20 replies to this topic

[Bacon_Warrior88]

As a solo pugger, I am struggling to finds ways to truly influence the outcome of matches.

I pilot all sorts of Mechs (lately Battlemasters and Spiders.) The matches these days are dominated by Twolves, Whales, and Crows.

My spider

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...0cb6312cee02aeb

Is great for scouting, tagging, and annoying the other team. However, its does not seem to be a game changer.

How do I make sense of this.

Should we all suck It up and base everything on skill? Should 12 Locust be expected to kill 12 Twolves purely on skill?

Do we want that?

Should each Mech have its place, or can we reasonably expect any combination of 12 to be able to defeat any combination of 12?

[FupDup]

The Spider 5V in particular is widely regarded as among the worst mechs in the game because of having 2 energy hardpoints both being in the CT, with no other weapons. This restricts it to either two 1-slot lasers or one [ER]LL or LPL. Using one of those hardpoints on a TAG doesn't help matters...

Hopefully the November 4th quirks pass will be merciful to the 5V and make it able to do more than cause minor annoyance.

[Greenjulius]

The locust can at best be considered a starter mech, cheap to master for newbies, but left in the dustbin for better alternatives. However, it's currently so underwhelming that people simply skip it over for FireStarters or Jenners. Spiders are better in almost every possible way too. The locust needs to be improved, but can never be expected to go toe to toe with the best mechs in their class. I hope no one ever expects low end mechs to be equal to top tier after these quirk passes, because that won't happen.

Of course, there are some really good players that like to test themselves in such a tough mech. That's really cool.

[Wrathful Scythe]

Well, there is you problem. I wouldn't touch that Mech even if I had to. Yes, the lights should scout and support but does that mean you shouldn't put weapons on your mech? The answer should be clear. Lights are good dmg dealers, too but many seem to forget that. Often enough I go out of a match with 2-3 kills and 500+ dmg. And that can turn the tide of a match.

With that single laser you can't do jackshit so I would recomend selling that thing and buying a Mech which is at least viable.
Try something like this: SDR-5D (yes its expensive >_>)
You can support your team with ECM, which helps a lot against LRMs and you can dmg enemys on range. You won't do as much dmg as a 6 ML Jenner but you will do more than with your current build. And your teammates will love you for you ECM. With something like that you can definetly make a change.

[Vassago Rain]

I suicide ground that awful spider variant when they released it like almost two years ago.

[Screech]

10/10.

Well played.

[Mothykins]

Teeeny tiny locust often kills big bad wolf.

And it's hilarious.

To folk who can't pilot the Locust: learn to drive please. It's nimble as heck, and your problem is most likely ALL THROTTLE ALL THE TIME. That's a really good way to die.

That said, the raven 3L with 3 SPL and 2 SRM4 is like a midget assault, and can crank out 800 damage easily.


Unfortunately, that Spider is... Kinda bad. And I don't think you CAN save it. You can have two guns, or a gun and a tag, or one big gun. Not exactly stunning. Maaaybe will be better after Quirks? We'll need to see.

But keep on rocking it, then switch to something with more teeth. I'm pretty sure you'll find yourself kicking rear after a match or two.

[Metus regem]

Greenjulius, on 27 October 2014 - 10:38 AM, said:

The locust can at best be considered a starter mech, cheap to master for newbies, but left in the dustbin for better alternatives. However, it's currently so underwhelming that people simply skip it over for FireStarters or Jenners. Spiders are better in almost every possible way too. The locust needs to be improved, but can never be expected to go toe to toe with the best mechs in their class. I hope no one ever expects low end mechs to be equal to top tier after these quirk passes, because that won't happen.

Of course, there are some really good players that like to test themselves in such a tough mech. That's really cool.

I'd argue, that to truly master a Locust, takes a great pilot. To reach mastery skills on it does not make you as master pilot though.

[Greenjulius]

Metus regem, on 27 October 2014 - 11:07 AM, said:

I'd argue, that to truly master a Locust, takes a great pilot. To reach mastery skills on it does not make you as master pilot though.

