50 replies to this topic

[Mcchuggernaut]

After seeing a nifty video about turning the Dragon1N into an AC5 machine gun, I thought "Why not try it out?". I bought one, and set it up like this:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...16571bb67ac6f10

I only have it's basic mech tree unlocked, and have played a bit over 20 games with it. I have managed a 1.71 K/D with it, and love peeking that high-mounted shoulder ERLL over a hill and harassing people at long range. They're usually not skilled or quick enough to hit me back. The only issue I have is with the AC/5s. Sure, the DPS is great, however...The Dragon is a bit of a glass cannon with that big "shoot me here!" torso, and to carry enough ammo and 2xAC5s, you have to also run a fragile XL engine.That doesn't mesh well with a DPS build. To get the benefits of those crazy AC5 quirks, you basically have to stare someone down, and so although I almost always get a kill or two and sometimes several, I rarely find myself surviving whole matches in the Dragon 1N. I therefore try to play very sneaky with it: The aforementioned hill-humping with the high laser, sticking just my arm around corners to fire the AC/5s, looking for a distracted enemy, and hit-and run tactics.

I was wondering if anyone had any build tips or other wisdom to offer me for improving my survivability. So, any Dragon pros out there have anything to say?

Edited by Mcchuggernaut, 08 July 2015 - 03:56 AM.

[bad arcade kitty]

take a shower to wash away the shame of using a broken overquirked mech

Edited by bad arcade kitty, 07 July 2015 - 11:35 PM.

[Mcchuggernaut]

bad arcade kitty, on 07 July 2015 - 11:34 PM, said:

take a shower to wash away the shame of using a broken overquirked mech

You say this with full knowledge that anyone using a 1N before the quirkening was probably suicidal or mentally deranged???

[Cyborne Elemental]

What bothers me more than how overquirked the dragon is, is having the need to strip your back armor off entirely like that, and getting away with it..

[One Medic Army]

The dragon functions well when you pop out, give someone the AC/5 arm business, and then retreat back into cover when they turn around to return fire.

Alternatively, it works well if you let something big and nasty take fire, while you provide supporting fire on their target (like sitting next to/slightly behind an atlas or dire wolf and shooting the same target). If people are shooting at you, time to shield with the left arm and GTFO.

People call it broken. These are people who can't aim well enough to shoot the arm off, or are guilty of ignoring a dragon in favor of another less squishy and less damaging mech.

P.S. I mastered my Dragons about 2 years ago, the 1N is pretty much the only one still playable at all.

Edited by One Medic Army, 07 July 2015 - 11:56 PM.

[Duke Nedo]

Dragon-1N

I'm doing this, using more side poke and less ridge hump and save the lasers for close range extra dps.

It's a niche mech, it should be squishy otherwise it would have been too good. Awesome dps but easily killed/disarmed.

Edit: armor not moved front/back.

Edited by Duke Nedo, 07 July 2015 - 11:56 PM.

[Mcchuggernaut]

Mister D, on 07 July 2015 - 11:53 PM, said:

What bothers me more than how overquirked the dragon is, is having the need to strip your back armor off entirely like that, and getting away with it..

Oh, ****! Forgot to allocate that properly. I'll go edit that now...

[El Bandito]

XL is mandatory for the Dragons, since its CT is so big.

[bad arcade kitty]

Duke Nedo, on 07 July 2015 - 11:55 PM, said:

Dragon-1N

I'm doing this, using more side poke and less ridge hump and save the lasers for close range extra dps.

It's a niche mech, it should be squishy otherwise it would have been too good. Awesome dps but easily killed/disarmed.

that 'nice niche mech' is so niche that people drop all 4 drops in drg-1n in cw and get amazing results like 4000+ damage

[Duke Nedo]

bad arcade kitty, on 07 July 2015 - 11:57 PM, said:

that 'nice niche mech' is so niche that people drop all 4 drops in drg-1n in cw and get amazing results like 4000+ damage

The opponents must have sucked. We've had this discussion before, where did the bad Dragon touch you again?

[Mcchuggernaut]

Duke Nedo, on 07 July 2015 - 11:55 PM, said:

Dragon-1N

I'm doing this

I tried the medium lasers, but that build made me unable to properly help my team on big, open maps. I have found in those situations that being able to chase of light snipers really helps the team as we close with the enemy.

[Mcchuggernaut]

Duke Nedo, on 08 July 2015 - 12:03 AM, said:

The opponents must have sucked. We've had this discussion before, where did the bad Dragon touch you again?

Now, now...lets keep it constructive, please. Although it is clear he REALLY doesn't like Dragons.

[Duke Nedo]

Mcchuggernaut, on 08 July 2015 - 12:03 AM, said:

I tried the medium lasers, but that build made me unable to properly help my team on big, open maps. I have found in those situations that being able to chase of light snipers really helps the team as we close with the enemy.

