24 replies to this topic

[aniviron]

Hello fellow awesome pilots!

I love my AWS-9M. It's fast, it's fun, and thanks to the new heat restrictions, I can't find a build for it that isn't awful. I've been running my 9M since closed beta, and have been using http://mwo.smurfy-ne...45d5926e763d4fb for most of that time. It's always been a reliable brawler build through most metagame changes, although the SRM nerf the past few months has hit it pretty hard. With an optimistic smile on my face thanks to the SRM changes today, I thought I might bring it out of storage and give it a try, see if things are any better. And it's true, the new SRMs feel good, they do a pretty reasonable amount of damage now, and I like it.

The thing I didn't think about is the fact that every single large energy weapon is now capped at two, which makes all the builds I have ever run on this mech just terrible. Three llas is apparently too OP to fire in groups, so I have been sticking with chainfire, but with fairly poor results- there are almost no pilots at my level who don't immediately torso twist to block the damage, so while I can still rack up points, it's all going into the arms if I fire slowly enough to not incur the heat penalty. Compounding this problem is that I want to fire as quickly as possible to not get a penalty, but I can't count to .5s in my head very reliably, which means about a third of the time I am getting slapped with a huge heat penalty anyway.

So what can I do with this mech? It doesn't have enough hardpoints to boat smaller weapons effectively (I can hear Paul's sadistic mocking laughter every time I notice the four CT hardpoints) and I can't run a 3llas or 3ppc build like I have been for the last 10 months. 3 lpl could technically fit, but given how bad they are right now, I would be loath so sacrifice so much srm firepower just to cram in three weapons that are worse than llaser anyway. Anyone willing to share what you are doing with your AWS-9M now? (Bonus points and/or cookies/internet hugs to anyone who can come up with a reasonable build for my aws-8q too.)

Edited by aniviron, 16 July 2013 - 04:31 PM.

[AntiCitizenJuan]

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...6c62550c08a71fe

Maybe.
Havent run XLs on my Awesomes in too long.

[One Medic Army]

You can swap the arm large to an ERLarge, which gives you a bit more range and actually costs less heat when groupfired with the 2 torso larges than a third normal large would.

Alternatively, you could swap both torsos to ERs for a more long-range capable build, and leave the arm as a standard large for infighting.

(I agree limit of 2 for Larges/ERLarges/LPL was stupid, should have been 3 probably).

[aniviron]

One Medic Army, on 16 July 2013 - 04:39 PM, said:

You can swap the arm large to an ERLarge, which gives you a bit more range and actually costs less heat when groupfired with the 2 torso larges than a third normal large would.

Alternatively, you could swap both torsos to ERs for a more long-range capable build, and leave the arm as a standard large for infighting.

(I agree limit of 2 for Larges/ERLarges/LPL was stupid, should have been 3 probably).

I think swapping for one ER LL is the best solution in the short term (especially since I have a group for it alone to hit slippery targets) but that won't last for more than a single patch.

[Merit Lef]

I think they are missing the point with Alphas...its not heat but pin point damage. So now when I run my 3PPC Awesome (stock style) I get penalized for it! Why?

[Merit Lef]

Also take into account you have to keep you CT exposed longer now to incoming fire (any skilled Aws driver knows what that means) just to chain fire at .5sec for no heat penalty. I run 21 DHS with only 3 PPC....overheat in about 10-15 sec on chain fire. Time to put this mech in storage. Didn't know that stock 3PPC was so OP.

[Kiiyor]

aniviron, on 16 July 2013 - 04:31 PM, said:

Hello fellow awesome pilots!

I love my AWS-9M. It's fast, it's fun, and thanks to the new heat restrictions, I can't find a build for it that isn't awful. I've been running my 9M since closed beta, and have been using http://mwo.smurfy-ne...45d5926e763d4fb for most of that time. It's always been a reliable brawler build through most metagame changes, although the SRM nerf the past few months has hit it pretty hard. With an optimistic smile on my face thanks to the SRM changes today, I thought I might bring it out of storage and give it a try, see if things are any better. And it's true, the new SRMs feel good, they do a pretty reasonable amount of damage now, and I like it.

The thing I didn't think about is the fact that every single large energy weapon is now capped at two, which makes all the builds I have ever run on this mech just terrible. Three llas is apparently too OP to fire in groups, so I have been sticking with chainfire, but with fairly poor results- there are almost no pilots at my level who don't immediately torso twist to block the damage, so while I can still rack up points, it's all going into the arms if I fire slowly enough to not incur the heat penalty. Compounding this problem is that I want to fire as quickly as possible to not get a penalty, but I can't count to .5s in my head very reliably, which means about a third of the time I am getting slapped with a huge heat penalty anyway.

So what can I do with this mech? It doesn't have enough hardpoints to boat smaller weapons effectively (I can hear Paul's sadistic mocking laughter every time I notice the four CT hardpoints) and I can't run a 3llas or 3ppc build like I have been for the last 10 months. 3 lpl could technically fit, but given how bad they are right now, I would be loath so sacrifice so much srm firepower just to cram in three weapons that are worse than llaser anyway. Anyone willing to share what you are doing with your AWS-9M now? (Bonus points and/or cookies/internet hugs to anyone who can come up with a reasonable build for my aws-8q too.)

