26 replies to this topic

[Kyynele]

Do note that AC2s were seriously nerfed some time ago. Back when 2x AC2 2x AC5 Jagers were at their prime, AC2 had high DPS and very long effective range to compensate for it's high heat, high spread, and relatively high weight for it's single projectile damage. Now it has 2/3 of it's range, and it does no extra DPS compared to AC5, it just spreads around more and is stupid hot.

Also, the addition of quirks has shifted power balance between the mechs. Jagers used to be a great choice because you could have good loadouts in better positioned hardpoints than other mechs. Now some loadouts can just be stupendously more effective on other mechs, and PGI obviously buffed all the bad mechs and gave all the previous best mechs rather minor quirk boosts.

Some of the top IS mechs to have at the moment are Dragon 1N and Thunderbolt 9S, and for example Wolverines, Hunchbacks and even Trebuchets have quirks that make them top of their class in specific roles.

Honestly, I think all LRMs are pretty bad at the moment. If you get hit by them while you think you are in near perfect cover, there's probably an UAV somewhere nearby. Look to the skies and shoot them down.

In general, the heavily quirked IS mechs are a pretty good match to the best of the clan mechs. So good, really that clan players pretty much have to play the few best clan mechs in order to not get completely rolled over.

Edited by Kyynele, 11 February 2015 - 05:38 PM.

[bowlie]

quirks are new to me, so I will have a look at them. Not sure I enjoy the idea of them - the whole point of mech warrior to me is that you have a blank template to play around with and can do anything you like. Being forced to use specific weapons to stay powerful seems very limiting and pigeon holeing. That said I will give it a go. I do however think that power creep needs to be addressed in the game, possibly by adding more armour across the board.

[Rogue Jedi]

the way the quirks are usualy applied is that you get half the bonus for the weapon type (energy, ballistic or missile) and half for a specific weapon (e.g. AC5, ER Large Laser or SRM4).

the quirks are designed to reward you to stay close to a specific loadout but still give you bonuses for the majority of loadouts, in many cases I am more successful not playing to the quirks.

e.g. the dual Gauss Jagermech is still the only JM6 build I can do well with but no JM6 has Gauss Rifle quirks

[The Massive]

You can spend all the cash you like. But nothing you buy with real money is going to make the game easier or make you better. Plus if you're patient anything you think is OP will eventually be available for c-bills.

If you were dominating in your dakka jager pre clans and are now are getting owned by clans, maybe its because you don't out range anything anymore. Clans can hit harder with more weapons than your ac2's and 5's. Plus with quirks many IS mechs are now tougher, faster, cooler and have longer ranges on their weapons then pre quirks.

If you were getting 2-3 kills a game before i'd say you have plenty of skill. You probably just need to adjust your play style facing this new and unfamiliar enemy.

[Chocowolf Sradac]

You can play this game without putting much real money into it. Paying attention to challenges are a great way to score free mechbays, MC and more importantly premium time which really helps with the c-bill income espicially if you do invest into either a hero mech or a clan package which gives you the invasion prime (I) that has a %30 cbill boost. With premium time that turns into 80% cbills which really helps generate some income

looking for sales too is also good espicially if you want to pick up mechbays. I picked up 20 bays for $15 when they dropped half price and won all the rest of my bays for free.

[bowlie]

Maccasimus, on 13 February 2015 - 12:27 AM, said:

You can spend all the cash you like. But nothing you buy with real money is going to make the game easier or make you better. Plus if you're patient anything you think is OP will eventually be available for c-bills.

If you were dominating in your dakka jager pre clans and are now are getting owned by clans, maybe its because you don't out range anything anymore. Clans can hit harder with more weapons than your ac2's and 5's. Plus with quirks many IS mechs are now tougher, faster, cooler and have longer ranges on their weapons then pre quirks.

If you were getting 2-3 kills a game before i'd say you have plenty of skill. You probably just need to adjust your play style facing this new and unfamiliar enemy.

Without being an arse, these two statments seem to contradict each other The Jager's whole raison d'etre was long range balistic firepower. If clan mechs can outdamage me and out range me, then that is the perfect example of why buying with real money does give you an advantage - at least in the short term until things become free.

That said, I had two games yesterday (the first in months) and got 3 kills in one, and 1 in the other using my Shadow Hawk 2H. Again though, I took out a hunch back, an atlas and something else, before coming up against a dire wolf and being destroyed in seconds by 6x cuac5 or something equally ridiculous. It does still feel a bit like a race to the local vilage shop and back on your bike - only the rich kid turns up with a £2k racing bike while you struggle along on a rusty old mountain bike. Sure you can win, but you pretty much banking on him falling off or messing up in some way.

Also, can anyone give me a list of up to date quirks please? Cheers

[MauttyKoray]

How to 'play without paying' - Just don't buy anything. All mechs become available for ingame purchase (CBills) other than the Hero variants (Champions are just normal variants with an XP boost) and those are nothing more than the same mech with a slightly different hardpoint layout than the other variants available. In some cases they're actually deemed less useful than the standard variants by the competitive lists.

There are a lot of events going on as well so free Mech Bays seems to no longer be an issue.

If you do decide to put money into this game for mechs, mastery packs or the pre-order bundles (Clan wave 1, 2, resistance, etc) are great and especially during the first month of the pre-order as you get a ton of premium time and sometimes other bonuses as well.