116 replies to this topic

[Dawnstealer]

Urbanmech.

[Cato Zilks]

Several have said it already, but if your play style is to lrm boat you should stay out of CW until you are more flexible. LRM's are not always useful. Once you are comfortable with other play styles, by all means fight in CW. It is a great place to learn, but you need to have some flexibility going into it.

[Havyek]

Really if you're dead set on Catapults, the Jester is the best purchase, but you'd need to use MC ($$) for it.

Heavies or Assaults good choices would be Thunderbolt, Grasshopper, Quickdraw, Atlas, Battlemaster or Stalker.
Jaegermechs really are niche chassis, personally the only CW maps I'd run them on are Sulfuric and Vitric due to the cooler dakka builds.

People mention the Black Knights, but honestly IMO the Grasshoppers do it better, with jumpjets and saving you 5 tons.

[DavidStarr]

Havyek, on 18 February 2016 - 07:55 PM, said:

Really if you're dead set on Catapults

Not at all. And Jester, an ugly impotent Catapult with no missiles, would definitely NOT be my first MC mech. But I will continue to bring C4, and maybe A1. Because why wouldn't I bring a mech that pulls 400-600 damage more often than not.

Windscape, on 18 February 2016 - 02:41 PM, said:

looks like you are going to be buying the K2 and 3 stalkers

It does indeed! Now I just need 40 more million C-bills...

Edited by DavidStarr, 18 February 2016 - 09:57 PM.

[Cato Zilks]

DavidStarr, on 18 February 2016 - 09:57 PM, said:

Not at all. And Jester, an ugly impotent Catapult with no missiles, would definitely NOT be my first MC mech. But I will continue to bring C4, and maybe A1. Because why wouldn't I bring a mech that pulls 400-600 damage more often than not.


It does indeed! Now I just need 40 more million C-bills...

David, everyone is suggesting non LRM mechs. Take note.

[DavidStarr]

Cato Zilks, on 18 February 2016 - 10:18 PM, said:

Take note.

I did. I will experiment with different mechs based on your suggestions as my C-bills and 5 mechbays will allow, and will bring whatever deals the most damage consistently or whatever the drop commander requests.

[Der Hesse]

The problem with LRMs in CW is not the damage. If you know how to use them you can do quite some damage in CW too, but you will stay back and the damage the enemy does will be spread over one mech less. Same goes to snipers though they are not as bad as LRMs since they at least take some fire if they are not hiding too far.

Don´t get me wrong, i love LRMs and in quickplay half my matches are close to or over 1k damage with some kills, but i still don´t use them in CW because i want to win the matches and not only get good stats.

[Yozzman]

Please use lurms!!!
No BAP, TAG, Artemis and Target decade.

Then be on the enemy team!

[DavidStarr]

Der Hesse, on 19 February 2016 - 12:25 AM, said:

you will stay back and the damage the enemy does will be spread over one mech less.

I understand that. That's probably the only problem with cautious LRM tactics, and the reason why I will start with LPL Stalker and not with the LRM one. On the other hand, I am more useful with LRMs anyhow, because whenever I don't hide I take too much damage too fast. Had a 100 dmg King Crab drop just yesterday - and still was able to score over 1000 by the end of the battle thanks to CPLT-C4 and A1.

Edited by DavidStarr, 19 February 2016 - 01:19 AM.

[C E Dwyer]

eliting and mastery makes a big deal so I would get your third cata, and see how you feel after all are elited, no not very good for CW, but, you'll understand why people are saying get your third

[Rushin Roulette]

I think the problem may be your personal playstyle with non-LRM mechs. If you are running in a brawler mech like the King Crab and you die early with low damage scores on a regular basis, then it points out to me, that you may be too far ahead of your own team.

Brawling requires massive work in timing when and where you are as well as when and where you move in relation to the rest of the team. If you are the first to be targetable for the enemy it is guaranteed, that you will also be shot the most. The longer the rest of your team take to crest the hill/round the corner, the longer you will be subject to 100% of the damage. Especially in a slow assault you should never be the first to be targetable or you will have a massive problem as you are a easy, big target for anyone looking that way.

