29 replies to this topic

[80Bit]

I am in the process of updating 80Bit's Review of All Mechs. While I already have my own experience with the mechs which have been added to the game over the past few months, I would like some additional feedback. I want these reviews to be useful to players at large, and not just a reflection of my own hands.

For example, I find near universal hate for the Quickdraw on the forums, but for me it has been one of my best performing mechs. I would hate to give it higher marks then it deserves just because I happen to mesh well with it.


Please rate the above mechs from 1 to 5 stars, with 1 star representing the worst mech you have played, and 5 stars representing the best. Rather than poll for specific variants, I want to get peoples general opinion of the chassis. So when reviewing, please rate based on your best performing variant.

Please add any addition, constructive feedback to the post. I am specifically looking for things like "The Quickdraw is bad overall because of X" or "The Victor is outstanding because it has the unique ability to do Y." Thanks for the feedback.

[Royalewithcheese]

I've seen people do well in the Quickdraw, but I think that has more to do with them being good vs. the Quickdraw being good. IMO it's too big for a mech of its weight, same with the Kintaro.

Victors IMO are pretty solid pug mechs, and their biggest problem IMO (beyond the questionable hardpoint layout) is that they're living in the shadow of the 3D and the HGN

Edited by Royalewithcheese, 08 September 2013 - 01:35 PM.

[Jin Ma]

i think victor is the only one that isn't oversized

[Wintersdark]

The QuickDraw may be a bit big, but honestly its one of the best mechs in the game at its role. Its not a good new player mech, though, because the fast striker role is a fairly difficult one to master.

Its a very competitive mech, though, not a bad mech you can do well with.

[Foxfire]

Too large,

Good,

Too large.

[Devil Fox]

Quickdraws I found were too fat, and was a hard balance between speed and firepower. Throw in the awful hitboxes in the alpha meta and it is a recipe for disaster, the Kintaro I haven't bothered to purchase because of it's glaring faults when originally released. Even now I probably won't buy the Kintaro or Orion, simply because the CBill earning is steeply declined meaning I'm not able to afford the 3 variants of a mech each month... that and unsatisfied with this games progression.

Now the Victor, I have the DS, 9K, 9S... the DS I did 100+ drops before the first week was over, and have since put on another 150, with 100+ games in the other Victors. The 9S is a great brawler, the DS makes for a good long-range mobile sniper due to the right hand side hardpoints. The 9K was an ok LRM+Guass Stand off fighter in the 300m range but the Guass nerf makes it extremely hard to use in close range whilst maintaining speed, torso twisting and combat awareness.

[Carrioncrows]

QKD is rubbish.

VTK is fantastic.

KTO is decent.

[William T Riker]

The quickdraw needs a ballistic variant. Always cracks me up when I can have a revolver painted on the side of my quickdraw but not equip an actual ballistic.

Quickdraw will take a kintaro any day easily but who cares when the victor is so much better than either.

Edited by William T Riker, 08 September 2013 - 02:16 PM.

[Xeno Phalcon]

Quickdraw - 2: while not a terrible mech its far too large, insanely so which is its biggest problem, its a 60 ton assault mech that wishes it was a light. I have these mastered, and while they are fine as light hunters/kintaro smashers overall they are speed caskets.

Victor - 4: While fairly bulky and its firepower tends to center on its right arm keep it from getting a pristine rating in my book, its still a very capable mech with jump jets and the capability to mount large engines make for a fairly solid machine.

Kintaro - 3: while better now that its been fixed, still a extremely tall medium thats pretty easy to core. This is offset somewhat by fairly large engine capacity and massive numbers of missile slots allowing slower models to mount good numbers of LRMs while the faster models can bring impressive punch against larger mechs with SRMs or light hunt with SSRMs.

[Bishop Steiner]

Quickdraw is a good mech, with high upside, but a high learning curve. It's also somewhat hindered by size (*gasp* PGI screw up scaling?!?!?!) and being light though to not be able to cool large energy weapons efficiently. Even before the last patch, had trouble with Dual PPC, now it really has to pick and choose it's shots. Ends up being hard to be creative with builds.

