Tips from Experienced Veterans

Games Other Halo
1

I’m a little bored tonight and my last thread was rather popular with many users asking questions, so I thought I’d do another thread about becoming a better player overall - with tips that can be used in any situation. I’ll try my best to label them on a 1-10 scale for difficulty to learn (1 being easy, 10 being difficult), so work with me.

For players like me, Halo is more than a point-and-shoot game. Halo, to me, is a game of spawns, positioning, and coordination in attempts to use those spawns and positioning in your favor. What I mean by this: I base most of my positioning decisions I make in Reach on enemy spawns and positioning I know are happening - whether I see them, predict them, or have them called out to me. Once the overall position and movement is done, intricate team work takes over: baiting and switching, small teamshooting, etc. The following can aid you with understanding high level play:

  • Calling out (2/10) - Call outs are honestly the simplest thing you can do to better your game. Youtube any map and there are bound to be call outs for it. I’ve also helped a few dozen players with call outs, and now they do it flawlessly and are instantly better team mates because of that ability. The only learning curve to this skill is being able to memorize call outs (which don’t really differ from map to map too much; though there are certain map specific call outs), and then be able to call out while shooting and playing the game. Just practice talking in games and you’ll have it down in no time.

  • Weapon Timing (2/10) - Whenever I help a player, I tell them this: take out a piece of paper that you can sit in front of you while playing. Write the weapon spawn times down (this is all default, not an MLG guide):

  1. Rockets - will spawn exactly 3 minutes after you picked them up. So if you got them at 11:53 at the start of the game, they’ll be up at 8:53 on the dot. Prepare for them.

  2. Snipers - this is iffy for me since I’m rarely the sniper in competitive games. The spawn times tend to differ on maps, but the basic rule is that the sniper has to be dropped for it to be spawned again - but if it’s dropped before 2 minutes after it’s been picked up, it won’t spawn until the 2 minute mark. For example: if you picked your sniper up at 11:53, use all the ammo in 1 minute and drop it, it won’t spawn until 9:53. You can also use this to “dirty” an opponents sniper by holding it so theirs will not spawn.

  3. Grenade Launcher is the same as the sniper

  4. The Sword - specifically on Zealot will spawn at 10:10 in Arena, TS, etc. It will spawn at 9:10 in doubles.

  • Spawn prediction (4/10) - At first, thinking mid game about enemies spawning can be confusing. You’ll find yourself guessing a lot - which is a natural thing to do since you have no spawn prediction experience to base your thoughts on (I’m assuming). After this guessing phase, you’ll start to learn more and more - you’ll recognize scenarios. For example, I’ll use a basic map: Asylum. If you kill the enemy team in ring, then kill them in their snipe hut, I can easily predict they’ll spawn rocks. USING THIS KNOWLEDGE, position yourself appropriately, and then slay them in their rocks spawn. After you slay them rocks, realize they will not spawn there twice, and call out the first person spawning and set up appropriately.

  • Coordination (8/10) - This is the skill that separates the good players from the great players. In a nutshell, coordination is using the 2 above skills and then putting them to work in various ways - various being crucial. The best players will out team work you in ways I’m not going to get into, but I’m sure you’ve all had a “WTF HOW’D THEY DO THAT??” moment that I’m talking about. In a more complex definition, it’s being able to:

>Call out everything - what you’re doing, what you see, and at the same time responding to call outs.

>Predict the spawns of the enemy as well as know where they’ll likely be based on call outs.

>Timing weapons and also using tactics to obtain and keep enemy weapons from spawning. A common tactic is to throw off the rocket timer is to not let the enemy know when you picked them up.

>Use basic team work and aim to kill the enemy.

All at the same time.

While you may be wondering, “what about aim? that’s a pretty big skill, right?” - it is, but you want to become a smarter, team oriented player first, while you’ll develop aim over time. I don’t consider my aim to be anything special, but I still compete with very good players easily because I out think them in most cases.

If you have any questions about any of this or anything else Halo related, feel free to post them ITT, message me here or over XBL, or add my gamertag “Confessors” especially if you would like help becoming better. Thanks for reading.

