So, how is this (essentially my idea of a Clan Atlas)? And what would you recommend for the last ton & crit? TarCom 1, or Active Probe, or more ammo? It's a Spirit Bear with a 300XL, nearly full armor, UAC20 (8 tons ammo), 4xSRM6+A (6 tons ammo), & 2x ERPPC. The PPC's are for a little long-range poke, the UAC and SRM's are the main weapons (one to punch holes, the other to seek crits; coincidentally, both weapon groups make 30 heat). I was tempted to go with sSRM's to match the range of the Ultra, but IIRC you all seemed to feel regular SRMs were better?
I tried 6xSRM6+A but found it ran way too hot for brawling work (it would definitely require doubling their weapon group so you can launch all ze missiles on one, and chain-fire them on the other). Other than that, the UAC20 + SRM combo is brutal. As for Streaks versus standard SRMs, there are two main problems with Streaks: 1) the cooldown on the Streak-6es is way too long for brawling, and 2) Streaks scatter the damage of the missiles too much. With standard SRMs with Artemis, you're looking at a concentrated cloud of hurt as soon as they walk into range of you.
EDIT - and, just for reference, this is the Spirit Bear build that I use (or close to it...I can't recall exactly how it's all laid out).
I actually run pretty much meta build with the 4SRM6As, 2LBX20, and 2ERSL (for shooting down UAVs). I have it completely mastered so probably why the heat doesn't effect me much at all now. It also can sprint at 90 KPH with its MASC. You really need to shield the LBX though since it is pretty delicate. I found any of the Kodiaks with ERPPCs run way too hot leaving it way too vulnerable.
It pretty much is like this, but with 2ERSL - SPIRIT BEAR
Maybe I'm not understanding things. 4xSRM6 is 16 heat (4x4), UAC20 is 14 heat (2x7), with 16 double heat sinks (accounting for the 2 heat from running), that's heat neutral by tabletop rules (32-32). Similarly, 2xERPPC's is 30 heat (2x15), which again would be heat neutral even while running. The heat values for these weapons are the same in MWO, so why are you guys saying the heat is a problem?
Couple things:
1. In tabletop, a turn is 10 seconds, you can fire your weapons once each, which is a drastically lower rate of fire from MWO
2. MWO reduced the effectiveness of heat sinks because they have skills to increase dissipation and a much higher heat cap (around 4x higher in some cases)
So, how is this (essentially my idea of a Clan Atlas)? And what would you recommend for the last ton & crit? TarCom 1, or Active Probe, or more ammo? It's a Spirit Bear with a 300XL, nearly full armor, UAC20 (8 tons ammo), 4xSRM6+A (6 tons ammo), & 2x ERPPC. The PPC's are for a little long-range poke, the UAC and SRM's are the main weapons (one to punch holes, the other to seek crits; coincidentally, both weapon groups make 30 heat). I was tempted to go with sSRM's to match the range of the Ultra, but IIRC you all seemed to feel regular SRMs were better?
I tried 6xSRM6+A but found it ran way too hot for brawling work (it would definitely require doubling their weapon group so you can launch all ze missiles on one, and chain-fire them on the other). Other than that, the UAC20 + SRM combo is brutal. As for Streaks versus standard SRMs, there are two main problems with Streaks: 1) the cooldown on the Streak-6es is way too long for brawling, and 2) Streaks scatter the damage of the missiles too much. With standard SRMs with Artemis, you're looking at a concentrated cloud of hurt as soon as they walk into range of you.
EDIT - and, just for reference, this is the Spirit Bear build that I use (or close to it...I can't recall exactly how it's all laid out).
I actually run pretty much meta build with the 4SRM6As, 2LBX20, and 2ERSL (for shooting down UAVs). I have it completely mastered so probably why the heat doesn't effect me much at all now. It also can sprint at 90 KPH with its MASC. You really need to shield the LBX though since it is pretty delicate. I found any of the Kodiaks with ERPPCs run way too hot leaving it way too vulnerable.
