Hello fellow Infiltrators, While there are definitely many things to point out about our class and the fact that it doesn't, well, have much class at the moment, I've been having an internal revolution of sorts in how I play and wanted to share it with you. (As well as my loadouts and why.) No claims that I'm amazing, just getting better and think that infiltrators everywhere can pick up their game in this game. Now, among the things that are bad about the class - I'll get those out of the way immediately. Not the best mechanics for cloaking, no real support ability to my team trying to capture a base and unending annoyance with getting ran over by my own team while I'm curled up in an awesome sniper spot (or is that last one just me?). That's the bad stuff and SOE probably needs to fix a few of them at least to make this a truly fun class. All those frustrations aside, the infiltrator CAN be played in an enjoyable fashion if you play like an alligator. What I'm not suggesting is that you spend more time in the pool and let birds clean your teeth. Play like an ambush predator - close with your target unseen, wait for the right moment, take your shot and make it count. For my loadouts, please see this video - . I'll explain them more indepth below and share a story about how they each worked well for me. In my experience, there's different weapons that work better in different situations and, for the infiltrator, it's exactly like the movie "The Professional". The seasoned assassin is instructing the new one and explains that the more skilled you are, the closer you can get to the target. This seems to hold true to Planetside 2. A sniper is usually the easiest to engage with successfully since you're so far away that, if you're doing it right, you can almost engage targets beyond 200m with impunity. A scout rifle (I use the Nyx) is the middle ground I run with because it can engage pretty successfully between 150m-30m. A SMG (I use the Sirius) is excellent for close range, but you have to get up close to kill quickly. Sniper/Scout - If you're thinking of a sniper, think of this scene: When I'm using a sniper rifle, I'm engaging at long range in a STATIC fight (neither side can move up but people are ducking in and out trying to get long-range shots on the enemy). Those battles around the crown or large armored battles are tailor-made for this weapon. All you need is that fleeting head to pop for what the other player THINKS is a "safe peek". Spend at least 30 seconds just watching the battle and see where people pop up in the same place or are standing around. Most important tip that's helped me grow into a better sniper is *trigger control*. There's going to be tons of people running around that you could engage with your rifle. BUT, don't take every shot. Wait for someone to stop moving and aim or at least take damage from an explosion, etc... You want to live out the sniper's motto of "One Shot, One Kill". Reference DrankTheKoolAid's "Infiltrator's Handbook" on sniping for more information (linked below). Basically, I've seen beginning snipers spraying rounds into a crowd of infantry and the hostile infiltrators immediately beginning counter-sniping (or shoot, even those heavies with their machineguns). Take the time and have the patience to get the head-shot. It can often mean the difference between a kill streak and a respawn. Second tip - hide in bushes. Very few people are looking hard at the bushes for people unless they see bullets spraying out (this is particularly on Indar). Sit in a bush (especially at night) and take your toll on the enemy infantry. A third tip for sniping - be sure to cloak after firing and after a few kills it's probably time to move. You will be sure to extend your life if you are hard to get a fix on and even harder to hit. Come up cloaked, take your target, uncloak, breathe, fire and cloak again. Move to a few feet down and pop up again. Did they see you? No? Take another one. They did see you? Move to a new location. A fourth (slightly cheap) tip - you need to hit people that are standing still, try camping a vehicle/infantry screen near the main fight. They'll have to stand still and, when they do, they're going down. A fifth tip - in general, sniper bullets are very visible. Try to always fire from the enemy's flank. Two reasons - 1) The other players won't always see where the bullet came from and 2) enemy snipers probably won't be scanning in your direction - they usually look toward the main group of enemies. This emphasizes the importance of OHKs with this - get the kill and the player won't ever have the "hurt circle" that shows where he took fire from (and narrowing down where you're shooting from). A sixth tip - you'll notice I call this my "sniper/scout". In the real world, sniper teams are very rarely putting rounds on target. What they usually are doing primarily is scouting and reporting back. You can see 12 times better then most of the other guys running around the battlefield. Save one of your lightnings that doesn't see that light assault behind him. Spot the light so the tank at least knows he's