2

TC would you mind if I also posted my knowledge here? I’ve been wanting to make a comprehensive guide for a while, but perhaps if multiple people all listed things in a single thread the sum would be greater than the parts. I don’t mean to hijack your thread which is why I’m asking permission before posting a lot of info

3

> TC would you mind if I also posted my knowledge here? I’ve been wanting to make a comprehensive guide for a while, but perhaps if multiple people all listed things in a single thread the sum would be greater than the parts. I don’t mean to hijack your thread which is why I’m asking permission before posting a lot of info

This is really just a basics guide - I was trying keep it really simple - so you’re free to add to any of my points or make them a little more specific (Ex - specific map call outs, etc etc).

Basically everything I posted is something that can help a player improve their game in a very short amount of time. So anything you can add to that, feel free and I’ll see what you’ve got and maybe make the thread into a comprehensive Waypoint guide for stepping your game up.

4

Awesome list! I really need to work on timing weapons. A lot of my “timing” is thinking, “Hey, I think this weapon might be back…”

5

Keep in mind this is not the extent of my knowledge in Halo. If you like what you see and you wish to learn more check out this topic on the clan I’m creating,
https://forums.halo.xbox.com/yaf_postst99425_Forming-new-clan--Halo-Masters-Society.aspx
Any KD is welcome as long as you’re there to win and you want to improve. If you’re a casual who likes to just play for fun, I respect that, but this isn’t the clan for you.

I Team Selection
II Distribution of Force
III Armor Abilities
IV Using vehicles properly
V Defending against vehicles properly
VI Risk Management

I Team Selection
The first you need to realize is that not everybody has to be amazing, even a team full of average ability players, who communicate and play as a team can do very well. It needs to be established ahead of time who is the BEST sniper amongst you, also who is the best warthog driver, who has the best accuracy with the Wraith, and who is the weakest amongst you. Everybody has a strength, and everybody has a weakness. For the team to work as a whole, everybody must be utilized effectively.
As a personal preference I would rather choose an average player with a mic over a skilled player without one. Communication is THAT important.
Also while I’m sure I’ll take some heat for saying this, I’m keeping it real…when you play with somebody with a higher KD, or certain inheritors…make sure they’re actually going to try to help the TEAM win instead of just watching out for their own KD. I’ve seen inheritors who LITERALLY won’t even leave the base unless they’re in a Tank/Banshee/Wraith and prefer to sit back sniping the entire time. Having somebody who can post impressive numbers can be nice, but make sure you’re gaining more than you’re losing by having a selfish player on your team. This obviously only applies to a certain amount of inheritors, there are plenty of skilled inheritors who actually play as a team.

6

II Distribution of Force
1st Scenario: A hops in the tank, and gets many kills. B doesn’t have a vehicle and is on foot, so maybe they just break even
2nd Scenario: A stays on foot, because A is good enough to still go positive on foot, and B grabs the tank and also goes positive.
So as you can see in the second scenario, the higher skilled players should avoid using strong vehicles so that the lesser skilled players can use them. It isn’t as good for the player having to run around on foot, but for the TEAM AS A WHOLE, it is better.
This applies for power weapons as well. You do NOT want to have one greedy player holding both the Sniper and the Rockets at the same time. If the opposing team kills that one person, that team winds up gaining two power weapons from the single kill. It is far better to have one person holding the sniper, and another holding the rockets.
Lastly let’s say the game just began. You’ve just grabbed the sniper and the game black screens because somebody has quit. Rather than picking up the extra sniper ammo for yourself, have somebody else take it. Now your team has 2 snipers instead of 1, and is far more effective.

