39 replies to this topic

[crossflip]

I'll get straight to the point. Are there any decent mechs for ballistic weapons OTHER than the Jager or Phract? And I don't mean assaults, I find them repulsive. If you can, please share ballistic builds on other heavies/mediums/lights? that have worked for you. I've already mastered the hunchies and I'm not a fan of blackjacks so those two are out of the question as well.

[TercieI]

crossflip, on 29 April 2014 - 07:49 PM, said:

I'll get straight to the point. Are there any decent mechs for ballistic weapons OTHER than the Jager or Phract? And I don't mean assaults, I find them repulsive. If you can, please share ballistic builds on other heavies/mediums/lights? that have worked for you. I've already mastered the hunchies and I'm not a fan of blackjacks so those two are out of the question as well.

Shadow Hawk 2H with 2 AC5 and a PPC?

[Durant Carlyle]

Locust-1V, Spider-5K, Firestarter-H and Ember, Raven-4X and Huginn, Cicada-3C, Blackjack-1, Shadow Hawks, Wolverine-6R, etc. I have seen each and every one of those with various ballistic builds. If you're good, you can make them work.

There will be some good Clan OmniMechs for ballistics as well.

[crossflip]

Forgot to mention I've also finished Shawks. Will be looking into an MG spider and maybe a wolverine. Are there any mediums (other than the aforementioned shawk) that can use multiple acs effectively?

[ThatBum42]

DakkaPult
DakkaJack

[luxebo]

Here's a list from top weight to bottom, with mediums capable of boating multiple ballistics underlined (besides SHDs).
LCT-1V
SDR-5K
FS9-H/E
RVN-4X/H
CDA-3C/3M
BJ-1/1DC
HBK-4G/H/GI
CN9-A/D/YLW
TBT-7K
WVR-6R
SHD-2D/2D2/2H/5M
DRG-1C/1N/5N/FANG/FLAME
CPLT-K2
TDR-5S/9S
ON1-K/M/P/V/VA

So one of the above basically. Narrowing a bit more to the mediums, the Hunchie, Centurion, and Trebuchet while they require lots of skill, they can all boat ballistics to your desire, but you got to negate their weaknesses or you won't do well. Blackjacks are really good with boating up the ballistics and energy, but they must be played carefully. Dragons have the similar problems as the Hunchie, Centurion, and Trebuchet, as they have giant CTs, but aren't bad if you know what to do (but if you don't then I wouldn't suggest it). Catapult K2 (although the others are way more dependent on missiles), Thunderbolts, and Orions are all well rounded in general and would do really well with ballistics, though they're heavy and play much more like heavies/assaults.

[Koniving]

Hunchback 4G.
Centurion D.
Trebuchet 7K.
Raven 4X is my favorite; pack an AC/20 in it. Had 3 kills today.

0 assists, meaning I killed everything I shot at.

1V Locust, AC/5.

Shots are of me. Screens by Lordred.
More to be found here from today's adventures.
Please give feedback there on Lordred's screens of me in action (he longs for it and critiques in general), critiques if possible.

Edited by Koniving, 29 April 2014 - 08:53 PM.

[crossflip]

The most interesting thing here seems to be the ballistic lights. I'm definitely giving those a go. I said I hate many heavies and all assaults because I don't like going below 70 kmph, so ballistic lights fit the bill perfectly. And like I said, done with hunchies and shawks, dislike blackjacks (basically small jagers from my perspective) and heavies are too slow most of the time. The dragon sounds promising, though I have doubts as to whether I could pull that off well enough.

Ty for the responses, guys.

[Koniving]

Dragon is difficult, but fun. All links lead to videos.
My two favorites since after the ghost heat punishments.

Weakened Dragon charges a Cataphract 4X's 4 AC/5s head-on and kills it, along with many other mechs to butcher at the end of its barrels.

