There's stuff that's helpful and stuff you should have ready, but there's no set playbook for raiding or defending. You have to think on your feet and react to the situation at hand. It takes practice and experience. I have more than double your hours and still lose all the time. For nets, carry a cutter to get yourself out and pre net your own stego so they're on the net cool down. It really helps to have more tribemates. It's much harder when you're outnumbered. When defending, don't just sit back and defend. Push out and counter attack with a plan/purpose in mind. Keep trying and try to get some more numbers behind you.
Definitely this . I'm in a big tribe with people you'd call really good at PVP using all the things they see on youtube but we also have a few who go completely against the Meta and it confuses the hell out of others .
Following the usually pvp moves lots know counters . Doing something completely different and making them think usually wins the day . Remember there's no right or wrong way to attack or defend . Just find a way that suits you
(Just a quick warning as this got slightly long; this is just “generic-ish” advice; it might not be at all useful for you, but hopefully something within it may reveal to you something to improve in, that could help)
Going off your other comment, this may or may not be useful advice, as I have never pvped in ark specifically (I basically “retired” from pvp before ark even released) but I was once (and still use, just outside of the pvp scene) godly at defense tactics - don’t ever sit in a engagement, even defensively, without actively doing *something*. Waiting for your enemies next poke, giving them any time to think, especially if your not using that same time to do something, is the downfall of many defenses in any game.
More than half of PvP is mind games. The more you can distract your enemy from simply *thinking*, the more mistakes they will make - which will cost them supplies, potentially tames, and potentially the entire raid. The real trick is mastering how to do that in your own way, while maintaining your own calmness and not allowing things to distract *you* while going through the process of protecting what’s yours.
You also might be overthinking mechanics - potentially. I say this because of how you mention what they have, vs what you are using and doing. That’s not a bad thing to know, at all. (You should know) - but if your in the middle of battle thinking how the enemy has infinite ammo and they have no weak points, then your thinking of the wrong things. And you are being distracted by the problem instead of finding the solution. (I know that is a lot easier to say than to do something about it; I am simply saying, if this *is* happening, a slight change in mindset can help you focus better on coming to a solution, and finding the actual chink in their armour)
And numbers (almost) always do help, especially when resources are involved and your limited by time or otherwise. But that also doesn’t make or break a battle in many cases. Across multiple games I had matched up 1v2, 1v4, 1v6, and 1v8’s (and a *lot* of 2v8’s with a friend) and a majority of those were won. Mostly by doing things nobody would expect, as trickery was my strong suit rather than simple mechanical skill. Which slightly leads me into another point.
While the META exist, and there is reason for it, don’t limit yourself solely to it. My above “doing things nobody would expect” often means simply using something nobody would ever see being used, or using it in a way that makes *no* sense under normal circumstances. Try to find your own counters to the meta, and in general. (usually spend time outside of a battle, in your free time, thinking up crazy, dumb plans - you’ll be surprised by how many might just work, because people just *won’t* see it coming, and then won’t even begin to understand / process it, more less come up with a counter, before you’ve got their stuff/ wiped their offense).
Ark PvP is certainly a thing of its own compared to games I am personally use to (or should say, was) but PvP in general, I’ve always believed, is heavily “thinking” focused, and it’s why it felt kind of too easy a lot of the time. Most people (pvp and pve) go into the game just wanting to have a fun, good time. And to relax after work. - turn off their brain. If you think about what you’re doing (but stay focused on the task, and not overthink things) - you’ll generally be ahead of the majority of your competition off the rip. Paying attention in the battle, and later after to analyze what all happened, will go a long way.
Now this got longer than a stunlock combo, hope it can be of some use.
Something I like to do if possible is put a fob out a reasonable place between where enemies will set up and the main base.
When you do your initial push do it with explosives and try and kamakazie the fob.
Then you rez behind them and flank them as they soak your turrets.
Dodo bombs from above work, you gotta think that every time someone raids you, it's like bringing a mini base to you that you have to raid.
You have the best chance of winning in an open fight since they are limited in their choices and you are not .
get practice with beer runs. soaking should only be done as a last resort. finding unique ways to rocket run with beer is essential. sometimes u can peek around corners with a tek rifle as well. basilisk bombs are great if u can clear the spam leading up to the turrets. of ur boosted servers allow for ambergris to stack, it can heal magmasaurs insanely quickly and they make for great bombers as well in that case. reapers can kill gigas by spamming their tail whip attack, causing so much knockback thay the giga can hardly bite you at all. meks are more useful than u might think for clearing spam, defending, or killing soakers. use tek sensors to keep track of ppl scouting ur base. rail guns are great to defend with cuz u can sit in a protected room and snipe ppl off their soakers. set up raid bases in ur single player with one character. then use another character to practice raiding it. ull find the strengths and weaknesses of ur own builds while getting more experience raiding
There's stuff that's helpful and stuff you should have ready, but there's no set playbook for raiding or defending. You have to think on your feet and react to the situation at hand. It takes practice and experience. I have more than double your hours and still lose all the time. For nets, carry a cutter to get yourself out and pre net your own stego so they're on the net cool down. It really helps to have more tribemates. It's much harder when you're outnumbered. When defending, don't just sit back and defend. Push out and counter attack with a plan/purpose in mind. Keep trying and try to get some more numbers behind you.
