Awkward Silence
09-25-2011, 01:08 PM
Hey everybody,
Though I'm new to this forum in terms of posts, I have spent some time reading a lot of threads here, and the general sense I get is that a TON of people HATE the Sawed-Off Shotgun, but when people complain about it, they only get 2 different kinds of responses.
1) The "I agree totally, it sux," or "I feel you bro, but there's nothing we can do," response,
-OR-
2) The "You just suck," or "There are plenty of ways to counter it if you're just good enough, and you use strategies that I oh-so-conveniently won't name here," response.
I'd like to change that.
While it seems a little unreasonable to demand that Epic completely remove a weapon from the game that they've spent many months and dollars designing, testing, and tweaking, I think we CAN, however, come together and post suggestions and strategies for defeating SOS-users here. That way, we can at least help each other out and do something productive rather than simply tell people getting pwned that "they just suck." So please, if you come across something that works, or you yourself use the Sawed-Off and observe how some people still kill you, post about it here. I'll do my best to keep this post updated with your contributions, unless they're ridiculous, of course. Lastly, please try to explain your strategy in BRIEF detail, as well. Don't just say something like, "Oh, I use the Hammerburst against them, it's great!" That's a good start, but tell us HOW you use it, do you sneak around, do you get up close and roll back just before they fire, etc. You don't have to write an essay, but a couple of sentences would be nice. Thanks, and I hope this thread can become a good resource for the SOS-afflicted.
TL;DR: Help people out, post any and all successful tips/strategies you've used/seen for defeating SOSs here.
CURRENT STRATEGIES:
Retro Lancer:
As far as I can tell, this weapon, more than anything else, seems best-suited to killing SOS-users, as it works best at short and very short range, the exact gap that SOS-users have to close in order to explode you into itty bitty pissed-off pieces. DO NOT try to bayonet charge them. The Sawed-Off is designed to counter exactly that, so if you do manage to pull off a kill, it'll only be because the guy was an idiot or not paying attention.
1) Try to goad SOS-users out of cover, then spray them down. Many of these guys are impatient, so be annoying by taking cover on something a few feet in front of them, and quite often, they'll attempt to pop out of cover and rush you, which is your opportunity to mow them down. This is especially effective in gametypes like KOTH, where there places on the map where people HAVE to be, so you can set yourself up on choke points where they'll have to break cover in order to win.
Lancer:
Seems to be a Jack-of-all-Trades, but Master of None-type of weapon. Best if you can get a sizable perfect Active Reload before engaging the SOS-user.
1) If you see a SOS-user camping in cover, try to maneuver yourself around the edge of it, while staying a few feet back. Specifically, try to get that angle on him (or her now,) where you can shoot their shoulders and hips while they're in cover. This should force them to move, and hopefully you can down them once they're in the open.
Hammerburst:
1)
Don't go rushing into someone unless you can get the kill. Be patient. If you are using lancer or hammerburst, best to keep your distance and take shots when you can. You can also provide a good distraction and support your teammates with these weapons. The only time you should get close to a sawed-off user with a lancer is if you have the chainsaw ready and they're not.
Gnasher:
1) Try to goad them into wasting a shot on you by getting pretty close and firing a shot or two. Then roll away as fast as you can and hopefully, they'll be left vulnerable. This is pretty risky, though, so you may want to bring a friend to help you take the guy down.
2)
When you see a confirmed DB user who is currently rushing you. Try your best to get them to evade. It doesn't really matter to where. Usually one shot can make them evade towards you. If your on your game that is exactly what you want. When they roll towards you, they canot fire during the roll obviously use the omnidirectional evade and get past them for an oldschool turn around. Or if your like me and suck at doing that. Close the gap and hope your 2nd shot downs them DURING their roll. Ive managed to do this a few times with varying results but its seems to be the best I can do with the Gnasher.
