67 replies to this topic

[Thunder Child]

Okay, I'm not meaning something like a Quad PPC Direwhale that blew you to bits from 800m. Those are unhappy surprises.

I'm talking about the "Oh, wow, I didn't think this would actually WORK!" surprises.
For me, it's the little BJ-1. I know the Champion Variant rolls around with an AC20 and mediums, but I thought I'd try something different. So I went Stock. It didn't end well. But once I'd XL'd the engine, gave it Endo and DHS. Downgraded the Medium Lasers to Quad Smalls. And gave it a Bucketload of ammo for the ever Thirsty Dual AC2s, it actually became a surprisingly effective little workhorse.

So far every match, I've pulled above 300 damage, with an average of 500. Usually at least 1 kill. And the best moment of the mech, going head to head with a Dual Gauss Quad LL DireWhale on Frozen City. And winning!

So, what loadouts have you tried, while thinking "ain't no way this is gonna work", and then been pleasantly surprised by it's effectiveness. And, I don't mean one offs, though you can post them if you like. I'm referring more to consistent performers.

Edited by Thunder Child, 22 September 2014 - 04:13 AM.

[FupDup]

I think my 3 ERLL Shadow Hawk 2K might qualify.

[Carrioncrows]

FupDup, on 21 September 2014 - 07:52 PM, said:

I think my 3 ERLL Shadow Hawk 2K might qualify.

I think my 3ERLL, x3 SRM4 Shadow Hawk 2K might qualify.

[Mcgral18]

I'm going to say the WubShee. I looked at the hardpoints while grinding through the DakkaShee that is the 3E, wondering how on earth I was going to grind a worthless energy boat...

I thought of a troll build, mounting the largest XL on a assault mech, and loading it with pulse lasers, for the lulz.



Little did I know, I just created my favourite mech. Fast, powerful and with a healthy supply of armour and heatsinks, this thing is just FUN to use. Wubbing along anything it can come across.

It's also moderately effective, which is always a bonus.

[Tarogato]

Cicada 3M with dual large pulses. I don't feel like I'm doing well in it, but my stats say otherwise.

Pilot stats:
K/D - 0.76
W/L - 1.05

CDA-3M stats:
K/D - 1.43
W/L - 1.84
____________________________________

As for loadouts I've encountered on the battlefield... I must say I've died to an AC/20 Raven on two occasions. So there's that.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

Awesome 8Q with a 300 STD, 2 ERPPCs, and 5 MPLs.

The thing runs super hot, but man is it brutal. I had tried a number of other arm-weapon options, as well as having a go with MLs instead of the MPLs (longer range, lower heat, lighter), but the sheer murderous firepower of the ERPPC/MPL combo is down right shocking in its potency.

[Saint Scarlett Johan]

Skittles

[Cranial Enigma]

6 flamer locust with an xl190

No one ever expects it.

[Davegt27]

TW with anything in it (tried on the test server) was a win

[Thunder Child]

You've got a pair of big brass ones to run an XL Banshee Mcgral. Kudos to you.

I've tried the AC20 Raven Tarogato, and it didn't work for me. The Dual AC2 seemed much more effective. As to your Cicada, nice work, but this thread was meant to be more about mechs that you felt awesome in, when you were dreading to run it before the match.

Speaking of Awesomes, I think any build short of an LRM bucket would qualify, but yours is pretty impressive Levi.

A six. Flamer. Locust. You locomaniac!

And I think a few people have missed the point. It's not about builds that do well. It's about builds that you thought were crazy, or bad, or just plain WRONG, and yet worked so so well. The 8 LL Direwhale is an example. On paper, you look at it and think, "dude, were you asleep at the mechlab controls when you designed that?!?". But I've had matches where I have sat at 1500m and pinned down an entire team (Alpine, to be fair) while my team mates flanked and tore them apart.

This is about terri-bad builds that you knew were Terribad before you launched, and had an awesome match.

Edited by Thunder Child, 21 September 2014 - 08:30 PM.

