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Effective Echelon Teamwork (Or Not)


poetic_justice_

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REGARDING NAYA

 

I am most experienced at playing Naya (ghost/stealth) and have reached level 35 with her. During those 35 levels, I've noticed some trends that are quite disturbing. This first post concerns Naya. Noobs, please read for information, and veterans, please read for improvement.

 

Note the trophy name is for fully leveling Naya is The Assassin, not "The Babysitter". Assassins work best as free agents. That means go somewhere else and shoot!

 

STUPID THINGS TEAMMATES DO THAT GET NAYA KILLED

(AND LOSE THE ENTIRE MATCH FOR EVERYONE)

 

#1 STUPID THING: FOLLOWING CLOAKED NAYA EVERYWHERE. Just don't.

 

Players positioning themselves directly behind cloaked Naya (without her knowledge, because 95% of players don't use mics) in narrow walkways to fight enemies. Yes, enemies shoot through Naya to hit you and she absorbs it. Ha ha. Seriously, don't use Naya as a bullet sponge and then send the player using Naya a friend request.:thumbsdown:

 

Trying to compete/steal melee kills from Naya during Hot Zone. What, there aren't five other enemies within 5m you could choose to melee during Hot Zone? Why not use your unlimited Xenotech ammo for chainkills and more points? Minus the invincibility, it's like having Fusion active for free for two minutes!

 

Standing beside cloaked Naya while firing at Enforcers. This gets both players hit by the yellow capture rings. Genius.

 

On the India Safehouse map, leaving a turret or safe firing position to come melee heli-dropped foot soldiers with Naya. Only one person needs to be in that position doing crowd control, and it's Naya. Will she get more kills than you? Maybe. Is it more effective to have one person handle foot soldiers and the other three focus on Leadfoots and Whistlers? Absolutely. Play to your strength and let Naya play to hers. Dalton, Jacob, and Izzy's strengths are NOT CQB/melee; it is medium to long range firearms. NOTE ON DALTON: Dalton might work in CQB with his shield blasts, but it burns up a lot of Fuse. It is better to use Dalton as a medic; he is the only character who can effectively protect himself 180 degrees (with a dropped shield on one side and a held shield on the other) while reviving someone.

 

Standing directly beside cloaked Naya while she is on a turret firing at a Whistler (also the India Safehouse map). :facepalm: The Whistler shots will take out both you and Naya. This eliminates 75-100% of your team's firing capabilities, because now the remaining 1-2 players must cease firing, get off the other turret (so that's two turrets down), and come over to revive the two of you. If both of them get hit and go down, game over. Congratulations. You just wasted the last 25 minutes of four peoples lives because you weren't thinking tactically. BE SMART; STAY UNDER COVER AND FIRE AWAY FROM NAYA.

 

Leaving Naya completely exposed while she is opening the weapons cache. This is a surfire way to get Naya fragged and incapacitated, thus losing her Fuse multiplier. This makes any player (who understands what the Fuse multiplier is) angry.

 

REGARDING WEAPONS CACHES

Maybe players don't realize this, but if a player is shot during the seven second cache hacking animation, all progress resets to zero. The enemy is actively trying to destroy the cache, so every frag, round, and missile fired into that vicinity has a chance of:

 

1. Losing your team the entire cache, including two large guns (a combination of Titan, Incinerator, or Behemoth)

2. Resetting your teammate's progress on hacking the cache to nothing, and

3. Downing your teammate, meaning you have to stop shooting so you can revive him or her.

 

That's three reasons to protect the cache! You need those two big guns for Enforcers/Leadfoots; any one of those big guns can take 30-50% of an enemy's life! If used effectively with crossfire, a Titan can take an Enforcer out 100%. Don't let the enemy destroy the cache! Note: If you are Naya, don't ever count on random teammates to watch your back during a weapons cache objective. Flank the shielded enemies, take them out from the rear, and scan for snipers before opening the objective. You may lose the cache entirely, but it's better than losing your 4X/5X multiplier. Honestly, if your team is so clueless or crappy that they don't have the sense to defend or hack the objective, you're on your own anyway.

 

Oh, and for the uninitiated, only one person at a time can hack the cache. It doesn't go any faster if you stand by the person hacking; sorry.

 

With that said, if you are playing as Naya, I will do my utmost to maintain distance from you so you can function effectively.

