4831 replies to this topic

[Zordicron]

TheB33f, on 25 January 2014 - 03:53 PM, said:

Locust useless?

PLS.

LOL, thank you for recording and sharing that.

I have done my share of invisi-trolling with my trollmando more recently( ERPPC, flamer 1D) not as incognito as AMS missile point blank destruction, but it is fun to watch the trial stalkers wiggle and run from whatever is melting their crotch that they cant find.

[jper4]

shockingly i actually had some success 1 on1 dueling with the 1V (my worst of the three) this weekend. had 1MPL and 4MG (dropped it to a regular ML for an extra ton of MG ammo later in the day because i kept running out of ammo) on it. was trying the long sneak behind the enemy along the theta side on alipne and ran into a cicada doing the same from the opposite side (think he had dual ML/dual LL). we went at it and i manged to take out both his legs before he took out my torso. first time i soloed anything in one of those things. was also when i realized i needed more MG ammo- had like 200 rounds left when i was done.

then later on (also on alpine) was heading to sigma when i ran across a Victor(?)- dual PPC and triple AC2, ran around trying to stay within 90m for a few minutes nibbling away at his legs hoping to find some ammo there (cause trying to run against that loadout's range seemed a bad idea) or at least keep him out of the fight. eventually died but i took a leg with me! (no ammo explosion unfortunately) he got killed shortly after by a friendly Jager as it turns out we got stomped 12-3 or something like that. complimented the victor guy for a fun duel after i died only to see after i did so he called me a "F... noob.".

let's see- a 20 ton tin foiled armored mech kept your long range sniping heavy mech from shooting at my teammates from range for a few minutes (only had 3 guys left on our side when i died so ultimately futile but still) and left you legged so you couldn;t get back to where the fight was (had it been closer) leaving you set up for an easy kill and i'm the noob?

of course on skirmish i'm much less successful with them- tend to just try and be a spotter until lots of stuff are beat up- usually try to stick to conquest when i play them. but i don;t mind my Locusts

[Alaskan Nobody]

Tanar, on 17 February 2014 - 06:38 AM, said:

let's see- a 20 ton tin foiled armored mech kept your long range sniping heavy mech from shooting at my teammates from range for a few minutes (only had 3 guys left on our side when i died so ultimately futile but still) and left you legged so you couldn;t get back to where the fight was (had it been closer) leaving you set up for an easy kill and i'm the noob?

Of course you are!
Everyone knows the Elite Gamer Pilots^tmDrive Victors!

Very well done with that by the way - sounds like it was fun.

[IraqiWalker]

Tanar, on 17 February 2014 - 06:38 AM, said:

shockingly i actually had some success 1 on1 dueling with the 1V (my worst of the three) this weekend. had 1MPL and 4MG (dropped it to a regular ML for an extra ton of MG ammo later in the day because i kept running out of ammo) on it. was trying the long sneak behind the enemy along the theta side on alipne and ran into a cicada doing the same from the opposite side (think he had dual ML/dual LL). we went at it and i manged to take out both his legs before he took out my torso. first time i soloed anything in one of those things. was also when i realized i needed more MG ammo- had like 200 rounds left when i was done.

then later on (also on alpine) was heading to sigma when i ran across a Victor(?)- dual PPC and triple AC2, ran around trying to stay within 90m for a few minutes nibbling away at his legs hoping to find some ammo there (cause trying to run against that loadout's range seemed a bad idea) or at least keep him out of the fight. eventually died but i took a leg with me! (no ammo explosion unfortunately) he got killed shortly after by a friendly Jager as it turns out we got stomped 12-3 or something like that. complimented the victor guy for a fun duel after i died only to see after i did so he called me a "F... noob.".

let's see- a 20 ton tin foiled armored mech kept your long range sniping heavy mech from shooting at my teammates from range for a few minutes (only had 3 guys left on our side when i died so ultimately futile but still) and left you legged so you couldn;t get back to where the fight was (had it been closer) leaving you set up for an easy kill and i'm the noob?

of course on skirmish i'm much less successful with them- tend to just try and be a spotter until lots of stuff are beat up- usually try to stick to conquest when i play them. but i don;t mind my Locusts

Great performance my friend.

On skirmish the 1V is a great crit monster late game, if you can survive that late. I love it when people complain about me being a noob in a locust without realizing I usually trade my 20 ton mech for at least 180+ tons of theirs. Being the lightest and smallest mech means that ANY trade you get into is in your favor, even if you both die.

[jper4]

IraqiWalker, on 17 February 2014 - 05:34 PM, said:

Great performance my friend.

