96 replies to this topic

[The Central Scrutinizer]

If experienced pilots can spare the time for a lengthy thread from a struggling & aspiring Mechwarrior, you'll have my gratitude.

Here's my situation.

I finished my Cadet matches.....horribly. I realize stats, especially this early, mean nothing, but 0 kills, 24 deaths and 18/25 losses later, it was all I could do to keep from just uninstalling, and go play a game I'm actually good at.

I have 9.4 million Cbills to burn on that 1st owned Mech, but I don't want to buy something I'll later come to despise and I'm paralyzed in deciding what Mech is right for me, here's why:

I played all the light Mechs. On occasion I did a fair amount of damage, but where 'speed is life' for a lot of you, mostly speed was far too stressful and challenging on my old arthritic hands and lack of twitch reflexes.

I played the mediums. The venerable Centurion, with the exception of one match where the enemy team was clearly mentally challenged, usually ended up with some Clan Deity blowing my brains clean out....why a brand new player gets thrown in amongst those wolves (pun intended) is clearly beyond my comprehension..The Devs must surely hate noobs....I did, however, seem to have an affinity for aiming those SRMs

The Trial Shadowhawk, in all it's Meta glory, a monster of the battlefield in capable hands, was by far my worst showing of any Mech of any weight I tried. I am not, nor ever will be a jump sniper (which may spell my doom in playing MWO). The Mech felt clunky, unresponsive and the visibility in the cockpit was a HUGE handicap for me.

The heavies showed promise, however the weapons on that Orion seemed unable to deter TWolves, SCrows, etc. from out DPSing me long before I could find any cover. The Cataphract, well again, jump-combat eludes me, and I felt like a huge target most of the time, even when I tried torso twisting my a$$ off to avoid punishment.

The assaults? One time I almost got a few kills in that cow of a Highlander, but they were 'secured' by other pilots. Mostly it was a bad fit for me. The missile laden Catapult that cannot jump was a death trap. Even when my missiles CLEARLY hit their intended targets, red reticles and all, the actual damage was surprisingly miniscule. The Victor felt like it had a "Shoot Me" sign on it and I rarely got close enough to do real damage, or if I did, I wasn't alive long enough to sustain it.

I want to spend that 9-ish million on a Mech that suits me, but have NO idea what the hell that would even be, especially with the pittance I earned after 25 matches.

In theory, I'd like something kind of "tanky" that can deal a big damage blow up front then retreat a bit to cool down. I'm fond of autocannons, especially the AC/20 and SRMs with artemis would be great too. Speed between 70-90 when tweaked would be sufficient enough for me.

I don't want a medium, pretty sure a heavy, MAYBE an assault would be ideal. What really, really sucks is that the Mechs I would love to play, either by PGI's scaling, or the meta & clan tech of this game, are pretty much turds by any sensible players standards.

TBolts are wide as an Awesome, an Awesome simply isn't, Jagers are glass cannons and Orions do nothing other Mechs can't do better. The Phract 3D would take me a month of grinding to buy & outfit, the Misery is the only Stalker with a ballistic weapon.

So here I sit, looking at a meager 9.4 million in currency with not the foggiest clue what the hell to buy.

Sure, I could just break out the credit card next week on payday and buy a Clanner, or wait till damned near 2015 to buy a good one with Cbills. But honestly, I'd like to be playing NOW, in my shiny new, hard earned Mech.

Ponderous man, ponderous

Constructive advice entirely welcomed, thanks in advance.


*** edited for typos

Edited by The Central Scrutinizer, 28 July 2014 - 03:12 AM.

[drinniol]

What about a Catapult K2? High weapon mounts are the next best thing to jump jets, very good speed and especially twist, good survivability and you won't get focused as fast as an Assualt mech.

Or for a high-mounted slug shooter, take a Jagermech.

Edited by drinniol, 28 July 2014 - 03:23 AM.

[Bajas]

Battlemaster is also a good flexible choice in my opinion. Can also have high mounted energy slots and some variants can carry a good deal of dakka.

Edited by Bajas, 28 July 2014 - 03:28 AM.

[ice trey]

Firstly, my advice to you is "Take what's comfortable, not what's Meta"

I find that I do better with designs that fit my playstyle. Cookie-cutter meta builds looking to min max do nothing for me. If anything, I've just learned to adapt to all the boomphracts and Victors on the field.

