12 replies to this topic

[sobani]

Hey all, i'm an old mechwarrior into the universe since mech commander and i'm kinda new here and with a couple of questions that i would like someone experienced to answer.

1- I picked black jack (BJ-3 chassis) for the elevated guns and cockpit and kitted it with ERPPCs, AMS, BAP. However i find my self doing extremely low damage (min 80 max 200 or so) and getting zero kills, not to mention that a single LRM15 salvo can and will end me. So what am i doing wrong? or the black jack has low armor values?


2- The whole basic, elite and master thingie, if i mastered one medium mech will all other medium mechs will have elite slots unlocked on purchase? or the whole efficiency is mech specific ( i.e. mastering black jack wouldn't affect nova in any way)

3- community warfare and drop decks, can some one explain them to me in detail? i read about them and i still can't get it.

4- (more a complaint than an actual question, but eh) the UI of the skills and mech lab is ugly and complex as heck, any mods to make it more fleshed out?

5- is there a way to get match results from matches that you died in and exited before it finished?

And that's it really, and if you have any thing else useful to add please do.

Edited by sobani, 22 October 2016 - 06:48 AM.

[Spike Brave]

Here is a link to my youtube channel. It should cover all of your questions. If you need anything else let me know. Enjoy! https://www.youtube....tNUCKmcC0Q7pKJQ

[Bohxim]

Hi and welcome
to answer some of your questions briefly,
1) the blackjack is a medium mech, and one of the lighter ones at that. Armor values in MWO are tied to weight before any quirks come into play, thus BJ armor is considered pretty weak, add the IS XL engine and it is decently squishy. Quick tipsfor your build. check if armor values are maxed. Most mechs don't come with max armor. The high mounts let you Hill hump well, use the hills as your armor. You can generally ignore BAP on the bj as it won't REALLY benefit you. It's mostly for piercing ecm for missile locks and data acquisition. Use normal ppc and keep mobile it'll help you on the heat side
2) no it won't. Mechanic of this ATM is as such; to elite a mech, you need 3 variants of said mech with full basic skills. In your case example, a bj-3, maybe a - 1x and -1. To master a mech, you need 3 of the variants at elite. Only then will the extra module slot be unlocked for that 1 mech( and only that mech until you master the rest). On the plus side, once you have a mech mastered in any weight class (light, medium, heavy or assault) you can master any mech variant once you basic any 3 variants of a mech chassis in that weight class.
3) in CW, you have to form a drop deck totalling 250 tonnes for invasion and/or a scouting deck consisting of any light or medium. Note, this decks MUST contain only mechs of either inner sphere or clan, depending on your faction contracted with if merc or loyal to as loyalist. Scouting basically falls under defend or gather Intel in a 4v4 setting. Invasion you either defend or attack a map zone of a planet in a 12v12 setting but each player has 4 mechs to cycle thru via respawns. This has you either defending against waves of enemies or destroying objectives and/or mechs
4) can't help you out there. Quite used to the interface altho it's still plagued with bugs and am pretty sure pgi is quite against mod of any form to the client
5) no. Unless you rejoin the game in time before the match board shows. But at the very least your death screen shows you damage dealt by you as well as any kills and kill assist as at the time of death. The final screen will show you much more as the match progresses. As a new player I suggest you stay even after death to spectate how some players play so you can pick up pointers such as twisting, accessible poke spots around maps and general movement. Constant movement is commonplace at higher tier play and you'll want to know generally how players move on certain maps so you can join in the deathball if you're fast enough or reposition if you're too slow for the nascar to avoid being flanked with inferior numbers if you're slow. Note, while your first purchase, the BJ is a superior Hill poke mech, it is always good practice to keep repositioning yourself to support your team and to avoid being caught out too far from support

Hope this helps
Cheers

[Bohxim]

PS. Would like to tell you to play a lot more quick play first before CW as CW is considered end game content where experience, good gunnery and strong team play tends to triumph over everything

[John1352]

Bohxim pretty much answered everything, I'll just add this: For long ranged weapons, you want to turn your mouse sensitivity waaaay down. With ERPPCs on the Blackjack, using jumpjets to move just above cover, then taking the shot (after releasing JJ) will let you take shots while being very hard to hit. I also suggest front stacking your armor heavily, 48 on the front CT and 8 on the back is a good start for a 45 tonner, similar ratios on the STs.

