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Dealing with a good gunner on Artemis/Merc/Phobos

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Patched Wizard:

--- Quote from: MightyKeb on January 02, 2015, 11:02:36 am ---This has  been bugging me a bit, there have been times where I could simply overcome the effects of these weapons and hopelessly lost my ship, arcs and matches. So I ask, as a Pilot, what ships or builds could I make use of to counter/reduce the effects of these weapons? I know it's not a 4 Hwacha galleon for a start.

--- End quote ---

As stated previously there are builds that you will find to be easier to utilise against your opponent's ship build. While bringing a hard-counter will always be most efficient, the truth is that you won't be able to guarantee that you will be using a counter build for every battle. The ship suggestions will give you the tools to make the kill but what you now need to do as a commander and pilot is to counter their tactics. Anyone can work out that bringing a Carro-Fish against a Lumber-Spire will have an edge, the trick to being a great commander and pilot is creating the opportunities for you to facilitate that edge.

The first thing you must do is practise wildly different flying styles against equally levelled pilots. Try one match to only operate at extreme long ranges and learn how to keep your opponents at those ranges. Try the next match as a fast brawler with high manoeuvrability. The next one as a medium range turret. The following match as a disabler and then a killer next round. Keep doing this until you know what you are great at. As a pilot you need to be comfortable with all ships and all flying styles, but you need to know the ones that you are naturally exceptional at. Once you know what you are capable of as a pilot you can start to exploit your opponent's flying capabilities.

When you know yourself you need to focus on knowing your enemy. As time goes on you will naturally figure out how most pilots in the community like to fly, as Napoleon put it "You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war." But when you are engaging someone you've never fought against you will need to become exceptionally fast at identifying how they fly. I would recommend that you and your ally develop a loose or flexible strategy that you can both easily disengage from. For example if you are flying in Canyon and you know that they have a close range spire and you have a close range goldfish then you could both glide around the bottom of the canyon and pop up once the target has been identified. This is a simple strategy that you can quickly retreat from if it fails at first but also gives you room to commit to the kill if you have the advantage. Even if you die you can learn a lot from the engagement. Don't lose your calm because you gave away an early kill, because the only kill that ever matters is the last one.
From here on out though your priority is to watch intently what your opponent does. What you're trying to do is to know how they think and apply tactics and strategy. If they rush into the canyon and aggressively hunt you, then retreat into an ambush and bait them. If they move into the canyon but cautiously stalk you, then spot them and use yourself or your ally to out flank them. If they never enter the canyon then you know that they must be either traversing the rim of the canyon or waiting at their spawn, giving you the opportunity to engage when you have the advantage to press. The caveat here is that they will also learn about you. So unless they display poor judgment, every couple of kills you must reengage with new strategies to counter their own defensive strategies that they will definitely employ.

Hopefully in time you should have the experience to know how you can counter almost any opponent, not only with your ship, or weapons, but with strategy.

Arturo Sanchez:
noob shield is the ultimate defense. They shoot him, you shoot them.

Noob... prolly has no common sense to simply tank and dies.

ShadedExalt:
Anti-Art is do it better, Anti-Merc is either get in close and disable, or, again, do it better.  Anti-Mine is stay the hell away and pelt it with Artemii/Hades from mid range, and Impact Bumpers.

nanoduckling:
Different ships require different responses, but a munker or some other mine heavy ship is well countered by a double hades pyra. Keep your distance (and it is a fair old distance if they bring lesmok) and just keep shooting them. Unless it is a mixed range ship your enemy is helpless and you will eventually wear them down, in addition the fire damage forces chem cycles keeping engineers off guns, or sets things on fire. Your biggest problem is likely to be trying to get your ally not to fly suicidally close to them. Or getting ambushed in a short range map. Don't get ambushed by a munker, stay where you will be hard to rush and keep your eyes open.

Mercs and arts in my opinion are harder to counter. Their arcs suck, which can be used to your advantage some of the time by going high (for both) or low (for mercs). Part of the reason I hate snipe heavy maps is it takes much of the power to control the match out of the hand of the pilot and into the hands of the gunners. If your gunners land more shots on more vital components than my gunners then you will win and there isn't much I can do about it. One approach I've taken is to just out gun them. I occasionally bring a merc double artemis / merc triple artemis / 4 artemis mobula (and hop on a gun myself for the latter two). Sure they might snipe out a gun or two, but sniping out three or four is hard when they are shooting you and at least one enemy is familiar with the gun. If your crew bring burst for the arts you should make their lives miserable and closing to burst artemis range isn't too hard even on the open maps. Don't try this unless your crew is communicative because they will lose arcs and you need to know. You will need an ally to complement you (probably something with a mercury if you don't bring one). Practice in the blastyard first so you know the arcs. Bring moonshine to stabilize the ship. You could even bring the totally stupid double merc / artemis mobula I've been working on, but I don't recommend it.

Another option is to use what cover is available and rush. Bring a fast ship (fish maybe) and moonshine, especially on Dunes. Once you get up close and personal the artemis is hard to use due to the slow turning speed unless the pilot is really careful, and the merc basically has to be aimed by the pilot. If you have only one good gunner remember that the hwacha has pretty decent range and disabling power with heavy clip. Hide behind something, pop out and give them a shot, if you get a good disable rush them. If you don't just hide back behind cover and then try again after the reload.

Another option is give your gunner a lumberjack, especially if you are facing say a junker.

ramjamslam:

--- Quote from: ShadedExalt on January 03, 2015, 02:23:15 pm ---Anti-Art is do it better,

--- End quote ---
Anti-art is height.  Artemis doesn't shoot up really, so be higher than them and also try to keep it that way with flachette weapons.

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