41 replies to this topic

[RazorbeastFXK3]

My first mech was the Centurion in mwomercs. Versatile and generally cheap mech with a wide variety of armaments has enough armor to go toe to toe with any mech and quick enough to manuever out of most tight situations. Downside is that it cannot equip anything to its left arm so you're forced to try and protect your right quite often.

I moved on to the catapult for heavy 'cause it was still nimble with decent armor and hardpoints then for assault I went for the stalker 'cause it mounts impressive firepower but sacrifices most manueverability.

Other than that, there's always the testing grounds to perfect your skill in the field unless you like jumping in the deep end feet first. The key settings can be changed so you may perform better in the field instead of having to adapt to the defaults and what I usually do is I check out youtube vids to see how certain mechs perform in the field before I decide to purchase them with my CBills.

Have a blast, mechwarrior!

Edited by RazorbeastFXK3, 15 July 2014 - 09:19 AM.

[masterstranger]

Koniving, on 15 July 2014 - 06:54 AM, said:

Orions are solid, affordable mechs that bridge the gap between Heavy and Assault while maximizing the strengths and minimizing the weaknesses of the two. Unlike the assaults, the Orion can be fast enough to get away from danger, bad positioning, general bad situations and mistakes. Unlike the heavies, it can take abuse worthy of an assault mech.


Thunderbolts.

Advantages:

• One variant can jump.
  
• Two variants can use all 3 weapon types.
  
• Two variants have shoulder-mounted energy weapons (on eye level, makes it easy to crest hills as a sniper).
  
• All variants have arm weapons, allowing for skilled players to track enemies for lock-ons, advanced aiming techniques as well as better vertical and horizontal range of aim for situations when you otherwise cannot shoot at the target.
  
• These mechs come stock with strong armor.
  
• Lots of hardpoints for lots of weapon variety.
  
• Cockpit is on the left torso and not the center, with the middle of the cockpit being a divider for torsos. (This is good because anyone going for a headshot with a beam weapon is going to split their damage between 3 sections).
  
• The general hitbox shape makes the center and left torsos very Clan mech resistant. (IE good resistance against laser fire due to tendency to spread damage without effort. Don't expect it to help against ballistics or missiles).
  
• Bloated body shape (done because the stock has lots of armor; pity stock armor doesn't mean much) has a lot of front torso surface area and very little rear; while not always a good thing here it means you can focus more than 95% of your armor on the front and tank like a beast. Just don't let things get behind you.
  
• The side torsos are huge. When one is destroyed, it reduces all damage done to it by 50% before transferring it to the center torso. Get them hitting your destroyed shoulder space to reduce it by 75% (50% from arm hitbox to ST, 50% of that from ST to CT).

Disadvantages:

• A large number of hardpoints with only 65 tons to work with means it is difficult to fill them and design ideas tend to go awry when they feel they must fill every hardpoint. Balanced, mixed loadouts can use them all just fine, but many people like to carry the biggest bangs for their buck and as many of said bangs as they possibly can.
  
• Some builds have most of the hardpoints on the left torso, this draws attention and fire to the left torso.
  
• Most hardpoints are mounted on the torsos.
  
• Regardless of launcher size, the missile pods tend to have only 2 sizes on some variants, large and huge. Other variants only have medium and large. There's always the option of removing them entirely though.
  
• Thunderbolt cockpits are off-center, though it doesn't feel that way. This makes convergence a little awkward and depth perception as well.
  
• Thunderbolts normally have a great view, unless you're in one with two left torso missile launchers then you can't see to your left.
  
• Thunderbolts are fat targets with huge side torsos, they are not XL engine friendly unless at very high speeds of more than 81 kph. And even then it's a nasty risk.

Thunderbolts are a favorite of mine.



And I know, vid overload. But it never hurts to watch things in moderation over time. Some variety videos. Contains multiple mechs; one to a match, shorter matches.

No such thing as video overload I love learning and just watching a skilled player making decisions helps me with mine.

So you're saying get an Orion over a Thunderbolt? After watching all the videos, i have to admit i am leaning towards the Thunderbolt. (Of those two). I think i would enjoy the playstyle after watching you paly, especially the one where you start out using the LRMs, then do some spotting, and then move down the hill to assist at the end "brawling" in town. That would be something i could easily enjoy, doing a little bit of everything, switching my role as the situation requires it.

The orion is a trial mech i've gravitated towards, as it seems i do the best with it (or the cataphract)... ie 100 ish pts of damage, and 2-3 assists, with a couple of spots thrown in. If the thunderbolt plays similarly to the Orion, i will probably get the Thunderbolt first.

Thank you to everyone elses replies! They all seem like such awesome mechs! its a shame you can't buy them all! The thread with most common mech suggestions didn't contain the ones i'm leaning towards, is that unusual? haha. I'm still open to any other suggestions, but of them all, the Orion and the Thunderbolt have stolen my heart me thinks (They are sexy looking mechs).

[MrGunner2You]

Where are my mechs? Just dropped $160.00 and nothing is updated in my hanger or anything. I have the receipt with same user name and all but no premium and no deal? WTF? Caution to all who are looking to buy stuff in this company, the grounds are shakey.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

MrGunner2You, on 15 July 2014 - 06:14 PM, said:

Where are my mechs? Just dropped $160.00 and nothing is updated in my hanger or anything. I have the receipt with same user name and all but no premium and no deal? WTF? Caution to all who are looking to buy stuff in this company, the grounds are shakey.

