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Greetings all, let me start out this guide with a small foreword that is not related to piloting Direwolves, but will hopefully lessen the number of scathing negative comments directed at me. This guide is presented as being a modest one, and thus should not be taken as the be-all end-all guide to Direwolves. Pros looking for the best builds possible should probably ignore this guide as it has been created by a pug, doing pug matches, and is intended for other pugs. Additionally, I am not the best Direwolf pilot out there, so my builds are likely not the best out there as a result. Lastly, I will use the Inner Sphere name for the Direwolf, the Daishi, interchangeably throughout, as it is the name that I got used to using long before MWO, as well as the fact that Daishi just sounds cool.
The Daishi has long been my favorite mech within the Battletech universe. Being a 100 ton clan assault mech, it has a fearsome reputation both in lore and in game. The famous mech pilot Natasha Kerensky herself piloted one of these beasts until the day she died. I remember being a young child and sneaking onto my dad's windows 98 PC at 4:00 A.M. just to play some Mech Warrior 3. Whenever I played it, the Daishi was always my favorite to run. So you can imagine my excitement when the arrival of the clans was first announced, and that my favorite mech would be a part of it. The Daishi was one of two mechs I purchased in the first wave, and I've been enjoying piloting this thing for almost a year now. As a result, I like to think I have some experience under my belt and would thus like to give my two cents on it.
TL;DR: This guide is not for pros, I like the name Daishi, I like the mech it describes even more.
General Guide:
So, now for the guide part of this guide. Let me first cover the basics for those of you who are unfamiliar with clan mechs in MWO, and as to what the ramifications are for the Direwolf as a result of these game mechanics. If you already understand that stuff, then I recommend you skip this paragraph. The clan mechs currently in MWO are all omnimechs, and as a result they have some similarities between them, which also separates them from there inner sphere equivalents. Clan omnimechs, unlike Inner Sphere battlemechs, they have fixed equipment, if you have ACs or PPCs in an arm you can't put a lower arm actuator in there, are unable to change their engine size, internal structure, armor, or switch between standard and double heat sinks. The advantage they have is that they can swap the hardpoints of one variant with those of another within the same location and same mech. Ex: If you are using a Gargoyle prime variant, you can swap it's right arm and its respective hardpoints (one ballistic and one missile hardpoint) for a different arm and it's hardpoints (such as the A variant's right arm, which has two energy hardpoints). This results in clan mechs having more flexible weapon loadouts whereas the Inner Sphere have more flexible tonnage on a given mech. This, along with how clan weapons differ from their Inner Sphere equivalents, which I will not cover, results in Clan mechs being high DPS generalists while Inner Sphere are pinpoint alpha specialists (for the most part in regards to both factions). So, what does this have to do with the Direwolf? Well, the space on the Daishi as well as the tonnage (unless you drop armor) cannot be changed. This can be a slight problem at times, as you will occasionally run out of space before tonnage, which is bad as you always want to hit maximum tonnage. Furthermore, and more damningly, you can never increase the speed of a Direwolf, ever. This means that you will always be a slow, fat, easy to hit target, as well as the fact that your torso twist speed is a little slow. Additionally, only one omnipod, the Direwolf A's right arm, can have a lower arm actuator. This means that unless you use that one omnipod and don't put PPCs in it, your arms will always be locked in place with your torso, giving you less range of movement to aim your weapons, without rotating the entire mech, and making it harder to hit light mechs. In brief summary, your Direwolf will always be slow, almost never have lower arm actuators, and can never free up additional space or tonnage (again, without removing armor that is).
So some people might ask, with all of these limitations, why would I ever pick up one of these expensive, slow moving things. The answer is rather simple, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. They have ridiculous amounts of firepower. We're talking the weight of a medium mech like a Nova or Centurion, plus an extra half ton for s#!&@ and giggles, with full armor to, in guns, ammo heatsinks, etc. The Daishi bar none has the most firepower. The awesome firepower available to a Daishi pilot can strip even another assault mech of all its armor in a matter of seconds. Combined with nineteen and a half tons of armor, almost the weight of a locust, nothing can stare down a Daishi and live without serious assistance from friendly mechs, generally speaking.
