187 replies to this topic

[Garth Erlam]

Wow, what a response! The community posted over seven-hundred builds to the Build a Trial Mech - Heavy Edition! I know we said we were going to narrow it down to five for you to vote on but it was too hard. Instead we decided to assign Dev. team members one variant each, and let them pick their favorite build! That’s eleven different Builds for you guys to vote on.
So here are the builds and the logic behind their choice. Check them out and vote for your favourites. Remember this is going to be made into a trial ‘Mech, so new players will be using this loadout to learn the tradecraft of MechWarrior.


POLL ENDS MARCH 26TH, 10AM PST

Catapult Builds
CPLT-A1 – Paul Inouye: “Darth Mech's build is a well balanced version of the A1 which takes a creative look at expanding it's role from a long range LRM Mech to a more rounded support Mech.

CPLT-C1 – Gary Ginn: “I chose Yami Keros build because of its balance between its ability to deal heavy damage while supporting the team with tag and LRM cover. Enemies will underestimate you by assuming you are just another LRM Boat. They'll be in for a big surprise!”

CPLT-C4 – Ricky: “After going through the numerous CPLT-C4 builds submitted, I decided to go with "Cygolinos"' loadout. I feel that this is a fairly balanced loadout for the C4 in terms of the weapons, speed, and armor. New users out there will have a chance to test out the Artemis upgrade on both the SRM and LRM.”

CPLT-K2 – Thad Jantzi: “I chose DoctorVishnevski's CPLT-K2. It has an XL-280 which gives it enough mobility to navigate the maps capably, while still leaving room for powerful weapons. It has four medium lasers so it can pack a powerful punch at short and medium ranges, as well as twin AC-5s for taking potshots at distance. There are enough heat sinks to deploy the weapons frequently, and enough variety between energy and ballistics to easily handle what heat does get generated."

Dragon Builds
DRG-1C - TheGarth: ”Although many, many people posted builds almost exactly identical to Thragen's Dragon 1C here, I chose this one because of the rear armour - I am a strict proponent of at least 2-1 (two front, one rear) armour ratios, and this one was the closest I saw. I really, really, really like the 4x ML 1x Gauss 1x SRM6 Dragon - especially with an XL 300. Quick to sniping positions, quick out of them, and a demon at close range (that alpha is 35 damage, not including the gauss!) - I always felt I had a chance against opponents when I ran a build like this.”

DRG-1N - Kyle “The Law” Lawrence: “Balance is the key here. 2 LRM5's are a smart substitute for the LRM 10 in the torso. A large laser is a good weapon all around and compliments the UAC5's range. Dragons are the fastest heavy and they should be made to be as fast as possible, hence the XL 360. An excellent amount of armour and the use of almost all the slots ended with a thumbs up from me. Way to go Sigmund Floyd on thinking outside the box on this one. I'd be proud to run this Dragon!”

DRG-5N - Mike Forst: “I had a few really good choices, but I ended up picking this one as it’s good for teaching about different ranged weapon types. You have two large lasers for long, medium, and close-up punch, and a gauss rifle for a nice ranged hit. It runs cool, and moves quick with excellent armour coverage.”

Cataphract Builds
CTF-1X Mike Forst: “Not too heat efficient, but a lot of fun due to weapon variety. AC/10, dual large lasers, and dual medium lasers make this mech great at all ranges. I really like Omigirs Cataphract 1X.”

CTF-2X – Dennis De Koning: “I picked Apostal's cuz it's good for medium to close range, has a good punch when needed and can strafe those quick, pesky, light mechs that nip at your ankles like a couple of hunting dogs on a bear. It also can move along a t a respectable pace and keep cool when the last thing you need is a shutdown.”

CTF-3D – Alex Iglesias: “After looking at the entire thread, it was a tough choice, and there were a number of very good builds, and some built around the same overall theme but Aginato's one I really like: a jumping AC/20 based brawler. Lasers for backup, enough ammo for a protracted fight, well armoured, weapons evenly distributed as much as possible to avoid one locations destruction taking it out of the fight."

CTF-4X - Matt Newman: “I have a 4X in my Mech lab that I play regularly. The issue with the 4x is Speed so it practically requires you put the Max Engine. I have tried similar dual AC 10 builds but usually I would run and XL engine. Selfish's build actually improved my survivability.
I like the extra range from the AC10 and the two medium lasers with an SRM 4 finish the job as you close the gap on your enemy. It’s fun to play and I scored some satisfying kills.”

[Homeless Bill]

That 4X has everything a newbie needs: moderate speed, lots of ammo, a standard engine, good armor, good heat efficiency, and a manageable variety of weapons. Great build, Selfish.

[Nikoliy]

Seams like a lot of builds went with what they like and not what someone new would be good at using.

[Hammerfinn]

I'm voting for Darth, because the idea of all missile types could be really useful for a new player trying to figure stuff out. Also, non-splatcat A1 that looks fun and viable.

[FupDup]

This poll is missing Splatapult and Boomcat. I am disappoint.

