23 replies to this topic

[Atreus Ofiach]

I recently got back into this game after not playing since early beta maybe? That dang Rifleman pack got my veins itching again... Anyway, I toyed around with a few mechs but I have fallen in love with the Jager DD. I'm really looking for other mechs that have a similar ballistic focus.

I've poked around the forums alot and have a basic understanding of options for ballistic mechs. I'm more looking for "experienced" players opinions on mechs with a similar playstyle or an even more satisfying Dakka Dakka Alpha strike that makes people run. Weight class really doesn't matter all that much to me.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

[Spike Brave]

If you want bigger the Dire Wolf can do lots of dakka as can the King Crab. Around the same weight you could try the Hunchback IIC, Ebon Jaguar, or Cataphract. Lighter mechs are tough, but the Black Jack is okay.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Jagermech is a perfect ballistic mech for what you want. If you are willing to go lighter with maybe one ballistic check out the hunchbacks and enforcers. If you want to stay with heavies, Cataphracts can do it, but have issues with low mounts, the Mauler which is only available for MC right now I believe looks impressive. The Banshee can stack AC5s which can be devastating. Most people absolutely love the King Crab. On the Clan side, you've got the Dire Wolf, the dakka king, but that might be too slow.

[Atreus Ofiach]

I was actually warned off Clan mechs for ballistics. Was that person incorrect? The way they explained the burst fire and the spread made it seem like clan mechs are crap at anything except brawling. Please correct me if I'm wrong clan mechs weren't even in game last time I played.

[Rogue Jedi]

jordanfoy, on 10 January 2016 - 11:55 AM, said:

I was actually warned off Clan mechs for ballistics. Was that person incorrect? The way they explained the burst fire and the spread made it seem like clan mechs are crap at anything except brawling. Please correct me if I'm wrong clan mechs weren't even in game last time I played.

Clans have longer range and are bad for brawling because they tend to run a lot hotter than IS Mechs.

Clan weapons have higher DPS than IS weapons, but need more face time to deliver it, that coupled with the fact that many IS Mechs have better armor than the same weight Clan Mechs means balance is about as close as it is likely to get between the average IS Mech and the average Clan Mech.

as for Clan ballistics (other than the Gauss and AC2), they fire a number of shells in a short time frame, working like how Lasers work, but are not lightspeed, the AC5 fires 2 shells, AC10 fires 3 and AC20 fires 4

[Wildstreak]

For Clan Dakka, the Ultras are usually the choice due to having better stats.
My usual Clan Dakka is a dual UAC5, 4 ERML Ebon Jaguar. The ERML can alpha 43 times before you need to cool off and you even cool off while firing the Ultras.
Currently I run a mini-Jager-DD on 2 Hunchback IICs, both Base and C variants. I put more in this topic. If you wait for the Hunchback IICs to come out for CB, you can have the Base and C for Dakka then choose which of the A and B for the third to Master, the B is tricky to run.
I did run a Nova with UAC5 and 6 ERSL, I have seen others using a UAC10 instead.
You can also run a Kit Fox with Ultra 5 and 3 ERML / SPL.
There is an Adder that uses a big Ultra.

Edited by Wildstreak, 10 January 2016 - 12:42 PM.

[Telemachus -Salt Wife Salt Life-]

Mauler Dakka seems to be a thing. Wait till it comes out of cbills and get that. Should be in a month or so. I love my Jagermechs and Firebrand. I've seen Maurauders/Bounty Hunters with AC5s and UACs, but I don't own those.

For Clan Ballistics, the only thing that works for me are Hellbringers with 3 or 4 ER Medium Lasers, and C-UAC 20, all in the torsos. Also the DWF 4x UAC10s is a beast. Most things that walk in front of you just die. You just have to understand that due to the stream of shots coming out of your guns you need a lot more face time. But if you get get a target around 300m away, the DWF and the Hellbringer will wreck.

[Atreus Ofiach]

Thank you for all the information!.

I settled on snagging the King Crab 000. I have to say topping 900 damage regularly and popping into that 1k range every once in a while feels amazing.

Now I just have to wait for that Rifleman and hope it doesn't suck.

