Faster Learning by Attack or Defense?

(schmeisser) #1

I find myself playing defense (Axis) more often, because I love the mobile mg42, and have gotten pretty good with it. It’s useless in a running or medium range fight, but devastating in choke points. I use it to good effect on attack as well, in a covering fire position. Opinion: what class will make me a better player fastest? Should I concentrate solely on attack?

(Rippin Kitten) #2

Generally, take a class you’ve haven’t played or are not very good at, and use that for a few days to get better. Becoming a better player not only involves knowing what you can do with a class, but how to counter someone else by knowing what they can do.

If you’ve only played soldier up to this point, a nice class to move to would be a medic. Make it your goal to never die, ever. Focus on revivng your teammates to keep up the attack. You’ll learn not only how to revive while under fire, but your accuracy goes up when you only start with 30-60 rounds, and your k:d ratio improves when you know what fights to disengage from.

You should probably start with defence as a med, since you typically don’t have to go very far from spawn to find your first few patients. On the attack people spread out all over the place, making it hard to revive when you have to traverse the entire map.

RK

(magnum_) #3

Generally, take a class you’ve haven’t played or are not very good at, and use that for a few days to get better. Becoming a better player not only involves knowing what you can do with a class, but how to counter someone else by knowing what they can do.

i agree with this, u should be able to play every class at least fairly well, with emphasis on the one u play the most. but i would not play medic first. i would play field ops first. reason being, most ppl that start off playing medic first, make a bad habit of playing quake medic (healing themselves all the time and neglecting their teammates). if u start with field ops, u don’t have to worry about that, and u’ll learn how to stay alive without having medpacks at ur disposal. that just means that when u do eventually play as a medic, u’ll be a much better medic teamwise.

i also think, that learning to use thompson/mp40 is the most important thing u can do for urself in this game. i know ppl can be really good with panzer or sten or whatever. but the time will come with u have to pick up a thompson or mp40, considering this is the most used weapon in the game. the best part about them is, if u can actually use them right, and have good aim, it’s worse than a panzer or naderifle…

(Majin) #4

stopwatch mode is best for learning.

(SwordOfDamocles) #5

Imo, whilst it is of the utmost importance to be able to play your assigned role within the team (i.e. class specific), I find that the “best” players are those who can win almost every time in firefights. And to this end, it is a good idea to practice this. You should also be adept at using almost any weapon for firefights.

Battle medic allows you enough health and firepower to become good at this…just don’t go Rambo too much or your tammates will hate you for being a bad healer :frowning:

(Pamper) #6

Newbies should not play fieldops, ever. Unless he can be disciplined to only give ammo and never call for support fire, a new player willl probably just hurt his team by being fieldops.

Maybe he’ll learn not to throw attacks directly onto teammates, maybe not. But even if he’s not killing them directly, he may hurt his side. To use support fire effectively, you need complete understanding of what objectives the other team wants to accomplish and which routes they’ll take to get there.

On fueldump, an Allied newb fieldop will often call arty onto the axis base doors. Or an Axis newb fieldop will try to destroy the bridge with an airstrike (hey, it seems like it should work, right?), so that when the other guys try to destroy the tank all they get is “All available planes are already en-route”. There’s only limited support-fire available per team, and it’s bad for a newbie to waste it.

Medic is all and all the best class for a newbie to play. You just pick out some other player and follow him around, waiting to heal, revive, or help him fight. As a medic, you’ll stay alive longer and have more chance to learn the map.

<u>Reasons why non-medic classes are bad for newbies</u>
Soliders: Might TK teamates. Moves slowly, so can’t explore much. Must wait a long time between rockets. Must understand the paths to objectives to know where to place MG42.
Engineers: Must know where objectives are. Must know which objectives are actually important. (But otherwise, a decent class for newbies. You can be an OK engineer even if you can’t aim)
Coverts: Might get TKed. You just can’t fool anyone unless you know how to act like a player on the other team. And to do that, first you must know how to play.

