21 replies to this topic

[Ruar]

I wanted to take a moment to talk about the things I learned in my first few weeks of playing. One reason is to share my experience. Another reason to see what I've missed.

I started with medium mechs because I assumed they would have the least impact on the team while I'm trying to learn. I watched heavies and assaults who should have more impact on the match end up dying with barely any damage done.

One mistake I made early on was expensive changes in the mechlab without really understanding how different weapons worked. Putting XL engines into IS mechs and not realizing how much weaker that made me. Adding in FF armor or DHS when I didn't really need them.

Another thing was getting killed early on for poor movement techniques which caused me to gravitate to long range weapons. This caused me to do less damage while still being out of position. It wasn't until I read the tactics 101 and Stay with the Atlas guides that I realized I needed to pay more attention to my driving and less to my shooting.

The desire to extend my range led to some experiments with ERPPCs. Buying a mech or two designed to use PPCs more effectively and changing playstyle as well. Which ultimately showed me PPCs are not a good weapon when you only have moderately fast speed of medium mechs. I don't use PPCs anymore because the damage vs heat vs in close power just doesn't work for me.

Next was committing to ERLL before realizing I do better with quick fire weapons. The damage of the ERLL seems awesome until I noticed I was only applying a portion of that damage to a single section. Switching to AC5 saw my damage actually go up because I am more accurate with ballistics. I tend to shoot and move (played WoT for years) so holding the crosshair on target for an extended time is not something I'm good at.

I learned small and medium lasers are not as good in close as SRMs. Maybe they work for some people, but I'm much more lethal against light, fast mechs with SRMs then I am with lasers.

So now I'm focusing on AC5 capable mechs that also carry SRMs. Mainly Shadowhawks but I'm branching into Enforcers and a Phoenix Hawk variant. I've got a couple of heavies which I play every now and then, but so far I prefer the freedom a medium mech gives me to move around as well as hit and run. My damage and kills per match are increasing so I guess my next goal is mastering all of the medium mech chassis I like then move on to heavies.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and hopefully it helps someone else as well.

[Silas7]

Cool story bro, have you looked at the centurion?

o7

[Vxheous]

First things first, set your mouse sensitivity properly. Assuming you have a gaming mouse, set it to 800 dpi, and set in game to 0.2. Congrats, you can now hit things with lasers (full burn, not just some random sweep) Next, you mentioned buying DHS, and sometimes not needing them, that is false. 99% of builds out there require DHS, it is pretty much a 1.5million upgrade tax on IS mechs. Next, IS XL engines require you to be a better pilot and learn spread damage over your mech, but in the current meta, is pretty much required for you to mount similar firepower to clan mechs without moving like a slug. Lastly, Heavies are the bread and butter in this game. Heavy mechs sit at the perfect place of tankiness/movement speed/damage (especially Clan heavies)

Edited by Vxheous Kerensky, 06 January 2017 - 03:45 PM.

[Konphujun]

I'm glad to see you're enjoying the game and are interested in learning how to be a better pilot! I would like to touch on a couple things in your post that are misinformed.

You mentioned that you don't always need DHS, which, to be blunt, is wrong. You always take DHS, even if you're not mounting any extras. The increase in efficiency is incredible and will up your damage output significantly. There are maybe a handful of mechs in the entire game that don't need DHS and they are gimmicks at best.

Regarding your "in close" weapon comments, you might want to try pulse lasers if you like "quick fire" weapons. SRMs are great and all, don't get me wrong, but lasers offer ammo independence, which, as you become a better pilot, is a very important thing to keep in mind. Running ACs and SRMs together is going to quickly suck up your tonnage and crit slots as yu struggle to find places to put the ammo. In addition, you'll also find yourself without enough ammo to last a full match for either weapon.

Aside from those two things, I enjoyed seeing the perspective of a new player and how it shifted over the course of a few short weeks with the game. Keep it up!

[somedood]

Konphujun, on 06 January 2017 - 03:42 PM, said:

You mentioned that you don't always need DHS, which, to be blunt, is wrong. You always take DHS, even if you're not mounting any extras. The increase in efficiency is incredible and will up your damage output significantly. There are maybe a handful of mechs in the entire game that don't need DHS and they are gimmicks at best.

