10376 replies to this topic

[Metafox]

If I engage MASC, jump, then disengage MASC in the air, will my mech continue forward at the boosted speed until it touches the ground? I.E. can I hover with jumpjets to get a free boost from MASC without raising the gauge?

Another question: My GPU outperforms my CPU. In general, what settings would best for reducing CPU load without hurting graphic quality too much?

[Rogue Jedi]

Metafox, on 07 October 2015 - 11:01 PM, said:

If I engage MASC, jump, then disengage MASC in the air, will my mech continue forward at the boosted speed until it touches the ground? I.E. can I hover with jumpjets to get a free boost from MASC without raising the gauge?

Another question: My GPU outperforms my CPU. In general, what settings would best for reducing CPU load without hurting graphic quality too much?

your Mech slows down while in the air, but it starts slowing from its maximum speed, MASC should not make any difference to speed while airborne

sorry I do not know which settings are most CPU dependent

[Timicon]

Sorry, I have a question about the 'Mechs I own:

Currently, I have six (6) 'Mech, 4 Medium (Hunchback-4J), Wolverine-7k (pretty sure it is, but have not been playing for so long I cannot remember and cannot be bothered to check profile page where they are listed), a Centurion9-AL and a Vindicator -1AA, as well as a Light 'Mech (a Raven-3L) and a Quickdraw (not sure which one, as stated the reasons for the Wolverine, but only four of them have completed the Master Tier (Hunchback, Centurion, Vindicator and Raven), the reason of which I have more Medicum-class 'Mechs is because I specialise mostly in Medium-class Mechs, so here is my question:

I am wanting to expand my amount of 'Mechs to include at least two more Light-Class 'Mechs (but please, do not recommend the Jenner or Locust, as I cannot pilot them as well as most who specialise in Light-class 'Mechs and at least two Heavy -class Mechs, to compliment my Raven and Quickdraw, but the thing is, the quickdraw and Wolverine are pretty much only halfway or nearly finished with their Elite Tiers, is it a good idea to finish the Master Tiers on those 'Mechs (I know the advantage of the modules you can place on them ince you finish the Elite Tier, but buying two more Wolverines and Quickdraws and then upgrading them so that I can finish their Elite Tier is a little bit tedious for me (which is why I never bothered to finish mastering them, so the question is:

Is it worth the time and effort (not to mention C-Bills) to buy and upgrade the two Wolverines and Quickdraws I still need in order to finish the Master Tier on the Quickdraw that I akready have?
Mostly, I ask, because while I understand with the modules that you can unlock after finishing the Master Tier of each 'Mech chassis, I have been thinking of going to expand my 'Mech compliment with at least one Assault 'Mech (Inner Sonere, of course, but NOT the Atlas, as I never favoured that 'Mech in the least) or should I wait and spend the C-Bills on finishing the Quickdraw and Wolverine Tiers that I already own, for the modules or just leave them at the last the Tier needed to finish before I start on the Elite Tier of the 'Mechs before I decide to into the Assault-class?

For the record, I am a long range support 'Mech (save the Raven -3L) and the Mediums, I use both as brawlers and long range support, so I would appreciate any advice andOr opinions on what I shoukd before I make a terrible mistake and buy an Assault without thinking it through properly?

[Torezu]

It's not so much the Master skill tier that it's important to finish. It's the Elite skills (well, besides Pin Point, which is worthless). Not only do they give you a 10% speed boost, 5% faster firing, and a significant bump to shutdown/powerup speed (usually from overheating), but once you finish all of them, they double all of your Basic skill boosts, which means better heat management, accel/braking, torso twist/arm movement. Those extra boosts are critical for mech performance, especially Speed Tweak and all the doubles for movement and heat sinking/capacity.

Tl;dr: Get two more variants on the mechs you use a lot, just for the Elites (Mastery optional), but don't bother with the ones you've simply tried and don't like all that much.

[Timicon]

Torezu, on 08 October 2015 - 07:35 AM, said:

It's not so much the Master skill tier that it's important to finish. It's the Elite skills (well, besides Pin Point, which is worthless). Not only do they give you a 10% speed boost, 5% faster firing, and a significant bump to shutdown/powerup speed (usually from overheating), but once you finish all of them, they double all of your Basic skill boosts, which means better heat management, accel/braking, torso twist/arm movement. Those extra boosts are critical for mech performance, especially Speed Tweak and all the doubles for movement and heat sinking/capacity.

