22 replies to this topic

[Tim East]

I've done XL in my freebie T-bolt, but I'm still trying to find a sweet spot with that machine in general. Though the flamethrower+mg build was pretty hilarious in a "trolling both teams at the same time" sort of way.

[Creovex]

Kodyn, on 27 September 2014 - 10:12 PM, said:

Yeah, you pretty much stated exactly what I've been running into with it. If it turns out to be that literally no one besides myself runs STDs in them, and they do alright, I'm really thinking the XL will be the way to go. I already own one XL300, sitting in my SHD, but will spring for another if it just plain makes more sense.(I tend to run one if the other is in match and I'm dead, so sharing is a no-go for me)

What are you talking about?? I run all my Thunderbolts with STD and I purposely aim at the RT/LT on enemy T-Bolts because most people run XLs in them.

The trick with the Thunderbolt is this.... It is a NON-Alpha, chain-fire mech... You can do small linked fire groups (ie. 2x LRG LR on say RT), but nothing big. The weapons that are your friends with this mech are AC5s, Medium and Large Lasers... and of course, SRMs.

[PeeWrinkle]

I could argue for or against using an XL engine in this chassis. Most of my T-Bolt builds use either a STD 280 or a STD 300 engine. I believe they are designed for STD engines because of the max 315 rating. The low engine rating prevents you from using huge engines which means you can get around 80KPH with good weapon tonnage using a STD.

I usually run mine with DHS, Endo, and 384-400 armor. With a STD 300 engine I have a minimum of 24 tons to work with for weapons and extra heat sinks (if needed). Which I think gives me a decent load out around 82KPH with speed tweak.

That said I do have one Dual AC5 build that uses an XL 300 engine. So if you are going to go heavy ballistics my opinion is you need an XL engine. That extra 10 tons is huge here. However if you are not running a dual AC build and just go with an AC 10 then you are back to a STD engine.

My Dual AC5 XL engine build does well enough, but I am definitely more successful with my STD engine builds.