Newbie. Have questions about being a good teammate

Games Other Halo
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…a few other questions as well. Questions numbered for your convenience in your reply. Most questions related to Slayer

Brief intro. I consider myself an average player, perhaps a bit below average. To give you a sense of my skill level in offline play – I can complete all the reach firefight maps on solo legendary and a few with the mythic skull on. But if I turned on black eye, I would die out pretty quickly. I started playing reach online last week and while I’m not the guy goes jetpacking into his death 25 times a game, I often struggle to be +1 or above in my KD. I do usually have the most or nearly the most assists on my team which I attribute to a combination at least doing enough damage that a teammate can clean up after I’m dead and being pretty good with the DMR which means I can help out from afar on some maps. Unfortunately, I’m still the guy who might accidentally fire a round with BR into you if you surprise me coming around the corner (working on that).

In general, I try to get a sense of ‘who I am’ on the team. There have been a few games where it feels like there are two teammates a bit weaker than me and so I try to own the role of carrying the team as much as possible. Other times, it’s clear to me that I’m a weak link and so I try to complement the play of my teammates as much as possible either by watching their six or just laying low.

OK so that’s me. Any commentary on the above would be appreciated (am I doing it right?). Now to the questions:

  1. Generally, if I am the weak link on my team, is it better if I just lay low, stay with my teammates or use my judgment for that map on the best way to be in positive KD?

  2. What’s the deal with ‘stealing kills’? I mean, should I just fire at an enemy when I have the chance or do I have to worry about stealing someone else’s kill. There have only been two times where I’ve held off because it was obvious that my teammate was about to kill the dude. Perhaps this is an area where different people have different expectations.

  3. I often get ahold of weapons I don’t want (energy sword and rocket launcher). I don’t have a mic, so is there any way to signal to my teammates that they can have it if they wish? Sometimes I’ll drop the weapon nearby but obviously my teammate doesn’t always see it.

  4. If I’m on the run from an enemy is it better to take them toward my teammates or away. I’ve been operating under the notion that if I draw him toward a teammate or two, it gives a decent chance at a kill since my enemy would have depleted his weapon on me. Maybe this changes if it’s an energy sword or a rocket launcher.

  5. If two players quit a game an we are left with 2 against 4, is there any ‘culture’ on what to do? I’ve won one or two matches like this, but other times its just a slaughter. There was a dude yesterday yellilng at me about not sticking with him and I guess I just feel like if it’s a lost cause I’m going to use the rest of that game to practice being outnumbered.

  6. Whats the deal with people who show up in pairs in game lobbies with names like VerbedNoun and VerbedNoun(1). Is that a clan? It seems like some games one of them is always standing around doing nothing so it crossed my mind that this is one person playing as two players (play one player until you die and then play the second until that one dies).

  7. OK, I’ll ask about armor lock. There are some maps where I prefer armor lock, but I don’t select it until I see the other team using it. Should I just avoid it altogether?

  8. Why am I crap at melee? lol

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  1. well, in team based games, its usually best to stick with your teammates. This is good in multiple ways, to name a few, maybe because alone you are easy pickings for those who stick in groups since group has more firepower meaning if the fire is concentrated to 1 opposing player then that straggler will drop before anyones shield will get too much damage given people can aim.
    Also group has more eyes meaning less blind spots if everyone checks different angles and wont just stare at the same parts of the map meaning less chance of ambushes.
    And if 1 teammate or you get shot at other people will be nearby to start firing back either distracting, scaring or outright killing the shooter with the firepower of a group.
    One thing to remember is not to “hug” other players meaning not sticking next to other players but rather keeping a little personal area while still seeing teammates incase someone uses explosives. A few meters area should be fine.

Thats the basic thing about that though depending on gamemode the strategies change a bit. Also, there is reasons why people move grouped up in real military too so you shouldnt be far off if you imitate part of those strategies, obviously there are some differences like shields and inability to move freely. And its pretty much less coordinated when you play with randoms.

