19 replies to this topic

[N a p e s]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to get my Awesomes mastered and would like some tips regarding the 9M.

Here is the build I'm working towards and I'm only a few hundred thousand away from the XL380.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a5a249ad6c9ad80

So how would you rate this build? I realize the Awesome doesn't have many fans so please don't just recommend taking another assault mech. Playing a similar build with the stock XL320 was very underwhelming so I hope that just changing out the engine will change the dynamics of the build sufficiently.

Thanks

[Zakie Chan]

I used this build:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...45587f8b8264da6

Im not a fan of the XL engine. It provides small boost in tonnage/speed while greatly reducing longevity. An AWS needs any help it can get to stay alive.

I use 3 weapon groups, with each group of 1 laser size set to chain fire. If you desire to fire more than one , just fire that weapon group again.

I would use it as a support mech, moving in cover and supporting larger brawlers. Also works well if you have a medium help you out. The key is to use its pin point power to cleave off damaged components.

The reason I do not favor your long range styled spec is due to the lack of instant punch needed from a long range mech. The build puts itself at a disadvantage due to the lack of burst weaponry and forward bias armor.
With my spec you can still engage longer range targets while closing to the 300m range where you can be most accurate and land for full damage.

Edited by Zakie Chan, 21 May 2013 - 09:55 AM.

[Trauglodyte]

Napes339, on 21 May 2013 - 09:37 AM, said:

Hi guys,

I'm trying to get my Awesomes mastered and would like some tips regarding the 9M.

Here is the build I'm working towards and I'm only a few hundred thousand away from the XL380.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a5a249ad6c9ad80

So how would you rate this build? I realize the Awesome doesn't have many fans so please don't just recommend taking another assault mech. Playing a similar build with the stock XL320 was very underwhelming so I hope that just changing out the engine will change the dynamics of the build sufficiently.

Thanks

That's what I used during the Assault vs the World tourney. Well, I ran a 375xl with an LRM5 and 20 DHSs but it is close enough.

[N a p e s]

Thanks for the tips Zakie. From what I can see your build definitely has a toughness advantage by using a standard engine but with the 325 its only marginally faster than a standard 8 series Awesome. That limited speed was my biggest gripe playing the 8R. Before the SRM nerf it could mess up other assaults provided you could get close enough to unload the 4 SRM6s but getting there was such a problem.

Seeing that big engine cap on the 9M makes me want to take advantage of that fact but its really not practical with a standard engine. That being said I do like the loadout with the medium lasers in the center of the mech giving you a fast cycling a lower heat alternative to the large lasers when the heat start building too high.

Trauglodyte, on 21 May 2013 - 10:08 AM, said:

That's what I used during the Assault vs the World tourney. Well, I ran a 375xl with an LRM5 and 20 DHSs but it is close enough.

I'll take that as a vote of confidence for the build. Thanks

Edited by Napes339, 21 May 2013 - 10:30 AM.

[NRP]

The OP's build is good. I would drop the streaks and add two more DHS though. One streak won't do squat, so I'd go with more heat efficiency.

I don't have much luck with PPCs, so I prefer a 4 LL build.

[Trauglodyte]

Napes339, on 21 May 2013 - 10:28 AM, said:

I'll take that as a vote of confidence for the build. Thanks

I got 9th over all in the Awesomes so I'd hope you take that as a vote of confidence

Edited by Trauglodyte, 21 May 2013 - 12:42 PM.

[N a p e s]

NRP, on 21 May 2013 - 12:10 PM, said:

The OP's build is good. I would drop the streaks and add two more DHS though. One streak won't do squat, so I'd go with more heat efficiency.

I don't have much luck with PPCs, so I prefer a 4 LL build.

I'll definitely give it a try. 4 LLs is alot of damage and the heat is pretty reasonable.

Trauglodyte, on 21 May 2013 - 12:42 PM, said:

I got 9th over all in the Awesomes so I'd hope you take that as a vote of confidence

Well I hope I'll pilot as well as you did!

Another build I was considering was this one:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...233a4970b654450

Edited by Napes339, 21 May 2013 - 12:54 PM.

