17 replies to this topic

[eFTy]

So with the recent Tukayyd I finally put up the cash for a Jester. The Catapult was my first heavy mech (second chassis I owned, actually) and I always kinda wanted to get the Jester.

Now I have and... I'm not doing very good in it. Granted, I'm just almost done with basics, but it doesn't really feel like a heat problem. I feel like I'm dying even faster than my K2 before quirks.

My armour is frontloaded, I rarely get into brawl ranges. I run a 340XL to GTFO quick and tried both 4x ML & 4x MPL w 2x LPL, LL, ERLL & PPC in the arms. Hitreg seems to hate me and I've even had games with 56 total damage and 6 assists.

So please, post some favored setups and tell me how you play this thing. As it stands right now, I'm doing way better in locusts, commandos and even dragons (all of them, not just the 1N). My Wolverine 6K laughs at my Jester scores...

[BoldricKent]

Im glad im not the only one with hate/love Jester thingy, i set on 3LL,2ML 330xl, 2JJ and AMS .
I like the lightness of it, behaves almost as medium,but big CT makes it not much more durable...
with STD engine it loses to much. Games score seems to reflects that, it all over place, lows are around 200,
highs can get up to low 700... still its fun mech.

[SnagaDance]

Never owned a Jester but the 3 Catapults I did own I despised so much that it for ever took away the lure of the Jester. I had no regrets selling those Mastered mech, man that CT, and this is coming from someone who likes his Jenners and Awesomes.

That said it certainly is a fire discipline mech. With all those energy weapons you need to restrict the ones you use. I'd personally probably go for the 2 LPL 4 ML build you mentioned. Which would probably look something like this: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...3426d79bd4b5ac0

Even Elited that weapons load-out will overheat you extremely fast. Though on an average map you can fire those LPL forever on their own. And the ML long enough to last any brawl. Just don't use them together. Or maybe just use the LPL in most cases and chain fire some ML for added damage. Or just keep the ML for one of those, 'can't miss' or 'that mech's cherry red CT needs to go NOW' cases.

[Amsro]

Jester 4xLL XL355

Gotta max that engine to get the full mobility advantage over other catapults, laser vomit seems to work best in blue.

[Joey Tankblaster]

SnagaDance, on 06 May 2015 - 02:51 AM, said:

Never owned a Jester but the 3 Catapults I did own I despised so much that it for ever took away the lure of the Jester. I had no regrets selling those Mastered mech, man that CT, and this is coming from someone who likes his Jenners and Awesomes.

That said it certainly is a fire discipline mech. With all those energy weapons you need to restrict the ones you use. I'd personally probably go for the 2 LPL 4 ML build you mentioned. Which would probably look something like this: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...3426d79bd4b5ac0

Even Elited that weapons load-out will overheat you extremely fast. Though on an average map you can fire those LPL forever on their own. And the ML long enough to last any brawl. Just don't use them together. Or maybe just use the LPL in most cases and chain fire some ML for added damage. Or just keep the ML for one of those, 'can't miss' or 'that mech's cherry red CT needs to go NOW' cases.

This.

This build is very good. Just peek-a-boo with it. Other route to go is a mediu pulse boat and a huge XL. The Jester is not all too bad but indeed the weakest brawler of all IS heavies. I use it strictly as a fast harasser jump jetting from cover.

[John80sk]

Honestly didn't think I'd like the Jester when I bought it during the last sale, just bought it for the trolly paint. Ended up liking it a whole lot more than the Sparky which I thought I would love surprisingly.

This is what I prefer at the moment:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...7c3fa4a8f1880ac

My only gripe is the one torso mounted laser can be kind of irritating... but the extra damage at range from 3LL vs 2LPL is pretty big in my eyes.

[Telmasa]

My suggested Jester:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...3d0416f0b647b3b

Little bit slower than the others, probably a bit hotter because the engine is smaller, but with the benefit of both JJ & the command console (I like the zoom). I also manage to have 4 weapon groups (LMB, RMB, MMB, shift [I'm left handed, right-handers might prefer "G"], so I would use PPCs on 2 different weapon groups with ML & MPL split into the other two groups.

[Felio]

I've run it with 2 LL and 4 MPL.

Kind of a shame it's quirked for LL rather than ERLL.

[SethAbercromby]

My Jester is a bit of an oddball, because I used the XL280 I'm using for a lot of other 'mechs, which left me with a lot of tonnage with not too much space to use it. So I went for 2x PPC + 2x LLas.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...586bc9ab491152e

AMS and BAP ended up as nessecary evils to fill the tonnage, but It does draw benefits from the BAP in getting faster readouts on damaged components to focus my fire on. I did intend to use ERPPCs originally, but it ended up way too hot with this engine due to the lack of engine slots.

[IraqiWalker]

eFTy, on 05 May 2015 - 11:43 PM, said:

So with the recent Tukayyd I finally put up the cash for a Jester. The Catapult was my first heavy mech (second chassis I owned, actually) and I always kinda wanted to get the Jester.

Now I have and... I'm not doing very good in it. Granted, I'm just almost done with basics, but it doesn't really feel like a heat problem. I feel like I'm dying even faster than my K2 before quirks.

My armour is frontloaded, I rarely get into brawl ranges. I run a 340XL to GTFO quick and tried both 4x ML & 4x MPL w 2x LPL, LL, ERLL & PPC in the arms. Hitreg seems to hate me and I've even had games with 56 total damage and 6 assists.

So please, post some favored setups and tell me how you play this thing. As it stands right now, I'm doing way better in locusts, commandos and even dragons (all of them, not just the 1N). My Wolverine 6K laughs at my Jester scores...