On skirmish the 1V is a great crit monster late game, if you can survive that late. I love it when people complain about me being a noob in a locust without realizing I usually trade my 20 ton mech for at least 180+ tons of theirs. Being the lightest and smallest mech means that ANY trade you get into is in your favor, even if you both die.

i've never seemed to have made it that long in skirmish matches on mine. any kill in a Locust i feel more than covers my presence in the match with one. generally i just try to go capping til it seems hopeless on one side or the other.

but i use the same mentality on my mediums. go after a stray heavy and win or lose you've tied up/crippled or killed above your own weight even if you die during or slightly afterwards. and since mediums (oddly i do bad so far in the shadowhawks which many say are the best mediums) "are horrible" i just did so with an inferior mech so didn't "hurt" my side by dying.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Tanar, on 18 February 2014 - 09:59 AM, said:

(oddly i do bad so far in the shadowhawks which many say are the best mediums)

Shadowhawks are the Stalkers of the medium class - a LOT of firepower potential - but maneuvers like 3 month old roadkill.
(their torso-twist is weak enough, that if anything Blackjack or shorter gets right up next to you on level terrain, you cannot hit it with your torso-weaponry)
As such If you play your mediums on the more maneuverable side, Shawks are going to give you trouble.

[jper4]

Shar Wolf, on 18 February 2014 - 01:41 PM, said:

[/size]
Shadowhawks are the Stalkers of the medium class - a LOT of firepower potential - but maneuvers like 3 month old roadkill.
(their torso-twist is weak enough, that if anything Blackjack or shorter gets right up next to you on level terrain, you cannot hit it with your torso-weaponry)
As such If you play your mediums on the more maneuverable side, Shawks are going to give you trouble.

that's probably what it is, my preferred mediums tend to be more hit and run higher speed twisty mechs (except the blackjacks) so the hawks seem a bit sluggish in comparison. i was waiting til i got them fully mastered (still have one or two elite unlocks in a couple of them) to see if that made a difference but this makes more sense.

[Chagatay]

I'll say this, real men pilot mediums...and the down right crazy bat guano insane people drive locusts. Locust should also come with a wheelbarrow to carry the pilot's jewels in because they are just that big.

I truly feel sorry for the pink misty remains of the locust pilots I have killed with PPCs....they are the TRUE mechwarriors.

[IraqiWalker]

Chagatay, on 23 February 2014 - 04:56 PM, said:

I'll say this, real men pilot mediums...and the down right crazy bat guano insane people drive locusts. Locust should also come with a wheelbarrow to carry the pilot's jewels in because they are just that big.

I truly feel sorry for the pink misty remains of the locust pilots I have killed with PPCs....they are the TRUE mechwarriors.

My Girlfriend ran into the room after hearing the THUD of me falling off my chair reading that post.

[Koniving]

AC/5 or ER PPC. Walking turret.

Vids.
Classic Locust.
AC/5 Locust (fast-forwarded to just before some action.)
ER PPC Locust
LPL, LRM, Streak rounds.
Locust Swarms.

Edited by Koniving, 23 February 2014 - 07:01 PM.

[Zordicron]

I played ERPPC locust for the better half of it's XP gain. Once I hit double basics, I took it to a striker/ninja loadout with small lasers, i think 2 ML and 3 SL or something. After tweak and double basics, it is pretty easy to keep a locust in ninja cover.

I havent tried a AC5. I stuck with SL and 4x MG, and played roulette. Sometimes I got 400 dmg and 2 kills, sometimes I got an AC20 to the face as some jager let out a desperation shot at my speeding bullet and got lucky.

Really though, the Locust is a pair of leg hit boxes with a laser or some MG in between. Overall, while success in a Locust makes you feel like Superman, I am glad mine are mastered out and I will likely only drop in one again if there is a hero version or to test waters in tonnage limits some day. Even then though, a trollmando is sturdier(lol) at the same 20 tons.

[RamsoPanzer]

Everyone can make good runs with any mech with any build playing PUGS, but that doesnt change that locust is an useless mech.

[IraqiWalker]

RamsoPanzer, on 23 February 2014 - 08:32 PM, said:

Everyone can make good runs with any mech with any build playing PUGS, but that doesnt change that locust is an useless mech.

I'm sorry, but you and I will disagree there. There are no "useless" mechs. Yes there are mechs that are disadvantaged, but with the right pilot, that's not going to be a problem. Also, considering that 90% of the community plays PuGs, whether in 4 comps or solo, or anything in between, the fact that it isn't "competitive" isn't that important. Not when you can do all the crazy things that you can only do with a locust.


I honestly can't wait for the flea to show up. That's going to be another fun light to mess with.

