27 replies to this topic

[tib3r]

I wanted to build a scout/harasser, however, I have no clue about light mechs at all. I am always in a jagermech, so all I ever see of them is a spider/jenner/commando that comes around to harass me.

And occasionally introduce to an LBX.

Other then that, I can't make up my mind on which one. Commandos look cool and I can get missiles with all of them, but they dont have jets. Spiders are cool, but the weapons load out on them sucks.

[Bad Andy]

the spider 5-K has a decent loadout with 4 MG's and a ER large, and wtfbroken hit boxes

[tib3r]

I was kinda looking at the commando.
Thoughts? How are they played?

[Bront]

I'd suggest either Jenners or Ravens. Jenners have 2 good variants and are fast and pack some punch. Ravens are varied, but the 3L has the ECM.

I played commandos, and they're OK, but with SRM hit detection being kinda hinky, it's hard to recommend them IMHO.

Spiders are pure scouts and antagonizes. I've never piloted one (I'll likely take the champion one out for a spin at some point), but it would be very different.

[tib3r]

I got the Jenner.

So far I have learned that piloting light mechs is an exercise in frustration.
Mainly because one wrong move and your legged, and dead.

Edited by tib3r, 03 October 2013 - 10:20 AM.

[BL00D RAVEN]

until you master your jenner, stay in a group with other mechs (preferably lights, but if there are none follow a medium or fast heavy and orbit them)

[Tastian]

I've mastered 3 commandos recently. They are small, undergunned, slow, and have no jump jets. The commando 2D has ECM and 3xstreaks which make it a great spider hunter but overall, there is no reason to get a commando; they are inferior to spiders and jenners. Commandos will lose a fight against anything bigger then they are (and everything is bigger). Your only hope in a commando is to pack hunt and stay low on the enemies priority list.

[Bront]

tib3r, on 03 October 2013 - 10:17 AM, said:

I got the Jenner.

So far I have learned that piloting light mechs is an exercise in frustration.
Mainly because one wrong move and your legged, and dead.

At the risk of quoting myself, here's a few tips. One of these days, I'll finish up a guide and write one up.

Bront, on 29 September 2013 - 05:53 AM, said:

Light mech tips (Stuff I gave for a Jenner and back in 8 man groups, but hold true to you as well)

--
Tips on not getting hit.

1) Never stand still.
2) Never run in a strait line.
3) Hit and run when you're alone. You can circle the slow assaults, but a good assault pilot only needs 1-2 shots to take out a leg or torso if they hit.
4) Chaos is your shield. Let the other mechs take your shots, and join in and harrass your opponents. If they target you, run and avoid the hits (and let larget mechs take them out with rear shots).
5) Cap stuff. In conquest, it's not unusual for a team to lose to a lone light mech who was wise about capping early and often.. In assault, a base cap can get you a sneaky win, or pull some of their mechs away from the fight.
6) Lights can swam, take advantage of it. Grouping up with 2-3 lights you can give you a huge advantage in tactical flexabilty.
7) There's no shame in the 0 damage game if you helped the team win. Ignore folks who whinge about capping. Without capping, there's no point in mechs under 60 tons most of the time.

Remember, you're in a light mech, not an assault mech. Adjust your expectations accordingly. For me, I find I rarely get kills in my Jenner other than the occasional light, mop up, lucky shot, or Atlas (I'd swear half my kills are Atlasses, it's probably closer to 20-25%), but it's rare I don't have at least 5 assists and 100 points of damage, and if I've done some capping, distracted some bigger mechs or kept the little ones off my team's heavier mechs, I've filled my role, and if our team (PUGS) isn't particularly incompitent or we're not up against a superiorly coordinated team, we tend to win.
---

Now for something new. Tips on making money in a light:
1) Play on Conquest. Conquest tends to make more money, even in a loss. As a light, you have a slight advantage in conquest, and in your particular case, ECM gives you an extra advantage.
2) Try to touch as many mechs as you can with your weapons. Don't sacrifice a kill or go hunting for that last assist, but creating chaos as a light is a good thing, so brushing 3-4 mechs in a run though before they can draw a bead on you is a useful disruptive tactic.
3) Leg mechs. Useful to slow down lights, but often works against larger mechs. That said, back shots that get you kills don't hurt either. Legging mechs tends to give you more salvage if you win, as well as component destruction bonuses, and occasional an ammo explosion to pad your damage.
4) Play clean up. Many experienced pilots will leave near-dead mechs alone to focus on a larger threat. Those are the mechs you can prey on as a light. Mechs running to save their lives, simply running in fear, or are otherwise useless. Don't ignore larger threats, but don't let that mech with no torso armor live to flank you either.
5) Don't worry about surviving. Sure, you want to live another day, but K/D ratio means nothing. Watching is a good way to learn, but there's no reason you can't queue up a trial mech or another mech you own and drop again (in fact, it's recommended by the Devs).

[Xeno Phalcon]

tib3r, on 02 October 2013 - 04:56 PM, said:

I wanted to build a scout/harasser, however, I have no clue about light mechs at all. I am always in a jagermech, so all I ever see of them is a spider/jenner/commando that comes around to harass me.

And occasionally introduce to an LBX.

Other then that, I can't make up my mind on which one. Commandos look cool and I can get missiles with all of them, but they dont have jets. Spiders are cool, but the weapons load out on them sucks.

