66 replies to this topic

[CD0UG]

List your top 3 favorite medium brawlers and why!

[VirtualSmitty]

1. The Hunchback - pretty much all of them except the J. Because ballistics and speed.

2. The Enforcer - all of them. Excellent hit boxes, can run XLs safetly, good hard points.

3. Treb 7-K - I run the Trenchback build, like a 4g only with big shield arms.

[Leone]

Blackhawk: Cuz they can hit the 16 weapons maximum onna mech limit. And do it with style.

Shadowhawk: Hmm, themey. Also dual uac 5s an srms.

Centurions: Reserved for phoenix hawk to keep in theme. This is the waffley option, but the cents win for now cuz I'm having a blast with the quirked Cent-D Lbx 10 autoshotgun quirks.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 23 January 2016 - 09:42 AM.

[mogs01gt]

1. Crow
2. Centurion
3. hunchback

[Bud Crue]

Crab- small profile, high speed, great with 5-6mpl or whatever, add jump jets and you can really be a nightmare. Hard to hit and tanky as hell.
Enforcer- instead of small and short like the crab, you are tall and thin...but equally tanky, and with ballistics added. So much fun.
Black Jack- you know why. However even before the structure buff this was a great brawler. Experimenting with std builds atm, but have yet to find one tougher than the classic (to me) 1a (I think) with max XL, Ac20 and 3ML plus jump jets. Just an excellent knife fighter.

Honorable mention is the Griffin. Like all the 55 ton IS mechs, If it was smaller in profile it (they) would win hands down (imagine a Griffin being similar in scale to that of the Crab). SRM and mixed lasers (with ECM in the 2N), to the laser spam of Sparky, all have potential with or without XL.

[Native]

Precentor Martial Jarcaddy, on 23 January 2016 - 09:16 AM, said:

1. The Hunchback - pretty much all of them except the J. Because ballistics and speed.

the 4J actually makes a great medium pulse laser brawler. 6 energy harpoints, no hump.. ran this one with great success:
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=21&l=adf407fb09abbf8ef7e23a66eaeec9db80583c21"

for me, it would be the

HBK-4P knife fighter maxed out with small pulse lasers. nothing beats AC-20 level punch with no ammo.
Yen-Lo-Wang cuz 104 kph AC-20 feels real good.
and Griffin 2N, cuz 4 srm4's and ECM

Edited by Native, 25 January 2016 - 07:20 AM.

[CD0UG]

Shd grey death, ac10, 4 sml pulse , standard enginen 85k, jj
Griffin 2n 4 srm4, 2 small pulse ecm, jj xl engine
Shd 2h, dual ac5 chain fired , 1 small pulse, jj, xl engine

Edited by CD0UG, 25 January 2016 - 07:38 AM.

[Lukoi Banacek]

Surprised to see crab here only once. They seem like real tanky Pitas.

[Moebius Pi]

I don't generally consider IS XL mechs the best Brawlers. One twist at a bad time, and boom, you're dead. They may skirmish, poke, and hit and run well well, but outright brawling? Risky business.

Crabs. They roll damage well, are ridiculously survivable with STD engines without a heavy loss of damage output. Their funky shape goes well with twisting and their low profile (plus quirks) let them soak a lot of damage brawling. My top IS pick for that, even without shield arms. Oh, and they also have a good amount of Head/CT hardpoints on the variants allowing you to be a walking stick with more punch than the Centurion ever had.

Stormcrows. Funky hitboxes, good shielding arms, Clan XL, can easily outfit very heavy hitting loadouts, still pretty survivable and easily outfitted with torso mounted energy so you're not entirely neutered with arms being blasted off.

STD engine Hunchbacks. They still tend to move at a good clip with std engines. Any medium can go down pretty fast in a brawl, but you can still shield well to protect your main boom torso with them, or not worry as much at all with the SRM variant. They also have a head mounted laser, so if you end up being a stick you're not helpless.

Honorable mention: the Centurion and Griffins. I found Centurions far too slow with STD engines and still pretty easy to dismantle (though they're in a better place lately with the extra structure buffs), and the days of going "zombie" with it as a stick where 2 Med or MPLs still mattered aren't really as relevant anymore. Still, nice shield arm and more survivable than before, so I'd almost put them on par with the Hunchie (almost), but I'd rather use an Enforcer these days if going XL, which is still more often than not.

Griffins are in the same boat for me; love them, but outright brawling they tend to fold pretty fast in these high alpha days, and feel too slow and neutered with STD engines vs zippy XLs given their mobility for my tastes. Still have nice shield arms though, and twist very well, while being quite mobile. If SRMs aren't your thing, you have a pretty nice Hero variant for all energy, or you can go Enforcer for the ballistic fun.

