21 replies to this topic

[Tycon]

The stories of Awesome owners tend to be vocal here about the many problems the mech has. The poor hit boxes, wide torso and low hard points come out. I think part of the problem is poorly optimized quirks, as PPCS on a mech not designed for range trading, the awesome ideally for it's height and good side in terms of depth (fat but narrow torso) seams like while it's not ideal the mech could still potentially be ok. I ran a 9M when i was new as my first assault and sold it in frustration, but months ago i realized how many mistakes I made and how i could have just not optimized the mech itself. In a world with high alpha damage and heavies running at medium speed perhaps a change of tactics and perspective could help.

With Pulse lasers that are more heat manageable and for brawling, the side arms are great for coverage, the torso twist is great and for an 80 tonner, it has great structure quirks and pretty comparable armor. XL engines i should have realized are foolish, those side torsos are HUGE and you're a walking coffin. The 9M ER-PPC quirks just don't fit the mech IMO which it's clearly designed to zombie, the 8Q is technically superior using ER-PPCs since PPC quirks overlap to ER-PPCs, thus using the 9M you lose out on PPC cool down and wore hard points but with a larger engine. When the awesome is slightly scaled down and get's more fitting perks i could see it breaking the medium status of the meta game. However for assault mechs, they have CRAZY quirks, where most mechs get a few useful ones, maybe have either very little impacting / any overall quirks or have mixed build quirks that don't all benefit the mech build (missile, cannon and energy quirks combine don't tend to work as well as boating, something the good variants of the awesome can do).

As a locust pilot primarily, the importance of height is often very under looked, even if you aren't hill humping. I love cicadas but the height can get frustrating at times, grasshoppers are prime targets from odd angles over hills, griffens and wolverines from personal experience also frustrate me due to my height and boxy appearance allowing several pop shots form afar. I wouldn't lie the X dimensions of the awesome are a huge draw back, however the height of the awesome is a huge plus i see over looked so often (even though people tend to aim in the X and Z dimentions). The Y dimensions of the awesome for an assault are on part with the height of mediums, and piloting over scaled mediums like the cicada, Griffin or wolverine, the awesome really never felt much bigger, just slightly wider and slower. I've piloted a dragon and with those wide arms and huge frame, that mech is wider than a n awesome and the quick draw is much taller than an awesome despite the tonnage shortage. I just wonder if this mech is more usable then it's made out to be, I don't expect to stand face to face with a daka wolf and win, but with proper twisting and the maneuverability advantage i expect it to better than a dire wolf in face alpha and evade wars.

The 8R is boring but is a rather light assault to use LRMS for, if LRMS were meta viable perhaps this mech would be much better, the weapon system's faults hold this mech back, other wise it brings the perfect tag spot and great positioning for LRMS. The 9M is on paper, the best zombie mech, having a large side torso to absorb damage, large shielding arms on each side and 2 center torso weapons as well as a head laser, no other mech can sustain 18 damage alphas with only a CT left (at least IS wise). Other variants such as the 8Q do suffer from the geometry as just a shorter but fatter thunderbolt but with constant chained PPCs, if PPCS were a more effective weapon, this mech would be better but suffers again from the optimal build using antiquated meta weapons, however the 8Q as a firing support mech is quite good with a niche over the better hitboxed stalker. Granted the 8T, 8V and PB struggle to find a foot hold do to poor hard point placement, or reliance on weapons for their role, there is definitely room for at least 1 of the variants to shine.

Still lets not fool ourselves, this mech isn't top tier or better than most other mechs (i think its stronger than the commando, shadow hawk or some other really lacking mechs), but to say its so trash that it isn't usable feels far fetched. Perhaps with the right build and role the awesome could be medicore in the sense of Awesome! Is there any tips or builds or ways to make the Awesome at least competitive, I find it hard to believe it doesn't have at least some kind of niche. Thanks for reading this in advanced, and any criticism or advise to make this mech line usable would be welcomed.

[Nightshade24]

The awesome 9M isn't designed to be a zombie.

It is designed to be a long range support mech like all the other awesomes... guess the PPC's, ER PPC's, large lasers, and LRM's wasn't enough of a hint.

Also I think the weapons are rather well optimized for this mech. Only problem is this is mainly determined on what you want with the mech (which appears to be a brawler... a brawler awesome... not a single awesome in BT have been used as a brawler... cannon, apocryphal... or even fannon) and the meta (which lets face it, 80% it's a lemming charge and the other 20% is people who do not even know what they are doing...).

