Ok you crazy bastards. I was able to find some time to restart my original campaign in BT. I'm only about 4 missions past getting my Argo and I'm looking for some tips. Take a look at my lance setup and tell me what you think:
Blackjack:
3*MLaser
1*LLaser
1*AC/5
Vindicator (I think this loadout needs help):
MLaser
LLaser
LRM10
Shadowhawk (Also I think needs some help):
2*LRM5
SRM6
LLaser
Centurion:
AC/20
2*MLaser
LRM10
This is a new addition that replaced my light mech. I'm starting to look for heavies I can salvage. The only things I have in spare are Light mechs.
I previously lost the PPC on the Vindicator but I got one back in my most recent mission. What changes do you recommend?
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Alright, I'm on. @Betsuni can you send me a Discord invite link?
Also, I need to fix my video settings now that I got a new monitor, and kick the tires on this thing. It's been a bit.
...also, my daughter needs to stay asleep. Stay asleep, I say.
Ok you crazy bastards. I was able to find some time to restart my original campaign in BT. I'm only about 4 missions past getting my Argo and I'm looking for some tips. Take a look at my lance setup and tell me what you think:
Blackjack:
3*MLaser
1*LLaser
1*AC/5 Notes: Drop to 2xML and add armor/HS/JJ, put the AC and LL in the same side and dead-side. OR you can drop the AC for another LL
Vindicator (I think this loadout needs help):
MLaser
LLaser
LRM10 Notes: This one actually isn't bad, but the Vindi isn't the best at being your LRM boat. I'd swap the LRM for the ShadowHawk's SRM-6, and maybe dump the LL and just make this a SRM-6 ML-boat).
Shadowhawk (Also I think needs some help):
2*LRM5
SRM6
LLaser Okay even for me this feels like a lot of LLs! I like it though. I'd maybe drop it on this one in favor of making this your LRM boat, with some MLs to back it up.
Centurion:
AC/20
2*MLaser
LRM10 Notes: Nice wang, I'd swap the LRM for more ammo/armor/HS.
This is a new addition that replaced my light mech. I'm starting to look for heavies I can salvage. The only things I have in spare are Light mechs.
I previously lost the PPC on the Vindicator but I got one back in my most recent mission. What changes do you recommend?
See my notes. Generally, I like LLs, but if you're using LRMs, you want to focus on having as many as possible with a pilot with multi-target (at least that's how I rolled it back in vanilla). That way if there's a lot of evasion, your LRM boat can effectively mitigate some evasion on several 'mechs.
I'd honestly probably make the Blackjack a 2xLL boat, but I'm not sure what else the math gives you space for. The Vindi I'd go SRM-6 and MLs, maybe with a LL, maybe not, again depends on spare weight (and how you manage heat). The Shadowhawk isn't a terrible LRM boat if you don't have anything else (and your Centi is your Big Gun™, so you don't). I'd probably look at swapping the Blackjack next. Get a good LRM boat, bench your Blackjack, and then you can have the Vindicator be your ML boat, the Shadowhawk can be your SRM boat, and the Centurion your big gun.
e: Your Shadowhawk should have a LRM-5 in the head, and then can put both the LRM-10s in the body. That's certainly a decent, if low punch, LRM boat, and you should be able to mount at least one ML as a back up, maybe an LL if you'd rather have more punch, but again, watch your heat!
Battletech bug question: Has anyone experienced the store not changing planet to planet? Im running BT Extended 2035 but no other mods, and can't seem to find much online.
Being able to buy some stuff would really really help out my crappy company...
Using a Shadowhawk for a LRM boat is kinda waste, given how fast they are. Out of those four mechs Centurion makes by far the best LRM boat.
Here's some general rules I go by:
1) Try to have most of your weapons roughly the same range. Faster mechs have easier time getting to medium/short range, slower mechs get more use out of having longer range.
2) The shorter the average range of your weapons is, the more important jump jets are.
3) Armor should always be near max.
The only thing keeping my company afloat is my tripple Firestarter murder-squad. I still havn't salvaged a full medium, so my daddy-longshanks Vulcan is the heaviest bot I got.
The only thing keeping my company afloat is my tripple Firestarter murder-squad. I still havn't salvaged a full medium, so my daddy-longshanks Vulcan is the heaviest bot I got.
