39 replies to this topic

[Tereva]

I mostly play light mechs & my Stalkers. This is how I enjoy myself and do a killing most of the time.

I tried the trial hunchi a couple of times to have a taste of medium and decided that this wasn't for me : either too light or not enough.

Lately though, I started to notice the Blackjack. I find them tough to kill, pretty mobile and their high mounted weapons are a pain to avoid.

Since there is now one in the trial mechs, I decided to give it a try. My gosh what a blast !
Only 2 games in it, but each time I finished as one of the top damage dealers, got 5 kills already, and really enjoyed myself.
And best of all, all this, with a mech with 0 efficiency unlocked.

So what's the matter ?

Is it just another underrated mech (is it me of ppl tend to avoid shooting at Blackjack to concentrate on more important target ?), or is the Shadowhawk -supposedly the king of the medium - effectively even better ?


Shoot straight


Tereva

Edited by Tereva, 05 June 2014 - 07:39 PM.

[CMetz]

Blackjacks are often misunderstood. Many people view them as "baby jagers" when in reality they are a different type of mech entirely. I find that with my blackjacks I have great success using them as long range harassers with enough speed and firepower to close on heavier targets that they have softened. In short- I'm a big fan.

[Pekiti]

I drive mine like a Hunchback with jumpjets, and have a blast with it. Great mech, and the new Hero variant is pretty darn fun too.

[TercieI]

Mobility. Lethality. Delight.

<3 Blackjacks

[levitas]

Come to think of it, with the AC20 range nerf, is the 3xMLas + AC20 still the way to go on the BJ-1?

[TercieI]

solar levitas, on 05 June 2014 - 08:04 PM, said:

Come to think of it, with the AC20 range nerf, is the 3xMLas + AC20 still the way to go on the BJ-1?

I'm almost never shooting past about 300m, so it doesn't make much difference to me.

[DONTOR]

Ya I have no idea why BJs are so amazing to me (heehee) but damn are they incredibly fun or what. The hero is even insanely fun to pilot, probably a mix of ignored, heavy hitting, JJs and high mounted weaponry.
Once you go Blackjack you never go back.

[Scurry]

Well.....the Blackjack does have a lot of things going for it.

It's on the lighter end of the scale, so jumpjets give decent acceleration. The torso energy hardpoints are close together and close to the cockpit, so what you see is often what you hit with few convergence issues.

Although it doesn't have good straight-line speed, it's very agile. Its profile is also fairly small compared to other mediums, especially from the side (it's barely deeper than a Firestarter). It mounts just enough weaponry to be a threat, but most enemy pilots don't consider it as a threat.

All-in-all, it makes for a very potent pocket package.

But still, its weakness is its forward profile and lack of shield arms. In a close-range fight early in the game, a Blackjack will fold like wet tissue paper. Best to hit-and-run and later finish things off.

Actually, when you think about it, the Blackjack-1C is an uptonned Urbie. Slow for its weight class, mounts jumpjets, focuses on one big gun.

[DONTOR]

Terciel1976, on 05 June 2014 - 08:33 PM, said:

I'm almost never shooting past about 300m, so it doesn't make much difference to me.

I actually found the range nerf affected it alot, i pop and take shots at 500M and get around 12 damage now its like 2 damage, it was a pretty substantial nerf IMO.

[TercieI]

DONTOR, on 05 June 2014 - 08:48 PM, said:

I actually found the range nerf affected it alot, i pop and take shots at 500M and get around 12 damage now its like 2 damage, it was a pretty substantial nerf IMO.

I know some players do that, I just don't very often. Just style I think.

[Mott]

Terciel - and the Ransom's Corsairs in general - got me turned on to the Blackjack.

For too long, i was like many other pilots who just viewed it as too big and slow to be a good light, and too small and lightly armored to be a good medium.

In actuality it manages to do a stellar job of carving out it's own role entirely, somewhere between the two extremes.

It's profile is just so damn hard to hit at range, while moving at speed that most enemies always choose another, bigger, easier target first. I've often walked through a deathball untouched because i'm not perceived as a threat... despite my 42pt alpha that i can unload 3 times before overheating. lol

They're just.... <3

[Herbstwind]

If you did not play mediums as much as your other mech classes, then your elo in mediums is probably totally different (read: lower) than your elo for assault or light mechs, as each class has its own elo value.

