21 replies to this topic

[Deerock]

I realize play style and such make a huge difference in how well someone does in any given mech, but are there any in this weekend's sale that you would highly recommend in general for fun level/effectiveness?

Edited by Deerock, 24 July 2015 - 04:36 PM.

[Wintersdark]

Well...

Depends a lot on what you want to do. These days, hunchback are quite good, but each is good at something specific. The Grid Iron is an amazing sniper, able to fire it's gauss rifle twice as fast as other mechs. The 4G is also lethal, but at close range with an AC20 - again, firing it roughly twice as fast as a mech normally can. If LRM's are your bag, the 4J fires as many LRM's out of 2 LRM10 racks over time as a normal mech does out of 60 tubes. An upside here is that there are lots of great options, so eventually getting 3 hunchback for mastery is fun and diverse.

*Currently* the Highlander isn't very good and is rather difficult to play effectively, and Orion's as well aren't viewed as a very good chassis by most. Jenners aren't bad, but as lights are very challenging to play well and aren't suited to everyone (I, for example, am an awful light pilot).

So, of the options, I'd recommend Hunchbacks. Which depends on what you want to do first, but if you're buying with MC get the Grid Iron, as it also offers a Hero Mech 30% bonus to your cbill earnings, which will easily pay for more mechs. Hunchbacks are also a very cost effective chassis - you generally WANT to run inexpensive standard engines and such.

I'd buy the grid irons first, then get a 4J (for when you want to get your LRM's on) and a 4P for energy boating. 4G's are great, but the grid iron can do very well with any ballistics, so the 4G is somewhat redundant.

[Cptn Goodvibes Pig of Steel]

The Hunchbacks are probably the pick of these for someone new to the game, though Jenners are also a worthwhile consideration. Hunchbacks are mediums, generally a good starter class for mechs and is still a decent formidable design. Just remember to protect that hunch and stick to standard engines. For a relatively small outlay, I'd go with the Hunchbacks 4G, 4SP and maybe the 4P, the last being my individual preference. Get three Hunchbacks so you can basic, elite and master out the class.

Also factor in the cost of double heat sinks, endo steel and larger engines, as you'll be rebuilding them into competitive mech's. Because Hunchbacks tend to use standard engines, rebuilding costs costs can be kept to a minimum. The Hunchback GI is a hero mech, for which you need to use real money and get a handle on using the Gauss Rifle. It comes with an XL engine.

HBK-4G with 1 x AC20, 3 x MLaser
HBK-4SP with 2 x SRM6+Art, 4 x MLaser, 1 xTag to keep heat down.
HBK-4P with 8 x MLaser, 1 x Tag to avoid ghost heat.
HBK-GI with 1 x Guass Rifle, 3 x MLaser - I'd use a standard engine.

After double heat sinks and end, balance the above armament specifications with larger standard engine size and ammunition considerations. Hope this helps and pretty sure that you can't go too far wrong when choosing the Hunchies.

[Leone]

So far, I've not found the highlander to be all that bad. I just don't see much in the way of variety in build options. I got the orion before the sale came about, so I've already got em all mastered. Not my favourite mech by far, but in its defense I tend to enjoy brawling, and the orion seems better at ranged combat, for me anyways. And yeah, Hunchback has one of the best LRM mechs around, as well as a solid hero mech and ac 20 platform. I do not consider it's energy weapon variant to be on par with a nova however.

~Leone.

[Rogue Jedi]

The Hunchback for the reasons WintersDark listed and the Jenner.

the Jenner is one of the best combat lights, it is faster, more agile and more able to fire above and below than the Firestarter, the Firestarter has better hitboxes and potentially has an extra 2 weapons

[Modo44]

The Jenners and Hunchbacks are good -- each variant with a specific quirked build for maximum efficiency. The Orions and Highlanders are OK, but they can not hold up to competing Clan tech.

[Darklock]

I played during beta and just started again to play, I own 3 hunchbacks, the 4SP, 4J and 4P, im trying to get the master skill tree as soon as posible, I hope i will get it next week.
Is recomended for me to buy the 4G too? or shall I keep may money a bit and try to buy another mech? what is your recomendation? in case to buy a new mech wich one you can recomend?
thanks in advance.

[TercieI]

Darklock, on 25 July 2015 - 06:20 AM, said:

I played during beta and just started again to play, I own 3 hunchbacks, the 4SP, 4J and 4P, im trying to get the master skill tree as soon as posible, I hope i will get it next week.
Is recomended for me to buy the 4G too? or shall I keep may money a bit and try to buy another mech? what is your recomendation? in case to buy a new mech wich one you can recomend?
thanks in advance.

