Hello all, I posted something very similar to this back in the day, however this one has more information I decided to include that will show more of how I play. Hope it helps.
Ok so before I start I want to point out that I am not THAT good at this game. In fact, I'm not even on the scrim team and never heard of CAL or EASN or whatever its called =P HOWEVER, that does not mean that I can't do very well in the Pubs, specifically on DUST2. The small recommendations I put here are really effective in non-scrim servers and large pubs (24 and up) where you can just have fun owning noobs =)
I know there are those of you who know your not as good as some of these guys that seem to get a headshot every kill or go on 8 kill streaks and such. Those kind of players are the types you see in scrims: they are very good with their hand/eye coordination and know a lot of the mechanics of the game. What I will try and focus on is the Game Sense; that is, using all the resources you have at your disposal to have a general awareness of what is going on around you so that you are able to level the playing field against much better players.
To recant, I know I'm not as good as most of the scrim team players in terms of aiming at heads and all that, but I can even the playing field with game knowledge.
1. Radar is complete hacks: It tells you where your whole team is, shows the layout of the map, shows where a teammate dies and when your teammate sees an enemy, it shows it on your radar. USE THE RADAR. I look at least every 5 seconds, just so Im on top of knowing where everyone is and where the team needs backup.
2. Use the tab button
I check this probably every 10 seconds just so I see how many players are left on each side. Furthermore, it tells you WHO is left; based off that you can tell how careful you have to be. If it's someone who is 24-6 I'm going to be a little more careful, if its someone who is 4-14 Im going to be more brazen with them. USE this knowledge! Coupled with the radar you have a vast amount of info!
3. Play off tendencies
If you play this game long enough you start to see VERY COMMON tendencies. What happens when your team plants the bomb in B and there have been cts shooting at at long a tunnel the entire round? They will most likely try to push out of long a and flood towards middle or go to t spawn.
Moreover, Think about how fast your moving in the game and time things off of that. If I planted the bomb at A and hop down to see a ct running from mid (ctside) to double doors, he is most likely going up to short. If hes your average pubber he'll at best get up to the short a box in 10 seconds, more or less.
Another common tendency is people like to spray through doors. It takes a para 8 seconds to run out of ammo if on a continuous spray. Time it so on the last second you're going through the door so you can catch them with their pants down.
The last tendency I'll share is that if people dont see you, but know you're there, they'll throw a gernade. 2 perfect examples:
A) a T runs up short and kills a ct on the bombsite. Cts will then obvisouly throw their HE nades. I know I can either back up or move foward about 5 feet and take minimum damage.
B) This is my favorite; theres 3 cts at long a, one in the connector. I will run in and kill him and one the cts outside will pull out his nade and get ready to throw it thinking you will reload. It is much better to just keep running without reloading your main weapon and going for more kills.
4. In Application
Dust2, 12 on 12. Your a CT at B and you hear someone screaming "OMG LONG! HELP!" You see on your top right hand side that Hand of Fate, the only really good T on the "T" team at the moment, has just killed two guys over at long. You check the tab and see that there are 7 Ts left, and they got long. You already know there's a Guy in Tunnel and you also heard someone say "OMG SHORT TOO!". You can quickly surmise that there is probably at least two Ts at long, at least 1 at short, and at least 1 in tunnel. that leaves the possibility that AT TOPS there would be 3 Ts in middle if you were to go that way.
Using Radar, the tab feature, and seeing who is killing who in the top right of your screen provide great knowledge that can make it seem like your almost Wall Hacking.
Hopefully this helps some of you who underestimate the use of the radar and tab feature. I know it is all very basic and general but do try to think about it during the game: How many of them are left? How many good players are left? Where can I make a tactical move that will change the game? This all might be way to overboard to you for a pub, but this is for those of you who want to try to genuinely get better at the game while still working on your mechanics. The Pubs are a blast to play on and you can see them as basic preparation for a Scrim Team if that's what your aspiring to.
