65 replies to this topic

[heimdelight]

Hello, all!

Church of Skill has recorded it's first Meta Review and Playtest video, featuring the opinions of veteran players on the PTS4 and what we may see on MWO live servers Dec 1st.


https://youtu.be/yk1YTUzmdSk


View the Full Video Here

Table of Contents:
05:22 - CATAPULT vs TIMBERWOLF SRM Missile Test
13:58 - CENTURION CN-9AL vs BLACKJACK BJ-1X Medium Test
19:02 - TIMBERWOLF vs BLACKKNIGHT Heavy Test
23:01 - DIREWOLF vs ATLAS Assault Test

Church of Skill: Meta Review of PTS4 feat. heimdelight, prtNspz/Proton & slummy - Meta Review is a Playtest/Review Session with Top-Tier Players

Proton and Heimdelight 1v1 in a few standout mechs on the latest PTS4 and go over a few of the changes that were found.

Don't forget to check out www.churchofskill.com and stop by our TeamSpeak (ts32.gameservers.com:9207) on Sundays for Church of Skill Mass at 7PM Eastern!

PTS4 Review

-Skill Tree efficiencies nerfed to 7.5%

-Clan Heatsink Adjustments
1. Heatsink Heat Capacity (Heat Cap) reduced from 1.4 to 1.1
2. Cooling rate increased to -1.5 from -1.4
3. Hurts Clan Lights that rely on laser boating?
-IS Heatsink Adjustments
1. Double Heatsink Heat Capacity (Heat Cap) increased
2.IS Single Heatsinks Cooling rate increased

-Clan 'Mech XL ST Loss, 20% reduction in all engine related aspects of 'Mech

-IS/Clan Gauss recycle rate increased from 4s to 5.5s
1. Gauss may now be useless even with New IS Quirks?

05:22 - CATAPULT vs TIMBERWOLF SRM Missile Test

-Global Missile Buff
1. All missle spread reduced
2. All missle speeds increased
3. Ghost Heat Threshold increased from 3 to 4 on SRM6s, 6 for SRM2s
4. Clan Streaks Now More OP?
5. Can Missiles be Viable with these Clan Laser Nerfs? (Then talk about Clan Nerfs)

-Global Clan Laser Max Range Reductions
1. Due to Heat Capacity Loss on Clan 'Mechs, remove cooldown modules and replace with range modules for a similar range.
2. Hurts Clan Lights that boat lasers?
---------------------
New IS Quirks

-More Armor (Structure) added to IS 'Mechs
-Top Tier Firepower Buffs are Cooldown and Less Heat Gen

IS Lights
-Locust: Too Much Glass with Structure Quirks? Not enough Cannon?
-Ravens: 2x/4x Pretty Decent
-FS9-S: Remains Skirmish King?
-Jenners: Worse than all of the above?

13:58 - CENTURION CN-9AL vs BLACKJACK BJ-1X Medium Test

IS Mediums
-BJs got buffed
-CN9-AL got buffed
-VNDs get buffed

19:02 - TIMBERWOLF vs BLACKKNIGHT Heavy Test

IS Heavys
-BL-7-KNT OP?
-Catapults get structure+firepower quirks
-QKDs get slight buffs, 5k gets slight nerf and 4g is the new Laser King
-TDRs nerfed

23:01 - DIREWOLF vs ATLAS Assault Test

IS Assaults
-AS7 Structure and Firepower Buffs
1. AS7-S AC20/Missle Combo is fun?
2. Boar's Head -25% crit chance
-HGN732b gets slight buff
-All Stalkers get nerfed

-Clan Quirks
1. Remain Largely Untouched
2. Things like ACH Leg Structure Quirk Removal that nerfs some Clan 'Mechs

With this new system, Clan 'Mechs are being brought closer to parity with IS 'Mechs. However, some Clan 'Mechs will become nerfed despite their already subpar performance due to global heatsink

and laser changes. Does this further achieve the goal of equivalency between both types of 'Mechs while still retaining the unique qualities of each type?

Edited by heimdelight, 26 November 2015 - 05:52 AM.

[El Bandito]

Interesting vid. Good to hear top players confirming that Clans were unbalanced against the IS, pre-PTS.

heimdelight, on 26 November 2015 - 05:49 AM, said:

IS Heavys
BL-7-KNT OP?