  1. this is something that if you intend to win the match you should help out teammates with disposing of the enemy. It should be fine as long as you are not actively trying to time the last shot so you will get the enemy.
    Sure you might get the kill sometimes from an enemy that is already being weakened but in some cases helping out with the shooting can save the teammate. Also you could use suppression from teammate to your advantage to flank enemy that is recharging the shields. That is if your goal is to win the game. But there will always be someone who might complain about every accident even. Just remember not to actively seek to steal a kill.

  2. obviously sometimes people wont notice any signals but you could try to get their attention by crouching in their visibility or simply shooting a round near to them with some basic weapon that you have like DMR.
    If those wont work then you could try shooting again but to something like leg so they notice minor shield damage and direction of attack. A few things to note is to make as sure as possible that the area you shoot doesnt have enemies near you, other thing to note is that some can overreact to the shot and take that as some sort of challenge but just drop the launcher before somekind of teamkilling contest begins.

  3. that depends on situation. If you know where the front, as in where your teammates are aiming, you could lead pursuing enemy to ambush. Just try to avoid bringing opponents to the backside of your teammates.
    And if opponent has, lets say the rocket launcher for example, then it depends on the environment. You should use distance on your advantage given rocket launcher has relatively slow projectile. So try to bring the pursuer to the vision range of your teammates and if possible on such angle that the opponent has their side to your teammates for slower threat recognition in case of pursuer.
    This is however, highly situational and you should think over some scenarios on different maps, whether pursuer or teammate(s) has power weapons and if so what kind, the number of pursuers and teammates etc etc… there are just so many factors that I cant say one foolproof strategy.

  4. this is more about your morale and/or confidence on your skills. Obviously its a sort of code to stick to the end but in other case you could be just used for target practise by other team depending on match.
    I just leave this to you for a moral decision is only for you to make.

  5. those are simply players who have a “guest” profile on second controller. This allows for 2 different pplayers to play online with 1 gold membership while plmaying on same console but any stats wont be saved to the “guest” profile which is marked by numbers. I believe there can be up to 3 “guest” profiles on split-screen.

  6. armor lock has its uses and its up to you if you like to use it. This is again, a decision for you and only you.

  7. depends on what kind of melee you are talking about since there are few different melee types like hammers, swords and weapon/fist melee.
    There are some different ways to practise it but in this case knowledge is power. You should get familiar with the range of your melee attacks, I for one try to melee (while moving) thin objects like those breakable covenant antenna type of things that when you hit them the lights turn off. Other thin or moveable objects too but its not so much about practise as its about immersing to the game by breaking covenant connections or just because i feel like it.
    Other than that there is sword/hammer duelings but that is more about learning with opponent or just look up some form of tips or guides for different melee combat. Im sure there are some around the internet.
    So know when to strike (depending on opponent, their health and weaponry), pick your fights (you can block a sword just once while on full health for one but keep your distance) and just use your head in general.

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Woah. Great, detailed answers. Thanks so much.

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It’s awesome to see people actively seek out constructive advice on how to play this game well. :slight_smile:
Now to get down to the nitty gritty:

