I play my Dragon 1C more than any other mech because it's fun.
It absolutely needs an XL Engine. You will never die because of a side torso hit in a Dragon. Before giving a ton of cbills buying the XL I made sure to check why I died when I died in my Dragon. I was NEVER killed with a sidetorso missing. After buying the XL, I also never died because of a blown side torso.
Having an XL thought creates a small 'problem'. The problem is that you are now going fast. Going fast means that you may have a tendency to go in a fight before a frontline has been established. This will get you killed. Lights can avoid a lot of damage with their small size and speed but a Dragon has the speed but NOT a small size. If you ran ahead of your team because of your speed the most likely scenario is that the enemy team will spot you first and they will focus fire on you first. A Dragon won't survive a head on attack by 2-3 enemies even if you are fast.
To keep me from doing this mistake I press "5" on my keyboard when the match begins and try to stick with the Heavies. {exception: if it is a small conquest map, sometimes I may run up to cap with a light and in the totally boring Terra Therma in Assault mode I always call for other light mechs in my team to make a lance and go base cap the others while they are fighting with the rest of the team around the volcano, it almost always works too}
So after a frontline has been established and your team starts to exchange fire with the others, THEN it's Dragon time! You now have some C3 info on your minimap about enemy positions and most of the times you can see if any enemy mechs are singled out. You can get in and out, hitting them hard and hiding into cover before anyone notices you. A Dragon is extremely dangerous when it doesn't draw attention. You absolutely need to learn when to leave your cover and when not to leave your cover.
On a 1vs1 fight, a Dragon can outturn a single Assault {repeat: yes, it can!}. Especially a fast Dragon can eat Stalkers for breakfast, unless you manage to stand in front of them for more than 1 second.
Most of the time you need to equip your Dragon with burst weapons because you are NOT going to be able to keep sustained fire on a target. You need to be always moving. So I have settled on 4x Medium Pulse Lasers, SRM6 and UAC5 because they all manage to do enough burst damage just before you hide behind the next cover.
A Dragon is the cavalry of mech warfare. You flank, you chase stragglers and you rear torso kill anyone you can get behind. When things get hot you get out of there, you never stand to fight fair. Not playing fair is a Dragon pilot's basic tactic. If you play a Dragon well, you will get many kills because it will be you giving out the fatal hits.
Because a Dragon always goes after wounded mechs, you absolutely need to utilize your target info screen more than any other mech I believe. Before leaping out of cover you MUST know exactly which parts of your enemy's mech are the most vulnerable and position your mech {you do have the speed to achieve that easily} so that all your weapons, especially your pulse laser fire, hit there. Dragons don't chip out armor, Dragons are the best for exploiting the stripped parts of the enemy because they have the speed AND the firepower to finish the job even if the enemy torso twists and tries to hide, use cover etc. He may avoid the Assault that stripped his armor with heavy fire from 500m away but he cannot avoid the 90-100KPH Dragon coming for his now exposed torso.
So any module that allows you to get the enemy info screen to appear faster is a good module for a Dragon pilot. Your fire should most of the time hit exposed components or at the very least low armor parts. Leave stripping most of the armor to your teammates.
If you make the kills faster, you help your team because their heavy firepower can be used for another enemy and they won't lose precious seconds chasing a cowering near-dead enemy. Your job as a Dragon pilot is to finish what they started.
Another tactics is to use your weaknesses to your advantage. What is the single most important weakness of the Dragon often mentioned in these forums? Its big Center Torso. Sometimes I've been in matches where an enemy sees me as an easy kill {I guess giving too much credit to forum advice can do that to you} and he gets so much into "chase to kill" mode that he will hunt me wherever I go. So the simplest thing to do is use your speed, let him chase you right into your teams mechs. It is extremely funny to see enemy pilots following me trying to 'get' me only to turn the corner to crash into 3 of my teammates mechs. He then dies horribly and you are laughing all the way. You may even get the kill shot because after you turn around to help your teammates his armor may be stripped and you can use all your weapons for the final kill. Extremely satisfying I must say.
So to summarize:
1} Get an XL Engine. Try to create your build in smurfy's so that you know exactly what engine rating you need because they are WAY expensive. You cannot afford a mistake when buying an XL.
2} You need burst weapons. Do NOT use continuous fire weapons. slow rate of fire weapons. Anything that requires you to look at your opponent for more than 1 sec does not do well in a Dragon.
3} Take any modules that allow you to get enemy information faster.
4} Do NOT run head first into battle. Wait until there is a fronline established and try to get in either flank. Wait there until there has been some fire exchange and there are damaged mechs in the enemy team. Do NOT engage fully armored mechs.
5} If they spot you change position. If they chase you lead them to your teammates. Laugh while you see them throw themselves at your teammates fire lanes trying to get you.
6} Never just stand there when there are nearby enemies. Use speed as light mechs do, to avoid damage.
7} When trying to get to an enemy's back, make absolutely sure that he is the last one of the lot and that there is noone further back to see you get in there. Many times I've been shooting at the mech at the back of the main enemy force and the other enemy mechs don't even know that I'm there because they have their backs turned to me. If you do kill someone like this, don't get trigger happy and try to do it again because they have their backs turned to you. Most players after you surprise-kill them that way, will use the chat to tell their team that you are behind them. You need to hide immediately so that they won't spot you. If you do it right they will ignore you {because even if they look they won't see anything} and continue firing your teammates who are in the opposite direction. Then you can leave cover and kill the next one and so on.
8} Never fight fair. You need to fight preoccupied mechs, mechs that don't even know you are there, damaged mechs and stragglers. Leave the brawling to the brawlers. Your job is to decrease the Time to Kill {TTK} the enemy, so that your teammates can redirect their fire faster. That's your main job. Your late game job is to reach and mop up stragglers, base cappers and so on.
9} Pulse lasers are good against fast lights too. Go for the legs.
I hope that these guidelines help. Although I enjoy being the lone Dragon in most of the fights.
It requires a completely different mindset to play properly, a mindset that most players don't bother to learn. So they stick to other easier choices thus Dragons are a rare sight on the battlefield but that doesn't mean that they are bad. They just have a harder learning curve, way different battle role than what most people are used to when playing shooters.
4
), AC20 (5 tons ammo), 4 MLas, 11 dbl. caps (all in engine).