It pretty much is like this, but with 2ERSL - SPIRIT BEAR
Maybe I'm not understanding things. 4xSRM6 is 16 heat (4x4), UAC20 is 14 heat (2x7), with 16 double heat sinks (accounting for the 2 heat from running), that's heat neutral by tabletop rules (32-32). Similarly, 2xERPPC's is 30 heat (2x15), which again would be heat neutral even while running. The heat values for these weapons are the same in MWO, so why are you guys saying the heat is a problem?
Couple things:
1. In tabletop, a turn is 10 seconds, you can fire your weapons once each, which is a drastically lower rate of fire from MWO
2. MWO reduced the effectiveness of heat sinks because they have skills to increase dissipation and a much higher heat cap (around 4x higher in some cases)
Not only that, but people can theoretically aim at components effortlessly, so everything to increase TTK is welcome.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that if you try to represent a MWO pilot in TT, then you'd need to use a negative value for his gunnery stat. Called shots for days.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that if you try to represent a MWO pilot in TT, then you'd need to use a negative value for his gunnery stat. Called shots for days.
Anyone up for some games this afternoon? I 'll be hopping on and off.
I am finishing up Mastery for the Stormcrow and am starting to look at a Heavy for my next purchase. Looking at just Clan mechs the best looking one to me is the Linebacker. Any thoughts? So far I like laser vomit builds.
Anyone up for some games this afternoon? I 'll be hopping on and off.
I am finishing up Mastery for the Stormcrow and am starting to look at a Heavy for my next purchase. Looking at just Clan mechs the best looking one to me is the Linebacker. Any thoughts? So far I like laser vomit builds.
If it's laser-vomit you're after, Linebacker, Timber Wolf, Ebon Jaguar, and Night Gyr would all be good. Playing omnipod LEGO, you can get 7 energy hardpoints on the Linebacker, 8 for the others8 energy hardpoints on all the mechs. The Timber Wolf (with an omnipod swap) and the Night Gyr have jumpjets, the others do not. Really, though, all four are solid mechs (from what I've seen of the Linebacker and Night Gyr...I've only piloted Ebon Jags and Timbers).
edit - pre-coffee Erl sucks at math
Erlkönig on
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
+3
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MortiousThe Nightmare BeginsMove to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
Anyone up for some games this afternoon? I 'll be hopping on and off.
I am finishing up Mastery for the Stormcrow and am starting to look at a Heavy for my next purchase. Looking at just Clan mechs the best looking one to me is the Linebacker. Any thoughts? So far I like laser vomit builds.
If it's laser-vomit you're after, Linebacker, Timber Wolf, Ebon Jaguar, and Night Gyr would all be good. Playing omnipod LEGO, you can get 7 energy hardpoints on the Linebacker, 8 for the others. The Timber Wolf (with an omnipod swap) and the Night Gyr have jumpjets, the others do not. Really, though, all four are solid mechs (from what I've seen of the Linebacker and Night Gyr...I've only piloted Ebon Jags and Timbers).
I have all of those, and would say the Timber Wolf and Ebon Jaguar are easier to start with. The Night Gyr is very crit space (is that the correct erm?) limited, and the Linebacker doesn't have a lot of weight to play with making them less versatile when fitting. The Night Gyr is also really slow, and gets focus fired a lot.
That said, the Linebacker plays like a medium, which might be more your style.
Anyone up for some games this afternoon? I 'll be hopping on and off.
I am finishing up Mastery for the Stormcrow and am starting to look at a Heavy for my next purchase. Looking at just Clan mechs the best looking one to me is the Linebacker. Any thoughts? So far I like laser vomit builds.
