I'm a very new player (started about a week ago and now I'm done with the cadet boni). And I'm sure you already guessed it, I would like to know which 'Mech would be a good starter mech.
I've played all of the trial mechs and I'm not good with Assaults or Heavies. I do like the light 'Mechs, although I'm not that good in them. However, I like to play the Medium category. More specifically the Centurion-9 A(C). I've had pretty good games with it, as I understood the basic gameplay with it (get close, fire an alpha, shield with left arm, repeat). My personal best is about 600 dmg and 3 kills. Now I would like to know a few things,
a) Is my described playstyle the right onefor the Centurion? how do you call the Centurion playstyle?
c) Should I get a Centurion or a different medium 'Mech, including variants (no MC 'Mech, and if you recommend a 'Mech please consider, that, since this is my first 'Mech, it should be pretty good "out of the box", since I'll be short on my budget after the purchase (I only have 11 mil. C-Bills)).
Thanks for reading
Centurions have the luxury of being able to cater to a wide range of playstyles.
(Though in my opinion they are not as versatile as Hunchbacks in that unlike Hunchbacks, Centurions can't accommodate virtually every single playstyle)
An example is the Classic Centurion Charge, which back in closed beta when everyone had exclusively the heavy standard engines and Centurions went 64.8 kph... a developing style of play was to twist 40 to 45 degrees to the right so that your left arm shield is up and in the way. With the delayed convergence back then, either the enemy hit your arm or if they missed your shield arm they the shots would 'crisscross' and either hit in different places (allowing you to tank damage longer by splitting it up) or miss you completely. At the same time you'd hook your right arm under or over your shield (now no longer possible) so that you could shoot at the enemy with your low-heat-generating AC. Pop open the missile doors and bombard with LRMs and AC/10 as you approach. If the fire gets too heavy, steer away toward cover or close the missile doors (which are now gone). Finally when you get within 270 meters, you immediately center the torso while letting go of the arm control, centering your body and allowing you to attack with lasers + AC/10 to deal the final killing blow.
A team of two of those could wipe out the entire enemy team.
Of course times change. Now Centurions are strikers (hit and run), snipers, brawlers, tankers, "zombies," and more. It just depends on how you build it.
That said, if you like the CN9-A(C), grab the CN9-A. It is the same thing minus the upgrades (and thus you can use your cbills instead of real cash).
I would personally suggest starting with the CN9-AL. It may be energy-based but that means your starting standard engine will be much more viable (as energy weapons are very light).
There is also the CN9-D, which while expensive cbill-wise starts with a few of the good things right off the bat.
This is me leading a lance of trial CN9-Ds (pure stock) with medium mech champion 7NationArmy (recorded by him), accompanied with his advice on how to treat it.
The centurion is a great starter mech, and has good base stats. I personally like the wolverines and the 7k already has double heat sinks and an xl engine so thats nice.
For medium mechs, my Inner Sphere recommendations on the "Starting mech" are in no particular order: Hunchbacks, Blackjacks, Wolverines, Centurions, and Shadowhawks.
For Clan mediums: Nova is a fun little hell to put yourself in. Stormcrows will teach you every single bad habit you can possibly get (so that you'll never be able to use another mech without saying they all suck), and Ice Ferret... is a glorified light mech.
For advanced mediums: Kintaro, Griffin, Trebuchet.
I'm sorry but at the moment I can't even suggest Vindicators (Why is this 45 tonner taller than the Timber Wolf?) or Cicadas (Maybe if the leg hitboxes weren't exaggerated in size). Which is a shame.
I'd describe the Cent playstyle you are talking about as Hit and Run. The Cent won't stand up to much direct face time with a heavier opponent so another term maybe would Run N Gun.
I'd definitely stick to what you like and do well in. You want to keep it fun, cause if you're not having fun... I haven't tried Cicadas but they may fit well into your hit and run play style, also the Hunchback 4G with the AC/20 quirk is a decent hitter and plays similar to the Cent, not including the shield with left arm technique.
