17 replies to this topic

[LaKitteh]

Hey! I am fairly new to MWO (played through my first 25 games, but still nowhere near experienced) and I'm just now getting into 'Mech building. So as the title states, what are some good (preferrably cheap, not a must) light 'Mechs? I am more for hit and run tactics, I am looking for something hard-hitting and fast. Any good starting 'Mechs to get? and what do I need to customize? Thanks!

[Arianrhod]

Lights are just not the best thing ever for new players, but right now the highest alpha for your speed and money is undoubtedly the Jenner IIC. They run a bit pricey, especially since their stock engines leave little room for the firepower they've become so well known for, but as far as hit and run goes. . . . Well, the Jenner IIC looks to be the most popular light mech in the world championship games, which tells you everything you need to know. Best results will come from SRM builds.

The best you can do IS-side is the Jenner Oxide, which costs MC. Next would be Ravens and that one Jenner variant that has the CT missile points. Again, best results will be from SRM builds, these are the most powerful weapons for their tonnage.

Worth mentioning, the most meta IS light is the Locust. Affordable, and of course, very, very fast. But being a 20 ton mech it's not exactly high on firepower. It's also the exact opposite of durable; one focused alpha from anything 40 tons or heavier can pop it.

[Thor Sten]

The Arctic Cheetah is quite durable, fast and hard hitting. Not cheap though. Wolfhound is quite tanky as well, but either not as fast or not as hard hitting as the Cheetah.

Also, lights are quite hard to play: Even if hitting hard and fast: Get a general overview of the area first, chose your target wisely and know when to disengage. Best time to hit: The moment the target is harrassed by friendly LRMs or ACs. The enemy won't know what hit him over that noise and shaking and your teammates will love you for the LRM-Locks.I love Locusts, cheap, fast, very agile, hard to hit, but not exactly durable. If you're hit, chances are good you desintegrate instantly. I died about a thousand times before getting the hang on it... (and I'm still dying a lot, hopefuilly after dealing 300-400 DMG and 1 or 2 kills). I'm not trying to discourage you, just saying, a "Dying is fun"-attitude wont hurt.

Get out there. Die. Learn from your errors. Repeat.

Edited by Thor Sten, 31 October 2016 - 03:58 PM.

[TercieI]

For a new player, the ACH is the best option. You don't have to slog through bad variants, it carries good guns (6SPL is best usually, but 6ERSL and 4-5 ERML can work too depending on your style) and its hitboxes make it far more forgiving than the JR7-IIC. It's not cheap, but you will be happiest learning lights on it, IMO.

EDIT: If you want to spend a bit of USD, the Steam Light pack (on sale now before it's gone) comes with a CB boosting ACH among other goodies. My Steam Cheetah is one of my main rided. Uh, nevermind, they removed that bundle minutes after I posted. Womp.

Edited by TercieI, 01 November 2016 - 09:08 AM.

[Blind Baku]

Arianrhod, on 31 October 2016 - 12:15 PM, said:

Lights are just not the best thing ever for new players...

Worth mentioning, the most meta IS light is the Locust. Affordable, and of course, very, very fast. But being a 20 ton mech it's not exactly high on firepower. It's also the exact opposite of durable; one focused alpha from anything 40 tons or heavier can pop it.

That first statement is a generalization. If you are used to playing games as something fragile then jump right in. My advise, TRIAL MECHS!

ACH is the most meta-safest-bet-most-bang-for-your-buck. That said, I don't have them. You need to settle are you looking at IS mechs, or Clan mech first.

The JennerIIC also does some serious zoom and boom, the main varient allowing more SRMs than a light has any right using! But being a Battlemech you can't switch omnipods and none of them have ECM.

The Mist Lynx is one of the least forgiving mechs in the game, but the 4spl build can put out some hurt and it jumps REALLY well so it does allow some good zoom and boom. The "Butt Goblin" build (2SRM4s? 3SPLs) is also a great zoom and boom. I don't really recommend MLX for new players though.

