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Fox Gaden
DUST University Ivy League
399
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Posted - 2013.06.03 16:33:00 -
[1] - Quote
Who says a Sniper canGÇÖt come down out of the hills and get their hands dirty when an objective needs to be hacked? Who says that someone with a Swarm Launcher canGÇÖt defend themselves against infantry, or that someone with a Laser Rifle canGÇÖt be just as deadly in close quarter combat (CQC) as anyone else? The key to not being pigeonholed by these specialty roles is to have a sidearm that you can rely on as your primary weapon.
The Submachine Gun (SMG) is the key that unlocks that versatility. When fully skilled, the SMG will match or exceed the Assault Rifle in all but range. Yet it is a sidearm, which allows it to be paired with speciality weapons such as the Sniper Rifle, Swarm Launcher, and Laser Rifle; or to be used as primary weapon to free up some Power Grid and CPU.
SMG Skills:
The SMG spits out bullets at a ridiculous rate, but with its wide dispersion, many of those bullets do not hit your target, which reduces the damage per second (DPS). As you skill up SMG Operations it tightens the SMGGÇÖs dispersion cone so that by the time you have Operations maxed, most of the bullets will be hitting inside the crosshairs. Levelling Proficiency will add additional dame, while Sharp Shooter will narrow the dispersion cone even farther, allowing you to get more bullets on target out toward the SMGGÇÖs maximum effective range. Finally, rapid reload might be helpful if you are relying on the SMG alone for CQC, although the reload speed on the SMG is already quite fast.
1) Max out SMG Operations to reduces its spread. 2) Level SMG Proficiency for more damage. 3) Level SMG Sharp Shooter to further reduce spread at range. 4) Level Rapid Reload. (Less important.)
The Strengths of the SMG:
The SMG is very light. This means that unlike the shotgun, which seems to take an eternity to bring to bare when you come out of a sprint, with the SMG you can sprint into close range, or to your flanking position, and immediately unleash its slug spitting fury. If you are working with a specialty weapon, and someone sneaks up on you, or appears unexpectedly around a corner, you can switch to the SMG quickly and react to the threat. In CQC the SMG tracks even faster than an Assault Riffle. So you can strafe, jump and turn while continuing to track your opponent as they strafe, jump, or turn. If you do it right, you can even take a Heavy 1v1 by strafing around them and stying ahead of their line of fire, or cutting quickly back through their fire and around their other side, while unloading slugs into their head throughout the entire manoeuver.
The SMG also has a high rate of fire, so it can work for suppression fire. Although when your opponent recognizes it as a sidearm, this may counteract the intimidation that its rate of fire might otherwise produce. On the flip side, if they underestimate the SMG and become overconfident, that can be to your advantage. The rate of fire also works well for players who are new to First Person Shooters (FPS) and who tend to spray and pray. Luckily for them the SMG also reloads very quickly, because with spray and pray you can empty a clip really fast. A more experienced player will easily get a kill in a single clip, or even two per clip if they can get consistent head shots.
As a sidearm the SMG can be paired with any other weapon (assuming you have the slots). When paired with long range or specialty weapons that donGÇÖt work well in CQC, the SMG can make up for that weakness and add an unexpected level of versatility to these fits. The classic examples are Sniper Rifle, Laser Rifle, and Swarm Launcher. However, it can also add some mid range versatility to a Shotgun fit.
Finally, being a sidearm, the SMG uses less Power Grid and CPU than larger weapons. This can be a nice alternative for a Logi trying to fit more equipment, or an Assault or Scout that chooses to use two sidearms in order to help with tight fits.
1) You can use it almost instantly when you come out of a sprint. 2) You can switch to the SMG from another weapon very quickly. 3) It tracks quickly in CQC. 4) High rate of fire. 5) Rapid reload. 6) As a sidearm it can be paired with Light weapons which are weak in CQC. 7) As a sidearm it uses less Power Grid and CPU than most primary weapons.
Using the SMG:
The SMG does not have the range of an Assault Riffle, so use cover to either sneak up on your opponent, or to force your opponent to come to you. When in CQC, keep strafing and moving to make yourself difficult to hit, while using the superior tracking speed of the SMG to keep your crosshairs on your opponent. DonGÇÖt Aim Down Sites (ADS) while in CQC because this will reduce your tracking speed and you will not be able to hit a moving target. Use ADS when your target is stationary (like an Uplink, or a Hacker) or if your target is more than 10m away. While the SMG is not as good at longer ranges, due to dispersion, you can still do a reasonable amount of damage out to 30m, especially if you have points into Sharp Shooter.
1) Use cover to get into CQC. 2) Move and strafe while firing to make yourself a difficult target. 3) DonGÇÖt use ADS in CQC. 4) Do use ADS against stationary or distant targets. |
Fox Gaden
DUST University Ivy League
399
|
Posted - 2013.06.03 16:34:00 -
[2] - Quote
Suits:
Scout: The SMG works very will with Scout suits. They have the stealth to get into CQC as well as the speed and agility to dodge incoming fire, while they make best use of the SMGGÇÖs quick tracking. The ability to sprint, fire, then sprint and fire again is quite nice. The SMG provides some nice mid range support for a Shotgun and would work well with Nova Knives, although with the Knives filling a sidearm slot, you have more options with them. A SMG/SMG combination makes fitting easier, and allows you to fire up to 160 rounds without reloading. Although reloading an SMG is relatively fast, switching to a second SMG is much faster.
