35 replies to this topic

[That Dawg]

I just looked down and somehow...against all my work at constantly buying crap I dont need...I have 20mil sitting there..
so...naturally its time to buy a mech, a clan mech (my IS stable is perfectly balanced, and after two years is finally, perfectly suited for any occasion- each is its own ATM and profits..unless next patch screws with me)

CBILLS PLEASE...yeah yeah, I bought my timber 3pack, but cbilled the storms, kits, novas.

Now for a clan assault.

I ran the rental direwhale and rental warhawk......both did well enough considering.
I see immediately the strengths and weaknesses. I think I have about 7-10K XP in each just to get a feel overall...and how sad to bring a rental into my elo bracket...the kids can be cruel on the playground...but, I'm not looking at 'what they can do', but 'how did you do in them', if that makes sense.

So, for those who did it: HOW bad is the grind to speed tweak for the whale trio vs. the hawk trio?

I wound up keeping one kit, one nova, but- a pair of crows and a pair of timbers (laser builds and lrm builds-not blends, dedicated builds)

But think I'd only keep one assault, and a butt load of omnipods.

Which to start with? With the mindset of keeping the last one, grinding it thru to the 3rd module.

Like I said, I'm already keenly aware of eachs strengths and weaknesses, looking for your gut feeling on which will be viable months from now.

We ALL have had mechs we wanted to be, just really wanted to be great, and ground them out to finally accept they really just suck. Some were fun from gut to gutter- the kitfoxes for example, one of the easiest, funnest grinds I've done.

thanks in advance

Edited by That Dawg, 12 January 2015 - 08:37 AM.

[Whitewolf95]

I would say it depends on what you want to do with your assault, if you're looking for a assault for CW I'd say the Warhawk because it weighs less(drop deck), 71 speed tweak much more mobile than the DW(pushes/defending generators), and it is a natural for laser builds with its locked heat sinks, if you plan on keeping just 1 I'd say go with the B(I think, the one with the CT missile slot). The hawk will give you a decent choice of lasers or missile boating. The direwolf I'd say go with if you pug reg matches alot and want to stomp people to dumb to move out from in front of you. The DW has its moments but the huge speed gap between it and the other clan mechs really makes it a burden, all its fire power doesn't do you much good 500 meters behind the rest of your team.

[Brody319]

Warhawk makes an excellent Energy boat, and missile boat.
Direwolf makes an excellent Energy boat and Ballistic boat.

[FupDup]

Whale: Very slow and very un-agile weapons platform that carries a Metric ton of firepower.

Warhawk: Decently fast and agile, tends to emphasize heat-based loadouts of energy or energy/missile.

Edited by Marvyn Dodgers, 13 January 2015 - 05:40 PM.
Filter bypass

[Salvag3]

I think the biggest thing to think about is knowing your own flaws and Strs as a pilot. The DW requires way more battlefield awareness to pilot well. Lose track of the flow of battle for just a few secs and you can find your self out of support range of your team and dead. in a warhawk you can catch back up ( most of the time ). But nothing opens a hole in a enemy line like the raw firepower a DW can bring to the table.

I Like the DW over the WH because I like having more firepower to work with and I like my Duel guass with 8 back up lasers. But I always have to make it a point to know where I need to be to support my team.

Each mech can be a good choice but it depends on what kind of a pilot you are and what you like

[Metus regem]

The thing is, the Dire Wolf, feels very heavy and sluggish, the torso twist range and speed are about half of the King Crab's, and considering that both use a 300 engine as their base engines, that is a little insulting for the Dire Wolf.

When it comes to loading them out, the War Hawk has a decent amount of free tonnage, yet very few hard points and critical spaces to use, to the point that it is almost mind boggling to get everything shoehorned into it. When I do run an assault mech, I do run a War Hawk as an cERLL sniper, with 4 x cERLL TC Mk. 4/5 adv. Zoom, this gives me a range of around 748m for optimal, nearly 1500m touch range, mind you on most maps that really does not come into play. Also yes the War Hawk has something like 25 DHS, you will be running hot with heavy energy builds, as realistically that is all you really can do with it, due to Hard Points, and free space issues.

The Dire Wolf on the other hand, they were a choir for me to master, and were simply used only for trolling (8/9 cERPPC or 6 x cUAC 5), as by the time I would get to the engagement zone, everything had already been chewed up. Or I was dead due to Fire Starters, even the odd Locust.

[Roadkill]

Since you've played with the rental versions you should be able to make the choice already. You've pretty much seen what each is capable of doing.

The Warhawk is relatively fast and agile for an assault, but it's not a great ballistic platform (limited hardpoints). The Warhawk B makes a fantastic missile boat with the extra CT missile hardpoint. I tend to run a Prime with 3 x LRM-15 and 4 x Clan ER Large Laser, though. It can engage from range but still hold its own in a brawl.

The Dire Wolf is slow and maneuvers like it's swimming in a pool of molasses in January, but OMG does it bring the pain. Due to the DOT nature of Clan ballistics, though, it isn't the awe-inspiring "Great Death" that it should be. (But that's a good thing for game balance.) I've played it both as a ballistic boat and with laser vomit. Both are satisfying, but neither really makes me go "woo!" The Dire Wolf also attracts attention in battle, so it can be difficult to play.

I'd recommend the Warhawk, finishing with the B to give you the option of 4 missile hardpoints if you want it.

