13 replies to this topic

[x x x GOBLIN x x x]

It's in the promotions, but i kept saying for myself that a stormcrow is better in evey aspect, so how is the nova? And what builds are viable with that mech?

[Mercworks]

Absolutely. First off, it's not a Stormcrow, but they're built to do very different things. A Crow is the ultimate missile boat, particularly for that tonnage. You can fit 5 Streak-SRM 6s in it and still have plenty of ammo and electronic goodies. The two big drawbacks are the lack of jump jets and the tall, easily spotted frame. The Nova is a squat little puncher that can carry 6 ER Small Lasers or ER Small Pulse Lasers in each arm and is able to bounce around the map with ease.
They're both great mechs, and I have both in my stable. It all depends on what you want to accomplish that day.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

Well, Stormcrow can't poptart can it?

Dual ppc
or
12 er small (+mg)

are the most common builds.

[epikt]

Objectively, the Stormcrow is better. But I love the Nova. And it will become better in the future after being rescaled. At the moment it's a bit big, thus a bit vulnerable (easily defanged by cutting the HUGE arms).

I mostly use 3 builds : 12 small lasers, 10 small pulses and 2 PPCs.
I don't recommend using MGs, it deals almost no damage (even crit damage) and forces you to face your enemy (bad!). Better mount more DHS.

[Leone]

I love the twelve laser Blackhawk. I find the medium laser build runs too hot for me, but love the damage capacity of the twelve Er smalls plus stuffs builds. Fun fact, PGI has a sixteen weapon limit on mechs. The Nova's how I found that out. Better at brawling than the Ryoken, the Blackhawk is however slower, has locked jump jets and doesn't utilize endosteel for a less effecient build capacity. That said, I rarely take my Ryoken out unless I'm narcing folk.

As for the 'plus stuffs' alluded to previously... While I do enjoy triple ams for the awesome lrm-brella effect, I hafta say that the four machinegun build is the most vicious. Enough machineguns do a decent amount of heatless damage, giving you an edge against your opponent. The consummate brawler takes machineguns.

~Leone

Edited by Leone, 19 January 2016 - 05:15 PM.

[mailin]

epikt, on 19 January 2016 - 03:47 PM, said:

Objectively, the Stormcrow is better. But I love the Nova. And it will become better in the future after being rescaled. At the moment it's a bit big, thus a bit vulnerable (easily defanged by cutting the HUGE arms).

I mostly use 3 builds : 12 small lasers, 10 small pulses and 2 PPCs.
I don't recommend using MGs, it deals almost no damage (even crit damage) and forces you to face your enemy (bad!). Better mount more DHS.

The Nova build that works for me is 6 small pulse, 4 mgs, 1.5 tons of ammo and a clan targeting computer I. Four MGs is the minimum for a mech, and once the armor is gone they tear stuff up. I LOVE this mech and this build. The only down side is that you must use cover to get into range for your weapons. The jump jets are awesome. I actually prefer the Nova over the Stormcrow (I have both mastered). Stormcrows are a primary target, whereas the Nova is secondary, and if the Nova is close to assaults, which is where they need to be, you can really mess up the enemy while he's trying to take out Stalkers and Dire Wolves. First time out in this build I got 8 kills. Nuff said.

Edited by mailin, 19 January 2016 - 05:13 PM.

[x x x GOBLIN x x x]

Leone, on 19 January 2016 - 05:01 PM, said:

I love the twelve laser Blackhawk. I find the medium laser build runs too hot for me, but love the damage capacity of the twelve Er smalls plus stuffs builds. Fun fact, PGI has a sixteen weapon limit on mechs. The Nova's how I found that out. Better at brawling than the Ryoken, the Blackhawk is however slower, has locked jump jets and doesn't utilize endosteel for a less effecient build capacity. That said, I rarely take my Ryoken out unless I'm narcing folk.

As for the 'plus stuffs' alluded to previously... While I do enjoy triple ams for the awesome lrm-brella effect, I hafta say that the four machinegun build is the most vicious. Enough machineguns do a decent amount of heatless damage, giving you an edge against your opponent. The consummate brawler takes machineguns.

~Leone

I think that to run 12 med lasers it should have a special quirk like (-25% heat fromn medium lasers) this would take out 1.5 points of heat fromn each medium laser. And also increasing the -damage per overheat % to 20 instead of 10, it would make a viable 10 laser build, but even so the 12 wouldn't happen.

[Havyek]

The Stormcrow is a better 'Mech for the weight class. Faster, more weapons loadout options, better hitboxes.

