46 replies to this topic

[Rock Roller]

Sitting on a pile of C-bills and looking for a new Assault. Only Assault that I have is a Victor. Its mastered but just dosnt have a good spot currently. Was hopping for a little love with the last pass but dont want to dwell on it.

Since I tend to choose fairly poorly I thought I would get some input. I would like to stay with a Inner Sphere unit but I am not totaly adverse to Clan units (love my Timber Wolf). I like the look of the Awesome but would like to have some second thoughts.

Wish List: Decent Speed, Not super low mounts, decent size, durability, variable builds to suit different play styles if the meta changes. Laser vomit, Brawler (the only thing the Victor does fairly well) and possaible LRM boat. Not necessary but JJs are always cool. So basically I want a Timber Wolf with more armor

Don't know if it will help but mechs I have mastered that work for me are mostly lights. Mediums like the Griffin and Blackjack. Heavy's: Jagger, Thunderbolt and Timber Wolf.

Thanks for your help.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Battlemaster fits all your needs.

Assault : check
Decent speed : check (can be pretty agile due to 400 engine cap)
Not super low mounts : check (laser mounts are high side torso)
Variable builds : check (can laser vomit, can snipe, can missle boat, can carry ballistics)

Cant JJ, but you said that wasnt a requirment

I recommend starting with 2C varient, with 5 LPL and xl360 (or xl350).
Or 3 LPL and 3 ml or mpl and std engine

[Steel Raven]

I haven't had the best luck with assaults until the Kodiak (dear lord, I love Clan Ultra ACs! )

Stalker is still held in high regards. It's not a brawler but it's tough and every variant can pack a punch. I use three different energy builds myself because of those high mounts for LL, can take on any mech other than a lights... arrgh, a good light jockey will cripple a lone Stalker.

[Rock Roller]

Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky, on 24 June 2016 - 08:48 PM, said:

Battlemaster fits all your needs.

Assault : check
Decent speed : check (can be pretty agile due to 400 engine cap)
Not super low mounts : check (laser mounts are high side torso)
Variable builds : check (can laser vomit, can snipe, can missle boat, can carry ballistics)

Cant JJ, but you said that wasnt a requirment

I recommend starting with 2C varient, with 5 LPL and xl360 (or xl350).
Or 3 LPL and 3 ml or mpl and std engine

Thanks for the reply. How has it faired since the patch. Everything still the same?

[SlightlyMobileTurret]

Battlemaster got SMALLER with the patch.

[Rock Roller]

Steel Raven, on 24 June 2016 - 09:14 PM, said:

I haven't had the best luck with assaults until the Kodiak (dear lord, I love Clan Ultra ACs! )

Stalker is still held in high regards. It's not a brawler but it's tough and every variant can pack a punch. I use three different energy builds myself because of those high mounts for LL, can take on any mech other than a lights... arrgh, a good light jockey will cripple a lone Stalker.

I mostly play lights and the Stalker seems to have great firepower but it seems really slow. You said you didn't have much luck until the Kodiak. What kind of game averages do you manager in your Stalkers?

Its sad that the Kodiak wont be available for a bit for C-bills. It fits all of my bucket list.

So is the consensus that even post patch the Battlemaster still quite a bit better than the Awesome?

[SlightlyMobileTurret]

Amazingly enough, the AWS-9M and 8Q are finally "pulling their weight" compared to their 85 ton OP IS brothers. BLR is still probably better.

Buy Battlemaster if you want "best" mech. But the Awesome isn't bad at all, right now.

[Mazzyplz]

i recommend the awesome but to start out you will need a noob friendly awesome variant/build.

because the awesome you need to pilot DIFFERENTLY from other mechs.


http://mwo.smurfy-ne...69b6b7787d64151

this awesome 8v build is very noob friendly and quite good. it has great laservomit with quirks and everything and it also has a good srm overhead right handed punch. it is a great support mech and it is also good for popping out and shooting because the srm is mounted high and the lasers are mostly on the left side so you can peek left.

just shoot all the lasers and up close shoot all your srms and move out. don't sit there and get shot at.

it is a TRUE jack of all trades that works. you can run the smallest and biggest maps with this build.
you won't be sniped out of range and you won't be caught up close with your pants down when enemy closes in on your ranged arsenal.
(stay near your team always though.)

some players will tell you only pure brawler is the way to go but not really. pure brawling mechs often cannot engage at critical moments and spend matches behind a wall.
then they will tell you only pure sniper mechs is what you need to do but it's very easy to get flanked and not have any close range or low heat weapons.

