6 replies to this topic

[ice trey]

Hey Fellow Dracs.

There are a lot of people out there that are already groaning about the Panther and how "Bad" it's going to be. I'll admit, in a vanilla drop, they're not going to be the most stellar rides without a LOT of modification. They're unlikely to ever be the tier 1 meta mech of forever, but I have a good feeling about it for CW use. The following are the reasons why I'm looking forward to it.

1) Lore - more than any other factory available to us, the Panther factories are almost constantly churning out mechs for the Draconis Combine. The Battletech fiction has shown the Panther being so common, that even in the age of battlefield salvage, there are entire company-sized formations of Panthers roaming some battlefields. If there is a mech even more common than the Dragon in the combine, it's the Panther. It may even outnumber bug mechs like the Stinger, Wasp, and Locust - and that's a feat.

2) Quirks - We've already seen how the poorly received Vindicator got a huge boost for it's PPCs, making it an excellent sniper. Just imagine what we'll see get added to the Panther - a light mech trudging around at 64 kph stock. I foresee endo steel, XL engines, and DHS allowing 35 ton jump capable dual PPC mechs. Maybe even Triple? Who knows.

3) Defense - While there are a lot of folks out there who've already made ERLL Ravens, for those that haven't, sometimes you just want to take a big support mech on defense, but find that everything else suffers as a result. Behold the Panther, which can still fill the PPC sniper role on a tonnage budget. With a Panther, you'd still have 205 tons to split between three mechs for holding the Generators. That could be three Jagermechs' worth.


I'm generally not the type to try to promote one thing or another, but I'd suggest that before writing off the Panther as useless or junk, consider how it will fit in with the new mechanics released these past few months. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how one of these will play out. Hell, I've had a Jenner modified to almost perfectly recreate a stock Panther-10K since the last server reset years ago, and while it's not something you'd see a min-maxer running, I've seriously enjoyed using it.

Next, I wait for a Charger.

Edited by ice trey, 27 December 2014 - 12:54 AM.

[Onmyoudo]

The Panther may be a decent tonnage filler on a specific map (looking at you, Boreal) given the current effectiveness of the Thud 9S. I'm not going to write it off until I've played it but we know one thing for sure - it looks cool. And that's what's important.

[Smoked]

Any mech could look great in the hands of the right person. Saw instances of mist lynx and kitfoxes carrying pugs whereas a lot of people wrote them off as trash.

[Scoops Kerensky]

As far as CW goes, any mech that can carry er ppcs, er large lasers, and/or gauss rifles is a great asset for fighting against clan factions. I'm sure a panther with an ER PPC will do just fine as a fast sniper mech for that situation.

[Sickboy78]

The panther is awful. It is like a worse version of a kitfox. Hi, I'm the panther, I have no hard point (those I do have are jammed into one place so if I lose them, I have no weapons), I am slow as hell and have no ecm. Plus, unlike the terrible clan lights, I am also worse because if I lose a shoulder, I die...wheeee!!!!

[Ultra-Laser]

Sickboy78, on 18 February 2015 - 04:31 PM, said:

The panther is awful. It is like a worse version of a kitfox. Hi, I'm the panther, I have no hard point (those I do have are jammed into one place so if I lose them, I have no weapons), I am slow as hell and have no ecm. Plus, unlike the terrible clan lights, I am also worse because if I lose a shoulder, I die...wheeee!!!!

Its just a short medium in the same way the Dragon is a fat medium. You're evaluating it from an entirely incorrect perspective. If you use it properly its like a Vindicator with an obnoxiously small hitbox and an Awesome tier ERPPC.

[Chef Kerensky]

Sickboy78, on 18 February 2015 - 04:31 PM, said:

The panther is awful. It is like a worse version of a kitfox. Hi, I'm the panther, I have no hard point (those I do have are jammed into one place so if I lose them, I have no weapons), I am slow as hell and have no ecm. Plus, unlike the terrible clan lights, I am also worse because if I lose a shoulder, I die...wheeee!!!!

The Panther should not be played as a light mech. Like IDG said, it's a medium in a lighter package, and it packs some really nice quirks to compensate for pretty laughable base stats and loadout. Jury's still out on whether it's at all useful in CW but it could be much worse. Personally I'd bank on the 8Z and 9R being more useful than the 10K if it does prove useful.