12 replies to this topic

[Rocdocta]

Hey guys, has much changed since March 2013? I used to play alot but drifted away.

Any suggestions i have been doing some quick browsing and played a game or two.

whats the new best thing? when i left i liked running around in lights or massed srms.

[Y E O N N E]

Clan 'Mechs are in the game.

Clan 'Mechs are dominating the game. Get you a Night Gyr, Kodiak 3, Timberwolf, Storm Crow, Hunchback IIC, and/or Marauder IIC.

IS 'Mechs (and some Clan 'Mechs) have various magical buffs called quirks to make them more durable or shoot better than they otherwise would, so they are still serviceable in Quick Play.

The Skill Tree you are familiar with, as well as the aforementioned quirks, are being replaced by a new skill tree which lets you custom-tailor these magical buffs, but they will now also be broadly available to Clan 'Mechs. How they plan on balancing that out, we have no idea.

Faction Warfare is a long-form version of Quick Play where you can bring four 'Mechs in and respawn when one dies. Then there's the FW-exclusive Invasion Game Mode, which is gutter trash due to terrible map design that funnels everybody down narrow corridors to get shot to pieces, so don't play it.

Most of the 'Mechs in the game got re-sized according to an arcane volumetric measure which, as a result, has caused many 'Mechs to get really large and only a few to get smaller (especially Lights).

We're going to get new equipment to stick on our 'Mechs this summer. Hooray, maybe.

And, oh yeah, lots of 'Mechs have been released.

Massed SRMs are still great. It's a little harder to get close, especially if you are playing solo, but nothing some patience won't generally solve. Lights...overally pretty mediocre. Locust and Arctic Cheetah dominate the class right now, but it's more because everything else is underwhelming than because they are exceptional. We even had a Locust nerf because PGI didn't like that it was the only survivor from the 'Mech Rescale.

Edited by Yeonne Greene, 21 January 2017 - 05:20 PM.

[El Bandito]

Join a unit and play CW. For you it is a fresh experience.

[RestosIII]

Welcome back. Clan Omnimechs are generally the easier option for new players, stay away from light mechs at all costs, since they've gotten hit with the nerf bat to the point where they're quite hard to use, and the current meta is PPC+Gauss, with laser vomit or massed AC's as the second best option. LRMs are still bad weapon systems.

Oh, and due to extreme work from my comrades and I, the forums are now populated with gifs. You may join us in our crusade if you wish.

[Cy Mitchell]

The Mechs that Yeonne Green listed are pretty much best in class except the Stormcrow. It has been knocked down several notches and now that it can no longer be played in Scouting it is even less desirable. The Hunchback IIC, Huntsman and maybe even the Nova have surpassed it. The Nova was best for a month or two but it has received negative performance adjustments three times since it got small in the re-scale.

Potentially exciting times ahead with the new Skill Tree next month and the timeline jump this Summer.

[Y E O N N E]

Rampage, on 21 January 2017 - 05:10 PM, said:

The Mechs that Yeonne Green listed are pretty much best in class except the Stormcrow. It has been knocked down several notches and now that it can no longer be played in Scouting it is even less desirable. The Hunchback IIC, Huntsman and maybe even the Nova have surpassed it. The Nova was best for a month or two but it has received negative performance adjustments three times since it got small in the re-scale.

Potentially exciting times ahead with the new Skill Tree next month and the timeline jump this Summer.

Oh yeah, forgot about the HBK-IIC there.

Disagree that it has been totally eclipsed, though. If you need a Clan medium for close-range work, it's hard to do better than a Storm Crow, which will also wear laser vomit better than the Huntsman. The HBK-IIC and Huntsman are in their element at mid-long range using cERPPC or cUACs. The Storm Crow still spreads damage better than any of them.

Scouting tonnage limit is down to 50 for Clans specifically because of the Storm Crow.

[Buster Machine 0]

Welcome back, I just recently returned as well. The gameplay feels a lot more balanced and there is actually reasons to play all the different chassis now instead of them all being the same.

[Marius Evander]

Ignore the guy badmouthing invasion maps, their the only maps that benefit IS more than Clan. Personally I prefer them to QP maps as Clan or IS

[Y E O N N E]

Cadoazreal, on 21 January 2017 - 06:32 PM, said:

Ignore the guy badmouthing invasion maps, their the only maps that benefit IS more than Clan. Personally I prefer them to QP maps as Clan or IS

Maps shouldn't favor anybody at all. The QP maps are neutral, IS gear just sucks (and frankly, so do all of those players who insist on LRMing their way to loss after loss). The Invasion maps favor the defending team. The only reason IS is doing better there is precisely because the maps suck in such a way that the IS consistently losing the rest of the matches (because they suck) consistently puts them on the stronger end of Invasion.

[Johnny Z]

RestosIII, on 21 January 2017 - 05:03 PM, said:

Welcome back. Clan Omnimechs are generally the easier option for new players, stay away from light mechs at all costs, since they've gotten hit with the nerf bat to the point where they're quite hard to use, and the current meta is PPC+Gauss, with laser vomit or massed AC's as the second best option. LRMs are still bad weapon systems.

Oh, and due to extreme work from my comrades and I, the forums are now populated with gifs. You may join us in our crusade if you wish.

Thanks for the gifs they are great. Makes it a lot more interesting and some are really amazing.

[RestosIII]

Johnny Z, on 21 January 2017 - 06:53 PM, said:

Thanks for the gifs they are great. Makes it a lot more interesting and some are really amazing.

I can never tell if these are sarcasm or not, but assuming it isn't because I'm a naive fool... Right now I'm waiting for Imgur to allow me to upload 80-100 mb images again. Got a decent amount of high FPS gifs stuck in limbo right now.

[Anjian]

I took a nine month break and I find that a lot has changed, though a lot remains the same too. Some of it for the good, some of it for the worst.

The biggest change for me is the way the meta is played over the years. It seems speed and agility is more important for a mech's survival than its ability to eat punishment, each passing time more than ever before, which is now also way too short even for assaults. Its more about ninjatech than battletech.

Edited by Anjian, 21 January 2017 - 06:59 PM.

[Domoneky]

Rocdocta, on 21 January 2017 - 04:50 PM, said:

Hey guys, has much changed since March 2013? I used to play alot but drifted away.

Any suggestions i have been doing some quick browsing and played a game or two.

whats the new best thing? when i left i liked running around in lights or massed srms.

You came back? I'm so sorry you came back to this. Everything is still broken. Clan is OP. IS is OP. Weapons are nerfed. Weapons been buffed. It's been a comedy of errors.