Sensei Aaron, on 11 January 2016 - 12:38 PM, said:
Ok now I'm regretting buying a dumb assault mech already... I'm so slow, I *always* peek at the wrong place and I once literally died before I got back into cover. If I'm lucky I get out in critical condition. I'm not contributing anything while cowering amidst teammates either, and when I do cower among teammates they often just suddenly disappear and I get picked off by scouts or sumtin. My mech is optimized for mid-long range combat but I just end up getting airstriked or sniped to death trying to see where the enemy is, how do I play this damn class?
It's so damn slow! I can't take how slow it is!
First, Bougalengerie just gave some very good advice.
Secondly, The King Crab was the first mech I bought after running trials for a while. In a lot of the previous MW titles, I was better at Heavy/Assault mechs (of course my MW/MW2/MW2/MW3 Mercs days were a long time ago), and it was on sale at the time so I thought go ahead before the price went up. I hated it immediately for the same reasons you stated, and there was no KGC trial mech at the time to have tried it out first.
I went back to running trials and built up C-Bills again and kept trying to get the hang of the KGC. I ended up running mostly Lights and Mediums for a long time, and eventually decided I was GOING to figure out how to my decent use of the KGC that I spent so much time and so many C-Bills on and then if Assaults still weren't for me I'd sell it and just stick to lighter mechs. The dual AC20 default KGC setup forced me (kicking and screaming at points) to learn to brawl (which is still not my strong suite). Then I tried AC5 setups (similar in many ways to what became the Champion configuration for the KGC) and liked it a lot better. I tried off builds for a 100 tonner (missile boat, ERLL boat, AC2s, strange combinations, ...) until I finally got the hang of it. The KGC is actually one of the few mechs that I ended up keeping multiple variants of after unlocking all the skills on, and I still have 2 of them in my stable (including that first 1 that I HATED SOOO MUCH for so long. I swap between all 3 build types listed above (AC5s, AC20s, Gauss) and even occasionally run it as a ERLL/LRM boat for fun now and then. Most people think the last build is just nuts, but running 100 tons of fire support can wreck someone's day once you know your mech.
I honestly run my KGCs more than my smaller mechs (that I went back to running away from the KGC) anymore, but I mix drops across all weight classes.
Mediums and Heavies are probably the easiest to learn on over all. Assaults and Lights both require more specialized skills and more situational awareness to survive in than things in the middle. Lights need it because you have to always be moving and know where your opponents are or you come over a ridge and face hug the KGC or DWF. Assaults, because once you commit to an action, you are rarely fast enough to be able to back out with much of your armor left. 6-7 mechs all focusing their fire on 1 target will even take down a 100 ton mech in VERY short order. You have to learn when to wait, when to push, and when to rely on your team. You also have to learn when spearheading that push into the enemy ranks is worth dying for (and there is a good chance you might) because it will cause the entire enemy team to focus on taking you down long enough for the rest of your team (right behind you, hopefully) to do some serious damage to the other side in return.
TL:DR -- Lights and Assaults require more specialized skills to survive in than Mediums and Heavies do, but given some experience you will get the hang of it. Whatever you do, don't just turn around and sell the mech right off. You won't get nearly what you paid back out of it, and eventually you will probably wish you still had it once you get more experience.
Edited by LadyDanams, 11 January 2016 - 02:13 PM.