Can someone help me improve on my combat, fighting, and the game overall?

So true. Audio is actually a very important aspect of this game. Turn off the in-game music. Turn off your music. Turn up your headphones... and listen. You can know a lot just off sound.

Every empire specific vehicle has a specific sound. You can tell what faction ESF is near by JUST off the sound. Same with tanks and even guns! This is where playing other factions can help. I KNOW a TR heavy is near by when I can hear his TMG-50 goint dakka dakka dakka or his mini-gun going brrrrrrrrrrrrr. You can hear infiltrators, and even what faction they are, by the sound their cloak makes when it engages / disengages ... heck you can tell if he's turning it on or off by the sound!

The other day I was playing as an infiltrator, I was in a great spot, just smoking every dude that got in my line of sight. Then out of the blue some enemy infiltrator comes right over to me and ventilates me. I was like "WTF HAX!*($!" so I politely msg'ed him "hey how did you find me?" He said "you were spotting enemies, I heard your character saying 'enemy engineer spoteed', eventually dialed in on your position." Uhg.. .duh! I don't play infiltrator much and always forget to stop spotting when I am.

Sound is important and also being aware of what sounds YOU are making is important!

Most of this game is about your position. Getting the drop on people, and not letting them get the drop on you. If you can ambush people, then it will compensate for any lack of aiming/dodging skills.

How do you do this? Learn the maps. When you log on, go to an NC base far away from fights, so no enemies will bother you, and run around and learn the layout. Each Biolab is similar. Each Tech Plant is similar, Each Amp Station is similar.

Also, a lot of the smaller buildings within bases and outposts are clones of each other. So learn the layouts of these smaller buildings. That way, when your run into one, you can say "Okay, I'm in this building layout. I know at the top of the stairs to the left, that there is a landing guys can hide on."

Also, while exploring these bases, pay attention to where the teleporters are, where the elevators are, where the jumpads are. Open up your big map and look at what bases are next to the base you are in. That way, you can learn from what direction the enemy usually comes from.

When you've learned layouts semi-well, go to a battle, find the enemy front line, and then run to the side of it. Attack from the back/side at all times.

Take a look at Wrel's videos, mentioned in the first few posts. They should give you a good insight.

I would hate to say this, but if you are new, it would be recommended to join zergs where everyone has your back and you can earn easy certs.

Later in the game, you can begin operating as a small commando unit where you are self-sufficient and you can handle challenges.

Dont worry OP you are not the only one that this happened too, when you first login and come up against decent BR 100 guys these things are going to happen. For me I could watch 1000 videos, but through trial and error I just learnt what to do and what not to do. I was very new to FPS type games too. I found playing support def helped me on where I needed to go and use cover, learnt about lag compensation and all that. I am still not great, but I can hold my own a bit better now.

Alright man thanks a lot for your input

Buy an SMG and play heavy with it.
I just did and I got twice as good under 50 meters. I even dropped 3 players while I was fighting against 5 indoors!

I'm not a very good Planetside 2 player; I find this game has a very weird flow. The sluggish movement, aiming and shooting suggests it is a bit of a slow thinkings man game (therefore I went for weapons with some decent range to outflank the enemy.) but all the instakill weapons (vehicles, snipers, planes,, turrets, etc, basically everything except standard infantry weapons) and serious lack of cover outdoors and radar suggest otherwise. You have to be quick or you are dead.

The SMG (I bought the NS one which doesn't have a build in suppressor, can be used by all your characters on all empires) makes sure you kill quick. The heavy shield makes sure you stay alive. Just don't engage the enemy one on one beyond 50 meters.

