33 replies to this topic

[Paqu]

Hello!

I just started playing this game couple days ago and I now have my 25+ games done with trial mechs and over 20 million c bills on the bank. I have went throught every available trial mech and Shadow Cat and Stormcrow has stood out for me.

I have read bunch of posts on the forums which mech should be the first pick and I see Hunchback and Timber Wolf being somewhat the most popular ones. However I didn't particularly like either one.

Hunchback was overall pretty good, but when I looked the other variants besides the trial one they all seem to be bit too slow for my taste. As often than not I seem to end up in a bad spot where I need to get out fast and I guess thats why I was doing so horribly with the Assault mechs.

All variants of the Shadow Cat and Stormcrow seems to be pretty fast and also there seems to be 3 variants of both where I dont have to use those long range rockets. I just dont like using them at all and I hate being at the receiving end of them.

I was thinking about starting off with the Stormcrow SCR-C instead of the Shadow Cat simply because I can usually earn more money with the Stormcrow per match.

Shadow Cat with the jetpack on the other hand was a lot of fun to use and thats why I was planning it to be my second mech. Or should I first take and level up the three variants of the Stormcrow and then move to Shadow Cat?

So how does this plan sound for my first mech? Also if someone could give an example of a good build for the Stormcrow SCR-C I would apreciate it a lot as I dont really understand what I should put on which slot, how much armor and stuff. Just so I could get the idea.

Thanks in advance!
Paqu

[Ruhkil]

either is a fine choice for a first mech. the shadowcat has ecm and can run some really mean brawling builds with machine guns if you build it right. however one issue the shadowcat has is that it is very fragile. One good alpha from an assault can really damage or outright destroy a side torso of your mech. The stormcrow by contrast has a bit better durability and can mount any type of weapon loadout in the game. you can be an lrm boat a ppc gauss sniper and laser brawler or laser sniper with the stormcrow which the shadowcat lacks the tonnage to do . If it were me choosing again id go stormcrow for its durability and versatility. the other thing is you have to eventually think about community warfare though which you will need a dropdeck of at the moment 260 tons total split across 4 mechs if you buy the shadowcats you will have to buy Warhawks next to round out your drop deck if you buy stormcrows timberwolves are the obvious choice.

[Ingga Raokai]

I cannot really give builds as I don't have stormcrow, and shadow cat turns out to be "meh" for me.

A small advice on armor is to allocate most to the front side like below.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...4ed3c26cda2e248
(I took off a few armor from head to round up the tonnage leftover, you can take off from legs though, just balance them)

[Ruhkil]

a good build i used to use on my stormcrow was two med lasers in the torsos one large pulse laser or a ppc in one arm and a large ballistic like a clan UAC 20 or gauss rifle in the other arm. 3 tons of ammo for the ballistic

[TercieI]

Stormcrow. Good mech, great hit boxes. Can do energy, missiles or a big ballistic. The Shadow Cat is meh at best. Hard point and tonnage starved and just generally underwhelming.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Stormcrow would be better than Shadow Cats to start off since you'd want to be making more money per match so that you can more quickly amass mechs.

I'd buy the Stormcrow first then get a Shadow Cat instead of buying all 3 of one variant to elite. I like having a bit more diversity so things don't get stale, you can go and elite one later.

I'll edit in some good builds once I come up with them. Currently I was running 6 small pulse lasers and a UAC20 on the Stormcrow.

EDIT:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ced0af57cb54f72

There is the loadout. If you find it running too hot you can swap out a small pulse laser for another heat sink or you can swap to using all ER small lasers and throw in 3 more heatsinks, just set it up to your playstyle for what you need. With the 6 small pulse lasers and UAC20 its great at backstabbing or quick hit and runs. You just run in, fire your shot, double tap with the UAC20 and go cool off a bit and get out before you get spotted. If you cut out some lasers you won't have as much damage per shot but you can get into a brawl and keep it up without burning up as fast.

It requires the B variant omnipod for the right arm, you can just buy those as parts though, so no massive expenses there.

Edited by Dakota1000, 23 January 2016 - 07:35 AM.

[TercieI]

A better idea for your first SCR would be to go all energy. Buy the prime and run 2LPL in STs and ERMLs in head and RA.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

TercieI, on 23 January 2016 - 07:41 AM, said:

A better idea for your first SCR would be to go all energy. Buy the prime and run 2LPL in STs and ERMLs in head and RA.

