7 replies to this topic

[RestosIII]

Let me get this out of the way first: I'm a sick person. I love to run mechs with their canon builds, just because they look good with them, since they were built around it. I've had a lot of fun with this game, but I was starting to have a slump, so I decided to try something. I started trying to make canon builds for my mechs work. Problem: I mostly love mechs that SUCK in this game. For instance, the Thor and Vulture. I'm desperate to make these work, but my matches are suffering heavily from it due to the necessary armor stripping for some of the builds. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to try and force these to be adequate, or should I give up and abandon my non uber-quirked/meta mechs?

[Tyler Valentine]

Well, you can make 'mechs that are close to their original spec but slightly upgraded to make them viable in game by adding DBLs/ES or stripping a useless secondary weapon system to add a little ammo or armor.

There is a beautiful place residing between 'Stock' and 'Meta' that honestly has the best views of MWO

[Y E O N N E]

Try swapping in different flavors of the same equipment, i.e. if it's a STD build, stick a bigger XL in.If it's an over-sized AC/10, try dropping to a UAC/5. SHS, go to DHS.

The other thing to do is strip out the non-core weapons. Say the 'Mech is all abou PPCs, but also has some missiles and smaller lasers. Ditch the lasers and the missiles, upgrade the PPCs to ER, and cram in more heatsinks.

[RestosIII]

Tyler Valentine, on 26 January 2016 - 01:45 PM, said:

Well, you can make 'mechs that are close to their original spec but slightly upgraded to make them viable in game by adding DBLs/ES or stripping a useless secondary weapon system to add a little ammo or armor.

There is a beautiful place residing between 'Stock' and 'Meta' that honestly has the best views of MWO

So far it's been much easier to make it work with IS mechs than it has been with Clan, because of the fact that Endo, FF, engines, and JJ amounts are modifiable. With the Clans... Not much you can do to make the old 2 LPLas+2MPLas+2LRM20 Vulture work properly without stripping her clean of her armor and ammo. I'd been running most of my mechs at least CLOSE to the original builds before now, I've just been trying to get them exact. Sadly they don't seem to be holding up against the extremely optimized builds I'm facing ATM.

[LordNothing]

Yeonne Greene, on 26 January 2016 - 01:45 PM, said:

If it's an over-sized AC/10, try dropping to a UAC/5.

the ac10 is in a real good place right now. you can get away running two or fewer tons of ammo. uac5 you end up wanting to bring at least 3 tons per gun. ac10 is my go to weapon for ballistic builds that have other ammo weapons, since the ac10 ammo wont eat up all the leg slots or the head slot, you could slap on some missiles or machine guns and have a few more good places for ammo. underrated ac10 is underrated.

[Tyler Valentine]

RestosIII, on 26 January 2016 - 01:54 PM, said:

So far it's been much easier to make it work with IS mechs than it has been with Clan, because of the fact that Endo, FF, engines, and JJ amounts are modifiable. With the Clans... Not much you can do to make the old 2 LPLas+2MPLas+2LRM20 Vulture work properly without stripping her clean of her armor and ammo. I'd been running most of my mechs at least CLOSE to the original builds before now, I've just been trying to get them exact. Sadly they don't seem to be holding up against the extremely optimized builds I'm facing ATM.

Really? Just replace the MPLs with ERmeds (better anyway) and voila! 2 extra tons. Add a ton of armor and a ton of ammo. Still not OP or anything but that one simple example shows what I'm talking about. You can keep it very close to stock and still make it [more] viable.

[Y E O N N E]

LordNothing, on 26 January 2016 - 01:55 PM, said:

the ac10 is in a real good place right now. you can get away running two or fewer tons of ammo. uac5 you end up wanting to bring at least 3 tons per gun. ac10 is my go to weapon for ballistic builds that have other ammo weapons, since the ac10 ammo wont eat up all the leg slots or the head slot, you could slap on some missiles or machine guns and have a few more good places for ammo. underrated ac10 is underrated.

I know the AC/10 is great, I'm a total wh*re with it. My point wasn't that the weapon sucks as much as it was about more efficiently using your weight. I can spit out two UAC/5 rounds in the space it takes a laser to burn, so I get a quasi-AC/10 for a total of 12 tons versus 14. Combine with swapping in an XL, applying Endo, swapping to DHS, dropping from pulse to standard lasers, and it all adds up to create a much more efficient 'Mech.

Like, sure, I can strap an AC/10 and two tons of ammo on my MAD-3R to go with those PPCs and I can have a pair of lasers for close-up work, but I can create a more efficient design by dropping the lasers, swapping in a UAC/5 w/ 3 tons of ammo, upgrading the PPCs to ER, and using all of those weight savings to pack in so many DHS that the heat increase on the ERs is negligible compared to where I was at with the PPC+MedLas combo. Not only that, but the UAC/5 round synchronizes much better with those PPCs with its increased velocity, and I can still surge my DPS if I need to. It's an easy 700+ damage build, and far more consistent than any other combination of PPC+AC that I've played with. What's old is new again, etc.

Cost-vs.-benefit. Speed is king, weapon synergy is queen.

[Wolfways]

OP sounds like me. Been playing "almost stock" or "stock weapons" since CB. Unfortunately it's pretty much impossible with clan mechs because of the locked engine, Endo, etc... unless you like firing once per 30 seconds or overheating a lot.

Tbh although I keep trying I know that trying to customize as little as possible means you end up with a very UP mech...if clan anyway. Some IS mechs are great though.