I've been playing the Spider 5D as my main mech since day one. Look at my original Handle and I hope most of you will understand. That started my interest in the mech but then I grew to love it. I'd played it before the hit reg fixes (yes even I consider them to be fixes) and even years later it is by far my preferred mech to play.
You probably noticed I'm T2. I take 3 to 6 month breaks from the game whenever I get near touching Tier 1. I prefer to stay in the bracket that is people who have a decent clue of what they are doing and are mainly playing for fun. I've been in the T1 bracket and I'm not trying to be down on that bracket at all but it is just not as fun for my own reasons.
So enough on my background.
I thought that I would share my build and some practices in the mech for newer players or any others that might be interested.
Weapons:
Lrg Pulse (right arm)
2x Med Laser (right arm and center torso)
Engine:
XL255 (same weight as a 250 and just a touch faster kph wise)
MISC:
Jump Jets: 1
ECM: 1
I achieve this build by cutting down on my armor some:
Left Arm: 9 (who cares if you lose this other than it starting to smoke)
Head: 8 (very very rarely do I get headshot and the only person that ever consistently did it on me was banned a few months later for cheating ... go figure)
Legs: 26 each.
TORSOS: Maxed but split 1/2 front and back. In this mech and playing a proper scout you are giving your backside to enemies as often as the front. I've had lights that complained about hit reg because I messed up and over heated in a 1v1 on them so they swung to my backside and alpha'd not coming close to killing me. LULZ
Modules:
Lrg. Pulse Cooldown
Med Laser Range
Seismic Sensor
Target Info Gathering
Coolshot 9
Advanced UAV
Why my choice of weapons:
Lrg Pulse: Dam 11, Heat 7, Max Range 730 ~ With the 5Ds quirks this weapons range becomes not much less than that of an ER Large while doing a bit better damage and in no way requiring the amount of lock on time. You can poke fire into someone's back opening it up and step back behind a rock before they turn around and see where it came from. You get really good at it and you can hit a mech slightly ahead of another mech and laugh as they obviously think a team mate fired on them. (I really wish I'd saved videos of people firing on team mates because they thought my hits came from them... but I don't want to 'name shame' so probably a good thing I don't lol)
Med Laser: Dam 5, Heat 4, Max Range 540 ~ Quirks+Module bring these weapons range up to close to the Lrg Pulse so quite often you can actually alpha into the backs of mechs at a nice range and also they have realitively short firing times so they are almost done the same time the Lrg Pulse has finished so the poke shoot hide works nicely with them.
This makes an alpha of 21 pts of damage at optimal range. Nothing to shake a stick at especially if you are firing mostly into the backs of the enemy as you should be as a scout. The Target Info Gathering module helps a lot in figuring out which location to fire upon as well. Why open the back up on a mech with an open and red leg for example (Always take the leg in this case. Your teammates will be able to exploit that and the mech is not going to be able to chase if you need to relocate.)
~~Quickly addressing the 3 med pulse build others enjoy. That as well is a good build however it's range is a great deal less, it's alpha is 3 pts less, and it only enjoys 3 pts less heat. Does allow for more jj's or even heat sinks so like I said it's a good build just not my preference.
Reason I only use 1 jump jet: The first and hardest lesson I learned playing this mech is that the more time you spend in the air the more you get shot. You move much slower, you have no cover, and you are a spider EVERY enemy that is looking in your direction is going to gun for your legs so when you land you are most likely legged, if you land alive, and a legged light is a dead light. So I only use my jump jets to get into high positions for scouting or to bounce around obstacles while ditching a chase. (On this note PROTECT YOUR LEGS! DO NOT bounce off friendly mechs at the start of the match. Every point of leg armor is precious in a light.)
So some game play tips:
You are a scout. So scout. Don't let your team convince you to provide them with ecm. LRMs are the easiest weapon in the game to deal with. If your teammates fear lrms they should be running ams or learn how to use cover. Not nerf their team by making their scout play mommy to them.
Take the first minute or two of the match to swing around to either a side or the back of the enemy team. Get some locks, or use the voice coms to inform your team of what you see. Knowing is half the battle (couldn't resist). If you have a lock and your team is in range to fire lrms be patient and wait till those lrms are about to hit before you fire. Being hit by lrms disquises that you are hitting them from behind with your lasers. (sneaky is the name of the game)
If your team does not have any lrms and it is still early in the match your job should be what I like to call 'cause chaos'. Pick out a couple of the enemy stragglers and open up their backs. If they ignore you then kill them but you are actually trying to get them to stop turn around and look for you more than the kill altho the kill is always preferred if able of course. If you can get a whole lance (especially of heavies and assualts) to stop, turn, and hunt for a squirrel you have just taken 4 mechs out of the fight for the rest of your team making it now 8 vs 11 your favor. Just make sure you are doing this from a position with cover or at least where you are very close to being able to disappear because you should be expecting their true squirrel hunters (other lights, streakcrows, etc) to be coming to the assistance which means you just added more mechs to those you have taken out of the fight for your team. I have many a times pulled off 1/2 or more of the enemy team from the main fight, done only around 100 damage myself, and ended up dying just for the squirrel chasers to learn that the rest of my team is still alive and well and they are now being eaten up by my team that knows everything about them.
Couple of 'pro-tips': If you find a loner heavy or assault you can't fight the urge to eat them. I understand this all too well. There is an atlas statue in my spider for a reason lol. I caution you to pay attention to if they are smart/good at fighting against lights. This is pretty easy to figure out. If the first thing they do is start backing up and turning with you manuevering their back to a wall. Then generally bug out of that fight. If they are open front torso then bug out to a position of cover take a shot, move to another position quickly take another shot, rinse, wash, repeat.
If you are manuevering around and see enemy lights DO NOT lock on them for your team. In case you haven't figured it out yet when an enemy locks target on you there is a 'chirp' that lets you know. Simply use the voice coms to let your team know they are coming or if you see a teammate engage then lock on them and hold that lock with a few possible support shots to their legs. Just have to be really careful you don't end up aiding the enemy in killing your teammate.
So that really is about all I have for this post but I'll watch the post and try to help the best I can. Good luck, have fun, and above all CAUSE CHAOS!
Edited by Bellum Dominum, 16 October 2016 - 08:53 AM.