Steel Peel arena is my personal nemesis, and the arena that convinced me to try an Assassin. My first game on this map saw my team neatly pinned into our base by a team of snipers and tanks devastating our turrets from across the map and putting me down with a neat headshot if I emerged from our base, or even stood in the firing lane too long. As one of the slower classes, how are you supposed to move around Steel Peel - particularly in the early game - without getting some extra cerebral ventilation? I had some success tonight slipping out the back entrance, but half the time, one of the enemy snipers still picked me up and put me down. Eventually my lane-clearing picked up enough momentum that they were forced onto the defensive, but I ate about six headshots in a row during the early game just trying to push due to an inability to escape their sights.
As a Tank? Charge out of the base 'across' the doorway. Otherwise, that's clearly how the map was designed because I'm sure it was play tested before they decided to put it in; they clearly knew that Snipers would have a field day on targets on that map. There's not much you can do against good/a whole bunch of snipers. Sorry. Try buying that first jump pad up the higher level before you buy any skills or anything. Get out there fast, Hide, and then skill upgrade.
I play Assault primarily, and I feel your pain. Snipers and SteelPeel are a recipe for frustration. Buy the jump pad just outside your spawn to get to center catwalks, and then use your dash to clear the kill zone and get to a more protected area. If you play as a Support (my other main class), try to get a turret on the catwalk above their bot spawn area and hack it to level 3, so it has the range to reach down into their base. Then heal up your teammates as they swing by, and airstrike the turrets if you can. As a Tank, follow the Assaults towards the enemy base using the catwalks and then jump down into the blind spot outside the enemy base between the two entrances to their base. As an Assault, I'm more than happy to use my grenade launcher to escort a Tank across the level instead of a group of bots (they should have called the class the Bodyguard). If there is a Support there, doing what I outlined above, when you get there even better! PS: Try spawning some Bouncers too... That always helps a lot.
Gah - lack of clarity. I was playing a Gunner, but a lot of the advice seems to hold up - just no rocket-dash. I'll need to try making for the upper catwalk, though I noticed at least one of the snipers moved out to it on his side of the arena. I play a bit of Support as well - and people who got their firebase up on the catwalk firing into the base seemed devastating until I realized how easy it was to airstrike by tossing a beacon right below the bridge. I think a lot of my problems come down to the fact that the Gunner is the Sniper's natural prey, and Steel Peel is the Sniper's natural habitat.
I feel your pain. When I play a gunner I suffer the same fate as my oversized head always ends up in the cross hairs of a Sniper. However, I feel worse when I somehow end up close to one and die from the Snipers grapple.
It's funny you bring this up as I had a similar experience this morning. We started out getting absolutely crushed and couldn't effectively maneuver outside our base due to the snipers pinning us down. (I was playing a gunner). I probably had died 5 times in a row (trying to go out the left door, around the left side, off the jump pad to the 2nd level, etc) then I decided to try the right side. I aimed my grenade launcher and started firing into their door as I left the right side and made it to the circular opening on the right and continued on down the side path that comes into the back side of their base. The snipers were on the right of their base pinning us down from there. I just started launching grenades at them. The first shot took them to under 50% and by the time they realized what was happening, the second round hit. I took out both rocket turrets and when the snipers came back they tried to get me from the top side of their base. I saw them coming and started firing grenades. Again--first hit took them under 50% so they were careful in their timing, but stepped out at the wrong time and ---boom. I didn't get "headshotted" the rest of the game as I could strafe in and out from behind the glass while firing grenades and the snipers had to move constantly or they were dead. Then assassins started coming at me. Saw em coming --- slam -- ring out. Their support set up a turret at the front of the tunnel, but I took that out in a couple grenade shots. When someone hit me I'd just back around the corner a bit but kept up a solid stream of grenades which kept people at a distance. By distracting them for a bit, and taking out their rocket turrets, our team had enough time to make a push and keep them on their toes and long story short, we completely turned the tide of the game. I ended up 17-12-8 or something like that after literally being 0-5 or 0-6 at the beginning. I'm not saying it'd work every time, but the thing that keeps me coming back to this game and makes it so enjoyable for me is the fact that there's a counter to almost anything. That back and forth struggle of one team having an advantage, then countering it, etc is a blast. If what you are doing isn't working--try something else.
