43 replies to this topic

[Death Mallet]

If so, which one should I get?

What is it's best role/loadout?

[Bishop Steiner]

do you enjoy whacking your thumb with a hammer?

If the answer is yes, then by all means, get a Dragon.

Best model? The Flame, followed by the 1C.
Role? The guy the rest of the team hates for not bringing a more useful mech. (Even Awesome pilot guy can usually laugh at you)

[Death Mallet]

LOL. . . don't hold back. Share how you really feel about it!

[Wintersdark]

Bishop Steiner, on 02 November 2013 - 05:28 PM, said:

do you enjoy whacking your thumb with a hammer?

If the answer is yes, then by all means, get a Dragon.

Best model? The Flame, followed by the 1C.
Role? The guy the rest of the team hates for not bringing a more useful mech. (Even Awesome pilot guy can usually laugh at you)

More seriously... You can do well in a Dragon, but you will be disadvantaged. The hard reality is that it's huge projecting torso is a bullet magnet which makes you vulnerable. The Dragon is essentially a more vulnerable Ballistic Quickdraw without jump jets.

With that said, you absolutely can do well in a Dragon. The Flame is, as Mr. Steiner says above, the best variant. IMHO, a 4LL / 4ERLL FLAME used as a fast striker is the best way to go, but there are several very viable builds (4ML/Gauss, etc).

Key to usage, largely regardless of range, is simple:
Stay fast, all the time. Never less than a 300 engine, ideally 325 or 350. Use an XL, because it's nearly impossible to hit your side torsos anyways. Stay at the longest ranges your loadouts can handle, move in, strike till hot, move out to cool, then hit someone else, or from another direction.

Absolutely do not brawl. Not ever. Don't do it. You'll die.

Skills you learn piloting a dragon like this make you a *lethal* pilot in other mechs.

So, as you may have guessed, I love dragons. My Flame is one of my favourite mechs. But it's very important to understand the mechs' limitations and weaknesses, and accept that. If you get frustrated or angry easily, or expect a fair and balanced mech... Pick something else. A Quickdraw, likely - it's a better mech in the same overall role.

It's not for everyone. It's not even for many. But it's a great mech for the few who want that particular playstyle and are willing to learn to deal with the mech's shortcomings. It's a terrible mech for someone looking for a competitive multipurpose heavy, though.

[Bishop Steiner]

Wintersdark, on 02 November 2013 - 05:58 PM, said:

It's not for everyone. It's not even for many. But it's a great mech for the few who want that particular playstyle

I believe the dictionary would call them Masochists?

[Wintersdark]

Bishop Steiner, on 02 November 2013 - 06:01 PM, said:

I believe the dictionary would call them Masochists?

I was trying to avoid that word. I prefer "Hardcore gamers who want a challenge." But ********* works too

Mind you, I feel they're noticeably better than Awesomes, despite having a worse CT problem than the Awesome does, simply because the Dragon at least has the option to go sufficiently fast to get away and avoid brawls. Awesomes, no matter how "fast" you try to make them, are not even remotely fast enough.

[MadCat02]

Death Mallet, on 02 November 2013 - 05:16 PM, said:

If so, which one should I get?

What is it's best role/loadout?

Dragon is heavy but he should be played like a big medium mech .

I asume 2ER LArge+1Large laser and maybe ac5-ac10 with the biggest engine you can get . With XL maybe even ac/20 suppeorted with 2 large lasers .

Your role is to support assault mechs with you speed and defend them from lights,mediums and sometimes capture points .

Edited by MadCat02, 02 November 2013 - 06:36 PM.

[Bishop Steiner]

MadCat02, on 02 November 2013 - 06:30 PM, said:

Dragon is heavy but he should be played like a medium mech .

Your role is to support assault mechs with you speed and defend them from lights,mediums and sometimes capture points .

This is actually quite true.

Which explains why the DRG lost out to the ShadowHawk in Star League trials. The same reason one is far better off using a ShadowHawk in MWO over a Dragon.

[MadCat02]

Bishop Steiner, on 02 November 2013 - 06:31 PM, said:

This is actually quite true.

Which explains why the DRG lost out to the ShadowHawk in Star League trials. The same reason one is far better off using a ShadowHawk in MWO over a Dragon.

Is this something from Battetech lore? FPS games not gona work like a book or a tabletop game .

[Kyynele]

Bishop Steiner, on 02 November 2013 - 05:28 PM, said:

Best model? The Flame, followed by the 1C.

I can agree about Dragons not being that great, and about Flame being the best of them, but will have to disagree with 1C being the second best. Yeah, it has the same amount of similiar hardpoints as the Flame, but they are unintuitively spread around the arms and torsos which makes it greatly inferior in comparison.

Most people will probably disagree with me, but for myself, I'd claim the 5N is the next best Dragon, if not the best Dragon in the current ballistic-happy meta. Stick in 3x AC2 + 2x ML or 2x AC5 + 1x AC2 and plenty of ammo, and you can deal surprisingly much damage per match, while staying at a comfortable distance because of the decent speed of the mech and getting good shots in pretty much any angle thanks to all weapons being arm mounted.

In fact, the 5N is my only Dragon with above 2.0 KDR. Including the Flame.

I'm not much of a Dragon pilot, just my $0.02.