If you just bought today, you will need to wait a little bit for your mechs to appear in your Mechlab

Check this out:

Quote

General & Purchases
Q: I just purchased, where is my Clan Collection?
A: Your Clan Collection will be delivered at the next available injection occurring each business day starting at 4PM PDT / 7PM EDT / 11PM UTC. The delivery script may take several hours to run over all affected accounts, so we appreciate your patience as it runs. If you purchased after the indicated time, your collection will be delivered with the next injection the following day, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

You can check your Pre-Order Status here:
https://mwomercs.com/profile/preorders

[Koniving]

Either-or. The Orions are more versatile across all variants. The Thunderbolts have niche ideals. They are both solid mechs. Both admittedly under-loved by the community.

In some ways Thunderbolts and Orions are similar. But it's a 10 ton difference which is reflected in both max armor limits as well as maximum tonnage that can be spent in weapons, engine, ammo, etc.

Since you're leaning toward Thunderbolts.. The 9 series (9S and 9SE) are more advanced in the sense that they come with heatsink upgrades already. Both appear to come with standard engines, double heatsinks.

The 9S comes with at least one of each kind of hardpoint. It's got a medium-sized launcher pod so don't expect a whole lot of LRM power to come out of it.

The 9SE is significantly more limited in hardpoints but it favors fewer yet larger weapons. You can pack two launchers in, but both are medium-sized (10 tubes each; if you pack in LRM 20s they will speed-volley two sets of 10 instead of all at once). It's redeeming feature are the jumpjets, however.

The other two while also solid units require you to pay for the heatsink upgrade after getting it, which is much more expensive (1.5 million). Given PGI's pricing quirks the 9-series of Thunderbolts are much cheaper than they 'should' be versus Battletech and tabletop.

Truth be told at stock the Thunderbolts run almost the same armor that on their front STs as my Hunchback's Hunch does.

A chase cam from Lordred's perspective as he follows my Hunchback on the first time I ran the build.
Score from that one.

Spoiler

(To mention it... 7-11 was my Birthday. Score of 711 damage. Though as seen in the date of the video it's fairly old).

Actually having looked that, I saw Lordred put up a vid with a pure stock Orion. Standard heatsinks and all. You may notice the gameplay style required is extremely different. Chain fired weapons, pauses between firing.



My other 3 Thunderbolts are invalid because their engines have been removed.

Also, don't let people make you think that you need a large number of weapons to do a lot of damage.

Trebuchets are 50 ton missile mechs with the same height as Orions. They're walking stick figures that are very easy to kill. This build was an eternally cold (heat neutral) rig with a single large pulse laser as its mainstay for damage. MGs are not generally considered good for getting damage, and streaks are imprecise.

[Koniving]

MrGunner2You, on 15 July 2014 - 06:14 PM, said:

Where are my mechs? Just dropped $160.00 and nothing is updated in my hanger or anything. I have the receipt with same user name and all but no premium and no deal? WTF? Caution to all who are looking to buy stuff in this company, the grounds are shakey.

As Praetor responded.
Anything bought within the game is delivered instantly (though there is a recent bug that'll give an error. Relogging and checking back in 10 or so minutes usually fixes it). Since the money used in game (called MC) is already paid for and simply a credit, it's instant.
Anything bought from the website itself is run on a different system that does scheduled deliveries, I believe part of it is because it allows for payment to process.

Also be aware that if your first purchase is a large sum, you may need to contact support@mwomercs.com and request to be 'whitelisted,' as it appears a little weird to immediately throw more than 50 dollars at a game you just started playing.

[Hobgoblin I]

Hunchbacks....there are energy, missle, and ballistic versions to cut your teeth on. They are durable and don't need (or want) an XL engine so they are cheap. Great torso twist, smaller size to be harder to hit...perfect 2nd line mechs. Also mediums will get through the queue quicker...

[masterstranger]

Koniving, on 15 July 2014 - 07:37 PM, said:

Either-or. The Orions are more versatile across all variants. The Thunderbolts have niche ideals. They are both solid mechs. Both admittedly under-loved by the community.

In some ways Thunderbolts and Orions are similar. But it's a 10 ton difference which is reflected in both max armor limits as well as maximum tonnage that can be spent in weapons, engine, ammo, etc.

Since you're leaning toward Thunderbolts.. The 9 series (9S and 9SE) are more advanced in the sense that they come with heatsink upgrades already. Both appear to come with standard engines, double heatsinks.

The 9S comes with at least one of each kind of hardpoint. It's got a medium-sized launcher pod so don't expect a whole lot of LRM power to come out of it.

The 9SE is significantly more limited in hardpoints but it favors fewer yet larger weapons. You can pack two launchers in, but both are medium-sized (10 tubes each; if you pack in LRM 20s they will speed-volley two sets of 10 instead of all at once). It's redeeming feature are the jumpjets, however.

The other two while also solid units require you to pay for the heatsink upgrade after getting it, which is much more expensive (1.5 million). Given PGI's pricing quirks the 9-series of Thunderbolts are much cheaper than they 'should' be versus Battletech and tabletop.

Truth be told at stock the Thunderbolts run almost the same armor that on their front STs as my Hunchback's Hunch does.

A chase cam from Lordred's perspective as he follows my Hunchback on the first time I ran the build.
Score from that one.

Spoiler

(To mention it... 7-11 was my Birthday. Score of 711 damage. Though as seen in the date of the video it's fairly old).

Actually having looked that, I saw Lordred put up a vid with a pure stock Orion. Standard heatsinks and all. You may notice the gameplay style required is extremely different. Chain fired weapons, pauses between firing.



My other 3 Thunderbolts are invalid because their engines have been removed.

Also, don't let people make you think that you need a large number of weapons to do a lot of damage.

Trebuchets are 50 ton missile mechs with the same height as Orions. They're walking stick figures that are very easy to kill. This build was an eternally cold (heat neutral) rig with a single large pulse laser as its mainstay for damage. MGs are not generally considered good for getting damage, and streaks are imprecise.

