25 replies to this topic

[Inner Sphincter]

Hello, my father plays Battletech and made me start it, but I am smarter than him, so I wanted to try MWO
I like Clan, but I noticed is really expensive and there aren't bundles.
I've asked to my dad to help me buying at least a little amount of MC, but, like every father says, he answered me that Battletech is free and I'd have everything I need, so if I wanna play MWO, I can, but if I wanna buy anything I have to wait I'll be older enough to have a job...
However, I've looked every Clan mech in order to find a good strategy to spend few C-Bills to make a playable team and I bought a Highlander IIC.
I think my first team could be 2 Highlanders and 2 Adders.
It will take a lot of time cos I've realized that Highlander is really slow, so probably, the first thing I'll do will be buy a faster engine.

Knowing that I've bought yet a Highlander, can U help me to build a competitive team?
2 High + 2 Adder?
1 High + 3 Hunchbacks?
I really need help, considering I cannot fail, cos I cannot spend money and cannot resell mechs.

thankyou all.

[Davegt27]

I cut grass to make money starting when I was 9

[S 0 L E N Y A]

First of all welcome to MWO.
you can grind out almost everything you would really need, It just takes a VERY long time.

Innersphere isnt really cheaper, it just costs less up front. They require a lot more cash in modifications to get them up to par.

As far building a team, Im guessing you mean a faction drop deck?
I wouldnt run a highlanderIIC to start with.

[Koniving]

Space Oddity, on 10 July 2016 - 01:28 PM, said:

Hello, my father plays Battletech and made me start it, but I am smarter than him, so I wanted to try MWO
I like Clan, but I noticed is really expensive and there aren't bundles.

(Not sure if that qualifies as smarter, just different. Both of you could find a middle ground by playing Megamek as a cross between Battletech the tabletop game and MWO the action shooter. Also keep an eye out for Battletech [the PC game] coming out by Harebrained Schemes).
Welcome to MWO. Inner Sphere is cheaper to get, but in the end between installing Extra Light (XL) engines and upgrading to double heatsinks, the prices are really similar to Clans. So if you like Clans, go Clans. You should still be able to get one after finishing the Academy and completing 25 matches and from there, use the mech to acquire the next one.

Quote

Knowing that I've bought yet a Highlander, can U help me to build a competitive team?
2 High + 2 Adder?
1 High + 3 Hunchbacks?
I really need help, considering I cannot fail, cos I cannot spend money and cannot resell mechs.

thankyou all.

You said you have a Highlander IIC? It is Clan. So make sure the Hunchbacks are IIC. Adders, I personally think, are fun to play as but not particularly useful for inexperienced players since they are large, fragile little turtles.

You'll need to focus on Clan mechs if you're trying to compile a group of four mechs for Faction Play.
Under Store, Battlemechs, you can turn on a filter to see just IS or Clan mechs.

Which Highlander IIC did you get?

Edited by Koniving, 10 July 2016 - 01:52 PM.

[Inner Sphincter]

I have HGH-IIC armed with Gauss (I love it).

[Gibson Ibanez]

Welcome to MWO. I like your name.

[3xnihilo]

Welcome to MWO! I don't play Highlanders, but I can offer a little bit of advice for general game play. Since you have an assault mech, you move slow, so stick close to the other assaults on your team. Pay close attention to what they do and where they go. Also, shoot at the same enemy they shoot at, if possible. It is better to focus down one enemy than it is to spread damage over several enemies. Always press "R" to lock your targets. This lets your team see them on the minimap, teammates with LRM's can fire on them, and you can get a readout of their weapon load out and how much damage they have taken. Try to aim for damaged areas on mechs as much as possible. Learn the maps, and over time you will learn the typical travel patterns on each map which will help you better predict where the enemy will be.

Also, consider getting Arctic Cheetahs instead of adders. They are pretty much the go to light mech right now. It is pretty ferocious with ersl or spl load outs.

Stick with it, the best teacher is experience so play as much as possible and learn from your mistakes. If you have questions come back here and lots of people will be happy to help

[Koniving]

Btw I forgot to mention; the reason the Clans don't have bundles is that they don't yet have many "Champion" or hero versions of some mechs, which bundles include a champion and a hero variant.

I'm going to assume that's the base Highlander IIC and not a letter variant. Interestingly the only thing I would change on it is the Gauss Rifle; the rest is pretty awesome. Probably trying out a UAC weapon. At most I might change up one of the streak launchers to a smaller size just to have one that shoots a little faster in my chain fire pattern.

