9 replies to this topic

[Deadly Gnat]

Hi,

So, I had another recent thread where I was asking if I should stick with Centurions and try to Elite them. So, I have decided to do just that and bought my second Cent, a CN9-AL. I built up the -AL to where I think it is pretty good and I'm happy with the results.

That said, my original Cent, the -A©, I'm not so sure about. You see.. this was my first attempt at customizing a mech in this game and I found out that the mechlab is wayyyy different then my old MW3 stomping grounds. I played around with it, spent too much money, bought things that were not needed only to sell them at a lose. Basically a noob wasting all my c-bills. I did nolt know about that nifty Smurfy's mechlab at that time and I'm sure it would have saved me many c-bills if I had (which I used for my -AL before spending c-bills).

I don't know if I totaly nerfed it, because I swapped out that fast (275) standard engine to shave tonnage.. which I think that engine is what seperated this particular model?? I don't know...

Anyway, I just typed in my CN9-A© into smurfy's lab for you to look at and maybe make some suggestion? It does .. OK... but .. I don't know, maybe room for improvement?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...56c2dd6a0fa0811

Thoughts?

[Roadkill]

Unfortunately, you probably should have kept that standard 275. The Centurion needs its speed to survive.

If you have the c-bills to switch back, I recommend several changes:

1. Drop the pulse laser and put on a second medium laser. Pulse lasers are just bad, even after the recent "rebalancing" that was supposed to bring them in line.

2.a. Drop Artemis. SRMs aren't terribly effective outside of 100 meters anyway, and with the speed that you can get from a standard 275 you should just close to 50 meters before firing the SRM-6s. Remember to chain fire them - the no-damage bug for SRMs seems to be triggered by too many hitting at once, so you'll do more damage by firing 3 in quick succession than by firing all 3 at once.

2.b. If you can't afford to drop Artemis, switch back to SRM-4s. You need to recover that tonnage for a bigger engine. The "stock" CN9-A(c) is a pretty darn good build, though I do prefer to run it with regular SRM-6s instead of Artemis SRM-4s.

3. Upgrade the engine back to a standard 275. That will let you put the one heatsink back into the engine, too, to protect it.

That's a pretty standard CN9-A zombie build. Very effective.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Deadly Gnat, on 11 March 2014 - 03:25 PM, said:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...56c2dd6a0fa0811

Thoughts?

Cut the armor on the arms - put it back into the legs.

Fastest way to kill a Centurion is to blow his legs off - so you want those as well armored as you can get them.

I was never overly fond of the zombie builds myself - but Roadkill makes a good point.
Any light mech with a Large Laser can simply run away from you right now and zap you with it till you are dead - and there would be nothing you could do about it.
IE: You either need far more speed - or a weapon with longer range.

[Deadly Gnat]

So, if I'm reading your instructions correctly, it should look something like this?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...57c47a135cf64f2

[Escef]

I'd go with THIS, but using the 250 over the 275 might be something you want to hold off on until you unlock Speed Tweak.

[Roadkill]

Deadly Gnat, on 11 March 2014 - 04:27 PM, said:

So, if I'm reading your instructions correctly, it should look something like this?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...57c47a135cf64f2

Yep. That's a very good brawler. You could even move some of the rear armor to the front, as the Centurion's maneuverability is very good so you really don't need that much rear armor. 12 per side and 16-18 in the center rear should be fine.

You could also ditch the AMS, which would let you have another ton of SRM ammo and half a ton of armor to max the legs and bump up the arms a tiny bit.

Escef's build is also very good, but like he said I'd hold off on the Standard 250 until after you have speed tweak.

[Hans Von Lohman]

If you are a new player, there are a couple things to know about mech design.

Always get double heat sinks. Those come first. Period. No discussion allowed. Get them.

Endo Steel chassis is also really good, and is better than Ferro Fiberous armor for saving weight. Only assault mechs that need a lot of heat sinks go with a standard chassis. The only time you can have space for both are usually on light mechs.

Ammo generally is safest to place in your head first, then legs, and the Center Torso. The one exception are light mechs, then don't put ammo in the legs.

Extra Light aka XL engines are a mixed results, but generally the smaller mechs need it for speed, and large mechs should go for standard engines to survive.

Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment aka "CASE" is generally worthless, as you put your ammo in legs and head.

Streak-2 missiles generally need to have a Beagle Active Probe to get a lock if there is any ECM, so those two go together quite a lot, almost mandatory.

TAG laser is needed to defeat ECM for Long Range Missiles.

Artemis is nice, but not a requirement for missiles. It helps Long Range Missiles get a lock on faster and helps tighten up the spread if you can also see your target (but the faster lock is still nice if you cannot), and even for Short Range Missiles a tighter pattern will let you do more damage if you are a good aim. But, Artemis is not always needed.

Edited by Hans Von Lohman, 12 March 2014 - 02:36 PM.

[Kyynele]

Hans Von Lohman, on 12 March 2014 - 02:36 PM, said:

Artemis is nice, but not a requirement for missiles. It helps Long Range Missiles get a lock on faster and helps tighten up the spread if you can also see your target (but the faster lock is still nice if you cannot), and even for Short Range Missiles a tighter pattern will let you do more damage if you are a good aim. But, Artemis is not always needed.

Also worth noting is that Streaks and LRMs share the same targeting system. So, if you only use streaks, you can upgrade to Artemis and your missiles will acquire faster locks without any drawback besides obviously costing some C-Bills. Unlike to SRMs and LRMs, Artemis doesn't add an extra ton and crit to SSRM launchers.

This is borderlining exploit - lorewise Artemis shouldn't affect SSRMs in any way - but it's good to know since everyone else uses it anyway, and it's unlikely to ever get fixed (because 2 different lock systems would likely get really confusing for mechs using both LRMs and Streaks.)

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

CN9-A(C) is what I've been running.

As for the AL, here is what I'm planning when I eventually get around to picking it up.

[Deathlike]

That's what I last tried before I sold it off (it didn't really get the rounds my other mechs would just to collect double XP for whatever reason):

CN9-A(C)

Just manage your damage and protection while the AC2 would allow you to shoot back at most people that outrange your primary weapons.