47 replies to this topic

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Really though, I'm admittedly bad with the ACH, I have a few games were I manage to get more than one kill, but most of my lives are either no kills or a hit on a weakened guy and sub 250 damage.

I try to do dodges and attack from the rear and help out allies when they brawl someone, but still the thing isn't pumping out all that much damage nor is it nearly as survivable as the forums would have me to believe.

I honestly do much better using my kit foxes racking up multiple 500 damage games with good amounts of kills usually supporting a larger ally.

What are some tips for the ACH? What makes it the OP killing machine that no one can manage to damage that causes more forum rage than LRMs... which are also supprisingly ineffective in comparison to other things.

I've been trying to get the things leveled, and since I got them in the Wave III pack I've managed to get 2 through basics and one almost finished eliting, but thats about it.

[thesleepyslam]

run a mix of medium pulse and smalls instead of straight small pulse if you're havin' a hard time. you get about the same damage with a lot more range. it's a lot worse at the turn'n burn, but it'll be easier to get the hang of.

The main strength of the cheetah is that it's got the firepower of a firestarter with the durability of a standard engine spider and runs ECM. It also gets a whole lot more maneuverable once you get those elites.

Edited by thesleepyslam, 28 November 2015 - 04:17 AM.

[zagibu]

Well, it has a different role than a Kit Fox. Basically, you harass and disrupt, which means you flank a lot and try to find weak targets to harass. When you run, you should change orientation and speed often, in order to make them miss. Also twist while running away, to spread damage around. And use those jump jets, if you have them.

Once you have accepted your new role, and switched to a fitting loadout, like small pulse lasers, you should have no troubles racking up damage.

[Weeny Machine]

It depends on what spec you run.

The most broken spec is, imo, the one with small pulse lasers. If your aim is no too shoddy, you should be able to focus on one part of an enemy mech and penetrate the armour quite quickly.

For people who have not run light mechs before I think ERML or MPL builds are better to get use to light mechs.

One last thing, though: light mechs are not for everybody. And if you think the ACH is not insanely tanky, then your positioning seems to be really off. Play a Raven or Jenner and watch how quickly they get blown up compared to an ACH.

[Euklides]

Dakota1000, on 28 November 2015 - 04:06 AM, said:

Really though, I'm admittedly bad with the ACH, I have a few games were I manage to get more than one kill, but most of my lives are either no kills or a hit on a weakened guy and sub 250 damage.

It is really hard to judge what can be improved without any sample gameplay of you in an ACH, if you would like precise advice I'd suggest recording your match.
Otherwise we will all be shooting blind and most likely give advice that does not suit you, it could even make things worse as you try to implement advice that we gave that you already use and now go to the extreme with.

[adamts01]

How don't you Arctic Cheetah? 6spl for a brawler, 4ml for a med range harasser, 2mpl on the torsos and 4 smalls for a mix, 1ppc 3smalls for the most annoying pop tart ever created.... Anything really, it does it well. You don't have to play the super aggressive, up the butt spl kind of cheetah. I surprisingly have the most consistent results with my PPC 3 smalls cheetah, and I suck with PPCs. But.... with the poke style meta we have, it works suprisingly well as a sniper and 3 smalls works good enough up close. Plus it runs cool. Try those builds out. Just don't do LRMs, I've sen a couple of those running around.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Bush Hopper, on 28 November 2015 - 04:21 AM, said:

It depends on what spec you run.

The most broken spec is, imo, the one with small pulse lasers. If your aim is no too shoddy, you should be able to focus on one part of an enemy mech and penetrate the armour quite quickly.

For people who have not run light mechs before I think ERML or MPL builds are better to get use to light mechs.

One last thing, though: light mechs are not for everybody. And if you think the ACH is not insanely tanky, then your positioning seems to be really off. Play a Raven or Jenner and watch how quickly they get blown up compared to an ACH.

I've been using the SPL loadout. Also when I use Ravens I use dual ERLL and usually end up putting out a lot of damage at longer ranges, similar with my Kit Fox. I can play light mechs at long range, but suffer up close.

Also Adamts01, I might have to try out that PPC loadout, I've done pretty well with the 2xPPC Cicada, and running 2xPPC Shadow Cats and Novas, I've also had some good luck with frontloaded damage. Not to mention its a long range loadout, right where I like to be.

