2
I intend to update and expand this post as I come into new thoughts and experiences on the PTS, as well as pay attention to it so I can participate in discussions and such.
Skill Tree PTS # II, March 2017:
https://mwomercs.com...ost__p__5640375
Skill Tree PTS #I, 9th February, 2017:
First Impressions
First off, I'm going to work through the info provided in the original topic ( https://mwomercs.com...c-test-session/ ) and give my initial reactions given this info and a few minutes faddling about in the PTS and poking at the skill trees without actually playing yet.
Skill Tree Economy:
This is unquestionably going to be a huge point of contention. Looking at it realistically, with 91 skill notes at maximum unlock, a pilot will have spent 9.1 million C-bills and 136,500 XP. Right off the bat, this seems like a huge amount, which raises warning flags.
So, what does that really mean in comparison, though? Let's break it down.
In the old/original system, aside from the costs of purchasing and outfitting a 'mech, a pilot could expect to spend something along the lines of 9 million C-bills for two high-end Mech modules and another 6 million C-bills for two weapon modules. So that at least seems in line on the surface. In terms of skills, however, a pilot would expect to have spent:
- 14,250 XP on Basic Efficiencies.
- 21,500 XP on Elite Efficiencies.
- 21,500 XP on Master Efficiency.
- Somewhere from 10,000-25,000 XP on module unlocks (15,000 is the most for a Mech module unlock, 5,000 the least, and fully unlocking a weapon module such as Laser Range 5 costs 3,500 XP. Most 'mechs have 1 Weapon, 2 Mech, and 1 bonus 'Either' slot opened up by Mastery. The most common Mech modules are on the lower end of the 5-15k scale for XP costs.) We'll call this 17,500 XP.
Additionally, many pilots (including virtually all new pilots) are unlikely to have or even consider buying new modules for every 'mech, and having purchased the unlocks for a module and the module itself means being able to move the module to the new 'mech and not having to pay again for the unlock.
Other than that, not much here. It is nice that the more complex system that obviously carries a risk of player Oops allows for a respec (note: 'respec' is a bit of a misnomer here, given that the player likely isn't respecializing the 'mech into a new role entirely in most cases.) It's especially kind to allow removal and repurchase of individual nodes, meaning that changing out your skills will never force you to go all-or-nothing on them. Also, having skill re-selection available at an MC price is a good idea, so brownie points there.
Skills:
Aaaaand here are some hairy topics again. Let's take a look at these by skill branch type.
Ballistic:
These branches are mostly identical at the core. All three autocannon branches have the same three main lines of leaves, with Ultra and LB-X versions offering Jam and Spread leaves in identical places. Not bad. The Gauss branch replaces the refire rate with charge holding and moves the cooldown out into the 'extra' leaves. This is also sensible- cooldown is far more valuable on the long-range high-damage Gauss cannon than on general autocannon alterations. That said, it would be really helpful if these leaves/nodes had +0.25 what on them, rather than just +0.25. By the fact that it's listed in a straight number rather than percent, it can be reasonably assumed that the increase is in seconds, but this is demonstrative of a persistent problem across branches that I will get back to when it comes up.
Overall, not bad. However.... what about machine guns? There's no place to gain a benefit for this particular ballistic weapon. I can understand not feeling like you have enough nodes for a full-sized branch, but anyone bringing machine guns on their 'mech is likely to have many (dapperJaegers, the Arrow, the Ember, rattlecats, etc.) and should be able to choose skills that benefit the weapon they've chosen as a major portion of their 'mech. It's nice to see that PGI is aware they've left machine guns out, vis a vis their note, but that's an exception I don't think should exist.
Finally, the differences in Cooldown benefit. This makes some sense. Clan autocannon do generally have the advantage over Inner Sphere autocannon in terms of tonnage and raw damage output, and the Gauss Rifle is literally tonnes heavier as well as smaller. That said, the effectively spread damage of C-UACs and C-ACs is already a drawback- enough of one that C-ACs are almost never seen on the battlefield. I'm not sure 80% the benefit- particularly on something as vital as cooldown on a low-heat weapon- is the right value. I'm going to tentatively say this should probably be adjusted up on the C-ACs and Clan LB-X autocannon to somewhere around .9% or .95% cooldown per node. Not sure where I'd want to put C-UACs.
