18 replies to this topic

[Soyaman]

Hey guys, I haven't played in a year and I'm going to give the game another shot.

However I'd like to buy a new mech to play around with, something new and shiny rather than my dusty old ones

I really like my Stalker as like a supportive platform but I'd like to pilot a medium or heavy with some proper speed to get around where I'm needed.

Which mech should I look into? Also I've yet to have a chance to play around with the clan ones so a suggestion on their part would be nice.

I looked on the Ebon Jaguar which looked sweet, but I figured I'd get the general thought on it first

I'd like the hardpoints; at the very least missiles and perhaps a ballistic (if possible, not requirement) within the Medium to Heavy. I prefer mechs without arms similar to the Stalker design. Thanks!

Nerd out-

[Cion]

If you're only interested in performance get the timby.

I'd say that's boring, and actually suggest the Ebon Jag . Versatile mech, and looks way sexy as well.

[zagibu]

If it must be a mech without elbows, the only candidates in the medium and heavy classes are Cicada, Blackjack, Shadow Cat, Catapult and Ebon Jaguar.

If you don't care about IS/Clan, the Ebon Jaguar is probably the best bet.

[Y E O N N E]

Ebon Jag is sweet, but falls into the "everybody plays it" category because it's a safe 'Mech0 It's very, very good.

You said you wanted to try a fast medium? Well, I suggest either the BJ-1X, which is powerful but also somewhat safe, or the far more adventurous Shadow Cat, which is as fast but has jump jets and requires a bit more creativity to maximize. Get the P variant first, put on the A arms and Prime Right Torso, and equip it with three cERML and a UAC/10 with 2.5 tons of ammo. Play. Win. Profit.

[Kiiyor]

The Jag plays a lot like a Clan Jagermech. It's an excellent weapons platform.

If you want something a little more dynamic, i'd suggest the StormCrow. Great all rounder.

[Light-Speed]

What exactly are you looking for?

What do you like?

What range? What job? What capabilities?



p.s. aw, no lights? I played the Jenner for almost a year and a half now. Still works very well, and I take it out for mental warm-up every time.

p.p.s. There are some speedy assaults. The Warhawk is pretty nice, for example, with a high torso twist speed and high alpha potential.

[Roosterfish]

You can get a Stormcrow with little T-Rex arms. Stormcrow is always in a bad mood cause his little T-Rex arms are not long enough to scratch his balls.

[Mothykins]

Clan side, Jag and Stormcrow.

IS side, Catapult if you're daring, Blackjack.

[Nauht]

Roosterfish, on 05 October 2015 - 07:47 PM, said:

You can get a Stormcrow with little T-Rex arms. Stormcrow is always in a bad mood cause his little T-Rex arms are not long enough to scratch his balls.

Stormcrow don't need no balls as he rips them from his enemies.

...


Hmm, that doesnt sound as tough as it should....

[Soyaman]

Hey guys, apologise the late response, I write it last night before I went to bed - Good morning !


So yeah, it doesn't HAVE to be without arms, but I do like that sort of look, like in terms of mediums I was looking at the Nova, Shadow Cat, Stormcrow.

In terms of heavy I was looking at something like Ebon Jaguar, Mad dog or Timber Wolf.
The Timber Wolf looks like the step child of a Stalker (very attractive) but I don't necessarily want to jump on the "Everyone runs this" type of mech.
Like how when the game came out EVERYONE was in an Atlas.

Nightingale27, on 05 October 2015 - 07:31 PM, said:

What exactly are you looking for?

What do you like?

What range? What job? What capabilities?



p.s. aw, no lights? I played the Jenner for almost a year and a half now. Still works very well, and I take it out for mental warm-up every time.

p.p.s. There are some speedy assaults. The Warhawk is pretty nice, for example, with a high torso twist speed and high alpha potential.

I'd like some options, so if atleast one speedy and one slow assault / support type mech. (Medium to Heavy - Possibly of the above mentioned)

Versatility is nice, Missiles, Lasers and Ballistics in one mech would be awesome because that means I can play around with a lot of different builds.



TL;DR.
Which of the above mentioned Mechs are worth playing around in, and what'd you recommend otherwise which is similar.

PS: A description of each mech would be very nice as I'm not that big into Battletech I've no idea what each mech is capable of or what they do.

[Light-Speed]

Well better late than never.

Shadowcat: I think this one you'll be interested in.
Traits:

• no arms
  
• Has missile, laser, and ballistic hardpoints, with lasers being the most commonly used one and the other two adding the interesting spice. I know that there are nice builds that runs on each, so versatile mech.
  
• Is fairly Mobile bc
  
• 1) Exceptional flying jumping capabilities, so very mobile and good at poptart.
  
• 2) MASC, basically a limited turbo feature that is excellent at at accel/decel.
  
• Is a support mech. Cause: exceptionally squishy for a medium, due to hitboxes being easy to distinguish from one another aka hitboxes that suck + armor of a medium. You might have to learn to not get noticed very fast. Use your team. Also:
  
• ECM! How could I forget the ECM. The ElectronicCounter Measure device means often you don't get noticed very quickly and makes you a pretty great strategic addition to the team. Tip: when creeping up on someone, however (Ex: like if you are a streak boat...), you might want to turn off the ECM to avoid enemies close to you from picking up on the low signal.

Others of note:
Nova:

• not a very versatile mech and probably not fun for most people to master, but
  
• There is a build it can specialize in which is very, very strong. But hard to play. Just a heads up if you decide to try this guy.