However, piloting a Daishi is not as easy as charging head first into the fray and firing all of your guns until the enemies stop moving. This is due to the Daishi's reputation of having stupid amounts of guns while being a slow, easy to hit target. As a result piloting a Daishi proficiently requires a degree of finesse, co-ordination, and patience.
Firstly, never leave your team and head off by yourself. This is a suicidal thing to do, as people recognize the threat a Daishi poses and will thus quickly focus fire on you. Even the Direwolf can't stand up well to the firepower of a full lance of enemy mechs on its own. So, a Daishi pilot should always stick with its team, and the team should never abandon their Daishi, or any of their assault mechs for that matter.
Secondly, piloting a Daishi requires patience. Not only because of long travel times due to its slow movement speed, made even worse on big maps like Alpine Peaks or some of the CW maps, but also because, again, charging into the fray right off the bat is a bad idea. Direwolf pilots should be mindful of exposing themselves to enemy fire as they are slow to move back into cover. Furthermore, Direwolves are LRM magnets, so if you notice that the enemy has lots of lurm spam going on, either hug cover or a team mate with ECM. Additionally, Direwolves should wait to charge at the enemy and expose themselves fully until the team is doing a big push, or the match is almost over. When the match is almost over and the enemy is beaten up and low on ammo, the last thing they want is to have a mostly unscathed Direwolf charging at them. So, in short, you have to be patient and learn to recognize when it is the right time to charge out into the open at the enemy, as doing this at the wrong time results in your rather swift demise.
Thirdly, and this goes for piloting any mech really, learn to identify what mechs truly pose a threat to you. Always watch out for mechs that either have TAG or NARC equipped. This is because if they can make use of that equipment, their LRM boats will have a nice, fat, slow target to shoot their LRMs at. As LRMs are a big threat to a slow assault like the Daishi, mechs like this should be avoided, killed quickly if possible, or engaged from cover. Next, you should watch out for light mechs. This is because their significant speed advantage, combined with your slow movement, makes it easy for them to circle strafe you and hit you from behind until you drop. This problem is further magnified by your limited ability to have lower arm actuators in a Daishi, as well as the fact that most clan weapons are damage over time weapons, meaning that even a lucky hit on a light with most clan weapons won't really do that much to stop them. The third type of mech to really watch out for is other assault mechs, especially the heavier ones that have a chance of holding their own against a Direwolf. Depending on loadout and damage taken, an enemy assault can dish out a fair amount of pain to your direwolf before going down, especially if they are fit for brawling and you are running a mostly long ranged build. Again, this holds true for all assault mechs, but bears repeating here as it all does even more so due to the nature of the Direwolf.
TL;DR: Stick with your team, lrms are bad news, as are lights, NARC, and TAG, be patient as it generally pays off, don't expose yourself because you are fat, slow, and dangerous, making you a prime target.
Builds and Tactics:
Now, I'm pretty sure I've covered the basics of piloting one of these things, but the main reason people will be reading any of this is for builds, so here are some of my builds, as well as the reasoning and strategy behind them. These are far from the best builds, just ones I have had moderate amounts of success and fun piloting. Different people have different piloting styles and thus some of these may not suit your style. Feel free to post your own builds in the comments. However, before getting to builds, I would like to quickly talk about building a Direwolf and what can and can't be done with one. If you are just looking for builds and nothing else, skip the rest of this paragraph. The first thing to consider when looking at building a Daishi is what hardpoints are available to you, as they will determine what you can do in one. As the S variant is only available for purchase with real money, at $25 for it and nothing else, I will not be covering it, as few people make use of it. However when its omnipods are released for purchase with Cbills, I will revise this section, taking the S into account. The remaining hardpoints and variants of the Daishi can be bought with Cbills, so let's take a look at them. The Daishi is able to have up to 8 energy hardpoints (9 with the B variants central torso), 6 ballistic hardpoints, 2 missile hardpoints, 1 AMS hardpoint, and has no ECM hardpoints or jumpjets. It goes without saying that it cannot have all of these hardpoints at once, but can usually have some mix. This makes the Daishi a rather potent energy boat but is also the king of 'dakka' (heavy