Enlisted: 2012-05-23
2012-05-27 14:10 , edited 2012-06-18 10:49 by Pr8Dator
I am a noob myself who believes that if you keep doing things the same way, you'll keep getting the same results, lousy results. I believe the experts who does really well in BF3 must be doing some things very differently rather than just keep playing the game. Ask any experts and they will only tell you to play more. I guess after hundreds of hours of gameplay, we'll probably be able to figure some of these things out but hey, why not understand them now and practise, right? :)
I watched hundreds of videos on people who plays really well and saw that these experts do some things differently and these differences makes a big difference in terms of results! I have been practising some of these and improved my results from around 0.1 KDR to now about 0.3 KDR. Not great but there are improvements. :) So, here are some of them relating to shooting which I found really useful. If there's anything else some of you experts out there wish to share with noobs like me, please comment. :)
1a. Look into the sights when in close quarters shooting (unless you are using a PDW with laser sight which makes shooting from the hip at close range extremely accurate anyways or a shotgun). Most noobs spam off the hip in close quarter situations, I do, and believe in pumping more lead in the general direction of the enemy but experts actually bring up their sights if they run into you close quarters (shotguns aside). Being more accurate then hip shooting usually allow them to get away with something like below 10% health in those situations. I find this very hard to learn as the surprise of that kind of situation usually have me pumping out lead from the hip instantly.
1b. If you find yourself in such a tight situation where bringing up sights in close combat isn't practical, you might want to try crouching down and shooting from the hip. Crouching partially nullifies the inaccuracy of hip shooting and also presents a smaller target. (Tip from IMA_PCGAMEFTW)
2. Shoot relatively still. I thought experts are like COD players shooting while moving crazy but after watching a lot of videos, I found that most experts stand relatively still when shooting. They sprint, stop, shoot, sprint and don't shoot on the move too much.
3. Move Backwards, not turn around! When an enemy runs past you in close quarters, the tendency is to turn around in a circle which usually gets you killed because it takes alot of time and even when you do see the enemy, it is hard to stop in time and line up a shot. Most experts actually walk backwards when an enemy rushes past and it usually sets them up with the enemy once again in front of them but aiming at where you used to be, making them easy targets. Moving backwards while shooting is very good if you just got out of cover. It helps you take that few shots and whether you kill or not, gets you back quickly into cover. That brings us to the next tip...
4. Shoot in and out of cover. This is the same as real life firefights. Nobody stand and shoot exposed for extended period of time and get anything more than 1 or 2 kills before getting dropped. Move cover to cover and then shoot in and out of cover.
5. Short Bursts. Long range or close quarters, experts rarely spam. Short burst always work better long or short range.
6. Prone and return fire. Some experts train to a reflex to go prone immediately when faced with an enemy in close quarters and then immediately return fire. This usually makes the enemy miss their first few shots as their weapons are usually leveled at the head, giving you that precious first shot.
7. Go straight into sidearm instead of reload in the face of the enemy. Surprisingly but yes, even me, reload half way in a close quarter fight...noob....
8. When faced with an enemy at close range, walk backwards, not forward, in order to reduce aiming arc when the enemy move side to side. Most noobs, me included, start out by moving closer to the enemy.
9. Keep moving! Unless you are defending a choke point, standing at one spot too long, perhaps more than 10 seconds, will only set you up for a shot from behind from one of those enemies running in circles around the map.
10. Never rush anyone carrying a shotgun of any kind. Keep your distance.
11. When sniping, there's nothing more important than hundreds of hours of practise in aiming. But before we get that good, use a MK11 and always be the first to pump the first round at another sniper's scope reflection in order to suppress and blur his vision and then aim for a kill. Yes, its spamming but hey, we are noobs and noobs use semis, right experts? :)
12. Learn to lead a target! When a target is moving, you are not going to hit him by aiming straight at him. Practise Practise Practise!
13. There are some known noob weapons (like the ones I use sadly), MK11, DAO-12 etc which are highly spammable which hopefully compensates our lack of accuracy a little bit. But again, spamming only makes you less accurate...so...
14. Go to maps with lots of players. Maps with lesser than maybe 20 players are filled with experts that simply take you as desert. You need to go to the big games in order to have plenty of practise.
15. Bring sight on enemy BEFORE shooting! Most noobs, me included, start shooting while still in the process of bringing the sights inline with the enemy at close to medium range. That is so totally wrong. All experts do the opposite, bring on the sights before going on the trigger. Shooting before lining up sights could make it impossible to line up the sights in the first place in full auto and you will always be left wondering why you are dead after pumping so much lead at your enemy. I found that the key to being able to do this is to always stay relaxed even in panic situations. Indeed, you can see videos of experts doing commentaries on the go while playing and they are having fun and relaxed at all times!
16. This is a little bit counterintuitive but until you get very accurate with aiming a weapon, you probably don't want to work on reducing bullet spread too much. Some bullet spread is actually good for helping you hit your target if your aiming sucks in the first place. :) In fact, if you are really bad at aiming and you play recon with a Mk11 like me, you might want to slap on the foregrip to reduce long range accuracy, increase bullet spread and actually help you hit more because of your poor aiming hehehehe
17. If you are playing recon with a sniper rifle (some recons run around with a DAO12 like me hahaha noob!), make sure you are holding your sidearm when you run from objective to objective. As you can see from my profile, my sidearm actually racked up quite a number of kills for me when I run into enemies enroute.
