14 replies to this topic

[Chryckan]

I just bought the set with the three Urbie versions and while the stock versions is a laugh I just feel a better build could bring out the best in the little guy. Honestly, the bad rap comes purely from the behaviour of the load-out.

Now I've experienced with a few builds.

The first is my try for a balanced build for the R63.

UM-R63 balanced


Next I wanted to make a dakka build taking advantage of the 4 ballistic hard-points of the R60.

The first is the one I'm that seems to work the best in smurfy and the heat simulator

3 MG, a Ultra AC-5 and 2 SPL should give me plenty of dakka

UM-R60 uac-5

The second attempt is to try and fit as many ac-2s I can on the R60. Not sure if it worked.

UM-R60 more dakka

There are three things I'm uncertain of with builds which I'd especially appreciate with. That is the proper amount of armour and ammo and heat management.

Any help and comments is appreciated.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

For your R63 build, there's just no way you'll ever live long enough at MG range to go through 8000 rounds of MG ammo. I'd take two and a half tons off- 1000 rounds per gun is more than enough... and you may even find that to be too much. Here's how I run my R63, and it's served me pretty well so far (I haven't had Urbies all that long myself, but it was love at first garbage day). If you want a bit more mobility, you can stick with the Large Laser you already have and add a few jets.

It's okay to frontload your armor more on the Urbie- since you have 360-degree twist, you should be showing your back to enemies... well, never.

Your R60 builds, unfortunately, don't have enough heat sinks to drop (10 minimum). Here are a few similarly-themed substitutes... or something completely different. In general, though, if you're going to spend the tonnage on ballistics as a main weapon, MGs are really only going to get in your way because three of them and even half a ton of ammo is already two full tons that isn't going to your main gun or a more effective backup weapon (since they're just for bonus damage when you're in close and an enemy has exposed internals for them to crit). If you want to try AC2, then it's best if you commit to those as your only weapons, although I'm not sure it's enough to be anything but a troll build (due to lack of ammo, the AC2's insane heat curve, and general ineffectiveness of AC2 vs other weapon systems).

And here's a couple R60L configs just for the hell of it.

Although... you can still run a large ballistic if you want to.

Edit: I should probably explain the ammo locations- it is very rarely, if ever, a good idea to carry ammo in your legs on a light 'Mech. The reason why is simply that your legs are more often than not going to be targeted, and you will frequently die only after losing at least one of them. Ammo is generally safer in one side torso or the other, and your head. Try to position the ammo so that it will be exposed to the least amount of enemy fire- since headshots are rare, that's invariably the safest place; whichever side of your 'Mech you carry your main weapon on is generally the next safest, since you'll be twisting to protect that weapon (and therefore also the side torso adjacent to it). Arms also get targeted a lot, so that's a bad idea too. Some folks prefer to carry ammo in their CT, and there are arguments for that as well. Keep an eye on how you get killed over the course of several matches, and simply put ammo in whichever component consistently stays intact longest.

Edited by PS WrathOfDeadguy, 18 October 2015 - 05:33 PM.

[Mr Hunter]

shameless self promotion XD and as for the build; http://mwo.smurfy-ne...9f273b2b853d0d0

Edited by B8hunter, 18 October 2015 - 05:32 PM.

[stealthraccoon]

The simplest and most consistent build that can work on any of the chassis is max XL engine, max armor, AC5 and a few medium lasers. I recommend always including at least 1 jump jet, because you are rarely fast enough to get over the smallest of environmental obstacles.

Getting the AC10 to work isn't difficult, but you can't play like a traditional light - you're really a pocket-sized medium. It is possible to make the gauss and AC20 to work, but you need to be slightly bat-guano crazy to run them... so here are my suggestions:

[smurfy]http://mwo.smurfy-ne...067fa3d3cb908db[/smurfy]

[smurfy]http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b677e8473da607e[/smurfy]

Im a stickler for tradition, so I generally stick with ballistics - energy Urbies are not the true chosen!

Edited by stealthraccoon, 18 October 2015 - 09:12 PM.

[Curccu]

This build might be too meta for some of you but this can do ~500 damage games pretty easily. UM-R60L

Same mech more brawlish. UM-R60L

And one more ranged build with some backup dakka UM-R60

I would love to play urbies with real ballistics (not machineguns) but can't really make them effective with those. if you take AC10/20 it gets stupid slow and dies faster than it can shoot 1 ton of ammo + can't really have backup weapons nor true DHS
single AC2/5 or UAC5 isn't really enough to do anything without quirks as good as Dragon-1N at least.... So Lazors it is.

