24 replies to this topic

[BogGnarr]

Hello everyone, I have been playing MWO for a little over a week now and was wondering if some of the more experienced players could help point me in the right direction. I was very grateful about being given the extra C-bills for my first 25 wins but like any new player I didn't exactly know what or how to spend them. So I have been buying and selling different mechs just trying to figure out what I like. Sadly nothing I bought seemed to resonate with my play style and ran out of money. I started using the trial mechs more and fell in love with the Hunchback 4PC and Adder-Prime. I like the fact that I can hit hard and get out quick. I also have found that I get a little too impatient in long range engagments and tend to die earlier. For this reason I think my playstyle is more of a brawler. I scrounged up enough C-Bills to buy and outfit a Hunchback 4P over the last few days and am coming to an end on getting it how I wan't it. Which leads me to my current questions.

What are some brawler mechs you would suggest working towards?
Do all the classes have good brawlers?
Is there any class that is better at brawling?
Are there any items that 'ALL' brawlers should take?

Any help on any of these topics would be greatly appreciated.
As always, fight the good fight.

[DONTOR]

Well as much as I hate shadow Hawks because of their looks, they are excellent brawlers, and VERY user friendly. With a very wide variety of build options.
You can do standard engine AC20 builds which are always fantastic brawlers, or SRM heavy builds as a few of the Shawks have 3+ missle hardpoints. They are also XL friendly, and quite agile with multiple JJs equipped. Ill just throw in a quick example build, as a quick guide.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...f9ca475ec5d3c3a
Really simple build, I just used an XL300 because they are common. If you dont have an XL yet (they are VERY expensive) just run them with a standard engine and an AC20. Hope this helped some!

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...d36eea377538184
Heres an AC20 version, the armor is more in line with what you will want to run at first also. As you get better you will want to front load the armor more and more. Especially where your main armament is located (AC20 in this case) Other shawks can actually run this build better because they have a dud left arm giving you an extra ton when you shave the armor.

Edited by DONTOR, 16 February 2015 - 10:11 AM.

[Rear Admiral Tier 6]

- You want brawling? Use Centurion,variants to get: A first,AH after that (hits c-bills tomorrow,needs XL engine tho,so a bit on the expensive side.) and AL.
CN9-A this is a good starter setup for CN-9. 9 million c-bills.

- Heavy weightclass lacks the ultimate brawler chassis currently.

- Assaults and mediums in IS side excel at brawling,Atlas S and DDC,Centurions,some Hunchback variants (4SP,4G)

- SRM:s and autocannons,or combinations of them. Low heat/high damage is required.

[Phobic Wraith]

To get the most out of your Hunchback, you'll need two more to unlock efficiencies. I would finish getting 3 Hunchies total then move on to maybe Cataphracts. They make great brawlers too. IF you like sticking to medium chassis, try the Centurion, and as DONTOR suggested, the Shadow Hawk is popular.

[Havyek]

Firstly, welcome to MWO!

Secondly if you already have and enjoy the HBK 4P, you'll likely want to look at 2 other HBK chassis to level up. Getting them more experience gives you bigger bonuses like faster recharging weapons, greater heat efficiency, faster speeds etc.

If you like to get into the thick of things and brawl I'd recommend the HBK 4G and HBK 4SP from personal experience. The 4G has some nice AC20 quirks, you can run AC20 with 3 MPLAS and 4 tons of ammo, or a 4SP with 4 MLAS and 2 SRM6(a). On paper it looks like it runs a little hot, but with the 4SP's quirks you get 20% less heat generation for MLAS, beam duration is 25% shorter and SRM6s recharge 40% faster. Add a SRM6 cooldown module and you have SRM machine gun.

[MarineTech]

So you want to brawl eh?

One word for you. Thunderwub.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...958faad3bdbc52a

It's probably THE premier IS heavy brawler at the moment thanks to the medium pulse laser quirks on it.

82KPH with speed tweak will get you into range fairly quickly and then the fun begins. Load up with Medium pulse range and cooldown level 5 modules and this mech EATS Timberwolves.

[DelphiAuriga]

Cookiemonter669, on 16 February 2015 - 10:04 AM, said:

- You want brawling? Use Centurion,variants to get: A first,AH after that (hits c-bills tomorrow,needs XL engine tho,so a bit on the expensive side.) and AL.
CN9-A this is a good starter setup for CN-9. 9 million c-bills.