18. If you still have your grenade in inventory when you die, then you are not doing it right. Experts not only throw grenades when they know enemies are bunched up but use them tactically into hidden spots and corridors to check if enemies are there. If they are there, you will hear their shouting and then you can plan your attack. Otherwise, just run off to the next objective. I worked on this part quite a lot because when I first started, I can't even remember having grenades at all! hahaha! In fact, when I first started, I don't even remember my pistol!
19. One more way of using grenades is apple-dropping them. This means that if you are injured and running away from enemies chasing you down, throw a grenade in front of you while running. If you are lucky, that grenade will take out your attacker even if you die, otherwise, your attacker may just drop the pursue and hide from the grenade, either way is good since you are going to die anyways. :)
20. From Deekay: Always try to have 100% health when engaging the enemy. If you're taking hits, back off, heal and return.
21. When following a team mate and team mate enters a corner first and comes under fire, don't wait till he dies and then try to go around the corner to return fire. Enemy would already be setup for the next shot at you. When team mate comes under fire, I usually also turn the corner in crouch and return fire at the enemy. Enemy would still be busy shooting at your teammate and become an easy kill. Took 2 guys down today using this tip. :)
22. Learning the map!!!! If you don't know where to go and how to get there and what are the alternative routes, you are not going to get an advantage or be able to flank an enemy. Learning a map is as detailed as remember which window you can jump out of in an emergency and which covers can be destroyed etc. Knowing a map also allows you to better flank your enemies especially when most of them are defending around an area in one direction.
23. PTFO!!!! Yes, BF3 isn't just about killing. I know I know, you want to unlock weapon accessories but ask yourself, if you simply bought the unlock packs and have all the accessories already, what's left to play? So why bother playing at all? BF3 is really about points and objectives so really play the objective in order to understand the fun. :) Also, there are ways to rack up a whole lot more points than killing enemies.
24. Performance over Quality. Sad but true, higher FPS means you can aim better. I don't used to believe in this too much until I worked on lowering everything to low and then my aiming down the sights improved tremendously! Yes, I know graphics is important so you really need to find your own balance between performance and quality. I know of players back in Arma2 who will gladly play in wire mesh mode just for the performance! hahaha!
25. Run with the assaults! Their revives help keep your KDR high! :)
26. Move through the battlefield SMOOTHLY. Go from cover to cover and aim smoothly. Panic action and running around ai
I watched hundreds of videos on people who plays really well and saw that these experts do some things differently and these differences makes a big difference in terms of results! I have been practising some of these and improved my results from around 0.1 KDR to now about 0.3 KDR. Not great but there are improvements. :) So, here are some of them relating to shooting which I found really useful. If there's anything else some of you experts out there wish to share with noobs like me, please comment. :)
1a. Look into the sights when in close quarters shooting (unless you are using a PDW with laser sight which makes shooting from the hip at close range extremely accurate anyways or a shotgun). Most noobs spam off the hip in close quarter situations, I do, and believe in pumping more lead in the general direction of the enemy but experts actually bring up their sights if they run into you close quarters (shotguns aside). Being more accurate then hip shooting usually allow them to get away with something like below 10% health in those situations. I find this very hard to learn as the surprise of that kind of situation usually have me pumping out lead from the hip instantly.
1b. If you find yourself in such a tight situation where bringing up sights in close combat isn't practical, you might want to try crouching down and shooting from the hip. Crouching partially nullifies the inaccuracy of hip shooting and also presents a smaller target. (Tip from IMA_PCGAMEFTW)
2. Shoot relatively still. I thought experts are like COD players shooting while moving crazy but after watching a lot of videos, I found that most experts stand relatively still when shooting. They sprint, stop, shoot, sprint and don't shoot on the move too much.
3. Move Backwards, not turn around! When an enemy runs past you in close quarters, the tendency is to turn around in a circle which usually gets you killed because it takes alot of time and even when you do see the enemy, it is hard to stop in time and line up a shot. Most experts actually walk backwards when an enemy rushes past and it usually sets them up with the enemy once again in front of them but aiming at where you used to be, making them easy targets. Moving backwards while shooting is very good if you just got out of cover. It helps you take that few shots and whether you kill or not, gets you back quickly into cover. That brings us to the next tip...
4. Shoot in and out of cover. This is the same as real life firefights. Nobody stand and shoot exposed for extended period of time and get anything more than 1 or 2 kills before getting dropped. Move cover to cover and then shoot in and out of cover.
5. Short Bursts. Long range or close quarters, experts rarely spam. Short burst always work better long or short range.
6. Prone and return fire. Some experts train to a reflex to go prone immediately when faced with an enemy in close quarters and then immediately return fire. This usually makes the enemy miss their first few shots as their weapons are usually leveled at the head, giving you that precious first shot.