Thank you for all the help guys! I hate to flip flop but i went and spoke to some of the guys on the "education centre" teamspeak, as well as quite a few during Sidestrafes stream today. Nearly everyone said go with an Orion over the Thunderbolt, not that the Thunderbolt was bad, but that it probably required a little more skill to pilot. They also said (generally) that the Thunderbolt was unfairly underrated, so i already have plans to make it my second chasis haha. one day, i just need to grind in my new Orion - K variant.

ON1-K

This is the load out i came up with, haven't tried it in game yet. So far im not overly happy with the med lasers (didn't have the money for large though) and i know i should be using 2 10s instead of a 15 lrm (again, short on funds) but i have a feeling i'll have some fun with it.

Thank you all for the help! Very much appreciated. I will be back with further questions no doubt. So refreshing to have a pvp game not entirely filled with the scum of the universe and trash haha, its like a little oasis out in the big bad interwebs.

Thank you again guys!

[The Great Unwashed]

You'r probably strapped for cash so the Radar Deprivation module is out of the question at the moment.

You carry a lot of ammo in your sides; though you do not have an XL engine, an ammo explosion will transfer all damage that exceeds the total health of your side torso to your center torso. If you use CASE, this will not happen. Alternatively, you can try to move some ammo to your legs. Yes, you can suffer an ammo explosion there as well but you have max armor and you will survive the ammo explosion.

Note that the 300 engine has "free space" for two heat sinks. Not that you really need it, but you will keep the heat sink when you lose your right arm.

The LRM15 could be useful, but you need locks and cannot penetrate an ECM field on your own without TAG (which you do not carry). You could consider SRM6s? They have a great close-range punch so you can do some more brawling.

I moved some parts around, slightly, and went to 10 points of rear armor favoring front armor:
ON1-K
I'm not an AMS user that might save you 1.5 tons plus 0.5 tons by ditching CASE:
ON1-K
There's still some ammo in vital areas that is usually expended quickly. Conversely, if you are taking critical hits and you haven't spent even 1 ton of ammo, it wasn't going to be a good game anyway You can move the right-torso ammo to the legs too and see how often you get legged. If you suffer heat problems and enjoy close-range fighting, you can opt for the LBX10 and take one more ton of ammo. The LBX10 is cooler and lighter, but do not think it is better than the AC10. The LBX10 does more damage to criticals but spreads the damage over all criticals in an exposed section: the AC10 does 10 full points of damage and will take out any critical in an exposed area with one shot if the dice rolls in your favor (up to 3 criticals in 3% of the cases).

Edited by The Great Unwashed, 15 July 2014 - 11:36 PM.

[masterstranger]

The Great Unwashed, on 15 July 2014 - 11:27 PM, said:

You'r probably strapped for cash so the Radar Deprivation module is out of the question at the moment.

You carry a lot of ammo in your sides; though you do not have an XL engine, an ammo explosion will transfer all damage that exceeds the total health of your side torso to your center torso. If you use CASE, this will not happen. Alternatively, you can try to move some ammo to your legs. Yes, you can suffer an ammo explosion there as well but you have max armor and you will survive the ammo explosion.

Note that the 300 engine has "free space" for two heat sinks. Not that you really need it, but you will keep the heat sink when you lose your right arm.

The LRM15 could be useful, but you need locks and cannot penetrate an ECM field on your own without TAG (which you do not carry). You could consider SRM6s? They have a great close-range punch so you can do some more brawling.

I moved some parts around, slightly, and went to 10 points of rear armor favoring front armor:
ON1-K
I'm not an AMS user that might save you 1.5 tons plus 0.5 tons by ditching CASE:
ON1-K
There's still some ammo in vital areas that is usually expended quickly. Conversely, if you are taking critical hits and you haven't spent even 1 ton of ammo, it wasn't going to be a good game anyway You can move the right-torso ammo to the legs too and see how often you get legged. If you suffer heat problems and enjoy close-range fighting, you can opt for the LBX10 and take one more ton of ammo. The LBX10 is cooler and lighter, but do not think it is better than the AC10. The LBX10 does more damage to criticals but spreads the damage over all criticals in an exposed section: the AC10 does 10 full points of damage and will take out any critical in an exposed area with one shot if the dice rolls in your favor (up to 3 criticals in 3% of the cases).

Thanks! I'll save those couple of loadouts to play around, and yeah i will move the heatsinks into the engine. I wanted LRMS to have something to do while i wait in the mid lines for the push (either way) to happen. (In all the matches i've played, both teams seem to poke and prod each other, till i certain point, when everyone starts pushing hard on one side, thats when i plan to go into "brawl mode" haha) Thats why i have the LRMS over the SRMS or SSRMS. It gives me something to do in those opening phases, as i try not to draw any undue attention to myself.

I will have a tinker around with it soon, i'm flat broke so i might have to have a few matches before i change anything "drastic"

[John80sk]

I don't know how newbie friendly the Orion is... Big torso with little arms makes it far less tanky than lighter mechs with better hitboxes. It can be effective if the player understands the limitations of the chassis, but so can any mech.

The Jaegermech is probably in my eyes the most newbie friendly heavy. High mounted weapons, fairly simple loadouts, useful with an XL or a standard. Can't take a lot of punishment, but seems to fit the fire support role this guy has a preference for. Also easier for new players to get a handle on the dual reticle system without lateral motion I think. On top of that the Jaeger can take all three weapon types. Only thing it doesn't have is jump jets.

EDIT: whoops, guess you already picked the Onion.

I would recommend you move some ammo to the legs and head, which people are less likely to target. You can also skimp on arm and leg armor a bit with the orion, both are rarely targeted.