If it's laser-vomit you're after, Linebacker, Timber Wolf, Ebon Jaguar, and Night Gyr would all be good. Playing omnipod LEGO, you can get 7 energy hardpoints on the Linebacker, 8 for the others. The Timber Wolf (with an omnipod swap) and the Night Gyr have jumpjets, the others do not. Really, though, all four are solid mechs (from what I've seen of the Linebacker and Night Gyr...I've only piloted Ebon Jags and Timbers).
I have all of those, and would say the Timber Wolf and Ebon Jaguar are easier to start with. The Night Gyr is very crit space (is that the correct erm?) limited, and the Linebacker doesn't have a lot of weight to play with making them less versatile when fitting. The Night Gyr is also really slow, and gets focus fired a lot.
That said, the Linebacker plays like a medium, which might be more your style.
Yeah, when I loaded the Linebacker into Smurfy's and maxed out the armor, it shows 16.5t left over. I guess the main draw is that it's fast for a heavy (97kph without speed tweak).
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
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MortiousThe Nightmare BeginsMove to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
Anyone up for some games this afternoon? I 'll be hopping on and off.
I am finishing up Mastery for the Stormcrow and am starting to look at a Heavy for my next purchase. Looking at just Clan mechs the best looking one to me is the Linebacker. Any thoughts? So far I like laser vomit builds.
If it's laser-vomit you're after, Linebacker, Timber Wolf, Ebon Jaguar, and Night Gyr would all be good. Playing omnipod LEGO, you can get 7 energy hardpoints on the Linebacker, 8 for the others. The Timber Wolf (with an omnipod swap) and the Night Gyr have jumpjets, the others do not. Really, though, all four are solid mechs (from what I've seen of the Linebacker and Night Gyr...I've only piloted Ebon Jags and Timbers).
I have all of those, and would say the Timber Wolf and Ebon Jaguar are easier to start with. The Night Gyr is very crit space (is that the correct erm?) limited, and the Linebacker doesn't have a lot of weight to play with making them less versatile when fitting. The Night Gyr is also really slow, and gets focus fired a lot.
That said, the Linebacker plays like a medium, which might be more your style.
Yeah, when I loaded the Linebacker into Smurfy's and maxed out the armor, it shows 16.5t left over. I guess the main draw is that it's fast for a heavy (97kph without speed tweak).
It's also really low, the same height as a hunchback, and has some decent hardpoints. I just haven't found a build that works for me.
Anyone up for some games this afternoon? I 'll be hopping on and off.
I am finishing up Mastery for the Stormcrow and am starting to look at a Heavy for my next purchase. Looking at just Clan mechs the best looking one to me is the Linebacker. Any thoughts? So far I like laser vomit builds.
If it's laser-vomit you're after, Linebacker, Timber Wolf, Ebon Jaguar, and Night Gyr would all be good. Playing omnipod LEGO, you can get 7 energy hardpoints on the Linebacker, 8 for the others. The Timber Wolf (with an omnipod swap) and the Night Gyr have jumpjets, the others do not. Really, though, all four are solid mechs (from what I've seen of the Linebacker and Night Gyr...I've only piloted Ebon Jags and Timbers).
I have all of those, and would say the Timber Wolf and Ebon Jaguar are easier to start with. The Night Gyr is very crit space (is that the correct erm?) limited, and the Linebacker doesn't have a lot of weight to play with making them less versatile when fitting. The Night Gyr is also really slow, and gets focus fired a lot.
That said, the Linebacker plays like a medium, which might be more your style.
Yeah, when I loaded the Linebacker into Smurfy's and maxed out the armor, it shows 16.5t left over. I guess the main draw is that it's fast for a heavy (97kph without speed tweak).
It's also really low, the same height as a hunchback, and has some decent hardpoints. I just haven't found a build that works for me.
Looks like the best laser-vomit build I could come up with is something with either 6xERML or 6xSPL combined with a LPL for long-range poking, 4 extra DHS, and a TC1 (had to strip down a dead-arm a bit and shaving 4 points from each leg).
edit - And holy crap...that big-ass engine in the Linebacker. I mean, both the Linebacker and the Ebon Jaguar are the same 65t...but the EBJ gets a hair over 28t of free tonnage to work with after maxing out the armor vs. the Linebacker's 16.5t.