there. (NOTE: Spotting calls it out so everyone can hear it - in many situations, players will hear that and home in. If you're trying to remain quiet and there's enemy around, don't spot.) I use the Parallax (VS best rifle), but there's other good options out there. In general, you're going to need to upgrade the scope to at least x8 (I run with a x12) to be effective. In my experiments with the Parallax, out to about 200m is easy kills with little bullet drop. Beyond that, you're going to have to account for bullet drop. Even with this build I use the flak armor - partially because I haven't unlocked the ammo belt yet - and partially because a lot of my deaths are from explosives (tanks, libs) that get a semi-fix on me or just collateral explosives that are flying around the battlefield. When it's done right, it looks like this: We were in a fight for Blackshard Platinum Mine and it seemed like a stalemate, so I grabbed my rifle and went up the sides of the canyon to see what I could see. Parked in the shadows under a cliff overhang and set up shop. There were plenty of TR targets, but I would wait for people to stop moving before I fired. I racked up over 9 kills and several assists (bad aim on my part). I actually watched the TR guys running on the floor of the canyon past me to set up firing positions further up the canyon. Eventually, the VS were able to roll in and took the place and I climbed down to rearm. Ran into an enemy proxy mine in the (now friendly) spawn room that ended my kill streak. Stupid mines. SPECOPS - SPECOPS is what I called my Scout Rifle load. This one is a rather interesting middle ground between sniping and CQB where you close with the enemy (generally between 150-30m) but are still trying to take the shot with them unaware. I really enjoy using this style at tech plants or amp stations and behind enemy lines where I can kill people at decent range quickly and hack anti-air turrets/anti-ground cannons to help my team turn the tide. This particular build is the most flexible out all three (I can pretty much engage anything) but relies a little more on cloaking and tactical movement to make sure you kill the enemy before they kill you. Be sure to use the recon device darts so you'll see where they are (I just upgraded it to level 4). Same thing as the sniper style, the primary thing I've learned is trigger control. As a infiltrator, it's not my job to spray bullets everywhere and run screaming into the meat grinder - save that for the heavies (pulsar-fodder). A perfect shot with this style looks like me moving in such a way as to give me a clean field of fire where the enemy stands still in the "kill zone" for just 2-3 seconds. If I'm defending, I like to cloak in a critical dark area (shield gens), fire a recon dart, crouch, and wait. If I'm attacking, it's the same thing as the sniper - get around their flank to where you can see the medics healing and start popping heads. Remember! Trigger control. You need the headshot to be effective and the more rounds you're firing in a short period, the more likely someone is going to notice. Alternatively, if I'm at an amp station or tech plant, I'll often throw down a proxy mine (be sure to unlock both!) and compromise a generator. The first guy that comes to help runs into my proxy. If he's lucky, he's got flak armor and survives (and gets capped by my suppressed Manticore) - if not, he dies from the mine. Main tip for this class is to focus on the headshot - I use the semi-automatic scout rifle because, unlike sniper rifles, they have zero sway so I can aim with extreme precision easily. A second tip - be sure that the situation is fluid enough to get this close. If you're going to have to run across a field to get within range (remember, not more than 150m), then pull out your sniper rifle and go to work. If you try and use the Nyx to shoot at enemy snipers 300m away, you're going to get a long 7.62mm for your trouble because you won't be able to kill them fast enough and they have the OHK and the better scope. A third tip - this is my favorite class to go harass with. Hack a turret and kill some air; sneak behind people and gun them down from behind. The 150m-30m range of engagement means that I'm rarely completely out of my element and can usually do damage before cloaking and running (if I need to). A fourth tip - I can't emphasize it enough: trigger control! You need the person standing still for those few seconds to make the two headshots that will kill them instantly. (In a pinch, repeated body-shots to a moving target will work, but it's risky.) Don't fire at the max ROF, it'll be too quick. The kill shot for this class should sound like "tap (1/2 second elapse) tap". The semi-auto will kill with two headshots if you're within range, you just have to time it right so the rifle doesn't have too much kick so the second round goes over the target's head. Make sure you've got a suppressor on it so you don't show up on the minimap. Don't forget to cloak after you make a kill too (if no one is too close to you) - it helps keep your signature low. A fifth tip - I discovered recently