Tl;dr: Get two more variants on the mechs you use a lot, just for the Elites (Mastery optional), but don't bother with the ones you've simply tried and don't like all that much.

The primary 'Mechs I find myself using more often than not are the Hunchback 4J (because of it missle system, long range large lasers and medium lasers + AMS system) plus it has a wicked XL engine and works out well for me, because I always like to have an LRM mount on half of my 'Mechs, just for that long range support role, to use up before going in for the brawling because I prefer energy weapons over ballistics as well as the Vindicator, just for its jump jet capability (although I am aware the Quickdraw 4G that I own also mounts jump jets, I do not use it much except in CW Events (much like the Raven-3L) because I kind of messed up the engines and it now moves slower than what an ordinary Q-4G does on a regular engine until I can rectify that roblem).
Otherwise, my main choice of 'Mech I use other than the H-4J is the Wolverine, though not all of the Elite Tier has been completed yet (I think the only thing that needs finishing off there is the speed tweak).

Normally I do not like owning two of the same 'Mechs, even if they are different chasses, because I only have been playing for around 9 months (not counting the hiatus time I am on now, since July) and have only eight MechBays (unable to pay right now with real money to buy more) and as I already have four Medium 'Mechs, I would like to go for a Heavy class, something with a little more armour so I can stand in the fight longer, instead of having to hold back while the rest of my team does most of the work which makes me guilty, when I really do not want to depend on my team mates to whittle down the enemy just so I can come in at last minute and take kills that should belong to my team mates (even though there is only a 500 C-Bill difference between a kill and a kill assist, it still feels like robbing them blind).
Call me old fashioned, in that regard. I will certainly help in raining death down enemy 'Mechs with my team mates, but just hate it when I accentally steal a kill from a fellow team member when I see them slugging away for long only to have me come in at the last minute to take the kill away from them... although they probably do not mind, if it means our team wins the match...

So even if you say that Mastery is an option (one I particularly do not mind about all that much (but nice to have, in any event), I think that the Quickdraw, being a Heavy-class might be the one I double up on, just because it has slightly more armour than my Mediums... just got to choose carefully which chassis to pick now - one that preferrably does not rely too heavily on ballistic weapons.

Thanks for your advice, Torezu, much appreciated. :-)

Ed: Added additional content.

Edited by Leif Tanner, 08 October 2015 - 08:32 AM.

[Torezu]

Leif Tanner, on 08 October 2015 - 08:25 AM, said:

So even if you say that Mastery is an option (one I particularly do not mind about all that much (but nice to have, in any event), I think that the Quickdraw, being a Heavy-class might be the one I double up on, just because it has slightly more armour than my Mediums... just got to choose carefully which chassis to pick now - one that preferrably does not rely too heavily on ballistic weapons.

In my mind, the Master skill only gives you an extra module, which while nice isn't totally necessary. The Elite skills, though? Those are pretty much mandatory to get the most out of a particular mech.

There are several that would fit in that more-durable-than-a-medium-laser-mech category, though not all of them have missile options. The Thunderbolt is quite good for firepower and toughness, and the Grasshopper is very good for mobility, though of course no heavy is going to keep up with a fast medium. I personally have no experience with the Quickdraw, and while I haven't heard of it being one of the better IS heavies, I'm a firm believer in piloting the mech you like and do well in, not the flavor-of-the-meta.

I personally run Firestarters (-A, -S, -K, have kind of fallen out of favor with me), Hunchbacks (-4J, -4G, -4P, run all with XL 275 and the 4G with a gauss rifle), Orions (own 3, really only pilot the -K), and the one Highlander I own (-732B) but am not particularly good with. If you want a relatively fast very heavy mech with good firepower, though...I can't say enough good about Banshees. The things are a true mech tank...the only not-so-good thing about them is the lack of arm weapons to shoot UAVs or up/downhill, and reliance more on ballistics and lasers than missiles. Don't use missiles on a Banshee. Of course, that also lets you use the arms as shields, and they work well for that purpose. For you, though? Stalkers are good missile/laser mechs.