Erlkönig on
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
So I figured I'd spent some time figuring out how to survive the new skill tree. The easiest way to compare is with the weapon tree. Its impossible to know what the final product will look like unless PGI releases more info, but I figure the raw bonuses will probably be about the same when it goes live.
These are greedy builds. I basically grabbed every node that helps without wasting points on other weapons. There are tradeoffs, like maybe you don't need range for missiles, so you could save a few points here and there. Heat skills are way more important than they used to be since you'll have less heat cap than you are used to.
Laser Build: 25 points - 7.5% optimal, -15% duration, 4% cooldown, -5% heat gen
Ballistic/UAC: 27 points - 10% optimal, 20% velocity, 4% cooldown, 3% heat gen, 16 mag capacity, -5% jam chance
Missiles: 33 points - 33 points, 9% optimal, 20% velocity, 4% cooldown, 15% missile crit, 2 ammo, 5% heat gen, -7.5% spread
So while missiles take the most points, they also get some pretty nice bonuses. But what about PPCs? This is where things get a little weird. Here's what I came up with.
PPCs: 15 points - 7.5% optimal, 20% velocity, 1.6% cooldown, 3% heat gen
Its less points, but you'd need to waste points to get more. Ballistic/PPC is actually a pretty strong combo, but lasers would get you more heat savings. Overall, its not a badly laid out tree, although I wish the Ammo bonuses were shared like velocity and cooldown.
Operations: 22 points - 9% heat cap, 16% dissapation, 35% shutdown/startup
The lower heat bonuses seem pretty nasty, designed to require points in Coolshot. With the new system, you are going to be pretty strapped for CBills, so I don't think its a great investment. This is where the mastery/pay-to-win aspect rears its head a little. The operations tree doesn't include old bonuses like 20% heat cap that you got from getting Elite on a mech. Hill climb, legged speed and gyros are nice, but not essential, wasting precious points.
Sensors: 11 points - 12% info speed, 9% sensor range, 60% radar dep, 100m seismic
11000xp is a lot to get Seismic and Radar Dep, but it'll probably be all but the bare minimum. To get full bonuses, you'll need to spend 19 or even 21 points for ECM. Radar Dep doesn't do much for an ECM mech, especially with the upcoming Stealth Armor.
Now we come to Mobility and Survival. These are huge point sink trees that can gobble up all your remaining points. You've spent about 58 to 66 already, so you'll have about 30 more to split between these.
The good news is the Mobility Tree is pretty generous up front, and you can get big agility boosts in 12 points. I'd say grabbing 3 points for 10% braking and acceleration might be your first goal, especially with agility separated from engines. You'll have to decide how to spent your points, but the main key is to take as few arm quirks as possible. Speed Tweak is buried at the end, I daresay it may not be worth getting on most mechs.
Mobility: 12 points - 40% accel, 40% braking, 6% turn speed
Finally Survival. The bonuses here are so bad, and you need to constantly take skills like Fall Damage and Legged Speed to get anywhere. I'd say 7 points is about the most you'd want to spend unless you expect to be falling a lot or want pathetic AMS quirks. The left side of the tree is basically locked behind skills a heavy or assault would never want. Maybe it's actually a better deal for Lights or Mediums, but then you probably aren't taking the sensor skills a good "scout" should.
Survival: 7 points - -3% crit chance, -10% fall damage, 10.4% bonus structure, 3.2% armor
So there's my basic spec. You'd have about 5-10 more points to grab some extras or get consumable bonuses. ECM mechs might actually want to sacrifice points in Sensors since they'll have private ECM (who needs to share?) instead of needing radar dep. Weapons, Mobility and Survival are going to be your biggest sinks with Survival having the worst payoff imo.
Guess we'll see what happens when it finally goes live.