that infiltrators are vampires. What I mean is that, when you move, avoid decloaking in sunlight as much as possible. I always try to find a shady spot to let the cloaking recharge and then dash to the next cover. If the unthinkable happens and you run out of cloaking in the middle of an open field, crouch and freeze! The human eye is drawn to motion and nothing says "shoot me" like a lone infantry running across a field. If you're taking fire, then all bets are off and make a sprint for it. But, if you remain undetected, let your cloaking recharge and then dash off cloaked to the nearest cover. If you know where the enemy is, try to put anything between you and them as you recharge (a slight rise in the ground, try and duck in a ditch, etc...). When I'm running this setup, I use the Nyx - the VS semi-automatic scout rifle. The reason is that it has no drift and will kill with a double-tap to the head if it's within range (accounting for damage drop-off). That sounds hard, but if the timing is right, the enemy won't have the time to respond to the first shot before the second has already hit. I run with a suppressor (makes the Nyx ghost-whisper quiet), laser pointer and the x3.4 laserdot sight. The optics in particular were hard for me to choose (I've unlocked practically all of them for this weapon and used them at one time or another). The x2 doesn't feel like it gives me the zoom I need and the x6 makes me feel like a sniper (which you're not, you need to engage fairly close). The x3.4 or x4 are both good (they let you see the rest of the battlefield, not just the sights) but the reason I use the x3.4 laserdot is because it glows at night, letting me see my aimpoint. I ran with the crosshairs for a while on the x4 but I noticed that I wasn't able to immediately see where I was aiming and, since every second counts, I switched. When it's done right, it looks like this: Recently, we were engaged in a fight at the amp station. I popped through one of the gates and immediately got up top to start hacking turrets because NC air was pounding my guys trying to take it. Dropped both of my proxies and hacked the first turret. A NC tried to come up after me as I started firing at his guys and he got killed by the proxy. Eventually, gun went down in the red so I hopped out, cloaked, and made my way downstairs. Went down the wall to the next tower and found an enemy engineer repairing an anti-armor turret. Pop pop. Went upstairs and hacked the next one. They got that in the red (there was at least 6 hostile airships in the air basically the whole time). I hopped out before it exploded, cloaked, and kept on going. Worked my way all the way around the wall of the amp station before they finally cornered me with a heavy and a light. Cloaked and sprinted past to the down-elevator and hid in a little spot. They didn't follow me because I think they were afraid of more proxies. Eventually ran outside and escaped. Started walking back to friendly lines (we'd been pushed back) and killed two NC on the way (I'm pretty sure they were afk because they thought they were safe). Made it to a hostile town and thought I'd try my luck with some hacking. Walked in the little door and *bang*. Stupid bouncing betty... CQB - Finally, if I'm in the middle of a very fluid fight (biolab, running through hills) where the average engagement range is 5m-30m, then I'm going to switch to my CQB load. Also, if I'm going to be infiltrating to hack turrets, I sometimes use this too. Just depends on what you feel like, the SMG will give you a ton of extra firepower if you're surprised and need to defend yourself. Remembering my allusion to The Professional at the beginning of this post - if you saw the movie, the expert assassin explains that the closer you get and can still remain undetected, the better you are. This is probably the hardest type of load to successfully infiltrate with but it can also do the most damage quickly if done right. Remember, this is for FLUID fights in close quarters (biolab, fighting in the buildings at a base, etc...). You get beyond 40m and you're not going to be able to kill most things in time. With that said, I've had some of the best results (and easiest flanks) with this load since it takes all of 20 seconds to get around the front at this range. First tip - mines are really your friend with this one, you can do a ton of damage if you see a group of enemies and say "F U Auraxis!" and charge into them with a proxy. You can reference DrankTheKoolAid's video on "proxy suicide" (posted below) but it's a viable way to get several kills very quickly. Might be worth looking at the nanite armor cloak since it will help you for this one-way trip (but that's up to you). Second tip - I run with flak armor on this all the time because about half of my deaths come from other people's mines/grenades (and please reference my stories above). I'd rather cut down those losses, so I prefer to be protected. I think you'll need the third level of flak armor to successfully survive a mine (any input on this one?) Third tip - Trigger control is still important here, but so is