51 replies to this topic

[Draxa]

i am surprised nobody mentioned the Trebuchet 7m, it gets major buffs for LRM 15s. I fit 2 lrm 15s, 2 mls, and generally rack up 300-600 damage, 1-2 kills, and 4-12 assists. Hella fun for 50 tons.

[DivideOverflow]

This thread was very informative! As a new player, I'm still trying to figure everything out.

Anyone have a recommended Hunckback 4J loudout? I'm struggling with the c-bills to speed the damn thing up, and need to know what route works best. I've been getting between 100-400 damage with it stock.

[Dauphni]

This is probably the best LRM guide I've seen on these forums! There's only one thing I might want to add, and that is about aiming. Yes, aiming. Even though LRMs are guided weapons, and you can't make them hit exactly where you want, there are things you can do to make your shots hit more effectively. Because of the way missiles spread out, some of them are going to be wasted. No matter your LRMing style, you'll want to reduce this waste to as little as possible.

The most important thing to take note of is accuracy. Peppering your target all over with LRMs is great for racking up high damage numbers, but it doesn't really help with killing all that much. There are several ways to take out mechs, but because of how missiles home in, in general center torso hits are the only damage you do that can actually be considered to be effective. Following from that, the optimal way to LRM mechs to death is by dropping the highest amount of missiles into that CT in the shortest amount of time.

This is where launcher size and tube count comes into play. A nice big LRM20 looks nice on paper because it fires a whopping 20 missiles in one go, but in practice most of those are not going to hit center torso because of spread. A LRM 10 may fire fewer missiles, but they will be grouped more tightly and will be fired faster, which means relatively more CT hits. Firing multiple smaller launchers at once will keep the tighter grouping, and they are therefore a more efficient means of dealing lethal damage, though usually at the cost of tonnage and crit space. However, when your launcher is bigger than the tubes you have available the missiles will come out in multiple volleys, and the spread depends on the tube count, not the launcher size, effectively increasing the accuracy. Definitely something to consider!

The other important part of making those missiles hit center torso effectively is positioning. If you are to the sides of your target or it is turned relative to you, chances are their arms will be blocking their torso, soaking up damage. Of course your missiles can chew through those components eventually, but if you're trying to kill quickly and efficiently it is much better when you can hit your targets dead-on. Target selection is also part of this, try to shoot at targets that are at favourable angles if you have several to choose from.

Lastly, it's worth noting that bigger mechs tend to have bigger torsos. It seems obvious, but that also means that for a given spread of your LRM cloud, more missiles will hit that delicious CT. The larger a mech is, the higher it should therefore be on your target priority list.

[zortesh]

I've not updated this guide in a while, but i fully intend to go over it and streamline it, aswell as update the builds section the second i get a few days or work, or perhaps have some work days shorter then 12 hours.

Suffering a lil from sleep deprivation so if this post makes no sense forgive mne.

@utie i think i go over some of what you said in the luacher section.

Theres a section for lrm curving too, which has useful info on 'aiming' lrms.

It requires you be at relatively close ranges, below 300 meters below 250 for full effectiveness, but with practice you can swing left, and then alpha your lrms just before you would lose lock, for instance i couold lock someone up, twist rapidly to my left, fire and return to facing the enemy before i lose lock, the missiles then would fire out, curve back towards the enemy, and slam into there right torso.

If they were already twisting say there arm towards you, you could use this method to curve missdiles around to hit there back, or front, depending on your need.

I use this method every chance I get, but ofcoruse the openings to use it are rare, and due to the realatively short range required for this you need to remain calm and have nerves of steel, its also basically incompatible with chainfire since being twisted out wide makes you lose lock.

Edited by zortesh, 30 January 2015 - 10:43 PM.

[Dauphni]

Yeah, you've touched on most of my points; the main thing I have there that you haven't really mentioned is the value of CT hits compared to hits on other components, everything else I wrote is subordinate to that. I may have gotten a little carried away describing the theory behind that

[zortesh]

^ i've updated it to add what you said to launchers, aswell as other updates.

I will point out smaller launchers don't mean ct hits necessarily, they do on some chassis, ie crabs and direwolves, but other others they merely mean your lrms tend to all hit one component, which is still very useful.

also...

aiming lrms.

Edited by zortesh, 01 February 2015 - 01:57 AM.

[Sonny Black]

zortesh, on 25 December 2014 - 02:36 AM, said:

swap a lrm5 out for a narc, you'll be more versatile and make more cash.

I use 2medlas 3lrm5 and a narc and average 400-700 dmg, i alpha fire all the lrms, lrm 5's be better that way.

The narc is well and truly worth the loss of 5 tubes.






save that hate for a truly evil book like.. I dunno the bible?

I'll give NARC a shot. Thanks. I prefer chain fire to group fire LRM's....but that's just me.

[Draxa]

DivideOverflow, on 28 January 2015 - 03:57 AM, said:

This thread was very informative! As a new player, I'm still trying to figure everything out.