It seems to me that what you're suffering from is a play style problem. You're not used to a catapult playing like the Jester (the K2 comes close, but still different).
The builds you have seem fine for me. I kinda have a thing for LPLs, but 2 (ER)LLs, and 4MLs works solid, even with the hit reg issues running around the servers. Just remember that even though you are a heavy, you're a step above being an honorary medium. So play the jester like a medium. Escort bigger mechs, flank, and always hit enemies that aren't paying attention to you. Focus on harassing opponents, and hitting from unexpected directions.

[SethAbercromby]

Oh yeah, speaking of laughing.

Cheshire cat paintjob :3

Edited by SethAbercromby, 06 May 2015 - 01:54 PM.

[Tiamat of the Sea]

I present to you, my JESTER Chuckles. Chuckles is good for loads of laughs, and has possibly the creepiest color scheme I could have managed with the palette I have available.

I run this at top speed with the AMSes because frankly if you don't include a huge engine and both anti-missile systems, there's not much it does that isn't done better by something else. Running around at silly-for-a-heavy speeds lets me pop up, zot something for an alpha strike, and then keep running to get the heck away, kind of like a very fat, very durable, slightly slow Jenner. I find that it's usually better to leave the arms empty (occasionally I'll add a tonne of AMS ammo and some armor to just one arm, but usually not) because they're the tallest part of the 'mech and come off pretty darn easy anyways, to say nothing of poking out over cover. Your mileage may vary on that, I know a lot of pilots find the arm vertical too useful to skip hucking weapons in there.

It runs hot, but it's not supposed to brawl, it's pretty much filling the same combat function as a well-used Quickdraw or Jenner- get in, smack something hard once or twice, get out, come back from a different direction. Also makes good close combat support assuming you can ensure you're the second or third thing to poke its nose out and thus don't get shot to bits as quickly (giving you time not to keep firing, but to zip away after a few volleys).

I keep one side of the 'mech in one firing group and the other side in the other, because the CT mounts are actually rather far apart from each other.

[FireDog]

Jester was a really fun mech before the Jet Jet and PPC nerfs. It was designed to be a nimble mid-long range jump sniper so... well... nimble and jump was flat out taken away. Also the PPC bolts go soooooo slooooooow, good luck hitting anyone who knows they are being shot at. Most pilots switched to lasers but who wants to give face time with that huge CT? I was hoping what the nerfs took away, the quirks would return but when quirks came out... gee. No extra nimble, no extra jump, and PPC pluses, nada. I do however appreciate the extra CT/arm structure, heat generation reduction and Laser perks. Those did help some. The mech still begs for the old JJ/PPC load outs.

CPLT-J Jester Quirks:
Additional Structure (Arms) +10 (CT) +10
Energy Weapon Heat Generation -10%
Laser Duration -10%
Large Laser Range +7,5%
Energy Weapon Range +7,5%

[SoHxPaladin]

before the quirks, 2xERLL 4xML and huge engine with max JJ was great. it does still work but it was not a "brawler" it is a flank and harass mech. using it as a pure brawler will always be risk reward. pay more attention to your map and where the enemy is moving and stay on their periphery and fade away to your lines when they shift 4 mechs to hunt you down. the jester is a great heavy, imo. just dont expect miracles on a mech that has a HUGE ct and low armor values.

[Liquid Leopard]

Last time I used my Jester, I used this configuration:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a049f803a91b6f3

It seemed to work pretty well.
The generic energy perks give the ERLLs a really long range, competitive with the sniping ability of Clan mechs.
The LL cooldown perk definitely doesn't affect the ERLLs, but do you want it to? They make so much heat...

The weapon modules are naturally LL Range and ERLL Range.
No "cooldown" modules because - contrary to the name - making a weapon fire faster makes the mech run hotter.
Ain't nobody got time fo' dat!

My mech modules are the obvious Advanced Zoom, and the less obvious Seismic Sensor that keeps the enemy from sneaking up on me. It also lets me know when there are enemies around a corner or on the other side of a wall, so I can decide where to launch a UAV.


My face when I zap a missile boat from 1200m:


I reverse-engineered a friends Jester, and he's using something more like this:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...1e94898f72cfdf8

Compared to me he's fighting at shorter range, with much better heat discipline.

Edited by Liquid Leopard, 06 May 2015 - 02:39 PM.

[FireDog]

"No "cooldown" modules because - contrary to the name - making a weapon fire faster makes the mech run hotter."

The entire community would rejoice if PGI would do a universal "Find and Replace" substituting the word "recycle" for "cooldown" when talking about a weapon's recycle time.

[IraqiWalker]

FireDog, on 06 May 2015 - 02:50 PM, said:

"No "cooldown" modules because - contrary to the name - making a weapon fire faster makes the mech run hotter."

The entire community would rejoice if PGI would do a universal "Find and Replace" substituting the word "recycle" for "cooldown" when talking about a weapon's recycle time.

Amen

[eFTy]

Mmm, lots of replies. Thank you very much, gentlemen.

And yeah, I know part of the problem is my play style. It's been a long time since I've driven Catapults, I only take the K2 out for a spin once in a blue moon, usually trying some weird setup. Meanwhile I've gotten too used to driving either nimble mediums or banshees & stalkers who can take a punch. The Jester feels like the worst of both worlds, and often I felt like the enemy was focusing on me on purpose, despite higher threats being present and shooting.

I have tried the 2x LL & 2x ERLL on the K2, my damage score was quite... atrocious. Autocannons always did so much better in it (oddly enough, I generally do better with energy weapons in other mechs and suck with ballistics).

If I have time before I leave, I'll try a 4x MPL & 2x PPC with a smaller engine, see how that works. I'll also try the 800m ERLL setup, maybe with 4x MPL again. Should be fun as long as there's not too many clanners with ERLL & ERPPC on the other side...