175 replies to this topic

[WANTED]

Pariah Devalis, on 03 July 2016 - 05:36 AM, said:

(though I do wonder how a twin LB20X Hunchback IIC would perform in Scouting).

I was seeing more 4 man units using these and they were more scary than the streakcrows from my experience.

[Void Angel]

Pariah Devalis, on 03 July 2016 - 05:36 AM, said:

It would shift it too far to the IS side, IMO.

It might - though it's hard to say for sure. That's probably why they decided not to lower the drop weight, though it's more fun for some people to throw tantrums about how "PGI doesn't listen!" and whatnot.

Right now it isn't perfect, but the match balance could be much worse - and streak crows aren't as much of a problem as people make them out to be.

[WANTED]

Pugs using streak crows are shutting down a lot and the legs are soooo easy to take off with ac 20. Really shocked how quick his legs come off. What's been killing me as been hunchIICs and storm crows NOT running streaks

Edited by WANTED, 03 July 2016 - 09:37 AM.

[Duncan Aravain]

I'm always amused by the number of Clan and Merc/Clan pilots who seem to think the current FW and Mech balance is in a good spot. If the scouting results were reversed, you know they would be screaming their heads off. Scouting as an IS pilot vs. Clan, I've had matches with 4 kills and damage scores up to 648; I know I can pilot. That being said, in the last 75+ matches, I've had either cold maps (Arctic or Grim) or heat neutral (River or Forest) at least 95% of the time. Those maps do not penalize Clan heat generation enough to compensate for their overwhelming range and damage potential in general. Caustic penalizes the Clan mechs, but I've had that only twice in the last week. Throw in the skillcrows swamping the scouting ques to leap the balance into Clan Long Tom activation and Merc units jumping on the CJF seal clubbing bus and I doubt that there will be much FW following this current event. Glad that seemingly clueless PGI doesn't do anything in medicine,manufacturing, or engineering, cause the RL body count would likely be similar to MWO's current FW fiasco.

[Crockdaddy]

Northern Nomad, on 30 June 2016 - 06:38 PM, said:

Yeah, but twenty seconds into the fight it will be 3v4, then 2v4.. etc. You're losing mechs too quickly to win.

I'm not a bad player, my KDR is 1.61, but I have yet to win a scouting match today, so far I've played ten.

Jump onto your faction team speak. You guys have a great TS. At NS, for this event we are in CJF ... so in order to survive against organized IS teams we have to run 3 crows with either SRMS / MPL / SPL ... sometimes we use a Shadowcat mixed in(for speed) ... but facing Griffin 2N's is rough or Hunchback 4SPs ... Steak crows can be very frustrating but as many have said only at the noob / casual player vs noob / casual player level.

[Crockdaddy]

Duncan Aravain, on 03 July 2016 - 09:47 AM, said:

I'm always amused by the number of Clan and Merc/Clan pilots who seem to think the current FW and Mech balance is in a good spot. If the scouting results were reversed, you know they would be screaming their heads off. Scouting as an IS pilot vs. Clan, I've had matches with 4 kills and damage scores up to 648; I know I can pilot. That being said, in the last 75+ matches, I've had either cold maps (Arctic or Grim) or heat neutral (River or Forest) at least 95% of the time. Those maps do not penalize Clan heat generation enough to compensate for their overwhelming range and damage potential in general. Caustic penalizes the Clan mechs, but I've had that only twice in the last week. Throw in the skillcrows swamping the scouting ques to leap the balance into Clan Long Tom activation and Merc units jumping on the CJF seal clubbing bus and I doubt that there will be much FW following this current event. Glad that seemingly clueless PGI doesn't do anything in medicine,manufacturing, or engineering, cause the RL body count would likely be similar to MWO's current FW fiasco.

I strongly dislike Long Toms, so I can agree with you there. We may go Steiner next contract feel free to drop by our TS if we do. I don't lose very often when grouped up to Skillcrows. they aren't perfect. Just you have to come into the scouting match focused on killing the enemy rather than um scouting. I know its kinda stupid to say but it is true. If you focus on scouting and your team splits its a rough go of it.

Griffins, Hunchbacks, Crabs! (yes crabs with MPLs) among other mechs can match up well with Skillcrows. Unfortunately for clans there aren't a plethora of useful medium mech choices that multirole as well as Skillcrows do.

[Void Angel]

I'm always amused at the number of forum pundits who gloss over the merc tags on "Clan" (or "Inner Sphere") players, as well as ignoring the presence of IS/Clan loyalists who disagree with their point of view.

Isn't that funny?

Genetic fallacies at Amateur Sophistry Night are fun!

But forget facts and thinking - it's enough to be mad at PGI, rite?