reaction time. Come around the corner and three guys are pointed right at you? Well try to get out but you're probably dead. Come around and there's one guy stationary? Burst to the head works nicely. Come around and there's a guy moving? If he hasn't seen you, get closer to make sure you kill him quickly. Also, generally, don't keep cloaking and uncloaking - in close range the sound will give you away unless there's a huge firefight going on. Fourth tip - run with camouflage. It won't make you invincible, but it has sometimes given me that extra split-second as the enemy sees me and says "Oh, that's not a Vanu...why, look at him, not a bit of purple". And then he wakes up after re-spawning and says, "****". A second tip on camouflage - particularly for the Vanu, the Infiltrator's helmet is...distinctive. I got the different helmet so that the enemy doesn't immediately pick me out as an infiltrator (yes, they can press "Q", but that doesn't happen all the time). Once again, won't necessarily keep you alive all the time, but you are getting a bit of extra help. (Oh, and yes, my graphics are glitched - my CQB loadout has googly eyes. Still waiting for them to fix that bug.) Side note- KoolAid mentioned that EMP grenades could be very useful for close-range shooters. I can see that a bunch of guys in a room that got stripped of their shields (half of their health) and then get hosed by an SMG would be a very unhappy bunch of blokes. Essentially, it would double the killing power of the SMG. Something to think about, I've heard it's hard to use well. I use the Sirius SMG for two main reasons - 1) it has a huge clip 2) it has the laserpointer. The combination of these two make it a monster (Eridani can only have 35 rounds (standard 25) OR the laserpointer). I just like having those extra bullets so that, as has happened before, after I kill the first guy, I can kill the second without reloading. I also use the Night Vision x1 sight because, particularly in the biolab at night, it's indispensable for immediately seeing where the enemy is and putting rounds on target. The suppressor is a must and I use soft-point ammunition to try and expand the effective range (if only a little bit). The laser pointer turns it into a "laser" with very small weapon bloom from full auto. (Plus, if you're ever in a funk and want to cheer up, equip the Sirius and start singing this song - "It's time to get Seeeerious...." When it's done right, it looks like this: We were fighting for Howling Pass and held the high ground to the south. I grabbed the CQB and ran into the fight. Cloaking and sliding down the valleys, I was able to get all the way down into the actual base without being discovered. Mowed down an NC and dashed over to the edge to see a Sunderer parked below with infantry running around. Went down the side of the hill cloaked, got the bottom and recharged, cloaked again and dashed over to the Sunderer. Crouched and crawled underneath. Waited for a guy to come up and get his class redone. Silent bullets to his knee-caps and he went down. Next guy, same treatment. Finally, I think one of the guys knew where I was and took me down with a chain gun. Respawned at our friendly Sunderer and ran into the battle again. So, that's what I've been learning as part of how to play the Infiltrator class. The single biggest thing I see right now is the lack of particular lane for the infiltrator to help his team in (maybe able to hack base shields? hack objectives? hack unmanned vehicles? or set up recon radars that are similar to the engineer's?) - and being completely useless in an armored fight as they lack an AT weapon. However, as I've begun to develop an enjoyment in being a thinking infiltrator with trigger control, it's very rewarding to have that surge of adrenaline as you teach the enemy that what they don't see can, indeed, hurt them. If you have different tactics that have worked for you or you want to share your thoughts, I'd love some feedback. Also, if this helps you (even TR or NC, I am a gracious guy ) - please let me know too. (Extra videos for reference): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvGdjq3-qNk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p0IKhcA14A
I would like to add an element to my Infiltrator guide - get the spawn beacons and make sure you use them. Why? The Infil is notorious for not being able to get places that the LA can. Now, with a spawn beacon, you can land anywhere you want and cloak before you exit the pod. There was a fight today in the southern area of Indar (right over by Stronghold). My team leader dropped a spawn beacon and I came in on the arch that's between Tawrich and Stronghold. Over the space of about 20 minutes, I got upwards of 15 kills, including a Mosquito pilot that parked 40m away to repair. They never killed me (thanks to Flak Armor, even though one Mosquito did hit me with rocket pods) and I shot until I ran out of ammo and then got down off the mountain into Tawrich, hacked a terminal. Rearmed and ran back into the fight, getting another kill or two before the VS rolled back into Tawrich to take it.