I would just like to clarify on this point for the OP. The reason you want DHS almost always, even if you don't add any heatsinks, is that your engine comes with a certain number of heatsinks and putting in the Double Heat Sink upgrade will ugprade those engine heatsinks without taking up any extra space. Most engines include 10 heatsinks, so that's upgrading all 10 with no pentaly besides c-bills.

[Hillslam]

Definitely check out the Centurion if you haven't yet. From your post it looks right up your alley

[Ruar]

Thank you all for the replies.

I have several centurions, but since I'm still working on rotating the mech I find I end up losing the main arm too soon. I'm working with the SDH because it's more forgiving for my current skill level. I have seen improvement over the last week though so I might try the Cent again soon.

The reason I said what I did about DHS was mainly because of the costs. I spent a lot of c-bills trying all kinds of different builds and I rarely had enough to upgrade to DHS. When I run an AC/SRM build I do get some overheating but not often so I'm using the c-bills to get mechs instead of upgrade to DHS. I realize they offer a lot of value, but I'd rather have one extra mech than two mechs with DHS that bumps my heat efficiency from 1.3 to 1.6.

As for mouse, yes I've dialed it down based on my mouse DPI and then used the table for what the better players use. I think I'm sitting at .17 or .18 combined if I did the math right. I still tend to swing my lasers and this makes sense because of how I play most FPS games. I'm usually a sniper or pick weapons that have high damage so I fire and move. This translates poorly to MWO though because you need to fire and hold, not something I've trained to do. I'm working on it, but with my current skill ACs and SRMs work better for me. I've even tried pulse lasers and I still have a hard time keeping them on one hit box.

I'm still working with a few builds that have lasers for practice. However I feel it's more important to work on movement, team work, and learning how to apply damage first before learning how to keep lasers on target. I've gone from about 100-150 damage per match to 300 so it seems to be working. Next goal is get more mechs then I'll start putting emphasis on getting lasers on target for full burn.

[J0anna]

I'll add some more suggestions.

1) Download Li Song Mechlab. Practice and perfect your builds there first, then spend the cbills in game (no more failed builds - or at least fewer).

2) When you find a mech you like, save up some real money and get the hero version - this will greatly increase your earnings and make worries like the cost of upgrading to double heatsinks a non-issue (I had over 1200 drops in my heavy metal - before the loss of jump jets).

3) Consider getting a week or so of premium time, when you have the time to devote to the game (you can use the reward MC you get in tournaments etc to fund it).

4) Try to never, ever sell anything back unless you are certain you will never use it. A 50% loss is significant.

5) Join a clan of players, play with groups, etc. Solo pug when you don't have the time, but playing in group will make your gaming experience better and (most likely) improve your skills and win rate faster than going it alone.

[Aiden Skye]

As a founder wasn't your first few weeks of play like years ago at this point?

[Ruar]

W A R K H A N, on 06 January 2017 - 05:45 PM, said:

As a founder wasn't your first few weeks of play like years ago at this point?

All I remember about those weeks was LRMs and more LRMs.

[SlippnGriff]

Start with clan mechs, probably an omnimech too
they seem like they cost more at first but fitting IS with the right stuff is really costly (for me at least)
with clans omni mechs you can buy one and in a way get them all (I would say try ebon jag or timber wolf depending on your playstyle. ebon for more ranged/laser vomit. Timber for brawling) I know those are heavies but an ebon can do work with its tonnage.

Double heat sinks are always mandatory no exceptions.

For an srm/ballistic mech, mediums are kind of iffy on that as I usually like sticking to the main type of gun (say a main ballistic) and secondary fire from other types of weapons. Heavies is really where you can make effective builds without feeling too much aggro like an assault

[Trollfeed]

Make yourself a favour and get one good clan mech you can play when nothing else seems to work. You need to pilot them to know what you face and they are just plainly better than IS mechs. I would suggest Hunchback IIC, they're pretty cheap for what you'll get.

[RestosIII]

SlippnGriff, on 06 January 2017 - 07:34 PM, said:

Start with clan mechs, probably an omnimech too
they seem like they cost more at first but fitting IS with the right stuff is really costly (for me at least)
with clans omni mechs you can buy one and in a way get them all (I would say try ebon jag or timber wolf depending on your playstyle. ebon for more ranged/laser vomit. Timber for brawling) I know those are heavies but an ebon can do work with its tonnage.