Edited by Torezu, 08 October 2015 - 12:15 PM.

[Timicon]

Torezu, on 08 October 2015 - 12:12 PM, said:

In my mind, the Master skill only gives you an extra module, which while nice isn't totally necessary. The Elite skills, though? Those are pretty much mandatory to get the most out of a particular mech.

There are several that would fit in that more-durable-than-a-medium-laser-mech category, though not all of them have missile options. The Thunderbolt is quite good for firepower and toughness, and the Grasshopper is very good for mobility, though of course no heavy is going to keep up with a fast medium. I personally have no experience with the Quickdraw, and while I haven't heard of it being one of the better IS heavies, I'm a firm believer in piloting the mech you like and do well in, not the flavor-of-the-meta.

I personally run Firestarters (-A, -S, -K, have kind of fallen out of favor with me), Hunchbacks (-4J, -4G, -4P, run all with XL 275 and the 4G with a gauss rifle), Orions (own 3, really only pilot the -K), and the one Highlander I own (-732B) but am not particularly good with. If you want a relatively fast very heavy mech with good firepower, though...I can't say enough good about Banshees. The things are a true mech tank...the only not-so-good thing about them is the lack of arm weapons to shoot UAVs or up/downhill, and reliance more on ballistics and lasers than missiles. Don't use missiles on a Banshee. Of course, that also lets you use the arms as shields, and they work well for that purpose. For you, though? Stalkers are good missile/laser mechs.

Yeah, I considered buying the Stalker; I have seen many people use it during the course of my gamining and it is one mean machine that you do not want to tangle with, but the slowness of it is a big drawback for me, because I tend to like to move around around a lot and with the Stalker, you cannot really do that (not bagging the Stalker out, it is an exceptional 'Mech, but since it is not really meant to be a front-line 'Mech and more for support and rear guard action, it makes sense that it would be a good 'Mech for me to use, but just is not one that that I would choose with other options available to me first - though at one stage, I do plan on buying one, if only to try it out and see how I like playing with it). Would be a great LRM boat, but by a lot of the CW maps, probably not a good one to take into CW matches, unless decked out with energy weapons (which means I would have to master tier it just to include twin cool sots to manage the heat those monsters generate in heat excess.

The H-5P, if I remember correctly, is an energy-heavy 'Mech, but also being a Medium, I would double up with buying that one one day (had one once but stupidly sold it right after I finished Elite Tiering it :/), just not at the moment although the Orion, as you said is a good idea, so I might start thinking about getting one, once I finish Elite Tiering my Q-4G then working both it and the H-4J (since I rack up more kills and points and C-Bills with that little beauty than I do with all other 'Mechs combined) to the bone to double up on it if I find myself enjoying playing it.
Speaking of Orion, I might go and read up about it now on sarna and watch a few YT vids on it, see how other people use them to get some ideas on the best one to buy and how to use as effectively as poosible.

As for the Firestarter, I have not really played them before, so do not know much about their worth on the battlefield. Another thing I will have to check out on Sarna and some YT videos, although it IS a 'Mech I have often though about buying and testing, since I do like scouting quite a bit, and probably go with the F-K variant, for its compliment of large and small lasers.

Edited by Leif Tanner, 08 October 2015 - 02:06 PM.

[IraqiWalker]

Leif Tanner, on 08 October 2015 - 05:33 AM, said:

Sorry, I have a question about the 'Mechs I own:

Currently, I have six (6) 'Mech, 4 Medium (Hunchback-4J), Wolverine-7k (pretty sure it is, but have not been playing for so long I cannot remember and cannot be bothered to check profile page where they are listed), a Centurion9-AL and a Vindicator -1AA, as well as a Light 'Mech (a Raven-3L) and a Quickdraw (not sure which one, as stated the reasons for the Wolverine, but only four of them have completed the Master Tier (Hunchback, Centurion, Vindicator and Raven), the reason of which I have more Medicum-class 'Mechs is because I specialise mostly in Medium-class Mechs, so here is my question:

