33 replies to this topic

[The Unstoppable Puggernaut]

I am laughing at some of the lame responses on this thread.

Anyways here's my take on the subject.

Of the three you have chosen:

Kodiak (TL:DR - Best overall chassis but it largely depends on the variant).
KDK1 - This was the hardest mech to get working for me. I ended up overloading it and just kept it as a fast brawler.
KDK2 - The main focus is the JJets. I only got this working with a fast engine and maxing out the slots as a flying brawler
KDK3 - Very nasty if you have good aim. There's lots of varied setups but this is a long/med range mech so be ready to lower your mouse DPI a bit.
KDK4 - A brutal sniper mech (twin gauss/ppc) but prone to massive gauss explosions.
KDK5 - I set this up as a fast brawler again with sml pls, it's absolutely devestating (if you can get in close).
SB - I setup this up for a LBX20/SRM brawler with 2 PPC's. It ticks all the right boxes really, but the restricted torso twist nerf has put me off this mech completely !!

Overall to take a 400XL is so nice but it's not as nimble as....

Executioner (TL:DR - Absolutely fantastic when elited)
You can swap out parts so I wont give a break down on the chassis.
This has MASC and JJ's. When you get this mech elited and it's in it's nimble state....... wow.

The builds are very samey so don't expect to put heavy ballistic loadouts (there's not a lot of room left for weapons with JJ+MASC). I absolutely love this mech. I see it as being heavily underated laser mech and I've saved matches with this mech's nimbleness. The speed lets you get into weird places abnormally fast and the JJ's cut out all the crap in the way to either save your *** when in trouble or hunt someone down. I did have a dual uac5 config setup but given the recent nerf, it's now near useless. The masc + PPC's is great. Don't forget to MASC while JJetting to get a longer boost.

Gargoyle (Erm, only if you like a challenge).
So this is the lemon of the pick. I've personally done some very nasty damage in this mech, and I've seen people achieve good results with it too. It's main plus point is the speed (but having MASC is way better !!). There's very little weapon room left so light weapons (but lots of them) will be needed.
Again you can swap parts out so it's not worth reviewing the different chassis but one has double center laser capacity.

--

Overall in terms of performance it's: KDK, EXE, GAR.
In terms of what I prefer to play it's : EXE, KDK, GAR.

Marauder IIC is nice due to the big engines you can slam in there but that's not out for c-bills yet, just keep an eye on it though.

I hope this helps.

[HGAK47]

The Kodiak is very flexible. Lots of dakka, mix of dakka and lasers, quad gauss for pew pew work the list is endless. I really want to try that Spirit Bear with the MASC too... looks fun.

Oh and like others have said, being in a Kodiak makes you a guarenteed priority target... I mean you are big and can deal a ton of damage so the enemy wants you dead.

Edited by HGAK47, 19 December 2016 - 03:57 AM.

[Vonbach]

The kodiak is the best assault in the game by far. Nothing else even comes close.
Just buy one and faceroll.

[El Bandito]

Random Carnage, on 19 December 2016 - 01:20 AM, said:

I'm guessing most of the posters above haven't spent much time in a KDK recently.

I parked mine. All this talk about soulless meta build and OP KDK is just crying from those that can't let go of the release week butt hurt. A lot has changed since then.

If you go KDK, just be prepared to get hit by every gun within 600m that can get a line on you as soon as you poke your nose out of cover.

120 odd CT armour will buy you about 2 seconds before you melt - and you will get focused.

I played KDK-3 and KDK-5 for the duration of the event in solo-q and they are still very deadly machines, albeit not flat out OP as before. Even pre-nerf, Kodiaks were the center of enemy's attention, so I learned the habit of never going alone, and never going in first. And thanks to its big arms, the Kodiaks have surprisingly high life span, if one twists effectively.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Kodiak > Marauder IIC > Dire Wolf > Executioner > Warhawk > Gargoyle > Highlander IIC

[xTrident]

Trollfeed, on 19 December 2016 - 01:28 AM, said:

Aaaaand this is because people are starting to acknowledge that KDK-3 will murder half of your team if it's left alone, all other kodiaks suffer the same fate by proxy.

Really... Because I don't feel much different when I'm in my Atlas. And I have murdered nearly half of the enemies team with it.

If you're going to run a high powered massive assault be prepared to be the focused target.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

I honestly would suggest the Daishi, pretty good with Energy/Ballistics but kinda lacking in Missiles. It shouldn't be a problem though since you shouldn't be Lurming with 100 tonners and your slow speed + low maneuverability along with SRMs doesn't seem to be a good combo.

[cazidin]

Warhawk.

(Or the Marauder IIC)

[Mawai]

Random Carnage, on 19 December 2016 - 01:20 AM, said:

I'm guessing most of the posters above haven't spent much time in a KDK recently.

I parked mine. All this talk about soulless meta build and OP KDK is just crying from those that can't let go of the release week butt hurt. A lot has changed since then.

If you go KDK, just be prepared to get hit by every gun within 600m that can get a line on you as soon as you poke your nose out of cover.

120 odd CT armour will buy you about 2 seconds before you melt - and you will get focused.

There is a reason for that. Kodiaks are still one of the biggest threats on the field even after the slight nerfing. As a result, you can expect to get focused since most people recognize that if they let a Kodiak alone it will rip them apart. The nerfs only affected the ability to boat ACs (the general clan AC normalization) and to torso twist as effectively. If you are face tanking with the Kodiak it is still effective (and still more effective than most other assaults).

In addition, if you want to instill a little team work and focus fire ... "Focus the Kodiak" is a lot easier than "Focus target E" when a lot of folks don't even know where to look to get the target letter designations (or don't take the time to see all the information contained on the HUD).

To the OP: I would second the opinion that the Kodiak is still the way to go if you want a good clan assault. It is also a Battlemech rather than Omni-mech so engine selection and equipping with both Endo and FF are easy to do. You can't swap hard points but you can always pick up another variant (which will be needed at least until the new skill system drops).

Finally, the initial impression I have on the MAD IIC is that it is also a decent clan assault .. but not as scary as a Kodiak

Edited by Mawai, 19 December 2016 - 08:09 AM.

[Gas Guzzler]

Kodiaks 2 through 4 is what you want.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Battlemaster56, on 18 December 2016 - 09:16 PM, said:

Executioner is not a bad mech to play can do 2x erppc on its shoulders and play peek and poke or poptart. Add 4-6 SPL in the arms to protect yourself from lights.

Yeah that is how I play mine and I can do pretty decent with it.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Vonbach, on 19 December 2016 - 07:13 AM, said:

The kodiak is the best assault in the game by far. Nothing else even comes close.
Just buy one and faceroll.

The KDK is a very good Assault mech but the only faceroll variant is the KDK-3. The rest are good but really aren't any better than a Direwolf except for being faster. I would even go a far as saying that there are several Highlander IIC builds that are as good as the non-KDK-3 variants.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Viktor Drake, on 19 December 2016 - 01:28 PM, said:

I would even go a far as saying that there are several Highlander IIC builds that are as good as the non-KDK-3 variants.

Lolno.

[MechWarrior5152251]

Executioner with 2 LPL and 6 Spl is pretty brutal.