133 replies to this topic

[Vassago Rain]

Wispsy, on 10 July 2014 - 05:04 AM, said:

To be fair I am maxed on slots...

Because you're boating small lasers and machineguns. My shadowhawks are all maxed on slots, too. All my mechs, without exception, are.

I feel that in no more than two months, the nova, puma, and thor will be forgotten.

[Bhael Fire]

Alistair Winter, on 09 July 2014 - 05:17 PM, said:

The Nova is much better than the Stormcrow...
... said no person ever.

That's incorrect; I said it.

And I stand by that statement.

[Wispsy]

Vassago Rain, on 10 July 2014 - 05:08 AM, said:

Because you're boating small lasers and machineguns. My shadowhawks are all maxed on slots, too. All my mechs, without exception, are.

I feel that in no more than two months, the nova, puma, and thor will be forgotten.

Right but that is what the Nova is good for...boating loads of smalls and mgs...removing this ability would make it just another worse Timberwolf?

[Sephlock]

Jman5, on 09 July 2014 - 09:30 PM, said:

There's that, but I'm mostly jealous of its insane damage and ridiculous amounts of heatsinks you can shove into the nova. If I build my hunchback really recklessly I can practically match the raw damage in the initial volley. The problem is that the hbk runs so damn hot I quickly get outclassed by DPS.

I hate to shatter your illusions but between long burn times and super duper Nova-specific ghost heat, that is true of the Nova as well.

[Shredhead]

Dude, Eglar pulled 1978 damage with a Nova. Bad mech? Ridiculous.

[DONTOR]

with the limited tonnage for weaponry it is hard to make a fun useable mech. I tried the standard 4 MG + crap ton of lasers=BORING. Then I tried 5 MGs + 6 CERMLs = a bit more fun. I ended up with 2 CERPPC and 4 MGs, played it like an ARROW and I really like that build.

[Jeon Ji Yoon]

cork420, on 09 July 2014 - 05:15 PM, said:

Standard armor, standard structure, unremoveable jets, massive cooldown penalties, all wrapped up in a pathetically slow meduim class mech. Dissapointing doesnt even begin to describe what this mech is. For what is supposed to be a superior machine, every IS medium has it beat in every way. Its CT hitbox feels like a battlermaster (or a barndoor take your pick). It is the only clan mech with 0 missle slots on it. This mech was a monumental waste of money.

I thought this too until I stopped trying to use the Nova as it was in Battletech. I had tons of trouble with it, at first, and nearly posted something very much like this BUT I started using ERSmLas/Mguns and strapped a single ERPPC and kept a couple ERMLas on it and I had a jump sniper that could eat ppl up if they closed and still participate in medium range engagements. Sure, I love the Stormcrow more but nothing will ever change that lol

[Screech]

Best mech to train fire discipline, pressing the wrong firing group in a Nova is ggclose.

Makes a damn good medium brawler, only problem is that medium brawlers aren't that great.

[Nemesis Duck]

The Nova's a one trick pony with a glass jaw.

[Mcgral18]

Vassago Rain, on 10 July 2014 - 05:08 AM, said:

Because you're boating small lasers and machineguns. My shadowhawks are all maxed on slots, too. All my mechs, without exception, are.

I feel that in no more than two months, the nova, puma, and thor will be forgotten.

While it will be largely outclassed by the ShadowCat, it will never be forgotten.

16 hardpoints is nothing to laugh at, no matter the loadout. It got the Small Laser nerfed!

[Roadkill]

Joseph Mallan, on 09 July 2014 - 06:39 PM, said:

I have never known a Nova to be better than a Stormcrow.

Let me introduce you to my stats, then...

NOVA NVA-PRIME(I) 28 13 15 0.87 32 16 2.00 9,255 26,976 03:14:06
STORMCROW SCR-PRIME(I) 31 14 17 0.82 28 21 1.33 12,543 27,911 03:20:20

Yeah, yeah, only ~30 games played in each. So it's a low sample size. But my Nova is far more deadly than the faster, more agile Stormcrow.

Win-Loss is about the same... but I die less often in the Nova and kill a LOT more. Both builds are most effective in close, but the Stormcrow does at least have a pair of CERLL so it can still fight at range while the Nova is stuck with 6 CERML and 6 CERSL.

The kicker is that I really don't use jump jets much at all. They're for traversing challenging terrain, not for pop tarting. So they're mostly dead weight on my Mechs.

[Wispsy]

Let us not bring no Elo stats into this...it is somewhat pointless.