7

III Armor Abilities
The biggest trick to armor abilities is knowing how and when to choose them.
Armor Lock- Best chosen if you’re on a map like Hemorrhage and the enemy team has warthogs, ghosts, banshee, or a wraith surrounding your spawn. Your team needs to team shot these vehicles to destroy them or force their retreat. While you’re doing that the Armor lock can keep your team alive. Also if you’re playing a map like Boardwalk and the opposing team gets the rockets, it can help negate their advantage. Remember not to Ghandi hop while using armor lock, as you cannot use it in mid air. You need to stay on the ground strafing to make the best use of it. Lastly do not use this as a crutch. Few things irk me more than nubs that immediately go into armor lock the INSTANT they take a single shot. If you never have to out DMR anybody, you’re NEVER going to get better. Armor Lock should be used to stop vehicles, rockets, and nades, not as a pause button because you don’t know how to outshoot somebody, you’re only hurting yourself when you immediately cower like that.
Camouflage- Best chosen when you’re the designated sniper on your team, in a FULL team. If you don’t have a full team, you sniper will wind up needing Sprint/Jetpack to reach the sniper and be less effective.
Jetpack- Best chosen at the start of a match if the power weapon you’re going for can be reached quicker with jetpack, than it can with sprint. Jetpack is also useful for reaching good sniping locations on certain maps, as well as killing an enemy with rockets. If you’re on the ground with Rockets chances are you’ll die, to date I’ve never been killed by rockets ONCE when I was jet packing above somebody using them. They lose their ability to take advantage of the splash damage, so as long as you aren’t hovering by a wall/ceiling you’ll most likely be fine. Jetpack is ideally used as a boost jump. Just a way to get where you’re going quicker. If you fly 50 feet in the air in the middle of the map, expect to get him from every angle and killed quickly. Flying out in the open where you have no cover/concealment is the SINGLE biggest mistake people make when jet packing. Lastly get a feel for when it runs out. Before it runs out, start your free fall and boost again at the last moment to stay alive. The higher you unnecessarily go, the worse your chances of surviving are, so be conservative with it.
Sprint- Best chosen at the start of a match in order to reach a contested power weapon first. If you’re taking shots, you stand a decent chance of staying alive by simply turning around, looking at the ground (To make your head harder to shoot from behind), and sprinting back toward cover. If the enemy team is using a lot of vehicles, sprint won’t really help you out much against them.
Countering Armor Lock-
People seem to have a big problem with AL users. There are a few simple things you can do to make them not so effective.
-Do NOT get close to them. Stay at DMR distance. You do not want to get “Frosted” or stuck with a plasma nade the instant they release. Don’t even try to assassinate them when they come out either (Yeah yeah that pain in the butt achievement I know). They can spin their camera around and exit AL turned around making it pointless to try
-Stop trying to splatter people. Great in Halo 3, bad idea in Halo Reach unless in objective where there is no AL
-Stop throwing grenades at them. I always see people immediately throw a grenade at the guy in AL. Why? He’s going to stay in it well after it explodes, you’re just wasting a grenade.
-Go into a custom game with a buddy and get the feel for the AL timer. The vast majority of AL users will stay in it until the last instant squeezing out every possibility that their team might save them. With a bit of practice you can become adept at throwing a plasma grenade right at their feet which will explode a split second after they leave AL. This is a practice intensive technique, but very powerful once mastered
-If you and a teammate are standing next to the AL player, spread out. Chances are somebody is getting a grenade thrown at them, be far enough apart so that one grenade can’t hit both of you

8

  1. Don’t chase as hard as you want to. Get within proximity and make your opponent come to you.

  2. Always have a plan B. If you’re at a disadvantage disengage and regroup or flank.

  3. Use teamwork, act together, move together, cover each other etc. This includes communication. Top players have intense awareness of enemies, maps positions, 1 shots and everything else going on.

  4. Move through and as close to cover as much as possible. It is far better to zig and zag through cover than to run across an open field.

  5. Do the unexpected and follow through with your actions, don’t second guess and try to not to always follow the same patterns of map paths, strafing, two grenades right after one another etc.

9

IV Using vehicles properly
First let me remind people that you are NOT playing Halo 3, this is Halo Reach. In Halo 3 you could laugh as your opponents repeatedly get splattered by your vehicles with little recourse. When you try that nonsense in Halo Reach, expect to get destroyed.
If somebody is on foot, and looking right at your vehicle, do NOT attempt to splatter them. I cannot repeat that enough. Forgive me but I must put this in all caps because people don’t seem to get it…IF SOMEBODY IS LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU WAITING FOR YOU TO SPLATTER THEM, YOU BETTER KEEP YOUR DISTANCE AND NOT TRY TO SPLATTER THEM. If somebody is just looking at you, they either have Armor Lock (Very common), they’re simply waiting for you to get close enough to throw a plasma grenade right at your big thick head, or they intend to hijack you. Keep your dang distance.

