27 replies to this topic

[John Wolf]

Locusts can be an effective bait, however, they are a strong harasser. When a larger mech is engaged with a friendly, the locust is that harasser that can stay behind the big guy. It has to turn to fight the light, or stay toe to toe with the brawler.

Locusts are meant to support other mechs, since they were basically infantry control in table top. But, its likely the mech most dependent on teamwork.. well, cept perhaps a 4 LRM 20 Stalker with no backup weapons. they REALLY need spotters.

[aniviron]

The locust is a pretty amazing mech. For the first time ever, my HBK-4H actually functions as a light hunter!

[Wildstreak]

Dexter Herbivore, on 18 October 2013 - 10:34 PM, said:

This won't be a valid tactic for 12 mans obviously, but is anyone playing Locusts in 12 mans other than as a joke?

Yes.
Nostalgia I'll admit.
I played BT since the old original boardgame when the Locust was the premier light Mech.
When MWO came out, I tried Lights but never felt right in them. However, I recently bought my LCT-1V not for win factor but to see how it plays and despite only scoring 8 damage in my first match I loved it. I actually went in a dual against first a Jenner then a Spider joined in at a Conquest Match on Tourmaline. I hated playing against Lights in my Awesomes and Hunchbacks but had fun in my Locust. I may well get the 3M and 3S though I am looking for builds others have done on those, with the 1V I went with the ERLL/2MG build.
Second game I had to avoid most of it because my wireless started lagging so, in order not to handicap my team, I stayed out of view most of the time. My wireless lag sucks that bad when it kicks in.

Is there a Locust strategy/build thread, is this it? I tried searching but the search feature is limited, if I don't find one, maybe I will start one.

[Bront]

John Wolf, on 27 October 2013 - 06:46 AM, said:

Locusts can be an effective bait, however, they are a strong harasser. When a larger mech is engaged with a friendly, the locust is that harasser that can stay behind the big guy. It has to turn to fight the light, or stay toe to toe with the brawler.

Locusts are meant to support other mechs, since they were basically infantry control in table top. But, its likely the mech most dependent on teamwork.. well, cept perhaps a 4 LRM 20 Stalker with no backup weapons. they REALLY need spotters.

Pretty much this. Play capture, or base dash and then run back to the team so you split their forces. Heck, I played a game on Canyon Network where I stepped on their base to draw them back, they ended up trying to cap, so I managed to get back to our base and keep them from capping for about a minute which gave our team time enough to shed the defenders and cap their base.

But beyond that, use the chaos of battle to distract and damage other mechs, or help finish off damaged mechs (particularly the 1V).

[NRP]

Nick Makiaveli, on 20 October 2013 - 06:40 AM, said:

Get a wolf pack of 4 Locusts each packing 5 MLs and the squirrels can bite back

Heh, I ran into a Locust "wolf pack" in my Streaktaro. It felt like I just won the Lottery.

[Cold Cash]

Had a great base defense moment in my 5 mlaser locust. they had base down to less than 25% we had cleaned up thier team but with my speed i needed to hold base against a jenner ml/ssrm and cent for about 20secs before reinforcements arrived to finish them off and win the game, with my 169.3 speed the cent pilot(was bad) struggled to los me and i danced around him, the jenner also kept getting fouled by my speed and the base tower los.
Great win and showed the locust does have value because its the fastest mech in the game it can engage/disengage and basecap/defend unlike anything else as long as the team is supporting you.

[Dawnstealer]

Once I get mine leveled up, I'll switch out the laser for a tag (or "one of the lasers" on the builds with more than one), but until then? Yeah - "squirrel's" a good role.