I am wanting to expand my amount of 'Mechs to include at least two more Light-Class 'Mechs (but please, do not recommend the Jenner or Locust, as I cannot pilot them as well as most who specialise in Light-class 'Mechs and at least two Heavy -class Mechs, to compliment my Raven and Quickdraw, but the thing is, the quickdraw and Wolverine are pretty much only halfway or nearly finished with their Elite Tiers, is it a good idea to finish the Master Tiers on those 'Mechs (I know the advantage of the modules you can place on them ince you finish the Elite Tier, but buying two more Wolverines and Quickdraws and then upgrading them so that I can finish their Elite Tier is a little bit tedious for me (which is why I never bothered to finish mastering them, so the question is:

Is it worth the time and effort (not to mention C-Bills) to buy and upgrade the two Wolverines and Quickdraws I still need in order to finish the Master Tier on the Quickdraw that I akready have?
Mostly, I ask, because while I understand with the modules that you can unlock after finishing the Master Tier of each 'Mech chassis, I have been thinking of going to expand my 'Mech compliment with at least one Assault 'Mech (Inner Sonere, of course, but NOT the Atlas, as I never favoured that 'Mech in the least) or should I wait and spend the C-Bills on finishing the Quickdraw and Wolverine Tiers that I already own, for the modules or just leave them at the last the Tier needed to finish before I start on the Elite Tier of the 'Mechs before I decide to into the Assault-class?

For the record, I am a long range support 'Mech (save the Raven -3L) and the Mediums, I use both as brawlers and long range support, so I would appreciate any advice andOr opinions on what I shoukd before I make a terrible mistake and buy an Assault without thinking it through properly?

My recommendation is to get full elites on your mechs. The reason it's important is because once you get any three mechs in a weight class to full elites, it makes mastering any other mechs in that class easier. Of course, there's also the fact that elites double your basics.

As for which mechs, these are my recommendations for IS:

Lights:

Firestarters. It's a solid chassis, decent quirks, great hardpoint count, 150Kph, and good hitboxes.

Maybe the Wolfhound when it comes out, though it looks like a firestarter, tbh.

Raven, is my other recommendation, but you already have one of them.

Urbanmech is deceptive, and can be quite good/fun if you like it. Sadly, it's MC only so far.

Mediums:

You have the HBKs, the number 1 recommendation.

After that, I'd go for Blackjacks, Shadowhawks, and then enforcers, that's the priority order.

Heavies:

Jagermechs, and Thunderbolts.

[Timicon]

IraqiWalker, on 08 October 2015 - 01:58 PM, said:

My recommendation is to get full elites on your mechs. The reason it's important is because once you get any three mechs in a weight class to full elites, it makes mastering any other mechs in that class easier. Of course, there's also the fact that elites double your basics.

As for which mechs, these are my recommendations for IS:

Lights:

Firestarters. It's a solid chassis, decent quirks, great hardpoint count, 150Kph, and good hitboxes.

Maybe the Wolfhound when it comes out, though it looks like a firestarter, tbh.

Raven, is my other recommendation, but you already have one of them.

Urbanmech is deceptive, and can be quite good/fun if you like it. Sadly, it's MC only so far.

Mediums:

You have the HBKs, the number 1 recommendation.

After that, I'd go for Blackjacks, Shadowhawks, and then enforcers, that's the priority order.

Heavies:

Jagermechs, and Thunderbolts.

I always get all of my 'Mechs to finish th elite tir, but thn normqlly sell off the othr two variants in favour of th one thqt I like th best ( though now that I think aout it, it gives me a handicap, since it means if I want to finish the master tier, it means I have to re-buy th 'Mecha I sold (which is why I always seem to have amount of C-Bills - a bad habit that I have to learn to stop doing, otherwise I would be much better at the game and not in th lowest of th five ranks and have more 'Mechs that I could use - but like I said, th problem with thqt is my limitd number of MechBays (currently I have 2 spare MechBays that I want to fill up with eithr a Heqvy-class or at least one Assault-class 'Mech.

The Raven is a good 'Mech for sure, but the only downfall of the 3-L is that it does not equip jump jets, like the 4X, because it equips the Guardian ECM Suite, but if it was able to equip jump jets along with the ECM, it would be th ultimate Light 'Mech. I think because of the ECam is the main reason why I worked on mastering the 3-L.

