45 replies to this topic

[BlackRosePhoenix]

Hello there, just a few days new to mechwarrior online having tons of fun with it. Looking for some input on what mechs I should maybe buy and some help in equipping them. I'll give my lowdown of what I thought about the 4 trial mechs. Also I have 0 mc and was looking at getting one of the bundle and would really like some input on which one's I might like the most with my playstyle.

Light Mechs
I think I actually really like lights, mobility is my sort of thing. Just a bit more firepower and/or some modules that would help me avoid missile locks as that is what tends to kill me when I'm on a roll. I think I might be able to get the firepower I want with the right loadout

Adder
Weapons: 2 C-ER PPC, 1 C-Flamer
Did not like him at all, I also barley gave him a chance. He seemed to be a very close combat mech and getting that close to mechs isn't quite my thing. I don't mind a bit of close quarter combat, but I want to be able to move away and attack from a bit of a distance so I can take cover after firing.


Arctic Chetah
Weapons: 6 C-ER SML Lasers
Had fun with him and did good with him. I might prefer a stronger version of something like him. His mobility was really awesome, I just need some way to dodge missile locks if possible. Also firepower was disappointing but I imagine all the trial mechs are sort of weak.

Jenner
Weapons: 6 Medium Lasers
Felt about the same way with him as the arctic cheetah, had fun and did good with him. I think I did better with Arctic Cheetah though.

Raven
Weapons: 2 ER Large Lasers
Raven was cool, I like the idea of a sniping mech, but I feel like I rather have a heavy or medium sniper set up, I did really like how raven moved around and speed. Might of just been I was getting better at controlling mechs by the point I tried him or he was more fluid for me. So I might like a similar model with a different weapon loadout.


Medium Mechs
So I was working on writing this and just finished my medium mech section and started on heavy and accidentally went back a couple pages and lost everything I wrote. Luckily I was afraid of doing that already and had copied my first section to save it just incase too bad I forgot after finishing medium. So this version is probably going to be rushed.

Anyway didn't really like the medium mechs although it might be because of the trial mechs. They all felt like they were missing a little bit for me to really like them. Even the one I liked the most. Could also just be I need some more skill to enjoy playing these mechs.

Enforcer - ENF-4R(C)
Weapons: 5 Medium Laser, 1 AC/10
Didn't really like him because of the optimal range and I would try to get around that to fight and just got teared up. Although notice while writing max range is 540 and maybe I should use him more at his max range and when they come at me I'll start doing good damage. Also wasn't too fond of the AC/10 but while rewriting this I don't really remember that weapon that well.

Hunchback - HBK-4P(C)
Weapons: 8 Medium Lasers
Yeah really didn't like this guy felt the same way about him as the enforcer pretty much. I liked him more then the enforcer though. Might like him a bit more if I play him more to his max range and let enemies come at me for max dmg.

Shadowcat - SHC-PRIME
Weapons: 1 C-Gauss Rifle, 2 C-ER MED Laser
Shadowcat was fun did decent with him, need to work on firing the gauss rifle, I understand you need to charge it but still had problems with it. Really liked the ER Med laser. I could see myself really enjoying a mech with just a bunch of er med lasers.

Stormcrow - SCR-PRIME(C)
Weapons: 5 C-MED Pulse Lasers
Really enjoyed this mech, did very well with the pulse lasers. Might really enjoy something like this.

Heavy Mechs
Had some good fun with some of the heavy mechs.


Catapult - CPLT-A1(C)
Weapons: 2 SRM 6 + ARTEMIS, 2 LRM 15 + Artemis (wondering what +Artemis means compared to not having + Artemis)
Really enjoyed using the LRM getting kills from the other side of a hill is awesome. Didn't really like the SRMs would probably prefer a different close range weapon.

Ebon Jaguar - EBJ-C
Weapons: 2 C-Ultra AC/2, 2 C-SRM 6, 2 C-LRM 15
Also enjoyed the LRMs on this mech liked the combination of the srm and ultra ac as close range weapons compared to just srms, although I still might wanna lose the srms.