  • Stick with your team as much as possible and remember that positioning is important. A map to get a good feel on what good grouping is like is Asylum. You’ll learn where to be depending on what weapon you have. In terms of ‘laying low’ you need to do this but not as often as you may think. Picking the moment to be aggressive is crucial. Often flanking your oppenent while the enemies are in a chokepoint is useful. Especially if you have a power weapon like the shotgun or rockets or similar. - Shoot whoever you see on the enemy, whenever you see them. At the end of the day, a kill is a kill. People may moan about their kill getting jacked but so what? The enemy die when you kill them. When the game is objective based, it is important to slay first, get the re-slay and push for flag. An enemy dead is one less guy to stop your team getting the flag. It shouldn’t matter who gets the kill. As long as the enemy are dead, you can push the flag and win. - Learn to use ALL the weapons. It shouldn’t matter what weapon you grab. A power weapon grabbed, is a weapon that the enemy don’t have. Giving you an advantage. Make sure not to double up on power weapons either unless you absolutely can get a couple of kills quickly. Most prominent with the rockets. You can burn through those very quickly. In relation to your question; you can shoot near the weapon to get your team to realise your intentions. Also you need a mic! I cannot stress enough how important verbal communication is. Often communication is the difference between a win and a loss. - Generally running towards the front of your team is the best way. Especially within dmr range of your team. You then need to find some cover to regain your shields. Then you can help your team once you have regained shield and the enemy are briefly distracted for that split second. - Depends on if the game is winnable or not. If you get slapped around and die more than you kill, better off looking for the next game. No point staying in if the game is going to be no fun at all. Don’t solo search stuff like team slayer ever. - Just people who have guest players. That’s all that is. - Drop armour lock immediately. This is coming from a guy who used to use this for over 5 years and saw no improvement. Sprinting is so much better for positioning and gets you out of more situations. Jet pack can also help with this. Evade is the best ability, but it’s only for Sangheili or as a pickup on mlg. - Just learn the melee ranges of the weapons. You should try not to get close unless you know you can get the first melee in before your opponent. Crouching around a corner and giving a cheeky love tap will just leave your opponent vunerable. Beat down>> assasinations because you can continue fighting at a quickpace. Assasinations put you out of the game for 3 seconds. If you are in enemy fire while assasinating, you’re dead. You can only really get away with assasinating while in the air or coming up a ramp.That’s it from me in relation to answering your questions from my perspective. Hope this helps.
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> 2533274993561259;3:
> Woah. Great, detailed answers. Thanks so much.

Np, but just for the record, if you want people to more likely see you commented on them you should quote them so they get a notification. Just a thought and if post you are quoting seems long then you can delete unimportant parts or something like that.

> 2533274823976086;4:
> Learn to use ALL the weapons. It shouldn’t matter what weapon you grab. A power weapon grabbed, is a weapon that the enemy don’t have. Giving you an advantage. Make sure not to double up on power weapons either unless you absolutely can get a couple of kills quickly. Most prominent with the rockets. You can burn through those very quickly. In relation to your question; you can shoot near the weapon to get your team to realise your intentions. Also you need a mic! I cannot stress enough how important verbal communication is. Often communication is the difference between a win and a loss.

And that is very true, it would really help if you learned to use all of the weapons, especially power weapons, to some degree given in some situations you might not have a wide choice of weapons and power weapons are good for some quick kills.

And definitely, a mic is really what differentiates uncoordinated mess from at least start of a real team play.
Its just if you really dont have a chance to use a mic for whatever reason then your options of communication are really limited but there still are some. But even those few are riskier.

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> 2533274823976086;4:
> It’s awesome to see people actively seek out constructive advice on how to play this game well. :slight_smile:
> Now to get down to the nitty gritty:
> …
> Learn to use ALL the weapons. It shouldn’t matter what weapon you grab. A power weapon grabbed, is a weapon that the enemy don’t have. Giving you an advantage. Make sure not to double up on power weapons either unless you absolutely can get a couple of kills quickly. Most prominent with the rockets. You can burn through those very quickly. In relation to your question; you can shoot near the weapon to get your team to realise your intentions. Also you need a mic! I cannot stress enough how important verbal communication is. Often communication is the difference between a win and a los
> …
> Drop armour lock immediately. This is coming from a guy who used to use this for over 5 years and saw no improvement. Sprinting is so much better for positioning and gets you out of more situations. Jet pack can also help with this. Evade is the best ability, but it’s only for Sangheili or as a pickup on mlg.

Thanks for some great feedback.

