Modern Warfare
CoD4 Tactical Team Spotting Guide
Welcome to Mandalorian72's Guide To Being A Team Spotter - AKA - Camping With A Master's Degree.
Camper haters may hate me for this, but there is another very useful reason for camping. That would be Team Spotting.
The idea behind this is to let your teammates know where enemies are while waiting patiently for your next victim. Camping is despised by many, but it works at times. If the enemy keeps coming back, why not continue doing it.
The problem with camping is that sometimes nobody comes around and you get a little tired of waiting. It is at times like that when you should be Team Spotting. The only requirement is that you have a mic.
If you are having a bad game, love camping, or are just new to the game, try Team Spotting. You do not have to get the most kills to help out your team. If you die more than you kill, you are definitely not helping out the team. Having a Team Spotter can greatly help a team to win.
It is beneficial to you as a Team Spotter to have a good knowledge of the maps, so that you can be more of a help when spotting.
To properly do Team Spotting, you should do the following:
Make sure that you are in an area that does not have much action at the moment, preferably in an area that only has 1 or 2 entrances. That way, you know where your enemy will come from.
Set up claymores to guard those entrances. If you get the kill - great, if not, you know someone's coming and should get ready.
Do not stay in a window or doorway.
Pause the game so that the full map comes up (push Start on PS3).
Watch for the red dots. Every time somebody with an un-silenced weapon fires, they will show up as a red dot.
Tell your teammates the location of the enemy. This is the fun part. Say it how you see it. If there are 2 enemies in 1 location, 3 enemies in another location and 1 enemy in another location tell your teammates each of their locations.
If there is a high concentration of enemies, let your teammates know. For example, if on Overgrown and you see 4 red dots show up in or around the barn, tell your teammates that there are 4 enemies by the barn.
Be as descriptive as possible.
What this does for your teammates is that it lets them know what to expect. If they only have a single-shot weapon (G3, M14, etc.), then they might not want to chance taking on 4 enemies at once. It also helps place an airstrike when nobody has a UAV.
Team Spotting will not allow you to see enemies with silenced weapons unless there is an active UAV and that enemy does not have the UAV Jammer perk.
With the abundance of players that use snipers and or stopping power, most games you will see 5 enemies showing up on the map.
I have used Team Spotting on Team Deathmatch with great results, but do not play other game modes often, so I cannot vouch for the effectiveness in those other game modes.
If there is an active UAV, tell your teammates how many enemies are using UAV Jammer, which will be equal to the number of enemies in the game, minus the number of red dots that you see. These are the ones that they need to be most cautious about.
If one of your teammates has music on in the background, mute that person so that you can concentrate on the task at hand. Under no circumstances, should you be playing music in the background.
You do not have to be a Team Spotter for the whole match. Do it for as long as you like, then go out and kill somebody when you have the itch.
Feel free to take turns with somebody else so that everyone can do some killing.
You can also Self Spot, which is to bring up the map, watch for the red dots, then go and get them.
If you want the enemy to come to you, then do not use UAV Jammer for perk 2. Instead, use Stopping Power, or even Overkill if you wish. Not having UAV Jammer will get more enemies to come to you when they have an active UAV. After killing a few enemies, you will definitely get even more action.
If you do not want the enemy to come to you, then make sure that you use UAV Jammer for perk 2. This will prevent those that hunt strictly by UAV from coming directly to you. They still may happen to come out there anyway, but that would be random. After killing a few enemies, you will likely get more attention. If you want even less attention, make sure to use a silenced weapon so that you do not show up as a red dot when you shoot. That will prevent counter Team Spotters.
If you are getting more attention than you like, or more than you can handle, then find a different place.
Pros:
Your teammates know where the enemies are.
Your teammates know how many enemies are in a given area.
You are being the ultimate team player by sacrificing your stats to help others.
You will not be killed as much, thus improving K/D ratio.
With an active UAV, you can tell your teammates exactly where the enemies are, even when they are not shooting.
You will see ahead of time if the enemy is coming in your direction, as long as they are shooting periodically, or there is an active UAV.
You may prevent your teammates from going into a fight that they cannot win (heavily outnumbered or outgunned).
You will see your teammates turn around to head in another direction when they hear that they are going the wrong way when trying to find enemies, which makes you feel good, knowing that you helped.
If you are having a particularly bad game, you can still help your team by camping and Team Spotting.
You will be helping out your snipers by letting them know which direction the enemy is coming from, or may even help them decide to go set up shop somewhere else.
You will be helping out your run-n-gunners find the enemy faster so that they can do what they do best.
You will be helping out campers by letting them know it is a waste of time for them to be in the location where they are.
Cons:
You may be leading your teammates to their death.
You will not get as many kills for yourself.
This does not work when the enemy has silenced weapons.
This works better on some maps than others.
By the way, this really does work. I used this last night on Overgrown and went 19-0 and helped my team win handily. I came across this because of the lack of UAV's that our team was earning. I simply brought up the map and watched it and told my teammates where the enemies were.
Please let me know if you have any other suggestion to add to the guide.