- Heavy weightclass lacks the ultimate brawler chassis currently.

- Assaults and mediums in IS side excel at brawling,Atlas S and DDC,Centurions,some Hunchback variants (4SP,4G)

- SRM:s and autocannons,or combinations of them. Low heat/high damage is required.

This is quite accurate, BUT, please, consider spending 2 more million CBIlls in the variant, or buy a ShadowHawk SHD-5M that comes with a stock XL275 engine, and instead build the mech this way.

Centurions base like 30-50% of their survavility in heat management and speed. Using a 250 rating engine in a build with only 270meters of weapon range is a bad idea.

EDIT: and speaking of brawling and bombing, when the -AH can be bought for CBills, try this CN9-AH, the "20 alpha strikes" guy......... u gonna love it

EDIT2:

DONTOR, on 16 February 2015 - 10:02 AM, said:

(...)
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...d36eea377538184
Heres an AC20 version, the armor is more in line with what you will want to run at first also. As you get better you will want to front load the armor more and more. Especially where your main armament is located (AC20 in this case) Other shawks can actually run this build better because they have a dud left arm giving you an extra ton when you shave the armor.

Im gonna have to disagree here also, cause there are enough slots to mount the Ferro-Fibrous, so u can get a way cheaper mech using the stock 275 engine than buying a smaller a one. For 1 million less u can get this SHD-2D2, faster and with only slightly less armour, mostly took off from places that people never aim in the SHadowHawk. Also rebuilt the ammo distribution to make it more efficient and less dangerous.

Edited by DelphiAuriga, 16 February 2015 - 01:39 PM.

[Bleary]

I would wait until the patch tomorrow before deciding. Many 'Mechs are getting their quirks (chassis weapon bonsues) changed. But you're definitely going to want 3 Hunchbacks eventually. Unlocking all the elite skills makes a big difference in how a 'Mech runs.

[DONTOR]

DelphiAuriga, on 16 February 2015 - 01:17 PM, said:

Im gonna have to disagree here also, cause there are enough slots to mount the Ferro-Fibrous, so u can get a way cheaper mech using the stock 275 engine than buying a smaller a one. For 1 million less u can get this SHD-2D2, faster and with only slightly less armour, mostly took off from places that people never aim in the SHadowHawk. Also rebuilt the ammo distribution to make it more efficient and less dangerous.

You are right about the Ferro I missed that, but your ammo placement is MUCH more dangerous, and simply wrong. Alot of people will be aiming for his AC20 and that ammo IS going to explode and kill him a time or 2. No one really legs Shawks, the ammo is safe there.
Also you reduced his head armor too much, a 25 point alpha will kill him outright, he needs 11 head armor at the bare minimum, and preferably 16 so he can take a 30 point alpha to the face and survive.

[BaronVonH]

Nobody mentioned Banshees, but as a diehard Inner Sphere pilot, I love em. Use a 3xac5, 3xLLaser. Big standard engine, full armour. Its agile, fast for its size, and very tank-y. Good luck!

[Furry Fox]

Banshees are by far my absolute FAVORITE brawler 'Mechs. They are expensive, but so very much worth it.

BNC-3S: 7xMPL, 1xAC/20, 1xML, AMS, STD 310 engine - This is my baby, and I love it. Definitely one of my most played 'Mechs. Edit: This 'Mech iterally is my most played chassis!
BNC-3M: 8xMPL, AMS, STD 350 engine - I don't use this nearly as much as my 3S, but it's still good. Very heat efficient. Very deadly in a brawl.
BNC-3E: 3xAC/5, 3xLL, 1xML, AMS, STD 290 engine - Not exactly a dedicated brawler, but very capable of slugging it out in close-quarters.

Edited by Furry Fox, 17 February 2015 - 10:45 AM.

[HlynkaCG]

IMO the Atlas and the Hunchback are the chassis against which all other brawlers are measured. If you haven't played them yet that is where you ought to start. The Hunchback has a good mix of durability and firepower that allows it to punch well above it's weight-class and the Atlas is just a straight up tank.

After that you start getting into slightly more specialist builds like Griffon and Shadowhawk SRM boats and assualt-class laser carriers like the Battlemaster and Banshee.

[Voivode]

For lights, the best knife fighters are the Jenner and Firestarter, although "brawling" probably isn't applicable to light mechs.