Disclaimer Once you’ve reached a certain skill threshold two players on foot will easily outscore two people in a warthog. The warthog should be used by beginners or casuals, if you want to be competitive don’t expect to rely on it outside of objective
Warthog- Possibly the vehicle with the least amount of players who know how to properly use it. Let me give you guys the low down on PROPER Warthog use
-The warthog turret can only fire so close, so when you drive your hog RIGHT next to somebody, your gunner cannot kill them
-The warthog turret can only fire so low, so if you’re even on a small mound, you risk your gunner not being able to hit near targets
-The warthog has terrible suspension. If you keep driving over every mound in hemorrhage your gunner’s screen will be incredibly bouncy and hard for them to score kills
-In slayer your passenger seat should be EMPTY, unless you’re on a map which is completely dominated by Warthogs, in which case your passenger seat should ONLY include somebody armed with an anti-vehicle weapon to help you kill the opposing hog.
-In objective the warthog can be your best friend in objective, but you have to use it wisely. I always see 3 people in a hog, 1 with say a bomb. They drive over to the opposing base, and ALL dismount. If they’re killed the opposing team now has 2 warthogs giving them an advantage. Much better is to have the 3 players in a warthog, followed closely by 2 in a mongoose. The bomb carrier and the 2 on the mongoose dismount and try to arm the bomb, meanwhile the warthog goes for spawn kills to cut off enemy reinforcements. Even if you fail in arming the bomb, you still have the warthog harassing their spawn point.
-IF it becomes necessary for one of the warthog crew to dismount in order to help the objective, it should be the driver. Then you have 1 on foot, and 1 in the gun, so 2 players able to attack. If instead the gunner dismounts while the driver waits, you now only have 1 player able to attack.
-When near the enemy spawn point, if the gametype is objective, destroy their warthogs/mongoose/revenant as much as you’re able to, in order to handicap their ability to expedite the bomb across the map. If you’re playing Slayer, shoot the vehicles to WEAKEN them but NOT destroy them. If you destroy the enemy’s empty warthog, yes you’ve handicapped them, but you haven’t gained any points. Much better to wait for them to grab it and score an easy double kill. On the enemy’s stationary warthog I recommend shooting the protective plating off their turret first. When they come after you, your gunner will have an advantage and be able to kill their gunner quickly, then their driver will be defenseless. Easy double kill
-Avoid being stationary in the warthog. All you’re doing is giving the opposing sniper an easy shot at your gunner.
-As driver always keep an eye on our gunner’s shields. If he takes too much damage retreat before he dies.
-As gunner, when your warthog is retreating, or when you have no targets at the moment, face your turret towards the enemy and look up. This raises the turret protecting your head, making it harder to score a kill on you.

-The warthog will fairly easily beat an enemy ghost
-The warthog only stands a chance against Wraith/Revenant IF you keep your distance from it. You enjoy a nice direct weapon and could hit them far away, they’re stuck with an indirect fire weapon and are at a disadvantage at a distance.
-The warthog has a decent chance against a banshee but you need to get behind it right away. It takes a moment for the banshee to actually get its lock. Speed behind it and have your turret keep nailing it. Make sure to call your team for help. It won’t be easy to kill their banshee without losing your hog, but it is possible. Even though you would lose 1 point on the trade, I would consider it worth it to kill their banshee.
-The warthog can take out an opposing falcon if the driver keeps the firing radius of BOTH vehicles in mind, and is able to maneuver your hog where you can hit them, but they can’t hit you. If the opposing falcon has only a single gunner, hit it from the side that doesn’t. Again, the falcon is in the middle of the air for the whole world to see, call your team for help, chances are they can still help you from the other side of the map.
-The warthog is at a severe disadvantage against a gauss hog or rocket hog.
-The warthog stands damn near no chance at killing an opposing Scorpion by itself. If you pull it off send me a FR because I’d love to have somebody of your skill on my team.
-If you’re driving circles around the enemy base, go clockwise. If a plasma grenade hits the passenger side you stand a much better chance of survival than you do if it hits driver side.
-If you drive to the center of the map and find an opposing warthog there, or ANY vehicle even, do not chase it back to their side of the map, let it chase you over towards your side of the map, where your team members can reinforce you…

