15 replies to this topic

[Cstriker]

Well, I'm a Closed Beta vet and I drive one helleva HBK-4SP brawler, CPT-K2 Gauss kitty, and a CPT missile boat. Love the game, and seeing a plethora of new rides I am excited come back...also hoping ECM got a slap with the nerf bat.

So I was looking at dropping my coin on one of the new rides and as the title says it, I'm interested in the: HIGHLANDER, STALKER, JAGERMECH, and maybe the CATAPHRACT.

That being said, I know the CATA would be a good ballistic boat, which is how I would probably drive it though I am put off by the huge cockpit hitbox. The others, I don't know enough about...especially the Jager and Highlander.

How do the Jager, Highlander, and Stalker fair? What are some strong builds for the three of them? DHS or Expanded engine on these bad boys? I am lost to be really honest with you! Any help would be fantastic, thanks!

[MeiSooHaityu]

I don't pilot Assaults too much, so I can't speak for them too well.

As for the two Heavies you are looking at, I would go for the Jager for ballistic duty. The Jager has the ballistic points mounted up nice and high. The problem with the Cataphract, is the ballistic points are mounted so low. There will be times you think you have cleared a hill, you start firing, and you end up blowing the crap out of the top of the hill in front of you. I don't know how many times I underestimate the height of my arms and end up shooting into the ground.

It might be something you can get used to with the Cataphract, but I would still take the Jager over it for a ballistic platform.

[Roughneck45]

High mounted weapons are the bee's knee's right now, so stalkers and jagers are in the spotlight.

Cataphracts are always deadly, and will remain that way for a long time because they top out the tonnage in the heavy class.

Highlanders are solid, but the only thing really going for them over an atlas would be the JJ's.

Strong builds right now are PPC's, PPC's, PPC's, maybe a guass rifle, then some more PPC's for good measure.

Sad but true

Generally speaking, 2 ER PPC's and a gauss, 3 PPC's and a gauss, or 4 PPC's are your power builds right now.

Edited by Roughneck45, 02 July 2013 - 10:06 AM.

[Kyynele]

Jager and Stalker are one of the strongest mechs at the moment. Highlanders used to be everywhere before the jump jet shake made jumpsniping less desireable, but are still doing strong. The strong builds are rather monotonous, though. Like said, the current gameplay favors massive instant pinpoint alphas, so AC/20, Gauss, and PPCs are likely the safest choices no matter what chassis you pick.

Jager is the ballistic boat. The most commonly used Cataphract, 3D, suffered greatly from the aforementioned jump jet change, and is at the moment much rarer a sight than Jagers.

The Cataphract head hitbox is only the centermost piece of glass in the exterior cockpit, so that's not an issue.

The easy build for any Jager variant is 2x AC/20, a fast XL engine (around 300), near max armor, DHS, as much ammo as you can fit. 2x Gauss is an easy switch from that.

[Skydrive]

You should probably not count out the Victor that's coming out this month. It will be the most maneuverable assault mech when in game at the moment, having Jump Jets and being faster then the Awesome. I don't run Stalkers, and my only Cataphract is the Illya Muromets. The Jagers beat out the catapult if your wanting to run AC20's and have speed, due to being able to fit in an XL engine, but I still prefer a support role if anything, especially with the Jager A which I run with an XL engine, two UAC5's, four LRM5's, and two Medium Lasers. This allows it to give out direct and indirect fire support, and, well, lets just say I taught a dragon once not to underestimate me after he melted my rear CT armour. I just turned around and double fired my UAC5's and used the medium lasers. He didn't last long. Many people that run highlanders have them in a poptart build involving as many PPC's or ER PPC's they can fit, with a Gauss rifle if its not the 733P, but these mechs are usually weak in regards to how those weapons are all on the right (unless its a heavy metal).

On most mechs you want to have DHS's, and XL engines are dependant on the mech's loadout, and hitbox usually. An example for this is Centurion vs Trebuchet. With a Cent running a STD engine, they can protect their CT easily, which can often leave them with what is usually 2 medium lasers, but there are people who will put in an XL for either more speed, or more firepower. As for Trebuchets, when it comes to my experience with them, especially the 7M and the 5J, the head and the side torso's are the least likely spots to be hit. Infact its safer to have volatile explosive ammo in an uncased side torso in these two mechs then it is in a leg.

As for the state of ECM, there are couple of things that can neutralize it. A mech that is being tagged by a mech that is not being ECM'd can allow anyone that can see the tagged mech to target it, allowing locks. The Sensor and the Advance Sensor module reduces how close you need to be to a mech being protected by ECM in order to target it. A mech armed with ECM that is hit by a PPC or an ER PPC will have his ECM item temporarily disabled. A mech with a BAP equipped can negate one enemy ECM that is within 150m, and its whichever is closest to him. Lastly, ECM items were given a hardpoint location, making the first target of these mechs being the left torso usually.
EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but ECM items also have a low item health point of 3, meaning that a small laser that critically hits an unarmoured left torso can destroy an ECM item in one hit.