Might be like the time I tried a PPC Pirate's Bane... but with armor.

Edited by Dakota1000, 28 November 2015 - 04:37 AM.

[adamts01]

Dakota1000, on 28 November 2015 - 04:26 AM, said:

I've been using the SPL loadout. Also when I use Ravens I use dual ERLL and usually end up putting out a lot of damage at longer ranges, similar with my Kit Fox. I can play light mechs at long range, but suffer up close.

Up close lights aren't too consistent for me. At the end of the day, you need a decent team to be engaged in the fight to allow you to do your sneaky ninja stuff. The way everyone hides and pokes these days, you don't always get an opportunity to get up close till late game, and by then it's usually over. If you try to distract the enemy with a bad team, you'll just get focused and die.

To the OP: I never thought the Cheetah was as OP as people claim. It is stupid powerful but not nearly as much as the 3L was or the Firestarter was.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

adamts01, on 28 November 2015 - 04:34 AM, said:

Up close lights aren't too consistent for me. At the end of the day, you need a decent team to be engaged in the fight to allow you to do your sneaky ninja stuff. The way everyone hides and pokes these days, you don't always get an opportunity to get up close till late game, and by then it's usually over. If you try to distract the enemy with a bad team, you'll just get focused and die.

To the OP: I never thought the Cheetah was as OP as people claim. It is stupid powerful but not nearly as much as the 3L was or the Firestarter was.

You might have hit the issue on the head there, being in T3 I end up with some very varying teams, sometimes I just don't have a single opening in a game and other times my team will actually engage the enemy team and I get to actually assist. I go from being focused by the entire team the moment I see somebody to matches where I get backup and can tear some backs up.

[Aiden Skye]

You get that sum bitz in your crosshairs and alpha it till it's gone.

[InsaneRotta]

The problem with ACHs seem to be that everyone hates them. I mean that people don't hate to use them, but when my team spots one it's like instant bloodlust and everyone shoots at the Cheetah, even if there is a Dire nearby. the Arctic Cheetah is not necessaryly a deadly mech but it can be annoying as hell, so people attack it with full fury. But that's where the ACH excells. To brawl effectively with the c-smpl build you really need to have a grasp of the build and have it elited. As a harasser play it like an ECM spider and switch places constantly and don't stray far from the rest of the group. I don't pilot Cheetahs myself, but I've battled them a lot to see what works best for them.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

So, I tried a PPC and 2 SLs on Bog, team lost bad, I got my side torso oneshotted by a dire wolf with 2 gauss+2 PPC early on, but had turned a Jagermech's rear CT cherry red before that happened. I managed to survive a bit longer, ran around the main platau, ran past an enemy ACH and commando, and found that enemy Jager turned around and I got the kill.

That one kill felt better than any other I've gotten in the ACH. I managed to sneak out and the two light mechs didn't give a chase. I went on to be the second to last one to die after the entire rest of the enemy team got me while I tried to attack a crippled TBolt with my 2 SLs. Lost both side torsos and a leg.

Even with it being a loss I did around 150 damage and feel that this loadout will do better for me if I reposition more, get the hang of it, and have a good team backing me up.

[adamts01]

Dakota1000, on 28 November 2015 - 04:52 AM, said:

So, I tried a PPC and 2 SLs on Bog, team lost bad, I got my side torso oneshotted by a dire wolf with 2 gauss+2 PPC early on, but had turned a Jagermech's rear CT cherry red before that happened. I managed to survive a bit longer, ran around the main platau, ran past an enemy ACH and commando, and found that enemy Jager turned around and I got the kill.

That one kill felt better than any other I've gotten in the ACH. I managed to sneak out and the two light mechs didn't give a chase. I went on to be the second to last one to die after the entire rest of the enemy team got me while I tried to attack a crippled TBolt with my 2 SLs. Lost both side torsos and a leg.

Even with it being a loss I did around 150 damage and feel that this loadout will do better for me if I reposition more, get the hang of it, and have a good team backing me up.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...56d6a6ec9652bc5

That's the build I use. You do kind of need your team to survive long enough to crank out the damage. And it's easy to be that annoying teammate that sticks to the back and doesn't do much but pad damage as a light sniper. The trick is to keep the fire on and really annoy. I normally don't have time to core and kill, but I'll shoot everyone constantly.