10

Ghost- just not as good now that there is armor lock. My team has never been over ran by ghosts.
Revenant- Could be effective I suppose if you really practice with it. Simply shuts down enemy warthogs if you boost up to them, and is good for destroying enemy vehicles at their spawn, then making a quick retreat.
Wraith- where you position yourself is everything. Put yourself too close to their spawn and you’re asking to get destroyed. Best to let the rest of your team move into the spawn trap first and be the last one in. From my experience the turret gunners are highly ineffective. They’re slow, exposed targets, who are highly ineffective outside of close range. An enemy wraith turret gunner has never stopped me from destroying the wraith when I went in for the kill. Other than that practice your butt off with that plasma mortar, and make sure to have a buddy watching your back. For both the Wraith AND the Tank, if somebody hops on you to plant a grenade on you, IMMEDIATELY STOP MOVING. If you’re boarded the best thing you is stop moving to give your teammates an easy shot at the hijacker. If your sniper is any decent he’ll be keeping tabs on you. If you start boosting away as you’re boarded, chances are the sniper can’t save you. If you immediately stop your sniper can often line up a headshot in time to save you.
Falcon- I don’t recommend this vehicle. The pilot himself in unable to fire, and has to attempt to maneuver the vehicle into the weird positions needed by their gunners. If you hover still for even an instant don’t be surprised to see your gunner get sniped off. You are typically completely exposed on in a 360 degree angle, and even small arms fire of DMRs are able to take you out. Combine this with the lack of ability to seat the flag/bomb carrier and you have my least favorite vehicle. Oh did I mention that Rockets can lock onto you?
Tank- Few words needed here. The turret gunner is more of a target than an aid, and if you’re boarded stop moving immediately.
Banshee- For the love of God, don’t try to splatter people. Just use your banshee bomb, and backflip. That’s really all you need to do.

