Attacking Lair - Steps to Success
Lair has been in the ranked map pool for awhile now, and for the life of me, I can’t understand why so many players are so resistant to playing this map. There was resistance to Night Haven, but that’s died down. But that’s not the case for Lair. I don’t quite understand this sentiment. It has a lot of verticality, a lot of variability in how to attack or defend the sites, and a lot of easy ways to coordinate and play as a team, even in ranked.
This article will not only focus on how to properly attack this map, but also present really easy ways for you and your stack to work together as a team, and feel like you’re ready for proleague.
Master Office/R6 Room
Starting with the most popular site on the map, we have Master Office/R6 Room. It’s a solid site, and even in PL has a defensive win rate of ~60%. But the question is, does that defensive sidedness carry onto ranked…yes, but it shouldn’t.
Proleague has a bit more of an intricate setup, one that is reliant on the communication, map awareness, and game sense of pro players. In ranked, it would be incredibly dangerous to open the site up like they do in proleague, but that means that with a proper attack, this site crumbles quickly.
The primary reason this site is currently defender sided in ranked, is because most teams push operational side, which is an attack that leaves the attackers to every advantage this site provides the defense. Close quarters combat, lot of lines of site all looking at the same entrance, and potential for quick rotates below to play vert/throw C4’s.
Just attacking the other side of the map would likely result in a massive improvement, but by simply thinking of your attack in three steps, and running ops and placing players in proper positioning to accomplish those three steps, will almost guarantee a massive improvement to all of your attacks, not just on this map.
I don’t want to go into too much detail on the three step method, but in short, step 1 is basically getting the map control you need for step 2. Step 2 is getting the map control/clearing the area of the map that you need for the plant. And step 3 is to plant.
For Master/R6 room, the 3 steps are as follows:
Step 1 - Take control of server and open the wall
Step 2 - Clear cork
Step 3 - Get to Cork and Plant
There are a hundred ways, and dozens of combinations of ops to accomplish these three steps. The sample lineup and attack I’m going to present is just one option. Feel free to play around with things once you get more comfortable on this map, but if you’re pushing this side of the site, you’ll always want to focus on completing these three steps to give your team the best chance at success.
Op lineup
Your op lineup needs to have a hard breach, EMP’s, as well as some way to force a player out of position. This is the op lineup I would run along with their secondary util.
- Thermite (flashes)
- Fuze (Smokes)
- Osa (Nades)
- Grim (Claymores)
- Gridlock (EMP’s)
Step 1 - Take control of server and open the wall
This should be fairly easy in ranked. Almost no team will be expanding the site like they would in Pro League unless you’re secretly playing a scrim, making all this map more or less free for the taking.
If you do it quick enough, there might not even be anything on the wall, but in the event that there is, just run fuze, thermite, and some EMP’s. Here is a breakdown of what every player should do to accomplish step 1, along with an image of how to open the wall.
- Thermite - drone server and the hallways up until green, place drone on the flank, and then open the server wall.
- Fuze - push in behind thermites drone, then help open the server wall once it’s all clear.
- Osa - hold R6 door, then palace an osa shield in server, and hold flank.
- Grim - Once everything is clear and players are trying to open server wall, hold the R6 single door.
- Gridlock - throw track stingers on the flank and then help open server wall.
Step 2 - Clear Cork
If you don’t know where cork is, it’s in this corner in site.
Most teams in ranked honestly won’t have any playing here, but if they do, this will be how you clear it. Obviously, if nobody is playing there, you can just skip to step 3.
- Thermite - Hold flank (yes, even though there are track stingers there)
- Fuze - Make sure nobody is swinging the breach wildly
- Osa - Sit behind her shield in server, and lob both a nades at the player in cork
- Grim - Go to display window, place both claymores on his bathroom window hop outs, and then hold the R6 to display door. You can fire some bees close or into cork if you want to, just don’t die while doing it.
- Gridlock - hold R6 single door, and make sure the player cork dies.
