28 replies to this topic

[Rando Slim]

Yep Wolf74, that's what my "Troll-bucket" Treb-3C that I mentioned earlier was designed for. I had hoped that by piloting all kinds of crazy or inferior stuff that then if I hop in a superior mech and superior build, that it would be like swinging a baseball bat with the donut weight taken off all of a sudden, apparently I was wrong. Now I regret like 90 percent of my mech purchases, I could have seriously never spent a damn dime on this game and just played during challenge weekends and by now I'd have 20 mech bays and maybe 6 chassis and that's all I would have needed if I would have picked the "good" ones. Stupid stupid me.

[XxXAbsolutZeroXxX]

Scrotacus 42, on 19 September 2014 - 10:50 AM, said:

Well like I said I do pilot a Cicada 3M for serious purposes, I use an XL-300 4 Mlas, ECM, and an AC/5. Works fine but I cant kite stuff at long distance like a noisy cricket back in the day. My BJ-1 is a gaussjack as opposed to a boomjack. I use a Jenner -D with an XL-280 4 mlas and 2 srm 4s. So I mean those are pretty legit builds I think. Shadowhawks are set up as lurmishers or srm brawlers with machine guns and medium pulses for backup and standard engines. The treb-3c was a bad example, I don't expect to carry hard, but I expect to consistently cause havoc and scare the crap out of some light mechs with it. I guess then the root of the matter becomes HOW do you develop situational awareness? Like I said I play often enough that should have totally developed by now considering all the maps play out the same all the time. I can certainly build a more sensible t-bucket, my 7k is an ac/10 and 2 er larges, which I think is legit, runs around 95 kph, yea shadowhawk can do it better but eh you get your right arm blown off in a shad and lose the lasers, the treb keeps it all in the torso which I like since its not a brawling build.
I watched the video of that cicada 3m a few [posts up and like well ok Im a decent shot but not that good of a shot to hit legs all the time, I go for it sometimes but not from long distance much (its a lot easier whnthey are already legged of course). Guess I just gotta go for legs by default until target info gathering pops up to tell me otherwise? I really need to post a video to make this easier (sadly I don't know how).

EDIT: Again, Im not like a total suicide derp running off by myself away from my team, maybe Im just picking the wrong time to try and swing out wide or behind in a faster mech? I'm not completely impatient, just somewhere in the middle.

.

I'm not sure what to say about that.

Part of me wants to say the only way a jenner or cicada should ever break 500 damage is if they never come across someone with decent aim. I would support light mechs and medium mechs having speed and maneuverability quirks to make them harder to hit.

Maybe I haven't been coming across many good light pilots. It just seems as if everytime I see a light mech in game its being horrifically demolished without doing anything in return.

Edited by I Zeratul I, 19 September 2014 - 11:24 AM.

[Lynx7725]

Scrotacus 42, on 19 September 2014 - 11:21 AM, said:

Yep Wolf74, that's what my "Troll-bucket" Treb-3C that I mentioned earlier was designed for. I had hoped that by piloting all kinds of crazy or inferior stuff that then if I hop in a superior mech and superior build, that it would be like swinging a baseball bat with the donut weight taken off all of a sudden, apparently I was wrong.

Ah. No, doesn't quite work this way.. well not always. If it works it's not crazy, really. The issue is that at some point, in order to get really good with the game, you need to learn a chassis and its build inside out, so that you know its performance envelope to know when you can push it and when you can't, just from memory and experience.

It seems to me that you're coming out from your experimentation stage where you played with various builds and strategies, and now you're looking to climb the ladder. That's fine -- part of the needed experience to get better is to know what are the strengths and weaknesses of various chassis, so all those extra chassis you have aren't a waste.

I'd suggest you pick your favourite chassis and work at it. Figure out what technical portion doesn't work for you and start tuning the performance to fit your style -- Smurfy is great to tune experiments. Then take it for runs in the testing grounds to see if it works, you'd develop a feel for what's right and what's wrong. It takes time and you'll suffer defeats, but gradually you'll find a build that works for you, and you'd develop that battlefield feel that would guide you.

