39 replies to this topic

[vanguard1997]

So, I just started out after the CW3 patch, picked myself up a Black Knight and am having a blast. Now, however, I am looking towards one of the lights. The one that really sticks out to me is the Panther, due to it's penchant for carrying the heavy energy weapons I'm more used to. I'm just curious if any of them are any good.

[Jason Red Death]

It depends on what you expect. Panthers are slower then the typical light. They play more like a light medium. Hit-boxes are ok and I really like my Panthers a lot. If you want a competetive meta-light, the panthers are not for you. But beside that, they are really a lot of fun to play.

[Bud Crue]

If you can protect that arm (a lot of folks have difficulty here...it aint as easy as some folks make it sound) then it is a blast to play. I am not even kidding here, but one of my favorite mechs is the ballistic Panther running an LBX or AC10. Keep moving and blasting away. Also the 2PPC build is fun if you can maintain distance.

[TercieI]

Not a beginner's mech, not a dominant mech, but a stupidly fun mech that can be effective if you run it well. 3LL 9R and 2PPC 10K are both faves of mine. Can brawl decently with MPL/SRM too. Not fast but tanky hitboxes. Always protect the arm.

[Tordin]

I like em alot, along with Wolfhounds and Ravens.

They are slow with their stock engines. Get XL engine and cram as much firepower in them as possible. Oh and jumpjets.
Especially have Jump Jets in them until you can afford those XL engines. They need some mobility, having at least a couple of JJ from the get-go helps alot.

All of the Panthers have nice builds and are fun to play. Yeah, I found well working builds for even the so called "weak" P variant, bogus! Just because it dosent have energy hardpoints dosent mean its bad. I did well with a gauss and max ammo for it. Lovely harasser with AC 2, 5 even 10 too.
Side notes
Just take care of your right arm, especially if you dont use the center torso missile hardpoints as backup weapons. If no weapons left, go nuts into the enemies to distract them, you might even kill them if your last bump into them hits a really cherry red and exposed internal of f.example Center Torso

Edited by Tordin, 01 June 2016 - 09:25 AM.

[Virlutris]

TercieI, on 01 June 2016 - 09:02 AM, said:

Not a beginner's mech, not a dominant mech, but a stupidly fun mech that can be effective if you run it well. 3LL 9R and 2PPC 10K are both faves of mine. Can brawl decently with MPL/SRM too. Not fast but tanky hitboxes. Always protect the arm.

Adding-on:

Panthers are one of the most heavily-quirked lights, which means that if you protect that gun arm you can do absurdly fun things

I like both of Terc's sniper builds. You actually get better cooling in each of them by running a slightly-smaller-than-max engine and cramming in 2 external DHS. (credit to Terc for pointing out the benefit)

I'll add that the PNT-8Z with a max engine and 2 LPL is a surgical killer. Because of the quirks, the LPLs are extra-quick-burning, fast-cycling, and rangier-than-normal. The others are good, and I like 'em (AC10 on the 10P, too), but the LPL 8Z is my fave. Not coincidentally, it's the only mech I've gotten 8 kills in.

Once you learn a mech, generally it performs better (because you do better handling it). Once you learn Panthers, yes, they can do good work.

Edit: clarity

Edited by Virlutris, 01 June 2016 - 10:15 AM.

[epikt]

I absolutely love the Panther. My favourite is the twin-PPC poptart, but it's also pretty good at (ER)LLas or LPLas builds, decent at brawling (though I personally don't like it very much in that role) or even light autocanons on the 10P.
Like it already has been said, it's not a top tier mech, nor it's not an easy mech to pilot (especially it's most of the time weak against other lights) but it's really fun.

PS: there is no real equivalence a light mech and a heavy, but other good options for a "Black-Knight-ish" light could be the Raven (for long to mid range) or the Firestarter/Wolfhound (for mid to close range).

[TercieI]

epikt, on 01 June 2016 - 10:13 AM, said:

I absolutely love the Panther. My favourite is the twin-PPC poptart, but it's also pretty good at (ER)LLas or LPLas builds, decent at brawling (though I personally don't like it very much in that role) or even light autocanons on the 10P.
Like it already has been said, it's not a top tier mech, nor it's not an easy mech to pilot (especially it's most of the time weak against other lights) but it's really fun.

PS: there is no real equivalence a light mech and a heavy, but other good options for a "Black-Knight-ish" light could be the Raven (for long to mid range) or the Firestarter/Wolfhound (for mid to close range).

Columbia prevents Americans from watching that. Bummer.

[epikt]

The link is in the description (but can you read it if the video is blocked?) here is a mirror
(edit: and I have more Panther gameplay in this playlist! mostly PPCs, but some laser too)

Edited by epikt, 01 June 2016 - 10:53 AM.