Maybe it's actually a better deal for Lights or Mediums, but then you probably aren't taking the sensor skills a good "scout" should.
Well, that kind of goes hand-in-hand with the idea of scout lances having escort units. Don't know how relevant it is to how things are played in MWO, but in tabletop or lore that's about how it should work.
Maybe it's actually a better deal for Lights or Mediums, but then you probably aren't taking the sensor skills a good "scout" should.
Well, that kind of goes hand-in-hand with the idea of scout lances having escort units. Don't know how relevant it is to how things are played in MWO, but in tabletop or lore that's about how it should work.
the way MWO is built, having a scout lance is putting you at a disadvantage, since thats a lance thats focused on speed and not firepower.
And the only map where scouting even is worth a damn is polar.
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MortiousThe Nightmare BeginsMove to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
Anyone up for some games this afternoon? I 'll be hopping on and off.
I am finishing up Mastery for the Stormcrow and am starting to look at a Heavy for my next purchase. Looking at just Clan mechs the best looking one to me is the Linebacker. Any thoughts? So far I like laser vomit builds.
If it's laser-vomit you're after, Linebacker, Timber Wolf, Ebon Jaguar, and Night Gyr would all be good. Playing omnipod LEGO, you can get 7 energy hardpoints on the Linebacker, 8 for the others. The Timber Wolf (with an omnipod swap) and the Night Gyr have jumpjets, the others do not. Really, though, all four are solid mechs (from what I've seen of the Linebacker and Night Gyr...I've only piloted Ebon Jags and Timbers).
I have all of those, and would say the Timber Wolf and Ebon Jaguar are easier to start with. The Night Gyr is very crit space (is that the correct erm?) limited, and the Linebacker doesn't have a lot of weight to play with making them less versatile when fitting. The Night Gyr is also really slow, and gets focus fired a lot.
That said, the Linebacker plays like a medium, which might be more your style.
Yeah, when I loaded the Linebacker into Smurfy's and maxed out the armor, it shows 16.5t left over. I guess the main draw is that it's fast for a heavy (97kph without speed tweak).
It's also really low, the same height as a hunchback, and has some decent hardpoints. I just haven't found a build that works for me.
Looks like the best laser-vomit build I could come up with is something with either 6xERML or 6xSPL combined with a LPL for long-range poking, 4 extra DHS, and a TC1 (had to strip down a dead-arm a bit and shaving 4 points from each leg).
edit - And holy crap...that big-ass engine in the Linebacker. I mean, both the Linebacker and the Ebon Jaguar are the same 65t...but the EBJ gets a hair over 28t of free tonnage to work with after maxing out the armor vs. the Linebacker's 16.5t.
I was thinking of trying the stock prime pods with 2 erppcs + the largest TC I can fit because of the crazy ppc quirks it gets. Lacks DHSs though.
And slowly all my mechs are morphing into 2x erppc builds.
I got 200 + mc which is super nice , but I never expect to get the grand prize anyway. Also holy god were my last few teams derp. Won one game and decided to quit before I get angry.
To be fair, this is the first mech I have won out of all the previous lootbags. The c-bills, MC and cockpit items are great alternative loot. At least you didn't get a machine gun or MG ammo.
Yeah. The rewards are on par with some of the previous ones, but it's admittedly more fun to have lots of random rewards rather than two or three big reward break points.
ER PPCs are too damn hot. My PHX-1B got machine gunned to death by a Kit Fox Why do these things need to generate 15 heat? 12 would be about right, normal PPCs should be 8 or 9.
Man I cant wait to put a lfe and a RAC-5 in my MAD-3R. Which probably means it will never happen lol.
Actually, you'll want to put 2 Rotary 5's in your Marauder with a Standard engine. It'll be lighter than my 3xAC5 build, meaning more lasers, bigger engine and more ammo. 2 UAC5's and an LFE should work pretty well too, but you might want to run it on the 5M that has more energy hardpoints.