That's what I said. "Cheap to master for newbies." As in cheap to buy all three variants. Lights are a cheap entry point, and most new players will start with them. The Locust is by far the cheapest of them all. Lights have a high skill cap that can constantly be pushed higher. The most impressive players I've seen have been Spiders that single-handedly take out half an enemy team after they just completed a near stomp. I've seen locust pilots pull similar maneuvers.

Even players with dozens of mastered mechs can be bad players. I've seen people who claim to have 75+ mechs play so badly I almost think they play perpetually drunk.

Edited by Greenjulius, 27 October 2014 - 11:55 AM.

[Metus regem]

Greenjulius, on 27 October 2014 - 11:49 AM, said:

That's what I said. "Cheap to master for newbies." As in cheap to buy all three variants. Lights are a cheap entry point, and most new players will start with them. The Locust is by far the cheapest of them all. Lights have a high skill cap that can constantly be pushed higher. The most impressive players I've seen have been Spiders that single-handedly take out half an enemy team after they just completed a near stomp. I've seen locust pilots pull similar maneuvers.

Even players with dozens of mastered mechs can be bad players. I've seen people who claim to have 75+ mechs play so badly I almost think they play perpetually drunk.

I for one do not fear a Dire Wolf with dual Gauss, they are too easy to beat. A Locust on the other hand, can be troublesome if left to roam unchallenged.

That leads to why I think everyone should learn to drive a Dragon, they teach one how to pilot, at the same time give a little more survivability than a Locust.

[Gyrok]

No matter what happens in this game, or any game, there is one absolute truth to be certain:

Unless all mechs are literally the exact same thing with different skins, nothing will ever be equal to anything else.


To put it bluntly, some mechs will never be as good as others. This is just the way it is, accept it and play the good mechs when being serious. Save the bad ones that you like for solo queue.

[Kaeb Odellas]

Gyrok, on 27 October 2014 - 12:07 PM, said:

No matter what happens in this game, or any game, there is one absolute truth to be certain:

Unless all mechs are literally the exact same thing with different skins, nothing will ever be equal to anything else.


To put it bluntly, some mechs will never be as good as others. This is just the way it is, accept it and play the good mechs when being serious. Save the bad ones that you like for solo queue.

This is a poor attitude to have. PGI could easily make the locust more powerful than every other mech combined, but they're not going to do that because it's stupid. However, don't you think there could exist some happy medium in between "useless" and "god-machine" that every mech could reside in, where all of them are useful in their own way?

[Gyrok]

Kaeb Odellas, on 27 October 2014 - 12:59 PM, said:

This is a poor attitude to have. PGI could easily make the locust more powerful than every other mech combined, but they're not going to do that because it's stupid. However, don't you think there could exist some happy medium in between "useless" and "god-machine" that every mech could reside in, where all of them are useful in their own way?

Sure, right after there are massive hitbox passes on 90% of the bad mechs.

I guess we could wait 1-2 years for complete art overhauls while basically nothing else gets done...or not.

What you speak of is what "quirks" is supposed to accomplish. What quirks is actually doing is taking bad chassis, and making it advantageous to run as close to the original load out as feasibly possible.

The disadvantage there is, if you really want your mech to do something completely different than quirks promote...well...your chassis is still going to suck as bad as it did before. In some ways you might even say worse, because the quirked load out on that mech is going to be blatantly superior in nearly every imaginable way to any customized load out.

The other issue is the fact that you can buff something to a point, but you are riding a super fine line. The tryhard/comp crowd is going to run the "best" mechs. There will be a min/max advantage to specific chassis, it will happen. Even if all things are equal, due to hardpoints alone...some chassis are better than others.

Once you accept this fact, life will get better for you and you will accept the way things are instead of fighting it.

As for "godmachines" and "crap"...well...there are no god machines. All the "godmachine" mechs are not even leading the board in the weekend challenge...or have you not paid attention?

Hmm...but I bet you still think the "godmachine" mechs are OP, right?

As I have been saying for quite some time. Clans were over nerfed, and after the quirks pass, IS will be superior.

inb4QQoverclans

Edited by Gyrok, 27 October 2014 - 02:13 PM.

[Sorbic]

Gyrok, on 27 October 2014 - 02:12 PM, said:

As for "godmachines" and "crap"...well...there are no god machines. All the "godmachine" mechs are not even leading the board in the weekend challenge...or have you not paid attention?