Anyone have a recommended Hunckback 4J loudout? I'm struggling with the c-bills to speed the damn thing up, and need to know what route works best. I've been getting between 100-400 damage with it stock.

funny you should bring the 4J up.... I just spent over 100 matches in one, and it was OUTSTANDING. Think I like it even better than my Trebuchet. Win/loss ration of 1.2, and a KDR of 2, and average damage of 516 per match, with a high of 1070.

my 4J is packing:
255xl engine
medium laser x 3
LRM 10 x 2
LRM ammo x 11 tons
double heatsink x 2
endosteel structure

Its a bit spendy with the xl engine, but the extra ammo is worth it. To get that much ammo, I did have to lose some armor, but by locating the lasers in the torso/head, the arms become just shields anyway.
Smurfy link
<a href="http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=21&l=c39d67e7ddfc3a161b2c2b49cce896a1c3c61247">HBK-4J</a>

EDIT: I have been criticized in games because I called it an LRM boat, but only had 2 "wimpy" LRM 10s. People don't seem to understand how powerful this mechs quirks are. If I chainfire, I get pretty much a single stream of missiles, those launchers recycle so fast. The quirks, combined with a cooldown module, and pilot bonus, mean my LRM 10s are recycling in about 1.5 seconds. Combine that with the hunchie mobility and torso twist, and its a powerful setup.

My favorite fight was when a King crab managed to get close to me. I outmaneuvered him, and with the extreme torso twist of the hunchie, was able to run full speed away, while torso twisting and LRMing him to the rear. Thats right, the hunching can shoot behind him.

OH, and thanks for the tips on "aiming", and otherwise abusing target lock timing. I have gotten some shots off shooting over and around stuff using the technique.

Edited by Draxa, 03 February 2015 - 05:51 AM.

[zortesh]

^ well I'd call it a boat, since the majority of its tonnage and firepower.

I don't particularly like said mech or build but.... *shrugs*

I will note the griffins can fire behind them aswell, i used to poptart with narc beacons and then turn and run for my life while firing behind me, much lols, and much rage from the enemy.

[The Prime Minister]

First off, thank you for this guide. It's very well put together and very well thought out. I've also learned quite a few things from it.
While i've piloted other mechs, I'm starting to focus on getting clan mechs. I've got three timberwolves and have several configurations I run them in, some of which include LRMs.
The idea of an LRM45 narc poptart was awesome, I've killed many a mech with it, especially on open maps with the timberwolf's high speed, high armor, roflcopter amounts of screenshake it can put out.
The only problem is... I seem to have moved up in ELO rating (which dropped while I was getting the hang of the wolves) because now, LRM boating is quite difficult to pull off properly even in the lrm45 TBR-S/C. I find enemies having multiple ECMs and covering each other (and it's always a huge pain trying to find who the heck is packing ECM so I can NARC him, only to find he's not the only one). When it works out, I easily get 500+ dmg games and several kills and a boatload (pun intended) of assists. When it doesn't, I still manage to eek out some 50k+ c-bills on desperate firing alone.

However, I'll point out that a more effective TBR build when assaulting is a TBR-C/Prime with 2 lrm15a a tag and heavy backup weaponry (4 cmpl). The artemis + tag help those missiles find their way to a target's CT while not giving a damn about any ECM present. (This of course applies in PUG games).

Bottom line: playing LRMs long enough (and effectively enough) will get you in matches where they can't do much because everyone hard-counters them.

All in all, however, this is a great resource for playing LRM-heavy mechs in general. Keep up the good work!

[zortesh]

^ thats always a danger, i've gotten quite adept at hunting ecm mechs, but it can be frustrating, especially if you come across opponents dedicated to covering there team that just never expose themselves, or come across whole lances of ddc's or hellbringers.

Or those damn commandos.. i just cant hit them.. unlike spiders and ravens and any other light which gets a narc if it comes near.

I have a great dislike of tag, since i only play in group queue, and when peeps are on voice comms holding tag on anyone long enough for missiles to hit is a very very risky proposition(Soo much guass/erppc spam), I use the narc becuase its much lower risk involved in me getting the locks, even if it takes alot more skill and maneuvering sometimes to get the ecm mechs, and can be so easily negated my massed ecm.

Although i'm very happy to have helped someone up a elo bracket, or reup a elo bracket.

I'd like to put together a lance of those poprart lrm 45 narcwolves, since as you've found out countering multiple ecms as a solo narcer can be incredibly hard, or nigh impossible at times.

One of the reasons I'm always saying every lrm boat should have narc and possibly tag aswell, its easy for one guy to be unable to find the ecm mech or a uncovered mech, but 3 or 4 people.. thats a different story.

[zortesh]

Alright bumping this up becuase i updated it, i will soon update the map section.

Also narctart tutorial videos are incoming as soon as i finish collecting post skill tree footage and shaking off the rust at video editing.