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Moving From Medium To Assault


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#1 Arnold J Rimmer

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 07:24 AM

Now, I'm hardly what you could call a new player, but I figured this would be relevant to anyone facing a similar situation. That, and as I have all of three matches under my belt in an Assault mech, my Elo in that class is equivalent to that of a raw newbie anyway. Mods, feel free to move this if you think it belongs better in Guides than here.

My problem is this: I am a long-time die-hard Medium pilot. Just for fun, I dropped in a Highlander (specifically, the champion) and proceeded to do the square root of naff all. I have yet to break 200 damage (three times that much is my average for a good match in any given Med) and I struggle to position myself well. It's a decent build on paper, and the armour is reasonably well-placed. So it must be what I'm (not) doing.

Any tips for an old dog like me, trying to learn new tricks?

#2 Redshift2k5

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 07:39 AM

Assault mechs with no skills unlocked are going to be pretty clumsy and unresponsive, combined with a lack of experience and you get the idea. Same thing happens when assault players get in a Medium for the first time (although then they tend to fail because the mech has only half as much armor as they used to)

Best advice I can give is to stick with it :) Highlander champ is not exactly a killer build, either. Do you plan to buy one?

Edited by Redshift2k5, 13 September 2014 - 07:40 AM.


#3 Wintersdark

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 07:40 AM

Assaults play very differently than Mediums. Mediums, despite their fragility, are much more forgiving of a lot of mistakes - if you move out of a corner, into view of many hostiles, you can utilize speed (and ideally their paying more attention to larger targets) to get back into cover. In an Assault, particularly one of the slow ones like a Highlander, you cannot make those mistakes.

Move from cover to cover, never move out and try to reverse back in - it takes too long, and while that armor looks impressive on paper, it still melts off really fast.

I'd also recommend getting started with Assaults playing the faster ones. Victors, for example, with larger engines. Then you can dial back on the engines as you get ahold of how they play. It allows you to adapt from Medium/Fast Heavy play to Assault Play gradually, as the jump is brutal. Particularly when you're using one of the slowest, clumsiest Assaults without pilot skills (they matter MUCH more in Assaults than they do in Mediums/Heavies)

#4 Arnold J Rimmer

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 07:47 AM

View PostRedshift2k5, on 13 September 2014 - 07:39 AM, said:

Best advice I can give is to stick with it :) Highlander champ is not exactly a killer build, either. Do you plan to buy one?

Figured. Thanks for the swift reply, too. I have no current plans, since I only have around 13mil cbills lying around after buying a number of modules that could only be described as irresponsible :lol:. I tried the HGN first purely for the lack of UAC, though I did suspect that it would be rough.

Winters, yeah. It's like learning to play all over again haha

#5 InspectorG

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 07:50 AM

I feel you

I mainly pilot light. I moved to assault and...wow...i can in a pug get 100-300 damage with a Locust on a regular basis...

I got a Victor and 100 damage matches are rare. I have several, uh, lets say, lower than 100 damage matches.

I also got a Banshee after seeing they can be quite cheap to run...doing better with these. They can laser boat like a hunchback P...but with many more heatsinks.

As far as movment itself...dont fall back from the crowd, but dont be the first either unless its a late match push and you commit to the carnage.

#6 Elizander

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 09:13 AM

You can start out making a high alpha build. Alpha 3 times, shut down and die with 150 damage. :lol:

#7 Just wanna play

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 09:45 AM

View PostElizander, on 13 September 2014 - 09:13 AM, said:

You can start out making a high alpha build. Alpha 3 times, shut down and die with 150 damage. :lol:

why 3 alphas? :3
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c8b5e3488373ebc

#8 RazorbeastFXK3

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 10:30 AM

That's one heck of a jump going from medium to assault. I went with the centurion for my first then raven then catapult then stalker. Rather large difference with gameplay between them all but wasn't too bad.

With assaults, the ones that utilize their arms are usually the ones players go for because they can better defend themselves with them at close range instead of relying too heavily on the torso mounted armaments.

As for weapons, continue using the ones you enjoy using I guess. I really do not like using XL engines on anything but light mechs (and if I can get away with it I'll use Standard engines on lights too) but other than that.. if you don't already know this, spread the damage. You have a lot more armor to spread the damage to so that's what you have going for you. LRM salvos and can't avoid them? Twist your torso as if you're dancing 'cause if you keep it in one spot for too long, as Wintersdark mentioned, you're liable to lose bodyparts rather quickly since your opponents (the ones that aren't panicked at least) will usually try to pick off your bodyparts one at a time.

#9 InspectorG

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 03:17 PM

View PostElizander, on 13 September 2014 - 09:13 AM, said:

You can start out making a high alpha build. Alpha 3 times, shut down and die with 150 damage. :lol:


Its the THIRD one that gets you!

#10 Takashi Uchida

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 07:06 PM

Going for a faster assault mech might make the transition a bit easier. The Victors and Battlemasters have a high engine cap and you can expect to go at a reasonable speed if you have a big enough engine.

I had mastered mechs in the 3 other weight classes before I even tried the assaults, and this is how it went for me.