Howdy - i'm a long time 9M lover also.

The trouble is, the LL boat (3 is a boat? lol) change now requires you to spend WAAAAAAY too much time staring adoringly into the eyes of your target whilst you forcibly chain-flay them. I've had lots of success with this (despite the PPC changes) - but it plays more of a support role than brawling: AWS-9M

Treat the ER and Vanilla PPCs as separate weapons, make sure you don't alpha with them, and you can toss out some respectable damage, at the tradeoff of a little less top speed than you're used to.

If you want something closer to your dreamboat, maybe THIS?

I know the humble LPL sucks even more than before, but at the very least you can get an alpha off with it without cooking yourself, at the expense of some armour and 2 tubes for the LA SRM launcher.

Failing all of that, i'm finding THIS particular variant to be a -very- effective brawler

[GargoyleKDR]

Try this for a mix-up.

[Zordicron]

EH

2 PPC in torso
1 LL in arm
fill the missiles slots with SRM4's for close range if you want, or maybe LRM5's for some mediocre fire support for when you get pinned down.
XL370

I got this right now. LL in arm is good for lights, has enough range to add to alpha quite often from PPC's. 2 PPC heat is pretty decent to run on most maps, even while cruising. I have SRM, but I will be switching to LRM5's next match I play in mine. i was using the SRm for short range defense, but with the Xl and well, being an Awesome, i find prolonged brawls are not in my best interest. Fringe blasting and frequent repositioning for team assist and to avoid return fire works best with this loadout. Had a few really good matches in of all places, the smaller maps like frozen and river, had a few bad ones where the team was just so disaorganized, there was no one to assist and focus with. But thats all normal pug play i guess anyway.

On a similar note, anyone else think they should do away with the baby's movement quirks now that the whole 45 degree slope stuff is in? Man my 9M is a dream machine to move in compared to that thing now. I will start a poll topic on that shortly if anyone is interested.

[hammerreborn]

Eldagore, on 16 July 2013 - 06:49 PM, said:

EH

2 PPC in torso
1 LL in arm
fill the missiles slots with SRM4's for close range if you want, or maybe LRM5's for some mediocre fire support for when you get pinned down.
XL370

I got this right now. LL in arm is good for lights, has enough range to add to alpha quite often from PPC's. 2 PPC heat is pretty decent to run on most maps, even while cruising. I have SRM, but I will be switching to LRM5's next match I play in mine. i was using the SRm for short range defense, but with the Xl and well, being an Awesome, i find prolonged brawls are not in my best interest. Fringe blasting and frequent repositioning for team assist and to avoid return fire works best with this loadout. Had a few really good matches in of all places, the smaller maps like frozen and river, had a few bad ones where the team was just so disaorganized, there was no one to assist and focus with. But thats all normal pug play i guess anyway.

On a similar note, anyone else think they should do away with the baby's movement quirks now that the whole 45 degree slope stuff is in? Man my 9M is a dream machine to move in compared to that thing now. I will start a poll topic on that shortly if anyone is interested.

I usually did the LLs in the torso and the ppc in the arm.

If you need to get rid of an LLs two srm4s in the CT instead? Give you a bit of an upclose punch.

[MonkeyCheese]

Still got my 3LL 3ssrm 1ml Aws9m but I may just play around with ERLL or a LPL to find a good balance with this 2 LL = a boat thing. I still think it should be 3+ not 2. Still kinda undecided on the streaks may go back to 2ml in the CT.

But anyway since brawling is back why not try a MPL build http://mwo.smurfy-ne...6a1f4037d678f97

Or back to my old srm brawling in your face for great suicide build http://mwo.smurfy-ne...3e185a5b41a2023

[N a p e s]

I really want to use SRMs on this thing but the number of tubes just kills it for me. If the tubes were more variable I'd run it with those but since that's not the case I've switched to this from a similar build using SSRMs instead of MLas.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a056912d2df08dd

Seriously, the heat nerfs haven't really affected how I play this mech because I rarely alpha'ed and the MLas just give me another option when the fight turns to a closer range brawl.

[Blue Hymn]

The Flanker

4LLs, 1srm4.

A good build to use in flanking maneuvers. If you use Alpha in moderation, you can keep up a good amount of damage while you flank behind enemy mechs to tear up their rear armor. If the heat gets high, the srm4 can still act as harassment while you maneuver to bide time for the heat to go down before heading at it again. Tested it recently, and I found it very successful when you have friendlies nearby to keep them occupied. An alpha to the back can tear through their rear quickly, and they start to panic after they see the yellow cored section of the mech.