With both of you (IraqiWqlker and Torezu reccommending the Firestarter, I think that will be th next Light-class 'Mech I buy (but it is a shqme thqt it is not pqrt of the free trial 'Mechs so I can give it a spin before I commit, but based on what you both sqid and whqt I reqd on Sarna, I am pretty confident it would make a fine addition to my collection.

As for the Urbanmech, I never was a fan of it, because it looks (to me) like a walking garbage bin and even though I have had the opportunity to buy it on several occasssions, I just cannot bring bring myself to buy one for that fact alone, even though I faced them on numerous occasions in matches and appreciate their firepower.

But as for the Blackjack, I owned one a while ago, but could not really pilot it properly, so I gave up on that 'Mech, but have never tried using the Shadowhawk, so that will be one for me t consider in the future, once I get a few more MechBays.
The Enforcer I have never piloted before, so I am not quite sure what they are like, save for the times I fought against them matches.

The same with JagerMechs, they are one 'Mech that I used a few times, but could not really use it effectively, and I once owned a Thunderbolt (not sure what variant it was not) and accidentally sold it, but the Thunderbolt is definitely one I want to get again, although I was not good at piloting it as most pilots are able to (although I did not practise in it all that much).

Thank you both, Torezu and IraqiWalker, for your recommendations; they really made me have simething to seriously think about for my next 'Mech purchase after I finish the Q-4G elite tier ( although still debating if I should keep two other variants of the Quickdraw after I buy and finish their elite tiers... I really wish I had the wil power to keep 'Mechs I work on eliting instead of selling them off in favour to start on new 'Mechs (like the 3 Jenners I completed their elite tiers before selling them off).

[Timicon]

Another question I have, concerning the ejection sequence, why is it that you have to stand still if you want tok eject from your 'Mech? It just does not make sense, when the enemy can just go and kill when you in the middle of the eject sequence. A better idea is to have the eject sequuence run while you are still able to move, so that you do not have to stand still and have the enemy pound you and can eject in safety.

[Tim East]

Rogue Jedi, on 07 October 2015 - 11:46 PM, said:

your Mech slows down while in the air, but it starts slowing from its maximum speed, MASC should not make any difference to speed while airborne

But MASC increases your max speed slightly. Needs testing to be certain, imo. Fortunately, it should be a simple enough thing to test, since you simply need to try a forward jump without MASC, a forward jump with MASC, and a forward jump with MASC active only until you are airborne. If there is a noticeable difference, you will be able to tell if the third way works more like the first or the second.

It SHOULD work like the second, if the game physics at all resemble real physics. That doesn't mean it will though. Look at in-game gravity. :\

[IraqiWalker]

Leif Tanner, on 08 October 2015 - 05:46 PM, said:

I always get all of my 'Mechs to finish th elite tir, but thn normqlly sell off the othr two variants in favour of th one thqt I like th best ( though now that I think aout it, it gives me a handicap, since it means if I want to finish the master tier, it means I have to re-buy th 'Mecha I sold (which is why I always seem to have amount of C-Bills - a bad habit that I have to learn to stop doing, otherwise I would be much better at the game and not in th lowest of th five ranks and have more 'Mechs that I could use - but like I said, th problem with thqt is my limitd number of MechBays (currently I have 2 spare MechBays that I want to fill up with eithr a Heqvy-class or at least one Assault-class 'Mech.

So am I correct in assuming you only have one heavy mech with full elites (the quickdraw variant). If you had two other heavies at full elites, mastering would be much easier. In time you will get them, don't worry about it.

Since you only have 2 free slots, I'd say hold off on the assault. I want your assault to have 3 variants, and all of them get full elites, then you can sell two of them off, freeing up two mechbays, that you can use to master 2 other mechs.

(When I started out, I had 4 mechbays for the longest time, so what I did was to look at a chassis that I wanted, and pick the top 3 variants that I could enjoy. From those three, I would pick the one that seems best for me, and that's the one I would buy last.

I get one of the other two, drive it to full basics, sell it, get the second one, drive it to full basics, sell it, and then get the third variant, the one I really like, and get it to full elites. Since I was dedicated to light mechs from the start, it didn't take long before I had three different chassis, each with at least one variant at full elites, which allowed me to unlock Master for those three. It takes longer than if you bought the three variants, and rode them all to full elites, but it works if you are short on mechbays.)