Edited by poetic_justice_
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REGARDING IZZY

 

Izzy is a support class, period. She is not built for aggressive advancement like Dalton or Naya. The best way to play Izzy is to play back from the front lines. However, in this position, Izzy can shine, although it takes until level 25 for her strengths to come through (my opinion).

 

Until she has fully leveled Master Marksman, Izzy seems dreadful (Izzy should reach level 25 approximately when one of your other characters hits level 35). Her firearms are weak, she has no protection (like Dalton's Magshield or Naya's Cloak), and her Xenotech gun seems as weak as a normal assault rifle (unlike Jacob's Arcbolt). The single worst experience I have had in Fuse was being dropped onto Sub Base, Wave 10, playing as a level 19 Izzy. She died literally every ten seconds. This was due in part to my random, uncoordinated teammates; no one worked together, and the guy who revived me most just did it for points. He would cloak, revive me, stay cover or run away until I died again, then cloak and revive me again. He never actually bothered to kill the snipers or foot soldiers slaughtering me.

 

I mention this experience because many other players seem to have similar perceptions of Izzy and avoid her; she is the least selected character in all the Echelon matches in which I have participated.

 

Unlike the other characters, Izzy's strengths are present, just not immediately apparent. Behind cover, Izzy can be a thorn in the side of the enemy. For one, Izzy's Shattergun has 325 ammo, and it has rapid-fire. This is the kicker; when Izzy picks up ammo packs, she doesn't receive 81 Warp Rifle like Naya (2 cloaking opportunites, since each cloaking costs 40-50 Fuse), 50 Mag Shield like Dalton, or 12 Arcbolts like Jacob. Izzy receives a whopping 100 Shattergun rounds. What that means of all the characters, Izzy can rely on her Xenotech Shattergun the most frequently.

 

"So what?" you ask. Answer: The Shattergun is the only gun that can freeze a Leadfoot in place. When your team is getting ripped to pieces, when Naya, despite being cloaked, is still hounded by an Incinerator Leadfoot, when Dalton is low on shields and Jacob is swarmed, Izzy can turn the tide by freezing the one-to-two hardest hitters in place. This gives teammates a chance to recover health and gain distance if they are overrun. It also allows Naya to sneak behind the Leadfoot and put heavy fire directly on the Leadfoot's posterior ammo barrel, its weak spot.

 

In short, it doesn't matter if Izzy will never sneak behind enemies. She doesn't have to; let Naya or Dalton do that. If Izzy draws fire and keeps enemies facing her, it allows other players to flank and attack from the rear. What appears to be Izzy's greatest weakness is actually one of her greatest strengths. Izzy is a bullet magnet. Use this to your advantage: park her in a central location and go full auto. Unfortunately, taking full advantage of Izzy's ability to attrack enemies means trusting teammates to literally watch your back, as Izzy will be attacked from multiple sides simultaneously.

 

Another tactic that works for Izzy (thanks to LocoMurrda for showing me this, albeit with Naya) is to "Play both sides of the wall". Find a raised wall that you can hang from and fire with your SMG. For this reason, I advise using the Quickdraw perk whenever playing with Izzy, since I tend to do a lot of wall hanging. Izzy, being a bullet magnet, will attract the enemy's attention, but she can't be hit behind the wall. This will draw enemies towards her position.

 

Normally, the med beacon would be used primarily to revive teammates. However, if your teammates are sub-par, throw the med beacon at the base of the wall to constantly heal yourself. If you are being swarmed, hop back and forth over both sides of the wall until your attackers are eliminated.

 

Izzy's Med Beacon is a stand out for this character. Being able to throw a revive is simply amazing. Why more players don't use this, I don't know. After losing matches and learning the hard way several times, I will offer this one bit of counsel:

 

If your team is being overwhelmed, with 1-2 teammates down (particularly Naya, your ace-in-the-hole medic), and you are being swarmed, MAKE THE CONSCIOUS CHOICE TO STOP FIRING FOR TWO SECONDS AND DEPLOY A MED BEACON. It doesn't even really matter where; you or your teammates can crawl to it if need be. Just get deploy one! Izzy cannot do crowd control and eight times out of ten, she will go down despite your best efforts to stay up.

 

The beauty of Izzy - and no other character can do this, save having a back-up Fusion available - is that Izzy has the ability to save the game even if all four players are incapacitated. However, this fate all rides on one conscious decision to deploy a med beacon while she is still standing. I estimate that 80% of the matches we have lost would not have been lost had the person playing Izzy stopped to deploy a med beacon at that critical moment when all hell broke loose. It is so easy to get caught up in the sound, the fury, and the frantic gunfire, but what really matters is taking two seconds to aim at a central, strategic location and tap :r2:. That is it. Naya may be a game changer, but Izzy is a game saver.

