14 replies to this topic

[Lanmythe]

Heya. I've been away from MWO for quite some time (around Autumn of 2013), and recently returned. I've been having a ton of fun, but I've found that most (all!) of my builds are fairly outdated. On top of this, the current trend seems to be SO MANY HEAVIES. I piloted an Ilya and a 6ML Quickdraw-5K back when I played, and did alright in them - however, with Heavies being all over the place, I've been looking at new options, notably Lights, as my other favorite mechs were my Jenner-D and Raven-3L.

I've played around with both (the Lights, that is), and they are entertaining, but I'm looking to add another mech or three to my roster. I have an Ember, but from my (admittedly cursory) research they're not in the greatest place right now compared to the other variants. I'm also looking into purchasing the Arctic Cheetah, as I dig Clan mechs and don't have any yet.

Basically, looking for general information on the current meta of Lights and what people think of them .


Thanks in advance!

[Rogue Jedi]

if you have an Ember then look at the other Firestarters, each is quirked for a different type of laser, although that could change at any time, the FS9s are considered to be the best Light with the possible exception of the Arctic Cheetah, currently only available through the Clan Wave 3 preorder, will be out for cbills in about 6 weeks.
I still consider the Ember to be the third best Light Mech ^{(behind the SDR-5K and SDR-5D, and I fully expect other players to claim I am crazy or incompetent for saying that)}

My favorite Mechs are the Spiders, they are lightly armed in exchange for high speed or ECM and a crazy number of jumpjets, making them the ultimate scout.

the Locust and Commando are both great fun but can be killed with minimal damage so are rather risky to use.

the Panther, Kit Fox, Adder and UrbanMech are (comparatively) slow but heavily armed Mechs, with the Kit Fox capable of mounting an ECM and 3 AMS, + 2 ERLarge Lasers, Kit Fox is perfect for covering a lance of heavies/assaults

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 26 August 2015 - 01:16 PM.

[Rear Admiral Tier 6]

FS9-A

FS9-K

FS9-S

[InspectorG]

metamechs.com
Will give you the feel for the current meta...though it may change soon. We hope. New matchmaker, new supposed recon mode/CW stuff coming.

As far as Lights you have to look at the quirks. FS is still Strong but Ravens are back up as well. Locusts are actually strong in non-group play. Commandos, Jenners(upcoming Jenner llc looks really strong), Spiders, Panthers(the ppc sniper), Urbies...not so much.

Commandos got gimped with the geometry pass, loses guns and overheats easily, cant carry enough ammo for srm.
Spiders have ECM but limited payload.
Jenners never got the quirks that FSs got and though the hitboxes were fixed...still just not enough. Jenner llc with Clan tech may be OP...i hope.
Panthers are slow but good quirks for PPC sniping - skill dependant
Urbies are lol wannabe Locusts.

Arctic Cheetah is current king. ECM with Clan XLengine, speed, armor....it has it all except cooling.
Kitfox is more of a medium that didnt eat enough. Good weapon payload, ECM but slow and big.
Adder is strong but see Kitfox minus JJ and minus ECM.

Hope this helps.

[Lanmythe]

Thanks for the advice! I think I'll end up buying the Arctic Cheetah pack. The Firestarters look great, but already having the Ember I don't really wanna spend the money on other variants, and c-bill grinding seems insanely slow (I play maybe 5-6 matches a day - around 12 or so on the weekends). I'd love to just use the Embers 30% c-bill boost and grind it out, but it has lackluster quirks and - as mentioned - the other variants just seem superior.

I guess I'll see how that Arctic Cheetah treats me - if it's the current "king" I can expect a nerf at some point, just hope it doesn't hit too hard I suppose .

Edit: Didn't bother to look at the pricing and just assumed ~5m for each Firestarter (no idea why). At the 2.6-3.2m marks, I might be able to snag a few within a week or so! Thanks again!

Edited by Lanmythe, 26 August 2015 - 01:25 PM.

[Torezu]

A really nice engine for the Firestarters will cost you as much as a pair of them, or close. Do yourself a favor and try to run as many matches for the Blood Pact Event as you can. Any match, in any mech, up to 40, with a match score over 150 (which can be gotten from 200-ish damage plus other little things), will net you 250k extra, injected on Tuesday.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

ACH. It's the Porsche of lights right now.

Other RVNs suddenly got better since quirks came around.

FS9 is a solid chassis to master.

I think all the other clan lights are junk, really. Not fast enough. COMs have always kinda sucked. JR7s are alright. But the 5x cSPL ACH works great for me, and I'm terrible at MWO, so consider it.

And welcome back!

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Firestarters and Acrtic Cheetahs are unquestionably the best light 'Mechs at present... but they're too good. They have no weaknesses. They have stupendous pinpoint firepower for their tonnage, coupled with excellent speed and jets, amazingly good hitboxes, and in the ACH, the Clan XL engine's durability and the ability to carry ECM. If you want to sweep all other lights and mediums aside on your way to victory, they'll undoubtedly serve you well.