Guess it all depends on if he likes brawling or skirmishing.

[Rogue Jedi]

I persionaly do not think taking the SCR as a first Mech is a good idea, it is one of the best MEchs in the game, and could teach you some bad habits without really teaching many good ones, also most Mechs will feel like a downgrade after spending a few days in the SCR.

while I personally prefer the Shadow Cat for its mobility from the Jumpjets and MASC the Stormcrow is objectively the better Mech with the same top speed ^{(unless the SHC is using its MASC, hold down [ALT] by default, it gives a 10% speed boost and something like a 250% acceleration and agility boost, but if you use it too much you will suffer leg damage)} and much more tonnage and hardpoints available.

basically it is a question of if you want firepower and durability ^{(take SCR)} or stealth and mobility ^{(take SHC)}.

only you know which is more important to you.

I think both are currently trial Mechs, so try them to see if you like the handling, and remember to hold down [ALT] to use the MASC on the Shadow Cat.
Remember the loadout can be adjusted on your owned Mechs but not the Trials, look them up and see what you can do with them here:
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab
Smurfy is one of the best reference tools for MWO, as well as the Mechlab you have a lot of information available on the Mechs and equipment

[Darkspart3n]

Hey there, I'm glad you see you saved up your C-bills from the cadet bonuses your doing it right . I own both the Stormcrow (was my second mech) and the shadow cat so I will give you one or two builds for each and you can choose which sounds better. I want to start off by saying that both are very fun to play and you can't really go wrong with either but the shadow cat takes a bit longer to get used too.

First off is the Stormcrow, its 55 tons of pure clan kick *** and take names. While this mech is not as good as when it first came out, due to the negative energy quirks added in later, the Stormcrow is still very much top tier in the medium world. If there was a poster child for laser vomit this build would be it, 5 ER mediums and one LPL (large pulse laser). Now you can run this in some different configurations, if you use the SCR-A right arm you can make this build asymetrical to give yourself a dedicated side to shield with or you can spread the lasers out keeping the LPL and one ER medium in the left torso and head respectively. You can experiment and see what play style you like but just keep in mind that you want to keep those negative quirks down as much as possible, and you will have alot of left over tonnage so fill up all your extra space with heat skins (your gonna need em'). There are missile builds but I would recommend a laser build as it doesn't restrict the ranges you can fight at as much.

Next is the shadow cat, now the Shadow Cat is much different from the Stormcrow in the fact that you will not have a lot of pod space for weapons and filling up on heat skins, you will have to pick a set of 2-3 weapons and make them work. For the longest time I used a dual PPC build but as of late I started using a dual LPL build and it has rocked my world, off setting both LPL into the right arm and right torso, then only having ECM in the left along with heat skins. This build revolves around sustainability with your low heat alpha and ECM you can stay at the edge of your effective range and basically hold down the trigger for minutes on end without really worrying too much about your heat. Unlike some other sustain builds, because you are running pulse lasers your exposure time when peeking is very low and you can even poptart if you wanted too. This build does require you to play differently as the quicker you die the less dmg you do so keep that in mind if you do end up using this.

Final thoughts: Hopefully you have gained a good idea of each mechs build possibilities and can make a decision with confidence. There are many other builds out there for both mechs that cater to many different play styles so go out there and make it your own. The mech lab is your oyster.

~Dark

[Moomtazz]

Stormcrow without a doubt. Shadowcat will only place you in a subpar mech while trying to learn the game.
Also check out metamechs website for good build ideas.

[Leone]

SCR-C A simple prime head omnipod switch should save cbills by reducing your omnipod purchases. The weapon load out is mid range to close, but you can swap out the uac twenty for a ten if you want. At that point, might be best to get pulses. Designed around a simple two button approach, this Ryoken has the speed to bring it's awesome firepower to bear an can back off to cool down efficiently.

I prefer to run max armour on most places. and preference forward armour over rearward.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 23 January 2016 - 08:42 AM.

[Paqu]

Ok I wasn't expecting to get this many replies this fast so thanks to everyone.

Dakota1000, on 23 January 2016 - 07:28 AM, said:

Stormcrow would be better than Shadow Cats to start off since you'd want to be making more money per match so that you can more quickly amass mechs.

I'd buy the Stormcrow first then get a Shadow Cat instead of buying all 3 of one variant to elite. I like having a bit more diversity so things don't get stale, you can go and elite one later.