Some optimization of your build:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...fc5117086f420d5

The smaller LRM's will have a tighter spread and faster reload. The stripped armor you're unlikely to miss (if you do miss it you can drop a heatsink). The ammo location is kindof a taste thing.

Further on down the line you'll probably want more specialization, but as a new player you'll probably be fine with a mixed loadout.

Edited by John80sk, 16 July 2014 - 12:06 AM.

[The Great Unwashed]

He bought one indeed. The builds of John80SK have the heat sinks in the side torso, commonly known as crit padding; when the armor is gone then the critical component damage is randomly assigned to a (filled) critical slot: having a heatsink at that location reduces the changes of loosing a weapon or destroying ammo by selecting the heat sink as a target. Note that at this point, loosing the heat sink isn't so bad compared to loosing the weapon. (You should do this for the builds I suggested too because you have the space to do so)

[Blood Rose]

Misery.
Its the best hero Mech available, mounting a good mix of energy, Missile and a single Ballistic. As its a Stalker it can facetank like no tomorrow and it makes an amazing support Mech.
The only downside is that it can only be bought for MC.

Alternatively the Thunderbolt TDR-9S is an amazing choice and well priced.

[Kmieciu]

It's better to put ammo in arm rather than side torso. AC10 ammo explodes for 150 points of damage. 75 gets transferred to the center torso. If you put it in the arm, the center torso would sustain only 32.5 damage. And people rarely target Orion's arms, since the side torsos are so huge.

Edited by Kmieciu, 16 July 2014 - 12:58 AM.

[Koniving]

Simpler solution to what Kmieciu mentioned is to either slap in "C.A.S.E." which is Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment -- prevents damage from spreading to the center torso, or to pad it down enough so that it's impossible for the ammo to explode.

I went with padding. Your Orion K padded like this, you will lose the side torsos before the ammo can even think of detonating. The only thing that could possibly cause it to detonate sooner is either a mech with lots of machine guns (don't get close to them) or mechs carrying LB-X autocannons (they're shotguns). Since the first wont' do much til it gets through your armor and the second is very rare, you'll be just fine. Also it will run much colder, too.

The ammo in the head is safe, you'll die before it can explode.
The ammo in the center torso is protected by the engine and until the engine can be destroyed (with it mattering), it'll super-protect your AC/10 ammo. Center torso ammo is also the first to drain, so it'll be gone in 15 shots. You'll have plenty of time to get rid of it. The side torso ammo is now padded by lots of heatsinks. The more slots something has, the more likely it will be destroyed first.

Since ammo has only one slot, but heatsinks have three, the heatsinks will almost always be destroyed before anything else. Even then the ammo has a 10% chance of exploding when destroyed which is basically nil.

[Koniving]

You will notice in this video's beginning, the mech is built without any 'padding'. Everything is '1 slot', and as such when it's hit the ammo is almost guaranteed to explode. During the first match what had happened was multiple things of ammo were destroyed in a few quick shots, triggering one to explode. In sequence, all the remaining ones exploded as well. Later, I redesign Ghoulsby's Swift Dakka Dragon and made it much safer. Never detonated again.

(Before anyone asks, that would be the old UI).

[Gasoline]

masterstranger, on 15 July 2014 - 09:47 PM, said:

Thank you for all the help guys! I hate to flip flop but i went and spoke to some of the guys on the "education centre" teamspeak, as well as quite a few during Sidestrafes stream today. Nearly everyone said go with an Orion over the Thunderbolt, not that the Thunderbolt was bad, but that it probably required a little more skill to pilot. They also said (generally) that the Thunderbolt was unfairly underrated, so i already have plans to make it my second chasis haha. one day, i just need to grind in my new Orion - K variant.

That was what I would've said as well. Regrettable there're not many "forgiving" mechs in MWO due to heavy focus damage. For newcomers (or returners after a very long break in your case) I would recommend anything with a standard engine and proper hitboxes.

masterstranger, on 15 July 2014 - 09:47 PM, said:

ON1-K

This is the load out i came up with, haven't tried it in game yet. So far im not overly happy with the med lasers (didn't have the money for large though) and i know i should be using 2 10s instead of a 15 lrm (again, short on funds) but i have a feeling i'll have some fun with it.

That's actually a decent layout for little space bucks and can deal with every range. I love mixed layouts, it can get a little tricky in the current long range meta. Nevertheless, all the "pricy" upgrades (Endo Steel and Double Heat Sinks) are needed anyway. So nothing wrong to take a few spins in and see if you can get it to work.

Do not get anxious if have a hard time getting this thing to work. It will change as soon as you unlock basic efficiencies and even more so when you master the elites (which nets you also double basic efficiencies).

If you're interested in my experiences on different chassis, head along, otherwise feel free to ignore them.

Spoiler

Lights:

Spoiler

20t:
Locust: A fun mech with a niche role. It's fast, tiny, hard to hit, but extremely easy to kill once you get cornered. You need the biggest XL engine possible as well as max armor, then start adding weapons. Hard to get any significant scores in, but scoring kills in a Locust are... epic.

Hero variant: none.

25t:
Commando: My second mech after my Founders Catapult. Dunno why, but I love the tiny buggers. They're the fastest mech on the field with an XL240 and can get really annoying. The -2D can sport ECM. The Commando has quite good hitboxes and seem to have a lot more staying power than a Locust.

Hero variant: The Death's Knell. Incredibily fast, all hardpoints arm mounted energy. Runs hot if you're hot on the trigger, but it's hilarious to run circles around other lights.

