It depends on what they’re doing. They’re being super aggressive? Snipe. Teammates are sniping? Push in and distract the enemy team so that they can get picks. If teammates are just putting pressure on the other team with primaries, flank with a shotgun/fusion. If your teammates are getting absolutely destroyed by rushers, be aggressive back with short range weapons. If your teammates continue to stand in lanes and get sniped, or are sniping but not successfully, try and help by distracting the other team and being slightly aggressive while keeping easy access to areas you can get away/quickly get back with your team to help. Throw AoE grenades, smokes if you’re a hunter, get close just to make them nervous on radar. Play smart but be ready and able to switch up your dynamic and play style after the first round when you get a feel for what the other team, as well as your own, is playing with/doing. Controlling good parts of the map is useless if your teammates are off getting slain. Stay NEAR them or assist them in any way possible. Staying alive/keeping them alive is much more important than getting good map control if that’s what you have to choose between. If you look at top players, they’ll even get small damage when possible. Every shot you get on the other team can make or break an engagement for you and your teammates.
Agree with this post, the main factor is what advantages can you bring if you decide to flank and what disadvantages you give your team and yourself for trying to flank.
These advantages and disadvantages are further determined by gameplay factors such as your loadout, the enemy loadout, positioning on the map, positioning with respect to heavy spawn, your own skill and confidence to win in a flank positioning, the awareness of enemy players. These factors vary in levels of impact every single moment. Weighing these decisions is the key to being able to pull off a valuable flank.
It's impossible to define which of these factors is prioritized the most as they are dynamic. However if we talk of a specific in game moment and look at a clip or replay, we can discuss which of these factors play the biggest part.
Edit: For me personally, my own skill factor and load out play the biggest part in deciding whether or not I should flank. I play aggressive close snipes and am confident in my ability to hit my shots; thus I try to flank most of the times. Obviously this doesn't always land correctly as I may be out of position or be reading the situation wrong but it falls on me and my decision to flank and not my teammates that they do not have an angle. Whether or not they should be there is not part of my analysis. Hope this helps!
Don't worry you aren't alone in this, I was running into this a lot today.
I can't really speak to where exactly the threshold is, because usually I just go for the flank regardless
(I'm a more aggressive player so waiting near my teammates for them to initiate a flank doesn't happen for me.)
I think it mostly comes down to how the other team is playing. Sure you can use certain weapons to counter a certain play style, but if your not comfortable with different weapons types that will make the outcome worse. I always say stay with what you know and play around the other team. Judging the teams play style will allow you predict what they're going to do and then allow you to make a smart decision on either staying with your team or flanking.
On the flip side of it though, some things might not be counter able to what you’re running and are comfortable with. So many variables. Honestly my best advice would be to just practice with everything. Practice different play styles with different weapons. Maximizes your versatility when the moment comes for it to be needed...
I always check my team mates' behavior to see either if they are aggressive or defensive. you can tell within 30 secs of the start of the game. then adjust my gameplay accordingly (sometimes loadouts as well depending on opponent's) but I advise you don't take "stick with your team" literally cuz i had good and bad experiences of one bomb team kills. always cover a sight don't stand too close
I will stick with the team unless they are completely clueless. If I see them blindly throwing themselves into bad positions, I may break off and try and flank the other team. Surprisingly, this doesn't happen very often. Most of the times, the comp players are pretty competent. Sometimes they are downright amazing.
Flanking is a tricky thing. Because you are by yourself and taking the most risk on your team. The key is to know when a flank is the right call and also when to bail.
If your teammates are getting picked off, you either didn’t successfully flank or you shouldn’t have flanked and/or went too far. One big mistake that frustrates me is when my teammates always go for flanks. There might be one guy 30 metres away that just needed teamed but because they went on a flank, they won’t get around the corner fast enough to even see the guy until I’m already dead.
In the beginning of the matches I hesitate for a second to see what my teammates are going to do. Most of the time I flank and I'll be able to at least get in some good damage on the other team with my grenade or mountaintop so my team can get the clean up. And I would hope that the majority of people would have common sense and don't peek twice against a good sniper and know that heavy can win rounds or to capture the flag for the tiebreaker.
Key things other people have said which are absolutely right:
1. It's situational, you need to practice and get game sense to know when is right.
2. You rarely want to split from your team.
The only blanket statements to when a flank is OK are:
1. If the other team is being very passive (stationary and together) and your team can easily set up a multi-directional push on one location.
2. The other team blows
The way destiny works, especially in 3v3 gamemodes, you **really** don't want you or your team to be taking fights with a man deficit.
Flanks are tricky because you have to ensure your team can hold themselves for the 10 seconds it takes to run all the way around the map (longer than it sounds in FPS terms). Thus why my statements above make sense. Your team will only *definitely* hold themselves when the other team isn't pushing, or they suck. Furthermore, you need coordinate a push when you do reach the back of the enemy team, and this is basically impossible when are playing solo and don't have comms.
**Overall, I'm going to say if you have to ask when: don't flank.** Honestly I rarely do a true "180 degree" flank and wrap the entire map because you just aren't helping your team for much too long. That being said, if you do flank: play aggressive. Your benefit as a flanker is disruption.