[adamts01]

adamts01, on 28 November 2015 - 05:05 AM, said:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...56d6a6ec9652bc5

That's the build I use. You do kind of need your team to survive long enough to crank out the damage. And it's easy to be that annoying teammate that sticks to the back and doesn't do much but pad damage as a light sniper. The trick is to keep the fire on and really annoy. I normally don't have time to core and kill, but I'll shoot everyone constantly.

I could ditch the weapons on one arm and use other mounts but I like full armor on the arm as it doesn't get cored immediately, smoke and give away my position. This mech runs surprisingly cool.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

I got the weapons in the arms for ease of aiming, I lose the higher weapons mounts, but I can hit a target while running much more easily. This loadout rocks with a good team, I was able to poke around enemies between 1000m and 500m most of the game and did nearly 400 damage, my aim is still a bit off I noticed. I got to get used to clan ERPPC velocity again.

[Monkey Lover]

In my view your goal as a light isnt high damage. Its to protect assaults, and locate other mechs. Dont worry about your damage score if you're doing your job.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Monkey Lover, on 28 November 2015 - 05:37 AM, said:

In my view your goal as a light isnt high damage. Its to protect assaults, and locate other mechs. Dont worry about your damage score if you're doing your job.

My main issue is that with something such as a Kit Fox or Raven I could protect assaults and locate other mechs while also putting out some good long range damage, I failed to do both, or even either sometimes with the ACH. With a long range build such as the one I'm using with the PPC, I can get to the flanks of enemy targets and poke them without putting myself at very high risk.

If I'm poking the enemy then I am putting out damage, they are wondering whats hitting them, at that point they might turn around, but at long range I'll be back behind cover and out of site before they do, I'll also be able to see enemies coming ahead of time and reposition before they can be a problem.

Basically I run around either making the enemy expose their weak side to allies and also stop firing at them, or I kill an enemy outright who fails to comply.

Its sort of like running a faster Shadow cat with less alpha and more sustain.

[adamts01]

Dakota1000, on 28 November 2015 - 05:49 AM, said:

My main issue is that with something such as a Kit Fox or Raven I could protect assaults and locate other mechs while also putting out some good long range damage, I failed to do both, or even either sometimes with the ACH. With a long range build such as the one I'm using with the PPC, I can get to the flanks of enemy targets and poke them without putting myself at very high risk.

If I'm poking the enemy then I am putting out damage, they are wondering whats hitting them, at that point they might turn around, but at long range I'll be back behind cover and out of site before they do, I'll also be able to see enemies coming ahead of time and reposition before they can be a problem.

Basically I run around either making the enemy expose their weak side to allies and also stop firing at them, or I kill an enemy outright who fails to comply.

Its sort of like running a faster Shadow cat with less alpha and more sustain.

Dakota1000, on 28 November 2015 - 05:22 AM, said:

I got the weapons in the arms for ease of aiming, I lose the higher weapons mounts, but I can hit a target while running much more easily. This loadout rocks with a good team, I was able to poke around enemies between 1000m and 500m most of the game and did nearly 400 damage, my aim is still a bit off I noticed. I got to get used to clan ERPPC velocity again.

Of course it's all preference, but those torso mounts really let you peek and shoot without exposing much at all. The cheetah has relatively low mounted arm weapons that make you expose a lot of your mech. With it's incredible torso pitch, I don't miss out on many opportunities with a shoulder mounted PPC. Many times, a laser vomit mech that is waiting for me can't get more than a couple points of damage because I hardly expose anything and am instantly back in cover. I love that build.

[Karmen Baric]

I played the trial Arctic Cheetah and after 3 games had 11 kills and more damage than i would get in assault mechs.

Thats one broken mech, but ill play it to annoy everyone else until its nerfed.

[Alistair Winter]

Basically, the ACH is capable of delivering a lot of pinpoint damage in a short amount of time, so a lot of people are tempted to slow down in close proximity to their target. They eat a lot of damage for the sake of getting their first kill, and then they're an easy target for the next guy who comes along.

My tip would be to focus more on surviving and less on doing damage. Don't get bogged down in duels unless you're clearly the superior player. Don't take one to give one. Just disengage and find a new target. Most of the bad ACH pilots I see make the mistake of trying too hard.

Another classic mistake is chasing enemy light mechs all over the damn map.