How to counter 10+ Magriders?

Not trying to ache about the vehicle spam, I know they'll fix it - but for now I just want to play the game and I'm trying to figure out the best way to counter the dozens of Magriders that are thrown at us from Crossroads Watchtower every time we move south as TR on SolTech.

Our outfit runs about a platoon and a half on a slow night and these HE rounds are just murder.

Is the counter Heavy / Medic / Engineer and then rocket line / alpha strike each tank? Engineer with tank mines? What is the most effective way to kill all these tanks quickly? SKEP vs. Annihilator?

Depending on who owns the crown, air support would be null, so we're talking whatever we can spawn from Snake Ravine / TI Alloys.

Would love actual responses that are more than just complaining - there's already quite a few threads for that. Here, we're looking for answers and enlightenment!

There is nothing u can do. The lock-on rocket launchers do not do enough dmg from the front. They're the only counter to Mag riders as they cant run away or strafe dodge them. But they do "meh" damage to the frontal armour of the tank. Also mag riders can just climb hills/cliffs and shoot down on you, making any anti-tank gear useless.

Basically wait until they nerf mag riders. This is the only thing you can do for now. That or go play VS like me.

I see ten mags: I run away. No point trying to fight that.

Only way is to counter with rocket pods and that's if they don't have air superiority which Vanu on my server always has.

liberators with air support is about your only chance. You can get air all the way to the enemy warpgate. I used to think it was impossible but then I started coordinating our air with ground to air and the results were very satisfying.

Yeah I'd say theres no point in countering this many mags. Guess thats what happens when the two largest vanu outfits decide its magspam time.

Don't bother.

SKEP's aren't enough, they do so little damage per shot that the driver will have enough time to boost away and repair, or even repair in the open since it takes 3-4 shots from a SKEP to make them think "oh ****", and at that point you're nearly out of ammo.

Prowlers/Vangaurds also can't compete with the magrider at ALL.

Don't work. They have the OP top gun that guns down your lib. Even if they don't, there's always going to be anti-air with the 10+ mag riders. So sucks to your lib.

Medbot544 laid down the best strat: run.

Looks about right.

bring libs/esf from the warpgate if you have to
air is fast - you can spawn them anywhere and get anywhere else fast

You can't defend against that with out backing off first, and BTW TR and NC do the same thing, it's not a VS Magrider thing. I guess if you have the number at your disposal you speak of (a platoon and a half is what... 6 full squads?) you could go grab some Prowlers, couple of libs and ESF's for AA protection, meet up and roll over them... could work. Better than spawning in direct with infantry and getting spawn camped (all spawning where they are sitting will achieve).

You can either do firing lines using terrain as cover (HE rounds are pretty ineffective against troops fighting skylined, since only direct hits will hurt them), or you can flank with Lightnings and Vanguard/Prowlers. Lightnings in particular are quite effective as they can move fast enough to dodge Magrider shots, and if you have vehicle stealth you'll likely be able to pick quite a few off before they realize you're there. Earlier we had a Magrider zerg come in on us at the same place, and I managed to take out 3 mags and a Lightning before I ran out of ammo. Then I roadkilled around 10 guys slamming my Lightning into their AMS Sunderer and finished it off with C4.

The problem most people have with Magrider zergs, or any armor zerg really, is they try to stand squarely in the path of the zerg and fight it straight up. Let the pubbie horde do that, and in the meantime play tactically and flank. The vast majority of players do not check behind them, and most don't check to the sides either.

You can flank bad magriders for sure, but good ones will always keep an eye out for it. I personally always flip between third person and first person views to keep an eye out for such tactics. Thing is that mags have the decided advantage in all ranges: they can shell from long range over all other vehicles accurately with main/secondaries (sauron ftw!) and they are capable of turning on a dime then strafing if in close combat. Also like to note that Q button makes flanking rather difficult if enemy has half a brain to press it.

We had two platoons at Indar Bay point tonight and vanu had a never ending spawn of magriders, liberators and scythes coming out of their warpgate. We held Indar Bay almost 2 hours with two platoons before we had to fall back to the tech plant. Then they rolled in with so many magriders that you could almost walk across the whole zone and touch nothing but mags. There were a good 70 of them in the base, plus about 25 liberators and 50-60 scythes overhead.

I don't know about you but I'm about fed up of Vanu having almost 50% of the server pop every night compared to our 28-30%. Maybe people will quit faction jumping when everyone just stops fighting them.
It's amazing that we have owned all 3 continents for pretty much 2 weeks.

