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New players are mostly C-Bill starved. Which means they should buy mechs that aren't only good, but that also come along with useful equipment they can reuse on new mechs they buy. Which means they should start with a mech that has a lot of different variants.
Which is why I thought of the Hunchback at first. It comes with variants that feature big cannons, short and long range missiles, and of course, lots of medium lasers. Also, their standard loadouts don't need a lot of changes, in my opinion. It's not like with Centurions, where ripping out the LRM10 launcher will probably be the first thing you do after buying any variant. All the Hunchbacks really need are minor equipment changes, a bigger engine, and of course DHS. Some variants can also profit from endo steel structure and ferro fibrous. Another plus is that most builds won't require an XL engine (which are expensive).
All these things considered, the Hunchback should be one, if not THE most affordable mech to master. And one of the most fun as well, because you don't have to grind three variants that all play the same.
So, here are my suggested IS starter mechs (with suggested build progression). You don't have to do all the listed upgrades of a variant completely, before you buy the next one, some players like to switch mechs often to keep gameplay more interesting.
Also keep in mind that you can't progress in skill efficiencies before you have unlocked all basic efficiencies on three variants. Once you unlock all elite efficiencies on a mech, the basic efficiencies get doubled in value, which has a noticeable impact on performance. This is why you should always at least unlock the basic efficiencies of three variants on all mechs.
Note that when you do an engine upgrade, you can probably sell the STD 200 engine afterwards (maybe keep 1 for an exotic build you wanna try sometime). This should shorten the grind for the rest of the upgrades a bit. You can also sell it before buying the bigger engine, but make sure you have enough money to do the upgrade, or you will end up with a useless mech and will have to grind the missing C-Bills with trial mechs.
HBK-4SP
1 DHS
2 STD 275 Engine
3 Endo Steel Structure
4 Ferro Fibrous Armor
The 4SP is a close range brawler. It's a good starter mech in my opinion, because it moves at a decent pace (after engine upgrade), has a compact profile, and medium lasers as basic easy mode fallback weapons, with SRMs added as good practice for aiming ahead, which can be put to good use with other weapons like ACs and PPCs later. You also can't alpha every time, or you'll overheat quickly, which means you have to learn how to assign and effectively use different weapon groups. It doesn't have long range weapons, which means you have to learn to move with the group and to flank the enemy.
HBK-4G
1 DHS
2 Endo Steel Structure
3 STD 250 Engine
4 Ferro Fibrous Armor
The 4G is another close range brawler in the standard setup. It plays differently than the 4SP, though, because most of your firepower is concentrated in the hardest hitting weapon in MWO, the AC/20. If you miss your shots with that baby, you will end up at the bottom of the score list at the end of the match. The cannon has a very high mount, which lets you peek above hills and get off a surprise 20 dmg before they even notice you. Unfortunately, the right torso, where the cannon is mounted, is incredibly huge, and thus a big target. This means that you will have to learn to twist it out of incoming damage, after you've gotten your shot off, or the enemy will focus it and render you mostly harmless in no time.
HBK-4J
1 DHS
2 STD 250 Engine
3 Endo Steel Structure
4 Ferro Fibrous Armor
5 Artemis IV (optional)
Finally, we have the 4J, which is basically an indirect fire support mech (think artillery in other games). It is best played as a skirmisher, moving in the second row on the flanks of the enemy. Because of the relatively high speed for an LRM platform, you can pick your targets and move yourself into favorable positions. If you go alone in this mech, you quickly end up as tasty fodder for lights. LRMs are kind of hit or miss in this game, if there isn't much enemy ECM up, you can rack up top damage on some maps, but nowadays with ECM so prevalent, it's hard to make it work consistently. Nevertheless, it's a good first experience with an LRM centric mech, and if you don't like the playstyle at all, you can find out here for pretty cheap.
The HBK-4P is also worth a mention. It's basically a 4G that trades the AC/20 for 6 more medium lasers, all crammed into the huge right torso. It plays similar to the 4G, but can't twist as effectively, because of the burn time of the lasers. But it doesn't run out of ammo, so it can sometimes shine in later stages of the game. The heat produced by 8-9 medium lasers shouldn't be underestimated, though, and on hot maps, you will quickly overheat when you fire more than half of those in a single salvo. Weapon groups help a lot with that.
The HBK-4H is a bit outshined by the 4G, in my opinion. It has a longer range, less reliance on ammo and runs a bit cooler, but although it has the same firepower on paper, it is spread out over multiple weapons with different cooldowns and burn time, so it's harder to apply the same damage in the same time. It can mimic the same AC/20 build the 4G is famous for, but it doesn't have the AC/20 specific quirks, so that's not a good choice either. Let me know if you find a good role for the 4H that isn't already done equally well or better by another variant.
I only mentioned the standard builds in this thread, but of course, you can outfit your Hunchbacks with different stuff as well. Try some PPCs in the 4Ps shoulder mount if you wanna get a taste of long range fire support, or maybe dual AC/5 on the 4G. But keep in mind that the Hunchbacks are quirked for the standard loadouts, so you will probably have most success if you stick with it.
Edited by zagibu, 14 November 2015 - 05:59 AM.