 

If you are playing as Izzy:

 

Equip the Quickdraw perk to play off the wall. Use a Med Beacon at the wall base if needed.

 

Stay behind cover.

 

Be the bullet magnet so Naya and others can flank Leadfoots.

 

Abuse that Xenotech Shattergun to freeze Leadfoots.

 

When all hell breaks loose, realize your Med Beacon means more than your bullets. Stop firing for two seconds, aim at a strategic spot, and tap :r2: to save your team.

Edited by poetic_justice_
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REGARDING DALTON

 

Dalton is a carrot-on-a-stick for enemies. Insomniac made enemies really, really dumb, because all it would take is one mad rush to overrun Dalton's shield and kill him. However, enemies inexplicably do not do that. Also, enemies in his immediate proximity become fixated on him to the detriment of targeting other characters. Enemies stand back, firing round after round into his shield, never doing more than slowly walking towards him. The exceptions are the Spec Ops and Infiltrators; these enemies will rush Dalton every time, as will Incinerator Leadfoots. Behemoth and Titan Leadfoots may rush as well, but frequently do not. Even the mighty Enforcers seem preoccupied with hovering out of Dalton's Magshield range, like a dog afraid of a burning torch.

 

 

The three greatest mistakes I see with characters playing Dalton are:

 

1. Playing too aggressive: instead of letting enemies come to Dalton, they charge. The Magshield is not about fast-charging, it is about taking ground at a moderate pace. Let enemies come to you, then blast them. Let your shield recharge as more enemies come, then blast them. Again, let your shield recharge as more enemies come, then blast them a third time. You can effectively use four to five shield blasts before you run out of juice, and by the time you've killed that many enemies, one of them will drop ammo.

 

2. Not using Magshields effectively (if at all) on objectives.*

 

3. Expecting other characters to revive incapacitated allies in open areas covered by brutal crossfire. Other than Naya, who can cloak and avoid detection/gunfire, no one but Dalton can get into exposed areas without being ripped to shreds. Dalton is the Armored Magshield Medic. Drop/hold two shields in a delta formation to cover yourself while standing over the ally's body, and hold :triangle: to revive him/her. Unless there is a Leadfoot trampling the body, the team runs the unnecessary risk of having a second or even third member go down if someone other than Dalton goes out. If the Izzy character is close enough to toss a Med Beacon that the downed player can crawl too, that is first choice, but often on later waves Izzy is holed up in cover just trying to stay alive.

 

Although Izzy has the deployable Med Beacon, Dalton should always be first choice for hard-to-reach revives. Why? He is the only player who can protect himself from two-to-three sides* while reviving someone! If you put Izzy in a situation where she has to revive someone under fire, she will go down guaranteed. Then you are stuck with not one, but two teammates incapacitated in precarious crossfire (or under a Leadfoot's chassis). Use Dalton. He can deploy a temporary shield to block incoming fire from one direction (just tap :r2), then hold :l1: with the Magshield equipped and face another direction.

 

*Delta shield deployment = three-sided fire protection: One practical technique I have never seen anyone use is to deploy the shields in a upside down "V" pattern, or delta (^). Think about standing in the center of a triangle, which each of the three walls being a Magshield. You can create two of those walls yourself, with one deployed Magshield on the ground and one in your hand. This effectively eliminates incoming fire from

 

1. The front

2. The left side

3. The right side.

 

In essence, you have three-sided fire protection from two shields in the form of a delta (^).

 

If you use this upside down "V" on objectives, weapons caches, and downed teammates. Almost no small arms fire gets through from three sides. Also, if the cache opener is incapacitated by grenades, Seekers, or missiles, Dalton the Armored Medic is right there. For this reason, Dalton should never be the one opening the cache! Let Dalton form his upside down "V" and guard Jacob or Izzy while Naya flanks and whittles down the enemy numbers. It is faster and speed is the number one thing you need to break 24:59 and get your fifth star on that Echelon mission.

 

If you are playing as Dalton:

 

Equip the Fuse Maximizer perk, so you have more juice for your shield.

 

Be patient. Let enemies come to you.

 

Use the delta shield deployment on objectives, weapons caches, and downed teammates.