[Nikoliy]

FupDup, on 21 March 2013 - 04:42 PM, said:

This poll is missing Splatapult and Boomcat. I am disappoint.

Both are specialized builds that are extremely effective in the hands of an experienced pilot but I don't think they are good trial mechs. Because they are intended for use by new inexperienced players...

[Buso Senshi Zelazny]

That 4X has a good punch at all but extreme ranges, durable, and enough speed to keep up with the assaults. That's a Trial Mech that I would love to pilot.

[Yami Kero]

I'm really happy my build got chosen. Too bad they spelled my name as Yami Keros at first .

In short, my build is a long range ECM disabler, with the PPC's, with a TAG to light enemies up. Should a medium be foolish enough to come close you can always rely on your 2 SRM6 and single ML to keep them at bay. I hope you guys like it too.

Anyhow, I see some great build in there and I think a lot of newer players will be thrilled to play MWO in April.

Edited by Yami Kero, 21 March 2013 - 05:09 PM.

[The Verge]

I personally run with the A1 build, and it is functional. but the cat Selfish build is quite balanced. I like running 2 AC/2 and a gauss rifle for lots of dakka and the standard srm 4 and medium lasers for the kill.

[Monky]

AC10 builds, AC10 builds everywhere.

Abstaining.

Edited by Monky, 21 March 2013 - 07:57 PM.

[wuzy]

All crappy builds, even for competent players, except for Selfish's CTF-4X.

[Dryer Lint]

They're all bad builds except for the Guass Dragon. New players can't use three different weapon group effectively. Let's give them that Guass/Laser build and even old pilots like myself will see them as a formidable enemy. If I came upon any of the listed terrible builds in a match I would just laugh and stomp its face in.

Edited by Dryer Lint, 22 March 2013 - 02:03 PM.

[Deathlike]

Just bad builds all around, and I'm a biased lab rat to boot.

Here are 3 key issues with bad builds (I don't expect any to be perfectly min/max builds either):

1) Too many different weapons, especially having completely different functions - For example, the A1 selection is a jack-of-all trades, but not even effect at being any. 2 weapons is where most of the good stuff is at, 3 weapons if they cover all 3 types of weapons (energy, ballistic, and missile)

2) Not enough ammo - When I read that a Gauss Rifle does not include 3 tons of ammo, it puts up a red flag for me. Same for for not having 3 tons of UAC5 ammo and/or 3 tons of LBX10 ammo. It is unusable for long term engagements. The Dragon-1N fits this criteria in this instance.

3) Bad hard point assignments - Gauss Rifle ammo is usually very good for taking shots for the Gauss Rifle, for the purposes of reducing the probability of the rifle being blowm up, even though you may lose the ammo. The Dragon-1C example makes the Gauss rifle very... vulnerable. There are similar examples of bad hard point assignments, but this is important when you want to be successful.

So, after looking at many of the configs, the overwhelming best one happens to be the 4X IMO. It's designed for simplicity and does its job well at what its goal is, despite having a really slow engine.

I'm actually very disappointed at the picks, and not because I was not picked.. it's because the rest are really, really bad.

Also, I'm shocked Mike Forst said something longer than his usual "less than 10 words" posts.

Edited by Deathlike, 21 March 2013 - 09:13 PM.

[Victor Morson]

Garth Erlam, on 21 March 2013 - 02:50 PM, said:

Wow, what a response! The community posted over seven-hundred builds to the Build a Trial Mech - Heavy Edition! I know we said we were going to narrow it down to five for you to vote on but it was too hard. Instead we decided to assign Dev. team members one variant each, and let them pick their favorite build! That’s eleven different Builds for you guys to vote on.
So here are the builds and the logic behind their choice. Check them out and vote for your favourites. Remember this is going to be made into a trial ‘Mech, so new players will be using this loadout to learn the tradecraft of MechWarrior.


Catapult Builds
CPLT-A1 – Paul Inouye: “Darth Mech's build is a well balanced version of the A1 which takes a creative look at expanding it's role from a long range LRM Mech to a more rounded support Mech.

CPLT-C1 – Gary Ginn: “I chose Yami Keros build because of its balance between its ability to deal heavy damage while supporting the team with tag and LRM cover. Enemies will underestimate you by assuming you are just another LRM Boat. They'll be in for a big surprise!”

CPLT-C4 – Ricky: “After going through the numerous CPLT-C4 builds submitted, I decided to go with "Cygolinos"' loadout. I feel that this is a fairly balanced loadout for the C4 in terms of the weapons, speed, and armor. New users out there will have a chance to test out the Artemis upgrade on both the SRM and LRM.”

CPLT-K2 – Thad Jantzi: “I chose DoctorVishnevski's CPLT-K2. It has an XL-280 which gives it enough mobility to navigate the maps capably, while still leaving room for powerful weapons. It has four medium lasers so it can pack a powerful punch at short and medium ranges, as well as twin AC-5s for taking potshots at distance. There are enough heat sinks to deploy the weapons frequently, and enough variety between energy and ballistics to easily handle what heat does get generated."