I currently am saving to get the Highlander IIC C. (Since Clans use the Greek alphabet to pronounce their letter designations, that is actually Gamma, the third letter of the Greek alphabet.) But currently I only own the Highlander IIC B or Beta. It carries multiple LRMs, supplemented by a UAC/10, a medium laser and a TAG. By the time I get close to them, they're already so weak I could kill them by blowing air at them.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[SlightlyMobileTurret]

Boogie138, on 10 July 2016 - 01:38 PM, said:

First of all welcome to MWO.
you can grind out almost everything you would really need, It just takes a VERY long time.

Boogie is right.

I've been playing a year, farmed out a couple factions to rank 6 before Phase 3, nowadays doing whatever I can squeeze in during events.

Currently sitting on 37 mechs.

Not a cent spent on the game yet.

I might have to spend some soon thanks to Phase 3 for mechbays, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to finance "do you want to buy a mechpack" by giving in.

Edited by Keshav Murali, 10 July 2016 - 05:04 PM.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

First off, let me first tell you...

As a new player, I recommend staying away from Faction Play, and instead farm Quick Play mode.

Now, I wont make any comments trying to belittle your skill, thats not what this reply is about.

Now the reason I am trying to convince you to stay in quick play, is you dont need to have "team" of fully built and masters mechs to do well in quick play.

Quick play is a great place to grind out cbills and help you build your "team" of mechs. It also lets you game experience needed to unlock your mech skills... (As well as gxp for your pilot skills).

it also lets you try out Trial mechs without feeling like to much of a burden.

The reason quick play is recommended over faction play for new players is, tonnage limits change frequently for faction play, so a "team" of mechs you make now, might not be legal in a month or two. So If you dont have extra cbills and extra mechs lieing around, you might be in a bind.

Lastly, welcome to mwo! Hope you enjoy your stay! And keep on keepin on!

[Inner Sphincter]

THANKYOU all, U-re really friendly and full of useful advices.
I tried the faction mode... 12 v 12 is really too hot to resist, but I have to admit that is really hard to follow instructions and mates. Too many things to consider before act and I am not ready to this.
More, I've realized that I have 25 cadet games in quickmode, so I can earn more money to buy my first 4 mechs
however, I felt in love with Gauss: I need to master it cos I had a dream... HEADSHOT an ATLAS !! muhahahahahaha !!!

[SnagaDance]

Space Oddity, on 11 July 2016 - 01:38 AM, said:

I felt in love with Gauss: I need to master it cos I had a dream... HEADSHOT an ATLAS !! muhahahahahaha !!!

Welcome to the game!

Though I'm afraid your dream is BattleTech based, where a single Gauss can indeed headshot an Atlas. MWO however works with doubled armor and internals, so a single Gauss wouldn't even penetrate the armor on an Atlas' heas (18 points of armor)

[The Basilisk]

Space Oddity, on 10 July 2016 - 01:28 PM, said:

Hello, my father plays Battletech and made me start it, but I am smarter than him, so I wanted to try MWO
I like Clan, but I noticed is really expensive and there aren't bundles.
I've asked to my dad to help me buying at least a little amount of MC, but, like every father says, he answered me that Battletech is free and I'd have everything I need, so if I wanna play MWO, I can, but if I wanna buy anything I have to wait I'll be older enough to have a job...
However, I've looked every Clan mech in order to find a good strategy to spend few C-Bills to make a playable team and I bought a Highlander IIC.
I think my first team could be 2 Highlanders and 2 Adders.
It will take a lot of time cos I've realized that Highlander is really slow, so probably, the first thing I'll do will be buy a faster engine.

Knowing that I've bought yet a Highlander, can U help me to build a competitive team?
2 High + 2 Adder?
1 High + 3 Hunchbacks?
I really need help, considering I cannot fail, cos I cannot spend money and cannot resell mechs.

thankyou all.

Wellcome young Mechwarrior.

First thing is: MWO isn't Battletech, sad but also fact, I'm sorry.
As result many of the Mechs beeing awsome in the Battletech board game are absolutely underwhelming in MWO.

Basic things to consider when buying a mech are not only price, class and exact weighting but also what you can put on that said mech.

