11 replies to this topic

[Snapdragon]

Hi all,

I've just recently mastered my first mech, a Stormcrow Prime. I quite fancy trying something with a little more staying power now (and preferably something that doesn't take as long to master as the SCR!) , and have been looking at the Grasshopper, Quickdraw, Zeus and Banshee as potential options, leaning towards the Grasshopper though.

Anyone have any thoughts/advice?

Thanks!

[Rogue Jedi]

Snapdragon, on 21 December 2015 - 01:21 AM, said:

Hi all,

I've just recently mastered my first mech, a Stormcrow Prime. I quite fancy trying something with a little more staying power now (and preferably something that doesn't take as long to master as the SCR!) , and have been looking at the Grasshopper, Quickdraw, Zeus and Banshee as potential options, leaning towards the Grasshopper though.

Anyone have any thoughts/advice?

Thanks!

sorry but all Mechs need the same number of XP for each level, unless you are doing significantly better with a different Mech it will take the same ammount of time to master, however most IS Mechs are a lot less expensive provided you do not use XL engines.
except the Quickdraw all the Mechs you suggest are much slower and less agile than the SCR, are you happy with that,
the Quickdraw and Grasshopper both can have Jumpjets, Zeus and Banshee can not, Quickdraw and Grasshopper are both mostly energy and missile based Mechs, Zeus has all 3 weapon types on most varients, Banshee has completely different hardpoints depending on variant

as for suggesting you a Mech, what characteristics/weapons do you like, e.g.
do you want/need Jumpjets,
how fast do you want?
more or less agile than the Stormcrow? ^{(if you want more that will require mediums with big XL engines which will end up costing more than the SCR with less weapons, or Light Mechs, again not cheep to properly outfit)}
what weight class?
what weapons do you like/dislike?

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 21 December 2015 - 02:53 AM.

[radiv]

Stormcrow is a clanmech. I would recomend buying another clanmech then so you can get a team of 4 some day. Timberwolf is a great choice imo

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Snapdragon, on 21 December 2015 - 01:21 AM, said:

Hi all,

I've just recently mastered my first mech, a Stormcrow Prime. I quite fancy trying something with a little more staying power now (and preferably something that doesn't take as long to master as the SCR!) , and have been looking at the Grasshopper, Quickdraw, Zeus and Banshee as potential options, leaning towards the Grasshopper though.

Anyone have any thoughts/advice?

Thanks!

First suggestion:

MASTER another Storm Crow.

I'm not sure we fully understand one another here, though. If you have MASTERed the SCR-PRIME, that tells me that you have at least two other SCRs. If so, then I'd say to MASTER those too. At LEAST, get both to ELITE, so you already have three medium mechs ELITE.

But then, if you have actually MASTERed the SCR-PRIME, then you probably at least got ELITE on two other SCRs.

So really, let's be clear. And if this comes off insulting or something, please forgive. It's not my intent. With the influx of new players since the Steam release, it helps to be absolutely certain of details before offering advice.

You HAVE completed ALL of the skills on the SCR-PRIME, right? And to do that, you would need to have completed all the BASIC skills on three different variants of the SCR chassis, and all the ELITE skills on three different medium-class mechs.

Just want to be sure. Because if the answer to any of the above is NO, then suggestion number one is to finish the ELITE skills on three SCRs, and complete MASTER on at least ONE, before moving on to another chassis, unless you simply REALLY dislike the SCR chassis.

[Snapdragon]

Apologies, I should have expressed myself clearer. I've done the whole eliting 3 chassis thing with the Stormcrow, got the additional mech module and sold off the other two chassis, so now I just run the Stormcrow Prime, in pretty much it's standard config, plus an ams.

I do actually enjoy the Stromcrow quite a bit, and think it was a great first choice for a mech. I tend towards laser vomit, could cope with something a little slower, and would like to be able to last a bit longer when the real brawling starts!

P.S. Although, I may seem it, I'm not actually a full on Steam-noob, I started about 6 weeks prior to the Steam launch!

Thanks for the advice so far!

[Not A Real RAbbi]

AWESOME! Sorry if that seemed presumptuous, but since it was post numero uno for you, I wanted to be sure.

