4831 replies to this topic

[Tim East]

One minor bit of advice. It IS possible (though not necessarily advised) to attack an enemy head-on through the use of an irregular wave-shaped approach path. That is to say, when approaching a target that can see you, wiggle back and forth at irregular intervals while maintaining motion in a roughly 45 degree (on either side, so 90 total) arc toward your target. Most of the time, this will get you to your intended victim, though its instance of success is greatly reduced against more than two enemies.

Furthermore, unless your victim is alone, you will want to immediately disengage after at most two salvos using a similar withdrawal pattern. If your victim IS alone, you may elect to maintain engagement or not, at your discretion; many people here prefer not to engage light mechs directly; I am not one of these. In the event that an individual victim is joined by his friends, run away immediately, since avoiding fire from one mech tends to make you vulnerable to fire from another unless they are in VERY close proximity to one another.

Don't even try this against more than three mechs; they'd have to be monumentally incompetent to not shoot you on your approach, and don't get mad if you get nailed by an elite gauss sniper. Making them waste ammo is one of the reasons I developed this insane technique.

Short, short version: Get a super bright-colored mech so the enemy can see you two km away, drive like a drunk guy driving in GTA IV while his character is also drunk, laugh whether they hit you or not, and poke them in the legs as you pass. Have fun.

[Nightshade24]

Xoco, on 23 December 2014 - 03:48 PM, said:

Hi,

Question:
- How do you stand the lack of jump jets? The Locust feels so restricting!

The fact that I can run most likely to a location before a jumpjet mech jumps to that location is the main way how I stand it.

The other thing is that jumpjets is useless after the nerf to them recently. I do not think 10 meter in the air jump for some mechs with max jumpjets is worth it, I'll rather spend that 4 tons and slots on more pew pew and dakkas.

Anyway, speed. That's the only excuse I got.+

[That Dawg]

On a whim (namely won enough MC in the contest to justify it) bought the Bane.
Whoa..I've NEVER taken so much crippling damage from FRIENDLIES before, and in only 11 battles, got legged and team killed by...again..friendlies.
I'm on the fence about this mech, seemed like a good idea, and got my free week of premium (otherwise grinding these could be a task) I'm hoping reading the last dozen pages will help me out of what feels like a flat spin into the dirt.

The highlight was THIS; I now have the lowest damage for a kill out of anyone in my group. Granted, I got half the kills out of the entire team, so lets just look at it like...Bane kills 50% of enemies in entire match.
I named it breadstick, cause thats about how tough it is LOL

[IraqiWalker]

That Dawg, on 25 December 2014 - 02:57 AM, said:

On a whim (namely won enough MC in the contest to justify it) bought the Bane.
Whoa..I've NEVER taken so much crippling damage from FRIENDLIES before, and in only 11 battles, got legged and team killed by...again..friendlies.
I'm on the fence about this mech, seemed like a good idea, and got my free week of premium (otherwise grinding these could be a task) I'm hoping reading the last dozen pages will help me out of what feels like a flat spin into the dirt.

The highlight was THIS; I now have the lowest damage for a kill out of anyone in my group. Granted, I got half the kills out of the entire team, so lets just look at it like...Bane kills 50% of enemies in entire match.
I named it breadstick, cause thats about how tough it is LOL

Welcome to the club.

You've chosen the Locust, possibly the single hardest mech to get to work right, but it is also the most rewarding once you get it to work right.

I hope we can all help you get the hang of this wild bronco.

[That Dawg]

I'm >< this close to moving on, LOL
last match, 2 damage.
I'll finish reading this thread while waiting to get my 1M back.
Got mostly thru the basic skills in the 1E and just paid out some GXP to finish it off.

I DO need the locust for my CW drop, so I will keep the Bane. because. real money. ecm.
I am finding the 1M doesn't really need anything extra (out of box) to make it work.
stay out of trouble, keep up with the pack, lerm for assists. medium laser for damage, profit...well, profit like setting up a lemonade stand outside a walmart, but progressing thru the basics. Doesn't run hot per se, doesn't miss LRM if you're in line of sight. I am having problems hitting other peoples locks. About a 1/3 of my mechs have LRM's so I'm familiar with them. Just an odd quirk maybe.

Trying to figure out which one for #3

[Dagada Moor]

Dawg,
First off get rid of standard loadout. Put 4 med lasers or 2 med pulse and 2 small lasers on it and up the armour. It is all about tactics and speed with a Locust. Stay with pack like the 1M or flank with another light providing ECM and strike straglers or main enemy group and core a back out real quick.
It is my favorite hero! I was so glad when they put ECM on it. 3M is what you want for the third one. With quirks you can put 5 small pulse on them. Very deadly. I use to run 5 med laser but you need to be careful with heat. If you can aford range modules for small pulse and with quirks your range is like 187 meters I think. Oh yeah please run a XL 195 in them. Tim likes his XL 170 but to me 18khp more seems to make the mech last longer. Each to his own. Remeber drive it like you stole it!!!!!!:0000

[That Dawg]

I'll get the 3M, well, now, wth.
I DID scrap the two lrm5's, and replaced the medium with....

...a....


large pulse, and it feels much more respectable.
I shuffled the big block xl into the 1M along with the LPL
three STANDARD heat sinks, really dont see the need to go DHS just to finish this one off.
the one time (caustic) I got the warning, I just ran away till it cooled off.