[CycKath]

Mcgral18, on 21 September 2014 - 08:10 PM, said:

I'm going to say the WubShee. I looked at the hardpoints while grinding through the DakkaShee that is the 3E, wondering how on earth I was going to grind a worthless energy boat...

I thought of a troll build, mounting the largest XL on a assault mech, and loading it with pulse lasers, for the lulz.



Little did I know, I just created my favourite mech. Fast, powerful and with a healthy supply of armour and heatsinks, this thing is just FUN to use. Wubbing along anything it can come across.

It's also moderately effective, which is always a bonus.

Same. Normally refuse to Wub any 'Mech and wary about XLs on almost any 'Mech to boot but especially assaults, but needed to get the 3M to skill up the Banshees and kept seeing that thread on Smurfy rating it 5 star and finally caved. And WOW.

Now I know what piloting the Nova trial must be like, slaughtering people left and right, but melting my center torso more than the damage they inflict on me as I lurch towards the enemy.

[Kjudoon]

SDH 2D2
aka: Angel Hawk
XL 295
1 ERPPC
4 LRM5s
2 JJ
Max armor

A virtual terror it is. Highly durable, fast and jumpy. If you can roll damage you will be hard to kill with a shield arm.

Another variant replaces the ERPPC with an ERLL and a tag with extra JJ. Fantastic LRMisher and long range harrasser.

The 5M "Fury Hawk does the same thing with an LRM20 + Artemis and XL 300. Slower firing cycle, but the artemis makes up for it with double slam of 10s LRMs

[Toothless]

My founders catapult ran 3 ER large and 2 srm4's.

Archived stats, all PUGs. CATAPULT CPLT-C1 237 130 107 1.21 222 149 1.49 67,106 212,947 21:27:49

[Nothing Whatsoever]

Doubtful if a LCT-1V would qualify, but I'll share. Was running 4MG, 1 MPL, 10 SHS, XL190, ENDO and Ferro.

I had a few pleasant surprises after MG's got better, but I haven't taken it out recently, since I've been grinding other mechs.

[Johnny Reb]

Heh, I thought this would be a why did someone run that build thread. Worse, I saw was a D-DC and even thou he had ecm he only was running one alrm 15 and 2 med lasers. He did less than 100 damage and this was in group, to bad he was on my team and last to die.

[Hades Trooper]

9 ER PPC's on a Direstar.

team up with a buddy, you call your target, alpha, shut down for 35 seconds, then while shut down listen to the screams and howls of rage from someone who was 1 shot killed in a jaggermech. Team up buddies kill the assaults or heavies who survive and are red cored from the alpha.

Better still run this with 2 buddies and 2 of you use 9 ER PPC's, nothing can live through 18 ER PPC's to the centre torso

[At least I can shoot]

The Septa-PPC master: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...76aac01f2b40066

"If you're havin' heat issues I feel bad for you son - I've got 7 PPCs all in group 1"

[terrycloth]

I thought the AC/20 raven was going to be a joke, but it's pretty effective. Until you run out of ammo. Which happens pretty fast. The long recharge on the AC lets you peek out and touch someone, and ravens are tiny and quick and usually don't get shot when you do that.

I also had a stalker that was running all medium lasers and SRMs and sucked horribly. Turns out the solution was to take off the medium lasers.

[Gas Guzzler]

8-Laser Banshee 3M (3 LL, 5 ML) with an XL 400 is pretty effective, jost poking out and Death Starring folks never gets old. Would challenge McGral's Wubshee in the BNC-3M Olympics.

[Duke Nedo]

I have to say my BLR-1G. I struggled to build anything that does anything with this chassi. Finally I tried 6 LL, grouped them 3x left torso LL on left mouse, 3x right torso LLs on right mouse, both groups on chain fire and it performed above all expectations! The high mounts help, and that big XL engine makes it easy to be at the right place at the right time.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...bfd3a0baf7e4ec6

Edited by Duke Nedo, 22 September 2014 - 12:20 AM.