This game has been out forever.

[hammerinn]

How long would it take for a new player to realistically be a value to their team and get up to date? World of Tanks takes months and it seems like this game would be the same.

[Miriage]

If you have a brain a day. If you are like 60% of the mwo playerbase 12 years still isnt enough time.

[Ironlegion]

1. The free to play mechs are great.

2. When you buy a mech. Not having 91 skill points will reduce your effectiveness about 50%.

3. Just stay with your team.

[lugosi]

It's not too bad actually. I am not a new player, but my partner and some other friends are. And when we play, sometimes they get kills when they listen to direction and we all get super excited.

Always always stay with your team though, don't do anything like go off on your own, that's how you do poorly. If you stay with your team, you will always contribute in one way or another.

[rclark14]

Expect to get destroyed a lot at the beginning until you learn to use cover and backup your team with your mech's abilities. Don't get discouraged the game is a blast to play esp. on a communicative team, even if yo lose. I recommend choosing 1 mech build style--short range brawler, long range missile boat, etc, and play it until you learn it well. Fast light-med
mechs are often more survivable than slow hulking ones which are vulnerable in a dogfight. Oh and don't mix all sorts of different weapons/ranges. Choose 1 or 2 and maximize that (LRMS or SRMS, med lasers or PPCS, etc)

[SharkPlush]

Originally posted by hammerinn:

How long would it take for a new player to realistically be a value to their team and get up to date? World of Tanks takes months and it seems like this game would be the same.

You only need 1 good mech, so not very long. I recommend a Heavy, it's less grind and more forgiving than Assault while still having the firepower.

[REnder Scott]

i played around 10h, just finished my cadet bonus. if our team sticks together and i dont do anything stupid, i usually end the game with 1-2 kills, 4-5 assists and average score on the board. i only played with the trial mechs so far

[ressenmacher]

The only barrier to being an asset to your team, at least in quickplay (which is the basic gamemode accounting for like 95% of all matches), the only barrier to effectiveness is your own skill - the free mechs were buffed some months ago to be generally competitive with custom-builds. If you play diligently through the tutorial you will be ready to join the low-tier games, and in any case your first 25 or so matches are the MWO equivalent of placement matches.

[SharkPlush]

I wouldn't worry about rank in this one. It's almost like the high rank filters out the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It's not like other games where being in the "normie" ranks feels like punishment, all the teams are total trash etc. Helps that your role is just "shoot back" really. Nobody's like, responsible for keeping the lights on yet running off into a dark cave alone etc.

[Gamejunky05]

Aim for the weak mechs try n kill off parts legs arms and you can earn $ faster and be helpful to the team. Most of the time ur team sucks so its no big deal if ur new. You will learn the game within a week of playing lol.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally posted by hammerinn:

How long would it take for a new player to realistically be a value to their team and get up to date? World of Tanks takes months and it seems like this game would be the same.

WoT has a tiered vehicle system which is not a thing here. If you have the currency to get the mech and a free mechbay ("garage"), you can get any mech in the game except for the few that have not aged out of their paywall period yet. New pilots get cadet rewards for their first 25 matches (plus some from going through the damn tutorial and a timed checkpoint race found there) that combined will be enough to get any one non-premium mech in the game. Premium mechs can be purchased with MC (premium currency routinely awarded from certain event types) or obtained from events several times a year.

If you're playing daily, it will take you a couple days to skill out a mech and grind the currency for the next one.

[Rosarius]

It doesn't take very long. The skill floor of Tier 5 is pretty low. Your biggest hurdle will be learning the maps, which is the same hurdle of any PvP game

[Valdorel]

Reasonably if you're willing to take advice from a seasoned player about what mech to get and what to put on it for your first 1-3 mech choices then you could be an asset within a couple days easily.

[Redrum]

It takes months to decently pilot your mech.
It takes months to understand the builds.
It takes months to have skill into fighting AND keeping an eye on the map.
If you have a life, one year is the minimum.

[Redrum]

My best tip is to learn how to peak, hide and support.
Improve your aiming, learn to shoot while moving, make a two groups for left and right arms.

[SharkPlush]

It's a tank game with tank controls and tank rules. If you know tactics, drive a car, and have played PvP games with single-life-per-round rules you can have base competency in a few sessions, secure some kills with a trial mech, matter to ur team.