15 replies to this topic

[Scurry]

Well, with the announcement of the new dropship mode, I'm going to have to branch out if I don't want to get forced into piloting a trial Assault. So I probably need to pick one chassis to elite and master.

As a medium pilot, I've gotten very used to very mobile brawling. Speed with some punch is the way I go. It's gotten so that I find anything under 89 kph slow and kinda sluggish.

Which is more or less the antithesis of the assault class.

I was thinking Victor some time back, then it got nerfed. The Battlemaster looks tempting, with those XL400 builds that have been cropping up, but I'm a bit leery of XL viability.

So......suggestions? Both in terms of chassis choice and playstyle. How should I handle the transition to an assault?

[Lily from animove]

Victor is said to get some nerfs being reduced/undone. it may then be back to its old state. So probably stay tuned for the moment and see whats going to happen. Maybe if you play totally as freemium player, play the trial Assaults to precollect XP in these chassis and later you may buy exactly that chassis and you cna intsantly make use of those gathered XP:

Edited by Lily from animove, 26 September 2014 - 03:59 AM.

[pulupulu]

If battlemaster look tempting to you, I assume you don't really think much of the JJ.

If that is the case, then battlemaster or awesome 9m (and only 9m) will be your choice. Awesome 9m is about the most agile non-JJ assault there is, it can play most similarily to medium mechs. Everything else, at most you play like a heavy.

Victor without utilizing JJ is just a bad battlemaster. However, a victor brawler that utilize JJ well is a monster of its own (pre-nerf that is).

Edited by pulupulu, 26 September 2014 - 06:35 AM.

[Why Run]

Battlemaster has perhaps the broadest of loadouts in a solid chasis. High mounted shoulder weapons never hurt. Arms are not terrible. Seem a bit light on damage (perhaps because they are huge). Banshee is a tank, but fairly one-dimensional w/ energy builds or the AC/PPC meta builds. The rest takes some skill but there are numerous viable assault mechs on the IS side.

[SnagaDance]

pulupulu, on 26 September 2014 - 06:07 AM, said:

If battlemaster look tempting to you, I assume you don't really think much of the JJ.

If that is the case, then battlemaster or awesome 9m (and only 9m) will be your choice. Awesome 9m is about the most agile non-JJ assault there is, it can play most similarily to medium mechs.

QFT. Take a look at this: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ba0e601571f06a2

You could change the ERPPC to a LPL for total wub or even to an ERLL and add another 2 DHS, but that's an 85,8 km/h (Mastered) Assault mech running around.

Edit: forgot to add, the Awesome is actually very XL friendly due to its huge CT and with that engine in it you can torso twist to bring that shield arm into play like a Centurion pilot!

Edited by SnagaDance, 26 September 2014 - 06:36 AM.

[Alaskan Nobody]

SnagaDance, on 26 September 2014 - 06:35 AM, said:

QFT. Take a look at this: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ba0e601571f06a2

Hadn't occured to me to try for 5 ML

[Scurry]

Well, thanks for the help, all! So I guess the Awesome is a candidate as well.

On the Victor getting its nerfs rolled back - does anyone have a source on that one? I've seen it floating around as a rumor, but no tweets or anything.

[InspectorG]

Im a light/medium jockey.

My heavies are Catapult K2(mastered), Summoner

My assaults are Victor K(meh, cant get into it), Banshee M&E. M with an xl400 reminds me of a hunchback.

Hope this helps.

[n r g]

Scurry, on 26 September 2014 - 02:53 AM, said:

Well, with the announcement of the new dropship mode, I'm going to have to branch out if I don't want to get forced into piloting a trial Assault. So I probably need to pick one chassis to elite and master.

As a medium pilot, I've gotten very used to very mobile brawling. Speed with some punch is the way I go. It's gotten so that I find anything under 89 kph slow and kinda sluggish.

Which is more or less the antithesis of the assault class.

I was thinking Victor some time back, then it got nerfed. The Battlemaster looks tempting, with those XL400 builds that have been cropping up, but I'm a bit leery of XL viability.

So......suggestions? Both in terms of chassis choice and playstyle. How should I handle the transition to an assault?

are you talking strictly IS assault?

and are you dead set on brawling?

You can still do some decent fighting with the Victor at 400-600m with 2 large pulse and 1 gauss if you prepare accuracy & strategic engagements.

obviously, if you want a full out n00b brawl and to steam in then you can throw SRMs on it. Most competition players run XL's with SRMS/ac20 but in competitive everyone goes for legs so you can get away with it.

The victor feels a bit weak atm compared to other mechs, and this is coming from a guy who used the hell out of my 2ppc2ac5 dragon slayer.

[Turist0AT]

Just grab Stalkers and be happy. No need to pick an assault if its gona be a crappy assault like Awsome. Get used to being slow. Fast assaults are bad assaults because of their high engine rating and low firepower.


(chicken walker)Stalker have superb hitboxes and is great to brawl with. Brawling in man walkers like highlander makes their CT and ST big targets.


