39 replies to this topic

[ARamaLamaDingDong]

Cookiemonter669, on 03 December 2014 - 04:19 PM, said:

AMS just exposes your position when flanking,never ever use it on a fast mech

You should use AMS on every mech and make use of the ability to turn it off for situations when hiding is more important than protecting yourself and teammates from missiles.

Be aware that it doesn't only protect against LRM, but also against SSRM, SRM and NARC.

Edited by ARamaLamaDingDong, 04 December 2014 - 03:58 AM.

[LordMelvin]

I run mine with 4x LL, but I also modified the Timber Wolf "Laser Vomit" build (2x LPL, 4x ML) and had decent results. It's definitely a chassis that suffers at closer ranges due to no lower arm actuators and poor twist speed, but if you hang back with snipers and assaults you can poke

[Dauphni]

I love my Jester, but then again I've been a Catapult fangirl since forever.

To use it well you really NEED a big engine. Take a 350 or even 355, otherwise you might as well bring your K2 instead. The speed and agility that provides you makes it a lot more survivable than you might think at first. My Jester regularly gets down into the 20%s and still makes it to the end of the match, continuously dishing out damage along the way.

You just have to always keep in mind that you can't engage opponents head on. The CT hitbox is huge and lacks any sort of shielding from other body parts. Avoid showing it to anyone you're shooting at. If they do fire back at you, you can use your speed to run around and torso twist, spreading your damage all over while getting back into a more favourable position. This playstyle requires a bit more back armour than most people would use, but it works wonders here.

As long as you're playing smartly and fight dirty, the Jester is an excellent mech.

[ExAstris]

Having just over 2 million xp across all 5 catapults, it is my firm opinion that...

the Jester is by FAR the worst catapult.

And this is coming from someone who loves dual AMS enough to run the AS7-K more than any other atlai...


Here's why the Jester is awful:
1. It can only do a very small number of things better than the K2 or C1, and those generally suck. Using just 6 medium lasers or mplas with a huge engine just doesn't give you much firepower for a heavy and forces you to be close range only. Use a thunderbolt for this, it has better hit boxes and bonuses. And with the C1 or K2 you can trade two lasers out for serious support weapons, usually LRM15 or UAC5s (assuming you still want some mobility).
Another option is quad large laser. But that requires lots of exposure time and careful aiming for minor bonuses. You aren't going to outrange any clan mechs or out dps anything built for direct fire. And this loadout eliminates even attempting to twist off damage, which the catapult is already abysmal at.

2. A fast catapult is still an easy to hit catapult. Even twisting and JJ abusing don't save the chassis from its awful brawling hitboxes. You can hits its front CT from every angle except the back 20-30 degrees, where clean aft CT shots are readily available. This chassis doesn't 'shake' its hitboxes nearly as much as the Mad Cat or other JJ abusables. So you're only successfully spreading damage around on enemies who are terrible to begin with, matches against competent opponents will leave your CT cored early with huge chunks of armor still on the rest of your mech.

3. Pure energy loadouts can be done better on heavier and lighter chassis with bonuses that actually help those mechs. The Hunchback 4P is superior to the Jester in every useful way and doesn't waste your teams' heavy slot. The Awesome, while still a bad assault, is less bad compared to its peers than the Jester is to its fellow heavies.


Of all the mechs I own (and have actually tried to make work for more than 50 matches, as I'm sitting with over 80 for it now), my Jester has by far my worst win-loss ratio and kill-death ratio. Its abysmal.

Being a sexy mech with an A-10 Warthog paintjob on its nose doesn't save it; save your MC and enjoy the other 4 vastly superior catapults.


TL;DR:
If you're doing well in this mech, there are mechs that can do better for you.
If you're not doing well in this mech, its not your fault.

[BUDFORCE]

Wow couldn't agree more with the above, and pretty much sums up my OP.

[Rhaegor]

DarthRevis, on 03 December 2014 - 01:08 PM, said:

Its a hero mech...they are all Lackluster. If they were too strong you would have rivers of tears from the P2W agenda pushers.

