Posted 27 February 2014 - 02:30 AM
Hello,
I've played the hell out of the Ember, FS9-H, and FS9-K (hey, they're fun). I'll describe some typical tactics, and I'll give you some pointers as to the things that either partially or completely countered me. It's not exactly intuitive, but bear with me.
The first thing that you'll want to note is that the Firestarter has a fair bit more survivability than other lights but are slightly slower - this matters. It ends up playing more like a very light medium mech than a light, with the exception of the jumpjets.
The second thing you'll want to note is that it has arms. These are poorly-armored compared to the rest of the mech (as arms often are), and the majority of the weapons are situated there. The one exception is the Ember, which has half of its weapons in its torsos - but these are all ballistic.
The third thing you'll want to note is that it has a relatively wide profile, as it basically looks like a miniature Atlas.
All right, so typical tactics. Your typical successful Firestarter will never initiate a fight. He can't alpha strike you down (heat issues), he can't get away from other lights, and he can't survive a missile volley. This means that he's going to hover around his teammates and act as a flanker or backstabber. He's going to attack you in the sides/back and whittle you down rather than go for the throat, and he's going to run behind obstacles instead of trying to circle-strafe you. Machinegun-wielding variants (Ember being the most noteworthy) are going to try to be more like vultures and go in for the kill when your armor is depleted due to the wonderful bonus critical damage. Once he gets your attention and you start turning toward him, he's going to run straight at you, jump over your head, spin around and shoot you in the back - and then while you're turning around, his teammates have already killed you.
There are some fairly straightforward tactical counters to these methods. The first is a typical anti-light tactic: stand with your back to the wall. If he tries to run around you or jump over your head, he'll just ram into the wall and you get free hits. The second tactic is particular to the Firestarter: shoot his arms off. It's easy with LRMs and SSRMs, moderate difficulty with ballistics (wait for the right moment; the arms don't take much) and SRMs, and hard with lasers. This doesn't work well with other lights because most of their weapon are in their torsos. The Firestarter has a decent amount of armor in its torso sections, so that's probably your worst choice. If he's being a dodgy twerp and you can't knock his arms off, sweep his legs and disengage - eventually you'll wear him down.
What is the Firestarter good against? Heavies, assaults, and LRM boats of all flavors - provided that they aren't dropping their LRMs on you, of course. A Firestarter's moderately high firepower combined with moderately high agility and speed mean that they can successfully dodge slow mechs' attacks/movements while simultaneously doing enough damage to be a threat. Lasers are not particularly effective because the Firestarter can spin around/jump/etc to spread out their damage on the occasions that you do hit, and he's got enough armor to soak it up.
What is the Firestarter neutral against? The Spider. They have a hard time hitting each other. It's one of the most frustrating and simultaneously boring 1-on-1 battles you can fight. PPCs are also generally neutral; they are effective if you can hit, but hitting with them is somewhat difficult.
What is the Firestarter weak against? Well, first, as other posters have mentioned - Firestarters don't like SSRMs. They aren't immediate death for the Firestarter, however, because they have enough armor to survive a few missiles. Against slow mechs with SSRMs: once he finds out that you have SSRMs, he'll avoid you and shoot you from out of range once your attention is drawn to someone else. Against medium mechs with SSRMs: he will avoid you like the plague, because you are agile and can keep him in range long enough to blow his legs off with your ballistics (most likely scenario). Against fast mechs with SSRMs: he will cry and hide behind his company's Atlas - if he can. Firestarters are also not particularly fans of ballistics; they often have fast refire rate (i.e. decent accuracy) and concentrate damage so they tend to blow arms (and sometimes legs) off.
What specific mechs should I take to get killed by a Firestarter? Stalkers, Dragons, Cataphracts, most Highlander builds, most Atlas builds, most Victor builds, and most Catapult builds. If it's big and doesn't carry SSRMs, the Firestarter has an advantage. AC/20 builds are a special exception - a lucky hit can ruin the Firestarter's day, so they can be effective if used correctly.
What specific mechs should I take to beat a Firestarter? Kintaro, Shadowhawk and Jenner. The Kintaro is the slowest of these by far, but it carries many SSRMs that it serves as a very effective bodyguard; stand near your heavier mechs to ward of Firestarters and other lights. The Shadowhawk is an opportunity exploiter - you're slow enough that the Firestarter can keep away from you, but you carry enough firepower that you can sheer off a leg in one salvo. Shadowhawks make good bodyguards, like the Kintaro, but are also capable of hunting down Firestarters who aren't actively targeting them. The Jenner deserves a special mention. If you're in a Firestarter and you see a Jenner with missiles, run back to your teammates and beg your teammates to kill him with/for you (ideally, another Jenner with missiles). He's faster than you, he's got jump jets (unless he's the Oxide, in which case you're even worse off), he's incredibly hard to hit with your lasers and machineguns, and he's got SSRMs. He doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And he absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. Other similar mechs fall into these three categories too (X-5 is more like a Jenner, Wolverine and Griffin are more like a Shadowhawk, Trebuchet is more like a Kintaro - different variants vary, of course).
When I'm playing my Firestarters, I cheer every time I see a Jenner die. Even if he's on my team.
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