If IS, the LCT is the fastest, and most annoying and plays well at range or zoom and boom brawl-ish. It has a cult like following and can even put out some missile based builds (NOT META).

If you prefer a snap shot sniper the Panther 10k is a super solid dual PPC platform, but not very forgiving and I personally find the other variants lack-luster these days.

Ravens are some of the best laser snipers in the game

Spiders can be brutal

the list goes on...

All that said, I hate to say it, but the best bet really is the Arctic Cheetah, I just personally don't like it as much as some of the others. Just remember you need 3 different center torsos to master the skills on the mech, but once you have it mastered you can sell the extra CT's and keep other omni-pods and just change on the fly.

Edited by Blind Baku, 01 November 2016 - 10:10 AM.

[stealthraccoon]

First we need to decide how crazy you are.

If your sane, reasonable and capable of maintaining a train of thought for longer than 30 seconds, there are solid choices like Arctic Cheetah, Wolfhound, Jenner and Raven - all have their own play style to learn from.

If you qualify as batty, loopy or just plain insane, then you get to join the ranks of the great pilots of Locust, Commando and Myst Lynx.

One day, maybe just maybe, you might reach total enlightenment, and embrace the Urbanmech.

[Black Lanner]

Do Mediums that think they are lights count? If they do, there is the Viper for the Clans, and the I.S. has the Phoenix Hawk and the Cicada...

My favorite lights are Mediums...

Edited by Black Lanner, 02 November 2016 - 04:19 AM.

[Blind Baku]

I would recommend against the Phoenix hawk... But the viper sure is tempting

[TercieI]

Black Lanner, on 02 November 2016 - 04:12 AM, said:

Do Mediums that think they are lights count? If they do, there is the Viper for the Clans, and the I.S. has the Phoenix Hawk and the Cicada...

My favorite lights are Mediums...

None of those are beginner mechs.

[Black Lanner]

TercieI, on 02 November 2016 - 05:07 AM, said:

None of those are beginner mechs.

Not even the Cicada? I am sure that I could almost afford 2 after the first 25 matches I did... but I personally went with the Shadow Cat B as my first 'Mech.

Edited by Black Lanner, 02 November 2016 - 05:46 PM.

[TercieI]

Black Lanner, on 02 November 2016 - 05:46 PM, said:

Not even the Cicada? I am sure that I could almost afford 2 after the first 25 matches I did... but I personally went with the Shadow Cat B as my first 'Mech.

The Cicada's profile is often described as a "catcher's mitt" because it just catches fire.

[Steel Raven]

The Locust is the most popular IS Light thanks to it's small size and speed but because it's so light, it's one on the most fragile. You tactics will be to all about avoiding fire and running away after back stabbing.

Raven has been a great sniper with a pair of ER Large Lasers. Unfortunately, snipers don't make the best knife fighters so if anyone closes in, you can be in trouble.

Firestarter was the most popular light until the rescale a earlier this year. It's now a bigger target and most of the builds are close range.

Wolfhound is one of the toughest IS mechs but its also a bullet catcher. I use a STD Engine in most of my builds which means it acts more like a smaller Medium than a light but many still get away with XL Engines and high Alpha hit and runs.

Clan,

Arctic Cheetah is just evil, it can run all the builds that made the Raven and Firestarter scary prior to the rescale but with Clan weapons and it's tough as nails.

Jenner IIC, a slightly bigger target than the Cheetah but it's a whole puncher.

Only real drag regarding ether Clan Mech is the C-Bill cost unless you want to drop a $20 for a mech pack.

[Ruccus]

I'd suggest that instead of a light mech think about getting a medium mech that can go around 90kph and equip a solid amount of weaponry. Your job would be supporting heavy and Assault mechs instead of just running around the battlefield doing your own thing.