In my lance my 1V is referred to as "The Cleanup crew" all they need to do is slug a mech down, and make it run away wounded. Then they sic me at that mech, boom, it's down in 2 seconds.

The guide here is specifically for PuG games, but every tactic in there applies to competitive play, if anyone ever decides to run a locust.

Koniving, on 23 February 2014 - 06:56 PM, said:

AC/5 or ER PPC. Walking turret.

Vids.
Classic Locust.
AC/5 Locust (fast-forwarded to just before some action.)
ER PPC Locust
LPL, LRM, Streak rounds.
Locust Swarms.

Koniving, can I add you as a friend?

Edited by IraqiWalker, 23 February 2014 - 10:05 PM.

[Zenki Style]

That guy can call the locust a pointless mech but i'm pretty sure its not,I've changed the tide of many a game emediatly with my v, bait and run untill someone or several follow,get them to pull away from the group,Run back to the group pul some more/pepper open mechs, Its divide and conquer in the locust for me,Harrass,Anything to draw fire off my team mates or distract someone long enough to take some heavy fire to the back.

[aniviron]

"BnZ" as OP calls it is an incredible little tactic, even if I think his/her name for it is a bit silly.

That said, I'm not so sure that it really applies to the locust. It works great on the HBK 4P in this game (or did, pre ghost heat) where you get off one or two 40 damage alphas and then run like hell to cool off without slowing down to engage; this has also worked fantastically for me in previous Mechwarrior games with the Nova. The Locust, however, lacks the "boom" part of BnZ; I don't think a one second burst of machine gun fire counts as booming.

[IraqiWalker]

aniviron, on 24 February 2014 - 10:15 PM, said:

"BnZ" as OP calls it is an incredible little tactic, even if I think his/her name for it is a bit silly.

That said, I'm not so sure that it really applies to the locust. It works great on the HBK 4P in this game (or did, pre ghost heat) where you get off one or two 40 damage alphas and then run like hell to cool off without slowing down to engage; this has also worked fantastically for me in previous Mechwarrior games with the Nova. The Locust, however, lacks the "boom" part of BnZ; I don't think a one second burst of machine gun fire counts as booming.

BnZ is actually a WWII term for energy fighters that rely on climbing high, diving onto their prey, firing a salvo or two, then using the momentum and the kinetic energy from the dive to climb back up to their original altitude before the enemy can intercept or retaliate.

I am using it in 2D combat here with the locust, and yes, it is a devastating tactic.

[Mad Dog Morgan]

The only variant that I found truly atrocious (and unredeemable) in my experience was the incredibly limited 3S. The 3M and 1V perform marvelously well as Shoot-n-scoot mechs, and you can dish out a substantial amount of damage if you evade enemy fire well enough.

Except when you get slapped with an AC-20.

[Inflatable Fish]

I've had plenty fun with my Locusts, and I only wish the 3M was the phoenix variant, but oh well. I love these crazy little buggers for the looks, the run animations, even the seasickness from the swaying cockpit - and for the rare matches where you do 500+ damage and go "holy carp, did I just do that?" when you see the score sheet at the end.

my builds, fairly straightforward:

LCT-1V "Atom Ant" - record match 323 damage, 4 kills 3 assists

LCT-3M "Badger" - record match 553 damage, 2 kills 7 assists

[Acierocolotl]

I'm driving Locusts because I really just have to have the fastest thing on the battlefield. When MASC comes in, I'm peeling something off so I can fit it. When the Flea comes out, I'll have me some of that too. I've tried driving other mechs and they're just too agonizingly slow for me.

I've had decent success overall with my 3S by cramming 2x SRM4s--without Artemis--and a small laser in there (with an XL 190 engine of course), two tonnes of ammo give me 25 salvos. The idea is that if I'm close enough to score a proper laser hit, the missiles get fired as well and don't have time to scatter much if at all. It's a 16 damage pinpoint strike with the nuisance of a laser added--not much compared to heavier mechs but it runs cool even on single heatsinks and I can always do multiple passes if I'm ignored. It's the most "BnZ" Locust I have, and pinchy enough to peel off back armour in the blink of an eye.

People can write whatever longwinded essays they want about how ineffective any Locust is, and I just don't care. I'm having a good time, and I'm playing this for my enjoyment. Stats are for statisticians.

[SnagaDance]

Eldagore, on 23 February 2014 - 08:06 PM, said:

Even then though, a trollmando is sturdier(lol) at the same 20 tons.

Actually the Commando is 25 tons so you get another 5 tons to play around with (or to make you slower, which is probably the sentiment of the die-hard Locust pilots).