tank to hide.
-Have an escape route planned: 9/10 times, all of your SI support will be dead by the time you have 1 down, so you need to get out ASAP and try to buy time for another SI hit.

I'm still by no means good at playing Tank, but I no longer hate it and I feel like now even when I make mistakes I'm learning from them vs just flailing about or chasing my tail.

I'm sure I missed some important tips, so others please chime in.

Good points Shen. The only thing I can add to that is the general sense that there is a reason why you do everything. SOOO many players just do things....just to do things. For example I see many players who are playing tank hit SVs just to hit them. They don't care what direction they hit them or how far away they hit them. Why? You have to be conscious at all times of your surroundings. Try to hit the SV into the nearest wall. That way you don't have to run 100 yards to get back to them, and can get an easy down in 10 seconds. Be conscious with cars. Don't just fucking hit them across the map and say, "wow I hit that car far hahaha" No, put the car into a position that the SVs will have to get near. Go in with tank and force them near the car. Have the SI hit two seconds later, THEN play around with the car. Too many players aren't conscious of their surroundings.

Botto the one and only thing you did wrong with your tank was you didn't commit 100%. Everything else was perfect. You got out when you needed to get out and you landed a couple great rocks. But I've noticed this with your tanks. When you commit in and the SV start shooting at you, you don't like it, so you start moving left and right or trying to dodge behind cover. Don't do that. Go straight in and don't let go of the forward button until you are close enough to hit a SV. If you go straight in and die immediately that is more the SIs fault then yours. Don't worry about your health at the initial commitment. I've seen tanks land their first punch at 25% health and end up wiping the SV. And lastly you are not the only one who can't catch SV. Everyone has that problem, but you can't think like that. You are getting yourself frustrated by doing so. Just attack and don't stop moving forward until you get to an SV. And don't turn around to hit another SV unless you know they are close enough. If you are just going to do a 180 turn to chase a SV another 200 yards, then that 180 turn wasn't worth it.

Rails has been blowing up my Steam chat for Round 2 our our scrim. With BT on the job, we now have to worry about getting him and Botto online at the same time. That will be impossible

Originally Posted by Hocus Pocus

Ringer cough

I'll message you. You better be ready.