25 replies to this topic

[TheFourthAlly]

Chances are I will pick up some MC with the added mechbays (and some caches, but that's just fine, whatevs) this weekend, but now there's a Lights on sale.

I have played trial lights, it's very hit and miss for me. I had fun in the Jenner when I started playing this game. Then I picked up some Hunchies and leveled those for a while.

Then the trials changed and I went through most of those to find out what they were like. I tried the Locust and I think the neighbours heard me go 'weeeeeee'. 150something kph through Canyon was a bit of a treat after 90kph Hunchbacks.

I have had fun and a lot of quick deaths with more Locust attempts. I also had reasonable fun with the Arctic Cheetah, although the small lasers seem a bit on the pin ***** side of things (need to learn to stay alive more and aim a tad better probably too).

The Commando and the other trial light did not do it much for me. I like the speed, the darting in and round the flanks and occasionally behind enemy lines, putting reasonable amounts of fire into the backsides of much larger mechs, the cap trolling that always pulls a few from the front line, etc etc.

So with the sale on, and keeping the above in mind, any recommendations? Since I'll prob end up with some MC in the bank, I'm also looking at some Light heroes perhaps?

I am currently saving up C-bills for my third Timberwolf for leveling, but I have about 10 million built up, so I can certainly first grab some lights on the sale and restart that saving up again.

Thanks

[mailin]

If you had fun in the Locust, maybe pick some of those up. The Pirate's Bane is pretty good. One word of warning though is that Locusts might actually get nerfed, but that's a worry with every mech. You never really know when PGI will make an arbitrary decision that winds up inadvertendly nerfing something else.

Also the Jenner Oxide is currently very good too, as is the Jenner IIC. Firestarters and Arctic Cheetahs are also very good.

The thing to note is that C-bills aren't real money, whereas MC is. So, if you are thinking about getting a light hero mech, which are only available for MC, now would be the time to do so. I wouldn't worry about getting a light on sale for C-bills, unless you are looking at it taking you 35% less time to earn the c-bills in combat.

[TheFourthAlly]

mailin, on 29 July 2016 - 12:08 AM, said:

If you had fun in the Locust, maybe pick some of those up. The Pirate's Bane is pretty good. One word of warning though is that Locusts might actually get nerfed, but that's a worry with every mech. You never really know when PGI will make an arbitrary decision that winds up inadvertendly nerfing something else.

Also the Jenner Oxide is currently very good too, as is the Jenner IIC. Firestarters and Arctic Cheetahs are also very good.

I heard stories about the Jenner IIC, had not had a chance to try that out.

Quote

The thing to note is that C-bills aren't real money, whereas MC is. So, if you are thinking about getting a light hero mech, which are only available for MC, now would be the time to do so. I wouldn't worry about getting a light on sale for C-bills, unless you are looking at it taking you 35% less time to earn the c-bills in combat.

That's certainly true, but if I pick up a hero, adding one (or two, depending on c-bill cost) for a bit less c-bills seems like the clever thing to do. Unless Heroes don't need to unlock any skills with xp. I thought they did though?

[DrRedCoat]

I have a lot of the light heroes but I wouldn't say that any of them are must-haves. Here's my brief thoughts on the ones I have:

The Death's Knell: In the context of Commandos, The Death's Knell is considered the best one but still not great enough that you see them. I have four medium lasers and AMS on mine with a max XL engine and this is one of the only builds that makes sense on it so that's what you'll see it if you see a TDK at all (plus or minus the AMS). I like mine but I also haven't touched it in awhile.

Ember: The Ember was the sh*t back in the day. This thing was a monster but lost it's edge when machine guns were nerfed. I'd say it's still good but not really anything to write home about anymore. Mine has 4 medium lasers and 4 machine guns, a max XL, and most or all the jumpjets it can fit. The jumpjets give it an added maneuverability and quick turn capability that helps a lot when fighting real close.

