3 replies to this topic

[Deathlike]

The Ice Ferret was the first released mech of Clan Wave 2, and having
played it, I completely understood why that is (hint: the Mist Lynx was
terrible). As I'll try to explain here... it isn't a bad mech, but it
isn't a good mech either. While it fulfills a role that current Clan
Light mechs cannot do, it actually DOES LESS than a Cicada while still
being "10 tons overweight".

I'll break this down into 3 parts to understand this mech better:
1) Omnipods
2) Hitboxes and Firing Locations
3) So why is this the "NARC lord"?

1)
Like the Mist Lynx, poor omnipods cripple a mech. This mech is no
exception as you will see. There are only 3 sections of the mech that you
need to know for the most part (outside of the CT) as these will control
your "mech destiny".

Left Arm:
IFR-Prime - 2E
IFR-A -1B, 5% ballistic cooldown
IFR-C- 1M, 5% missile cooldown

The most useful and optimal choice tends to involve the Ice Ferret-
Prime's Left Arm. Running at least 2 CERMEDs is kind of a staple of the
mech. It's hard to not what it given the mech has very low tonnage to
work with.

The ballistic arm one of those "bad ideas". Sure, you can run a
ballistic, but how useful would it be, given that the stock Ice Ferret-A
barely has enough ammo to do anything of consequence? Besides, in the
current state of the game, 1 MG is generally wasted tonnage, and is not a
consideration here.

The missile hardpoint is something you may want to think long and hard
about. It is a good complementary piece to a particular build (that will
be explained shortly) if you plan on going missiles, but also remember
that tonnage is your enemy and you can only fit so much ammo into the
mech as the max armor provides only 9 tons of usable space.

Right Arm:
IFR-Prime - 1M, -5% missile heat generation
IFC-A - 1E, 1AMS
IFR-C - 1M -5% missile heat generation

As you can see, the lack of variety is actually natural. It's sad really.
The missile heat generation bonus is nice, except it comes at the cost of
being at the OTHER side of the "missile dominant" section. This reduces
actual synergy with the mech and generally relies on the player to use
the non-Prime variants to use the energy hardpoint for backup weaponry.
It's really suboptimal.

For the Ice Ferret-A's Right Arm, I feel as if you are being "punished",
because of the AMS is attached to the energy hardpoint. This really does
not make sense, nor is far. Does it even make sense to commit to AMS when
you have all this speed? It probably isn't and so your options continue
to suck more unnecessarily.

This ultimately implies that you can max out on 4E hardpoints with the
non-Prime variants...and 4 CERMEDs is alright, but uninteresting. "You
could do better" is the sentiment, but it is what it is.


The CT is really uninteresting, as you are only "trading" some bonus
torso twist speed for 1E... which makes the Prime rather undesirable. It
can be salvaged through the Ice Ferret's A's Right Arm... but that
doesn't really make the mech...

The strangely "most important section" is the Left Torso as the Right
Torso omnipods serves no actual purpose. Perhaps that needs to be looked
over, but for now this is not the discussion. The Left Torso is the only
thing that makes the mech "interesting".

Left Torso:
IFR-Prime - +10% torso twist
IFR-A - +10% torso twist
IFR-C - 1M, +5% torso twist

Obviously, the Ice Ferret-C is the most interesting and in fact is the
most valuable. One of the "nice" things the actual variant provides by
default is Artemis... unfortunate this is ironically the situation where
you would not stack it on CLRM5s. Nonetheless, the missile torso is
extraordinarily valuable for just one reason.... high mounted
missile hardpoint in the torso.

The missile arms are helpful, and while they all have 20 tubes (which
isn't really usable to load up on CLRM20s), it is the primary vehicle for
housing the biggest troll weapon in the game... NARC.