Leif Tanner, on 08 October 2015 - 05:46 PM, said:

The Raven is a good 'Mech for sure, but the only downfall of the 3-L is that it does not equip jump jets, like the 4X, because it equips the Guardian ECM Suite, but if it was able to equip jump jets along with the ECM, it would be th ultimate Light 'Mech. I think because of the ECam is the main reason why I worked on mastering the 3-L.

With both of you (IraqiWqlker and Torezu reccommending the Firestarter, I think that will be th next Light-class 'Mech I buy (but it is a shqme thqt it is not pqrt of the free trial 'Mechs so I can give it a spin before I commit, but based on what you both sqid and whqt I reqd on Sarna, I am pretty confident it would make a fine addition to my collection.

Have you piloted the commando before? The firestarter is basically a slightly bigger commando, with a lot more armor, JJs, and loads of lasers.

Btw, if you don't like lasers, you will hate the Firestarter. The mech carries nothing but lasers. Only two variants have other hardpoint types (Ember Hero, and H, both have ballistics as well as lasers)

Leif Tanner, on 08 October 2015 - 05:46 PM, said:

As for the Urbanmech, I never was a fan of it, because it looks (to me) like a walking garbage bin and even though I have had the opportunity to buy it on several occasssions, I just cannot bring bring myself to buy one for that fact alone, even though I faced them on numerous occasions in matches and appreciate their firepower.

But as for the Blackjack, I owned one a while ago, but could not really pilot it properly, so I gave up on that 'Mech, but have never tried using the Shadowhawk, so that will be one for me t consider in the future, once I get a few more MechBays.
The Enforcer I have never piloted before, so I am not quite sure what they are like, save for the times I fought against them matches.

The same with JagerMechs, they are one 'Mech that I used a few times, but could not really use it effectively, and I once owned a Thunderbolt (not sure what variant it was not) and accidentally sold it, but the Thunderbolt is definitely one I want to get again, although I was not good at piloting it as most pilots are able to (although I did not practise in it all that much).

Thank you both, Torezu and IraqiWalker, for your recommendations; they really made me have simething to seriously think about for my next 'Mech purchase after I finish the Q-4G elite tier ( although still debating if I should keep two other variants of the Quickdraw after I buy and finish their elite tiers... I really wish I had the wil power to keep 'Mechs I work on eliting instead of selling them off in favour to start on new 'Mechs (like the 3 Jenners I completed their elite tiers before selling them off).

You're welcome.

As for the Jager, Blackjack, and Thunderbolt, I would say that youo will need to do more practice with those mechs (like taking out their trial versions), to find ways to make them work, if you want to give them a shot.

The shadowhawk is very tall, and works like the hunchback, except it's hunch is on the left, and is really tiny. It has good high mounted hardpoints in the hunch, and head, and can do pretty much any role, since it tends to have hardpoints of all three types, in almost all variants, plus JJs in all of them. The quirk age hasn't been kind to it, but it's still a solid mech.

[Timicon]

IraqiWalker, on 08 October 2015 - 08:26 PM, said:

So am I correct in assuming you only have one heavy mech with full elites (the quickdraw variant). If you had two other heavies at full elites, mastering would be much easier. In time you will get them, don't worry about it.

Since you only have 2 free slots, I'd say hold off on the assault. I want your assault to have 3 variants, and all of them get full elites, then you can sell two of them off, freeing up two mechbays, that you can use to master 2 other mechs.

(When I started out, I had 4 mechbays for the longest time, so what I did was to look at a chassis that I wanted, and pick the top 3 variants that I could enjoy. From those three, I would pick the one that seems best for me, and that's the one I would buy last.

I get one of the other two, drive it to full basics, sell it, get the second one, drive it to full basics, sell it, and then get the third variant, the one I really like, and get it to full elites. Since I was dedicated to light mechs from the start, it didn't take long before I had three different chassis, each with at least one variant at full elites, which allowed me to unlock Master for those three. It takes longer than if you bought the three variants, and rode them all to full elites, but it works if you are short on mechbays.)



Have you piloted the commando before? The firestarter is basically a slightly bigger commando, with a lot more armor, JJs, and loads of lasers.

Btw, if you don't like lasers, you will hate the Firestarter. The mech carries nothing but lasers. Only two variants have other hardpoint types (Ember Hero, and H, both have ballistics as well as lasers)


You're welcome.

