[Guide] Grinding SMG kills for LA directives

Discussion in 'Light Assault' started by Iridar51, Sep 9, 2014.

  1. Iridar51

    A guy asked me for SMG directive grind advice ingame, so I drafted this sort of guide for LA grinding 1160 SMG kills for Light Assault directives for him. Decided to share it with the rest of you guys as well.

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    Alright, so you're grinding SMG kills for Light Assault directives. While there is some variety in SMG arsenal, playstyle will all of them is essentially the same.

    There are two key things to understand about SMGs:

    I. They have limited range. You must learn your effective range, and try to engage targets only within that range. You might occasionally snag a long range kill, when you get lucky with horizontal recoil randomness, and the target is a low-skill player who sticks out in the open for too long.

    II. The key advantage of an SMG is MOBILITY. In a firefight, speed is life. SMG is a defensive weapon, it allows you to dish out respectable damage while being fast. SMGs have excellent hip fire accuracy and 75% ADS speed.

    This means:
    1) 0m - 10m. Enemy can hip fire, but you can hip fire even better, and go for the headshots.
    2) 10m - 15m. Enemy is forced to burst hip fire or slow down and ADS, but you still can hip fire at the body and dodge enemy fire by moving erratically (ADAD).
    3) 15m - 20m. Enemy is forced to ADS, you can still burst hip fire for the body, or ADS. You will have 75% ADS speed, so anyway you will be either faster than the enemy, or as fast as he is.
    4) 20m - 25m. Your weapon starts to lose effectiveness here, but you still can go for that 75% ADS speed.
    5) 25m+. Ineffective range. Don't engage targets here unless you're forced to, or you're in absolutely safe position.

    This list of advantages is why I recommend using Advanced Laser Sights on all SMGs instead of extended mags. If you can't work with small damage per magazine, then I suggest you use high-capacity SMG instead.

    Naturally, these ranges may differ between different SMGs. For an NS-7 PDW, you can freely add 5m to all ranges, and subtract 3-5m for Sirius.

    With an SMG, at all ranges, you will be either faster or as fast as the enemy, so you'll have an easy time dodging enemy fire.

    Here's how you use an SMG:
    1) If the enemy is very close and firing at you: hip fire for the headshots, especially if it's a heavy assault with overshields.
    2) If the enemy is close and and firing at you: concentrate on moving erratically, while hip firing at his body. Or if the enemy ADSes, you can try taking advantage of the fact he is slowed down, and go for the headshots.
    3) If the enemy is not close enough for you to hip fire comfortably, ADS and ADAD. Headshots optional and depend on distance.

    Note that SMGs don't have good ADS accuracy, and bloom quite fast due to high rate of fire, so as a general rule it's better to aim for the center mass.

    The method above is how you use SMGs in an optimal way. However, it requires quick reaction and good hip fire aim, and generally a skill above average. If you do not possess these qualities, and don't want to learn, then there is another way.

    You can use any SMG, but preferably NS-7 PDW, which you can get just for 2$ here, with a forward grip and compensator, and pretend it's a bad carbine with good hip fire accuracy, hang back, and try to snag kills at range. I do not recommend it, unless you're desperate.

    As for the loadout, I suggest you go with the cookie cutter directive farm loadout that I use:
    Nanoweave, Med Kits, Jump Jets, Frag or Smoke grenade, Awareness or EOD implant.
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  2. lilleAllan

    Currently grinding my last SMG aurax, the MKV - not too crazy about it. Feels like a worse PDW.

    Mostly agree on your tips, except I only run ALS on Blitz and ext mags on everything else.
  3. Corezer

    Im still tempted to aurax a black PDW instead of grinding the MKV...
  4. cruczi

    I would. For my playstyle, PDW is just a straight upgrade over MKV. Black PDW is not free though... ;(
  5. Corezer

    I know that's why Im not sure, it's a dilemma of pleasure vs cost. MKV is free, but will make me cry tears of blood, NS7B is $14 but will be smooth sailing.

    I wish the AF4g counted for both directives, then I would be getting practice in for using the tempest, plus I would get a cheaper weapon than the NS7-B and it would just be better imo.

    oh well...
  6. Iridar51

    Come on, difference between them can't be THAT big. I'd bet within 20m there's barely any at all.
  7. Corezer

    within 20 sure, but with a comp and extended mags I can push the PDW to 35 no problem, that opens up a lot more target opportunities, a lot more positions to perch choke points from, and will just get me more KPM overall.