Griffins seem to do well, if you are good with SRM's...
a) Yes you can do this, dependant on builds, all match long. Just be mindful of surroundings and getting singled out, the Centurion can absorb a H U G E amount of damage and still be a viable combat machine. I have survived to the end of a match with less than 30% health and still having all weapons functional, in a XL engined Yeng Lo Yang no less.
I would tend to classify the Centurion as a mixed Brawler / Skirmisher. They excel at hit and run with large AC or energy weapons, depending on build and can even be used for indirect fire support with LRM's as Koniving has shown.
c) As you already have experience in the CN9A it might be worthwhile sticking with this to allow you to rebuild your CBill wallet and you can swap between the Trial and the version you own to gain XP at a higher rate.
If you find yourself itching to spend MC, I can't rate the YenLoWang high enough. I use this when I am dropping solo and can pull in 300-350k (with Premium time) per match and at a fairly reliable rate too, although the XL275 is an expensive purchase but at least it can be swapped around through other builds/'Mechs if you so wish.
The Centurion is a fine, fine mech for a beginner. It has a quite durability to it not seen in alot of mechs in this game, especially with a STD engine.. which brings me to my first point..
I would recommend the Centurion-D if your gonna buy a Centurion as your first mech. It does cost 8,000,000 c-bills, but comes with the ever so valuable XL300 engine, stock.
This engine is one of the top three engines used in the game across different chassis, including the Jenners. You indicated you liked playing lights also, so having this engine in the bank is nice if you do decide to go to lights next.
But...the Centurion 9-A is on-sale today at 35% off c-bills... that's also not too shabby. House Liao sale.
House Kurita sale starts soon 1-25-14 I think. There are some great mechs to be had at 35% off c-bills during this sale.
What's nice about the timing here is that you can use your cadet bonus money and stock up on three (3) amazing mechs during the Kurita sale. Owning three of the same chassis type allows you to unlock the Elite and Master set of mech skill unlocks. Very, very important in my opinion.
You need three (3) of one chassis type to unlock past Basic skills. Example. Hunchback 4SP, 4H & 4J.
During the Liao and Kurita sale, 35% off... you probably have enough to buy any three mediums. You start with four (4) empty mech bays.
Remember you can only get more MECH BAYS through contest give a ways, or purchasing them with MechCredits or MC. MC will cost you real life money. Karma Koin, Paypay, Credit card, etc...
All three Wolverines are on sale also during the Kurita sale. Also a great, great mech. A little more challenging, but...once you learn to leverage the 'Jumpjet', you become very dangerous. Its just a hard skill to master while learning all the other things needed in your early piloting career.
Ask questions, play alot, and take your early lumps. We all did! And listen to Konvings posts. They are some of the better information you'll get on the forums.
PS... Always upgrade your mech to Double Heat Sinks. ALWAYS! ( unless its a Locust or Spider maybe )
Edited by Flak Kannon, 23 January 2015 - 03:29 PM.
LocationSitting on a 12x multiplier and voting for Terra Therma
Posted 23 January 2015 - 02:57 PM
I generally recommend the Hunchback as a starter mech, it supports a wide variety of play-styles, and is reasonably cheap and newbie friendly while still being effective at higher levels. That said you seem to be on the right track with the centurion which is also an excellent choice. You can't really go wrong with either of those IMO.
In regards to the MC vs CBill variants, my advice is not to spend real money unless you know that you like a chassis and will be holding on to it. Mech bays (slots) are a better investment early on. Also make sure that you understand the distinction between Heroes/Champions and standard variants. Heroes/Champions are only available for MC while standard variants can be purchased for CBills OR MC. Heroes/Champions don't generally don't play any different from standard variants except for the fact that they come "pre-upgraded" and provide bonuses to your in match CBill and XP rewards.
PS:
If you have teamspeak feel free to drop my a line at ts3.hhod.com:7345, no password required. I'm online most nights and usually down to help answer any questions.
In actualit the BEST medium mech is the clan mech Stormcrow, it really is not debatable, the 2nd best is the Wolverine.