Thunderbolt - TDR-9SE(C)
Weapons 3 LRG Pulse Laser
Really went on a rampage with this mech, although I happened to get some really nice positioning with him. I deft like Pulse lasers and some good armor. Although I'm thinking I might like something that packs a massive punch with decent optimal range and no armor just mobility.

Timber Wolf - TBR-C(C)
Weapons: 3 C-ER Med Lasers, 2 C-LRG Pulse Lasers
Liked this mech even more then the thunderbolt. Enjoyed having ER med lasers with the combination of pulse lasers. Felt like this mech had some decent mobility for a heavy, might just be my skill piloting mechs is getting better by this point.

Assault Mechs
On my first play-though all the trial mechs I did really bad with the Assault mechs, my second play-through to write this I seemed to do much better. Really liked the firepower they have although I did die a bunch of times really quick. Once I calmed down a bit though I did a lot better.

Atlas - AS7-RS(C)
Weapons: 4 Medium Lasers, AMS (is this used automatically?), 1 AC/20 (Hard to tell where I'm hitting with AC weapons), 2 SRM 6 + Artemis
Had some fun with him and did well with him despite nearly getting destroyed with him at the start of a match. Really don't like Medium Lasers though optimal range and maximum range are just a bit short for my preference. Did much better with them then starting out on the light mechs though. AC weapons are awesome but I do have trouble telling where they hit in relation to my cross hairs. Got some nice cockpit kills with it though. Still don't like SRMs and would want a different weapons to fill out a mech like this.

Dire Wolf - DWF-WC(C)
Weapons: 2 C-Gauss Rifle, 2 C-LRG Pulse Laser, 3 C-ER MED Laser
Did decent with him, still having trouble with the gauss rifles, really just didn't like it being set as my first weapon group that made it worse for me. Liked the combination of Lrg Pulse Lasers and ER Med Laser. I really did not like his slow speed though, he was really crawling along.

Executioner - EXE-D
Weapons: 5 C-SML Pulse lasers, 3 C-MED Pulse Lasers, 1 C-LRG Pulse Laser, 2 C-SRM 6, 1 C-ER SML Laser
Well did alright with this guy, liked his weapon combination. I accidentally killed myself by overheating though. Pretty sure I read all the trial mechs heat sinks are limited so I would probably do better in the real mech. Like the speed with this guy also, not super mobile but good for all the firepower he is carrying.

King Crab - KGC-000B(C)
Weapons: 4 Ultra AC/5, 3 Medium Lasers
Liked this mech way more then I thought I would when I was checking him out. Did really good with him liked the AC. Slow ****** but still his range made up for his slow speed. Feel like I don't even need the medium lasers ended up never using them and could use some other sort of weapon with similar range as the Ultra ACs


So in the end I like having good optimal range and even better maximum range. I did like the mobility of the light mechs but will probably stay away from them for a first buy. Really enjoyed the Medium Stormcrow might like a nice version of him to start out with, another option I'm thinking of is the Timberwolf. I did really well with him and would like a decked out version a lot. Heavy mechs with LRM are a ton of fun also, maybe something with LRMS and some decent medium range weaponry to support that would be a lot of fun. While I did enjoy the assault mechs I probably will stay away from them for a first buy other then maybe a set up like the king crab but no medium lasers. I can probably get two mechs to start myself out. I have 6500 MC and wanna get a mech bundle that comes with 30 days of premium and then I have 18 mil Credits, maybe I would buy another mech with that so I can get a taste of two different non trial mechs. Now I'm not really sure on just what you can customize and the limitations due to heat weight sockets and other junk like that. So I realize some of the combinations I might be asking for are just not possible. Hopefully this can help yall help me figure out what to purchase first.

[Leone]

Seems like you'd like the clan mechs. Either the Stormcrow for speed, or the Ebon Jaugar, Hellbringer, or Timberwolf for more weaponry.

Of all of them, you'll prolly like the Hellbringer for Ecm capacity which makes it harder for folk to get missile an targetting locks on you. Of the remaining two, the Timberwolf can load more weaponry. Seeing as how you enjoyed lrms an er medium lasers, I should inform you that all four mechs can run both, at the same time.