Bonus
I want to include this last piece, it is a little bit more advanced and I don't want to give people to much to think about, but it is something I commonly do. It's just random tidbits of information that you can consider:
1) If you are throwing a flash bang, make it worth it and know the timing. I have seen players throw a flash bang and it was for no strategical importance whatsover. The main reasons to use a flash are to:
A) blind and go for kill (obviously),
B) blind for a teammate so they can get a kill,
C) flash to keep back enemy
D) flash so you can change positions.
2. Likewise, with a smoke gernade, try to make it effective:
A) if your trying to obscure an oppenents vision so you can get closer, throw it in front of them and not on the ground where you are, you are only obscuring your vision.
** The Following are my favorite uses of smoke **
B) If outnumbered, use the smoke as a temporary "wall" to keep the enemies your dealing with manageable. In this case, throw the smoke fairly close to you so you keep the enemies vision minimal. That buys you time because they have to acknowlege that they dont see, they have to move up beyond the smoke, and then try to track you.
C) If you have a silenced m4 the smoke is great. When people only see smoke and they are getting hit, they automatically think the shooting is coming from the smoke (which some nubs actually do). Why not throw the smoke in a spot where you want them to look at and of which you have a clear line of fire into?
3. Friendly fire on or off, when engaging to opponents in open area, try you to position yourself so that one enemy is in front of another. This takes practice, but it helps that little bit to make their aim less effective.
3. If you throw your nade to the right of someone, they will 95% of the time move to their left. Try to pre-emptively aim more to their left.
4. Lastly, if you are vastly outnumbered, staying in one spot and waiting for them to come to you is the worst decision. When you think about it, you have a better chance of winning by engaging the enemy force in small portions then all at once when they converge on your location. Be quick, keep moving, and don't make it obvious where you are (double back, take a longer route somewhere, etc). If your T and you have the bomb and its 1-7, remember you have the last 4 seconds to plant that bomb. Try picking off as many as you can before you have to start planting so you deal with less when they come to defuse.
Ok so before I start I want to point out that I am not THAT good at this game. In fact, I'm not even on the scrim team and never heard of CAL or EASN or whatever its called =P HOWEVER, that does not mean that I can't do very well in the Pubs, specifically on DUST2. The small recommendations I put here are really effective in non-scrim servers and large pubs (24 and up) where you can just have fun owning noobs =)
I know there are those of you who know your not as good as some of these guys that seem to get a headshot every kill or go on 8 kill streaks and such. Those kind of players are the types you see in scrims: they are very good with their hand/eye coordination and know a lot of the mechanics of the game. What I will try and focus on is the Game Sense; that is, using all the resources you have at your disposal to have a general awareness of what is going on around you so that you are able to level the playing field against much better players.
To recant, I know I'm not as good as most of the scrim team players in terms of aiming at heads and all that, but I can even the playing field with game knowledge.
1. Radar is complete hacks: It tells you where your whole team is, shows the layout of the map, shows where a teammate dies and when your teammate sees an enemy, it shows it on your radar. USE THE RADAR. I look at least every 5 seconds, just so Im on top of knowing where everyone is and where the team needs backup.
2. Use the tab button
I check this probably every 10 seconds just so I see how many players are left on each side. Furthermore, it tells you WHO is left; based off that you can tell how careful you have to be. If it's someone who is 24-6 I'm going to be a little more careful, if its someone who is 4-14 Im going to be more brazen with them. USE this knowledge! Coupled with the radar you have a vast amount of info!
3. Play off tendencies
If you play this game long enough you start to see VERY COMMON tendencies. What happens when your team plants the bomb in B and there have been cts shooting at at long a tunnel the entire round? They will most likely try to push out of long a and flood towards middle or go to t spawn.
Moreover, Think about how fast your moving in the game and time things off of that. If I planted the bomb at A and hop down to see a ct running from mid (ctside) to double doors, he is most likely going up to short. If hes your average pubber he'll at best get up to the short a box in 10 seconds, more or less.