I started out with an ERLL in the shoulder like you but I moved on the the 2x MPL build and found it better. I think mostly because you can contribute more late game when you often have lost that gun arm and need to kill enemy lights. A single ERLL is horrible for killing a spider or firestarter... In the early game I find the range of the ac5's good enough, but you'll need to choose carefully where/when/how you poke. Basically you'll need to use your teammates for distraction/shielding which takes away some of the pleasure of playing it...

[One Medic Army]

Duke Nedo, on 08 July 2015 - 12:03 AM, said:

The opponents must have sucked. We've had this discussion before, where did the bad Dragon touch you again?

Well, they're nasty for SSRM storm crows (like what Bad says he uses), since you can't actually aim at any of the giant glaring weak points. Any weapon system that can actually hit a specific spot can deal with them fairly easily though, moreso if it's on a mech that's set up for peeking or alpha+twist gameplay.

[Mcchuggernaut]

Duke Nedo, on 08 July 2015 - 12:08 AM, said:

I started out with an ERLL in the shoulder like you but I moved on the the 2x MPL build and found it better. I think mostly because you can contribute more late game when you often have lost that gun arm and need to kill enemy lights. A single ERLL is horrible for killing a spider or firestarter... In the early game I find the range of the ac5's good enough, but you'll need to choose carefully where/when/how you poke. Basically you'll need to use your teammates for distraction/shielding which takes away some of the pleasure of playing it...

With the new HSR work this patch did, I'm finding that if a Spider or Firestarter gets close enough to really be a problem for me I can grind them up pretty fast with the dual AC/5s. I just hate using all short-range builds. I feel like I am letting my team go off and do the hard stuff and get killed just so I get to clean up easy kills they worked for. I'll get clean-up kills anyway if I help tip the balance in my team's favor to begin with, so why not contribute at all times? That said, I have never run the 1N with medium pulses, only plain mediums, so I will give it a try and see how it feels.

[kapusta11]

Experienced players will always shoot Dragon's RT so any kind of success while piloting it is 50% luck based.

Edited by kapusta11, 08 July 2015 - 12:38 AM.

[Duke Nedo]

Mcchuggernaut, on 08 July 2015 - 12:26 AM, said:

With the new HSR work this patch did, I'm finding that if a Spider or Firestarter gets close enough to really be a problem for me I can grind them up pretty fast with the dual AC/5s. I just hate using all short-range builds. I feel like I am letting my team go off and do the hard stuff and get killed just so I get to clean up easy kills they worked for. I'll get clean-up kills anyway if I help tip the balance in my team's favor to begin with, so why not contribute at all times? That said, I have never run the 1N with medium pulses, only plain mediums, so I will give it a try and see how it feels.

We all have our different preferences so use whatever feels best. I just had a few games where I had lost my AC/5s and it boiled down into a close match with me + 1-2 heavy/assaults vs 3-4 enemy lights and I was pretty useless. The lights would ignore me and go for my teammates and I really struggled to apply any damage with that burn time. With 2x MPLs in the same situation I found that I am more of a threat so I have kept them on. Also saves a ton. Good luck!

[Ace Selin]

bad arcade kitty, on 07 July 2015 - 11:57 PM, said:

that 'nice niche mech' is so niche that people drop all 4 drops in drg-1n in cw and get amazing results like 4000+ damage

Are you really that bad at the game you cant alpha 2-3 times to kill the XL engine or to blow its AC5 arm off.
Its a very easy mech to kill or disable, provided you dont play like a pillok.
Its THE glass cannon.

[bad arcade kitty]

Ace Selin, on 08 July 2015 - 12:43 AM, said:

Are you really that bad at the game you cant alpha 2-3 times to kill the XL engine or to blow its AC5 arm off.
Its a very easy mech to kill or disable, provided you dont play like a pillok.
Its THE glass cannon.

well, i don't play cw, but there are sceenshots of extremely successful drg-1n only drops

you obviously can blame the losing side in having a supposedly poor skill but a deck of 4 drg-1n it's 4 mechs with a fire power of dire wolf while a clan deck can fit only 1 dire wolf..

[Duke Nedo]

One Medic Army, on 07 July 2015 - 11:55 PM, said:

P.S. I mastered my Dragons about 2 years ago, the 1N is pretty much the only one still playable at all.

I wouldn't go so far with the other Dragons... they are not horrible, just not excellent. I may be a bit biased because I have for some odd reason always loved my Dragons... In CW my -1C and -Flame are both more efficient than my -1N. I didn't have time to play CW the last month or so, but I did drop some in an all-Dragon drop-deck for fun (1C, 1N, Flame, Fang) and did rather OK. Both Flame and 1C can diagonal-poke rather well with that high ST mount + the attached arm with gauss/2xLPL or gauss/2xPPC, just have to find the sweet spots on the maps that allows you to do it.

In the solo queue the 1N really can kick bhutt, that is sure, but in the games when the opponents are good you will take return fire and you will die or be disarmed.