Step 3 - Plant
You may think that just walking in and planting can’t be that simple. In all honesty, barring a warden, a random C4, or a lucky spray through smoke, it is genuinely as easy as smoke two angles, walk in, and plant. The player on display window can hold his door into site, while the players breach and in the hallway can hold everything else.
However, a warden can mess things up, but the best way to deal with him, is to just find which angle he’s on, smoke the other one, and then double or even triple swing him. Once he’s dead, it should be a free walk into cork, and you should honestly plant slightly closer to the display door, to make absolutely certain no C4 can be thrown far enough to kill you.
Here is how I’d position my players to get the plant down.
- Thermite - Smoke master double door, and server headholes, then run to cork and plant against the wall.
- Fuze - Watch the smoke for lunatics pushing through it
- Osa - Double up either Fuze, or hold the display door in case Grim dies
- Grim - Hold the display to server door
- Gridlock - Hold flank.
Attacking this site really isn’t that hard as long as you push R6 side, and bring some smokes.
Lab/Lab Support
This site is definitely worse than the previous one, but it can be a bit more complicated to explain, just because this attack involves a roam clear, and vert. This article isn’t about how to roam clear effectively, so I won’t go into too much detail regarding that. The op lineup and breakdown of player tasks will give you a good jump start to clearing effectively, but the primary focus will be on what to do once the map is cleared.
And in all honesty, most people in ranked won’t roam or, at least, won’t roam effectively. But for now, let’s break down the three steps for this attack.
Step 1 - Roam clear
Step 2 - Clear the back of site
Step 3 - Push through Filtration and Plant
As we did previously, let's start with the op lineup.
Op Lineup
- Hibana (breaches)
- Buck (flashes)
- Deimos (hardbreach)
- Fuze (Smokes)
- Lion (claymore)
You always want to double up on really important utility. In this case, that is vert. I’ve got buck, but we also have breaching charges on Hibana in case buck dies early or gets C4’d.
Step 1 - Roam Clear
Clearing this map isn’t too hard with proper drone placements because there are only 2 staircases going downstairs, with just 2 drones you can know whether the enemy is roaming at all. If not, all you need is to have a player or 2 hold those 2 drones, as the others take the map control, and from there, someone just needs to be watching flank at all times. But if someone is roaming, here is how you should approach that.
- Hibana - Using a preplaced drone top floor, drone Buck and Deimos in through operational/master
- Buck - enter into Master, and follow a drone through R6 to green stairs to green corridor through bunks/briefing, and finally up to yellow stairs
- Deimos - Push through operational and use your ability to hunt down any possible roamers
- Fuze - help drone top floor and mid floor.
- Lion - Drone yourself through armory/weapons, and use your ability in conjunction with Deimos’ on any possible roamers. Push through to back stairs and make sure nobody walks up them
Step 2 - Clear the Back of Site
If you’re pushing backside, you only need to clear support, exit, filtration, and maybe stock from above. You don’t need to waste time trying to clear players out of other places. Honestly, if they stay there that’s actually good. It means they aren’t in a place where they can actually impact the round unless you fight them.
Here’s how I would do vert and take filtration control
- Hibana - open hatches, and then go push filtration. Get help from above, and deimos if anyone is playing here. Then open the exit wall.
- Buck - focus on doing vert and making sure nobody is in support, as well as making sure there is vert watching all the doors into site (for when we plant), including the rotate.
- Deimos - Use your ability to help clear the necessary parts of site, as well as take control of filtration
- Fuze - Time your ability with buck or lion to get the most out of it. Then play the vert to help make sure support is cleared and nobody tries to retake it at any point.
- Lion - Hold filtration stairs and yellow stairs on drone until filtration is taken control of, then hard hold yellow stairs.
Step 3 - Push through Filtration and Plant
It may be tempting to just drop hatch into site, but this will expose you unnecessarily to angles from the other site. Your much better to just walk through filtration and plant on the filing cabinet right next to the door. You need to make sure nobody can sit in exit and lob a C4 to kill the planter, as well no make sure nobody can swing stock room.
You don’t necessarily need to full clear stock (you can if you want and have the time), but in order for this player to kill the planter or have any impact on the round, they have to swing the door, exposing them to angles from above.