However, there is one other class that might be even better for a newbie than medic: SPECATOR.

(Eyes of Texas) #7

my best advice for playing medic:

  1. Stay back. Don’t get caught up in the firefights, that’s not what you are there for, you are a support class as medic. The only time you NEED to fire your weapon is when your teammates start dropping like flies. Keep your needle out and revive your comrades.

  2. Crouch when using your needle. There’s nothing more frustrating than laying on the ground with a medic not able to revive you b/c he isn’t crouched. Yes you can revive without crouching, but it’s much more accurate crouching.

  3. Lay blanket med packs in a forward position to keep your teammates healthy at the front line.

  4. If someone’s health is less than 1/3 full, TK and revive them. It brings them up to 50% health at lower levels and once you get to level 3 Medic, they’ll be at full health when you revive them. This saves your charge bar for when it’s needed. (It will get frustrating when you play with noobs that complain about you killing them, but you’ll get over it.)

  5. Once you get to level 4 Medic, USE YOUR SELF-ADRENALINE NEEDLE!!! Use it to take objectives, use it when you are insanely outnumbered with dead teammates lying around to revive them. The adrenaline is one of the most powerful rewards the game has to offer.

That’s all I have for ya, good luck.

(Englander) #8

Id agree with that in RTCW but I have found in ET its much easier and quicker to revive without the crouch,I too used to crouch in ET but suddenly found it isnt needed ,but each to their own.I hit the target just as well stood as crouched,were in RTCW the crouch is essential.

(Pamper) #9

A skilled medic should be able to get 100% accuracy reviving without crouching or even slowing down from a sprint. You’ve got to start poking somewhat before you get into range of the target, but with a little practice “drive-by revives” are great.

  1. If someone’s health is less than 1/3 full, TK and revive them.

TK/revive is not always the best choice. It creates a risk of accidently gibbing the victim, it may distract him from an important defensive role. It may take away his helmet (but you should never make that mistake).

But it will definately lose XP, from both you (medic) and him (battlesense). And collecting XP is a legitimate way to help yourself get powerful, which will help your team in the future. It all depends on the exact circumstances, of course- but it can be better to wait for an enemy to kill your friend, and then revive him for 5 XP, vs killing him yourself and getting 0 XP, or even losing points (if he F1s)

Personally, I only TK/revive if someone calls for a medic. That probably means he knows what you’ll have to do. No one likes to be shot by surprise in the back, even if you’re trying to help.

(ExP|Maximus191) #10

Id agree with that in RTCW but I have found in ET its much easier and quicker to revive without the crouch,I too used to crouch in ET but suddenly found it isnt needed ,but each to their own.I hit the target just as well stood as crouched,were in RTCW the crouch is essential.[/quote]

Sorry m8, don’t agree there. It’s allways best to crouch when doing a revive as you are a smaller target area for an attacking player (as the chances are the person who killed the guy you are reviving is still about).
You can also crouch behind the revived guy and use his couple of seconds invulnerability as a human shield allowing you to reload or whatever.
The best revive is the running, crouch revive.
You should be able to needle a guy on the run as this gets em’ back up on there feet in no time and also keeps you in the danger zone for far less time.
Also bind a key to your needle people.Nothing worse than having a med cycle through everything just to get the needle.
Sometimes you only get one chance at a revive and if you miss your dead.

(decoy) #11

If you want to sit down in the line of fire, be my guest :slight_smile: God knows how many medic’s head I’ve popped while they where sitting down. Sprint past the body and revive while you withdraw behind the now invulnerable teammate.

If I’m a newbie medic, I’ll even run out to revive no matter if I get killed myself. Everything to get medic xp and full revive sooner. It also makes the team more aggressive, since they know that a loco medic will come rushing in, no matter what :wink:

(Pamper) #12

Do you crouch when you’re running around too, in case someone starts to shoot you?

If not, why? Because it slows you down maybe? Then why would you want to slow down when reviving? It’s just not needed. The prone hitbox is HUGE.