Energy:
These branches really -are- identical. Three columns of leaves with duration (velocity for PPCs), cooldown, and range, and then the five heat nodes clustered around the end. Frankly, I'm not sure this is the best way to do this, just because these weapons have very different characteristics to begin with. Pulse lasers benefit much less from small percentage reductions of duration than ER Lasers (especially Clan ER Lasers), PPCs need heat reduction much more than lasers do and are even harder to justify refire rate on given overheating issues, and regular lasers just don't generate much heat to begin with compared to their bretheren. I would argue that the primary node sets should be Duration/Range/Heat for regular lasers, Duration/Cooldown/Heat for pulse lasers, and Velocity/Cooldown/Range for PPCs.
Of course, the regular laser branch operates on ER lasers as well, which immediately going in I can see is a bad mistake. Pulse Lasers are separate from regular lasers, ER lasers should be also. Yes, this means no regular laser branch for Clan 'mechs, but there are very soon going to be a literal entire set of ER lasers for the Inner Sphere vis a vis the advancement to 3060, and giving Inner Sphere 'mechs the advantage of having one tree for both the regular Large Laser and the ER Medium Laser is just begging for an overly complex and stressful balancing issue later on. (For the sake of completeness, I'd say the primary three node sets for ER lasers should be Cooldown/Range/Heat.)
Continuing on the theme of 'completeness', Flamers being ignored deliberately here is, again, a bad idea in my eyes (even if they have to have a small, truncated 'branch'), and if TAG is going to get any skill nodes ever, they don't belong here anyways. TAG, despite consuming an energy hardpoint, is not a weapon and does not belong to be referred to as 'damage'.
Finally, the differences. Again we have the 80% functionality for Clans popping up (for the most part), which I'd argue is a little extreme. Clan Pulse Lasers get really punched, with 70% as much range increase (which may be more justifiable, but still seems extreme to me), and the duration reduction to Clan lasers is even further out of line with just 2/3 the efficiency improvement. If this theme sticks, I'd be unsurprised to see most Clan pilots skip the majority of Damage skills in favor of raw agility/durability/management buffs. That's not good promotion of variety.
Missile:
Oh boy, now we start seeing some serious issues.
First off, LRMs. LRM range is not valuable. It should not be part of this branch. There are two major reasons for this.
1: Firing LRMs at a target more than 600-700 meters away is largely an exercise in futility. Between AMS, ECM, cover, and the ever-changing battlefield, any time you would *reliably* deal damage to that target is indicative of either a problem with their pilot, their 'mech, or their team's strategy. At 800+ meters, the travel time is so large that I would call it hilarious if I could still find it funny at all.
2: LRMs are the only weapon currently in the game that still has an inflated optimal range. The other weapons operate with their original optimal ranges- with the benefit of reduced damage outside that to twice range (except for Flamers and Machine Guns), but LRMs, which should have an optimal range of 630m instead have an inflated but absolute range of 1000 (900 in PTS).
If LRMs are going to have any range benefit from skill nodes, it should be a reduction to minimum range so that they are harder to make obsolete and less likely to become a liability instead of a weapon. And that's coming from someone who regularly uses LRMs on non-boating 'mechs and advocates them as being actually useful (if inconsistently so).
SRMs... This is not bad. Weird having Spread nodes in the places they are, but not bad.
SSRMs seem okay. I find it strange that they have a set of Heat nodes (considering how hard it is to overheat with them without heavily boating them on a fast 'mech) instead of something like lock-on time, target retention, or maneuvering. Those should probably be considered.
NARC note is appreciated, that's the kind of place NARC nodes belong.
As for the differences.... the difference on Streaks worries me. Given that we're likely to get the Inner Sphere SSRM-4 and SSRM-6 soon, I find it concerning that the difference in skill benefits serves to bring them directly closer in functionality to Clan SSRMs (by increasing range) rather than operating to distinguish the two systems (by changing missile maneuvering or lock-ons or something. Given the difference in mentality between the IS and Clan forces, perhaps an IFF that delays firing or alters flight path to avoid hitting friendlies? A significant portion of the Team Kills I've ever scored have been with Streaks....)
Survival:
Okay, this seems pretty cool. It's possible to skip both AMS nodes while still grabbing any/everything else one could want (at the cost of three out of five Fall Damage nodes), which stands out, since most branches require things that are plausibly unwanted in order to get at desirable nodes. It's a bit worrying that this is the only Survival branch, though. I would have expected one branch for structure, critical hit aversion, and ammo explosion prevention and another for armor, fall damage reduction, and AMS/ECM/MASC benefits, but this looks like a decent start. Do look into those other elements, (critical hit aversion, ammo explosion prevention, AMS/ECM/MASC benefits beyond the AMS Overload,) too, okay?