Yeah it sure makes more sense to start of with "better" mech which I can more easily get money. And to not get bored with the game to get something different like the Shadow Cat next instead of running almost the same mech again.

Dakota1000, on 23 January 2016 - 07:28 AM, said:

I'll edit in some good builds once I come up with them. Currently I was running 6 small pulse lasers and a UAC20 on the Stormcrow.

EDIT:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ced0af57cb54f72

There is the loadout. If you find it running too hot you can swap out a small pulse laser for another heat sink or you can swap to using all ER small lasers and throw in 3 more heatsinks, just set it up to your playstyle for what you need. With the 6 small pulse lasers and UAC20 its great at backstabbing or quick hit and runs. You just run in, fire your shot, double tap with the UAC20 and go cool off a bit and get out before you get spotted. If you cut out some lasers you won't have as much damage per shot but you can get into a brawl and keep it up without burning up as fast.

It requires the B variant omnipod for the right arm, you can just buy those as parts though, so no massive expenses there.

Ok I'll keep that in mind. I didn't realize you can actually get parts from other mech variants like the arms. Now lets say I buy some of those lasers, can they be used on other mechs later on or are they just for this one mech and then I need to buy them again if I want the same weapons on other mech?

Rogue Jedi, on 23 January 2016 - 07:57 AM, said:

I persionaly do not think taking the SCR as a first Mech is a good idea, it is one of the best MEchs in the game, and could teach you some bad habits without really teaching many good ones, also most Mechs will feel like a downgrade after spending a few days in the SCR.

Thats a valid point, but I feel like I still want to have as good mech as possible to start with so I can get money bit easier without making it feel like a massive grind with a mech I dont necessarily like all that much. I will get the Shadow Cat next after the SCR so I bet I will get rid off all the bad habits with that one.

Rogue Jedi, on 23 January 2016 - 07:57 AM, said:

while I personally prefer the Shadow Cat for its mobility from the Jumpjets and MASC the Stormcrow is objectively the better Mech with the same top speed ^{(unless the SHC is using its MASC, hold down [ALT] by default, it gives a 10% speed boost and something like a 250% acceleration and agility boost, but if you use it too much you will suffer leg damage)} and much more tonnage and hardpoints available.

basically it is a question of if you want firepower and durability ^{(take SCR)} or stealth and mobility ^{(take SHC)}.

only you know which is more important to you.

I think both are currently trial Mechs, so try them to see if you like the handling, and remember to hold down [ALT] to use the MASC on the Shadow Cat.
Remember the loadout can be adjusted on your owned Mechs but not the Trials, look them up and see what you can do with them here:
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab
Smurfy is one of the best reference tools for MWO, as well as the Mechlab you have a lot of information available on the Mechs and equipment

I did saw that MASC button on the keybinds, but since I had no idea what it is I left it unbound and completely forgot to look out what it actually is. I just went to test it on the practise area and it sure makes the Shadow Cat even more fun than it already was!

I was checking that site earlier, but with all the stuff there is I had absolutely no idea how Iam supposed to build a mech when most things dont make sense to me. But Iam now starting to get the hang of it.

Darkspart3n, on 23 January 2016 - 08:04 AM, said:

Hey there, I'm glad you see you saved up your C-bills from the cadet bonuses your doing it right . I own both the Stormcrow (was my second mech) and the shadow cat so I will give you one or two builds for each and you can choose which sounds better. I want to start off by saying that both are very fun to play and you can't really go wrong with either but the shadow cat takes a bit longer to get used too.

First off is the Stormcrow, its 55 tons of pure clan kick *** and take names. While this mech is not as good as when it first came out, due to the negative energy quirks added in later, the Stormcrow is still very much top tier in the medium world. If there was a poster child for laser vomit this build would be it, 5 ER mediums and one LPL (large pulse laser). Now you can run this in some different configurations, if you use the SCR-A right arm you can make this build asymetrical to give yourself a dedicated side to shield with or you can spread the lasers out keeping the LPL and one ER medium in the left torso and head respectively. You can experiment and see what play style you like but just keep in mind that you want to keep those negative quirks down as much as possible, and you will have alot of left over tonnage so fill up all your extra space with heat skins (your gonna need em'). There are missile builds but I would recommend a laser build as it doesn't restrict the ranges you can fight at as much.