[Rando Slim]

Well at one point I did have it figured out sort of, back when wolf-packing was a viable thing. Your right Ive been in this leveling/experimenting mode for months but sadly nothing has stuck out, its all just "meh". Like I have the same K/D ratio in an Adder missile boat as I do an Awsome 8Q laser boat, what sense does that make? I do lots of damage in my Jenner but die a lot, I kill things efficiently in Shadowhawks and Dragons but overall don't do much damage. I kill stuff in Dire Wolfs but I hate them and like who the hell CANT kill stuff in a Dire Wolf? Since the stat reset I don't have more than 70 matches in any single mech because like I said I do about he same in all of them (except Novas..........to hell with those things) Even if I look at other ratios like damage/kill, kills/match, damage/match, still not much sticks out.

Edited by Scrotacus 42, 19 September 2014 - 11:48 AM.

[Felbombling]

Something I have noticed while I'm going through the painful 'tier 1 basics' grind on the Dire Wolf, Summoner and Stormcrow is how much of a sitting duck you are in the beginning. It almost feels like there is an indicator on the enemy HUD that says, "StaggerCheck does not have Anchor Turn on his Dire Wolf (P)". Like flies to the sh!t wagon, I'm infested with little enemy Mechs that I have no hope of fending off. The greatest shame is having a cored Center Torso and watching in horror as a little Locust runs right up to your face and stays there for the five seconds it takes to finish you off, out of sight and danger.

Oh well... things have to get better at some point... like when I unlock some Elite perks. Game is still fun, though. I'll worry about my stats when I'm not bringing a spoon to a knife fight.

[Ultimax]

Scrotacus 42, on 19 September 2014 - 11:42 AM, said:

Like I have the same K/D ratio in an Adder missile boat as I do an Awsome 8Q laser boat, what sense does that make?

It depends on what your K/D ratio is, and could therefore make sense.

You can work toward a higher K/D ratio by killing just 1 mech every few games, but the key here is that you can't die yourself.

Then there is the bonus that you have the potential to score more than 1 kill in a match, but you only die once per match.



So that's the sticking point, how often do you die? \

If you are dying with roughly the same frequency across all your mechs, then I think we are back to situational awareness and probably damage spreading.


So some honest questions to ask yourself, you don't need to answer me here:


1) How often do I die (once a match, once every three matches, etc.)?
2) What location is usually destroyed when I die? (CT, Leg, etc)?
3) How can I reduce the amount of times I die?


Ask yourself those questions, or even keep records and give the 3rd one more thought.



I'm not saying you are bad, or die a lot, but if you die roughly the same on every mech I think that is uncommon and is likely a good place you can work towards improving.

[Rando Slim]

Oh dude I know how you feel, Im doing bad with Stormcrows and they are supposedly outstanding mechs. Yea, anchor turn is crucial to how I play, Im pretty sure I hold down the "f" key 80 percent of the time.

[Fut]

Scrotacus 42, on 19 September 2014 - 09:37 AM, said:

So whats the trick? Is it that you all just use T-Wolves and Dragon Slayers non-stop? I saw one guy with a 7 K/D ratio, but like dude only ever used like 2 or 3 mechs, that's honestly really lame,

Wait... Why is it lame for people to only use a few different Chassis? This isn't PokeMech, the point of the game isn't to collect as many Mechs as you can - it's to defeat your enemy on the battlefield. I can't think of a better way to get extremely good in a Mech other than piloting it as much as possible. This is the basic premise behind getting good at anything really, repetition (see Outliers: The Story of Success and the 10,000 hour rule).

I've been playing MWO since late Nov 2012, and I've only ever used HBKs and recently CDAs... is this lame?
I have a lot of fun in these Mechs, and I feel like all the practice I've put into them has been paying off.

[Rando Slim]

Perhaps I misspoke then, sorry wasn't trying to be derogatory. Your absolutely right Fut.

@Ultimatum: well with minimum sample sizes of 30 matches, my Shdowhawk 2H is apparently my best mech in terms of only dying once every 2.15 matches, k/d ratio of 1.70, but it only does 230 damage per match which is really low. Its loadout is 3 MGs, a medium pulse laser, and 2 srm 6s with artemis. The only reason I'm any "good" in it is because it has a standard engine and can steal kills with obnoxious machine guns stealing kills I don't deserve.
The Cicada 3M apparently is solid as I had guessed: 308 damage per match, 1.6 w/l ratio, I die exactly once every 2 matches in it, k/d ratio is ok at 1.2 (my earlier figure was mixed up with the Shadowhawk)

Edited by Scrotacus 42, 19 September 2014 - 12:38 PM.