If you use the right hand arrow keys an 'right ctrl' you can rebind your weapon groups on the fly. As for Ams, it is on autofire, but can be toggled off if you don't wanna waste the shots or give away your position.

Oh! as for the ACs, ballistics have a travel time, with the AC20 being slower'n the others. Makes it slightly harder to aim at first, but when they hit, they hit all at once.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 06 February 2016 - 01:47 AM.

[BlackRosePhoenix]

What's the difference between clan mechs and non clan mechs?

[IraqiWalker]

I need to emphasize this: The 2 ERPPC Adder is NOT a close combat mech. It's actually a fire support mech. Better suited for sniping. Close range is where it goes to die.

Also, you really shouldn't be using your weapons at their max range. Especially not lasers, because they will generate lots of heat, and deal 0 damage.

Mediums also tend to rely on having bigger mechs around them to distract the enemies. Your job in a medium mech is usually escorting bigger mechs, and supplementing their firepower.

It sounds like lights would be a good start for you, or the stormcrow.

[IraqiWalker]

BlackRosePhoenix, on 06 February 2016 - 02:05 AM, said:

What's the difference between clan mechs and non clan mechs?

Clan mechs use clan weapons and equipment. For example, their double heatsinks only take 2 slots. Whereas Inner Sphere heatsinks take 3 slots.

Clan XL engines don't die when they lose one side torso (Inner Sphere XLs die if you lose one ST)

Clan weapons work differently from Inner Sphere ones.


Also, currently clans are the only ones with both Omni technology, and IIC technology.

All of the clan mechs you piloted were omni mechs. Which means that they can swap out any parts on one variant with those of another. So you can actually change their hardpoints to your liking. You want to run a Stormcrow with 5 missile launchers? You can do that. Got bored with it? Swap the arms and side torsos out for energy or ballistic ones, all on the same mech.

Omni mechs come with a price though. Their engines, structure, and armor types are fixed, and can't be changed. If that mech has an XL 300 in it, that's it. You can't change that. They also come with hardwired equipment that you can't remove, like Jumpjets, active probes, or heatsinks (the Warhawk has 20 hardwired heatsinks that you can't remove)

IIC mechs can't swap hardpoints, but instead can change their upgrades, and everything else, and come with no hardwired equipment.

[Rogue Jedi]

if you want a stronger version of the Arcit Cheetah the Firestarter may be what you are looking for.
it is an Inner Sphere Mech not Clan but can have up-to 8 lasers and as it is 5 tons heavier it has more armor if you keep moving the Firestarter, Arctic Cheeter and Spider are able to take a lot more damage than there armor or structure hitpoints suggest.

The Inner Sphere Medium laser is roughly equivalent to the Clan ER Small but weight more, the FS9 can take 8 of those
the Firestarter can be a bit faster than the ACH but does not have the option for ECM.
The ACH is usualy more mobile with those fixed (cannot be removed) Jumpjets, the Firestarter can have as many Jumpjets but would have to make a compromise in terms of speed or firepower to take as many, also the first Firestarter will cost more because you have to buy an XL engine and perform the Double Heat Sinks and Endo Steel Upgrades separately, a Firestarter will cost about 10 million by the time you have purchased and upgraded it where as the ACH only costs about 7 million + maybe another 1 mil for changing out the weapons, but 3 Firestarters will cost about the same as 3 ACH because you can swap the really expensive XL engines between variants, meaning the second and third Firestarters will only cost about 5 million.

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 06 February 2016 - 03:00 AM.

[BlackRosePhoenix]

I really wanna get one of the medium or heavy mech bundles. Based on what I said what might be a good choice? I really want something with optimal range of 500 or better. I like having a high yaw I'll settle for bad pitch. I also want something with decent speed although I can live with something slower just so I can equip weapons with good range.

[Leone]

Well I think that takes the Stormcrow offa my list for ya. Er Mediums have an optimal range of 400. I'm still assuming clan mechs, by the way. Your looking for large pulse, ER PPC or straight up er larges for energy. Then ballistics in the Ten, Five or Two range, an honestly, AC 2s are kinda niche, I'd stay away from em to start with. Or of course, Lrms.

So, that in mind, 'Take this, it's dangerous to go alone!'

