57 replies to this topic

[Commander Binz]

I believe I have fallen in love with its pointy-beaked glory.

136km/ph without skill boost, ECM for anti-missile love, 2 SSRM2s for taking out lights, and 3 MLs in case i run out of my 200 missiles which are still meaty enough to eat peoples armour. (Although I have struggled to strip armour off fully healed heavies+)

My ping is not great, 200+, so I probably have lagshields as well, on top of that at around 230+ armour it takes a lot of hits, even from Streaks, to take me down. Legging is the most common cause of death, but I just upgraded to Endo and put 32 armour on each leg - which should stave that off for a while anyway.

I was saving up for a D-DC, since its the bees knees this month, but when I thought about it (id been playing the Commando 2D for the last 16mill of games) I really didnt want to give up the high speed that makes playing a light so fun, for what would probably end up being a very expensive experiment in watching your screen shake around a lot.

So, I chose the Raven, and even after half a dozen games I think its my/the perfect mech. At least until Streaks/ECM get hit with a nerfbat, anyway.

Does anyone disagree that it is probably the best light, and maybe the best overall mech in the current build of the game? Id be interested to see if people think there is a better mech out there!! I kind of want to be proven wrong, so I have something else to save up for.

[Horned Bull]

Without ECM raven was subpar when compared to jenner. ECM made raven viable.

[Ghogiel]

Right now, best light mech by a good margin.

[xxx WreckinBallRaj xxx]

Seems like it. Previously, my "The once great C1F" had a perfect build. Used every crit slot with every upgrade and all weapon hardpoints. Well, now, I caved in to the op fotm and saved up for a 3L ECM Raven. He's got every upgrade(except Artemis), 3 ML, 2Str, 2 tons of ammo, almost max armor except legs(the usual idea), and at 35/35 weight he has only 2 crit slots free. It's almost right on the mark.

It brawls better than anything I've used before(I never used my A1 for 6Str though), usually averaging as well in damage as the Hunchbacks I ran, with more speed and better survivability.(THAT'S BALANCED, RIGHT?!) It's always funny to see the rare LRM Carrier trying to keep the glory days going but then you just go stand next to his target and make him cry.

The one and only downside to this build is that a lot of your weapons are in the arms and they tend to get stripped often in brawling as Light. The Cicada, in addition to being bigger, has more weapons placed in its torsos. You don't need arms that much as a Light, the torso actually turns faster than the arms on this Raven. But I can hit up/down terrain easier though, so I guess there's a tradeoff. This is often a benefit to have in Forest Colony and Caustic, but usually not Frozen City. Best advice I can give you here is to max the armor on the arms.(Which is what I did. But they still strip a lot. Like a chicken losing its wings.)

I could probably do better in a Cicada, but I prefer Energy and Streaks for my close range, not Ballistic. The enemy often has an ECM of their own but I just switch the jesus box, also known as an ECM, from disrupt to counter, and then I can keep firing my Streaks anyway. Another reason I went Raven is because Raven was always my favorite Light Mech in Battletech. I liked its sensors designed purpose... well I guess this is the best time to bring that here since the ECM is op as hell and the Raven gets one.

Edited by Bluten, 13 December 2012 - 02:57 AM.

[The Cheese]

ECM in counter mode says no. But then, there's something out there which could make just about any mech useless.

[TruePoindexter]

Is it a good mech? Definitely. Perfect though? Hardly.

It simply lacks the same loadout and mobility that the Jenner has. If it weren't for ECM the Raven really would not even be in the running.

Thanks to ECM though it is a very good mech and out of the three ECM scouts it is far and away the best. I expect the little Raven will be with us for a very long time.

[xxx WreckinBallRaj xxx]

TruePoindexter, on 13 December 2012 - 03:00 AM, said:

Is it a good mech? Definitely. Perfect though? Hardly.

It simply lacks the same loadout and mobility that the Jenner has. If it weren't for ECM the Raven really would not even be in the running.

Thanks to ECM though it is a very good mech and out of the three ECM scouts it is far and away the best. I expect the little Raven will be with us for a very long time.

The problem is that you can't logically balance this matchup around a device that only 1 out of 3 variants has. If every Raven had the device, but it wasn't so game breaking, then things would have been better. But things are so skewed now that the other variants are just trash. You'll never even see a 2X or 4X except from players working their Basic and/or Elite trees. They should have given this device to every Raven, because that's what they are all for as a main purpose(sensors), then "not" had the device be jesus in a box.

Edited by Bluten, 13 December 2012 - 03:06 AM.

[Enemista]

I believe its the best 1vs1 mech out there, at the moment. You have ECM so no worries about streaks, you are fast and you have streaks so you can take out any other fastmover (not sure about ECM 3xssrm com, but I think command would go down first)

note that I havent tried this raven yet, but will do tonight and see how it goes

[Voidsinger]

Quite frankly, the fact that all the Ravens running around are so far removed from the original package shows just one thing:

People wanted a fast Streak Carrier with more armour than a Commando.

All the fanclub boys pushed for it to be the only ECM carrier.

Without ECM, the Raven is pure and simply average. Not good, not bad, just a midspeed 35tonner.

[HumanDuracell]

I'm currently saving for a Raven 3L as I already have the other two and have just one unlock left to get on the 4X.
In my opinion the Raven 3L epitomises the very idea of role-based warfare that the devs are striving to do in MWO, and for the 3L that role is electronic warfare pure and simple.

