49 replies to this topic

[VirtualSmitty]

It's not useless, but it is hard mode.

[Kin3ticX]

Its not useless but its not a great 'mech either. The hardpoints are all mid level and it has a mishmash of hardpoint types. It makes a decent brawler but not a good midrange or long range fire support mech.

[JunkyardJack]

Precentor Martial Jarcaddy, on 21 January 2016 - 07:25 AM, said:

It's not useless, but it is hard mode.

Definitely agree, but once you put the Cbills into the builds and get the Expert unlocks it less so hard mode. I love the fact that it takes time to really learn to pilot this 'Mech. And once you got it down, you can just melt people.

[Cato Zilks]

I normally do quite well with this mech (~600-700 damage), it is my go to for making money. Good pinpoint DPS and heat management, with the SRMs as finisher when armor is gone.


[smurfy]http://mwo.smurfy-ne...f27b58d222f823d[/smurfy]

[Cato Zilks]

It is also worth noting that the VA is a better Lrm boat than most because it has great quirks:
MISSILE COOLDOWN: 25.00 % MISSILE VELOCITY: 10.00 % MISSILE HEAT GENERATION: -10.00 %

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...6ec09366a0376ae

The closest comparison from a Catapult is the C4:
MISSILE COOLDOWN: 20.00 % MISSILE VELOCITY: 10.00 % MISSILE HEAT GENERATION: -10.00 %

The C4 has more missile tubes, but lacks space for ammo, artemis, and has a slower rate of fire.

[Aeon Veritas]

Cato Zilks, on 25 January 2016 - 05:25 PM, said:

It is also worth noting that the VA is a better Lrm boat than most because it has great quirks:
MISSILE COOLDOWN: 25.00 % MISSILE VELOCITY: 10.00 % MISSILE HEAT GENERATION: -10.00 %

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...6ec09366a0376ae

The closest comparison from a Catapult is the C4:
MISSILE COOLDOWN: 20.00 % MISSILE VELOCITY: 10.00 % MISSILE HEAT GENERATION: -10.00 %

The C4 has more missile tubes, but lacks space for ammo, artemis, and has a slower rate of fire.

Very interesting approach to use those quirks.
Though i think a LRM boat can quite safely run a XL-engine.
I would run this loadout ON1-VA - LRM-Carrier.
It has a little less ammo, but better speed and close range defence capability.

If I read the forum correctly i come to the conclusion that the ON1-M is somewhat discredited.
Can someone maybe explain this? Is the LBX so bad, or is it the general hardpoint layout?
I think something like this ON1-M looks quite useful.

Well I have to admit that i can atm only look at the paper, since i don't own any Orions.
But Im looking forward to buy them as soon as I get the C-Bills.

[Cato Zilks]

The ON1-M was the first mech I bought. With the quirks + lbx cooldown module + fast fire, it has a 47% cooldown boost. It is an auto-shotgun.

I like it, but I never fell in love with it. It needs a STD engine to brawl, and it is very ammo dependent. Because the LBX fires so quick, you will want to bring 3-4 tons of ammo (60-80 shots). The LBX is a good finishing weapon, but should be paired with some strong pinpoint weapons. SRM's are also good finishing weapons, but hard to rely on as a primary. Artemis does help with the spread, but the range is limiting for a main strike weapon. Thus, laser choice is key for success with the M. I have had some luck with ON1-M but I like the double UAC5's on the ON1-V better. I also enjoy ON1-M - LRM, I find the LRM's can be very useful in addressing the range problem while opening up some holes in the armor for the auto-shotgun.

If you can keep the ON1-M healthy till late in a match when many enemies have shredded armor, it is a beast.

Edited by Cato Zilks, 26 January 2016 - 01:31 PM.

[Cato Zilks]

On a side note, many people in these forums trash the LBX as a bad weapon. This is wrong headed, the LBX is like a longer range SRM with an increased crit chance. If it hits unarmored sections it will destroy weapons and components super quick limiting enemy return fire. But as I said above, this makes the choice of pinpoint weapons more important because if you can make holes in the enemy's armor the LBX will exploit them.

[Aeon Veritas]

Wow, it's as if Fortuna would have heard me.
Here we have the Orion on sale

@Cato: many thanks for your input, I will consider it as I play around with the builds.

As an bit extreme variant of your suggestions one could use this ON1-M - LBX + dual LPL with an empty left side to shield with.
It's possible to remove Artemis and upgrade to SRM 6 for more damage at the cost of more spread.

[JunkyardJack]

Dont LRM me please, on 20 January 2016 - 08:01 PM, said:

Your right, I was wrong. I put 1 AC10, 2 SRM6, 4 Mlas and an STD300 with my Orion K and it's working perfectly. Doing over 500 now, I'm learning. I think I'm learning from being more patient. Less poking and more positioning, but this is only possible when your team moves with you.

AC10 as the DPS (and medium range suppressant), SRMs as the close range face smash and the lasers as the armor drill. Works lovely. I also have speed tweak so 69.7kph is nice.

Yes! That's exactly what we wanted to hear! Is it not rewarding just smashing someone's face in when you know they're sitting there thinking they got it in the bag!? Or when they turn a corner and you're there to greet them with two rather low heat Alphas!? I'm just as guilty of running "meta" builds and 'Mechs as others, but when I strap in to any of my Orions (Currently Mastering all the Clan IIC variants) I do not feel as if I'm at a disadvantage or lacking. Still take an Orion on almost all of my CW decks, don't feel gimped or weak and never will.

