Welcome, Light Assault pros and wimps alike! I am Rhokes and I am new to Planetside 2 but not to competitive FPS. Like many of you lurking on this board, LA has become my addiction. I am now embarking on my mission to become a competent parkour-ing, jetpacking, CQCing, ninjaing LA and I would like to involve the community by compiling a nice list of LA Tips and Tricks. Please post your best tips or tricks (beginner or advanced) for LAing and I will try to compile them once a day. Try to follow this format so I can better compile your tips and credit you: Use C4, it's fantastic. Remember that you can stick it to vehicles, even your own. Ramming an explosive flash or scythe/mossy into a tank can lead to some good times. -Rhokes VS, Waterson Don't forget your pistol/knife! Provided that you get the flank, they are both powerful CQC tools. Remember that the first knife will knock out a full shield and some HP and the second knife is a kill. -Rhokes VS, Waterson Salvage ammo from enemy ammo boxes, they work for you. -Wolfwood82 If you charge passed an oncoming enemy, jet pack up as you turn around. -Wolfwood82 The Pump Action shotguns seem to be the best for tower assaults, where you can get behind enemy lines and remain undetected for long periods of time. -Wolfwood82 Automatic shotguns have the widest range of useful situations, however they are ammo hogs so be prepared to make frequent trips to ammo boxes. They also have a wider choke then pump actions, so be careful about your range. -Wolfwood82 The large magazine SMGs are good for extended time behind enemy lines (tower assaults especially) and have a better range then shotguns, however they have a slower DPS so avoid direct fire fights with them. -Wolfwood82 Always look for high perches when covering a room. People often don't look up when entering. -Crewell
Salvage ammo from enemy ammo boxes, they work for you. If you charge passed an oncoming enemy, jet pack up as you turn around. The Pump Action shotguns seem to be the best for tower assaults, where you can get behind enemy lines and remain undetected for long periods of time. Automatic shotguns have the widest range of useful situations, however they are ammo hogs so be prepared to make frequent trips to ammo boxes. They also have a wider choke then pump actions, so be careful about your range. The large magazine SMGs are good for extended time behind enemy lines (tower assaults especially) and have a better range then shotguns, however they have a slower DPS so avoid direct fire fights with them.
Thanks for your tips, Wolfwood82. The jetpack tip while turning around saved my life today, actually.
Oh yeah, the closer to the door the better. People also tend to toss in a grenade first if they expect enemies in the room. And they charge in and do a room sweep and focus on grounded people first.
Jump pads can be a LA's best friend. You can use the initial thrust from the jump pad and then use jump jets to get to where you want to go. On amp station defense using the pads on the tower nearest the spawn you can reach either shield gen or the central tower ( I have maxed out jump jets ) the other bonus is that you don't take falling damage when out of fuel so you can afford to take some risks. paradroid27 NC LA on Briggs
Don't coun't out your medium to long range carbines. With the advent of the SMGs for everyone and the Shotguns the LA has some competition in close range. But burst fire from an unexpected position can take down most enemies before they can react. And IF they have a SMG or a Shotty, its pretty much useless for them.
With the Jump Pads, when jumping from a Bio Lab to one of the satellite bases, you can change the direction a bit with your jumpjets mid-air. This allows you to land somewhere other than the 'landing zone' where enemies might be waiting for you, and can get you on top of an enemy sunderer to C4 straight from the Bio Lab launchpads.
You can change your direction more than a bit. Drifters really shine at this. Long distance satellite jump pads or high lifts like at a biolab will get you enough height to drift crazy long distances. With DJ5 of course. You can reach all sorts of places, from angles that the enemy doesn't expect. Super for AMS or tank hunting. You don't see alot of DJ users, so sometimes when enemies see a spec up in the sky at a distance, they don't pay attention to it. They assume it is a regular LA and will be moving fast and back on the ground soon. They certainly don't expect it to circle around the biolab just under the upper deck, then drop onto their vanguard when there is no other enemy infantry within 200 meters.
If you a fighting in a building that has open windows, duck out and hide on the ledges outside the window to confuse your opponents and give you time to regen your jetpack. You can oftentimes get a kill when they try to peak out to see where you went.
Another good place to regen shields is on the outside of the blast barriers on the towers, easy to prop there to regen shields, the jj over the top to catch the enemy unawares, watch out for 'friendly' tanks spamming HE trying to get one kill though
If your combat style consists of flanking and the attitude that the best defense is to never get hit, consider the adrenaline pump suit slot. It's a low cert investment and that 10% movement speed really helps you gain distance on your targets for both pouncing and fleeing.
Por Tip: it is perfectly safe to stand on top of the gun turret of an enemy lightning tank when planting C4. They can't see you up there, and you can't get run over. Plus you can deliberately fly into their line of sight safely as you jet pack off and imagine the immediately look of panic in their eyes when you push the detonator. Plus it makes you look like a total bad *** when you pull it off.
Three beamer/magshot bullets and a knife are a very quick kill against any non MAX and if you have a suppressor, its entirely silent. Good for picking off repairing engineers and infiltrators without giving away your presence.
Being in trees has been one of my favorite hangout spots lately, it's much harder to see into trees, as well as making your bullet trails more obscure. You can shift around/jet from branch to branch to get LOS on people, or get behind a thin branch that will block high-caliber enemy bullets if they manage to find you. Also a great spot to drop C4 down from if the ground-pounders decide to take cover under you. I've done this for awhile now, but few other people seem to: I upgraded proximity radar on light assault when cruising around. It sets up numerous favorable engagements at control points, hillsides, sneaking up on snipers, and also just parking inside tech plants/amp stations that are under siege. I'm pretty sure it shows up all the red dots for friendlies too so, helpful for everyone nearby as well. This isn't LA specific, but extra easy to sneak up on people when you can jet over obstacles to get behind them. In a 1v1 with advanced laser equipped (gd7f or similar) if you jumpjet and hipfire over them and don't get a kill right away, if you go directly over them while reloading, it screws up their aim while you get your next clip in(or weapon swap)
- Play like you would play Tribes/Tribes2, w/o the disc launcher. - Don't fly if you don't have to. You always run out of jet at the wrong time. This will minimize that issue. - Flank and Spank. If you can get behind an enemy position, you can potentially wipe a position. If you can't spank em, try to draw their fire. Your advancing forces will thank you for the guns you pulled off them. While drawing that fire however, don't go for kills, focus on survival. - Don't stand still. You are not a Sniper. Shoot and scoot.