Next is the shadow cat, now the Shadow Cat is much different from the Stormcrow in the fact that you will not have a lot of pod space for weapons and filling up on heat skins, you will have to pick a set of 2-3 weapons and make them work. For the longest time I used a dual PPC build but as of late I started using a dual LPL build and it has rocked my world, off setting both LPL into the right arm and right torso, then only having ECM in the left along with heat skins. This build revolves around sustainability with your low heat alpha and ECM you can stay at the edge of your effective range and basically hold down the trigger for minutes on end without really worrying too much about your heat. Unlike some other sustain builds, because you are running pulse lasers your exposure time when peeking is very low and you can even poptart if you wanted too. This build does require you to play differently as the quicker you die the less dmg you do so keep that in mind if you do end up using this.

Final thoughts: Hopefully you have gained a good idea of each mechs build possibilities and can make a decision with confidence. There are many other builds out there for both mechs that cater to many different play styles so go out there and make it your own. The mech lab is your oyster.

~Dark

Thanks I like the sound of those builds. As I said on the first post I dont like the missiles at all, so your recommendation of laser build is music to my ears.

Leone, on 23 January 2016 - 08:41 AM, said:

SCR-C A simple prime head omnipod switch should save cbills by reducing your omnipod purchases. The weapon load out is mid range to close, but you can swap out the uac twenty for a ten if you want. At that point, might be best to get pulses. Designed around a simple two button approach, this Ryoken has the speed to bring it's awesome firepower to bear an can back off to cool down efficiently.

I prefer to run max armour on most places. and preference forward armour over rearward.

~Leone.

Ok I'll switch the head then.

Edited by Paqu, 23 January 2016 - 09:43 AM.

[Rhavin]

Which one do you really want? Buy it.

Shadowcats really work well in the right hands , the biggest weapon on it is actually ECM. My favorite builds are pulse laser based. Or have an ultra AC 10 or SRMS for brawling. Not a great selection of builds but a great speedy, agile mech that works best with another tankier mech to draw fire from its fragile hit boxes.

Stormcrow just works, you can boat almost anything on it with success. High priority target for many players, but there's a good reason for it. It takes alot to put one down, and can put out some serious damage before it does die.

Seriously though , buy what you want. Learn to play it.

[Paqu]

Rhavin, on 23 January 2016 - 10:35 AM, said:

Which one do you really want? Buy it.

Shadowcats really work well in the right hands , the biggest weapon on it is actually ECM. My favorite builds are pulse laser based. Or have an ultra AC 10 or SRMS for brawling. Not a great selection of builds but a great speedy, agile mech that works best with another tankier mech to draw fire from its fragile hit boxes.

Stormcrow just works, you can boat almost anything on it with success. High priority target for many players, but there's a good reason for it. It takes alot to put one down, and can put out some serious damage before it does die.

Seriously though , buy what you want. Learn to play it.

Well I really wanted the Shadow Cat, but I guess its better to learn the game, tactics and maps with easier to use mech which will also give me more money per round as well.

So I ended up buying the Stormcrow SCR-C. And this is the build I ended up with:
https://dl.dropboxus...R-C%20Build.jpg

Does seem quite powerfull indeed. However I realized I can also afford the Shadow Cat as well. I just need to figure out which variant would be the best for me.

[Rogue Jedi]

Paqu, on 23 January 2016 - 11:31 AM, said:

I realized I can also afford the Shadow Cat as well. I just need to figure out which variant would be the best for me.

if you want missiles take the B, if you want 6 Machine Guns ^{(not great against armor but the best weapons for removing components with stripped armor)} take the P, if you want lasers and a big ballistic start with the Prime, if you just want lasers any variant except the P will do.

as it is an Omnimech you can purchase the arm or torso from another variant to customize your hardpoints, but it is best to get most of the hardpoints you want on your first variant.

also it is wise to buy 3 variants of a single chassis so you can finish the skill tree, to unlock the elite skills you need to complete basic on 3 variants of that chassis, Elite skills include a 7% speed boost, that may not sound like much but it can make a big difference, however much more significant is once you complete the elite skills the power of the basic skills is doubled, that does make a significant difference to heat efficiency and handling of the "elited" Mech, the master level is unlocked by "eleting" 3 chassis in a weight class, as in 3 Stormcrows or a Stormcrow, Shadowcat and Hunchback, however the master level just unlocks the Mech/Weapon Module slot, something which you will not need for at least a few months because Modules are realy expensive ^{(they cost more than some Mechs)}

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

To answer one of your previous questions, once you buy a piece of equipment such as a weapon or heatsink you own that item. It can only be on one mech at a time however, you will have to remove it and put it in another mech if you don't want to spend extra money.