[Audacious Aubergine]

My urbie builds (read: this is why I'm in Tier 5)

SPUDCAN
BOOMCAN
SNIPERCAN

That last one is actually somewhat effective if played as a sniper light and if you can use your lack of size to stay out of sight until there's a lot of stripped armour running around.
Walking AC20 with laser nipple is always a laugh - blasted a cored Grasshopper out of the sky on The Bog a while back, most satisfying kill I've ever had

[Chryckan]

PS WrathOfDeadguy, on 18 October 2015 - 05:20 PM, said:

For your R63 build, there's just no way you'll ever live long enough at MG range to go through 8000 rounds of MG ammo. I'd take two and a half tons off- 1000 rounds per gun is more than enough... and you may even find that to be too much. Here's how I run my R63, and it's served me pretty well so far (I haven't had Urbies all that long myself, but it was love at first garbage day). If you want a bit more mobility, you can stick with the Large Laser you already have and add a few jets.
Edit: I should probably explain the ammo locations- it is very rarely, if ever, a good idea to carry ammo in your legs on a light 'Mech. The reason why is simply that your legs are more often than not going to be targeted, and you will frequently die only after losing at least one of them. Ammo is generally safer in one side torso or the other, and your head. Try to position the ammo so that it will be exposed to the least amount of enemy fire- since headshots are rare, that's invariably the safest place; whichever side of your 'Mech you carry your main weapon on is generally the next safest, since you'll be twisting to protect that weapon (and therefore also the side torso adjacent to it). Arms also get targeted a lot, so that's a bad idea too. Some folks prefer to carry ammo in their CT, and there are arguments for that as well. Keep an eye on how you get killed over the course of several matches, and simply put ammo in whichever component consistently stays intact longest.

I like your R63 build. Though I don't think I could make just 0.5 ton machinegun ammo last. I'm still in the spray and pray phase of learning the game. Looked up the stock-build of the trial spider and was amazed that it only had 1 ton of ammo for it's machineguns. While I occasionally run out in the spider it last most games. So I'm gonna shamelessly use your build since it's a great improvement over mine yet follows the same idea I was after.
But if I find I need a full ton of MG ammo which is better to down grade; the LPL or MPL?

As for this UM-R60 build. I know that the cardinal rule is not to drop with less than 10 heat sinks but according to smurfy it gonna take over a minute before it overheat and in the heat simulator it took nearly 70 seconds of continuous firing before it reached 100% heat.

Here is my Urbie Sniper for lols.
UM-R60L Sniper

Again it doesn't have 10 heat sinks and again Smurfy says it will take a minute of continuous fireing to overheat. So do I really need 10 heat sinks?
Also what is best as a deterrent 4 SLs or 2 SPLs?
I don't exactly expect to hurt things with either just to make a light think it needs to dodge to avoid getting to hurt.

Edited by Chryckan, 19 October 2015 - 06:26 AM.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Definitely the MPL by preference. Changing the MPLs for MLs gives you the tonnage you need to carry a full ton of MG ammo and mount a full compliment of JJs... technically, downgrading the LPL to LL or ERLL would do that too, but keeping the single LPL gives you a few advantages- like a gun with vertical reach that can actually kill things (single LL or ERLL is slightly on the weak side- it takes 10 damage to pop a UAV, so you can do that in one shot with LPL but it takes two with LL/ERLL).

Dropping with 10 heat sinks isn't just a Smurfy suggestion... it's required. The game won't let you drop in a config that has fewer. Even if you don't need the sinks to manage your heat, you have to take them anyway. You can't substitute 5 DHS for 10 singles, either- you have to mount ten heat sinks, full stop. It's one of the things that makes building light ballistic platforms such a pain- you know you have the slots, you know you have the tonnage, you know you're running cool enough already, but the game makes you take two or three or five more tons of hardware anyway. It's carried over from a Tabletop construction rule.

[Chryckan]

PS WrathOfDeadguy, on 19 October 2015 - 09:43 AM, said:

Definitely the MPL by preference. Changing the MPLs for MLs gives you the tonnage you need to carry a full ton of MG ammo and mount a full compliment of JJs... technically, downgrading the LPL to LL or ERLL would do that too, but keeping the single LPL gives you a few advantages- like a gun with vertical reach that can actually kill things (single LL or ERLL is slightly on the weak side- it takes 10 damage to pop a UAV, so you can do that in one shot with LPL but it takes two with LL/ERLL).

Dropping with 10 heat sinks isn't just a Smurfy suggestion... it's required. The game won't let you drop in a config that has fewer. Even if you don't need the sinks to manage your heat, you have to take them anyway. You can't substitute 5 DHS for 10 singles, either- you have to mount ten heat sinks, full stop. It's one of the things that makes building light ballistic platforms such a pain- you know you have the slots, you know you have the tonnage, you know you're running cool enough already, but the game makes you take two or three or five more tons of hardware anyway. It's carried over from a Tabletop construction rule.