I will take a look at them, thanks

I find this game to be very complex so it took me a long time to figure it out and the talent came along with that. My Kill/Death ratio is something like .4. If you start out you will be disadvantaged on every level. First you wont be familiar with the abilities of all the equiptment, next you wont be familiar with the base layouts and where to go and what needs doing and you will likely have difficulty recognizing the players ( i had a hard time telling friend from foe).
You need certain basics to be competitive like everything certed up to level 3 at a minimum amd that will cost you a boat load of certs, so ....cert aquisition will be an important first step. You can buy somethings but i think you have to earn certs for somethings. I never have bought anything, so i dont know (but i would like to support Sony as this is a great game).
As previously stated the Medic is my go to class for larger battles to get lots of certs AND help my team. So the first thing to spend your certs on is armor, revive tool and sights for your stock gun. The Night Vision (NV) scope is a must for those smoky filled rooms and is great as long as it's not to bright or your on Esamir (snow). The reflex scope is a must also (for my old eyes as i dont like irons). Nanoweave is a good choice to start with armor wise and then cert up the revive gun. Next as stated stay behind and advance only after looking the situation over, always have your primary gun out and switch to revive when needed. The back and forth dance is because the computer has lag and when someone shoots you if you are stationary its a hit, if you are moving you may not be where the other guy is seeing you so it can be a miss, so it has a purpose related to the game mechanics- always be moving. Look for the skulls on your field of view to tell you where you are needed. If i go out as something else and i see lots of dead teamates (skulls) everywhere i switch back to medic (even tho i have more fun with other classes). If there are a ton of Medics running around, switch to Engineer. Learn to drop ammo boxs and heal up Maxs. You'll need flak armor to stand the tank shelling or nanoweave to help with the infantry bullets (depending on what your dealing with). when a large base has been taken usually eveyone runs off to the next base leaving a ton of smokin destroyed turrets each of which will earn you 100 XP to heal up and will make it possible to shoot down those planes that return to take the base back. The Engis mana turret is free and a cert farming tool when placed at key points, only the Engi can deploy the machine gun mana turret (5 key) and you can switch to dropping ammo by hitting the 5 key and then the B key to toggle between them. You'll get free XP everytime someone has there ammo refilled by walking near your ammo box. Once your certed up in those to classes get proximity mines for the Engi so you can lay mines at the A,B, C capture points and generator spots at the bases, this always helps catch a few cloakers trying to turn them back and you dont have to be there to get the kill. As stated at the beginning stages you almost have to aim to get anywhere. After you get better hip fire guns (SMG and others) you can equip the laser sight to get pretty good hip fire capability but most stock guns wont hipfire well. You can tell by the little white X that is your aimiing sight without scope (check it on your LMG for the HA). If it's large its horrible hipfire if its really small and tight its great at hipfire.
Once all your players are certed up then i like getting the lock on launchers for 250 certs to keep air and tankers at bay with the Heavy Assault. And my next purchase would be a bolt action sniper if you dont get one stock, a scout rifle for the infiltrator, a proximine for the infiltrator, a battle rifle for the Engi and HA (with a 4 X scope it will do as a single shot 250 damage-2 hit- sniper rifle for longer engagments) and then the 1000 cert SMG (can be used on all classes) for the infiltrator and then the AV mana turret-1000certs- for the Engi to be able to take out tanks at distances. Of course that is only the beginning as there are tank options, plane options, flash options (i have wraith cloaking and M40 fury grenade laucher to have fun with). I was at a battle rank 50 when i started playing a different toon (Vanu) and at battle rank 15 on my Vanu its still no fun as i dont have all the toys my TR toon has. So the equiptment will have an effect on how much you enjoy the game IMHO.

Don't be ashamed to play support. Both the Medic and Engineer starting weapons are effective right out of the box, you can earn certs pretty easily, and you'll usually have people around you to provide backup until you've gotten your feet wet in combat.

One of the big things that has always stuck with me from when i started is simply ....TIME....just getting to know the game has a huge impact on how much you die.

As you get to know the game / weapons / vehicles you 'will' start dying less. There is so much sh*t that can kill you; when you don't know much about anything it is tough.

One thing you can do to instantly to reduce your deaths, so you at least get a chance to get a feel for whats going on in a fight, is always head to fights where your team has the population advantage, and stay with the main group. (check the map and hover your mouse over the sectors to show the population %). Once you get more comfortable with layout of bases and the game in general you can be less picky about having to fight where you have the advantage.