If you buy a mech specifically designed to boat PPC's and ER PPC's and start to complain about it because it is a PPC / ER PPC mech then you may have issues...

I personally have no problem with it's quirks or scalling, atm it is superior over the clan counterpart (the warhawk) which uses a clan XL and has clan ER PPC's which SHOULD have been doing 15 damage per hit but instead it's 10 with splash...

That and also the Shadowhawk is one of the best, if not the' best medium mech in game. If the awesome is better then that thing then I do not think you will have any problems with the extremely competitive awesome.



Note: Would like to see the geometry update pass first though.

[Tycon]

Nightshade24, on 28 June 2015 - 11:23 PM, said:

The awesome 9M isn't designed to be a zombie.

It is designed to be a long range support mech like all the other awesomes... guess the PPC's, ER PPC's, large lasers, and LRM's wasn't enough of a hint.

Also I think the weapons are rather well optimized for this mech. Only problem is this is mainly determined on what you want with the mech (which appears to be a brawler... a brawler awesome... not a single awesome in BT have been used as a brawler... cannon, apocryphal... or even fannon) and the meta (which lets face it, 80% it's a lemming charge and the other 20% is people who do not even know what they are doing...).

If you buy a mech specifically designed to boat PPC's and ER PPC's and start to complain about it because it is a PPC / ER PPC mech then you may have issues...

I personally have no problem with it's quirks or scalling, atm it is superior over the clan counterpart (the warhawk) which uses a clan XL and has clan ER PPC's which SHOULD have been doing 15 damage per hit but instead it's 10 with splash...

That and also the Shadowhawk is one of the best, if not the' best medium mech in game. If the awesome is better then that thing then I do not think you will have any problems with the extremely competitive awesome.



Note: Would like to see the geometry update pass first though.

I appreciate your input and find it nice that PGI tried to stick to the lore of Awesomes by keeping them long range fire supports. The problem is even with the quirks, this mech isn't good at long range fire support, compared to much more agile and smaller heavies or mediums that have much higher hard points and smaller hit boxes. At close range a large hitbox isn't as much of a problem you'll likely be hit anyways and you have more control on the angle you show to your opponent, especially using your low hard points, however at long ranges, being so fat makes you much easier to hit. You're relatively slow speed compared to long ranged mediums and heavies makes long range trading harder, the further away a target is, the less important your forward velocity is as you will appear to barely move as opposed to moving quickly right next to the opponent. Blackjacks and panthers which are very light pack similar punches for their PPC load outs with better hitboxes, hard points, speed and tonnage. The only advantage the awesome has against them is constant chain fire of PPCs (consistent damage) and slightly better heat management as alpha striking with 4 PPC's is almost never an option with ghost heat. LRMS are just poor weapons atm with ECM, radar deprivation, mass AMS umbrellas and other counter measures, they don't provide the same fire support as direct fire. Perhaps the fact that lasers are just the best weapons for the job now obsolete the quirks for the Awesome but simply put, the Awesome is not good at what it was designed to do, so the only way to grant it viability is being creative with some alternative niche role. It isn't a secret people avoid using Awesomes as snipers or aren't afraid of them, they don't do that very well. There are plenty better mechs at long range fire support than the awesome be it quirks, hit boxes, hard point location or tonnage per damage out put that you're better off with a medium mech or heavy, even the Zeus as a rival 80 ton IS assault is better quirked, has better geometry and hard point locations for using long range fire support, thus making the Awesome completely obsolete for that exact role.

While you say it isn't designed to be a brawler nor a zombie, I agree that wasn't the original intention, however with it failing to fulfill it's intended role and possessing qualities that brawlers commonly have/utilize (low hard points, large bodies, armor quirks, the ability to boat a single fire and forget weapons, low facing time weapons, high weapon convergence and high close range precision alpha damage, moderate maneuverability, good torso twisting, torso mounted or hard to disable hard points and shielding arms). Should the awesome be better at it's job as a sniper i'd expect sniper traits such as high mounted hard points, relatively tall but skinny/small frame, good quriks for long range weapons, low tonnage per damage output, High sustained damage, fast movement speed, acceleration/deceleration quirks, ECM, precising aiming hard points (such as articulating arms) and high alpha potential. The Awesome has a few of these such as the quirks and higher alpha status but fails on many desirable traits. Wasting 80 tons or an assault slot of armor for a back line damage dealer are resources that could be spent as a front line damage sponge or high alpha brawler, this is another reason why assault LRM boats are frowned upon, at least the stalker and direwolf carry a huge sustained damage out put to allow them to be viable as fire support as well as generally better long range hit boxes. If you want an LRM boat, wasting the slot or tonnage on a medium is less harmful to your team.