[Blind Baku]

Full disclosure, I do not have the BJ-3.

That said, if I did, I would run something like the link below. Some people put the PPCs across both arms so if you loose one arm your not limited to 2 MLs, but if you group them up you add the benefit of side peaking to the fantastic hill peaking of the BJ. Just as a rough rule don't use the MLs and PPCs at the same time due to heat. Treat your MLs as a side arm incase of something getting too close (you could also break the 2 mls into 4 sl's for a similar senario, but you want to play at range, not knife fight).
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ba40666811acc8b

The skill piece was well addressed as you need 3 of a chassis at basic to open elite, then 3 of a chassis at elite to open master, etc...

CW is a much steeper learning curve but TL;DR - You get an amount of tonnage, select 4 mechs (either that you own, or are trial, and I believe they cannot be the 'same'* chassis) that total equal to, or less than that tonnage. Queue up and select 'First drop', the other 3 are your respawns.

the others questions I don't know of anything that works that way.

*Clan mechs get a work around thanks to omnipods

[sobani]

Gee guys thanks for the answers , i think you covered just about everything. One more thing though; i wanna get a front line heavy or assault laser boat ( only ER / normal lasers no ppcs ) with decent turn rate to farm c-bills with, can any one point me to one?

[JC Daxion]

Save your money on an assault for now.. learn the game and get good with your mediums.. a good player can farm C-bills in any mech.. assaults are actually harder for the most part to farm c-bills unless you are taking about the OP kodiak, which i have to think is gonna get a nerf soon. Stick with your blackjacks for a while and get to know the game more. You can thank me later





PPC's and especially ER-PPC's run very hot, and even hotter before you get to Elite skills unlocks. Not only are they harder weapons to manage, they can be just lower DPS over all, and take great aim. comp players love um, but us normal folks, that are not working in perfect unison have a much harder time with them. So i suggest other builds for the time being.


Standard engine build, means you won't die if you loose your side torso. Has decent cooling, and an ok alpha. Lasers will make it easier to hit faster mechs by sweeping.

Medium laser build, a mid ranged build, decent damage, and recharge, your basic medium energy build.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...fbcc26391c4a018


Large pulse build,, a little more range, but faster firing, a pair of ML's for extra damage up close.. (swap the large pulse into the chasis for better torso/twist tanking, loose an arm, you didn't loose most of your firepower.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...187ced5d1e8cd08


Large or ER large build, Will run scorching hot, with an STD engine.. You really need an XL-235 to run the triple large build on a black jack. the XL-235 isn't that much, and is worth buying if you are going to want to level black jacks,. But you can stick with the 235 STD engine just to see how you are liking them, and Drop one Large laser, and add 5 heat sinks to keep frosty
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...70e366cc9245575



Large or ER large + Smalls, Instead of spending money right away on the XL engine, buy the two other chassis to level, and Run this instead. It runs cooler than the one above, but adds in small lasers for close range, which you can then use to increase your DPS when up close. When you get hot hot, you can chain fire your large lasers in between small laser shots if in range.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...13142d5d6af7715



All these builds run a much needed STD 235 engine, and have the endo steel, and double heat sink upgrades.. I highly suggest adding these two things.. and take a break from the PPC's for a while. I think you will do far better at this point with any of the above builds..

For your other 2 black jacks, the 1X is a popular one, because you can stuff a large XL engine in it, BUT being a new player with not a lot of cash you might just wanna use your 235 engines for now, and skip buying a larger XL for it, but it is a good one to have, level, and then upgrade with a bigger engine down the road.

