76 replies to this topic

[STEF_]

El Bandito, on 23 November 2016 - 12:35 AM, said:

That's the difference between Clans and IS. Clans can actually make effective builds out of 16 tons of pod space, regardless of mech class.

I fear more other clan heavies, with more free tons.

Look at this:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...25a0664db0687cd

I'm sure this is a hellish brawler in solo que and it0s the build I have in my brain for c-bill release.

BUT, 80% of my drops is in group que (kinda 5-6 man group), and a build like that has an issue: it works at short ranges. If you use that kind of build you are "called" and 5-6 mechs are focusing you.
Before the brawl starts, you are useless.

Solo and group que work in different way, and I'm sure I'm not saying anything new for you.... old El!

Edited by Stefka Kerensky, 23 November 2016 - 03:22 AM.

[STEF_]

BlueFlames, on 23 November 2016 - 12:32 AM, said:

It's a nice idea, until your serious mech gets smashed in the back by 6SRM4 or 7ERSL or 6ERML.

and that's what I do with light mechs

I dunno; I'm sure I'll get it for c-bills because I already know I'll have fun with it.
But a 65 tonner with 390xl....it's the definition of a bad mech, imo.

[ScarecrowES]

I dunno... my Linebacker-D has a 70-pt alpha with greater than 1.2 cooling efficiency. On top of that I'm running around at 105kph with moves that would make a ballerina jealous sporting more armor and internals than most 65-tonners.

If you don't see me as a "serious mech" that suits me fine. It just makes it all that much easier for me to kill you.

[DovisKhan]

Stefka Kerensky, on 23 November 2016 - 03:03 AM, said:

and that's what I do with light mechs

I dunno; I'm sure I'll get it for c-bills because I already know I'll have fun with it.
But a 65 tonner with 390xl....it's the definition of a bad mech, imo.

It's actually a lighter, better Warhawk


Since it has great offense quirks, like cooldown, heat gen and velocity for PPC, all those compensate for 8 tons of equipment


Then you have the structure quirks, which effectively raise it to 75 tonenr survivability, couple that with mobility and speed (which equals less facetime) and you have a great performer.


Waiting for the weekend so I can get more games on it, one of the mechs where I wanna go for the leaderboard tops since it's most fun and matches my playstile and I've already gotten a few ~1k games with many kills

Edited by DovisKhan, 23 November 2016 - 04:07 AM.

[Battlemaster56]

Loving my Linebacker mostly the D with 4x SRM and 4x SPL deadly knife brawler and cool fast in a fight, and prime with 2x erppc and 3x ersmall. Working on the C or B with 2x lpl and 3x ermed , it good mech in it's right and never underestimated

[STEF_]

DovisKhan, on 23 November 2016 - 04:06 AM, said:

It's actually a lighter, better Warhawk

So.. a mech with 16-16.5 free tons is better than one with 28 free tons....
Thanks for the tip.


Pretty sure sooner or later someone will call Linebacker OP, now.

[rolly]

I actually like it. I was about to have some buyers remorse after seeing how horrible things are in MWO.
Naturally I found the artwork more misleading than the actual model. The in-game model is HUGE. But this is really mitigated by agility. Its like a chubby Ryoken or a tubby faster/smaller Timberwolf.

Trying to step away from laser-barf is difficult with this Chassis. I haven't quite figured it out, but its perfect hit and run/bulldoze and great for recon in the initial phase of a game and plugging gaps. It does have a nice punch and I like the Primary's PPC boost and I'm looking forward to the C-bill release of the C and D Variants.

Running the Gauss (A Variant) or missiles on ( will really expose your CT more as well.

Its okay. I can't say I'd buy the Redline, but I do consider upgrading the Prime to Special since its a decent chassis, you just can't lazyboy drive it and stick around and show that broad nose.

Edited by rolly, 23 November 2016 - 06:36 AM.

[Jackal Noble]

DovisKhan, on 23 November 2016 - 04:06 AM, said:

Waiting for the weekend so I can get more games on it, one of the mechs where I wanna go for the leaderboard tops since it's most fun and matches my playstile and I've already gotten a few ~1k games with many kills

....leader board ends today

correction - tomorrow the 23rd.

Edited by JackalBeast, 23 November 2016 - 09:41 AM.

[NeoCodex]

This mech is awesome. At first I thought it's going to be the biggest joke and really bad. Turns out that quirks and good hardpoint locations really save him. And that mobility.

The bad part is that if you want to play the most fun builds and make a full brawler out of it you really need the reinforcement pods and the Hero, which is what I eventually gave in, just for the sake of one build: 6small laser srm brawler.

Edited by NeoCodex, 23 November 2016 - 07:24 AM.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Weird. Most of the post seem to be made by people who obviously do not own a Linebacker because they are actually pretty decent and alot of the statements made about them are untrue.