Assault: The SMG also works well with an Assault suit. While Assault suits are slower than Scout Suits, they are also more resilient. You should still try to dodge incoming fire, just like you would as a Scout. While you might not dodge as much, any damage you can avoid will give you the advantage if you can keep your own fire on target. Faster shield tanked assault suits will be better at dodging, while armour platted suits will be able to absorb more damage and should concentrate more on accurate shooting. A head shot with an SMG will kill quickly.
The Minmatar Assault suit bonus adds 4 rounds per clip for to the SMG, so with Minmatar Assault at 5 you get a 100 round clip. With a SMG/SMG fit you get 200 rounds of continuous fire, with only a brief interruption for weapon switch. SMG/Faylock Pistol might be a nice combination for the Minmatar Assault suit as well.
Logi: Using an SMG with a Logi suit will free up some CPU and Power Grid for fitting better modules and equipment.
Heavy: Although the rate of fire of the SMG is great, it canGÇÖt compete with its big brother the HMG, and it does not have the range of a Forge Gun, so for HeavyGÇÖs the SMG remains a useful secondary weapon. Although, in CQC situations it probably works better than a Forge Gun, and due to its faster tracking might even outperform an HMG against fast moving Scouts.
Balance: I have not crunched the numbers, but the DPS of of the SMG seems very close to that of the Assault Rifle. The SMG seems to have a slight DPS advantage at very close range, while the Assault Rifle seems to gain more advantage as the range increases. The faster tracking speed also adds to the SMGGÇÖs advantage in CQC, but again this advantage drops off with range. The SMG play style borrows from both the Shotgun and the Assault Riffle. While it does not have the alpha of the Shotgun, or the rang of the Assault Riffle, it comes close enough to make it a reasonable compromise between the two. Overall, I think the SMG is a well balanced CQC weapon, with enough range to still be relevant when firing across a street. |
Fox Gaden
DUST University Ivy League
399
|
Posted - 2013.06.03 16:34:00 -
[3] - Quote
Guides By Fox Gaden, Director of Education, DUST University: The Role of the Sniper Marksman, Taking Sniper to the next level Unleashing the Swarm, a guide to being effective with the Swarm Launcher SMG, Unlocking Versatility |
Fox Gaden
DUST University Ivy League
399
|
Posted - 2013.06.03 16:34:00 -
[4] - Quote
Reserved |
Fox Gaden
Immortal Guides
1000
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Posted - 2013.09.16 12:51:00 -
[5] - Quote
This sank to page 16, so I better say something before it gets locked for inactivity. I want to be able to edit it if there are changes, particularly when the other sidearms are released.
I am finding the SMG to be working very well in 1.4. I suggest relying more on using cover than strafing now though. |
Fox Gaden
Immortal Guides
1006
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Posted - 2013.09.16 18:17:00 -
[6] - Quote
Yes, I will be reviewing the guide soon to update for 1.4.
Now you need to use that speed to sprint to cover and get away. Small strafes wonGÇÖt work anymore. You have to move far enough to unsticky their crosshairs, which means larger movements, but since larger movements are inherently easier to track, they are not as effective as the strafing used to be.
While the sensor changes and the reliance on active scanners should have been a buff for Scouts, other changes have only served to highlight the problems with Scout suit survivability and fitting troubles. The lack of aim assist since 1.0 partially masked this since DS3 users could not hit the broad side of a barn much less a jittering Scout, but now that DS3 users can track a target as well as a mouse user, Scouts are going down in fractions of a second.
The good news is that I think the situation is obvious enough now that it should finally get fixed in 1.6 if not 1.5. |
Fox Gaden
Immortal Guides
1039
|
Posted - 2013.09.17 16:32:00 -
[7] - Quote
Had to rewrite portions of the guide due to changes to weapon switch speed and Heavy turning (tracking) speeds. The fact that the SMG is very light does not make as noticeable a difference as it once did. The old style of using an SMG, of strafing around someone while shooting them is not as effective as it once was. The SMG is still just as effective in confined spaces, but you need to use cover more now.
I did not update the Scout Suit section yet, as I need to do more testing. Scouts have trouble right now regardless of which weapon they use, so it is a little difficult to assess.
____________________________________________________________________________ Immortal Guides, supporting knowledge dissemination in New Eden since August 31, 2013. |
Fox Gaden
Immortal Guides
1173
|
Posted - 2013.10.04 17:36:00 -
[8] - Quote
Smooth Assassin wrote:Fox Gaden wrote:Suits: They have the stealth to get into CQC as well as the speed and agility to dodge incoming fire Sprint tank is dead now and stealth is sucky with aim bot here we are useful by running towards redline railgun installations. Way to wreck the party aim bot You can break the Aim Assist lock by making large enough movements to get beyond the Aim Assist tolerance, or by ducking behind cover for a fraction of a second. People QQGÇÖed because the little shuffle step that was effective in 1.3 was not enough to break aim assist.
The Stealth of the Scout suit has become a BIG asset with the sudden popularity of Active Scanners. People with Scanners think they know where everyone is, and are even less likely to notice a Scout sneaking up on them than they were before. People are becoming more reliant on their Radar. |
Fox Gaden
Immortal Guides
3495
|
Posted - 2014.05.27 11:54:00 -
[9] - Quote
Made 1.8 updates, and added a section contrasting the SMG and the Magsec SMG.
My thanks to CCP Logibro for answering my petition and unlocking this thread so that I could post my updates.
Hand/Eye coordination cannot be taught. For everything else there is the Learning Coalition.
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