The advice in the video is good, but yeah, the level of opposition (as in so many killstreak videos) is remarkably bad. In most scenes, the average BR is about 15, which is not at all representative of what you'll see in normal play, at least on my server. If he tried to shoot a halfway decent HA the way he sprays at these newbies, they'd pop the shield, do a 180, and kill him easily.
You rarely do long kill steaks when you deal with only BR100 people, however, so it's normal than when you want to do a demonstration, you pick fight where the average BR is not at the top. It doesn't make the advices bad, however. Even against low BR people, you don't do long kill streaks if you're bad yourself. ---------------------------- For the cloaked movement that lights up your team easily, borgqueenx, you're getting the wrong idea there. To start even to wonder what team is the cloaker, you must start by identify that movement that caught your attention as a cloaker. That movement could be anything, it could be a leaf, it could be a bullet, it could a fly passing between you and your screen. Your mind saw a movement but it didn't yet understand what it is. You are surrounded by mundane things that sometimes moves, every second of your life, and your brain analyze them as fast as possible to sort them into mundane or potentialy important. As long you didn't even categorize them like that, you brain just do not start to even wonder if it's friend or foe. Have you ever wondered when a bush bend under the wind which team is it? No, because your brain started to indentify what it was, and before even you start to ask you that, it categorized as mundane and ignored it unless really nothing more important is there. To categorize the thing the move, your brain use shape recognition: it defines the shape of the thing that moves and then, compare it to the shape of all the things it knows about. The reason why the cloak slows this process, happening before even the friend or foe analysis, is because it's harder to define the shape of something that has a perfectly matching color with the background, than the shape of something that have a clearly different color than the background: this is the camouflage effect. Any player will loose a few fractions of second more to define the shape of a cloaked thing, that to define the shape of an uncloaked thing, and as long his brain didn't finish this step, the question is it friend or foe? doesn't even start to be processed. By the time the player start to process this question, after have finished the shape recognition step, the cloaker's brain as, on this side, already finished the full aknowledgement process and is already pulling the trigger. He's just a step further, by a very very very little few, but on a game where you can be killed in half-a-second anyway... So, yes, people in that video are bad... but bad or not, well-trained rambo infiltrator always shoots slightly faster. Aim and reflexes are still however a large factor, because even if you start first by a fraction of second, if your TTK is bad, the other will have time to catch on. ----------------------------------- Now, you should really wonder something: Are you really wanting to play SMG? And why? The SMG is a weapon designed for short range encounters. If you cannot get rid of your fear of CQC or just don't like this playstyle at all, then this kind of weapon will just end to absolutly hinder your performance. Actually, you play much more like a sniper or a scout than like a SMG user.
i am bad at sniping and dont like that action. its boring to me. With scout you mean stalker? im considering going stalker, but the sidearm is even worse for close quarters. the knife is good, but then i need contact.
Nope, scout and stalker are different things. I do not know many good scouts however. - Scout is refering to using scout rifles, a kind a weapon that are noticeably weaker at CQC than SMG, but much better for mid-long range engagements. In the video I shown you, between 10:00 and 12:00 you'll notice the player is shooting at long range using a weapon that does'nt look like SMG (much longer cannon), but do not shoot bullets one by one like a sniper rifle: This is the Artemis a VS automatic scout rifle that can shoot 24 bullets in a row with deadly accuracy even past 20m. Some people compare the automatic scout rifle to a LMG that have a lower damage/magazine, but gain more interest to be silenced, because it is usable by the cloaking class. There is also a semi-autormatic scout rifle, which acts a bit like a mid-ground hybrid between the automatic scout rifle and a sniper rifle. - Stalker is refering to using a stalker cloak The strength ot the stalker cloak is that it provide a much safer way to dissimulate yourself. You can get very close to opponents in a much more secure way, and this is why stalkers are the infiltrators that have the best use for knife. 80% of the time someone dies by a knife, this is a stalker which holds it. Stalker requiers however much more patience, as it's a playstyle relying on ambushes, not assaut. You set traps. Still, if you want to get used to the "behind the ennemy lines" feeling without struggling too much, it can be something to try.