Firestarters are better than many mediums. Hop, hop, hop, murder. But I can understand if you are lusting after something like a Cicada, those things are very sexy. :P
Battletech bug question: Has anyone experienced the store not changing planet to planet? Im running BT Extended 2035 but no other mods, and can't seem to find much online.
I saw this bug once (with BTE3025 CE), I wasn't really paying that much attention and I was travelling around. The store only stayed the same for one system jump, then it changed normally again when I went to a third system. So it was just "wait, haven't I seen these exact items before? oh well, doesn't matter" kind of thing.
FWIW, I do have a PPC that I previously lost from the Vindi, that I bought a replacement. I assume it could replace the LL or ML?
PPCs run a bit hot, so replacing them with LLs is often a good idea. Replacing a PPC with a ML leaves you with 6 tons of free space and MLs are way shorter range and lower damage, so that's more like re-doing the whole build.
Ok you crazy bastards. I was able to find some time to restart my original campaign in BT. I'm only about 4 missions past getting my Argo and I'm looking for some tips. Take a look at my lance setup and tell me what you think:
Blackjack:
3*MLaser
1*LLaser
1*AC/5
Vindicator (I think this loadout needs help):
MLaser
LLaser
LRM10
Shadowhawk (Also I think needs some help):
2*LRM5
SRM6
LLaser
Centurion:
AC/20
2*MLaser
LRM10
This is a new addition that replaced my light mech. I'm starting to look for heavies I can salvage. The only things I have in spare are Light mechs.
I previously lost the PPC on the Vindicator but I got one back in my most recent mission. What changes do you recommend?
Blackjack: that's a pretty solid meta build. The other, perhaps more popular, meta build for it is to use another LL instead of an AC/5. That's fine, too, but I've always gone the AC/5 route because in the early days, you'll almost certainly take the AC/5 off of your Shadowhawk, so you'll have a free one available to go straight onto your Blackjack.
Vindicator: I'd change the LL back to a PPC and drop the ML. Vindis are slow on the ground, but their JJs make them nice little froggy snipers. Just hop it up on high ground and use it to snipe the hell out of things from a long, long way away.
Shadowhawk: the best build for the 2H is to make it a short range brawler. Put an SRM4 in the head, 2 x SRM6 in the torso, and 1 ML and 1 SL in the arm. It will run a little hot like that, but that's OK because it's fast, it'll have a lot of armor, and it can punch the stuffing out of all the things. Pretty sure it has the highest melee damage of any medium and that's before you count the SL. Basically, you'll use it get close as fast you can, let it shoot till its at its heat limit, and then punch a fool in order to cool down.
Centurion: does that build even have any armor? Seems way overloaded. Centurion is probably the best LRM bot in the early game. Put LRM35 on it, JJs, and least three tons of ammo (enough for 10 rounds). If you're hunting heavies, that build will be a huge help with knocking them down.
That's a first - 4 skull ambush convoy so 8 enemies total, all in a tight pile just behind a convenient ridge. I reserve down, they all move close, I rush in for the kills. Every one of my mechs blows up one target, then the next turn rolls over and again all of my mechs kill one enemy before they get a turn. 0 shots fired at me, mission over in 2 turns of combat. Highlights were killing a 90-ton assault by jumping behind it and doing a called shot to CT where the ammo is and DFA'ing the fattest enemy tank.
Ok you crazy bastards. I was able to find some time to restart my original campaign in BT. I'm only about 4 missions past getting my Argo and I'm looking for some tips. Take a look at my lance setup and tell me what you think:
Blackjack:
3*MLaser
1*LLaser
1*AC/5
Vindicator (I think this loadout needs help):
MLaser
LLaser
LRM10
Shadowhawk (Also I think needs some help):
2*LRM5
SRM6
LLaser
Centurion:
AC/20
2*MLaser
LRM10
This is a new addition that replaced my light mech. I'm starting to look for heavies I can salvage. The only things I have in spare are Light mechs.
I previously lost the PPC on the Vindicator but I got one back in my most recent mission. What changes do you recommend?
Blackjack: that's a pretty solid meta build. The other, perhaps more popular, meta build for it is to use another LL instead of an AC/5. That's fine, too, but I've always gone the AC/5 route because in the early days, you'll almost certainly take the AC/5 off of your Shadowhawk, so you'll have a free one available to go straight onto your Blackjack.
