The Art of the Merc in Multiplayer FPS
By MForce83 11 Comments
Mercing: the ability to utterly pwn noobs with the tools at your disposal. In order to be a total pro, one must embrace the ideas that inhibit proper mercing. This term derives from the word Merc. short hand for Mercinary, the pop culture icon that can plow through opponents while taking pay from the highest bidder.
In my gaming adventures, i have come across a universal truth, gamers are divided into four groups when it comes to gaming, nOOb, Intermediate, Casual, and Pro. for the sake of this article, casual gamers are not the target so they wil not be referenced. This is for people who wish to play competativly.
What seperates these groups when it comes to multiplayer?
nOOb: these people mostly whine about imbalance and wants to "play fair" what is imbalanced? whatever mercs them. These people do not understand the Meta of the game and will try to play honorably, whatever that means. most of all, they will not adapt. even someone who has the controll scheme imbedded in their hands can be a nOOb. Also, noobs are notorious for trying to rack up kills withought the thought of other objectives, which is fine with deathmatch style games but will hamper other team based games. i would put grievers and hackers into this catagory too since they are 1: detrimental to the team and 2: cant play within the set or intended rules of the game.
Intermediate: these people grasp the fundamentals of Meta, they understand that in order for one to win, there must be a co operative effort for the team based games. most of these people understand that 1: a main key to winning is communication, 2: avoid needless death but if what they do helps their team, to do it, 3: find out what other players are playing (Meta) and incorporate these characteristics into their tactics. Anyone who starts using "flavor of the month" tactics would be considered intermediate.
Pro: These guys are a well oiled machine, they don't follow "flavor of the month" setups, they make em. they see what the compatiton is using and they adapt on the fly. While intermediates will stick to the vanilla build to be safe, pros will create new builds to counter the current trend. they realize that the team and the objective is key to winning and will do whatever it takes, other than cheating, to win. alot of noobs will get pissed because of some of the tactics pro's employ but my word to noobs who can't grasp the idea of using a noob tube, taking an objective, or coming up with something that can overpower most other builds is "Evolve or die, now STFU".
now, what is Meta?
Meta: the metagame, all of the stats and how they are used to be a better player. in FPS multiplayer, a pro realizes something is overpowering, or can be made overpowering, and uses it to win, an intermediate will see and will immitate to get into a better position, a nOOb will bitch cuz he cant figure out why he has to wait for five seconds afer his pathetic 10 seconds of life are over.
The Team: it should be obvious that besides free for all, you are on a team. there is no lone wolf except for the one that is in my crosshairs, *boom* headshot. what was i saying??? Oh, in team games, lone wolfs usually get killed pretty quick by a compitant team, use the mic and let others know if you are checking something out. if you die, at least the team knows that there is enemies in the area you checked. lone wolfs should not be confused with meat puppet. The job of the meat puppet is to get filled with holes so the rest of the team can tri-angulate where the shots are comning from. too many times i have focused on killing a meat puppet only to get some cranial ventilation from a sniper. if you got pwned by an uber team and their lowest player is worse than your lowest player... he was the meat puppet and by killing him, you gave your team away, congradulations.
Assault usually is a team that has four peple or more moving at the same time near each other, they command more guns in an area than one person and will mop the floor with lone wolves. they can handle sniper fire and meat puppets fairly compitantly, maybe a casualty or two on their end, but their team will regroup as soon as possible. their only weakness is explosives. and people wonder why the noob tube is used alot? anti infantry, if you use the tube or whatever else that explodes on this group, it's not cheap, it's war.
Sniper: your eyes and ears, will pick off enemies with one shot, use the teritory to blend in, and piss people off. it's like where's waldo, with waldo able to pick you off from the other end of the map. to take out these guys, you might have to send the puppet out and wait for the bullet to hit him to trianguilate where this guy is firing. if you get lucky n find one on patroll, savor the moment, shank him, then teabag him for being stupid enough to be found.
Medic: if you are in a game that has some kind of medic class, be nice to these guys, they will save your ass more often then you can count. only problem, medics are alergic to sniper bullets and are usually the first to be picked off, treat your medic right n protect him and he will revive you when the dust settles.
Pyro: anything that burns or goes boom turns this guy on. assault teams hate him. main job of pyro(or demolitions) is to take out enemies en masse using the power of explosives. He is usually the second one snipers pick off after the medic rolled his last band aid. also, while they can deal massive splash damage, they take forever to reload. send out the puppet to eat his first tube and turn him into swiss cheese when he is reloading (or out of ammo, even better).
long story short, adapt to your team and you will see an increase in wins. and use the mic.
i could go on with this but right now, im itching to merc some noobs on MW2 or BC2. if anyone would like to contribute to the Art of Mercing, send some ideas through the comments. we must all strive to evolve if we want to win and if you want to merc with me, ACE8 MForce83 on the box, just please use the mic, it's not only imparative to communicate to win, it's boring if no one else is talking. And don't be one of thouse guys (http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/mforce83/thouse-guys/30-26759/.)