If high speed combat is not your thing, just consider how much speed you actually want. You can go with a 'mech that plods at 64K, or a slower assault that goes nowhere fast. On the other end, if you want to be able to respond to situations, I'd suggest something that can at least scoot around at 80-something KPH.

Judging from what you've said so far, I'd think you might prefer doing Hunchbacks. For your first one, I'd do the SP, so that you don't have to deal with people immediately blasting off your hunch and neutering you on your first ride. That was my biggest gripe with the design. Later, you can move up to the AC packing versions. Both the AC10 and AC20 variants work, but I'd veer more towards the AC10 one. You can always pop the AC10 out and replace it with a 20, but you'll have more arm laser crits to work with. the AC20 Hunchie has triple AC slots, so you can potentially use it as an AC2 boat like I do with mine.

My best luck has been with the Wolverines, Jenners, and Battlemasters. My worst luck with the Atlases, Locusts, and Griffins. I generally prefer a 'mech that can move around. Slow, ground-bound mechs tend to do badly for me.

Any mech you get will start out as garbage, but that's only because you haven't unlocked all of basic. As you play through the first few matches, you'll notice that your 'mech gets better pretty quickly. For any and all designs, try to get Speed Tweak as your first Elite upgrade. I have never seen the other upgrades be as valuable.

Edited by ice trey, 28 July 2014 - 03:31 AM.

[countTZT]

So, you want a mech fast but armored, and easy to move around. i suggest you the Victor; personally I never owned one of them, but this loadout looks pretty nice:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...e7fd3553f18ab96

2 SRM as you said you like.
3 AC2 that are pretty deadly in the medium short range
2 medium lasers as backup when you want to leave the battelfied with a jump.

The cooling efficiency is not the best if you shoot an alpha, but if you go only with the missiles and the ac you should be fine. With the basics done it should be much better, son only the first few matches should be a little more problematic. Eventually you can sacrifice a pait of jumjets and youll be able to fit an other heat sinck.

It's 70 km/h if mastered, 64 standard.

2 modules

[Rhaythe]

Right now, a new player taking anything less than 60 tons is pretty much asking for problems. There is some serious high-power yields available for the upper tiers of mechs, and as long as the Timberpuppy is getting taken out by the throngs (there's a reason there's always 40% heavies deployed), it's not going to change.

Some of my recommendations:

HEAVIES
*) The Jagermech - There's so much that can be done with this mech, both with and without XL engines. It's probably one of the most versitile mechs in the game. Sniper, brawler, support, LRMs... this chassis can do it all.
*) The Cataphract - Especially the 3D with jump jets. Pretty much a five-ton-heavier Jager, with very similiar hardpoints but some added bulk. Can be meta'ed out for those that like to copy/paste builds from online.

ASSAULTS
*) The Banshee - Some of the most powerful hardpoints in the IS.
*) The Atlas* - And by Atlas, I mean the DDC for ECM. I love my Founders Atlas, but I would not recommend it for new players

And of course, if you decide to meta it out, the Victor, Highlander, and blah blah blah.

I know you said it'd take a lot of time to grind it out, but from what you've described, I'd really recommend the Cataphract 3D or . There are some really good builds that can be done with it, and if you don't like what you have, it has the ability to change it all up entirely (my favorite).

[DrSlamastika]

There is no such like a bad mech I thing. They all have cons and pros. There are just a different strategies.

But if you choose one of them, its good buy another two from that chassis. Thats a only way how you can push your mech to the limit There are a lot of differences between basic and mastered mech.

I like a different play style so In one match I am using brawler, next game sniper and them LRMr etc . . . because all matches in same or similar setup will be boring.

Let the clan mech out for this moment, from IS mech I like those chassis.

Light: Spider

Medium: I dont like this class at all . . .just my personal feeling

Heavy: Cataphract, Catapult

Assault: Victor, ! ! ! Misery ! ! ! , Highlander

Edited by DrSlamastika, 28 July 2014 - 04:44 AM.

