Light Defense Guide

Forward

This "Light Defense Guide" is the collective effort of StormcrowIV and Enigma, two kind high-level LOFs who have long played Tribes 2 competitively, and still do to this day. The guide first came in the form of multiple thread posts, and I have put forward my best efforts to merge and organize the posts together into one tangible article.

Not only does this guide provide a newblood Tribes player everything he needs to know to be a solid light defensive player, it speaks volumes about the metagame of the most popular form of Tribes still being played today (Tribes 2 Classic), and the metagame's underlying structure- a structure that should be respected by any faithful successor to the Tribes name. That is why I found it important to post this guide on this blog, and why I will endeavor to post other guides up on this blog that further illustrate what the metagame of a Tribes game should look like.

I will add, I do not agree with everything Stormcrow says here (ecspecially when he mentions the use of only certain weapons) but he does good to mention at the end that this is just his playstyle he developed after years of playing, and everyone "works in their own ways". I commend him for this.

The guide is mostly the writing of Stormcrow, with a few wise assertions made by Enigma added where appropriate. So without further ado:

Light Defense Guide

Basic Positions
There are two primary players in Tribes 2 Classic CTF: the flag D and the flag O.

The flag O is the capper or "FC". He grabs the flag and gets it back to his base via numerous routes, loadouts, and clearing methods.

The flag D is the LOF or HOF, and he stands opposed to the capper. For this guide, I'll be discussing the LOF only. His sole purpose in life is to see the capper, determine the capper's plan for taking the flag, and foil that plan without compromising his position on the flag.

Everything else in the game exists to support or distort these two positions.

The primary enemies of the LOF are HO and LO.

HO are there to clear the LOF by spam (firing from long range, usually with the mortar) or point clearing (getting into the LOF's face and tearing him to pieces-this is usually timed with the enemy capper).
LO are there to distract the LOF by making him compromise his position so that the capper can come in and grab on an uncontested flag stand, or to kill the LOF, so the capper can grab an uncontested flag.

With that groundwork laid out, let's get back to business.

Light Defense

When you are playing light defense, you are either playing as regular LD, or as a LOF.

Equipment

An LD should carry a CG, spin, GL, and flares.
An advanced LD might also incorporate concs, frags, and a sniper rifle (depending on the team he's playing with and against)
Note: NO LD should carry a shocklance or ELF. Ever. If you are not considered a godsend with the weapon, don't do it unless specifically told to for certain situations (Jagged Claw, or standoffs on indoor MMD, for example). Yes, it can be useful, and yes, there are times when it will help you. There are 9x as many times where any other weapon would have been more useful for your role, however. The shocklance can be a clutch mechanical weapon, but dynamically, it is horrifically weak.

Role

The role of the LD is twofold: negate enemy offense and chase enemy flag carriers. The single greatest way to sabotage your defense is to play on or near the flag as an LD. You will never help your LOF or HOF by clogging up the flag stand. You will help them by distracting or killing enemy offensive players trying to kill and distract them.

The LD must aggressively pursue spamming HO.

Note that I say pursue, not necessarily kill. Killing is the most effective way to get a HO off a hill for a period of time, but the longer he's shooting at you, the more he isn't shooting at your LOF. THIS is why the shocklance is a bad weapon for LD. The time you're setting up to SL the HO in the back, he's still killing your LOF and clearing your flag. If you miss, you're screwed within the duel (you have to wait before changing weapons, while the HO will probably starting chaining you at very close range, bye bye!) your LOF is now screwed because the HO got to fire more stuff at him, and now you're dreadfully out of position. Remember: you're a defender. Whatever the offense wants to do, is probably bad. Stop him from doing what he wants as quickly as you can without sacrificing your objective (protecting the LOF).

The LD must aggressively pursue incoming HO who might point clear.

Get these guys off their routes so their timing is messed up (in case the timing was coordinated with a capper) and slow them down to kill them easier. Nothing like a HO flopping at the bottom of a hill eating a rain of mine discs.

