15 replies to this topic

[Revlian]

So I'm kinda new to the game and right now I have a 4sp and a Ilya Muromets and I'm thinking about picking up an XL300 engine for the Ilya as well as for some future builds. My question is should I buy the engine by itself for 4.9 million or would I be better off picking up one of the chassis that it comes stock with and if so which chassis would you recommend( I have around 11 mil. c-bills right now)? Thanks in advance.

[luxebo]

You are much better off getting XL300 and other XL's with separate chassis with XL300. I recommend since you have Cataphracts, get the 3D for the XL280, which is not far off. That would help you a lot, and then XL 300 for other mechs later. Hunchbacks should not get XL though.

[Johnny Reb]

I would recommend getting the centution-D. It is pricey at 8 mill but comes with the xl300 engine, I feel its a very good mech that can go scout speed with medium armor. (need a xl360+ for that)

[Koniving]

The Centurion 9-D is the easiest way to get it. Considering that the engine itself costs nearly 5 million cbills you'd be getting the engine + a mech for 3 million more.

Always hold on to an XL 300 engine. That and a 280 will be among the most used engines overall.

(Btw, a Hunch with the 46 / 2 right torso armor allocation can easily get away with an XL engine. Just gotta worry about losing the non-hunch torso!)

[Autobot9000]

I think you can not actually save CBills by grabbing another mech chassis, only to grab a potential XL300 that you desire. However if you wanna try a chassis, that has a XL300 on stock of course it would make sense to buy that. I have no idea what chassis you like. Since you said CBills some chassis that come to my mind are

• Centurion D, which is somewhat decent
  
• Atlas-K which is a horrible chassis
  
• Trebuchet-3C (can not comment on this)
  
• Orion-M (bad chassis IMO)

But since you said you own the Ilya, I am not even sure if a XL300 is a good grab for you. The speed difference to the Ilyas stock XL280 isnt big, it may give you some options to play with that additional engine heat sink slot though - not sure. Maybe it would make more sense to grab a bigger XL, like an XL325?

Edited by Autobot9000, 13 December 2013 - 11:58 PM.

[Johnny Reb]

Autobot9000, on 13 December 2013 - 11:57 PM, said:

I think you can not actually save CBills by grabbing another mech chassis, only to grab a potential XL300 that you desire. However if you wanna try a chassis, that has a XL300 on stock of course it would make sense to buy that. I have no idea what chassis you like. Since you said CBills some chassis that come to my mind are

• Centurion D, which is somewhat decent
  
• Atlas-K which is a horrible chassis
  
• Trebuchet-3C (can not comment on this)
  
• Orion-M (bad chassis IMO)

But since you said you own the Ilya, I am not even sure if a XL300 is a good grab for you. The speed difference to the Ilyas stock XL280 isnt big, it may give you some options to play with that additional engine heat sink slot though - not sure. Maybe it would make more sense to grab a bigger XL, like an XL325?

Treb-C is a {Scrap} Cent-D. Still my fav treb but.....

edit: if you want a xl320 I totally recommend the cicada-3M if you break down the cost the mech is like 750k after the components cost.

Edited by Johnny Reb, 14 December 2013 - 12:07 AM.

[Koniving]

I applaud doing the work on these. However I disagree with Orions being horrible. Now if just the variant, well it does look like an awkward variant to use (3 energy, 3 missiles obviously turned to streaks and 1 ballistic sounds rather difficult to work out). I don't own that variant myself, yet. But I have to say the Orion's become my favorite chassis (and honestly I don't even like how they look).

The Atlas K I could agree needed something that it didn't get. However just because the K isn't the best variant doesn't mean the chassis is bad. As a support unit to another Atlas (with the other Atlas taking the brunt of the fire), it works very well even semi-stock.

The Trebuchets, truth be told I like the 7-K. The others are collecting dust (I bought them all and ran them stock for a bit) until the visual customization comes for them. It's very needed in the case of the "NARC" launcher Treb.

Edited by Koniving, 14 December 2013 - 10:23 AM.

[luxebo]

Oh wait *checks smurfy*, yeah Ilya has XL280. In that case, use that and get XL300 later from depending what chassis you want. If you want Centurions mastered next, then get CN9-D. Atli mastered next, AS7-K, although that isn't the best chassis, I like being an over-achiever, so I would master the K too. The Treb 3C according to Victor is the fastest fake light, which I can understand with it holding max XL and 4 med lasers with 2 ssrm 2s. The Orion M is awkward in terms of hardpoints, but has everything set up already.

[sneeking]

Johnny Reb, on 13 December 2013 - 11:32 PM, said:

I would recommend getting the centution-D. It is pricey at 8 mill but comes with the xl300 engine, I feel its a very good mech that can go scout speed with medium armor. (need a xl360+ for that)

I run my centD with 350xl full armour 1x ac2 2x ml 2x streak with case and bap, unless you master the platform for elite + 2x basics it wont begin to realy shine for you.

[Revlian]

Thanks guys- very good info. on here. I think I will def. work towards the Cent.-D for my XL300 so I can give a new mech a chance. I kinda of regret going with the hunchback(wish I went shadow hawk for a med) but it doesn't seem to make sense to me to sell a mech unless my bays are full. I am still kind of new and building up my garage/parts list.

I just got the Ilya today and am considering getting either a heavy metal, firebrand, or maybe saving the money for another sale lol. I know I should work towards unlocking elite skills, but I think I want to have a somewhat varied garage before I do that. Going to work towards grabbing a longer range support mech (either LRMs or PPC/Gauss) and a light mech (thinking Jenner). Any other tips/info. always much appreciated.

