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A Tryhards Guide to MCSG

Khulu

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Lets be honest as much as we call people try hards or noobs we all are try hards especially if you're reading this guide you know you truly are one and being a hypocrit is fine as long as you don't harass others about being one. So after coming back over a brief 7 month break I've learnt the meta game over the last month of playing of what works and doesn't and have successfully jumped the gun from my horrid 1/10 ratio back down to a 6.5 and hopefully I'll lower it back down to a 1/5 very soon. I've also broke the 100 games won so I feel comfortable with giving some advice.

Before Stepping into a Lobby
First before stepping into a Lobby you should get comfortable with a couple of things first.

Keyboard+Mouse now as you all know every top tier player has very sub-par gaming gear of different brand genres and it's true these gaming accessories do help your gameplay believe it or not. Registration of everything is key because you need to be able to combo as fast as possible and it's a big struggle if a bow shot/rod doesn't register because your keyboard can't keep up with your hot keying speed. Now while the keyboard difference between a basic 20$ one from the shops compared to the mechanical Blackwidow is a minor improvement it does end up helping. Also mechanical keyboards from my personal experience just give you a comfortable way to click and you feel like you did click it when you did. Any non-mechanical keyboard user would understand the pain of clicking a key but not hearing a sound and it not registering you going to your rod so you miss a great combo and let them get the first hit. Don't let this be you!

Mouse wise is a completely different story, while the keyboard is a 'recommendation' the mouse is a must! Having a mouse that is 1. comfortable and 2. click sensitive is very effective for sword pvp. I've stuck with the deathadder ever since I got it but there are all sorts of brands I would research on and ask to try them out. Find a mouse you're personally comfortable with. I also recommend getting one with at least 1 side key to help you. Make sure to set up your DPI and sensitivity to something that works for you. Use other servers or the Battle Grounds to try stuff out. Don't feel shy to lose some and try out new things. You may find minor improvements to your settings as you go until you find the exactly right settings for you. This is something you'll have to learn by yourself though because it's different for everyone.

Understanding the "Types of Players"
Understanding the 'Meta Game' is important. New styles/strategies are born rapidly but in a nutt shell here is a brief synopsis of the common play styles you'll see.

Bow Gods: These players are normally the extremely defensive types, they will only bow battle you/bow spam you back. They rarely go for the sword unless it's for a clean-up/finish up. There normal style is they run into your sight (Normally 10-15 blocks away) to grab your attention and run. They'll purposely let you catch up to them by only sprinting not sprint+jumping so they can turn and FnS you then rod you back, from there if you continue to rush them they'll bow spam you back until you're dead.

Counter: To counter this you should leave these people alone early on and try to corner them as fast as possible. Leaving them for DM is not an option because this is exactly where they shine because you can't run for much cover if the map doesn't have a solid middle to run around and you can only dodge so much of them before being overwhelmed, these players usually focus on getting full iron, crafting an iron sword and then just getting as many arrows as possible so they'll normally have around 32-48 by DM at minimum (24 player game filled bias) you need to catch this player off guard and while they're in a corner to where they don't have room to run. DO NOT AT ALL COST GIVE THEM SPACE TO ESCAPE you must pressure them.

Pingers: These people are quiet common on AU while on US it's probably not AS common since it's so wide spread from average 50-100ms but you'll come into contact with at least one of these at some point of your career. Do not ever engage in a sword battle with them. This is where you simply rod them back and become a Bow God style player. It's the best way to deal with them. No need for a counter it's self explanitory, rod back, fns, bow spam.

The Rod God: This is the style I like to play but I don't consider myself a 'rod god' how this style works is pretty straight forward. You rely on the rod stun to combo your enemy, move back, repeat. Also you try to always gain the momentum of the battle via first hit meaning you rod them away until you regen the first hit/double hit they got off then try again for the first hit. We're normally generic bow users who only use the bow to compensate vs pingers/hackers but we'll never let you catch us off guard and get the starting few hits.

Counter: There really is only one way to counter these players. Leave them completely alone until DM then bow spam them to death and hope you're a better Bow God then them, normally they'll have sub-par gear of around 6.5 armor bars and rely on killing people with the turn around fns->rod first hit combo and they'll never stay in a fight unless they know they win the trade and they have time to loot and run so the chances are you'll need to either trap them in the first trade off/win the first trade off or do as I said above and just kill everyone else before they do and bow spam them in DM.

The Strategist: This player is a very all round style of a player. They'll never really engage in any fights but more or less use everything in the surroundings (Choke Points/Walls) to there advantage. They're very easily a great top lvl player whose decent at everything and can react to your style of play. For example if they're a pinger they'll turn into a bow god/rod spammer if they are a bow god they know how to rush and ping abuse, they'll almost always try to choke point you or bring you to a wall to rod combo spam you.