The vast majority of magrider drivers are, in fact, bad. For that matter the vast majority of players period are bad. Because it's an MMO. And the skilled/unskilled ratio has always been heavily skewed towards the latter in MMOs.

Tank mines are a fun way to end them but you cant do it alone. Only a liberator gunner could probably take them on. Everyone else can perhaps take down 1-3 magriders themselves. Engineers are superb if there are base turrets around.

One very effective way is to have your own tanks surrounded by tank mines (not too close though). if you keep the magriders at mid range you can kill them with engi support. If they rush forward to try outmaneuver your tanks they run into anti tank mines and die. Just entrench yourself and kill them and their most vulnerable range.

AT mines... just... AT mines...

The only thing on the ground that can be cost-effective at range against magriders is lock-on launchers. Prowlers will get completely eaten up, and mines usually require you to be on the defensive. If you can close the range down then you can do a lot better... but if you can't manage that then I suggest you pull out and find a different fight. Magriders are evil.

I tend to avoid fighting around that area as TR so I don't know it very well. Tends to be that if we push down there we start getting into the classic 3-way blunder of splitting our two enemies, meaning all they can do is fight us. On Miller TR do it quite often on Indar and Amerish, and NC do it all the time on Esimir. It's the curse of the "middle" base.

This is incorrect- as far as the OP's situation is concerned.

The last time I ran with a Magrider swarm - we got destroyed by a Prowler spam that charged us and just kept driving around the place. We had about ten or so- and the enemies ran about the same number- but they just kept charging- and by the time we adjusted our shots- we could hit them, but they were in our face hitting us- and .....as I painfully know, going up against Prowlers is not winnable unless you hit them in the back somehow. Strafing was useless with the limited manuever room.




As for Vanguards- on Amerish, Vanguards ARE the counter to Magriders- and whatever our chances are of beating prowlers in a fight, its less against a Vanguard.

I also got to finally realize that that glow is the vanguard's ability- never before had recognized it. Without it though, Magriders still lose fights.

Strafing in my eyes is not useful unless mag drivers spent the resources to get the chassis' that enhance it. They can strafe fast. I can only strafe at 15 kph sideways- and that would work at extreme range. On the bridge from ti allows to the crown...:snicker:

At the NC arsenal, when the vanguard fleets show up (i'm on Jaeger BTW ) - er, strafing just makes us look stupid.

Yea, if people have the AV 2nd gunner, it'll let us beat a tank in a one on one- but 2 tanks will still beat one magrider in a fight. And if the magrider runs- we get blown up because we got hit in the back.




I'm one of those guys who's always getting blown up by enemy tanks while trying to strafe.

I eventually may spend the SC or certs to upgrade the tank so i can strafe faster- but honestly, I'm heavily leaning towards grabbing the anti vehicle main gun so i can try standing a chance. As for grabbing a saron HRB...i'm actually eyeing another magrider weapon that spams energy balls that's the anti infantry weapon. I'll grab it all eventually..


Anyway, the key is that you have assets that can beat the Magrider in a straight fight. So mass back, and you're already at a advantage. And approaching from the crown- i've seen it be done before.




The most glorious battle i've been in was a massive Zerg on zerg fight at the bridge of the J908 Impact Site. Magrider spam against Prowler spam. We had the impact site.

What happened? The two zergs were throwing down across the bridge- the bridge THERE is long enough we could strafe dodge- but prowlers kept charging in lines- and we got blown up more and more as they got closer.
The TR left my platoon that day feeling not so good after seeing that many magriders get destroyed-

and after hearing a few on here claim strafing is king- i've sought out battles where there were on open plains where we could really strafe-

There's not many. Sightlines aren't that great on many maps.

Amerish? nada

Indar? in some spots, mainly the north- East of Ti Alloys, a little....

Esamir? Yes, but I never see enemy tanks on Esamir except speedblitzin' lone Prowlers.

And Lightning tanks love to show up from nowhere, drive under my magrider then blow me up from behind. Or drive under me and toss me up while shooting me.

^^Don't fight 2 enemies unless you have a massive platoon or two , and the enemy DOES Not have enemy platoons. If they do, it becomes a zerg on zerg fight- and you'll rack in the XP, but getting somewhere is impossible when a third side is fighting

Kill them like you would any other tank, focus fire and pick them off one at a time.