30t:
Spider: Annoying as hell. The -5D can sport ECM. Probably the nastiest thing in MWO ever since it was introduced. Not particular dangerous on it's own (yeah, yeah... I know that there're some cracks...) but really hard to kill without Streak SRMs. If you see your whole team leaving you alone with eleven enemies, then you can be sure, the enemy has a Spider around. If you can't overcome them, play one yourself. The -5V is a pain to play due to terribad hardpoints in the torso.

Hero variant: none (thankfully... the only good Spider is a dead Spider )

Kit Fox: Clan chassis. Currently available for real money or MC. Clan traits: Fixed engine, fixed structure, fixed armor type (you can adjust the values tho). Omnipods. You can literally mount anything on a Kit Fox, only limits are available critical slots or weight, hardpoints can be swapped via Omnipods. You can change Omnipods between variants, for example you can mount the right arm of the C variant on the prime and you'll be able to equip ECM (the only Clan mech so far that can actually mount ECM). Clan lights play WAY different than Inner Sphere lights. Due to the engine limit you're relatively slow in regards to IS (Inner Sphere) lights, so no squirrel hunt for you here. Clan equipment is lighter and uses less space, so the lack in speed is offset in sheer firepower. Play it like a squishy medium or a heavy sniper. Some Omnipods can mount Jump Jets.

Hero variant: none

35t:
Firestarter: The current go to light. Durable, fast, Jump Jets and tremendous firepower for a light chassis. Very good hitboxes make it hard to kill. The incarnation of a harrasser. Has full arm movement, but no missile slots. Runs pretty hot, so you need to be aware of your trigger finger.

Hero variant: Ember. God that mech is so annoying. 4 ballistic and 4 energy hardpoints, Jump Jets and all energy hardpoints arm mounted. VERY dangerous and your doom if you ever find yourself with any open components in it's face. Open the enemy with 4 arm mounted Medium Lasers and blast away with 4 MG's to shred it's internals. Reminds me of those strange tentacle robots in Matrix...

Jenner: A center torso on legs. Highly maneuverable due to jump jets and low profile make it a dangerous foe. Most effective way of killing them is firing away. You'll eventually hit the center torso anyway, because the side torsos are very, very tiny. Which is as good as it's bad. It's absolutely XL safe, but you take too much abuse to the center torso, no way to tank your damage. You have limited arm movement, but missile slots in the center torso. It's extremely pricey tho, because you need that XL300. Note: The Champion Jenner comes stock with an XL300 equipped. Extremely good deal for an MC purchase! Also: it's actually a better deal as if you purchase a C-Bill package for MC. If you need C-Bills dearly and want to spend MC on this, purchase this thing and sell it.

Hero variant: Oxide. An all missile hardpoint Jenner. Very good Streak SRM boat, but it's the only Jenner without Jump Jets, so your movement is limited.

Raven: Well, there's the -3L ECM fast Raven and the bad variants (common misconception). The -3L is the only chassis that comes with ECM stock. It has a higher engine limit than it's other variants (295 to 275). Gets abused as an ER Large Laser sniper boat quite commonly. Can mount every weapon over all variants (two are energy/missile and one is energy/ballistic). Quite flexible platform but prone to getting legged for having bad leg hitboxes.

Hero variant: Huginn. The odd brother of the Raven in all ammo layout. It has 2 missile/2 ballistic, so you're ammo dependant whatever you do. Has an even higher engine cap than all of it's brothers (up to 300). One of the best paintjobs. Difficult to master. Needs to be the last to the party and prey on wounded enemies.

Adder: Clan mech. Same as the Kit Fox. Has the speciality of a hardwired Flamer in the center torso (you cannot unmount it). No Jump Jets, no ECM. That leaves room for some really decent firepower for a 35t mech. Every weapon can be mounted. Has a low profile has the same fixed speed as the Kit Fox. It's literally it's larger, meaner brother. Can snipe, but due to the lack of ECM you have to be very aware of your surroundings. Can be devastating in a bar brawl tho. Can take on enemy lights in a missile config.

Hero variant: none.

Mediums:

Spoiler

40t:
Cicada: The bigger, badder, meaner brother of the lights. Seriously, it's a light imprisoned in a medium chassis. The -3M can mount ECM. No missile option in the base variants tho. Still a good light hunter or sniper. Only reasonable with a large XL engine. There're some builds just for the lulz (mounting AC/20 and some such...) that can work as well. Note: The champion Cicada is similar to the Jenner champion MC wise. It comes stock with an XL340, which is a tremendously expensive engine on it's own.

Hero variant: The X-5. The only mech so far that cannot even mount a single AMS. Doesn't really need it tho. It's the only missile variant in this chassis so far. Excellent light hunter. Comes with a huge and terrible expensive engine (XL330).

45t:
Blackjack: Needs an XL engine to be competivtive, but if you fetch one, they can be fun (champion BJ comes stock with a max XL engine). Good and especially high mounted hardpoints make for good hill humping. They're a little squishy in a brawl tho. Can effectively mount AC/20's with back up weaponry. One variant can mount a 295 rated engine (same as the Raven-3L). Suffers a bit of the JagerMech syndrome. Everybody knows you have an XL engine mounted and aims for your side torsos. No one shoots your arms tho, so if you don't know where to put that ammo in...

Hero variant: Arrow. 6 ballistics. Fun loadout even in stock. Especially surprising since it mounts a STD engine stock. Focus anything that has open internals with your six MG's. Fantastic paint job by the way.

50t:
Centurion: Pretty durable with STD engines, they can mount XL engines, but no longer as good as they were used to. They're the best zombies around. A Centurion will most likely draw less attention than other mediums as long as you don't go too fast. People are used to focus on your right arm, so don't mount all your firepower there (no big AC's).

Hero variant: Yen-Lo-Wang. XL engine and an AC/20 in the right arm. No missile weapons, so you're pretty much stuck with a large XL to protect that precious AC/20. Make use of that left shield arm. Surprisingly effective light hunter and flanker.