As for the Jager, Blackjack, and Thunderbolt, I would say that youo will need to do more practice with those mechs (like taking out their trial versions), to find ways to make them work, if you want to give them a shot.

The shadowhawk is very tall, and works like the hunchback, except it's hunch is on the left, and is really tiny. It has good high mounted hardpoints in the hunch, and head, and can do pretty much any role, since it tends to have hardpoints of all three types, in almost all variants, plus JJs in all of them. The quirk age hasn't been kind to it, but it's still a solid mech.

Yes, my Quickdraw is fully elited, but not mastered - I would have bought another two Quickdraws just to get that one Quickdraw that I use (my favourite to mastery) but cannot be knackered spending the C-Bills on them at the moment in order to do that, so for the time being, it just fully elite.

As with the Assault, I agree with you on that one, I want to hold off until I at least get the Quickdraw to master, then sell the other two Quickdraws I will need to buy in order to free up the MechBays again for additional 'Mechs (plus sell off my Wolverine, even though I use it quite often, it is not the 'Mech that I rather send into a match (I leave that primarily for my Hunchback-4J, so once the Quickdraw is mastered, I will sell off the Wolverine and then start on buying an Assault-class 'Mech, to fill up the remaining 3 Bays they will take up, before selling the two Assaults that I do not favour and then use the remaining two Bays to finish either mastering 2 more Ravens or finish what I started with the Jenners (2 of which I had bought I finished eliting them before selling them off in favour of buying the Quickdraw I have now and 1 Jenner still halfway through working on the basic tier).

I have used the Commando once (bought) long ago, but found that it did not suit my style of game play, so I gave up on that 'Mech and sold it in favour of working on Medium-class 'Mechs.
But as for lasers, I prefer laser-heavy 'Mechs to ballistic, for the simple reason that even though you can lose some of your weapons, it pales in comparison to using ballistic weapons, which have a finite number of ammunition and will not run out of ammunition using laser weapons as you do with ballistics - especially at a critical point in a match where you are just about to bring down an enemy 'Mech only to find that you are out of ammunition and can do nothing but be target practise.

And yeah, I was thinking the same thing with the Thunderbolt, if I choose to go in that direction. Pretty much all the 'Mechs I buy, if they are not in the free 'Mech trial option and I buy one, I always like to use the training grounds for a few hours to really give them a good spin, so to speak before I even think about entering a match, just to get the hang on the weapons and what the 'Mech can do, instead of rushing in head first and getting blown away within the first 5 minutes just because I do not know what I am doing with it.

The more you speak of the Shadowhawk, the more it makes me think that I want to try it out - the jump jets for sure, in comparison to the non-JJ equipped Hunchie sounds intriguing to me, even if the quirks are somewhat bad for it at the moment.

[bomkallo]

Hello,

Guys, I presume that there is no other way to get rid of 150k or more of mech xp without having mc?

One more question:)
Far to this time I had beagle probe on stk-4n, does it make sense to change it to one additional double heat sink which gives heat reduction from 1.14 to 1.12?

Edited by bomkallo, 09 October 2015 - 07:04 AM.

[Tim East]

bomkallo, on 09 October 2015 - 06:36 AM, said:

Far to this time I had beagle probe on stk-4n, does it make sense to change it to one additional double heat sink which gives heat reduction from 1.14 to 1.12?

Depends on your build and playstyle, but I usually find BAP is better than a heatsink (but worse than another weapon) if you can afford it.

[Timicon]

One last question ( as I am sure a lot of people are sick and tired of me posting in this thread so much lately), but in our forum profiles, where there is a green bar complimented with a number and word (which I assume to mean that other pilots who have visited your profile rank you on what they think of you) - what does that mean, exactly?

On my profile page, I have 107 with 'Excellent' written below it, so I was just wondering what that means? Or did I get it right, with what I said above, about people ranking you on what they think of you are a player/pilot?

