When do I want to use SMG Infiltrator?

If you're using an aimbot, or are the 0.2% of the human race who was born with one in their brains...
...everyone else has to take time for the target to stop moving or to line up the best predicted trajectory to hit a moving target.

That's another common exaggeration that needs to stop being used. Bolt Actions are only "instant" TTK when they're hitscan and the targets aren't able to move quickly. ....which is basically... Zero games at this point unless we're including single player against bots, or some awful Steam Greenlight titles.

Thanks for the compliment .

I don't know man, I get killed by headshots while moving every now and then, and I dish out my fair share of moving headshots as well. I don't always go for headshots obviously, and often when I do I fail - but that doesn't change the fact that a close range BASR is far better than an SMG for mid range fights. Even if you only go for reliable torso shots, and you manage to miss one out of three shots against that single target, your TTK will be lower than if you tried spamming your pea shooter of sub 100 damage rounds with bad horizontal recoil. Not only that, but with the sniper rifle, you don't leave yourself vulnerable except for that brief moment when you fire. You don't have to be godlike skilled with a BASR to make more use out of it than an SMG at that range.

Catching someone unaware provides a significant advantage, but SMGs' stats are objectively bad at medium range where other weapons outperform them. I get killed quite often using SMGs against medium-ranged targets. I spray out some bullets now and then, but try to avoid doing it against anyone facing me because SMGs perform terrible out at medium range. (Speaking about all SMGs except the NS-7 PDW, which I almost never use because it sacrifices almost everything good and wholesome about SMGs in order to do a little better at medium range where you shouldn't be using an SMG.)

The scout rifles, low-recoil semiauto sniper rifles, and fast-chamber BASRs are all far better at killing at medium range (in ascending order of ideal engagement range, each with its various nuances.)

For context, das anfall's KPH stats rank me in the top 1% or higher with the SMGs I use.

Itzmurda is great, and idk if Mustarde has smg inf videos but he's a great infiltrator.

I do the same thing but hang back a little further and pick off injured targets with the Vandal.

I usually choose SMG over Vandal (i use both in CqC) when there are a lot of enemies, and Vandal when I can pace myself a little more in smaller fights.

There are several main things to understand about SMG infils:
1) How to use your weapon, what are its strengths and weaknesses. I explain this in detail in SMG section of my Gunplay Guide.

2) Your main feature as an infiltrator with an SMG is not cloak, it's radar detection. Use the motion spotter wherever you go. Know where's your enemy, where's he looking. Use this knowledge to flank. You don't need to cloak to do that, on the opposite, don't use your cloak or the sound will make the enemy aware of you.

3) Cloak is weak, and people tend to focus on it too much, thinking that infil is weak as a class. Maybe it is, or its weakness is that it's not relevant in wide variety of situations. But where it's appropriate, SMG infil is strong. EMP grenades and AP mines are a strong utility kit, SMG is the best automatic for fights within 20m, and like I said earlier - motion spotter is basically a legit wallhack. The problem is - it is not always relevant.

If the fight gets too crowded, your minimap will be so littered with arrows you won't be able to make heads or tails of it.

I'm sure there are people who enjoy the chaos of crowded fights, and who are able to pull off multikills, weaving death right from inside enemy's ranks, but I've never found this playstyle particularly effective.

Most likely whoever you just killed will be either revived, or respawn at nearby sundy in 10 seconds, while all it takes to stop YOU is ONE competent player, who will shoot you right through the cloak, and won't let go even if you manage to temporarily slip away.

Mustarde has at least one great SMG vid, but it's pretty old. Itzmurda's good, but does he have anything recent showing CQC infil play? I didn't see anything from quick glances at his youtube and twitch channels.

Great SMG infiltrators definitely exist all over the place. They just haven't made any recent videos

For when the HA or LA gets cut down trying to flank behind enemy lines.

Pop cloak, flank, empty 30+ rounds of SMG into like 3 people backs.

My experience has been that infiltrators are most often effective on the outskirts of the crowded fights. You can be effective running around killing turret engis, MAX engis (and even the MAX himself if you can see he's very damaged), heavies with rocket launchers, and snipers. Basically, you're taking some pressure off the people pushing/defending the capture point, which is worth more than yet another body getting fragged and revived repeatedly.

SMG infiltrators make great sniper hunters. They are good when used from behind enemy attack fronts near the hilltops where enemy infantry are doing av, sniping, or otherwise looking down rangw.

