59 replies to this topic

[St4LkeRxF]

Cataphract 3D is best mech in game

[Odanan]

Heavies are the most balanced weight class.
Cataphract, JagerMech, Orion and Catapult are all very strong chassis in the hands of an expert.

EDIT: I'm having a blast with my Orion-K, after the reworked hitboxes.

Edited by Odanan, 22 November 2013 - 04:11 AM.

[MeiSooHaityu]

CATAPULT...HANDS DOWN!

Ok, not really. I like the Catapults, and still use them frequently, but I think it is a toss up between the Jager and Cataphract.

I like the Jager a BIT better for ballistics for its higher mounted arms (Cataphracts low slung "knuckle dragging" arms makes for many buried shots into a hillside).

Looks wise though, the Jager was hit with the ugly stick, so I prefer the Cataphract anyway . I do have an Ilya Muromets, and I still use it frequently as well. I do not currently own any Jager platform.

[SgtMagor]

I think once the Tbolt is available for sale you will see that it is a good to in your face mech, that likes to rumble. 9SE reminds me of the Jester only able to tank damage much better.

Edited by SgtMagor, 22 November 2013 - 04:25 AM.

[Barantor]

I like the Orion. Mix of weapons, but enough tonnage to be able to fit some nice stuff without too much sacrifice.

Going against Jaegers I find that since they have a 120 degree (at least) arc in which you can hit their side torso easily that they die to me a lot since it seems many run XL engines. Those that don't lose half their firepower once I take said side torso off.

Phracts are nice, but the weapons are fairly low and I'm not a big fan of the design. Works well for some folks, I've just never wanted one. Good if you love ballistics and do not like the jaegers arms.

Tbolt is nice, but the positions of the hardpoints is kinda meh for me. Ballistic 5S has it all in one arm, the 5SS has a nice laser torso up high but no ballistics and the 9SE with JJs doesn't seem to have enough punch though all are really durable.

Dragon is like a heavy medium, fast and can have some good weapons, but doesn't have the staying power. Great for flanking.

Quickdraw is like the dragon, slightly better because of JJs but doesn't have ballistics and you can't stand toe to toe with any other heavies.

Catapult is great if you love LRMs (tbolt 5S is like this too) and with the JJs it can get around to where it needs to. The new jester hero I think is really fun and plays somewhat like a mix of dragon/quickdraw.

[Piney II]

I run Cataphracts and Jagers, with the Cataphract being my stronger chassis. The Jagers are great for carrying some insane firepower, but they are squishy and I prefer to avoid toe to toe brawls driving them.

I'll wade right into brawls with my Cataphracts. My two favorite mechs are my CTF-3D and my Ilya.

[lostcause]

try the phract 4x. (x2 ac2)(x2 uac5) 245xl and if you want 2 small lasers this mech works for me
well

[DONTOR]

Hmm I would say the Illya its the most well rounded (my opinion) good weight, decent armor, only mech that can do 3 large ballistic weapons, and almost everyone has bought one. I love using 3 AC10s and watching an atlas melt in 10 seconds, good times.

As everyone has said though its between the jaeger and cataphract just depends on your play style.

[Finn McShae]

Current meta indicates that Cataphracts and Jagers are better, if you cram enough dakka into them. I love my Firebrand and Illya so I can't disagree.

Future meta may change to lasers/ppcs, if so, others might be best.

My current prefrence is the ON1-K Orion and TDR-5S(P) Thunderbolt as I like a more varied loadout instead of just packing lots of dakka. Though, i really like dakka. My top dog right now is the K Orion, with 4 mlas, ac20 and LRM. Good at all ranges and really, really brings pain up close.

[Mercules]

I'm a Light/Medium pilot for the most part but I have one 'phract and 3 Jaggers. All my Jaggers end up going 78KPH or more so I can play them a bit like a slow Medium. High mounted weapons are good but armed mechs really should be able to lift their arms.

[Dauphni]

The problem with asking a question like ‘what is the best heavy mech’ is that there are too many variables to consider. The heavy class is one of the most diverse there is, and your personal answer will be heavily dependent on what you value the most. If you're going for pure dakka, the Jagers probably win. If you're looking for raw flexibility, you'll probably like the Orions. Dragons are still excellent flankers even though few people know how to do that properly. Something like that can be said for all the other chassis as well. So really, the question you should be asking is ‘what is the best heavy mech for thing I like?’

[Johnny Reb]

Depends on your expectition for the mech:
LRM - Orion, V or VA depending on prefrence.
Dakka - Jager pick how you wanna roll
Great all arounder- Quickdraw (would take the Shadowhalk my self)
Sniper - Cataphract 3D is the low ton standard.
My take of heavies in a post!

[Marmon Rzohr]

The most powerful chassis is the Cataphract hands down. Good hardpoints, good hitboxes, small profile (for the heavy class). There is also quite a bit of build variety.

However they can't fit missiles, so if you don't like ballistics, you're not gonna like them. Also, the 3D is by far the best of them and you need to master it and JJs to get the true potential out of the cataphract.

If that does not sound appealing, the Jager is good too, as is Orion (abeit, the Orion shines with STD engines and brawling setups now). The Catapult is good as well, but it has quite a few sub-standard variants.

[Satan n stuff]

SgtMagor, on 22 November 2013 - 04:24 AM, said:

I think once the Tbolt is available for sale you will see that it is a good to in your face mech, that likes to rumble. 9SE reminds me of the Jester only able to tank damage much better.

It's so much fun coring mechs with 7 lasers, half the time I forget about my SRMs. Use it properly and you can take an assault from 100% to dead in a very short time, but it is prone to shutting down and overheating.

[Shadey99]

The only problem the Thuds have is that they tend to lack ballistics which means they tend to run hot. If your good at heat management they can act like mini-BMs. They are also solid mechs for using standard engines in. One version also has JJs, but since JJs are hot and energy weapons are hot...

The Jagers have those nice high mounted arms... So many maps in MWO favor peeking over rises in one form or another that those arms make it pure sweetness.

Phracts have the advantage of 5 extra tons of space over a Jager and also ballistics in multiple limbs. It gives them the ability to run builds like 3xLB10X/3xAC10/3xGauss. Though those builds need a Ilya. The 3D also combines ballistics & JJs.

I can't say much about the Orion, low mounted weapons and fairly low speeds make it a highly variable threat depending on terrain...

[DrSlamastika]

I don't own the Cataphracts or Jaggers yet.

But Thunderbolts, Catapults are good too. . .

[Mike Oakenwall - the khadoran]

Orion-VA best mech ingame when in pugs, just imo

4 streaks + LBX+,beagle probe death to lights/medium
2 PPC - long range firepower...

all in one 70kph package..

Edited by deanon, 23 November 2013 - 08:34 AM.

[Kubernetes]

I love my Phracts, but the Orion has definitely become a very fun chassis. I'm running a "baby Atlas" setup on my K, and it's pretty fun and effective. It can actually survive like a heavy mech and not die in two seconds like a medium. Both are also really fun if you shove in the largest XL engine possible. A heavy with 80+ speed can be a terror.

[Sephlock]

The Timber Wolf.

Oh, you meant Inner Sphere mechs

In that case, the Rakshasa.

Oh... you meant CURRENTLY available...

Uh... Jagermech?

If you want to suffer horribly while at the same time making terribads cry, pick the non-K2 catapults.

[Wolfways]

JM6-S or JM6-DD...with stock ballistic weapons (ML's optional).
Around 100 match score, a few kills, and about 1000 damage are normal for the Jager.

I die a little inside when i see a Jager with more lasers than AC's