Spiders are pretty strong due to their hitbox issue being combined with extreme agility (High speed, jump jets, and one model with ECM) but on the 17th I believe we are getting the 20 ton Locust, which while its basically a engine with legs and a laser strapped on moving at 130kph+ its also adorably tiny and should be pretty cheap to buy. (Like less than 2 mill for the LCT-1V) so I can totaly see it being a light alternative for guys used to piloting bigger stuff and just want to run around like mad things for a low budget.

[aniviron]

I'd strongly recommend for Jenners. The Commando is okay, hits hard for its size, but it's so light a single lucky AC20 round ends your whole match. Two of the raven's three variants are worthless, and the reason nobody plays the 3L anymore is because when they "fixed" the Raven's hitboxes they made the legs gigantic; you will die to legging very very quickly every match, even if people aren't aiming for your legs. There are only two good spiders, but we found out what's wrong with the hitboxes, so I wouldn't expect the glitchy goodness to last for too many more patches, and once the bugs are fixed the Spider will just be a lightly-armed Commando.

The Jenner is for sure the best choice if you want to engage in combat at all. All three variants are good, even though the JR7-K is strictly worse than the JR7-D (they're the same, but the K gets one less missile hardpoint). Its only real drawback is the somewhat large center torso; it makes up for this weakness by being the only light to be able to carry a 300 engine and use jumpjets along with having the most (and most useful) weapon hardpoints of any light mech. The JR7-F is excellent right now; the typical build of 6mlas runs a little hot, but generally you want to hit and run instead of staying engaged in fights, so you shouldn't be overheating too much anyway. The JR7-D was beastly when SRMs actually had decent hit registration; I suspect it will be once again when that bug is fixed.

[tib3r]

I started looking at the spider, would be cool for throwing a beagle, LL, jets and a huge engine on and running like hell.

Your right about the commando, the only reason I was kinda torn between it and the spider was the SRM carrying, that is a big thing for me. I would rather run in fast and drop off some SRMs and split. But at least with the spoder I can move faster, fly and using a single laser I'll at least tag eveyone to earn some money.

The beagle will just help the team.

[tib3r]

I will get the locust, that thing is going to be ignorant fast.

I think that its going to finally throw in some diversity to this weight class.

[The Familt Ghost]

I wish my spider had the hitbox issue.

I love playing the spider. It is a real challenge. One mistake and its curtains.

I use mine as a harraser, and occasionally will make a break to finish someone off or go for a cap.

[tib3r]

It's one mistake and its curtains for any of these little boogers.

I'm getting use to the fact that you are going to die if you go too close to anything for too long and arent smart about it.
I dont even mind dying so much with lights, usually it happens in a funny way anyhow.

[mailin]

Just don't slow down and always move erratically and you'll be fine. Oh, and use your jump jets a lot, but in really, really short bursts.

[Funkupotamous]

I'd personally recommend Ravens. Don't get me wrong Jenners and Spiders are cool, but if you like weird builds and constantly adjusting loadouts then Ravens might be up your alley. I'm seriously hoping the 2X and 4X get engine upgrades, but on their own they are still great support units. Ravens easily adapt to ACs, LRMs and PPCs

[oldradagast]

I have a Jenner and I'm trying to learn lights... they are tough! It takes so little to kill them, and while I can circle strafe and cause chaos, actually killing anything is hard unless it's another light or a nearly dead mech. The pointers here do help, though I wish the game offered more rewards for the roles lights play, such as scouting and capping.

Not sure about Commandos - they are the only light I rarely see, though they supposedly hit hard for their size. Jenners and Spiders are the ones I see most of the time, probably because of the jump jets. Ravens crop up now and then, too, since they each present some odd build choices.

[Bront]

The Familt Ghost, on 04 October 2013 - 08:00 AM, said:

I wish my spider had the hitbox issue.

I love playing the spider. It is a real challenge. One mistake and its curtains.

I use mine as a harraser, and occasionally will make a break to finish someone off or go for a cap.

I ran the trial spider a few times. I was taking direct fire from mechs repeatedly without dodging as I should have been, and lasted a lot longer than I should have.

I didn't enjoy it, but then again, I don't think I like MGs as a somewhat main weapon. I'll try it again though I'm sure.

Edited by Bront, 06 October 2013 - 12:01 PM.

[Cuddlytron]

I just started playing lights, and so far I love it - a total breath of fresh air after playing HBKs, JMs, CTFs, and - more recently - AS7 for so long.

Go fast. Don't stop moving. Hit and run. Be a psycho little ankle biter. Don't commit to any fight... unless you've got a big slow lonely juicy assault mech all to yourself... Then you go ahead and chew on his back armor until his buddies notice you. Then you bug the eff out. >

So much fun.

Right now, playing Sara's Jenner with XL 300, 4 ML, BAP, AMS, and 4 JJs. Decided to drop the missiles altogether in favor of the utilities so that I could run cooler (manageable alpha with 4 ML, more DHS) and scout better (BAP).

[The Familt Ghost]

Bront, on 06 October 2013 - 11:59 AM, said:

I ran the trial spider a few times. I was taking direct fire from mechs repeatedly without dodging as I should have been, and lasted a lot longer than I should have.

I didn't enjoy it, but then again, I don't think I like MGs as a somewhat main weapon. I'll try it again though I'm sure.

Be careful not to add to hysterics via perception.

I haven't seen any proof of any problem, but have definitely seen my share of folks that turn their poor aim into developer's problems.

Look at how the criers wrecked PS2 for example.