Note: These two mean you must be a talented and resourceful dueler. HO are completely overpowered from a numbers perspective and you have to defeat them. You don't have time to suit up before pursuing these guys all the time, either. You have to inflict massive amounts of damage to the right players within a very short period of time.

The LD must adapt to the team being played.

If this team employs a medium to chaingun the LOF to death, then charging out to attack a HO spammer 500m away as the medium skies in isn't a good idea.

The LD must chase flag carriers.

The LD's job is to clean up after the LOF, as well. If a capper gets out, you need to break off your HO-killing and chase the FC down. Again, the shocklance takes away a vital weapon slot for this task. Do not snipe, unless you were designated as a snipe LD. If you do, you are no longer chasing, which your team was counting on you to do. DJ to an interception (never go directly after the capper) and get the capper off his route. If you don't have a hilariously easy MD on him, you should be chaining the whole way. The single lucky shots here and there add up quickly, especially when you're talking about a capper taking DJs to get home. You won't be the only one chaining, either. If you slow down the capper, your team will have a better chance of setting up an egrab or an offensive return.

The LD must escort the flag carrier home.

If you're chasing an FC and your team grabs the flag, stop and cover your flag carrier.

This is pretty debatable, but here's why I think this is the better option:

To succeed against the enemy flag carrier, you have to ski into the enemy base alone, fight off their defense and spawning offense alone, kill the FC alone, then fight through turrets etc to return the flag...after you just DJ'd twice and ran out of ammo chasing the guy down.

To succeed when escorting your flag carrier, you have to distract or kill 2-3 light chasers (who weakened themselves with DJs) with the help of your teammates.

If you return your flag, your defense is unorganized and will be unable to defend it because of the instability of the game that occurs when chasing an enemy across the map and getting a clutch e-grab. If the enemy team has another capper waiting in the wings (I promise they almost always will), then you just gave them a free cap, and nothing you just did was worthwhile. If you escort your carrier home, you still have their flag (so you prevented them from scoring [which is the point of the defense!!!] and the game goes to stand-off-a stable form of the game-and things move from there.

The LD must be vigilantly aware.

This is most important. The LOF can't see everything. Call out cappers and LO with priority. Give directions (left right, back front) and whether they are setting up or going in (EX: "Capper setting up back route." "Capper right, now"). You're there to help the LOF, and the LOF's main asset is knowledge. If you give that information, through sensors or your own reporting, you are being a massive help.

LOF (Light On Flag)

Being a LOF is very hard work, but it's incredibly exciting and satisfying to excel at. It's like T2 as a whole. You'll get your ass kicked at first, but with enough work and practice, you WILL know that there's nothing better out there. I honestly believe that there is no better position, no better game, no better feeling than shutting down an enemy flag O. You're the most exposed player-the entire enemy offense is gunning for you-and you're the only one who stands directly opposed to the only player who can score points in a game of T2 CTF. You are the shit. Here's how to make the most of it.

Equipment

Weapons

A LoF should carry a CG, spin, and a shocklance, sniper rifle, or grenade launcher. This heavily depends on how his team is built up and, more importantly, what the LOF needs to get the job done.

CG and spin are basics.

The shocklance is good for guys who can't yet body block exceptionally well. It gives you a ton of reach and will either stop, throw off, or slow down incoming cappers when shot in the front. Do NOT go for back lances on incoming cappers. It's a show trick, nothing more. Stonehenge is a great SL map. The small window of a flag stand means that an SL shot on a light will almost always send a capper into the wall. That's assuming you go forward, of course. I'll cover that in a bit.

The grenade launcher is a solid weapon that great for chasing and self defense against HO coming in to attack you.

The sniper rifle lets you clean up your own mistakes. It's also highly distracting. Do NOT do NOT do NOT be a sniper. Be a sniping LOF if you must. If you spend more than half a second throwing a snipe at someone, don't snipe anything except a guy carrying your flag. It has uses, but seriously, the LOFs who carry and frequently use sniper rifles have practiced a very, VERY long time. Awareness will always be more valuable to your team than the couple of points of damage you're inflicting, while draining your energy, compromising your position, giving your location away.

