Hello and welcome to MWO and the forums!
Sounds like you're interested in light mechs. Have you piloted the Trial Mechs called Jenner and Firestarter? These two are wonderful places to start and if you've spent some time playing their Trial versions you'll have some XP stockpiled to upgrade their Efficiencies as soon as you buy them.
All Innersphere mechs are sold "stock", which means you'll need to Upgrade to Double Heatsinks, and usually Endo structure and almost all light mechs also need Ferro armour, plus all mechs need the right size engine. Do some research on builds that interest you can figure out what the best engine to buy is, because you can buy one engine and just move it around between the mechs you own until you can afford more engines. The Trial mechs are built with all these upgrades already, so you get a taste of what a fully built mechs will play like. Some Trials are more effective then others, so really get a taste of what the chassis itself feels like and think about what kind of weapons you'd rather have on it - then you can look at the variants available for that chassis and see if one matches your taste.
Some mediums may also interest you, such as the Shadowhawk and Griffin, which can be built to a topspeed of around 110kph with jumpjets. The Griffin is usually an SRM brawler, and while the Shadowhawk can do the same, it has more options. They may not be as fast as lights, but you'll definitely benefit from their extreme maneuverability.
It also sounds like you're interested in ECM. ECM only comes on certain mechs, like the Raven 3L and Spider 5D. The Kitfox and Mistlynx can also equip ECM, but they're slower support mechs and not as fast and nimble as Innersphere lights. They tend to pack more efficient firepower as a tradeoff.
An alternative to ECM is the Radar Deprivation module, which you unlock using GXP on the Skills tab and then equip to your mech in the mechlab via the Module tab. It costs 15,000 GXP and 6,000,000 C-Bills, but it's worth buying one early and transferring it to whatever mech you plan on using. It's a must-have for light mechs because without it the enemy can see where you are behind cover for a short amount of time, whereas with it equipped, if they can't see you, they don't know where you are.
As a bonus tip, Locusts and Commandos are the fastest mechs in the game and also have ECM variants, but they don't have jumpjets and they're also extremely fragile and notoriously difficult to pilot. I wouldn't recommend looking into them unless you're really up for a frustrating challenge.
Hope this helps!
Edited by Tarogato, 07 December 2014 - 11:14 PM.
2