Thanks in advance and sorry if this does not make much sense. I can explain further, if needed in a follow up post.
Also, concerning the ECM, by now, most of you know through my latests in this thread that I have a Raven-3L equipped with the Guardian ECM, so I was wondering what is the best way to use it? I have heard conflicting reports that it is better to get up close behind the enemy to blind their sensors (and thus null their tracking and targeting of friendly units, but others have said that it is better to come from the front and sit still, powered down until the enemy comes within range before powering up to null the enemy sensors so that it gives your team mates a better chance of ambushing the enemy as they come through the canyon passes/swamps/ urban setting/forests etc, so which, for those of you who are most experienced with using the ECM (it does not have to be a Raven-3L that you pilot) is more effective in being able to use the ECM?

Ed: added additional content.

Edited by Leif Tanner, 09 October 2015 - 05:10 PM.

[TercieI]

Leif Tanner, on 09 October 2015 - 05:05 PM, said:

One last question ( as I am sure a lot of people are sick and tired of me posting in this thread so much lately), but in our forum profiles, where there is a green bar complimented with a number and word (which I assume to mean that other pilots who have visited your profile rank you on what they think of you) - what does that mean, exactly?

On my profile page, I have 107 with 'Excellent' written below it, so I was just wondering what that means? Or did I get it right, with what I said above, about people ranking you on what they think of you are a player/pilot?

Thanks in advance and sorry if this does not make much sense. I can explain further, if needed in a follow up post.
Also, concerning the ECM, by now, most of you know through my latests in this thread that I have a Raven-3L equipped with the Guardian ECM, so I was wondering what is the best way to use it? I have heard conflicting reports that it is better to get up close behind the enemy to blind their sensors (and thus null their tracking and targeting of friendly units, but others have said that it is better to come from the front and sit still, powered down until the enemy comes within range before powering up to null the enemy sensors so that it gives your team mates a better chance of ambushing the enemy as they come through the canyon passes/swamps/ urban setting/forests etc, so which, for those of you who are most experienced with using the ECM (it does not have to be a Raven-3L that you pilot) is more effective in being able to use the ECM?

Ed: added additional content.

It's a ranking based on the number of likes you've received. Pretty much meaningless with dislikes turned off. You have the highest rank of "Excellent" at 107, I have the same rank at 7773. It's probably just built into forum software, no big deal.

As for ECM...the best way to use it is just to play your game and maybe stick a little closer to your team if the other team is LRMing a lot. A lot of newer players think ECM needs to be really be managed and played. For the most part, it doesn't. Just play and its benefits kinda happen. As you get better and start to understand the rhythms of the game, you'll see times to counter enemy ECM and even times to turn yours off for stealth, but until you've played a lot, don't focus too much on it. Shooting enemy mechs is way, way more important.

Edited by TercieI, 09 October 2015 - 09:56 PM.

[IraqiWalker]

Leif Tanner, on 08 October 2015 - 09:19 PM, said:

The more you speak of the Shadowhawk, the more it makes me think that I want to try it out - the jump jets for sure, in comparison to the non-JJ equipped Hunchie sounds intriguing to me, even if the quirks are somewhat bad for it at the moment.

The quirks for the Shadowhawk are not bad. It just doesn't have as good quirks as the HBK does. Also, keep in mind that the SHD is taller than a hunchback.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Before quirks, the Shadowhawks were getting recommended to new pilots as much as or more than hunchbacks. Quirks across the board have indirectly nerfed shadowhawks somewhat.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 11 October 2015 - 05:39 AM.

[Rogue Jedi]

Before quirks the Shadow Hawk was for about 6 months widely considered the best medium (although I have always preferred the Griffin).

What the quirks were intended to do was level the playing field by making the "inferior" Mechs competitive, in this they succeeded, where they failed was that in many cases the highly quirked Mechs were now better than the Mechs which received few or no quirks,
take the Thunderbolt, until the quirks it was considered to be one of the worst heavies, since the quirks it has been widely considered the best IS heavy, meaning it has too strong quirks.

The Firestarter is another good example, the FS9-E Ember Hero Mech was widely considered the best Light Mech in the game, so it received no quirks, which is fine, the other Firestarter variants did receive quirks and now the Ember is considered subpar compared to t other FS9 variants, they should have been brought to the same level not made superior.

The quirks do the job they just need more fine tuning however PGI have decided to try something different to balance the Mechs.

So do not buy a Mech because you like the quirks they will likely change soon

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 12 October 2015 - 12:12 AM.