For Mediums, your Hunchbacks can do a respectable job and the Centurion is a great mech. Clan side Stormcrows can brawl pretty well.

Heavy mechs, the Thunderbolt is probably the most brawly IS mech, the Clan Timberwolf is a respectable knife fighter as well.

Assaults, the Atlas, Banshee, King Crab are good, some builds/chassis on the Awesome, Victor, Highlander, and Battlemaster can also be respectable brawlers. Clan side, the Dire Wolf has more than enough armor and firepower to brawl but it lacks speed to get into brawling range quickly. The Warhawk doesn't brawl well, and the Gargoyle is much more of a fast striker than a brawler.

[Tordin]

For a medium brawler. Try a Shadowhawk 2d2. With 4x SRM 4 (due to the quirks). It tried with STD engine and no artemis. Try to add in said artemis + xl engine. I guess you will be quite an annoyance. I have scored around 4 kills with the build I did.

Its a decent light hunter build. And quite a punchy one for heavier opponents. Add in SRM 4 modules for range and cooldown and you are set for some crazy missile delivery!

One battle I remembered was fighting 2 spiders after they gutted one loner on my team. Too late to turn around. Killed one with a few srm alphas, and the other I blew through the rock wall due to glitch I guess, while some other guy got the kill Couldnt believe I survived two crazy lights..

[DelphiAuriga]

DONTOR, on 17 February 2015 - 09:40 AM, said:

DelphiAuriga, on 16 February 2015 - 01:17 PM, said:

(...)
Im gonna have to disagree here also, cause there are enough slots to mount the Ferro-Fibrous, so u can get a way cheaper mech using the stock 275 engine than buying a smaller a one. For 1 million less u can get this SHD-2D2, faster and with only slightly less armour, mostly took off from places that people never aim in the SHadowHawk. Also rebuilt the ammo distribution to make it more efficient and less dangerous.

You are right about the Ferro I missed that, but your ammo placement is MUCH more dangerous, and simply wrong. Alot of people will be aiming for his AC20 and that ammo IS going to explode and kill him a time or 2. No one really legs Shawks, the ammo is safe there.
Also you reduced his head armor too much, a 25 point alpha will kill him outright, he needs 11 head armor at the bare minimum, and preferably 16 so he can take a 30 point alpha to the face and survive.

More than 800 battles out of 5000 in the ShadowHawk. My specific points and reasons:

*Enemies aiming to left torso-->Not true. Nobody aims there, not even when they notice u are carrying an AC20. Not because they dont want to, but cause the hitbox of the CenterTorso is like....two times, or three times, bigger. Also the torso hitboxes allocation is assimetrical in the SHD, making the LT the less likely place to be hitted out of the three ones.

FYI, Hitboxes allocation of the SHD:

Spoiler

Source of this info.

*No to ammo in legs--->U are right when u say that nobody leg a SHD, but its cause the hitboxes are tiny compared to other mechs, in % of the mech that u have to expose of them to actually keep in motion and fire all weapon hardpoints (see above in the Source of the img, there u can find all mechs hitboxes), and they are marginally protected with the arms from diagonal shoots up-to-down aiming them. What u forget is the Jumpjets, that will dmg ur legs at least 1/3 of the battles due to poptart. U can reduce armour there still, cause there is no problem with Poptarting with this mech, but; letting the leg be cored (under control), and letting a part of the mech that u know that is cored often has important things, are two diferent things. With more than 1 JJ the SHD is no longer a mech whr u can safely place ammo in the legs. Also, like the legs have only 2 internal slots, once cored u have a 50% chances, the critical rating, and 33% total taking into account the armour, that must be erased first, to be hitted in the ammo out of every impact that land in the legs. Other reasons will be listed later about the ammo distribution in the AC20 torso.

*Low Head armour----->SHD head hitbox its really tiny (see above), not corresponding with the frontal window, but with the internal partition in there, making it the less likely place to be hitted. I have never had my head armour not even cored, way less head-shooted in purpose. Also, the increased speed will most likely compensate for it, if used to keep the mech in motion during fights and in open terrain, ofc.

