Teach me teamwork (And other hidden skills)

(Frogteam) #1

I just passed 700 hours and I feel pretty happy with my skill level when it comes to gunfights and map awareness, but I know I’m pretty far behind when it comes to teamwork, counting respawn timers, and other little things that are keeping me back.

I play Arty pretty heavily with Dreiss (If I’m playing comp I’ll bring Blish Aura, Blish Fletch, or Crotzni Phantom along with Arty), and I’m pretty confident in my gameplay with him, but I frequently find myself out in the middle of the enemy team with mine dead, I’ll get so focused on something I won’t pay any attention to what’s happening to my teammates. Are there any tips or tricks you guys have to help me get in the habit of keeping track of ally/enemy respawn times, not abandoning my team? Should I try to record some of my gameplay to post, if so what programs do you recommend for that.

Keeping the Arty Party going,
-Frogteam
~~ ~~
This is a real Signature.

(Melinder) #2

There is a visual HUD element that displays the respawn timers. In Stopwatch, spawn times are synchronised across both teams. If you struggle to keep track of it, try using a Custom HUD and re-position the respawn timer to a more centered position on the screen.

As for teamwork, if you plan to play with a preset team (perhaps in the upcoming Ranked Season 3), try and come up with a team composition for each map (with room for slight adjustment depending on the enemy team’s setup), and a default along with it. When setting up a default, attempt to create as many crossfires as possible whilst maintaining full map coverage, as well as a fall-back plan in the event a teammate is killed.

(Press E) #3

I’m a medic main, so that’s probably what gave me most of my practice. But basically I spend a lot of time listening for merc’s voices getting hit, gunfire, footsteps, etc. Surround sound headphones, and just knowing the sounds in general help a tonne.

Otherwise just try to keep an eye on the HUD, check your team’s health, especially as a medic, look for the ammo symbol, etc. But it’s mostly just general spacial awareness, that only comes with time and practice.

I personally almost never look at spawn times though. If I need to push somewhere, I’ll push. Waiting can often make things worse, and as far as I know enemies share the spawn time anyways. The only time I do look at spawn times is when I’m deciding whether or not I’ll be able to run to a teammate and revive them before they tap out. It’s not as big of a deal as people make it seem otherwise.

(LifeupOmega) #4

It’s a huge deal if you get long spawned, in virtually any scenario it’s much better to just K out at 2 seconds or so and respawn with full guns and health, especially if playing against competent opponents. If your team is a player down you can be damn sure they’ll capitalise on that advantage.

Anyway, we can’t tell you much if you don’t provide footage.

(Szakalot) #5

i would generally say : try not to get tunnel vision. Many players see an opponent and then that is all they see.

The best class to learn teamwork with is a medic. but again, you cant get tunnel vision and just lemming run to any downed teammate to try to revive.

try playing more on smaller 5v5 ranked and 6v6 servers: its much easier to keep track of the game. once in a while take a deep breath and think outside of the ‘kill killl kiiiiillll’ box: where are all your teammates, where are the known opponents, where is the hotspot fight (the biggest fight at the moment).
while its totally fine to relax and just jump in, if you want to take it to the next level, you need to be able to assess the entire battlefield. usually the best place to do it is when you are running from spawn: you have some time to look ahead and identify all the teammates, and position gunfire audio to take notice of where the fights are.

especially teammate positioning is important: look in front and learn to take in the arrowhead-teammate positions on your screen to deduce where they are exactly on the map. if you can (in general terms) keep track of where the teammates are, you will always know who needs the most help, when, and where to go to have the biggest impact.

if you ever find yourself alone even though a moment ago you had all those teammates around you: thats the moment when you lost track of whats actually going on

(frostyvampire) #6

As a sniper main, I have no teammates. If I need ammo I go to ammo crates or pickup some from a random place.