I also like that the benefits are larger (proportionately) for smaller 'mechs. That can save a lot of durability quirks for light 'mechs from going into extreme numbers. (Note: I do not mean remove all durability quirks from light 'mechs entirely.)
Mobility:
Hey, look, things got weird again. That was fast.
So. Arm speed. Probably the least useful bonus I've ever had that is actually for certain a bonus and not a skill-placeholder of questionable nature (Convergence?) Why? It makes it harder to aim when using higher mouse sensitivity. Why is this an issue? Because without high mouse sensitivity, it is very hard to get your torso to twist quickly.
Arm pitch and torso pitch isn't always useful (especially not in very small percents), but at least it's never a detriment. If you're going to lock the branch behind a pair of nodes on here, I'd say to make these nodes Arm Pitch and Torso Pitch. Better to have a range of motion that's unnecessary than to force misses.
That, of course, is opinion.
The fact end of the Upper Chassis branch is that gating that many nodes behind two particular individual nodes is a bad idea. There's going to be complaining about nodes being locked behind other nodes to begin with, doing this is just asking for hate mail. This branch needs to be reconfigured so that the chokepoint/chokepoints are laid out differently.
Lower Chassis is even worse about this. I understand that Speed Tweak is huge. It's distorted the game considerably, particularly on the lighter 'mechs. That doesn't mean that you can safely lay out a skill branch like this. This is bad. Really bad. If you really want to do this, then take the Turn Rate 1 and Turn Rate 2 nodes and shift them so that you have three converging branches, not two, with the first two Speed Tweaks near their bases and the other three at their ends. That way a pilot who wants just a little speed can at least get to a 3% increase. Those who must have all the speed will suck it up and take the whole tree regardless.
Jump Jets, at least, is pretty okay. I'm not sure about Vectoring as a whole (most 'mechs I want to travel while jumping with, I drive fast and retain momentum into the jump, rather than standing at the base of a cliff and then performing a rocket-assisted wall-climb) but the layout looks good. I think the Vent Calibration percents should probably be larger. I don't even want to consider improving Lift Speed, I think that would encourage a return of the Pan-Poptart state of things. Some poptarts is okay, mostly poptarts is not.
Operations:
This tree is a hot mess (somewhat ironic pun intended). Where do I start? Ah, I know: the end.
Magazine Capacity, the skill that.... improves ammo counts for ballistic weapons? What is this even doing here? Alternately, what is it doing benefiting only one type of ammunition-dependent weapon? If it benefits general operations, it should benefit all ammunition. The Heat Containment and Cool Run quirks don't affect only energy weapons, or only energy and missile weapons, and not all ballistic weapons are super-thermally-efficient like LB-X and Gauss Rifles.
Everything else here is spread just all over the place. Some of these skills (Speed Retention, Hill Climb, Improved Gyros) are very specialized things that few players will care about, and they're not even really being used to properly 'gate' desirable nodes (more on that later). They're spread around just about at random. Others that are generally useful (Quick Ignition, Cool Run) are similarly scattered with no apparent rhyme or reason beyond possibly forcing a player to get Hill Climb 2 and Speed Retention 1 (and either Quick Ignition 3 or Improved Gyros- guess which one everyone's grabbing and which one almost nobody will take between those two?)
This branch needs a re-design. Decide which skills need to be gated and properly arrange the tree so that those skills are hard to get to begin with. Luring players in with Heat Containment 1 and 2 and Cool Run 1 off the bat and then forcing them through 1-2 layers of skills they don't care about is a good way to make sure most players don't put more than four or five points into the tree regardless what they like out of it, and the rest become surly about being 'forced to take a useless skill' in order to access what they really want to do at all.
Heck, this branch should be two different branches with a much larger variety of skills- one for Combat Operations (Heat Containment, Cool Run, Speed Retention, Magazine Capacity, possibly a few new things like Hot-Load Weapons that reduces weapon minimum ranges or Redline Management that cools the 'mech faster when it's over heat capacity) and one for Tactical Operations (Quick Ignition, Hill Climb, something about MASC threshhold, Improved Gyros, something new like Momentum Continuation that makes a 'mech slow down gradually when it shuts down instead of suddenly hitting 0 KPH or Locus Clarity that makes the edges of friendly ECM and AMS zones show up on the map or in the HUD visually.)
Also, the differences show how ammo counts for Clan ACs are silly. Especially weird is how the IS LB10-X is apparently three times as ammo efficient as the Clan LB10-X for some reason. Is this a typo?
