16 replies to this topic

[Rollup]

Hi everyone!, i just want to share another build that i've been using these last few days which has performed well beyond expectations.

STK-3H LRM
EDIT: Improved STK-3H









The Beagle Probe really helps with getting fast lock-ons and countering ECM. I can only imagine that adding an adv. target decay module would make it even better.

It carries 2340 rounds, do not be tempted to cut down. A good game for this will see you at less than 10% or completely dry at the end.

Edited by Rollup, 20 April 2015 - 06:42 PM.

[Raso]

How are you finding the spread on the ALRM20s?

Have you tried dropping down to ALRM15s and replacing the MLAS with LLAS for more long range punch or are you playing as a straight hang back and rain indirect fire from a distance sort of role? I've found that my Jager-A with 2 ALR10s and 2 ALRM5s is fairly good at putting some good damage down range (though it's super fragile up close and personal).

[Rollup]

The spread isn't a problem if the target is slow, stationary, or large. If you're lucky and someone in your team can tag/narc, the damage will be very focused.
The beauty of the STK-3H is that it has 20 launch tubes in each arm so it can launch 40 missiles in one volley. Also, when firing constantly the heat can start to be a problem, especially after the fight starts and you have target saturation, however being close to overheat usually means you have dished out a good amount of pain to the enemy team

i don't fire medium lasers at all during the first engagement, it wastes heat(and gives away your position) that could be used for firing missiles.
I've tried alot of configs on this chassis(it's my favourite chassis ), PPC+LL, Quad LPL(really good!), XL engine setups with ASRM6(powerful but fragile), etc. but without a significant amount of heat sinks they don't perform well.

As for playstyle, it's a bit difficult to answer, but i've tried to list some "rules" i try to follow:

Positioning.
If there is another LRM boat on your team, follow them. They might show you a good spot that you can use in later matches
Stay within line of sight of your team, but do not sacrifice a good firing position lightly. You must make your presence felt by the enemy team, forcing them into cover and slowing their advance.

Cycle Targets.
Give them 1 volley each while their chassis details pop up.
Prioritise targets that are tagged/narced.
When an assault pops up focus on them! . They are the easiest targets, represent the most danger to your team, and if you can kill/severely damage them, the game will swing into your teams favour. An early Crab/Dire kill almost guarantees victory.

Support your team.
Mini-map awareness is vital.
If you see one of your lights is brawling something, switch targets immediately to their target. Protecting your team is more important than shooting something that's just walking around. Securing kills will happen as a side-result .

Lights are your weakness.
Don't Panic.
Aim for the legs.
4 medium lasers will be enough to deal with a solo light, but if there's more than one, you're in trouble.
You must run closer to your team mates. Twisting and spreading damage across your armour will usually allow you enough time to get to safety.

Edited by Rollup, 20 April 2015 - 01:50 AM.

[Rollup]

some screenies from yesterday.

[Crotch RockIt]

Interesting. I've never tried using Command Console in a LRM boat before. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think the CC has the following properties:

• +42.5% Target Info Gathering Speed
  
• +12.0% Zoom
  
• + 6.0% Radar Range

None of that will give you a faster target lock, so I think you might be experiencing a placebo effect. Personally, I'd ditch the CC and use the saved tonnage for 2 more heat sinks and to max out the leg armor. Also, I'd move some ammo from torso to arms, since the arms are a smaller target than the side torsos and less likely to be hit.

Otherwise, nice build and good games. I used to run a 5M missile boat (before quirks) and have been thinking about picking up a 3H.

Edited by Crotch RockIt, 20 April 2015 - 06:02 AM.

[xeromynd]

Yeah, Command Console doesn't get you faster lock speed, the only benefit for LRM boats is probably the slightly increased sensor range, which isn't really worth the 3 TON tradeoff it has. That's 3 tons more ammo, more heatsinks, or backup weapons you could have.

BAP however, is totally worth it.

Edited by xeromynd, 20 April 2015 - 08:25 AM.

[NUJRSYDEVIL]

You're gonna rack up points if you resist these two temptations:

1. Targeting lights
2. Targeting anything further than 750M away

[Barkem Squirrel]

Think about BAP, Command Console, Target info Gathering, LRM 20 Range extension, TAG and Artemis. Maybe Advance Sensor Range. With these modules or components you can see out to 1250m and have a reduction of 89% for targeting time.