Pirate Dragon leads charge against a defensive enemy and their base. Yarr!
Both are triple AC/2 Dragons.

Now the problem with AC lights is it's difficult to have good autocannons and still go above 81 kph. My AC/20 goes early 90s. My AC/5 Locust goes 120-ish. Though an ER PPC Locust pulls it off so much better with a full 180 XL engine and the maximum possible speed. But some examples. Ember/Firestarter high cal. and low cal. AC/5 Locust. ER PPC Locust. PPC Jenner. UAC/5 Spider. Average speed is around 90+ kph, so akin to stock speeds for most light mechs as intended by Battletech.

Edited by Koniving, 29 April 2014 - 09:53 PM.

[crossflip]

That's a lot of videos. Ty, good sir. Gonna spend some time going through your yt uploads.

[Koniving]

You're welcome. On some I skipped ahead already. But on the others feel free to skip around to find 'the good parts' as they are entire matches.

[White Bear 84]

crossflip, on 29 April 2014 - 08:36 PM, said:

Forgot to mention I've also finished Shawks. Will be looking into an MG spider and maybe a wolverine.

MG Spiders are fun.. ..not as much fun as the quad medium laser, qaud MG Ember.. ..what a beauty!

[Thunder Child]

Gonna have to try your 5N Build, Koniving.
I've always been a sucker for Dragons.

[White Bear 84]

Koniving, on 29 April 2014 - 08:47 PM, said:

Raven 4X is my favorite; pack an AC/20 in it. Had 3 kills today.

Expecting something like this? Could drop the speed to 100 for an extra tonne of ammo..

If you hit with every shot thats AT LEAST 560 damage. Not too shabby. You would have to pilot it well though, but would be one hell of a surprise for the enemy mechs...

[Koniving]

White Bear 84, on 29 April 2014 - 10:15 PM, said:

Expecting something like this? Could drop the speed to 100 for an extra tonne of ammo..

If you hit with every shot thats AT LEAST 560 damage. Not too shabby. You would have to pilot it well though, but would be one hell of a surprise for the enemy mechs...

9 DHS. Can't run that.

I personally use a 180 engine, 2 JJ, 2 SL, 3 tons of ammo, lots of armor but all of it channeled forward.

[White Bear 84]

Koniving, on 29 April 2014 - 10:25 PM, said:

9 DHS. Can't run that.

DERP!

Did not see that..

I find this build interesting, might have to give it a go - it has been a LONG time since I took my 4X out.. ..and now I know all your secrets!

Edited by White Bear 84, 29 April 2014 - 10:30 PM.

[Koniving]

Newest 4X AC/20 vid will go up sometime tomorrow. Beat up some Jagers and Banshees. Banshee with 1,000+ damage going up early morning,

Edited by Koniving, 29 April 2014 - 10:30 PM.

[Konril]

The Jagermechs, Cataphracts, and the specific Catapult CPLT-K2 are considered the best ballistic mechs simply because they are the only mechs in the heavy and assault categories that have their ballistic hard points in more than one body part. With everything else in those categories, all the ballistic points get concentrated in one location when present at all. That severely limits the space available to big cannons, so it's not really possible to mount more than one AC/10, Gauss Rifle, or AC/20 no matter how much weight is available for it. The BNC-3E does have a place in assault class ballistic, in that 3 AC/5s can be shoehorned into the left torso of the thing when you have a standard engine in the mech. So they can almost fit the ballistic power that the two ballistics heavies are known for.

But that said, there is a "meta" that's been going around that just got a little more powerful (relatively) since the AC/2 & AC/5 nerf. It's most commonly seen on the HGN-733C Highlander, but versatile enough to fit anywhere. But instead of giving you the build outright, I think I'll describe to you how it works and let you figure out how you want to work it.

