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Knowledge Is Power (Hardpoints And Optimizations)

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#1 Gyrok

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Posted 04 May 2016 - 08:28 AM

Linked from reddit: https://www.reddit.c...oint_placement/

I want to start a series of discussions to break down mechanics and other things in MWO. Many of you may well know much of this information intuitively, and others may not realize what I am talking about initially in some of these posts.

Today is going to be a discussion about hard points and placement.

First we are going to talk about the placement of hardpoints, and their relation to the optimization of mechs.

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To start with, we can talk about the Blackjack.

If you click on the link, you can clearly see the BJ1X.

This mech is considered a great medium by all accounts, and there is quite a bit going into that. For this discussion, we are going to ignore quirks purely for the assessment of hardpoint placement. Quirks will be discussed at a later time.

Notice how the hard point placement is all basically in line with the cockpit in this picture here. Even the lowest mounts fall at the edge of the "goldilocks" zone. This makes the mech exceptional for hill peeking, because you can expose a minimal amount of the mech and fire a full volley. Now, if you notice as well, the BJ's arms are a bit wide, but not egregiously so. Meaning that, because the mech is small, corner peeking is still a viable strategy for, at minimum, 5 of your 8 hardpoints. We will discuss width a bit more coming up.

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Next up is one of those heinous "meta offenders" the Black Knight.

As you can see here...if we look at the BK's "goldilocks" zone, we notice...of the 8 hardpoints this mech has...there is only one in that zone!? You might ask yourself, how is this mech an optimzed mech? Well, the BK is a mech that would truly wilt under any change of circumstances that made the opportunity cost too high. For example, a change too drastic to the quirks, or a complete shift in meta would abandon this mech completely.

Looking back at the picture, the bottom line is basically a tad below the actual waist of the mech, and the bulk of the hard points are located there. If you are going to do any significant amount of trading with the BK, you need to do so in one of two possible ways. The first option is to side peek. Though not a terrible idea, it is also not truly ideal for it either. The BK is likely an average side peeking mech, in spite of the hard points being tightly grouped near the cockpit. This is primarily because you need to be very aware of low cover that could block some, or most, of your volley. The other option, and the one you see most often used by comp groups, is to have the BK as a second line mech in an aggressive push/brawl deck. This allows the BK to work in "the safety of numbers", and also to utilize the massive firepower effectively by acting as a bit of a force multiplier.

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Next up we are going to talk about an assault mech, the Banshee.

Holy cow, if we loved the BJs hard points, we *love* the Banshee. Look at that goldilocks zone and those energy mounts! It is easy to see why sticking high powered energy in those hard points up high is so enticing, you can barely expose any of this mech and fire cleanly. You can even fire over those nitwits that run in front of you to face tank a dying mech! The banshee is a very adept hill peeking mech, especially when paired with a big XL engine. It is not the best option among *all* mechs, but it is likely about as good as it gets for assault mechs. Additionally, the banshee lends itself well to side peeking because of the trivial distance between the torso mounts and the cockpit. You can barely expose any of your mech from the side and get off a solid volley of 2 or 3 LPLs. The BNC has weathered the quirk storm well, and continues to thrive. Why? Because the energy meta is strong, and this mech is as strong as they come for that meta. This mech, in particular, is a shining example of a mech that you could pick up today, and it would likely still be good for a long time because of the optimization of hard points.

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Now, how about we discuss some clan mechs?

First up, the HBK-IIC. A mech that many consider to be quite strong in the current energy driven meta. Considering the clan tech tree has always had energy as a best option for their mechs, it makes sense that an energy boat HBK-IIC would be the strongest of the lot.

Now, let us look at the goldilocks zone on the HBK-IIC. People talk about this mech being quite strong, and we can see why it is good. The hardpoint placement is all focused right around the area of the mech we want. The hard points, like the BK and BNC before, are also tightly packed in the torsos near the cockpit. This means the HBK-IIC has 4 hard points that are basically ideal for hill peeking, and the other 4 hard points can be effectively used to side peek if need be without exposing a lot of mech. As long as clan lasers are the best option in their tech tree (likely foreseeable for quite some time...because PGI hates to buff anything clan), the HBK-IIC will be a solid medium in this role.

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Now, a heavy mech, the Ebon Jaguar. This mech is purported to be a good hill peeking mech for different reasons. Let us examine it further.

