14 replies to this topic

[The Schwartz]

Most likely you're reading this because you're scrapped for c-bills. More than likely have a bit of pent up rage from stuff smashing into you on the battlefield while you're down for heat issues. Here's my personal list of cheapies that I've had a bit of success with and hopefully improve your game experience.
I rebound my fire weapon group 3 button (in options screen)to E so if you see E appear now and then that's why.
Also, I love my medium mechs. Looovvee them. <3's and all that. So most of these will be Mediums.

Hunchback 4p:C-Bills=5,486,484
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...44629f586a6140d
Straight forward this one is. Remove the small laser from the head, cram in a medium laser and put double heat sinks in it. No Endo, No Fibro just Double heatsinks and armor and you have a 45 dmg mech for around 5mil cbills. Chainfire is your friend and personally I'll use arms on Left mouse button, chainfire torso on Right mouse button, and E(weapon group 3) for alpha striking.

Hunchback 4sp: C-Bills=5,332,484
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...4f1be57d94ff590
Not a particular favorite of mine anymore but, not a bad mech. This one is pretty golden right out of the box. I'm not a fan of the 1 small laser so I'd probably remove that and strip some armor off the legs to put on another heat sink or a ton of srm ammo. It's vastly more playable with dhs and not a bad one for the price.

BlackJack BJ-3 : C-Bills=4,717,461
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...818b837715a672b
Upgrade the heatsinks (pretty much standard on most mechs in game)
Personally I take off one of the ppcs and stick 3 Med lasers in that side and swap out the other ppc for an ER-PPC. It's pretty simular to the BJ-1 Champion but have an erppc instead of a AC-20. Out of the box it's pretty good to go with only upgraded heatsinks.

BlackJack BJ-1/BJ-1DC:
C-Bills=5,998,9936 BJ-1(jump jet version)
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...0c25fc33796493d
C-Bills=5,908,936 BJ-1/BJ1-DC (non jump jet varient)
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...0fce9c0c7e41ac8
Well there's the champion version and it's nice. 3 Med lasers and an ac/20 with some jump jets. To build your own exactly like that one costs about 10mil c-bills. The awesome thing about this mech is it's very versitile. You can run effective XL and STD engine builds. You can jump, or use the space for ammo or heatsinks. It's quite possibly my most favorite chasis to puts around with when I'm bored.
The stock ac/2's are hot. Some experienced players prefer the ac/2's. Personally, I dislike them on this mech. So, Here's what I do when I'm being cheap. Firstly, this guys mission in life is to assist in striking or to strike from unexpected areas. I drop 2 Ac/5's and 4 medium lasers on this bad boy. With the stock engine you will need to remove the jumpjets or change the mediums to small lasers. 4 tons of ac/5 ammo will fit on this but, you will need to remove some armor from places you don't generally get killed from. For me this is my rear armor. Be aware that you can still drive on while missing that side torso. You'll want to upgrade to Endo Steel. But, the gem of this mech is it'll be in your mechbay and it has great replay value.
Anywho the total for this on the cheap with 2 ac/5's and 4 ML with Stock engine and Endo Steel is roughly 6 mil c-bills. If you swap that engine out later you have yourself a mini Jaeger mech on the cheap that can hold 2 UAC/5's and 4 ML's.

Anywho that's some of my favorite cheapies and hopefully helps someone out there.

Edited by The Schwartz, 22 November 2013 - 06:01 PM.

[scJazz]

The Schwartz, on 22 November 2013 - 11:55 AM, said:

Most likely you're reading this because you're scrapped for c-bills. More than likely have a bit of pent up rage from stuff smashing into you on the battlefield while you're down for heat issues. Here's my personal list of cheapies that I've had a bit of success with and hopefully improve your game experience.
I rebound my fire weapon group 3 button (in options screen)to E so if you see E appear now and then that's why.
Also, I love my medium mechs. Looovvee them. <3's and all that. So most of these will be Mediums.

Locust 3m: This has got to be one of my most favorite LRM boat killers.... in the world...
5 small lasers, 2 ams, 2 tons ams ammo. Double heat sinks and an XL 170. All for around 5 mil c-bills. This is one I recommend to use both ams on. They provide survivability from both LRMs and SSRMs. If you're team is getting rained on it's also so very useful to keep your buddies alive.