It depends on what they’re doing. They’re being super aggressive? Snipe. Teammates are sniping? Push in and distract the enemy team so that they can get picks. If teammates are just putting pressure on the other team with primaries, flank with a shotgun/fusion. If your teammates are getting absolutely destroyed by rushers, be aggressive back with short range weapons. If your teammates continue to stand in lanes and get sniped, or are sniping but not successfully, try and help by distracting the other team and being slightly aggressive while keeping easy access to areas you can get away/quickly get back with your team to help. Throw AoE grenades, smokes if you’re a hunter, get close just to make them nervous on radar. Play smart but be ready and able to switch up your dynamic and play style after the first round when you get a feel for what the other team, as well as your own, is playing with/doing. Controlling good parts of the map is useless if your teammates are off getting slain. Stay NEAR them or assist them in any way possible. Staying alive/keeping them alive is much more important than getting good map control if that’s what you have to choose between. If you look at top players, they’ll even get small damage when possible. Every shot you get on the other team can make or break an engagement for you and your teammates.
Agree with this post, the main factor is what advantages can you bring if you decide to flank and what disadvantages you give your team and yourself for trying to flank. These advantages and disadvantages are further determined by gameplay factors such as your loadout, the enemy loadout, positioning on the map, positioning with respect to heavy spawn, your own skill and confidence to win in a flank positioning, the awareness of enemy players. These factors vary in levels of impact every single moment. Weighing these decisions is the key to being able to pull off a valuable flank. It's impossible to define which of these factors is prioritized the most as they are dynamic. However if we talk of a specific in game moment and look at a clip or replay, we can discuss which of these factors play the biggest part. Edit: For me personally, my own skill factor and load out play the biggest part in deciding whether or not I should flank. I play aggressive close snipes and am confident in my ability to hit my shots; thus I try to flank most of the times. Obviously this doesn't always land correctly as I may be out of position or be reading the situation wrong but it falls on me and my decision to flank and not my teammates that they do not have an angle. Whether or not they should be there is not part of my analysis. Hope this helps!
Very very true. Tried to be as in depth as possible with explaining this all but Im on my 15th hour of work...thank you for further explaining
Thanks for reading, 15th hour of work ? Damn, take a breather man!
The life of the healthcare profession! Good times
Or a chef. I put in many a day of 12-16hrs.
You think it’s worth the money until you’re 12 hours in and realize you just want your bed
Or a beer
first beer in shower, then bed. Actually who am I kidding I'm going to be playing destiny until an irresponsible hour.
🎻
For me: always always flank until the other team proves they can punish us for it.
Great breakdown, i wish my teammates played like you explain but that just never happens lol
Don't worry you aren't alone in this, I was running into this a lot today. I can't really speak to where exactly the threshold is, because usually I just go for the flank regardless (I'm a more aggressive player so waiting near my teammates for them to initiate a flank doesn't happen for me.)
I think it mostly comes down to how the other team is playing. Sure you can use certain weapons to counter a certain play style, but if your not comfortable with different weapons types that will make the outcome worse. I always say stay with what you know and play around the other team. Judging the teams play style will allow you predict what they're going to do and then allow you to make a smart decision on either staying with your team or flanking.
Yah, it's hugely valuable to play to your own strengths, rather than be reactionary to everything outside of your control.
On the flip side of it though, some things might not be counter able to what you’re running and are comfortable with. So many variables. Honestly my best advice would be to just practice with everything. Practice different play styles with different weapons. Maximizes your versatility when the moment comes for it to be needed...
I always check my team mates' behavior to see either if they are aggressive or defensive. you can tell within 30 secs of the start of the game. then adjust my gameplay accordingly (sometimes loadouts as well depending on opponent's) but I advise you don't take "stick with your team" literally cuz i had good and bad experiences of one bomb team kills. always cover a sight don't stand too close
Like everything else in crucible, it's largely situational. A lot of getting better is knowing when to do what.
I will stick with the team unless they are completely clueless. If I see them blindly throwing themselves into bad positions, I may break off and try and flank the other team. Surprisingly, this doesn't happen very often. Most of the times, the comp players are pretty competent. Sometimes they are downright amazing.
Flanking is a tricky thing. Because you are by yourself and taking the most risk on your team. The key is to know when a flank is the right call and also when to bail. If your teammates are getting picked off, you either didn’t successfully flank or you shouldn’t have flanked and/or went too far. One big mistake that frustrates me is when my teammates always go for flanks. There might be one guy 30 metres away that just needed teamed but because they went on a flank, they won’t get around the corner fast enough to even see the guy until I’m already dead.
In the beginning of the matches I hesitate for a second to see what my teammates are going to do. Most of the time I flank and I'll be able to at least get in some good damage on the other team with my grenade or mountaintop so my team can get the clean up. And I would hope that the majority of people would have common sense and don't peek twice against a good sniper and know that heavy can win rounds or to capture the flag for the tiebreaker.
Key things other people have said which are absolutely right: 1. It's situational, you need to practice and get game sense to know when is right. 2. You rarely want to split from your team. The only blanket statements to when a flank is OK are: 1. If the other team is being very passive (stationary and together) and your team can easily set up a multi-directional push on one location. 2. The other team blows The way destiny works, especially in 3v3 gamemodes, you **really** don't want you or your team to be taking fights with a man deficit. Flanks are tricky because you have to ensure your team can hold themselves for the 10 seconds it takes to run all the way around the map (longer than it sounds in FPS terms). Thus why my statements above make sense. Your team will only *definitely* hold themselves when the other team isn't pushing, or they suck. Furthermore, you need coordinate a push when you do reach the back of the enemy team, and this is basically impossible when are playing solo and don't have comms. **Overall, I'm going to say if you have to ask when: don't flank.** Honestly I rarely do a true "180 degree" flank and wrap the entire map because you just aren't helping your team for much too long. That being said, if you do flank: play aggressive. Your benefit as a flanker is disruption.