Hunchback: If you liked Hunchies back in closed beta you probably won't like them now. The game is much faster than back in those days and the Hunch seems to have a hard time keeping up with that (not that you can't make a Hunch work, it just got a little harder). Even Joe Derp has realized that most of your firepower is concentrated in that damned hunch. So frontload your armor on that hunch. It has a barn door like front hitbox, but just a tiny back box, so make use of that. The only thing that hasn't changed at all is, you guessed it, XL engines are a no go.

Hero variant: Grid Iron. An odd horse that is. It's a mix of a -4G and -SP. Can sport some fun loadouts, but the default XL200 is not good at all. If XL mount the largest you can afford, you need that speed to protect your hunch. My best approaches to this chassis sport STD engines tho.

Trebuchet: The black sheep in this weight class. No one likes it due to being tall and easy to disarm. A lot of it's firepower is concentrated in the arms and those are easy to hit. A really difficult mech to master. They seem to be pretty XL safe (and speed is the only way to protect those arms anyway) and can be quite speedy. One variant can sport up to 390 rated engines. Every variant has missile and energy hardpoints, one has ballistics. Pretty flexible and underrated.

Hero variant: Loup de Guerre: Comes stock with the max rated XL engine (325). Other than that nothing too special about it. 4 missile and 2 energy layout and two thirds of your firepower in the arms.

Nova: Clan chassis. Shares the traits of every Clan mech. The Nova Omnipods we currently have ingame are energy/ballistic only. The Nova suffers from being locked to standard internals and standard armor, so no weight savings. Most of it's firepower is concentrated in the arms. Prone to having heat issues, so sustainable fire is really difficult. Shoot the arms and you've pretty much negated a Nova. If you pilot it, flank the enemy. Don't pop out in their faces, instead try to sneak up from behind and give them a taste of your firepower. Has hardwired (unremovable) JJ's.

Hero variant: none.

55t:
Griffin: The best sightseeing mech of the Inner Sphere. Put on your sunglasses, lean back and enjoy an ice cream sundae while wreaking havoc. Griffins are extremely mobile, have Jump Jets and are all energy/missile. The -3M comes stock with an XL engine (which you can use on the Raven-2X and -4X) and Double Heat Sinks! Good LRM and (S)SRM skirmisher. If you encounter them, focus on the right side cos 90% of it's firepower is concentrated there. Therefore, always XL... if you lose your right torso you're done for anyway.

Hero variant: none.

Kintaro: Probably one of the most underrated mechs ever. Started with terrible hitboxes, but got fixed later. Incredibly fast, can sport LRM's, SRM's and SSRM's en masse. Has weapon bay doors in the center torso for extra damage mitigation (10% bonus) if closed, so leave them closed unless you engage! With the recent fix of SRM's this mech is particularly dangerous. Only drawback is, you have no Jump Jets and no ballistic slots. Use flanking tactics. Be wary of Ghost Heat!

Hero variant: Golden Boy. Way slower than the other variants, but that gives him more room for weapons. Can be a nice medium LRM or SRM boat. Comes stock with an XL engine, tho not one everybody's waiting for (XL220).

Shadowhawk: Everybody's darling of MWO. Pretty much a Jack-of-all-Trades. Can mount every weapon and utilize every tactic, as long as you don't rush headlong into a Dire Wolf. The hitboxes make it pretty XL safe. Jump Jets are included. The shoulder mounted hardpoints make it a good hillhumper and poptart.

Hero variant: none.

Wolverine: The other most underrated mech. Good hitboxes and (up to 7!!!) JJ's in two variants make it a skirmisher par excellence. I found LRM's to be a bit meh on Wolverines. SRM and SSRM loadouts wreck havoc tho. The -6R has a ballistic right arm. The -6K has no JJ's but can sport a bigger engine (375). It's a bit right focused in layout, but not as much as the Griffin, as it sports an energy hardpoint in the head on every variant. So it can even zombie.

Hero variant: none.

Stormcrow: Clan chassis. Shares the traits with all other Clan chassis. Fast, flexible and devastating. Other than it's Clan cousins it has an interesting hardpoint layout, in that all hardpoints are cockpit height or a little higher. So you can shoot everything you see. Drawback is, it has a sort of hump, making it nearly impossible to crest hills. Also it has no JJ's at all.

Hero variant: none.

Heavy:

Spoiler

60t:
Dragon: Not a beginners mech at all. Suffers from issues with the massive belly/nose hitbox. Pretty fast for a heavy, otherwise flexible loadouts, most of the stuff arm mounted. No JJ's make it difficult to handle in the current meta. Extremely hard to master. Cram in a large XL engine and make a run for your life. While doing, try to make them pay for your hide. If you encounter a Dragon, fire away, you'll hit the center torso eventually... (Now that I think of it, it plays like an extremely fat Jenner without JJ's )

Hero variant: Fang/Flame: Nothing really special about them. The Flame has a cockpit level mounted ballistic slot which make it a little more popular in the community (it can crest hills).

Quickdraw: A giant martian space robot. Any by giant I mean... gigantic. Seriously, it's legs and arms are huge... With a decent XL engine is goes pretty fast and can still pack some punch. The standard variants are all energy/missile. It's kind of love it or hate it, there's not really an in between. Other than that, it's most remarkable asset is, that you usually don't see them. They're very rarely fielded.

Hero variant: IV-Four: This is actually a special bird. It has arm mounted ballistics and comes stock with an XL 240. Nothing too spectacular, but hey, at least it's still new and so you see at least some of them.

