16 replies to this topic

[ZeroKelvin]

I've always been fond of the design and would love to profit from the big sale.

Should get one as my first clan heavy? What is everyones opinion?

[Cy Mitchell]

I bought one as my first, non trial, heavy because of this sale. Probably the biggest reason was that the mech was first produced and fielded by Clan Hell's Horses which was my MWLL clan.

The stats on the mech point to a relatively fast heavy with awesome firepower. The rap on it is large hit boxes and rather light armor for a heavy.

I liked the load-out of the Prime the best so that is the one I grabbed. It may well be my only heavy because I normally gravitate towards mediums.

[Rogue Jedi]

I think the Helbringer is a great choice for the first Clan Heavy to add to your collection, just bear in mind if someone targets you they will almost always aim to remove your ECM side torso first, so unless you have already mastered shielding a vulnerable side torso make sure to have weapons on the other side

rampage, on 27 January 2016 - 10:53 AM, said:

The stats on the mech point to a relatively fast heavy with awesome firepower. The rap on it is large hit boxes and rather light armor for a heavy.

the stock Hellbringer builds do not have much armor, at about 55-80% of the Mechs capacity, but you can change that and max out the armor.
As a 65 ton Mech the Helbringer will not be as durable as heavier Mechs which can take more armor but if you are not taking ECM you will be a low priority target compared to other Mechs like the Stormcrow, Ebon Jaguar or Timber Wolf

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 27 January 2016 - 11:03 AM.

[DGTLDaemon]

I purchased it as my first mech ever, and have enjoyed it greatly so far. High torso hardpoints, good mix of energy and ballistics, decent mobility and, of course, ECM. Kinda limited on tonnage, though, because you don't have endo-steel or ferro-fibrous. In my case, it resulted in a glass cannon'ish 2 x C-UAC/5 + 2 x C-ERLL build with paper-thin armor. Still very playable and quite efficient, especially if you like all kinds of "stealth" tactical maneuvers. I'm running four of those in CW currently, and just had a 2.2k damage match on my second night ever in CW, so it must be good for something It's a very fun mech to play, I'm glad I picked it as my first. One thing that doesn't get mentioned often is its excellent unobstructed view from the cockpit. Helps with situational awareness, at least for me. Basically, if the idea of a mech that hits like a heavy but plays like an ECM medium appeals to you, then get it

Edited by DGTLDaemon, 27 January 2016 - 11:08 AM.

[TercieI]

Terrific mech. High hard points, ECM, easy to make asymmetrical. It lacks ES/FF but you can strip the arms so that doesn't end up hurting it much. Try 4ERLL, 2LPL&2-4ML, 6ML, Gauss&4ML, etc. Pretty much always use the Prime LT and A Head and go to town.

Edited by TercieI, 27 January 2016 - 11:17 AM.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Good mech. Not GREAT, but SOLID.

Still just a 65-tonner, whereas 70-75 is more ideal for a heavy. Nonetheless, carries ECM and plenty of free weight (even at max armor) for a solid weapons loadout. Commonly seen with Gauss and 4x ERML (requires the PRIME w/B head omnipod, IIRC). Also does a great asymmetric laser vomit build on the same omnipod layout. And ECM!

Pretty easy to single-out the torso segments, though, so be able to twist/shield really well. The arms aren't great for shielding, either. In lower tiers, the ECM will keep a lot of aggro off of you. Might still be worth it in the current environment to forego one laser and keep the PRIME head omnipod w/AMS, but that's a personal choice. No one's judging you for that.

No jump jets, by the way. But the lack of locked equipment also means more space, especially in the legs, for DHS or ammo. 81.0 km/h without speed tweak is the standard for Clan heavy omnimech speed, and the HBR is built to that standard as well.

It's a good mech. Good call for solo, group, and CW matches. And unless you're playing with a strong team, it's probably the best pick for a first Clan heavy.

[Rhavin]

You can never underestimate the power of ECM. Works great with any energy loadout, u ou can simply put nothing but medium lasers on it and with good positioning rack up a 800 900 damage pug drop. It is a priority target for many players though.

[MechWarrior4023212]

ZeroKelvin, on 27 January 2016 - 09:59 AM, said:

I've always been fond of the design and would love to profit from the big sale.

Should get one as my first clan heavy? What is everyones opinion?

I have 2 x prime and one each of the other variants as my CW drop deck.

They have good armour when maxed out, and have a pretty high Alpha strike/ cool down ratio.

I think they are the best Clan heavy armour to firepower ratio.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Ember Stormfield, on 28 January 2016 - 11:06 PM, said:

I have 2 x prime and one each of the other variants as my CW drop deck.

They have good armour when maxed out, and have a pretty high Alpha strike/ cool down ratio.

I think they are the best Clan heavy armour to firepower ratio.

I only own a PRIME so far, so this weekend's sale and challenge event (coinciding with the completion of my new gaming desktop) are kind of a sign from above that I need to finish out my HBR collection. Feeling the -A and -B next.