Try out some builds on the HBR, TBR an EBJ.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 07 February 2016 - 03:21 AM.

[Arnie76]

Some additions to the Clan vs. Non-Clan (Inner Sphere or IS) topic:
As mentioned above you cannot mix technology on the same mech. Also if you want to play Faction Play later (which is not very popular right now) you'll need to bring four mechs of the same origin (depending on which of the two sides you're fighting for at the time). In regular play this does not matter.
From your explanations you seem to prefer longer range weapons, which means that Clan mechs might be more suited for you as mentioned above (they have longer range weapons, but the weapons also have a longer duration). Unfortunately there are no Clan Mastery Packs yet at this moment.
So you should either go without a mastery pack for the time being, or you'll have to look into Inner Sphere packs.
One pack that I would recommend is the Thunderbolt: It's a heavy mech which is quite robust, also includes the trial mech you've played already, and a hero mech which is considered to be good (Top Dog).
But: apart from the common large pulse laser build you'll probably have an optimal range of around 300m or less and the mechs are probably slower than what to seem to enjoy.
The Blackjacks may also be for you: one of their preferred weapons are Large Pulse lasers, they are quite a bit faster than the Thunderbolts but weigh less (should be less tanky, at least after the next patch)
Maybe before spending any of the MC I'd just try the trials a bit longer.

[Arnie76]

Leone, on 07 February 2016 - 03:20 AM, said:

Well I think that takes the Stormcrow offa my list for ya. Er Mediums have an optimal range of 400. I'm still assuming clan mechs, by the way. Your looking for large pulse, ER PPC or straight up er larges for energy. Then ballistics in the Ten, Five or Two range, an honestly, AC 2s are kinda niche, I'd stay away from em to start with. Or of course, Lrms.

So, that in mind, 'Take this, it's dangerous to go alone!'

Try out some builds on the HBR, TBR an EBJ.

~Leone.

Smurfy is a very good tool, that is commonly used to try builds without having to buy stuff.
Some quick advices for building (just my experience):
-Double Heat Sinks are regarded as a must on 99% of all builds. Endo Steel structure is also required most of the time, except for some Assault builds IIRC. Ferro is used if you need free weight more than slots, so most of the time only light mechs use it
-Most people seem to target for a heat efficiency between 3x% and 40%. If it's lower you are running hot too fast, if it's higher you would be able to bring more weapons basically
-The Center Torso (CT) and Side Torsi (STs) should have full armour (don't know if there are common exceptions to this rule)
-Legs should have full armour on light mechs, may have armour shaved off on other weight classes (I like to keep them at max or close to it, less so the heavier the mech)
-Arms should have full/nearly full armour if there are weapons inside them (or other important equipment), you can shave armour off if you need the weight elsewhere and they are empty. Using them as shields may still warrant armour on an empty arm, though.

In order to try and balance mechs which would be inferior (e.g. because of their shape/size/weapon placement) there is a thing called quirks. These are why you will see people running a certain weapon type on a certain mech.
You can find these here for example:
http://snafets.de/mwo/quirks.htm
But there is supposed to be a change on those (reduction of the energy range quirks) mid of this month.

Edit: some changes to the armour-shaving part

Edited by Arnie76, 07 February 2016 - 05:48 AM.

[IraqiWalker]

BlackRosePhoenix, on 07 February 2016 - 03:06 AM, said:

I really wanna get one of the medium or heavy mech bundles. Based on what I said what might be a good choice? I really want something with optimal range of 500 or better. I like having a high yaw I'll settle for bad pitch. I also want something with decent speed although I can live with something slower just so I can equip weapons with good range.

The mechs don't dictate the range of the weapon. Any mech in the game can fit almost any weapon in the game. So the question you want to ask is not the one you're actually asking.

For example: The Com-2D can fit ECM + an ERLL. That gives it an optimal range of 675, and a max of 1350. It's not the mech you want to buy though, is it?

I'm not sure why Leone considered the SCR down. Especially since it can fit 2-3 ERLLs, or LPLs with about 10 tons to spare (at max armor).

Edited by IraqiWalker, 07 February 2016 - 05:29 AM.

