What do you think is the most effective Fireteam Composition?

#1

Curious what y’all think. Pred mains please add the toughest group compositions you have faced.

EDITED AFTER SEEING COMMUNITY FEEDBACK: Apparently 4 Supports are the best team due to the health pools being too high for Preds to overcome. The ‘100%’ healing from medkits just helps more. I’m curious what the drawbacks are.

(DISCLAIMER) - Yes, raw skill beats a perfect composition everytime. But in this scenario we’re assuming the Fireteam is extremely competent [ no PS4 players… :O… JK! ] and the Fireteam is a party.

This is a long read, but I have always enjoyed analyzing Asymmetrical games like this and Evolve. Theory Crafting for these games has always been enjoyable to me so I tried to give this post more thought than I do on my college work… which I should do eventually.

  • My ideal FT is as follows,
  1. Assault:
    Primary - 7EN. Secondary: DJL-33.
    Gear: Med Kit. Field Syrette, Flashbang.
    Perks: Thick Skin or OWL Trained, Gear Head

Reasoning - This man is the FT’s medic… but a Combat efficient one too. I toyed with giving him reduced Recoil and another 2 cost perk, but ultimately landed on Thick Skin as you don’t want him dieing with all three medkits still up. OWL is more efficient but requires damage from the Predator to maximize it’s value. A flat health buff gives this while also providing some buffer against AI… which CAN stack if you are not careful. I toyed with giving him reduced Recoil and another 2 cost perk, but ultimately landed on Thick Skin as you don’t want him dieing with all three medkits still up. Gear Head lets him maximize his personal healing, (augmented by Thick Skin) with Syrette’s and also give your entire team 3 extra 100% health restore… which can be crucial against accurate Scouts and Hunters. Finally, the sniper rifle and Shotgun makes him slow but versatile to deal with Scout sniping or Zerker all-ins.

  1. Recon:
    Primary: ABR-Z or GOSL-R, Secondary: 2XL or DJL-33.
    Gear: Field Syrette, Thermal Decoy, Flashbang
    Perks: Pig in Shit, Yautja’s Bane, Tracker

Reasoning - This one is HIGHLY flexible - I think you can go a few builds with Recon and not go wrong. I personally prefer Pig in Shit as it not only boosts her passive but also makes it easier to apply. Same reasoning is applied for Tracker. As for Yautja’s Bane this is mostly due to two reasons - The Predator generally wants to play a longer game due to his access to boars and healing kits, so when you or it engages you need to maximize DPS to proc Second Wind. A case could be made for more movement speed, health or interactions. I chose ABR-Z or GOSL-R for its consistent damage from range and for clearing out AI. I did NOT choose the 7EN because it is a high-risk, high reward weapon that generally requires all of your attention on the shot itself. Also, keep in mind the Recon wants to be searching and marking the Predator - the 7EN has a pretty brutal kick, which limits your “availability of marking,” whereas the ABR-Z or GOSL-R acts as a nice medium - DPS solution that allows for solid AI clear and Predator poke / marking. The secondary weapon is a tricky one… you can go for the 2XL or the DJL-33. I prefer the 2XL for it mobility while still packing a respectable punch. If you take the Shotgun you’ll definitely have a boost in DPS, but if focusing you are unlikely to get more than 1 or 2 shots off, whereas with the XL you can fire and maneuver much more quickly. One thing to keep in mind is that a shotgun would work extremely well with “Yautja’s Bane,” so I think it comes down to personal preference.

  1. Scout:
    Primary: G-ROW or ABR-Z. Secondary: 2XL or DJL-33 (Notice a Trend?)
    Gear: Field Syrette, Flashbang
    Perks: Dextrous, Double Time, Pig in Shit

Preface: This would need to be the smartest player in terms of knowing the Map Objective Locations.

Reasoning: Now, I know what you are thinking. “Man, this fucking noob, why would he make a zoomie character in a game where you want to stick together?” Ok, you’re 100% right internet asshole! But what you are forgetting is that speed is the ally of the Fireteam - you don’t want to be locked into a single place too long. You don’t play the Zoomie character to race your allies to the objective, you play a zoomie for its mobility to and interaction with objectives, and for maneuverability in a fight. The Scouts high speed allows quick movement and activation of objective interactions… Interactions you do NOT want your DPS attempting to do. Pig in Shit allows her to act with some degree of stealth during the objective markers, but can always be traded for more health if you feel more comfortable that way. Finally, her natural boost to secondary damage causes the same conundrum we saw with the Recon… this is again personal preference. The 2XL provides more maneuverability but trades a lot of damage. I think the DJL-33 might be more efficient but I have not had as much luck.

