20 replies to this topic

[Ghillie Dhu]

So I'm looking for a new ride, any suggestions ?
It should be a medium for good speed / weight, around 90-100 kph.
It should have the ability to jump jet .
It should have mix of the three weapon types to help with heat management .
I know it wont have ecm , well because ... well because ... that would make sense.

So what are my options ?

[crossflip]

Ehhh... Shadowhawks are decently fast and have great hardpoints and JJs. They're basically the best mediums in terms of hardpoint placement and utility. There's very little you can't put on a shadowhawk. I personally don't like them, but they seem to fit your bill.

[SnagaDance]

Right. Griffins and Wolverines are regarded as basically the same mechs as ShadowHawks by most people, and of the 3 the Shads are regarded as having the best hardpoints (though the Griffin has the best cockpit view, maybe that's why I still see a lot of those, Wolverines on the other hand? Desperately rare).

Disregarding the 55 ton trio there's the Trebuchet at 50 tons but that one is regarded as being too big a mech, so you're really easily hit.

And of course there's the 45 ton Blackjack. I've seen people make good use of that mech, especially the Ballistics variants, the all energy one not so much.

[I C Wiener]

The Blackjack has lost a lot of its appeal due to the recent nerfs for smaller AC's imo.

[Scurry]

Out of the mediums, Blackjacks, Trebs, Shads, Griffins and Wolverines have jumpjets.

Out of those, only Shads and Wolverines have a mix of all 3 weapon types.

[Buckminster]

A big problem with the Griffins and Wolverines is hard point layout. The tend to have a lot of their hardpoints in a single arm and the other hardpoints tend to be in a single torso, which makes it very easy to limit their effectiveness. The Shadow Hawk has a large variety, and they tend to be mounted all over.

The Shadow Hawk also has the advantage of 5 variants, but I think the Griffins and Wolverines will get more soon.

[Water Bear]

Hmm that's a tall order. If you want to have that speed with lasers, ACs, and missiles, the SHD is probably your best (and maybe one of the only) options. These mechs are very good and very common; Far more experienced and knowledgeable players than me have posted many of the best SHD builds on this forum already.

Having said that, Blackjacks are slow but surprisingly fun. They have the arm crit space (due to lack of actuators) to mount an AC/20, and pop-tarting with a 20 is like drinking with a 40 -- you do it for the funsies (and it is fun). It's also pretty durn good. The BJ-3 (the energy chassis) seems to work for me best as it comes stock -- pop-tarting with 2 ppcs is really effective, plus it comes with DHS saving you that sweet 1.5 mil c bills. You can also mount 2 large pulse lasers and do something like the AC/20 build out to 350 meters, but I couldn't get that to work.

IIRC the only jumping Wolverine (another fav chassis of mine) is the 3-missile chassis. On mine I have an XL w/ ~90 kph, 2 er larges, and 3 lrm 5's with a tag laser in the face. A fun build, but lacks autocannons and dies immediately in close quarters combat.

The only medium I don't own is the Griffin but that thing looks good. The most appealing build to me uses medium lasers and LRMs + TAG as a medium range brawler. That could be a really good chassis if you like the mobility, and it could be easy to use since it doesn't require you to get extremely close to the enemy or rely on pop-tarting.

Edited by Water Bear, 12 May 2014 - 04:53 AM.

[OznerpaG]

the cents are a solid chassis with lots of options - after i got the free one a couple months ago i leveled 3 more and enjoyed it

they don't have missiles, but my fav medium is definitely the blackjack - you likely need a little more finesse with them since they are slower (except the 1X), but having every single one of your weapons mounts at cockpit level (the only mech that has that layout) makes staying and firing behind cover a breeze, and they are pretty maneuverable. the BJ-1 was fun, but once i strapped myself into the BJ-1X i was hooked and it was my go-to mech for over 3 months/300 games

Edited by JagdFlanker, 12 May 2014 - 07:50 AM.

[The Trumpet of Gabriel]

I love my Wolverine 7k with a large pulse 2 medium lasers, and 3 srm 6's. It goes ~97kph with an xl 300, has JJ, and is very heat efficient if you don't alpha too often.

The 6R has 3 missile slots 1 energy and 2 ballistic hard points. It also has JJ and is very maneuverable.

The 6K is the only flightless Wolvie, but with 4 ml in the right arm, has the punch of an ac 20, plus the mouth laser and a missile rack.

Edited by Sword of Morning, 13 May 2014 - 07:33 AM.

[ReXspec]

Shadow Hawk, Griffin or Wolverine.