Vindicator: I'd change the LL back to a PPC and drop the ML. Vindis are slow on the ground, but their JJs make them nice little froggy snipers. Just hop it up on high ground and use it to snipe the hell out of things from a long, long way away.
Shadowhawk: the best build for the 2H is to make it a short range brawler. Put an SRM4 in the head, 2 x SRM6 in the torso, and 1 ML and 1 SL in the arm. It will run a little hot like that, but that's OK because it's fast, it'll have a lot of armor, and it can punch the stuffing out of all the things. Pretty sure it has the highest melee damage of any medium and that's before you count the SL. Basically, you'll use it get close as fast you can, let it shoot till its at its heat limit, and then punch a fool in order to cool down.
Centurion: does that build even have any armor? Seems way overloaded. Centurion is probably the best LRM bot in the early game. Put LRM35 on it, JJs, and least three tons of ammo (enough for 10 rounds). If you're hunting heavies, that build will be a huge help with knocking them down.
I was just about to post that I tried things out some more last night, and the biggest issue I had with the Centurion was that it couldn't get into close range fast enough. I took the previously suggested team into a "kill a resistance leader and backup" mission, and the computer ganged up on the Centurion while I was trying to get across open ground. The Shadowhawk did work great as a LRM boat as suggested, but I know I'm losing out on the punching power (pun intended?) by having it sit back.
The Centurion build *does* have armor in the front, but it's at the expense of rear and most of leg armor; and the arms are only at about 50 armor. I saw a few posts elsewhere that people had a lot of success with them as LRM boats in early to mid game, so I'll try swapping the Cent and Shadowhawk to see how that goes.
Potential next step is to get a second Shadowhawk, then, and lose the Centurion, since I think the Shadowhawk is a bit more maneuverable than the Centurion.
The Vindicator has its moments, and it used to be the backbone of my lance - next to the Shadowhawk. It's been getting beaten up a bunch, lately, though. That being said, it's at full armor so it can certainly take a punch.
Related: I went up against some Wolverines last night and those damn things are just walking hunks of armor. It took me forever to work my way into something squishy. I may try to salvage one in a scenario. I'm still working out the details of how best to salvage mechs (I know, knock down a bunch and use kinetics; when I try to make called shots once a mech is down, things just start blowing up).
Any suggestions on how long I should wait before attempting "Liberate: Panzyr"?
Any suggestions on how long I should wait before attempting "Liberate: Panzyr"?
You could do it with your current mechs easily. You could also get your ass kicked if you try to tackle it wrong - there's a lot of enemies and pushing forward the wrong way can get your mech into trouble.
Swap your S-Hawk into a SRM build (jump jets are a must, especially for this mission but also in general) and Cent into LRM boat first before trying it at least, then you can give it a try and see how it goes.
Mirkel on
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
I usually have at least 1 heavy and 2 55 ton mediums before I attempt it. There's going to be a lot of shit shooting at you, so you'll need decent armor.
I usually have at least 1 heavy and 2 55 ton mediums before I attempt it. There's going to be a lot of shit shooting at you, so you'll need decent armor.
The turrets did most of the work when I last did it, though it's true that you can get a lot of incoming fire. IIRC I mostly just hop hop hopped to the target with a Shadowhawk and the rest of my lance hang back and took out enemies one by one from the elevated area.
I admit I've played so much it's a bit hazy to me how hard these missions can be. Once you've done a static mission three times it gets a lot easier.
Ok you crazy bastards. I was able to find some time to restart my original campaign in BT. I'm only about 4 missions past getting my Argo and I'm looking for some tips. Take a look at my lance setup and tell me what you think:
Blackjack:
3*MLaser
1*LLaser
1*AC/5
Vindicator (I think this loadout needs help):
MLaser
LLaser
LRM10
Shadowhawk (Also I think needs some help):
2*LRM5
SRM6
LLaser
Centurion:
AC/20
2*MLaser
LRM10
This is a new addition that replaced my light mech. I'm starting to look for heavies I can salvage. The only things I have in spare are Light mechs.
I previously lost the PPC on the Vindicator but I got one back in my most recent mission. What changes do you recommend?