It is not superior to the warhawk, however the Warhawk is equally in a very bad place and I wouldn't disagree the Warhawk could definitely use some help in becoming a viable mech. The direwolf easily out shines the Warhawk as the Zeus does the Awesome at their intended roles. If clan ER-PPCs did 15 pin point damage, they would need a much higher heat per shot modifier, which would be a good way to differentiate them while keeping them in check (in a mech per mech balanced game, you can't have clan PPCs doing more damage, less/same heat, less tonnage and take less slots). Saddly they are both struggling mechs to compete with.

The shadowhawk was once one of the best mediums in the game, it is very very tall and has little to no quirks. The Griffen 2-N, Grid iron or Wolverine 6k vastly out shine shadowhawks. It's akin to saying cataphracts are still top heavies when they clearly have been lowered in value over time to lack of quirking, change of jump sniping and introduction of rival mechs that offer advantages in their general strength areas. Shadowhawks aren't the worst mediums though, vindicators, ice ferrets and kintaros struggle much harder with worse hit boxes and less useful quirks.

Lastly, I really want the Awesome line to be competitive, I think it's quite possible. They very underestimated and underutilized, but calling them extremely competitive in their current state with the current popular builds I would say is an overstatement, they are definitely rare and frowned upon mechs that really aren't that good.

Edited by Tycon, 29 June 2015 - 12:16 AM.

[Nightshade24]

Tycon, on 29 June 2015 - 08:58 PM, said:

I appreciate your input and find it nice that PGI tried to stick to the lore of Awesomes by keeping them long range fire supports. The problem is even with the quirks, this mech isn't good at long range fire support, compared to much more agile and smaller heavies or mediums that have much higher hard points and smaller hit boxes. At close range a large hitbox isn't as much of a problem you'll likely be hit anyways and you have more control on the angle you show to your opponent, especially using your low hard points, however at long ranges, being so fat makes you much easier to hit. You're relatively slow speed compared to long ranged mediums and heavies makes long range trading harder, the further away a target is, the less important your forward velocity is as you will appear to barely move as opposed to moving quickly right next to the opponent. Blackjacks and panthers which are very light pack similar punches for their PPC load outs with better hitboxes, hard points, speed and tonnage. The only advantage the awesome has against them is constant chain fire of PPCs (consistent damage) and slightly better heat management as alpha striking with 4 PPC's is almost never an option with ghost heat. LRMS are just poor weapons atm with ECM, radar deprivation, mass AMS umbrellas and other counter measures, they don't provide the same fire support as direct fire. Perhaps the fact that lasers are just the best weapons for the job now obsolete the quirks for the Awesome but simply put, the Awesome is not good at what it was designed to do, so the only way to grant it viability is being creative with some alternative niche role. It isn't a secret people avoid using Awesomes as snipers or aren't afraid of them, they don't do that very well. There are plenty better mechs at long range fire support than the awesome be it quirks, hit boxes, hard point location or tonnage per damage out put that you're better off with a medium mech or heavy, even the Zeus as a rival 80 ton IS assault is better quirked, has better geometry and hard point locations for using long range fire support, thus making the Awesome completely obsolete for that exact role.

While you say it isn't designed to be a brawler nor a zombie, I agree that wasn't the original intention, however with it failing to fulfill it's intended role and possessing qualities that brawlers commonly have/utilize (low hard points, large bodies, armor quirks, the ability to boat a single fire and forget weapons, low facing time weapons, high weapon convergence and high close range precision alpha damage, moderate maneuverability, good torso twisting, torso mounted or hard to disable hard points and shielding arms). Should the awesome be better at it's job as a sniper i'd expect sniper traits such as high mounted hard points, relatively tall but skinny/small frame, good quriks for long range weapons, low tonnage per damage output, High sustained damage, fast movement speed, acceleration/deceleration quirks, ECM, precising aiming hard points (such as articulating arms) and high alpha potential. The Awesome has a few of these such as the quirks and higher alpha status but fails on many desirable traits. Wasting 80 tons or an assault slot of armor for a back line damage dealer are resources that could be spent as a front line damage sponge or high alpha brawler, this is another reason why assault LRM boats are frowned upon, at least the stalker and direwolf carry a huge sustained damage out put to allow them to be viable as fire support as well as generally better long range hit boxes. If you want an LRM boat, wasting the slot or tonnage on a medium is less harmful to your team.