[Red squirrel]

I love the Awesome (some think I am mad, but truth is I am a squirrel).

And I never ever use an XL on an Awesome that is not a missile boat or PPC sniper.
I think it is diffucult to find a good loadout for the 9M. My favorite is the Awesome Zombie.

Edit: Yes I know people hate pulse lazors, but this build can be fun. The key feature is that you can actually disengage. And even if you lose both arms and side torsos you still got 60% of your weapon loadout.
Try to one shot light mechs in the back. Usually 30 damage is enough to get a kill through the back torso.

Edited by Red squirrel, 21 May 2013 - 02:39 PM.

[AntiCitizenJuan]

Here's what I used to run in mine.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...fd4ac3717c24889

Gotta keep moving and twist that torso. I just got sick of the glass cannon type mechs.

These days I just run my 8R as a modified Honey Badger and an 8T missile boat, because they can take hits better than the 9M with an XL

[Thejuggla]

I run with (if I remember build right) 3 ppcs 2 medium and 2 ssrm2 20dhs 360xl nearly full armor. I really like it it seems to do well against anything smaller, especially get some good hits on lights, but wouldn't take it up against some bigger mechs. You go er but I find the heat really high but I have had fights where I wish I had er on some bigger maps.

[aniviron]

I want to congratulate you on being the first person to post a thread asking if your build is good who actually has a good build. It's a little too dependent on heat weapons for my taste, but that is preference and there is nothing wrong with what you have there- though I hope you have a three button mouse at least.

This is what I use in my 9M, got me to 16th in AVW tourney and third for the one day of the week-long tourney I was able to play it on. :]

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...45d5926e763d4fb

[RedrumnCoke]

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...31b06b656ab5ee9

I run this. With a standard 350 it has survivability but is still a lot faster than the other assaults. It is a brawler, but you can engage right at 270m as the srms fire very accurately even w/o artemis thanks to the 2 tubes.

[ProtoformX]

I like yours and I've used it. It actually rocks.

If you get the chance, try this one; it's a load of fun and a tough customer:

AWS-9M

STD 350
ER PPC
3 Med Pulse
3 SRM4

It goes 78 with tweak, and it's still a standard engine. The pulse lasers and SRM's are great for quick drive-by's, and the ER PPC is more for the up-close ability than the range(however, the range sure is a bonus). There's no ballistic hardpoint on an Awesome, so an ER PPC is the best you can do for 'insta-damage' brawling. Trust me, you want a PPC on board to rack up the kill shots unless you love doing all of the damage and then losing the kills to your PUGs. Lasers suck the big one at kill shots for some reason.

[Kiiyor]

I love the Awesome. THIS got me to 2nd place in the assault vs the world tournament, and I loved every moment of it.

Contrary to seeming popular opinion, the XL isn't a death sentence in an Awesome (IMHO), as it's barn door CT tends to go waaaay before STs. I played a metric crapload of matches in the tourney above, and lost due to ST destruction a total of 6 times. Take from that what you will!

As far as engine sizes, the 380 is a good investment. Pre speed tweak it's great, but i've switched to a 350 since and don't miss the extra speed.

PPCs are still beastly, but if you struggle, you can remove them for LPLs, or take out the MLAS also and cram 4 LL in there.

BAP and 3 streaks rocks too. You'll do fine as long as you aren't the center of attention. The awesome crumples into a mewling heap in stressful social situations.

[Dracus Steamwork]

as said kiiyor, XL isn't death sentence, you are not supposed to engage first or brawl really close due to his ratio armor/height, you must be in a range of your target between 150m and 250m, i ended after a lots of tweak and games to play with that build :
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...0e31bf65ad77544
you have a good speed (for an assault it's insane) and you are enough versatile to be able to fight against everything (thank for the new bap) with enough range from your large laser to fire back plus you have 21 DHS !!!

[DemonRaziel]

2 versions, both sporting 1x ER PPC and 2x LL as their primary weapons and differ in what they utilize the missile hardpoints for. Also max armor and (near) max engine.