Between the raised platform in the center of the arena and the arcing nature of the mortar, I hadn't really thought to try that on Steel Peel. (I'm trying to get into the habit of using it for more than just turret destruction, and leaning so heavily on the mini) I'll have to try to keep this in mind.
A tank can jump up on the glass closest to that bridge, walk off of it then jump while off to reset his momentum (it acts as though you jumped). This allows you to get up there without the need to buy the jump pad. Just a little trick I picked up on.
As a tank, try pushing out the walkway. I'm sorry but there is no way to escape a spawn trap on any map without teamwork. Try to push at the same time as your team does. Have everyone but your sniper(s) go the back way and have the snipers take the jump pad to the ring so they can snipe people. The rest of you can just jump up from the bowl and take ring control easily.
If you play a gunner on steel peel you need to learn to hit snipers with your mortar. Just because they are behind glass doesn't mean they are necessarily safe. At medium range you should be able to bum rush a sniper with your guns blazing before he lines up a head shot. Traps don't work if you float over them. Once you pin the snipers in their base use your mortar again. Either kill them or make them hide and then take out their turrets. Keep them pinned and wait for the jackbot to roll in (you'll have several opportunities before overtime). If a sniper doesn't buy armor he dies in two shots from a mortar. If he has gold armor he takes three (and has sacrificed a lot of his offensive potential).
You could always try going out the back door with your back facing the main entrance, you know, jump right instead of left and face the abyss. That way they can't headshot you!
steel peels design is bad. no game should allow someone to camp at spawn and have direct shots to the enemys spawn. and that bridge that circles the map? are u serious? people just stand up there shooting the turrets.wtf whenever this god aweful map shows up i veto, if it doesnt get vetoed i just quit. and i dont even quit when my entire team quits in gears of war! i just cant stand this ******* map.
Well, I don't LIKE it, but I'll leave it to better minds to say whether it's bad design. It does get to feeling like a lot of arenas are designed to let Snipers show their stuff. I could just be bitter from all the headshots, though. Now that's something that's easy to do something about. Have a support drop an air strike beacon on the ground below the bridge. If they see it coming, they'll scatter. If they don't (which is more likely) they'll get nailed. It's the same when Support leave their firebases up there. Yeah, that's pretty much the way I feel about it. It got to the point that whenever it came up, I wouldn't quit, but I wouldn't play any class other than Assassin. I still refuse to build on it. What's the point in building turrets when the other team's Snipers/Tanks can wreck them from the other side of the map? But the map's not going away, so I'm trying to learn how to deal with it.
You can headshot from behind...I've done it several times. Not as easy, but still possible..especially for snipers better than me.
Teams im on never have many sniper problems in steel peel. Since i play sin and like to summon alot of gremlins, and i go out of my way to kill the snipers while juicing their base turrets. But seriously, those gremlins utterly annihilate snipers, and clear the area of freeze mines. I summon a wave or two before juicing.
I used to absolutely hate playing Steel Peel, especially because my main preferred pro is Gunner. Now, I don't mind it so much. Someone already said it. Rush out the door, enable the jump pad to the bridge and haul *** to their bridge. If you rush as a gunner/support tank/support combo (even better if you have two combos and have a sniper(s) of your own plus an assassin, you'll be fine. That base is about 1 simple strategy: CONTROL THE BRIDGE IN FRONT OF THEIR BASE. It's basically a rush to establish fire superiority before the other team does. The first team to do so basically ends up dominating. It also helps to play with a team of 4 or more, not randoms.
