38 replies to this topic

[VeryHot]

Hi.

I played for a bit, waste my money and now I've settled on this build as my grind objective:

TBT-7K

Can someone give their opinion on this?

[DrSlamastika]

so its not good, but I dont own Trebushet

Its slow, low ammo count and very hot . . . Too many free slots.

You should change to Endosteel and switch to Double Heatsinks. maybe some lighter XL engine, but I dont know how it works in TBT or bigger standard, It should be fit inside with endo a double HS.

Also ERLL are too much hot if you dont use it on some sniper mech with gauss, is better normal Large laser I think.

Edited by DrSlamastika, 14 April 2015 - 11:15 AM.

[Modo44]

Welcome to MWO.

The build is not legal -- it does not have the minimal number of 10 heatsinks. Even if it did, it tries to use too many heavy weapons while sacrificing speed, cooling, and leg armor. It would overheat terribly, and be slow in a fight, and easy to leg, aka a death trap. To make better use of the Trebuchet, consider putting lasers with missiles on it, or using it as an AC20 platform. In addition to speed and cooling, both builds have a dedicated shield side which you can lose without worry. Note that they will require serious upgrades (I hope you have not sold the stock engine). If you have not purchased the mech, a Shadowhawk 2D or 2D2 will set a better stage for trying out different weapons. It is generally sturdier, and jump jets help it with mobility.

For more in depth guides to mech building, and examples of optimized setups, visit metamechs.com. The site is run by a member of one of the top competitive teams in MWO.

Edited by Modo44, 14 April 2015 - 11:22 AM.

[MechWarrior3671771]

Legs are too weak, need more armor. Bring them up to 2/3rds or 3/4ths.

Engine is too slow for a medium, need a bigger one if you can afford it. It came with a 250std? Put that back in.

You have 3 weapon ranges - 270, 450, 675. Being versatile is good, but this may be a "jack of all trades master of none" problem.

So I would ditch the SRMs and focus on 2 weapon types only: Large lasers (range 450) and AC5 (range 620), that will tighten up your most effective engagement range, and both weapons will give you good training for when you have more money and more mechs.

As for funds - if you can afford endo and double heat sinks, do that first. How much money do you have left?

Edited by Fenrisulvyn, 14 April 2015 - 11:41 AM.

[MechWarrior3671771]

Can someone build this guy a newbie-friendly TBT-7K over at Smurfy's? Not a comp mech.

I'm too new to be giving out build advice.

[Modo44]

I did. There are two build links in my post above.

[Krakenfingers]

Modo44, on 14 April 2015 - 12:00 PM, said:

I did. There are two build links in my post above.

I went for the AC20/med laser build. I'll test it out soon.

I've still got 5 million coming from the noob bonuses. What would be the cheapish-double ER large laser counterpart mech to my current (and only) build.

PS: I'm amazed by the level of support from this community.

[Havyek]

TBT-7K

[TercieI]

Krakenfingers, on 14 April 2015 - 12:20 PM, said:

I went for the AC20/med laser build. I'll test it out soon.

I've still got 5 million coming from the noob bonuses. What would be the cheapish-double ER large laser counterpart mech to my current (and only) build.

PS: I'm amazed by the level of support from this community.

That build looks good, I think you made a good choice. The only suggestion I'd make is that as a new player, 5 tons of AC/20 ammo is a lot and I think it's unlikely you'll get through it very often, so I'd consider dropping two tons of ammo and upgrading the MLs to MPLs. They hit a little harder and are shorter beam duration, so they're easier to keep on target, especially torso-mounted. And you're going to getting close to use the 20 anyway, so the range advantage of the MLs is mitigated (great post, Modo)

[Modo44]

@Krakenfingers

The other build I posted has 2xERLL+2xSRM6. It is not that great on a Trebuchet since many other medium mechs can easily support 3xERLL builds. If you really want to do work using large lasers, the Wolverine 6K, Shadowhawk 2K, and Griffin 1N come to mind.