HOWEVER you shouldn't try to go toe to toe with brawlers or- fight snipers at a distance. obviously. be smart keep the enemy not too near and not too far. if the opportunity to shoot SRMS comes then use it, or use it to shake an enemy off.

if you can snipe a brawler and brawl a sniper you will have the upper hand every time, also.


that's the only drawback of this mech, it's not the greatest of all brawlers, but it fulfills the role and it makes up for any deficiencies IMO. other awesomes may do some things better, but this one is probably the most user friendly

just make sure you stay with your team, since it's best suited for support.


oh btw;
you will also want the ERLL cooldown module so the ERLL cooldown syncs with LPL and medlas cooldowns.
you will want a lpl range module so you can hit stuff consistently at mid-to-long range with laser alpha.
finally you will want srm6 cooldown so it is almost as fast as srm4 when you unlock the master slot. so you can shoot your srms almost all at once every time.

weapon synergy is #1 when talking builds.

Edited by Mazzyplz, 25 June 2016 - 02:22 AM.

[Sewman]

Hey, I actually had the same situation - a pile of C-Bills and an itching for an Assault Mech.
However, I've already got a ton of seat time in Banshees. Highly recommended in its own right. BNC-3M laser vomit variant is one of the tankiest mechs in the game and it's the reason I picked Banshee's over Stalkers to begin. Huge arms for absorbing damage and high laser hard points up in it's shoulders. The BNC-3E is the ballistic variant and it's alright, but requires too much face time to be great in today's meta of laser barf. The BNC-3S is the straight up loser of the bunch and is sort of like an Atlas D. Low engine cap of 345. Stick an AC20 and a bunch of Mlas or Mpulse on it and brawl away.

So I literally just bought the Battlemaster 2C (working on others atm) and what people say about this mech are true. It's fast, a lot of fun and the torso laser hardpoints are cockpit level. Between Banshees and Battlemasters, I can already say that BLRs have more variation in their variants and are probably closer to play style of the Timberwolf if you stick a big XL engine in it. I have not regrets buying this despite already having a laser vomit Banshee. It definitely feels and plays like a different mech, despite its similar hardpoint layout.

One thing, unless you're going to go with a STD engine, outfitting 3+ variants with XL engines, Endo steel and modules can get pretty expensive. So budget a few more million C-Bills for getting the builds tuned up and optimized if you decide to go with Battlemasters.

Victors are still pretty bad, and Highlanders are still pretty bad. I was hoping for some Victor love but didn't get anything in the last patch. I keep trying to have good games in my HGN's to see if they can rise from the ashes of the nerf bombs but dominant games in the HGN are few and far between. Too slow, hardpoints too low, slow torso twist, hoverjets still don't help out much in matches.

So again, Batlemasters recommended given your needs.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Rock Roller, on 24 June 2016 - 09:27 PM, said:

Thanks for the reply. How has it faired since the patch. Everything still the same?

The BLR got a slight nerf since the requirk patch, but I am still fairly sure its still rated top tier in the assault class.

According to metamechs.com run by gman of [SJR], at a glance, it still looks like the BLR-2C is still up there.

http://metamechs.com...-lists/is-list/

While I havent check out the smurfy on it, since it doesnt load well on my old phone, i am fairly sure its some type of LPL vomit mech that abuses terrain to decimate its opposition.

Here is a BLR guide incase your interesed in other builds as well.

http://metamechs.com...s/battlemaster/

[MoeX]

Just bought three Battlemasters and am enjoying them. Got the 2C, 3S, 1S. 2C is good for peeking with 5 LPL, 3S I'm using 6 MPL + 2 ASRM6 for Brawling, and 1S is an LRM boat with 4 LRM10 + 4 ML. Can really recommend them all!

Edited by MoeX, 25 June 2016 - 07:10 PM.

[Steel Raven]

Rock Roller, on 24 June 2016 - 09:34 PM, said:

I mostly play lights and the Stalker seems to have great firepower but it seems really slow. You said you didn't have much luck until the Kodiak. What kind of game averages do you manager in your Stalkers?

I'm almost exclusively a PUG player thanks to my working hours so It varies from game to game, team to team (if you don't have anyone watching your back, your dead) but I have done well enough with the STK-2N.

I already mastered the Thunderbolt and the Griffin when I started looking for a Assault, The Stalker 2N was THE IS assault at the time though it was a struggle when I started. Wasn't ready for the drop in speed and as my first chicken walker, I needed to re-lean how to shield/spread damage.

My average got better after I started piloting the Marauder, the 75 ton heavy help me bridge the gap between the my skills in the 65 ton brawling Thunderbolt and the 85 ton Stalker. I used rang weapons to makeup for the lack of speed and the high weapon mounts are a big plus when firing from cover. The only drawback remains the limited torso twist with the exception of the 3F.

