92 replies to this topic

[Utilyan]

4p is good, good enough to make me feel dirty using it. I took the lasers off and mostly use it a flamer-mech.

The moment I get 5 kills per round or even just 500 damage I tend to move on.

If its giving you trouble I think the best thing to do is at the start of a match pick a assault who is on your team and baby-sit it.

Be very strict with yourself and never leave the assault you escort.

[Bagheera]

xenoglyph, on 13 April 2013 - 01:56 AM, said:

Personally I think the 4SP should get it's 3rd missile hard point back.

Yokaiko, on 13 April 2013 - 02:01 AM, said:

the just need to unfuck missiles and it will be fine.

Either one. Though if the 4SP gets a 3rd missile slot, then the TBT-5J should get a second, and the 3C damn well better get a 3rd. Those are supposed to be missile support designs, and they got shafted on hardpoints because of the experience with the 4SP when people like me ran them in CB at high speed with tons of srms

If it is good for the gander, and all.

Honestly though, just re-adjusting SRMs in some fashion would be plenty.

As far as your 4G, how are you running it? I might be weird, but I like mine, and it seemed fine to me when they did the Founder's XP bonus thingy.

Edited by Bagheera, 13 April 2013 - 08:00 AM.

[lorrylemming]

I played the 4G as my first mech and now played the sway back and SP. I always get higher damage with the SP and sway back but find that I get more kills/more selective with my 4G.

I run 3 med-las and an AC/20, 2 tons of ammo and a std 255.

[Elizander]

Went with 4 medium pulse lasers on the 4SP (sometimes with a medium laser in the head) and I either go 7 small or 7 medium pulse on my 4P's torso with mediums on the arms as standard (260 std or 200 std).

You can still play them, they still pack a punch, but if you make a mistake you get half your mech blown away instantly~

[Fenris Krinkovich]

The 4SP was my first bought mech, and is pretty much my main machine. I am FAR from an amazing player and I solo-drop 100% of the time, but that chassis has a 1.37 K/D and 1.19 W/L. My other Hunchback is a 4J, which I only started playing after the missile nerf, he's at 1.22 K/D and 1.31 W/L. Neither mech is using tricky layouts; STD engines (250 and 200), 5xMLAS, 2xASRM4 in the 4SP and 2xALRM10 in the 4J, AMS. Next mech I build is going to be a 4H with either gauss or AC/20. I never liked the chassis before MWO, but it has really grown on me; I can't wait for them to introduce chassis quirks and sort out missiles again. I hope the "quirk" is a higher max armor on the hunch, I'd gladly take 4 or so armor off the arms, legs, and LT to put on the RT (I want about 48 points on the front and about 16 on the back, personally; not enough to remove a defining characteristic completely, just to make it a bit more forgiving.)

Edit: To answer the original question, I'm enjoying the state of the game. The only hard issues I have with MWO stem from my preference for solo drops.

Edited by Fenris Krinkovich, 13 April 2013 - 08:29 AM.

[Ardney]

I'm having fun with my Swayback. 9x med pulse can't help but be fun though.

I also run the Founder's Hunch from time to time but mostly so I have an excuse to mount MGs for the sound effect.

Hunchbacks are mostly fine, IMO. It's definitely a different playstyle though, as others have pointed out. Altering the pace of engagements is necessary if you want to last throughout the match. Fortunately, that's not always my objective...

Edited by Ardney, 13 April 2013 - 08:28 AM.

[Felicitatem Parco]

I have 2 Primary Swayback Builds that I shuffle between, and they both work brilliantly:

Either a Standard 250 + 1 ERPPC + 6 ML, or a 255XL + 3 PPCs (mixed ER and normal)

I just always have at least 1 ERPPC in the Hunch for sniping, and the rest of my weapons I tailor to my mood at the moment. The Swayback never lets me down

Edited by Prosperity Park, 13 April 2013 - 08:29 AM.

[hammerreborn]

http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__2220919

That many

[Ngamok]

If I hadn't picked the Hunchback for my Founders mech, I would have probably gone the 4H route as well. But to be honest, my 4G and 4H would have the same identical build so it doesn't really matter. I just love the AC/20 in the hunch so it only leaves me with 3 energy with the same engine size.

[Shepherd]

GODzillaGSPB, on 13 April 2013 - 06:27 AM, said:

Don't feel offended, but those are basics. Mediums are not meant to charge, they are meant to support assaults and heavies, run at the flanks or slightly behind them, chase off and help engage lights and only enter the full-on battle when the time is right. They are not condemned to stay still for the first minutes of battle but should shoot from the second line and avoid to get focused on early in the match.

No offense taken at all. That was exactly my point - basic piloting for any medium chassis is all it takes to make your HBK shine.

[Tor6]

The 4sp is still murderous and one of the best mediums in the game even with srms being somewhat nerfed.

[Kanajashi]

I run the 4SP and 4P all the time, and im currently saving up for another (not sure which variant yet)

With the damage output of the 9 medium lasers on the 4P I am often using them as a schapel and removing side torsos/legs/main weapon arms.

Edited by Kanajashi, 13 April 2013 - 09:29 AM.

[Thundercles]

I think the biggest problem I encounter in a hunchback is being rabidly focused down. 2 OpFor assaults tangling with 2 of our assaults? I pop around the corner, they both stop and alpha me down, then go back to what they were doing. I'm not sure if its because in most games a HBK is an easy kill, or because I'm assigned a genuine threat level. I usually feel a whole lot like a pinata though, either way.

