elixir's guide to life, ball, and BBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[elxir]

Welcome.

In the interests of making you less terrible, I have decided to donate my knowledge to the masses. In this thread, I will occasionally write stuff by my own volition.

However, please feel free to ask any questions related to ball. Plane setups in general, by map, strategy, whatever.

The first lesson is inbound in the next post.

http://i46.tinypic.com/b54sa0.jpg

[elxir]

LESSON ONE: WHAT TO DO WHEN THERE IS A LOOSE BALL IN YOUR GOAL AREA

Note: if the ball is precariously positioned with 1-2 inches of the goal, disregard this and grab the damn thing. This guide is applicable to situations in which the ball is still in your goal "area" but not an IMMEDIATE threat.

Note 2: There are a LOT of variable scenarios. If you think of one, ask.

Loopy:

Listen up, loopy friends. Your primary job is hunting the ball. You are Harry Potter. If your team has numbers, you should attempt to go for the ball and clear it with all due haste. If not, then emp anything that gets near the ball and spam F. Your primary concern is mirandas who can snag the ball and bounce up to the goal before anyone even knows what happened.

Fly around and shoot stuff.

Miranda:

You are the fastest plane. Kill any smoking planes in the vicinity, snag the ball, and go go go. Do not dance around. If you anchor more than once, you are doing it wrong.

Bomber:

If you have faster planes with you, sit back and kill everything that moves. Don't bother approaching the ball, it only makes you a bigger target. If explodets are all you have, it's your job to get the ball and get it out. Remember: your energy is more efficient hitting F than ^.

Explodet: (THIS IS PRIMARILY WHO I AM WRITING THIS FOR)

This is easy, yet I see countless people mess it up. NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER go for the ball. You are slow. You are not agile. You are weak when afterburning. An explodet's primary value to a team is being alive and protecting the goal. If you die attempting to rush to the ball, you are not helping the situation. Sit between the ball and the goal, set your mines, and shoot at stuff.

Prioritize your targets appropriately. If the ball has been recovered by the enemy and is closing on the goal, shoot at the runner. If the ball is not in a position to enter the goal via the S key, don't you dare move yourself out of position to go hunting. Stay in front of or immediately above the goal, always,

exception: if the ball is *extremely* close to you, feel free to grab it and do something useful with it. You'll probably **** it up, though.

Biplane:

lol hell if I know. Uninstall.

[Deyv]

To sum up elixirs post you could say:

Grab the ball if you're the fastest plane, if not kill stuff.

That applies for biplane too, even tho elixir somehow doesn't like them.

[hurripilot]

lix was tramatized last night when I came off a 205 kill game on ladder and pwned his fatty whale with mah HC

[Stormich]

Oh hey I'm doing my explodet part exactly as written, woot, I feel good

[elxir]

Originally Posted by Stormich

Oh hey I'm doing my explodet part exactly as written, woot, I feel good

bless your soul

[Clapon]

Originally Posted by elxir

bless your soul

srsly those are hard to find its seems...

[drunkguava]

I think your description of explodet's role in ball is extraordinarily one dimensional. Yes it's dumb to chase a ball if it's clearly out of immediate reach and there is pressure from the other team, but every plane has a role with the ball in their hands. The problem with explo is that is it unforgiving. You say "You'll probably **** it up" which is undoubtedly true for most beginner explos and a lot of "pro" explos who haven't really picked up ball tactics yet, but that doesnt mean avoid getting the ball, which is the impression I got from your writeup.
Clearing the ball and/or playing quarterback is something an explo can do really well because of the powerful shot and high health. Flexi wings players are much more dangerous because of the increased agility that allows them to aim their passes/throws faster. One thing people need to realize, however, is that a clear is more useful if it goes to a player on your team instead of just throwing the ball into space. This is a mistake too many explos make. If you do need to clear into space, throw the ball into an empty and/or low traffic area. Bounce the ball around an opponent. Just make sure it does not end up directly in an enemy's hands.
Just my 2c. not particulary comprehensive, i know, but not enough people know how to clear. and that is a central explodet role.

[elxir]

imagine it like hockey

if the goalie is the *only* player near the goal, ya go get it. otherwise there are safer ways to do it.

[Greekjr14]

Why must you hate biplanes?

[Goose]

Originally Posted by drunkguava

I think your description of explodet's role in ball is extraordinarily one dimensional. Yes it's dumb to chase a ball if it's clearly out of immediate reach and there is pressure from the other team, but every plane has a role with the ball in their hands. The problem with explo is that is it unforgiving. You say "You'll probably **** it up" which is undoubtedly true for most beginner explos and a lot of "pro" explos who haven't really picked up ball tactics yet, but that doesnt mean avoid getting the ball, which is the impression I got from your writeup.
Clearing the ball and/or playing quarterback is something an explo can do really well because of the powerful shot and high health. Flexi wings players are much more dangerous because of the increased agility that allows them to aim their passes/throws faster. One thing people need to realize, however, is that a clear is more useful if it goes to a player on your team instead of just throwing the ball into space. This is a mistake too many explos make. If you do need to clear into space, throw the ball into an empty and/or low traffic area. Bounce the ball around an opponent. Just make sure it does not end up directly in an enemy's hands.
Just my 2c. not particulary comprehensive, i know, but not enough people know how to clear. and that is a central explodet role.