One thing I still do not know is the time it takes to target. Just about everything else yes.

Basic sensor range is 800 m.

Advance Sensor range adds 25% or 200m
BAP adds 25% or 200m
Command console adds 6% or 48 m.
targeting computers 2.25% to 7.5%

So total range is 1248 for the IS, but in the testing grounds I can get 1250m. Clan is 1260m max range.



Lock on time.
What is the base time?

Command console reduces the time by -20.5%
Clan targeting computers are from -22.5% to -75%
target info gathering -25%
BAP -25%
NARC - 50%
TAG -50%
Artemis -50%

note NARC and TAG stack. TAG and Artemis stack. NARC and Artemis do not stack.

So You would think, just add them up for your reduction in targeting time, nope.

There is a formula. Say you have BAP, -25 CC -22.5, target info gathering -25, TAG -50 and Artemis -50. These add up to -172.5%.

.75 X .775 x .75 x .5 x .5 = 0.10898 or .11. So 100% -.11 = an 89% reduction. You almost have instantaneous locks.

The best you can do with lock on time is 96.5% Clan targeting computer VII, CAP, target info gathering, TAG, Artemis.

[Spleenslitta]

OP. Your about to receive something rare for an assault mech user. Praise from a player who uses light mechs almost exclusivly.
My sincere thanks for bringing backup weapons to defend yourself instead of just a few more tonns of ammo that you will most likely not use anyways.

Again. Thank you.

Edited by Spleenslitta, 20 April 2015 - 09:23 AM.

[Qtvcfr]

Command Computer and Target Info Gathering don't speed up locks. What they do is reduce the amount of time it takes to see target info such as loadout and armor status.

You've probably noticed that after pushing the 'r' button the target's mech diagram doesn't always immediately pop up. It takes a few seconds sometimes, and that after you hit someone it takes a little time to see the changes in their armor. Command computer and Info Gathering reduce those times. It's a pretty common misconception.

[_____]

LRM20, even with Artemis and TAG spreads way too much. That's why you'll often see big damage games but often with a low kill count. I did a 1400 damage game with a similar build (2xALRM20, 1xALRM5, 3xML), but in reality, it was contributing less to the match than the number suggests. Quad ERLL gets you more focused damage and kills. 36 pts on a HBR left torso is worth more than 60 pts spread all over the same mech.

If you really want to run LRM20 builds though, either add a CASE to the ST (because those STs are huge and easy to hit and explode your ammo), or move the ammo to your arms.

[Raso]

Adding to Blackhawk's comments on both suitability and spread you may wish to consider using 2 LRM15s and an LRM5 in each torso. Granted the Stalker seldom loses an arm before a side torso but this will also give you the same amount of missiles per volley with with a tighter spread. Granted you WILL have much more heat each time you loose a whole mass of 20 LRMs but you can also manage your ammo (and heat) better by firing a group of 30 or 10 LRMs if the need arises (is smaller volleys of 10 on damaged lights and mediums.

It's just a simple, ton for ton swap.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...f92ad01bca72501

[mark v92]

Id do something like this: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b453704a090510f

ditch the CC and get case (since std engine), a heatsink and ammo (or armor).

and keep the lrm20. spread might be higher but the mech is quirked for lrm20 heat and cooldown.


My best lurm mech: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c38aa60dab783bb

Maddog.
Speed to get in good positions and to keep up with the group. narc a target and move behind cover and fire away.
3x er small laser for backup. doesnt seem much but ive killed a lot of players with those.

12 narc ammo.
1800 lrm ammo.

mb1= ersmall
mb2= narc
mb3= 2x lrm15
mb4= lrm15 + 2x lrm5

public dmg: 700 - 1100 (highest ~1530)
cw dmg: 900 - 1200

Edited by mark v92, 20 April 2015 - 01:09 PM.

[Rollup]

Ok, thanks for the responses guys, i didn't expect so many . Going to make a few changes.
New build: STK-3H with 2 added heat sinks and another ton of ammo!

Command Console:
So i re-read the tooltip. "-42.5% targeting time" is a very ambiguous statement, i initially thought that is a lock-time reduction. I mean for 3 tons it really should reduce lock-times, right?
Will remove it for sure.