But nobody is going to respect you for carrying around a 36 or 42-point PPFLD alpha at 142.6kph. Especially not other light pilots who have to work harder for every kill they make. You're not going to turn any heads for scoring massive damage and multiple kills in a laservomit FS9 or ACH; it happens all the time. They're light 'Mech easy mode. If these are your first light 'Mechs, be warned- they will teach you bad habits that may well spoil your enjoyment of any other 'Mech in their weight class. You can get away with crap in those two 'Mechs that would get you atomized in any other light chassis, while shredding opponents that are otherwise well-rounded and balanced against most other 'Mechs. If that appeals to you, well... have fun with that.

An alternative would be to consider Jenners, Ravens, or Panthers. Or, hell, Adders. Jenners have vulnerable CTs, but they're fast, powerful, and have good jumping ability. Ravens make good snipers and skirmishers, and also take damage reasonably well for their size. Panthers carry respectable firepower and jump jets, and they are extremely tanky for their size, but run a little slower than most other lights do. Adders... well, they can carry a lot of firepower too, just not at breakneck speeds (their low-slung profile makes them great ambushers). With any of the above, you can turn in very respectable scores... and people will actually believe you earned those scores, not your machine.

Edited by PS WrathOfDeadguy, 26 August 2015 - 10:37 PM.

[Lanmythe]

PS WrathOfDeadguy, on 26 August 2015 - 10:30 PM, said:

An alternative would be to consider Jenners, Ravens, or Panthers. Or, hell, Adders. Jenners have vulnerable CTs, but they're fast, powerful, and have good jumping ability. Ravens make good snipers and skirmishers, and also take damage reasonably well for their size. Panthers carry respectable firepower and jump jets, and they are extremely tanky for their size, but run a little slower than most other lights do.

I'm taking Torezu's advice and just doing my best to grind up a bunch of c-bills with the Blood Pact Event, and swapped over from my 3 MLAS 2SSRM Raven-3L build to the sniper build you mentioned, and I'm having some pretty great success with it! Thanks for the input!

[Torezu]

PS WrathOfDeadguy, on 26 August 2015 - 10:30 PM, said:

Firestarters and Acrtic Cheetahs are unquestionably the best light 'Mechs at present... but they're too good. They have no weaknesses. They have stupendous pinpoint firepower for their tonnage, coupled with excellent speed and jets, amazingly good hitboxes, and in the ACH, the Clan XL engine's durability and the ability to carry ECM. If you want to sweep all other lights and mediums aside on your way to victory, they'll undoubtedly serve you well.

But nobody is going to respect you for carrying around a 36 or 42-point PPFLD alpha at 142.6kph. Especially not other light pilots who have to work harder for every kill they make. You're not going to turn any heads for scoring massive damage and multiple kills in a laservomit FS9 or ACH; it happens all the time. They're light 'Mech easy mode. If these are your first light 'Mechs, be warned- they will teach you bad habits that may well spoil your enjoyment of any other 'Mech in their weight class. You can get away with crap in those two 'Mechs that would get you atomized in any other light chassis, while shredding opponents that are otherwise well-rounded and balanced against most other 'Mechs. If that appeals to you, well... have fun with that.

I respect FS9 pilots that get 4-500 points of damage in a match more than I respect ACH pilots with 7-800. The ACH takes everything that's slightly broken about the FS9 (hitboxes, mostly), amplifies it, adds structure quirks to nearly every omnipod, for crying out loud, and then stacks ECM on top of it. Combine that with clan XL and its lack of ST death vulnerability, the integrated endo and ferro for maximum free tonnage, serious jump capability, and the fact that laser (and sometimes ballistic and missile) hits on ACHs never seem to quite do full damage, and I've seen a single one of the things take on two Atlases that were working together (not terribly well, but still, 200t vs 30t). My WVR-6K, a TBR, and a Raven fighting 3 of the things couldn't even leg one, and they killed us all.

Also, the definition of PPFLD includes pinpoint. Lasers, especially clan lasers with their longer burn time, aren't pinpoint, or front-loaded for that matter.

Edited by Torezu, 27 August 2015 - 09:09 AM.

[stealthraccoon]

Pretty sure you could buy every stock Locust for the price of 1 piece of clan tech... or you could just charge into battle with nothing but a T-shirt to protect your vitals...

Locusts are white knuckle cheap thrills!

And if you aren't man enough to run Urbanmechs, I understand - it can be intimidating taking the wheel of the best mech in the game one day you may find yourself worthy - one day - just maybe.

Edited by stealthraccoon, 30 August 2015 - 10:00 AM.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Torezu, on 27 August 2015 - 09:07 AM, said:

Also, the definition of PPFLD includes pinpoint. Lasers, especially clan lasers with their longer burn time, aren't pinpoint, or front-loaded for that matter.