65t:
Catapult: One of the more iconic IS LRM boats. Urgently needs an XL engine. The headshot issue from closed beta is no more... at least Joe Derp has issues headshotting it from across the map. Still a very common sight, tho -C4 and -C1 are getting more and more rare. Nothing too special about the chassis. Just don't get cornered in a Catapult, so try to be as fast as possible (XL300). The -K2 is still popular in Gausscat or Boomcat layout. Either shoot the ears of the side torsos. All but the -K2 have JJ's.

Hero variant: Jester. This IS the bigger, better, meaner, evil, fat brother of the Jenner. It can sport up to 355 rated engines and is literally a -K2 without ballistics but with JJ's. Hilarious in a lazor boat layout.

JagerMech: The end-of-all-days mechs of the IS. Known for high mounted ballistic and energy hardpoints and king of the hill humpers. Everyone tends to say it's newbie friendly... I don't think so. You need an XL engine in there to sport any serious layout. Your side torsos get shot out pretty easily. The easiest way to kill a Jager is to sneak up from behind and shoot out the rear side torso, boom goes the Jager. You really need to be aware of your surroundings and hug your back to a wall. JagerMech usually are priority targets.

Hero variant: Firebrand. One of the most, if not the most popular hero mech there is. Ballistic and energy mounts in the arms... make for some really bad day on the receiving end. Comes stock with an XL280 which is also a nice engine for Catapults and Cataphracts.

Thunderbolt: When it first came out I wondered if they would just copy past the appearance to the Summoner . And that's pretty much true to the design. It's a pretty tanky mech if you don't equip XL engines. You can make them work, but I didn't like it. Significantly lowers your expected lifetime. Pretty balanced hardpoint layout. The -9SE can mount JJ's. It's a nice workhorse, but really needs those efficiencies unlocked. Hard to find a weak spot on that mech. Try to core it right away.

Hero variant: none.

70t:
Cataphract: Another end-of-all-days mech. Gorilla arms (you can literally tickle your toes with them) make it's life a little harder, but it's a bit more tanky than the JagerMech, while sporting similar hardpoints. Contrary to the JagerMech the arm hardpoints are down below, while the side torso hardpoints are high mounted. Needs an XL engine for the more serious layouts, so shoot at those side torsos. The odd bird is the -4X which can only mount a 255 rated engine. The -3D has JJ's and is renown for it's poptarting capability. Cataphracts get heavily focused as soon as they're spotted.

Hero variant: Ilya Muromets. The goto mech in the Cataphract class. Can sport some ridiculous loadouts (triple UAC/5 or for the lulz triple Gauss). Comes stock with an XL 280.

Summoner: Clan chassis. Shares the same traits with all Clan chassis. The iconic Jade Falcon jumping jack flash. It really suffers from being locked to standard internals, which severly limits it's loadout options. Also it has hardwired JJ's and is significantly underarmored in stock. With the introduction of the Timber Wolf S it looses it's advantage of the JJ's, so it's limited to a niche role. Shouldn't be underestimated tho as it can really ruin your day if it get's a jump on you. Spread out hardpoints make it hard to effectively disarm.

Hero variant: none.

75t:
Orion: The mini-Atlas. Shares the hardpoint layouts with the Atlas, but is more nimble. It appears to be a little taller than the Thunderbolt by sharing some traits. The side torsos seem to be a bit smaller tho. Can take some serious abuse before going down when equipped with a standard engine. XL might work, but I would refrain from using them in an Orion. Orions are usually not the target of choice if there are Jagers or Cataphracts around. The -3M comes stock with an XL300.

Hero variant: Protector. Aleksandr Kerensky's personal ride. It's hardpoints took me a while to get this thing to work, but it's really pretty with those SLDF markings. Nothing too special tho.

Timber Wolf: Probably the most iconic mech of the era. The Timber Wolf is the go-to mech for every Clan pilot. Well spread out and balanced hardpoints, huge engine, ability to mount JJ's, very good hit boxes make this thing incredibly powerful. Sweep the legs, as pilots tend to shave armor from their legs or just headshot it if you can. Otherwise this beast will ruin your day.

Hero variant: none.

Assault:

Spoiler

80t:
Awesome: While being awesome in every iteration of MechWarrior before MWO it's not so awesome in MWO. Terrible hitboxes and armor equation hurt this mech like no other chassis. It requires expert skills to make good use of it and elite to master them effectively. Barn door like side torsos make XL engines a no go. Ironically the -9M comes stock with an XL 320 (those Mariks, I tell you). If you're comfortable with spreading damage, positioning and Assaults in general, give em a try, otherwise leave them be.

Hero variant: Pretty Baby. Probably the most difficult of all Awesomes. Even a Locust is easier to master. It has a weird layout and comes with an XL340 stock.

Victor: The queen of the poptart meta. Has been nerfed a bit in mobility, but is a pretty good chassis and easily doable with an XL engine. There're no dramatic changes in layout, the right arm sports ballistics, while the left has energy mounts. The left torso has missiles. Not the best chassis to make an LRM boat tho. Champion comes stock with an XL 350 (which is also good for Dragons and the Jester).

Hero variant: Dragon Slayer. You heard that name. With the Victor being the queen of the poptart meta, the Dragon Slayer is the king of queens... If you see one, shoot the right side torso. It has additional energy mounts in the right torso, that makes it so preferable for poptarting (better weapon convergance). Comes stock with an XL330.

85t:
Battlemaster: Potent assault. Not as tanky as others but it kinda resembles a 20t heavier Thunderbolt. It has no JJ's but can mount the biggest engines possible. Hardpoints are well spread out, usually with ballistics in the left arm and energy in the other. There're two odd bird that have missile weapons in there. The -1S is a dedicated missile boat. The -3S comes stock with an XL 340.

Hero variant: none.