Your last one, you have a choice the BJ-1 or DC.. the BJ-1 is more for ac2's, the DC is better for larger auto cannons, which you can run Ac-20 builds, ac-10's or 5's. I personally find the black jacks to light for larger auto-cannons, if i want to use them i go up to a 50 or 55 ton mech. Some do like them in it, But my choice is the BJ-1 and dual AC2 dakka! I have had great success in puglandia with that mech. 500+ damage and bugging the heck outta players from 700-800m is lots of fun in the BJ-1

Edited by JC Daxion, 22 October 2016 - 09:58 AM.

[Blind Baku]

JC Daxion, on 22 October 2016 - 09:50 AM, said:

Save your money on an assault for now.. learn the game and get good with your mediums..

Not the answer you want, but the best answer right now imo. You can also trial the other classes if you want to change it up, but the C-Bill grind catches up fast as you start grabbing more mechs.

If you really want something to grind C-bills in - 1 premium time is awesome so any time an event offers that, get it unlocked ASAP, 2 MC mechs (Heroes, some Champs, etc...) offer +% of C-bills earned, 3 it's a little late to invest and have it be worth it but tourny sponsor gives you a 10% bonus. All these things stack. If you're okay with spending some real money, you may with to consider the BJ pack which will give you 4 more BJ's one is a hero, some prem time, etc... you can even sell off one (not the hero, I hope) and still have the 3 needed to master and be up a spare mech bay.

[Leone]

sobani, on 22 October 2016 - 08:31 AM, said:

i wanna get a front line heavy or assault laser boat ( only ER / normal lasers no ppcs ) with decent turn rate to farm c-bills with, can any one point me to one?

Okay, I for turn rates, remember, move backwards and rotate to counter anyone circling you up close. It works better.

As for mechs themselves, I've heard good things about the Grasshopper, but do not have it myself. Some people like the thunderbolt, though I'm not a fan. Now, there is the Blackknight, always a classic, and the Warhammer. Not to mention the Marauder can load a few lasers alongside being rather tanky. As for assaults, I'm partial to the Battlemaster or the Banshee for your assaulting needs, though I know folk who'd swear by the Stalker instead.

Mayhaps you should hop onto Smurfy and make some test builds to see what you'd like.

~Leone

[sobani]

JC Daxion, on 22 October 2016 - 09:50 AM, said:

Save your money on an assault for now.. learn the game and get good with your mediums.. a good player can farm C-bills in any mech.. assaults are actually harder for the most part to farm c-bills unless you are taking about the OP kodiak, which i have to think is gonna get a nerf soon. Stick with your blackjacks for a while and get to know the game more. You can thank me later



PPC's and especially ER-PPC's run very hot, and even hotter before you get to Elite skills unlocks. Not only are they harder weapons to manage, they can be just lower DPS over all, and take great aim. comp players love um, but us normal folks, that are not working in perfect unison have a much harder time with them. So i suggest other builds for the time being.
-snip-

Ho, that's a whole lot of info, thanks a lot mate. I already have the BJ-1 and i like it, good for pesking every one, not so good at being a valuable team asset. And about the PPCs, I think i got a hang on them with hill jumping and careful positioning, staying in lance formation...etc. i'm getting higher damage numbers now.

However the ER large and the medium lasers builds are great, on another note the mech lab will take me a good while to get used to, hopefully i can get used to it with time.

And thanks every one for your help, it's greatly appreciated.

[Bohxim]

If you're using android, look for the app awe mech. It's let me do theory builds on the go. It's tied closely to smurfy and shows a lot of info. Think the only info it's lacking atm is clan quirks die to most of them being tied to individual pods

[762 NATO]

Didn't really take to the -1. Only fun i had in it was an LB10 or AC20. On the -3 I had great times with 2LPL and 3 ML. The -1X is still king to me, although enjoying the loyalty one. I run a xl225 in my low cap BJs. The 235 is a very unique engine that you can't always share to another mech. I also put my LPLs in the side torsos in case you catch that stray shot or peeked too heavy. The loss of height is minimal. Also I used an xl280 on the -1x as it is a very common engine with heavies. As always, check out metamechs.com for the opinions of a top tier comp player. Remember they are opinions and don't always apply to lower tier pug queue.

Cheers! And welcome to MWO, don't let the salt on the forums drag you down. Its a fun game.