[Bigbacon]

FupDup, on 09 July 2014 - 06:53 PM, said:

It's also completely defenseless past 400 meters (360 meters prior to the damage nerf) and isn't FLD. You also can't fire them all at once due to heat. It can only run 89.1 kph after speed twerk, meaning that you can't really dictate the engagement range very well. Fast lights can kind of get away with short range one-trick-pony loadouts, but the Nova not so much.

You are much, much better off boating ERMLs for the ability to defend yourself at range. Fights don't magically start at 400-200 meters most of the time...

this is why you take the B torso and slap a ML or LL in it and there you go...ranged weaponry. stick with friends and close and you fry with SL bursts until dead.

[Ngamok]

Vassago Rain, on 09 July 2014 - 05:18 PM, said:

Thor, puma, peacebird, and black hawk are all extremely bad. How did you people not see this before you bought them?

Because I actually play them and do well with them. Am I going to take them against top tier players and expect to do well (unless I get super lucky)? Nope. But doing regular games with 1-X other friends I can make them work just fine. All 3 chassis that I bought are quite fun (Kit Fox, Nova, Summoner).

[Felio]

Khobai, on 09 July 2014 - 05:19 PM, said:

novas are beast, they dont need fixing. theyre one of the best mediums in the game IMO. Which isnt saying much since most mediums are awful lol.

Mediums in general could use a buff. But I dont think the nova in particular needs one.

I think most Nova fans are thinking of the prime build with the 6 energy hardpoints on each arm and 12 ER medium lasers (though ER smalls and C-SPL work fine). It's crap with any other arm omnipods.

[FupDup]

Bishop Steiner, on 10 July 2014 - 04:36 AM, said:

I wanna slap Nova arms on my Summoner. Nuff said.

If we get that Malthus hero I keep rambling on about, you could get side torsos that are basically the same as Nova arms.



You can clearly see 6 red beams coming out of each leg, which translates into side torsos with 6 energy hardpoints each.

[Jman5]

Sephlock, on 10 July 2014 - 05:23 AM, said:

I hate to shatter your illusions but between long burn times and super duper Nova-specific ghost heat, that is true of the Nova as well.

It's not an illusion. I simply can't fit as many heatsinks on my Hunchback as I can on a Nova so the Nova runs much cooler. The 3-slot size for DHS is the bottleneck. As far as ghost heat, I have to work around that as well in my HBK-4P. Granted I don't have it for Small Lasers and MPL, but otherwise it's the same.

I just can't build a hbk-4p with similar firepower that is even close to as heat efficient as a nova unless you're doing something really dumb like alpha striking 12 C-ER ML. You can either have similar damage and horrible heat efficiency, or lower damage and similar heat efficiency. But you can't have both to the same extent that the nova can.

Edited by Jman5, 10 July 2014 - 10:28 AM.

[Bishop Steiner]

Roadkill, on 10 July 2014 - 08:41 AM, said:

Let me introduce you to my stats, then...

NOVA NVA-PRIME(I) 28 13 15 0.87 32 16 2.00 9,255 26,976 03:14:06
STORMCROW SCR-PRIME(I) 31 14 17 0.82 28 21 1.33 12,543 27,911 03:20:20

Yeah, yeah, only ~30 games played in each. So it's a low sample size. But my Nova is far more deadly than the faster, more agile Stormcrow.

Win-Loss is about the same... but I die less often in the Nova and kill a LOT more. Both builds are most effective in close, but the Stormcrow does at least have a pair of CERLL so it can still fight at range while the Nova is stuck with 6 CERML and 6 CERSL.

The kicker is that I really don't use jump jets much at all. They're for traversing challenging terrain, not for pop tarting. So they're mostly dead weight on my Mechs.

NOVA NVA-PRIME 6 4 2 2.00 8 3 2.67 2,148 9,250 00:38:40
NOVA NVA-B 2 2 0 2.00 3 0 3.00 466 4,989 00:21:35
NOVA NVA-S 4 1 3 0.33 3 4 0.75 779 3,360 00:30:22


STORMCROW SCR-PRIME 37 23 14 1.64 38 18 2.11 11,493 53,483 04:18:59
STORMCROW SCR-C 44 26 18 1.44 73 22 3.32 18,767 78,179 05:02:48
STORMCROW SCR-D 20 13 7 1.86 19 12 1.58 6,073 28,119 02:44:13

Opposite for me, as it were. My Stormcrow-Charlie is an absolute beast, so far. But you can see how small my nova sample size is.....there is just something....about it that doesn't fit right, for me, so it just doesn't get the play. I'm thinking maybe I'll run it as my designated Medium PUGer, like I do the Summoner for my Heavy, and see if I stumble across a build that just clicks.

Stormcrows numbers are a little skewed, too as the first 13 drops I was experimenting, and had pretty crappy stats. Even with that anchor, I've been averaging 426 (hemi) dmg vs 282 for the Novas so far.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 10 July 2014 - 11:09 AM.