Now, the Nova is also a very good 'Mech, but it's a laser boat. Trying to do much else with it is asking for problems. It runs 6 MPL, 12 erSLAS, LPL+erML builds bery well, but due to the design I find that it gets legged and loses its side torsos VERY easily.
It can be a very hard hitting 'Mech when you can assist any of your teammates without getting focused on, but one the shots start coming your way you better find something to hide behind.

[x x x GOBLIN x x x]

Havyek, on 19 January 2016 - 06:22 PM, said:

The Stormcrow is a better 'Mech for the weight class. Faster, more weapons loadout options, better hitboxes.

Now, the Nova is also a very good 'Mech, but it's a laser boat. Trying to do much else with it is asking for problems. It runs 6 MPL, 12 erSLAS, LPL+erML builds bery well, but due to the design I find that it gets legged and loses its side torsos VERY easily.
It can be a very hard hitting 'Mech when you can assist any of your teammates without getting focused on, but one the shots start coming your way you better find something to hide behind.

I realy like versatile builds for most of ranges and situations (since a find that better in pugs than meta builds that relies on the team) i was able to get a good 5small lasers, 1 lrm20 with 3 ton ammo, 2 mg with 1 ton ammo, and 2 medium lasers build, sadly it doesn't do much of alpha damage and relies on the arm with 5 small lasers way too often.

[Takashi Uchida]

If you're goal is to have fun and experience different playstyles, pretty much every chassis is worth it (well, maybe except the Vindicator.. jk ).

I have a couple different philosophies when building the Nova. I think the biggest disadvantage is, well that it's BIG for the weight class. It is very hittable and prone to disarmament, but it potentially is a fantastic backstabber.

ERPPC poptarter: Put the guns in the torsos. Jump. Snipe. Repeat.

"Regular Medium:" A potent amount of lasers that you can fire all without the ghost heat penalty. You are obviously better off doing this kind of thing on the Stormcrow, but it is playable.

12-laser monster: 6 lasers in each arm. You can go small, small pulse, or medium. The small laser version is actually quite heat manageable.12 mediums is extremely hot. Any of these builds will punish you severely if you slip up and fire all your lasers. You will either shut down for 10 minutes (and then yourself blow up, probably), or you will shut down for 10 minutes and be an easy kill. With good fire discipline (and maybe a cool shot) you deal pretty good DPS up close and beat up bigger mechs. The SPL version is a good backstabber and a nightmare on maps like the Swamp. I recommend small or small pulse over medium not just because of heat, but because the arms are too long to be very useful at longer range (your lasers will get caught on terrain).

Missiles: I don't use these on the Nova. Presently there is only one omnipod that can mount this kind of weapon (and only one weapon slot) that is available to the general public. There is a special version (D) that is currently not available to the general player base that has an arm missile slot. Maybe once that comes out I'll play with Streak-12s + lasers.

Autocannons: I've had some success with a single UAC10 or UAC5 + lasers but those kinds of builds are better suited to the Stormcrow and even Shadowcat. I'd rather stick with energy weapons. On these mechs where there isn't a lot of tonnage, lasers are usually your best bet.

[Leone]

Oh right, I forgot I made a Video showing off four Blackhawks in CW. Pretty normal pug drop starting with my silliest build (sans the full flamer one,) and moving on up.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 20 January 2016 - 03:44 AM.

[Yankee Kitsune]

For the most damage dealt event I relied on a Nova Prime running 3 ER mediums in each arm with max armor and DHS. I agree with the size and hit box issues but this build did quite well as I could engage at good ranges and stagger my arm fire when I got hot to avoid shutdowns. You're better off poking but the recycle time is good enough that you can survive a knife fight.

If you're gonna run a Nova you need to master jump turns and how to best use your hardwired jump jets. You turn a lot faster in the air so practice making strafing runs on bigger mechs, hop as soon as you go by and turn hard at an angle behind them before landing and taking off. Against assaults with poor twists you can drive then nuts and hopefully expose their back to friends.

[SnagaDance]

I'm also getting them this sale (need a few more C-bills though, have been spending heavily lately).

Though with my large number of mechs still to be Mastered I might wait until they've been rescaled

[TAKTCOM]

Each of clan meds have his own drawbacks: Stormcrow lacks jumpjets, Ice Ferret lacks jumpjets and free tonnage, ShadowCat overwhelmed fixed JJ + MASK and have problem with free tonnage too, Nova is too big and bring 6,5 tons of fixed HS and JJ which means ... right, all same - lacks free tonnage.
Сoncretely about Nova. As true said above, this is laserboat. You make try use balistics but all you have is 15 tons free space. Less then Adder, yep. You have 1 missle slot so Nova obviously not SRM/LRM boat.
I use 10 smol + 4 MG build it is fun but big map dependence. Well i can't say that Nova is bad. OK for me.

Edited by TAKTCOM, 20 January 2016 - 11:54 AM.