178 replies to this topic

[Koniving]

Vets, please provide me with a list of the unpopular Mechs (difficulty, non-meta compliant, hitboxes and any other reason) and reason you've listed it.

I am both curious and taking on a challenge to debunk (disprove) or overcome (prove but triumph anyway against) these claims.

[Wintersdark]

I am definitely interested in seeing where this thread goes. Here's hoping people take it seriously.

[Koniving]

They usually do but not for another 12 hours usually.

[invernomuto]

I'd say Cataphract.
Reason: low hardpoints for weapons (in arms, mostly) and relatively small numbers of energy + ballistic hardpoints that make it hard finding a viable build compared to other "meta-friendly" mechs like the warhammer.
I love them (my 0XP with Gauss and 3 ER-LLs is one of my top performer mech) but I don't see many on the battlefield...

[Rogue Jedi]

Myst Lynx,
all the guns in the arms and it looses arms too quickly, if you take ECM only 2 guns, considering my affection for the SDR-5V I did not think that would be a problem for me but I just could not make it work.

[Wintersdark]

Yeah, I definitely found getting anything worthwhile out of the Mist Lynx required ditching ECM. The shadowcat too, actually.

[plodder]

Sumoner seems to be on my list. I see guys do well, but those fellas are beyond my skill level. I want to use them but.....

[plodder]

Wintersdark, on 02 May 2016 - 11:29 PM, said:

Yeah, I definitely found getting anything worthwhile out of the Mist Lynx required ditching ECM. The shadowcat too, actually.

I found the Shadowcat squishy at 1st, But after giving it more time it works well for me.
An Atlas or Dire pilot as 1st choice, I really enjoy Shadowcats fluidity.
After it is leveled there is a linking of all weaknesses to strength. Binding the movement with ecm to flying hights and hit me if you can tactics to stealthy spotting and decent alphas.

As far as the myst lynx. I enjoy the ppc build. Staying out of everyones way annoying all. Good for practicing jj and ppc hitting. Lights are your downfall.

Gl hfh

[no one]

Not sure you meant to post this in new player help, but oh well. Hm.

IS 'Mechs -

The SRM locust is the simple choice. Simply being an ammo dependent 20 tonner with imprecise weapons makes it the ugly underweight oxide I love. You need to be magic to unleash the hurt with one.

The Wolverine is an ugly mess. It should be passable but somehow it just fails to preform as well as any other medium I've tried. Too bulky and hardpoint limited. No specific failings otherwise, it's just sooo. . . blah.

Zeus - I don't know if it's me or the 'Mech. You'd think fist of god SRM super punch would be worth it's weight but I've never seen this 'Mech preform well as anything other than a largely less potent 3 LPL platform. It just doesn't cleave to it's hardpoint load-out well. It's got Atlas syndrome, but somehow worse. At least the Victor can pack an ac/20 and the comforting lie of jump-jets.

[SnagaDance]

Commando. Low tonnage, low number of hardpoints, low slung hardpoint locations, not enough Energy mounts to run high speed comfortably, needs to rely on its comparitevely heavy SRM launchers for extra punch. Most hardpoints in fragile arms.

I'll chime in on the Wolverine, but specifically that (IMO) god awful Loyalty variant.

[Wintersdark]

no one, on 03 May 2016 - 01:55 AM, said:

...and the comforting lie of jump-jets.

Brilliant.

[Rhavin]

Ice Ferrets, first mech I ever spent gxp on to basic and sell to free up mechbays. Did the same for the panther. Only kept the special variants and used mechbays to buy warhawks. I have so much global exp I still won't ever run out of it so I don't consider it a big loss.

Ice ferret , its just too big, it seemed every shot i took seemed to cost me half my firepower.

Panther was just too slow for me no matter what I did it felt like it was moving 60 kph and turning/twisting at 20. Also not enough firepower, one shot takes off an arm and that arm had the only weapon.

Yeah, those are the only 2 mechs I actually feel hate for, don't think I ever broke 150 damage in game with them.

Could add myst lynx too, I guess. But I had better luck in them.

Edited by Rhavin, 03 May 2016 - 02:14 AM.

[torgian]

I cant seem to make the Myst Lynx to work.

On the other hand, while the Summoner seems to me like it shouldn't do well, I always do well with it.

[Bud Crue]

Cataphract, see above.
Wolverine, see above. Only mech I never bought back after I sold most off.

Dragon: Low number of hardpoints, wide frame, assault sized profile (due to be reduced soon), bad hit boxes, lacks the diversity and jump jets of a Quickdraw, lacks the consistently high hard points of a Rifleman, hardpoint location makes many builds have only a few weapons but on opposite sides of body (or in both arms) making the Alpha/twist play style a losing proposition.

Victor, is too damn big and fragile. Suffers same problems as Dragon. Though it has jump jets, the are a joke, and XL is nearly required to get any weapons in it making it easily killed.

[Furball72]

Locust, any variant

Reason: Truly awful cockpit canopy that is more blindspot than visual field.

[Doctor Dinosaur]

Kit Fox: Too slow for a light mech, not enough armor for that speed, in higher tiers almost useless triple AMS combo. Ever weapon in the arms OR must be bought by taking jumpjets and even THEN you can't really stuff something there besides MG.
And the arms? Mounted too low, so you need exposure (which you don't want, see speed and armor).
I found only two roles: AMS boat + ECM cover (only useful in T5) and some lasers + MGs to finish off what others started (fun but not really usefull, also more than one of this would surely backfire).
You could do streak kitty to kill lights, but you'd either be missing the punch or the ammo, also everyone can either run away from you or oneshot you.

[jss78]

I feel like the Vindicator is so unpopular that people don't remember to mention it even in a listing like this :-D

That they are unpopular is not subject to debate IMO.

Whether they can be good... I'd argue the dual-PPC poptart 1AA is at least OK, even good so long as YOUR AIM is good. The 1R has sufficient hardpoints and quirks to make a poor man's Blackjack with worse hardpoint locations, which makes it I guess mediocre but not tge worst mech in the world. The 1X I haven't been able to make work.

[Audacious Aubergine]

I'm shocked no one has mentioned the Gargoyle. Moves like an IS medium, has the weapons of an IS medium, is the size of an Atlas, with all noteworthy weapons in deceptively low mounted arm hardpoints. Though I've somehow done alright with 2 ERLL and 2 Artemis LRM15s

[Koniving]

no one, on 03 May 2016 - 01:55 AM, said:

Not sure you meant to post this in new player help, but oh well. Hm.

Yes. It can prove to be very useful for players who have bought a mech but don't yet understand it's nuances or may have overlooked something about it. For example the Dragon and its solid use as a workhorse, or the Urbanmech being useful as a brawler at 84 kph (before speedtweak), or the ways that a Kintaro is superior in some aspects to a Griffin despite popular belief to the contrary.

Did you know that a slow firestarter with a certain armor config can take nearly twice as much damage than a fast firestarter with the metamech
Little lesser known tricks, like why it's better to have kower arm actuators when using any kind of missiles.

[BlackHeroe]

I would say Misty Linx, KitFox & Commando and yust some variants of some chassis. I have even seen Vindicators lately doin good on scouting missions.

Cataphract & Victor are both not bad, but you have to find a reliable playstyle with them (like many mechs mentioned here also) Yes some of the Variants have very low arm Weapons (CTf-1X has high torsos), and can be a little bit squishy - but there are ways too come around that.
Viktor-9K made me 1300 Dmg in a PUG and does mostly good as the CTF-1X.
0-XP was a long time all favourit for my FW Drop Deck, but gets dusty atm.