Side note from someone who just hit level 100: Another HUGE aspect I have found with this build is that it throws the Predator off. Usually low and mid level Predators will dive into a fight when the FT is at 100% and start swinging wildly. I cannot tell you how many times my ‘Zoomie’ Scout jumps off stairs, sprints back up them, runs to the other side of the map and back while the Predator took 3 to 4 steps chasing them. I might be wrong, but a smart player that is able to out-maneuver the Predator forces the Predator to make a split second decision on pursuing, engaging a new target, or retreating. This split second places pressure on them and can mean the difference between a Second Wind proc or not.

  1. Assault
    Primary - RP-103 or 7EN. Secondary: XDB-12 or DJL-33.
    Gear: Med Kit. Field Syrette, Flashbang.
    Perks: Yautja’s Bane, Weapons Training, Shuffler

Reasoning: This character is your “Berzerker Counter.” I think the RP-103 is a mediocre weapon overall… but it is the highest sustained Primary firearm the FT currently has access to. If you take the 4x Scope it can be used in a pinch against Scouts with bows, but it really shines when the Predator decides to fully commit. Weapons training allows you to expend your magazine of both primary and secondary with less kick, both of which the RP-103 and XDB suffer greatly from. Shuffler I think is the best 1 cost perk in the game - it allows you to reposition an extra foot or two while down. Being exposed in the open or being behind cover can be the difference for maintaining the four man FT. Finally, I chose medkits over Ammo for two reasons - 1, if you’re out of health you’re dead. If you don’t have ammo at least you can melee. 2, Ammo is more plentiful than Health due to the fact that, if you’re in a bind, you can grab one of the local weapons for a quick boost.

Final Thoughts:

Why no Support? - They’re terrible. They’re extremely slow and the 6 perk limitation means that it is often better to supplement an Assault with additional health or ammo to get the same benefits… which still provides the Assault Class with it’s own unique modifiers AND 2 more points than the Support would have had. As for his passive “Additional Ammo” - I stated above that I don’t believe ammo is an issue. In roughly 70+ FT games I have rarely run out of ammo. The harder trade-off for the Support is loving the “Reduced explosive damage” as it helps minimize the Plasma Caster DPS… but I don’t see the trade-off of speed and perks being worth it. You’re essentially hoping that the Predator targets the Support in order to maximize this passive, which makes it 1/4 efficient. Also, with the additional speed an Assault class has you have a chance to avoid the damage entirely.

Why only Medkits, Syrette’s and Flashbangs? - I think most the equipment the FT has access to is trash. No Predator is dumb enough to be hit by a frag, and if you’re using them on the AI please leave this thread. [ kidding!!.. kinda :p ] Otherwise you have the Noise decoy, which the your character will LITERALLY shout that they are throwing before they throw it (Derp), the smoke grenade which most Predators won’t see due to turning their graphics down to play the game, and a few other options that are severely weaker compared to the value of perks.

Preconceptions when writing this: There was a video shown a few days ago that showed the DJL-33 and ABR-Z outperforming their higher level counterparts. I truly believe the DJL-33 is generally better without any perks to balance the issues, but the 7EN can capitalize on smaller windows of opportunity, has a greater chance to break the BIO mask and is more efficient in a real-game engagement than the ABR-Z vs. the theory crafted environment.

So… my essay is complete! TL;DR - Assault Medic, Recon Spotter, Scout for OBJ’s and Assault DPS is my ideal team. Please, give me critique and offer your opinions! As said before, I love both assymetrical multiplayer, theory crafting and imagining the best way to take down BloodThirstyLord while watching the noobs he plays against, so I put some time into thinking of what might be the most efficient.

#2

Support is great because he can have up to 190 health and carry a bunch of ammo packs that counter a hit and run predator who does lots of damage.

#3

That 190 health effectively makes him your tank - which is good in a game where you as a player can manipulate their value. The Predator doesn’t HAVE to kill the Support to kill everyone else. If you’re stacking that much health on him he’s essentially a slow, walking gun. At that point I argue that an Assaults 6 additional Perks, and unique skills, are more valuable than the +40 health.