Thought the BL-7-KNT-L got the better energy quirk?

Edited by El Bandito, 26 November 2015 - 07:28 AM.

[orcrist86]

its a great video, Im glad it was cross posted from outreach.

[Ghogiel]

RIP SMN

[Sjorpha]

Very good review, thanks a lot for doing this.

It's awesome to hear the opinion of people who really knows what they're talking about in terms of meta (as opposed to us tier 2 underhivers ).

I'm a little surprised you didn't talk about a possible return of jump sniping and chassis that could see a resurgence in that regard due to lasers being dialed back, I figured we would maybe see a niche for IS 2xPPC pop tarts like BJ-3 and SHK-2K. But I suppose I was wrong about that.

[Varvar86]

Interesting vid. Clans becomes even weaker, and IS get buff after buff.... phew.... it just will be another meta. I predict alot of whine that nobody wants to play clans anymore, because ppl not stupid - majority plays the best mechs only, they are not masochists. So dont expect "now i gonna exterminate them all!!!!", you just won't see clans on battlefield anymore and will face same power IS Builds against you. RIP CW and welcome to future whine wars.

Edited by Varvar86, 26 November 2015 - 06:37 AM.

[Mcgral18]

Varvar86, on 26 November 2015 - 06:35 AM, said:

Interesting vid. Clans becomes even weaker, and IS get buff after buff.... phew.... it just will be another meta. I predict alot of whine that nobody wants to play clans anymore, because ppl not stupid - majority plays the best mechs only, they are not masochists. So dont expect "now i gonna exterminate them all!!!!", you just won't see clans on battlefield anymore and will face same power IS Builds against you. RIP CW and welcome to future whine wars.

Would someone kindly inform him which faction remains with the most Top Tier mechs?

[Ghogiel]

Mcgral18, on 26 November 2015 - 06:55 AM, said:

Would someone kindly inform him which faction remains with the most Top Tier mechs?

Really depends how hard the gauss, heat cap and XL nerf pushes the meta to the buffed SRMs. If it does really shift to that then the structure and dps of IS will probably be gg to even TBRs.

[Darian DelFord]

Well at least they acknowledged that Jenenrs are the worst of the IS lights now.

The hit Box change only made it worse as well

[El Bandito]

Varvar86, on 26 November 2015 - 06:35 AM, said:

Interesting vid. Clans becomes even weaker, and IS get buff after buff.... phew.... it just will be another meta. I predict alot of whine that nobody wants to play clans anymore, because ppl not stupid - majority plays the best mechs only, they are not masochists. So dont expect "now i gonna exterminate them all!!!!", you just won't see clans on battlefield anymore and will face same power IS Builds against you. RIP CW and welcome to future whine wars.

Bet you an a-la-carte that such thing won't be the case.

Ghogiel, on 26 November 2015 - 07:09 AM, said:

Really depends how hard the gauss, heat cap and XL nerf pushes the meta to the buffed SRMs. If it does really shift to that then the structure and dps of IS will probably be gg to even TBRs.

The SRM buffs are not going to impact too much, considering its limited range, still noticeable spread, and hit-reg issues. All the demonstration fight was done at point blank 1v1--which is hard to get into in the first place. In team based matches range still is king.

Edited by El Bandito, 26 November 2015 - 07:26 AM.

[Ghogiel]

El Bandito, on 26 November 2015 - 07:14 AM, said:

The SRM buffs are not going to impact too much, considering its limited range, still noticeable spread, and hit-reg issues. All the demonstration fight was done at point blank 1v1--which is hard to get into in the first place. In team based matches range still is king.

Last time range was king was CSJ ERLLOL. Which last I checked has been a while. for the bulk of team compositions it's high alpha 600-700m ranges or CLPL and gauss. That's even further balanced to shorter engaments right now with the power of ERML which is just as T1 as pushing the engagment out further. Really only see the odd TBR or the old QKD Ring and Leo made popular with long range these days.

Edited by Ghogiel, 26 November 2015 - 07:46 AM.

