28 replies to this topic

[SuperPignouf]

Hi there,

Being an experienced heavy and assault pilot, I'd like to buy a first medium mech now.
I'm not really excited by the Shadowhawk.
Could veteran medium mech pilots tell me about their favorite choice of medium mech ?

Thanks in advance !

[Inflatable Fish]

if you're planning on going medium, my advice is to wait with it until the Nov 4th quirk patch. it's going to bring a lot of fresh air into this weight class.

[TripleEhBeef]

Shadowhawk = Overall best IS medium chassis. XL friendly and capable of carrying firepower above it's weight.

Griffin = Can be run as SRM bombers or LRM chuckers with some good energy weapons to round it out. Beefy shield arm and excellent torso twisting ability means it can take a pretty good beating. 7 JJs give it a huge maneuverability advantage.

Kintaro and Trebuchet = The dedicated LRM mechs for this class, though SRM and SSRM builds are possible. The Treb 3C can run a 390 rate engine, and other variants have jump jets. The outlier is the Treb 7K, which is something of Centurion alternative. The Kintaros can be run as SSRM light killers or LRM chainers.

Hunchback = Three things you need to know. Get a STD engine, shove the biggest gun you can into that hunch, and keep it alive. The Hunch can torso twist on par with the Griffin and is half the size of most mediums, making it pretty damn good for city fighting and ambushing.

Centurion = Put's the Z in zombie. STD Cent builds can take a ton of punishment and dish it back out with missiles and AC fire. XLs give you more options for speed and firepower, but make you more fragile.

Blackjack = Baby Jager. Can ridge peek and snipe with energy or ballistics. It doesn't have the tonnage to survive a long brawl, but there are plenty of Boomjack builds with JJs and big autocannons that give the Hunchback a run for its money.

Vindicator = Unremarkable except for the AA variant. The damn thing can fly around like Superman. The SIB hero is also solid.

Cicada = Essentially a Jenner with an eating disorder. Bigger and tougher than most lights but lacks jump jets. Still does the light hunter role pretty well.

Wolverine = Well, I can't really tell you how it fits. I don't see very many of them on the field and I've never piloted one. I think it's overshadowed by the Shadowhawk.

Stormcrow = Top Clan mech in the class and up there with the Shadowhawk and Griffin. Haven't run it personally, but it's fast and can run extremely varied loadouts.

Nova = On paper, it's a pretty mean looking energy mech, but low mounted arms and overheating problems means that its IS rivals (BJ-1X, HBK-4P)do the job better (IMO).

[ShadowbaneX]

SuperPignouf, on 29 October 2014 - 12:16 PM, said:

I'm not really excited by the Shadowhawk.

Before we can really answer, you need to answer why you're not really excited by the Shadow Hawk. If it's the lower number of energy slots, limited to 10 missile tubes and most variants in the line being capped at 3 JJs, then the alternative is the Griffin.

That said, I don't know why the Shadow Hawks are limited to 3 JJs in most cases. Granted, yes, in TT they typically came with three, but they could mount up to 5 given their engine/speed profile (god knows in the MW campaign I'm in the first thing I did was pull the SRM2 for an ML & 2 more JJs). Perhaps SHD's with 5 JJs made them too maneuverable? I dunno. Also, the 5M with only a 10 tube launcher makes no sense. It comes with an LRM-20, it should have a 20-tube launcher.

Anyway, yeah, if you don't like Shadow Hawks, the Griffin is the back up. If you don't like either of those you have to explain why so we can figure out what you probably would like.

[Jeffrey Wilder]

SuperPignouf, on 29 October 2014 - 12:16 PM, said:

Hi there,

Being an experienced heavy and assault pilot, I'd like to buy a first medium mech now.
I'm not really excited by the Shadowhawk.
Could veteran medium mech pilots tell me about their favorite choice of medium mech ?

Thanks in advance !

I like the hunchbacks

[Soulscour]

Jeffrey Wilder, on 29 October 2014 - 07:12 PM, said:

I like the hunchbacks

The best part about the hunchbacks is that thier variants are distinctly for different roles so you get more variety. Also the Standard engines are cheap.

4G AC20 brawler
4H AC10 skirmisher
4P Laser boat
4SP SRM brawler
4J LRM boat

[DodgerH2O]

Hunchbacks are super cheap to invest in, teach valuable skills in torso twisting and avoiding focus, and 3 variants can easily get you one mech for each weapon category, Ballistic, Energy, and Missile.

I'm partial to the Trebuchet, it's like a ganglier, nimbler version of the Centurion. I'd probably have jumped right into the Griffin though if it had been available first, 5 more tons on a Medium makes a significant difference.

[IllCaesar]

Wait until the quirk update, its less than a week away.

That being said, I consider Hunchbacks and Centurions to be pretty good medium mechs up there with the Shadowhawk. You may already have a Centurion-AH, and if you do, you could probably check out some of the remaining ones. The D is getting quirked for an LB10X with a very fast RoF and SRM bombing, I don't know about the others.

Hunchbacks are good to learn the weight class on because each one specializes in something different. We have know what the quirks will be for the 4G, 4H, 4P and the hero Hunchie, the Grid Iron, as outlined in the October Road Map.

http://mwomercs.com/...85#entry3864985

I own the two that are unlisted, the 4J (will receive LRM10 and either ML quirks or laser heat efficiency quirks) and 4SP (probably will receive SRM and either SPL/SL/ML quirks) as well at the 4H and I've played a fair amount on the 4P. They're all different enough now, with exception to the 4G and 4H, to warrant owning any of them, and with the quirk pass incoming, the 4G and 4H will have major differences in playstyle. I'm not saying to go out and buy them all, but all of them are unique enough that you can play around with all of them. I play all my Hunchbacks somewhat regularity, as opposed to, say, my Shadowhawks, where I only play one of them, or my Thunderbolts, where I only play one of them, or my Awesomes, where I only play one of them and you see what I mean.