Here’s the positioning I would place my players in to get the plant down
- Hibana - Walk through filtration and plant. Just be careful of someone playing tucked in exit and holding a tight angle on the hibana holes.
- Buck - Hold rotate from above
- Deimos - Hold the exit holes
- Fuze - Hold stock door
- Lion - Scan and push down yellow stairs, if you want to try and shoot people in the back, or just keep holding yellow stairs
The most difficult part of this attack is the roam clear. Once that’s completed, and you can make sure the flank is held, everything else should fall into place. You can throw some smokes down during the execute on the rotate or stock holes (assuming no warden), but honestly, those aren’t even necessary as long as everything is being held properly.
Bunks/Briefing
I still believe that against a good team, this site is going to be the hardest to attack. The primary reason for this is because of the vert the defenders in site can utilize to help out the defenders up top. When you’re attacking master/R6 room you don’t really have to worry about the defenders playing vert there, but here, it’s much easier and should definitely be something a good team does.
But even still, this sample attack should still give you a great chance to win the round, even if the defenders are playing well together.
Let’s start where we always start, the steps.
Step 1 - Take top floor control
Step 2 - Clear site
Step 3 - Drop hatch and Plant
The most difficult part of this attack will be taking top floor, but I have a mini execute to accomplish this that should be relatively easy to pull off, and extremely effective against any team. Once top floor is taken, clearing all of site (given how small it is) should be extremely easy as long as you can dodge C4’s effectively.
Here is my op lineup I would run for this site:
Op Lineup
- Nokk (Nades)
- Ram (Flashes)
- Ying (Smokes)
- Capitao (EMP’s)
- Ace (Breaching Charges)
Running ace here instead of thermite is primarily because the server wall, is directly above site, and so having to spend the time placing a thermite charge on the wall, could open you up to getting C4’d from below.
Step 1 - Take top floor control
This clear will be similar to when the defenders were playing Master/R6 room, but this time, it’ll help a lot to have a lurk coming from operational side. The defenders should not have the resources to be paying much attention to this area of the map, maybe they’ll be watching a cam, but nokk can get around that pretty easily. Other than that, you’ll use the same positioning. Here is a breakdown of it.
- Nokk - crouch walks in through operational side, holds master door until teammates start creating chaos R6 side, then push deeper into master
- Ram - Hold flanks
- Ying - sit display window, and throw a candela into cork (assuming someone’s there), and then close, hop in and take the fight on anyone playing server/display
- Capitao - fire cork, kill whoever is playing there, and then push into R6 and fight anyone in master/server
- Ace - Drone to make sure server side is all clear, then open the server wall, and push with capitao
This should be a fairly easy, well coordinated mini execute to pull off. If done right, you’ll completely clear the top floor hold in a matter of seconds without anyone dying. Once top floor is taken, the round win should be nothing more than a formality.
Step 2 - Clearing Site
Both sites are so small, that with 2 rams you can basically see everywhere in them. Combining Ying’s candelas with the ram rovers will be incredibly effective at clearing anyone crazy enough to think they can stay in site.
- Nokk - hold main stairs flank until you feel like you can walk down them (ultimately when your team is going for the execute)
- Ram - Go into master/R6 room and do vert
- Ying - You can place your candela’s on the floor, and they will blind anyone below. The two sites are extremely small, with very few spots to play, so a well placed candela and well timed vert should result in easy kills
- Capitao - Help play vert
- Ace - hold flank
Step 3 - Drop hatch and Plant
The hatch drops you in the perfect spot to plant as long as site is cleared. There’s no way for them to C4 you without walking fully into site.
Here’s all you need to do get the bomb down.
