Sonic Prestigeboom, Part 4: More Perks

Updated with some more thoughts on Extreme Conditioning and a second perk loadout suggestion. Also check out the comments for a discussion about Marksman.

So, since I laid a lot of the groundwork for this post in the last installment, I'll cut right to the chase. After the jump, that is.

Our mightiest flag defender, ImScootaloo!

Sonic Prestigeboom, part 3: Perks

Update 2-27-2012: So, it turns out that when Bringing the Boom says kills with secondary weapons, it means kills with equipment like grenades. So, forget synergizing with pistols.

 Extreme conditioning helps you go fast, but prestige slow.

I'm coming up on another prestige, so it's time for another installment of Sonic Prestigeboom! Most people know that perk challenges are a great source of exp., but I think it's worth breaking down just how beneficial they can be, as well as a few tricks I like to use to get some more mileage out of them.

Co-op Warriors

We pulled this one off on pretty short notice, plus it started at 7 AM EST - that's 4 AM for our bros on the west coast. Still, great job!

Also, it'd be nice to see some new names on the leaderboard for Friday's Flagged for Removal op. Miss your chance to act like a bush yesterday? Show everyone your hiding in a corner skills!

Flagged for Removal

Congratulations to Mars, ImScootaloo, AppleDash, Punsy Charlatan, PenguinEmperor, and PrismaticRope! Gold tier again!

Dear Princess Celestia

Updated 2/25/2012

Today we learned that even though our plans may start out rocky, if we work together (and sometimes split up into separate teams), we can capture lots and lots of domination points. This may not be all that educational, or save any patients, or even make any amusing doodles, but it's not like we bought xBoxes so we could be productive. What we did do, though, is show those chumps who's baus. Good job, everypony! Except those who didn't participate. We can see all the capture stats for the op, so start packing your suitcases for a vacation on the moon.

CLAN OPS

Fillies and Gentlecolts, the time has come to show everypony the magic of friendship.
We are enlisted in the upcoming event for most Domination point captures, which starts on Feb. 24 6:30pm EST.  I have directed everypony here for a mission briefing.

First off, some facts about the operation.
1)  How well we do in this competition affects our clan experience, and therefore our clan level, and therefore our sweet unlocks.
2) Time and date of the operation is Friday, February 24 6:30pm EST until 9:30pm EST.  Tomorrow, it's three hours of pony madness!
3) The goal of this operation is Most Domination Points Captured.
4) The scoring is based on the clan's top 6 ponies' performances during the time frame of the operation.

I would like everypony who can to try and contribute to this.  I've always envisioned clan ops as a great way to bring us together and to really have us work as a team and have a lot of fun, and now that it's happening, I couldn't be more excited.  Not only are we competing with all the other clans, but we are competing internally, and it would make me really happy to see us aspiring to higher pony greatness because of friendly rivalries inside our own ranks.  The variety of gametypes and goals make this an excellent way to showcase everypony's strengths, and I really dig that.  I want to see a lot of people contributing to this, so we can have detailed discussions and debriefings over the next few days.

I will be coordinating the formation of several lobbies right before the operation begins (starting around 6:00), so you can message me (MarsBringer) and we can get you playing with your pony brethren.

May her beautiful visage spur you to magnificent glory! 

Detailed operation strategy follows after the jump.

CLAN OPS

Holy moly, clan ops are live. Get online! I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully.

Test Tomorrow

So this might be the last doodle filler for a bit? I really liked how Fluttersnipe's pose/hair turned out, but you can't see it under the ghillie suit. Anyway, here she is for anyone who's curious. No cutie mark since I usually draw those last (if I remember at all) and by that point the ghillie suit was already on.

I'm kinda glad the grass in the title covered that retarded stock, though.

Drawpoll

Should I draw Twilight Sparkle as the Panopticon calling in all kinds of spy planes, or as a Recon Jugger, even though those weren't in BlOps? 

Dogfood was such an appropriate fate for so many of these guys.

These are all real emblems and real gamertags.

New Weekly Column

Howdy everypony!  Mars here to bring you our first in a recurring series from clan member The Wet Onion!
The first installment of The Wet Onion's Class of the Week follows after the jump.

One Perk, Two Perk, Red Perk, Blue Perk, Part 1: Assassin

So I said not 30 minutes ago that I was going on hiatus, but, whatever. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think that Assassin is hands down the best perk in the game. For those of you who have recently had a generalized seizure, Assassin makes you undetectable by recon drone, UAV and AUAV, heartbeat sensors, and portable radar, as well as preventing thermal scopes from highlighting you. When pro'd out, you are immune to CUAV and EMP, and also do not display a name when their aim point is on you. The only way to get an assassin to show up on the minimap is Recon or them using unsilenced guns.

Brief Hiatus

Hey, guys. Just a heads up that I'm going to spend most of the next two weeks studying for exams instead of playing MW3, so unless I draw something or come up with a post topic without playing the game, content is likely to be scarce. Of course, you guys can always shoot an e-mail to our Dear Leader at marsbringercod@gmail.com if you have something for us to post. You will, of course, get full credit, and maybe I'll look for a funny picture to put on top of it.

Time to Kill, Part 1: Aiming

Updated 2/12/2012. That's a lot of 2s.

I thought that I would bring up a topic I've found pretty useful for thinking about weapons and playstyle in general: time to kill. Basically, how long does it take you to go from "encountering a dude" to "dude full of bullets"? Whoever has the shorter time to kill will win firefights. A lot of things go into it, and I'll leave weapon-specific stuff like accuracy and rate of fire to other posts, but it's also good to consider stuff like technical skill, situational awareness, and yomi. This post will focus on one of the most fundamental technical skills: aim.

The Pyramid's Curse

FUCK YOU I CAN'T EAT ALL THESE APPLES

Maps and Callouts

Just a heads up to everyone that I've put a Maps and Callouts page on the right sidebar with a huge pile of maps labeled with callouts. This was actually my original motivation to start the blog, but I haven't had time/motivation to make the maps; luckily, someone already did it for us. I'll be putting up some posts about specific maps and tactics later, but for now try to familiarize yourselves with these maps.

Sonic Prestigeboom, Part 2: Early Levels

I prestiged today, so I've kind of had experience and prestiging on the brain. That said, since I'm going through it right now, I figure that this is a good time to talk about the very early levels in a prestige. The chart I'm working from is after the jump.

Just take a slice, you, you... DOUBLE MOAB

I promised double MOAB footage a few days ago, and Carl has graciously provided exactly that. Prepare to have your mind blown after the jump:

Sonic Prestigeboom, Part 1: Secondary Weapons

-Updated 2/4/2012 re: Desert Eagle

While we have a few 10th prestige ponies in the clan, most of us are still working on it. I don't know about you guys, but I'm trying to max out as quickly as possible (lol japanese collector fetish), and it occurred to me that the secondary weapons are a pretty great way to get experience fast for a very simple reason: you get 10,000 experience for each one that hits level 10*. More explanation after the jump.