Counter: Rod spam these guys to the wall back, never chase them. They're not as defensive as Rod Gods most of the time and will rush you mostly if you have less gear or they feel comfortable at full iron+dSword and will just hope you aren't at the same sword lvl as them. Lighting these guys on fire usually means the death of them as well. Like I said they're normally sub-par at everything but they'll miss rods unlike rod gods who'll always keep you away even if they miss unnecc rods they'll still keep you out of hitting range until they're full HP but these guys will normally slip up and miss a rod or 2 so keep rushing them.

HotBar+YourStyle
While for your own style you'll learn that as you go which category you fit into and master it you should also use this to base what your hotbar is. There is a whole lot of threads out there about different hotbar set ups and if you look through every one you'll probably notice it's quiet complex and different for everyone. Some people find different slots better for different items. But after comparing some of these I've found some 'key' spots for certain items which you can mix/match to find which is comfortable for you.

Sword - The sword has 2 'main' places it's found for different sets. Slot 1 and 5 are the most common.
FnS - FnS has a flexible spot of anywhere around 1-4 and sometimes 9
Rod - Rod is almost always 2-3 while very few use it at 4 it's nothing new to give a shot.
Bow - While some use the bow at 2 I feel it should be an up scroll from your sword. So I would recommend having it at 9 if you use sword at 1, and 4 if you use sword at 5. Scrolling up is easier for most mouses then it is to scroll down and bow doesn't need quick hot keying action like FnS or Rod so save that for the easier numbers like 1 and 2 and normally if you're using 5 as your sword you'll find yourself able to click 5,6,7 easier because you're using your 1st finger on your opposite of the hand you're using your mouse for to click them.
Gapples should either be at 1 (For slot 5 sword users) or 4/5 (for slot 1 users)


Try out these different set ups until you find what item fits where even if it's easier to click numbers like 3,4, 7 then use those as your main keys then put bow at 2 for the scroll, etc. Whatever works for you personally is what matters. Even if you use a generic set up it doesn't mean your less special/exceptional it's just how you play. We're try harding not trying to get creative. Use what works for you!

Pre-Game Tips
Now that we've gotten ourselves started with the basics we should get into a lobby but before starting in the game lets look at our competition via TAB. Lets do a check list before we agree to playing this game.

If you say no to anything in here leave and try a different lobby.

1. Any Known/Recently Sus hitters or 100% For Sure Hackers in this game (No/Yes)
2. Any Known/Suspected Teams (No/Yes)
3. Any Known 'Targetters' (No/Yes)
Once the map is chosen
4. Do I have a sub-par 3 minimum tier 2 chest route on this map (No/Yes)

If you said No to the first 3 and yes to the last one then lets move forward to the next phase, if not then try a different lobby until all these boxes are ticked as so. :)

In-Game Tips
First off, NEVER GO TO SPAWN. You're try harding and as said before you ticked the box saying you know a decent route on this map. So rush your route. This will give you a head start at getting your route. The only time I ever go to spawn is if the game isn't filled and I've spawned on the side where I can get 1-2 chest. Do this quickly and gap it if so. But rushing your route 100% eliminates the threats of being killed off corn early on and will normally give you time to leather up and get a wood/stone sword to secure your route.

Having a Back-Up route on the map is another helpful thing. Normally I like to play maps that have a lot of tier 2's bunched up and I go to that route this way if someone from spawn has like half iron and a stone sword I can adept to a less # of chest route that they will ignore me for. Even if it means I get 2 tier 2's instead of the side of the route with 5 it's worth staying alive because those 2 could give you full iron while they may only get one more piece of iron and stay at 6-7 armor bars. You can also just loot swoop/clean-up to get back into the game.

Playing Defensively: This is a hard thing to get your head around and I still forget to at some times. Defense ALWAYS wins unless you're vs a Ghost Clienter, Pinger, Hacker, etc unfair broken stuff you couldn't do anything about even if you were offensive. That's how it goes. You may let your enemy feel in control but the truth is if they're chasing you and you're at full HP you have the choice of when the fight starts and where it starts. It's pretty much being given to you on a gold platter so take advantage of this.

Taking down teams: Teams are difficult but not impossible to beat, you may think 'oh there shouldn't be a team because I checked the no known teams box' but sometimes there are randomly formed teams to deal with hackers or a better geared player which you may be at the end of that stick as the better geared player. The most common way is to memorize choke points on the maps. EVERY MAP has a choke point at least 1 ofc. Studying maps before you play them is always important as you need to learn where to go to safely take out teams. What makes a good choke point though? Well here is a list of what is needed to make a good choke point....

1. How many ways up are there? If more then 1 it's not a choke point as they can split one going from the way you're camping and the other from the other way. If one gets up there you're forced to go defensive and you're letting the other come up. A good choke point should only have 1 way up unless parkour is involved for the second way then you can get away with it.

2. Can you escape w/ out dying? If no then it's also not a good choke point. Sometimes you'll make a minor mistake and one will get up breaking the entire choke point so you'll need to escape and try again. If you can't escape you're on a timer and better hope you don't let them up. Make sure you can escape the area.

