9 replies to this topic

[SerratedBlaze]

Hi, I've been running catapults! Mailnly a C1 which i've been getting very close to finished.

And since the game forces me to play varients to finish one i made a splatcat. I really didn't want to have three of the same mech so why not right?

It's doing well enough, getting good damage if it gets close enough and I know it doesn't deserve to be all that powerful or reliable being a gimmick and all but there is one pattern that really kills the viability beyond anything i would have expected. "Ear" durability. that's right its missle cubes fall off instantly every single game. 40 armor and no durability whatsoever. i have no armor on my back and can be large lazered there for quite a while, but any damage at all on the ears and i'm useless.

Really i figured running up to enemies, having bare back and legs, low ammo count, inability to sustain dps no matter how many double heat sinks i pile on, artemis costing so much and being really meh, or AC20's to the face would be my downfall. Nope its armor on the ears.

My C1 and K2 don't have this fear, they tend to get disabled torso weapons if anything.

So, can we perhaps see a case type item that gives durability to weapons stacked in the same compartment, or swap 20 armor from the legs to the arms?

here's the build. in game it weighs 65, guessing smurfy doesn't do artemis the same? might ditch it soon
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...5ae425603396af3

Do I deserve to consider this complaint justified? I would almost complain about the heat but thats not killing the build utterly as much as it enforces ducking behind cover between salvos.

[627]

can't be, smurfy is acurate in those calculations, maybe you forgot something.

btw, that armor distribution

and only9 in the legs, with all that ammo... you die fast, do you?

[Lord Perversor]

SerratedBlaze, on 26 September 2013 - 08:34 PM, said:

Hi, I've been running catapults! Mailnly a C1 which i've been getting very close to finished.

And since the game forces me to play varients to finish one i made a splatcat. I really didn't want to have three of the same mech so why not right?

It's doing well enough, getting good damage if it gets close enough and I know it doesn't deserve to be all that powerful or reliable being a gimmick and all but there is one pattern that really kills the viability beyond anything i would have expected. "Ear" durability. that's right its missle cubes fall off instantly every single game. 40 armor and no durability whatsoever. i have no armor on my back and can be large lazered there for quite a while, but any damage at all on the ears and i'm useless.

Really i figured running up to enemies, having bare back and legs, low ammo count, inability to sustain dps no matter how many double heat sinks i pile on, artemis costing so much and being really meh, or AC20's to the face would be my downfall. Nope its armor on the ears.

My C1 and K2 don't have this fear, they tend to get disabled torso weapons if anything.

So, can we perhaps see a case type item that gives durability to weapons stacked in the same compartment, or swap 20 armor from the legs to the arms?

here's the build. in game it weighs 65, guessing smurfy doesn't do artemis the same? might ditch it soon
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...5ae425603396af3

Do I deserve to consider this complaint justified? I would almost complain about the heat but thats not killing the build utterly as much as it enforces ducking behind cover between salvos.

The heat issues it's de ghost Heat workings (if you fire more than 3-4 SRM 6 at once you suffer a higher heath build up ) so try to fire 3 wait 0'5 sec and fire another 3 for a better heat management.

About the Ears, well the catapult it's not designed as a Close range Mech so the *ears* are a juicy target even more if you find a Splatcat since that kills your firepower in no time.
My advice?
Don't go alone always try to fight along someone else so you can rely on him distracting the enemy so you can retreat for a while.

P.S: btw raise the leg armor to 41 on each leg and move 12-14 points of armor from ST and CT to rear armor. Also you'll have 1x Tonn to spare either extra DHS or JJ or moar ammo.

Edited by Lord Perversor, 27 September 2013 - 12:00 AM.

[SerratedBlaze]

if i die its because there were a half dozen just over the ridge. and like i said, its nearly always the arms that go first. I move over 80km/hr and have long legs but usually the arms first. Also i ditched artemis, it wasn't doing enough and i like the challange of getting in and timing it. More heat sinks now and 30 armor per leg. still not too good with heat firing one side at a time after the half second delay.

overall its pretty much back where it was yesterday and getting its weapons shot off QQ

[Devil Fox]

I think the problem is that your bay doors are open quite often (particularly when firing) which is 10% incr damage to these parts, and most learnt from the days of the streak and SRM meta of the time that the quickest way to disable these mechs is just rip off the ears rendering them useless.

It might be you just need to hold behind the lines abit more and engage the enemy from behind an assault friendly when they engage in a brawl.

[Hans Von Lohman]

There was a time early this summer when SRM's were overpowered and the splat cat put the fear of god in people. I don't think many have forgotten and the tactic of "de-earing" the catapult is almost an instinctive survival skill we have all developed.

Right now I think the best use of the A1 catapult is to put in dual LRM-15's, and four Streak-2's with a BAP. In fact that was a trial mech build for a while, and it worked well enough, especially against lights.

Edited by Hans Von Lohman, 27 September 2013 - 12:50 AM.

[Blood Rose]

Hans, dont remind me
De-earing is standard operating procedure when facing Catapults, for most anyway. It removes a good complement of their firepower, with the only exception being the K2.

Also some, like me, do it for sadistic fun.
As a K2 pilot i personally love taking apart other Catapults, one component at a time.

[DarkDevilDancer]

I'm kinda cruel so I take the ears off cats no matter what they carry, of course if people would take a few lasers for close in defensive work I'd just core them but they'd rather have another ton of ammo it seems.

[CrashieJ]

Da, dis will work

[Chrithu]

Well the A1's weakness surely is that it only has arm mounted weapons. Thus it is one of the few mechs which are faster disarmed than killed thus most experienced pilots aim for it's ears. Even more so if it is identified as a splatterpult which everbody knows is something you do NOT want close up to you with all six missile racks intact and working.

As far as heat goes: setup one group for alpha one group for chainfire. Or one group left arm, one group right arm to better manage the heat output.