But seriously now, how do you find yourself in the middle of the enemy team if you’re playing Arty?
Just try to stick together with your team. In ranked try to communicate and never push alone.
In quick play, don’t expect to see teamwork really, just stay close to the medic and give out ammo

(watsyurdeal) #7

Simple answer, don’t be Kevin

(averagerussian) #8

personally i learnt all this by playing pugs on dbnation, play with people in voice chat in competitive for a long time and you’ll be calling spawn timers even in your sleep (true story)

(K1X455) #9

@watsyurdeal said:
Simple answer, don’t be Kevin

That’s a ray of sunshine for my Monday

(Frogteam) #10

@watsyurdeal said:
Simple answer, don’t be Kevin

No can do, name is Kevin. Worried that you knew that.

~~ ~~
This is a real Signature.

(AlbinMatt) #11

With slightly above 200 hours in game, and only recently hitting level 10, I’m in no way better than you, but…

You can try playing as Phoenix or Sawbz so you can force yourself to move and pay attention to your teammates. Handicap yourself more by getting the more backline support loadouts such as CR83 Sawbonez or CR81 Phoenix.

If you’re not a big fan of pocket babysitting, you can continue being an offensive player, but again handicap yourself so you realize that you need your teammates. Blish loadouts I’ve heard are good for this. Also, learn map callouts and use voice chat (if you’re mic is decent).

(watsyurdeal) #12

@Frogteam said:

@watsyurdeal said:
Simple answer, don’t be Kevin

No can do, name is Kevin. Worried that you knew that.

~~ ~~
This is a real Signature.

Well that does explain a lot…

But seriously, team work is all about what are you doing to benefit your team?

Sure you are getting a lot of kills but is it helping? Are you keeping the objective area cleared? Are you defending your position?

What about Medic? Are you tossing out packs 2 at a time when you have them? Are you healing yourself as Phoneix or your allies? Are you leaving your station in a good spot?

Engineers, are you killing more than you are planting? If so, fix that shit. And only put mines on or around the objective. Same thing with your turret.

Being a teamplayer really isn’t hard, it’s just a matter of not being selfish.

(Chris Mullins) #13

My top tips!

  • Always keep an eye on your teams’ Mercs and swap when necessary
  • Always focus the objective
  • Learn spawn timers and timings for where people will be
  • Win

<3

(Your worst knifemare.) #14
  • On c4 objectives as stoker or Kira try to use your ability over the c4 to stop enemies from defusing it.
  • Protect teamates that are defusing or delivering objectives. Even if you died you could’ve made the difference between a win and a loss by a few seconds.
  • Never become a sniper if over 1/3 of your team already is.
  • Try to stick with at least 1 ally at all times, seperation means death.
  • Plant turrets and mines in areas where you don’t want the enemy to be (Flank routes, objective, etc)
(Xenithos) #15

Map ‘w’ under your keyboards settings to also press ‘z’ when pressed while in DB…
Thank me later.

! ‘z’ Allows you to see the names of all your allies, better see their locations, and actually brightens their hp bars so that you can better know where they are and get to them. Very useful if you don’t like the moving triangles for judging distance…
Also, I’m seeing some issues in previous things said, I shall be fixing them:

@Lord_Coctus said:

  • Never become a sniper if over 1/3 of your team already is. has one.
  • Plant turrets and mines in areas where you don’t want the enemy to be (Flank routes, objective, etc) OR IN AREAS THAT ARE IN FREQUENT USE

@watsyurdeal said:
What about Medic? Are you tossing out packs 2 at a time when you have them? Are you healing yourself as Phoneix Phoenix or your allies? Are you leaving your station in a good spot?

Engineers, are you killing more than you are planting? If so, fix that @$!#. And only put mines on or around the objective. Same thing with your turret. Don’t forget to plant often, and make sure you try to cover the objective.

Being a teamplayer really isn’t hard, it’s just a matter of not being selfish. sucks.

Finally, you don’t always need a team, teams are for scrubs. You need to knalf.