8 replies to this topic

[Audlyn]

Am I gimping myself by maxing out my armor?
I do it for all my mechs, pretty much first thing

[Bacon_Warrior88]

I'm the same way. You can take armor off the legs though. Specially heavies, i never get legged while running around with 40 armor on my atlas legs

[MeiSooHaityu]

I rarely max out my armor, but I do try to keep it fairly high. It depends on what I am trying to fit and what comprimises I am willing to make for a build.

[DarkDevilDancer]

You can lose armour from legs but even though gauss+ppc isnt around as much you dont want to have paper thin armour in case multiple opponents hit you at once.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Tiggo Bitties, on 12 September 2013 - 07:50 AM, said:

I'm the same way. You can take armor off the legs though. Specially heavies, i never get legged while running around with 40 armor on my atlas legs

Funny thing, I sometimes shoot the legs of mechs first to see what kind of damage registers (even heavies and assaults). If it seems to do a lot of damage, I will leg the mech.

Don't judge me, you don't know me! LOL

[stjobe]

Audlyn, on 12 September 2013 - 07:47 AM, said:

Am I gimping myself by maxing out my armor?
I do it for all my mechs, pretty much first thing

No, you're not gimping yourself by maxing out your armour.
Unless you're going for a very specific build that forces you to shave armour off to fit something else, your armour should be maxed. It is your life (unless you're in a light, then speed is life and you should cram in the biggest engine you can - even to the point of skimping on armour).

[Imperius]

stjobe, on 12 September 2013 - 07:53 AM, said:

No, you're not gimping yourself by maxing out your armour.
Unless you're going for a very specific build that forces you to shave armour off to fit something else, your armour should be maxed. It is your life (unless you're in a light, then speed is life and you should cram in the biggest engine you can - even to the point of skimping on armour).

So that's why you don't want collisions put back in. If you hit one rock you would die or leg yourself. Self preservation at its best.

[DrxAbstract]

stjobe, on 12 September 2013 - 07:53 AM, said:

It is your life (unless you're in a light, then speed is life and you should cram in the biggest engine you can - even to the point of skimping on armour).

Yeah... no. There's a difference between the widely misunderstood 'speed is life' statement and 'biggest possible engine'. Speed can get you into trouble spots just as fast as it can get you out of it, when it comes to enemies with good aim it's a largely irrelevant factor just as it is against those with bad aim. On top of that, the faster you go the more difficult it becomes to maneuver and aim, especially when working with small windows of opportunity. 138kph is the rough minimal ideal speed for a Light, while 142-147 are the best operational speeds. Anything beyond that is entirely preference based and provides debatable benefit versus the extra heat sinks, armor, weapons, ammo or utility components you could fit instead.

Unless specific sections of your mech are useless or not prone to taking damage (empty arms, Jenner side torso sections, cockpit) you should not skimp armor. If you do, take it off the Head and Arms (Especially empty ones, but not completely - they still protect the Torso) or the right and left torso sections with a Jenner - always have max CT and Leg armor on Lights.

For Heavy and Assault, solid players know the most likely places you skimmed armor from are the Legs or a useless Arm and it's going to be one of the first things they test if the opportunity presents itself and i've fought competitive 12man games against groups that aimed for the legs every chance they got. It's rare, especially in regular PUG matches, for people to aim for the legs... but if they figure out you have no leg armor in an assault, guess who and what just became target priority, considering the dead guys can spectate and tell their teammates.

[stjobe]

DrxAbstract, on 12 September 2013 - 08:33 AM, said:

Yeah... no. There's a difference between the widely misunderstood 'speed is life' statement and 'biggest possible engine'.

Indeed there is; but until a pilot realize what that difference is, more speed means longer life expectancy - to a much higher degree than having maxed armour.

DrxAbstract, on 12 September 2013 - 08:33 AM, said:

138kph is the rough minimal ideal speed for a Light, while 142-147 are the best operational speeds.

A Commando needs a 195 to get to 138, a 200 to get to 142, and can max mount a 210.
I run about half of my Commandos with XL195s and the other half with XL210s; not all of them with maxed armour.

The other lights are much the same; the speeds you quote are just a couple of steps under their max engine rating - with the notable exception of the Raven, which only has the 3L variant capable of even getting to 138kph.

DrxAbstract, on 12 September 2013 - 08:33 AM, said:

Unless specific sections of your mech are useless or not prone to taking damage (empty arms, Jenner side torso sections, cockpit) you should not skimp armor. If you do, take it off the Head and Arms (Especially empty ones, but not completely - they still protect the Torso) or the right and left torso sections with a Jenner - always have max CT and Leg armor on Lights.

I agree completely; if I do skimp on armour I skimp on empty arms or head and never on the juicy parts like torsos or legs (or arms if they mount weaponry).

It's a case-to-case thing; but generally speaking you can never mount enough armour on your light anyway, so getting a little more speed will probably enable you to live longer than a few points of armour.