23 replies to this topic

[PhoenixHawk OSF]

Senor Cataclysmo, on 08 February 2015 - 07:56 AM, said:

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A lot of that helps. Thanks again!

Koniving - What do you consider the best of the mediums and heavies?

[Ano]

Personally, having followed Koniving's example and changed the FOV, I really can't stand the Shadowhawks anymore, so my 2p says go Hunchback.

These may be ENTIRELY irrelevant to the way you play, but here's some of the things I realised I was personally doing wrong as I journeyed up the skill ladder from "Complete waste of tonnage" to "probably not worse than 1 elemental":

1. Weapon ranges: I see people sniping with IS medium lasers from 550 metres often enough that it sticks in my mind when I'm in spectator view, and after a while I realised that I was doing it too. Weapon damage falls off fairly quickly past the optimum range -- that's not to say it's a waste of time firing those MLs at something 360m away, but...

2. Weapon groups/mix. The fewer weapon systems you have to manage, the less you have to think about ranges, or lead for different groups, or which is your "cooldown" weapon group.

Arguably my favourite mech is the Hunchback 4P, and that's quite possibly because it was the first mech where I started getting consistent not-total-waste-of-tonnage results. I play it armed with 9 (nine) medium lasers (a fairly standard build) -- so I'm either in range, or I'm not. I have three weapon groups: one for the 6 in the hunch, one for the other 3, and a third which is set to chain fire through all nine in sequence. It's one of the simplest mechs to play in my view (no ammo; 1 weapon type; 1 weapon range) so you can concentrate on positioning, situational awareness and aiming more than you can in more complicated setups.

3. Skills help a LOT. Even just unlocking the Cool Run and Heat Containment skills makes a surprising difference to any mech which isn't 100% ballistics. The acceleration and deceleration skills in the basic tier (I forget the names) make your mech noticably better at peeking. Completing the elite tier of skills (which requires you to have had three variants of the same mech at some point, and in your position is easiest achieved by levelling three variants of the same chassis until you have unlocked all of the elite skills on all three) gives you great upgrades, including making hte basic tier more effective.

4. Turn down your mouse sensitivity. Waving your lasers around makes a great lightshow but doesn't do much damage

[Koniving]

PhoenixHawk OSF, on 08 February 2015 - 05:39 PM, said:

A lot of that helps. Thanks again!

Koniving - What do you consider the best of the mediums and heavies?

For the IS?

Wolverine; by a landslide wolverines. Honestly a bit of all of them (medium mechs) have their uses. Hunchbacks are a solid second with Blackjacks being a very tight third.

Cicadas, Vindicators (45 tons and taller than a Timber Wolf, what were they thinking?) and Shadowhawks are on the bottom of the pile for me.

Not that there's anything wrong with Shadowhawks, but with my armor allocation on Hunchbacks before the quirks the Hunchback was simply superior. Now after the quirks, Hunchbacks are almost blatantly superior. Why have the tallest 55 ton mech, with no peripheral vision, little torso twist, and limited jumping ability when you can have a Hunchback that can shoot behind itself?

---
Far as heavies, Thunderbolts, Dragons and Orions [in no particular order] were among my favorites before quirks. After quirks, Dragons got better, Thunderbolts are border-lining bullshit territory (as in overdone), and Orions... well the quirks don't really help or hurt me on them.

Still use plenty of Jagermechs.

Edited by Koniving, 09 February 2015 - 10:13 AM.

[sthefrog1]

2; Getting damage involves a lot of experience. It took me awhile to start getting more damage. Just keep on playing and you will start to get better and get more damage and cbills!