[BlackRosePhoenix]

Are there any mechs I should stay away from because they are either really bad or are meant to be used in specialized ways that doesn't work well in solo que. I've been looking through the mechs trying to understand all the stats and what it means and what I think I'll like. I've found I almost feel comfortable buying a few, but am afraid it ends up being crap because it's just a bad mech that no one uses. Another thing is that I might wanna change the weapons set to something I'll like more but don't realize this mech isn't really good for that weapon set I wanna use and either have to strip armor or something and end up using the mech inefficiently or something along those lines.

I guess a good question to ask is what is the difference between variants of mechs. Like I understand hardpoints and what types of weapons you can equip to them. What other differences are there I should be paying attention to.

Right now I'm leaning on buying the Catapult Mastery, Griffin, Thunderbolt, Blackjack, or Wolverine, Hunchback(He looked like one I might really like) bundles all for various reasons. Oh also the Jagermech, was looking at him and thinking I might really like him. Still trying to understand how to set up a load out for a mech and not sure if the weapons I would wanna put on him would work for him. From what everyone has said it sounds like I just need to pick a bundle and then buy a clan mech something like the Hellbringer or Stormcrow as previously suggested. Are there any guides on understanding mechlab? I prefer reading then watching videos, I don't mind some videos as supplement but I just much prefer reading information so I can look it over. Also any other random new player guides you guys recommend. I saw some recommended videos but I just have a weird thing against videos they always bore me and drag on with ******** or the vital information is gone through so fast I can't process it and keep on having to rewind.

Edited by BlackRosePhoenix, 07 February 2016 - 06:35 AM.

[BlackRosePhoenix]

Leone, on 07 February 2016 - 03:20 AM, said:

Well I think that takes the Stormcrow offa my list for ya. Er Mediums have an optimal range of 400. I'm still assuming clan mechs, by the way. Your looking for large pulse, ER PPC or straight up er larges for energy. Then ballistics in the Ten, Five or Two range, an honestly, AC 2s are kinda niche, I'd stay away from em to start with. Or of course, Lrms.

So, that in mind, 'Take this, it's dangerous to go alone!'

Try out some builds on the HBR, TBR an EBJ.

~Leone.

When you say try out some builds, do you mean look up other peoples builds with high ratings or just build something on my own. I'm anxious about making my own builds cause I'm afraid I'll worry more about the weapons I want and not enough about heat and armor. Although the advice Arnie76 gave is good and should help me.

[BlackRosePhoenix]

Hmm I thought of a good question, What Medium or Heavy mechs have really good heat management so I can deck it out with some laser weapons I like. Then I can look through those and pick one with other specifications I like.

[Arnie76]

BlackRosePhoenix, on 07 February 2016 - 06:51 AM, said:

Hmm I thought of a good question, What Medium or Heavy mechs have really good heat management so I can deck it out with some laser weapons I like. Then I can look through those and pick one with other specifications I like.

Unstructured wall-of-text:

1. The heat management depends on the number of heatsinks mostly, which is independent of the specific mech (except for some clan mechs having heat sinks that you cannot remove). On top of that you have the quirks which you can check on smurfy or (with a better presentation imho) on snafets. E.g. the TDR-9SE has a general -10% reduction for energy weapons and an additional -10% for large pulse lasers. So it's good for running LPL currently, but if you run other energy weapons you also get a -10 reduction.
2. Most of the time people prefer torso mounted lasers which are mounted high and close together. That way it's less likely for obstacles to block your shots (you can shoot what you can see more or less) and the beams are more likely to hit the same spot. But sometimes people also like to have all of the weapons on one side, so they can shield with the other side, they may want to have weapons in the arms for easier tracking of fast mechs...
3. Some mechs have weapons in the arms which are low to the ground (e.g. the Cataphract), those are good for things like peeking around an obstacle and shooting up/down, but bad at shooting over obstacles.
4. The Jagermech is nice mech with high mounts, but since most people use an XL engine in it they are rather easy to destroy if you know where to shoot (you need the saved weight for the balistics that mostt JM6-builds use). There was a thread to show the hitboxes of different mechs, but I could not find an up-to-date version right now.
5. You can refer to sites like metamechs.com or mechspecs. But maybe especially the first also takes away a lot of the fun of trying your own builds: I previously tried different builds while recently I mostly take one of the builds from Metamechs, maybe with slight adaptions. It's effective but also more boring
6. I'm not to sure about written guides (there seem to be more videos, as you mentioned) but this might be a good start (although there is no content regarding the mechlab interface it seems, maybe you find something in the guides section).