They absolutely can brawl and have surprisingly good hit boxes. Its speed and agility are fantastic as well. As far as the 16 tons of pod space, this is a bit misleading because you also have 4 DHS mounted in the engine which means effectively it has about 20 tons of pod space since you would more than likely mount at least 14 DHS on any build you would attempt to run anyway. This is still a bit short on tonnage, especially if you want to use heavy weapons like ER PPCs, UACs, LBXs or the larger missile batteries, but if you stick with mostly smalls or medium lasers, SRMs and maybe 1 single ER PPC or AC, you can carry quite a bit of firepower with 20 tons to work with.

It however is not a mech for everyone. You can just stand there and face tank with it and have to always be moving at all times. If your not able to make good use of their speed and agility, it probably will feel subpar.

As for buying into now, yeah it is probably worth it however, PGI loves to nerf when a mech comes out for C-bills and any nerf to this mech is likely to change it from a decent performer to crap really quickly.

Also as the poster above me mentioned, if you really want to get the most out of this mech, you need to buy both the reinforcements and the Hero, however I don't own the reinforcements and one of my most fun builds is a stock prime with a single ER PPC in the shoulder, a ER ML in each arm and 2 x SRM6+A in the torsos.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 23 November 2016 - 08:38 AM.

[Single Mom]

Not sure I would equate locked DHS as pod tonnage on the Linebacker, there are builds that I'd rather not put that many DHS into, namely SRM brawl builds.

The mech performs well enough for its role, though it doesn't really compete with a whole lot else mobile ground pounder heavy category. I'd equate it to a move forgiving energy SCR, and a tankier TBR srm/energy brawler. Its got incredible flank potential, though a lot of people tend to suck at that role more often than they realize.

The value of the $20 pack is garbage though. I went with basic + reinforcement, then whaled up for the hero's torso and played it like a MPL SCR. It worked pretty well for climbing leaderboard and it works fine in both solo and group queues. But for the $35/$50 it takes to hit the sweet spot, it's definitely a solid 5/7.

Edited by Single Mom, 23 November 2016 - 09:31 AM.

[L1f3H4ck]

It's the anti PHawk. I expected very little and got a great Mech. You can save weight by going all torso and strip the arms of armor. Just put in the omnipods that offer armor bonus to get some free armor there, if only so the enemy doesn't notice it right away. It's not for everyone, but if you're looking for a run&gun mech, the Linebacker is great. The reinforcement pack is worth it, the Redline can safelly be skipped imho.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Single Mom, on 23 November 2016 - 09:30 AM, said:

Not sure I would equate locked DHS as pod tonnage on the Linebacker, there are builds that I'd rather not put that many DHS into, namely SRM brawl builds. The mech performs well enough for its role, though it doesn't really compete with a whole lot else mobile ground pounder heavy category. I'd equate it to a move forgiving energy SCR, and a tankier TBR srm/energy brawler. Its got incredible flank potential, though a lot of people tend to suck at that role more often than they realize. The value of the $20 pack is garbage though. I went with basic + reinforcement, then whaled up for the hero's torso and played it like a MPL SCR. It worked pretty well for climbing leaderboard and it works fine in both solo and group queues. But for the $35/$50 it takes to hit the sweet spot, it's definitely a solid 5/7.

Well to each their own but I stick by what I said that most people would mount at least 14 DHS on their builds anyway, especially anyone mounting any sort of energy weapons and most will mount at least some. Also even talking an SRM build, by the time you reach 6 SRM4s or SRM6s your only at a 33% cooling efficiency with 10 DHS and you still ghost heat to contend with. That much heat is barely acceptable and you would still probably want to add at least 1-2 DHS to get it up to an acceptable level. However I do see what you talking about. With the 4 locked DHS, it is hard to get enough ammo into the linebacker chassis for a start up SRM only build. However this is only one possible build and for the majority of the rest, you can absolutely add those 4 tons of DHS to your total tonnage.

As far as value, I don't think the $20 pack is garbage. As I mentioned in my other post, I don't have the reinforcement packs and I managed to put together 3 competitive builds that are all doing well for me without them or using the pods off my Redline. I will admit that the pods from the reinforcement pack are required for some of the better builds but that pods available to the standard pack are perfectly serviceable and would easily hold someone over until the pods from the reinforcement packs become available for C-bills.

Overall I give it a 4 out of 5 stars in its current state.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Frechdachs, on 23 November 2016 - 11:54 AM, said:

It's the anti PHawk. I expected very little and got a great Mech. You can save weight by going all torso and strip the arms of armor. Just put in the omnipods that offer armor bonus to get some free armor there, if only so the enemy doesn't notice it right away. It's not for everyone, but if you're looking for a run&gun mech, the Linebacker is great. The reinforcement pack is worth it, the Redline can safelly be skipped imho.

You can skip the Redline however if you would rather skip the reinforcements due to the pods eventually being available for C-bills, the Redline will give you the pods necessary to put together a mean all energy build, as good as you could manage by having the C variant. However, if you want to mass SRM's, you absolutely need the reinforcement pack. Also don't forget, the Redline does have that 30% C-bill bonus and at least eventually, you could build ANY build you find enjoyable on that chassis.