BLR 1G: I found the limited torso twist to be pretty difficult to work with.
BLR 1S. This is the only one of the BLRs I still have. It makes a nasty LRM boat. An XL engine around the 340-360 range gives you good speed for positioning, and enough weight for lots of ammo and respectable backup weapons. Can also be converted into a standard engine SRM-brawler.
BLR 1D: Very good ballistic fire-support mech pre-clans. Still could work, just don't try to solo DWs, Timbies, Stalkers.

Victor 9B: I liked poptarting with the CTF-3D, so I thought I'd pick this up. Unfortunately, I think I got it right when the VIctors, JJs, ACs were getting some nerfs. Just didn't work for me as a jumpsniper or as a brawler.

Stalker- Misery: I really like this mech, you can do a lot with it. AC20 centered brawlers, or PPC/Gauss builds. I had the 5M and 3F only briefly to unlock elites. I was hurting for cbills and mechbays at the time so didn't give them their proper respect. Stalkers are pretty slow and sluggish but offer decent hitboxes (except for the Misery's huge gun, it can be lost quite easily) and make great laser fire support mechs

Atlases: I pulled an interesting manuever during one of the sales. I used the trial RS to painfully grind xp so I had enough to basic. I then bought the RS, unlocked basics, didn't bother playing it after buying (saved a few million on DHS and endo upgrades). Bought the D, basic'd it out. Bought the DDC (this all during the 50% cbill sale). Ended up selling the RS and D later. The end result, a mastered DDC done at a net 16 million c-bills spent.

The DDC is pretty much my best performer behind the Timberwolf now. I struggled mightly in the beginning, but once I got the hang of it, it's a lot of fun. The dilemma that people trying assaults out for the first time is, do you want something faster and that plays more like a heavily, or a "true assault?" There really isn't any other way but to grit your teeth and do it. The crappy thing is, these mechs cost a lot and you don't really know if you just don't gel with the mech or it's just remarkably bad because it has no perks unlocked. But, since there seem to be a lot of c-bill sales lately, you might want to just pick em up and try.

#11 pulupulu

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 08:40 PM

The slow assault (60ish kph and below, with no lrm) playstyle is a more defensive or ambush role, as in, you spend alot of time predicting and waiting for enemy to walk into you. You need to have good awareness of where the opponent will show up and when, and you need to make it there before they do; naturally the faster you are, the more options open up to where you can be most effective.

Your job is to carry stupid amount of damage to vaporaize the opponent in front of you asap. Your armor is there just so you can stare your opponent in the eye a little longer than they can.

Your counter is light mech (evasion tank) who sneak up behind you and distract you from doing your job (forcing you to turn to face direction with almost no enemy), and disallowing you to set up a good position to trick opposing team to walk into you (your spot is now known, and you didn't kill anyone, therefore must change spot or hope opposing team is stupid, assuming you aren't already dead from 4 ninjas desending upon you).

Another role is to turn a straight line area into a no-enter zone. Once you get to an area where both team just peeking and shooting, your job is to make certain area not peek-able. Knowing which peeking spot is more important to deny is essential and require experience (it is based on number of factors such as ally formation, orientation, hills, distance, type of weapons, etc). You can move on once opponent abandon that spot for greener pasture; with proper denial, you can slowly force your opponent into bad position without firing many shots.

As for lrm boat... that is simple enough to not need explaination right?

To sum up:
Ambush role- take correct forward position where opposing team will "accidentally" walk into your optiminal range.
Defensive role- area denial of ideal spots.

A fast assault's role is much closer to that of the heavy. You use your combination of speed, armor, payload to overwhelm your opponent with pure brute force. Don't think I will go into detail.

#12 bayoucowboy

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Posted 14 September 2014 - 07:00 PM

Situational awareness - locations & composition of your team and the enemy is the key to playing an assault. Unlike the other classes, you (usually) do not have enough speed to get out of a bad (ie facing overwhelming force) situation. On the other hand, as one of the few assaults on the team, it's your role to push an enemy weak point.

Recommendations: Wait until your lights or mediums make contact and engage, see if there are any "loners" that can be taken out, never try to chase an enemy light or medium, and use cover to keep from being lrm'd.

Challenging enough in a team, almost a crap shoot in pug matches.

I've master slotted Atlases, Stalkers, Victors, Highlanders, Battlemasters, Awesomes, and finishing my last Banshee. (started late on my clan mechs and really enjoying them as well - Dire Wolf prime w/double gauss and 6 MPL's is fun)

#13 Red October911

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Posted 15 September 2014 - 08:54 PM

nice tips, I find myself having the same problem using my Battlemasters I find they're too slow and too big a target, but I'll try using it more defensive and see what happens. Those extra tons of armor usually get to my head I need to dial it down a little :P

#14 xengk

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Posted 16 September 2014 - 02:52 AM

So this game have gotten mainstream enough to attract gold seller(wrong game) to the forum. :)

#15 STEF_

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Posted 16 September 2014 - 03:02 AM

I'm a medium mech pilot too, And I started this thread a few time ago.
I hope it'll help you

http://mwomercs.com/...-first-assault/

#16 SnagaDance

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Posted 16 September 2014 - 04:52 AM

View PostJust wanna play, on 13 September 2014 - 09:45 AM, said:



:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Does it actually survive shut-down? Or does it blow up through self induced heat like the MW3 Supernova did on an alpha?





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