Case:
I just can't bring myself to fit one. I know that it's a good idea in theory, but whenever i run out of ammo my brain says "Hey Rollup, You know you should of put Ammo instead of that CASE, right?..... You knew you didn't really need it and you did it anyway.... you deserve to die ... ". My ammo explosion deaths are rare, probably less than 5 total.

Kills:
It is true, for something that does this much damage, it's kill count could be higher. For example, if my STK-4N does 1k dmg, it's usually 5-6 kills. Same goes for my TDR-9SE, 1k dmg is always 5-6 kills.

BlackhawkSC, on 20 April 2015 - 10:10 AM, said:

LRM20, even with Artemis and TAG spreads way too much. That's why you'll often see big damage games but often with a low kill count. I did a 1400 damage game with a similar build (2xALRM20, 1xALRM5, 3xML), but in reality, it was contributing less to the match than the number suggests. Quad ERLL gets you more focused damage and kills. 36 pts on a HBR left torso is worth more than 60 pts spread all over the same mech. If you really want to run LRM20 builds though, either add a CASE to the ST (because those STs are huge and easy to hit and explode your ammo), or move the ammo to your arms.

@BlackhawkSC, Love your vids!, watched alot of them when i started playing and they were a great help, Thank You .

So yeah, i'm a bit shocked that i don't agree with you on this, at all.....
The spread is fine if you're shooting large/slow/stationary targets and you really should be prioritising Assaults.
Narc/Tag does make a difference, but are just bonuses that aren't required, indeed most games you will not get them.
You say you've done a 1.4k game and you didn't feel like you contributed to it? Seriously? Is that a joke? .
Quad ERLL: I tried this before, but found it a bit underwhelming. It was hard to find targets silly enough to let me focus on one component, they just twist and the damage gets spread. Didn't perform as well as a STK-4N for me.
I don't really care too much about my personal kill count (my KDR is high enough already ) the others in my team will secure the kill, and i like that i've helped them do that, getting kills is a good feeling, Share the Love .

I just try things and see what works. If they do, i post the build on the forum to try and help others that are learning like me. I have to say that doing 1k dmg in anything is a good show, regardless of what it is and this thing averages that. I'm just showing what this build can do if it's played with the method described in my first reply.

Edited by Rollup, 20 April 2015 - 09:39 PM.

[_____]

Thanks for the viewership!

Well what I said was it contributed less to the match than the number suggests, not that it didn't contribute at all. My personal rough estimation is that LRM damage is the equivalent of 1/2 to 3/4 of more focused damage. So the 1400 number turns into 700 to 1000, which is decent, and it certainly contributed, but it's far from being really amazing.

Now, I don't have stats to back that up, I admit. But I look at it two ways. First, visually seeing at how many missiles actually hit the components that matter and second, comparing the kill count in say my 1k LRM mech games vs 1k direct fire mech games.

For quad ERLL, stay 700-800m away, use Adv Zoom. At that range a lot of times enemy mechs can't even see you and are just trying to position themselves. You can often find even stationary targets at that range. I would just alpha all 4 ERLLs and take the ghost heat most of the time to get all that damage focused on one or two components that matter.

(Of course no Stalker voms lasers like the 4N right now, but I would still prefer a quad ERLL 3H now over an LRM20 3H and I would probably prefer a quad ERLL 3F over a 3H)

Edited by BlackhawkSC, 22 April 2015 - 12:40 AM.

[Lily from animove]

spread affects your CT sniping abilities. if you spread more, you rack up more damage, yet you do not kill that mech faster.

bets fun is a 6 lrm 5 MDD, that really has CT missile sniping abilities.

Edited by Lily from animove, 22 April 2015 - 12:44 AM.

[Rollup]

So yeah, after playing this thing for the last week, i've started to get bored with it/LRM'ing in general.... It does very well on big and open maps like Canyon, Alpine, Caustic and Tourmaline, but struggles on small maps.
I'd just like to add that in all the games i've played(500+), i've never seen an LRM boat come close to this thing in terms of damage output and would love it if more of these were in the que.
A SS from a game yesterday.

Edited by Rollup, 22 April 2015 - 03:58 PM.