74 replies to this topic

[Richard Hazen]

I was thinking of branching out, I'm currently using a stalker and it's quite fun but I'm considering trying other Assault mechs and since the Awesome is very Marik like I figured I'd try that but what do you think about it?

[Tastian]

The Awesome is not a good mech. It currently is too large (which may be changing). It plays like a fat heavy. I've seen some great players do well in them.

If you want a great assault mech that isn't a slow whale, try the Zeus. I'm having a TON of fun in them. They are very tanky and have great weapon options.

[IraqiWalker]

I would have to agree with Tastian. The Awesome is a good mech, but it's hard to pilot. I think of it as one of the harder assaults to do well in.

[InspectorG]

Wait till it gets its geometry/scaling pass.

If PGI puts the Awesome on a good diet, i may try them.

In the meantime, Banshees are fun. XL400 for the M with massive Wubs is great times...strike dont brawl.

The S with Gauss+2LPL and ML to taste is like a slower shorter range Clan mech.

The E is a 3AC5 machinegun...with backup lazors.

Big fat shield arms, high lazor mounts. Good times.

I hear Battlemasters are similar...but i love Wubshee.

[Lyoto Machida]

Try it if you want a challenge and want to keep to your faction's mechs. I have 5 of them (except the Pretty Baby) and it's definitely not easy mode. 8R is a great LRM boat. 8Q and 9M are PPC/ERPPC boats respectively. You can do mixed missle/energy builds on the 8V/8T. 9M can take bigger engines and move pretty quick for an assault.

They are wide and easy to hit. Hopefully the change they were mentioning helps in that regard.

[Ano]

I'd answer "yes!". But that's me.

To a degree, it depends what you want to do with it. Are you looking to dominate in CW, ascend godlike through the group queue and break into competitive play? Then you should probably skip the Awesome, as it's wide as a barn and as an 80 tonner, "lightly" armoured compared to the big lumps in the assault class.

But, but, but. If you're less concerned about minmaxing, and you've some reason to want to play with an Awesome (you dig the chassis, you remember it from older games/tabletop/books/whatever) then provided it's not going to leave you mechbankrupt, it can (in *my* opinion) be fun to play.

I was surprised to discover that of the three I bought, I favour the 8Q. When I was buying them, I bought the 9M (cos that was the one that was in my head) and then "another two, doesn't really matter which". The 8Q is the only one I ended up mastering, and while I don't automatically reach for an Awesome when the the assault queue reads 10%, when I do it's invariably the 8Q I re-equip and run with. When I built it in Smurfy when I was saving up (during the faction sales), I built it like this: AWS-8Q.

However I seem to run it mostly like this: AWS-8Q

Bear in mind, I'm a solo queue only player, and stripping the head does leave you vulnerable to the occasional arty to the noggin or headhunting tourist from the group queue. But it's fun, and if you can keep far enough away that your PPCs are still effective, the 1-2 punch of 4 PPCs fired in pairs does give people a fright.

My "third" Awesome was the 8R. I played it as a LRMboat and didn't particularly enjoy that, but I've heard of people having fun by filling it with SRM6s and frightening people who are expecting the LRM version and close in. If I were buying now, I think I'd consider the 8T and its big energy cooldown and duration quirks, but given there's a "rebalancing" in the near future who knows how things will be.

Anyway, a lot of waffle and personal blah which could probably have been summarised as "Right now the Awesome isn't in anyone's tier list, but if you want to you can make it work, in the solo queue at least." You'll know yourself whether its downsides will bother you, or whether you want it enough for that to matter.

[Zordicron]

Stalker is very forgiving hitbox wise. Awesome is like the opposite. the only mech more fragile in the class is the Victor IMO.

Zeus is a good one for a transition, You can mount a bigger engine for more speed, it twists better, similar firepower to the stalker depending on how you like to play, and the Durability quirks make it stout enough to learn on. I would not recomend the c-bill investment for a clan assault until you have a couple others under your belt.

