31 replies to this topic

[LockeJaw]

Also, for the other mechs you're looking at buying:

Awesome 9M, + one other one. PB was on sale last weekend. Wait for it to come on sale again.
Atlas D, Atlas DDC, and Atlas RS. The only reason to buy the K is the 300xl, which is nice to swap around in other chassis.

(I don't pilot assault mechs, so consider the above secondhand information.)

Cicada 3M is the best chassis. (it mounts ECM) The 2A is fun too, with the 6 medium laser build And then you have the choice of either the 2B (erg), 3C (Blerch) or the x5. (WHEEEE!)

Do not buy the raven. It is evil and full of mouldy cheese.

My point is this: It isn't nearly as big a grind as it seems. The subtle quirks in each variant make them fun to learn, and give you options for fitting that its brethren will not. Sure, you can just master one chassis, and then become really good at it. It is a lot more fun to get good with a lot of different mechs, and you'll be a better overall pilot.

Lastly. You didn't mention the Dragon. For shame!

Edited by LockeJaw, 30 April 2013 - 03:42 AM.

[mailin]

One thing that no one has mentioned yet is that PGI isn't done releasing modules. Which means that they may, in the future release some very cool things that will make some people wish that they mastered their chasis, As an FYI, maybe it's a bit crazy, but whenever I buy a mech, I do so with the intention of buying two other variants so that I can get all of the pilot skills for the mechs.

[Orbit Rain]

...how about this...

If your toy isn't maxed out, how cool is your toy?

[Koniving]

Elite efficiencies.

If you don't have them, you'll wind up like this Spider.





Raven = Koniving
Spider = ThePole
Screenshots = Lordred
Check out the Perfect Screenshot thread tweeted by Garth.

[aniviron]

It's quite worth it for all the reasons all the people said. Also, I have found that in playing mechs I only bought to grind for elite I have made a lot of fun builds and really grown attached to them. (The RVN-4x and AWS-8T are still bad though. )

Koniving, on 04 May 2013 - 11:00 PM, said:

Elite efficiencies.

If you don't have them, you'll wind up like this Spider.

Raven = Koniving
Spider = ThePole
Screenshots = Lordred
Check out the Perfect Screenshot thread tweeted by Garth.

Ahaha, that Raven thinks it's a shark.

p.s. those are gorgeous. Love the colour process.

[Appogee]

They certainly give a competitive edge which in some games will be the difference between killing and dying.

They also make PGI a metric 5h17-ton of money from people having to buy multiple variants to achieve them.

Edited by Appogee, 05 May 2013 - 12:51 AM.

[Aceramic]

After getting Elites on both my Hunchback and Awesome, I have come to the conclusion that, aside from it being worth it in the end:

A) I hate all Hunchbacks except the 4H. (I used the 4P and 4SP)
B) LRM's suck.
C) SRM6's are awesome. (Specifically, the 8V with 3 of them plus 4 ML)

I almost ended up keeping one of the other Awesome's (8R or 8V) and ditching the 8Q I already had, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. The 8Q is just too much fun. Now to make up my mind between Cicada/Raven and which Atlas... Or maybe Highlander... Or try the Jager again... I need more mechbays. >.>

Replies to a few of the previous posts, since the forums aren't emailing me to tell me people have been replying:

LockeJaw - Yes, I was serious when I made the thread. Why did you *think* I made the post? As for the Atlas' (Atlai?)... I've mostly just been eying the K for the "AMS-boat" concept, which may or may not be effective (I only know one person with a K, and I'm not even sure if he's using both AMS). That, and with the handful of builds I've been looking at, the missing hardpoints aren't that big of a deal to me (I've been coming up short on slots, with what I'm wanting to do with it). If I don't go for the K, I'm fairly certain I'll end with the D and alter my plans slightly.

malibu43 - It's too bad I didn't see your post before going through the variants for the Hunchback and Awesome. Alternating chassis was a good idea... lol Regarding the Raven 4X... That implies I was planning on putting MG's on it.


I've been getting the idea that my builds (and playstyle, for that matter) are... *ahem* "Unconventional", so we may all be seeing things a bit differently regarding certain variants being "bad". But, I would consider myself to be merely average in terms of skill, so it's been working out pretty well for me. (For comparison, in a typical "good" match, I'm putting out roughly half the damage of the top 5 people on the leaderboards for the recent Assault tournament. They looked to be consistently putting out ~900-1K damage per match, I typically get around 300-500 on a good day.)

[Koniving]

aniviron, on 05 May 2013 - 12:08 AM, said:

It's quite worth it for all the reasons all the people said. Also, I have found that in playing mechs I only bought to grind for elite I have made a lot of fun builds and really grown attached to them. (The RVN-4x and AWS-8T are still bad though. )

Ahaha, that Raven thinks it's a shark.

p.s. those are gorgeous. Love the colour process.

Thanks. Also I disagree about the 4x being bad. The Shark Raven is a 2X, and following it the bloodied mech is my 4X taken in the next match.

This match I brawled with several heavy mechs and two assaults in a 2X. I had some red armor, but the only component lost was the shield arm.