[BloodOmen]

crossflip, on 11 May 2014 - 11:16 PM, said:

Ehhh... Shadowhawks are decently fast and have great hardpoints and JJs. They're basically the best mediums in terms of hardpoint placement and utility. There's very little you can't put on a shadowhawk. I personally don't like them, but they seem to fit your bill.

Just my first thought.
Sir you are looking for a Shadowhawk !

[MortVent]

The shadowhawk, don't really pilot them myself. Mostly use griffins and catapults as my rides.

They meet all your criteria, the griffins are nice but lack any ballistic variants at this time

[mailin]

I'll throw in another vote for the Shadowhawks. Great mechs, very versatile, mine go between 98 and 113 kph, have jump jets and even with XLs they are very difficult to take down.

[Jody Von Jedi]

Ghillie Dhu, on 11 May 2014 - 10:38 PM, said:

So I'm looking for a new ride, any suggestions ?

So, don't leave us hanging, what did you go with?

I really like Blackjacks. just no missile hardpoints. There should be a hero variant coming out soon, I suspect it will have missile hardpoints just so it's different than all the others. Just like they did with the QKD-IV Four with ballistics.

Jody

[Buckminster]

mailin, on 16 May 2014 - 05:27 AM, said:

I'll throw in another vote for the Shadowhawks. Great mechs, very versatile, mine go between 98 and 113 kph, have jump jets and even with XLs they are very difficult to take down.

Another nice thing about Shadow Hawks is that you can make effective SHS builds. Certainly - they'll do better with DHS, but until you get the 1.5 million to make the upgrade, they're still very usable.

[Ruccus]

I C Wiener, on 12 May 2014 - 01:01 AM, said:

The Blackjack has lost a lot of its appeal due to the recent nerfs for smaller AC's imo.

Yes, since the nerf I've pretty much scrapped my dual AC5, dual UAC5, and dual AC2 setups in favour of my AC20 build, though the AC20 Blackjack can be a beast. The AC10 and LB10X builds are still serviceable but not as fearsome on the battlefield as the big AC20. I've tried the new Gauss with limited success (the old Gauss was my bread-and-butter) but I just feel I can't throw enough shells out quickly enough to get through enough ammo to justify spending 18 tonnes of my loadout on it when I regularly end up with around a tonne or less of ammo left on my AC20. The dual LPL build and dual ERLL build still work fine as well, and on a cold map you might be able to make dual PPCs work (though if you set up a dual PPC build and drop on Tourmaline, Therma, or Caustic, good luck because you're going to need it Edit: build works on hot maps; see thread discusson below).

The Blackjack seems to have been hit pretty hard by all the weapons nerfs: dual ER PPC/PPC, Gauss Rifle, dual AC2, dual AC5, dual UAC5 were all viable builds at one time, but now the AC20 is the most competent ballistic build and usually works a bit better for me than the 2xLPL or 2xERLL builds (though in a long range duel I have put up some good numbers with the 2xERLL).

Edited by Ruccus, 19 May 2014 - 02:22 PM.

[Modo44]

Funny, my 2xPPC+2xML and Gauss+4xML builds remained unchanged.

[n r g]

Ghillie Dhu, on 11 May 2014 - 10:38 PM, said:

So I'm looking for a new ride, any suggestions ?
It should be a medium for good speed / weight, around 90-100 kph.
It should have the ability to jump jet .
It should have mix of the three weapon types to help with heat management .
I know it wont have ecm , well because ... well because ... that would make sense.

So what are my options ?

shadowhawk

[Ruccus]

Modo44, on 19 May 2014 - 12:41 PM, said:

Funny, my 2xPPC+2xML and Gauss+4xML builds remained unchanged.

I mentioned limited success with my Gauss build, I just feel the tonnage is now better spent on the AC20 (your results may vary).

As for the 2xPPC build, you're telling me you don't have overheating issues on the hot maps?

Edit: Here's my 2xPPC build; the MGs and SLs are just for mechs that get inside 90m. Numberswise the cooling looks fine (my AC20 build is 46% efficiency) but I find it spikes way too quickly on a hot map.

Edited by Ruccus, 19 May 2014 - 01:00 PM.

[Modo44]

Both Gauss and dual PPC provide the Blackjack with the crucial ability to not get shot easily while providing serious fire support. It is pretty small, yes. However, the arm angles and low armor become a liability up close.

No, a mech with 56% cooling efficiency does not overheat easily. You only really want to be firing PPCs, you bring MLs as backup.