Edited by Skydrive, 02 July 2013 - 10:19 AM.

[Wintersdark]

The Jager offers builds you know well but work better - the dual Gauss and AC20 builds on the Jager are simply better than the kitty versions. The AC20Jag can mount an XL, allowing it 2 or 4 supporting medium lasers; and both feature higher-than-the-cockpit mounted cannons: If you can see it, you can shoot it, no worries about shooting dirt.

The Jags also have a swaft of other great builds, too. All three(+hero) are essentially Catapult variants with a different profile.

I'm a huge fan of Highlanders - Basically atlases trading a bit of tonnage for an extreme mobility advantage. With even a single JJ (the best way to roll a Highlander IMHO) their options open up enormously, and this can give them a substantial advantage over comparable Atlas builds.

Cataphracts? They're good mechs, no doubt, very solid heavies. But I'm of the opinion that the low slung arms limit them dramatically. Still, the 3D, Ilya, and 1X are very, very good mechs regardless. The 4X's engine size cap and total reliance on ammo is a problem though - the JM6-S and JM6-DD can do the same builds with less limitations.

Stalkers are cool mechs, but they're... Well, they're Stalkers. Limited torso twist, slow, and god-awful before you Elite them. They're very good mechs too, but need a particular play style to get the most out of them.

Just coming back from Closed Beta, I'd recommend either the Jags (start with the JM6-S, missiles aren't very good right now, and the DD doesn't offer much the S doesn't already do) or Highlanders(start with the 732 or 732C) first, as they're the more flexible.

Cstriker, on 02 July 2013 - 08:55 AM, said:

also hoping ECM got a slap with the nerf bat.

Oh, yeah, ECM. It's really a non-issue now. BAP counters it within... 150m? or 180m? I forget... regardless, if you want to run SSRM's and don't want to worry about ECM, take BAP. TAG counters ECM at 750m, so LRM's don't care about it either, or at least when you have line of sight. Seismic Sensor shows mechs moving around you, so ECM won't hide them there either.

In short... It's still a good piece of hardware, primarily protecting you from indirect fire LRM's, and cloaking your movements at range, but it's not at all what it was.

In short, ECM wasn't slapped with a nerf bat, it was beaten into a bloody pulp.

Edited by Wintersdark, 02 July 2013 - 10:25 AM.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Cstriker, on 02 July 2013 - 08:55 AM, said:

Well, I'm a Closed Beta vet and I drive one helleva HBK-4SP brawler, CPT-K2 Gauss kitty, and a CPT missile boat. Love the game, and seeing a plethora of new rides I am excited come back...also hoping ECM got a slap with the nerf bat.

So I was looking at dropping my coin on one of the new rides and as the title says it, I'm interested in the: HIGHLANDER, STALKER, JAGERMECH, and maybe the CATAPHRACT.

That being said, I know the CATA would be a good ballistic boat, which is how I would probably drive it though I am put off by the huge cockpit hitbox. The others, I don't know enough about...especially the Jager and Highlander.

How do the Jager, Highlander, and Stalker fair? What are some strong builds for the three of them? DHS or Expanded engine on these bad boys? I am lost to be really honest with you! Any help would be fantastic, thanks!

Don't take this the wrong way but from your Closed Beta descriptions of the mechs you piloted, it seems you like ez-mode mechs.

That being the case an AC/40 (2 AC/20s) JagerMech or a Stalker PPC or Missile boat.

Stalker would probably be best. It is easily the most OPed mech in the game. Hard to kill, small profile, amazing weapons load out potential (Energy boat, Missile boat or mixed loadout at will).

Personally I find my Stalker incredibly boring to play but it is absolutely effective.

[Cstriker]

easy mode, maybe. But I did spend ZERO real dollars open beta and launch for those same mechs. Worked mah way up in trials, bought a HBK-4SP, and then I grinded out getting the other two, also with trial mechs often just to mix things up. I wouldn't say 4SP was easy mode. Yeah, great payload even pre-Artemis (i got more deadly once Artemis launched), but being a medium brawling with much bigger boys never really made me feel OP or easy street, my Kitty was the only one that every did that, but now with the Gauss rifle explosions and only 3hp thats a different story.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Cstriker, on 03 July 2013 - 03:31 AM, said:

easy mode, maybe. But I did spend ZERO real dollars open beta and launch for those same mechs. Worked mah way up in trials, bought a HBK-4SP, and then I grinded out getting the other two, also with trial mechs often just to mix things up. I wouldn't say 4SP was easy mode. Yeah, great payload even pre-Artemis (i got more deadly once Artemis launched), but being a medium brawling with much bigger boys never really made me feel OP or easy street, my Kitty was the only one that every did that, but now with the Gauss rifle explosions and only 3hp thats a different story.