Blackjack: that's a pretty solid meta build. The other, perhaps more popular, meta build for it is to use another LL instead of an AC/5. That's fine, too, but I've always gone the AC/5 route because in the early days, you'll almost certainly take the AC/5 off of your Shadowhawk, so you'll have a free one available to go straight onto your Blackjack.
Vindicator: I'd change the LL back to a PPC and drop the ML. Vindis are slow on the ground, but their JJs make them nice little froggy snipers. Just hop it up on high ground and use it to snipe the hell out of things from a long, long way away.
Shadowhawk: the best build for the 2H is to make it a short range brawler. Put an SRM4 in the head, 2 x SRM6 in the torso, and 1 ML and 1 SL in the arm. It will run a little hot like that, but that's OK because it's fast, it'll have a lot of armor, and it can punch the stuffing out of all the things. Pretty sure it has the highest melee damage of any medium and that's before you count the SL. Basically, you'll use it get close as fast you can, let it shoot till its at its heat limit, and then punch a fool in order to cool down.
Centurion: does that build even have any armor? Seems way overloaded. Centurion is probably the best LRM bot in the early game. Put LRM35 on it, JJs, and least three tons of ammo (enough for 10 rounds). If you're hunting heavies, that build will be a huge help with knocking them down.
I was just about to post that I tried things out some more last night, and the biggest issue I had with the Centurion was that it couldn't get into close range fast enough. I took the previously suggested team into a "kill a resistance leader and backup" mission, and the computer ganged up on the Centurion while I was trying to get across open ground. The Shadowhawk did work great as a LRM boat as suggested, but I know I'm losing out on the punching power (pun intended?) by having it sit back.
The Centurion build *does* have armor in the front, but it's at the expense of rear and most of leg armor; and the arms are only at about 50 armor. I saw a few posts elsewhere that people had a lot of success with them as LRM boats in early to mid game, so I'll try swapping the Cent and Shadowhawk to see how that goes.
Potential next step is to get a second Shadowhawk, then, and lose the Centurion, since I think the Shadowhawk is a bit more maneuverable than the Centurion.
The Vindicator has its moments, and it used to be the backbone of my lance - next to the Shadowhawk. It's been getting beaten up a bunch, lately, though. That being said, it's at full armor so it can certainly take a punch.
Related: I went up against some Wolverines last night and those damn things are just walking hunks of armor. It took me forever to work my way into something squishy. I may try to salvage one in a scenario. I'm still working out the details of how best to salvage mechs (I know, knock down a bunch and use kinetics; when I try to make called shots once a mech is down, things just start blowing up).
Any suggestions on how long I should wait before attempting "Liberate: Panzyr"?
Your Centurion is similar to the Yen-Lo-Wang variant. However the YLW is built with an AC/20, two medium lasers, and a hatchet (arm +dmg mod here). Trying to stuff that LRM into it sacrifices a bunch of armor that you absolutely need. Not only because you are trying to close to short range with a slow mech, but because the AI will prioritize that AC20 as a target. Personally, I had little success with the YLW because it was too slow to be effective.
As others have mentioned, the Cent works better as a long range or LRM boat due to that slow speed.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
edited August 2019
Anything smaller than an Orion with an AC/20 in it will have a hard time fitting anything other than the AC/20 into it while keeping a usable amount of armor and other weapons.
Anything smaller than an Orion with an AC/20 in it will have a hard time fitting anything other than the AC/20 into it while keeping a usable amount of armor and other weapons.
I did a Shadowhawk build with an AC20 and an SRM4 for fun. It wasn't the best or anything, but you could come flying in out of nowhere and get nice hits with it. Some arm armor was sacrificed for this noble goal.
Anything smaller than an Orion with an AC/20 in it will have a hard time fitting anything other than the AC/20 into it while keeping a usable amount of armor and other weapons.
I usually wait for Jagermech to start rolling out the AC20 builds. Of course, that's also about the point in a campaign or career when you also have (a) pilots who have decent gunnery and guts (for the refire penalty, not to mention tactics for called shots) and (b) maybe picked up a + weapon or two. Getting +20dam on an AC20 makes a big difference.