SSRM build (if you are not an AMS fan, you can drop the AMS and ammo in favor of BAP): http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a5fd96a784dd82e

LRM+TAG build: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...21b9b83f06845c7

[N a p e s]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I finished the cbill grind for the XL380 last night so I'm gonna actually start playing around with the different builds that use it.

I tried one match with the double ERPPC in the left and right torsos and it was nice but it runs a little too hot for my taste. The 3 LL with 3 streaks is up next and the heat on that one is much lower though at the expense of firepower.

Its too bad there aren't any ballistics options for these mechs. I understand that wouldn't be canon so its alright but I could really dig a 9M type fast assault mech loaded with an AC20...

[N a p e s]

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c8298ce6fabbf9c

So after a few tests here's what I got. I based it off Kiiyor's build but wanted the streaks and figured having a backup ERPPC might be handy for lights that get too close.

[aniviron]

Napes339, on 22 May 2013 - 06:49 AM, said:

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I finished the cbill grind for the XL380 last night so I'm gonna actually start playing around with the different builds that use it.

I tried one match with the double ERPPC in the left and right torsos and it was nice but it runs a little too hot for my taste. The 3 LL with 3 streaks is up next and the heat on that one is much lower though at the expense of firepower.

Its too bad there aren't any ballistics options for these mechs. I understand that wouldn't be canon so its alright but I could really dig a 9M type fast assault mech loaded with an AC20...

I really recommend swapping the streaks for srm4/6. While the three ssrm2 will certainly give you an edge against lights, the llas are much better against larger targets anyway, and 14srms will really give you good hitting power against atlases and stalkers (even as bad as missiles are right now); with over double the number of projectiles, you can really make people regret ignoring the awesome as a non-threat.


edit: you posted as I was posting to you!

Napes339, on 22 May 2013 - 03:57 PM, said:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c8298ce6fabbf9c

So after a few tests here's what I got. I based it off Kiiyor's build but wanted the streaks and figured having a backup ERPPC might be handy for lights that get too close.

If you are really concerned about lights, the streaks should be more than enough. No light pilot wants to engage anyone with streaks, because you do not have to aim them so it means it is a timer for that pilot- he has to kill you in a certain amount of time (2 ssrm2 is about 30 seconds) or you just win by default with those hitting his ct every time. Because you are big and armored enough, I would stick with a standard ppc, especially given the huge heat difference. It is all preference, though, so if you find it works for you then go for it.

The bad news is that this patch is a bad time to be a ppc awesome; we tend to roll with three, which means that the strong point of the mech is its ability to sustain dps on exposed targets instead of a huge alpha strike. The cooldown increase on ppcs hasn't hurt all the sniper builds, but really hurts aws builds like yours.

Edited by aniviron, 22 May 2013 - 04:10 PM.

[N a p e s]

aniviron, on 22 May 2013 - 04:06 PM, said:

I really recommend swapping the streaks for srm4/6. While the three ssrm2 will certainly give you an edge against lights, the llas are much better against larger targets anyway, and 14srms will really give you good hitting power against atlases and stalkers (even as bad as missiles are right now); with over double the number of projectiles, you can really make people regret ignoring the awesome as a non-threat.


edit: you posted as I was posting to you!


If you are really concerned about lights, the streaks should be more than enough. No light pilot wants to engage anyone with streaks, because you do not have to aim them so it means it is a timer for that pilot- he has to kill you in a certain amount of time (2 ssrm2 is about 30 seconds) or you just win by default with those hitting his ct every time. Because you are big and armored enough, I would stick with a standard ppc, especially given the huge heat difference. It is all preference, though, so if you find it works for you then go for it.

The bad news is that this patch is a bad time to be a ppc awesome; we tend to roll with three, which means that the strong point of the mech is its ability to sustain dps on exposed targets instead of a huge alpha strike. The cooldown increase on ppcs hasn't hurt all the sniper builds, but really hurts aws builds like yours.

I certainly wouldn't hate the close range punch from the regular srms but I hate the way they missles come out 2 at a time. If the left arm had 6 missle tubes I'd have the regular srms. I know some people prefer having the more accurate but constant volley but half the time I'm torso twisting too soon and wasting half my shots...

Edited by Napes339, 22 May 2013 - 04:38 PM.