Keys for Survival (any map, any level)
Not just survival as in saving-your-life, but the survival of your good name/reputation among other players.
1. Stay together. The group is stronger than any of it’s parts and an Engineer’s Empathy (heal) and Revive only stretch so far.
2. Be aware of your surroundings (enemies). If a group member is in the process of opening a door, maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea to open the other one nearby. Wait. See what you’re dealing with behind door Number 1 before popping open door Number 2. If you’re already engaged in a fight, don’t run around like a chicken with its head cut-off pulling yet more enemies into the group. And not just enemies--be alert for game messages. Things like "The Director Bot is damaged" tell you now's the time to really whack on him. "Five seconds to detonation" means, "Move back from the door unless you like being fatally dead and having your team giggle at you. And tease you about it forevermore. And post embarrassing screen shots of you." (Thanks to Krazii for the help on this one.)
3. Sub-section of #2 above - deal with what you have before looking for more. Just like you wouldn’t (you wouldn’t, would you?) take seconds when your plate’s still 3/4s full, don’t go grabbing more bad guys before the ones you’re already dealing with are dead.
4. Be aware of your surroundings (teammates). What are they fighting? If you just finished off the baddie in front of you, don’t just hit auto-attack and take on the next nearest thing. If the Engineer is up to his armpits in Mole Dogs, helping him out would be a good idea. It’s also good to know what char type your teammates are. Laying on the ground yelling, “REZ ME!” when you’re in a group of Commandos and Ops will get you laughed at. If the Engineer is busy or you wandered off on your own and died, take the respawn and run back.
5. Learn your character. Learn what your skills can do. Don’t just spam skills and hope they do something. Use them wisely.
6. Learn what your teammates skills do. For example, if a Commando throws Singularity knocking down a target, wait to throw your Op’s Lurch. It’ll do the group more good to knock the target down again when he’s back up and shooting than it will to waste it when he’s already down.
7. Goodies will wait. The chest will not magically disappear if you don’t open it *RIGHT NOW*. Take care of the business at hand and then pop it, preferably when the whole group is nearby.
8. Quest items will wait. Honestly, the photo will wait until the nasty little bugs are dead. The pink crystals will wait until the miners are dead. No, you don’t have to rush to get the crystals--they constantly refresh. You can even pick them up once you’re done with the whole level since they still count.
9. Character-specific doors will wait. You know, the ones that need to be hacked/repaired/smacked by a Commando? They also won’t disappear. Detouring from the group to pop one is rude. Popping one and opening the chests inside without the rest of the group near? Don’t expect invites back. And no, that won’t improve your chances of getting something good.
10. If you’re unsure how to deal with a boss/reinforced door/other situation, ASK. If someone calls you a noob for asking, well....”Takes one to know one” is pretty childish, but you get the point. I’d rather spend 20 seconds explaining the “Sprite Round-up” than 5 minutes trying to do it while you keep shooting the sprites and I silently curse you in my head.
11. Sub-section of #10 above - if someone asks, “Does everyone know how to....?”, be honest. If you don’t know, say so. If you’ve never done it, but read about it on the forum, say so. It’s one thing to read about “acting platforms”, it’s another to actually recognize them in-game.
12. Come to the map prepared. Have your gear on (unless you’re doing a Bod Run, of course. ;-) ), have stims and power packs, have your level-up/inventory clearing duties already taken care of. There’s few things worse than being on an enhancer and watching the seconds tick away because someone (or several someones) forgot to take care of business before they got in the map. Or getting into the first fire-fight and realizing you’re down to 3 stims. (Do not expect sympathy from the Engineers on this.) Or if you want an enhancer and don't want to pay plat store prices, pick it up from your guild hall before jumping into a map.
13. If you can’t chat/PM without stopping, don’t do it. Your friend will wait on your answer. If, for some unimaginable reason, you have to do it, don’t complain about missing XP/quest items/other when the group continues on. (Exception: when you're with friends and they expect start/stop chattiness.)
14. Maps are not the place for trading. Use the auction or stand in base and scream your lungs out. Spamming items to buy/sell or whacking the trade tab on someone is very distracting and maps are not good places to be distracted.
15. Courtesy counts. Engineer heals/revives you? Commando pulls aggro off you? Op runs over and kills whatever has you cornered? A quick "thank you" is always nice and much appreciated. Hey, you can even have it as a pre-set so you don't violate the chat rule. :)
16. Be aware that life happens. A full, ever-present, fully alert and focused team is terrific. Sadly, life often intrudes in the guise of work, phone calls, knocking on the door, food, bathroom dashes, etc. If you have to go, give the team a heads-up, whether it's an "afk a sec", "phone", or whatever or a, "Guys, gtg work". If you think you're going to be away more than a minute or so, step out so they can get someone to take your spot and help. If someone is pulled away for a reason, ranting about it isn't going to help. Move on and hope they're able to catch up. (Thanks to Octavos for this one.)
Finally....
Learn from the past. If running into a mob didn’t work, why do it again? If trying to go toe-to-toe with the Director resulted in a quick and messy death, why respawn/get revived and do the exact same thing again? You may not care about your kill/death ratio and that’s fine, but doing something silly that gets you killed and that then results in the whole group wiping will not result in you getting invited to runs.
Any additions/alterations/suggestions gratefully received. :)
