19 replies to this topic

[cORPORATIZER]

Hey sorry if this is the wrong forum. I just got myself 3000mc points and as a beginner was wondering the best way to spend them? I was thinking of going Death's knell, 2 bays, and two days premium time to use when i got lots of play time available. I don't got much in the way of funds so i'm just looking if there was better way to spend them before I do.

[Flying Blind]

Hero mechs are ok but if you are new you probably don't know what mech works best for you and you could waste your precious mc on a mech you hate. I would suggest mech bays as top priority, you can never have too many there is no other way to get them and they have never been on sale. All the best mechs are the cbill varieties (except maybe Ember, Misery, dragon slayer) but you nee bays for them and you need 3 of one chassis to level them up.

New player help forum would have been better place but no biggie.

[cORPORATIZER]

oh, you need to own 3 of one chassis and level them? I thought i could level one sell it off and buy a next frame and so forth to unlock elite in a frame.

[Flying Blind]

Yes you can do it that way but you have to own each of them at some point and you can't spend xp on leveling a mech you don't own. I find number of mech bays to be the bigest limiter on free play mode. I think you need at least 6 bays, 3 for favorite mechs a d 3 for leveling.
If you only want to go to elite level then it is easier but if you want to master it helps a lot to own all 3 while you level them.

Ok to be clear: you have a CN9-A and you unlock all basics then sell it. Next you buy a CN9-AL and unlock all basics and sell it. Next you buy CN9-D and unlock all basics. At this time you can unlock elite efficiencies on the D model but not the others no matter how much xp you banked on them. If you only want the CN9-D out of the Centurions then no prob. If you want others then go buy them again

Edited by Flying Blind, 21 March 2014 - 01:54 PM.

[cORPORATIZER]

Ahh thank you Flying blind, I think i will go with my original plan but hang on to the last 525 to see if the extra bay is needed.

[One of Little Harmony]

If it were my first 3000 MC, I'd go for just mechbays. =)

Having a lot of mechbays allows you to be able to level multiple chassis at once, as well as having alot of mechs for variety of playstyle. Of course, it's nice to have one hero mech to grind for c-bills on when you're starting.

When you eventually get around to wanting more mechbays and stuff, I really recommend buying the 12000 mc package and spending it all on mechbays. It's really fun to keep all those mechs that you have mastered sitting around.

[Agent 0 Fortune]

I agree
Hero mechs are too expensive at 3000 MC (40 ton max) unless you are certain you want to play that chassis a lot. In fact with 3000 mc even a 65 on sale is out of reach.
If it were me, I like the "save it for mechbays" idea. Otherwise you will regret it every time you sell a mech.

premium time isn't a bad investment, especially if it stacks with cadet bonus... And you can put in the time to make it pay.

[Xoxim SC]

Probably too late, but don't purchase a hero mech if it isn't on sale. As Agent said, premium time is nice while having the cadet bonus, it's a massive c-bill boost, and will help you tremendously down the road.

[M0rpHeu5]

Mech bays is the only thing you absolutly need if you like this game and plan to stay, If you buy anything else you'll be out of MC in no time.

[TehSBGX]

Get 2-3 Mech Bays, then sit on the rest of it for a couple weeks. Put lots of thought into if you want to get a mech with MC, make sure it's something that'll fit your play style just right.

[XX Sulla XX]

Hero mechs are almost never worth the invest. As they said I would buy mech bays. Also its a good idea to keep three of each mech. In the future they will add more things you need to master on each one. Plus you loose money when you sale them. And the meta changes all the time so the best version many times changes also.

[Turist0AT]

colours are nice to have

[Ordellus]

cORPORATIZER, on 21 March 2014 - 01:15 PM, said:

Hey sorry if this is the wrong forum. I just got myself 3000mc points and as a beginner was wondering the best way to spend them? I was thinking of going Death's knell, 2 bays, and two days premium time to use when i got lots of play time available. I don't got much in the way of funds so i'm just looking if there was better way to spend them before I do.

I'd buy mechbays.

[Chemie]

one month premium time if you can dedicate a lot of playing time will go a long way on the grind mechanic; a core mechanic for PGI's game.