[TercieI]

epikt, on 01 June 2016 - 10:51 AM, said:

The link is in the description (but can you read it if the video is blocked?) here is a mirror
(edit: and I have more Panther gameplay in this playlist! mostly PPCs, but some laser too)

You can get to the video but it has a banner that says "this nasty French fellow is making tons of money off of Columbia's intellectual property and we haven't at all lost perspective."

[Bespoke Cheese Cake]

Panthers are a good solid mech. Not the best, but solid enough to hold it's own on the battlefield. Plus it looks cool.

Update: The comments above were made before the rescale, since then the Panther has become huge and even with an abundance of quirks has suffered performance wise. More testing and build experimentation is needed before I can once again recommend the Panther as a worth while investment.

Edited by Bespoke Cheese Cake, 03 August 2016 - 05:25 PM.

[zeta44]

i use the 10K variant, switch the stock engine for an XL of equal weight, then get speed tweak, the once slow panther now runs about 100 k/h. makes a great skirmisher and can take out most heavies and mediums that try to split off from the main group. I'll post back here later with exact specs.

[Shin Ken]

I experimented alot with the shunned 10P because I kinda like the concept of it.

I had not much success with Gauss or dual AC2 loadouts. I think you have to give up too much speed and armor to make it work and have enough ammo. And you get easily chased down by lights.

What worked expecionally well is a single UAC5. It's only 9 tons so you have plenty of space for armor, ammo and a big engine that actually (partially) utilizes the 10P engine quirk.

It's "only" a single UAC5 but when you can keep a good flank, range and your crosshair on the enemy, it still does very good damage thanks to the 25% cooldown quirk. And you can always roll the dice and spam it in do-or-die situations with the potential to do ridiculous damage if you're lucky.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...e039e6c4e76f45d

Edited by Shin Ken, 03 August 2016 - 06:11 AM.

[Kuaron]

*reviving thread*

With the Panthers being currently on sale, and the upcoming skill remake lifting the necessity of getting 3 variants of every Mech to adequately play one, I'm thinking about buying a Panther.
Now:
What variants deserve special attention and are offering something interesting?
Large lasers I already have in the Raven-2X.
Poptarting with one PPC arm looks like what the Vindicator is already doing similarly well, but with the necessary DHS to support ERPPCs.
And I don't even know what to point out on the "just another laservom, this time on a light"-9R.
The only one that actually looks like something new is the same that is considered to be the weakest of all.

So what do I do?

Edited by Kuaron, 24 December 2016 - 04:00 PM.

[jss78]

Kuaron, on 24 December 2016 - 03:58 PM, said:

*reviving thread*

With the Panthers being currently on sale, and the upcoming skill remake lifting the necessity of getting 3 variants of every Mech to adequately play one, I'm thinking about buying a Panther.
Now:
What variants deserve special attention and are offering something interesting?
Large lasers I already have in the Raven-2X.
Poptarting with one PPC arm looks like what the Vindicator is already doing similarly well, but with the necessary DHS to support ERPPCs.
And I don't even know what to point out on the "just another laservom, this time on a light"-9R.
The only one that actually looks like something new is the same that is considered to be the weakest of all.

So what do I do?

Honestly I can't think of a "good" reason to get into them.

If you want to go sniping with a sh*t ton of arm lasers --> PXH does it with ECM.

If you want to dual-PPC poptart --> like you say VND/PXH can pack enough DHS, also they have more weight-efficient JJ's, PXH also gets ECM.

If you want shoehorn them into a normal fast light 'mech role --> ~any other light is better (speed/hardpoints/ECM/etc.)

I really don't want to crap on them ... I have 300 games in mine. Plus I have a serious soft spot for them in TT where they're very cost-efficient fire-support 'mechs. But cost-efficiency is not a thing in MWO, so alas the Panther becomes something of a non-starter.

[Kuaron]

OK, thanks, this confirms my impressions on the energy Panthers.

What about the infamous 10P then?
Is it stupid and masochism to get one?

[epikt]

Kuaron, on 24 December 2016 - 09:02 PM, said:

What about the infamous 10P then?
Is it stupid and masochism to get one?

Yes.
But it's damn fun.

[Kuaron]

Alright.
I'll go buy it then.

[Darian DelFord]

Kuaron, on 25 December 2016 - 09:41 AM, said:

Alright.
I'll go buy it then.

It will lose to just about every other light out there..... but like many here have said.... 2 PPC's and JJ's and it is a blast to play. It is a mech that I play when I just need to sit back and actually have fun and not worry about winning.

[Audacious Aubergine]

Truth be told, with the rescale I think a lot of the 35t lights (ie Firestarter, Wolfhound, Panther) aren't nearly as viable as they used to be, especially not the slow ones like the Panthers. If you want something that big you almost might as well get a Shadowcat or Blackjack instead, unless there's things that it can do better?