[Votanin FleshRender]

I cannot recommend Jags enough. Even with my clan mechs they're my favorite chassis. Those high wpn mounts come in SO handy... and stock, yes, they're glass cannons... but no one is playing Jags stock in public matches. By the time you buff the armor, add ES, etc, I think they're in great shape. They brawl just fine (with a std engine), they are snipers (almost) without peer, they have a missile variant you can gave some fun with LRMs, or load up on SRMs, or put 4 SSRM2 on and watch light mechs flee in terror from you . The only thing keeping them from being the perfect mech (imo) is the lack of JJs.

[Bhelogan]

Until you have a mech chassis mastered, you really don't have a feel for how it performs in combat. The Trial mechs you have probably been using I believe have the basics unlocked. (I'm not sure where I saw this, but in heat testing it becomes pretty obvious that it is).

I think you might like the Banshee from what you are saying. Somewhat Tanky, and the 3E has 4 ballistic slots, granted all in the left shoulder. This isn't always bad though, so many mechs are right side loaded that people tend to aim for that shoulder, while the Banshee has it's ballistics in the left.

Another question, are you playing solo or with a group? This actually makes a huge difference on what types of mechs and strategies will work effectively.

Example: Even with a small group, you can do things like take dedicated missile boats, and dedicated light NARCers. In combo these work very well together. If you try to pug with one or the other though, it's hit and miss if you will be effective or a waste of weight.

[MonkeyCheese]

I recomend playing around on the Smurfy online mechlab first http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab last thing you wanna do is commit to a mech/build and run out of money, also Double Heat Sinks are usually a MUST on every mech so that is another 1.5mil if they dont come stock.

Considering you have less than 10mil My vote would be to also investigate the K2 catapult or a jagermech or keep grinding trial mechs until you have some real money to tweak out an Assault mech.

The K2 and the jagers can take any auto cannons from machine guns to dual gauss but that usualy means a lot more money spent on non stock engines. They can reach up to 78.5kph (86.4kph speed tweaked) with a max engine and stock they go like 64.8kph (71.3 tweaked)

As for the orion you could easily tweak say a V into an all range build http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=100&l=425609c86847f57c6ed23f18218e01704e5951c5 but builds like these obviously have their own risks

The Firestarters are a very very solid choice for the light category but yes lights are very twitchy.

Also Griffins seem to be the hot medium of late thanks to the srm fix a few patches back, and since you seemed to like srms on a centurion the griffin could be the mech for you if you ever reconsider mediums. Keeping the stock engine (81kph) in a GRF-1N you could fit 3 medium lasers and 3 SRM6 with 4 jumpjets for mobility and as the standard engine is stock if you torso twist damage to your empty left side first http://mwo.smurfy-ne...1ed96045e7749f5 and you could always play around with the ams/jumpjets and fit Artemis for tighter SRM grouping if you wish.

Now that I think about it I am happy that I went thu several wipes during closed beta and knew exactly what I wanted to do with each weight class when the open beta finally rolled around.

Edited by MonkeyCheese, 28 July 2014 - 05:34 AM.

[Brother MEX]

As a old player with bad reflexes, I suggest that you go for the Atlas DDC with ECM first !

But the DDC shouldnt be your first mech, get the RS first, then another cheap Atlas and the DDC as the last of the THREE OF A KIND which you need to unlock ELITE ABILITIES for that chassis, and later for the MASTER ABILITIES for that weight class !

The reason for going this way is the following:
You need a Heavy or Assault for earning Cbills to buy more mechs, and later the Atlas DDC is the only Heavy or Assault with ECM which you need for playing in TEAMSPEAK with other players in a group of 2-12 players.

If you buy a Atlas RS as your first mech, you dont need to outfit it with better equipment like the TRIAL ( CHAMPION ) Mech !
Just buy a cheap RS for Cbills, strip it and leave it in your Mechbay until you have unlocked the MASTER MODULE slot of it by doing all 4 Elite abiliteis.

Dont sell any of the equipment you get with your striped RS, keep it for outfitting your 2nd Atlas after you have earned another 10 millons Cbills !

After doing the basics for your 3rd Atlas, the DDC with ECM, immediatly do the ELITE ABILITIES, especially SPEED TWEAK, for your 3 Atlas to unlock the MASTER MODULE slot for all assault mechs, so that you only need to do the basics for all 3 variants of the next assault mech you buy ...

After unlocking MASTER for your Atlas DDC, it will be time to invest some cash into MWO to
GET MORE MECHBAYS, so that you can get 3 more mechs of another weight class for unlocking the master module slot for the next weight class

....