My favorite IS assaults are.
Stalkers. Banshe-3E and Battlemaster-1G

Edited by Turist0AT, 27 September 2014 - 03:23 PM.

[n r g]

Turist0AT, on 27 September 2014 - 03:08 PM, said:

Just grab Stalkers and be happy. No need to pick an assault if its gona be a crappy assault like Awsome. Get used to being slow. Fast assaults are bad assaults because of their high engine rating and low firepower.

I really need to take a dive and test out some of the new awesomes. I have a hunch with the new energy buffs/ct buffs etc... , it's NOT a bad mech by far!

[Turist0AT]

E N E R G Y, on 27 September 2014 - 03:15 PM, said:

I really need to take a dive and test out some of the new awesomes. I have a hunch with the new energy buffs/ct buffs etc... , it's NOT a bad mech by far!

No i know. But how much better/worse is it compared to other assaults?

[Kin3ticX]

E N E R G Y, on 27 September 2014 - 03:15 PM, said:

I really need to take a dive and test out some of the new awesomes. I have a hunch with the new energy buffs/ct buffs etc... , it's NOT a bad mech by far!

If you are interested I did a comparison back when they added the perks and pinned it against the 24DHS stalker build. Only deals with a single niche though. I have no idea what else would work.

Kin3ticX, on 31 July 2014 - 11:24 AM, said:

Stalker 3F - 4x ERLL, STD 310, 24 DHS (should be a 305 + more armor)
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...0829d9fc11c9f3a

24 DHS = 39.6 SHS

Awesome 9M - 4xERLL, XL 370, 22 DHS
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...cb850d893fe4e32

breakdown of 22 DHS in to SHS = 36.8

adj for 10% cooling bonus
36.8 * 1.1 = 40.48 SHS

now lets stack both bonuses together 10% + 12.5% ( because faster heat loss and minus heat generated are kinda the same thing)

36.8 * 1.225 = ~45.08 SHS

So this thing clearly out-cools the Stalker-3F as a 4xERLL build. Considering the high engine cap of the 9m as plus, the awesome lacks still the high-mount energy hardpoints and has a wider front profile.

Edited by Kin3ticX, 27 September 2014 - 03:34 PM.

[aniviron]

pulupulu, on 26 September 2014 - 06:07 AM, said:

If battlemaster look tempting to you, I assume you don't really think much of the JJ.

If that is the case, then battlemaster or awesome 9m (and only 9m) will be your choice. Awesome 9m is about the most agile non-JJ assault there is, it can play most similarily to medium mechs. Everything else, at most you play like a heavy.

The AWS-9M is indeed the most mobile assault.

However, the 8 series Awesomes are the least mobile assaults in the game. They're slower than Stalkers, slower than Atlases. And if you want to elite you mech (and you do) then you'll have to level two other Awesomes to get where you want it.

Personally, I would recommend waiting for the quirk balancing. Recommendations will be different once that happens, I assume. We did get word from Russ' twitter that the Victor is going to have its negative quirks removed, but also is not going to have any positive quirks added on top of that.

[Scurry]

E N E R G Y, on 27 September 2014 - 01:35 PM, said:

are you talking strictly IS assault?

and are you dead set on brawling?

You can still do some decent fighting with the Victor at 400-600m with 2 large pulse and 1 gauss if you prepare accuracy & strategic engagements.

obviously, if you want a full out n00b brawl and to steam in then you can throw SRMs on it. Most competition players run XL's with SRMS/ac20 but in competitive everyone goes for legs so you can get away with it.

The victor feels a bit weak atm compared to other mechs, and this is coming from a guy who used the hell out of my 2ppc2ac5 dragon slayer.

Yes, IS only, since I'm more-or-less set on grabbing a Warhawk for my Clan assault, so I'll have a suite of mechs for both. I'm most used to brawling, but I'm also OK with midrange fights.

aniviron, on 27 September 2014 - 03:44 PM, said:

The AWS-9M is indeed the most mobile assault.

However, the 8 series Awesomes are the least mobile assaults in the game. They're slower than Stalkers, slower than Atlases. And if you want to elite you mech (and you do) then you'll have to level two other Awesomes to get where you want it.

Personally, I would recommend waiting for the quirk balancing. Recommendations will be different once that happens, I assume. We did get word from Russ' twitter that the Victor is going to have its negative quirks removed, but also is not going to have any positive quirks added on top of that.

Yikes.......that's pretty scary. I have nowhere near the GXP necessary to manually rank up the other two, so I guess I'll drop that one.

Guess I'll wait for the quirk changes. I need to grind more C-Bills anyway.

[aniviron]

Scurry, on 27 September 2014 - 04:52 PM, said:

Yikes.......that's pretty scary. I have nowhere near the GXP necessary to manually rank up the other two, so I guess I'll drop that one.

Guess I'll wait for the quirk changes. I need to grind more C-Bills anyway.

To be fair, the AWS-8 series all have great torso twist and arm mobility, but they top out at ~66kph, and don't accelerate or decelerate well.

Edited by aniviron, 27 September 2014 - 06:27 PM.