Another common tendency is people like to spray through doors. It takes a para 8 seconds to run out of ammo if on a continuous spray. Time it so on the last second you're going through the door so you can catch them with their pants down.
The last tendency I'll share is that if people dont see you, but know you're there, they'll throw a gernade. 2 perfect examples:
A) a T runs up short and kills a ct on the bombsite. Cts will then obvisouly throw their HE nades. I know I can either back up or move foward about 5 feet and take minimum damage.
B) This is my favorite; theres 3 cts at long a, one in the connector. I will run in and kill him and one the cts outside will pull out his nade and get ready to throw it thinking you will reload. It is much better to just keep running without reloading your main weapon and going for more kills.
4. In Application
Dust2, 12 on 12. Your a CT at B and you hear someone screaming "OMG LONG! HELP!" You see on your top right hand side that Hand of Fate, the only really good T on the "T" team at the moment, has just killed two guys over at long. You check the tab and see that there are 7 Ts left, and they got long. You already know there's a Guy in Tunnel and you also heard someone say "OMG SHORT TOO!". You can quickly surmise that there is probably at least two Ts at long, at least 1 at short, and at least 1 in tunnel. that leaves the possibility that AT TOPS there would be 3 Ts in middle if you were to go that way.
Using Radar, the tab feature, and seeing who is killing who in the top right of your screen provide great knowledge that can make it seem like your almost Wall Hacking.
Hopefully this helps some of you who underestimate the use of the radar and tab feature. I know it is all very basic and general but do try to think about it during the game: How many of them are left? How many good players are left? Where can I make a tactical move that will change the game? This all might be way to overboard to you for a pub, but this is for those of you who want to try to genuinely get better at the game while still working on your mechanics. The Pubs are a blast to play on and you can see them as basic preparation for a Scrim Team if that's what your aspiring to.
Bonus
I want to include this last piece, it is a little bit more advanced and I don't want to give people to much to think about, but it is something I commonly do. It's just random tidbits of information that you can consider:
1) If you are throwing a flash bang, make it worth it and know the timing. I have seen players throw a flash bang and it was for no strategical importance whatsover. The main reasons to use a flash are to:
A) blind and go for kill (obviously),
B) blind for a teammate so they can get a kill,
C) flash to keep back enemy
D) flash so you can change positions.
2. Likewise, with a smoke gernade, try to make it effective:
A) if your trying to obscure an oppenents vision so you can get closer, throw it in front of them and not on the ground where you are, you are only obscuring your vision.
** The Following are my favorite uses of smoke **
B) If outnumbered, use the smoke as a temporary "wall" to keep the enemies your dealing with manageable. In this case, throw the smoke fairly close to you so you keep the enemies vision minimal. That buys you time because they have to acknowlege that they dont see, they have to move up beyond the smoke, and then try to track you.
C) If you have a silenced m4 the smoke is great. When people only see smoke and they are getting hit, they automatically think the shooting is coming from the smoke (which some nubs actually do). Why not throw the smoke in a spot where you want them to look at and of which you have a clear line of fire into?
3. Friendly fire on or off, when engaging to opponents in open area, try you to position yourself so that one enemy is in front of another. This takes practice, but it helps that little bit to make their aim less effective.
3. If you throw your nade to the right of someone, they will 95% of the time move to their left. Try to pre-emptively aim more to their left.
4. Lastly, if you are vastly outnumbered, staying in one spot and waiting for them to come to you is the worst decision. When you think about it, you have a better chance of winning by engaging the enemy force in small portions then all at once when they converge on your location. Be quick, keep moving, and don't make it obvious where you are (double back, take a longer route somewhere, etc). If your T and you have the bomb and its 1-7, remember you have the last 4 seconds to plant that bomb. Try picking off as many as you can before you have to start planting so you deal with less when they come to defuse.
