Jables McBarty, on 08 March 2016 - 02:40 PM, said:
(see final paragraph for TL;DR)
I just bought my third DWF.
I’ve got enough playtime on the chassis to be able to immediately master my DWF-W and elite my DWF-S as soon as I get all the basics on my new DWF-B. To mix things up, I’ve been trying really hard to come up with builds that aren’t based around ballistics (my go-to are 3xUAC5+2xUAC10 or 2xUAC5+2xUAC20), but all of them fail miserably*. The most branching out I can do is to slap on a few cERSLs as a special surprise for any lights that get too close.
Unfortunately, I find the chassis to be too fragile to do anything but ballistics. Between (1) its protruding torso hitboxes, (2) its abysmal agility, (3) the inability to do any real torso-twisting or damage-distribution due to (1) and (2), and (4) its lack of any armor or structure quirks, I find that it melts as soon as anybody looks at it—and look at it they do, same as an Atlas, KGC, MAL, or any large assault deemed a major threat to the team.
Hence ballistics, which either scares people into hiding or screenshakes them such that their aim is usually off, all while pounding out incomprehensible amounts of damage for low heat.
It’s too immobile for me to be consistently successful as a dedicated Gauss/PPC sniper, and the agility issues make it an inferior laser boat—I just can’t get out of fire to cool down) for the next alpha (also I’m terrible with lasers). It (a) lacks sufficient hardpoints for a dedicated LRM boat and (b] shines so brightly in other roles that it would feel wasted in that role anyway, but even bringing LRMs as a backup feels like a waste of good AC tonnage. And SRMs are out for essentially the same reasons as lasers.
But then there are so many unused hardpoints! It feels like a chassis that has so much potential, but the factors mentioned above pigeonhole it into the role of mobile UAC50(+/-) platform**.
Which brings us to this thread.
Has anybody been able to consistently bring their DWFs “beyond the dakka whale”? I’d like to hear not only about your viable builds, but the playstyles that you use to get consistent results out of those builds.
Thanks for sharing
*Of course, many of these failures might be attributable to trying to branch out on a brand-new variant with at most three skills unlocked, but I’m guessing it is more generalizable—I’ve encountered many of these issues on my variants with all basic skills unlocked.
**No disparagement intended—I love the dakka, but I also like flexibility.
The Dire Wolf, in my opinion is the best assault in game. That said, it's not for the faint hearted and takes a long time to master completely. Now, to the suggestion part. I pretty much only use dire wolves and warhawks. If I'm in something lighter I'm either mastering it or have lost my bigger mech in a cw match.
After trying pretty much every build out there, I've settled on this one;
4x CUAC 5
6x CER Sml Laser
2x CLRM 10
10 Tons of UAC Ammo
2 double heat sink
4 tons of LRM Ammo
I have all 4 UAC fire linked to group 1
I have all 6 Small Lasers fire linked to group 2
I have both LRM fire linked to group 4
I run hill climb, radar deprivation, small laser range 5, and small laser cool down 5 modules.
How I fight her:
I engage at about 750 meters with lrms if I have good Los or know I'm going to hit due to terrain. As I get closer, I go ton continuous fire (double tapping) my UAC. When the target enters 210 meters, I drop off LRM fire and open up with the lasers. Usually the lasers are used for snap shots when a light mech gets too close. I aim for the legs, 1 shot will either leg the light, but more usually is an instant kill especially if I fire the autocannons. I've only run out of LRM or autocannons ammo in one match, a match where I had 6 kills, 7 kmdd, and 1740 damage. Yes you read that right. The key to fighting a whale is to not allow the enemy to get face time with you. Your objective is to kill them when they can't hurt you. Played right, this configuration allows you to kill most other assaults before they can open up on you, as most either have limited or no long range weaponry. And anything lighter than an assault is a couple shots at most to put down.
I use the lrms like sandpaper. They hit everywhere and damage the armor, letting my guns poke through for crits. The lasers are for quick point defense and I use them sparingly due to heat. But they can quickly melt whatever they hit. Plus they can be fired quickly a second time. I can usually fire the lasers 3 or 4 times without getting into the red heat wiseb and my guns barely do anything to the heat guage.
Most of the time I have a minimum of 500 damage, and consistently do 800 to 1200 damage per match, with 2 to 5 kills every match, win or lose. Granted everyone has bad matches, but even if I lose, I rarely lose psr in this mech, and most of the time gain. (I lose psr mastering little mech lol). Oh and I don't worry if I get left alone with this mech... follow terrain and make sure you are near something you can put your back to to prevent the circle of doom. I killed a whole Lance of lights the other night who thought they caught an easy target alone lol.
Hope this helps!
Edited by Malachy Karrde, 08 March 2016 - 05:40 PM.
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