Grenades

A LOF should carry flares, frags, or concs.

Flares are always a great, safe bet. Good for chasing and keeping your assets alive, you can't go wrong with flares.
Frags are good for nade+mine throws at range, and for self-defense.
Concs, same thing, but concs are harder to use.

Concs can cripple a HO at short range by stripping their pack, but they are incredibly inconsistent at doing so. The real value of concs comes from their knock-back, which IS consistent. If you get a conc to explode within 5m of an enemy capper, he will never grab your flag on-route. This is the grenade I switched to when I decided that I needed another tool, and it hasn't let me down since I invested in the time to learn the loooong fuse and long distance throw. Throw up and at an angle. ~40 degrees upward while jumping forward= ~70m detonation. Draw a mental map of where the capper will be there, throw accordingly, laugh.

Once you learn that, try it with nade+mines. These do damage in addition to huge knockback, but the mine can be shot in your face and backfire. Like the sniper rifle, these things can be distracting, and I'd recommend mastering the basic techniques (covered below) before worrying about this stuff. Stick with flares to start.

Role

The role of the LOF is the most simple in principle, but the hardest in practice; keep the flag out of enemy hands.

The LOF must know proper LOFing techniques.

Enigma says:  

As a LOF you always want to keep your head on a swivel, you need to know the primary capping lanes for the map and keep glancing back and forth while being aware of immediate threats and dodging fire. Just being around the flag is important, but you need to be around the flag to prevent those grabs at the right moment. The more knowledge you have of enemy positions, the better you can judge when you need to be at the flag. As a LOF you're extremely vulnerable, so being directly on the flag is often not wise. You need to be off flag, ideally in the path of the enemy's strongest route, and with some ability to avoid splash damage (bump in the terrain, on a spire, behind a little hill, etc) but able to quickly respond with a mine disc on the stand.

There are three techniques a LOF can reliably use to keep enemy flag cappers from capturing his flag. Two techniques use a foreward position, and one technique uses a backward position.

Before jumping into that, let me walk you through a pretty simple guide to how capper/LOF relations work. All of these variables can be mixed around and added or removed, but these are the most basic steps to a flag grab.

1. The capper sees LOF and spams GL on his approach.
2. LOF sees capper, moves into position to BB, MA, or MD.
3. Capper throws mine anticipating to MD LOF's actions.
4. LOF throws mine anticipating capper's actions.
5. Discs are fired.
6. Someone dies, someone wins. Note that the someone who dies isn't always the one who loses.

Watch Enigma's video here and focus on how quickly these steps occur. I'm not even talking about seconds here. This video also gives amazing examples of every technique I'm about to discuss.

Let's go through the techniques. First, the forward techniques:

1. Body Block (BB) This involves going forward into the capper's flight path and stopping or severely hindering his movement with your own player model. This is the surest method of pissing a capper off because it's the easiest to clear for the capper. If you miss your BB, the enemy carrier has a free shot at your flag. You are very vulnerable to being MA'd or MAMD'd. It also compromises your position, so even if you block one capper, you are unable to stop a second capper because of the movement it requires. You can add to this method, however, by chaining the capper as he comes in, or by trying to MA him in addition to setting up for the BB.

Once you get better as a LOF, you'll get a feel for how to approach a BB and when you should and shouldn't do it against lights. Against medium cappers, it's very very helpful, because an MA won't always throw them off. Against HO cappers, it's necessary because it's the only way to stop a HO's movement.

2. Mid Air/ Mid Air Mine Disc (MA/MAMD) This involves jumping forward and attempting to MA the flag carrier as he is coming in for your flag. It's tricky to do reliably, but it's very effective. MAing a capper moving in a mostly straight line is all about timing and confidence. If it feels right, do it. But if he's too far away, you'll probably miss, and if he's too close, you'll probably get a mine disc to the face before you can fire. Likewise, you have to anticipate when the capper will throw his mine and/or fire so that his shot doesn't destroy your mine, taking you out of play. It's very tricky when you get into this contest with the better cappers because they WILL anticipate your shot, so you have to vary your timing to keep the upper had. MAs will stop lights and will normally stop mediums. MAMDs are immediate stops on lights (death) and mediums, and will stop HO grabs if they are placed properly. Yes, you can (and will have to learn to) place mine discs on incoming players. An example of this can be found here.