All mediums other than the cicada (really fast) and the Trebuchet (generally an LRM boat) play with about the same style.
The shadowhawk used to be the king, but now its kind of mediocre after recent changes.
good luck.
Agreed, but the wolverine is not great for a new player. All the weapons in a fragile arm is not new player friendly. Thats why I still recommend shadow hawks.
Another reason to grab the CN9-A - you should already have a bunch of mech XP saved up from running the trial. Every mech is much better when it is Elited.
The Centurion, Wolverine, Hunchback and Shadowhawk are all good mechs to start with. They offer a decent blend of speed, firepower and armour while being able to fulfill a wide range of battlefield roles. If you're set on the Centurion then I'd have a think about what you want to do with it.
Back when I ran a Centurion I went with a design that aimed to deal damage as it closed with the enemy so I 'd run with an AC10, a couple of meduim lasers and SRM's. I'd try to stick with assault mechs and support them. When they engaged enemy mechs I'd move up agressively forcing the enemy to switch to firing at me (allowing the friendly assaults to pound away while I try to absorb as much damage as possible wih my shield arm). If they ignored me then I deal out as much damage at short range as I could do.
At the end of the day I wasn't that big a fan of brawling which is why I now run with large pulse laser Wolverine and Shadowhawk builds.
I'm not as experienced as some of the other posters (all valid points), but really enjoy playing medium mechs. So here are my 2 cents. Since you mentioned starting 1 week ago I will include some rather basic explanations here and there. Ignore those if you know them already.
Both Hunchbacks and Centurions are mechs I enjoy and would recommend, while I prefer the HBK.
On Hunchback vs. Centurion (50ton mechs, main part, spoilered to make the post look shorter ):
Spoiler
+HBK: is built with STD engines more often compared to some CN9-builds as far as my impression goes (CN9 builds with a ballistic or large lasers mostly use an XL-engine). So you would not need to start with a 8mil mech to get the XL with it. Which means you could run something like this for less than 6mil c-bills while it is on sale : HBK-4G (just a quick example that uses the stock engine that comes with it. Personally I run a STD225 in this, and bigger STD engines in the other HBKs, except for HBK 4J with LRMS and 4ML, only HBK with XL)
-HBK: if people blow up your hunch, you will loose most of your weapons (except for HBK-4SP). The hunch is also the reason why most people don't use XL engines in HBK (you will die if they destroy the hunch/side torso). If you play against better players they WILL target the hunch (but, to a lesser degree, also the Cent-arm).
+-HBK: Therefore learning to turn away the vulnerable parts of your mech while you don't shoot (torso twisting) is something useful for most mechs, but especially mechs like the HBK. As it seems (metamechs) competitive players like to build asymetric builds whenever possible, which will also require you to know how to torso twist. So it's a useful skill to learn.
+Cent: does not have a big hunch (but a right arm that will house the biggest gun for most builds). so builds without (much) weapons in the arms have high "zombie survivability" as mentioned above by another poster. the Zombie build (standard engine, still weapons if all your side torsos are destroyed) on the CN9-A(C) is famous for it's survivability (you can have a headlaser in a HBK in the same situation vs 2 CT-lasers). and apparently experienced CN9-pilots can protect the mech with the left arm very well (-> torso twisting again)
+Cent: has one variant (-D) that can go alot faster than HBK/other Cents
+HBK: has more variants overall, 6 vs 5. for CN9. HBK-4P has the most energy hardpoints of any IS mech in the game. every other HBK also has nice quirks imho
-HBK: due to not using XL-engines you may be a bit slower compared to a similar (CN9) build with XL-engine.
Shadowhawks (55t) can jump and are very versatile, but are not as agile and much taller than at least HBK (and also Cents IIRC). Some months ago Shadowhawks were considered much better than other mediums. But the quirks (see spoiler on information below) have brought other mechs back again.
I only started to play Griffins (55t) recently. They have less variety in loadouts (Missiles and energy) compared to the above but agility of a HBK with Jumpjets on top (roughly speaking). Also taller.
