30 replies to this topic

[wanderer]

Mind you, even a "small tube" design can salvo enough rounds through if there's enough of them.

A 4-tube launcher for an LRM 15 is 4-4-4-3. Two of them fired together end up 8-8-8-6, so my Cataphract can at least cut into modest amounts of AMS flak. The balancer is that smaller "streaming" shots deal more focused damage, but are more vulnerable to AMS countermeasures in turn- which lets a 'Mech with lots of smaller tube hardpoints actually deliver a surprisingly efficient punch, as they can still put enough missiles in the air at once to overwhelm AMS, but the "cloud" is a much more concentrated punch. The Kintaro or Catapult-A1 are excellent examples of this strategy.

[mailin]

I go the other way with my Stalker 5M. I have 5 lrm 5s (with 2160 missiles), no artie, a TAG, BAP, and 4 mlas (I think). I chain fire the lrms for constant rain. This has several effects. 1) It forces the enemy to blow through their AMS ammo. Also, when they hit, which they do a LOT even when the enemy has AMS, they create constant chaos for the pilot. (Between flashes and cockpit shake.) Also, I don't feel guilty firing on lights because I'm only firing 5 lrms per volley, and typically some will hit every volley. Also, with the ability to dumb fire lrms, I can lay down what is essentially suppressing artillery in an area and deny potential fire lanes while my team mates work to get me renewed target locks. Also, by chaining my lrm 5s, I am better than heat neutral. The only time I have heat issues is when I need to fire my medium lasers a lot. The last advantage is longevity. I have sometimes run out of lrms, but pretty infrequently considering the number of drops I have in this mech.

All of these advantages come at a price though. That is that I lose the devastating effect of 40 or more lrms hitting a target at one time. However, used effectively, I think 5 lrm 5 on chain fire is a much more effective weapon. It works for me at least.

[Alaskan Nobody]

mailin, on 28 April 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

All of these advantages come at a price though. That is that I lose the devastating effect of 40 or more lrms hitting a target at one time. However, used effectively, I think 5 lrm 5 on chain fire is a much more effective weapon. It works for me at least.

One other advantage (that I didn't see, but only really skimmed)
LRM5 concentrate more, which means they are hitting more of the same locations (whereas LRM40s never will)

IE: It takes less total missiles to take someone down.

[Crotch RockIt]

mailin, on 28 April 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

I go the other way with my Stalker 5M. I have 5 lrm 5s (with 2160 missiles), no artie, a TAG, BAP, and 4 mlas (I think). I chain fire the lrms for constant rain. This has several effects. 1) It forces the enemy to blow through their AMS ammo. Also, when they hit, which they do a LOT even when the enemy has AMS, they create constant chaos for the pilot. (Between flashes and cockpit shake.) Also, I don't feel guilty firing on lights because I'm only firing 5 lrms per volley, and typically some will hit every volley. Also, with the ability to dumb fire lrms, I can lay down what is essentially suppressing artillery in an area and deny potential fire lanes while my team mates work to get me renewed target locks. Also, by chaining my lrm 5s, I am better than heat neutral. The only time I have heat issues is when I need to fire my medium lasers a lot. The last advantage is longevity. I have sometimes run out of lrms, but pretty infrequently considering the number of drops I have in this mech.

All of these advantages come at a price though. That is that I lose the devastating effect of 40 or more lrms hitting a target at one time. However, used effectively, I think 5 lrm 5 on chain fire is a much more effective weapon. It works for me at least.

I run my 5M similarly, except I'm using 3x LRM5's and 2x LRM10's (with four medium lasers as backup). You can chain fire them just like the 5x LRM5 loadout for an annoying constant stream of LRM's, or you can group them together for a missile alpha strike of 35 missiles. Plus, holding down the alpha button will essentially give you a fast fire LRM20 (the two LRM10's grouped) and a fast fire LRM15 (the three LRM5's grouped). Since the two groups have different cool down times, you will avoid ghost heat after the first volley, and the two groups won't fire within 0.5 seconds of each other again until the seventh volley.

[LauLiao]

I like my Battlemaster 1S. Don't remember the exact loadout, but basically 2xLRM 15, 1x LRM 10, Artemis, TAG, 3 medium lasers, 72 KPH, BAP. Moves fast enough to keep up with lighter mechs, has armor and the medium lasers pack enough punch to scare/fight off most lights, all 50 missiles launch in a single salvo. Also the high mounted energy HPs make self-tagging easier as you don't have to expose as much mech.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Crotch RockIt, on 28 April 2014 - 11:40 AM, said:

you will avoid ghost heat after the first volley

LRM5 are not covered by Ghost heat
Which is why a lot of people recommend grouping 5s and 20s together rather than 10s and 15s.