My 2x had a similar top speed to the 3L ,albiet with a 210 standard engine, so I will be used to the extra speed.
In the 3L the the whole idea of positioning myself while undetected due to the ECM and relaying enemy positions with Beagle and TAG suits my playstyle, whether I'm in a PUG team or not.. (not being part of a unit means that PUG is the norm for me.) Whether they make use of my target data is not really of concern to me as I can usually rake in far more money by spotting than I could ever hope to gain by taking down enemy mechs. And like the OP's set-up, 2x SSRM2s would allow me to at least have a chance against any opposing fast lights using lagshields that try to take me out if they spot me.

[Galenit]

Commander Binz, on 13 December 2012 - 02:35 AM, said:

Does anyone disagree that it is probably the best light, and maybe the best overall mech in the current build of the game? Id be interested to see if people think there is a better mech out there!! I kind of want to be proven wrong, so I have something else to save up for.

Its the best light mech, because it was my first mech.
Jenner was best light before patch, but its ugly for me, and i only play mechs that appeal to me, so never tired a jenner. Tried some other but allways come back to my first love.
The 2x and 4x i have played too but only to skill my 3L, sold them after maxing xp for them, but this was all preecm.

Now with ecm, it ****** me off, that there are so many ravens out there.

Edited by Galenit, 13 December 2012 - 03:19 AM.

[xxx WreckinBallRaj xxx]

Galenit, on 13 December 2012 - 03:16 AM, said:

Its the best light mech, because it was my first mech.
Jenner was best light before patch, but its ugly for me, and i only play mechs that appeal to me, so never tired a jenner. Tried some other but allways come back to my first love.
The 2x and 4x i have played too but only to skill my 3L, sold them after maxing xp for them, but this was all preecm.

Now with ecm, it ****** me off, that there are so many ravens out there.

You know, you don't actually "see" your own Mech while you're piloting it, right?

[Khobai]

Raven-3L is the best light by far and a serious contender for best mech in the game. You even see them topping damage charts sometimes. I still don't fully understand why PGI gave ECM to all the variants with the best hardpoints. I guess it kindve makes sense on the Raven-3L though since the stock version has ECM, but still it makes all the other Raven variants obsolete which is wrong.

Edited by Khobai, 13 December 2012 - 06:20 AM.

[HumanDuracell]

Galenit, on 13 December 2012 - 03:16 AM, said:

Now with ecm, it ****** me off, that there are so many ravens out there.

Especially when a lot of players seem to have absolutely no idea how to use them right.

Khobai, on 13 December 2012 - 06:13 AM, said:

Raven-3L is the best light by far and a serious contender for best mech in the game. You even see them topping damage charts sometimes. I still don't fully understand why PGI gave ECM to all the variants with the best hardpoints. I guess it kindve makes sense on the Raven-3L though since the stock version has ECM, but still it makes all the other Raven variants obsolete which is wrong.

Agreed.
Since the Raven sole purpose in canon was for Electronic Warefare you would have thought that all variants of it would be able to equip ECM.
On a similar note, why allow the Atlas D-DC to field it? I reckon that there would be fewer complaints about ECM if there wasn't the option for a 100 ton death machine to equip it.
Incidently, I'm on the 'All for it' side of the arguement with regards to ECM in its current form, but even I concede that allowing an Atlas to equip it is overkill.. or overjam in this case.

[MeiSooHaityu]

I don't know if I would call the Raven perfect, but I think you are correct that with an ECM, it is is a nice mech. Plus 3 MLasers and 2 SSRM2 sounds pretty descent.

I miss my Ballistic Raven though. Used to run a Gauss Raven, that was fun when it worked

With the rise of the ECM, I had to change my Streaks to regular SRMs. The Raven 3L is defiantly changing the game (and IMO, not in a bad way)

[Jalak Bali]

Khobai, on 13 December 2012 - 06:13 AM, said:

I still don't fully understand why PGI gave ECM to all the variants with the best hardpoints.

Because PGI doesn't play their own game and use the TT rules as their first rule of balancing. They were going to give the Jenner-D (still my favorite mech) ECM for god's sake. If ECM were given to, say, Raven 4X and Atlas K, we wouldn't see the current team make-up. Right now the rest of the Ravens and Atlases are obsolete. If ECM were given to the least optimal chassis then we would see more variety since bringing an ECM would mean bringing less than optimal DPS. Right now the ECMboats ARE the optimal DPS. PGI somehow thinks people would pick non-ECM variants for... god knows what.

[Captain Midnight]

In the current meta the 3L is the best mech, because a light mech is only as good as it's streaks :-)

[Glythe]

Captain Midnight, on 13 December 2012 - 07:32 AM, said:

In the current meta the 3L is the best mech, because a light mech is only as good as it's streaks :-)

By that logic you should buy a 2D as it can have 3 streaks.

[Buck Cake]

If you plan to do 8v8 a D-DC is a must.

[Captain Midnight]

Glythe, on 13 December 2012 - 07:39 AM, said:

By that logic you should buy a 2D as it can have 3 streaks.

So much less armor it loses a 1v1 against a raven even with 50% more streaks. I guess a light mech is only as good as it's armor, speed, and streaks? TL;DR streaks are the only damage either of those mechs can apply to one another.