Regarding the heavy weapons: I realized pretty early on that some of these weapons can really tilt a game – and a few times I’ve played games where the battle for those weapons is the game. So I always try to be nearby when the rocket launcher spawns. I’ve gone so far as to commit ‘tactical suicide’ by jumping over the side with the RL when I was outnumbered and my shields were down. On Sword Base, I’ll go down and empty all the rounds on the sniper rifle in games where there is someone on the other team super-deadly with that thing. And even though I’m not great at it, I’ll take the sword if I come across it because, as you say, it prevents the other team from getting it.

So all that to say, if the game is close my focus on those weapons is to do whatever gives my team the best chance of winning. Only if the score is spread out and there’s a bit more room for error, do I use them by choice because I do realize that it’s part of improvement. I get what you’re saying about a mic. I’ll think about it.

I generally do use sprint. So I guess I’ll just stick with it.

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> 2533274890014309;5:
> > 2533274993561259;3:
> > Woah. Great, detailed answers. Thanks so much.
>
> Np, but just for the record, if you want people to more likely see you commented on them you should quote them so they get a notification. Just a thought and if post you are quoting seems long then you can delete unimportant parts or something like that.

Noted and thanks again.

I’ve commented in the previous post about heavy weapons.

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> 2533274993561259;6:
> Regarding the heavy weapons: I realized pretty early on that some of these weapons can really tilt a game – and a few times I’ve played games where the battle for those weapons is the game. So I always try to be nearby when the rocket launcher spawns. I’ve gone so far as to commit ‘tactical suicide’ by jumping over the side with the RL when I was outnumbered and my shields were down. On Sword Base, I’ll go down and empty all the rounds on the sniper rifle in games where there is someone on the other team super-deadly with that thing. And even though I’m not great at it, I’ll take the sword if I come across it because, as you say, it prevents the other team from getting it.

Slayer gametypes are meant to be like this, getting and keeping the power weapons is the game. They are the reason to rush forward at the start of the game, they are the reason you don’t just camp in one spot as soon as your team is 1 kill ahead. If you don’t, the other team gets the power weapons, and you’ll inevitably lose the next fight(s).

Grabbing weapons to prevent enemies from getting them is a good idea, though sometimes it’s better not to. Say on Countdown, when you have Shotgun DMR and you kill Sword, you shouldn’t take the Sword, DMR is too important. Btw, sometimes you can empty a gun, or throw it off the map, to effectively get rid of it. You can also do so when you’re dying, for instance shoot a rocket at the floor even though you know you won’t hit, or jump off the balcony on Countdown, jump into the mancannon on Uncaged with the sniper (for instance, you’ve shot all 4 bullets, are 1 shot from dying, and you can’t get to cover).

A great thing to remember on Power Weapons: Most games are 12 mins, and the weapons spawn every 3 minutes (unless they are still on the battlefield). Most of the time someone picks up Rocket Launcher on 11:45, it’ll almost always be empty within three minutes, so another will spawn at 08:45. Another at 05:45-05:30, etc…

1. Just try your best, all you can do. And just practice what you want to practice. I’m rushing sniper lately, just to get better at it. I usually fail now, but it’s the only way to learn.

2. People who complain about ‘stealing kills’ don’t understand the game, you’re meant to be shooting the same targets, so they die faster. Few things to note, though:

  • Don’t shoot a rocket at someone who’s already very close to death, not because it’s stealing, it’s just a waste.
  • If you have sniper, and your teammate(s) are already shooting the enemy, just aim for a bodyshot, It either kills or puts them 1 headshot away from death.
  • Needler isn’t a great weapon for teamplay. It’s great for solo kills at mid range, if you’re teaming up on an enemy, I think Assault Rifle is better.
  • Don’t rush forward to use Sword/Hammer on an enemy, if you can 2v1 them from mid range instead. It’s way safer.
  • If two people are in a 1v1, and you are behind that enemy, don’t rush forward to melee them, just shoot. Unless you’re very close before they are close to dying. Nothing worse than losing a 1v1 by one bullet, because your teammate wanted to assassinate instead of shoot.