Man I cant wait to put a lfe and a RAC-5 in my MAD-3R. Which probably means it will never happen lol.
Actually, you'll want to put 2 Rotary 5's in your Marauder with a Standard engine. It'll be lighter than my 3xAC5 build, meaning more lasers, bigger engine and more ammo. 2 UAC5's and an LFE should work pretty well too, but you might want to run it on the 5M that has more energy hardpoints.
Okay this is stupid I know but I hate the way it looks with more then one AC. Been running 2 ppc 2 mlas and UAC-5 as weapons only. Also I only bought this one Mad because the rule of three was going away so its only basic level atm. Sitting on 30k+ xp though so that's something lol. Shame is I do better in this basic mech then most mastered ones.
Man I cant wait to put a lfe and a RAC-5 in my MAD-3R. Which probably means it will never happen lol.
Actually, you'll want to put 2 Rotary 5's in your Marauder with a Standard engine. It'll be lighter than my 3xAC5 build, meaning more lasers, bigger engine and more ammo. 2 UAC5's and an LFE should work pretty well too, but you might want to run it on the 5M that has more energy hardpoints.
Okay this is stupid I know but I hate the way it looks with more then one AC. Been running 2 ppc 2 mlas and UAC-5 as weapons only. Also I only bought this one Mad because the rule of three was going away so its only basic level atm. Sitting on 30k+ xp though so that's something lol. Shame is I do better in this basic mech then most mastered ones.
Dual Ballistics are sexy af imo. And quads.... unnnnf. You know what I really want to run Dual Rotary 5's on, the IV-Four. Its still going to have one of the highest cooldown quirks available in the new Skill Tree, how that applies to Rotary ACs isn't exactly obvious.
You'll find your newest mechs are always your best. Game experience is really the best XP you can get. Take a look at my barely basic'd top performers. My Cyclops has 4 unlocks.
Y'know, I actually do have a mech that I think would definitely benefit from RACs and LFEs. For some reason (I suspect this was back when I was on nerve damage painkillers had something to do with this), I actually bought a Victor! What's more, it's the Victor with three ballistic hardpoints in the arm! However, I don't think it can actually squeeze in three RAC5s (especially since 2xUAC5s completely fill up that arm)...but still, I might actually pilot the damned thing with the new tech.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
How hard is it to get the macro app working that manages AC's for you? I feel like I'm missing out not using the most broken guns right now.
This thing has been around since beta I believe. Its basically a set of macros designed for MWO that don't require a fancy keyboard or anything. I think it even has a TAG toggle built in. I haven't used it personally, but I've meant to check it out for forever.
How hard is it to get the macro app working that manages AC's for you? I feel like I'm missing out not using the most broken guns right now.
This thing has been around since beta I believe. Its basically a set of macros designed for MWO that don't require a fancy keyboard or anything. I think it even has a TAG toggle built in. I haven't used it personally, but I've meant to check it out for forever.
Posts
I swear I remember you saying in Vent at the time you were C-Bill poor, but I'm just as likely to have misremembered.
I'unno.
Maybe.
i'm lucky if I remember what I did 3 days ago, much less year+ ago.
Couple things:
1. In tabletop, a turn is 10 seconds, you can fire your weapons once each, which is a drastically lower rate of fire from MWO
2. MWO reduced the effectiveness of heat sinks because they have skills to increase dissipation and a much higher heat cap (around 4x higher in some cases)
MWO: Adamski
Not only that, but people can theoretically aim at components effortlessly, so everything to increase TTK is welcome.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
CT drill pro shots from 18 hexes away every shot.
I am finishing up Mastery for the Stormcrow and am starting to look at a Heavy for my next purchase. Looking at just Clan mechs the best looking one to me is the Linebacker. Any thoughts? So far I like laser vomit builds.