Stalker: The Jumbo-Jet on legs. This thing can tank... and it can seriously take abuse. The best hitboxes around, high mounted hardpoints make it suitable for every situation. It cannot mount JJ's and is slow, but it has serious staying power and punch. The standard variants don't have ballistic mounts, the arm mounted missile pods have weapon doors tho (damage mitigation, you remember?). The weak spot of the Stalker is the limited torso twist, making it prone to flanking attacks, so try to hold your back to a wall. The -5S comes stock with an XL 255 which is perfectly suited for a Cataphract-4X. The champion comes with an XL 310.

Hero variant: Misery. This thing HAS a big ballistic gun. It's slightly below the cockpit level, so you need to get out of cover a bit more. It has just 1 missile hardpoint tho.

Warhawk: Clan chassis, shares traits, and so on... This thing is dangerous as it can sport some serious firepower. Prime comes with 4 ER PPCs... and it can handle them! And it's reasonable fast, so don't expect a Stalker... Protect your arms in that thing and you're fine. They usually hold the biggest amout of your arsenal.

Hero variant: none.

90t:
Highlander: The jumping assault. Should be... at least... It got severly nerfed for trying to outsnipe the Victor in poptarting (how dare it...?). Has a tendency towards more missile hardpoints. Otherwise it's a 90t assault... and currently it handles like an Atlas. The big guns are in the right arm.

Hero variant: Heavy Metal. Famous for Rhonda Snort. A pink highlander with less missile and more energy hardpoints and an annoying rock sound when it kills an enemy. Comes stock with an XL 275.

95t:
Banshee: The tankiest of all things. This thing can take even more abuse than a Stalker but is well known for it's concentrated firepower in the side torsos. So don't even think about mounting XL engines in there. Tremendous amounts of firepower (ballistic and energy) and one odd missile hardpoint on one variant. The -3S is limited to 345 rated engines.

Hero variant: La Malinche. The one of every hardpoint variant. One ballistic, one missile, 4 energy... nothing too spectacular. Comes stock with an XL 380.

100t:
Atlas: Should strike fear into the hearts of enemies. Usually only draws attention... so usually dead before fear can be applied... (just kidding). Hard to master, draws tons of attention and gets focused as soon as it pops out. Usually you lose your right torso first. Don't even think about XL...

Hero variant: Boar's Head. High energy focus in the arms and XL engine... cram in a standard engine and it's kinda funny.

Dire Wolf: Clan mech... you know the drill. The single largest payload of any mech... need more info? Slow as molasses and turns like a beached whale. Harder to master than an Atlas. Can sport hilarious amounts of weapons. Flank it and it's dead.

Hero variant: none.

[Denolven]

masterstranger, on 15 July 2014 - 04:58 PM, said:

They all seem like such awesome mechs! its a shame you can't buy them all!

Actually, some people do buy them all

Quote

The thread with most common mech suggestions didn't contain the ones i'm leaning towards, is that unusual?

No, that's not unusual, because the thread lists the most common ones. The Thunderbolt is not seen often on the battlefield, for certain reasons. That doesn't mean it's useless, it just means it's uncommon.

The Thunderbolt does well at the allrounder part, but has difficulties with specialization. That's why Shadowhawk and Victor are never wrong - they can compete with some of the specialists when built accordingly. That means in the long run they will always be usefull, no matter how you develop personally. Doesn't make them always right, but certainly never wrong.

That's why I didn't call them allrounders. I called them "never wrong mechs". Because if you don't know what to get, those are never a bad choice. However, you seem to know what you want, so it's no big deal.

[masterstranger]

Thanks guys! I'll get to padding my Mech ASAP . I am so impressed with my "rough newbie build" I went from around 100 damage a game to 400-500 plus i got my first ever kill! Im happy, so once again i just wanted to thank everyone for all their wonderful input!

Btw, thanks for posting anything remotely related. Knowledge is truly the greatest weapon of all, and Gasolines "impressions" are really useful for a newb, something i can slot away in the back of my mind for later reference, even if its just a rough guide on "how to take this mech on"

Thank you I now have to work on getting 2 kills in a match, could be a challange, but i'll get there in the trusty Orion one day.

[Tarriss Halcyon]

I like your choices in mechs. I've been piloting Dragons and Hunchbacks since Open Beta started, and recently I set to work with Thunderbolts, after receiving one for free, and even with my Clan mechs, I can't fault it. I've also been training a few novices, and like you, they seemed to gravitate to the Orion and Cataphract, although the player in question is still deciding what mech he will buy upon finishing his Cadet Bonus time. Perhaps I'll direct him here.

The good thing about choosing obscure mechs or builds, for a novice pilot at least, is that they are unpredictable in pugs for the more experienced players to face. Orion isn't exactly 'obscure' in the same realm as Dragon, for example, but aside for the trial variant, you don't see too many around. Or, at least, I don't. Thunderbolts, though, I do see reasonably often, and those things can tank like crazy. My Thunderbolts, for example, even with Standard Engines and my usually lazy method of mech building (i.e. SHS and no weight-saving materials because I couldn't be bothered fitting them), can tank only slightly less damage than my Stalkers, and dish out death.

Orions are a little more risky than Thunderbolts in the armor, but if you can make them work, then master the mech. I don't mean just in the case of EXP, either. Play with your build constantly until you find a good balance that you like. Learn your mech's limits and your natural playstyle, and from there, the harder to play mechs become easier. As a Dragon pilot, I know this only too well. If you have the cash available for it, buy the hero as well - it makes grinding a lot faster, looks nicer than the stock-standard green mechs (until you can get paints & patterns, at least), and it can be quite dangerous.

Welcome to MWO, I hope to see you on the battlefield at some stage.