Even post-nerf, AC/5s are incredibly powerful DPS weapons. They have a high rate of fire and produce very little heat. Which means with just two you aren't really using most of the double heat sinks in the engine. So, you can bump you DPS up a little further with a PPC or ER Large Laser. One PPC just about matches the heat dissipation of the required 10 double-heat sinks that came with your engine (assuming you upgraded to double heat sinks and have at least a 250 rated engine in that monster). Two AC/5s will just about fit in any mech that has two ballistic hard points in a body part. Since energy mounts are a lot more common, fitting a PPC or two is no problem most of the time. The extra PPC will bring the overall DPS closer to a 3 AC/5 build with the alpha-strike power of a 4 AC/5 build. So a mixed PPC and AC/5 build is unusually versatile.

Though honestly, I would usually prefer to upgrade to Ultra AC/5s should the space be available, since concentrating damage in the limited time snipers pop out from cover can be important. A lot of assaults use a second PPC just for that extra sniping power too, especially when they engage in jump sniping. But keep in mind you won't get more sustained DPS that way since you'll be really taxing the heat sinks.

With that in mind, you could look over Smurfy's data (http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/) and probably start getting some ideas on how to build you very own "meta" build.

[crossflip]

Konril, on 30 April 2014 - 04:26 AM, said:

The Jagermechs, Cataphracts, and the specific Catapult CPLT-K2 are considered the best ballistic mechs simply because they are the only mechs in the heavy and assault categories that have their ballistic hard points in more than one body part. With everything else in those categories, all the ballistic points get concentrated in one location when present at all. That severely limits the space available to big cannons, so it's not really possible to mount more than one AC/10, Gauss Rifle, or AC/20 no matter how much weight is available for it. The BNC-3E does have a place in assault class ballistic, in that 3 AC/5s can be shoehorned into the left torso of the thing when you have a standard engine in the mech. So they can almost fit the ballistic power that the two ballistics heavies are known for.

But that said, there is a "meta" that's been going around that just got a little more powerful (relatively) since the AC/2 & AC/5 nerf. It's most commonly seen on the HGN-733C Highlander, but versatile enough to fit anywhere. But instead of giving you the build outright, I think I'll describe to you how it works and let you figure out how you want to work it.

Even post-nerf, AC/5s are incredibly powerful DPS weapons. They have a high rate of fire and produce very little heat. Which means with just two you aren't really using most of the double heat sinks in the engine. So, you can bump you DPS up a little further with a PPC or ER Large Laser. One PPC just about matches the heat dissipation of the required 10 double-heat sinks that came with your engine (assuming you upgraded to double heat sinks and have at least a 250 rated engine in that monster). Two AC/5s will just about fit in any mech that has two ballistic hard points in a body part. Since energy mounts are a lot more common, fitting a PPC or two is no problem most of the time. The extra PPC will bring the overall DPS closer to a 3 AC/5 build with the alpha-strike power of a 4 AC/5 build. So a mixed PPC and AC/5 build is unusually versatile.

Though honestly, I would usually prefer to upgrade to Ultra AC/5s should the space be available, since concentrating damage in the limited time snipers pop out from cover can be important. A lot of assaults use a second PPC just for that extra sniping power too, especially when they engage in jump sniping. But keep in mind you won't get more sustained DPS that way since you'll be really taxing the heat sinks.

With that in mind, you could look over Smurfy's data (http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/) and probably start getting some ideas on how to build you very own "meta" build.

I've lurked here enough to know about the "2ppc/2 ac5" meta people keep talking about. What you described didn't sound very different. However, I don't want to try to maximize pinpoint FLD. My quest for ballistics is a simpler, nobler one. I just want moar dakka. No meta for me, tyvm. I just like the feel of autocannons ( AC/10 especially, love that reload clang).

However, the first paragraph in your post does bring across a point that hadn't thought of earlier. Few mechs have more than one ballistic hardpoints, and fewer still have them spread out between parts. The slot restriction kinda sucks.

[Revorn]

If you want a challenge, try an Cent with a Gauss.