The semi-auto scout rifles are some of my favorite weapons. Oddly enough, I think they work best if you think of them almost like burst-fire carbines, rather than low-damage sniper rifles. Ideally, you want to use them within the range where you can strafe and spam the trigger a bit and still hit the target, which is maybe about 30m (never was good at estimating these distances). Thanks to the damage model, you've got the ability to kill targets at 75m+ if an easy opportunity presents itself, but if you equip a 4x scope and try to focus on these ranges, you won't like the gun, and you won't be very effective. However, you can easily go under 30m and do well, thanks to a TTK competitive with standard automatics, and brutal headshot damage. The Vandal works particularly well for closer ranges, thanks to the 0.75x ADS multiplier. I Auraxiumed the Vandal with 2x scope and laser sight, and I regularly took it indoors. All that said, the auto-scouts are probably the guns you'd want to try first. This isn't going to sound like a ringing endorsement, but they're basically downgraded assault rifles, with poor DPS, bad hipfire, a small magazine, and okay but not great accuracy. However, a true assault rifle would be overpowered on infiltrator, since the cloak is such a strong mid-range ability, so a crippled assault rifle is actually a nice option to have. At mid-range, the cloak gives you the first shot advantage (if it doesn't, you're doing something wrong), and that more than compensates for your weaker weapon. Try to avoid CQC with the auto-scouts, since their DPS and hipfire will leave you at a serious disadvantage. It's better to switch to your pistol if you're forced into CQC, IMO.
I'm going to chime in again here. Borgqueenx, you are getting amazing advice in this thread, however I'd like to add when i was using SMGs the past and learning to blend from Ztiller (i wish i could find his old guide on these forums about blending) .... for me it took a solid month of failures to be able to learn to run around enemies uncloaked and live longer then 5 seconds. That is when i started dressing up to extend my margin for error. Taking corners and using cover helps a ton. However do yourself a favor and don't dive into that murky level of stealth and confusion until your streaking without needing to use those tricks. For the most part they are tricks, and you have to recognize specific situations when to use them. Its like icing on the cake but first bake the damn cake oh you will end up with a bad case of diarrhea... Another thing you might like...( or possibly just infuriate you due to how incredibly squishy we are) are Stalker Infiltrators. I don't play stalker laid back or slowly.... I attribute my weird mix of fast as slow to starting out with SMGs before the new stalker cloak was released. When I switched to full time stalker infiltrator the idea of being slow...... and... creeping... around... all...the... time... just seemed so counter intuitive and dangerous to me. Stalkers can use a variety of weapons, from the Blackhand and Crossbow (to a lesser extent COMMY which have longer reach) These often allow a wider range of possible kills and areas where you can effectively operate. The beamer is more of a tailing weapon for just being sneaky and following someone but for those weapons without the hard hitting alpha damage you probably want to use the new active knives to give you back the edge your missing for CQC. Then of course you have mines.... Setting traps and manipulating opponents really gives you an edge as a stalker. You will see in much of my footage I do not linger to very long in places where I am known. Simply haul *** and preposition or come form new directions. Stalker cloak serves me best when it comes to resetting the engagement and ambushing. I could write a novel as to why I LOVE stalker cloak and how being able to cloak, and re-position without constantly alerting my enemies is highly valuable. Seriously stalker infiltrators are very much escape and ambush artists and our longevity boils down to excelling at both traits equally. However Stalkers are very gimped when it comes to your overall ammo capacity / firepower but we can do allot of damage with knives, mines and our secondaries. Honestly being a good stalker really comes down to using those precious 2-3 seconds to get the job done. (Whatever that job might be) Especially when you learn to take down heavies your tactics will be focused on beating their human reaction time and killing them before they pop their shields or using EMPs and traps to deal with them. In saying all this Scout Rifle (Either Hunter / Nano Armour Cloak) might be a good starting point for you. They are mobile enough to flank and use cloak effectively for peeking from cover and primarily take down enemies at medium distance. I really enjoyed my time spent with the Artemis. However I personally noticed I always ended up closer and closer to the front line (old SMG habits are hard to break) and the scout rifles did not support the situations I would eventually find myself in. They also did not support my extremely mobile playstyle and the penalties for firing when moving bothered me. If you are most comfortable holding down the front line and playing peekaboo while supporting your allies with radar, there is no harm in using weapons specifically designed to do well in those locations. Scout rifles are also more flexible for various circumstances as long as the player knows how to use cover properly. The infiltrator is a class that has several different play styles all rolled into one. I would recommend you try Nano Armour Cloaking with your scout rifle because it will help protect you from incoming damage as you fall back behind your cover object. Try to cloak as an opener, and as a finisher to clear spots. This class is amazing because the playstyles within it are so different. A sniper is going to have different habits and outlooks, tips and tricks then someone using a scout rifle, or a sneaky little infil using an smg, or an stalker ambush junkie who knife primaries. Find something that feels natural to you and go with it.