Notice that I account for my speed, the flag's movement, how the terrain will affect the flag movement, the enemy player's movement (assessed via where the flag will be), and throw my mine and fire the disc so that it separates the enemy from the flag (keeping him from picking it up) without throwing the flag so far out of my own path that I cannot return the flag.

You have to practice your MDs until you can do those kinds of calculations in a heartbeat and make those kinds of shots before you realize it needs to happen, because that's what being a LOF is all about. It's the fullest integration of reflexive chess and once you get your feet in, you'll never be okay with any other kind of gameplay.

And now, the rearward technique:

3. MD on Flag Stand This involves moving back-out of range of the capper's shot-or up, to get a better angle on the stand, in order to MD the flag as the capper is grabbing it. Difficulty comes from the capper anticipating your mine and discing it while it's still in your face, or you hovering in a single spot and getting MA'd by the capper. Both things will prevent you from making the stop. Varying your timing and moving, rather than hovering, will ensure the success of this technique. Furthermore, make sure that you are moving downward as you throw your mine. This adds your momentum to the throw, getting the mine away from your player faster. This makes the MD easier, and it drastically shortens the time the capper can use your mine against you.

This is the safest and easiest way of stopping a light flag carrier. It will cripple medium cappers as well, so it's very effective, and the vast majority of your stops should be with this technique. It does nothing against HO, however.

You can always mix and match these techniques, too. Go forward for a BB then MA the carrier. If you miss the MA, you still have him BB'd. Jump backward into his flight path while still MDing the flag stand. Both of these things double your chances of preventing the capper from grabbing.

My personal stops will often involve throwing a mine+hand nade forward, then attempting either MAMDing or MDing the stand while flying backward over it. I'll also try to mix it up by MDing 5 meters in front of or behind the stand, so the capper is not expecting it. Subtle things like that will always keep the capper on his toes, and his shots are only a little easier than yours-a little doubt in your enemy's head goes a long way.

Perform these proper techniques at an incredibly proficient level.

Enigma says:  

There are trade-offs for body blocking (BB) and mine discing (MD) that you have to take into account given the situation. If your enemy is in light energy you know that a mine disc will take them out, miss it and they're out scott free with 100% health. If your target is capping medium energy, it will take 2 mines and a disc to kill them. This is really only an option if your foe is dumb and lets you stack an extra mine on the stand or if you have a backup LOF.  

Body blocking is the safest method of stopping caps, it can also be the hardest as it requires precise positioning. It puts your reticle on the direct path of the capper which guarantees damage with chaingun. Even if you miss the BB you can easily chew up 50% of a light's HP or more. BBing is also a very easy way to get mine-disced by the oncoming capper and that is often a good thing. I consider it a victory when the capper gets killed or knocked off course from the splash damage off me. 

If the enemy is heavy capping, they not only have the hit points to shrug off a mine-disc on the stand, but if they get out cleanly with the flag they can almost always get home with their hitpoint buffer. BBing a heavy capper is the safest bet, but even if you're successful you have a heavy in your shit ready to punish you and clear the flag for a delayed light capper. You need to be quick, clever, and try to disc the heavy before he discs you and be ready to fall back if need be. 

Always try to put yourself in the path of the capper, even if you go for a mine disc you can BB them on their out-route as seen below.

2 LOFs can often interfere with each other by setting off early mines. The safest method of preventing grabs is to mix it up and have one BB and one MD. Worst case scenario, a body blocker that gets MA'd will put the capper's disc in refire cooldown to prevent them from stopping the MD on the stand from the backup LOF.

The LOF must stay alive.

A dead LOF isn't a LOF. You have to preserve yourself. Don't die to spam in order to stay on the flag half a second longer when there isn't a capper coming in. If you see a capper, then do what it takes to make the stop, even if it mean dying (back to what I said about how dying doesn't necessarily mean losing for the LOF). This means you have to...