[Dick Shipley]

As a primarily medium and light pilot, I think the linebacker is a terror on the field. I'm used to being one step ahead of most other heavies and assaults. If I'm not careful I get alpha'd into oblivion. Such is the nature of the game.
Not so with the linebacker. That thing can hunt you down, relentlessly. With its speed, armor, and hit boxes, it's definitely not the mech I'd choose to duel with. I'm just glad it can't jump.

[STEF_]

Viktor Drake, on 23 November 2016 - 08:34 AM, said:

Weird. Most of the post seem to be made by people who obviously do not own a Linebacker because they are actually pretty decent and alot of the statements made about them are untrue.

I don't own a linebacker and since its announcement I knew it wasn't my kind of mech, because, speed and agility aside, it has nothing I like (firepower, good hitboxes <----- now linebacker is good because of quirks, not because it is good at tanking)

But, I would like to know, as srm+laser brawler, why the linebacker should be better or at least similar than, for instance, this mech, which is completely for free.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...8f84d6d8b999940

Only for the speed?

[Single Mom]

Stefka Kerensky, on 23 November 2016 - 11:09 PM, said:

I don't own a linebacker and since its announcement I knew it wasn't my kind of mech, because, speed and agility aside, it has nothing I like (firepower, good hitboxes <----- now linebacker is good because of quirks, not because it is good at tanking)

But, I would like to know, as srm+laser brawler, why the linebacker should be better or at least similar than, for instance, this mech, which is completely for free.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...8f84d6d8b999940

Only for the speed?

LBK can be played like a medium SRM brawler (w/o JJs), and by that I mean you can reliably hit and run. Mediums are forced to do this because they dont have the armor and they don't have the heat to sustain dps. However the LBK does have decent armor and great agility so that it can do the same thing. Splat and run, cool down then repeat. Where as the TBR is not quite so fast that it can do drive bys reliably.

[Single Mom]

Viktor Drake, on 23 November 2016 - 04:23 PM, said:

As far as value, I don't think the $20 pack is garbage. As I mentioned in my other post, I don't have the reinforcement packs and I managed to put together 3 competitive builds that are all doing well for me without them or using the pods off my Redline. I will admit that the pods from the reinforcement pack are required for some of the better builds but that pods available to the standard pack are perfectly serviceable and would easily hold someone over until the pods from the reinforcement packs become available for C-bills.

Thats overselling the base pack a bit. What can you really get away with on the base pack that is not significantly superior through the pay wall? You can do 2x high mounted ERPPCs, or if you want to play the ghost heat vs face time game, 3x LPLs. And thats really about it, both of which are better off done on a HBKIIC

You can cobble together a 4x MPL 2x SRM brawler that has poor heat and high face time? Or a 6x MPL wubs build with 2 less DHS due to having to armor up arms? Both which are done quite well by a stormcrow.

[NeoCodex]

Played some more of them yesterday and they keep surprising me. They really are like a heavily armored fast medium. The agility shines in both brawling and flanking potential, on top of all that extra armor. It's an excellent brawler just for how quick it is. You can also outrun, reposition, and chase - not even all medium builds go above 100 kph, just let that soak for a bit. Sure, the engine is vastly oversized but somehow it works. Don't look at it as a heavy and compare it to other heavy mechs, because it is nothing like that.

The only problem with it is the paywalled omnipods. I bought all of them but it's, just... It's way too much. If you really want it and enjoy this playstyle I would say go for it, but in terms of actual money you're paying way too much for it. Unless you have no plans for the brawling or laser vomit builds then it's better skipping for now and just play the basic PPC build when it gets out for cbills. I mean, that one is pretty good too and the only brawl build I'm playing is on the hero with both hero and reinforcement pods, the rest use pretty much standard omnipods and they do just as well.

However if you want all of it you will have to get the hero eventually anyway for the full experience and buying with MC costs a bit more than 15$ trough the store. So I just went for the full package and called it an early xmas gift. At least I wasn't dissapointed, it's my favorite besides the Ebon Jaguar now. If they would release an Ebon Jaguar with additional omnipods and hero variant back then I would certainly buy that instead of a full wave 3 for example, but that's just me loving this playstyle.

This really reminds me on the MAD IIC actually, that one has pretty good reinforcement variants and a hero that looks like a brawler, and when I compare these two packs they actually seem very similiar, it's just that MAD will be the super heavy version of the LNB and in both cases, if you want all the varied builds, you will have to go for the full package, again, but I think that these two packs are the only ones worth it based on what was released so far.

Edited by NeoCodex, 24 November 2016 - 12:12 AM.

[DovisKhan]

Stefka Kerensky, on 23 November 2016 - 06:15 AM, said:

So.. a mech with 16-16.5 free tons is better than one with 28 free tons....
Thanks for the tip.


Pretty sure sooner or later someone will call Linebacker OP, now.

Yes, because quirks compensate for the tonnage difference. If you didn't notice it's quirked like an IS mech and it has much, much better hardpoint placement

Edited by DovisKhan, 24 November 2016 - 12:25 AM.