7. Go straight into sidearm instead of reload in the face of the enemy. Surprisingly but yes, even me, reload half way in a close quarter fight...noob....
8. When faced with an enemy at close range, walk backwards, not forward, in order to reduce aiming arc when the enemy move side to side. Most noobs, me included, start out by moving closer to the enemy.
9. Keep moving! Unless you are defending a choke point, standing at one spot too long, perhaps more than 10 seconds, will only set you up for a shot from behind from one of those enemies running in circles around the map.
10. Never rush anyone carrying a shotgun of any kind. Keep your distance.
11. When sniping, there's nothing more important than hundreds of hours of practise in aiming. But before we get that good, use a MK11 and always be the first to pump the first round at another sniper's scope reflection in order to suppress and blur his vision and then aim for a kill. Yes, its spamming but hey, we are noobs and noobs use semis, right experts? :)
12. Learn to lead a target! When a target is moving, you are not going to hit him by aiming straight at him. Practise Practise Practise!
13. There are some known noob weapons (like the ones I use sadly), MK11, DAO-12 etc which are highly spammable which hopefully compensates our lack of accuracy a little bit. But again, spamming only makes you less accurate...so...
14. Go to maps with lots of players. Maps with lesser than maybe 20 players are filled with experts that simply take you as desert. You need to go to the big games in order to have plenty of practise.
15. Bring sight on enemy BEFORE shooting! Most noobs, me included, start shooting while still in the process of bringing the sights inline with the enemy at close to medium range. That is so totally wrong. All experts do the opposite, bring on the sights before going on the trigger. Shooting before lining up sights could make it impossible to line up the sights in the first place in full auto and you will always be left wondering why you are dead after pumping so much lead at your enemy. I found that the key to being able to do this is to always stay relaxed even in panic situations. Indeed, you can see videos of experts doing commentaries on the go while playing and they are having fun and relaxed at all times!
16. This is a little bit counterintuitive but until you get very accurate with aiming a weapon, you probably don't want to work on reducing bullet spread too much. Some bullet spread is actually good for helping you hit your target if your aiming sucks in the first place. :) In fact, if you are really bad at aiming and you play recon with a Mk11 like me, you might want to slap on the foregrip to reduce long range accuracy, increase bullet spread and actually help you hit more because of your poor aiming hehehehe
17. If you are playing recon with a sniper rifle (some recons run around with a DAO12 like me hahaha noob!), make sure you are holding your sidearm when you run from objective to objective. As you can see from my profile, my sidearm actually racked up quite a number of kills for me when I run into enemies enroute.
18. If you still have your grenade in inventory when you die, then you are not doing it right. Experts not only throw grenades when they know enemies are bunched up but use them tactically into hidden spots and corridors to check if enemies are there. If they are there, you will hear their shouting and then you can plan your attack. Otherwise, just run off to the next objective. I worked on this part quite a lot because when I first started, I can't even remember having grenades at all! hahaha! In fact, when I first started, I don't even remember my pistol!
19. One more way of using grenades is apple-dropping them. This means that if you are injured and running away from enemies chasing you down, throw a grenade in front of you while running. If you are lucky, that grenade will take out your attacker even if you die, otherwise, your attacker may just drop the pursue and hide from the grenade, either way is good since you are going to die anyways. :)
20. From Deekay: Always try to have 100% health when engaging the enemy. If you're taking hits, back off, heal and return.
21. When following a team mate and team mate enters a corner first and comes under fire, don't wait till he dies and then try to go around the corner to return fire. Enemy would already be setup for the next shot at you. When team mate comes under fire, I usually also turn the corner in crouch and return fire at the enemy. Enemy would still be busy shooting at your teammate and become an easy kill. Took 2 guys down today using this tip. :)
22. Learning the map!!!! If you don't know where to go and how to get there and what are the alternative routes, you are not going to get an advantage or be able to flank an enemy. Learning a map is as detailed as remember which window you can jump out of in an emergency and which covers can be destroyed etc. Knowing a map also allows you to better flank your enemies especially when most of them are defending around an area in one direction.
23. PTFO!!!! Yes, BF3 isn't just about killing. I know I know, you want to unlock weapon accessories but ask yourself, if you simply bought the unlock packs and have all the accessories already, what's left to play? So why bother playing at all? BF3 is really about points and objectives so really play the objective in order to understand the fun. :) Also, there are ways to rack up a whole lot more points than killing enemies.
24. Performance over Quality. Sad but true, higher FPS means you can aim better. I don't used to believe in this too much until I worked on lowering everything to low and then my aiming down the sights improved tremendously! Yes, I know graphics is important so you really need to find your own balance between performance and quality. I know of players back in Arma2 who will gladly play in wire mesh mode just for the performance! hahaha!
25. Run with the assaults! Their revives help keep your KDR high! :)
26. Move through the battlefield SMOOTHLY. Go from cover to cover and aim smoothly. Panic action and running around ai
My Fav Setups:
M417 + PK-A + Bipod | My tips for noobs http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2832654348034711461/ | My Youtube Channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm
Enlisted: 2011-10-28
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