Nice guide A few more small things if you wanna add for Long range sniping. First thing is: "TAKE YOUR TIME" Just don't, don't be afraid to spend maybe 5-15min running around to find a good location to Snipe (Press M - look for the action - now Zoom In the map a bit - take a look at the region - see any Rocks/Mountains you could hide? If I decide to go to that specific rock, which path I'll take?). For reasons already stated in the guide you should always try to flank, and In the long run, it can be very much worth. "KNOW YOUR GUN" Months ago when I bought my Parallax the first thing I did was to get to a nice position and start taking shots at a static target, the reason is because I had one question in my mind. What will be my bullet drop at 150m? 200m? 225m? 250m? 275m? 300m? 325m? In case you don't know, you can use your Personal Marker on the map as some kind of Range Finder. You set up your sniping nest and spot several enemies, what is the distance? Press M and mark then. Know, check your flanks. If I sniper decides to hunt you where would he hide? What is the distance between you and those possible locations? It may sound like too much extra work but TRUST me, it makes all the difference. lastly, "TRIGGER DISCIPLINE" Yeah, I guess it should be said again. What usually end up killing me is 2 things. Either just plain bad luck or a few moments when I get too greedy and decide to take too many shots. One shot, one kill is indeed your moto, BUT, sometimes, even if you do have a few standing targets ready to get their heads poped, it "could" be worth to just wait a few seconds before taking another shot. Why I'm saying that? Because that has got me killed already a few times. I was sniping somewhere near the crown with success. At one time 4 guys who where behind a tree just "stopped", so I took then down one after another non-stop. After that however it didn't take long for 3 guys to start shooting in my direction. I won't say that this happens all the time, in the middle of a big battle you could maybe do that without drawing too much attention, but it's something to keep in mind.
What a fantastic guide. As my main as well, I've come to much of the same conclusions put here. Well done again.
Guide infiltrator HC style (aka my style, whenever i get tired of cleaing rooms with op LA) FLashlight CQC bolt action Ghost/SAS-R/TSAR-42 x2/x4/iron sight Amerish srcub camo/indar rock camo/ giraffe Emp nade stock pistol injection med thingy Knife Step 1 grow some balls and stop being useless sniper. Step 2 abuse instant action whenever off cd (there is a spot in the crown where you usally can get 25bolt action HS) Step 3 Remeber the cloak is not for stealth!, it is to let everyone know a inf is close by. also remeber the white ghost/black ghost is used to lure players to come where you want them to come aka in the middle of your nonescoped Bolt action, which you then use as a shotgun to the head. you can also use flashlight to lure players to you. Step 4 when bored of Hsing ppl running after you take out your knife and do some bolt+knife combos around 50playes. Step 5 use emp nade to nade everyone, yes yourself as well, remeber you have a shotgun, happy spray. Step 6 (bonus step) when bored of killing bad inf with SMG's go and knife a hacksaw max just cos bunnies are cool. Step 7 (+ points) slap on a silencer on your x4 CQC bolt action, find the enemy sniper nest, Do not kill them! instead join them and do a litte bit of useless sniping until you had enough of being useless, then take your sweet time, move behind the useless snipers, and take them out 1 by 1, when done feel free to use Taunts. Step 9 (ultra points) Find an enemy outfit or just a big zerg, get in the middle and just run around and watch as they kill eachother while you hidding behind the buster max. (don't forget spam flashlight) step 10 figure out you can do all this but without any skill or aim req by playing broken LA.
