30 replies to this topic

[BraveInsanity]

Hail fellow mechwarriors. I'm not quite sure if this is the appropriate place to make this post, but general discussion proved a safe assumption in my eyes. I'm sure you've read posts like this over and over in the past and may not even give it a second glance. Hey.. I understand. However, if there is anyone out there with the time and patience to throw me a response it will be greatly appreciated. My dillema...

My first choice for going "Master" and buying near all the chassis was the Awesome. Don't judge me, the Awesome is an excellent mech, especially since the addition of quirks. On my two favorite variants its commonplace to hit 700-1k+ in any given match; and I have taken down many an arrogant Atlas pilot in glorious 1v1 combat. At any rate, my second choice was the Victor, mainly for nestalgic purposes and the fact that I had never before experienced play with ballistics outside of trial mechs. The Victor is a decent chassis, I do enjoy the somewhat increased speed and the jump jets, however I have failed to notice any truly unique loadouts amongst the variants. It's basically a Gauss or AC20 mounted as a main and not much else in the way of support, or its multiple AC/UAC 2's or 5's. Don't flame me Victor lovers, I've tried way more than those loadouts I assure you, but they do suck in the missle volley department despite some of them having several missle hardpoints. The volleys are just slow and staggered. I'm getting off track.. my apologies.. So, after becoming somewhat sick of only playing assault I took a little bit of MC I had laying around and a couple million C-Bills and bought 3 Locusts. Yes yes, I realize this was a mistake, however it was a fun mistake. One of the variants I can actually do quite well and survive with, but playing the other two to achieve master has been a nightmare.

Again I apologize, I'll cut to the chase... What freakin mech should I buy next? There are just so many mechs now. It's not like it used to be in the beginning. I sit at the "Purchasable" page and leaf through every damn mech on almost a daily basis thinking of loadouts and advantages/disadvantages, who's quirks are better, pitch and yaw speed, armor, basically EVERYTHING and I still can't come up with what mech chassis I would like to master next. Especially with the clan invasion coming now... Clan mechs are just so damn expensive. I do own a Nova, but even buying one Dire Wolf would break my bank. The new clan mechs to come look promising as well, but still expensive as hell. Do I wait for clan mechs and suffer whilst I earn money? Do I buy a medium mech like the Wolverine? Hunchback? Do I go heavy and get the ballistic heavy Cataphract or Jeager? How well do medium/heavy mechs take punishment compared to what I'm used to? I just don't know what the hell to do. I'm hoping anyone out there that owns a **** ton of mech types could chime in and tell me what your personal experiences and recommendations are. I enjoy ballistics but have grown very adept at laser and missle play via my time in the cockpit of the Awesome. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edited by BraveInsanity, 23 September 2014 - 02:25 PM.

[orcrist86]

The Jaeger is a good mix and match. While all are dakka centric you will find viable energy and missile serious in there. F or mediums try a shadow hawk, or Griffin.

[JudgeDeathCZ]

Go for Shadow Hawks.They have rl good hitboxes and you can play all styles with them imho

[SI The Joker]

Shadow Hawks are good. Trebuchet is a VERY overlooked yet great mech in the medium class.

Blackjack is a great choice too. AC20 Blackjack is pretty potent.

[Brody319]

Catapults are my favorite personally. easy to get XP because you can assist with missiles and long range lasers.
Shadow Hawks are pretty solid. Blackjacks are good too.
I know Jaegermechs are good because they just don't want to die and they punch really hard.
Direwolf was also released for C-bills.

I find Mediums play best when used like extra guns. Find a big mech and stay close, when he shoots at something you shoot at them too. Get lots of assists and possible kills.
Heavies play like assault mechs, just you can't take as much. They also are typically long range sluggers.

[Budor]

I would buy a Dire its slow but the punch is way above anything else. The Stormcrow will be availabe for cbills in 4 weeks, it does lasers and missiles really well.

If it has to be IS: Atlas, Cataphract, Jager, Shadowhawk or Griffin are all pretty solid.

[LORD ORION]

Why you should get an Orion, by LORD ORION.

They have a variety of configurations.

You can be an LRM boat
You can be a face punching PPC/SRM hitter
You can be a brawler
You can be a shooty mech (shield with the left, and punch with the right)

Orions are fun.
It is pleasing being shaped like a bannana and destroying your enemies.

Edited by LORD ORION, 23 September 2014 - 03:54 PM.

[Kiiyor]

orcrist86, on 23 September 2014 - 02:29 PM, said:

The Jaeger is a good mix and match. While all are dakka centric you will find viable energy and missile serious in there. F or mediums try a shadow hawk, or Griffin.

+1 billion.