Dragon Builds
DRG-1C - TheGarth: ”Although many, many people posted builds almost exactly identical to Thragen's Dragon 1C here, I chose this one because of the rear armour - I am a strict proponent of at least 2-1 (two front, one rear) armour ratios, and this one was the closest I saw. I really, really, really like the 4x ML 1x Gauss 1x SRM6 Dragon - especially with an XL 300. Quick to sniping positions, quick out of them, and a demon at close range (that alpha is 35 damage, not including the gauss!) - I always felt I had a chance against opponents when I ran a build like this.”

DRG-1N - Kyle “The Law” Lawrence: “Balance is the key here. 2 LRM5's are a smart substitute for the LRM 10 in the torso. A large laser is a good weapon all around and compliments the UAC5's range. Dragons are the fastest heavy and they should be made to be as fast as possible, hence the XL 360. An excellent amount of armour and the use of almost all the slots ended with a thumbs up from me. Way to go Sigmund Floyd on thinking outside the box on this one. I'd be proud to run this Dragon!”

DRG-5N - Mike Forst: “I had a few really good choices, but I ended up picking this one as it’s good for teaching about different ranged weapon types. You have two large lasers for long, medium, and close-up punch, and a gauss rifle for a nice ranged hit. It runs cool, and moves quick with excellent armour coverage.”

Cataphract Builds
CTF-1X Mike Forst: “Not too heat efficient, but a lot of fun due to weapon variety. AC/10, dual large lasers, and dual medium lasers make this mech great at all ranges. I really like Omigirs Cataphract 1X.”

CTF-2X – Dennis De Koning: “I picked Apostal's cuz it's good for medium to close range, has a good punch when needed and can strafe those quick, pesky, light mechs that *** at your ankles like a couple of hunting dogs on a bear. It also can move along a t a respectable pace and keep cool when the last thing you need is a shutdown.”

CTF-3D – Alex Iglesias: “After looking at the entire thread, it was a tough choice, and there were a number of very good builds, and some built around the same overall theme but Aginato's one I really like: a jumping AC/20 based brawler. Lasers for backup, enough ammo for a protracted fight, well armoured, weapons evenly distributed as much as possible to avoid one locations destruction taking it out of the fight."

CTF-4X - Matt Newman: “I have a 4X in my Mech lab that I play regularly. The issue with the 4x is Speed so it practically requires you put the Max Engine. I have tried similar dual AC 10 builds but usually I would run and XL engine. Selfish's build actually improved my survivability.
I like the extra range from the AC10 and the two medium lasers with an SRM 4 finish the job as you close the gap on your enemy. It’s fun to play and I scored some satisfying kills.”

I can say without hesitation or doubt every one of these builds are horrendous.

Why is everyone gaga over an alright design on the single worst variant of the Cataphract?

Edited by Victor Morson, 21 March 2013 - 09:14 PM.

[Deathlike]

Victor Morson, on 21 March 2013 - 09:13 PM, said:

Why is everyone gaga over an alright design on the single worst variant of the Cataphract?

It's impressive on something that is known to be bad for the majority. I could see myself using it just for fun (but, I'd probably master the rest first before even bothering with it).

[Loc Nar]

Wow... out of all the great builds submitted, this is what makes the cut? Sadly the 4X seems to be the best thing going, I think, but I can't tell a thing about the builds with no mechlab tool links. To everyone who didn't bother to include a smurfy or mecromancer link with your builds, you fail. Unless people have run that build themselves or actually took the time to build it in one of the mechlabs, your efforts were meaningless since no one can assess the build with based on meaningful stats... things like dps max and sustainable, heat eff, speed, etc which are not present.

[Deathlike]

I would like to add.. some of the builds include streaks.

In the current incarnation of ECM (which has yet to change), streaks are simply not that viable in the current environment At least if you wanted to use streaks, combine them with PPCs (must have 2 minimum for chain fire). Otherwise, it's simply wasted tonnage.

What would a newbie say if they were using them... "why can't make streaks lock on to that Raven?" It's simply not newbie friendly... and no pro will touch that with a 10-foot pole unless they got ECM help.

[Victor Morson]

They should have included stuff like the 1x Gauss, 2x ML Centurion. It's an older classic, but it'd still be effective, teach newbies two kinds of weapons and not make them a total liability.

Funky designs with SRMs and regular PPCs? What on Earth were they thinking. That was one of the better ones, too.

Why not let the next winners of the Top Gun design a trial variant? I'm sure that'd be an awesome variant and would be a cool prize for winning the next Top Gun.

Edited by Victor Morson, 21 March 2013 - 10:22 PM.

[Iacov]

will we be able to buy those loadouts during a trial of fire sale?

[Fitzbattleaxe]

Voted for the K2 since it's a variant of one of my favorite builds. I go with U/ACs, but jamming would be a pain for new players. Only 2 weapon types keeps it simple, it has decent speed, twist, and survivability, and it shows a nice alternative to all the boomcats out there.