If it's laser-vomit you're after, Linebacker, Timber Wolf, Ebon Jaguar, and Night Gyr would all be good. Playing omnipod LEGO, you can get 7 energy hardpoints on the Linebacker, 8 for the others8 energy hardpoints on all the mechs. The Timber Wolf (with an omnipod swap) and the Night Gyr have jumpjets, the others do not. Really, though, all four are solid mechs (from what I've seen of the Linebacker and Night Gyr...I've only piloted Ebon Jags and Timbers).
edit - pre-coffee Erl sucks at math
I have all of those, and would say the Timber Wolf and Ebon Jaguar are easier to start with. The Night Gyr is very crit space (is that the correct erm?) limited, and the Linebacker doesn't have a lot of weight to play with making them less versatile when fitting. The Night Gyr is also really slow, and gets focus fired a lot.
That said, the Linebacker plays like a medium, which might be more your style.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
Yeah, when I loaded the Linebacker into Smurfy's and maxed out the armor, it shows 16.5t left over. I guess the main draw is that it's fast for a heavy (97kph without speed tweak).
It's also really low, the same height as a hunchback, and has some decent hardpoints. I just haven't found a build that works for me.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
Looks like the best laser-vomit build I could come up with is something with either 6xERML or 6xSPL combined with a LPL for long-range poking, 4 extra DHS, and a TC1 (had to strip down a dead-arm a bit and shaving 4 points from each leg).
edit - And holy crap...that big-ass engine in the Linebacker. I mean, both the Linebacker and the Ebon Jaguar are the same 65t...but the EBJ gets a hair over 28t of free tonnage to work with after maxing out the armor vs. the Linebacker's 16.5t.
These are greedy builds. I basically grabbed every node that helps without wasting points on other weapons. There are tradeoffs, like maybe you don't need range for missiles, so you could save a few points here and there. Heat skills are way more important than they used to be since you'll have less heat cap than you are used to.
Laser Build: 25 points - 7.5% optimal, -15% duration, 4% cooldown, -5% heat gen
Ballistic/UAC: 27 points - 10% optimal, 20% velocity, 4% cooldown, 3% heat gen, 16 mag capacity, -5% jam chance
Missiles: 33 points - 33 points, 9% optimal, 20% velocity, 4% cooldown, 15% missile crit, 2 ammo, 5% heat gen, -7.5% spread
So while missiles take the most points, they also get some pretty nice bonuses. But what about PPCs? This is where things get a little weird. Here's what I came up with.
PPCs: 15 points - 7.5% optimal, 20% velocity, 1.6% cooldown, 3% heat gen
Its less points, but you'd need to waste points to get more. Ballistic/PPC is actually a pretty strong combo, but lasers would get you more heat savings. Overall, its not a badly laid out tree, although I wish the Ammo bonuses were shared like velocity and cooldown.
Operations: 22 points - 9% heat cap, 16% dissapation, 35% shutdown/startup
The lower heat bonuses seem pretty nasty, designed to require points in Coolshot. With the new system, you are going to be pretty strapped for CBills, so I don't think its a great investment. This is where the mastery/pay-to-win aspect rears its head a little. The operations tree doesn't include old bonuses like 20% heat cap that you got from getting Elite on a mech. Hill climb, legged speed and gyros are nice, but not essential, wasting precious points.
Sensors: 11 points - 12% info speed, 9% sensor range, 60% radar dep, 100m seismic
11000xp is a lot to get Seismic and Radar Dep, but it'll probably be all but the bare minimum. To get full bonuses, you'll need to spend 19 or even 21 points for ECM. Radar Dep doesn't do much for an ECM mech, especially with the upcoming Stealth Armor.
Now we come to Mobility and Survival. These are huge point sink trees that can gobble up all your remaining points. You've spent about 58 to 66 already, so you'll have about 30 more to split between these.
The good news is the Mobility Tree is pretty generous up front, and you can get big agility boosts in 12 points. I'd say grabbing 3 points for 10% braking and acceleration might be your first goal, especially with agility separated from engines. You'll have to decide how to spent your points, but the main key is to take as few arm quirks as possible. Speed Tweak is buried at the end, I daresay it may not be worth getting on most mechs.