Infotech:
The Sensors branch is.... interesting. There are some very neat points here (Advanced Zoom is early and lightly gated, Seismic Sensor is about halfway down, Target Decay 2 is a dead end for some reason) but there are also some modest disasters here. Most notably, the two Enhanced ECM skills.
Splitting ECM radius into native (self, mostly) and skill-boosted (for team play) is sensible. Gating the Enhanced ECM skills so far down that any 'mech you want to share ECM with your team from requires investing over 10% of your other skills into being a great sensor bot (with Target Retention as a requirement to boot) is a terrible idea. Atlas DDC pilots should almost certainly not be investing that heavily into the Sensor branch just so they can be a better team anchor unless they specifically choose to, and the same goes for other higher-tonnage ECM caddies. By a similar rote, a Light 'mech that hangs around its teammates to share ECM is not going to be in a spotting position either and shouldn't be forced into Target Info Gathering when it's not intended to act as a scout instead.
This skill branch would work amazingly if it was split into two prongs- one for teamwork, support, and brawling (Enhanced ECM, Target Decay) and the other for scouting/command actions (Sensor Range, Advanced Zoom, Seismic Sensor.) This would let 'mechs like the Atlas DDC stick to one prong more useful for them, scouting/sniping ECM Cicada and Ravens to take the other prong and gather more benefit while also aiding their team thanks to TIG, and command-combat 'mechs like the Cyclops P still could comfortably take the whole tree and benefit all the way. Heck, center it around a base cluster of Info Gathering and Retention (which have the most general potential utility) to use as a gate to the specialized elements and anyone could tap into the branch with some comfort that they'll benefit from it.
The Auxiliary branch is an utter disaster, though. Anyone seeking UAV or Capture utility can take just the elements they want. This is a punch in the snoot to anyone who *just* wants Enhanced NARC. The branch needs to either be reshuffled of its leaves so nobody can go straight to what they want (vis a vis many other existing branches) or the Enhanced NARC skills need to be early enough in the branch that a pilot is taking a reasonable number of other skills in order to reach them. Yes the effect of Enhanced NARC is powerful, but it's also very specialized and based on a piece of equipment that few players are willing to mount at all even currently, with Enhanced NARC available to use without buying anything but the module and its skill first. I would say put the Enhanced NARC skills off of UAV Duration 1 and Capture Assist 1. That way a player is taking up five skill selections to get the full effect instead of eight.
Sensor range modifications for weight class amuse me.
Navigating the Skill Tree
Uuuuuuuuughhhhhh.... this is messy and bad.
It's entirely possible to zoom out too far to glean useful information. It's also allowed to zoom in so far you can only even see one node at a time. Why? Why is this?
And why are we click-and-dragging to reach the different branches? This is terrible.
Here's what you do. You know how you've got basically a table of contents at the top? Lay out the skills like separate pages in a folder. One skill branch is displayed front and center, with the ones 'before' it layered under it to the left, and the ones 'after' it layered to the right, and give us an arrow button to click to page left once and another to click to page right once. Then, let us click the visible corner of a branch's 'page' to go to that branch. And keep each page displayed at a size that allows the skills' names to be read, but small enough that most (if not all) of the branch is visible at once.
Do this with it.
You know, like the faction selection view with the banners from entering Faction Warfare for the first time.
'Mech Enhancements Window:
This.... is actually pretty good. Could stand to have it much, much taller, given how much dead space sits under it while it forces you to look at a vertically scrolling menu. Other than that, not bad.
Compatibility Alerts:
Good job here. This is nice. I like this. Very useful, very good for filtering things so you don't unexpectedly grab a completely meaningless skill.
XP Conversion Interface:
Nice! I know some people have been waiting for this for a long time.
Historical XP:
Nice. Seems you could use a little more clarity in the explanation and a little less 'wow look at the screencaps', but pretty good nonetheless.
Moving On, Some Comparisons:
Alright, now on to the biggest current discussion regarding the new skill system.
The cost of equivalency to current Mastery. I say this that way for very good reasons- namely, Mastery under the new system is NOT supposed to equate to Mastery under the old system- it's supposed to equate to Mastery and modules (or even be better than all of that and a bag of computer chips).
So, what is Mastery under the current (placeholder) skill system?
Well, you spend 57,250 XP on the 'mech, and in return you get:
- +15% heat dissipation
- +15% acceleration
- +5% torso twist range
- +20% heat capacity
- +15% deceleration
- +5% torso speed
- +5% arm movement speed
- +5% turn speed
- -33% start-up/shut-down time
- -5% weapon cooldown
- convergence?