The 4G is iconic. The GI is the clearly best HBK now, but the 4J, 4P and 4G all have things going for them, too. That said, aside from the GI, none of the HBKs is "Tier One." If you want breadth of experience, then the 4G is going to be a good buy, but if you're looking to be competitive, the HBK line is not where you want to be looking except for the Grid Iron.

[Darklock]

ty for the feedback I just bought the Grid Iron.

the problem is that i do not know the "tier one" ones, any recomendation? if possible not a premiun mech

what about one mech to play FAction?

thanks i really appreciate your comments.

Edited by Darklock, 25 July 2015 - 07:03 AM.

[TercieI]

Darklock, on 25 July 2015 - 06:49 AM, said:

ty for the feedback I will think to get the Grid Iron.

the problem is that i do not know the "tier one" ones, any recomendation? if possible not a premiun mech

thanks i really appreciate your comments.

Well, I have some quibbles with it but GMan129's Metamechs is the best public source of info on top-tier play and builds, so check it out. That said, not everything there works super well for new or inexperienced players, since it's intended primarily for the very top level, which assumes both skill and experience.

The best and most flexible mechs in the game are still probably the Timber Wolf and Stormcrow, but both are very expensive.

For a relatively affordable and highly capable chassis, I think the Thunderbolt is an excellent place to start, specifically the TDR-5SS with 7MPL. Its quirks make it just awesome. Quirks are also documented on Smurfy's mechlab, but I find the format less handy, though consider Smurfy absolutely essential for mech building, say for that TDR-5SS.

[Darklock]

thanks it helps a lot! i will try the grid iron and probably in a near future Stormclow

Edited by Darklock, 25 July 2015 - 07:26 AM.

[TercieI]

Darklock, on 25 July 2015 - 07:16 AM, said:

thanks it helps a lot! i will try the grid iron and probably in a near future Stormclow

Stormcrows are lovely...I have 8.

Welcome (back) to MWO and good luck!

Edited by Terciel1976, 25 July 2015 - 07:32 AM.

[Koniving]

As someone who has consistently played Hunchbacks, Orions, and Highlanders since they've come out...

All three are fantastic.

As mentioned by Winter's Dark, Hunchbacks are great but each has its own specialties. This video follows a pre-quirk Hunchback as it pwns everything in sight.

(At the beginning when the video starts I was in the middle of mentioning I realized what was causing me to lag; the economy settings on my computer).

Orions are fantastic beasts -- however people are afraid that due to their size that they aren't as worth while so many have given them a negative stigma without ever using them.
Here are three Orion-filled vids.
MWO Solaris rules duel versus Timber Wolf -- (third person, no hud, special firing rules).

(Lordred piloting)

F1restarter's Orion with Kon's Battlemaster, Lordred recording.


Koniving's Protector, (F1restarter is using an Orion, Verrick in a Timberwolf and Heketon in a Centurion). Lordred recording.


Those are all fairly recent and post quirks.

Highlanders were once the epitome of meta due to their bullish ability to poptart and kill things without taking damage (due to abusing invisible walls to see enemies and leaping to hit them, falling before being shot). This resulted in a huge bombardment of excessive nerfs. These videos are AFTER the nerfing.

So awesome it pwns while commanding (even after nerfed).
Slaughtering everything.
During 12 versus 12 premade only queue.

As was this score.


They have since been de-nerfed, and are actually better than they once be -- so long as you aren't planning on playing as a poptart. However that's all the meta was, and thus they are now forever stained with bad stigma, no matter how much these things will shred the battlefield if you know what you're doing.

Thing is unlike the Orion -- you do have to know what you're doing. They're not a "push button and win" mech, they're a "guns blazing with a little bit of tactics and see things die" mech. (Orions are so simple to use I recommend them to new players first starting into heavy mechs; the best traits of heavies and assaults blended mercifully into a well armored, fast chassis; like faster, skinnier Atlases).

I've never changed this build since making it in 2013. Short of borrowing the engine because I'm cheap. (XL 330)

(edit: I do change the LBX for an AC/10 in 12 vs 12 and CW with the Zhizhu mercs, since the need to kill enemies faster is more crucial than my fun of 'giving enemies a chance'.)

Edited by Koniving, 25 July 2015 - 09:18 AM.

[Darklock]

thanks for the tips!

since I really like hunchback chasis and never bought any full pack I just bought the Origins IIC hunchback colection, we'll see if it's worth

[Torezu]

The ON1-M is nice to buy while it's on sale just to get the XL 300 for moving around between different chassis.

[Koniving]

Koniving, on 25 July 2015 - 09:06 AM, said:

I've never changed this build since making it in 2013. Short of borrowing the engine because I'm cheap. (XL 330)

(edit: I do change the LBX for an AC/10 in 12 vs 12 and CW with the Zhizhu mercs, since the need to kill enemies faster is more crucial than my fun of 'giving enemies a chance'.)