I actually really like bringing AC20 builds online with mediums in the strategy game, especially the Hunchback (which..yeah obviously). Most of my lances build off of a core, high gunnery, AC20 carrier that can use called shots to end the round by taking out whatever mech I've been focusing fire on for that round.
I actually really like bringing AC20 builds online with mediums in the strategy game, especially the Hunchback (which..yeah obviously). Most of my lances build off of a core, high gunnery, AC20 carrier that can use called shots to end the round by taking out whatever mech I've been focusing fire on for that round.
Using your called shots for AC20 seems like a waste to me. The point of the huge gun is that it'll wreck whatever location it hits, no need for precision (not to mention there's a fairly high chance the AC20 shot completely misses or hits some other location). If you want to maximize damage in a single location you can get a lot more of it with the boring old SRMs and MLs, especially once you start finding + gear.
Can someone give me the TLDR of salvaging mechs out of scenarios? I understand using kinetics to knock down, but how do you take out the pilot without destroying the Cockpit/CT? Focus on legs? I'm trying to make sure my strat is sound when Heavies start making cameos.
Can someone give me the TLDR of salvaging mechs out of scenarios? I understand using kinetics to knock down, but how do you take out the pilot without destroying the Cockpit/CT? Focus on legs? I'm trying to make sure my strat is sound when Heavies start making cameos.
You can destroy the cockpit, that still gives you max salvage. If you destroy both legs you get 2 salvage so focusing on legs is better than taking out the CT but worse than killing pilot/destroying the head.
Can someone give me the TLDR of salvaging mechs out of scenarios? I understand using kinetics to knock down, but how do you take out the pilot without destroying the Cockpit/CT? Focus on legs? I'm trying to make sure my strat is sound when Heavies start making cameos.
On default settings, you need three pieces of mech salvage to reconstitute a mech and have it available for use.
If you destroy a mech's CT, you get access to one piece of salvage.
If you destroy both legs but not the CT, you access to get two pieces of salvage.
If you destroy the head while leaving the CT and at least one leg, you get access to three pieces of salvage.
If you disable the pilot without destroying the CT or both legs, you get access to three pieces of salvage. Pilots are disabled when you destroy the head or they take enough damage. Most pilots can take 3-6 hits. Pilots take a point of damage when:
a side torso is destroyed,
the head is hit, or
the mech is knocked down.
(Maybe ammo explosion too? Non-CT ammo explosions usually seem to coincide with side torso destruction.)
Note that you only get credit for one hit in each 'phase' of damage resolving. So if you fire a salvo and hit the head with an SRM + small laser and also blow a side torso (3 separate points), that's only one hit. Knockdown's are a separate 'phase,' though, so you can often blow a side torso (1 pt) doing enough stability to knock a mech over (2nd pt.)
Early on, it's hard to reliably hit the head. You won't really have a good shot at destroying the head regularly until your pilots have Tactics 9 which gives called shot mastery (and 17-19% called head shots.) So usually you are knocking them down w/ stability or by shooting out one leg and maybe blowing a side torso or two.
Then of course you need to have enough salvage picks to get the mech, or to get lucky. Everyone's had the experience of precariously knocking down that prize mech only to remember you decided to go 1/6 salvage and some extra cash this mission. :razz:
I actually really like bringing AC20 builds online with mediums in the strategy game, especially the Hunchback (which..yeah obviously). Most of my lances build off of a core, high gunnery, AC20 carrier that can use called shots to end the round by taking out whatever mech I've been focusing fire on for that round.
Using your called shots for AC20 seems like a waste to me. The point of the huge gun is that it'll wreck whatever location it hits, no need for precision (not to mention there's a fairly high chance the AC20 shot completely misses or hits some other location). If you want to maximize damage in a single location you can get a lot more of it with the boring old SRMs and MLs, especially once you start finding + gear.
Precision Strike isn't just about picking locations, it also increases your base to-hit percentage, reducing the chance that the shot misses completely.
And if the goal is to kill like they said, you want that damage to go where it will do the most good. Hitting a fully armored leg when you needed the CT means you've let that mech alive to retaliate.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
I'm reading elsewhere that if you move the slider toward $$$ you see more/tougher mechs than sliding it toward more salvage. Someone said the devs admitted this. True/False/Potato?