    I would say comp and grip, but a 30 round mag is too small to guarantee kills with the amount of hitching I do v_v
  8. Nehlis

    Can I treat my GD-7F as a SMG minus the 75% ADS?
  9. Iridar51

    No. GD-7F and SMGs are on opposite spectrums. GD-7F is an offensive CQC weapon, SMGs are defensive. These are two different philosophies. With SMG you try to survive longer than your enemy. With GD-7F you try to kill the enemy before he can kill you.

    If you'd like to learn how to use GD-7F properly, I suggest you check out Redwave's Guide to GD-7F.

    EDIT: Consider this: best hip fire and 75% ADS are defining features of the SMGs, so asking if "GD-7F is an SMG without 75% ADS" is like asking "is GD-7F like an SMG that's not an SMG".
  10. asdfPanda

    Nice guide! Any tips for specifically the Armistice?
  11. Iridar51

    Thanks.
    Not really. SMGs are not that different from each other in terms of how you use them. The basic approach is one and the same - dodge enemy fire while showering them with bullets.

    From my own experiences with the Armistice - some of the best moments you might have seen in my video "Armistice Day" - I actually liked that SMG, though I needed an adjustment period before I figured out stuff explained in the OP.

    It's got strong horizontal recoil, but next to no vertical recoil, and no recoil angle. It's not a best combination, you can't do a lot to mitigate this recoil, but what you can do is extremely easy. Armistice barely requires, and barely allows, any recoil control.

    Out of all SMGs available to TR, Armistice has the shortest reach. When you try to reach out to distant targets, whether you can kill them or not depends entirely on how lucky you are with horizontal recoil.

    Other than that I can only repeat what I said in the guide - use it with ALS, but be advised you'll barely have enough ammo to kill a HA. If you can't work with that I suggest using Hailstorm instead. It's not as bad as people make it out to be.

    Thing is - without ALS the best you can do is 10m full auto body shots. That's not enough to go on par / counter other dedicated CQC weapons, like Light Carbines and ARs and Orion.
    At 10+ m you'll be forced to ADS, same as other 75% ADS weapon users, like Orion. It's not a favorable engagement for you.
  12. SeanFree

    One thing I absolutely HATE about some SMG's is the bullets it takes to down a heavy with shields. I doubt it's a big problem with the Cyclone, but the Blitz feels like you have to hold the trigger down for roughly a year to get anything accomplished.

    And Orion Heavies against SMG's?
    lol.
  13. NoctD

    The MKV isn't that bad - the suppressor means only the better players will find/see you, there's plenty of people who don't have the situational awareness and will go down to the MKV before they can find you/start shooting back.
  14. Iridar51

    Believe it or not, SMGs are counter to weapons like Orion. Shield is a problem, though.
  15. UnDeaD_CyBorG

    As a heavy knowing I'll be in CQC, I'd never trade my Orion for an SMG (And I don't use that weapon often, either).
    At 10 meters, I can still comfortably hipfire, knowing that if my dps is lower than his, he'll run out of ammo before I'm dead.
    If you concentrate on dodging the likes of an Orion can actually run out, however.
    As far as I can judge, SMGs biggest strength, short of being available on Infiltrators, is you don't need preparation, just turn the right way and shoot.
    CQC combines like GD-7F and Serpent strongly benefit from ADS at 10m already, so you better have the drop on your opponent.
    I believe for the noob approach, the best SMGs would ironically be the Auraxium weapons?^^
  16. Unclematos7

    I personally prefer the 1st gen ES SMGs for LA because of their lower TTK.
  17. SeanFree

    Oh yeah, it's probably better than a 30 round carbine with 0.5x ADS (depending on hipfire) but the fact that heavies strafing while ADS'ing can be that fast makes me sad :(
  18. Iridar51

    Not THAT fast. He's either fast or shielded. If he's just fast then you have an advantage. If he's shielded, then it's up to you to take advantage of decreased movespeed and drop him with headshots.
  19. SeanFree

    Headshots and I don't really get along, it's been a lot harder thanks to SOE's great contribution in performance (read:less fps) because 25 fps makes them quite hard to achieve :D
  20. Iridar51

    Try out my performance guide, maybe that'll help. I can't say my FPS has gone down with patches, maybe you just need to do the #6 to get back on the track.

    But yeah, SMGs are hyper active, need good FPS and good hip fire aim to be successful with them.