[Jody Von Jedi]

Telemachus Rheade, on 10 January 2016 - 12:36 PM, said:

Mauler Dakka seems to be a thing. Wait till it comes out of cbills and get that. Should be in a month or so. I love my Jagermechs and Firebrand. I've seen Maurauders/Bounty Hunters with AC5s and UACs, but I don't own those.

I'll second that comment on the Mauler. I run the 3R with 3 x AC5 on chain fire. It will make the average pilot panic and start backing. It has high mounted ballistic hard points as well. Can carry an AC20 if you want too.

[Koniving]

jordanfoy, on 10 January 2016 - 10:05 AM, said:

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Mauler.
Cataphract 4X.
Dire Wolf.
King Crab.
Banshee 3M (Think it was the 3M, the one with the 4 ballistics.)


Welcome to MWO.
In the mean time for the entertainment of anyone who looks this way:
Some Dakka Dakka.
My vids:

Spoiler

Jagermech.

Banshee.

Public test server Direwolf

(Just noticed: 9,000+ views?! Holy crap! Sadly so many dislikes because it represented "OP" and "pay to win" gimmicks because of how many months before the Cbill release...where everyone then realized it wasn't that much of an instant win gimmick.)
Warhawk: This isn't a dakka-fun build. Instead it's a "FWOOSH" and things die build.

Old video, but this gimmick works again! Dragon brawler!

King Crab; 6 MGs because awesomesauce.

Cataphract 4x fire support mech saves the day. (And yes I know, part of the match I was accidentally hitting allies as well as enemies; good thing to look out for). <-Old video.

Lordred's chase cams of me

Spoiler

Jagermech; twin LBX, twin MG, quad flamers.

Muromets. Twin LBX. Twin flamers. UAC/5.

And finally: Epic Jagermech. Because epic. Who needs quirks, gimmicks, etc., when you've got flamers, machine guns, shotguns with an autocannon and some skill?

[Leone]

So, not quite on the Banshee. You know, you even have a decent BNC-3E vid in the post... The 3M banshee is the classic laser build.

Also, if you don't mind taking small standard engines you can fit dual Uac5s in a few Shadowhawks, the Hunchback 4G, There's a highlander variant that can do it. Oh you've options.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 11 January 2016 - 06:00 AM.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

jordanfoy, on 10 January 2016 - 03:56 PM, said:

Thank you for all the information!.

I settled on snagging the King Crab 000. I have to say topping 900 damage regularly and popping into that 1k range every once in a while feels amazing.

Now I just have to wait for that Rifleman and hope it doesn't suck.

Rifleman will be alright, I think. But it's just Jagermech minus 5 tons. Nothing special. No variant with ECM or jump jets. No blinding speed.

To be fair, the Warhammer will have at least one healthy dakka competitor in its Black Widow hero variant. Not quite the same high mounts as the Jagermech, though.

Cataphract runs a similar problem with the mounts--too low.

Ebon Jaguar does dakka pretty well, but only has ONE high torso mounted ballistic hard point available. The arms are pretty WIDE, though, and close to cockpit level.

Really, though, the good autocannon-carrying mechs are already listed. I might add MAYBE the Shadow Hawk to that, for a high LT mount (and it's pretty cheap). Hunchback (IS or Clan, both CAN do some cool ballistic builds) is alright. Blackjack is OKAY, but doesn't really have the weight to do a lot. The BJ-1(C) kinda maxes it out with that AC/20, but I think that's better played on the BJ-1DC (25% generic ballistic cooldown, which also makes it a better Gauss mech). And the BJ-1/1(C)/1DC can do the dual AC/2 thing really well, but that's of limited value; that requires a LOT of face time to get decent damage. Marauder ain't a GREAT dakka mech, but two variants have multiple high torso ballistic mounts, and on the same side too. Dual-UAC/5 or triple-AC/5 is possible there, and asymmetrically too. Toss in JJs on the dual-UAC variant, because MOBILITY REASONS.

Timber Wolf CAN do dakka, but not particularly well I think.

That's about it.

[Koniving]

Leone, on 10 January 2016 - 06:45 PM, said:

So, not quite on the Banshee. You know, you even have a decent BNC-3E vid in the post... The 3M banshee is the classic laser build.

Also, if you don't mind taking small standard engines you can fit dual Uac5s in a few Shadowhawks, the Hunchback 4G, There's a highlander variant that can do it. Oh you've options.

~Leone.