Pirate's Bane: Since you liked the Locust, this would be my recommendation. The PB is the only Locust that can carry ECM. A lot of people will either pack 4 medium lasers or 4 small pulse lasers on this guy and zip around. I'm actually insane and run the stock loadout with 4 small lasers and 2 machine guns but I also run my -1V with 4 machine guns and a medium pulse laser so that's the kind of guy I am. The ECM on the PB is handy for flanking unnoticed. Strike targets that are already dealing with your teammates and try staying away from other lights. At best, a light v light fight usually ends up with one dead and the other legged.

Huggin: I don't actually have a Huggin anymore because I rage sold it for defying everything a Raven should be (i.e. an electronic warfare support). After that, it got the quirks that let it fire off SRMs like machine guns which apparently made it really good. Then those quirks got nerfed and now we are here today. I can't speak to how it is exactly now but you don't see a lot so I'd avoid it unless you like launching SRMs while running at high speed.

TheFourthAlly, on 29 July 2016 - 12:24 AM, said:

That's certainly true, but if I pick up a hero, adding one (or two, depending on c-bill cost) for a bit less c-bills seems like the clever thing to do. Unless Heroes don't need to unlock any skills with xp. I thought they did though?

Locusts are the cheapest chassis in the game so you wouldn't be saving much. The only expensive part is outfiting them, particularly XL engines, so the sale won't help with that. If you have your eye on other mechs, I'd use the sale to get them and get the Locusts later. If not, then go for it. And you're correct, Heroes unlock skills just like normal mechs.

Edited by DrRedCoat, 29 July 2016 - 12:32 AM.

[PhoenixFire55]

TheFourthAlly, on 28 July 2016 - 11:58 PM, said:

So with the sale on, and keeping the above in mind, any recommendations? Since I'll prob end up with some MC in the bank, I'm also looking at some Light heroes perhaps?

The question you want to ask yourself before buying anything is what your aim is. If you want to get lights for funz and lulz then Locusts and Commandoes for example are a perfectly legit choice. On the other hand if you want to get serious and carry hard you need solid fighting lights like ArcticCheezer or Jenner-IIC. However, all that said, due to the recent rescale plus nerfs to lights none of them are really viable, i.e. this is a terrible time to invest your money and time into them.

Lights are cheap anyway, and without doubt there will be sales again in the future so if I were you I'd stay away from lights for now until they are bandaided or until everything else is unbandaided.

[p4r4g0n]

If you are looking for competitive light mechs, generally, unless the competition format requires lights, you will not see them.

But these are the lights that are commonly regarded as suitable for competitive play (source:metamechs.com) - Artic Cheetah, Jenner IIC, Firestarter and specifically, Jenner Oxide (hero mech).

Anything other than these are basically more for fun or masochists.

[TheFourthAlly]

Ah, questions of moral character. Those are harder. Probably more looking for the entertainment factor, which was pretty high on the Locust runs where I survived long enough to do some damage. Seems like they might offer a nice different playstyle. I tend to like mixing it up in my experience with other online gaming.

And yeah, I just noticed how dirt cheap the stock locusts (even the hero relatively) are.

Thanks peeps.

[Tier5 Kerensky]

I bought Mist Lynx C /MLX-C. I had no high expectations, I just thought I could have one clan light for dropdecks, it had ECM and fairly good speed+jump jets so it could be little useful.

I dropped the medium ER Laser in favour of armor, so it has ECM, AMS, Bap and one large ER laser. I don't know how many fights can you get lucky but so far about 10 games it's been amazing. I deal fair amount of damage, but more importantly, I'm nearly always alive in the end plus most games I've won.

When I'm shooting enemies from long range most of them don't even seem to so much care about me, maybe that one large ER laser is not enough to bother them. So either I'm getting very lucky or the light mech is more better than I expected.

I've previously played little with some Locust variant but I found it useless, because of no jump jets or real firepower. I might give it a second go maybe before I sell it, I played it right in beginning of my career.