My Firebrand, Pirate's Bane, Cataphract, & Pirates bane are all very good if not the best in their class IMO. Maybe not the Ilya, but I like them all very much. The only reason I have not bought more hero mechs is that the others don't really seem worth it.

[loopala]

you must embrace your inner crazy berserker and run it like the big over grown jenner it is, then you will come to love the jester, stats be damned

[CMetz]

Jester has actually become one of my go-to mechs for my CW drop decks. I mount 2 Large Lasers in the arms, 4 med pulse lasers in the torsos, 2 jump jets, a 325 XL (I think, does 93.1 with speed tweak), max armor everywhere except the legs, and lots of DHS. It is a fast response mech that fulfills a variety of roles well. Its a great ridge humper, and its speed allows it to play a bit with the clan mechs as a fast striker. I do not find it to be weak. Learn to adequately spread damage in it and you'll be a monster. It is a consistent 600-800 damage performer for me. I might be on my own little island here, but I love the Jester much more now than when I purchased it.

[BUDFORCE]

CMetz, on 28 December 2014 - 08:35 PM, said:

Jester has actually become one of my go-to mechs for my CW drop decks. I mount 2 Large Lasers in the arms, 4 med pulse lasers in the torsos, 2 jump jets, a 325 XL (I think, does 93.1 with speed tweak), max armor everywhere except the legs, and lots of DHS. It is a fast response mech that fulfills a variety of roles well. Its a great ridge humper, and its speed allows it to play a bit with the clan mechs as a fast striker. I do not find it to be weak. Learn to adequately spread damage in it and you'll be a monster. It is a consistent 600-800 damage performer for me. I might be on my own little island here, but I love the Jester much more now than when I purchased it.

Going completely against my general opinion here I will actually agree with you - for CW, its not that bad.

[JC Daxion]

CMetz, on 28 December 2014 - 08:35 PM, said:

Jester has actually become one of my go-to mechs for my CW drop decks. I mount 2 Large Lasers in the arms, 4 med pulse lasers in the torsos, 2 jump jets, a 325 XL (I think, does 93.1 with speed tweak), max armor everywhere except the legs, and lots of DHS. It is a fast response mech that fulfills a variety of roles well. Its a great ridge humper, and its speed allows it to play a bit with the clan mechs as a fast striker. I do not find it to be weak. Learn to adequately spread damage in it and you'll be a monster. It is a consistent 600-800 damage performer for me. I might be on my own little island here, but I love the Jester much more now than when I purchased it.

Heh.. I didn't even notice this post, when i made my Jester Vrs Thunder bolt 5SS thread.. and yea, that is exactly how i am running mine, only, i have an XL-320, and i think a ton extra of AMS ammo. It is great fun, once you get it mastered.. and besides, add a K2, and C1 to your bays.. heck even the C4 and A1 are a lotta fun. they are not the easiest mechs to play, But they are rock solid in the hands of people that know how to play.

OP: keep playing with um... You might fall in love with the catapults eventually

[Rear Admiral Tier 6]

ARamaLamaDingDong, on 04 December 2014 - 03:57 AM, said:

You should use AMS on every mech and make use of the ability to turn it off for situations when hiding is more important than protecting yourself and teammates from missiles. Be aware that it doesn't only protect against LRM, but also against SSRM, SRM and NARC.

Well no,i mainly do solo que and its is just glorified prison yard fight,if lrms are problem,use radar derp and cover,thats the best solution,as in you do not force your allies to commit 1 ton or more to ams.

[Tiamat of the Sea]

Funny enough, JESTER Chuckles is my go-to for challenges. I tend to think of it as a 'fat Jenner'- it's a fast 'mech for its weight that keeps up with slower lights and fast mediums fairly well, and performs as an excellent harasser. Depending on how I'm feeling that day, I may or may not use the remaining 1.3 tons to throw an additional ton of AMS ammo in the arm and a little bit of armor- usually not, because people love to take the arms off Jesters (and energy-hauling K2's) under the assumption that the weapons are kept there for the sake of weapon angling.