I suggest that you go for the Spider with ECM next, and start with the trial spider again to enable you to strip it and use the trial mech for collecting XP for this variant.

As you start with 4 mech bays, you can also start the Spider K & Atlas RS at the same time, but i highly recommend getting 2 more Atlas as the 3rd and 4th mech, unless you invest at least 7$ into at least 3 more mechbays for up to 900 MC !

If you want to invest more cash, I suggest getting the HEAVY METAL HERO MECH, as you obviously liked the Highlanders as much as I like them, or even better:
The ULLER clan package with a PRIME with the same abilities as a hero mech, together with 3 additional mech bays and 2 more kitfox variants for beeing able to unlock Elite and Master for light mechs

Actually mech bays are the only thing you really need to buy, as everything else you need can be bought with Cbills ( which is the reason why MWO is a called a FREE TO PLAY game )

MfG, MEX

Edited by Brother MEX, 28 July 2014 - 05:48 AM.

[Jetfire]

Hands down one of the best starters is the Jagermech series. They have a variety of hardpoints and high mounted arm weapons. Be wary of XL engines though and beef up the armor. There are a number of pretty solid builds and if you like them a lot keep an eye out for Hero sales and get the Firebrand to up your Cbill earnings.

Personally I also love my catapults and have one of each. The clan mechs are actually harder for new players in my opinion. The weapons require more time on target and do more steady damage than pinpoint.

The blackjacks are solid mediums as are the hunchbacks.

But yes, keys to success in mech building is Endo, Dual Heat Sinks and up the armor as much as you can on the torso's.

[ShinVector]

TL;DR...

You can carry matches with the META Trial Shadowhawk man.
*Jump sniping is one thing.. Go to make use of the that AC5 ammo on enemy mechs as much as possible.

Edited by ShinVector, 28 July 2014 - 05:23 AM.

[Sudden]

I suggest the illya hero mech or get a timberwolf. if you don't mind spending the money, buy the heavy package its a good deal. it includes all the mechs u need to elite them with.my personal favourite is the shadowhawk 2k but seeing as you don't like those..... I suggest you spend more time in game even if you die a lot. any mech warrior game has a huge learning curve. but its a game like no other. also get a group of friends that you can talk to, in team speak. all of the houses have great people on at any given time of the day.actually teamspeak makes this game 10 times more fun

[Redshift2k5]

• Don't try to out-DPS a clan mechs. clans have betyer DPS than IS mechs, while IS mechs offer better pinpoint, better autocannons, and the regular (non-er) PPC. IS mechs should shoot and get the hell out of the way, not face down a Clan mechs and try to DPS it.
  
• Just because you have jump jets does not mean you have to jump-snipe ad nauseum. Sometimes it's best to use them just for getting up into a new position or to avoid small obstacles.
  
• Personally I do not like any of the trial Heavy mechs, none of them are actually builds I would play.
  
• As a new player, it's better to stick to what works than to try to innovate (making new builds can be expensive!) Here is a great resource for mech builds that have come before http://www.mechspecs.com/forum/

There are certainly some affordable Heavy mechs for less than 9 million, and some Assault mechs, although you'd only get one and would not have the option of buying an additional XL engine. Make sure you save 1.5 million to buy Double Heat sinks, though!

It sounds like you might like the Cataphract or even the Victor (an Assault), or the Jagermech or K2 for a ballistic-capable non-jumping mech. If you want a Heavy (or smaller Assault like the victor) they all do a lot of thing very similarly, so you'd need to look at the specifics to make up your mind. Do you want jump jets, do you want one ballistic weapons or missile weapons, etc.

Edited by Redshift2k5, 28 July 2014 - 06:00 AM.

[Dano_man]

As another old timer that doesn't have the reflexes of the younger guys I feel ya. I however would recommend two things. First remember that the experienced player will always take you out if you lead the charge. So stay back in the middle to back of the pack and hit someone already engaged. Being a support mech while you are learning is the only way to have fun and survive longer. Also along this point, don't worry about performance you are in it for fun so have fun and learn along the way. It may be 6 months or longer before you consider yourself adequate, but as long as you have fun that's ok.