[BWS2K]

Quote

...maybe that one large ER laser is not enough to bother them.

I do a similar loadout but without the AMS and two ER's. I use newspaper for armor but man is it fun.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

Heros:

Locust Pirates' Bane: Good harrasser, 4 medium or 4 small pulse + ecm + max engine, also nice for FP dropdecks when you need tonnage for 3 heavies and don't want to waste your lightmech.

Commando Death's Kneel: Fast, all weapons in the arms, armhitboxes stupidly oversized, arms feeling like they're loosely bolted on with 2 bolts (one bolt each arm)

Spider Anansi: Got every weapon on it as a 30 ton mech, Jumpjets + dual AMS, has so many hardpoints it can't run half of them in one build. terrible ineffective but fun to play (mixed loadouts are always fun but ineffective).

Firestarter Ember: Less lasers then his brothers, Maschine guns, even though it has 4 of them are stupidly ineffective and are a waste of tonnage, still fun to play, tho.

Jenner Oxide: terribad hitboxes, ammo depended but stupidly high DPS. You gotta have to be able to aim with SRM (leading your target) otherwise you will have problems hitting stuff with 140kph and no artemis.

Raven Huginn, Similar to the Oxide just with more facetime and jumpjets, Was always kinda bad, only valid a short period of time where it literally had double the DPS it should have had, Fun to play but don't expect wonders (like the oxide).

Panther, Urby and Wolfhound don't have heros yet.

Mist Lynx: total garbage across the board

Arctic Cheetah: OP light mech.

Adder: OP light mech. (i am dead serious here)

Jenner IIC: the IIC is pretty much an Oxide on crack, rest are okayish but have suffered hitbox upscaling.

Kit Fox: Cutest mech known to men, if you don't own at least one, you have no heart.

[Spheroid]

Get the Cheetah. You only need one total to have all the builds so it is very cost effective. The trial does not necessarily handle like a one you would own as it omits both hand and lower arm actuators which seriously hampers aiming.

There is only one good Jenner-IIC variant and the stock 315XLs in them are expensive and seldom used.

The Adder is cheap and performs well but plays like a medium.

The base price of Locusts makes the sale pointless so don't feel the need to rush to get them, excepting the Pirate's Bane which I feel is cheap enough that most people should consider owning one.

The Urbanmech is again too cheap to bother with this sale

Wolfhound and Firestarters are giant now and much less desirable.

Panther, a niche mech I have not played since the rescale.

Spiders = no opinion

[ImperialKnight]

Get the ACH, then maybe the Jenner IICs

[loopala]

if you like the locust come on over to the under rated locust thread. start at the end but check out some of the first pages about locust theory and why we tend to run very little armor on the little speed demons.

http://mwomercs.com/.../page__st__4300

[Kali Rinpoche]

Get whatever you want, minus the Myst Lynx. If you interested in clan lights, I'd buy them now while they are on sale.

And pony up for a month of premium time. You can easily pull in 60-80mill cbills if you play a lot. I almost made back what I spent to rebuy 2 spiders and rebuild them in one night with premium time and tournament supporter 10%.

Edited by Kali Rinpoche, 29 July 2016 - 10:15 PM.

[TheFourthAlly]

Thanks for all that, very much appreciated.

[JC Daxion]

Spheroid, on 29 July 2016 - 07:17 PM, said:

The base price of Locusts makes the sale pointless so don't feel the need to rush to get them, excepting the Pirate's Bane which I feel is cheap enough that most people should consider owning one.

Unless of course you are talking about the Locust champion which comes with an XL engine, and full upgrades so that is around 5m C-bills worth of upgrades for like 500 MC.. So like 4 bucks? Pretty sweet deal... Buy the PB and Locust champion,(you can get both for the 7 dollar MC package) and then get the last with C-bills when ever.. Though if you have um extra, why not.. saving is saving right?