[Zigeunerskat]

My favorite missle Mech is still this Battlemaster 1S.

40 Artemis-LRMs in one salvo with a good cooldown, no ghost heat, good amount of ammo, benefits of a beagle active probe, a TAG, AMS if you get into long range duels with other LRM mechs, 2 Medium lasers as backup weapons, an ERPPC to amplify your long range firepower if you get line of sight AND to help you as a close quarter defense AND to provide some pinpoint damage, all while still having a good cooling system.

It´s not the fastest, but it doesnt have to be given the long range of its weapons. Another plus are the high energy mounts in the torso which are almost as high as the cockpit - you only need to expose a tiny bit of your Mech when looking over a hill to get the full benefit of line of sight Artemis, TAG and your ERPPC. Also, since Battlemasters are far from the META at the moment, you tend to draw less attention (read: enemy fire) than other Assaults.


Finally regarding modules. extended sensor range is nice to have, but advanced target decay is THE must have module for LRM heavy builds. They can run but they cannot hide...

Edited by Zigeunerskat, 28 April 2014 - 01:17 PM.

[Crotch RockIt]

Shar Wolf, on 28 April 2014 - 12:50 PM, said:

LRM5 are not covered by Ghost heat
Which is why a lot of people recommend grouping 5s and 20s together rather than 10s and 15s.

Gah! I knew that, but just had a brain fart. Thanks for catching it.

Zigeunerskat, on 28 April 2014 - 01:13 PM, said:

My favorite missle Mech is still this Battlemaster 1S.

40 Artemis-LRMs in one salvo with a good cooldown, no ghost heat, good amount of ammo, benefits of a beagle active probe, a TAG, AMS if you get into long range duels with other LRM mechs, 2 Medium lasers as backup weapons, an ERPPC to amplify your long range firepower if you get line of sight AND to help you as a close quarter defense AND to provide some pinpoint damage, all while still having a good cooling system.

This build actually does have ghost heat, though. 2x LRM15 fired together with 1x LRM10 will trigger ghost heat. As Shar Wolf pointed out, only the LRM5 isn't subject to ghost heat.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Crotch RockIt, on 28 April 2014 - 01:22 PM, said:

This build actually does have ghost heat, though. 2x LRM15 fired together with 1x LRM10 will trigger ghost heat. As Shar Wolf pointed out, only the LRM5 isn't subject to ghost heat.

I run a similar one to his on my BLR.
Yes it has GH issues, but...
1) It is pretty small
2) I usually don't fire the 10 when I fire the 15s.

I thought about downgrading to a 5 (and more ammo)- but felt the hitbox size wasn't worth it?
Yes - I am weird sometimes.

[Egomane]

I'm getting around the ghost heat on my Stalker, by seperating them in two weapon groups. The left side LRM-launchers and the right side ones.

I then trigger both groups between 0.5 and 1 second apart from each other. This way the opponent has to deal with the screenshake longer and my mech is staying cool.

Getting back to the five LRM-5 build...
Yes, I could see something like that for myself actually. The high reload rate, the tight spread of the 5s and the lack of ghost heat, together with the low tonnage, could make for an interesting Stalker-5M build. With 100 salvos it could spam the LRMs practically the whole match long. If the ammunition really runs out, you still have two large and two medium lasers, which is not to bad. On top of it, it is a zombie mech, as it can still fight, even with both side torsos lost.

[Mark of Caine]

My favourite LRM boat is also the Battlemaster BLR-1S.

My build is as follows:
3x LRM 15s on Chain Fire only (I almost never fire them all in one shot)
4x MLs
NARC in the left arm for better aiming
My top speed is around 68kph and fully armored. My Heat efficiency I think is around 1.2, but not completely sure.

I dunno if you are able to view this link:
http://marikgunfight.../post/last#last

I had my best match as an LRM boat using this build on Alpine, by NARCing targets that got close to 450m and then chain firing LRMs, and this is at the 160m/s change. With 2 others sporting LRMs on our team, I racked up quite the XP and Cbills.

Even got an MGA achievement too for dealing 1k+ damage (not to be confused with a MWO achievement).

PS. If the link doesn't work, please let me know and I'll add the screenshots when I get home from work.

Edited by Caine2112, 28 April 2014 - 02:00 PM.