3)
I notice when you're approaching someone with a SOS in cover from the right distance, they'll try to flip sideways towards you and shoot you before you get a chance. I've learned to keep that distance (about 8 virtual feet) so they feel brave enough to try flipping towards me and give me enough time to aim low and neutralize them with a shotgun.
Also, I try to constantly keep getting perfect active reloads. I can't even number the amount of times I've gotten the Quick Clips ribbon and how 2 active shotgun shells Or about 15% perfect actives on my rifles can help. These are really important elements to stopping shotgun rushes. Just last night I was rushed by 4 people 1 by 1, and each of them died because of my Gnasher when they all had sawed-offs. Ended up dying by someone retro charging, but it goes to show SOS's aren't a problem, it's the tactics we use with/against them.
4)
Don't attempt to go for a gib with the Gnasher against and Sawed-off user, use the Gnasher's range to your advantage. Also, keep your cool, and don't go for revenge kills. Most of the complaints about the SoS that I've read seem to just be people raging because they haven't properly adapted to counter the sawed-off.
5)
Well i use the sawn off (with pride) and since SO many people complain, i will tell you the best way someone killed me with the trusty gnasher. He would fire once, roll back, fire again roll back. And if i went behind something he would just be extremely careful or throw a smoke.
Smoke Grenade:
1)
This disables their ability to fire for about a second. Throw it at an intermediate range and Gnasher rush them. Ive only had this work twice but it apparently caught them offguard as their blindfire was unuseable and my down shot with the gnasher spelled victory. The biggest drawback here is you have to wait to pull out your Gnasher (or SoS) and that timing can be very tricky to impossible and is especially dependant on the spacing. I would consider this a last ditch effort.
Spotting:
1)
Spotting can be a HUGE help for taking down sawed off users. Sometimes aiming, spotting and rolling back to bait them gets another gun or two on them. It never hurts to let people know of positions in the first place, but I've been decently successful at being the red flag for the bull to charge while others take them down, as it were. I play pretty much nothing but KOTH, so spotting has been the number one thing for me, as even if I die, I usually see bullets on the guy that did it.
Any other weapon:
Nothing yet!
Though I'm new to this forum in terms of posts, I have spent some time reading a lot of threads here, and the general sense I get is that a TON of people HATE the Sawed-Off Shotgun, but when people complain about it, they only get 2 different kinds of responses.
1) The "I agree totally, it sux," or "I feel you bro, but there's nothing we can do," response,
-OR-
2) The "You just suck," or "There are plenty of ways to counter it if you're just good enough, and you use strategies that I oh-so-conveniently won't name here," response.
I'd like to change that.
While it seems a little unreasonable to demand that Epic completely remove a weapon from the game that they've spent many months and dollars designing, testing, and tweaking, I think we CAN, however, come together and post suggestions and strategies for defeating SOS-users here. That way, we can at least help each other out and do something productive rather than simply tell people getting pwned that "they just suck." So please, if you come across something that works, or you yourself use the Sawed-Off and observe how some people still kill you, post about it here. I'll do my best to keep this post updated with your contributions, unless they're ridiculous, of course. Lastly, please try to explain your strategy in BRIEF detail, as well. Don't just say something like, "Oh, I use the Hammerburst against them, it's great!" That's a good start, but tell us HOW you use it, do you sneak around, do you get up close and roll back just before they fire, etc. You don't have to write an essay, but a couple of sentences would be nice. Thanks, and I hope this thread can become a good resource for the SOS-afflicted.
TL;DR: Help people out, post any and all successful tips/strategies you've used/seen for defeating SOSs here.
CURRENT STRATEGIES:
Retro Lancer:
As far as I can tell, this weapon, more than anything else, seems best-suited to killing SOS-users, as it works best at short and very short range, the exact gap that SOS-users have to close in order to explode you into itty bitty pissed-off pieces. DO NOT try to bayonet charge them. The Sawed-Off is designed to counter exactly that, so if you do manage to pull off a kill, it'll only be because the guy was an idiot or not paying attention.