Default Raven 4X's run best as an escort to something larger. Since it's not a 3-L, people ignore it in favor of shooting the bigger mech, allowing it to survive while putting good firepower down. In this case, the Catapult. Between the Gaussapult and the AC/20 Raven, very little stood a chance until his gauss rifles blew up on him from LRM fire.



My personal one runs an AC/20, and can brawl solo or with support against Atlases in head to head fights at 86 kph with anywhere from 3 to 5 tons of ammo depending on if I include JJ's. The Raven 4X's best move in closed beta was the ability to knock down Atlases by drop kicking them from the air. Now, you can stand on their heads and dance, before dropping behind them to deliver a fatal blow. When fighting Atlases, a default Raven can easily keep jumping over the Atlas to quickly leave its field of view. Turn around while in mid-air to squeeze in those critical shots.

Shot by JEric131. Raven is me.

Without any weapons left, the Gaussapult baited an enemy through the cave. This is me standing wait outside to pump the pest full of AC/20.


HQ shots by Lordred.

Tip for anyone in Ravens 2x or 4x. Never get into a situation where you are trying to fight more than one target without support. This is why they excel when escorting someone -- no one will shoot you because the other guy is bigger.

Edited by Koniving, 05 May 2013 - 09:37 AM.

[Rackminster]

Having an extra 15% heat dissipation and 20% heat capacity makes it automatically worth it for me.

I'm also on a mad and slow quest to Master all the chassis. I just picked up my third Atlas last night, I have Ravens into Elite, and have two Dragons (1 guess as to which) and two Catapults. It's going to be a LONG ride.

All that said, if I didn't care about throwing money at the game, I'd already have 1 of every chassis and would be strictly playing 2-3 favorites and converting all earned experience into General XP to use on other chassis... but that feels like cheating and skipping to the end. I mean - what else is there to do? I plan to take my time.

[Ozric]

I will not try to convince you that elite efficiencies are a good idea. Instead I shall use reverse psychology, and say that they are in fact rubbish and you should never invest in them.

[aniviron]

Koniving, on 05 May 2013 - 09:34 AM, said:

Thanks. Also I disagree about the 4x being bad. The Shark Raven is a 2X, and following it the bloodied mech is my 4X taken in the next match.

This match I brawled with several heavy mechs and two assaults in a 2X. I had some red armor, but the only component lost was the shield arm.

Default Raven 4X's run best as an escort to something larger. Since it's not a 3-L, people ignore it in favor of shooting the bigger mech, allowing it to survive while putting good firepower down. In this case, the Catapult. Between the Gaussapult and the AC/20 Raven, very little stood a chance until his gauss rifles blew up on him from LRM fire.

My personal one runs an AC/20, and can brawl solo or with support against Atlases in head to head fights at 86 kph with anywhere from 3 to 5 tons of ammo depending on if I include JJ's. The Raven 4X's best move in closed beta was the ability to knock down Atlases by drop kicking them from the air. Now, you can stand on their heads and dance, before dropping behind them to deliver a fatal blow. When fighting Atlases, a default Raven can easily keep jumping over the Atlas to quickly leave its field of view. Turn around while in mid-air to squeeze in those critical shots..

Tip for anyone in Ravens 2x or 4x. Never get into a situation where you are trying to fight more than one target without support. This is why they excel when escorting someone -- no one will shoot you because the other guy is bigger.

I actually quite like the 2X. I run it more often than my 3L these days; the weight saved from the smaller engine cap and no ecm means I've got as much firepower as most mediums, but going much faster (4x mlas, 1xsrm6). Plus the torso twist is to die for. I play it as a light/sniper hunter, and have had a lot of success with it. (Someday I will be able to buy more mechbays and I'll be able to get the JR7D which is better in almost every way though. )

I just haven't found a build I like for the RVN-4X. The Ac20 build was too gimmicky for me, and it's too frustrating to have 10 shots per match explode on the enemy for no damage, even after HSR for ballistics. I ran 2x PPC 5jj XL210 (recycled from the 3L) for a while, but I don't find poptarting very satisfying, and when you're only dealing 20 per shot the risk/reward starts to get a bit iffy. I ran xl245, 2x lplas, 1x ssrm2 for a while and that was sorta okay, but it's really just a 2x with heat problems and less missiles that way. Currently running 2x lplas + 5jj xl210, but again, it's just not doing it for me. It does okay in a 1v1, but it's not so great against lights, and the heat dependancy means if your enemy can keep up with you, you have problems.

I just wish the ballistic slots were worth using. Even a single ac2 weighs so much that you have to build the whole mech around it (and in the case of the ac2, it means you can never look away from your opponent if you want to deal any damage, a real problem for a light) and without using the ballistics you get three total slots, which really limits the number of builds you can try.

[Koniving]

aniviron, on 05 May 2013 - 07:25 PM, said:

I just wish the ballistic slots were worth using. Even a single ac2 weighs so much that you have to build the whole mech around it (and in the case of the ac2, it means you can never look away from your opponent if you want to deal any damage, a real problem for a light) and without using the ballistics you get three total slots, which really limits the number of builds you can try.

2 MG deals 0.8 per second right now. In the upcoming MG buff it'll do 1.6 damage per second.

I still favor the 6 MG build of my Jager, though. 2.4 damage per second upgrading to 4.8 per second.