Victor is possibly the best combat chassis in the game, having HEAVY firepower, great speed and mobility, thanks to it's JJs, and well balanced hardpoints. Only knocks are somewhat light armor for it's size, so not ideal in toe to toe fights against heavier foes, or triple UAC Ilyas (but then, what does stand up to them?) and not effective for boating. Higher learning curve then an Atlas or Stalker, but much more capable when one cannot depend on a team to cover it's shortcomings. (Only chassis I prefer are Jagers and the Ilya)

Kintaro, maybe I am biased, but have seen nothing they do especially well, and certainly nothing I can't do better with a Catapult, overall. It is decently fast, but has no JJs, and not enough mass to truly max out it's hard points. If troll builds suit your fancy, I reckon you can Streamboat with them. Only mech I have played that made me wish I was in a Dragon instead.

[The Boz]

I think the Quickdraw would be good if it were either smaller, or somewhat less vulnerable to precision fire. It's a highly mobile heavy mech.
The Victor is really, really good. My only experience with it is the trial mech, but even the default loadout left a pretty good impression with me.
I clicked a 3 on the Kintaro because I have no idea how it performs. I never tried it, and I rarely notice it in games.

[Bishop Steiner]

Royalewithcheese, on 08 September 2013 - 01:32 PM, said:

I've seen people do well in the Quickdraw, but I think that has more to do with them being good vs. the Quickdraw being good. IMO it's too big for a mech of its weight, same with the Kintaro.

Victors IMO are pretty solid pug mechs, and their biggest problem IMO (beyond the questionable hardpoint layout) is that they're living in the shadow of the 3D and the HGN

Since Poptarts got nerfed, can't see the VTR living in the shadow of either of those mechs. In fact, the HGN can't even hope to keep up to cast it's shadow on a Victor. Now, an Ilya might give it a run, at least until the UACs get nerfed again. In a straight up scrap the VTR will outmanuever the HGN, and outlast a CTF, as it protects it's side torsos much better, has more armor and firepower.

[Bishop Steiner]

Xeno Phalcon, on 08 September 2013 - 02:16 PM, said:

Quickdraw - 2: while not a terrible mech its far too large, insanely so which is its biggest problem, its a 60 ton assault mech that wishes it was a light. I have these mastered, and while they are fine as light hunters/kintaro smashers overall they are speed caskets.

Victor - 4: While fairly bulky and its firepower tends to center on its right arm keep it from getting a pristine rating in my book, its still a very capable mech with jump jets and the capability to mount large engines make for a fairly solid machine.

Kintaro - 3: while better now that its been fixed, still a extremely tall medium thats pretty easy to core. This is offset somewhat by fairly large engine capacity and massive numbers of missile slots allowing slower models to mount good numbers of LRMs while the faster models can bring impressive punch against larger mechs with SRMs or light hunt with SSRMs.

......odd.

Mine tend to carry 12-18 SRMS in the left torso, and several lasers to PPCs in the left arm. It's annoying when they take my ballistic, but hardly debilitating.

[80Bit]

Thanks for the info. Not really enough votes to be representational, but pretty much the exact numbers I expected to see none the less.

[Psikez]

Quickdraw 4: Very difficult mech to master but suprisingly deadly and obnoxious at high speeds. Tends to be a rare sight on the battlefield.

Victor 5: This has supplanted the Atlas as my favorite Assault. Meshes well with either XL engines or Standard engines, can roll strong loadouts with plenty of ammo and has jump jets to boot. I'm suprised I don't see more of these

Kintaro 3: I *want* to like this mech but its size honestly holds it back. They make fine light hunters but tend to end up trash against anything else if they play to that. I see these occasionally but they don't ever seem to make a huge difference on the field.

[Byzan]

QKD: 2
really just needs some small adjustments. Its signature is large for 60tons. I mean 55 ton mechs look half the size and they are oversize themselves. The other main problem is 1ton Jump Jets, 55ton mechs use .5ton JJs. Basically all the space for the extra 5 tons weight goes into Jumpjets. two of the varients are almost the same, only 3 varients and no hero option

Victor: 3
while my QKDs are gathering dust i've upgraded and leveled 3 victors and im generally happy with them. only realy gripe is that the three basic varients are so so similar. Ballistic right arm, missile left torso, energy left arm. just +1 here -1 there is the only difference they are kinda boring. Would live it if they made one with 1e and 1b on each arm, or 2e on each arm and 1b on each side, just something.