Yes, snatching the ball when there are no immediate threats shooting you already and then dumping it off to the closest friendly plane in the general vicinity offers the highest rate of success to clearing a ball out of your goal area if your not in a position to get a good path to clear the ball yourself. The key is being fast and making quick decisions. Unless you have sufficient health and the confidence to maneuver around the playing field to get into a better positioning, you should be passing it off someone no later than 3 seconds with 1 to 1.5 seconds being the ideal time.

[DryBone]

whale racist D:

[mlopes]

Originally Posted by drunkguava

If you do need to clear into space, throw the ball into an empty and/or low traffic area. Bounce the ball around an opponent. Just make sure it does not end up directly in an enemy's hands.

I'd add, when you really, really need to clear into space, don't do it for the front of the goal or for the map's route which is more used for attack, do it for the hardest place to reach the goal from (for example, down, unless the down route is the main attack route for the map).
Is cave, throwing the ball into those spikes in the ground usually does a good job to keep the ball off everybody's hands for quite a while in case of a BIG defense crisis.

[drunkguava]

Originally Posted by Goose

you should be passing it off someone no later than 3 seconds with 1 to 1.5 seconds being the ideal time.

seeing a flexi whale carrying a ball across the map is one of the most entertaining things in the game imo. but yeah, it's not recommended.

[nostrich]

This seems like a good place to add this. When someone manages to dispossess someone at their goal and takes a run back across the map, I don't know why a lot of players seem to have the habit of sticking around to kill the remnants of the opposing team. It seems like leaving them there smoking/EMP'd/whatever is much better tactically than killing them and having them respawn and meet you back at their goal, with full health and full boost again.

[Evan20000]

You forgot to add that an EMP'd miranda with the ball is a useless Miranda. Pass that as fast as you possibly can.

[Cpt. Slow]

I'm a ball player, I play mostly with a Whale - and it can be a good scorer too - in counter attacks mostly. Explodet has powefull shot, and explodet players have good aim (as they have constantly aim with their dir/thermo rockets). And the best - long shots

But in general explodet is deffensive plane. If we have more than one explo. 1 if for deffence, other one in the middle, to control middle of the map, and sometimes to score (dive quickly on afterburner - nothing can stop you - they usually have too little stopping power, for the quick time that they can hit you).

I have performed many raids on the bottom of ball_football, with ball bouncing and scoring a goal with a SLOW whale.

Remember - dont try to head-on chase a ball with other plane - you'' loose 99% of time.

[Stormich]

I'm gonna add a bit here cause I'm pretty pissed about the noob mistakes people make in TBD

#1 biplanes suck
#2 if you must play biplane make sure you snipe the bomb runner
#3 biplanes that focus on killing other things go play co op

To elaborate you're useless in a biplane if you're not sniping high priority targets or running the bomb. You can have all the kills you want doesn't make you any more useful in the game. This is not TDM.

Adding a bit more for loopies, the EMP kind. If you're playing this kind of plane your main defensive role is to get an EMP of on the bomb runner and possibly the whole stack of attacking planes. Do not shoot your missiles before this is accomplished, your best bet is to slow them down and hope for a bomber or randa to get there in time to OHKO the runner.

That's about that, bomber is easy enough not to need explanation and randas and explos are usually high enough in skill to know their **** anyway.

[hurripilot]

Originally Posted by Stormich

I'm gonna add a bit here cause I'm pretty pissed about the noob mistakes people make in TBD

#1 biplanes suck
#2 if you must play biplane make sure you snipe the bomb runner
#3 biplanes that focus on killing other things go play co op

To elaborate you're useless in a biplane if you're not sniping high priority targets or running the bomb. You can have all the kills you want doesn't make you any more useful in the game. This is not TDM.

Adding a bit more for loopies, the EMP kind. If you're playing this kind of plane your main defensive role is to get an EMP of on the bomb runner and possibly the whole stack of attacking planes. Do not shoot your missiles before this is accomplished, your best bet is to slow them down and hope for a bomber or randa to get there in time to OHKO the runner.

That's about that, bomber is easy enough not to need explanation and randas and explos are usually high enough in skill to know their **** anyway.

I was under the impression that this was a thread about ball. I was also under the impression that this was a thread for elxir's thoughts. Dunno where I got that idea. Must have been the title of the thread.

[Stormich]

I'm hijacking the thread.

[hurripilot]

Originally Posted by Stormich

I'm gonna add a bit here cause I'm pretty pissed about the noob mistakes people make in TBD

#1 biplanes suck
#2 if you must play biplane make sure you snipe the bomb runner
#3 biplanes that focus on killing other things go play co op

To elaborate you're useless in a biplane if you're not sniping high priority targets or running the bomb. You can have all the kills you want doesn't make you any more useful in the game. This is not TDM.

Adding a bit more for loopies, the EMP kind. If you're playing this kind of plane your main defensive role is to get an EMP of on the bomb runner and possibly the whole stack of attacking planes. Do not shoot your missiles before this is accomplished, your best bet is to slow them down and hope for a bomber or randa to get there in time to OHKO the runner.

That's about that, bomber is easy enough not to need explanation and randas and explos are usually high enough in skill to know their **** anyway.

P.S. - http://livingelpaso.files.wordpress..../03/haters.jpg