14 replies to this topic

[2xShockFist]

Hey guys! I've been meaning to expand my horrizons and leave the trenches of the Light Mechs. I've been wanting to expand to Mediums since it feels like a natural step up from Lights. My question is simple: Which Clan Medium would you suggest?

I've searched everywhere but the oppinions I find are half a year old and don't know if they still stand up or almost all discussion I find is about IS mediums like the Hunchback.

What Im looking for is a something along the lines of versatility. Right now I have my eyes on the Stormcrow, but don't really know how it stands up compared to it's counterparts or if there's a better option. Thanks, guys!

[BaconCouch]

Stormcrow and Nova are both good.

Stormcrow is a tougher bird, good skirmisher, or good for splat builds.

Nova runs small pulse laser spam like a champ.

[Thunderchild]

Everyone will suggest the Metacrow but I've been having good success with Shadowcasts (and they are on sale now) as well.
Either play agressive support (ECM/MPL/SRMs) or go for some LPL's.

But tonnage wise everything shadowcat can do stormcrow can do better (xpt ECM).

[2xShockFist]

I also heard about the Nova, but I get a lot of mixxed oppinions on it (forum and blogs), from being a great mech with lots of zappy lazers or death to that it heats too much and what it does is nothing special.

[Axel Sprocket]

For a clan medium, I would suggest Shadowcats. They've got jump jets, ECM and decent weapon hardpoints.

[epikt]

I'm a Nova enthusiast but I'll be honest here: except for the jumpjets, the Stormcrow is just better. It's also more versatile, as it allows missiles and ballistic oriented builds, while the Nova is extremely energy oriented.

Have a try with the trial version, it's well made and will give you a first impression.
Also, watch Kanajashi's F2P series. He's piloting Stormcrows and shows a wide variety of builds.

[2xShockFist]

Thanks for the link, Epikt! I'll be sure to check it out.

So the big three are the Shadowcats, MetaCrows and Novas from the feel of things. How .does the shadowcat differ from the crow?

Edited by 2xShockFist, 14 January 2016 - 07:34 AM.

[mogs01gt]

2xShockFist, on 14 January 2016 - 07:33 AM, said:

Thanks for the link, Epikt! I'll be sure to check it out.
So the big three are the Shadowcats, MetaCrows and Novas from the feel of things. How .does the shadowcat differ from the crow?

There is no "big three", there is simply the Crow. All of the others function just fine and are a bit better than IS mediums but the Crow is on a whole other level.

If you have the cbills, get the crow! Its extremely versatile! Also, it has more weapon space than a Summoner..

[epikt]

2xShockFist, on 14 January 2016 - 07:33 AM, said:

Thanks for the link, Epikt! I'll be sure to check it out.

My pleasure.
Also watch his tutorials, they're really informative.

[Dakkaface]

2xShockFist, on 14 January 2016 - 07:33 AM, said:

So the big three are the Shadowcats, MetaCrows and Novas from the feel of things. How .does the shadowcat differ from the crow?

In general, there is really only the 'Crow.

Novas are decent now, but because they rely so heavily on masses of medium or small lasers, any adjustments to heat gen or ghost heat hit it very hard. It's swung all over the place since it's release. There are some very nasty builds you can make in a Nova, but in general it's limited by it's huge size, geometry and it's hardwired layout. We might see a little uptick in Nova viability once it gets rescaled, but for now it's bigger than a Cauldron Born.

The Shadow Cat is okay but has the opposite problem of the Nova in that it doesn't have enough energy points, nor enough pod space. It has ECM, great hardpoint locations, and it's fast, but doesn't have the space for a lot of weapons. It works okay as a skirmisher, but it's hard to make a build that's just all around solid.

The Stormcrow is just all around awesome. It's fast, it has a ton of podspace, it's the top of the medium bracket at 55 tons and can carry more armor than any other Clan medium, and it's mounts are well positioned next to or above the cockpit. Literally it's only failing is a lack of jump jets and/or ECM, which doesn't hamper it all that much.

[Rattler85]

Stormcrow would be my first pick and the Nova second.

[Sewman]

I've got Crows and Nova's mastered and I can tell you that my elo took a massive hit trying to pilot those Nova's. All of their most dangerous builds favor short range brawling but the chassis doesn't have the armor to handle brawling so what you end up with is some unbelievably high damage games when ever you can catch a brawl that's already in session and everybody is distracted. DPS really is pretty great with small lasers or spulse builds.

It's a mech that boats lasers well so if you build to it's strengths, then it becomes a mech that gets attracted to brawly situations where you'll end up either dying alot or absolutely cleaning up and kill stealing securing. I find that it's feast or famine depending on the map.

Can it be fun? Oh yah, absolute scalpel if you catch an assault looking the other way. You can also build a legitimate erppc poptart if you don't fee like using all of the arm laser hardpoints. I certainly don't regret buying my Novas. My kill/death ratio and win/loss ratio suffered greatly but it's still fun to play. The storm crow really does have the high mounted hard points and load out diversity to influence the outcome of a match to a much greater degree.

Edited by Sewman, 20 January 2016 - 12:39 AM.

[Doctor Dinosaur]

Hello there, I got two questions regarding the Stormcrow: Which variant should I pick (I like AMS, but the prime variant only got energy hardpoints...), second, can you give me a link or search query for the variant descriptions? Is there a method behind these names (Prime, A, 7K etc.)?

[no one]

MadElderGod, on 21 January 2016 - 12:16 PM, said:

Which variant should I pick

It doesn't matter with Clan Omni 'Mechs. Excluding the center torso, all sections of clan omnis are interchangeable. Ultimately you need to buy one of each variant if you want to master the chassis, but aside from the cost of buying your omni pods the variant you pick doesn't matter.
Resources:
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/
https://www.mechspecs.com/

[martian]

Definitely the Ryoken.

As for variants, it doesn't matter which one you buy - the Center torso is identical in all variants, so just buy three different models. You will buy all Omnipods as you will need them (and/or swap them between your 'Mechs).