I mainly use smg infiltrator when I am hunting enemies with the flash and my ride flips or gets torn up by infantry fire and i need to abandon it. Using a flash as a distraction while shooting a lone infantry who has spotted you is also a good time to SMG.

But it also ranks the Eridani as the highest KP alongside almost every other Stat too among the "Casual-access" SMG's... and there was already several threads in the infiltrator forum dating back a long time where they admit that it's just as accurate as the PDW for a variety of ranges. The Cyclone meanwhile, often said to be the meanest for CQC, pales in comparison. And my own experiences in game support all this as well. Maybe 1 out of 10 of deaths to Infiltrators is a Scout Rifle or being bodyshot by 2 Longshots (aka: practically hitscan). The other 9 deaths are always SMG's and the distance they fired from doesn't seem to affect my chances of survival. A BR2 honest to god ran triple headshots on me once from 50m away and the poor guy had like 5 kills to his name and like 20 deaths. Brand spanking new character, obviously payed $7 for lottery ticket and it actually WORKED in one single case because the Drop-off and Accuracy is not nearly as bad as the SMG coddlers want everyone to think it is. Nor is this circumstantial, it's from studying the killboard every week. There's a definite trend here and my patience is running out on the people who are obfuscating it

A thread like this which claims it's situational or `not Meta` is based solely on a meta that could shift dramatically if anything were to change for HA shields, resources for MAX crashes, or L.A. Fairy C4-spam.

Eh, I believe the accuracy profiles of every SMG are identical apart from some minor recoil variance. But SMGs have 0.3 CoF in every stance aiming down sight (crouch/crouchmove/stand/standmove) while a carbine will often have about 0.1/0.2/0.1/0.3 (some better, and I think some worse.) And even though SMGs have the best hip fire, it's obviously still a lot worse (1.00/1.25/1.00/1.50) than aiming down sight.

Given such minor variation between SMGs' CoF, it's a little weird to say the Cyclone is really that much better than any other SMG. For me they're all fairly clumped in performance stats (except that for some reason I do better with the MKV.)

There are certainly low-end players out there who try to use SMGs at range, but usually those players' stats speak for themselves as to how effective that is. Quite often when I engage at medium range I'm punished for it. I don't know that I'd outright call it a "mistake" since in many cases you can squeeze off a good many bullets before ducking behind cover to cloak and flank away, and sometimes this does generate a kill, but if combat is reliably happening at medium range there are far better options.

It takes a lot of practice to know how to play well. I dont do it particularly well but have o.k. luck with it. It's outstanding when the opposition is in an area where they cant see each other easily and are semi spread out. You cloak into the area, take a few seconds to revive your cloak ability and then try and get behind their lines by flanking. Then when coming up on heavys with rocket launchers you get in close (less than 10 meters) and go for head shots. Cloak and run off. Check your map. Come up on cloaker/snipers who are concentrating on far away enemies and head shot. Dont try to get shots at 30 meters or more, its a waste of time and they will run towards you to kill you and your limited health will do you in.
The second situation where its a necessity is when your spawn camped. I cloak before leaving the room and run as far away from their view as possible and then flank. Often I can get a couple kills on unsuspecting spawn rooom campers. they dont figure anyone got out and get surprised. \
I love the sirius as the 50 rounds are a godsend. If you get 1 per death on an enemy overpopped situation your doing well.
The third best thing, is to go into a lightly popped base with turrets and switch them over to your side. Then jump in an anit air if they have a lot of planes present or anti vehicle if they have a bunch of tanks around. I took out 3 tanks at a tower becuase they couldn't believe they were being hit by their own base turret and probably assumed it was opposition tanks in the distance hitting them.
Shooting down their planes with their own bases turrets is very satisfying.
Get an anit personel mine option and plant one in front of the turret so when they come to pop you out they get killed, and....turn around occaisionally to check for other infils hacking your turret.
The SMG up very close is the best way to get kills for me. The snipers work well but only in certain long range situations. If I get someone snipering me I switch to bolt action 12X sniper and stay cloaked to scan the area it came from and eventually I'll get the guy if he never moves.
If you have 48 or more in a battle SMG seldom works well for me. Too many guys can see the movement of a cloaked guy and kill me.
Play with it and you will have a good asset to use when appropriate.