[Carrioncrows]

Bishop Steiner, on 10 July 2014 - 04:17 AM, said:

Eh, I'll toss the Adder as the worst, any day. All the weaknesses you ascribe the Nova, (low arms, etc) AND minimal hardpoints, low speed, no JJs, no ECM.

Also, the issue with the gun clearance of the warhawk is largely shared by the Direwolf. Warhawk makes for a better missile-boat. Really the biggest weakness to the 'Hawk is the DHS locked LT. It keeps you from maximizing ballistic and missile firepower, and also makes it a no brainer to simply shoot RT. Once that pops, any non pure energy 'Hawk is all but neutered.

Actually comp Clan play, we see a fair bit, and use a fair bit of Novas, and yeah, even Summoners. Both, IMO do underperform, compared especially to the 'Crow and TWolf. But both are able to hold their own over most IS Mechs in their weight class. (Boom/GaussJagers, Ilya, and a few Orion Builds being the only ones I would call flat out better)

I rated the adder higher and yeah it probably deserves to be 4th on the list if we were to rank them all.

But the adder has a few things working for it.

The higher torso mount hardpoints. Both Energy and Missile are life savers. If you can see it, those hardpoints can hit it without kissing the dirt.

The other point is more raw tonnage. The armor of the Adder is already maxed which frees up a good 2-2.5 tons weight over the Kitfoxes need to max armor and take ecm.

Not a huge difference but just enough of one that it allows you to roll around in builds like the ERPPC, LB5-X (or uac5) and x2 er smalls. Or Quad SRM6, or two torso mounted er PPC's and 2 arm mounted er smalls.

I find the adder to be very effective, but your right it does need to be 4th on the worst clan mech list. honestly I had hoped they would give the adder another 4-5 hardpoints to make it the 'Combat Light'

Anyone that LRM boats in a warhawk should be shot. Then again i believe anyone that LRM boats should be shot on principal.

Wasting those hard locked 18 DHS.

Best warhawk builds are
UAC20
x2 Er medium pulse (because I ran out of slots)
x4 ASRM6's

It's a good city brawler provided you stay out of spots that kiss the dirt.

Gauss Rifle
x2 Er larges
x2 Er medium pulse
Lrm10

Edited by Carrioncrows, 10 July 2014 - 11:19 AM.

[Bishop Steiner]

Carrioncrows, on 10 July 2014 - 11:17 AM, said:

I rated the adder higher and yeah it probably deserves to be 4th on the list if we were to rank them all.

But the adder has a few things working for it.

The higher torso mount hardpoints. Both Energy and Missile are life savers. If you can see it, those hardpoints can hit it without kissing the dirt.

The other point is more raw tonnage. The armor of the Adder is already maxed which frees up a good 2-2.5 tons weight over the Kitfoxes need to max armor and take ecm.

Not a huge difference but just enough of one that it allows you to roll around in builds like the ERPPC, LB5-X (or uac5) and x2 er smalls. Or Quad SRM6, or two torso mounted er PPC's and 2 arm mounted er smalls.

I find the adder to be very effective, but your right it does need to be 4th on the worst clan mech list. honestly I had hoped they would give the adder another 4-5 hardpoints to make it the 'Combat Light'

Anyone that LRM boats in a warhawk should be shot. Then again i believe anyone that LRM boats should be shot on principal.

Wasting those hard locked 18 DHS.

Best warhawk builds are
UAC20
x2 Er medium pulse (because I ran out of slots)
x4 ASRM6's

It's a good city brawler provided you stay out of spots that kiss the dirt.

Gauss Rifle
x2 Er larges
x2 Er medium pulse
Lrm10

best warhawk builds are what the individual warhawk pilot does best with. Not so sound like a d-bag, but I do get tired of people tossing "best builds" around, when aside from Meta builds, there seldom are any such thing.

Also, I find my 3x LRM15, 2x Mlaser and LB20x build very effective, and yeah it actually needs all the DHS. At least the way I drive and fight in it.
I run 3 LRM.heavy build in my clan mechs.

My Warhawk-B
My TWolf-C (4x lrm10 (probably should swap to 2 lrm15, 2 lrm5) , 4 ER Mlaser, 2 MG)
and my Stormcrow-Prime (2 lrm15, 4 er mlasers)
and I find I tend to fight them the same way.....using all my short range weapons to fight up close, while dropping lrms nonstop on whatever Cavendish narcs. I play in a Clan unit, so I can't get elitist about my choice of armament. I carry what I can support my brother Bears with. And with all these I enjoy how I can easily engage 2 units at one time with them.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 10 July 2014 - 11:27 AM.