11

V Defending against vehicles properly
One thing I CANNOT stress enough is do not simply run away from enemy vehicles. If you run away from an enemy hog, banshee, wraith, etc…all you’re doing is giving the enemy a free pass to slaughter you. Once a vehicle has decided to start spawn killing your team the most important thing you can do is have the ENTIRE TEAM start shooting the vehicle. If it is a one sided vehicle like the banshee in boneyard, take note of the time it is DESTROYED. The respawn timer for vehicles is based off of when they are destroyed, not when they’re taken. Destroy a banshee and make sure your team is in position to get the next one.
The following weapons are highly effective at killing ALL vehicles
Sniper, Rockets, Spartan Laser, Plasma Grenade Launcher
Assault Rifle- If used as a team, can help you out against spawn killing Warthogs and Banshees, only once they get really close to you. If possible use armor lock in conjunction with this. Wait for a vehicle to get near, spray it with lead and when it attacks go into AL. If your entire team does this the spawn trap becomes significantly less effective as it takes them much longer to score kills while taking greater damage.
DMR- Best if the entire team does it, but only when the enemy is too far for the AR to be effective.
Grenade Launcher- Amazingly good, but you need some way to actually finish the vehicle off. Sticky nades are a good supplement to this. Additionally you can set vehicle ambush points. Shoot the grenade at a certain high traffic spot, but continue holding down the trigger. Be patient and wait for an enemy vehicle to drive over it and release the EMP burst and spring the trap, with 1 other person it should be easy killing any vehicle you run into doing this.
Mounted Machinegun- While I typically hate this, on a map like boneyard it is greatly overlooked. Many times I’ve had a banshee enter my spawn where I’m able to ambush it with the turret, most of the time the banshee won’t even stick around to return fire it’ll get the heck out of there while it can. Note that you’ll want to fire the at banshee when it is targeting players spawning near the vehicle. If it it targeting people spawning at the building where you’re at you’ll die very quickly
Concussion Rifle- Absolutely amazing against an enemy warthog. Shoot these in its path (Remember to lead the target and account for drop) and watch that bugger go spinning out of control.
Fuel Rod Gun- A bit slow but powerful
Plasma Pistol- If you can’t reach any of the top 4 vehicle destroying power weapons, this will probably be your next choice. You’ll want some back up if you intend to kill an opposing wraith or tank with this though. Once it is stunned, immediately try to stun it again. Keep it stunned and let your teammates get the kill on this one. If you’re on the side of a wraith you can “Stun lock” it by repeatedly firing the burst. Do this and try to close the distance to board
Frag Grenade- If thrown properly in front of a fast moving warthog you can cause it to flip and gain the upper hand. The KEY is predicting where the enemy is going to be. Throw it well within their path when going around corners. This is one of those things in which practice makes perfect.
Plasma Grenade- Great against over aggressive drivers who try to splatter you with lighter vehicles. You may die in the process but it is usually worth it to remove their vehicle. You can also ambush enemy hogs by waiting around a corner where the hog will not see you until it is too late and stick them as they pass by.
Also note that with a Sniper Rifle you can bait your opponents with tanks. When a tank respawns shoot the driver’s hatch 2 times with the sniper to blow it off. Keep training on the driver’s seat. As soon as somebody attempts to enter it, you can earn a free snipe. This can typically be done 2 or 3 times against disorganized randoms before somebody comes after you
Lastly my biggest anti vehicle trick is the supplemented hijack.
I play bumper jumper, so my hijack button is B. What a lot of people don’t know is that you can start holding down the button early and you can still get the hijack. So rather than waiting for the hijack option to flash for an instant, and missing it due to reaction times, when you think an enemy vehicle is going to enter your proximity start holding down the hijack right away. Additionally you can press the melee and hijack at the same time to attempt a lunging hijack. If the enemy is driving a warthog and you use it on the driver, the combination allows you to lunge at them, and as soon as you begin the hijack it registers the melee, then when you complete the hijack another melee registers and you kill driver. Especially useful on ghosts is when they are going to splatter you, jump, crouch, look down, hold melee and hijack. Practice makes perfect with this technique, and DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THIS.