[Wintersdark]

Bishop Steiner, on 02 November 2013 - 06:31 PM, said:

This is actually quite true.

Which explains why the DRG lost out to the ShadowHawk in Star League trials. The same reason one is far better off using a ShadowHawk in MWO over a Dragon.

Because, really, the ShadowHawk is a far better Medium than a Dragon, and generally superior at everything the Dragon does.

And while the ShadowHawk is tall (and people decry it's height as a flaw), height doesn't hurt a mech. Width hurts a mech, which is why the dragon suffers.

The reason is - and this is why people are so down on dragons - when a mech is running towards/away from you, you should never miss it, no matter what it's size/shape, as you have a moment to draw a bead on it and don't need to account for projectile velocity/target movement. When a mech is moving laterally, however, the wider it is, the easier it is to hit it. The dragon is very, very wide (and almost all CT) when viewed from the side or the front so there's a lot more room for error in your lead amount. That is why the Dragon gets hammered, and there's no solution to that. It's just how it'll always be for the dragon. Hitbox changes won't help it, because the overall shape of the mech is what results in it's getting hit. Hitting side torsos instead of the CT will just force people to stop using XL's, thus slow down, thus be even easier to hit.

The ShadowHawk is tall, but nobody misses, say, a Hunchback because it's short. The Shadowhawk, however, is slender. A ShadowHawk moving perpendicular to you is far, far harder to hit than the Dragon as a result.

MadCat02, on 02 November 2013 - 06:35 PM, said:

Is this something from Battetech lore? FPS games not gona work like a book or a tabletop game .

See my post above for the reason why that applies in MWO.

[Wintersdark]

Kyynele, on 02 November 2013 - 06:38 PM, said:

I can agree about Dragons not being that great, and about Flame being the best of them, but will have to disagree with 1C being the second best. Yeah, it has the same amount of similiar hardpoints as the Flame, but they are unintuitively spread around the arms and torsos which makes it greatly inferior in comparison.

Most people will probably disagree with me, but for myself, I'd claim the 5N is the next best Dragon, if not the best Dragon in the current ballistic-happy meta. Stick in 3x AC2 + 2x ML or 2x AC5 + 1x AC2 and plenty of ammo, and you can deal surprisingly much damage per match, while staying at a comfortable distance because of the decent speed of the mech and getting good shots in pretty much any angle thanks to all weapons being arm mounted.

In fact, the 5N is my only Dragon with above 2.0 KDR. Including the Flame.

I'm not much of a Dragon pilot, just my $0.02.

The 5N w/ 3AC2 isn't a bad build. It's a decent, fast fire support platform, and features extremely long range, which allows it to mitigate the terribly huge torso issue. Being able to put out that DPS at such extreme range is quite helpful.

Of course, up close it's suffering from high time-on-target requirements, which is a bad downside for a mech like a Dragon to have up close.

[Xeno Phalcon]

I will spell it out for you: I play locust, I like playing locusts.

I say no to dragons too.

[Sephlock]

MadCat02, on 02 November 2013 - 06:30 PM, said:

Your role is to support assault mechs with you speed and defend them from lights,mediums and sometimes capture points .

And try not to think about the fact that your opposite number is piloting a Stalker and has three solo kills to his name as you round a corner into an ECM-ed firing squad.

[Lancer III]

T-bolt and Firebrand......

[Enzane]

I love my Dragons. They are still by far my favorite mech. But as pointed out they require a unique playstyle to survive.

However, once they bring collisions back. I will be taking my dragons, Knocking down Atlases and running away like Dr. Zoidberg. Wooop woop woop.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Enzane, on 02 November 2013 - 07:09 PM, said:

I love my Dragons. They are still by far my favorite mech. But as pointed out they require a unique playstyle to survive.

However, once they bring collisions back. I will be taking my dragons, Knocking down Atlases and running away like Dr. Zoidberg. Wooop woop woop.

I rather doubt dragons will have that advantage when/if they bring collisions back, if only because they have stated that to be one of the reasons they removed it.

[Bishop Steiner]

MadCat02, on 02 November 2013 - 06:35 PM, said:

Is this something from Battetech lore? FPS games not gona work like a book or a tabletop game .

It is, and in this case it does, because the SHD outclasses the Dragon in every single manner conceivable, just as in the TT and fluff. Just as fast, better mobility and better hardpoints. And WAAAAAAAAY better hitboxes. which only matter in FPS-

[Bishop Steiner]

Sephlock, on 02 November 2013 - 07:07 PM, said:

And try not to think about the fact that your opposite number is piloting a Stalker and has three solo kills to his name as you round a corner into an ECM-ed firing squad.

Or the fact that if you were in a REAL Medium Mech running support, at least you would not lumber like a Mack Truck with a bad suspension, and could use your mobility to actually support your Big Fatty.

[SchwarzerPeter]

First of: I really like my Drg 1C. They are fast. The energy hardpoints in the left torso are very high mounted, makes great for PPC. Pretty save to run XL engines in there. And they look pretty cool.

Cons are the very huge center torso, which makes the mech vulnerable. The energy hard points are split between TL and the arms (not in the Flame, but its a MC mech). And its pretty expensive because of the XL engine.

So you have to make use of the speed and the high mounted LT hardpoints.


Its not the easiest mech to pilot, the Cataphract should be easier to begin with. But the 1C was my first mech and i still like it