The smaller, faster mechs (Medium or Light) are the best ones to draw initial fire, because with the right pre-planning, they can move across a gap fast and be back in cover on the other side while the rest of the team are all charging as one into the firing line of mechs who are already hot due to shooting (and hopefully missing) the smaller, faster mechs while at the same time having no heat built up themselves which they can release as one wave into the enemy.

The other problem with brawling is, the more of your team can be shot, the easier it is for your team as a whole to spread incoming damage between the mechs. Even if you are sitting in an LRM or sniper mech, you should be visible to the entire enemy team at the same time as your teammates. Visible does not mean in the front line, so no worries there. But ideally you should be 100-200 meters behind your own teammates in the open (this is usually also the ideal distance of 200-300 meters to the target for LRMS). As soon as you are hidden behind cover, all 12 enemies can only shoot 11 of your teammates, which is quick to degrade in their favour. Dealing damage as a sniper/LRM mech is easy, but you should also be responsible for taking your share of the incoming damage as well.

In the end: Brawling is deffinitely viable in CW (more so than LRLM and Sniping actually), but it has its very own playstyle and rules you need to learn and follow to make it work.

EDIT: Please dont take this as me criticizing you (Well constructive criticism maybe ). I am just passing on what I learnt myself while playing MWO and hope it helps you see the fighting styles in a different light and reflect on why you are having problems with a particular selection of mechs.

Edited by Rushin Roulette, 19 February 2016 - 02:13 AM.

[DavidStarr]

Rushin Roulette, on 19 February 2016 - 02:06 AM, said:

I think the problem may be your personal playstyle with non-LRM mechs.

Certainly, but I haven't yet figured out a method to survive long enough with direct-fire mechs. Especially on attack. Enemy ER LLs, PPCs and stupidly OP light mechs make short works of my attempts at being useful. The KCrab example was, perhaps, not typical because I was leading a push through a tight choke point with lots of enemy mechs directly behind it, but still - it happened, and it sucked.

Edited by DavidStarr, 19 February 2016 - 03:02 AM.

[Rushin Roulette]

Yup. You get those rounds... and they always suck. That wont change no matter how much experience you get... sometimes you just end up with the short end of a stick after rounding a corner and seeing 12 mechs looking in your direction.

However, leading in an assualt is nearly always a bad idea. you should ideally be in the second row. Leave the scouting to the faster mechs so that you know what to expect when moving around a corner. You are big, you are slow, you are a prime target for anyone because of this. the faster mechs have none of these disadvantages and can use their speed and small target profile to make many of the shots aimed at them to miss. Once they have hopfully warned you what to expect and caused the opponents to heat up their mechs you will have a much easier time going around that corner because you know what will be there and you know that the opponents will be close to the overheating point instead of being able to punch you with full alpha shots without any worries.

The way we manage that is we all gather up at the gate and let the assaults move ahead of us without them stopping. As soon as they have passed us, everyone throttles up to full speed. The first ones to overtake and draw fire are the lights, then the mediums and the Heavies should ideally reach the point of contact at roughly he same time as the Assaults do. By that point the assualts should be about 20 meters behind the heavies and 40 meters behind the Mediums. Teh Lights haev hopefully survived the initial barrage by moving across the shooting line into cover (A small hill is usually enough for a small light mech). At that point, the lights turn around and join the rest of the team from behind cover, flank the opponents or hunt lights who are harrassing our team from behind.

[Valdherre Tor]

I did, on page one.

Also this is why we stomp everyone we play, because the best IS mechs in the game are neglected and rare in CW. Hell the Grasshopper was so GOD mode b4 the last rebalance patch PGI did literally nothing to it other than it getting hit by the blanket skill tree nerf. It already had structure and agility quirks. while every other IS mech was brought up to its level.