Based on this I hope you can make up your mind on what mechs may be good for energy weapons.

BlackRosePhoenix, on 07 February 2016 - 06:32 AM, said:

I guess a good question to ask is what is the difference between variants of mechs. Like I understand hardpoints and what types of weapons you can equip to them. What other differences are there I should be paying attention to.

Right now I'm leaning on buying the Catapult Mastery, Griffin, Thunderbolt, Blackjack, or Wolverine, Hunchback(He looked like one I might really like) bundles all for various reasons. Oh also the Jagermech, was looking at him and thinking I might really like him. Still trying to understand how to set up a load out for a mech and not sure if the weapons I would wanna put on him would work for him. From what everyone has said it sounds like I just need to pick a bundle and then buy a clan mech something like the Hellbringer or Stormcrow as previously suggested. Are there any guides on understanding mechlab? I prefer reading then watching videos, I don't mind some videos as supplement but I just much prefer reading information so I can look it over. Also any other random new player guides you guys recommend. I saw some recommended videos but I just have a weird thing against videos they always bore me and drag on with ******** or the vital information is gone through so fast I can't process it and keep on having to rewind.

for variants yes, the main differences are the hardpoints and quirks, sometimes they have slight differences in possible engines or other properties. Just check the table on smurfys

Regarding the packs you mentioned (my personal opinion, owning at least 3 variants of each of them, but I'm a mediocre player myself)
Catapult: missle centric chassis (only K2 has ballistics), currently I mainly see them being used for LRMs, don't know the hero myself, the CPLT should get better when it's being rescaled soon (getting smaller). Most energy mounts are rather low on the mech from what I know (except for arms on K2 and probably on the Jester). -> nice chassis but not one I'd personally recommend to start with.
Griffin: a very quick and agile mech (with JJs and good twist ranges, great view from the cockpit) focussing on short range. But requires XL engines for many builds (will mean easier destruction and more expensive engine). The hero is fun as well.
Thunderbolt: a very solid chassis currently, but focussing on lasers for the most common build (e.g. there is no variant that can carry an A/C20). All common builds using STD engines, your C-Bills would be more than sufficient to equip them if you buy the bundle. As mentioned above I think this is well suited as a first mech (try the trial some more?)
Blackjack: also a nice mech as mentioned above, but less tonnage than TDR
Wolverine: I own 4 of them, but so far they have not clicked for me, no opinion of the hero. At least two seem(ed?) to have good quirks.
Hunchback: this was my first mech (well, first was a COM-2D that I was awful with for a long time) and I still like it, although I have not played it in a long time. It has no jumpjets and a bit narrowed view (because of the hunch), but great twist range (you can shoot behind yourself with the arms once all skills are unlocked). There is a variant for everything (-P for energy, -G for big ballistics, -J for missiles) and most of the builds only use a standard engine (there is a long thread in the forums).
BUT: I'm not sure if I would consider the hero as good moneymaker for a new player. If you use the Gauss Rifle the mech will be squishy. You can still mount an A/C20 in it though, it will be almost as good as a HBK-4G with A/C20. And you mentioned you did not like the trial (which is considered one of the best builds for the HBK-4P).

Overall I think the TDR would have the best possibilities for laser builds that are not short range, while the HBK would have most variety but is more short range, as are most of the other packs you mention.
Maybe you play some more to find out if the range topic is a must for you.

Alternatively you can go for Hellbringers or Stormcrows as mentioned by the other posters, but no mastery bundles for those (you can get the steam pack but your MC won't help for that)

[IraqiWalker]

BlackRosePhoenix, on 07 February 2016 - 06:32 AM, said:

Are there any mechs I should stay away from because they are either really bad or are meant to be used in specialized ways that doesn't work well in solo que. I've been looking through the mechs trying to understand all the stats and what it means and what I think I'll like. I've found I almost feel comfortable buying a few, but am afraid it ends up being crap because it's just a bad mech that no one uses. Another thing is that I might wanna change the weapons set to something I'll like more but don't realize this mech isn't really good for that weapon set I wanna use and either have to strip armor or something and end up using the mech inefficiently or something along those lines.