@Terciel
5 tons of AC20 ammo means you can miss a lot, and still be useful. It should help a new player practice ranges and target leading in a live environment.

Edited by Modo44, 14 April 2015 - 12:34 PM.

[bar10jim]

For other build ideas, look at https://www.mechspecs.com/

[VeryHot]

As a side project, I was thinking of this speedy thing:
VND-1R

2 ERLs, 1 SRM6 and a buttload of heatsinks.

[Modo44]

Again, you can make it better. Add Endo Steel to fit better cooling and jump jets, and put the lasers on one side to have the entire right as a shield. Like this.

[Rear Admiral Tier 6]

Yen Lo Cost

STD-midrange brawler thingy

here are good and cheap setups for the 7K,both use the stock engine.

[Shadow Stryke]

In my opinion, and that is all it is as I do not have this mech line;

Since you have a TBT-7K now and you will need three variants to Master them, I would recommend getting a TBT-5J.
You have enough for the base model and then work to upgrade it along these lines.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...1a83c8693b8ee44

This plays to the model's quirks as well.

Does anyone have a better setup?

[Tarogato]

VeryHot, on 14 April 2015 - 11:03 AM, said:

Hi.

I played for a bit, waste my money and now I've settled on this build as my grind objective:

TBT-7K

Can someone give their opinion on this?

When you say "wasted my money" I assume you mean you already bought a TBT-7K and now you're asking how to build it. In my opinion, Trebuchets are incredibly noob un-friendly mechs. They have poor hitboxes and weak armour, while lacking the maneuverability to offset either of those negative characteristics. If you haven't bought the mech, I wouldn't advise buying it. If you already own it, then... hmm, we have some work to do.

Let's look at the build you've posted.

STD170 engine: 2x ERLL, 1x AC/10, 1x SRM6.

First of all, how do you plan on using it? The ERLLs offer nice poke, but they're super hot. The AC/10 is a short-ish range weapon, so you can't use it with the ERLLs - you'd probably pair it with the SRM6. So now you're mixing two seperate dichotomies - really hot long range weapons that you shouldn't use at short range, and ammo-dependent short range weapons that can't be used at long range. This can *kinda* work, but it's not the greatest of ideas.

Second of all, let's upgrade your build using the very basics. You're using a super small STD engine, which is incredibly slow. You're a 50-ton medium mech, so you'll be a sitting duck in that thing if you don't put a faster engine in it. You're missing two heatsinks, since 10 are absolutely required for the mech to operate. You also have zero upgrades installed. Let's install all the upgrades and put in a more appropriate engine and fix the armour distribution and see what we get:

TBT-7K

There's still problems with it. I didn't have enough critical slots to use Ferro Fibrous armour, so I didn't bother. (also use Endo first, and add FF only if you have room). Even though I was able to upgrade to an XL engine, it's still really slow for a 50t medium mech. I moved the ammo away from the engine by putting it in the cockpit and legs. It put them in the legs because if you get legged, you're as good as dead anyways, so it won't be any worse if the ammo explodes. Ammo in the cockpit because cockpits very rarely get critt'd. I'd put more armour in the cockpit if I could, at least on a Trebuchet. Many mechs can go with low cockpit armour, but I wouldn't advise it on this mech. 16 head armour will save you from getting dual-gaussed in the face.

Oh yeah, and you have an AC/10! It's really heavy, and it's not the most effective of weapons on its own. Plus, the TBT-7K has quirks for AC/5, so let's use an AC/5 instead.
(here's a handy reference for quirks: http://snafets.de/mwo/quirks.htm)


TBT-7K

Now we're getting somewhere. That actually gave us enough room to fit the coveted and flexible XL255 engine. If you don't have an XL255, an XL250 is a perfectly fine substitute and it comes "for free" with several mechs out of the factory.

At this point we might want to try it out on the battlefield and see how it performs or better yet: consider our other options first.