Can someone give me the TLDR of salvaging mechs out of scenarios? I understand using kinetics to knock down, but how do you take out the pilot without destroying the Cockpit/CT? Focus on legs? I'm trying to make sure my strat is sound when Heavies start making cameos.
What Iolo said. I'd also add that melee is a really good way of destabilizing a target for knockdown.
When I'm hunting heavies with Lights/Mediums and low skill pilots, I try to attack from the sides. Side attacks increase the likelihood of breaking the target's leg, causing a pilot injury (I think side torso destruction automatically causes a pilot injury), and causing ammo explosions (many canonical mechs keep their ammo in their side torso, and torso ammo explosions might also be an automatic pilot injury). Note that melee attacks from the side can hit a leg in addition to an arm or torso.
So if you can isolate a Heavy and aren't in danger of it squishing any of your mechs, attack it from both its sides. You'll have good odds of either breaking both its legs or incapacitating its pilot with multiple knockdowns and explosions.
I'm reading elsewhere that if you move the slider toward $$$ you see more/tougher mechs than sliding it toward more salvage. Someone said the devs admitted this. True/False/Potato?
Ammo explosion is 1 pilot injury, but since 95% of stock mechs keep their ammo in torsos that doesn't help much as it doesn't stack with destroying a side torso injury.
One thing to note about knocking down enemy mechs - any enemy that has Surefooted (you can see their buff icons when you inspect the mech) is 50% harder to knock down, often making normal missile spam rather futile. Especially since if you get them almost knocked over they just walk their stability bar empty as soon as it is their turn. On the other hand enemies on ice or travelling through rough terrain are a lot easier to knock down. If you really want to start knocking enemies over, getting some +stab LRMs goes a long way.
Posts
Blackjack:
3*MLaser
1*LLaser
1*AC/5
Vindicator (I think this loadout needs help):
MLaser
LLaser
LRM10
Shadowhawk (Also I think needs some help):
2*LRM5
SRM6
LLaser
Centurion:
AC/20
2*MLaser
LRM10
This is a new addition that replaced my light mech. I'm starting to look for heavies I can salvage. The only things I have in spare are Light mechs.
I previously lost the PPC on the Vindicator but I got one back in my most recent mission. What changes do you recommend?
Also, I need to fix my video settings now that I got a new monitor, and kick the tires on this thing. It's been a bit.
...also, my daughter needs to stay asleep. Stay asleep, I say.
Sent.
Steam: betsuni7
See my notes. Generally, I like LLs, but if you're using LRMs, you want to focus on having as many as possible with a pilot with multi-target (at least that's how I rolled it back in vanilla). That way if there's a lot of evasion, your LRM boat can effectively mitigate some evasion on several 'mechs.
I'd honestly probably make the Blackjack a 2xLL boat, but I'm not sure what else the math gives you space for. The Vindi I'd go SRM-6 and MLs, maybe with a LL, maybe not, again depends on spare weight (and how you manage heat). The Shadowhawk isn't a terrible LRM boat if you don't have anything else (and your Centi is your Big Gun™, so you don't). I'd probably look at swapping the Blackjack next. Get a good LRM boat, bench your Blackjack, and then you can have the Vindicator be your ML boat, the Shadowhawk can be your SRM boat, and the Centurion your big gun.
e: Your Shadowhawk should have a LRM-5 in the head, and then can put both the LRM-10s in the body. That's certainly a decent, if low punch, LRM boat, and you should be able to mount at least one ML as a back up, maybe an LL if you'd rather have more punch, but again, watch your heat!
Being able to buy some stuff would really really help out my crappy company...
Here's some general rules I go by:
1) Try to have most of your weapons roughly the same range. Faster mechs have easier time getting to medium/short range, slower mechs get more use out of having longer range.
2) The shorter the average range of your weapons is, the more important jump jets are.
3) Armor should always be near max.
Thanks guys for another great Oosik Drop. Came out in the positive for fun and shooting robots.
Steam: betsuni7
Firestarters are better than many mediums. Hop, hop, hop, murder. But I can understand if you are lusting after something like a Cicada, those things are very sexy. :P
I saw this bug once (with BTE3025 CE), I wasn't really paying that much attention and I was travelling around. The store only stayed the same for one system jump, then it changed normally again when I went to a third system. So it was just "wait, haven't I seen these exact items before? oh well, doesn't matter" kind of thing.