NARC causes people to do crazy and dumb things... and there is no
exception here. While NARC is an offensive weapon (more like a tool for
missile boaters), it is technically a defensive weapon when you want
certain players to get out of your way, because of the fear of the
incoming missiles. In conjunction with BAP (and Seismic, to hunt ECM
down), the Ice Ferret is able to maximize its ability to be a nuisance..
unlike all the other Clan Light mechs (the Adder is not a fast mech, and
the Mist Lynx gets disabled so quickly).

Since the Left Torso serves a purpose, it is in your best interest to use
the right side of the torso as a shield. Losing whatever you have on that
side based on your omnipod options isn't much of a loss. You'll also want
to "hide" all of your ammo on your Left Torso since that should be the
last thing you'd want to lose.

2)
The scale and size of the mech are somewhat reasonable when you compare
the other 45 tonners involved. The size is appropriate, however the mech
has the real potential of suffering the same issue that the Mist Lynx...
at least with the Ice Ferret-Prime. Fortunately, that's what makes the
missile Right Torso extraordinarily useful... even if you will be ammo
dependent.

The firing points from the arms arm higher than what you would expect for
a mech that has arm articulation. With that said, this is the ONLY mech
that has the worst arm pitch in the game (25 degrees... which is lower than the usual 30). It's hard to discern if that was intentional, but this mech actually needs help. Preemptive nerfing
was unnecessary.

The high firing point of the missile torso is still the saving grace... as it is optimal for hill humping.

3)
I had initially went into thinking that I could run some sort of Cent-D type of build... and this mech can actually accomplish this (2 meds, 2 ASRM6s).
IFR-C

The thing is... it's really just a Light mech trapped in a Medium Mech's body... and ironically it is the best "electronics" platform that isn't a Raven-3L. I don't think it can be that much better than something like 3 CERMEDs + 1 TAG + NARC. While it can be debatable on what you could max out the mech with, the reality is that the mech is vastly limited due to its omnipods and one would hope that gets addressed in the future, despite its weak tonnage options (9 tons usable after all).

I'm unsure what kinds of quirks it needs, but more omnipods would be the first option to rectify the situation. I suspect a minor armor buff to the arms would help, AFAIK there are timeline variants that would help.

Ice Ferret-B Left Arm - 1E, 1M
Ice Ferret-D Right Arm - 2E
Ice Ferret-D Left Arm - 1E, 1AMS

While these don't look like very interesting hardpoints, it would allow for some builds to be less "right torso side" shield centric. Still, the LT missile hardpoint would still be the dominant side... for NARCing.

TL;DR
The Ice Ferret is simply a Light mech in a Medium chassis, and to expect much else is foolish. At best, it is the best Clan NARCing platform by design, and it may be a while until an actual Clan Light will make this obsolete.

[Mcgral18]

Well, it seems the Ferret does have a left arm AMS as well as the D right arm:

That 5th laser could come in handy. Left arm has no inflated ballistics, unfortunately.

[Deathlike]

Mcgral18, on 24 December 2014 - 01:55 AM, said:

Well, it seems the Ferret does have a left arm AMS as well as the D right arm:

That 5th laser could come in handy. Left arm has no inflated ballistics, unfortunately.

I was thinking 3 CERMED + 2 CERSML or 3 CERMED + 2 CSPL would be sufficient. You'd still use the shield side on the right but your primary weapons on the left. It would be more than useful or practical at that point.

5 CERMEDs would be too much... seeing people with 4 CMPL was hilarious in the rate of overheating that occurred.

Edit:
I'd like to also point out one oddity. PGI saw fit to model CGauss on that ballistic arm (LA) and the CUAC20, but not to model CLBX20? Both have the same tonnage.

Well, at least now I know how smurfy gets his missile data on the new mechs.

Edited by Deathlike, 24 December 2014 - 11:46 AM.

[Alwrathandabout42ninjas]

All you have to do with the Ferret is throw 2 ERLL in the arms and a TC1/DHS and call it a day. Works great as a long range harasser.

Edited by Alwrath, 24 December 2014 - 12:06 PM.