After playing the online portion of Black Ops II for quite a considerable amount of time now I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks that I know for a fact will help you in the field of play. You may know some or even all of them already, and if you do then good luck to you, but for those who don’t then I hope this helps improve your game just a little. So without further ado let’s get to it.

1. Give yourself the best chance

After choosing Public Match make sure to look towards the bottom of the screen for the option to change your search preferences and from there select ‘best’. This will mean you might be waiting a little longer for a game to be found but it should guarantee you a better connection. There’s no reason why your game should suffer or you should be the victim of a bad lag situation and this will ensure you have the best chances of avoiding that. This tip, as well as installing the textures to your hard-drive and optimizing your connection by forwarding the correct ports should hopefully save you from tearing your hair out. The lag compensation in this game is still hit and miss though and I‘m on the wrong side of it myself at the moment, so unfortunately at this point there’s no sure-sure way of avoiding it, but these tips have certainly helped matters a little.

2. A devastating one-two blow

One of the best tips I can give you when choosing your tactical and lethal equipment is to find ones that complement something else in your class setup. The most devastating combination I’ve found thus far is by laying a Shock Charge on the ground and a Bouncing Betty just behind it. That way when somebody comes around the corner they’ll be auto-stunned and then be downed shortly after. It’s hard for the enemy to avoid and will bag you a good few easy kills if placed at the right time and in the right position. You can also double up your tactical and double up your lethal with the use of a wildcard for twice the fun. Remember this works both ways though and if you’re ever stunned by a Shock Charge a good rule of thumb is to drop to the ground in case you have it done to you. Another great combination is the Black Hat PDA with the Engineer Perk so that you can hack enemy equipment through walls because they’re highlighted red. There’s nothing quite as pleasing as blowing up an enemy who is camping in a room with their own Claymore. The Black Hat also works wonders on retrieving your Care Packages or enemy Care Packages from a safe distance, even quicker with the Fast Hands Perk and a good tip here is to intentionally get your packages to land on the tops of buildings so that you’re the only one who can retrieve them.

3. Let the Scorestreaks do the work for you

If you’re struggling to rack up a lot of points and the high-end streaks seem like a distant pipedream right now then you need to select earlier ones that are going to bag you some easy points. The UAV and the Counter UAV get you a minimum of 10 points every single time someone is killed while they’re up, and when someone gets caught up in the Guardian that bags you even more. So my advice if you’re struggling is to pick any two of these and then a higher Scorestreak that you can aim for while these constantly help you build towards your total. Picking the right mode is also of upmost importance as getting the Swarm for example is pretty darn tough in Team Deathmatch and requires nineteen straight kills, whereas in Kill Confirmed it takes just over twelve if you collect all your tags for bonus points.

4. All killer, no filler

A lot of the time people will pick their favourite elements in a class, such as the Ghost or Hardline Perk, their favourite gun and attachments, and then pad out the rest of their class with stuff that doesn’t really gel with the rest of the stuff selected. There is no right or wrong answer in allocating the ten points you’re given, but creating one specifically geared towards what you’re trying to achieve will go a long way in helping you. A lot of this comes down to personal preference on what works that little bit better for the individual, but here is one of my classes as an example of catering to a situation.

Domination: Rusher

Primary: MSMC
Attachments: Suppressor and Laser Sight

Tier 1 Perks: Lightweight and Blind Eye
Tier 2 Perks: Cold Blooded
Tier 3 Perks: Extreme Conditioning

Lethal: Frag Grenade
Tactical: Smoke Grenade
Wildcard: Perk 1 Greed
Scorestreaks: UAV, Guardian, Stealth Chopper

This class is tailored towards rushing Domination points, especially B early on in the game to give your team an early advantage. With Lightweight and Extreme Conditioning there aren’t many who will get to B before you and if they do the deadly close range of the MSMC with its Laser Sight hip-firing capabilities will soon sort them. Shroud yourself in smoke, lash a Frag Grenade and you’ll be surprised how many times you’ll take B by yourself in the opening moments of a game.

Cold Blooded is there to stop people locking on to you through your wall of smoke and Blind Eye keeps you away from AI controlled enemy Scorestreaks. The UAV and Guardian give you great score increases in a short period of time, not to mention the Guardian can hold down key areas of the map. Then in no time you’ll have that Stealth Chopper and throwing this over a contested Domination point and there aren’t many stopping you. I know first-hand that this setup can be a royal pain for anyone to come up against as you fly around the map at a pretty alarming rate capturing point’s right from under the enemies’ noses.

5. Find the right mode for you

It might sound incredibly simple but you’d be amazed how many people stick to one particular game mode just because that’s what they’ve always done, the main one being Team Deathmatch of course. When it isn’t going your way though it’s time to ditch a mode for a while and try something new. I was struggling in Team Deathmatch myself so switched to Free for All and seen my scores increase by a fair margin. I was decimating the field with scores of 30-3 or similar for a good stretch of time because I understood how the spawns worked and used that to my advantage by drawing the enemy into areas where I was sure to win the gunfight.

Lately I’ve been enjoying Kill Confirmed and as stated above, it’s a damn site easier to reach some higher Scorestreaks here so I have been having plenty of fun with some that were previously unobtainable to me and my skill level. I have friends, who find it easier to stay alive in Headquarters so they stick to that, but for you it could be Demolition or another objective-based game, and the only real way of discovering where you belong is to test them out for yourself. Again, it sounds simple, but very few people actually take the time and broaden their horizons.

Well, there we go. These are the tips that I’ve found the most helpful thus far and I’ll be sure to share more with you as and when I discover them for myself. I also welcome comments on what works best for you and perhaps in sharing what you have to offer others could benefit as a result. Happy gaming and maybe I’ll see you online for a game sometime. Peace out.

Black Ops II: Multiplayer Review

Craig Bryan, NoobFeed  
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