[BigBaka]

DavidStarr, on 17 February 2016 - 09:52 PM, said:

I was thinking about Splatcat, but am skeptical about its actual playability. I suspect I will be destroyed before I can get close enough to the enemy to fire at him. And I mean quickplay, of course, not CW. Don't see SRMs being useful in CW, other than as a backup weapon.

The Splatcat is one of the most fun mech I have and one with the most stopping power too. If you think SRMs are not useful in CW you havent been stomped by Atlas-/ Timberrush with SRMs. Try an Atlas-S with AC20 and 4xASRM6s on defense in CW while ambushing around the corner and wreck faces !

[-Vompo-]

Pure srm builds (Splat builds) work just fine in cw. You just need some help from your team so that you are not the only one who wants to close in with the enemy.

[Havyek]

LRMs and CW don't go together. Period.

The goal of CW is to kill the enemy, not to draw out damage.

[Virlutris]

Chiming in:

Get the K2. If you're going to work on learning direct fire, you may as well practice it on a chassis you're already familiar with, while getting your 'pults through elite skills.

It's not just access to the elite skills that helps, its the doubled-up basic skills when you've completed all the elites on a variant. If you're going to branch into direct fire at all (like with Stalkers or Grasshoppers <3), the doubled heat containment and cool run skills shouldn't be discounted. Lasers get hot.

Running faster may not seem like much, but that little extra spring in your step helps survivability a lot more than you realize until you experience it. Really. Even after the skill nerf. The story repeats for most of the skills. Twist speed is underrated for spreading damage, even on bullet-nose mechs. It's twice as good after all the elites.

You may want to also consider a light chassis, for when the tonnage limits drop again. Firestarters are unarguably good, but I'd recommend the Raven to pair with your peek-a-boo Stalkers. I found a nice sniper-y STK-STK-RVN-RVN deck to work nicely, and it doesn't read as though brawling is your sweet spot. Boat blue lasers, heatsinks, and maybe some ECM, poke all match long, contribute and profit in a win or loss.

Regardless of what you pick, enjoy

Edited by Virlutris, 20 February 2016 - 04:09 PM.

[mikerso]

habu86, on 17 February 2016 - 06:38 AM, said:

4x TDR is, as others have mentioned a solid option; TDRs have long been a mainstay until the tonnage increases have made bringing more heavy stuff properly viable.
GHRs are very good too, thanks to tight mounts (many of them high too), good quirks, JJs, and XL friendliness.
I don't have any BKTs, but I've seen many top tier players do frighteningly well in them; they come across as bigger, more heavily armed and armored GHRs, minus the JJs and high mounts.

JM-DD is an interesting option too and can be a very solid choice. Ammo dependence isn't that big a drawback IMO, unless you choose to not bring enough. Most Dakka builds, however, will often carry enough ammo to put out between 900 and 1500 points of damage by the time they run out (subject of course, to actually hitting what you're shooting at). In my experience, most of the time you won't last long enough to burn through that much ammo. If you do, eject and get the next of your remaining three such mechs. Rapid-fire ammo-based builds often have ludicrous DPS, both max and sustained, but they do tend to suffer in a poking match against laser boas, so you need to know how to pick your fights.

Honestly, I would recommend starting with TDRs as they use standard engines, making them cheaper to build, you can drop 4 of them, they're just good and reliable mechs, and go from there.

I run one 5ss, one 9se, and two top dog tdr.

[Diznitch]

Points on LRMs are valid, but if too many noobs in CW, it's a loss regardless, and then I bring LRMs so it's not a total waste of time. Normally laser vomit and ECM, but LRMs are better than no score cause noob team can't play. Better LRMs and Noob team than dead damage eater on noob team.

So yes, noobs bring LRMs. But they also lead experienced players stuck on the same team to bring them as well.

It's the nature of a noob pub pug CW system.

p.s. thiseditr relly really suk,look how may chrs it drop when I dn't go back nd fix thm all!!! crap ditor.