A. General

I. An Unloaded Weapon. . .

Is just about the most useless thing in the entire game. After a firefight, your first priority is determine as quickly as possible if you need to reload. More often then not, the answer is going to be yes. If you do have to reload, reload behind cover. Do not reload in the area you just fought in, fall back behind a corner. If the enemy’s buddy comes around the corner to find you with your pants around your ankles, I guarantee he isn’t going to be a gentleman (or woman).

II. Use the Mini-map

Learn to read the mini-map by glancing at it through the corner of your eye. In doing so, you know what areas currently have friendlies in it, and thus, are probably safe to pass through without much worry. On the other hand, if you see that there are no teammates in the area ahead, you should proceed with the assumption that it is currently enemy territory. While this may seem overly paranoid, it’s the safest assumption to make since it usually is true.

III. If you see one. . .

There’s probably more right behind. Don’t drop your guard after you turn a corner and kill the enemy. More often then not, there’s another close by.

IV. Flag Caps vs. K:D

The good player realizes that both are important. Do overly focus on either as both are necessary for victory. Killing the enemy blunts his offensive and creates potential openings for you to exploit. Pushing hard for flags puts him on the defensive and gets you that much closer to victory. Try to find a happy medium.

B. Aiming

While this is an vital part of an FPS, the truth that this comes through practice. There really isn’t anything I can offer here except the confirmation that this will only come through more effort. That being said, if your mouse sensitivity is around the low single digits, you should rack it up to at least around seven. The reason being is that oftentimes you will have only have a second or less to react and pull off a shot. Thus it is imperative that you get your crosshairs over your target ASAP.

C. Reaction

Another attribute that comes mainly from effort and time. Some advice I can offer is playing with more focus, or becoming so absorbed in the game that you forget what’s going on around you.

D. Movement

I. Sprint from Cover to Cover

Stay in the open as little as possible. Whether it be a open field or a hallway, it is always in your best interest to move from covered position to another covered position. Should the shit hit the fan (as it usually tends to), being next to something that can soak up bullets is quite nice. With that in mind, your teammates make very poor meat shields, so avoid playing grab ass with them.

II. Prone is not your friend

The only class that ever has a real excuse to be going prone frequently is the Machine Gun. Riflemen, Support, Assault, should be relying on crouch if they need cover unless there is no way to proceed safely unless they go prone. The reason is that prone severely kills your mobility while offering your class little in the way of benefit. Even Snipers should stay out of prone as much as possible. If you are relying on the prone to help your aim, you not only hurt your options when choosing sniper points, but it will hurt your ability to stay alive when that rocket or grenade comes flying in, or a full fledged rush comes through.

III. Get out of that Doorway

Doorways are not cover, they are chokepoints first and foremost. By standing in one, you block your teammates from pushing forward, which blocks yourself from backing up if you need to get out of trouble. Good for the enemy, not so much for you.

IV. I Need My Personal Space

Don’t grab the ass of the person in front of you. The most obvious reason is that if a grenade lands near the person in front, its going to be two kills instead of one. Another situation is if someone pops around the corner and hoses down the hallway. You don’t have a shot, and all the enemy has to do is point and hold down the trigger for another free kill. As an added bonus, if you do keep your distance from your front man, you get to benefit from his death as a free MG/Sniper bait.

E. Grenades

I. Prime Your Freaking Nades

Seriously. After you click to pull the pin, do not release yet if at all possible. Keep holding down that mouse button for several seconds before releasing it. This gives your enemy less time to react, and thus lessens the possibility that he or she will escape/toss it back.

II. Smoke is a Good Thing

Using smoke as a screen for your movements is priceless. It’s what really defines the Assault class. Smoke should be thrown in a way that maximizes the concealment of a danger zone. It helps to know the map ahead of time. Some guidelines:

1. Throw the smoke as close to the enemy you want to blind. That way, you screen your movements for as long as possible while denying him vision.

2. If this is not possible, smoke the area as close to your exit point as possible. That way you have a chance to screen your movements as your sprint for the nearest cover, or perform a suicide attack to clean out your target.

3. Wait for several seconds for the smoke to pop before running out.

III. Poor Man’s Flashbang

Your regular grenades also come with a pre-packaged disorient affect. While this is merely cosmetic and does not actually cause your crosshairs to shift, it does obscure the hearing and vision. If you find yourself in a situation where you have to clean out a camper, but he has a significantly better position then you, toss a primed nade at him and rush in right after it explodes. Even if he manages to escape the blast, you probably knocked his screen silly and thus, now have an opportunity to go in. The key here is that you must go in right after the thing blows. Don’t wait. Just go.

F. Sniping/Machine Gun

I. Picking a Spot

Some Guidelines:

1. The best spots allow you to cover a single choke point without having to worry about anything besides someone coming to ream you from behind. If you have to worry about two spots, that’s not so good. If those two spots require you to shift your crosshairs, that’s bad. As in, get the hell out of that spot as soon as you’ve done what you need to.

2. Shift your position. After several shots, pick another spot. People eventually learn about sticking their head into dark holes and getting their heads whacked. Sooner or later, they’ll start pouring napalm down the holes first and then poking in. Keep moving to keep them guessing. Unless it’s a real primo shooting fish in the barrel type spot.

3. Keep an escape route handy. Especially because trouble usually brings backup.

II. Push Up

These may not be rushing weapons, but they’re main purpose is to put pressure on the enemy and thus, hurt his movements. If the area is cleaned out, move up and find a more active chokepoint to pressure. Don’t get too adventurous though. There is no sense in feeding the enemy free sniper rifles and MGs.

[That's enough for now, I'll post another one as I think of more things]