It is not superior to the warhawk, however the Warhawk is equally in a very bad place and I wouldn't disagree the Warhawk could definitely use some help in becoming a viable mech. The direwolf easily out shines the Warhawk as the Zeus does the Awesome at their intended roles. If clan ER-PPCs did 15 pin point damage, they would need a much higher heat per shot modifier, which would be a good way to differentiate them while keeping them in check (in a mech per mech balanced game, you can't have clan PPCs doing more damage, less/same heat, less tonnage and take less slots). Saddly they are both struggling mechs to compete with.

The shadowhawk was once one of the best mediums in the game, it is very very tall and has little to no quirks. The Griffen 2-N, Grid iron or Wolverine 6k vastly out shine shadowhawks. It's akin to saying cataphracts are still top heavies when they clearly have been lowered in value over time to lack of quirking, change of jump sniping and introduction of rival mechs that offer advantages in their general strength areas. Shadowhawks aren't the worst mediums though, vindicators, ice ferrets and kintaros struggle much harder with worse hit boxes and less useful quirks.

Lastly, I really want the Awesome line to be competitive, I think it's quite possible. They very underestimated and underutilized, but calling them extremely competitive in their current state with the current popular builds I would say is an overstatement, they are definitely rare and frowned upon mechs that really aren't that good.

Range in general at least beyond 600m is a niche thing to start with. so of course the Awesome isn't the best so to say.

Only range mechs you see are IS people abusing there 50% quirks and such WHICH I must add now should not be in game for any circumstances. Hence why you see grid irons a lot... they pretend to have 2 gauss rifles when they only have 1 and when they do a gauss build better then any heavy mech in game as a medium that's how the OP-ness shines through.
Also the awesome does very well at it's job..The problem with Light sniper mechs is they only have 1 sniper weapon (in extreme cases; 2) and are very hot with it. much hotter then the awesome with 3-4 or even 5 sniper weapons. With low damage over time and high heat, this is not a competitor in terms of damage.
It will do 20 damage with a ppc by the time you did 100+ if both are trying to not over heat.
If you compare it to mediums, only mechs like the shadowhawk start to be a large threat, others have the simular problems to a light but others (ie blackjack) is more of the lines of a dakka mech. not the same field so to say and hard to compare...
Heavies? they can start to do duel PPC's and such much better. Especially quirked fellas like the catapult K2, jager, etc... but those guys do 2 er ppc's or 2 ppc's... Awesome does 3-4 quite well... about double.
Assaults? well atm in game... at pure PPC's and ER PPC's... the Awesome is the BEST at these weapons. none other rivals them... king crab with 4 ppc's might... but the thing is now this is a 100 ton mech nearly at equal grounds with a 80 tonner... that's a waste of 20 tons. and it's slower and has a worse profile...

You have to learn you do not play the lighter fellas the same way as the bigger fellas and all have a place in game...

There is a huge difference between carrying 1 ppc on a light, and 3-4 ppc on an assault... or 1 ppc on an assault with an LRM and some medium lasers and a SRM ....


LRM's? this isn't a bad weapon... oppasite of what the meta wants you to think... they do amazing damage but spreads it a bit.
You need skill to use them... as much as people want you to think it's a no skill weapon, it isn't...
lock on? well you still needed to point at the enemy and most of the time by yourself... a normal ballistic or energy build needs to do the same...
Tracking? you still need to keep your lock, while the other guys already hit...
cover? well the direct fire guys need the enemy to come out of cover to shoot at them... LRM need to wory about terrain in front of them, near the enemy, infront of enemy, above him...bellow him... etc. much more map awareness and situational awareness needed...

On top of that, yes there are counters to LRm's... ECM... Cover... AMS... etc...
BUT there are counters for that as well.... TAG... NARC.... UAV.... Spotters... and skill so to say... you can still dumb fire your LRM's and still hit people.
Earlier I was in a 100% lrm mech and 3 of my 5 kills were not guided, It was also a 900 damage game and on caustic valley. Not a good lrm map.

LRM's need skill, with skill you can do well, if they buff LRm's any more or less (especially for the awesome), then people will complain the awesome is the only mech that can do 2000+ damage in a normal match every 10 games or so.