Hmm...but I bet you still think the "godmachine" mechs are OP, right?

As I have been saying for quite some time. Clans were over nerfed, and after the quirks pass, IS will be superior.

inb4QQoverclans

Actually the clan mechs folks have complained about are leading.
Assault Top clan and IS spread from 1st-15th
DW 2567-2201
BM 2414-2019

Heavy
TW 2411-2118
MD 2338-2059
JM6 2302-1964
Medium
SCR 2448-2047
CDA 2200-1907

So it looks like nerfs were warranted on some chassis/weapons. Unfortunately they were generalized and hurt clan tech that was already in line with IS. Like the Adder and Nova.

[Alistair Winter]

These threads would be far more productive if they didn't attract so many heroes proclaiming that they have an average of 800 dmg in their Locust / Spider 5V, and everyone else just needs to learn to play. Give. Me. A. *******. Break.

If you think you're getting 4 kills and 400 dmg on average in those crappy mechs, you have something called 'confirmation bias'. It means you only remember the matches where you did well, and you forget all the times where you got smashed by the big bad wolf. And you log off feeling like a champ every time.

And to everyone thinking that the first Quirk pass will change everything, just settle down and embrace the sad. The Spider 5V is probably going to get some cooldown quirk and range bonus, and it's going to be a 10% better mech. But a pile of poop with a 10% improvement is still a pile of poop.

PGI doesnt want to do any major changes that will upset the balance significantly. People would ragequit if their Embers were suddenly owned by Locusts, or if their Timber Wolves were consistently getting beat by light mechs. "My Timber Wolf is supposed to be the best mech in the galaxy, it says so in my TRO manual!" And Russ Bullock seems to agree, saying that the Timber Wolf will basically always be the best heavy mech in the game.

ggclose.

[Orbit Rain]

thread is tl;dr after tourney

scrubs can't make this work...yes...it's a beast. I'm sorry (not really) so many aren't skilled enough to handle this little beast. I expect to see thousands of them tomorrow...

GO!

[Bacon_Warrior88]

Orbit Rain, on 27 October 2014 - 11:22 PM, said:

thread is tl;dr after tourney

scrubs can't make this work...yes...it's a beast. I'm sorry (not really) so many aren't skilled enough to handle this little beast. I expect to see thousands of them tomorrow...

GO!

2 medium pulse lazers hits harder than that. the range difference is N/A

[NinjaTom]

I personally pilot the locust because it's the most challenging light there is, it may not be a "meta" mech but you can never get the same thrill out of piloting other safer lights, but even a locust has its day of doing what is considered suicide for it which is winning face-to-face combat against the direwolf in near perfect condition and coming out on top without backup.

This mechs cheap, looks good and provides the best challenge in the game, that and having the worst teams to work with adds to the challenge.

[Apnu]

Cavale, on 27 October 2014 - 11:00 AM, said:

To folk who can't pilot the Locust: learn to drive please. It's nimble as heck, and your problem is most likely ALL THROTTLE ALL THE TIME. That's a really good way to die.

I can't drive the thing, nor spiders either. I'm OK in the 35 ton lights. I know my limits, so I avoid the locust and spider.

I have to give OP props tho. I dig players who take "ugly" mechs and try to make them shine. I do the same thing but with hunchbacks mostly. My two best mechs are the HBK-4G (w/ AC20) and HBK-4J (w/ 2xLRM10)

[Lily from animove]

Tiggo Bitties, on 27 October 2014 - 10:27 AM, said:

As a solo pugger, I am struggling to finds ways to truly influence the outcome of matches.

I pilot all sorts of Mechs (lately Battlemasters and Spiders.) The matches these days are dominated by Twolves, Whales, and Crows.

My spider

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...0cb6312cee02aeb

Is great for scouting, tagging, and annoying the other team. However, its does not seem to be a game changer.

How do I make sense of this.

Should we all suck It up and base everything on skill? Should 12 Locust be expected to kill 12 Twolves purely on skill?

Do we want that?

Should each Mech have its place, or can we reasonably expect any combination of 12 to be able to defeat any combination of 12?

depends on the laodout, when they are 12 lasevomit wolves, they gonna fail probably, if they have gauss and ballistics, good night locusts.