Also, to the OP, a thought... For solo play, a build that has worked well for me is the PRIME with A head omni, 2x UAC/5 in the RT, 3x ERML in the LT, and 1x ERML in the H, with ECM. Squeeze in some UAC ammo where you can, and a DHS or two, and strip the armor from the arms to make it all fit. NOT a serious competitor or meta build, but fun for solo drops and can put up some strong numbers in lower tiers when RNGesus smiles upon your UACs...

Edited by TheRAbbi, 29 January 2016 - 11:18 PM.

[InspectorG]

Solid mech and wise choice.

[DGTLDaemon]

TheRAbbi, on 29 January 2016 - 08:58 PM, said:

For solo play, a build that has worked well for me is the PRIME with B head omni, 2x UAC/5 in the RT, 3x ERML in the LT, and 1x ERML in the H, with ECM. Squeeze in some UAC ammo where you can, and a DHS or two, and strip the armor from the arms to make it all fit.

Currently running this in CW, and it's a solid build, though it can get a bit hot sometimes. You'll need the A head omni, however;)

[Not A Real RAbbi]

DGTLDaemon, on 29 January 2016 - 10:45 PM, said:

Currently running this in CW, and it's a solid build, though it can get a bit hot sometimes. You'll need the A head omni, however;)

DANG! You're right. Been a while since I did anything with that mech's build. HBR-A HEAD OMNIPOD, indeed!

Thanks for correcting that!

You say you run that in CW? Wow. When I DO run a HBR in CW, it's either the Gauss Vomit or regular Laser Vomit build. Seen both work out well. Never really thought of the twin-UAC/5 build as worthy of CW, but I may have to reconsider next time we're on a Clan contract. I'll give it a spin!

(Also, edited the post above for the CORRECT head omnipod. Thanks again!)

[DGTLDaemon]

TheRAbbi, on 29 January 2016 - 11:17 PM, said:

You say you run that in CW? Wow. When I DO run a HBR in CW, it's either the Gauss Vomit or regular Laser Vomit build. Seen both work out well. Never really thought of the twin-UAC/5 build as worthy of CW, but I may have to reconsider next time we're on a Clan contract. I'll give it a spin!

It's working fine for me But I'm no expert here, just making my first steps in CW, so it might not work for someone else. I'm currently running a mixed deck with two of these for ranged work and two of these for close-to-medium-range engagements, and they seem to complement each other nicely. So far the only place where I wished I had a deck of four long-ranged mechs was Boreal Vault. I'll vote for dual UAC/5s any day, though, be it in solo or CW, on any map, and in combination with any other weapons. And I generally like the idea of utilizing the full potential of my torso/head mounts while avoiding the arm mounts. That's why I don't play laser vomit, just not enough space for all the lasers in LT/H.

[IraqiWalker]

I'm going to completely ignore the lore on this mech in this discussion -gasp I know-.

The Hellbringer is one of the best clan heavies out there. It carries ECM, it's very mobile, and can pack some serious firepower. The hitboxes on it are pretty easy to make out, but that doesn't mean it's got bad ones. They're rather balanced, not broken, but not super advantageous either.

I recommend you make a run at the Hellbringer on Smurfy. See what builds you can make with it, and what you can, and can't do with such a solid mech.

[Khereg]

ZeroKelvin, on 27 January 2016 - 09:59 AM, said:

I've always been fond of the design and would love to profit from the big sale.

Should get one as my first clan heavy? What is everyones opinion?

The HBR is a fine and versatile mech, suitable for both CW and regular queue. It's a good choice for a heavy.

It will teach you to protect your left torso, also (a valuable skill). Every decent player knows to target that side when they see you.

Edited by Khereg, 30 January 2016 - 08:24 AM.

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

asymetric doesn't work that well, ppl tend to alpha the ecm torso anyway.
once the "shield" torso is gone the heatefficiency becomes so bad that it's ain't even funny anymore.

I'd much rather stick to 3-4 ml or mpl and a autocanon (uac10 or 2xuac5) and actually shield with with the ecm side. Better to have a cool running autocanon left then being reduced to assault class speed a heatefficiency which hardly supports 3 medium laser.

That said, solid mech.

[Paqu]

Bought it yesterday to be as my third mech (my first heavy) and I absolutely hated it. Felt sluggish after using mediums and still felt like it didn't have much more armor either. I took the Prime version and tryed to snipe a bit with the PPC's. Since they are located in the arms I kept hitting the ground when trying to shoot over the hill or when trying to shoot downwards. Same thing when trying to shoot throught some narrow gap.

I was sure I just wasted 8,5 million and wont be using this mech much until I started messing around with the build a bit. First I stripped the arms from weapons and moved both PPC's to the shoulder. This lets me shoot throught narrow gaps and over the hills. Of course the risk is to get your left shoulder blown up and losing the guns, but you can now use the otherwise useless arms as a shield and after you take your shot make sure to protect that shoulder.

Then you can take the head from A version and mount a laser weapon on top of it. So even if you lose the shoulder you still have one weapon left that you cannot lose without dying. Also the head laser is at the highest point of the mech so great for peaking.

Here is my current loadout which I like a lot:
https://dl.dropboxus...er%20Sniper.jpg

It does generate heat pretty damn fast, but it also cools of quite well. You'll get great alpha strikes even at long range.