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1: Build towards a role: Generally speaking you aren't going to have the tonnage to be a jack of all trades, while you can certainly customize TOWARDS any role you'll either be very slow, or you'll not be able to deal enough damage to be effective with a platform built for a variety of systems. Its best to think about your strategy that you want to work towards and use it
Example roles can be found here, there are more these are just the ones that come to mind for new players looking for what might be good at what.
Skirmishers: Running fast and hitting hard without being a target. These can be lrmishers(faster LRM carrying mediums that should be carrying tags but don't really need artemis that keep line of sight at a preferred distance) like many Trebuchet builds or close range builds like the 4SP or the Yen Lo Wang
Brawlers: These mechs are built to be in your face and soaking (note: not always damage, especially because of your armor rating) enemy attention. The great thing about medium brawlers is that they can avoid as much damage as they can soak because of their speed. the Centurion 9A excels at this role when built properly, standing RIGHT in someone's face and torso twisting in time with their attacks. I enjoyed using a BJ-3 for this role also, jump-jetting over heavier enemies to stay out of field of view of their torso guns while popping down at them with pulse lasers.
Light Hunters: The bane of a light's existence is a mix of medium pulse lasers and streaks with a beagle probe barreling down on it at 100 KPH, these light hunter builds can also act as very annoying skirmishers against heavier units in a pinch but the lack of being able to aim streaks where you want them to go make this less dangerous and more annoying (unless they have pulse lasers mostly). Shadowhawks Kintaros and Cicadas are good for this.
The Flankers: The realm of Hunch-reliant HBKs and the bane of XL engines. The goal here is to use cover and lack of attention on you to aid in a brawl or induce maximum rage by not giving the enemy mech a chance to retaliate. You sneak around, and you flank. Look for distracted units you can get behind and deliver a devastating alpha to their back armor. These do not need to move as fast as skirmishers they just need to move fast enough to get to a position that makes them devastating. They mostly rely on their tanks to hog attention while they roll out enough to deliver a 48 point alpha to a weakened unit. These guys serve as vultures that prevent otherwise high damage builds from moving to the rear of their line and poking at things. These mechs relish a rear armor shot, and it can often spell doom for an otherwise fine Atlas that came to the wrong map quadrant. As previously stated Hunchbacks are great at this but Ballistic reliant Shadowhawks and Blackjacks perform equally as good.
2: RUN!: The great thing about a medium is that unless you're gloriously overstretched from your team and a situation is not to the liking of your build, you're not stuck. You can run away, and you want to make this decision quickly in an engagement: "Is this a situation where I will shine? Or do I need to **** and re-position." Is your lrmisher in a brawl? Is your streak spamming light hunter around too much heavy armor. Is that AC40 Jager glancing at you? RUN. But not far, just re-position.
3: The path of least resistance: Target your enemies, cycle through friendly targets, find weaker armor. Shoot the weakened spots, if there's no weakened spots: shoot side torsos. A lot of people run XL engines these days, some in builds that have no place using XL, make them realize their mistake and watch them explode from a couple alphas. Even if they don't, you take off the correct side torso and a looot of mechs lose a great deal of their arsenal.
4: Heat sinks: You're not a light you need heat sinks if you're boating energy. Sometimes you might feel like your mech is equipped more like a light and that isn't sufficient. Sometimes this is the case and sometimes you have MUCH MORE heat sinks then a Jenner can fit and still have all the JJs and armor it needs. This increases your DPS and keeps you from embarrassing mid-brawl shutdowns. Get your heat sinks on if you're pounding PPCs or pulse lasers.
5: Be helpful, save your pals: Sure you can run away, but that Atlas can't. Don't abandon him! If he keeps torso twisting and keeps his rear armor safe you can at LEAST make him soaking damage and getting torn apart helpful drilling enemy units that are too distracted to deal with you. These are where I get a lot of rear shots, and a lot of kills. At Best, you can work with him to surprisingly demolish a lance that came to the wrong map quadrant. Assaults are your best friends for most medium builds and sometimes they need you as much as you need them.
Editted for a Run on sentence that was bothering me
Edited by Krujiente, 13 January 2014 - 04:28 AM.
), or discover that you've juked while your teammates have jived (not so guilty, mostly), no amount of Durallex Manplate is going to keep you alive. The "craaaaazy(!!) survivability/insaaaaane firepower!" of an assault 'Mech is overstated on both counts. Being able to use a 300XL instead of a 350STD (fairly typical-ish engines for medium and assault 'mechs, respectively) saves one a great galloping buttload of weight they can sink back into weapons and ammo. I have a Battlemaster (plan) which includes three AC/2 and four medium lasers. I have a Shadowhawk right now that has 3 AC/2 and one medium laser. I think the Battlemaster may have one-odd extra ton of ammunition.