I do not have hte LRM awesome. however I got 15 mill c-bills and am woundering what to get...
Zeus, awesome, 4th variants of mechs I already got, (5th as well..) or upgrading mechs I never bothered to do like Centurion A, Centurion AH (Spare), Kingcrab (spare), Atlas S (spare), Stalker 4N, Some griffons... etc...

Also another thing is the awesome is NOT better up close... that big profile is as much if not MORE a hinderance up close then at far... why?

Let's look at popular brawler weapons....

SRM's... Streak SRM's... LBX cannons... shall I say more? not only that but in that heated fast pace battle up close, the people will have much easier time to land or focus every shot at a specific area then at range when atwitch of a finger will make you miss the entire mech even if it is a barnside door.

Up close you have all these spread weapons that may end up getting 100% of the shot there... so you got an LBX 10 acting like an uber cool smaller AC 10 with no ghost heat... you got SRM 6 doing 25+ damage to anywhere on your mech and mechs out there regularly alpha 5-6 of them... etc....



Also on the part of the low hardpoints. This is not a problem for the missile variants and for the sniper... this is only a problem if you are a hill humper. in CW htere isn't much hills to hump and in normal matches you can adapt your playstyle to use corners or even ignore cover at times... situational awareness, possitioning, and teamwork can help a great deal. I got a friend who regularly uses an awesome and he doesn't have that much of an issue on it.

Also the relative size of the CT and ST mean this mech can do an XL engine... and is one of the fastest assautl mechs in game... even if you are slow you are doing better at a sniper...


Also back to the warhawk... you got 200+ more range then the warhawk, same damage out put as a warhawk, more armour then a warhawk (in some variants), much more colder then a warhawk. relatively higher hardpoints over a warhawk... and simular profile...

Oh speaking of a clan counterpart and profile, the Direwolf is much more bigger then an awsome and thus has worse issues... on top of that it's lsower and dies to NASCAR a lot as well as the factor that the direwolf CT is easy to hit from the side.

Only reason I said it'sreally good atm in terms of earlier as an competetive is just the fact you said it was bette rthen hte current best overall medium mech in game. It was a bit of nit picking sarcastic symatics which is wrong but still rather funny thought that in a way you said this mech is meh but also very good.

Also the thing is they are rare, ALL old mechs are... and not because they are bad. But what would you play... 1 of the 100 mechs you got 100% mastered and upgraded... or the 10 mechs you do not even have basics for and just bought...

this is what many people here have to go through. I got some Ebon jaguars, some executioners... soon arctic cheetah and shadowcats... and 1-2 variants in about 10 chassis to get mastery...

My beloved mechs that I got for 2 years are rarely played but I still play them as I love all my babies.. other people forget there existance or scrap there parts for a different build...


The awesome will EVER be competetive in terms of meta cheese if the quirks are all 50% instead of 25% like half of the IS meta atm... otherwise: no. Russ said some mechs will be Inherritably bad or intentionally worse. but these niche do have some bonuses...

For eg Awesome has a bad profile... but due to this it is the best sniper and hsa the 2nd longest range in game... only beaten by a (very stupidly fookin quirked 50%'er...) locust 3V.

I mean that is a huge advantage for a downside. able to hit mechs badly with full damage at 1000 meters....

[oldradagast]

A few points:

1) The Awesome is not terrible, but other mechs can perform similar roles (sans Quirks) in similar or smaller packages. Stalkers can dish out long range fire support and have better hitboxes, higher weapons, etc. Battlemasters are similar to Stalkers in that regard, though they are not as durable but do gain ballistics. The Zeus - same idea, though it is also abnormally durable.

2) PPC's are rather crummy right now. Really, the only mechs that use them are ones heavily quirked to use them. That's sad and further cuts into the Awesome's viability since it is leaning on the ever-changing Quirks to keep its self relevant.

3) Energy builds are both too powerful and too weak. Laser-vomit is the meta now, but almost any mech can do that. Oddly, as the mech gains more energy hardpoints and the tonnage to use bigger weapons, there's not much real gain. Heat becomes an issue, and having lots of big energy weapons (PPC's, etc.) is not that much better than having lots of smaller, far lighter ones.

Still, Awesomes are playable, but they do need something to set them apart in a good way from other IS 80 to 85 ton mechs that just have more weapon options, better hitboxes, etc.