that guy from the video gets oneshots from crossbow headshots....in vr training that was not possible.
The crossbow will OHK infiltrators on a headshot out to like 40m. For any other class, they would have to be pre-damaged at least a tiny bit.
You have to find what works for you. I don't like sniping. I hate playing a HA if find it boring and easymode as hell. No challenge for me. I dont want to peekaboo behind cover or hang onto a bullet hose. I want to sneak up behind someone and go "surprise". Doesn't make the heavies holding the front line, or precision snipers out there any less valid though. Its a personal preference. The crossbow can only one shot infils in the head, or other classes if they take damage prior. You have to prep them first with either a mine or EMP to drop them in one hit. (Or watch them get damaged to know they have been weakened) However the crossbow can also be used from range or combo with a knife. I like how versatile it is. To me crossbow is like another limb and I haven't put it down since it was first released. Which just goes to show when you finally do click with something keep using it, each day you will get better and better with that weapon. Id recommend you try the NS-30 Vandal or the Artemis and ease yourself into stealth play.
The "guy" is actualy CuteBeaver herself. She is known for being a QCX + quickknife adept, meaning that any target she shoot at at CQC immediatly get a swing of her blade just after, so fast that it is actualy hard to notice on the video. Also, if in the VR the targets are always full life and full shield, this is not always the case on the battlefield. A headshot from the QCX nets 1900 damage and ignore nanoweave armors. So it takes only an infiltrator or an opponent having lost 100 shield or 100 hp as a target to make the headshot deadly. PS @CuteBeaver: You know that you put me the song of your 1rst video "Deception" in hand since the very first time you released it and since I can't do a session on PS2 without listening it as least once? As an VS infiltrator which often switch between stalking and wraith driving, it's like if this song was made to be our hymn... "Deception, oil, laser beams..."
Yeah I have a friend in [3GIS] who also loved wraiths blasting the song one night when we were goofing around. I wanted to include some shenanigans with Ygdrad but it wasn't to be. Getting back on subject though. I did remember an old video that was very much loved for helping new infils get better at SMGs. ItZmuRdA is a well known streamer on planetside 2 that did lots of infiltrator gameplay years ago created this guide. He doesn't play infil as much any more but during the first two years of planetside 2 he was one of the most known in our community. (First Video is about loadouts ) (Second is Gameplay Assessment and Tips) DO KEEP IN MIND : The old assassination Knife + Commy combo was changed and not enough damage is inflicted to pull of Commy and Knife Combos *unless you headshot*, however the concept for body shotting someone and then using a knife still works using the crossbow. Yes you can use an SMG with a crossbow as your secondary. Don't expect awesome results until you get very good with it though. One missed shot and your typically dead Also Nano Armour Cloak no longer blinks, and was adjusted slightly. So its a little better for surviving. Nanoweave Suit no longer stacks with Nano Armour Cloak. It used to so don't feel like you need to pair both.)
Oh cutebeaver herself? Well, you play very professional^^ I switched to HA again to see if i just didnt suck at the game in general and ended at 2,25kd, wich my average is... And im quite happy with that KD. I am gonna play HA and save credits for the stalker loadout. Still not sure to max the motion spotter or the dart gun. Darts never get destroyed- even though they can. I know what im getting into. With a motion spotter i need to get close first. Choices choices... I just suck at the smg...i will watch the videos tommorow and give it another spin though. But i feel that every enemy sees me cloaked. Crouching slowly or running "rambostyle".