There are two tricks to the way I use Chuckles-

1) The medium lasers in the CT are one to either side, so I have two firing groups- one for the left side of the 'mech and one for the right. If I feel like peeking around a corner, I can use one group, or if I want to run cooler, I alternate groups. This lets me control my heat generation well enough that I can always alpha strike if/when I feel like I need to.

2) Whenever fighting more than one 'mech or anything fast enough to outmaneuver Chuckles, I perform dart-and-peck maneuvers- I get in, I zarch one location with 30+ damage, and then I vamoose. The damage is enough and comes out fast enough to take out a location on lights and cripple one on most Mediums, and if I feel like I can get in two alpha strikes on something heavier I will- but I'm always moving around, and I'm always ready to haul creepy neon grin rump out of wherever I am.

Weakened locations are easy to take out in this fashion, the dual AMSes let me provide added umbrella or some degree of protection when TAG and NARC are flying around, and I leverage the speed of the thing constantly. The Jester does precisely two things of note- go real fast, and haul dual AMSes- and the way I operate it and the way this build is put together uses both.

It's my only Hero 'mech, and I'm fine with that. It does the job -very- nicely.

[Braireos]

The other great thing about the Jester is people can be lured into ignoring you. Just took out two Mad Cats on Alpine because they felt other mechs were more important to engage. I run mine 4 mpl and 2 erll and have a great time with it. One of my favorite mechs.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

I've tried really, really hard to like this 'Mech. Right now it's sitting stripped because every time I take it out, bad things happen. I'll hang on to it against the possibility that future quirks, scaling, or hitbox alterations will make it work for me, but right now it's wasted money and that irritates me to no end. Catapults have always been one of my favorite BT 'Mechs, so I convinced myself I had to have it... but I should have listened to my gut. It's just not a good 'Mech... but it shares most of its problems with the other Catapults. I have to admit that I've leveled two of them mostly with GXP so I wouldn't have to drive them because they're lead anchors on my stats... every other 'Mech I own I can at least pull my weight in, but not Catapults. It's pretty sad.

[zortesh]

Does the jester suck? yes, in the sense that all catapults are terrible mechs.

But for a catapult its rather good, only the k2 is better.. .and I really like the jester personally.

[PACoFist]

Jester sucks really hard. I have a better KD ratio with the Spider 5V (reputedly one of the worst mechs in game) than with the Jester. (Really, I am not joking.)

It is not a problem of the chassis, the other Catapults I have are all pretty good. But the Jester just doesn´t work for me. And I have tried all possible builds:
- 4 LL
- 2 PPC + 4 ML
- 2 ErLL + 4 ML
- 2 LPL + 4 ML
- 6 MPL

I really wish I could sell it to get my MC back.

[dragnier1]

You need speed if you want your jester to work. Speed to get out of trouble quick.

That said, the K2 and jester are my preferred mechs, though i kept the A1 instead of the K2.

[zortesh]

I had good luck with following builds.

2xllas 4xmlas std engine

3xerllas 3xmlas

[JC Daxion]

PS WrathOfDeadguy, on 21 February 2015 - 10:01 PM, said:

.. but I should have listened to my gut. It's just not a good 'Mech... but it shares most of its problems with the other Catapults. I have to admit that I've leveled two of them mostly with GXP so I wouldn't have to drive them because they're lead anchors on my stats... every other 'Mech I own I can at least pull my weight in, but not Catapults. It's pretty sad.

Funny, out of 47 mechs, it is my second best KDR... only the TDR-55S is higher.. It might not be easy to play, but that does not mean it is not a good mech.. It is a very hard mech to pilot, but once you understand it, it really does work well.

[RedlineHunter]

I don't think the Jester sucks at all. Maybe it is your play style? They are support mechs, not front line brawlers. I run mine with 2 LL 4 MPL xl330 2 JJ and normally see 1-3 kills and 600+ damage a match. Yes, with that big CT they will get blasted apart if focused on. So keep on the move and watch your positioning. Try to control how much of the enemy your facing at once and stay with friends.