12

VI Risk Mitigation
So in Slayer one big thing to keep in mind is that every kill your team gets is 1 point. Every death you get gives THEIR team 1 point. It is not simply enough to get a lot of kills, anybody can do that. The real key to leading your team to victory is getting many kills but few deaths. This can be achieved by risk mitigation.
First lets look at some evasive techniques, the Gandi hop and the Strongside, named after MLG pro players respectively.
The Gandi hop is jumping while spamming crouch. This makes your head bounce up and down making it harder for an opponent to land the final headshot on you
The Strongside is running away while looking straight at the ground. Looking at the ground lowers your head making it harder to shoot you in the head while your back is turned.
These two techniques have saved me from enemy sniper fire numerous times. I get hit in the body and I immediately start looking at the ground, straffing, Gandi hopping, and sprinting. You would honestly be amazed how many times I’ve avoided death due to those.
Movement, go from cover to cover. Typically any time you’re going from point A to point B you can be shot from multiple directions. Choosing the route which minimizes those directions (Even at the cost of a longer route) is typically what you want to go with. The cover should be kept between you and the enemy team, especially where you think their sniper is. Step out of cover to get a kill or two, and go back into cover when shot. Additionally it is typically a better idea to move up the flanks of a map rather than being caught anywhere in the middle. The middle of several maps is a death trap, the flanks are where you want to be.
Be a hard target. Enemy snipers love hitting people standing still and they hate trying to hit people who are constantly strafing, believe me. Always keep a mini strafe going, ALWAYS (Exceptions are of course when sniping or camping). If you’re constantly moving and your teammates aren’t, the sniper will typically overlook you and go for the sure kill
Be mindful that your opponents can communicate as well, use the death cam as well, and expect them to be waiting for you. Say you just killed somebody at the entrance to the water cave on Hemorrhage. You know the guy can see you on his death cam. What I like to do is start running where I do NOT want to go for a few seconds, then turn around and go a different way. If they were watching their death cams they’ll be looking in the completely wrong place for you.
Also keeping in mind your opponent has a death cam…when playing something like SWAT use “Ghosting” (My own term, I’m not sure if this actually has a name). Basically you kill the guy with a single shot while he isn’t looking then you IMMEDIATELY hide in cover so he can’t see you on his death cam, and thus is unable to locate you.
Wait for your chance to strike. If three players run right by your position you don’t necessary have to open fire if they don’t readily see you. The same applies for players who are right next to cover. If you open fire with your DMR chances are they’ll just go back in cover leaving you not only unable to kill them, but now their team knows where you are and you’re vulnerable. If you wait for the player to get a certain distance from cover it becomes unfeasible for them to return to cover increasing your chances of getting the kill.
Wait for your shields to recharge. I always see players score a kill, they’re weak, and they just sprint out into the next room only to immediately die. Just take a dang moment to regen your shields before going back into the line of fire.
Do not go for the animated assassinations, just the simple short beatdowns will suffice. You can NOTHING from doing the long one (Except maybe credits, but that shouldn’t be taken into consideration), and risk a death from it. Do the short ones, less messy.
Get the hell out of party chat. If you’re in party chat with a buddy chances are you’re missing a lot of good info. Even if you’re in a full party of 4 players, and all in xbox live party chat, what happens when that tiny amount of lag kicks one of you from the chat? Is that player going to sit there vulnerable and open up the guide menu to hop back in hoping they don’t get killed? Just stick in game chat and you never have to worry about that. Now keep in mind it is a trade off because the enemy will be able to hear you if you’re in proximity so ultimately it becomes your call. Just realize both have pros and cons.
Keep a small profile. While the hitboxes may be the same, overly bulky armor and flaming helmets make it easier for your opponent to see you behind cover. I’ve killed many players who I normally wouldn’t have because their armor layout gave them away. Keep yourself small.
Change your service tag to a single word. For example my service tag is “Arby”. Now if somebody is flanking me, it is much easier for my team to say “Ar-by on your left” than it would be to watch out for 7WQ3…”Se-ven duh-bull-you-que-three on your left”, especially if they stutter due which is bound to happen with a crazy tag like that. Also if you’re in a clan or with a guest, make sure two of you don’t have the same tag. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to talk to somebody and he doesn’t know if you’re talking to him or his buddy. Don’t share tags please
Look at your opponent’s weapon. If you’re using the DMR and your opponent is charging you with a sword, you should back pedal while jumping (Sticky nades are best for players charging straight at you). Your opponent’s goal is to get as close to you as possible, so you need to be back peddling to keep the distance wide. If they’re using a DMR or a Sniper you need to be strafing. Moving straight forward or straight back will only ensure they kill you. Strafing and Gandi hopping make it harder for the DMR and Sniper to kill you.
If they have a rocket you need to make a split second choice….you either jump back and to the side in an attempt to minimize splash damage, or you get right in their face and melee them putting them in a position where firing their rockets kills them as well. If they have needlers and you’re near cover shoot them once or twice as the needlers are approaching, then quickly duck behind cover and let them hit that, then pop back out and finish off your opponent. Needlers are only effective if you can’t make it to cover in time. So as you can see it isn’t just about what you have, you need to be able to immediately recognize what your opponent has and respond accordingly. Move in a way which minimizes their ability to kill you.
Lastly if you’re only reading this section I advise you to go back to the top and read the entire thing, some risk mitigation techniques were posted already so I didn’t want to double post them.

So there you guys go, these are a handful (But not all believe me) of the reasons why I do so well in this game. Hope it helps you guys as much as it has helped me.

13

Meh the formatting was a lot better when I had it in Microsoft Word, I’ll edit all that tomorrow to make it easier on the eyes, for now I haven’t got the energy.

