Any advice? (Shot calling focused)

Hey guys,

Not sure how this will be received here, but I want your advice. This is a video of my latest PvP match and I want advice on what I can do better, and what I did wrong and should change.

I love shot calling in PvP and that's my main focus. I never go for most kills or top DPS, I love to do things like Tri-Binding a group so my team can get them or spreading my dots to everyone to weaken them or burn a purify so that my team can get an easier kill.

Basically, what can I do to improve my shot calling? And what can I do to improve my SMN play while still providing good calls to my team?

Thanks!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6ypF25cp1E

Edit:

Here's another that didn't go so smoothly but ended in a win. We were behind the entire game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgx6ANf8EpM

I do my best to shot call on Primal for the Immortal Flames as well, so I'm just going to share from my experience.

In general, as long as you can take the reigns and direct people where to go, most people will tend to listen. However, be wary with how often you spam macros to get people's attention. As someone in the chat itself pointed out, if you spam it far too often, people will get annoyed and refuse to listen to you. However, people still do want leadership, so doing something is better than nothing.

As far as your Summoner gameplay - I play summoner as well, and some of my advice is that you death flares should be timed a bit better. Sometimes you time them too quickly and they won't finish off a kill, merely get them down low enough for someone else to finish them off.

Otherwise not too bad. Clearly you're doing a great job - you won by several hundred point margins.

Here's a video I recorded incase you want to see it from another perspective. Close match, but we did still win and I did 10/0:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9sv00ZnqGs

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Originally Posted by TheWaywardWind

I do my best to shot call on Primal for the Immortal Flames as well, so I'm just going to share from my experience.

In general, as long as you can take the reigns and direct people where to go, most people will tend to listen. However, be wary with how often you spam macros to get people's attention. As someone in the chat itself pointed out, if you spam it far too often, people will get annoyed and refuse to listen to you. However, people still do want leadership, so doing something is better than nothing.

As far as your Summoner gameplay - I play summoner as well, and some of my advice is that you death flares should be timed a bit better. Sometimes you time them too quickly and they won't finish off a kill, merely get them down low enough for someone else to finish them off.

Otherwise not too bad. Clearly you're doing a great job - you won by several hundred point margins.

Here's a video I recorded incase you want to see it from another perspective. Close match, but we did still win and I did 10/0:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9sv00ZnqGs

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Thanks for your kind words and advice!

I do sometimes throw my deathflare out very early mostly because I don't focus on scoring killing blows and rather get the enemy as low as possible as soon as possible. As long as the enemy is dead I'm okay with that.

I generally don't spam my macro unless people are just not listening to calls. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Generally though I only hit it a few times to begin, explain why it's a good idea briefly if it isn't obvious, then hit it when I notice people are not in position.

I'll definitely check your video out now :) I love watching people play frontline. Even if the playstyles are different there's usually a trick or two you can pick up and make your own.

It looks pretty solid, actually. You made some pretty sound calls. I've seen much worse.

In terms of improvements, here's a few suggestions:

1. I know this has already been mentioned, but brevity is important. Spamming a macro too many times can a) irritate the alliance, b) make them think you're a troll (thus, ignoring you), or c) drown out other important voices in the text. People might miss other important messages because the box is dominated by the same message 10 times over.

2. (This is kind of tied to 1.) Instead of spamming a macro, try following it up with landmark call out. I find that the most common problem with Macro usage in PvP is that people's response to it is slow, especially for new or casual PvP players. It's a safe bet that most of them have not memorized the coordinates of each node spawn or are slow on using the flag (especially on default Ps4 controls. click touchpad. scroll up in text. scroll right in text. click flag... by this time most pc users are already halfway to the objective), so calling out a landmark can be more effective than giving coordinates. Almost everyone knows where "the lighthouse" is, for example. "Beach" is pretty clear. Even the more obscure ones like, "North cave" or "South Mid" get more immediate responses over repeated flag call outs, because you don't even have to open your map. It's not overly important, but its an accessibility issue for different levels of players. I don't like to leave anyone behind.

3. Use focus target if you're on defensive duty. Most people don't realize that they can focus target a node. It makes it a lot easier to keep an eye on the % bar, so you know when it's good to stand your ground or get out while the gettin's good. The focus target has a pretty decent range too, so even if you drive the opponent away from your node you can keep an eye on it for a while. Once the focus target drops, you know that it's time to stop chasing. It's kind of like a self check, to make sure you don't get tunnel vision too hard. You don't seem like a chaser, but it's a trick I've been using that I find helps a little.

That's just the 3 that came up off the top of my head. Otherwise, it looked good. I'm impressed with the Aether data centre players. They seem much more open control than those on Primal. Unfortunately, on my server, it seems that the hardest part about shot calling is trying to keep people positive. Using positive language is very important, trying to keep people calm and stop them from just giving up is a problem on my server. I didn't see too many negative comments in your chat though, so I don't think you have to worry about using the "right language" when issuing orders.

Be clear.
Be direct.
Don't be afraid to turn them around if they're making a bad move.
Keep people updated.
Sometimes quickly explaining why you need people where and how helps people steer torwards the right direction a bit quicker as well.

I've found that arrow macros that point north, s, e, w are very effective for steering your group.
Sounds in your macros help as well.

Like the good gentlemen above me well put as well.. don't spam. Clear. Concise.

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Originally Posted by Rollan

Sounds in your macros help as well.

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I have to beg to differ.

As soon as someone puts <se.#> in their macros, I knee-jerk stop paying attention to what they're saying (and often just wind up muting my game entirely until the match is over).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KarmaBum

I have to beg to differ.

As soon as someone puts <se.#> in their macros, I knee-jerk stop paying attention to what they're saying (and often just wind up muting my game entirely until the match is over).

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That sucks. I find that it helps. I guess losing one persons attention to gain the alliances attention is worth it though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KarmaBum

I have to beg to differ.

As soon as someone puts <se.#> in their macros, I knee-jerk stop paying attention to what they're saying (and often just wind up muting my game entirely until the match is over).

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I can understand why you might feel that way, due to some people hitting their sound macros so hard they have to hook up a new keyboard before every match, but sound macros used properly can be quite helpful. When you're in the middle of a melee with an opposing team, it can be easy to lose track of what's happening on the map. The node you've been defending might be long dead, but you didn't notice because you were too busy killing/not dying to see the map or chat.

In those instances, a sound macro is perfect as a gentle reminder to pay attention to the chat box. Spammers can rot in hell, though. Even if your team is fighting over a dead node, if they didn't get the message the first time your sound macro went off, they're not going to get it, no matter how many times you press the key. All spamming does is piss off everyone.