[MischiefSC]

Crockdaddy, on 03 July 2016 - 10:03 AM, said:

Jump onto your faction team speak. You guys have a great TS. At NS, for this event we are in CJF ... so in order to survive against organized IS teams we have to run 3 crows with either SRMS / MPL / SPL ... sometimes we use a Shadowcat mixed in(for speed) ... but facing Griffin 2N's is rough or Hunchback 4SPs ... Steak crows can be very frustrating but as many have said only at the noob / casual player vs noob / casual player level.

The problem however is simply numbers.

Wolf and Bear don't attack. Only CJF. So as almost all of what's left of Davion is in Steiner the Steiner defense is populated by all the remaining pugs of Davion, Liao and Marik, plus the existing Steiner pugs. You'll even see a lot of Kurita and FRR pugs there as there's always a scout matching defending Steiner from CJF....

even if they're losing constantly. And they are. As these threads point out there's lots of people who are winning less than 10% of their matches while pugging in Scout queue.

The result of that is that while those of us who drop in teams win almost every match there's an ocean of terribads pugging in LRM Kintaros (yes. Yes they are. Not kidding, they are) losing literally faster than we can win matches. Combine this with almost every major merc unit being in CJF and the Clans having few pugs left and what you've got is mostly units in CJF being fed pugs from every IS faction, who have nowhere else to drop while even their own pug teams have SSRMs to give them an edge in terribad v terribad matches.

Not anything like enough teams in Steiner to hold it. So it goes to LT and the people who prefer invasion go to QP or quit. Rinse and repeat for 90 days, you've succeeded in burning most the IS loyalists out of FW.

I applaud PGI though. They've managed to make FW what they originally wanted - almost entirely mercs. Now they don't need to make factions mean anything. If only I could believe they were cunning enough to have done it on purpose instead of just taught everyone not to care about FW or to even hate it outright by sheer incompetence and apathy.

[B0oN]

Spoiler

Mazzyplz, on 01 July 2016 - 11:52 AM, said:

this;



anything that griffin has that kintaro doesn't it makes up for in firepower. though you can downgrade the srm4 for a srm2 and put an extra heatsink there too.

It could be so hilariously easy, if people stopped whining for a second and instead started using their brains in conjunction with their mechlabs .
Too bad only so few get it, how easy countering the DerpCrow is ^^

[Duncan Aravain]

Void Angel, on 03 July 2016 - 11:48 PM, said:

Genetic fallacies at Amateur Sophistry Night are fun!

...and right there kind of proves part of my point. Many of the CSJ wins are not pilot skill drive ( as evident by their claim that the IS players must be inherently genetically faulty), but by FW mechanics and superior clan mechs. You have a future with PGI if your apparent attempt in reasoned argument is so error filled. Kids now days.

[Kimberm1911]

The problem is that the stormcrow is superior in every way to every single IS medium. It's tanky, it has great weaponry, and it's fast. However, it can be beaten. The problem is that it takes a coordinated team, and you have to assume you're fighting stormcrows every time you drop. Which, isn't a problem considering whatever you take to kill stormcrows will also kill hunchback IIC's, nova's, kit fox's, and anything else the clans will bring. The stormcrow isn't too OP, it's just cheap. It can give any PUG clanner decent results just due to the fact that it is so efficient. The best force composition I have found to take down stormcrows is 3 Griffins and and either a Centurion or Hunchback. The Griffin's can pack flamers and SRM's, and the Huncback/Centurion has an AC 20. The SRM brawlers come in, shooting the legs, and firing their flamers. The stormcrow theoretically should overheat due to the fact that most Storm-crow pilots haven't figured out that firing more then 3 SRM's causes ghost heat. After the mech is shut down, the Centurion just hits the legs with its autocannon, which are now an easy target because the mech is shut down. You just have to circle the Storm-crow far enough away that every team member has a clear shot. More then likely, the other crows will either A. Trying to avoid hitting their teammate, or B. Running a SSRM build that won't kill you as fast as you kill them. Clanners aren't exactly the most organized bunch. (Jade Falcon yes, but not really any of the others.)

That being said, a good Clan team with 4 crows each equipped with a different build is an extremely difficult team to beat. 1 Streak crow for lights, one with lasers, one with SRM's, and one with an Autocannon is quite OP in the right hands. IS would have a difficult time answering to that. However, most clanners aren't crafty enough to do that. They are too busy getting easy kills with their insta-win button stormcrow. Then once they fight a competent team, they QQ about how the clans were nerfed, and IS is so tough.

[Manei Domini Krigg]

This works good Shadow Hawk 2H http://mwo.smurfy-ne...3b0a7e102b6c53b

[Jon Gotham]

Northern Nomad, on 30 June 2016 - 05:36 PM, said:

I've played 5 scouting matches today, lost every single one to a 0/4 rout.

99% of the mechs I'm seeing are streak fit Stormcrows.