Edited by MarsAtlas, 30 October 2014 - 08:05 AM.

[SuperPignouf]

ShadowbaneX, on 29 October 2014 - 07:09 PM, said:

Before we can really answer, you need to answer why you're not really excited by the Shadow Hawk.

Hi Sir,

First thanks to all for the useful answers.
I'm not really excited by the shadowhawk because it is as heavy as a medium mech can be, it is also really tall and makes a big target.
Being a heavy mech pilot (mainly Phract, jager and madcat) I'd like to play something really different.
I will, as some of you wisely said, wait for the quirk patch =)

[KaaaBLAMO]

SuperPignouf, on 30 October 2014 - 10:11 AM, said:

Hi Sir,

First thanks to all for the useful answers.
I'm not really excited by the shadowhawk because it is as heavy as a medium mech can be, it is also really tall and makes a big target.
Being a heavy mech pilot (mainly Phract, jager and madcat) I'd like to play something really different.
I will, as some of you wisely said, wait for the quirk patch =)

Here's a link to all of the upcoming quirk changes:

https://docs.google....&pli=1&sle=true

I haven't looked at the IS Medium changes, but you can't go wrong with Stormcrows.

[K0M3D14N]

Wolverines make pretty decent zombies, too. They're sort of like an SRM-heavy alternative to Centurions. Head mounted laser, SRMs galore, and they're pretty damn tough for their weight.

[Alienized]

i would say trebuchet or even the cicada 3m. the hunchies are what most would describe as typical medium tho. good speed, good armor and can put a punch into. but dat fat torso....

[UrsusMorologus]

All the Cicada and Trebuchets can move fast, have lots of lasers and some missiles, Trebs also have jump jets. Both are pretty good if you enjoy a forward/aggressive posture.

[ShinobiHunter]

K0M3D14N, on 30 October 2014 - 12:06 PM, said:

Wolverines make pretty decent zombies, too. They're sort of like an SRM-heavy alternative to Centurions. Head mounted laser, SRMs galore, and they're pretty damn tough for their weight.

Wolverines are a lot of fun. Throw in a xl300 or bigger engine some SRMs and go to town.

[ImperialKnight]

Shadowhawk and Stormcrow, best Medium mechs on each side

[ShadowbaneX]

SuperPignouf, on 30 October 2014 - 10:11 AM, said:

First thanks to all for the useful answers.
I'm not really excited by the shadowhawk because it is as heavy as a medium mech can be, it is also really tall and makes a big target.
Being a heavy mech pilot (mainly Phract, jager and madcat) I'd like to play something really different.
I will, as some of you wisely said, wait for the quirk patch =)

First of all, I ain't no sir. Second, you're welcome.

That second part, it being really tall and being a big target, that's what most people though when it first came out. I think it's as tall as an Awesome, getting close to the height of the Atlas. That said, it's a lanky, wirey ******* and tough as nails. I'd also say that they're nothing like the 'Phract, Jager or the Mad Cat...but if you want something lighter, I'm guessing the Griffin's also out, as would be the Wolvie.

The Hunchie & the Cent are the better of the 50 tonners, but that's still on the heavy half of the medium tonnage. I'd go with the Hunchie myself. The 4G & 4H are solid for ballistics, the 4P is an energy boat and the 4J and the 4 SP can handle missiles. The Cent can also do the spectrum, and you might even have one.

If you want to go for the lighter side, you're left with the Cicada, the Black Jack and the Vindicator. The Cicada's more of a Light mech, which just leaves the BJ & the Vindy. That goes hands down to the BJ atm, although no idea what's going to happen once the Quirks go live. Neither of them do LRMs very well though.

[Dazzer]

Hunchbacks are great

I would go for a 4SP 2 x SRM6 and 4 ML now adays add a tag to the head. you really can not go wrong with this mech.

[RazorbeastFXK3]

I really enjoyed my Centurion variants. SRM4 (or LRMs) + lasers + ballistics + a shield arm.. I was never disappointed.

[IllCaesar]

Take a look at the quirk list posted earlier in the thread before deciding as well. There's going to be major changes. I'm actually changing a lot of my mech loadouts prior to the quirks just so I can get used to it, though I'd still suggest waiting and checking out the feedback regarding them. It'll be quite a while before we really figure out how the quirks will change the meta, but it shouldn't be long before we figure out "Hey, shotgun CN9-D is great" or "Hey, AC10 HBK-4H really isn't that great" and so on.

Since you mentioned that you want something small, consider the Blackjacks. Very high weapon mounts, decent frame, and you can often fit FF and ES on them. I have the Vindicators, and while I like them, I can't really recommend them unless you want to play as a support. Cicadas, my experience with them wasn't positive.

Just you wait until the Enforcer is out. I imagine that it'll be slimmer than the Hunchback and Centurion, likely XL friendly due to most of the payload being in the arms, so it'll be a good day to be a medium pilot.

[Jive Korsan]

4SP hunchback 5med lasers 2 SRM 6. With the new quirks coming to it will rock.