Literally every mech can work in solo queue. I've seen 12 flamer novas kill an entire lance in solo queue.

There are a few mechs whose hitboxes have made them almost forgotten *cough*Trebuchet*cough*, or were left behind by the quirkening. However, you can make them work.

Go to Smurfy, and design a few builds for the mechs you like, and post the links here (click "Save and Share", and copy-paste the resulting links here), and we'll help you with tweaking them, and understanding why X thing is better than Y.

From your posts so far, you've mentioned you like stand offish ranges from medium and up, and you like ballistics, that puts the Blackjack, Jagermech (which is basically a much bigger blackjack), and the Hunchback at the forefront of mechs I would recommend for you (The HBK is the single most recommended starter mech for new players, with the Stormcrow a close second)

I think you should take a look at this guide for mech construction. I designed it mainly for new players, and hope it helps you.

http://mwomercs.com/...-mech-building/

BlackRosePhoenix, on 07 February 2016 - 06:32 AM, said:

I guess a good question to ask is what is the difference between variants of mechs. Like I understand hardpoints and what types of weapons you can equip to them. What other differences are there I should be paying attention to.

All variants will have identical hitboxes, and geometry, generally speaking. The main differences between them would be in the hardpoints count, location of said hardpoints, and their type, and quirks. Let's take the Hunchback family as a case study

The HBK-4G, and 4H can both fit any ballistic weapon they want in their hunch. However, the 4G is quirked for the AC 20 better than the 4H. While the 4H is quirkced better for the AC 10 than the 4G. This might not seem like too big of a difference, but the two weapons have different roles, and ranges. The AC 10 can work in medium to long ranges. The AC 20 can't, it has to be used in short range. The AC 10 hunchback can perform as a skirmisher, and a harasser, even a flanker, because of it's lighter weapon load, it can use a bigger engine too, allowing it to be faster. The 4G on the other hand will perform wonderfully as a satellite, and can technically flank, but it will be less mobile than it's AC 10 brother.

Then you have the HBK-4SP, it has no hunch, but instead it's got two missile hardpoints, one in each side torso, and it's quirked for SRMs. This makes it a great brawler, and specializes it for mid range. You can of course slap LRMs in there if you want, and benefit from the general missile quirks, and thus use it in a non-conventional way, with good effectiveness.

Then you have the 4J, which is optimized for LRMs (LRM 10s on that thing are magic). It's got a big hunch like the ballistic ones, and specializes in long range fire support. This makes it a great mobile flanker, and LRMisher.

The 9P has 9 energy hardpoints. It's lasers all the way on this guy (sometimes called "Discoball"), and you can pack any lasers/PPCs you want, for however you want to play it. It's best optimized for escort and flanker roles.

The Grid Iron hero mech has quirks geared for Gauss Rifles, which makes it excellent as a long distance sniper, but terrible at brawling. It can still pack any ballistic weapon you'd want to put it there, it's just most efficient with a Gauss Rifle.

In some cases, there might be a difference in what engines/JJs can be mounted on a particular variant. For example, the Blackjack-1X can't mount Jumpjets, while the others can. It compensates for that by having a the ability to mount a bigger engine than any other Blackjack. Letting it achieve much higher movement speeds.


I hope this helps answer your question.

BlackRosePhoenix, on 07 February 2016 - 06:32 AM, said:

Right now I'm leaning on buying the Catapult Mastery, Griffin, Thunderbolt, Blackjack, or Wolverine, Hunchback(He looked like one I might really like) bundles all for various reasons. Oh also the Jagermech, was looking at him and thinking I might really like him. Still trying to understand how to set up a load out for a mech and not sure if the weapons I would wanna put on him would work for him. From what everyone has said it sounds like I just need to pick a bundle and then buy a clan mech something like the Hellbringer or Stormcrow as previously suggested. Are there any guides on understanding mechlab? I prefer reading then watching videos, I don't mind some videos as supplement but I just much prefer reading information so I can look it over. Also any other random new player guides you guys recommend. I saw some recommended videos but I just have a weird thing against videos they always bore me and drag on with ******** or the vital information is gone through so fast I can't process it and keep on having to rewind.