Blackjack (I don't have it, this is what I know):

• An IS energy boat that is comparable to the Nova in terms of likeliness to find builds on the battlefield that blows up in your face, both in terms of damage burst and overheat self-damage.
  
• Kind of interesting, obviously many have found it fun. Don't have details.
  
• Suggestion: if you do get the chassis, paint your Blackjack a dusty black that looks like you're damaged. I've heard a story from someone I know who once killed 3 guys in a min because he overheated in a black Blackjack and they walked by him thinking he was dead...

Then there's still the good old Hunchback, first medium of the game, which can either carry the biggest IS gun available, have 9 lasers, or spam missiles under the favor of the Quirk Gods.


Heavies:

Loki/Hellbringer:

• Dubbed the ECMbringer by some as its biggest asset is that ECM.
  
  • Kind of like the Scat
    
  • A Team Player.
• It can do some special builds.
  
• The weapon loadouts of some builds are actually not that much less compared to a a similar one on a Timberwolf.

Timberwolf:

• the mech which have so many builds that can be so different it is almost as if it is the name for 2-3 chassis. It just have that many options, and more options mean more chance of hitting a jackpot.
  
• It also means that a Timberwolf can be a god or just mediocre depending on what you put on it.

Others of note:

• Jagermech, squishy glass cannon that's predominantly dakka.
  
• Thunderbolt, balanced heavy (which most people use to throw up photons on others...).

Hopefully the above helped you. Because btw you still didn't tell me much information about your preferences.

Like what's your style? What do you do best? What range and role do you favor?

As for not knowing Battletech, really you can get all the information you need from the internet, surfing the forums, checking out some other mech discussion pages, experimenting in smurfy labs on your own, analyzing the freely available loadouts and styles (if they know what they are doing) that you can see in matches, and talking to others.
Really, not everyone here is a diehard battletech fan, and I certainly have never heard of battletech until I saw the image of a deathmask of an Atlas one day.

[Troutmonkey]

It's not Meta anymore, but I'd still recommend Shadow hawks. They're fast and have variants with combinations of energy, ballistic and missile points.

While they do have arms, most variants have the majority of their weapons torso mounted. My favourite is the SHD-2D2 with SRMs and MPLs, but the version that can mount 3 LLs is really popular too. The arms are really good at shielding which makes them XL friendly.

Cicada's are another good mech, fast, but rather fragile. The 3M and the new loyalty cada both have high mounted energy points, making them good at poking with LLs before running away.

[Atlasian]

I've also just returned to MWO after many months (reason being the new Marauder and Warhammer are coming, wanting to train myself up again before piloting them) and decided to use a medium and agile mech with missiles: the Griffin.

Currently trying to level up the 3M variant. The chassis is fast and agile. Cockpit view is fantastic. Although I read that most pilots use 4xSRM4s (because of its quirk), I use 3xSRM6 and backup with a LPL (just personal preference, nothing technical). I was used to piloting Heavies, so the Griffin was disastrous at the beginning, until I learned how to use hit & run tactic which is what the Griffin is made for. I'll stay very close to Heavies and Assaults and the Griffin proves to be a very effective support Mech at close range, if this is what you like.

[zagibu]

Soyaman, on 06 October 2015 - 02:21 AM, said:

I don't necessarily want to jump on the "Everyone runs this" type of mech.

So you want a good looking mech, with lots of different possible loadouts, that performs well in game, but isn't used by everyone.

Such a mech doesn't exist, for obvious reasons.

[Y E O N N E]

zagibu, on 12 October 2015 - 01:08 AM, said:

So you want a good looking mech, with lots of different possible loadouts, that performs well in game, but isn't used by everyone.

Such a mech doesn't exist, for obvious reasons.

Lies.

BJ-1DC.

[zagibu]

Yeonne Greene, on 12 October 2015 - 01:59 AM, said:

Lies.

BJ-1DC.

You missed the "lots of different possible loadouts" part. Also, the blackjack looks like a plank with attached guns.

[sycocys]

Just get the Timberwolf - don't spend money on it if you don't have to.

[Y E O N N E]

zagibu, on 12 October 2015 - 02:21 AM, said:

You missed the "lots of different possible loadouts" part. Also, the blackjack looks like a plank with attached guns.

Lies Part II: Electric Boogaloo.

Only a plank with no imagination would say that!

There are lots of different and effective load-outs for a BJ-1DC. It's probably the most under-appreciated variant. You can go full try-hard laser-vomit with it, you can goose-laser with it, you can wub-strike with it, you can AC/2 plink with it (and because they fire so much faster than vanilla, actually be dangerous), you can BoomStick with it...the only things you can't do effectively involve missiles.

Also, the Blackjack is one of the few that actually looks like a somewhat plausible machine of war and few things look more awesome than a BJ-1DC going full-tilt with AC/2. It has that right look of being designed specifically for the task of dakka. Timber Wolves don't look good doing anything...

[Vellron2005]

If you want an all-round CLAN quintessential... Timberwolf. Simply cose you can build it soooo many ways. And unlike the Ebon Jag, it has JumpJets.. and it friggin looks cool.

If you want a nice Assault - Executioner EXE-D.

A good medium - to be honest, I have nothing to offer here.. I don't really like any medium in particular.

A good light - People would say the firestarter.. but for me, it apsolutely sucks. I actually like the MystLynx better.

Edited by Vellron2005, 12 October 2015 - 05:53 AM.