*Ammo in AC20 torso-->The Ac20 takes 10 slots and the ammo takes 2, chances to be hitted by criticals, taking into account the armour that must be destroyed first: AC20--->10/12=5/6 out of 50% critical rating--->24.6%, Ammo--->4.1%. The excess to 33% go to missed ones in double and triple criticals scored in places that have been destroyed or dmg in the same round. Health points of the Ac20=15 points, HP of the ammo=20 but actually (10+10). I will take the risk to leave the ammo there and instead make sure that, while im alive and the AC20 functional, i have ammo for it. Also, cause the ammo allways is consumed in a prestablished order (Head, CT, RT, LT, LArm, RA, LLeg, RL. Source of this info), im completely sure that the last bullet is, for sure, in the torso whr the weapon system is, so i can basically sacrifice anything else in the mech, and even risk to get hits in a cored CT, knowing that the ammo there has been consumed.

As a sum of all: I try to protect as much as possible a weapon sytem whr i have invested 14self+4ammo=18tons of the avaliable payload of the mech.

Hope this clarifies all. Sorry for my laconic answer the first time

Edited by DelphiAuriga, 17 February 2015 - 01:25 PM.

[zudukai]

http://metamechs.com/ did an excellent writeup on the shadowhawk and i believe that if played correctly it is one of the absolute best brawlers for the medium class, while also being very good at other playstyles at the same time.

this bomber build is vicious and excellent, very simple and very easy to get into the swing of.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...70f5ce685e63624

that site also claims that this AC/20 brawler is still very potent (and also carries an STD300) but it will definitely fall to the former build.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...51275862328170e

yes, the thud is a great brawler in the heavy class but so is the Timber Wolf and in so many ways the timber wolf is better overall, in the assault class most of the banshee's and the atlas D-DC, in the light class, the Adder is unrivaled and also underestimated by everyone in the brawling category with Boated SRMs however most would simply argue the firestarter would be able to brawl mostly as good with 150kph+.

i strongly suggest the shadow hawk first if you are still learning the maps and MWO in general because it is far more forgiving if a mistake is made.

Edited by zudukai, 17 February 2015 - 01:55 PM.

[NRP]

I recommend one of the thunderbolts (9se with MLs, SRMs, and jjs or 5ss with Mpls). Pretty tanky mechs that are cheap to build.

[zudukai]

All brawlers should carry seismic sensors, you will be close to the front lines and you need to have as much situational awareness as possible, this module can be stripped and shared across all your mechs and will help you in many situations.

UAV is also a good item to carry, however it can slow down your C-bill gain, if your team does not target/damage mechs while they are locked by the uav or you simply do not get any hits with your UAV's detection.

cool shot is similar to the UAV in drawbacks but also very useful on a brawler to continue maximum DPS for a few more seconds.

and most importantly torso twisting, any good brawling pilot will make good use of all of his armor.

[DONTOR]

DelphiAuriga, on 17 February 2015 - 12:48 PM, said:

Hope this clarifies all. Sorry for my laconic answer the first time

Ahh very interesting, so are you saying landing from using JJs has the chance of critting your ammo if its stored in the legs?? That would be news to me. I get the ammo with AC20 minimalizing risk of explosion, but havent yo ever died from an ammo explosion running it like that?
It doesnt seem all that hard to head shot Shawks for me, the hitbox is rather large and centered, thats why i brought it up.

[DelphiAuriga]

DONTOR, on 17 February 2015 - 02:19 PM, said:

Ahh very interesting, so are you saying landing from using JJs has the chance of critting your ammo if its stored in the legs?? That would be news to me. I get the ammo with AC20 minimalizing risk of explosion, but havent yo ever died from an ammo explosion running it like that?
It doesnt seem all that hard to head shot Shawks for me, the hitbox is rather large and centered, thats why i brought it up.

Dmg from falls can expose the core of ur legs. Thats true. Any gameplay u choose in youtube can probe that u can get cored in them easily simply by the use of the JJs. The fall dmg cant crit them, neither i said it, i said it that can dmg the leg, both the armour and the internal structure, and thats true. And also is true that once the armour is gone any hit that land in there has a chance to transform into a critical. I honestly didnt thought i had to explain this much, sorry.

Probes:


Any video in this youtube search can probe my points. Also about the head armour, most likely the last one at 100% when the torso is starting to get yellow in like 90% of them, exactly like my personal experience:
https://www.youtube....+jet+shadowhawk

Im still waiting for reasons of why my ammo distribution is "MUCH more dangerous, and simply wrong", when u may have the time, please, consider to fill them, instead of acting so childish about a completely logical and detailed answer.