Double heat sinks are always mandatory no exceptions.

For an srm/ballistic mech, mediums are kind of iffy on that as I usually like sticking to the main type of gun (say a main ballistic) and secondary fire from other types of weapons. Heavies is really where you can make effective builds without feeling too much aggro like an assault

Trollfeed, on 06 January 2017 - 08:47 PM, said:

Make yourself a favour and get one good clan mech you can play when nothing else seems to work. You need to pilot them to know what you face and they are just plainly better than IS mechs. I would suggest Hunchback IIC, they're pretty cheap for what you'll get.

Just whatever you do, don't try to run cERLLas as your main weaponry. Those things are terrible if the enemy can torso twist at all.

[Ruar]

I have an Cauldron Born from the steam sale. Also how I got my hopper.

I'm kind of afraid to use it much because I don't like using strong stuff and end up with bad habits because of it.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

As others have already mentioned, the Centurion is a damn good chassis. My personal favorite is the CN9-A with a dedicated brawler build. Though I find that the Centurion's arms works better as shields, rather than dedicating quite a few tonnage to a single arm at the cost of speed/survivability. Also if you're a fan of AC5s, I'd recommend giving the Jagers a try, though it's more or less mandatory to run XL on them, but you can really dish out a lot of damage when you do it right.

[RestosIII]

Ruar, on 06 January 2017 - 08:56 PM, said:

I have an Cauldron Born from the steam sale. Also how I got my hopper.

I'm kind of afraid to use it much because I don't like using strong stuff and end up with bad habits because of it.

Honestly, the main reason I'd recommend Clan mechs to an early player is just because the Omnimechs are basically idiot proof. You can't turn a Timber Wolf into a ST 160 engine machine, waste tonnage on CASE in limbs without ammo, or run SHS. That, and you can practice your torso twisting without having to deal with IS XL engines, aka death traps.

[Marius Evander]

Didn't I reply to this exact topic started by this guy a few days ago with a more "are clans op" feel to it ?

[Marius Evander]

Ah yes, found it, hover his name and click "find content" this guy just makes threads as fact which are filled with ******** half truths blatent lies and stupidity.

Having scanned this latest huge troll post this one is no differen't "XL engines make you weaker" in many many mechs they dont. I am not going to waste my time being trolled to read/reply to anymore of your 4chan threads.

[Ruar]

Cadoazreal, on 07 January 2017 - 03:32 AM, said:

Ah yes, found it, hover his name and click "find content" this guy just makes threads as fact which are filled with ******** half truths blatent lies and stupidity.

Having scanned this latest huge troll post this one is no differen't "XL engines make you weaker" in many many mechs they dont. I am not going to waste my time being trolled to read/reply to anymore of your 4chan threads.

It's always interesting when someone feels they have to attack the author instead of the message.

Take my opinion for what you will. I'm honest in what I say and I've been trying to learn the game. However posts like yours are the reason why so many avoid forums and eventually leave games. You provide nothing of value and simply attack people because you don't like what they say.

I could also add on one of the clan op threads I talked about the idea of buffing some aspects of clan design to ensure balance. I'm not anti-clan, I'm just trying to learn the game from an IS pilot perspective.

Edited by Ruar, 07 January 2017 - 08:29 AM.

[Lyoto Machida]

Konphujun, on 06 January 2017 - 03:42 PM, said:

I'm glad to see you're enjoying the game and are interested in learning how to be a better pilot! I would like to touch on a couple things in your post that are misinformed.

You mentioned that you don't always need DHS, which, to be blunt, is wrong. You always take DHS, even if you're not mounting any extras. The increase in efficiency is incredible and will up your damage output significantly. There are maybe a handful of mechs in the entire game that don't need DHS and they are gimmicks at best.

Regarding your "in close" weapon comments, you might want to try pulse lasers if you like "quick fire" weapons. SRMs are great and all, don't get me wrong, but lasers offer ammo independence, which, as you become a better pilot, is a very important thing to keep in mind. Running ACs and SRMs together is going to quickly suck up your tonnage and crit slots as yu struggle to find places to put the ammo. In addition, you'll also find yourself without enough ammo to last a full match for either weapon.

Aside from those two things, I enjoyed seeing the perspective of a new player and how it shifted over the course of a few short weeks with the game. Keep it up!

Umm...isn't TS a Legendary Founder???