Blackjacks are nice mechs and quite small, but more fragile than HBK, CN9 because they typically need XL engines while still not going faster than those (5t less to work with).
No experience with Vindicators, Wolverines (6K is quite popular), Trebuchets and Kintaros (mainly missiles it seems) yet.
Cicada is more like a bigger light.
Enforcer (will be released to people who preorder in a few weeks, in a few months regularly) may become a jumping HBK, Cent, but we don't know yet.
-maybe play a few games with the trial Hunchback. Just compare the "feeling" to the Cent, not so much the weapon loadout (and the overheating that comes with it as the trial has not unlocked any skills). Although this one is an all-energy variant there is a great variety of hardpoints on the different variants
most mechs currently have quirks which make them especially good for some loadouts (e.g. HBK4-G for AC20). You can find those on smurfy as well, or (in an easier layout) here: http://snafets.de/mwo/quirks.htm
there also is the "ultimate Hunchback guide" in the medium mech section in this forum. And some smaller threads for the different Centurion variants.
if you read older information be advised that there were so called geometry changes on "old" mechs in the past, especially on the HBK (less significant on the Centurion). E.g. the HBK-4J had the biggest hunch of them all, now the size is much smaller and it even disappears if you don't equip missiles, similar for HBK-4SP. The other Hunchbacks will keep the hunch, even it if is empty. So some comparisons/opinions may be outdated. The HBK change happened begin of 2014, CN9 was slightly changed in September 2014.
I also agree that the Stormcrow probably outperforms both, but you'd have to grind a lot more money to get your 3 variants, so I would propose to start with IS mechs. Personally I'm not playing competitively so the fun part of it plays a big role. If you want to go competitive save for a Stormcrow and refer to Metamechs for builds.
If you mainly play to have fun get ideas from mechspecs, these forums and Metamechs as another source.
I agree with Golrar that having the XP on the trial Cent is an advantage. But you'll have to grind some c-bills to get the next mech anyway. So you will probably get the XP for basic skills in the process anyway.
Notes on Sales/pricing/available variants:
Spoiler
If you choose HBK: For your 11mil Cbills you will be able to almost outfit 2HBK while they are on sale (35% off all of them until at least Wednesday next week). At least buy the 2nd while it's still on sale and you are grinding the money for outfitting it.
If you choose CN9: the CN9-A will be on sale starting on Sunday until Wednesday, and the CN9-AH will probably be available for regular purchase in February (it was a gift to people who spent money some time ago)
Wolverine is the only IS medium without a hero mech currently. So if you plan on buying a hero in the future, this one we don't know about yet.
In general to have a mech perform well you will need to level 3 Variants (e.g. CN9-A,-D...) of one chassis (e.g. CN9). Check here for a guide on how this works by Shar Wolf (at that time I started playing Centurions as you may notice)
Also, try and toggle the arm lock setting if you have not done so yet. This will improve your aiming possibilities on mechs with arm mounted weapons.
Sorry, this post is a lot longer than I expected it to be.
And I'm purely writing from a casual-but-addicted point of view.
TL,DR: both HBKs and CN9 are fun mechs for normal play, I expect HBK to be cheaper and more versatile.
I'd suggest you try hunchbacks if you get a chance as they will be cheaper to run than centurions but only because no hunchback should have a xl engine. Several of the cent variants do well with xl engines. For all of these mechs you need to budget for an additional 2m cbills for double heat sinks and endo steel chassis.
Neither is a bad choice though and with the positive quirks they both perform well. It is worth bearing in mind there is no centurion model for cbills that is built for a ac20 but the hunchback 4g will take one like a champ in that massive hunch
I tend to enjoy the Hunchbacks, overall. And, mediums in general. I kept my Hunchie SP out of the bunch, and have two setups I tend to use for it. My second medium is the ecm Cicada, handy as long as I remember I'm providing ECM stuff, primarily and not brawling, so much. I've found that if I remember to be patient, I live longer.
3
how do you call the Centurion playstyle?
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