5. In my opinion: Just leave right away. A 4v3 is hard but doable, 4v2 is just nonsense. Just leave and search again. :wink:

7. In my opinion: Not using it because it’s OP is stupid. I feel that Jetpack is even more OP. Sprint is also game-breaking. People just hate on Armor Lock because it’s frustrating to play against, not because Armor Lock spammers win every game. Love playing with Armor Lock, especially dodging rockets. Do think it’s annoyingly strong, it should either freeze your shield recharge, or not give off an EMP upon exit, or disallow you from moving the camera during, or not be able to dodge Sword/Hammer. It does too many things, especially in non-Title-Updated gametypes (also removes sticky’s there). Think it’s mostly very strong on Sword Base, Reflection, Uncaged. I play with sprint most of the time on Team Slayer maps.

8. Melee and everything else in close combat quarters is helped by two things:

  • Higher sensitivity (10 is awesome for close combat, but 4-6 is probably best for sniper/dmr. I use 7.
  • Bumper Jumper (as in, the button layout. With default, you can’t use jump/melee without letting go of your camera. With Bumper Jumper you can, it’s awesome. The only problem is, it’s very hard to use Jetpack, unless you ‘claw’).

I agree that mics are awesome. But I think only like 10% of players use theirs. I usually equip mine, because every now and then you’ll get a game with some cool communication. Nothing better than getting a grenade kill on an opponent you never even saw, just because your teammate told you where he was.

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> 2533274993561259;6:
> > 2533274823976086;4:
> > It’s awesome to see people actively seek out constructive advice on how to play this game well. :slight_smile:
> > Now to get down to the nitty gritty:
> > …
> > Learn to use ALL the weapons. It shouldn’t matter what weapon you grab. A power weapon grabbed, is a weapon that the enemy don’t have. Giving you an advantage. Make sure not to double up on power weapons either unless you absolutely can get a couple of kills quickly. Most prominent with the rockets. You can burn through those very quickly. In relation to your question; you can shoot near the weapon to get your team to realise your intentions. Also you need a mic! I cannot stress enough how important verbal communication is. Often communication is the difference between a win and a los
> > …
> > Drop armour lock immediately. This is coming from a guy who used to use this for over 5 years and saw no improvement. Sprinting is so much better for positioning and gets you out of more situations. Jet pack can also help with this. Evade is the best ability, but it’s only for Sangheili or as a pickup on mlg.
>
> Thanks for some great feedback.
>
> Regarding the heavy weapons: I realized pretty early on that some of these weapons can really tilt a game – and a few times I’ve played games where the battle for those weapons is the game. So I always try to be nearby when the rocket launcher spawns. I’ve gone so far as to commit ‘tactical suicide’ by jumping over the side with the RL when I was outnumbered and my shields were down. On Sword Base, I’ll go down and empty all the rounds on the sniper rifle in games where there is someone on the other team super-deadly with that thing. And even though I’m not great at it, I’ll take the sword if I come across it because, as you say, it prevents the other team from getting it.
>
> So all that to say, if the game is close my focus on those weapons is to do whatever gives my team the best chance of winning. Only if the score is spread out and there’s a bit more room for error, do I use them by choice because I do realize that it’s part of improvement. I get what you’re saying about a mic. I’ll think about it.
>
> I generally do use sprint. So I guess I’ll just stick with it.

About power weapons; typically the rule of thumb is that most power weapons spawn 3 mins after pick up. Good examples of this are: the rocket launcher, sniper, sword, grenade launcher, splaser and plasma launcher. Remembering timings for weapons on spawns can swing the game. As for tactical suicides; that’s actually a thing that’s quite good to realise. Power possession is an advantage. Not letting the enemy have it is common sense.

Weapon focus is one thing, but what if no weapons are available? Positioning is as important, possibly even more so. You want to position yourself and your team in a way that the enemy doesn’t spawn behind you and limit the enemies spawns. This is spawn trapping and can severly turn the tide in your favour.

Sprint is life and stick with it :slight_smile: