11 replies to this topic

[Col Sharpe]

I want a collector level mech package to buy and complete my 2016 rewards. I have Marauders and warhammers, not into paying that much for mediums and have most of the resistance mechs I want via game play.

So that leaves me for the Archer, Rifleman or Cyclops to complete my IS top tier. The loyalty Stalker intrigues me....

I am leaning towards the Cyclops as my only IS Assault is the Mauler. The Rifleman looks great, but sounds like it plays like a worse Jagermech and the Archer is kinda the same as I understand it to the Catapult.

What say y'all?

[CheeseThief]

The Cyclops is pretty great.

Zeus mobility combined with Atlas levels of firepower. Those +50% acceleration/deceleration and turn rate quirks are glorious. They take a few c-bills to do up once you get them because the stock builds are pretty ghastly and they aren't Atlas levels of tanky, but the Cyclops spreads damage well enough and if built right hits like an Assault mech should. One of the better mechs I've purchased.


Archers I despise.

Waist height cockpit often times means I am getting shot when I think I am behind cover, I have to expose the entire torso to get locks or shoot anything. Individual sections of the torso randomly go missing without any spread damage so it is neither XL or Standard friendly. For Lurm spamming it's fine but not great as pretty much every IS heavy with missiles gets better missile quirks. Yes it's fun to walk around a corner and derp someone with godless amounts of SRM's, but so far my experience says that the Cyclops is better at it.


I have no experience with the Rifleman except that it seems to be made out of matchwood when shot at.

[Anunknownlurker]

I have both Archers and Rifleman but I don't own the Cyclops.

Archers - not very good in my opinion. The Tempest is mediocre but is at least a 70 ton IS heavy with ECM. The 5W is OK because what else comes with 9 missile slots? But, honestly, it's not a great mech, it can be fun at times but, as CheeseThief points out above, has too many negatives to make it worth spending real money on.

Rifleman - fragile, nice high weapon mounts but softer than a Jagermech and slower than a Blackjack without adding a great deal to either. It is not XL friendly (not many IS heavies are!) and is either too slow or too undergunned with a standard engine. The hero, Legend Killer, is pretty underwhelming, yes it gets good LB 10-X quirks but there is a lot of choice for running 2 of them on an IS heavy so I am not sure what it really adds to the game. As with the Archer, get them for C-bills but don't waste your money on them.

The Cyclops looks good on the battlefield, I'm not terrified of it like I am the Atlas or Kodiak, but it's tough and can pack quite a punch. I try to stay away from them when I am in a medium or small heavy, plus it's unique with the Tacticon Computer (not sure if that adds a great deal in reality but nothing else has it!).

Of the three choices you offer, I think the Cyclops is the only reasonable option.

[Natural Born Corpse]

As much as the above posters might be right ( everyone has their own opinion, and is entitled to it), they both forgot to ask, what tier are you? The tier you currently are at, makes a huge difference as to what you will find is a valid and "usuable" mech(s) and loadout.

As a proud tier 4 ( almost 3) pilot, who owns both the archer and the cyclops, i have found both totally viable in matches, because the types/skill/derpiness of people is totally different at the general level i pug at.

With both mechs, after finding the loadouts that i like, i can usually manage at least 2-3 kills, and find them fun to pilot ( this is just as important i think, are you having fun with a mech/build)

Again, i say, that i find both the archer and the cyclops great mechs at tier 4, your mileage will vary depending on your own tier and finding the loadout that works for you and matching it to your playstyle will lead you to the best results.

I don't have the rifleman, but i know number of people that enjoy playing the mech.

[Arianrhod]

The Warhammer and Marauder are both more stolid mechs that can slug it out well in a brawl, whereas the Rifleman and Archer are both more glassy and typically relegated to fire support. Therefore I'd say the Cyclops is the most similar to the mechs you have. If you like that playstyle, than the Cyclops is a monster and well worth investing in—and it's better at LRMs than the Archer anyway. The other IS 90 tonners, the Highlander and the Mauler, can't reach quite the same level of brutality the Cyclops can, between the fact that the Cyclops has some glorious hardpoints (7 missile? yes. 4 ballistic on the Sleipnir? Even better.), and, in the case of the Highlander, the fact that you have to equip jump jets to be anything more than a very large box. It has the additional advantage of being physically smaller than these other comparable mechs.

What the Cyclops does better than any mech 90 tons or less (and one 95 ton mech, coughExecutionercough) is walk through the enemy line, cause chaos, absorb damage, and pave the way for the team to come in and wreck face. It rolls damage far better than you might expect from a mech with Mad Dog-style side torsi, and the relatively low dependence on energy weapons means you can dish out a lot of hurt for less heat. It's definitely a buy I haven't regretted, and although I can't justify spending $20 to get the fancy eyeball mech, the hero is a pretty worthwhile to the arsenal.

[Aggravated Assault Mech]

I think the Cyclops is ultimately the better purchase (probably tied with the Marauder for second best IS pack in the past year after the Warhammer). The variants offer a wider variety of playstyles than the Rifleman and all of the variants you'll get in the collector pack are pretty good in their own niches. The Sleipnir basically plays like a UAC Mauler with better hitboxes. The CP-11-Q when boating SRM-6s is terrifying.

The Rifleman is a good mech and I like mine, however a lot of people don't like them or consider them mediocre. Generally it falls over pretty easily and doesn't really have quite enough firepower to justify taking it over a Jagermech. Playing it back to back with the Night Gyr is really terrifying.

Edited by vnlk65n, 15 October 2016 - 07:00 PM.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Having no experience with either other option, I'll throw in for the Rifleman. It has a handful of useful features that the Jager lacks, which kinda sorta offset the lower tonnage and weaker armor:

1. Big, big long arms which are useful for shielding.
2. Weapons at cockpit level, rather than high above it.
3. Arm-mounted energy hardpoints on two of the cbill variants.

The result is that a Rifleman can actually stand up pretty well to a similarly built Jager. The squishy side torsos, which (like the Jager) you really need an XL in if you want to carry a decent loadout, are very difficult to hit from the side unless that arm has also been destroyed- which is not the case for the Jager (you can easily just shoot the armpits). The Rifleman has a smaller cross-section, so it fares well in the long-range hillpeek game. If you want to run high arm PPCs, then the Rifleman has you covered. With a little bit of finagling, it can run nearly any successful JM6 build that doesn't involve missiles.

The RFL is one of the very few heavies I've taken a liking to, and I do reasonably well with it... and since I consider myself a potato in anything over 55 tons, that's saying something. Chances are, if you enjoy the Jager, you will probably enjoy the RFL, because it caters to the same playstyle. Frontload the hell out of your armor, try not to facetank any Kodiaks, and let the dakka roll all night long.

[Daggett]

Can't say much about the Rifleman, but i own the Archer and was a bit disappointed. The 5W looks fun on paper, but you have to open those huge missile doors which count as side-torsos. This kills the mech for anything other than LRM-5 spamming.

If you like LRMs it's worth a look, because you can hide behind cover huge enough to protect your rabbit-ears and deal insane amounts of damage if your team spots well.

But if SRMs are more your style, the Archer probably won't give you what you want because everyone sees you sneaking around and can shoot you even if you are behind cover unless you like micromanaging the missile-doors. I totally share CheeseThief's experience regarding this.

So if i could talk to my younger me, i would tell him to not buy the Archer package and wait for the Cyclops instead (and as others said before, it can lurm very well too).

Of cause you may be able to get more out of the Archer without using LRMs, but it will require much more work than most other SRM-mechs...

Edited by Daggett, 16 October 2016 - 02:30 AM.

[Flanking Boy]

I only have one jegermech but i don't really like it, i had more luck in my riflemans..
But the Cyclops what a mech my hero version is pack with 2xAC20 (42 slug) and 4 medium laser.
so you don't have to fear any mech on the battlefield.
I think what i am trying to said is buy the Cyclops

[Ken Harkin]

I love my Archers. The base 2R with DHS, 225 std, beagle, Artemis, 4 arm mounted ml, TAG in CT, and two LRM 20s. I've killed more people than smallpox. Throw in the module for extended target locks and lrm20 cool down and you can tag even fast moving lights with ECM and hammer the snot out of them. Less than 500 pts damage is a failure in this thing and late game, when you wade in with the ML everything is so torn open you have am easy time finishing them off.

[Fiona Marshe]

Rifleman.

The -3N "super stock" is quite viable (DHS, Endo, Ferro to give more ammo and armour). I even get good results in a stock 3N as well (just have to watch that heat!)

Teaches good cover skills and focusing fire.

[Col Sharpe]

I went ahead and got the Cyclops. I don't have many mastered IS Assaults yet and have 4 of the heavies, so need another assault.