The Yager is a great mech, and coming from the Awesome, you should feel right at home in playstyle (being support) - the exception being that your guns are level with your eyes, not your mech-crotch.

You can fit all sorts of awesome loadouts, including 3xAC5 (gauss damage every 1.5 seconds or so), dual Gauss (no longer cheese with the arrival of the Clans) or you can even go full brawler with dual AC20's, as reports of the Boom Yager's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Brawling is risky though, as the ST's are the same sort of fire magnets as the Awesome's CT.

Also, in all the stats I've collected, the Yager is close to the top of the charts in terms of lethality for the 'Sphere.

[BraveInsanity]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond. I'm definitely leaning towards Jaeger. Shadowhawk may be my follow up to that as well. I've watched some youtube vidoes of the Shadowhawk and I am impressed. I also purchased the Man-O-War collection after recieving a bonus check from work. So it's good all around. I'll have plenty of new mechs to keep me interested. Again, I thank you for your feedback. It's certainly helped in my decision.

[LT. HARDCASE]

Good advice: Save your money for the Stormcrows.

[zagibu]

You should get a medium mech now if you haven't played one yet. Heavies play like assaults in my opinion, just a tad faster and less armor.

[Duke Hector]

well depends what you want to do.....

for me

i took
Light: Firestarters for a because you can aim properly because of lasers in the arms.
Medium: Vincidator 1R: way better hardpoint config then the Cent and it has jumpjets
Heavy: Cataphract-3D: its the best and only 70 IS mech we have.. 2 LBX-10 and 4 med lasers close range light killer
Heavy: Orion- 1V, i have mine designed like a Pseudo Madcat, but with an AC-10!
Assault: Highlander-732: only 90 ton with jumpjets
Assault: Battlemaster 1G if i remember right. its very well rounded assault and mine goes 82kph

but thats what i use

[Mazerius]

Go Locust or go home... ;P Sure your time on the battlefield is measured in seconds, but its fast and crazy manueverable, also its cute ( dont judge )


Edit: reading fail, I see that you have tried them, thats what i get for posting after reading half your OP lol

Edited by Mazerius, 25 September 2014 - 02:57 PM.

[ice trey]

The Shadowhawks are pretty good general purpose designs.

You also find that Hunchbacks are pretty general purpose, too, but somewhat slower and often lose the hunch very quickly in combat.

I enjoyed the Jenners, They're much better at the light role than the locust, but keep in mind they're more of a harasser, not the star of the show.

People also seem very keen on the Firestarter. I still haven't tried them. Until I get my ping fixed, I don't think I will.

Some of my best are the Wolverine series.

Edited by ice trey, 25 September 2014 - 03:23 PM.

[Mcgral18]

Can you really go wrong with a WubShee?

3E is rather viable. 3M is just Lulzy, and very fun.

[orcrist86]

For either the Jaeger or shadow hawk search for builds by bishop Steiner. The man had good taste in design.

[Moomtazz]

I have a ton of mechs but I also spent a ton of cash on the game. If you want to do purely f2p, I would suggest that you stick with your Awesomes (9M 2PPC/1LL/1ML 350 STD is my fav, or build one as a LRM cheeseboat). Save all of your C-bills and buy either Stormcrows or hold out for Timberwolves. I would not waste any C-Bills on Direwolves or any other Clan or IS mechs.

[Fishbulb333]

Light - Firestarter or Kitfox (spider is great but lacks firepower and levelling the 2 non-ECM variants sucked)

Medium - Shadowhawk, Blackjack or Stormcrow

Heavy - Jager, Cataphract or Timber Wolf

Assault - Dire Wolf or Atlas.

Just my 2 cents on the best couple mechs per weight class, sure there's plenty of other good options, but if you're limited in funds/cbills I'd recommend one of the above.

[terrycloth]

Light: Ravens. Much more fun than spiders for an ECM mech. Lots of different loadouts, especially if you keep the 4x around.
Medium: If you've spent MC, Cent since you'll be getting a free one? Otherwise Shadowhawk
Heavy: Catapult? They're XL-safe which means lots of room for weapons. The K2 is amazing, and the other variants are easy-to-level-up missile boats (and maybe you'll like missile boats)
Assault: Stalkers are amusing? I got them because I thought they were cute. YMMV.

Or if you want to save up lots of money, I know I'm sort of lusting over the Stormcrows. c.c

[LT. HARDCASE]

If you're going to buy a Vindi, know ahead that they are expsensive to outfit properly. due to Endo + DHS + you have to max or nearly max out with the largest XL they can carry.

The 1R and 1X need the XL235 (max engine), while the 1AA needs the XL280 (max is XL295) as a minimum.