This may contribute to your initial success in the class with a mech - in addition to what the posts before said

[Modo44]

Terciel1976, on 05 June 2014 - 07:50 PM, said:

Mobility. Lethality. Easy to kill.

FTFY.

I get where you are coming from, but the mech is not very sturdy. It only does well with bigger stuff around, since enemies tend to not focus you first. If you meet players who know to take out the most firepower with the least amount of effort, you are going to have a bad time.

[Mott]

Modo44, on 06 June 2014 - 05:29 AM, said:

but the mech is not very sturdy. It only does well with bigger stuff around, since enemies tend to not focus you first.

But this is the same problem for essentially ANY mech. I've seen fatlas get focused down just as quickly when left alone.

If you like to go solo and dive headfirst into brawls at the start of the match... then about 80% 95% of MWO's mechs won't work for you because they're all quite fragile when caught alone.

I'd never claim the BJ is some hercules that can weather some storm of beatings. It's simply one of the best team oriented chassis out there and can bring devastating pain when left untargeted and provide its pilots many, many, MANY hours of true fun, no matter how the matches go.

[Modo44]

Mott, on 06 June 2014 - 05:58 AM, said:

But this is the same problem for essentially ANY mech.

Let me make it clearer: The Blackjack is not very sturdy compared to other medium mechs that run at similar speeds with similar loadouts and roles. It will go down in many situations from which a Shadow Hawk or other 55 ton medium would walk away damaged but fine.

Edited by Modo44, 06 June 2014 - 06:02 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

I prefer my Blackjack with 2 PPC, 2 ML, 2 MGs. Very snappy and agile, great for corner shots and jump shots, dual PPC gives way more range and similar pinpoint damage to one AC20.

[Xeno Phalcon]

Ugh forgot about the stats wipe, well prior to everything getting scrubbed I think my BJ-1 still has the highest time played and matches played of all my mechs even though I havent played it in months (like, several months) I always enjoyed it and had the most fun using an AC20 on it (Wasnt even watching NGNG back then, so eat it phil.) and essentially used it like a jumping hunchback with a bit less speed (as I used a standard engine).

Its major drawbacks were speed (lack of) and very exposed sided torsos which makes using a XL on one riskier than most, there was also that SSRM home in on the ct thing we had for a awhile but thats been fixed at least -.^

I remember when blackjacks had massive weapons, were so much cooler then.

[Ursh]

Mastered 3 of them, considering buying the hero.

Really great mech, and very underrated in my opinion.

[DONTOR]

The reason it isnt as potentially tough as other mediums is because it has no arms to absorb damage with, and thats it. It has JJs and can roll damage very well otherwise.

[Celem]

Dont own a Blackjack and haven't tried the trial yet.

On the receiving end it's never something i'm thrilled to see. I'm a light mech harasser/striker in low ELOs, primarily Ember, and I must say I've been avoiding them until recently after a few facesplats. Just a day or so ago though I decided to have a go at one on it's own and lost a lot of the fear I had for this chassis.

First up the BJ looks like a little jaeger, which has a tendancy to cause me to peel off since I really hate fighting jaegers in my Ember, the Firebrand is even worse. Having controlled this twitch impulse it's just not as indimidating as it always somehow seemed.

Like Modo said above it seems a little fragile. The excellent high ballistic points become awful exposed ballistic points once you lose your ridgeline cover, while the SHDs and Cents are torso-twisting and spending shield arms you have your dps all waving in the breeze, It also seems easier to get behind the walker types with high chicken arms... I can actually stand inside your cannon muzzles and shots converge behind me. Rather a BJ than a AC/MG/Streak Hawk. Cents i'll eat either way.

The JJ does bring some fun. It prevents me ridge hugging quite so much as I do otherwise as it's not one of these helpless fatboys unable to lift their weapons to bear, but its not threateningly quick and pretty easy to shake.

Arrow seemed pretty resilient. Had a few scraps against them with an 8xml fs9-a and I couldnt bring it down, was a quality pilot though and I was boating energy in Mordor.

Edited by Celem, 06 June 2014 - 08:02 AM.