How to deal with hg runners/tdmers

  • ItzEggward
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    Ok there is no easy fix on Rare's end and they have a lot of stuff to keep up with so I imagine that they prob won't mess with Hg mechanics anytime soon. I have thousands of levels in hg so I understand where you are coming from with your anger about runners but there is a guaranteed way to deal with them. 1st thing is be patient, remember they love to see you get angry, nothing you say will make them re-think what they are doing. I recommend saying nothing, stay concentrated on all the kind words you are gonna talk when you finally get them. Try playing music, joking with your duo, think about your fellow hg players who are getting blessed because you are keeping the nuisance out of their games, just stay positive it will prevent you from messing up and giving them the win they are desperate for. Remember they are desperate, one to get your reaction, and two to win the game. I have found these guys get hilariously angry when you keep chasing them without any reaction, ESPECIALLY when you win. The mindset that wins these fights is that you are gonna spend as much time as possible, if you have two hours you are gonna spend all two of those god given hours making these pathetic players day so much worse. You are gonna chase them until they are forced to fight you, then you will beat the forums restricted language out of them until they run off again, then you will chase them until eventually you get them where they can't go anywhere but under the water.

    Now the mechanics of fighting these guys is actually pretty straight-forward. If they board use everything in your tool box, throw blunder bombs and double guard with blunderbuss (have one player by the wheel-anch to watch top ladder and one guy stand by cannonball barrel and stand on the side of the boat to knock them off). If they get on don't get stressed sometimes they are better just try to break the camp and use the time to practice shooting some guns. If you get bored scuttle, remember rule 1 don't let them get too you. Now their weakness is that they are allergic to naval, they can't tank, no game sense and swabbie cannons, they can only run off, so you want to close the distance with your ship. If they are sailing straight follow them, try to speed up with your sail but IMPORTANLY try to predict the way they will turn in (they will have to in order to board or at least get away from the boundary). Once you see them turn cut in on them, keep their boat in-between you and the edge of the circle like you are slowly squeezing them in (remember to look for merms and laugh as they desperately try to avoid you). If they are keeping their boat in a spin this is even easier because you can easily catch up and put your boat right in front of them. (super easy for solo)

    Once you have caught up now you need to relax, wait until you know that you are confident and send some cannons to test the arch then trust your chains. It's important to not get in your head about missing shots or letting them getting away, because I can guarantee you they are fuming right now. Don't waste sups if they are too far. Once you get their mast down they will catch so don't send a boarder. (helm: keep your cannon's angle and make sure that they are close enough to keep demasting them, also if your confident try raise sail to get the other guys to nose right in) (Cannon: goal one keep that mast chopped, so send chains and aim cannons at the top deck to get a cannon chop. When you know you hit their mast again spread your shots out, so shoot a few front holes, then a few back holes) Also use whatever you want i.e curseballs, bonecallers, running means no mercy. Once their mast full drops you have pretty much won, they will often give up and if they don't just keep spreading holes and sending boarders till they sink. It's long but trust me its worth it. Onetime I was playing on Christmas morning when these French players vpned across the world just to mess with NA players by running while watching a tv show. They ran for an hour and a half we kept chasing all while they were messaging us, we never got angry and eventually crushed them They cried in my dms for an hour.

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  • WolfManbush
    Legend

    I've seen you in a lot of solo fights (if that's you), very very skilled pvper.

    I think it'll be difficult for the majority to achieve the kind of outcomes that you do at your high level of performance.

    Defending (against boarders) and capitalizing are two of the most difficult things for most solos (and crews for that matter). I think you offer some solid advice about staying focused and optimistic, but then you encouraged spiteful play.

    For runners it'll be best for most players to just move on (sooner rather than later). It's just more frustration and drama to carry that on.

    You have a skill set and the time (given your hg experience) to capitalize in a way that most won't. It'll just be spending time to them, adding frustration about players and the game.

  • BurnBacon
    Champion
    Insider

    So in the end, Patience won.

  • ItzEggward
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @wolfmanbush I agree there is no shame in just moving on to a different stamp, this was actually initially written as a reply to someone complaining about runners in hg so I wanted to highlight the best way to win if you want to keep a streak. I love hg (it comprises probably 80 percent of my 2000 hours) and I see that runners are one of the biggest issues forum users have with the mode. I think its a bit of a cop out to say that the only way to deal with these players is to give them what they want. They are responsible for making peoples in game experience measurably worse and pushing people away from a part of the game that is dangerously close to being insulated from the rest of the community. I believe its counterintuitive for the guide forum to not give people another option to combat these players. People want a solution to this issue and in my experience the best way to discourage this behavior is by sinking these guys.

    Also you don't need nearly as much hg experience as I have to replicate these strats. There is some skill required in knowing how to best position the boat, fight off boarders, and hit your chainshots but its stuff that I had a decent handle on by the time I had made it to my first 100 lvls (which was truly my only pvp experience at the time). For those players who are just starting obviously some of this stuff might be out of your reach right now, they should work on learning the basics before worrying about taking out runners. However, this is for players who are confident in adventure, maybe you have 80 levels and a few good tough fights under your belt. I'm confident you have the ability to take on most of these runners/tdmers. Granted some might be too skilled and just like making others day worse, but for the most part runners aren't good enough to beat a player with even that amount of experience and tdmers don't care enough to try (once you have them tanking). The biggest thing holding players back is their mindset when fighting a runner.

    Last part, "encouraging spiteful play" is a bit absurd. Hourglass players are already spiteful about runners, you can see that in every ALL CAPS I HATE RUNNERS RARE FIX UR GAME post. The reason I'm so passionate about this topic is because this is one of the few times when a pvp problem isn't rare's fault and they can't really fix it. I know how my friends feel, I know how I feel, I know how the HG community feels, and its spiteful as heck. I get the sense that you aren't a huge comp sot player which is fine, this game should be played in many different ways, but you shouldn't stand on a high horse and tell us that we shouldn't get mad at people who are doing their best to waste our time and effectively render a part of the game unplayable.

  • WolfManbush
    Legend

    @itzeggward said in How to deal with hg runners/tdmers:

    I get the sense that you aren't a huge comp sot player which is fine

    This is very accurate, both based on pvp skill and interest/preference.

    but you shouldn't stand on a high horse and tell us that we shouldn't get mad at people who are doing their best to waste our time and effectively render a part of the game unplayable.

    Not a high horse at all. I didn't say people shouldn't feel how they feel. I don't tell people how to feel, I offer responsible advice to try to look out for people in the community.

    I didn't even suggest that you shouldn't play how you want to play. I did say you have the skill to support your time investment.

    This isn't the HG community, this is the forums for the entire community, most of which would end up in a more unpleasant situation by investing more time in "fighting back" against running.

    I get frustrations, I don't encourage escalation, I have a long history of that here, frustrating situations that drag on increase escalation very often in SoT. It's where a lot of extra toxicity is created, my goal in the community is to try to encourage people to stay off the path of escalation and to move on so they keep themselves out of trouble.

    I don't think I'm better, every day I try to also stay out of escalation and try to stay more focused on moving on so that things stay mostly chill.

    Running/chasing (for long amounts of time) has always been a hot spot for toxicity in SoT.

    You didn't encourage toxicity, I just disagree with your advice for the general playerbase of SoT and Hgers that are just doing it for the rewards and/or casually.

    Something I have been very involved in is trying to help players that experience burnout in HG, dragging the situations on has played a significant part in a lot of burnout for people.

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