18 replies to this topic

[cock a doodle do]

Firstly this is not a gripe . . . so any of you grumpy old men, hold your fire!
I cant afford clan mechs yet ... just forked out for some Black Jacks and premium time, so no cash!
But seems to me that clan mechs can, by the use of omipods pretty much carry any sort of weapon load out? Their weapons fire at longer distances, they do more damage, weigh less and to go along with this they have faster lighter and harder to hit engines ?

Is this right ?

If so what disadvantages do the clan mechs have that negate their strengths, just so I aware of these in battle.

I must point out I'm new-ish to the game and English isn't my first language . . . although I am loving it ...

[Kilo 40]

Longer beam duration for lasers, ripple fire for LRMs. most can't use AMS or ECM.

thats off the top of my head

[LordKnightFandragon]

Kilo 40, on 20 June 2014 - 01:06 AM, said:

Longer beam duration for lasers, ripple fire for LRMs. most can't use AMS or ECM.

thats off the top of my head

Which ones cant use AMS? All of them can, you just gotta find the right pod.

[Prezimonto]

Clan weapons do more damage over time rather than front loaded damage (AC's fire bursts of smaller rounds, lasers beam duration is longer, LRM's fire in flights).

So while they can pack a LOT of weapons on a mech, you have to be good at aiming, and picking battles to do better than IS mechs.

Clan mechs don't have any better defense than IS, meaning they can take the same punishment. The single exception is that they can lose a side torso even with an XL engine, but that often means they also lose at least half of their dubiously superior weapons.

Clan mechs can switch out omni-pods, but have fixed upgrades and locations for upgrade slots. So while you can often find a mix of hardpoints you like, you can't always FIT the weapons you want in terms of slots. So IS mechs are hardpoint restricted, but if you find a set of hardpoints you like odds are better than you can fit the biggest, bad-assest weapons on to them without serious hassle.

[Monkey Lover]

Some weapons are not as good as Is like ac and lrm. The hard points allow some freedom but not as much as you would like. Think of it has all 3 of your bjs swithing arms/sides. Little more options but youre not going out with 8 ac2. The xl engine in the clan is nice but if you want to make it smaller so you could get that daul gauss its not going to work. There not faster thats for sure. They have more range.

[Kilo 40]

LordKnightFandragon, on 20 June 2014 - 01:06 AM, said:

Which ones cant use AMS? All of them can, you just gotta find the right pod.

my bad

[MonkeyCheese]

Inner Sphere mechs still pack a punch, the instant pop of my front loaded damage ac20 raven is going to outshine the surprise peekaboo power of anything the kitfox or adder can do outside of the hot dual erppc builds.

Also all Inner Sphere lights can go over the 106kph speed limit of the current clan mechs. There are some mediums that can reach that speed or faster, for example off the top of my head my cent 9d goes 135kph and my blackjack 1x goes 116kph. I even have a dragon that goes 106kph. But of course they have more fragile side torsos thanks to the Inner Sphere xl engines.

[cock a doodle do]

Nice answers ... thank you chaps.

[Bobzilla]

Twist and move, pinpoint alpha, twist and move. They will be facing you a lot more, so spread their higher damage on you and focus your damage on their CT. They have to do at least 2:1 dmg against you if you force them to spread it, and focus yours.

[ApolloKaras]

If I recall correctly if I lose a torso in tabletop (as a clan mech) didn't we lose all internal heat sinks? I don't have my books and I'm at work lol. Has PGI implemented something like this?

[Malcolm Vordermark]

Clan weapons dealing more damage is offset by having a spread damage mechanic built it. So while they do more damage they are less precise. And in this game precise damage is better as it allows you to more quickly take out sections of enemy mechs.

LordKnightFandragon, on 20 June 2014 - 01:06 AM, said:

Which ones cant use AMS? All of them can, you just gotta find the right pod.

It is often a trade of weapon hard points and/or quirks for AMS.

[Belorion]

You can always stick with Inner Sphere

[Carrioncrows]

Few things about the clans

Clans have no Hillhumpers

Stalkers, K2's, Jagers, Hunchbacks, Shadowhawks, Battlemasters, ect ect..

Clans have almost zero ability to peek over terrain without getting totally smashed. The exceptions to this is The Kit Fox with it's "S" variant high mount ballistic hardpoints and the Summoner with it's twin "D" variant ballistic hardpoints. But the Kit fox is small and shouldn't be taking hits and the Summoner can't carry enough Cow bell to do the job.

This is a rather big concession for the whole sniping range war as in general IS mechs will eat the clans alive.

The exceptions to this is when the clans can bring their superior DPS on a clear target. Like for instance when the Dire wolf clears all 40 guns of the Queen Anne and sinks it into someone.

But even then fast and mobile opponents can diffuse a lot of their damage off into other locations which reinforces the whole IS vs Clan mentality. You don't go head to head with the clans, not unless you have superior mobility or tactics.

Which is basically every situation described in any Clan vs IS battle.

[Screech]

LordKnightFandragon, on 20 June 2014 - 01:06 AM, said:

Which ones cant use AMS? All of them can, you just gotta find the right pod.

Nova's carry their AMS on the center torso and only the S has it. You can't switch out the center pod so you are stuck with only 1 variant with AMS for the Nova. Sucks becuase you loose out on the C-bill bonus for no real reason. Not sure why they decided that this was a good idea.

[Mechteric]

LordKnightFandragon, on 20 June 2014 - 01:06 AM, said:

Which ones cant use AMS? All of them can, you just gotta find the right pod.

Yeah but sometimes that comes at the cost of heaving weapons in that pod. Its a tradeoff.

[Malcolm Vordermark]

Screech, on 20 June 2014 - 06:24 AM, said:

Nova's carry their AMS on the center torso and only the S has it. You can't switch out the center pod so you are stuck with only 1 variant with AMS for the Nova. Sucks becuase you loose out on the C-bill bonus for no real reason. Not sure why they decided that this was a good idea.

According to Smurfy the Nova A's right torso is available. It comes with AMS.

[TamCoan]

Two things I've noticed and used to my advantage:

- Most clan mechs carry the bulk of their weapons on their arms! Taking out an arm usually reduces a clan mech's firepower by 50%
- Clan weapons are higher heat. Most people used to IS mechs tend to shutdown way more in a clan mech.

One of my favorite examples of this was getting a nova to shutdown and then stripping both arms off of it. It went from a 12-er medium nightmare to a claw-less kitten in pretty short order.

[Screech]

Rouken, on 20 June 2014 - 06:31 AM, said:

According to Smurfy the Nova A's right torso is available. It comes with AMS.

I stand corrected. Apparently you can opt for 2 AMS if you pick the S variant. This will make life much easier as running without AMS in a medium can cause concerns at times.

[Koniks]

Run mechs that can go fast (78kph+ minimum) and carry SRMs. Preferably ones that can do so with a STD engine like the ON1-VA, otherwise something like the SHD with an XL300. Aim for legs or maneuver behind and aim for CT.

Or go full meta.

Edited by Mizeur, 20 June 2014 - 07:28 AM.