In my mind,
THIS is the seminal X-5 build. 4MPLS and an XL330 with almost max armor. It was great before the recent massive tweak overhaul, its even more disgusting with the energy range tweak. You go super fast, and can do a surprising amount of damage with this thing. I've had higher damage games in this mech, than any other mech I've played. You have to serpentine like hell, be smart with your engagements, and pick your target's weaknesses wisely, but if you can pull it off, I feel its one of the most powerful, underrated, and under utilized mechs in the game. Sure the srms can be pretty potent and net you some kills, but if you can aim, you're going to flat out do better with 4MPLS I feel. I feel pretty lonely out there in my X-5. I really haven't seen very many in all my time playing, and even fewer(none) that run this build. 143 kph with speed tweak is more than enough, its much faster than a lot of lights even without speed tweak. I would rather take the XL330 and more armor than an XL340. If you want you can, of course, take armor out of the legs instead of the arms like I did, might be smarter, even the head instead of arms, but since you're pretty much a CRT TV with legs, people tend to aim for your center mass, or your legs, and with this mech, your mobility is your bread and butter. Oh, and MPL range module is highly, highly recommended. You can get away without it, since the new tweaks are so savage, but you will notice a significant increase in damage with the module, at least I did.
My whole thought process behind the MPL vs ML on this mech, I would say, is the way it affects the way you pilot the mech. With MLs, I feel, it forces you to face your target much longer than you really want to, especially with something that can potentially melt/get cored very quickly. With MPLs, you're able to circle and serpentine, peak and prod, very quickly and very efficiently with a minimal "vulnerability" time. I hope that makes sense. This mech is much better suited to guerrilla type warfare than brawling, which I feel the ML/SRM build kind of forces you to do to a certain extent. I mean this is all just personal experience. I find it hard to use those MLs to their full damage ability while running at max speed and ducking and diving in and out of combat, so to speak.
I also think of your strengths is that you're going to be underestimated, and its always to your enemy's folly. This is my favorite mech in the game, and I truly appreciate PGI not ruining it with tweak changes, but in fact making it that much better when it was already pretty awesome. I hope this helps some X-5 owners, and I hope it encourages them to dust it off, take it down from the shelf, and pilot it so I can see them on the battlefield. I'm never one to toot my own horn, but you're doing yourself and this mech a disservice if you don't at least give this build a fair chance.(Unless you truly are all about sniping people, in which case I don't envy you and you should probably play a better sniper mech, maybe something with ecm) Tell 'Em Steve Dave.
Here's some good cicada type discussion, hope its not too redundant, though I know some of it really is.
Edited by roscle, 21 December 2015 - 06:28 PM.
4
), but you are useless against anything that can catch up.