Hunchback 4p: Straight forward this one is. Remove the small laser from the head, cram in a medium laser and put double heat sinks in it. No Endo, No Fibro just Double heatsinks and armor and you have a 45 dmg mech for around 5mil cbills. Chainfire is your friend and personally I'll use arms on Left mouse button, chainfire torso on Right mouse button, and E(weapon group 3) for alpha striking.

Hunchback 4sp: Not a particular favorite of mine anymore but, not a bad mech. This one is pretty golden right out of the box. I'm not a fan of the 1 small laser so I'd probably remove that and strip some armor off the legs to put on another heat sink or a ton of srm ammo. It's vastly more playable with dhs and not a bad one for the 5 mil c-bill range.

BlackJack BJ-3 : Upgrade the heatsinks (pretty much standard on most mechs in game)
Personally I take off one of the ppcs and stick 3 Med lasers in that side and swap out the other ppc for an ER-PPC. It's pretty simular to the BJ-1 Champion but have an erppc instead of a AC-20. Out of the box it's pretty good to go with only upgraded heatsinks. about 5.5mil cbills.

BlackJack BJ-1/BJ-1DC: Well there's the champion version and it's nice. 3 Med lasers and an ac/20 with some jump jets. To build your own exactly like that one costs about 10mil c-bills. The awesome thing about this mech is it's very versitile. You can run effective XL and STD engine builds. You can jump, or use the space for ammo or heatsinks. It's quite possibly my most favorite chasis to puts around with when I'm bored.
The stock ac/2's are hot. Some experienced players prefer the ac/2's. Personally, I dislike them on this mech. So, Here's what I do when I'm being cheap. Firstly, this guys mission in life is to assist in striking or to strike from unexpected areas. I drop 2 Ac/5's and 4 medium lasers on this bad boy. With the stock engine you will need to remove the jumpjets or change the mediums to small lasers. 4 tons of ac/5 ammo will fit on this but, you will need to remove some armor from places you don't generally get killed from. For me this is my rear armor. Be aware that you can still drive on while missing that side torso. You'll want to upgrade to Endo Steel. But, the gem of this mech is it'll be in your mechbay and it has great replay value.
Anywho the total for this on the cheap with 2 ac/5's and 4 ML with Stock engine and Endo Steel is roughly 6 mil c-bills. If you swap that engine out later you have yourself a mini Jaeger mech on the cheap that can hold 2 UAC/5's and 4 ML's.

Anywho that's 4 of my favorite cheapies and hopefully helps someone out there.

Stupendously useful!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now if only we had more Newbs that would read it!

Plz edit so that Price Tags are most obvious!

[Redshift2k5]

The Schwartz, on 22 November 2013 - 11:55 AM, said:

Most likely you're reading this because you're scrapped for c-bills. More than likely have a bit of pent up rage from stuff smashing into you on the battlefield while you're down for heat issues. Here's my personal list of cheapies that I've had a bit of success with and hopefully improve your game experience.
I rebound my fire weapon group 3 button (in options screen)to E so if you see E appear now and then that's why.
Also, I love my medium mechs. Looovvee them. <3's and all that. So most of these will be Mediums.


Hunchback 4p: Straight forward this one is. Remove the small laser from the head, cram in a medium laser and put double heat sinks in it. No Endo, No Fibro just Double heatsinks and armor and you have a 45 dmg mech for around 5mil cbills. Chainfire is your friend and personally I'll use arms on Left mouse button, chainfire torso on Right mouse button, and E(weapon group 3) for alpha striking.

Please don't alpha strike in a 9 ML HBK-4P. You can safely fire 6 medium lasers with no penalty but firing 9 (regular heat plus heat penalty) is rarely going to be useful. Save the excess heat for a follow-up salvo half a second later from your remaining lasers for a one-two punch

I enjoy 2 AC2 and 4 Medium lasers as well as an LBX10 and four medium lasers on my Blackjack.

Note that you can build your mechs on Smurfy and provide an exact build with the price tag included! (This LBX BJ is not a good "budget mech" due to it's additional XL engine, unfortunately)

[The Schwartz]

Sure I'll make those changes very soon, I don't tend to post much on here so, let me dig up smurfies and post them TY for the responses.