[El Bandito]

Ghogiel, on 26 November 2015 - 07:45 AM, said:

Last time range was king was CSJ ERLLOL. Which last I checked has been a while. for the bulk of team compositions it's high alpha 600-700m ranges or CLPL and gauss. That's even further balanced to shorter engaments right now with the power of ERML which is just as T1 as pushing the engagment out further. Really only see the odd TBR or the old QKD Ring and Leo made popular with long range these days.

As I said, range is still king. Those weapons you mentioned all have 2-3 times more range than SRMs, and those are just optimum ranges.

Edited by El Bandito, 26 November 2015 - 07:54 AM.

[heimdelight]

Sjorpha, on 26 November 2015 - 06:31 AM, said:

Very good review, thanks a lot for doing this.

It's awesome to hear the opinion of people who really knows what they're talking about in terms of meta (as opposed to us tier 2 underhivers ).

I'm a little surprised you didn't talk about a possible return of jump sniping and chassis that could see a resurgence in that regard due to lasers being dialed back, I figured we would maybe see a niche for IS 2xPPC pop tarts like BJ-3 and SHK-2K. But I suppose I was wrong about that.

Actually, we regularly regard the BJ-3 as the best medium poptart. Perhaps we did specifically forget to mention it during the "General Blackjack Buff segment. Definitely an error on our part if we failed to recognize it's amazingness D:

[Darian DelFord]

heimdelight, on 26 November 2015 - 07:51 AM, said:

Actually, we regularly regard the BJ-3 as the best medium poptart. Perhaps we did specifically forget to mention it during the "General Blackjack Buff segment. Definitely an error on our part if we failed to recognize it's amazingness D:

Dumb question here, but could you all go into more detail on what you all think of the Jenners. I know there is not much to work with as many of us are now a pile of scrap metal. But I do not think hit box chnages will do anything. Do to the shape of the torso's I think only a structure and armor buff will bring it up from Tier 4 status.

[heimdelight]

Darian DelFord, on 26 November 2015 - 07:56 AM, said:

Dumb question here, but could you all go into more detail on what you all think of the Jenners. I know there is not much to work with as many of us are now a pile of scrap metal. But I do not think hit box chnages will do anything. Do to the shape of the torso's I think only a structure and armor buff will bring it up from Tier 4 status.

I think the hitbox changes are a step in the right direction.

Judging by this picture,

https://i.imgur.com/3RaPbbW.png

I usually would CT or leg Jenners before the change. After the change, I will probably aim for legs or STs, which is an upgrade for them since it's a bit harder to hit the ST. I still think the area around the cockpit window should be CT, and the ST changes behind it stay. but that's my only criticism.

I think the FS9-S has better hitboxes, raven 2x/4x has better quirks, so the Jenner naturally falls behind.

[Jon Gotham]

Cent-AL=drool.....

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Been telling you guys for awhile now that Black Knight is OP.

Its been buffed already for its hitboxes, now its being buffed with much higher structure, more cooling in all but one variant (which already had it), higher maneuverability in many variants that counters the loss of the skill tree boosts. Then lets just throw out the fact that it has massive laser alphas at quick durations. 8-9 MPL builds or even LL+ML builds rip people up.

Its basically what the Timber Wolf would be if it was humanoid and with IS lasers and tech only. All that armor, but with the ability to spread damage and with a side profile slim enough to dodge those with lesser aim.

[Ghogiel]

El Bandito, on 26 November 2015 - 07:49 AM, said:

As I said, range is still king. Those weapons you mentioned all have 2-3 times more range than SRMs, and those are just optimum ranges.

Ah, you are just wording that badly. Highest pinpoint alpha vomit is still king you mean. Range is just the multiplier to that main factor.

[Coolant]

Thanks for doing the testing, especially recording it. I think Clan will still be able to hold their own despite the nerfs. I'm hoping that CW won't take a hit in players (Clan). I think there are enough die-hard Clanners that their will still be some good fights. Plus, in the long run CW will be just fine when they release Phase 3.

[El Bandito]

Coolant, on 26 November 2015 - 08:38 AM, said:

Thanks for doing the testing, especially recording it. I think Clan will still be able to hold their own despite the nerfs. I'm hoping that CW won't take a hit in players (Clan). I think there are enough die-hard Clanners that their will still be some good fights. Plus, in the long run CW will be just fine when they release Phase 3.

CW population will actually increase if Clans are taken down to IS level. Most people prefer fair fights.