I would give the Trail Battlemaster and Awesome a spin, though all mechs are a little stiff prior to unlocking all the Basics.

[Rock Roller]

Thanks for all the feedback. I have no problem leveling a mech though the Mastery portion. Since I started at the end of last year I have mastered quit a few. I love the achievement of mastering a mech. With the reply's its sounds like the Battlemaster is at the top but the Banshee and the Awesome are worth looking at. So I have decided to buy a Battlemaster but will probably end up with all of them at some point.

[Rock Roller]

Got the Battle master 2-c and it's doing good. It did run close to 15 mil all up, even with having some of the items. Basics done and looking at the next unit in the series now.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

what play style you want?

[Kimberm1911]

BLR's are good, but despite the patch I still haven't seen them pulling their weight in public drops. I've mastered them, and I like them, but I don't think they are as good as people think they are. They are square, easy to hit, and if you want to run decent firepower on them, extremely squishy with an XL. I much prefer the stalkers. They can all run lasers, have been extremely relevant throughout the course of this game, and can tank MASSIVE amounts of damage. The Stalker 5m is THE best brawler in the game, IMO. It's one of the few mechs that can successfully brawl with the AS7-S and win.

The banshee is pretty good. The nice thing about the banshee is that all variants can be run well. Unlike the battlemaster or stalker, which both have useless variants. The 3m is still probably the strongest, as it can run every laser build under the sun, but with the meta subtly shifting to dakka, the 3e might be making a come back in the future.

I would stay away from the King Crab and Atlas. I love the Atlas, it is my favorite mech, but it takes a while to get used to. The King Crab just has too many negatives to it, and since there is a sizable penalty to firing 2 AC/20's, it's not exactly super useful as a brawler. Some will run 4 SRM6's, but it doesn't shield well and usually gets killed before reaching the front.

In terms of clan assaults, I wouldn't recommend the Dire Wolf. I absolutely hated that mech, but some run it really well. It's ridiculously slow, and due to its torso twist, if you are getting shot at, you will die.The warhawk is very difficult to play, but with S-SRM 6's and full laser vomit it's workable. Also, Dual LB-20x is a fun build since it doesn't have ghost heat. Wait for around 4 minutes skirmishing, and then once everyone is ding up, come and and eat components.

Overall I'd recommend the Stalker, Battlemaster, or Banshee as a good IS assault. Clan assaults are kind of in a sad state, besides the Kodiak. It' partly due to how difficult they are to play, but also due to the fact that they tend to have bad hardpoints and weird weapon placements.

Peace, and have fun

[Steel Raven]

Surprised not to see more love for the Banshee.

Also, what happen to all the Zeus pilots? That seemed to be one of the most popular IS mechs until the Marauder dropped.

[SlightlyMobileTurret]

Steel Raven, on 02 July 2016 - 03:52 PM, said:

Surprised not to see more love for the Banshee.

Also, what happen to all the Zeus pilots? That seemed to be one of the most popular IS mechs until the Marauder dropped.

BNC always had a bigger torso than EXE, but since PGI gave it hardpoint inflation and made it T1, they're afraid of going back to that period when it had LPL quirks and s*** over every other mech in the game without effort.

The Zeus was really popular because it was undersized (70 tonner size) and had LOTS of armour. PGI changed it all to structure, the popularity dropped, and now they made it the right size. The popularity tanked again.

Kimberm1911, on 02 July 2016 - 02:57 PM, said:

BLR's are good, but despite the patch I still haven't seen them pulling their weight in public drops. I've mastered them, and I like them, but I don't think they are as good as people think they are. They are square, easy to hit, and if you want to run decent firepower on them, extremely squishy with an XL. I much prefer the stalkers. They can all run lasers, have been extremely relevant throughout the course of this game, and can tank MASSIVE amounts of damage. The Stalker 5m is THE best brawler in the game, IMO. It's one of the few mechs that can successfully brawl with the AS7-S and win.

The banshee is pretty good. The nice thing about the banshee is that all variants can be run well. Unlike the battlemaster or stalker, which both have useless variants. The 3m is still probably the strongest, as it can run every laser build under the sun, but with the meta subtly shifting to dakka, the 3e might be making a come back in the future.

I would stay away from the King Crab and Atlas. I love the Atlas, it is my favorite mech, but it takes a while to get used to. The King Crab just has too many negatives to it, and since there is a sizable penalty to firing 2 AC/20's, it's not exactly super useful as a brawler. Some will run 4 SRM6's, but it doesn't shield well and usually gets killed before reaching the front.