The LOF must be aware of EVERYTHING.

A LOF has to be aware of everything going on.

- He has to keep mental tabs on which cappers he knows are set up on fast routes because he hasn't seen them in awhile.
- He has to keep track of spamming HO so he can avoid their mortars.
- He has to be aware of shifts in enemy offensive tactics so he can call for adjustments. If I see that a HO stops spamming, I know that HO is coming in to attack up close and I call in an LD to stop him. If the enemy team stops spamming, I know that a capper may be coming in. If they stop spamming and start sending LO, I know I need to keep an LD close by to cover the flag when I die. This stuff is what makes or breaks a LOF. Without this grasp of the game, LOF is an impossible position.
- A LOF has to keep track of cappers and decoys.
- If a capper grabs and darts to the left, the LOF has to know if the LD over there is dead or too busy fighting a HO to chase the FC. If so, the LOF knows that taking a snipe shot takes priority over maintaining his position.

The LOF MUST to know where the enemy flag is.

If you fail to return a flag as your friendly capper is coming in, you have probably cost your team a cap. If you know your team has the flag and the enemy carrier gets out, you need to know whether your next move needs to be to take a pot shot snipe at the FC or if it needs to be a lined-up shot in defense of your carrier.

Enigma says:
When the flag is in the field you have more control over the flag game because it opens up many options on defending. You can disc the flag against an object or flag stand to block off potential cap routes, or leave it in the field to force cappers off their practiced routes. Mine disc the capper as he tries to grab, return the flag just before the capper grabs, or you can disc the flag away when a capper is incoming and watch him fly right by. The latter being a great solution when the enemy capper is medium or heavy armored and a single mine disc will not instantly kill them. It does take a little practice and timing though. The biggest benefit to playing the flag in the field is the timed return. Wait until just before your capper will cap to return the flag. You’ll be preventing the enemy from getting an emergency grab or forcing a standoff.

Closing Thoughts

In poker terms, being good in T2 is more about rigging the deck than winning hands. If you have a bad CG, don't get into a short-range flying duel. If you don't like getting MD'd, stay fast or stay off the ground. If you don't like getting sniped, stay low and fast and strafe at the apex.

A lot of LOF play centers around preventing the capper from using this philosophy. You want to reduce the capper's options as best as you can so that he has to play at your table, rather than letting the enemy offense run the show (which is what normally happens).

Reviewing and Thinking Critically

Enigma says: 

The best advice I can give you is to watch your demos and be super critical about your decisions, positioning, weapon selection, and make note of anything that's getting by you too much for comfort and how you can counter it. Every time you play you should be trying to work on something.

Economy of Movement

Demo review sessions are what I attribute to my rise from silly sniper to LOF and a specific concept from either Darkstrand or Fling always stuck with me. They called it economy of movement. Essentially, you have to be decisive about what you're going to do. If you go forward to face the capper, great, you have tools. If you go backward to face the capper, great, you have tools there too. If you hesitate or start forward then doubt yourself and back-pedal, you're eating a mine disc on the stand.

You must make a decision and commit to it. Once you make this a habit, your demo reviews will get even more helpful, because you'll be finding concrete mistakes to learn from, rather than realizing you should done something, or you, know... anything.

Getting MD'd on the stand tells you you should have moved. Duh.

Getting MD'd by your own mine because you didn't anticipate the capper's shot gives you substantial insights into how a capper shoots, letting you adjust for next time.

 

Choosing your Playing Style

I'd also like to point out that Enigma and I are both successful LOFs despite having different approaches to doing things. He carries flares and chains cappers as they come in, doing a guaranteed amount of damage while I prefer the all-or-nothing nade+mine combo. Do what fits your style and do whatever it takes to keep your flag out of enemy hands. No matter how goofy it is, if it works, it works. I have to say that a lot of the conventional stuff is conventional for a reason, however. There's not a lot of trail-blazing to be done in an eleven year-old game, but everyone works in their own ways. I'm offering the strategies that work for me and the things I was taught to do. How you use it and mold it to fit your playing style is up to you.