In regards to the ammo, I would love for some high level players to talk a bit about this. I consider myself pretty skilled, able to win most matches as Pred and FT alike, and have never once been in a situation where I was out of ammo. I think excessive ammo could have a benefit - such as finding a Predator that is standing still while cloaked, but it’s such a niche scenario that you shouldn’t be prioritizing for the sacrifice or more likely benefits. Also, there is ammo stashed throughout the map at the objectives. A smart fireteam will not run out.

#4

You shouldn’t really use thick skin and OWL Trained together. Picking up just one negates the fearless and downrange perks in terms of hits to kill, but together it is usually still the same hits to kill as picking one. And Support can’t have both and that is the only class that could benefit from both.

#5

Nice to know that! I am a bit fuzzy on damage numbers specifically, but does OWL trained apply to the Predators Plasma Caster, Bow, Hand Cannon and Snare Net? If so I would think there is benefit in bringing both.

#6

It does, but fully charged bow is always two hits, and same with plasma caster. Hand cannon and net gun it probably helps, but honestly when was the last time you were downed by a hand cannon?

#7

Just for reference in this thread i said everything someone needs to know to be good at fireteam and all the perk stats for fireteam that we know of now without futher ado i think i even said in the above post Assault is worthless if i did honestly it probably is lol

( i don’t know the exact names of every gun in the game so i’ll be refering to them as the number of x gun so the 4th assualt rifle is the last AR you unlock for example)
1st support

supports can soak more dmg than anyone else they alone make melee preds unviable as it takes way to much dmg to down them
they would run LMG and 2xl/ thick skin and less recoil/ med kit syringe ammo bag
2nd recon

they would be your spot machine and pred poker this guy is also the person you would trust to get reinforcements if someone else got downed
he would be running the 2nd or 3rd sniper rifle (personally i find 2nd to be better for dmg poking) 3rd SMG /bane thick skin and 6th sense for perks/ gear would be any combination of medkit/syringe smoke grenade, thermal decoy, audio decoy, those 3 prevent predator from using any vision modes he has to trust his ears whichever one of the decoys aren’t taken someone else willl take
scout

he has the choice of either running one of the 2 snipers that the recon has or the last assault rifle for his prim his 2ndary could either be the 2nd shotgun 3rd/2nd smg or 2XL/ then double time silent dextrous to do all the obj’s by himself he is the ONLY person on the squad who should be running silencers if he chooses his gear points is 5 so just take a medkit

assault he prim should be the last AR and his 2nd should be either 2XL or the last SMG his perks shuold be thick skin and +melee dmg his gear should be field syringe plus which ever decoy recon didn’t take to cover all spectrums of sight and sound then whatever else the player wants
you could also just copy the support build and just replace the medkit with the remaining decoy and take the same perks if you wanted to

it’s worth mentioning realistically speaking a full team of supports that are all running LMG and 2xl and field syrettes + anything mentioned above as long as they stick together should pretty much be able to kill any pred they run into as long as they know how to parry and can aim with the 2xl just saying due to the RAW HP they have LOL

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#8

True, but not all bow or Plasma shots are fully charged. That being said - it does make this more niche than it previously was if those damage numbers still add that way with more than half of the Predators total attacks. Definitely something to consider.

#9

Scratch all this and just roll supports because HP > everything since you can survive headshots or the pred runs out of stamina swinging at your tanky ass. You don’t need to chase the pred at all if you’re playing effectively so speed is irrelevant it takes one person to melt pred with an lmg.

4 supports is so much effective hp for the FT that it makes it hard to put out damage as predator.

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#10

Perhaps. With sufficient healing it’s viable, but you’re definitely weak in some areas. This is why I think certain classes should have gated equipment… once we get more weapons, gear and perks. It would give classes some more identity.

#11

Honestly most perks are overrated, the difference between HP of the classes out weights the benefits of extra perks. But Assault is a good middle ground. I find running support with extra speed is nice. You can tank or escape at the same time.

Fast hands is a must with the minigun. You have to switch to it quickly. Quick reload is good with the 2XL and the snipers.

#12

It’s 1000% viable because four supports is an insane amount of health. It completely screws melee for the pred because even if he gets you below half you can parry while syringing (lol) & makes ranged preds take extra shots to down you in addition to making headshots trivial but support gets to bring all the medkits too so who cares.