Hardmode Assaults I would consider to be in two groups, fragile: Awesome and Victor, and Playstyle learning curve: Atlas(DWF kinda but you can wreck a face or two even if you derp about) highlander(sorta fragile too)

The rest are a mix of not quite as fragile but not tanky with good firepower, and not as ponderous or tanky as an Atlas but still need to pay attention to where you move. basically the rest have their little bits you need to learn about them but for the most part fit right in.

[Nightshade24]

All mechs have a positive and negative side to them.

The awesomes negative is to much for some people and they pull out from the mech due to this and the negative is it's profile.
HOWEVER the positives for this thing is overwhelming.

It is one of the best snipers out there if you do not mind the fact you can't hill hump to well and it is also one of the best LRM assault mechs out there.

People are torn between it being XL friendly or not but I personally think XL's are good for it.

It depends on you...


PS: I hope the pass over the awesome geometry won't get rid of the fact it's an awesome... I do not want to see this thing as thin as a grass hoper...

[WatDo]

Do it, and then do em some more when they get resized soon. Awesomes can already be great mechs, when they're smaller they're gonna rock.

Some things to note, until the hitreg fix patch comes don't use ppc's at all. If you think you want to use a ppc/erppc, skip it and use lpl's instead. You lose out on quirk bonuses but you lose out on damage by using buggy ppcs. Try those after the hitreg patch if you must. Also, the lrm boat varient can be made into an amazing srm brawler. They might be huge but they can spread damage really well, they make for funny brawlers.

Also, MAX OUT (or near max out) YOUR ENGINE. Never use Xl's in them (that may change after the resizing). A slow Awesome is a dead Awesome.

[Spheroid]

I think they are good. Because they sucked previously they are rather heavily quirked. The 8R is solid and the 8Q/9M are like slower Thunderbolts with higher heat capacity.

[Dawnstealer]

I'm going to agree with the Zeus option: they run like 80 ton Thunderbolts.

[Vlad Striker]

Playstyle at different AWS variants can be very different from heavy flank range support to mid-close range. It demands skill nevertheless.

[Richard Hazen]

Well I finally gave in and got myself a 8Q, it's not to bad, it can throw out ppcs like there's no tomorrow which is good as it's giving me practice with the weapon I'm least comfortable with. Not as tanky as the Stalker but I think it looks way cooler, will be interested to see what it looks like after they do the re-size.

[Aggravated Assault Mech]

The Awesome is actually not that big. It's only slightly bigger than the Thunderbolt. Plenty of mechs can survive better, while being larger (Battlemaster for example with only 5 extra tons).

What hurts it is that it's got really terrible mobility and a low engine cap. You could run the 8Q like an 80 ton Thunderbolt thanks to perks, but the engine cap is so low (300) that there isn't even a point putting an XL in it.

This translates to slow torso twisting + low speed = die to NASCAR meta and can't twist off damage like a Zeus or Thunderbolt can. Really easy to focus down the torso because it's so slow in both top speed and torso twist rates.

AFAIK it can't shield with it's arms either (though I've never bothered to test it). This is disappointing because going off the TT art it should be the posterchild of shield arm assault mechs.

[totgeboren]

My favourite assault right now is the AWS-9M, with an XL370, 3 ERPPCs and the rest of the space DHS. Nascaring is also not a problem at all (which is the no.1 killer of me when I'm driving my King Crabs), so sure, XL kills when you have big STs, but lack of speed kills too when you PUG with people who have no team positioning awareness.

XL in an Awesome is normally not a good idea, but it's fun to play in the 9M at least (where you can take advantage of it because of the high engine cap).
The 8Q with 4 PPCs and a standard engine does a lot of damage too, and the other ones work well enough as missile boats. What the Awesome does not do well is brawling, so as long as you keep away from that it's a rather fun mech.

Edited by totgeboren, 28 July 2015 - 03:18 AM.