- Nokk - walk down main stairs and look for fights
- Ram - Hold CCTV door from above
- Ying - Hold Bunks to green from above
- Capitao - drop hatch and plant by the lockers, you can smoke things off if you want, but careful not to smoke in a way that could possibly make it harder for your teammates to cover you
- Ace - You either keep holding flank, or start to walk down green stairs depending on how many players on the enemy team are still alive and how aggressive they play
- Fewer defenders alive = less likely to be flanking from armory stairs and free to push down green
- More aggressive = more likely to be already trying to flank top floor and could already be pushed up armory stairs, best to just hold
If you can clear top floor with the mini execute, you’ll be on cloud nine. Team play and coordination like that are why I believe so many people love this game, and all it takes is a little communication, good player positioning, and 1 or 2 flashes/candelas.
Armory/Weapons
I still believe this site is awful to defend, and now I’m really going to show you why.
You can ultimately attack either side of this site, and if you open the main wall to site, you should win that round. But I think it’s monumentally easier and much simpler to just attack from range side.
For this, here are the three steps:
Step 1 - Take control of Range
Step 2 - Clear operational and open Range wall
Step 3 - Smoke and plant
There really are a lot of different op lineups you can run for this attack, but I’ll give you what makes literally too easy.
Op Lineup
- Thermite (flashes)
- Sens (Nades)
- Nokk (Nades)
- Nomad (Breaching charges)
- Monty (EMPs)
Any shield op can make this attack pretty easy, including fuze or osa. It just depends on how you think the enemy is going to play it. If they’re going to play super aggressive a blitz may be better than the monty. If you think they’re going to run Tub and Kaid, then a fuze might be a good idea too. Or if you’d just rather have a gun then you can run Osa.
Step 1 - Take control of Range
All you really need for this is to walk a shield op through showers and place someone on the range double door. But here’s a more detailed breakdown just ‘cause.
- Thermite - drone range
- Sens - open the range double door and play the range window
- Nokk - self drone through basement
- There may be players down here, but if they are, they probably aren’t playing main stairs or cctv so you could go in through there too
- Nomad - push behind monty and then airjab the range door off
- Monty - walk through bathroom and into range
Step 2 - Clear Operational and open the Range Wall
You don’t need to actually get into operational, you just need to make sure nobody else is there. The door and window should make it pretty easy to clear this room, and once it is clear, nomad can just airjab the double door off. The player outside the operational door can also open the floor below the door and make sure no psychos are trying to trick the range wall or swing the range door.
Here’s the breakdown
- Thermite - open the range wall
- Sens - help nomad clear operational (if needed) by hoping on the operational window (nokk needs to be up yellow at this point though to make sure no one punches the reception to outside door)
- Nokk - walk up yellow stairs/through cctv and watch for free picks in reception, careful of your flank though
- Nomad - Open operational door (breaching charge it crouched if it’s safe to do so) and airjab the double door off once it’s cleared.
- Monty - EMP the range wall and then stand in front of the weapons single door
Step 3 - Smoke and Plant
I like Sens for attacking this site because his ability now directly counters Warden. He also has nades to deny a reception door swing if Nokk gets there late or dies. The biggest thing to be concerned about is a C4 being thrown through smoke, but if someone is dedicated to looking for this from the Range single door, it should be relatively easy to shoot out of the air, but that sounds risky, the monty can just try and cross all of site, and plant underneath the hatch.
But here’s the breakdown.
- Thermite - Hold the smokes and look for C4’s
- Sens - throw a nade at the reception door if someone is there (this should expose them to nokk), then smoke off the head holes in the wall between sites, as well as the door
- Nokk - hold reception door
- Nomad - hold above
- Monty - walk through the range wall, destroy the office chair, and plant on the pillar
Conclusion
These setups may be a bit intricate for the average ranked player, someone who just wants to vibe, listen to some music, and vape. By all means, you do you. But if that is you, I highly doubt you made it this far in the article. To those of you who take ranked seriously and love the game for the same reasons I do, then I hope you found this article helpful and interesting.
And if you are wondering if any of these attacks can work for comp, the answer is a bit complicated. Ultimately, the exact setup and breakdown of the tasks may not work depending on how intricate the defenders setup the site, but ultimately the steps will stay the same. As long as you focus on completing each step, one after the other, and bring the proper util and position your teammates correctly, then whether you’re playing ranked or comp, you should come out of the round with a W.