Tells you how long it's been since I used it. Lost all fun when quriks came because only one viable build after that.
Only listed mechs good for 3 or more big booms.

[Sturmwolf]

I'm running the Marauder 3R with 3x AC5 and 4xMLs.
Absolute savage and fun to play. More agile than the King crab anyway. Don't really know about other mechs cause I'm also pretty new to the game.

[0111101]

jordanfoy, Clan autocannons are certainly trickier than their IS equivalents. What you're generally trading is front loaded damage (one projectile that connects and deals the weapon's full damage potential) for burst fire. Clan ACs fire in clusters of shells. The AC2 fires 1 shell, AC5 fires 2, AC10 fires 3, and AC20 fires 4. Because of this it is much harder to consistently aim for a single enemy mech's component at any significant range (especially when they're moving, your'e moving, or both) when compared to Inner Sphere ballistics which fire one shell for full damage. The upside to this is that Clan Ultra ACs come in every size, where the IS only gets a UAC5 and the rest are standard. You can double tap clan UACs to fire again during your reload period, but with a chance to jam the weapon.

So in short Clan ballistics are viable and usable but require more effort on the part of the pilot. Whether that effort is put toward getting into close range to make aiming easier or drawing and holding a bead is up to the user.

With that out of the way here's a few builds for you to check out. I mostly play Clan so apologies in advance if you were looking for Inner Sphere builds. (Also, my bad if you already knew the above about Clan ballistics - I only played one game during closed beta and let the game sit for a couple years before coming back and thought maybe you did the same)

Dual UAC10 Ebon Jaguar
Dual Gauss Ebon Jaguar
Dual UAC10 ER PPC Warhawk
Dual Gauss ER PPC Warhawk
Quad UAC10 Dire Wolf
Quintuple UAC5 Dire Wolf
Dual UAC10 Dual ER PPC Dire Wolf

[Elizander]

The Ilya Muromets can Dual Gauss up to 891m (with module) without losing damage and it can have 3 backup medium lasers aside from that. If you have one sitting around it's fun, though it's not really meta enough for me to recommend that you go out and buy it unless you really like Cataphracts.

[Atreus Ofiach]

0111101, on 11 January 2016 - 10:49 AM, said:

With that out of the way here's a few builds for you to check out. I mostly play Clan so apologies in advance if you were looking for Inner Sphere builds. (Also, my bad if you already knew the above about Clan ballistics - I only played one game during closed beta and let the game sit for a couple years before coming back and thought maybe you did the same)

I left the game at that point also so your post was extremely helpful. So there's actually no built in spread? its just a matter of steady hands? If that is the case I might actually look into clan dakka.

[Elizander]

jordanfoy, on 11 January 2016 - 11:38 AM, said:

I left the game at that point also so your post was extremely helpful. So there's actually no built in spread? its just a matter of steady hands? If that is the case I might actually look into clan dakka.

Yes. Just think of a laser with the pulses spread further apart. They break up into 1/2/3/4 pellets from AC 2/5/10/20 for clams. They used to be further apart and more pellets but an updated adjusted it to make it a little easier to use.

[Atreus Ofiach]

Elizander, on 11 January 2016 - 11:43 AM, said:

Yes. Just think of a laser with the pulses spread further apart. They break up into 1/2/3/4 pellets from AC 2/5/10/20 for clams. They used to be further apart and more pellets but an updated adjusted it to make it a little easier to use.

Obviously clan dakka is going to use alot more ammo. What ammo numbers should I look to hit for say an C-AC5/C-UAC5 or a C-AC10/C-UAC10?

Also just noticing something as I'm playing with the King Crab more and more. It seems like Dire Wolves don't stand a chance 1 on 1 against my KGC-000. I'm not even torso twisting when fighting those guys solo because I wanted to test it out. So far even a fully(seemed fully anyway) dakka Direwolf just melted in a 1 on 1 face tank fight. Is it just that I'm facing people that can't aim or what?

[Jody Von Jedi]

One shot from a Clan Autocanon is broken into multiple pellets. It's still just one shot though.

Fire one shot from an IS AC/5=(1) 5 damage pellet.
Fire one shot from a Clan AC/5=(2) 2.5 damage pellets.

So, Clans A/Cs don't use more ammo, they just break each shot into multiple pellets.