The mech...I started and loved the Blackjack, course we didn't have to contend with the God awful clan mechs then but it was still a great mech. A baby Jager, with high arms, can pack eithe a standard or xl engine and do 93kph max when tweaked, awesome hardpoints and jump jets....now don't worry about being a jump sniper, not everyone can do it and it is not absoluetly necessary to have Fun or even win. The BJ can carry ballastics and energy, sorry no missiles but one of the things to think about with that 9m is that yeah you buy the mech then you got to outfit it which could cost half that much more. Stock mechs never do what you want and it is all in the customization.

My two bits

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

You like autocannons you say? Well guess I would recommend jaegermechs or cataphracts... They have balistic slots and go the speed you wanna go. Another choice is the Orion, but it's low slung weapons and low hard point slot count can kind of push you into an almost meta build (while lacking jumping capabilities).

Anyway, I would put an emphasis on jaegermechs for my recommendation for you.

[UnsafePilot]

For a JJless Heavy I've been having a blast in the CPLT-K2 w/xl295, 4xMLas, 2xAC10

[dragnier1]

Quote

I finished my Cadet matches.....horribly. I realize stats, especially this early, mean nothing, but 0 kills, 24 deaths and 18/25 losses later, it was all I could do to keep from just uninstalling, and go play a game I'm actually good at.

Welcome to mwo
Don't worry about your stats, you'll get it back eventually. Personally I don't even view "mech xp" important. Cbills seems to be the bigger factor, since you need it to purchase equipment.

Quote

I played all the light Mechs...
I played the mediums. The venerable Centurion...I did, however, seem to have an affinity for aiming those SRMs

The Trial Shadowhawk, was by far my worst showing of any Mech of any weight I tried. I am not, nor ever will be a jump sniper.

Light mechs for some are hard with their high speed. I remember crashing into buildings, running into the opposition group by "accident" and losing my bearings. I took one year off (approx) lights and went back when i was more familiar with the game. I suggest you leave lights in the "kiv" list until you're familiar with the game.

Most vets would recommend medium mechs, they say this is where you learn how to use the mechs: using arms to protect the torso; speed and positioning, patience, etc. Perhaps the griffin might work for you.

Quote

The heavies showed promise...

In theory, I'd like something kind of "tanky" that can deal a big damage blow up front then retreat a bit to cool down. I'm fond of autocannons, especially the AC/20 and SRMs with artemis would be great too. Speed between 70-90 when tweaked would be sufficient enough for me.

I don't want a medium, pretty sure a heavy, MAYBE an assault would be ideal.

I suggest you stay away from assaults for now. Quite a number of assaults require you to time your approach at the right time and fully commit due to the lack of speed and mobility (There are exceptions though, some of them require you to jump alot to poptart). Frequent torso-twisting is also required (damage spreading). Did i mention they cost quite a bit to upgrade?

Since you like heavies, i will suggest a few:
1. Jagermech. High slung arms, meaning high mounted autocannons. Don't forget to increase armour.
2. Catafract. Feels quite study. Low mounted arms (and weapons), but has ok speed.
3. Catapult. You can build it different from the trial version. They are quite versatile (lose out slightly to jagermech).

Use http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/ to work out both the "preferred" build and cost of upgrades for the mech you eventually decide to purchase. A couple of pointers:
1. Both endo-steel and Ferro-Fibrous armour are weight saving measures (no, FF does not increase your max armour). When in doubt, choose endo-steel first of the two. Frankly, FF works mostly for lights or mechs with lots of free space to waste.
2. Choose double heat sinks whenever possible. They provide better heat management most of the time despite their large sizes.
3. You will need to complete basic tier skills on 3 mechs of a chassis to unlock elite tier skills. Completing elite skills for any mech gives 2x of basic skill boosts (more cooling, turning and twisting). Completing 3 mechs' elite tier skills of that weight category (light, medium, etc.) unlocks master tier "skill" (more info in the link provided on my sig).

Don't forget to have fun, cheerz

[Arend]

Cataphract are your best bet, considering what you like to play imo, all of them are playable, with the 3d and Ilya being the best, but 1x, 2x and 4x are also ok, for example a 2x build

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b041c40688a7594

Victor and Jager are also a good choice for example

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...cdd0cbff3a4eb25

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...560bf11f24fc970

These Builds are considering your budget, with an XL Engine all builds would be able to go faster or do more dmg, on the other hand an STD Engine has also its merrits in terms of survivability!