 

You and Naya are best equipped to revive incapacitated teammates in exposed areas. However, Naya will most likely be preoccupied with flanking enemies, so expect to be the go-to armored medic.

Edited by poetic_justice_
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REGARDING JACOB

 

This character is a marksman, and if you have fast reflexes, he is a DPS beast. When his Arcshot is maxed out and can chain to multiple enemies, Jacob puts the hurt on tightly packed crowds, even if they are carrying shields. Because of the Arcshot, Jacob is the best character for crowd control at medium range. All the characters can do a measure crowd control with grenades, but the max number of grenades is four. Jacob has 25 Arcshots (more with the Fuse Maximizer team perk), plus four grenades, so he can effectively tear through half of a large advancing force singlehandedly from their initial entrance until their arrival at an objective.

 

When it comes to Leadfoots, Jacob has a skill where every arrow he lodges in an enemy causes all teammates' damage to that enemy (in this case, a Leadfoot) to increase by 5%. This effect stacks, yet so few people take advantage of it. Dalton also has an effect where the teammates' bullets shot through his Magshield will increase damage done by 10%. Combining these two stackable effects, the rest of the team can do a vastly increased amount of damage simply by shooting through Dalton's shield at the same time as Jacob lodges arrows into a leadfoot.

 

Although Izzy has the Harbinger sniper rifle, Jacob is the best suited to counter-snipe. With his combination Arcshot/Exploding bolts, all Jacob needs to take down any sniper is one shot. Regardless if it is a headshot (insta-kill) or body shot, Jacob has only to pop his head out of cover for a second to land one Archshot anywhere in a foe's body. While ducking back into cover, tap :r2:, and problem solved. No more sniper.

Edited by poetic_justice_
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OPENING WEAPONS CACHES

This is a simplest exercise, yet almost always turns into a proloned OK Corral gunfight due to lack of teamwork. Here is the simplest, fastest way to win these rounds. Following this format, your team should have the cache hacked in no more than thirty seconds, which frees you all up to disperse and kill the various foot soldiers and inevitable Leadfoot(s) that appear.

 

The key to winning these rounds quickly is to hack the cache before the Leadfoot shows up, particularly if it is an Incinerator Leadfoot. Most players do not seem to grasp that concept; once the Leadfoot appears, it is ten times harder and takes ten times longer to hack the cache. These enemies will almost always charge the cache, knocking out whoever is hacking it and destroying the two heavy weapons inside. Players are then forced to take down Leadfoots with small arms fire, which takes an exceptionally long amount of time, particularly if players are uncoordinated. The fact you are reading this gives me hope you are not one of those uncoordinated players. If you can, pass this key piece of information along whenever you play Echelon: hack the cache before the Leadfoots arrive.

 

Since the appearance of a weapons cache always occurs at the start of a round, all enemies will be dead and every player revived. As soon as the weapons cache objective is announced, everyone must make a beeline toward the objective. Everyone means everyone; no stragglers, or the whole team will suffer and potentially lose the fifth star for the map.

 

Dalton: Facing the primary enemy force, deploy two shields in a delta formation in front of the objective. Stand still; let enemies come to you, then blast them. If enemies remain at a distance and fire, so be it. Your primary objective is to Protect Jacob while he hacks the cache. Do not go off on a wild goose chase that leaves your teammate exposed and the cache vulnerable. You are the wall protecting Jacob and the single most important part of this plan succeeding.

 

Naya: Cloak and flank the primary enemy force. Focus on eliminating the shield-bearing enemies, as these can be problematic for Dalton. In the interest of speed (remember, your goal is five stars on this Echelon map, not points), toss a grenade to then them out, then quickly melee the shielded survivors in sequence with :triangle:. There shouldn't be more than five shielded enemies at any given time, which you can eliminate in twenty seconds. Focus fire on any Fuse-shielded enemies that may appear, using your Prowler shotgun (not your Xenotech Warp Rifle).

 

Jacob: As much as you would like to engage enemies with your Arcbow as soon as they appear, don't. You are the best choice to hack the objective since you cannot revive from a distance, protect the hacker with a shield, or flank while cloaked. Not to worry; after ten seconds of hacking the objective, you are free to join Izzy and rain electric furry on your foes. Just hack the objective as quickly as possible, before the Leadfoots appear.