You can also crouch behind the revived guy and use his couple of seconds invulnerability as a human shield allowing you to reload or whatever.

He’s a shield even if you’re standing.

(damocles) #13

Well, I’m going to be completely contrary and say don’t play as either medic or field ops. As a new medic player, it’s hard to get into the support role of reviving and healing your teammates. The temptation is too much to run around healing yourself and going rambo.

As a field ops, you will not improve at all. The only practice you’ll get is using your zoom key. Field ops are almost always at the back using support fire, rarely in the thick of things.

If you want to improve - I say go baptism by fire. I say play engie. And play it well. Engies have no choice but to be on the front lines - it’s learn or die time. You either learn how to survive a hail of bullets or you die. I also find that when playing engie, I get the most successful airstrike blocks (sitting on the cannister) probably because the cannister usually lands near the objective I’m trying to build/repair. And when you’re a front line engie, you can forget about medics braving the chaos to heal you, so you either learn to fight like the demon or you die. At first you will die. A lot. A hell of a lot. And this is depressing. Give it time and you’ll learn and a kind of survival instinct takes over. As an engie you get into the habit of avoiding firefights rather than taking them on. The abilityo to guage a firefight long before the first bullet is fired is the key to being a good engie. A lot of the time, when playing as engie, I complete the objective without getting in a single firefight. The engie’s life is sacred and you learn to preserve it as best you can. If only the rest of the team would learn this and give some goddam covering fire!

Medic is a class to play once you’ve honed your survival skills as engie. These skills help you to survive the battlefield as you run out trying to revive teammates. As for field ops, I very rarely play it. Other than mortar it is the most boring class you can be. I find no pleasure in popping my head up now and again to call in artillery. Giving ammo is hampered by the fact that you don’t know who’s low on ammo until they start yelling and shooting you for ammo (I REALLY hate those f**kers). Engie, medic, soldier, covertops. You should learn in that order and leave field ops to those that derive pleasure from racking up kills without ever shooting a bullet.

(schmeisser) #14

Food for thought, all. Most appreciated. I think I’ll try medic for a while. I have dabbled in Engineer, badly I think (I do like that rifle grenade, though). I tried medic a few times, got frustrated that field ops never seem to give out ammo to medics. I kept getting wasted in brief firefights. Given their value to the game, seems like the first thing a field ops should do is load up the medics so they can defend themselves.

(Englander) #15

Each to there own like I said, but iam always on the move while reviving thats why crouching isnt for me in ET simply because its so easy to hit the target stood,I think its so easy to shoot a medic crouched rather than one stood who is moving while reviving,ill keep doing it stood up but if you wanna do it crouched its up to u,everyone as a favourite way of doing things :smiley:

(Pamper) #16

There’s a trick for getting ammo from fieldops: Take out your bayonet, and stick him in the chest 4 times. Then when he goes down, stick him 5 more times.

Now you’ve got 30 new SMG bullets!

(Mat L) #17

I have to agree with damocles here.
For newbies, engy is the best class, but for one reason damocles forgot to mention: most major objectives are highlighted with targets on your compass as engy.
This helps new players learn the maps and the various routes around them quicker than other classes.

(amazinglarry) #18

I’m not entirely sure what class will make you a better player the fastest… but the best thing one can do to survive longer is to work on only shooting when you have a headshot… eventually when you’re in a firefight you’ll be able to spray your bullets and take the enemies helmet always within the first 5 shots at the most. Always good to practice in a server with a buddy and make sure you both understand that when running the drills you move back and forth like you’re dodging in a real fight, and ONLY shoot when you think you have a headshot. Eventually you’ll be able to predict better as to where there head will be next, etc…

The reason I suggest this is because as SwordOfDamocles said earlier, most times the “best” players are the ones who can win almost every firefight. Shooting is essential to everyone’s survival, and the one who can end the fight first is the one who’s going to make it all the way to the objective, help out a teammate, stop the enemy with the objective, etc… :drink: