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Crits And You - A Brief Guide
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Crits And You - A Brief Guide
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==Defense, or how to prevent Crits from ruining your day== Critical hits are going to happen. You can't prevent them from happening once your internal armor is exposed. You can, however, change the percentage they have of striking items you don't want to lose. I call this item or crit buffering, since it involves filling a space with mostly neutral or beneficial items that take up critical slots. The proper defense against crits involves identifying what is dangerous or important to you, like ammo or an AC, and stuffing its component with other things that will help take hits for it. === Buffering === The percentage of an item being hit is based off the number of critical slots an item occupies compared to the other items within that same component. This means items that take up more critical slots, like the [[AC/20]]'s whopping 10 crits, are more difficult to buffer. Buffering is a game of proportions, which means adding too much results in less benefit. It also makes it riskier to lose the component you've buffered, as it's now full of often beneficial items you've used to take up space. Buffering is often used to protect weapons. Your opponent either knows, or can deduce, the exact location of where you have placed weapons, and may attempt to destroy them. This makes buffering (and damage mitigation techniques like twisting) your best recourse for dealing with these attacks. e.g. A [[Double Heat Sink]] occupies three critical slots. If you placed one in a component with a [[Medium Laser]] that occupies one slot, you would have a higher chance of a successful crit striking the DHS (75%, or 3/4 used critical slots occupied), and a lesser chance of the crit striking the medium laser (25%, or 1/4 used critical slots occupied). === Ammo Location System === This concept of ammo storage, generally exercised by LRM "boats" or 'Mechs heavily dependent on ballistics, is to use the principles from the ALS (Ammo Location System) to keep ammo stored within a 'Mech in rather commonly struck hardpoints. The key to this system is knowing how much ammo is in a ton, where it is stored in your 'Mech, and in what order your 'Mech will be using its ammo stores. This gives you a clear picture of what components are vulnerable to an ammo explosion at any given time. It also means you can use previously ammo filled components to absorb incoming damage, since empty ammo doesn't explode. If you're going to be using an ammo dependent 'Mech, you should read the guide on ALS. If you ever forget where ammo is stored in your 'Mech, you can check the readout in your cockpit--yes, that little flashing 'Mech panel accurately tells you where your ammo is stored and in what amount. The order ammo is used in is as follows: Center Torso->Right Torso->Left Torso->Left Arm->Right Arm->Left Leg->Right Leg->Head. === Hiding === This method is widely used in 'Mechs that use Ballistic or Missile weapons but don't carry much ammo. The goal is to βhideβ vulnerable items like some sort of apocalyptic chipmunk and just hope for a short nuclear winter. Small critical items like Ammo invariably end up hidden in the legs, CT, or head because they aren't often/easily targeted, and if you lose them the game is most likely over for you anyways. Just keep in mind some people actively search for players who stuff ammo in their socks, and if they see an unarmored leg they'll pot shot it with crit-seeking weapons just to see what you might have. An ammo explosion in a leg can be pretty nasty due to how damage transfer works. Fair warning.
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