[The Basilisk]

SHD-GD
GRF-1N (SRM Griffin)
AC20 BJ

Edited by The Basilisk, 25 January 2016 - 09:12 AM.

[Arianrhod]

1. HBK-4G, classic AC/20 style. Fires way faster than an AC/20 ever should, and the heat is awesome (at least on mine).

2. Centurion CN9-AH or CN9-A, since they're very similar. Gives you more range flexibility than the Hunchback if you use the AC/10 or AC/5, and you get the raw unbridled power of SRMs.

3. Tough choice here. . . I'm not the hugest fan of other favorites such as the Griffin, Enforcer, or Stormcrow. I'd have to go HBK-4P or HBK-4SP. Even though I really prefer my brawlin' mechs to have ballistics, lots of lasers are still good. Very good.

All in all, if I had to pick a medium for a brawl, 9 times out of 10 it would be a Hunchback.

[Misfit Martian]

I'm really tempted to try the Hunchback but I like the LRM options and it looks like the Trebuchet and Kitaro are the missile boats - how does the Hunchback J stack up?

I tried the Enforcer, but just couldn't get into it.

Edited by Misfit Martian, 27 January 2016 - 06:59 PM.

[mogs01gt]

Misfit Martian, on 27 January 2016 - 06:56 PM, said:

I'm really tempted to try the Hunchback but I like the LRM options and it looks like the Trebuchet and Kitaro are the missile boats - how does the Hunchback J stack up?

I tried the Enforcer, but just couldn't get into it.

As a whole, the Hunchie is a better mech than both the Treb and KTO. LRMs on the other hand are the issue. The more you go up in tiers, the more LRMs because useful. The issue with Treb's and KTO's is their size

[Cabusha]

I find the Enforcer to run better as a skirmisher than a straight up brawler. 3xLL, XL300, JumpJets. Find a perch and go "snip snip snip".

[Alardus]

Cabusha, on 07 February 2016 - 01:19 PM, said:

I find the Enforcer to run better as a skirmisher 3xLL, XL300, JumpJets. Find a perch and go "snip snip snip".

...what. That's a sniper, not a skirmisher.

Edited by Alardus, 07 February 2016 - 06:33 PM.

[DrRedCoat]

Crab - Probably one of the best tanks in the game. Can also go fast and hit hard. What more can you ask for?

Centurion - The Yen-Lo-Wang will always have a special place in my heart. A good shield arm and a beautiful boom-stick.

Blackhawk - Honestly, none of my other mediums popped out at me. I almost always die in the Blackhawk from losing both side torsos rather than my Center so that's good. Packs a punch too.

[Alardus]

I'm going to say that any good brawler medium has hardpoint distribution which makes them readily zombie mode and also prevents them from losing >80% of their DPS if one portion is shot off. Hunch isn't a great brawler because all its DPS is in one spot. Atlas has the problem to a slightly lesser degree, because the LT has missiles, but those don't work for brawl unless SRM.

Apart from these kinds of rules, any mech makes a good brawler or not. All of them can carry the standard amount of max armor for their weight class. It is a longstanding player made rule to max armor at all times. The mechs people claim are awful because of low armor are usually stock, even though that mech sacrificed to get something for that, e.g. Jagermech couldn't have the weapons it has with full armor.

I think we're just talking hitboxes and hardpoint distribution.

Edited by Alardus, 07 February 2016 - 06:42 PM.

[Grimnir79]

HBK-4G all the way. Why? Because AC/20: KABOOM!

Edited by Grimnir79, 08 February 2016 - 01:40 AM.

[Cabusha]

Alardus, on 07 February 2016 - 01:50 PM, said:

...what. That's a sniper, not a skirmisher.

I use the ® variant, so there's no uber range quirks. 450meter LLs are very much in skirmish range. ;-)

[Donnybrook]

I think there may be some confusion in this thread as to what brawling is versus other playstyles. Granted, I'm still new to MWO, but my understanding is:

Sniping - poking from cover and repositioning frequently.

Skirmishing - using speed, agility and cover to outmaneuver the opponent to either flank or surprise them repeatedly.

Brawling - fast-paced, in-your-face damage, requiring high-alpha, build-tankiness, and the pilot ability to shield and roll damage, as well as identify and target vulnerable systems for quick kills.

Therefore, the builds in this thread that seem to qualify to me are those that either don't involve XL or those that has such screwy hitboxes that XL doesn't really matter.

For example, a SHD-2D2 with a STD engine would probably fare better as a brawler than with a XL, despite the advantages of the SHD's slimmer torso. Maybe something like this.