I already posted my guide here for walking you through constructing your own mech, and would be happy to sit down with you on Teamspeak and explain everything else in greater detail if you want.

I should also update it with a section on quirks.

As far as your packs go, they are all solid mechs. The Blackjack, and Jagermech are great ballistic snipers (despite the most famous BJ build being an AC 20 one) With the blackjack-1X being an all energy beast of a brawler, and the JM-6A being capable of LRM fire support

The HBK is one of the best starter mechs in the entire game.

If you get the mech you like through buying a mastery pack, then do that, no need to splurge extra on another mech until you are sure footed.

BlackRosePhoenix, on 07 February 2016 - 06:38 AM, said:

When you say try out some builds, do you mean look up other peoples builds with high ratings or just build something on my own. I'm anxious about making my own builds cause I'm afraid I'll worry more about the weapons I want and not enough about heat and armor. Although the advice Arnie76 gave is good and should help me.

I'd recommend making your own builds, and if you make mistakes, that's perfect. Since it will allow us to help you understand why certain things are wrong, or right, or why they're good, or bad.

BlackRosePhoenix, on 07 February 2016 - 06:51 AM, said:

Hmm I thought of a good question, What Medium or Heavy mechs have really good heat management so I can deck it out with some laser weapons I like. Then I can look through those and pick one with other specifications I like.

None. Heat management is going to rely mainly on how many heatsinks you put in the mech. Some have quirks that really help them in very specific builds. For example, one of the Thunderbolts has excellent heat, and range quirkcs on medium pulse lasers. Another has them for PPCs.


Another thing that should be noted is that the weapons will dictate heat escalation:

Lasers: Low tonnage, but high heat, and will need lots of Heatsinks

Ballistics: High tonnage, but low heat, and will need ammo.

Missiles: medium point between the two. Larger LRM launchers tend to generate more heat.

Edited by IraqiWalker, 07 February 2016 - 10:08 AM.

[BlackRosePhoenix]

So many awesome answers guys, thanks so much for the help. I'm also looking for some people to play with if anyone has a clan recruiting newbs. I do pretty decent in mechs I like, although I imagine I'm playing against other newbs so that doesn't mean much.

Edited by BlackRosePhoenix, 07 February 2016 - 10:18 AM.

[IraqiWalker]

BlackRosePhoenix, on 07 February 2016 - 10:17 AM, said:

So many awesome answers guys, thanks so much for the help. I'm also looking for some people to play with if anyone has a clan recruiting newbs. I do pretty decent in mechs I like, although I imagine I'm playing against other newbs so that doesn't mean much.

Why don't you come join us (Davions) on the House Davion server? Don't worry, no need to sign a contract, or join a unit. Just show up, and chat/drop with other people, to get a taste of group drops, and have some fun?

[BlackRosePhoenix]

So I spent another 15$ on MC and bought the Thunderbolt Mastery bundle, and now have 2,890 MC left for purchases in the future. Thanks again guys I'll let you know how it goes with the thunderbolt. Oh what's special about hero mechs from other mechs? Just another variant with some unique quirks + hardpoints?

IraqiWalker, on 07 February 2016 - 10:23 AM, said:

Why don't you come join us (Davions) on the House Davion server? Don't worry, no need to sign a contract, or join a unit. Just show up, and chat/drop with other people, to get a taste of group drops, and have some fun?

How do I join yall?

[BlackRosePhoenix]

Why does it seem like not many mechs can equip ER Med lasers? or are they not showing up in my list for some reason?
Like Top Dog can equip Medium Lasers, Large Lasers, ER Large Lasers, but not ER Medium lasers. The ER Large lasers are fine for me but I was just wondering. I noticed the same thing on a bunch of mechs in mechlab.

Edited by BlackRosePhoenix, 07 February 2016 - 11:38 AM.