Edited by JC Daxion, 30 July 2016 - 03:20 PM.

[InspectorG]

Locust: Pirate Bane is OK. The E lazer poker, 3M lazor knife fighter, or S 'mini-oxide' are where its at though. ECM is decent for Solo que but not as strong as it was. All you need to buy is one XL180 engine and share it between them. Ferro is also a good option because every half ton you can save is worth it for ammo builds.

Commando: TDK is...decent. IMO, the Commando-A is better with its 30% Missile Cooldown. Run 2SRM6 and blast lone assaults. The DPS looks insane but getting it to work is the hard part. xl225 engine i think...

Raven: still decent. Lazer pokes at range or SRM brawling.

Arctic Cheeter: likely the best light currently.

Firestarter, still decent but not as strong as it was.

Spider: 2D is ok. the K with 1LPL+4MG is very strong. The V is for trolling bads.

Mist Lynx... Pure Meh.

Urbies: i dont talk about them.

Kitfox: was good when Clans dropped, now, not so much.

Adder: decent. but slow.

Panther: PPC jumpsniping, i think.

Wolfhound: not so good post rescale. lost some tankiness.

Jenner llc, strong but big. You want the missile boat and the energy boat wth SPL.

Jenners: still meh unless you really like them. Oxide is a beast though.

[TheFourthAlly]

Cheers,

I ended up with a Pirate's Bane for the discounted mc price (I still love how fast these things are, good break from fighting in my Hunchies and TBRs) and three Arctic Cheetas after I managed to squeeze enough cbs out of a few more matches.

Not much left to fiddle with the loadouts now, although opening all the more interesting looking boxes got me a few more cbs and a smattering of random weapons. Free stuff is free stuff, but I'm not buying keys any time soon.

Back to the grind, I still want a third TBR, but at least I have spare mechbays now.

Edited by TheFourthAlly, 01 August 2016 - 08:24 PM.

[doughnut001]

Bah, I found this site too late. I've been playing 3 days and today I thought I'd take advantage of the sale and buy some light mechs.

I decided to go with the commando for the ECM but from reading this thread it looks like I may have made a mistake.

I bought some MC for mech bays and so far I have 3 hunchbacks, 2 stalkers and now have 2 commandos and am saving my credits for a 3rd before the sale ends. I've only played the commando on a couple of games and it was fun but it seems like it needs upgrades while my other mechs were fine out of the box.

Should I buy a 3rd commando variant before sale ends and then start saving for an XL engine or cut my losses and go back to playing heavier classes and save for a 3rd stalker to unlock elite skills?

I assume I'll earn credits much faster sticking with my hunchbacks.

[TooDumbToQuit]

It is not as good as the 50% off sale but IMO, now would be the time to get the 3rd to be able to master the Pilot Trees. Or to sell them back if you do not want them.

I also think if you have to buy MC to buy Mech bays to be able to buy the mechs just pay $15.00 for the Commando Mastery Bundle. You get a Hero and a "Champion", a 3rd Mech, 3 mech bays and 30 days of premium time. And there will be in there THE engine you need to put in others.

https://mwomercs.com/store/gifts

Locust Mastery Bundle is only $13.00. And you do not have to pay for them with MC that you have to buy. Just buy them as a gift for yourself for the amount stated.

I know most people say never sell mechs. Pffftttttt. I'd keep the Commando with ECM and sell the others for mech bay space when you have it mastered.

You can only use one mech at a time and the only reason to have 4 totalling 250 tons is if you do FW. Like during the 50% off Medium sell I bought 3 BJs, 3 Griffins and two more Crabs (I had won one). I will keep all 3 BJ's but only 1 Griffin(the one with ECM) and maybe one Crab.

If you have to spend real money on Mech bays, buy the Mastery Bundles. Then keep your favorite after Mastering it and you have two mech bays to play with.

Edited by LikeUntoGod, 02 August 2016 - 04:09 PM.