I mean I have HBKs and JMs and each variant is really interesting and different. Victor options are pretty boring.

Vic is a solid mech, nothing uber

really don't have an opinion on the Kintaro, they seem like an ok med to me.

[Tkhaw]

Victor's awesome! One of my favourite rides...

Streaktaros are a niche whereas I have seen people doing great in Quickdraws...

[Deathlike]

Quickdraw: 4
Best "medium" that's not a medium. High skill required for highly effective energy mech. It can occasionally brawl went built correctly WITH very high skill required for heat management. It is simply not for newbies.

Victor: 4
Most mobile assault, even though I haven't run one yet (I'll eventually will get to it). It is probably the 2nd or 3rd most common assault fielded these days.

Kintaro: 3
It's a Catapult-A1 "lite" that has less missiles, but can actually defend itself AND run insanely fast. The most common use is to be a more mobile missile boat than the A1, but more importantly serve has a light killer by simply boating streaks AND still spend 10 ton less doing it. This is actually used at higher levels for this sole purpose.

[RandomLurker]

Quickdraw: 2

It's got some decent loadouts, and I'll admit that it can be piloted to great effect, but the hardpoint location makes it inferior to Hunchie 4SP (jump jets aside) or the Treb 5J. It doesn't have enough missile tubes to be a LRM boat, or enough hardpoints to be an SRM boat, or enough energy hardpoints in the arms to be a light hunter or laser scalpel. It makes a good jack-of-all trades in a medium mech speed package, but very few pilots can turn that into good results (props to those that can though). Then there's the size issue. It's biggest advantage, imo, is that it gives medium mech gameplay to people that have specialized in unlocked their Heavy Mech efficiencies.

Kintaro: 3
Great hardpoint layouts, good speed options, the hitbox improvements have helped it a lot. Suffers badly from lack of jumpjets, which take away from it's ability as a light hunter and it's ability to outmanuever larger mechs. Still, it can pack a lot of firepower and speed all at once, and can be deadly in the right situation. Requires excellent terrain knowledge and a pilot willing to hold back until the right moment, because it's extremely vulnerable in the open field.

Victor: 4
Ultimate jack-of-all-trades mech, which in an assault mech is an underrated way to fit. Given that assaults don't have the speed to control their engagements, carrying a broad weapon spread will be an advantage more often then a weakness. Can go with a STD engine for the traditional damage-soaking Zombie approach, or an XL and drive like a heavy striker. Hardpoints are limited, forcing a reliance on Ballistics, but the spread of backup weapons is very good and the arm mounts allow for very good accuracy in a brawl. Jump jets just make it awesome and in the hands of a skilled pilot give it a huge advantage vs things like an Atlas. A very good but far from perfect mech.

Edited by RandomLurker, 15 September 2013 - 06:10 PM.

[Byzan]

my QKD breakdown

posatives:
- speed and maneuverability with xl360 engine
- Jump jets
- nice high chest mounts, in particular the 4x e side torso hard points on the 5K
- Good amount of armor for its speed and maneuverability

Negatives
- Scale, basically the same size as a Victor yet its 15tons lighter, looks much bigger than the 55ton mechs even though its only 5ton heavier
- really low fire points on the arms, feels like shooting from your ankles
- only 1 e hard point on each arm for each variant
- requires 1 ton jump jets when 55 ton mechs use .5 ton JJs
- arms dont really block fire to the head or chest from the sides - torso is an easy target
- Legs are an easy target, you can't skimp on armor anywhere to save weight
- Head is an easy target, sticks up above everything
- three variants and thats it, actually two variants are almost exactly the same, meaning very little variety
- no ballistic hard points on any variants - in the current game where ballistics are king.

IMO its been hit with too many negatives to balance its speed, a couple of small tweaks will go a long way. I recon they should narrow the QKD chest profile from the side just a little and adjust the arms a bit to give the QKD the ability to use the arms as a shield more effectively - just make it a little harder to hit from the side. make it a tiny bit smaller and raise the arms up a bit to help blocking and lift the arm fire points a bit higher.

change the 4h so its not so similar to the 4g? remove the center missile hard point and put 2e on each arm? or something similar, maybe doesnt fit with QKD history/lore.

one thing there is no reason it shouldn't have is a couple of more interesting variants with better weapon options and ballistic options