[Victor Morson]

Check this out and consider the XL again:

Cheap Grinder

Nobody expects standard engine ultra Ilyas.

Also feel free to drop the Ultras to regular AC/5s and stick on Medium Lasers for 3x AC/5 3x ML. All without the cost and with more durability than an XL variant.

Cheap Grinder II

That said XL300s are good engines, you'll want one eventually, so there are worse purchases.

Edited by Victor Morson, 14 December 2013 - 03:00 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

It will only "save" you c-bills if it's a chassis you want or a chassis you would have bought anyway. If you'll never buy three Centurions, buying the Cent D, for example, will really just cost you 3 million, cost you a mechbay slot, etc.

The 300xl is pretty awesome in almost any mech you can fit it in so it's not a bad purchase on it's own or with a chassis.

[Koniving]

Revlian, on 14 December 2013 - 01:12 AM, said:

Thanks guys- very good info. on here. I think I will def. work towards the Cent.-D for my XL300 so I can give a new mech a chance. I kinda of regret going with the hunchback(wish I went shadow hawk for a med) but it doesn't seem to make sense to me to sell a mech unless my bays are full. I am still kind of new and building up my garage/parts list.

I just got the Ilya today and am considering getting either a heavy metal, firebrand, or maybe saving the money for another sale lol.

Save the money for now, remember the heroes will be on sale again in the near future.

Far as the Centurion, considering these were stock builds and then experiments, I won't claim them to be the best possible rigs. However it should inspire some creativity.

Spoiler

Stock build pack, during 8 mans, when LRMs were considered so weak no one used AMS and the SRMs were king. There's even some still-praised meta builds running; particularly the "champion Centurion" with 3 SRM-6s. Gets slaughtered.
Vid by 7NationArmy, the 4th place medium champion in the first official MWO tournament. His mech was the Yen Lo Wang, and the rules back then was total accumulated score over the weekend. He only played for 6 or 7 hours, while others went more than 24 hours of gaming. As it happens, I'm leading the pack. We won 4 out of 5 matches.

Stock build. Skip to 3:56.


An attempt to run a high standard engine to avoid the shoulder-loss syndrome and be able to run zombie while maintaining the singular advantage that gets praised by meta people as it being "superior to Hunchbacks", to which I was sorely disappointed in the sacrifices necessary.


Earlier attempts at the above.


Of the video-recorded experiments, this wound up being my favorite but even it I've dumped despite its success. LB-10x + AC/2 combination with a single ton of lasers for backup.

So if you find a good Centurion 9-D rig, let me know, and don't be afraid to experiment within a budget.

Edited by Koniving, 14 December 2013 - 10:56 AM.

[Kaosity]

Revlian, on 14 December 2013 - 01:12 AM, said:

Thanks guys- very good info. on here. I think I will def. work towards the Cent.-D for my XL300 so I can give a new mech a chance. I kinda of regret going with the hunchback(wish I went shadow hawk for a med) but it doesn't seem to make sense to me to sell a mech unless my bays are full. I am still kind of new and building up my garage/parts list.

I just got the Ilya today and am considering getting either a heavy metal, firebrand, or maybe saving the money for another sale lol. I know I should work towards unlocking elite skills, but I think I want to have a somewhat varied garage before I do that. Going to work towards grabbing a longer range support mech (either LRMs or PPC/Gauss) and a light mech (thinking Jenner). Any other tips/info. always much appreciated.

If you want a Jenner and an XL300 and are spending MC then kill two birds with one stone... look at the Jenner JR7-F( C ). It's not a hero mech, but it is a champion (+10% to XP). Loads out nice with 6 medium lasers for some distance or 6 small pulse lasers for in close. The SPL have a much shorter cool down (quicker to fire again) and run substantially cooler. Damage/second (when using all 6 lasers) is 7.50 for the mediums and 7.44 for the SPL. Also, SPL don't suffer from "residual heat" (I think) like the medium lasers which take even longer to cool if you fire them rapidly. Residual heat is similar to ghost heat but applied under a different set of rules.

Edited by WhenReaperComes, 14 December 2013 - 03:44 PM.

[Johnny Reb]

sneeking, on 14 December 2013 - 12:46 AM, said:

I run my centD with 350xl full armour 1x ac2 2x ml 2x streak with case and bap, unless you master the platform for elite + 2x basics it wont begin to realy shine for you.

I run mine with xl370 2 med 2 streak and 2 machine guns. Fast scout with med armor but not really viable.

[Bront]

A few options for getting a 300XL:

1) Buy the engine straight. Somewhat expensive, but they fit in so many mechs (I think I've got 3 of them, maybe 4, and could easily use 2 more at least). So having a few doesn't hurt.

2) Buy a mech for that has one. Cent-D, Treb-3C, Orion-1M, and the Atlas-K have them. Cent-D isn't a bad mech, the Orion-1M doesn't look too bad, and some folks like the Treb-3C. The Atlas-K is expensive and not that great, so I'd avoid that.

3) Buy the Jenner-F(C). You're basically paying for the XL300 at that point, but if you don't have a jenner-F and want one, and don't want to grind the almost 8 million to get both, it's a viable shortcut. At 1450, it's the price of 5 mech bays (So, $7.50? Give or take). Now, admittedly, that also gives you a mech that you need a 300XL in, but your mechs can share, can't they? If you're patient, they occasionally go on sale (though Champions less so than other mechs).