[C E Dwyer]

Davegt27, on 18 January 2016 - 09:05 PM, said:

I have a hard time getting 200 dmg in a lot of my Mechs these days

This guy was pretty good but I don’t think he plays anymore




I had to make my Orions into missle boats so I could get them mastered

That Orion also wasn't going against clan mech or any of the current meta

Funny thing about his rant about how bad the game is, its even more lazor boredom now.

Edited by Cathy, 04 February 2016 - 12:05 PM.

[knight-of-ni]

After mastering my three Orions, I would describe them as "disagreeing with my playstyle preference".

I wouldn't call the mech useless. If you aren't doing decent in it, that usually means you are not piloting the mech to its strengths.

Haven't piloted the mech since quirks were introduced, but I'd probably take full advantage of that if I ever took my Orions out again.

The thing's got relatively wide side torsos and tends to lose them quickly. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means you take on extra risk if you choose and XL. Standard 300 is what I'd recommend in this mech.

[Exard3k]

Great Mech, mastered all except for Orion-K (lack of focus in Quirks). Easily one mech that really can take a beating, even more than most assault mechs while having a decent speed of 70 with a std 300 engine (I run std 295 with all variants) and good flexibility in weapon loadout across the variants.
Orion is very much underrated, few people play it and I seldomly see other Orions on the battlegrid. Hitboxes are a big problem as well as relatively low weapon hardpoints but they are compensated by awesome quirks.

Orions in brawler spec are tanky beats while having SRM/AC20 like an Atlas but even more deadly because of missile and ballistic quirks (-25% CD SRM24 anyone?) and I'm not even talking about going way faster.

Whenever I see an enemy Orion on the grid, I treat it as a fast Atlas.

If you want a laser boat, the Orion obviously is the wrong mech. It's a mech if you want to use all three weapon types at once.


P.S.: I even get >200 dmg when suiciding into enemy furball. I don't know what the OP is doing, but it's worse than suiciding.

Edited by Exard3k, 06 February 2016 - 03:21 AM.

[TAKTCOM]

I had one, and I sold it. Too low hand hardpoints, useful only in closecombat. And i don't like Orion like brower, too big, too sluggish.

[4ries]

Well, I kinda know what you are getting at but I feel like you're playing it wrong with this mech. I also have 3 Orions and am now in the process of eliting them.

Yes, they have lowslung arm hardpoints, yes, the ballistic hardpoint is also at a bad position (a bit higher up then the arms...) but its not a bad mech.

As someone else stated this is a mech with all three types of hardpoints. Missile, energy and ballistic. This mech is foremost not suited to boat ANYTHING... Ok?

What it is good at is fighting from the secondline. Assist other heavy's that have alot of firepower, assist other assault mechs, assist everything and you'll do fine. You can get solo kills with this mech but its not that easy but it can be done.

I have pulled 800 or over 800 damage in my Orion ON1-K which has 2 LPL, 1 ac2 and 2 artemis lrm10.

I have put a number of screenshots on imgur...:
http://imgur.com/a/A00AL

[Mazzyplz]

i think 195 dmg in 8 seconds is pretty cool. it works fine for me

that's the equivalent of 3x 65dmg alphas

and i wasn't even using coolshots there

[Mazzyplz]

in my experience orion is not built for mid range confrontation. you can go in close and be a close frontline support.
or you can go to the very back and use gauss + erll for a long range support. IMO

the low arms aren't great for trading on the same terms with many mechs in most terrains

also this LRM build is surprisingly good

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...bede15b3f1d6aab

Edited by Mazzyplz, 08 June 2016 - 03:01 PM.

[Aeon Veritas]

Mazzyplz, on 08 June 2016 - 02:40 PM, said:

also this LRM build is surprisingly good

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...bede15b3f1d6aab

For LRM I would suggest to swap the FF-armor to Standard in favour of a XL300-engine.
ON1-VA - LRM

But I myself had more success and fun with the SRM-Brawler.
ON1-VA - SRM

[Mazzyplz]

Aeon Veritas, on 08 June 2016 - 09:30 PM, said:

For LRM I would suggest to swap the FF-armor to Standard in favour of a XL300-engine.
ON1-VA - LRM

But I myself had more success and fun with the SRM-Brawler.
ON1-VA - SRM

yep! actually the lrm build i posted i just made by memory cause i dont run it, it's someone elses. but you made it here way better really.
i tried the srm version but the thing i dont like is that when i drove it the arms would tend to fall off first leaving me weaponless

[Mazzyplz]

actually i just noticed that in your LRM build the case does nothing because it's an XL engine. if that sidetorso is crit then you explode and die anyways.

moved the ammo around, got rid of case, downgraded the MPL for medlas and added command console on top of BAP, for easier lurming without the hassle of using tag.

lost 2 dmg from MPL but get back some range and the locks acquisition will be faster. i think this is a win-win

also; i noticed there's a lot of 1/2 tons of ammo. just so you can fill the slots. why?
i think this is actually worse because if someone machineguns your sidetorso the chances it will hit a slot with ammo in it as opposed to an empty slot are greater. i got rid of the half tons of ammo, and tried to get free space on that sidetorso by moving some of that ammo to the other side.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...63e9eb7c04c7732


not trying to be a wise guy btw. the build i had made was way worse than yours.

just noticing there's some room for improvement still that we might have overlooked.

Edited by Mazzyplz, 12 June 2016 - 06:18 PM.