Rogue Jedi, on 30 July 2015 - 11:01 PM, said:
have you upgraded the Mechs, things like Endo Steel Internals and Double Heat Sinks tend to make a significant difference, and speed is life for a Light Mech, but for the other weight classes as well, up close a Dire Wolf will generally loose to an Atlas or King Crab because the AS7 and KCG can mount larger engines and therefore be faster and more agile despite the fact that the DWF can mount more firepower.
so far everyone has focused on the Orion, but here is some advise for the Jenner
for a JR7 speed is your armor, you want to be going as fast as possible, I would recommend getting an XL engine rated 280, 295 or 300, that will cost 4-5 million cbills (by the time you have done all the upgrades a Light Mech will usualy cost 3-4 times its initial purchase price) you will also want Double Heat Sinks (1.5 million cbills) and also Endo Steel Internals and Fero Fibrus Armor to free up as much tonnage as possible, then you will probably want short to medium range weapons, small or medium lasers or pulse lasers as your main armament, and if you can take missiles SRMs to tear up bigger Mechs or Streek SRMs for anti Light Mech work, if mounting SSRMs you will also want a BAP to allow you to lock on in the presence of enemy ECM.
for a beginner in a Light Mech, your job is to harass the enemy, stay out of signt until the battle is joined then stay behind cover as much as possible but above all else keep moving, you hit the enemy from a different direction to the rest of your team so they have to choose between swatting that annoying light or killing those heavy Mechs who are firing at them,
always try to target the enemy (press R), after about 5 seconds this will bring up a "paper doll" damage readout and the weapons load out for the enemy Mech in the top right corner of your HUD, yellow means healthy, red means seriously damaged, the line around the outside of a component is armor, the solid is structure, as a Light try to avoid anything with Streak SRMs or LBX autocannons as they are very good at hurting lights.
you will require patience,
I will usualy scout to try to locate the enemy in the early parts of the game, this is high risk low reward as you could take heavy damage and help win the match but get no rewards for it, the second you are noticed fall back to the rest of the team, as one good hit can cripple or kill a Jenner.
when you find the enemy you need to tell the team, if you have a mike you can just hold down caps lock and say e,g, "8 Mechs in Charley 4 moving towards Echo 5", that means your team knows the enemy have not all grouped up yet and tells them where to go to try to ambush the enemy (somewhere around E5)
if you find a lone heavy or assault especially a missile boat with little close in armament then you will probably be able to take it, you should have the speed to stay behind it and strip the Mech.
never attack anything head on, be sneaky and annoying, that is what your Mech is best at
This^^ is pretty much solid gold advice here. Jenner's are great mechs, but they, and most lights generally are very unforgiving rides. Jenner's have huge center torso's, and don't have the magic hit boxes of Firestarters or Ravens. You stop moving in a Jenner and you are dead. Speed is indeed life. I would put the Jenner in the hangar until you can afford dual heat sinks and an XL300 engine. Then upgrade to Endo Steel structure and Ferro Fibrous armor. These upgrades make the mech VERY expensive, but are almost mandatory. Run that -K with either 4xML's and an SRM4, or (not my choice) 4xML's and a SSRM2. The problem with running "Streaks", is you really MUST run a BAP module, so you have a chance of getting missile locks with all the ECM equipped mechs running around. Streaks without locks are useless. And every single ton of weight on a light must be very carefully planned out. So for me, I don't run streaks on my Jenners. That SRM4 will launch whether they have ECM or not.
On a Jenner, you're easier to hit in the CT from the side than you are even from straight on in front. Look at the mech from the side, everything "in front" of the legs is all counted CT on the hit box. So when you're circling an enemy mech, try to keep your nose pointed directly at the enemy mech as much as possible, even while you're running away in the other direction.