[Jiffy]

As a long time Awesome pilot I have to chime in here. It is pointless as a fire support mech. Most other assaults can play the long range game better than the Awesome on the basis of durability alone. Yes, pilot skill is a factor, as it always is. That being said, my Awesome 9M has over 500 matches played and is sitting on a 2.0+ kill / death ratio, which I feel is pretty good. But I have to work a lot harder to maintain that number in the Awesome than I do in say, my Warhawk A (which is also kitted out for long range sniping, and will generally sport higher damage figures at the end of a round). The Awesome is pretty well outclassed at range due to its profile, hitboxes, and low hardpoints. This is why when you do see an Awesome these days, it's usually a 9M equipped with the biggest XL engine it can fit, and LPL's instead of PPC's. Even many heavies outclass the Awesome in this regard as well-- the Thunderbolt being a prime example.

So many more durable, harder to hit targets can do the same job just as well if not better. There's literally nothing I can do in the Awesome that I feel I couldn't do in a Warhawk, Thunderbolt, Timber Wolf, or any number of other mechs. This is a problem. There is no discernible advantage in using an Awesome in a long range role over a variety of mechs that weren't even designed to be long range specialists in the first place. It's frustrating.

Edited by Jiffy, 06 July 2015 - 02:15 PM.

[Tiamat of the Sea]

Well, I would never rag on the Awesome.

See, I have this pattern I follow- I pick three or four of the C-bill variants of a chassis, plan some builds, master all of them while tweaking/altering/completely redoing the builds, sell off the ones I couldn't make work for me, and then move on to the next chassis.

When it came time for Awesomes, I picked three.

After finishing basics in them, I picked up the other two C-bill Awesomes.

I love these things. I really really love them.

Part of it, I'm sure, is that I love the feeling of driving a stocky, squat 'mech and stumping around with lots of weapons- it's also part of why I loved Thuds before quirks.

The thing is that people expect a failed brawler, a true missile boat, or a pure sniper out of the Awesome.

I would like to point out that the Awesome is an 80-tonne 'mech, making it one of the lightest assaults. This is really important because its shape isn't friendly to XL engines, especially if you want to turn sideways to soak damage with a shoulder (which the AWS is really good at thanks to a nice happy torso twist range).

Being 80 tonnes means you can run it with a Standard engine and a top speed in the 60-70 kph range (post speed tweak) and still have a good hefty equipment load- and with the various quirks that lets you cram in quite a lot of weaponry.

From there, it's mostly a matter of using it as one of two things- a nimble mid-close range support 'mech, and an ambusher.

AWS-8Q Barndoor is my less deceptive Awesome- the PPCs flying around will make you think it's a PPC-ranged platform, but the real firepower is in the lasers, which can be used to just tear a chunk out of someone in close combat and then either sequence-fire to finish the job or twist that empty left arm in and maunder off while the opponent is still wondering what happened to their main gun.

AWS-8V Bacon is my more deceptive Awesome. I like hanging back with it until the LRM ammo's gone, and then charging in and using that shoulder to soak damage while wubbing things up with the left side. Lots of fun, and people seem to expect an XL engine in it for some reason. Their loss, my firing time.

AWS-9M Troll is probably the strangest Awesome out there, but I love it. Run up hill, ER laser zot, run down hill, find enemy, pulse laser a component out. The SRM is actually functional too, since the Troll runs cool enough that the heat isn't a worry and the added damage is just fun. I started out planning to max XL this and run around with streaks and medium pulses, but this versatile and bizarre setup has proven much more viable.

AWS-8R Thunderous is an ambush Awesome, I use it to pop out of cover, drop 24 SRMs into someone not paying attention, and then fade. Repeat until out of ammo. The large lasers are quirked enough on this thing to be used as very nice support or a way to finish off a crippled component, and also provide some decent ranged fire in a pinch. Possibly the most fun Awesome I have.

AWS-8T Sorbitol will kill you, and it will do it with the wubs. My most deceptive Awesome. The LRMs are fun and fire quickly for lots of area denial and trolling, but a good 95% of the kills and component destructions I've gotten with this thing have come from the dubstep lasers. Apparently, if you're hucking missiles quickly, you can't possibly be anything but a missile boat, so clearly they should grind their face into you under minimum range. Which is exactly where the Medium Pulses are at their best. Oops.

Edited by Quickdraw Crobat, 07 July 2015 - 10:29 AM.