[BertyBargo]

NSFW language.



Sums my feelings up nicely

[The Mech behind you]

After the introduction of the bigger maps I had to change my HBK-4P build to be more competitive on this maps. That's 2 LL in the arms and 6 SL in RT

I choose a HBK-4J setup with an ALRM20 that strips a targets armor (especially CT) before I can finish him with 4 ML when he gets close.

I moved the AC 20 to my HBK-4H. I feel more comfortable with 5 SLs as backup

[Teralitha]

I remember a match sometime last year, myself and another ace HJ pilot were driving our founders HBK4G touting AC20's and medium lasers....

It was a snowy day in the frozen city, and we went into the caves alone, then suddenly around a corner... hark 6 enemy mechs were pushing though the cave. Atlas's, awesomes, cataphracts catapults... It happened so fast... gunz blazing all around then quiet.... As the smoke cleared and we reached daylight at the other end of the cave, we passed by the smoking wrecks of those 6 enemy mechs....

This was the power of the HBK 4G in the hands of 2 ace pilots working together.

Edited by Teralitha, 13 April 2013 - 01:38 PM.

[DeadlyNerd]

Every mech has more HPs than its default loadout has weapons so it can increase its firepower, if not overall, then in most mobile parts.
Hunchbacks have the exact same number of HPs as it has weapons in the default loadout.

In BT hunchback had almost the highest concentrated damage output of all medium mechs and that's why it was powerful against slow-semi fast movers. It could core a BT jager easy.

Not buffing its number of energy HPs as opposed to every other mech is what made it weak.
Take the cicada as an example, both energy variants have 3 energy weapons, yet 1 variant has 2 more HPs and the other has 3 more HPs. That's 66% and 100% more firepower.

So yes, hunchback, the praised iconic mech of MWO got the short end of the stick in BT -> MWO conversion.

Teralitha, on 13 April 2013 - 01:37 PM, said:

I remember a match sometime last year, myself and another ace HJ pilot were driving our founders HBK4G touting AC20's and medium lasers....

It was a snowy day in the frozen city, and we went into the caves alone, then suddenly around a corner... hark 6 enemy mechs were pushing though the cave. Atlas's, awesomes, cataphracts catapults... It happened so fast... gunz blazing all around then quiet.... As the smoke cleared and we reached daylight at the other end of the cave, we passed by the smoking wrecks of those 6 enemy mechs....

This was the power of the HBK 4G in the hands of 2 ace pilots working together.

And then you woke up, smelled the cat's *** that was parked into your face and realized it was all a wet dream.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Edited by DeadlyNerd, 13 April 2013 - 03:06 PM.

[Hauser]

Made a little play through video on the 4P.

I hope this helps people to avoid being hit.



In hindsight a slight error in judgement around 4:00. I was expecting the Frag to finish that Jager soon. Then I would blast the Catapult in the rear and get him to turn around to me. After which the Frag could come over the top and finish it off. Should have engaged straight away.

[Stardancer01]

How about a hologram generator module that makes the hunch appear on the other side?

Edited by Stardancer01, 13 April 2013 - 02:54 PM.

[Hayashi]

Sephlock, on 13 April 2013 - 02:43 AM, said:

POST YOUR BUILDS, NAO!

I assume you mean the Hunchback's one, since this isn't a Spider thread.

My 4G has a large laser in each arm and a medium pulse in the cockpit and the largest engine. Regardless of which torso they blow off (usually the right torso), I'll still have >50% of my firepower left. I use the speed to split them up so that at any time only one enemy gets to fire at me (which I fire back at), but using my position to get 4-5 enemies to 'try' to shoot at me, I waste a lot of their time by tanking in this way. Because it's effectively 1v1, when I have the same skill as the enemy pilot I'll blow his Centre Torso at the same time he blows my Right Torso - so I'll take at least one down with me. Half the time the enemies realise they're being misdirected and redivert their attention back to the rest of my PuG team shooting them in the back. The other half the time they don't, so they continue shooting me, I continue avoiding as much damage as I can until either I die first, or my PuG team kills the last of my pursuers first. Whenever they don't stop shooting me, my team always wins.

Tanking is a very underappreciated role, but the 4G excels at this because nearly everyone shoots right torso the moment they see a 4G. They don't look at my weapon loadout at all, from which it would have been obvious I carry nothing of importance in my Right Torso. Since people aim there first I have, effectively, doubled CT armour, which is more than any Assault possesses. Because my role is to attract enemy damage my KDR in the 4G is lower than in most of my Light chassis (1.23 - I still kill more often than I die though), but the WLR is very high for the PuG bracket, even after ELO is applied.

Now if machine guns were a little less useless this build can have an extra power boost, but there's not enough tonnage in the build to afford to put even an AC/2 in the hunch. The build has lower initial firepower than the usual 4G setups, but higher average firepower (because people inevitably have the hunch blown off). People always like to focus fire on the Hunchbacks (esp. the 4Gs), and people always like to focus fire on its hunch, specifically. So rather than build something that would be vulnerable to that around the hardpoints, I built my 4G and use tactics to exploit their behaviour - on the whole I haven't seen another 4G build as successful yet.

Edited by Hayashi, 13 April 2013 - 09:00 PM.