[Sandpit]

I would buy a mech bay or two and then find out what weight class and builds fit my play style, then buy a hero mech that fits that build. 1 month of premium time will also pay divdends. A hero mech PLUS premium time will get you to earning well over 100k per match on average and upwards of 200k if you find a groove and start doing really well

[BourbonFaucet]

In my opinion, these are the most worthwhile purchases, in order of their value.

1. Mechbays
2. Heroes if you research them first
3. Premium time
4. XP to GXP conversions

1 gives you the ability to work with multiple variants and earn those skills that make playing your 'Mech that much more enjoyable.

2 gives you a 30% C-Bill bonus even if you run out of premium time, good if you go long periods without buying MC. I do have a bias towards heroes though, I love them. A lot of the community would tell you premium time is better.

3 gives you 50% more C-Bills and 50% more XP which stacks with the hero bonus. Also, the 30 days of premium time seems to be the "best value", but that's most of your 3000

4 you can leave alone until you have a mastered chassis with lots of extra unusable XP. This will let you skip the grind and gain access to a good module, like seismic, sensor range, target info, and even target decay if LRMs and streaks catch your attention.


Hope my advice helps.

[LowSubmarino]

Flying Blind, on 21 March 2014 - 01:49 PM, said:

Yes you can do it that way but you have to own each of them at some point and you can't spend xp on leveling a mech you don't own. I find number of mech bays to be the bigest limiter on free play mode. I think you need at least 6 bays, 3 for favorite mechs a d 3 for leveling.
If you only want to go to elite level then it is easier but if you want to master it helps a lot to own all 3 while you level them.

Ok to be clear: you have a CN9-A and you unlock all basics then sell it. Next you buy a CN9-AL and unlock all basics and sell it. Next you buy CN9-D and unlock all basics. At this time you can unlock elite efficiencies on the D model but not the others no matter how much xp you banked on them. If you only want the CN9-D out of the Centurions then no prob. If you want others then go buy them again

Haha yeah...with my 4 mech bays it was goddamn insanely expensive to master all the mechs i wanted. Still, with only 4 bays I have mastered the Raven, Stalker, Victor, Cataphract and Shadowhawk. But I would agree. If I would decide to spend mc, which i wont hehe, then I would definitely pump it into mech bays and mech bays only.

It works with only 4 bays but it is expensive and I always ever have 2 saved spots for my 2 favorit mechs. The rest i use to either try out new mechs or master them. But I have so much cbills that I could probably buy 20 mechs and still have more than enough. So I don't mind really.

What helps is that there simply aren't that many mechs that I am dying to play anymore. I tried about 75 % of the available mechs but either they play too similar to the mechs I like, are inferior or simply didnt impress me enough. I love the Shadowhawk and Stalker as well as the Cataphract. Occasionally I drop in the Victor or Raven but lights are not so appealing to me anymore as I like mechs that can theoretically take on any other weightclass. Lights just get destroyed by my Shadowhawk so quickly...it isn't even funny anymore. I don't get a thrill out of killing them anymore cause it requires no skill. They just dont have a chance.

Moreover, maps like frozen city, river city or forest colony are designed for heavy hitting mechs. There is nothing to scout and covering great distances is irrelevant in skirmish. On small maps lights are forced into brawls and can't easily disengage without potentially running into other enemies. Skirmish + small sized maps render lights an inferior option which is better filled with other weight classes.

But back to topic. Get mech bays. If there would be more really awesome mechs that feature a unique or special playstyle I would maybe eventually be tempted to get a few mech bays. As of now I buy and sell mechs a few times a week so I can play what I want. Guess it's good to have tons of cbills hanging around hehe.

Oh and btw don't buy Death's Knell man. Get one of the great mechs e.g. Shadowhawk, Jaeger/Cataphract or Stalker. If you definitely want a light mech I would go for Jenner or Firestarter. The Raven used to be good but they crippled the Raven's legs and it now dies to better desinged lights such as Jenner or Firestarter.

My top recommendation would be the Shadowhawk 2D2. Absolutely great mech. if you get some skill with it you can become a godlike entity on the battlefield. Just like me! :-P

Edited by oneda, 24 March 2014 - 07:17 AM.