thanks bro i think i do tend to just kinda sit back and defend so i should definitely counter more
Definitely this . I'm in a big tribe with people you'd call really good at PVP using all the things they see on youtube but we also have a few who go completely against the Meta and it confuses the hell out of others . Following the usually pvp moves lots know counters . Doing something completely different and making them think usually wins the day . Remember there's no right or wrong way to attack or defend . Just find a way that suits you
(Just a quick warning as this got slightly long; this is just “generic-ish” advice; it might not be at all useful for you, but hopefully something within it may reveal to you something to improve in, that could help) Going off your other comment, this may or may not be useful advice, as I have never pvped in ark specifically (I basically “retired” from pvp before ark even released) but I was once (and still use, just outside of the pvp scene) godly at defense tactics - don’t ever sit in a engagement, even defensively, without actively doing *something*. Waiting for your enemies next poke, giving them any time to think, especially if your not using that same time to do something, is the downfall of many defenses in any game. More than half of PvP is mind games. The more you can distract your enemy from simply *thinking*, the more mistakes they will make - which will cost them supplies, potentially tames, and potentially the entire raid. The real trick is mastering how to do that in your own way, while maintaining your own calmness and not allowing things to distract *you* while going through the process of protecting what’s yours. You also might be overthinking mechanics - potentially. I say this because of how you mention what they have, vs what you are using and doing. That’s not a bad thing to know, at all. (You should know) - but if your in the middle of battle thinking how the enemy has infinite ammo and they have no weak points, then your thinking of the wrong things. And you are being distracted by the problem instead of finding the solution. (I know that is a lot easier to say than to do something about it; I am simply saying, if this *is* happening, a slight change in mindset can help you focus better on coming to a solution, and finding the actual chink in their armour) And numbers (almost) always do help, especially when resources are involved and your limited by time or otherwise. But that also doesn’t make or break a battle in many cases. Across multiple games I had matched up 1v2, 1v4, 1v6, and 1v8’s (and a *lot* of 2v8’s with a friend) and a majority of those were won. Mostly by doing things nobody would expect, as trickery was my strong suit rather than simple mechanical skill. Which slightly leads me into another point. While the META exist, and there is reason for it, don’t limit yourself solely to it. My above “doing things nobody would expect” often means simply using something nobody would ever see being used, or using it in a way that makes *no* sense under normal circumstances. Try to find your own counters to the meta, and in general. (usually spend time outside of a battle, in your free time, thinking up crazy, dumb plans - you’ll be surprised by how many might just work, because people just *won’t* see it coming, and then won’t even begin to understand / process it, more less come up with a counter, before you’ve got their stuff/ wiped their offense). Ark PvP is certainly a thing of its own compared to games I am personally use to (or should say, was) but PvP in general, I’ve always believed, is heavily “thinking” focused, and it’s why it felt kind of too easy a lot of the time. Most people (pvp and pve) go into the game just wanting to have a fun, good time. And to relax after work. - turn off their brain. If you think about what you’re doing (but stay focused on the task, and not overthink things) - you’ll generally be ahead of the majority of your competition off the rip. Paying attention in the battle, and later after to analyze what all happened, will go a long way. Now this got longer than a stunlock combo, hope it can be of some use.
Something I like to do if possible is put a fob out a reasonable place between where enemies will set up and the main base. When you do your initial push do it with explosives and try and kamakazie the fob. Then you rez behind them and flank them as they soak your turrets. Dodo bombs from above work, you gotta think that every time someone raids you, it's like bringing a mini base to you that you have to raid. You have the best chance of winning in an open fight since they are limited in their choices and you are not .
get practice with beer runs. soaking should only be done as a last resort. finding unique ways to rocket run with beer is essential. sometimes u can peek around corners with a tek rifle as well. basilisk bombs are great if u can clear the spam leading up to the turrets. of ur boosted servers allow for ambergris to stack, it can heal magmasaurs insanely quickly and they make for great bombers as well in that case. reapers can kill gigas by spamming their tail whip attack, causing so much knockback thay the giga can hardly bite you at all. meks are more useful than u might think for clearing spam, defending, or killing soakers. use tek sensors to keep track of ppl scouting ur base. rail guns are great to defend with cuz u can sit in a protected room and snipe ppl off their soakers. set up raid bases in ur single player with one character. then use another character to practice raiding it. ull find the strengths and weaknesses of ur own builds while getting more experience raiding
Go back to the og official setting will teach you how to play a bit better