Googled my Heavy Metal; found this old, old, ooooooooold shot.


Notice the loadout? I was quite serious; it's that good.

[SmoothCriminal]

My thoughts if you're up for purchasing a Highlander - get the reinforcement back one (732B) - it is cheaper than the HM, can do everything the HM can do, and comes with quirked 29 (29!) points of armour in the CT...

[JC Daxion]

leave it to koniving to give you everything including the kitchen sink, Great info!


But i will add, the 4G is a great mech, while people may like the GI, if you are not a gauss fan, then it's probably not for you. The 4G can do a build that i love, but is not seen much, but it is murder at up to about 100m. It is basically one of the best in your face brawlers in the game. It is fast enough to dance with just about any mech and its armor quirks, really make it one tough cookie. It can tear up anything including assaults with full armor.

Ac-20, 3 Small lasers, and 2 machine guns. Blast open armor with the AC, and shread internals with the increadibly high crit rate of the SML's+machine guns. It is almost 3 DPS higher than the standard ac-20+3 ML builds, but takes a lot of skill to move in close enough to make the most of the beast.

Seeing the HBK's already have 2 modules to start with, you can run sesmic+ info gathering, and the AC-20 recharge, and machine gun+ SL range modules, which will bring your optimum range out to around 150m with the module+ range quirks which is pretty sweet.

After playing this set up, going to the standard 3ML build seems so lack luster. The 3ML will do a bit more damage over all on average, but as far as just taking mechs out, i find the SL build far superior. It is a must try for any HBK pilot, but play it a bit to get used to it before you judge it. I will say, it is not a good CW build over all, as it just has to little ammo, but normal matches it is a joy to play.

Torezu, on 27 July 2015 - 09:22 AM, said:

The ON1-M is nice to buy while it's on sale just to get the XL 300 for moving around between different chassis.

Darn wish i had more cash saved, that is a sweet deal!

Edited by JC Daxion, 28 July 2015 - 11:35 AM.

[Deerock]

Great information, thanks everyone! Next question: I'm a bit confused by the timing of the sale ending on a Friday. I have saved a little bit up the past week, not enough for the heavier mechs but I could buy 3 Hunchbacks. Do you think they will start a new sale this weekend/is it normal for a set of mechs to be on sale most months? Do Clan mechs ever go on sale?

I mostly play Clan but have enjoyed the Thunderbolts and Wolverines I picked up during the last sale (I was saving up for a Clan heavy or assault when the sale happened so I had a nice bankroll already). I guess my main concern is that I will drop all the C-Bills I have on the Hunchbacks and miss out on a sale on Clan mechs within the next couple weeks.

Also, I've been resisting the temptation so far but will most likely break down and get the IIc collection tomorrow. Another reason I haven't pulled the trigger on this sale is that it seems like it would be more 'fun' to buy different mechs than I will have from that pack. I realize it is an apples to oranges comparison and that it will be quite some time before those mechs are actually available. Long term I suppose I would like to have viable drop decks for both Inner Sphere and Clan. Are any of the mechs in this sale currently considered very valuable for CW?

Edited by Deerock, 30 July 2015 - 08:08 PM.

[JC Daxion]

Sales are totally random.. Sometimes it is a while between sales, others they are every week. Like last winter, they had a "house" sale, where they had sales every week, for mechs for different houses according to lore, i think basically every IS mech went on sale over about a months time.. (i bought like 8!) then a bit later they had an event that you could earn an Adder, and a sale to go with it.. Yup, i got the free mech, and bought 2 adders too! But then some time months go buy with no c-bill sales.. But typically you will see a sale once or twice a month, but more often than not, they are the champion mechs, or the heroes, or Paints/camo.

So yea, it is a gamble... Next month is the aniversery month though, so who knows what kinda events and sales they are going to have.. But at 2.5m each, it isn't a bad time to just get the 3 HBK's, at the same time, they are only 3.5m normally, so you are saving 3m total.. But i will say, wolverines and HBK's play totally different. thought the 7K, to me is like a 4SP, but with Jump jets and can stuff a huge XL engine in it. The 4P, is one of the better energy boats, but if you have a tdr 5SS, that one is better. the 4G is one of the best medium brawlers in the game outside of the Hero centurion Yen-lo-wang or the AH. So really, the choice is yours.. Saving money, or buying a module is not a bad idea either..

One last thing, there has only been one sale for modules that i can recall. Mech bays, and premium time sales are also fairly rare... But if you are waiting for a specific mech, you could be waiting a long time. Someone can correct me if i am wrong, but i honestly only remember one clan mech sale, and that was with the adder event. So forum warriors, is that right?

Edited by JC Daxion, 30 July 2015 - 08:18 PM.