amounts of ballistics). However, as it can only have 2 missile hardpoints, it is not ideal if you are looking for a missile boat, thought they make a great supplementary weapon to your main loadout. While the Direwolf thankfully can have AMS, it is usually far from enough to keep it safe from the LRMs generally directed at it, and it uses the same location as another omnipod that can instead give it 2 more ballistic slots. All round, this makes the Direwolf a great direct fire platform, whether energy or ballistic based, but leaves it unable do much else. If you want to see where all the hardpoints are and what combinations you can get, I highly recommend you check out http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab Now, without further ado, here are my builds:
1. http://mwo.smurfy-ne...bc3eb18ca226b4b
The first Daishi I ever built when the clans were released, it shows, but I still think this a viable mech. It doesn't offer insta-kill levels of pinpoint alpha, or indeed much alpha at all, but instead is a easy to pilot mid-range gunner mech. The TC MK I combined with the BAP offers high speed, long range targeting, making it easy to find your prey and the AMS is something both you and your team will appreciate if the enemy team has any LRMs whatsoever. The combination of weapons is simple, the UAC/10s offer low heat DPS out to mid-range and are can deal a surprising amount of damage, assuming they don't jam. The 4 ER large lasers offer long range poking and if they can be kept on target they can really bring the pain. It should go without saying but bears repeating that all 4 should never be fired at the same time, instead chain fired or fired in groups of 2. With 22 double heatsinks heat is easier to manage than most other Daishi builds, or clan builds in general for that matter. This is far from an ideal Daishi build, but one that is easy and somewhat forgiving to pilot.
2. http://mwo.smurfy-ne...cf378b5fcbccc3f
This build was an attempt to create a clan version of my Atlas build using the Daishi. Initially anyhow, as it ended up with more weapons, and thus firepower, at its disposal. The large lasers and UAC/2s are designed for long range poking, though the UAC/2s can also provide more DPS at close range. The remainder of the weapons are all brawler weapons and thus this mech can be harder to pilot, as it is less forgiving, and relies upon its pilot to get it into position to properly deploy its close range weapons, as charging in at the wrong time will likely result in your death. Still, if used right it can really dish out the hurt.
3. http://mwo.smurfy-ne...e0fe1317156889d
This Direwolf is clearly an attempt at creating one that makes use of LRMs while still having something of a close range punch. The twin 20s provide a decent damage and can let you help out when away from the fight while the AMS helps protect you from retaliatory fire from the enemy. The LB20X is a decent brawler weapon, though it can be swapped out for its ultra variant if desired. One benefit of this makes layout is that it has a lower arm actuator, which combined with the LB20X, makes this mech surprisingly able to ward off lights. A couple blasts from the LB20X can usually take out the legs of a light, if not kill it outright, and the lower arm actuator helps in hitting the pesky little things. The large pulse lasers are also quite good in a brawl out to mid range, but they have one serious problem, as does this mech overall. Heat. Three large pulse lasers with only 15 double heatsinks to cool them results in this mech having heat issues, which can be hard to avoid in a heated firefight. Though this mech has good firepower, including indirect firepower, the heat issues hold it back.
4. http://mwo.smurfy-ne...95d26d9fa9b9da3
I won't lie, I almost considered not posting this build. I've seen many Direwolf builds used by other players, but not once have I seen this one or one similar to it. This is likely my favorite, and most successful, build to run. What can I say, 2 LB20s with a UAC/20 on top, this thing just shreds through other mechs at close range. The large laser provides long range poking and additional damage, though it along with 1 ton of LB20 ammo can be swapped out for 2 SRM6s with 2 tons of ammo, making it more heat efficient and giving it more brawling firepower at the expense of any long ranged weapons. Still though, try this build out, even if you are a pro who is laughing at all my builds, this one included, I still recommend trying it out, it's just so fun.
Conclusion:
The Direwolf is a fun and powerful mech to pilot, and it's easy to see why so many people pilot the thing. While my guide is not the best and neither are my builds, I hope that I've managed to help at least one new pilot get into and get used to using one of these lethal machines of war. If you think my guide is missing anything, just tell me in the comments below. If you have your own build that you would like to share, link it below, I might even add it in if I personally like it. Regardless, I would like to bid you all adieu, and have fun.