Also with the switching of parts, you are required to have an omnimech to be able to do that. Both the Shadow Cat and Stormcrow are omnimechs. They come with the ability to swap out the arms and torsos and other pieces, but are unable to change engine size, remove jump jets, have fixed structure and armor slots, and sometimes fixed heatsinks. Battlemechs don't have any fixed items but are unable to change their pieces out.

[Paqu]

Rogue Jedi, on 23 January 2016 - 12:15 PM, said:

if you want missiles take the B, if you want 6 Machine Guns ^{(not great against armor but the best weapons for removing components with stripped armor)} take the P, if you want lasers and a big ballistic start with the Prime, if you just want lasers any variant except the P will do.

as it is an Omnimech you can purchase the arm or torso from another variant to customize your hardpoints, but it is best to get most of the hardpoints you want on your first variant.

also it is wise to buy 3 variants of a single chassis so you can finish the skill tree, to unlock the elite skills you need to complete basic on 3 variants of that chassis, Elite skills include a 7% speed boost, that may not sound like much but it can make a big difference, however much more significant is once you complete the elite skills the power of the basic skills is doubled, that does make a significant difference to heat efficiency and handling of the "elited" Mech, the master level is unlocked by "eleting" 3 chassis in a weight class, as in 3 Stormcrows or a Stormcrow, Shadowcat and Hunchback, however the master level just unlocks the Mech/Weapon Module slot, something which you will not need for at least a few months because Modules are realy expensive ^{(they cost more than some Mechs)}

Just bough the Shadow Cat as well. I took the Prime so I can snipe with the gauss. Problem is that it runs out of ammo pretty fast. Here is my build; any suggestions what I could change to maybe squeeze bit more ammo?
https://dl.dropboxus...Cat%20Build.jpg

Or any other things I should perhaps change? I figured the ECM might be quite usefull so I took that left torso part from SHC-B variant. Drawback is that I lose the xp and torso twist bonuses by doing it.

And my other, much more severe problem with this mech is the throttle and jump jet that seems to get stuck quite often. Sometimes when I activate the jump jet it doesn't turn off and I end up taking fall damage once fuel runs out. After that I cant use the jump jet for the entire duration of the match since its not recharging and also my throttle gets stuck so the mech wants to keep going forward full speed all the time.

What is more depressing is the fact it seems that this bug has been around since 2013:
http://mwomercs.com/...-stuck-at-full/

Has anyone figured out any solution for this other than alt+tabbing out of the game everytime it happens? I would love to use the jump jets a lot but this seems to happen so often that Iam afraid to even press the button...

[Rogue Jedi]

Paqu, on 24 January 2016 - 11:23 AM, said:

Just bough the Shadow Cat as well. I took the Prime so I can snipe with the gauss. Problem is that it runs out of ammo pretty fast. Here is my build; any suggestions what I could change to maybe squeeze bit more ammo?
https://dl.dropboxus...Cat%20Build.jpg

Or any other things I should perhaps change? I figured the ECM might be quite usefull so I took that left torso part from SHC-B variant. Drawback is that I lose the xp and torso twist bonuses by doing it.

And my other, much more severe problem with this mech is the throttle and jump jet that seems to get stuck quite often. Sometimes when I activate the jump jet it doesn't turn off and I end up taking fall damage once fuel runs out. After that I cant use the jump jet for the entire duration of the match since its not recharging and also my throttle gets stuck so the mech wants to keep going forward full speed all the time.

for the Gauss build if you change the ERMLs for ERSLs you could save a ton for more Gauss ammo, and if you play around with the Omnipods you can put both lasers on the same side, which will help with weapon convergence, perhaps something like this: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...43cd5cd3e4d22a3

unfortunately I have never witnessed the jumping problem so do not have any suggestions

[Autobot9000]

You can make viable builds with both of them. I would expect the Stormcrow to be more beginner friendly, because it doesnt devote hardwired JJs and MASC. Hence the Stormcrow has relatively spoken more tonnage for weapons.

Both chassis have decent hardpoints, but the stormcrow has most of them high mounted, which is again a nice advantage. If you decide for one of them you should probably buy 3 variants to unlock the efficiencies.