Valok and Jean, thanks for the great posts - and Valok for the extra sniper pointers. That's definitely one of the things that gets me killed a lot: being greedy and standing out in combat. If you have a good position, it's certainly better to waste a breath and have to wait 10-15 seconds to take another perfect shot instead of taking one that (I did this 3 times today, bad me) goes right past the guy's head. Now, he knows there's a sniper in the area and is bugging out as fast as he can. There's two different areas (it seems to me) of combat in this game: CQB and LRC. (Close Quarters Battle - shotguns and SMGs; Long Range Combat - snipers and scout rifles.) In both of them, you can't reduce your signature to zero (go completely invisible) but you can reduce your signature (not stick out in a crowd). As long as your signature is reduced, either by being lost in the crowd or by being somewhere else where you're not seen, you can mow through enemies with impunity, assuming you can get the shot/explosive where you need it. Great story, I was at Mao Tech Plant and the NC were overrunning us. Got my Sniper/Scout build and went up on the wall. Started killing NC that were coming in the gate one at a time. Started falling back and tower by tower as they advanced through the western satellite base. Finally got killed by a Heavy, dropped on top of Mao with my sniper again and went back to work until an enemy sniper killed me. Racked up 20+ kills over the space of about 15 minutes. Notes from the story - target density, location and preoccupation. Target density - there was a lot of NC, lots of targets and people shooting. Location - they didn't see me because they weren't expecting me to be there ("Oh, I'll just run in a straight line from the spawnpoint to the battle...doh doh doh..."). Finally, Preoccupation - probably the most important - they were shooting at other people and standing still to do it (the "Static Battle" I reference). Great battle, we lost the plant eventually, but I'll blame that on the Heavies. > SGZenith, I'd just point out that reducing the enemy via sniping (and forcing them to keep their heads down and their snipers can't pick your guys off) is actually rather helpful in a real battle. That and I shot an LA out of the air while he was jetpacking. That made my day. :-D
Also don't forget hacking turrets/terminals in enemy bases, great way to kill unsuspecting vehicles coming back for a rearm/repair or are just sitting afk. I've killed a sunderer, a mosquito, a reaver and a prowler via phalanx and ninja- spawning lightning tank. Don't hop in the turret till you're ready to make the kill, otherwise they'll see an enemy indicator above it. If you stay out of the turret until ready, it'll look the same unoccupied friend or foe.
Rift, Thanks for the tip! That's actually something that's really fun as an Infil - sit by a supposedly "safe" enemy base and kill the one or two airships that are coming in to rearm/repair from the main fight. Just make sure that you're targeting close enough to make sure they don't get away. They get away, they're going to come back swinging or, worse, tell their buddies. I'd only kill one b/c the guy you killed is probably going to spawn at that base and start hunting you. Kill a Lib (more points than an ESF) or Galaxy and then cloak and move off.
After playing tonight, I have a tip to add - Don't snipe with an inexperienced sniper nearby. Let me explain. The VS were attacking the crown and, being a teamplayer with my brothers, I decide to go support. So, I grab my rifle and move out from Crossroads. I found a spot I really like and start taking my shots carefully. On my killboard, I got about eight kills (including three enemy infiltrators - that was a rush). About that time I move off to find a new spot so I can start again and this dufus Infil comes within 10m of where I'm in cover and starts firing his semi-auto into the valley where the NC are swarming with our guys. I had the thought go through my head (which I should have heeded) "This guy is stupid, I need to move off so I don't go down in flames with him" but I before I could, he gets mowed down in a hail of bullets and I hear NC automatic fire and take a hit. I cloak and run off but die before I get 30m. Moral of the story - snipe ALONE. You're trying to keep a low profile and the more rounds (especially from beginner snipers) the easier it is for the enemy to find you and kill you, especially if you're in a group. Leave the pack mentality when you switch classes from Medic.