How do you counter these? Everything 55 tons and down seems to die basically instantly to two of them.

The streakcrow is horrendously inefficient, lost of alpha spread all over the shop:) You'll see them mostly becuae it's the best options the clans have really....novas and the like just get eaten alive by IS quirkboats.
I'd suggest a Blackjack or two, and alpha their left side torso...if I remember rightly that will remove 3 missile launchers and ruin the SC's ability to fight.
You can also try the HBK-G with TrollC20, that will nicely remove that torso or the frankly hideously op 4SP with it's structure quirks....
Then there is the AC20 Centurions or the Skillgriffs.....structure quirks aplenty+silly alpha.

You can either go the energy (quirkboat) method and take their huge legs from range or stack up ecm mechs or try and get that side torso.
The worst games I've had have been x4 ECM skillgriffs........

[Void Angel]

Duncan Aravain, on 04 July 2016 - 07:00 AM, said:

...and right there kind of proves part of my point. Many of the CSJ wins are not pilot skill drive ( as evident by their claim that the IS players must be inherently genetically faulty), but by FW mechanics and superior clan mechs. You have a future with PGI if your apparent attempt in reasoned argument is so error filled. Kids now days.

My objections to your sophistry don't count as proving your point any more than your random claims ("genetically faulty?") about things you couldn't know - not even if you throw in an insult at the end.

[Duncan Aravain]

That you missed my point just illustrates the problems with many of the "FW is fine" crowd. Look closer, you'll get it, I'm sure.

Edited by Duncan Aravain, 04 July 2016 - 04:02 PM.

[Acehilator]

Mazzyplz, on 01 July 2016 - 11:52 AM, said:

this;

(insert picture of horrible Kintaro build)

anything that griffin has that kintaro doesn't it makes up for in firepower. though you can downgrade the srm4 for a srm2 and put an extra heatsink there too.

Please stop posting bad advice, that build is beyond bad.

- no armor on the right arm: will get torn off really fast and exposes the right torso with the XL to additional damage
- SRM6: cluster not tight enough, does not profit from SRM4 Cooldown Module
- NO ARTEMIS: seriously, wtf. IS SRM4 with Artemis forms such a nice tight cluster to hit a leg with all rockets. SRM6 does not, SRM4 without Artemis does not either.
- ammo in CT: really?
- useless Large Laser: you do not need to poke, the beam duration is way too long to use in the knife fight, and it is way too hot anyways... use small pulse or flamers
- not enough rear armor: for Scouting you can put almost 1/3 of your armor to the back, use it to eat damage from behind while following and killing the focus target of your group

Something like this: KTO-18

And Griffin 3M is still better because of LT/RT structure buffs to keep the XL going, and Griffin 2N because of ECM. Not getting hit on the way into the fight or while running away from a legged Crow is too good to pass up. When running solo and not using a 140km/h+ Light, it is Griffin 2N or go home.

[Mazzyplz]

thanks, do you think i will reach tier 3 with your build friend?

LOL.

i take armor off the arm all the time.

what you said about the large laser is true. i still like it this way. i don't need ecm in scouting mode because you rarely get flanking on scouting mode and i am not worried of streaks cause i got srms. which are superior.

i dont fire the srms in a big cluster anyways so thanks for the concern but srm6 will remain where they are

[justcallme A S H]

Acehilator, on 04 July 2016 - 04:50 PM, said:

Something like this: KTO-18

A good start (and not at all knocking your suggestion, I like it). That said still too much ammo, not enough heat capacity to use it in a 60-sec fight.

IMO better off with something like these. Yes they are slower, I've never had an issue with the speed in my Nova, you can trade heat for a bit more speed if you find you're not getting too hot. If you're chasing a locust neither builds speed is enough anyway so better to build for the common than uncommon.

Just SRMs

SRM/SPL

Both of those builds have enough ammo to fire flat out for 60 seconds, you'll run into heat cap before that happens anyway. Might even find you can drop the ammo down a bit more for more heat or more speed. Depends what you want after you've played a few games and got a feel for what is working.


I've not actually seen someone run those builds before, I think it could work pretty well actually.

[_Comrade_]

sorry but streak crows are mad noobish. I am pro AF and don't need no stinkin crows to take down some IS. Streak crows EZ PZ kill...their legs are WEAK AF!!! Get some AC20 and cripple those mofos , get gud IS players, GET GUD

[_Comrade_]

Northern Nomad, on 01 July 2016 - 11:29 PM, said:

Limiting scouting matches to 45 tons would make a lot of sense, you're meant to be scouting, not rolling hard hitting mediums, IMO.

It would also make the gameplay a lot more varied.

forget limiting to 55, PGI would instead introduce a new IS medium mech that can combat streak crows cause they want the $$$$$. Watch I bet that's whats going to happen...a new IS medium coming soon, probably the Bushwacker