Tips/Advice to become better user LB

Rwt94 said:

I had saved up and got Roquan Smith and I have Lurk artist on him. Ima have to work on the baiting thats something I never done before. I appreciate you taking time to help me out.

I'm currently using Roquan and he's been a stud for me so I hope you enjoy him as much as I have. Something I'd recommend if you want to bait people is one you get used to some of the same formations which you will see alot because 98% of Mut players live exclusively in gun bunch, leave something open pre snap or make it look open so that your opponent might try to make that his first look. Like if you bring your user away from the TE when he is lined up close, most will put that TE on a streak if they see that opening. 

Once the ball is snapped move quickly to the TE and take it from him or if he does not throw to the TE then I look for a slant or crossing route coming from the left side, and I look at the runningback. If the RB angles I take that route away no matter what because it is such a security route that so many will go to if they feel they have nothing open, you take that away and he likely takes a sack after not finding anything. 

Another suggestion is in those short yardage situations, those 3rd and 2's I see so many people put their RB on a flat and that can be an easy user house call. I call man coverage and just line up on the TE pre snap then just haul to the RB at the snap, more often than not the offensive player already has made up his mind of what he is doing in those situations pre snap because he's worrying about the blitz.

Breakluna said:

Flats to 25-30 and curl flats to 0-5 are pretty popular for mable coverage set ups that do well against a lot of the common meta plays.

that's what I'm doing now. and hooks at 10

Breakluna said:

Playing h2h would be my first suggestion. There's only so much you can learn from playing the cpu even on the highest difficulty. I think usering is one of those skills that you really have to practice against other players to learn how to do it well. After all, the cpu and a good comp player approach and play the game quite differently.

Try strafing with L2/LT at least for the first few moments when you're figuring out who you're going to defend that play with your user.

One of the keys to a good user is knowing your opponents tendencies. It's easier to defend against the play that you know is coming than the play you've never seen before.

Finally, it's important to know your user's responsibility for the play that was called. Basically, don't try to do too much and trust that your cpu teammates are going to be playing their assignments. 

You might already know this but for anyone that doesn't, to get the best animations you should either have a LB with the lurk artist ability or a safety at sub LB as your user.

This is all absolutely fantastic advice, wish there were something i could add on top of this.  Unfortunately, the game is very much pay to win, so you'll need to have decent squad to feel that you can be competitive online -- the best advice is to dive right in, trial by fire.  Sure, it can't hurt if you are able to start reading defenses... but i've been at this a full calendar year now and have only just lately begun to get more comfortable reading opponent's actual defenses.

People are mostly simple creatures of habit.  You can get a TON of relevant information about your opponent by simply inspecting their top 3 cards that flash on the screen before you start any H2H game (hopefully, it's often buggy/greyed out).  Once you've done this a while, you'll immediately learn who knows how to build a proper MUT squad, there's SO many folks who will apply abilities that either don't work or are irrelevant for specific positional groups.  If someone has "Lurker" (not LurkArtist) on a Safety, well that feels wasteful.  KOs, KOs, KOs -- in this specific iteration of MUT, having two Deep Out Zone KOs on both outside corners is an absolute must, IMO.  This will enable you, as a MLB (or even D-lineman, who will ultimately drop back into pass coverage more often than not) to cover the middle of the field.  Cannot stress that advice enough, KNOW YOUR SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITY.  Quite often if you can take away your opponent's first read and figure out ways to generate pressure in your own pass rush, that alone will be sufficient to force mistakes, which will get you more wins online.

The game can be a frustrating, buggy ass mess at times, but i've had a good bit of fun lately.  Game is just starting to get interesting with balance.  Find yourself a tall, hopefully fast (with high COD stat) for a USER.  Harold Carmichael or any MLB/LB with LurkArtist will be absolutely fantastic.  The biggest mistake i make is trying to do too much.  I'm sprinting when i should be strafing (L2).  Lock down that middle, let your double mable (30 yard flats, 5 yard curl flats) do work preventing deep sideline plays and crossing routes.  Learn those tendencies and adjust.  Don't give up.  You got this.

I went down 21-0 last evening, but managed to fight my way back because i was able to adjust and my opponent could not, they started making mistakes.

TBone75 said:

that's what I'm doing now. and hooks at 10

Sounds good. I think most other adjustments are going to be specific to stopping what you're opponent is doing

peatrick said:

This is all absolutely fantastic advice, wish there were something i could add on top of this.  Unfortunately, the game is very much pay to win, so you'll need to have decent squad to feel that you can be competitive online -- the best advice is to dive right in, trial by fire.  Sure, it can't hurt if you are able to start reading defenses... but i've been at this a full calendar year now and have only just lately begun to get more comfortable reading opponent's actual defenses.

People are mostly simple creatures of habit.  You can get a TON of relevant information about your opponent by simply inspecting their top 3 cards that flash on the screen before you start any H2H game (hopefully, it's often buggy/greyed out).  Once you've done this a while, you'll immediately learn who knows how to build a proper MUT squad, there's SO many folks who will apply abilities that either don't work or are irrelevant for specific positional groups.  If someone has "Lurker" (not LurkArtist) on a Safety, well that feels wasteful.  KOs, KOs, KOs -- in this specific iteration of MUT, having two Deep Out Zone KOs on both outside corners is an absolute must, IMO.  This will enable you, as a MLB (or even D-lineman, who will ultimately drop back into pass coverage more often than not) to cover the middle of the field.  Cannot stress that advice enough, KNOW YOUR SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITY.  Quite often if you can take away your opponent's first read and figure out ways to generate pressure in your own pass rush, that alone will be sufficient to force mistakes, which will get you more wins online.

The game can be a frustrating, buggy ass mess at times, but i've had a good bit of fun lately.  Game is just starting to get interesting with balance.  Find yourself a tall, hopefully fast (with high COD stat) for a USER.  Harold Carmichael or any MLB/LB with LurkArtist will be absolutely fantastic.  The biggest mistake i make is trying to do too much.  I'm sprinting when i should be strafing (L2).  Lock down that middle, let your double mable (30 yard flats, 5 yard curl flats) do work preventing deep sideline plays and crossing routes.  Learn those tendencies and adjust.  Don't give up.  You got this.

I went down 21-0 last evening, but managed to fight my way back because i was able to adjust and my opponent could not, they started making mistakes.

hey man I really truly appreciate you taking time to respond to this. Your response gave me so much life as I was damn bout to just be like maybe it’s not for me. Thank you thank you thank you.

For me, becoming decent was mostly reps and breaking/limiting bad habits. Like others said, keep in mind what you're responsible for and don't venture to far out there looking for a good snag. And just play. First you'll get some lucky ones, then you'll get dudes throwing you Stevies, then you'll start picking up tendencies and put yourself in better position to get the pick, then you'll start baiting, which is quite hard and can cause you to give up big plays, but it's also the most satisfying part of the game (for me). 

I still remember my first lurk in M18 with Ray Lewis. Super trash read by my opponent, so nothing special on my side, but it was fantastic and I was hooked.