In terms of clan assaults, I wouldn't recommend the Dire Wolf. I absolutely hated that mech, but some run it really well. It's ridiculously slow, and due to its torso twist, if you are getting shot at, you will die.The warhawk is very difficult to play, but with S-SRM 6's and full laser vomit it's workable. Also, Dual LB-20x is a fun build since it doesn't have ghost heat. Wait for around 4 minutes skirmishing, and then once everyone is ding up, come and and eat components.

Overall I'd recommend the Stalker, Battlemaster, or Banshee as a good IS assault. Clan assaults are kind of in a sad state, besides the Kodiak. It' partly due to how difficult they are to play, but also due to the fact that they tend to have bad hardpoints and weird weapon placements.

Peace, and have fun

The BLR-2C is positively OP. The 1G, 3S, 1S and 3M are all great mechs. I'm not sure how you've not seen them pulling their weight, because I'd surely attribute it to pilot inexperience or error. They're devastatingly effective.

The BNC-3E, I've always had 3AC5 2PPC on it, it was a GREAT mech, if slow, and its only drawback was that it was not as consistent as the 3M. There was nothing ever wrong with it, what, with cooldown quirks as well.

The Dire, it feels so dirty to pilot if you manage to get in position. (emphasis on managing to actually get your butt in an okay place ). A few clicks and you've crossed 400 damage. Frigging monster.

[Kimberm1911]

Keshav Murali, on 02 July 2016 - 06:31 PM, said:

The BLR-2C is positively OP. The 1G, 3S, 1S and 3M are all great mechs. I'm not sure how you've not seen them pulling their weight, because I'd surely attribute it to pilot inexperience or error. They're devastatingly effective.

The BNC-3E, I've always had 3AC5 2PPC on it, it was a GREAT mech, if slow, and its only drawback was that it was not as consistent as the 3M. There was nothing ever wrong with it, what, with cooldown quirks as well.

The Dire, it feels so dirty to pilot if you manage to get in position. (emphasis on managing to actually get your butt in an okay place ). A few clicks and you've crossed 400 damage. Frigging monster.

I can see how the BLR 2c is effective, I've played it quite a bit, enjoyed it, and did well with it, but I just can't see how it's OP. Even running the meta-wh*re 5 LPL version with an XL it seems too squishy. Yes it's fast, but it's still an assault mech, and can be hit pretty easily. With an XL it pops like a tin can. I just feel that laser vomit isn't quite as relevant as it used to be. Any Gauss vomit build out-trades it, dakka outranges it, and brawlers out alpha it. I understand where you are coming from, as on paper it definitely has OP written all over it, and a year ago it would have been, I just haven't experienced it being super OP in game so I can't say I'm entirely convinced it is. IMO, KDK 3 is borderline OP, but no one else seems to agree with that (Probably because the quad UAC-10 build is the only borderline OP build on the Kodiak. Seriously, what else does anyone run on that things?)

Banshee is great. It used to be my favorite mech, but now I find it is either too slow, or too fat to pull its weight against the "new breed" of heavily quirked mechs.

The Dire is "dirty" if you pilot it perfectly. Otherwise you get eaten alive by SRM 30 jenners who core you in the back when your team mates look away for a split second. Also, the torso twist on the thing is dreadful. I feel after the nerfs it's now a shadow of its former glory.

This is all opinion stuff on my part, but I've played quite a lot of matches in assault mechs, so I feel that what I have said is at least backed by a good amount of play time in the weight class.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Kimberm1911, on 02 July 2016 - 02:57 PM, said:

BLR's are good, but despite the patch I still haven't seen them pulling their weight in public drops. I've mastered them, and I like them, but I don't think they are as good as people think they are. They are square, easy to hit, and if you want to run decent firepower on them, extremely squishy with an XL.

I definatelly disagree with this post right here. Almost every game I see a BLR-2C, they do very well. While they might not be pumping out super high 1k+ dmg games, the pilots are usually getting multiple kills. 5 LPL can really drill into an enemy CT like butter. Very few mechs can take 3-2-3 shots back to back. And the XL engine, while is risky, can make the mech more survivable due to higher agility.

You might have been unlucky- and just had back to back bad pilots? Or maybe they were good pilots who just got unlucky? Idk.

(I wont make a comparison against stalkers and banshees, since those are good mechs as well).

Kimberm1911, on 02 July 2016 - 07:53 PM, said:

KDK 3 is borderline OP, but no one else seems to agree with that (Probably because the quad UAC-10 build is the only borderline OP build on the Kodiak. Seriously, what else does anyone run on that things?)

While 4 uac10s is popular, i still see a lot of good pilots with 2x guass + 2x PPC

Edited by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky, 02 July 2016 - 08:03 PM.