My appoligies. I shouldn't have said ez-mode or rather rephrased it as easier to pilot mechs that revolve around single weapons systems with similar engagement profiles. The Stalker fits that decription well with its ability to be a missile or energy boat.

In comparison, a Highlander has a very mixed weapons profile that I found challenging to use. Just about every weapon you fit on a Highlander will have a different range, cooldown, aim point, heat profile, etc. It is not an easy mech to use.

The Cataphract can kinda be build either way. For example depending on the Variant you can build a nice dual Gauss set up, a Gauss, 4 MPL set up, Dual LBX-10, Quad MPL set up, etc. Or you can mix and match the weapons up and get a very mixed profile.

I don't run a Jaggy yet but You can boat a AC/40 Jaggy with a few medium lasers or something similar so can avoid alot of the mixed weapons profile as well.

Hope this helps.

[AntiCitizenJuan]

Roll a Stalker for EZ mode

[Finn McShae]

My two cents for suggestion.

I'd say Jager is a pretty easy and fun chassis to get back into the game with. Highlanders and Stalkers are too slow and ponderous for me, and I've not really been happy with CTF builds (which is sad, they were one of my fav TT chassis). Mostly I only like the Illya, and you can do what it does better with a Jag anyway (my opinion).

I really like to run the Firebrand with 2xPPC, 2xAC/5, 2xMLAS. Runs a bit hot but it is lots of fun. There's the obvious dual AC/20 or dual Gauss, but I only run them when i get annoyed at everyone else cheesing. For standard variants I liked a DD with its stock loadout (UAC/5 and AC/2) as well as an S rigged with 2xAC/10, 4xML, and 2 MG (for the neat sound they make and theoretical crit seeking).

I had rather surprising success with the A variant rigged like a stock Orion, LRM 15 (w/arty), AC/10, 2 MLAS, SRM4 (w/arty) and a standard engine, or an XL and cram more LRMS in there.

But good speed, decent armor, high weapon points and good manuverability makes Jags my favorite heavy right now.

[Angel of Annihilation]

AntiCitizenJuan, on 03 July 2013 - 08:44 AM, said:

Roll a Stalker for EZ mode

This is truth. I can't seem to find a bad build for my 3F. It just dominates everything and I am running around with a 3.13 K/D ratio after 36 matches easily out performing every other mech I own. What makes it worse is that I play it completely lazy with no regard for much of anything other than plodding forward till I see a target I can shoot at with LRMs or my Lasers. Then often as not I just act like a stationary turret and kill stuff. The Stalker truly does not require anything other than basic skills to be successful with.

[Wintersdark]

AntiCitizenJuan, on 03 July 2013 - 08:44 AM, said:

Roll a Stalker for EZ mode

heh not now. With the new movement scheme, Stalkers - already slow mechs - can get hung up everywhere and struggle to go uphill whatsoever.

[AntiCitizenJuan]

Wintersdark, on 03 July 2013 - 09:24 AM, said:

heh not now. With the new movement scheme, Stalkers - already slow mechs - can get hung up everywhere and struggle to go uphill whatsoever.

Stalker = Easymode. Still. The new change didn't undo that.

[MeiSooHaityu]

AntiCitizenJuan, on 03 July 2013 - 09:32 AM, said:

Stalker = Easymode...

I wish. My Misery has been miserable.

[DaemonWulfe]

Been diggin' the Stalker lately. Maybe it is a bit OP. With 4LL, 2ML, and 2AMS I'll sometimes burn up a couple of heavies or assaults in one match. Knocking down mediums running around like chickens with their heads cut off is easy as well. I've had a fairly easy time dealing with the aforementioned cheese mechs a lot of people are crying over. PPC boats? No problem. Close distance using cover, pop up and melt their face. LRM boats? No problem. Close distance using cover and melt their face. Jagerdouche dual AC20s? No problem. Attack them at range. At closer ranges use cover, alpha their side torsos, melt their face. I run standard armor, standard structure, 11 dual HS, and have a STD 300 engine. Max speed with mastery in all perks brings me up to 62.9kph. Heat efficiency sits at 1.25. Armor is maxed out at 526. I topped it off with PIP zoom and seismic sensors with the 400m upgrade. In as little as two weeks of taking up the Stalker, my KDR has risen from around .71 to 1.00 (just broke even this morning.) On bad pug matches I can usually knock out 1 or 2 mechs while my team is running around blind. On good matches I can knock out 2 to 4 mechs on average.

Edited by DaemonWulfe, 04 July 2013 - 04:06 AM.