Looking at the goldilocks zone on this mech, we can clearly see that many of the hard points are close to the right location, but there are a few issues. The first being that the top most energy mounts are significantly higher than the cockpit. This means if we want to hill peek, we are exposing a side torso before we can ever fire a shot. A smart enemy will take advantage of this weakness, and you will be cut in half quickly. Since we are looking at ways to minimize exposure here, it may be best to not utilize those unless you have specific uses and take advantage of them in unique ways. One such advantage would be to fire at mechs from a lower position and still land your shots. Such a scenario may come up in canyon network, or other maps, where you can safely hit targets from a wider/narrower vertical angle. However, because that is a very niche purpose, we are going to count it as a slightly negative point for now. So, if the mech is overexposing to peek vertically, what about a side peek? Great question. If we look at the lines on the goldilocks zone, you can see how wide this mech actually is. Due to the distance between the cockpit and the arms, the mech would only ever be able to reasonably bring 5 hard points to bare, and that is only if you peek to the left side because of the top mounts. So, in essence, the EBJ in many ways is closer to the play style of the BK for the IS because of the nature of the flaws of the mech. In specific circumstances you can make peeking work, but the mech is not especially well suited for it.

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Next up is another clan heavy, the Timberwolf. This mech was especially controversial when this specific torso was announced. The TW as a whole is a well rounded mech; however, time has shown it is not the best peeking heavy for either side. Having said that, let us look at why.

Examining our goldilocks zone, we can see that the TW does not really have any hard points that fall directly in line with the cockpit. The placement of the cockpit, much like the EBJ makes that difficult. If we examine further, the TW hard points that actually are closest to the cockpit, would be the lower side torso hard points that you often see used on Gauss/PPC builds on the prime. The center torso, and especially the arms, are considerably lower than we would like meaning we have to expose lots of the mech to hill peek. Additionally, the placement of the high left torso mounts means we expose more of our mech before we can even return fire. What about side peeking though? Well, the TW has a considerably tighter profile in width than our previous example, and because of that, as long as you are clearing the low cover around you, the TW likely does make a serviceable side peeking mech. There are better options out there for this task as well, but the TW is likely about average as a side peeking mech. As we somewhat discussed with the BK, and to a lesser extent the EBJ, mechs with relatively low hard points are typically relegated to brawling. As we have seen with the current meta, it seems that the TW only ever sees use in comp play as SRM + SPL brawling specialist. This is unlikely to change barring unforeseen sweeping changes to clans and IS in general.

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Now, for a clan assault, the Intergalactic space whale. This mech was once feared by many, and cried as overpowered by many because of the sheer firepower it can bring to bare.

Looking at where the cockpit sits, our goldilocks zone shows us that the mech actually has basically zero hard points in an optimized location. The highest side torso ballistics are bordering on the bottom of the goldilocks zone. Everything else is considerably lower on the mech. Now, judging by the profile, I think we can fairly say that no one ever accused the endangered space whale of being a hill peeking mech, lethargy of motion not withstanding. How about side peeking? Well, you are really not optimized for that either because of the lack of acceleration and deceleration, the endangered space whale does not peek. Period. This mech is something of a unique case, as the hardpoints and lack of mobility essentially mandate that you have an overwatch position with lots of open ground and no low cover. Normally, a mech with low hard points would be a recommended brawling mech; however, when we consider the hard point locations, and mobility, of the space whale, there is really no place for the whale in a brawling scenario. We are seeing a bonafide fire support assault mech that needs great positioning, and keen awareness to earn it's keep.

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Hopefully this helps some newer players trying to make sense of how to examine mechs and determine what are the best options for their preferred play style. I will end up doing more of these if the community thinks it is helpful for newer players.

#2 Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood

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Posted 05 May 2016 - 08:15 PM

Lots of good information here, I'd love to see more stuff you come out with.

#3 Jables McBarty

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Posted 17 May 2016 - 01:02 PM

Good stuff Gyrok, though the DWF-S and -W heads have a high-mounted E hardpoint. Doesn't dramatically affect playstyle though, so I'm guessing that's why you omitted it.

#4 Snowbluff

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Posted 04 June 2016 - 07:57 PM

Uh, the TBR's side torso ballistics fall under the zone, don't they? They're just about the laser cubes.

#5 Stingray Productions

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Posted 05 June 2016 - 06:39 AM

A lot of good info for sure :)





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