Mobility: 12 points - 40% accel, 40% braking, 6% turn speed
Finally Survival. The bonuses here are so bad, and you need to constantly take skills like Fall Damage and Legged Speed to get anywhere. I'd say 7 points is about the most you'd want to spend unless you expect to be falling a lot or want pathetic AMS quirks. The left side of the tree is basically locked behind skills a heavy or assault would never want. Maybe it's actually a better deal for Lights or Mediums, but then you probably aren't taking the sensor skills a good "scout" should.
Survival: 7 points - -3% crit chance, -10% fall damage, 10.4% bonus structure, 3.2% armor
So there's my basic spec. You'd have about 5-10 more points to grab some extras or get consumable bonuses. ECM mechs might actually want to sacrifice points in Sensors since they'll have private ECM (who needs to share?) instead of needing radar dep. Weapons, Mobility and Survival are going to be your biggest sinks with Survival having the worst payoff imo.
Guess we'll see what happens when it finally goes live.
Well, that kind of goes hand-in-hand with the idea of scout lances having escort units. Don't know how relevant it is to how things are played in MWO, but in tabletop or lore that's about how it should work.
the way MWO is built, having a scout lance is putting you at a disadvantage, since thats a lance thats focused on speed and not firepower.
And the only map where scouting even is worth a damn is polar.
I was thinking of trying the stock prime pods with 2 erppcs + the largest TC I can fit because of the crazy ppc quirks it gets. Lacks DHSs though.
And slowly all my mechs are morphing into 2x erppc builds.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
No JJs for pop tarting, but to me that's a good thing.
It runs really hot, but the ppcs go so fast.
hmm, if I strip 2 more tons of armour, I can get a TC7
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
Edit:
Stats for science
Out of 46 games eligible for reward I have gotten:
1,087,500 c-bills
2,600 gxp
260 funbux
Improved coolant pod
Improved UAV x2
Envious Eardrum Warhorn
Priority Air Strike x3
Priority Artillery strike x2
1 day active premium time
MWO Stein
Four Leaf Clover hanger
Steam: betsuni7
Actually, you'll want to put 2 Rotary 5's in your Marauder with a Standard engine. It'll be lighter than my 3xAC5 build, meaning more lasers, bigger engine and more ammo. 2 UAC5's and an LFE should work pretty well too, but you might want to run it on the 5M that has more energy hardpoints.
Okay this is stupid I know but I hate the way it looks with more then one AC. Been running 2 ppc 2 mlas and UAC-5 as weapons only. Also I only bought this one Mad because the rule of three was going away so its only basic level atm. Sitting on 30k+ xp though so that's something lol. Shame is I do better in this basic mech then most mastered ones.
Dual Ballistics are sexy af imo. And quads.... unnnnf. You know what I really want to run Dual Rotary 5's on, the IV-Four. Its still going to have one of the highest cooldown quirks available in the new Skill Tree, how that applies to Rotary ACs isn't exactly obvious.
You'll find your newest mechs are always your best. Game experience is really the best XP you can get. Take a look at my barely basic'd top performers. My Cyclops has 4 unlocks.
This thing has been around since beta I believe. Its basically a set of macros designed for MWO that don't require a fancy keyboard or anything. I think it even has a TAG toggle built in. I haven't used it personally, but I've meant to check it out for forever.
http://evilc.com/joomla/articles/9-code/autohotkey/11-adhd-fire-control
99% chance anyone you see boating AC2/LBX2 is using that.
I'm thinking something with an ac/20 could be fun. What do folks recommend?
Kodiak.
Already got 3 variants mastered, though I built them more as gauss/PPC long range boats.
Kodiak with AC20 is preeeetty great. Though I guess I'm not boating it, I'm running one AC20 and then a compliment of lasers.