[Straylight]

I picked up an Ilya and a couple of 'mech bays from my first MC purchase, but I was able to catch the Ilya on sale. I'm still sitting on 2200ish MC because there's nothing else I really want. I got the Ilya to grind cash, which it's very good at, even if not a lot of fun to play.

oneda, on 24 March 2014 - 07:10 AM, said:

Moreover, maps like frozen city, river city or forest colony are designed for heavy hitting mechs. There is nothing to scout and covering great distances is irrelevant in skirmish. On small maps lights are forced into brawls and can't easily disengage without potentially running into other enemies. Skirmish + small sized maps render lights an inferior option which is better filled with other weight classes.

Funny, those are some of my favorite maps to drop in a Light on. Cramped, dense maps like that don't force me to brawl with the big, slow things... they force the big, slow things to brawl with me.

I suppose if your philosophy is to win or lose as fast as possible, then yes, Lights are useless on small maps... but if your philosophy is to win or lose as fast as possible, you're not playing Lights correctly. I know I've played a good game when the match times out and people on both sides are yelling at me in chat; my team because I'm "wasting their time" and my opponents because I've reduced them to table-flipping, keyboard-smashing rage at my unwillingness to "play right" and give them the easy kill they think they deserve. Any kills I've racked up at that point are just a bonus.

[IceCase88]

Premium time would probably be your best investment. At least it will be the most bang for you buck. Premium time and some mechbays. If you are looking at hero mechs I would suggest the Oxide, if you like Jenners, or the Ember, if you like Firestarters. I would highly recommend the Oxide of the two. It is a cash cow! When I am grinding cbills I always use the Oxide. 4 SSRMs (4 tons of ammo), BAP, and 300 XL engine. It is a damage and assist machine which will score you the most cbills. Plus you will get the counter ECM assists in addition to tons of spotting assists. You won't rack up a ton of kills usually because of the SSRM hit mechanic. Sometimes you will and sometimes you won't. I own 8 hero mechs and it is my go to for cbill grinding. I cannot recommend the Oxide enough. The metawarriors will tell you it sucks but my cbill account will do the talking. Oxide plus premium time is money in the bank.

[LowSubmarino]

Straylight, on 24 March 2014 - 09:46 PM, said:

I picked up an Ilya and a couple of 'mech bays from my first MC purchase, but I was able to catch the Ilya on sale. I'm still sitting on 2200ish MC because there's nothing else I really want. I got the Ilya to grind cash, which it's very good at, even if not a lot of fun to play.


Funny, those are some of my favorite maps to drop in a Light on. Cramped, dense maps like that don't force me to brawl with the big, slow things... they force the big, slow things to brawl with me.

I suppose if your philosophy is to win or lose as fast as possible, then yes, Lights are useless on small maps... but if your philosophy is to win or lose as fast as possible, you're not playing Lights correctly. I know I've played a good game when the match times out and people on both sides are yelling at me in chat; my team because I'm "wasting their time" and my opponents because I've reduced them to table-flipping, keyboard-smashing rage at my unwillingness to "play right" and give them the easy kill they think they deserve. Any kills I've racked up at that point are just a bonus.

Lights are definitely fun...I myself played them a lot. My first mech was the raven 3l and i played it well beyond the impossible leg nerf.

But I was mostly referring to my encounters with lights when running the shadowhawk. And as I said lights are too easy targets. In about one third of the encounters a light gets too close to me and tries to run while I shoot 3 volleys of 4 ssrms with a couple of lbx shots and the light is gone. The rest of the encounters they manage to evade me after I turned them into red/cored piles of metal so they are basically dead mechs running. It just felt that a medium (or other weight class) would stand an infinitely better chance at hurting me or even killing me.

In a couple hundred games with the shadowhawk it just seemed that any other weight class would be able to contribute more effectively on small maps. On larger maps I have seen able light pilots using long range weapons or simply to scout and get locks. Maybe most light pilots just dont know how to properly fill the role and thus give the impression that other weight classes are more effective. At least that was my impression.