Another helpful way to take out teams is through hardcore defensive plays, I run 80 FOV (IMO the best after long amount of testing), through this you run, rod if they get too close, then bow them down slowly. As they switch between shots you'll want to get around 2-3 2nd charge shots on them to bring them both to 8, then light one on fire get a hit rod, they'll switch so fns again hit rod -> bow. I've used this simple tactic on multiple teams the last few days and out of the around 50ish encounters I've gone pretty well vs full iron ones with a nice/proud ratio of at least 1:2. It's a nice tactic and with a bit of accuracy practice you can pull this off extremely quickly. Try it!

Finally the last way to take out teams is through running them into another stacked player/decent player. Use them as bait to fight the team and deal some damage and while they chase the new player cut off the weakest link or one running behind his team mate by rodding them (Preferably into a wall) then take them out, rod spam away the team mate coming for safety and run until you're full health then take on the 1v1. Or the player will start to fight and after they switch come in and attack the player who switched out so you take on the 1v1 vs a lower HP player + the team mate probably just took a hit or 2 (Possible 3-4 if you just rushed in if the randy has good ping) so it's like the strategy above but this time without as many resources+skill needed to pull it off.

(props to Jorshi for this)

Deathmatch
Deathmatch is deadly as it's a 1v1v1 HOPEFULLY but sometimes you'll have players agree to team temporarily to take you down if you have a gear advantage over them. Normally if I know the player other then me will try to team I'll ask the other player to team with me and most of the time they'll just turn it into an FFA and kill whoever is closer. I normally try to stick to the bow in DM as you can't afford a clean up but bow fights keep distance so you can just avoid any big damage spikes through sword trades. Lets say you have an ender pearl and on the map SG4 or you're on the 'Current 2015 Halloween Edition' map where you can somehow get to the top of the map and when you do /debug to check your kills you notice you have 4-5. The chances someone else has 4-5 is very low so you can normally enderpearl/get to the top of the map and camp there until the timer ends to claim the victory.

Recap: Bow Only unless they get close, Camp at the top center if you have high amount of kills and have the availability to do so.

Extra Malicious Tips/Tricks
One great thing I do is use my 2 side keys on my mouse. I set my toggle perspective key to R and then asigned one of my 2 extra keys on the mouse to that so I could check whose behind me/if anyone is behind me quickly without using a finger that's for my keyboard.

F3 Key bind, F3+a is a great way to find enemies so what I would recommend doing is setting your 2nd key (normally you'll have 1-2 settable side keys with a gaming mouse) to F3 then just press a rapidly when on 1.7 you'll be able to search for enemies and see everyone around. To help see them you should also enable hit boxes via F3+b

WTFast: This is a legal program (Confirmed by multiple Mods, so don't worry) you can download (Just google it) which takes up very little space. It helps you extremely improve your internet speed. The free option works well as I personally have started using it and dropped from 35 ping to 25 on average (Once I was at 19) and I live in NZ!!!! It's insane how long your ms/ping can get when using this program. I currently have no idea if it can get lower if you pay for the premium deal but I'll buy a little few day taste to confirm this suspicion or not, shortly..... Try it!

Good luck tributes with your try harding and I wish you the best of luck. May the hacks never be in the enemies favor! :D
 
Last edited:

Jorshy

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Nice thread. Thanks for sharing your tips. :)

Tip: Not all teams fall for the chokepoint. Try leading the team towards another player/team and attempt to clean up or truce with the other player to take out the team. Use all you secondaries (bow, rod and fns) to beat them. If you ever have to run, do it and repeat the process. Otherwise, try the chokepoint if there is one close to you. Just make sure they can't bow/hit you off.
 
Last edited:

Khulu

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Tip: Not all teams fall for the chokepoint. Try leading the team towards another player/team and attempt to clean up or truce with the other player to take out the team. Use all you secondaries (bow, rod and fns) to beat them. If you ever have to run, do it and repeat the process. Otherwise, try the chokepoint if there is one close to you. Just make sure they can't bow/hit you off.
Very true, but most of the time the chokepoint will make them give up or they'll fall for it so I think it's a win win from a personal perspective to do this. Yet if you know the last player isn't decent enough for a random team to take the 2v2 this is 100% the accurate approach except keep the last player as far out of sight of them as you possibly can.
 

hakt

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If you're AU just move to Sydney and ping abuse everyone
 

Wunara

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Excellent thread , thank you for helping me in some types and thanks for Sharing with us. :D
 

ItsKyuu

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Thanks for the guide mate! This will really help me in my games! :O
 

spook

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If you say no to anything in here leave and try a different lobby.

1. Any Known/Recently Sus hitters or 100% For Sure Hackers in this game (No/Yes)
2. Any Known/Suspected Teams (No/Yes)
3. Any Known 'Targetters' (No/Yes)
Once the map is chosen
4. Do I have a sub-par 3 minimum tier 2 chest route on this map (No/Yes)

If all of these are Yes' then lets begin the next phase.
so play if there are teams, hackers and targeters. got it.
 

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