PPCs run a bit hot, so replacing them with LLs is often a good idea. Replacing a PPC with a ML leaves you with 6 tons of free space and MLs are way shorter range and lower damage, so that's more like re-doing the whole build.
Blackjack: that's a pretty solid meta build. The other, perhaps more popular, meta build for it is to use another LL instead of an AC/5. That's fine, too, but I've always gone the AC/5 route because in the early days, you'll almost certainly take the AC/5 off of your Shadowhawk, so you'll have a free one available to go straight onto your Blackjack.
Vindicator: I'd change the LL back to a PPC and drop the ML. Vindis are slow on the ground, but their JJs make them nice little froggy snipers. Just hop it up on high ground and use it to snipe the hell out of things from a long, long way away.
Shadowhawk: the best build for the 2H is to make it a short range brawler. Put an SRM4 in the head, 2 x SRM6 in the torso, and 1 ML and 1 SL in the arm. It will run a little hot like that, but that's OK because it's fast, it'll have a lot of armor, and it can punch the stuffing out of all the things. Pretty sure it has the highest melee damage of any medium and that's before you count the SL. Basically, you'll use it get close as fast you can, let it shoot till its at its heat limit, and then punch a fool in order to cool down.
Centurion: does that build even have any armor? Seems way overloaded. Centurion is probably the best LRM bot in the early game. Put LRM35 on it, JJs, and least three tons of ammo (enough for 10 rounds). If you're hunting heavies, that build will be a huge help with knocking them down.
I was just about to post that I tried things out some more last night, and the biggest issue I had with the Centurion was that it couldn't get into close range fast enough. I took the previously suggested team into a "kill a resistance leader and backup" mission, and the computer ganged up on the Centurion while I was trying to get across open ground. The Shadowhawk did work great as a LRM boat as suggested, but I know I'm losing out on the punching power (pun intended?) by having it sit back.
The Centurion build *does* have armor in the front, but it's at the expense of rear and most of leg armor; and the arms are only at about 50 armor. I saw a few posts elsewhere that people had a lot of success with them as LRM boats in early to mid game, so I'll try swapping the Cent and Shadowhawk to see how that goes.
Potential next step is to get a second Shadowhawk, then, and lose the Centurion, since I think the Shadowhawk is a bit more maneuverable than the Centurion.
The Vindicator has its moments, and it used to be the backbone of my lance - next to the Shadowhawk. It's been getting beaten up a bunch, lately, though. That being said, it's at full armor so it can certainly take a punch.
Related: I went up against some Wolverines last night and those damn things are just walking hunks of armor. It took me forever to work my way into something squishy. I may try to salvage one in a scenario. I'm still working out the details of how best to salvage mechs (I know, knock down a bunch and use kinetics; when I try to make called shots once a mech is down, things just start blowing up).
Any suggestions on how long I should wait before attempting "Liberate: Panzyr"?
You could do it with your current mechs easily. You could also get your ass kicked if you try to tackle it wrong - there's a lot of enemies and pushing forward the wrong way can get your mech into trouble.
Swap your S-Hawk into a SRM build (jump jets are a must, especially for this mission but also in general) and Cent into LRM boat first before trying it at least, then you can give it a try and see how it goes.
The turrets did most of the work when I last did it, though it's true that you can get a lot of incoming fire. IIRC I mostly just hop hop hopped to the target with a Shadowhawk and the rest of my lance hang back and took out enemies one by one from the elevated area.
I admit I've played so much it's a bit hazy to me how hard these missions can be. Once you've done a static mission three times it gets a lot easier.
Your Centurion is similar to the Yen-Lo-Wang variant. However the YLW is built with an AC/20, two medium lasers, and a hatchet (arm +dmg mod here). Trying to stuff that LRM into it sacrifices a bunch of armor that you absolutely need. Not only because you are trying to close to short range with a slow mech, but because the AI will prioritize that AC20 as a target. Personally, I had little success with the YLW because it was too slow to be effective.
As others have mentioned, the Cent works better as a long range or LRM boat due to that slow speed.
Just gotta kill that locust!
I did a Shadowhawk build with an AC20 and an SRM4 for fun. It wasn't the best or anything, but you could come flying in out of nowhere and get nice hits with it. Some arm armor was sacrificed for this noble goal.
