So, no surprise, after getting out of Recruit games and being thrown into the general public, I am getting ripped apart by the better geared, more skilled players in Public Contracts, especially the clanned players. I'm assuming this is normal for Dust 514, and that the game takes some settling into and has a learning curve to it. I got my ass kicked quite a bit when I started playing TF2.

But I've learned a few things starting out.

-Don't go alone. Spawn somewhere that has teammates nearby and STAY WITH THEM. Roaming solo is just asking to be killed.

-Don't engage 1v1. I'm not sure how big of a difference the higher gear makes, but with my starter gear I feel like I have absolutely ZERO CHANCE of surviving direct confrontation, so it's better to stay back and support teammates, and scrounge whatever WP you can.

-Since I'm so bad at direct fights (possibly only because of starter gear and I'm not willing to spending ISK on better gear until I know I'm skilled enough to not lose money every match because of redeployment), I stopped trying to engage enemies and instead took up a support role, healing and reviving downed teammates with the Repair Tool and Nanite Injector whenever possible. In doing this I actually started being a lot more productive to my team, keeping important players alive, using fewer of my teams precious clones because of fewer deaths, and getting more WP through Triage/Revivals as a bonus.

Because of this, I'm thinking I may want to focus on a support role in the future, healing and watching out for my teammates instead of trying to actually get kills and contribute DPS. So I think, when my funds and my skill permit it, I'm going to try running Logitechs and focus on Rep/Nanite/Hives. Hopefully this doesn't make me too high of a priority for enemy target selection, I'd think they'd be focused on the guys shooting at them rather than the one guy whose just healing people.

Anyway, yeah, the first few hours have been absolutely brutal so far, and I don't expect it to get smoother anytime soon. It feels like getting started in this game is kinda like a crucible of fire sort of thing, and I just have to tough it out until I get more skill and better loot.

But I'm enjoying it, nonetheless. I got my ass kicked at Dark Souls when I first started playing it, and I'm a beast at it now and still love playing it. So it's my hope that if I just stick with this game and ride out the frustration, I'll get better at it and the game will get more fun.