1) Try to goad SOS-users out of cover, then spray them down. Many of these guys are impatient, so be annoying by taking cover on something a few feet in front of them, and quite often, they'll attempt to pop out of cover and rush you, which is your opportunity to mow them down. This is especially effective in gametypes like KOTH, where there places on the map where people HAVE to be, so you can set yourself up on choke points where they'll have to break cover in order to win.
Lancer:
Seems to be a Jack-of-all-Trades, but Master of None-type of weapon. Best if you can get a sizable perfect Active Reload before engaging the SOS-user.
1) If you see a SOS-user camping in cover, try to maneuver yourself around the edge of it, while staying a few feet back. Specifically, try to get that angle on him (or her now,) where you can shoot their shoulders and hips while they're in cover. This should force them to move, and hopefully you can down them once they're in the open.
Hammerburst:
1)
Don't go rushing into someone unless you can get the kill. Be patient. If you are using lancer or hammerburst, best to keep your distance and take shots when you can. You can also provide a good distraction and support your teammates with these weapons. The only time you should get close to a sawed-off user with a lancer is if you have the chainsaw ready and they're not.
Gnasher:
1) Try to goad them into wasting a shot on you by getting pretty close and firing a shot or two. Then roll away as fast as you can and hopefully, they'll be left vulnerable. This is pretty risky, though, so you may want to bring a friend to help you take the guy down.
2)
When you see a confirmed DB user who is currently rushing you. Try your best to get them to evade. It doesn't really matter to where. Usually one shot can make them evade towards you. If your on your game that is exactly what you want. When they roll towards you, they canot fire during the roll obviously use the omnidirectional evade and get past them for an oldschool turn around. Or if your like me and suck at doing that. Close the gap and hope your 2nd shot downs them DURING their roll. Ive managed to do this a few times with varying results but its seems to be the best I can do with the Gnasher.
3)
I notice when you're approaching someone with a SOS in cover from the right distance, they'll try to flip sideways towards you and shoot you before you get a chance. I've learned to keep that distance (about 8 virtual feet) so they feel brave enough to try flipping towards me and give me enough time to aim low and neutralize them with a shotgun.
Also, I try to constantly keep getting perfect active reloads. I can't even number the amount of times I've gotten the Quick Clips ribbon and how 2 active shotgun shells Or about 15% perfect actives on my rifles can help. These are really important elements to stopping shotgun rushes. Just last night I was rushed by 4 people 1 by 1, and each of them died because of my Gnasher when they all had sawed-offs. Ended up dying by someone retro charging, but it goes to show SOS's aren't a problem, it's the tactics we use with/against them.
4)
Don't attempt to go for a gib with the Gnasher against and Sawed-off user, use the Gnasher's range to your advantage. Also, keep your cool, and don't go for revenge kills. Most of the complaints about the SoS that I've read seem to just be people raging because they haven't properly adapted to counter the sawed-off.
5)
Well i use the sawn off (with pride) and since SO many people complain, i will tell you the best way someone killed me with the trusty gnasher. He would fire once, roll back, fire again roll back. And if i went behind something he would just be extremely careful or throw a smoke.
Smoke Grenade:
1)
This disables their ability to fire for about a second. Throw it at an intermediate range and Gnasher rush them. Ive only had this work twice but it apparently caught them offguard as their blindfire was unuseable and my down shot with the gnasher spelled victory. The biggest drawback here is you have to wait to pull out your Gnasher (or SoS) and that timing can be very tricky to impossible and is especially dependant on the spacing. I would consider this a last ditch effort.
Spotting:
1)
Spotting can be a HUGE help for taking down sawed off users. Sometimes aiming, spotting and rolling back to bait them gets another gun or two on them. It never hurts to let people know of positions in the first place, but I've been decently successful at being the red flag for the bull to charge while others take them down, as it were. I play pretty much nothing but KOTH, so spotting has been the number one thing for me, as even if I die, I usually see bullets on the guy that did it.
Any other weapon:
Nothing yet!