[Neutron IX]

As a relatively new convert to the insanity myself, I feel your pain. Until the moment that it "clicks", it can be brutally punishing.

I certainly found myself questioning my own commitment to the Locust more than once in the early part of the grind. But, I will tell you this, when it DOES "click", man, is it fun.

One thing I will say that for me really was the most essential piece of the puzzle. Ditch the stock engine for an XL 190. Seriously. Every little bit of speed you can eek out of that thing can count. I know some more advanced Locust pilots like to work with smaller engines and bigger weapons, and I'm sure not saying that can't work, just that for me, once you start moving that fast, and getting the hang of where/when to move, you start noticing your scores/durability increase.

Also, that's not saying you still won't die spectacularly with a damage score of <10 in the opening seconds of the match from time to time, because sometimes, you probably will. But you'll start to see that happening less and less, and better and better games happening between the times it happens with greater regularity.

And that's when you get hooked.

[That Dawg]

One part, clearly is The Pug Life As you dont charge in, so often I'm the last of 2-3 then the last.
"just go ahead and die", "please end this" etc etc. Hard to justify dragging the game out another 5 minutes hoping to get more damage, when the final damage at this point is a couple hundred.

[redlance]

the chassis design makes me think of modern attack helos. definitely one of the coolest looking for sure.

[3xnihilo]

With the engines I think it is important to remember when you are starting out that speed tweak will make that 170 nearly as fast (as fast, faster than?) as the 190 pretweak, so it isn't as big of a sacrifice at that point. I have the 3s, 3m, and 1e and share an xl190 between them right now, but my plan is to get the 170 for the 3s eventually because it needs the extra weight for ammo/srms. I am also toying with the idea of 6sl and standard 190 for the 1e thanks to Shar Wolf pointing out on another thread that you can fit it in.

[Soul Tribunal]

You'd have to Play Minecraft to understand this. But I painted my Locust As best I could:

https://imgflip.com/i/fpbnl

-ST

[Ovion]

Soul Tribunal, on 25 December 2014 - 11:25 AM, said:

You'd have to Play Minecraft to understand this. But I painted my Locust As best I could:

https://imgflip.com/i/fpbnl

-ST

Don't play Minecraft, still get it.

It's so commonplace now, it's easy to know about it even if you don't.

[Tim East]

You're waiting for the Locust to "click" or whatever? The place where it did for me was when I geared my 3M to be a god of the skirmish. 190XL+5SPL=dead assault mechs. Only got better as I acquired modules and masteries.

Then I played it enough that I'm fairly confident about taking on pretty much anything solo but the 8SPL Firestarter and most medium mechs. And even those are fair game if I see them doing something that makes them look incompetent.

Show no weakness to the Locust, for it is made entirely of weakness. When you are used to driving a mech that is made entirely of weakness, it gives you an enormous advantage against strong mechs that have acquired weakness through damage or bad design since their pilots are likely not used to it.

/edit: Such a great mood! New record for me, once again in a Locust. Best match to date, in the Peanut Butter no less, which I had previously thought to be inferior to the 3M.





So very psyched now!

Edited by Tim East, 25 December 2014 - 01:39 PM.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Bulletsponge0, on 23 December 2014 - 05:40 PM, said:

you didn't ask me!!!!

Thought about sending a PM to you - and probably shoulda, but you were deployed when I looked.

Given that I have had a lot more practice playing the game than Gwilliy has lately - I shoulda had you two team up against me.

[Tim East]

Dagada Moor, on 25 December 2014 - 07:48 AM, said:

Tim likes his XL 170 but to me 18khp more seems to make the mech last longer. Each to his own. Remeber drive it like you stole it!!!!!!:0000

Actually, I didn't catch this before. I drive 190XL exclusively on my Locusts. It's Commandos that I don't mind trading speed for death-punching in.

No offence intended or received, just setting the record straight.

[IraqiWalker]

I'm glad to see this club grow. Merry Christmas everyone.

[Neutron IX]

IraqiWalker, on 25 December 2014 - 03:13 PM, said:

I'm glad to see this club grow. Merry Christmas everyone.

I believe this calls for the rest of us Locust pilots in this thread to stand on our desks and shout "Oh Captain! My Captain!".

Since you're clearly the John Keating to this particular Dead Pilots Society...

[Neutron IX]

Also, I think the 1M is seriously becoming my favorite of the three I'm currently leveling.

Somehow all the best games I've had in a Locust so far have been in that. It seems that now, in the other two, if I don't die spectacularly in the first few minutes, I can grind out a kill or two, plus several assists, at 170-230ish damage.

But with the 1M, if I don't die in the first few minutes, I feel like it's easier for me to break the 300-500 mark, with 2-3+ kills and several assists. Not yet consistently, but definitely done it more often in the 1M than any of the others.

I'm telling you, it's got to be my Davion spirit. The 1M knows we're on the same team!

[That Dawg]

Irony. The PB has been the LEAST favorite.
I'd like to toss the ECM to run more firepower (the others, who cares if you strip it, refit it, or try oddball builds- I LOVED the single LPL build, had some of the best last man standing games in it) but I BOUGHT the PB because it had ECM

@Rip, I never upgraded my 1M, 3 standard sinks, xl190 across the board. Never saw a need for it. Get behind them, peak over hill, lock as many as possible in as short a time to rake in scout bonus. Then just start getting assists.
I will say my overall KtD ratio dropped .3 points grinding these out. And I've NEVER been one shot killed so often.
keep moving. period.