- When you are good with a certain weapon, be sure to take more than one of it with you.
As for your beloved Gauss Rifle the best and most viable count would be two.
Reason is you cant fire more than two at once and you need to fire more than one to be realy usefull.
So if you like Gauss search for mechs able to carry two of them.

- What requires my favorite loadout to do of me ?
A large AC like the AC20 requires going near an enemy to hit and aim reliably. So a AC20 carrying mech should be able to get in close and still be able to fire that big gun multiple times to be effective and successfull.
A mixture of sturdiness and speed might be handy here.
Your Gauss is for longer ranges and requires time to aim and load up before firing. So beeing able to fire out of cover or over hills will come in handy. For firing out of cover (around corners) your Weapons should be on one side. For firing over hills your weapons should be situated as high as possible on your mech to for you not beeing exposed to enemy fire.

- MWO is extremely team oriented. A single mech will next to never turn the tide of a loosing battle. In this game there is realy no room for rambos. So you should ask yourself is my loadout helpfull to my sourrounding.
Puting LRMs on a sturdy, heaviely armored mech takes away damage capacity from your team.
Driving joke builds like 6 flamers and 4 MGs deprives your team of firepower needed to down enemy mechs.

It realy boils down to the question: Will my loadout help my team to win the match. If you keep that in mind you won't do to wrong.

[Inner Sphincter]

In order to have better chances and be more useful, I bought a 325XL engine for my High IIC.
now I wanna change the Gauss, really too hard to manage atm, but I have a doubt... better the AC/10 or the Ultra version?
having one ballistic slot only, I think would be better the normal AC/10 but I don't know the jam chance of Ultra.
Any advice to help?
thankyou again

[SlightlyMobileTurret]

Don't ever buy the Clan "AC-5/10/20" because they are placeholders for the slug LBX.

Buy LBX or UACs only. The UAC stock cooldown > AC cooldown, and uac are one less slot as well, have double tap ability.
LBX are good for crits.

Right now, Clan UAC/10 is a good weapon, but it's best when you have two or more. HGN-IIC-C can mount two, and does real well with it.

Jam chance is 15% IIRC. Not THAT bad. The double tap works most of the time. unjam does take a bit of time, however. So if you jam and you cannot keep shooting your other weapons, get back into cover till you can fire it again.

Edited by Keshav Murali, 11 July 2016 - 04:39 AM.

[Inner Sphincter]

Keshav Murali, on 11 July 2016 - 04:39 AM, said:

...Right now, Clan UAC/10 is a good weapon, but it's best when you have two or more. HGN-IIC-C can mount two, and does real well with it.

I have the normal HGN-IIC and I have 1 ballistic slot only. That's why I have doubts. But reading what U've wrote, I understand it's better mount a LB-10 than a single Ultra AC\10.

[Rogue Jedi]

Important note about Ultra Autocannons, if you hold down fire it will never double tap and never jam. If you tape fire you get the potential doubled rate of fire at risk of a jam.

If you jam it takes something like 5 seconds to unjam.

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 11 July 2016 - 05:38 AM.

[SlightlyMobileTurret]

Space Oddity, on 11 July 2016 - 05:35 AM, said:

I have the normal HGN-IIC and I have 1 ballistic slot only. That's why I have doubts. But reading what U've wrote, I understand it's better mount a LB-10 than a single Ultra AC\10.

Nah, UAC/10 is generally better, but LBX10 isn't that bad. It's the "AC-10" that you must avoid.

[DemonRaziel]

Welcome to MWO.
Unless somethin has changed while I was away, you need to level up 3 variants of the same 'Mechs to unlock its elite skills and 3 'Mechs of the same weight class (could be the same 3 variants) to unlock mastery (extra module slot).

And while the mastery isn't that big of a deal for you early on (since you'd have to buy the rather expensive modules to benefit from it), unlocking the elite skills (and doubling the basics) is a big boon.

Considering you only have 4 'Mech Bays and need to fill 3 of those with the "same" 'Mech, I'd suggest buying 2 different 'Mechs, deciding which one works for you the best, then leveling it and buying 2 more variants to unlock the basic and elite skills on.

That should keep you busy for a while, so you may then decide what your next step will be.

Edited by DemonRaziel, 11 July 2016 - 06:43 AM.

[Revis Volek]

Space Oddity, on 10 July 2016 - 02:06 PM, said:

I have HGH-IIC armed with Gauss (I love it).

HGH-IIC with 3 ErPPC and 1 Gauss is a great mech, dont listen to the haters.