The other thing I usually say to these types of questions is...stick with it! ....it WILL be worth it if you like FPS games, I guarantee it. Simply because this is the best out there!!

Edit to add:- although you have watched a 100 videos and read up on the game, its just not a substitute for actual in game experience. In general you will be watching videos from players that know what they are doing, and things will all look under control and easy, which is not how you will find it.

Edit for another addition...just had a quick look at your stats page and one thing I noticed is you do quite often die to the same player in quick succession; if you die once, try not to repeat exactly what you did, i.e dont go back to 'exactly' the same place.

Every time you die think "why did I die then, what did I do wrong, and what could I have done instead" Over time as similar situations arise you will do the "what could I have done instead" as your first option.

First of all, winning a gunfight is probably 80% position and 20% aim/twitch reflexes, particularly if you don't play HA. You really don't want a fair fight. I'd be willing to bet that most of the time when you die, its either to someone who you never actually saw or when you run head on into a group of enemies (that's certainly how I die a lot of the time). The trick is being the guy who sees the other person first. When in doubt, don't go the obvious way. Don't go in the closest entrance from the spawn room -- the enemy knows that's where most people are going in and are going to be set up to defend it. Instead, go around (take a teleporter if the base has one). Find a different entrance. If there is a fight over a ridgeline, don't just run up the ridgeline right there. Run to the side for a bit and go up the ridgeline where they aren't looking. If you do manage to flank the enemy, you get to be the one who fires first, and you will actually have a decent chance of getting kills. This is the entire point of a light assault, but other classes can pull this off as well.

Also, knowing where fire is coming from and what is around to block that fire is incredibly important. You want to be in as much cover as possible whenever possible. If you are not shooting, you want to be visible to no enemy, and if you are shooting, you want to only be visible to your target. If someone starts shooting you and you don't know where they are, you first instinct should be to get to cover. Of course, sometimes you have to leave cover and sometimes you can turn around and start shooting when someone gets the drop on you. Knowing when those times are is part of learning the game.

Also, if you do decide you like combat medic, remember that the class is named COMBAT medic. Medic is the second best class in the game in a head to head conflict (third if you count max). ARs are extremely good guns, and a medic's aoe heal lets him take an extra bullet (more in a more drawn out encounter). Once you get used to compensating for the recoil, the Gauss Rifle is a great midrange gun that is plenty competent in close quarters without much cert investment (the only attachment it really needs is a 2x reflex sight). You are not a dedicated healer -- healing when you should be shooting is one of the easiest ways to die.

As far as certs are concerned, get cheap stuff first (a scope, first level of nanoweave or flak armor for your suit slot, low levels of your medic tool and aoe heal). Your first expensive priority is a maxed out medic tool -- being able to revive people at full health is extremely nice. After that, you have more options. Maxing out aoe heal is nice and not too expensive, you can start to think about new guns or 100 cert weapon attachments, upgrading your suit slot is always helpful, and both C4 and revive grenades can be a lot of fun.

When it comes to gameplay, remember that you are the only class that can revive others. If all the medics in your group go down, that group is dead. If there are still medics up, everyone can be revived and the group can continue to fight at full strength. Because of this, try to stay alive when you are part of a group. If you can avoid being shot at, do so. When you are attacking a room, be the last guy in, not the first guy. That being said, if an enemy is in a position to shoot you, you want to be already shooting him. If you are in a position to shoot, your shooting is far more useful than your healing or reviving. Ideally, you wouldn't be in the line of fire at all, but if enemies are rushing your room or you are attacking, pull out your gun and shoot. Shoot from the rear, sure, but in those sort of situations, the best way to survive long enough to revive people is to kill everyone who would shoot back.

One last tip is to use your aoe heal when you or people around you are taking damage. It isn't that strong, but every little bit helps, and it doesn't stop you from shooting.