This is the build suggested by GMan on his MetaMechs resource: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...3d64d3f9e926e11

That is 2x AC/5, 1x PPC. The PPC and AC/5 have similar projectile velocities, so they can be used together. He equips 2.5 tons of ammo per AC/5 equipped. He has Double Heat Sinks (should go in EVERY mech) and Endo-Steel (should go in most mechs). Ferro wasn't necessary for this build (it's mostly used in light mechs, anyways). He has no armour on the arms because there's nothing in the arms. He has an XL225, which is on the slow side, but it's okay because he has all ranged weapons equipped, he never needs to be close to the enemy so he doesn't necessarily need the maneuverability.

Here's the alternative I preferred: TBT-7K

I simply use two PPCs instead of two AC/5s. The AC/5's have a faster firing rate but lower damage, and I found with this mech I did better by poking from cover instead of sitting out in the open trying to lob AC/5's at people. Switching out an AC/5 for a PPC gave me more damage and more tonnage to work with (faster engine) at the expense that it runs a little hotter.

---

The way the mech is shaped (the hitboxes) lead me to using this variant as a ranger and I would avoid trying to equip short range weapons on it. However, I do encourage you to try it anyways and see the difference for yourself in how they perform, as it will help you in making build choices in the future. The only issue is, you might have to shell out money on an engine specific to your build. I recommend builds that use the XL255 because that engine can be swapped out and used in builds on a LOT of different mechs, so you're saving yourself a lot of trouble by going that route.

Edited by Tarogato, 14 April 2015 - 12:54 PM.

[Rear Admiral Tier 6]

Havyek, on 14 April 2015 - 12:24 PM, said:

TBT-7K

That thing will explode as soon as it gets hit,ammo to the side torsos,it has an XL-engine,if you lose one torso you are gone anyway.

[Rear Admiral Tier 6]

Shadowstyke, on 14 April 2015 - 12:45 PM, said:

In my opinion, and that is all it is as I do not have this mech line;

Since you have a TBT-7K now and you will need three variants to Master them, I would recommend getting a TBT-5J.
You have enough for the base model and then work to upgrade it along these lines.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...1a83c8693b8ee44

This plays to the model's quirks as well.

Does anyone have a better setup?

here

you can also do 2 LPL 3 ML with XL255 for CW-matches.

[VeryHot]

Well, for one, I learned a lot from this thread.
Two, I immediately regret my decision.

For now, I'm going to try my best with the AC20/2xML build, then it that doesn't work out, I'll switch to an 2xERL/SRM6 build.

Please remember that upgrading the 7k to have the top XL255 engine is great and all, but it'll leave me short on cash for a second mech, so I'll be grinding with the 7k and the trials which the second mech sits in the garage awaiting key components.

Currently, I'm doing 100-150 dmg per match. That earns me about 30k Cbills, so every upgrade you're suggesting (Double sinks 1.5M ect) is going to cost quite a bit of in-game time.

---------------------

Cookiemonter669, on 14 April 2015 - 12:45 PM, said:

Yen Lo Cost

STD-midrange brawler thingy

here are good and cheap setups for the 7K,both use the stock engine.

Oh and I like these.

Edited by VeryHot, 14 April 2015 - 01:21 PM.

[TercieI]

@VeryHot:

It's been a good thread, lots of good advice. I would like to add a couple things. First, DHS aren't really optional. That's a blunt truth of this game. We even call it a "tax" because it's 1.5MM you just have to pay on top of a mech's purchase price (except for the few mechs that come with them, though they have a higher purchase price to start with). Second, people here aren't kidding. The TBT is a very tough mech to play. I have collected nearly two hundred mechs representing virtually every chassis in the game and I'm just now getting to TBTs. And, worse, I bought a 7K on sale and eventually bought a 5J instead (to complement my LdG and 7M) because I really can't see anything great to do with the 7K. As a guy who started with Commandos and knows all about wishing I'd taken another path, you really should seriously consider a new account. You've chosen a very tough path.