[Alwrathandabout42ninjas]

Go Warhawk and get all 3. There are 3 builds I run with it :

Lasers.
Lasers and missiles.
Lasers and 1 Ballistic.

Each build is great and you have a very agile and mobile mech for 85 tons that can dish out a lot of firepower. The only thing were waiting for on it is erppc velocity buff and maybe extra armor on the torsos with the clan quirk pass and it will be golden.

The Warhawk is becoming my favorite clan ride, even over the Timber, due to how agile and mobile it is with the extra weapon tonnage.

Edited by Alwrath, 12 January 2015 - 11:48 AM.

[Chagatay]

Hawk....
Hawk Smash!!!!

[That Dawg]

thanks all.
also hit reddit..why is that site have more...real info than the home site??
anyhow, let the dog out, made an espresso, half a cigar, looked over my stats, and while a more agile strike fighter is what I tend to do better with, I dont suffer horribly with the pigs. Meditated, and snagged the direB

did a random cheese of 5AC5's, 4smpl and god this is slow, god this is slow has become my mantra
man, does it EVER take a pounding.
Not sure if ELO has tossed me into scale with new players, or tossed me into my regular scale, but we've been rolled all three battles, I was last, or second to last standing, killed, did some damage.
god is it slow, I should sell my pirates bane, cause I'll probably throw up if I accidently ride that after a couple of dire runs

Edited by That Dawg, 12 January 2015 - 12:01 PM.

[MauttyKoray]

Obviously, you're looking for a Gargoyle.

[0bsidion]

The warhawk just seems really flimsy to me, I'm not sure why. It seems to have the same level of durability of a medium without the maneuverability. It doesn't feel like an assault. That said, it's a decent enough mech. The direwolf on the other hand feels like an assault to the point I have to keep myself from getting overconfident. It's easy to start feeling like you're unstoppable, but you are in fact very stoppable because you're a big target for focus fire and without support you'll die horribly and surprisingly quickly.

[zortesh]

^ I actully always thought my warhawk was amazingly durable for a mech that goes 70kph and has 75+ firepower.

Its actully comparable to every other 85 tonner assault...

[LordKnightFandragon]

Warhawk: Large Pulse Laser boat

Dire Whale: Big immobile tub of a mech that will be owned by LRM rain and circle jerked by the nearest enemy light.

I much prefer to drive a Warhawk. I really dont like 1 dimensional things in games, leaves far to many way to easily exploitable weaknesses. I have 2 of my 3 WHKs elite now complete with the x2, and of the loadouts ive tried, the 4LPL CD5 mod and the 2LL/2LPL/1SRM6+art2t ammo worked best.

[Alistair Winter]

Warhawk, for sure. Just don't put a ballistic on it, unless you're playing dual gauss for fun. Every other ballistic build for the Warhawk is a joke.

[Metus regem]

Alistair Winter, on 12 January 2015 - 01:50 PM, said:

Warhawk, for sure. Just don't put a ballistic on it, unless you're playing dual gauss for fun. Every other ballistic build for the Warhawk is a joke.

Even the dual gauss is a joke, not enough ammo....

[Alistair Winter]

Metus regem, on 12 January 2015 - 01:52 PM, said:

Even the dual gauss is a joke, not enough ammo....

Yeah, it would be nice to get rid of some of those DHS. I don't need 9000% heat efficiency. But 8 tons of ammo is alright. I sometimes play dual gauss on CTF-3D and gauss on my CDA-3M, so I'm used to low ammo. The only problem is, you can't lay down suppressive fire as with PPCs. You have to make each shot count.

But the ability to fire non-stop in a brawl is nice.

[Metus regem]

Alistair Winter, on 12 January 2015 - 01:54 PM, said:

Yeah, it would be nice to get rid of some of those DHS. I don't need 9000% heat efficiency. But 8 tons of ammo is alright. I sometimes play dual gauss on CTF-3D and gauss on my CDA-3M, so I'm used to low ammo. The only problem is, you can't lay down suppressive fire as with PPCs. You have to make each shot count.

But the ability to fire non-stop in a brawl is nice.

Many times, I was down to an cERSL, that I kept on it, simply due to running out of ammo with Dual Gauss... Mind you, winning a match with just an cERSL is pretty funny.

That Dawg, on 12 January 2015 - 12:00 PM, said:

thanks all.
also hit reddit..why is that site have more...real info than the home site??
anyhow, let the dog out, made an espresso, half a cigar, looked over my stats, and while a more agile strike fighter is what I tend to do better with, I dont suffer horribly with the pigs. Meditated, and snagged the direB

did a random cheese of 5AC5's, 4smpl and god this is slow, god this is slow has become my mantra
man, does it EVER take a pounding.
Not sure if ELO has tossed me into scale with new players, or tossed me into my regular scale, but we've been rolled all three battles, I was last, or second to last standing, killed, did some damage.
god is it slow, I should sell my pirates bane, cause I'll probably throw up if I accidently ride that after a couple of dire runs

Chances are good, you are in with the meat bags and and new guys at the moment, I noticed the same thing, when I made an I.S. Alt, I was better than most of the pople I was playing with / against.... even with the trial mechs.

[CyclonerM]

MauttyKoray, on 12 January 2015 - 12:19 PM, said:

Obviously, you're looking for a Gargoyle.

Sadly i feel the sarcasm here

[ColdPsyker1]

Wubhawk master race