58 replies to this topic

[Tristan Winter]

It has more hardpoints than most other assault mechs, it's got a smaller front profile than most heavy mechs (and some medium mechs) and it can carry 2 AC40s in the arms. Is the King Crab as good as people thought it would be?

Is it the best IS assault mech?

[Yokaiko]

Nicolai Kabrinsky, on 04 January 2015 - 12:02 PM, said:

It has more hardpoints than most other assault mechs, it's got a smaller front profile than most heavy mechs (and some medium mechs) and it can carry 2 AC40s in the arms. Is the King Crab as good as people thought it would be?

Is it the best IS assault mech?

Its an IS direwawhale with a slightly better profile.

.......big slow and scary of you get in front of it....but slow slow slow/

[Coolant]

doing good...just gimped right now without being able to get the other 2 variants to master it....final result I think will be really nice, but until then it's a good mech

[Bartholomew bartholomew]

Pretty good. But I found the quad ac5 build to be a bit lacking. Dual ac20's great. Dual gauss, great.

Will probably ditch the quad ac's for LBX/SRM spam and see how that goes.

[Helsbane]

Quad UAC5s, both modules for them, and all the ammo I can squeeze in. Toss in a pair of Mlas for backups when the cannons jam. It's a beast. It eats pretty much anything one on one including 'Whales. I could never really get into the Atlas, but the 'Crab is just my style.

[Thorqemada]

Its very slow, never get caught alone or you are dead meat to anything that can go close to ~100kph.
I use it in CW as Long Range Gauss Mech - you can put 2 ERPPC on top of it and Boreal is a good playing field for such a loadout, on Sulfur it rather sucks.
Won a IS vs Clan Defense on Boreal when the Clans were unable to rush the Doors and killed a Clan Assault almost 1500m away and crippled another seriously and also several of the smaller Clan Mechs that did show themself in the Advanced Zoom.

Had my best Assault-Mech PUG-Match ever recently with a Gauss+ERLL+LRM10 Setup with 7 Kills and 4 Assists 958 Damage on Caustic where i Sniped and Brawled as the match situation demanded (one of the never adressed game flaws that Sniping Weapons be also good for Brawling).

The Gauss charge up is no problem as you can adjust your aim while charged up and hit even Lights (some movement prediction ability is helpful also) - it only needs practice + practice + more practice which i still lack seriously.

Edited by Thorqemada, 04 January 2015 - 12:46 PM.

[Amsro]

Great mech but it suffers from being to slow to relocate, if you run into an enemy lance and are alone you will be eaten.

Plus it needs to be elited, soon.. soon.

Choose your location wisely with the Dire Crab.

[Mavairo]

Fantastic twist speed and rate, great side, and front profiles. (Terrible top one but that should be expected)
Great weapon loadouts and hardpoints.

The best IS 100 tonner I think, comfortably.

[627]

a surprisingly good missile boat

ok, assault lurmies are not exactly the best you can build but 4 LRM15 with 2700 Missiles are kinda fun. And before you ask, that is my CW build for defense and I get emtpy more often than not. just don't get overrun.

For pug matches you could drop some ammo for more heatsinks or better lasers.

The other builds I really like are 4UAC5s and 2xGauss/2xPPCs with an XL. I'd say for medium to long range King Crab, close range is more of Atlas territory. But I haven't tried a KC SRM boat, yet.

[Summon3r]

the KGC is an utter beast, and people cant even run them with double basics yet, dreading the day the rest of the KGC lineup is released especially considering they seem to be pre-quirked :-/

[Tristan Winter]

627, on 04 January 2015 - 01:21 PM, said:

a surprisingly good missile boat
ok, assault lurmies are not exactly the best you can build but 4 LRM15 with 2700 Missiles are kinda fun.

Could I see a screenshot of what it looks like with 4xLRM15 equipped?

[Bluttrunken]

You can run the crab with doubled basic, 3 variants are available for MC, the (L) variant is still obtainable by buying the highest Tier Resistance package(iirc).

But nonetheless, most mechs I drive(meds, lights and everything which is comfortably fast) I rather duck and run for cover when I see a Crab, the loadout basically doesnt matter but Dual AC20 and Dual Gauss are the most fearsome I think. The only people whom think the Crab is crap are the ones trying to tank a whole team with it and then complain about lacking support.

Edited by k05h3lk1n, 04 January 2015 - 01:44 PM.

[627]

Nicolai Kabrinsky, on 04 January 2015 - 01:36 PM, said:

Could I see a screenshot of what it looks like with 4xLRM15 equipped?

As you wish


You could still take half a ton armor of the legs down to 68 points (or even a full ton down to 60 but that gets dangerous) and fill the last empty crit slot but I have no Idea with what.

Edited by 627, 04 January 2015 - 01:46 PM.

[Xetelian]

I suspect the Crab is the IS assault King.

[Roadkill]

King Crab is slow, yes, but do not compare it to a Dire Whale. The Whale gets its name because it cannot turn or twist effectively. The King Crab can, and its arms also elevate much higher than the Whale's, the combination of which makes it far more dangerous. It is NOT a gimme kill for an aggressive Firestarter like a Dire Whale can be.

The King Crab is a beastly brawler.

[MischiefSC]

I recommend this build to play at least once -

Uac5,ac5,ac2 each arm. 300xl. Stuff ammo in there.

I ran with a pack of 3 of these in group queue for giggles one time. Reasonably sustainable DPs of 18 with bursts of 24. Three of them just dissolve stuff. Like a dire wolf pack of uac5x6 but with torso twist.

A walking wall of lead. There absolutely are more competitive builds but none more entertaining.

[Chagatay]

Roadkill, on 04 January 2015 - 02:00 PM, said:

King Crab is slow, yes, but do not compare it to a Dire Whale. The Whale gets its name because it cannot turn or twist effectively. The King Crab can, and its arms also elevate much higher than the Whale's, the combination of which makes it far more dangerous. It is NOT a gimme kill for an aggressive Firestarter like a Dire Whale can be.

The King Crab is a beastly brawler.

I.e. King Crab is blatant power creep...thankfully it is relatively easy to hit and people put XL engines in the things just like the XL stalker....(hint: DON'T). The torso twist on that thing is just insane as well as the hard points and quirking. The only saving grace is that big and slow generally doesn't do well in the CW not that you can't put a bigger engine in it if you wanted to.

Edited by Chagatay, 04 January 2015 - 02:29 PM.

[Bartholomew bartholomew]

627, on 04 January 2015 - 01:43 PM, said:

As you wish

You could still take half a ton armor of the legs down to 68 points (or even a full ton down to 60 but that gets dangerous) and fill the last empty crit slot but I have no Idea with what.

I would put a case in that side torso for just in case.

[627]

Bartholomew bartholomew, on 04 January 2015 - 02:24 PM, said:

I would put a case in that side torso for just in case.

lol, never thought on case because i consider it useless. I mostly lose the lurm side but sometimes the ammo one, but I haven' died to ammoplosion yet. But good call anyways, makes the build complete

[Alpha Zulu Tango]

Got only the freebie King and it is very good with only the basics open. Wouldn't say it is the only option for an IS assault but a very good one. Banshee with it's high mounted hill humping dakka and tanky Atlas with ECM-brawler or supreme S-brawler are mutually exclusive. King can do both very well but differently. Eagerly waiting to buy the other variants when they come available on the 20th : )