29 replies to this topic

[Duke Nedo]

I own both IS and Clan mechs, 188 mastered mechs + a few I sold. During an event like this when you can choose I usually lean towards using my IS mechs becuase they appeal a little more to me than my clan mechs.

So, I started out with a "deck" something like: BNC-3M, WHM-6R, BJ-3 and RVN-2X.

However, I inevitably ended up using: KDK-3, NTG-JK/TBR-Prime, HBK-IIc-A/SCR-Prime and ACH-Prime.

Made me wonder, is there any IS mech that is at par or at least near par with the best clan mech in each class at the moment? Which one would it be? WHMs? BLR-2C? AS9? Something else? Seems to me the last structure normalization round overshot by a bit.

Opinions?

Edited by Duke Nedo, 16 October 2016 - 07:04 AM.

[Y E O N N E]

Warhammer is up there with the TBR and NTG, but its role has been diminished with the introduction of the latter.

[El Bandito]

Cheater also can be swapped with Jenner-IIC.

As for me, I have been lurming with Lights and Mediums, and leveling up my NiGyrs and Kodiaks.

[Y E O N N E]

El Bandito, on 16 October 2016 - 07:16 AM, said:

Cheater also can be swapped with Jenner-IIC.

Both of those are Clan 'Mechs.

[El Bandito]

Yeonne Greene, on 16 October 2016 - 07:23 AM, said:

Both of those are Clan 'Mechs.

Yes. My point still stands.

[Spheroid]

I found it trivial getting KMDD in the Griffin-2N. Definitely one of the better mediums for this event.

[Tristan Winter]

I still like the Griffin. I don't know if the elite players consider it on par with the Stormcrow or Hunchie IIC, but I certainly still do well with it. SRM4 or SRM6 with Artemis in a tight cluster, on a mech with great jump jets, great speed and great torso twist.

I just bought the King Crab for the first time, and I was worried that it would be a tough mech to pilot, but I was pleasantly surprised. The Quad UAC5 build for the King Crab is super powerful. As I'm not going up against a KDK-3, I feel like I could handle most mid-range builds. Dire Wolves are a tough match, but not to the point where they're auto-winning.

I've never tried the 4xUAC5 Mauler or 5xAC5 Mauler (because I find that kind of min-maxing ugly), but they do strike me as being very powerful still. Min-maxed ballistic Warhammers are also quite good.

[Angel of Annihilation]

For me it has been the following:

Light - Arctic Cheetah mostly, some IS Jenner.
Medium - Stormcrow mostly, Phoenix Hawk, Crab and a bit of Viper as well.
Heavy - Warhammer, Warhammer and 1 or 2 matches in a Ebon Jaguar I was goofing off with.
Assault - Kodiak, King Crab

On a side note. I am glad tonight is the last night for the tourney. I have not had much fun with the poor gameplay I have encountered, part of which was my fault because just like everyone else, I was too concerned with getting my KMDD ASAP, rather than playing well or trying to win.

[Y E O N N E]

Tristan Winter, on 16 October 2016 - 08:30 AM, said:

I still like the Griffin. I don't know if the elite players consider it on par with the Stormcrow or Hunchie IIC, but I certainly still do well with it. SRM4 or SRM6 with Artemis in a tight cluster, on a mech with great jump jets, great speed and great torso twist.

I just bought the King Crab for the first time, and I was worried that it would be a tough mech to pilot, but I was pleasantly surprised. The Quad UAC5 build for the King Crab is super powerful. As I'm not going up against a KDK-3, I feel like I could handle most mid-range builds. Dire Wolves are a tough match, but not to the point where they're auto-winning.

I've never tried the 4xUAC5 Mauler or 5xAC5 Mauler (because I find that kind of min-maxing ugly), but they do strike me as being very powerful still. Min-maxed ballistic Warhammers are also quite good.

It's less that the 'Mech is bad and more that the maps don't really support brawling, which is where the Griffin excels. You will always get shot to pieces on approach under the current balance on most of the maps; you might be able to pull it off on Caustic Valley, but that's really it.

Mauler is certainly still very powerful, but requires more team support than a Kodiak since it is slower and has to expose more. If the Kodiak were removed from the game, the Mauler would go back to being a top-choice Assault.

[Tristan Winter]

Yeonne Greene, on 16 October 2016 - 08:46 AM, said:

It's less that the 'Mech is bad and more that the maps don't really support brawling, which is where the Griffin excels. You will always get shot to pieces on approach under the current balance on most of the maps; you might be able to pull it off on Caustic Valley, but that's really it.

HPG Manifold and Mining Collective seem to be 2 of the top 3 most popular maps in the solo queue, at least. They offer good opportunities for brawling, quite often. Not always, but quite often.

[Czerno Alpha]

Duke Nedo, on 16 October 2016 - 07:03 AM, said:

I own both IS and Clan mechs, 188 mastered mechs + a few I sold. During an event like this when you can choose I usually lean towards using my IS mechs becuase they appeal a little more to me than my clan mechs.

So, I started out with a "deck" something like: BNC-3M, WHM-6R, BJ-3 and RVN-2X.

However, I inevitably ended up using: KDK-3, NTG-JK/TBR-Prime, HBK-IIc-A/SCR-Prime and ACH-Prime.