Also, please tell me that you saved the omnipods from your other SCRs. Selling the chassis is fine, but with omnimechs you should always hold on to your omnipods. Even if the omni you save is worthless today, who knows if a future balance pass will add some cool quirk to that one that you sold?

So, if you like the laser vomit and would be willing to sacrifice a little speed for more survivability, then I'd recommend stepping up to either the Ebon Jaguar or Timber Wolf. Still Clan omnimech technology, which you're familiar with. That's increasing weight in increments of 10 tons each (65 and 75 tons, respectively). Max armor is, as you know, based on the mech's max weight. The EBJ has no quirks, and the TBR generally only has negative ones for certain omnipods. For a laser vomit TBR, you're going to have to live with some longer beam duration and laser cooldown, but it's not much and can be more than offset by weapon modules. The EBJ, of course, would still be an even shorter time shot-to-shot, but also brings significantly less armor to the fight.

Either mech runs 81.0 km/h stock, which is as much as many IS mediums, and faster than all but a couple IS heavies. They do this with a LOT of weight/space for weapons, too. I can fit 5 cERMLs, 2 cALRM-15s, 990 rounds of LRM ammo, cAP, and TCompI, and enough double heat sinks to run it well, into an EBJ-PRIME (don't recall the specific omnipod configuration).

But the Timber Wolf is generally agreed to be the best mech in the game (with the Storm Crow easily in the top four).

Ebon Jag costs a few million C-Bills less per mech, than does the Timber Wolf.

Timber Wolf has optional Jump Jets in the TBR-S configuration's torso omnipods, but there is NO EBJ variant in the game with JJs.

Neither has ECM. Both can run basically the same loadouts.

Good luck!

Edited by TheRAbbi, 21 December 2015 - 04:46 AM.

[Elizander]

If you have 3 Stormcrows mastered then you can work on another mech that can fill out your CW deck (you'll probably end up going there sometimes at least).

While the tonnage limit is at 250 tons right now it's probably safer to initially build for 240 tons because that's the more reliable limit.

You can go with Timberwolves but you might get more out of Hellbringer or Ebon Jaguars. You can go 65 tons (x2) and 55 tons (x2) if ever the limit is reset to 240 tons and you can go 65 tons (x3) and 55 tons (x1) while it's at 250 tons. Either way you should be safe.

If you go with Timberwolves, you'll be at 55 tons (x3) and 75 tons (x1) regardless if it's 240 or 250 tons. This won't be an issue later when you have a lot more mechs but should be a good flexible place to start.

[Rogue Jedi]

Snapdragon, on 21 December 2015 - 04:21 AM, said:

Apologies, I should have expressed myself clearer. I've done the whole eliting 3 chassis thing with the Stormcrow, got the additional mech module and sold off the other two chassis, so now I just run the Stormcrow Prime, in pretty much it's standard config, plus an ams.

I do actually enjoy the Stromcrow quite a bit, and think it was a great first choice for a mech. I tend towards laser vomit, could cope with something a little slower, and would like to be able to last a bit longer when the real brawling starts!

P.S. Although, I may seem it, I'm not actually a full on Steam-noob, I started about 6 weeks prior to the Steam launch!

Thanks for the advice so far!

if you want to get into Faction play quickly you will want Clan Mechs ^{(I am not sure if that is one of your priorities)}, unfortunately the Stormcrow is arguably the best mix of armor speed, agiligy and hitboxes in the game, the only Clan Mech which might seem more durable is the Timber Wolf, but even with the extra armor the TBR is not much more durable due to the SCRs exceptional hitboxes.