I'd define any laser with a burn time under one second as front-loaded, but your definition might be different. Certainly CLPL, CERML, CERLL, ISERLL aren't; CERSL and ISLL probably aren't either. But medium and small pulse, clan or IS? Definitely, and ISSL and ML too. Anyone with reasonably steady aim can hold a beam on target for less time than it takes to say "one Mississippi."

[Torezu]

PS WrathOfDeadguy, on 30 August 2015 - 02:03 PM, said:

I'd define any laser with a burn time under one second as front-loaded, but your definition might be different. Certainly CLPL, CERML, CERLL, ISERLL aren't; CERSL and ISLL probably aren't either. But medium and small pulse, clan or IS? Definitely, and ISSL and ML too. Anyone with reasonably steady aim can hold a beam on target for less time than it takes to say "one Mississippi."

Yeah, my definition's different. It's hard to hold aim on anything from 200-300 meters out, especially if it's small and dodgy. Closer than that can be even harder if you're targeting a fast-moving light. Farther away can be easier since angular motion is lower, but targeting individual components can be harder since they're smaller. IS small pulse are about the only ones I'd consider PP, and even then, they're not FL - they have a burn time, even if it's only 0.5s. Also, IS LPLs have a substantially shorter burn time than C-MPLs, something I just learned and found quite interesting.

Basically, PPFLD is anything direct fire that hits once, in an instant, at a specific location. That's gauss rifles, PPCs, and (non-LB, non-Clan-UAC) autocannons. The damage is unavoidable. Lasers can be PP, missiles can be FL, but those 3 are the only ones that are both.

[Dino Might]

Lanmythe, on 26 August 2015 - 12:56 PM, said:

Heya. I've been away from MWO for quite some time (around Autumn of 2013), and recently returned. I've been having a ton of fun, but I've found that most (all!) of my builds are fairly outdated. On top of this, the current trend seems to be SO MANY HEAVIES. I piloted an Ilya and a 6ML Quickdraw-5K back when I played, and did alright in them - however, with Heavies being all over the place, I've been looking at new options, notably Lights, as my other favorite mechs were my Jenner-D and Raven-3L.

I've played around with both (the Lights, that is), and they are entertaining, but I'm looking to add another mech or three to my roster. I have an Ember, but from my (admittedly cursory) research they're not in the greatest place right now compared to the other variants. I'm also looking into purchasing the Arctic Cheetah, as I dig Clan mechs and don't have any yet.

Basically, looking for general information on the current meta of Lights and what people think of them .


Thanks in advance!

If you want a good light mech, go Cheetah. If you want a fun light mech, go Locust.

[Takashi Uchida]

Here are the lights I currently have (or had recently). All are at least elited.

Locust: All of them (yes, really). 1E is my favorite (6 energy hardpoints), followed by 1V (long range poker/crit finisher) and the PB Hero (ECM). I could go on for days about this. You have to be a bit of a weirdo to pilot them, but best handles in the game!

Commando: The Death's Knell Hero. Recent art changes have made the Commando arms even bigger and easier to blow off. TDK is probably one of the better ones right now still, because the 4 energy hardpoints allow for better precision and power in terms of weight than the others. Fastest mech in terms of potential raw speed. This was once my favorite mech, but now I'd rather be in a Locust.

Spider: Hitboxes probably aren't as good as you remember, take care of your legs.
-5D: ECM variant. Has lower engine cap, only 3 energy hardpoints. It's ok.
-5K: Long range poker, crit finisher. It's more team-dependent
-5V: You can literally fly with this thing if you put enough JJs. Fun troll mech. Sold it to clear mech bay space.
-Anansi Hero: Only spider with missile, ballistic, AND energy. Actually quite brawly. Great for frustrating slow assaults. Overall fun to play. Stay away from Firestarters and Arctic Cheaters.

Firestarter: S. Got this just for the medium pulse laser quirks. It's great, but it's no Cheetah.

Jenner:
-Oxide Hero: Not sure what kind of place this mech has today. I rarely play it. Works well against slow targets, just make sure you have a big friend nearby for the enemy to focus on.
-F: Sold this one recently for mech bay. It's average to below average at this point. Again, Firestarters and Cheetahs do the laser builds better without a huge CT to hit.

Raven:
-3L: Can still do the ECM, ERLLx2 thing you'll remember from before you left. But, due to clan weapon range it's not as effective. Close range builds are fun to play with, but it isn't the sturdiest light. I've probably killed more Ravens by side torso than any other light.
-Hugiin Hero: Super fast firing SRM4 quirks. I just never got the hang of this one, great DPS potential tho

Kit Fox: the C variant right arm allows you to equip an ECM and 3(!) AMS. Overall though, just too slow to be that fragile. It's gangly limbs are pretty easily shot off.