If you're convinced you want to go light, I'd suggest the Locust LCT-1V for a very simple reason - it's inexpensive (you can set up a serviceable loadout for under 3 million c-bills: LCT-1V, though ideally you'd want a 180XL or 190XL engine in it), it's completely unforgiving, and completely rewarding when you pull off a good match.

[SlightlyMobileTurret]

TercieI, on 02 November 2016 - 05:47 PM, said:

The Cicada's profile is often described as a "catcher's mitt" because it just catches fire.

Right now? Way better than a Firestarter or Jenner (except Oxide)

[PassingWinds]

As a relative newbie myself, I can highly recommend the Arctic Cheetah. Fast as, good hit boxes (means harder to kill coz spreads the damage across arms, torso and CT), and ECM (so harder to lock onto / target). I run with 6 x Small Lazer Pulses (it's called the assassin for a reason .. sneaky up and core the rears of aussaults/heavys).

Refer to this for more info on setup:
http://metamechs.com...arctic-cheetah/

Edited by PassingWinds, 03 November 2016 - 06:32 AM.

[TercieI]

Keshav Murali, on 03 November 2016 - 05:29 AM, said:

Right now? Way better than a Firestarter or Jenner (except Oxide)

Your point? I wouldn't recommend those to anyone. I just said the Cicada wasn't a beginner mech.

[Titex]

PassingWinds, on 03 November 2016 - 05:33 AM, said:

As a relative newbie myself, I can highly recommend the Arctic Cheetah.

1½ month old post and maybe not current info to OP, but I thought I chip in to all new ppl searching for this.

I have to second this comment. My first mech I bought now was the ACH, playing a weekend with three of them and managed to grab all the basic skills on three variants, all four of the elite skills on the prime.

When it comes to C-bill you should have enough to grab three of these mechs. I actually started out trying the sniper build but as alot of ppl already have said it's a really bad way of playing a ACH and it should really be played with a ECM and 6xSPL.

Remember that you can reuse old equipment on different mechs, I messed up and bought several omnimods and wasted a few millions, so if you don't do that mistake you should end up with more c-bill left in your account that I had and have an easier time grinding for a new class.

I am having a blast and after the learning curve I usually do 6-800 dmg, 2-4 kills, ~6 assists. Maybe I just have a knack for it.

IMO learning a light is learning the hard way and fast... Alot of posts I've read tells you to start with something in the middle ground, something that can take a few hits and be very forgiving. If you ask me it's easier to go from a light and up, you already have the hard stuff down, torso turning to split dmg, avoid traps and most importantly, learn how to manuver a mech when it comes to running where you want it to go even though your torso face another direction.

[Nighthawk513]

Titex, on 19 December 2016 - 08:04 AM, said:

I am having a blast and after the learning curve I usually do 6-800 dmg, 2-4 kills, ~6 assists. Maybe I just have a knack for it.

IMO learning a light is learning the hard way and fast... Alot of posts I've read tells you to start with something in the middle ground, something that can take a few hits and be very forgiving. If you ask me it's easier to go from a light and up, you already have the hard stuff down, torso turning to split dmg, avoid traps and most importantly, learn how to manuver a mech when it comes to running where you want it to go even though your torso face another direction.

After learning lights, most everything else is easy. Though I cant go sub-80 as a result of driving lights for my entire learning curve.
Also, your get away with a lot of stuff in tier 4 and 5 when driving lights. Tier 3 is where you start having issues, tier 2 and 1 are likely going to kill you if you make a single mistake. In the 24 hours before leaving tier 5 and again before leaving tier 4, I pulled streaks of games where half the games were 700 damage 6 kill games.

Cheetah is a great learning mech if you can handle it, but for the next one, I would either pick up the jenner IIC, which is a tad faster but no ECM, or the kit fox if you can buy the purifier. Purifier is a different playstyle, but it has the potential to cause a LOT more destruction than a cheetah, and feels more consistent to me. And the jenner will teach you to not rely on the ECM.