learning to twist damage would make the SCR seem more tanky, and the best Mech for that is probably the Hunchback, as on most variants 70+% of its firepower is in the hunch you will quickly learn how to protect the hunch by sacrificing your other arm and torso. the Hunchback is also cheep at about 4 million each, the first will need 4 million in upgrades including a larger engine, Double Heat Sinks and Endo steal, in fact most variants are pretty good if you just do the DHS and Endo upgrades, stick in a STD250 engine and use the extra spare weight for ammo or heatsinks, however the HBK is an Inner Sphere Mech so would not help with building a Clan dropdeck for faction play (if that is one of your priorities), each Hunchback variant is a specialist and the 4P is the laser boat with 9 energy hardpoints


the Crab is another great Mech, again it is IS, all variants are laser boats, I have found it to be pretty durable, it can be faster and more maneuverable than the SCR if you stick in a 300 engine or larger, the 27B can jump, the 27SL comes with an XL250 engine, the 27B and 27SL come with DHS already installed

[Rogue Jedi]

Elizander, on 21 December 2015 - 05:03 AM, said:

Hellbringer or Ebon Jaguars. You can go 65 tons (x2) and 55 tons (x2) if ever the limit is reset to 240 tons and you can go 65 tons (x3) and 55 tons (x1) while it's at 250 tons. Either way you should be safe. If you go with Timberwolves, you'll be at 55 tons (x3) and 75 tons (x1) regardless if it's 240 or 250 tons. This won't be an issue later when you have a lot more mechs but should be a good flexible place to start.

I agree that would be good if Snapdragon had not already sold off 2 Stormcrows, but after selling them off the dropdecks are a blank canvis, you could go 3 EBJ or HBR along with your 3 SCR with the current upper tonnage limit, or you could throw in an ACH or MLX to free up tonnage, possibly allowing 2 TBR, GAR or WHK

[Leone]

Snapdragon, on 21 December 2015 - 01:21 AM, said:

and have been looking at the Grasshopper, Quickdraw, Zeus and Banshee as potential options, leaning towards the Grasshopper though.

Anyone have any thoughts/advice?

Thanks!

Post two, first vid. And that's why I love me my banshees. Not sure bout the rest, though Grasshopper makes for a great laser mech, and I've heard decent things about the zeus being a tiny assault.

~Leone.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Rogue Jedi, on 21 December 2015 - 07:20 AM, said:

I agree that would be good if Snapdragon had not already sold off 2 Stormcrows, but after selling them off the dropdecks are a blank canvis, you could go 3 EBJ or HBR along with your 3 SCR with the current upper tonnage limit, or you could throw in an ACH or MLX to free up tonnage, possibly allowing 2 TBR, GAR or WHK

My current Clan drop deck is 3x EBJ (PRIME, A, and 1x SCR (C, but rotating between A, B, and C, to MASTER them). That's with the current 250 tonnage cap, and JUST fits. Could scale it back by swapping the SCR to a SHC, or one of the TBRs to another SCR, if it went back down to 240 tons. Easy peasy.

It's been a decent drop deck, but I want to start working up the HBR and my three kinda-dusty TBRs. Saving for my first HBR right now, by grinding the other mechs listed above.

Great thing about the game, is that there are lots of options to fit the tonnage limits set for FW drop decks. Even IS folks get some great options. SURE, the heavies are a given (I actually PREFER CPLT-J and -K2 on my IS deck). There are relatively decent mediums for FW out there (the CRB looks like it has some long-term potential, and comes in well under the DD average at just 50 tons). The BJ has become a terrorist since the quirkening (there are posts elsewhere specifically looking for advice on surviving against Blackjacks in heavier mechs). CDA chassis is no longer a landlubber.

Yeah, there's a lot to work with nowadays. And while the meta is the meta, those of us NOT in the top tier of competitive play have plenty to work with for FUN, INTERESTING drop decks.

That probably shouldn't be THE deciding factor in picking a new mech chassis to MASTER, but perhaps A significant factor at least?

[Kalamity27]

radiv, on 21 December 2015 - 03:00 AM, said:

Stormcrow is a clanmech. I would recomend buying another clanmech then so you can get a team of 4 some day. Timberwolf is a great choice imo

I agree with radiv. It really helps having a full drop deck for CW. Especially with phase 3 around the corner.

Snapdragon, on 21 December 2015 - 04:21 AM, said:

Thanks for the advice so far!

Like your attitude Snapdragon. There are a lot of players that take the time to answer questions here. If you havn't already search for forums for a unit or public TS server. Dropping in group play will really step up your game.