[Kiiyor]

Napes339, on 16 July 2013 - 08:23 PM, said:

I really want to use SRMs on this thing but the number of tubes just kills it for me. If the tubes were more variable I'd run it with those but since that's not the case I've switched to this from a similar build using SSRMs instead of MLas.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a056912d2df08dd

Seriously, the heat nerfs haven't really affected how I play this mech because I rarely alpha'ed and the MLas just give me another option when the fight turns to a closer range brawl.

If you run SRM4's it comes out in 2 bursts, and is OK once you get used to it. There are vague and utterly un-substantiated reports floating around that 2 tube missiles also have a tighter spread than their older 4 tube brethren, which I will take as gospel because someone on the internet said it.

[N a p e s]

Kiiyor, on 16 July 2013 - 09:21 PM, said:

If you run SRM4's it comes out in 2 bursts, and is OK once you get used to it. There are vague and utterly un-substantiated reports floating around that 2 tube missiles also have a tighter spread than their older 4 tube brethren, which I will take as gospel because someone on the internet said it.

Ya, that rumor has been floating around for a little while now... Never did enough testing to see for myself. You're right that I could get used to the firing mechanic though. Maybe some day.

[tredmeister]

Stupid noobies. Don't you realize that you MUST ONLY chainfire these "cheese builds" now!
Forget about the fact that this mech was named ":Awesome" for a reason! This is NOT your fathers BT!
Just sell all of your Awesomes, and buy a mech that carries at least 4-5 different kinds of weapons.
Then you will be accepted in to the "Holy Guild" of balanced mechs...

Edited by tredmeister, 16 July 2013 - 09:56 PM.

[aniviron]

Kiiyor, on 16 July 2013 - 09:21 PM, said:

If you run SRM4's it comes out in 2 bursts, and is OK once you get used to it. There are vague and utterly un-substantiated reports floating around that 2 tube missiles also have a tighter spread than their older 4 tube brethren, which I will take as gospel because someone on the internet said it.

This was true with the old SRM flightpaths, the ones that we had from CD up until a month or two ago. Ever since the SRM flightpath changes have come through, the number of tubes makes no real difference to accuracy.

[BP Raven]

I'm in the same boat (that was a pune or play on words...) as the OP, having run that exact loadout initially upon buying the 9M, until i switched to 3PPC/3MLas (XL380, 20DHS, Endo). Tried it with streaks when they worked, preferred the 15pt of the lasers that i could put where i wanted (mostly ). Sad thing it the Catapault C1 can run almost the same LL/SRM loadout, in a smaller, faster mech (SRM 12 vs 14 in the AWS, but in one volley instead of a stream).

Right now i'm at a loss as to what to do with it, I tried running 2 PPC, 3MLas, 1LLas (XL380, 20DHS, Endo, AMS) last night, but the punch from 2 PPC was lacking compared to what i could do with 3, and the extra laser in the arm was messing with my head and fire groups. Might get better with some practise, but it's not going to stand up against 2-3PPC/guass for very long.

[Kiiyor]

BP Raven, on 17 July 2013 - 08:55 AM, said:

I'm in the same boat (that was a pune or play on words...) as the OP, having run that exact loadout initially upon buying the 9M, until i switched to 3PPC/3MLas (XL380, 20DHS, Endo). Tried it with streaks when they worked, preferred the 15pt of the lasers that i could put where i wanted (mostly ). Sad thing it the Catapault C1 can run almost the same LL/SRM loadout, in a smaller, faster mech (SRM 12 vs 14 in the AWS, but in one volley instead of a stream).

Right now i'm at a loss as to what to do with it, I tried running 2 PPC, 3MLas, 1LLas (XL380, 20DHS, Endo, AMS) last night, but the punch from 2 PPC was lacking compared to what i could do with 3, and the extra laser in the arm was messing with my head and fire groups. Might get better with some practise, but it's not going to stand up against 2-3PPC/guass for very long.

I tried this last night, and it was surprisingly effective.

If you treat the PPCs and MLAS as separate primary weapon systems (and only engage with one or the other) the heat is very, very manageable. It has 68% heat efficiency on smurfy with just the ERPPCs, and if you switch them to Vanilla ones, you can fire them all day with a 96% heat efficiency.

I racked up 865 damage in one game, 922 in the next, 23 in the match after that, and 0 in the match after after when some clown with a name similar to (BUT NOT EXACTLY! NO TOS VIOLATION HERE!) peter pan unleashed a stream of expletives at the start of the match, then a stream of dakka into my back. Oh well.

[BP Raven]

AWS-9M

Put this together and had a game with it, got 2 kills in a steamroll win but only 350ish damage, so jury is still out. Still not sure i like lasers as primary weapon on the 9M, need to stare at the enemy for too long. The SRM6 is really just a bonus weapon, since it's effectively 3 SRM2s chain fired, and you need a 4 button mouse to really work it (i used groups: PPC, LLAS, All Lasers, SRM. If you have extra buttons the MLas on their own don't generate much heat).

You could drop the SRM for an extra heatsink and the bigger XL 385 engine, and top up the leg armour with the spare tonnage.

Edited by BP Raven, 18 July 2013 - 10:00 AM.