I did not know that.
It sucks cause I doubt I ever need to be able to fire continuously for five minutes or more.

Anyhow with that in mind here is my adjusted Dakka mech.
I hope there is enough ammo.

UM-R60 Dakka with 10 heatsinks

[stealthraccoon]

C'mon, don't fall for the lure of bristling with little pea-shooters, go fer the big guns!

[smurfy]http://mwo.smurfy-ne...7b1759a50eb70d0[/smurfy]

[Nightshade24]

Where's the AC 20?

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Boomcan.

Jumping Boomcan.

Word of advice on small engines: XL 125 is the smallest you ever want to go for XLs. XL 100 gains you exactly one half of a ton over 125 (not worth it for the loss in speed and agility), and nothing in between gains you any tonnage whatsoever (105, 110, 115, and 120 all weigh exactly one ton less than 125, but also have one fewer heat sink; since heat sinks are one ton each you gain nothing). Just say no to 1-ton XL engines.

Or, if you really want to prove that you have a pair of big, shiny brass balls...

There's no way around it- in order to stuff an AC20 in a trashcan, you have to make major sacrifices. This is the absolute lightest IS 'Mech you can run an AC20 on, and it shows. Either you give up most of what little speed you have, or you carry tissue paper armor. Don't bother with a backup weapon (my opinion; others feel differently), because even a half ton for a small laser is tonnage you can spend on something far more important (armor, one more engine rating, a jump jet, etc). Remember that half a ton of AC20 ammo is 60 damage; that's 20 shots with a small laser... do you think you're going to stay alive long enough under fire to take 20 shots with a small laser after you run out of AC20 ammo? No? Then take the ammo instead; it'll do the same amount of damage much faster, and it'll be far more focused.

Also, don't expect to do well in an AC20 light (not an IS light, anyway). If you do, good on you, but it's a troll build whether you stick it on an Urbie or a Raven (Locusts just don't have the tonnage, even with no armor at all, and no other IS lights have a hardpoint that can take that big of a gun). That's not to say it can't be devastating, but it takes loads of practice and more than a little bit of luck. Even Ravens struggle with the sacrifices they have to make for that gun, and Urbies have 5 fewer tons to play with. Drop an AC20 light because it's fun, focus on getting good shots with it, and don't even think about getting upset if you die early with low damage. Laugh at yourself. Constantly. Embrace the crazy, and claim your bragging rights loudly and with great pride if you can actually make it perform.

[Chryckan]

Quick question: Four MLs or four SPLs?
Higher alpha with one and higher dps with the other.
Better heat management with one and better range with the other.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

By preference, the MLs, if only for the range. SPLs have great DPS and they run cool, but you can just about spit farther than you can tickle an enemy with them.

With the R60L's quirks, ISML reaches to 310m (15% energy range). SPL gets 30% range (small and small pulse quirk) for a total of 143m, or just over the small laser's stock range... and half that of the ML. That's a gigantic difference when you're not fast enough to dash in, poke, and run away.

With SPL, you'd be pretty much limited to hanging around your assaults' ankles and chasing enemy lights away from them until the brawl starts. MLs give you the ability to poke around cover and get some damage in earlier. It syncs up with the short range weapons of your heavier buddies and lets you shoot what they shoot, when they're shooting it, from a far safer position (otherwise you might have to step out in front of your teammates to engage, which risks friendly fire damage).

[Chryckan]

PS WrathOfDeadguy, on 20 October 2015 - 07:23 AM, said:

By preference, the MLs, if only for the range. SPLs have great DPS and they run cool, but you can just about spit farther than you can tickle an enemy with them.

With the R60L's quirks, ISML reaches to 310m (15% energy range). SPL gets 30% range (small and small pulse quirk) for a total of 143m, or just over the small laser's stock range... and half that of the ML. That's a gigantic difference when you're not fast enough to dash in, poke, and run away.

With SPL, you'd be pretty much limited to hanging around your assaults' ankles and chasing enemy lights away from them until the brawl starts. MLs give you the ability to poke around cover and get some damage in earlier. It syncs up with the short range weapons of your heavier buddies and lets you shoot what they shoot, when they're shooting it, from a far safer position (otherwise you might have to step out in front of your teammates to engage, which risks friendly fire damage).

So something like this.

UM-R60L 4xMLs

Runs a bit hot but I guess I have to live with it.
Or maybe I switch to a single AC2, making it a real heat hog.

Edited by Chryckan, 20 October 2015 - 10:04 AM.