14

BWO Arbiter you mentioned the Plasma Pistols effectiveness against vehicles and i thought i might share with others a very good tactic for taking out the enemies Wraith. Have the player who gets the plasma pistol jump in the passenger seat of a Revenant and speed down to the other teams Wraith. You have the speed to surprise and get close enough to the Wraith so the passenger can just keep shooting him repeatedly with his overcharged shots while the Revenant just hammers the Wraith with its turrent fire in the rear of the Wraith. Most of the time 2 things happen. You blow up the Wraith pretty quickly or the driver realising he aint going to get a shot off against you will exit the Wraith and at that point you kill him and your passenger can jump in their Wraith. It is handy to know the enemies sniper position before you do this and would recommend that once the Wraith is disabled the Revenant driver positions the Revenant so that you are shielded from sniper shots by the Wraith you are trying to destroy.

PS: Dont try this on Tanks or any type of Warthog because they can still shoot you when the PP disables their movement.

15

>

I think what most people should get out of this is to communicate.

Even if its just simple things like someone camping a lift with a sword let somebody know. Don’t be down 4 kills before everyone figures it out.

Communication will only make the game better.

16

lolveteran. Good list.

17

> 1. Don’t chase as hard as you want to. Get within proximity and make your opponent come to you.
>
> 2. Always have a plan B. If you’re at a disadvantage disengage and regroup or flank.
>
> 3. Use teamwork, act together, move together, cover each other etc. This includes communication. Top players have intense awareness of enemies, maps positions, 1 shots and everything else going on.
>
> 4. Move through and as close to cover as much as possible. It is far better to zig and zag through cover than to run across an open field.
>
> 5. Do the unexpected and follow through with your actions, don’t second guess and try to not to always follow the same patterns of map paths, strafing, two grenades right after one another etc.

While this is a decent list for a better, more familiar-with-the-game player, it’s quite vague and would probably end up confusing a newer, less skilled / experienced player. People always post “use team work, coordinate etc etc” but that’s very vague, and I’m guilty of it as well to a degree. I’ll add to a few of your points to try to make them more user-friendly:

  1. Don’t chase kills. If you can’t kill an opponent, call him out and tell your team mates where he is. Most times, call outs for a situation like this would be:

-"______ player is weak (weak = having low shields)" or “_______ player is one shot (one shot = one shot to the head will kill” or "_______ player is absolute (absolute = one shot ANYWHERE will kill them).

-Try to include a location with your callout. For example, someone calling me out to their team would be something like “Confessors 1 shot ring 2”. If you can get a name of the player, or some kind of identifier that’s even better. If not, just call it out “1 shot ring 2” and see if your team mates can clean him up. Good team work will always result in high assist numbers.

  1. This point is just to constantly know what to do - which only comes by experience and knowledge.

  2. Same as point 1

  3. I kind of agree. But really this is just more of a "know where and how to control certain parts of a map. It can also be a “how to escape a spawn trap” point - which is crucial in high level play. I’ll go into specifics of how to break a spawn trap quickly for each map if asked.

  4. This brings to light an interesting point. In high level play, both teams are typically trying to do the same thing - because they know it’s the most effective way of winning a game. Example: controlling ring on Asylum. I’ve won a few games by NOT challenging ring and instead holding our own base for a really slow paced game against really good players. This caught them off guard, but I knew that as long as I held our snipe hut, and our sniper did work, we’d win. Don’t skew so far from the original formula as to try to do something dumb - like trying to hold the enemy base, but don’t be afraid to try out new things to see how well they work. Innovation is key.

18

Look in my fileshare from that close 1v1 we had what was I doing wrong? I had the lead for a bit then it was back and forth and you ended up winning 15-13 or w.e.

19

> Look in my fileshare from that close 1v1 we had what was I doing wrong? I had the lead for a bit then it was back and forth and you ended up winning 15-13 or w.e.

I haven’t been on my xbox in over 3 months so I couldn’t tell you.

20

> > Look in my fileshare from that close 1v1 we had what was I doing wrong? I had the lead for a bit then it was back and forth and you ended up winning 15-13 or w.e.
>
> I haven’t been on my xbox in over 3 months so I couldn’t tell you.

Gees lol.