I don't often TK but when I do, I drink Dos Equis...I mean TK friendly noob snipers that are cramping my style
So - another update to this thread (which I also should have titled "Take heart Infiltrators!") So, over the weekend I unlocked the EMP and Decoy Grenades. Haven't gotten much use out of the decoy yet but the EMP is a thing of beauty. Let me break it down this way: A CQB Infiltrator must be able to SNEAK up undetected on the enemy and kill QUICKLY without taking too much damage and then leave without a trace. Now, let's see how the EMP and the silenced SMG work together: EMP - removes enemy crosshairs and makes their screen fuzzy EMP - removes the enemy shields, reducing health by half EMP - doesn't have the red flashy "RUN" icon when it gets close to the enemy EMP - does NOT kill friendly troops in the blast radius (do you know how many times I've been killed by my own guy's grenades?) SMG - kills the average enemy soldier in about 1-1.5 seconds SMG - with a silencer, will never show up on minimap and is fairly quiet, especially in a firefight SMG - with a X1 NVG scope, you'll almost certainly see the enemy before they see you How does this actually play out (if done right) - We were defending Tawrich tonight and the NC were trying to push down through Broken Arch and skirt the towers on the west side. Saw fire coming from that side and some of my guys going down and so went that way, tossed the EMP about where it seemed they should be. It went off and around the corner I went, SMG hissing. Got two guys, they went down like they were tissue paper. Took fire from further back and so cloaked and ran back around the corner to pick up another EMP and try infiltrating more. Bottom Line - The EMP allows you (if used properly) to take away virtually all of the enemy's ability to aim while giving them no warning (no red "RUN!" icon) and will then allow you to hose them very quickly with the SMG's lightning fast fire rate (they'll go down in about 1/2 a second! That's too fast for most reaction times). Then it's cloak and find another target. Better still, with the "2nd tier" SMGs (the ones with 50 bullets), you should be able to kill up to 4 enemies before you need to reload if you're not spraying too bad. Best part is that this is a fairly unused technique (I saw one guy post that he's only been hit by EMPs twice the whole time he's been playing), so most people might not even know what's going on before it's too late. Just putting it out there - there are viable ways to engage with the Infiltrator (even though there are clearly some things that need fixing). Work on learning how to use the tools that we do have.
So, I probably need to make separate threads for these ideas, but I'm hoping to make a readable "Infiltrator Handbook" to at least get people thinking about this sort of stuff. Wanted to share a tactic that both took me by surprise and seemed very effective. So, I was running my SpecOps build around a biolab and noticed that my guys (running mindlessly toward the launch pad) were getting gunned down at a terrifying rate by (apparently) a very skilled sniper. Started stalking toward where the shots were coming from using my cloaking to move and then hide behind a tree. Finally, I caught a glimpse of his distortion behind a tree and started moving in to take the shot. He popped out and took a shot at me with his bolt action. Missed. I hit him in the body twice with the Nyx and he had to be almost dead. He ducked back around the tree and I start moving forward with my sights up. That when things went wrong. My health dropped to 5 bars of health and I got a hit circle from the left. Oh ****...I spun to the left and then back to where he'd disappeared to. He was TR, so he popped out with his pistol and finished me off with a burst. The technique was that, apparently, these two snipers were working together to hunt other people and protect each other. What's the one thing that people always taunt the infiltrator with? ("Oh, I sunk up and knifed him...noob...I mean he's sniping guys 200m away but he's not paying attention to me?!") Well, I don't know, but what if they were trading off shots so one was always watching? What if they had mines out? They'd have had 4 Proxy mines out, more than enough to take down a LA that thought he was going to get lucky. Both of them could cloak so, at long range, they could easily escape if they started taking fire and, if one had an SMG, that would be a rude awakening to the first LA that came flying over. Especially with the (if it all works) new Flash upgrades of two seats and cloaking...if you're able to have two people on and cloak, it's a perfect way to get the team into position and then you can deconstruct the Flash, if you want to keep a low profile. Once again, is there arguments against something like this? Of course - but this technique really plays to the Infil's strength of staying undetected while they're killing you off one by one in a static fight (like you're almost always going to find at a Biolab). Oh, one more interesting point - it was VS v NC at that Biolab. The TR were nowhere near the battle but these two Infil's decided they'd come over and cert farm at someone else's battle! Last thought - when I start playing PS2 now, I always start out sniping so I can get some kills under my belt and warm up again before I start playing with SMGs and the high-pressure stuff. Makes the game easier to get back into and simply less frustrating.