 

Izzy: Position yourself in cover behind the cache, about 5-10 m. Aim directly at the objective and press :r2: to deploy a Med Beacon directly on the cache. This will keep both Dalton and Jacob alive. You are a bullet magnet, so as soon as you deploy your Med Beacon, start firing at the nearest enemy. Do not go down! You are insurance in case both Dalton and Jacob are overrun by a Leadfoot; your Med Beacons will turn the tide back in your team's favor if that happens. What is in that weapons crate is essential to quickly killing Leadfoots, so keep Dalton and Jacob alive long enough for them to hack the crate.

 

There are a couple other arrangements I've seen that have worked, but this one has the greatest odds of success.

 

Here are the other configurations:

 

Dalton: Distract enemies by advancing in front of the cache, shield-blasting while moving forward.

Naya: Hack cache while cloaked.

Jacob (only if higher level with Arcbow chain skill): Attack shielded enemies with Arcbolts and set them on fire.

Izzy: Raise havoc and revive with Med Beacon.

Problems With Configuration: If Dalton is preoccupied with attacking enemies, Naya is left exposed. Since enemies not preoccupied with Jacob, Dalton, or Izzy continue to fire and frag the cache, Naya will be hit. Her hacking progress will constantly reset, and eventually without a Med Beacon, Naya will become incapacitated before the Leadfoots arrive.

 

Dalton: Distract enemies by advancing in front of the cache, shield-blasting while moving forward.

Naya: Cloak, flank, and attack.

Jacob (only if higher level with Arcbow chain skill): Attack shielded enemies with Arcbolts and set them on fire.

Izzy: Deploy Med Beacon on cache, then hack it.

Problems With Configuration: Same issues as above. If Dalton is preoccupied with attacking enemies, Izzy is left exposed. Since enemies not preoccupied with Jacob, Dalton, or Naya continue to fire and frag the cache, Izzy will be hit. Her hacking progress will constantly reset. Most players become so frustrated they hyperfocus on the hack, forgetting about health and re-deploying a Med Beacon. Without a Med Beacon, Izzy will eventually become incapacitated - all it takes is one enemy frag or one Seeker - and the Leadfoots will arrive before she is finished.

Edited by poetic_justice_
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  • 1 year later...

I find amusing how incredible this information is and how no one has replied to this yet. Although I figured most of this myself like you did by extensively playing, this is indeed a great guide. I just would like to add that the best characters for Hot Zone are by far Jacob on 1st place and Izzy on 2nd.

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  • 2 months later...

That is a huge load of useful information, much appreciated, although I think it mainly applies to underleveled characters. The arenas are pretty easy to beat with only fully leveled Naya and Dalton (and I think the devs didn't bother too much with Izzy and Jacob, so reduced is the need to have them in the group at all). I do agree with the main points in the guide but feel there is little need for complex tactics. It just boils down to:

 

Naya should always cloak and get the weapons caches. She'll be ignored during cloak. After that she needs to bring the big guns to where Dalton is.

 

Dalton should never occupy with others except bosses. He should go to goal, drop shields around it, crowd control everything that comes too close with shield blasts. Especially the annoying stealth grabbers! Dalton player forgets shield upkeep or lets grabbers pass, the map is a fail. First "noob mistake".

 

The other characters are completely useless for tactics. They need to get behind Dalton's shields and shoot everything in sight. While Dalton should never leave goal Jacob and Izzy should never leave Dalton (neither should Naya, really, except for the weapons caches :p). Second "noob mistake".

 

Big guns should be carried around, brought to goal for fast pickup, and only be used against bosses. Wasting them on trivial enemies makes the end waves all the more difficult. Third "noob mistake".

 

In the end when I beat the arenas it became pretty obvious Naya failing with the caches will lose the map, but even more so Dalton player failing with shields in any other situation will lose the map. Everything else is trivial. I've soloed couple arenas using only Naya or Dalton, Dalton is the easiest, Naya is doable but difficult because she gets swarmed too easily by the grabbers. In any case, with fully leveled characters and doing those two things properly I've never lost a coop arena.

Edited by ars
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  • 2 months later...
  • 6 months later...

This information is fantastic - and necessary. Echelon 5-stars are no joke on some levels and unless everyone knows to follow these rules - or at least has a mic to communicate - things can easily go very wrong. Just wanted to say thanks to poetic_justice for putting these up.

 

That said, if anyone has read this thread and is dedicated to following the advice herein, send me a friend request and I'll help you with Echelon Agent. Currently I still need it myself, but years from now I'll still have this game on the shelf and be able to help.

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