[Mazzyplz]

9m is a decent zombie -
that's true not even in canon awesome is brawler...

what the awesome is good at is shooting 3ppcs vs dual gauss mechs and moving out, eventually your lack of reliance on ammo should give you a bit of an edge if you're smart about it

[Nightshade24]

So... planning on buying an awesome or two... XL or not to XL?

[The Trumpet of Gabriel]

Just want to clarify 1 point. Unless something has changed, PPC and ERPPC quirks do not overlap, thus the 8Q would not be able to handle the ERPPC's better than the 9M.

[Tiamat of the Sea]

Nightshade24, on 07 July 2015 - 10:43 AM, said:

So... planning on buying an awesome or two... XL or not to XL?

Generally not. Despite the fact that most people will try to core you, it's only actually easy to do that if you stare head-on at them. Having the giant wide body means that torso twisting is super-effective with the Awesome, so it's really easy to use the side torsos as damage soaks. Also, the Awesome tends to use a lot of its critical hit slots for DHS and/or weapons and ammo, making the XL space tax actually worse in a lot of cases than the tonnage tax for a Standard.

[Nightshade24]

Quickdraw Crobat, on 07 July 2015 - 11:12 AM, said:

Generally not. Despite the fact that most people will try to core you, it's only actually easy to do that if you stare head-on at them. Having the giant wide body means that torso twisting is super-effective with the Awesome, so it's really easy to use the side torsos as damage soaks. Also, the Awesome tends to use a lot of its critical hit slots for DHS and/or weapons and ammo, making the XL space tax actually worse in a lot of cases than the tonnage tax for a Standard.

the fact it can spread damage easy can make it a good XL mech, diverting damage from your area that's cored to another.

Anyway, would XL on the LRM ones be viable though due to less heatsinks needed and more of a space issue with ammo?

[Tiamat of the Sea]

Nightshade24, on 07 July 2015 - 11:37 AM, said:

the fact it can spread damage easy can make it a good XL mech, diverting damage from your area that's cored to another.

It -can-, but if you're doing it well in an Awesome that's not heavy on lasers, you're going to lose a shoulder before you lose your CT.

Nightshade24, on 07 July 2015 - 11:37 AM, said:

Anyway, would XL on the LRM ones be viable though due to less heatsinks needed and more of a space issue with ammo?

Depends on which. The ones with even missile hardpoints, yes, but with the one that has the 3M right torso, if you really want to use all three missile hardpoints to the advantage of the quirks and have close combat options, you're going to need the space- 'cause that means 3xLRM-15 in that shoulder- and the energy hardpoints on the opposite shoulder make it an excellent choice for 'first I LRM until no ammo, then lasers/PPCs'. If you don't intend to deadside with it in close combat, though, the XL would be fine there.

[Nightshade24]

Quickdraw Crobat, on 07 July 2015 - 01:45 PM, said:

It -can-, but if you're doing it well in an Awesome that's not heavy on lasers, you're going to lose a shoulder before you lose your CT.



Depends on which. The ones with even missile hardpoints, yes, but with the one that has the 3M right torso, if you really want to use all three missile hardpoints to the advantage of the quirks and have close combat options, you're going to need the space- 'cause that means 3xLRM-15 in that shoulder- and the energy hardpoints on the opposite shoulder make it an excellent choice for 'first I LRM until no ammo, then lasers/PPCs'. If you don't intend to deadside with it in close combat, though, the XL would be fine there.

Well my first awesome (awesome 8Q) has 3 ppc's, STD 300, and 3 small pulse lasers and a small laser, first match was on caustic valley with over 720 damage. I think I made the right choice to buy this thing (that and this thing makes the warhawk and direwolf look soooo pathetic...). I quickly learned how easy it is to shift damage to other regions and found this a very good sniper mech.

I will eventually get into one of the missile ones. The one with the 3M right torso however i am not sure if I will Xl-it or not. I do not think I will dead side it and I will most likely carry enough ammo to last the whole match I think...

I have no idea what I want for the ST weapons though... I can't decide between ppc's, large lasers, etc... should I have one or the other in the arm? so confusing...

[needforsleep]

3/4 of an Annihilator

The Awsome needs 2 things to be viable. 1 it needs an engine cap increase to 320-330, 2 it needs to be about 12% smaller overall. Aside from that, I love the Awesome.

Edited by needforsleep, 07 July 2015 - 04:42 PM.

[XxXAbsolutZeroXxX]

Nightshade24, on 07 July 2015 - 04:07 PM, said:

Well my first awesome, first match was on caustic valley with over 720 damage.