[mad kat]

The Awesome is Awesome in the right hands............. it's just getting used to it that takes time and its a PITA when unskilled an un-optimised. My Awesomes actually hold my best K/D ratio's.

Use no smaller than a 275 engine and usually around 295/300 gives you enough torso twist speed to mitigate damage and 9/10 use a STD engine. The only Awesomes that can use an XL effectively are the pretty baby and the 9M and as a result actually need a large XL engine to offset the extra fragility.

They are really good chassis for Large pulse laser and SRM boats (like mine below). I would use PPC's but hit reg doesn't seem to work properly.

The Fundamental rule of Awesome driving is be Aggressive. Push, charge and get in their faces preferably aiming at their cockpits in the process.

8Q pulse boat:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...20a89ed656963b7

8V SRM brawler:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c53591748d73260

Pretty baby:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...e9bfb2a6bf97933

Edited by mad kat, 28 July 2015 - 03:51 AM.

[The Basilisk]

Deimos Alpha, on 03 July 2015 - 12:18 PM, said:

I was thinking of branching out, I'm currently using a stalker and it's quite fun but I'm considering trying other Assault mechs and since the Awesome is very Marik like I figured I'd try that but what do you think about it?

If you want a classic Marik Assault, go for the Battlemaster.
While Marik doesn't field as many Assaults as House Steiner their number of Battlemasters during the succession wars was equaly high as Steiners.
Followed by Liao.

[ice trey]

As much as people gripe about them, I actually like my Awesomes. I had the most success with the 9M, but the 8Q and 8T have treated me well, as well. They don't need huge amounts of upgrades besides DHS.

Just be sure to take advantage of the zoom modules for the PPC builds, and get the range mods too, if you can afford them.

The 8T doesn't pack as many hardpoints for Missiles, but the LL/LRM mix makes it a pretty good general-purpose design, and it's fire rate for those LRMs is pretty decent. Not as good as a Treb, but faster than a Catapult. At least, as far as I remember. I haven't dug mine out since mid-way through CW Beta 1.

...and they're a lot less painful to level than Atlases.

Edited by ice trey, 28 July 2015 - 04:14 AM.

[oldradagast]

I like the Awesome's name, general shape, and concept - long-range, tough fire support. Sadly, they don't live up to that idea in MWO. They are not "terrible," but anything they can do can be done by another mech better currently. They suffer from low-hardpoints, a lack of ballistics, and being too big in the torsos for a mech of their tonnage. Other mechs are better:

Stalker and Battlemaster = higher hardpoints, which is very important. Stalker is also much tougher, while the Battlemaster can use ballistics
Zeus = in all ways superior. Ballistic options, tougher thanks to extra armor quirks, and a much smaller model, which makes it even tougher still.

That being said, some of the above may change when they do the Rebalancing - quirks, namely - and the Awesome is slatted to someday be resized to something more appropriate. So, in the end we may get a the tough, Zeus-size mech we deserved from day one with the Awesomes.

In their current state, they can still lay down decent long range firewpower, and they are reasonably mobile, particularly when it comes to arm and torso twisting. But that's about all they have going for them, and this is coming from a guy who still plays his Awesomes.

Edited by oldradagast, 29 July 2015 - 02:49 PM.

[Mazzyplz]

i pilot awesome mostly, most of the time.

they really ruined the honeybadger it was a great mech and the most fun ihave had.
it was the geo pass (ironically beauty intended and not for balance) that killed it 2 patches ago


the 9m is a superb mech, it really is... you can laser vomit like the best. i do not even need extra speed; just standard300.
3 pulses as a stick, and 2 large pulses on the sidetorsos, then you shoot those 5 laser over and over with the cooldown on the large laser the cooldown syncs on large and medpulses

the 8v is very decent, can do similar things, the 8t can also have that potential but the arms make it awkward to aim with and your weapons are your shields, so you have to play strict support, hit and run or scorched earth tactics