Keltan, on 23 June 2016 - 01:19 PM, said:
OK, here are some new player questions:
Drop decks are not clear to me. From various clues, here’s what I think I know
1. They are a collection of 4 mechs I bring into a faction play battle.
2. Since I can only play one mech at a time, I assume there is some mechanism whereby I switch mechs. What is this mechanism? When a mech is destroyed?
3. If I’m merc or loyalist,only mechs available to that grand faction (IS or Clan) in my drop deck.
4.If I’m freelance, can I have any mechs I want in my drop deck when I answer a call to arms?
So the Mastery Bundles look like pretty good deals - three mechs for $25 or so, plus premium time .they never go on sale, but occasionally they get extra premium time, so I should wait for such a bonus.
Clans don’t have any Mastery bundles, so I should buy Clan mechs with cbills first?
What is the ETA on Clan Mastery bundles? It seems many mechs still need a hero version?
Will there be a sale on buying mechs with cbills sometime soon?
(I know, it's just a guess at when Piranha will have a sale, but some guesses are pretty good.)
Are the Performance Steam packs good deals when they are on sale? Are the mechs still unable to be sold? Do they count as a variant towards getting basic and elite on pilot skills?
Thanks for asking, by the way, before venturing out into the world of Faction Warfare. Not everyone does, and a lot of the game's ragequit and naysaying comes from folks who don't bother to tap the helpful folks of this forum for info before diving head-first into the deep end of the pool (which is FW).
So, YES, your drop deck is a set of FOUR mechs. It can be any mix of OWNED and TRIAL mechs. The combined weight of the four mechs is limited. Currently, I believe the limit is 250 tons per side (IS and Clan), but it IS subject to change at any time on short notice from PGI. It's been as low as 240 and as high as 260 for either side, since I've been playing FW just last August/September.
The swap mechanic CAN be that the mech is destroyed, but you ALSO have the option to EJECT from your mech. I think the default is to press and hold 'K'. At that point, the mech is considered destroyed for all intents and purposes, and cannot be reused during that match even if it was in otherwise pristine condition. The dropship that brings you in to the fight, has a 30-second pattern. Every 30 seconds, it CAN drop any pilots aboard in their next mechs. Once you eject, or your mech is destroyed, you return to the dropship (as long as you have at least one mech remaining in your drop deck). Once you select your next mech to drop, you get in the queue for the next drop, on that 30-second cycle. That cycle runs constantly, so when you return to the dropship, you may have 29 seconds to wait, or only 3, or whatever.
No matter if you're a merc, loyalist, or freelancer, you must use all four mechs of the same tech base (IS or Clan) without exception. Okay, there's ONE exception, but it's a BUG, and while I've pitched that video around elsewhere, we'll not discuss it. Much. The bug DID put a teammate in a Trial Commando for his first mech to drop, after which the next three mechs were all Clan mechs from his drop deck. We are a merc unit, and were on a FRR contract at the time. That sowed some confusion with our Clan enemies, I can tell you. Our previous contract had been Clan, and the player had not yet reset his drop deck to IS mechs. The bug occurred when he went Scouting first, and had his mech reset to a IS trial (default was the Trial COM). The bug allowed him into an Invasion match with that, and the remainder of his deck was his previous Clan deck.
Thought I said I wasn't going to discuss that. DAMN.
So, to #4, you must use mechs that match the tech base of the call-to-arms that you are answering, regardless. Freelance, loyalist, or merc. Matters not.
MASTERY BUNDLES?! They're a GREAT deal! User Virlutris has a great listing of the bundles, and their relative values versus the full cash/MC/CBill prices for the components. I believe there's even a link to the Smurfy of each build, too, for reference. But there are currently no CLAN ones available. The reason is simple: There's no single Clan mech for which we have both a Champion and Hero variant. YET.
Eventually we WILL likely get champion variants of mechs like Kodiak, Viper, Night Gyr, and Huntsman, for which there are or will be hero mechs. And many Clan mechs DO have Champion variants, but no HERO. Past couple of town hall meetings, I've been hoping to get Russ to address the matter of releasing individual hero variants for mech chassis that do not currently have them, but I'm stupid and get ignored (sometimes rightfully so, I might admit).
Seriously, though, it's encouraging that the Butterbee is out now. That's the first standalone hero for an existing chassis that we've seen in FOREVER. It's been a year or longer, I think. None of the Clan Wave or Resistance package mechs have had a hero variant yet, nor has the Urbanmech. That's a lot of mechs, and a lot of monetization that PGI is missing out on. Just the package mechs alone, we're talking about 24 more hero variants (and therefore, 24 more MASTERY PACKS) that can be released and monetized. Urbbanmech makes 25.
IMPORTANT ADVICE! MASTERY bundles are SUPER for quickly building a solid FW drop deck. I'd recommend looking at a 65-ton heavy mech first. IS gives you the Thunderbolt, Catapult, and Jagermech to choose from. All three are good now (rescale made the Catapult much better, but the post-rescale ratings haven't really settled in just yet... Nonetheless put the CPLT-Jester hero among the top few IS heavy laser vomit mechs). That fills in 3 of the 4 mechs in your drop deck, and also pumps 30 days of premium time into your account to accelerate the leveling of your new mechs. From there, go to a medium like Griffin or Shadow Hawk, or even lighter to the Hunchback. Any one is solid, and pretty decent for improving the skills in quick play as well. Griffin 3M is perhaps the best medium brawler in the game, PERIOD. Shadow Hawk brings some serious high torso mounted dakka capability, and a dakka-missile-brawler build or two as well. Hunchback brings you some specialists, but they're good mechs and cheap to build out.
So, yeah. The point is, if you've GOT to have 4 mechs, but you need 3 of any one chassis to be able to complete the ELITE skills (and thereby double your BASIC skills) for each variant, you may as well put them in your drop deck together. Mastery Bundles do that beautifully. Also, your Premium Time gives its bonus to FW earnings just like it does to QP. Hero and Champion mech bonuses apply there, too. Tournament Supporter bonus does as well (a great deal for $10, to get that 10% buff to XP and Cbills for several months). And you earn XP in FW just like QP, so you CAN level/skill your mechs up in FW while you learn your way around. I did. A LOT. Still occasionally do.
TL;DR- Buy a mastery pack for an IS 65-tonner and 50/55-tonner, enjoy the Premium Time, assemble your drop deck, and GET REKT til you GIT GUD!
PS- Clan options? The Cauldron-Born pack of the Clan Wave 3 is a solid pick, with a GOOD Clan heavy, one of the BEST lights in the game, and an underrated/understimated fast medium that's loads of fun to play. MAD value, and will put you together a good Clan drop deck. Or buy your some mix of TBR/SCR/EBJ/HBR/ACH with CBills to put you at or around 250 tons.