Here's the SS.



I'm saving screenshots of matches where direwolves score low to spam the "direwolves are OP" thread later.

[Nightshade24]

I Zeratul I, on 07 July 2015 - 05:02 PM, said:

Here's the SS.



I'm saving screenshots of matches where direwolves score low to spam the "direwolves are OP" thread later.

Nice screenshot, shows a direwolf on the winning nad lossing team both with bad score and damage. Balanced argument there.

[Tiamat of the Sea]

Nightshade24, on 07 July 2015 - 04:07 PM, said:

I will eventually get into one of the missile ones. The one with the 3M right torso however i am not sure if I will Xl-it or not. I do not think I will dead side it and I will most likely carry enough ammo to last the whole match I think...

I have no idea what I want for the ST weapons though... I can't decide between ppc's, large lasers, etc... should I have one or the other in the arm? so confusing...

It depends what you want to accomplish with your off-weapons. My default when running LRMs is to have heavy short-range laser weapons, so medium pulse, medium standard, and large pulse are the way I go. I try to avoid running longer range energy weapons alongside the missiles because that creates the temptation to peek and to fire the energy weapons alongside the missiles, which often leads to early armor loss or even death and unnecessary, inefficient overheating.

I'm personally very fond of the Medium Laser/Large Pulse Laser synergy, since they have close to the same range and close to the same firing cycle time.

I tend not to stick my heavier or longer-range weapons in the Awesome arms, because while they're wider to the sides which is good for side-peeking, they're even lower to the ground than the side torso energy hardpoints, which is bad for being sure you can actually shoot past things in general. Definitely put a medium laser or two in there, though, because being able to swat a pesky light 'mech is kind of important, even given that the Awesome's torso mounts can actually shoot fairly close to the ground and catch them that way.

If you're planning to LRM the whole match, though, your secondary weaponry should be relatively light but flexible- medium lasers are thus the way to go. That also makes an XL safe for your preferred tactic, since you're intending to avoid acting as a damage-soak in any and all situations.

Just make sure you take a considerable load of medium lasers- at least four- so that you're not functionally dead weight in close quarters. Even if it forces you not to take TAG, make sure you have at absolute minimum four medium lasers' worth of firepower in non-LRM weapons. TAG is nice bonuses and all, but it's not necessary for the true functions of LRMs (denying your opponent comfort, punishing enemies who linger in the open, and 200-500m fire support.) Useful, but not worth crippling your ability to function if someone runs up close to you.

Besides, there are always those times when you run out of ammo and/or you're the most durable thing left on your side.

Also keep in mind that the difference in spread between an LRM-5 and any other LRM rack is kind of absurd- if you really want to be coring people out with LRMs and actually scoring kills, use LRM-5s regardless of the quirks- the cluster size is hilariously tiny compared even to an LRM-10 with Artemis assistance (and the effect of Artemis on LRM-5 clustering, by comparison, is minimal).

Edited by Quickdraw Crobat, 07 July 2015 - 06:35 PM.

[SmoothCriminal]

kicking about the 8Q - despite the PPC buffs it also has a -15% duration that is pretty mean (and some cooldown/range/heat buffs). Taking full advantage of the already high impulse damage IS LPL and a range module - you can get FLPPD of 55 at 500-600m:

hot LPL build

Will run a bit hot alpha'ing but for mid level poking might be quite viable...

[Tiamat of the Sea]

SmoothCriminal, on 08 July 2015 - 12:03 AM, said:

kicking about the 8Q - despite the PPC buffs it also has a -15% duration that is pretty mean (and some cooldown/range/heat buffs). Taking full advantage of the already high impulse damage IS LPL and a range module - you can get FLPPD of 55 at 500-600m:

hot LPL build

Will run a bit hot alpha'ing but for mid level poking might be quite viable...

...you know, if you turn two of those large pulses into four standard mediums and lose the ferro, you can get full armor and a lot more double heat sinks while only losing two damage off your beloved alpha strike (ten at 400m, but you're still looking at 45 damage). Would be way less hot and much more sustainable then. I don't understand why you would let ghost heat kick you in the teeth like that.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...576c82fd6eece4b

EDIT: Heck, you could leave off the LPL range module for a ML range module and bring the ranges about even, too.

EDIT AGAIN: Besides, poking with an Awesome, with its wide-spread low hardpoints, is not really a good idea.

Edited by Quickdraw Crobat, 08 July 2015 - 09:21 AM.