I usually wait for Jagermech to start rolling out the AC20 builds. Of course, that's also about the point in a campaign or career when you also have (a) pilots who have decent gunnery and guts (for the refire penalty, not to mention tactics for called shots) and (b) maybe picked up a + weapon or two. Getting +20dam on an AC20 makes a big difference.
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Using your called shots for AC20 seems like a waste to me. The point of the huge gun is that it'll wreck whatever location it hits, no need for precision (not to mention there's a fairly high chance the AC20 shot completely misses or hits some other location). If you want to maximize damage in a single location you can get a lot more of it with the boring old SRMs and MLs, especially once you start finding + gear.
You can destroy the cockpit, that still gives you max salvage. If you destroy both legs you get 2 salvage so focusing on legs is better than taking out the CT but worse than killing pilot/destroying the head.
On default settings, you need three pieces of mech salvage to reconstitute a mech and have it available for use.
If you destroy a mech's CT, you get access to one piece of salvage.
If you destroy both legs but not the CT, you access to get two pieces of salvage.
If you destroy the head while leaving the CT and at least one leg, you get access to three pieces of salvage.
If you disable the pilot without destroying the CT or both legs, you get access to three pieces of salvage. Pilots are disabled when you destroy the head or they take enough damage. Most pilots can take 3-6 hits. Pilots take a point of damage when:
(Maybe ammo explosion too? Non-CT ammo explosions usually seem to coincide with side torso destruction.)
Note that you only get credit for one hit in each 'phase' of damage resolving. So if you fire a salvo and hit the head with an SRM + small laser and also blow a side torso (3 separate points), that's only one hit. Knockdown's are a separate 'phase,' though, so you can often blow a side torso (1 pt) doing enough stability to knock a mech over (2nd pt.)
Early on, it's hard to reliably hit the head. You won't really have a good shot at destroying the head regularly until your pilots have Tactics 9 which gives called shot mastery (and 17-19% called head shots.) So usually you are knocking them down w/ stability or by shooting out one leg and maybe blowing a side torso or two.
Then of course you need to have enough salvage picks to get the mech, or to get lucky. Everyone's had the experience of precariously knocking down that prize mech only to remember you decided to go 1/6 salvage and some extra cash this mission. :razz:
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Precision Strike isn't just about picking locations, it also increases your base to-hit percentage, reducing the chance that the shot misses completely.
And if the goal is to kill like they said, you want that damage to go where it will do the most good. Hitting a fully armored leg when you needed the CT means you've let that mech alive to retaliate.
What Iolo said. I'd also add that melee is a really good way of destabilizing a target for knockdown.
When I'm hunting heavies with Lights/Mediums and low skill pilots, I try to attack from the sides. Side attacks increase the likelihood of breaking the target's leg, causing a pilot injury (I think side torso destruction automatically causes a pilot injury), and causing ammo explosions (many canonical mechs keep their ammo in their side torso, and torso ammo explosions might also be an automatic pilot injury). Note that melee attacks from the side can hit a leg in addition to an arm or torso.
So if you can isolate a Heavy and aren't in danger of it squishing any of your mechs, attack it from both its sides. You'll have good odds of either breaking both its legs or incapacitating its pilot with multiple knockdowns and explosions.
I guess more specifically, does it have any quirks that would lend itself to that build?
In MWO or in BT? MWO it still has the super huge torso hit boxes, but still is fun.
Edit: I would recommend other mechs over it in its weight class depending on what you want to fire.
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Sounds like a bad meme.
The -A has Missile Cooldown, Missile Heat, Range, and Velocity quirks. Lasers would get the Range quirk but nothing else really.
One thing to note about knocking down enemy mechs - any enemy that has Surefooted (you can see their buff icons when you inspect the mech) is 50% harder to knock down, often making normal missile spam rather futile. Especially since if you get them almost knocked over they just walk their stability bar empty as soon as it is their turn. On the other hand enemies on ice or travelling through rough terrain are a lot easier to knock down. If you really want to start knocking enemies over, getting some +stab LRMs goes a long way.
Wanting to run paired MRM/LL combos.
Where's the easiest place to view/compare quirks right now, outside the game? Wanna see how that compares to the ol' Catapult.
https://mech.nav-alpha.com/