[Troggy]

Frankly, I think this is old advice. If also you consider that the locust is mentioned first, it is also bad advice.

In my mind this is the logical starting point for most players:

SDH-2D2

Fightable @ 5.66M (55 tonnes), add DHS as soon as you can afford (total 7.16M). Easy with cadet bonus.

This mech is suitable for both PUG and COMP play, unlike the others mostly.

Better yet, the stock engine will also allow you to upgrade the Hunchbacks - allowing a person to save 2M there. The chassis can also be fitted with streaks (light killer) or SRM6/4 (bomb-truck) if you want to try something different - for virtually no extra money (just weapons). Or you can get the XL 350 later, another highly versatile piece of gear, and segway into another style of play.

It just makes sense.
--
Troggy

[The Schwartz]

Okay, I just updated the stuff I have put up and made some serious edits as well lol. Anywho, feel free to add your favorite cheapies and help out the new guys.

[The Schwartz]

Yup, good points on the shadow hawk. It's quickly becomming one of my prefferred mechs but, I've not ran it a whole lot yet as with the previous I have. It is as you say

[TheCaptainJZ]

This is what I used as my first medium mech. It is a bit dated but should still work well.

Hunchback 4SP 7,967,151
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...005f2395fee7f14

With the large lasers, it runs hot, even with all effiencies unlocked. While leveling it up, I recommend using quad med lasers instead and adding more heat sinks.

Grouping:
1. 2 Large lasers
2. 2 Med lasers
3. 2 Streak missiles

Use medium lasers when heat gets high and you are close up. Use large lasers for range.
Hunchbacks can't stand up to heavies or assaults, so stay with the team and don't make yourself the focus. You can deal a lot of damage against other mediums or non-ecm lights. The important thing is to get assists and live long so you can deal more damage.

Edit: It is more expensive than those you have listed, but you can slowly upgrade it over time.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 22 November 2013 - 01:41 PM.

[Troggy]

I think you should ditch the Locust in particular. Anyone who should buy that mech knows they need it. Very few beginners are going to be happy with that purchase for their first mech or two. Often it is beginners who are really worried about "cheapness"
--
Troggy

[TercieI]

Troggy, on 22 November 2013 - 04:08 PM, said:

I think you should ditch the Locust in particular. Anyone who should buy that mech knows they need it. Very few beginners are going to be happy with that purchase for their first mech or two. Often it is beginners who are really worried about "cheapness"
--
Troggy

I agree with this. Worst possible mech for a newbie.

[The Schwartz]

Ditched.

[dragnier1]

Troggy, on 22 November 2013 - 01:31 PM, said:

Better yet, the stock engine will also allow you to upgrade the Hunchbacks - allowing a person to save 2M there.

i'm not sure if the hunchie can fit that. The engine's heavy

[Nick Makiaveli]

Terciel1976, on 22 November 2013 - 04:21 PM, said:

I agree with this. Worst possible mech for a newbie.

MOST newbies. If you can learn to run a Locust with any effect at all, imagine what you could do with a real mech!

If they are completely new to FPS or gaming, then yea they need something else to start in. But for an experienced gamer, a challenge is a great way to learn.

*edit* Grammerz n sich.

Edited by Nick Makiaveli, 24 November 2013 - 06:15 AM.

[Bront]

Jenners make ok Newb light mechs. They're durrable enough for a light, go reasonably fast with the stock engine, and the loadouts are so similar that players can save money by swapping out parts between them (not that they really need to, as they come with all the SRMs/MLs you'll need, so unless you're going with an SPL or SL Jenner, you're mostly set).

Price wise, They run around 5 million to build outside of the engine, and the 300 XL is one of the most flexible engines in MWO (and they only need 1).

Heck, with premium time + recruit bonus, you can buy 2 jenners, trick them out, AND buy an XL300, and then earn money for the 3rd one while you level up the 1st two.

[TercieI]

Nick Makiaveli, on 24 November 2013 - 06:15 AM, said:

MOST newbies. If you can learn to run a Locust with any effect at all, imagine what you could do with a real mech!

If they are completely new to FPS or gaming, then yea they need something else to start in. But for an experienced gamer, a challenge is a great way to learn.

*edit* Grammerz n sich.

I learned on Commandos. There is some truth to what you say, but I still wake up screaming at night, so I can't recommend it to others.