If you think she is "professional" seeing her just shoot at people.... you should look what she does with the facades of buildings... Sorry, that's totaly out of topic, but I couldn't resist I still do think that at some point, the code of the game gave up on CB's stubborness to try to climb on everything and said "ok ok, if it's you, let's say the laws of gravity don't apply anymore T.T"
I know Elusive (CQC Battle Sniper) uses darts which like you said are better for forward positions. Downside they show up on the mini map for everyone to see. They are very faint though if you don't overlap them. (The spotter is only visible in the range it affects enemies. An uncerted spotter at 20 meters is actually more stealthy then a 50 meter one.) Another positive side to darts is you can misdirect enemy attention by firing a dart away from your location as well as being used to find enemies near you. I had a funny story about this. One time I was in a biolab on the rooftop just chilling with my SMG, and I wanted to drop down and take B point in the powerhouse. So I fired a dart towards the opposite side of the biolab and you could see a gaggle of glowy heavies just run for the darts location in the tree / swampy area. I personally use motion spotters with stalker, which provide easy exp, Intel, and also function as bait. If someone is going to turn their back to me and fire half a clip into my motion spotter you can bet I am going to jump them while they reload, or if they are being super adorable standing still... knife em. Honestly having that bait is exceptionally enticing when you do not enjoy the luxury of having a primary weapon. Downside, motion spotters REALLY attract enemies.... So... They are either for your allies benefit .... or for your benefit (mostly as bait)... but its really important to pick and choose when / where / ( why?) you put those dildars on the ground. You will find as a stalker sometimes not using radar means easier streaks. This is something ONLY stalkers enjoy since we can sit back and observe our surroundings with little risk. Towards the end of "cookies and cream" video. You can see I slipped into a 96+ base and cleared the point forcing the TR to break the spawn lock and backtrack. Sometimes not running around with radar as a stalker is like being a fox in an assisted living hen house. Enemies are kinda just unmotivated and chilling when they don't hear much cloaking or see any radar activity on the mini map. its very easy to sneak around and make kills when they suspect nothing. Another trick you can do is place your motion spotter in the spawn room (or by the friendly sundie) and then use a terminal and switch to darts. You can just equip the Recon Detect Device in its place. The spotter you placed will remain on the ground helping your team for about 5 minutes (you get extra exp) and you can still use the darts on your semi-transparent adventures. I found this valuable with [3GIS] when Id leave a spotter on point holds with them, and then scythe over to make a connection at the next base using darts while they finished the hold.
nope, never going SMG infiltrator again. cant do it. 0,2kd this session. stepping on mines all the time and getting detected by everyone. im done.
It remember me when I did start to play infiltrator first. I wasn't statisfied either, because I couldn't succeed to make it work well, and I wanted to play a sneaky character and ended with a character that needed to rush in and act like... a kamikaze?. At that time, I stopped to plain inf, and started to play other classes, frustrated because I fled the class that was the most appealing to me for classes that I found just completly "easy mode". That was until the Wraith and the Stalker came into play. Then, I came back to the class and got hooked by those new mechanics. Now that I have a lot more training about flanking, beating ennemies reaction time, field analysis, psychology, I feel I could play SMG again and perform a -lot- better than I first did. Because I -see- why I was bad at it. It's like... well... if a curtain was removed before my eyes. Hell, when I start to play that way with my stalker's pistol in hand, I now do a much better K/D than I did in the past with the SMG in hand. And no, it's not because the pistol is better than the SMG! But well... *laughs* I'm just completly addicted to stalker's shenaningans and wraith drivin'. I just don't time or true interest into playing rambo anymore
i also tried the stalker now, and get better KD then i was a hunter. but not improved by much. 1.2 to around 1.5. Maybe i'l stick to stalker i dont know. i dont like that the oneshot knife screaches alot.
how do i properly knife someone with the onehit knife? i always find that when people move in random directions i cant hit them.