Made me wonder, is there any IS mech that is at par or at least near par with the best clan mech in each class at the moment? Which one would it be? WHMs? BLR-2C? AS9? Something else? Seems to me the last structure normalization round overshot by a bit.

Opinions?

My usual deck is a Jenner Oxide with SRM4s, a Griffin with a heavy SRM loadout (currently the 2N), my Butterbee with quad SRM6A and then my Battlemaster LRM boat. I can usually get my tournament kills in a couple hours. My best night was one game each. I was done in less than an hour, but that was also unusual cause I'm not the best pilot.

[Y E O N N E]

Tristan Winter, on 16 October 2016 - 08:53 AM, said:

HPG Manifold and Mining Collective seem to be 2 of the top 3 most popular maps in the solo queue, at least. They offer good opportunities for brawling, quite often. Not always, but quite often.

HPG and Mining are like Canyon in that, without chassis limitations, they are better played using overwatch-type tactics. HPG is typically take the top and control the map, Mining is poke about the middle. You need range for both. They turn into brawls in QP because, obviously, everybody is on a different page both in mind and 'Mech.

What you might do on both, rather than bring a brawler like the Griffin, is bring a nuker like the Nova or Storm Crow.

[jjm1]

usually I've been using

splat or 5-med Adder (so many solo assassinations with the splat adder )
Novas, Cicadas or Crabs. (12 smalls Nova is certainly easy mode if all you need is a quick KMDD)
2-guass Ilya or ac20+6-med bounty hunter (c-bills, and a bit more challenging than a timber laser boat)
2-er-ppc warhawk prime (leveling)

so pretty mixed.

[Tristan Winter]

Yeonne Greene, on 16 October 2016 - 09:00 AM, said:

HPG and Mining are like Canyon in that, without chassis limitations, they are better played using overwatch-type tactics. HPG is typically take the top and control the map, Mining is poke about the middle. You need range for both. They turn into brawls in QP because, obviously, everybody is on a different page both in mind and 'Mech.
What you might do on both, rather than bring a brawler like the Griffin, is bring a nuker like the Nova or Storm Crow.

Are you talking about group queue? Because that's not my experience in the solo queue.

[Ibrandul Mike]

As for me it was/is (once more) this combo that worked best:

Light: Arctic Cheetah (6 SPL)
Medium: Blackjack (3 Medium Laser, 1 AC 20)
Heavy: Timber Wolf (2 LPL, 4 MPL)
Assault: Cyclops (4 AC5)

So two IS and two Clan Mechs. Instead of the Cyclops the Kodiak might be better, but the Cyclops is more fun for me.
As for mediums I don't have that many. Least favorite class... so I take what works for me.
Lights: The Oxide works great too. But I prefer the agility of the Cheetah

Edited by Ibrandul Mike, 16 October 2016 - 09:12 AM.

[Bud Crue]

Tristan Winter, on 16 October 2016 - 08:30 AM, said:

I've never tried the 4xUAC5 Mauler or 5xAC5 Mauler (because I find that kind of min-maxing ugly), but they do strike me as being very powerful still. Min-maxed ballistic Warhammers are also quite good.

Put 2 medium or even small lasers on the arms. It makes the mech look a lot better. Aesthetics matter.

As to the thread topic: mechs I have had best results in both in this event and that are "on par with" the best Clan mechs would depend on tier of course (I mean you can always LRM if you get a bad opposition and get 3 KMDDs), but ignoring that:
Raven 2n with a brawler build (3 spl and 2 srm4); Griffin 2N with 4 SRM4s and 2 ML (I run flamers for scouting but in this even the 2 ML have been a nice boost); Oddly my IV-4 has been great for this event but as to standing up to clans, I like my Grasshoppers or Warhammers; for assaults...nothing stands up to the Kodiak 3. Mauler is as close as I can get, but there is no consistency there.

[Y E O N N E]

Tristan Winter, on 16 October 2016 - 09:08 AM, said:

Are you talking about group queue? Because that's not my experience in the solo queue.

Solo. I have dropped group once in the past three months. My experience in solo is that it's an anything goes affair and, like I said, Mining and HPG turn into brawls because everybody is on a different page and some of them have to brawl to be useful in any capacity (as a side note, I've been seeing a lot of lost HPG games because my team tried to drive right to E7 and fight the low ground while the enemy controlled the center top...predictable results were predictable).

In an organized setting, it's totally different.

[Sagamore]

For the most part, I have been able to complete each day's challenge in 4 games solo queue. I've been running all IS mechs, and not competitive picks either. I haven't found myself needing to optimize or alter my playstyle with Clan mechs for this challenge. I don't own the KDK or NTG though.

Assault: BLR-1G(P) or AS7-BH
Heavy: GHR-5P (was leveling this sucker with 5 LL) or QKD-IV4 or BL-6-KNT®
Medium: SHD-2H(P)
Light: PNT-10K® or PNT-9R

Most of the mechs I play in solo queue are c-bill boosted anyhow so I stuck with what I normally do.

[Duke Nedo]

Not saying it was not possible to get the KMDDs in IS mechs, not at all, I just at some point decided to try something else and it was so much easier that it was hard to switch back again...

[LordNothing]

anything you can put 2 dozen tubes on is good. use artemis.