You don’t NEED damage in this game to put out stupid amounts of damage so survivability flat out wins.
Any single FT is capable of dealing enough damage to drop the predator as is.

Equipment should most definitely be gated to classes.
Supports “weakness” is oh no they run slower. Meanwhile a recon or scout gets headshot once and hes downed and now a liability because those classes are always within kill range of the pred.

2 Likes
#13

Hmm, perhaps I’m wrong then. I’d love to see some Illfonic sponsored tournaments to see what people come up with.

I just would imagine that while, yes, the Zerker is effectively nullified by 4 Health Oceans as a Fire Team, there are some deficiencies this setup.

Maybe the best way around this would be to allow the use of unlimited perks up to the hard cap based on your class? That way Pred Scout, Recon and Scout would always have more than three Perks Active and could have more diversity / power.

#14

Honestly I don’t think it is that big of difference. Your main way of surviving is to keep moving, and keep parrying in melee.

#15

um if you play zerker against op fire team your doing it wrong. You have to play hunter or scout mobility and speed and you cant sit still. You have to land plasma shots and arrows. If you dont then dps / min hits the shiter. Supports are slow and get destroyed by arrows even with double time… taking the second wind perk cool down can save you but if they shoot your mask off and your out of arrows you might as well go kill pigs. Or put a mark on your lcd screen when your mask is off it wont matter… if your hardcore. Combistick is only a utlilty for a downed opponent followed by a hs on the other opponent. You still have 2 other classes that can melt you with best in slot so its best to not claim and kill the downed opponent if you have no other options. Disck is an option, netgun is not an option for macro spam the f key

#16

think of HP as your margin of error if you have more hp you have more room to fuck up missing parries or missing bullets it also makes the predator use more resources in order to achieve 1 thing it takes 2 full charge shots to down support with thick skin vs 1 full charge for a recon down

#17

a full plasma shot will reck havoc on a fire team if correctly placed. the map is a huge factor as well. There is no best situation as the recon plays security and tags you for 6 sec. So in the event of anything your best off taking the recon out first. doubt you’ll ever get close enough to disc an elite FT squad.

#18

um they cant spot you as well and they are slow which makes playing scout and hunter Pretty ez. Your job is to redirect and play ranged any of the assault rifles long range fall off in dmg. Dont get close and just try to kill them. I think 2 supts scout and recon is a much better comp than 4 supports. Due to slowness and objective clearing. Ive seen the 4 man suppt squad and beat it more times than I can count. There just really slow. One HS wit the bow and you’ll see them run for heals but again its all based on how good of a shot the slow suppt is.

To add to this… you will not go in buildings and you will not get closer than 40 meters without taking heavy . Im talking about some cs go weekend predator hunters.

#19

Everyone in a tryhard FT doesn’t actually need 6 seconds of spotting at all. They know where the predator is at all times and could probably find it with their eyes closed by audio alone, you can take snipers without playing recon so theres no reason to play a class that gets instadowned by headshots & gets limited heals. Because people have to stop strafing to pick that guy up so one down ends up making the FT take a lot of free damage. The kicker is that support has enough hp to create room for error, the low hp classes do not and one person getting instantly headshot downed can tilt the game.

Sprint speed is indifferent at this level of play because the FT lasers the pred every second hes out of cover. You get one hit on them with a bow or splash them with your cute little caster and they immediately pinpoint where it came from and melt you because fireteam outtrades the predator no contest. Any element of suprise you have with a well placed headshot doesn’t matter vs supports because they always know when they’re within kill range. The fact that weapons aren’t limited to certain classes is the icing on the cake.

#20

I played a few games today of just Max Health Support and it was pretty strong… which warrants an adjustment to classes from Illfonic in my mind.

That being said, Is there somewhere to view the ‘disparity’ of high level FT vs Predators? I only hear about how it’s a problem on the forums, but everyime I get into a lobby it is a bunch of PS4 players who lost half their brain cells prior to the match.

Part of the problem is also that I have hit the level 100 cap that a lot of other people are voicing frustrations over - there’s very little point in my playing right now other than that it is fun… and getting these players that I can smash as the Predator within 3 minutes, or lose to as a FT after spamming “Keep to the mission” for the 10th time, is growing old quickly. Hearing about the disparity makes me wonder where everyone else is seeing it.