9 replies to this topic

[WHEELER96]

So I just started playing, and I've tried several different trial mechs, and the Spider seems to be working the best for me, I'm thinking about buying it as my first mech, but I wanted to get some input from more experienced players first. My playstyle is to flank, run circles around people while shooting at them.

[Appogee]

Firestarters are a better option for what you describe as they have a little more armor and more weapon space.

The S is probably the best of them.

Metamechs has a good write up on them.

If you are set on a Spider, the 5D, which provides you with ECM (anti-radar) cover, might be a better option for you.

Edited by Appogee, 29 April 2015 - 07:28 AM.

[Spheroid]

I feel if you want to be an ankle bitter you should drop real money and get a Pirate's Bane. It comes with the 190XL that is useful in all Locusts by default. That sale ends tomorrow.

$7 will get you one Hero locust and three mech bays with 150MC left over.

The Firestarter is obviously the best light but you are going to spend a lot of c-bills on XL engines in the process.

[John1352]

I agree with Appogee, you'll be happier in a Firestarter, and do more damage. The Firestarter is really the best light mech for running around enemies as you describe. You'll want to buy a big XL (eXtra Light) engine to go in it (295 or 280 are good), then you'll need to upgrade to double heatsinks. You'll be looking at 6,000,000 cbills for those two upgrades, but they're basically mandatory.

Edit: In reply to spheroid, the locust is generally considered "hard mode", it's capable of doing pretty well, but it is very fragile.

Edited by John1352, 29 April 2015 - 07:56 AM.

[TeteSP]

If u think that with machine guns u do good work,then get the spider,but remember that with that mech u MUST only attack vs weak targets,i mean not armored,machineguns are incredible effective vs internals. I know it good,trust me,my first trial mech that i do the good work was the trial spider,and now im using a Cicada 3C,its the same weaponery but with higher tonnage. Consider the Cicada. Or u can go with the Locust 1V,same weaponery too.

Cicada 3C
Locust 1V
Spider 5K

All of those 3 mech can have same weaponery as trial spider,but with smaller laser (considering that u upgrade the engine to maximum)

Edited by TeteSP, 29 April 2015 - 10:21 AM.

[TercieI]

No! Take it from a guy who started with Commandos, don't do this to yourself!

As others have stated, check out FS9s. S, A and H, built with MPLs, SPLs and MLs, respectively, all very good.

The Spider 5K and 5D are both OK, but the 5V and Anansi are awful and you really will want to master three if it's your first light chassis to get the most out of it.

[3xnihilo]

Spiders are one of my very favorite chassis in a the game. If you are enjoying the trial I wouldn't hesitate to go wih it as your first mech. I started in a spider 5d, it and the Anansi are great mechs in my opinion so with the k that gives you 3 decent variants to work with. Technically, I will admit Firestarters are probably better but I have a special place in my heart for all of the 30t and smaller mechs in MWO.

Ps. The locust is great fun as well as the commandos but they die a lot easier than spiders or Firestarters.

[mailin]

If you like how the trial Spider handles and works for you, then I think you should buy one and enjoy it. As word of advice on the 5D, if you get one, learn how and when to switch the ECM between counter and disrupt.

[InspectorG]

WHEELER96, on 29 April 2015 - 07:21 AM, said:

So I just started playing, and I've tried several different trial mechs, and the Spider seems to be working the best for me, I'm thinking about buying it as my first mech, but I wanted to get some input from more experienced players first. My playstyle is to flank, run circles around people while shooting at them.

Firestarter.

Maybe Jenner if they re-quirk them.

If you want to spend $

Firestarter Mastery pack is a steal.

OR

get the Clan pack for the Arctic Cheetah...which by all accounts and purposes looks to be better than the Firestarter.

Either pack is about $30, not bad!

[Rogue Jedi]

the SDR 5K is one of my favorate Mechs in the game, I can do almost as well in that as in a Timber Wolf, and better than in most Firestarters variants (E and S have about equal stats).

however for a long time I could not use Spiders, even when a significant portion of the playerbase were complaining that the Spider was indestructible I was unable to do much in it, it was only after I elited my Firestarters, by which point I had owned Spiders for about a year that I was able to figure out how to do well in the Spider, now the SDRs are my favorite chassis with more drops than any other 2 chassis combined, but I cannot advise a new player to take a Spider as the first Mech UNLESS he/she tried and loved the trial Spider.

If you have played and done well in or enjoyed the SDR-5K trial, then by all means buy it, just understand it may be more of a challenge than most other Mechs.

if you do decide to buy it, consider getting the XL255 engine for it, as the XL255 can be used by all Spider variants where as the XL280 or 285 will not work for the 5D ECM variant effectively meaning an extra 4.1 million added to the price of the 5D when you are ready to elite/master the Spider chassis.

if you like the trial Spider you could purchase the Spider Champion, the Champion comes with the same loadout as the trial Mech, and comes with the extremely useful XL255 engine, it is currently on sale at half price, and can be purchased with $6.95 worth of MC with a little left over, the price will go up in about 7 hours from when I posted this, this is opposed to a little over 9 million cbills to create that same build.
if you purchase the trial with MC that should leave you with enough cbills left from your recruit bonus to buy the other 2 Spiders and outfit them minus engine which you could swop from the 5K(c).