- +7.5% top speed
- One open module slot
By picking up 38 skills, spending 3,800,000 C-bills and 57,000 XP, you can reach an actually superior (outside of raw firepower) state of:
- +10% heat dissipation
- +50% acceleration
- +4% torso twist range
- +15% heat capacity
- +40% deceleration
- +8% arm speed
- +12% turn rate
- -35% start-up/shut-down time
- +7.5% top speed
- +2% torso pitch range
- +15% hill climb
- +20% speed retention (when legged)
This means that you can re-master your 'mech with the experience already used to master it. That's actually really good- 91 skill nodes is well above twice what you need to equate (roughly) to current 'mech Mastery.
Of course, there's a downside- 4 million C-bills of downside.
Given that, my first instinct for 'how to change this' on the C-bills side, so that new players aren't inconvenienced by the requirement to play nearly twice as many matches between buying 'mechs, is to change the per-skill C-bill cost to 200,000 and change the purchasing so that C-bills are only required for the 46th or 47th and onward skill points. This allows a little wiggle room on 'equating to your current mastery', means that maximizing the skill nodes of a 'mech still requires roughly 9 million C-bills, and means that new players will not be discouraged from buying 'mechs at a relatively rapid rate.
By comparison, purchasing a rank 5 level of, say, Laser Duration Rate now costs 500,000 C-bills and 7,500 XP- roughly twice the XP cost and about 1/9 the C-bill cost of such a module in the current system.
This has both a major upside and a major downside.
The biggest downside is that a player with a goodly portion of their 91 skill nodes unlocked will be at a much, much larger advantage against a new player compared to the current disparity, even counting in modules. This will make any match involving veterans MASSIVELY discouraging for a new player unless said veterans are bringing in relatively new 'mechs and have not transferred any GXP to them whatsoever. Given the current Tier system, that may not be too bad on its own, but it also means that said veterans in their new 'mechs will still be at a staggeringly large disadvantage compared to other long-time players with much older 'mechs.
In essence, this skill system vastly exacerbates the difference in capability between new and old players in ways that player skill alone cannot compensate for. While this is potentially very good for FW (which can now be gated behind a certain number of skill nodes, if warranted, thereby preventing trial 'mech drops and inexperienced players from wandering in and getting utterly facerolled) it is potentially very bad for the new player experience and could easily make working out a new 'mech an exercise in vast frustration.
The biggest upside is that with many of the 'choice' skills gated behind less preferable skills, a lot of players will have to be relatively choosy about what they want their 'mechs to do, exactly, and there's a lot of room for variation. Keep in mind that 38 skill nodes is enough to roughly equivalence (and in some ways vastly exceed) the current Mastery, making 53 more nodes at maximum available beyond that. That is plenty enough to reach all those desired nodes without losing much of the capability players are currently used to having in their Mastered 'mechs. And those of us who don't necessarily always want all of the skills we've been taking forever to reach Mastery (hi there, pinpoint, also in some cases arm speed) or even necessarily always want all the benefits of current Mastery, the field has opened up in a big way.
Remember when taking a skill locked behind a skill you don't want, you're essentially saying that the skill you do want is worth two skill nodes to you. If it's not worth two skill nodes... take something else. I'm pretty sure at this point you can find two nodes you want instead.
That said, I still haven't gotten to actually play a match on the PTS yet. Ah, well, there's always tomorrow.
11th February, 2017- It already occurred to me that it would be helpful to use a specific set of 'mechs for gameplay so that I have a rational comparison to make with minimal variables. With that in mind, here are the 'mechs I have been/will be using for my test games.
Test Subjects
For the sake of completeness and comprehension, I'm going to list here the 'mechs that I'm using for my experiences in the PTS for the new skill system. I will also spend some time playing these 'mechs on the live client as well, so that I have a current and recognizable baseline for my understanding.
Each 'mech's name is also a link to a Smurfy's build of the 'mech. Please remember to ignore the front/rear distribution of armor on the torso components, I usually just hit the 'max armor' button on Smurfy's, which can do some pretty dumb torso armor distribution.
Light 'Mechs
FS9-S Etrigan (Firestarter)
I operate this 'mech as a Support Light, intended to stick around the heavier 'mechs and provide additional firepower, anti-Light combat capability, and dual-AMS missile deflection.
In Live, I have this 'mech Mastered.
On the PTS, I have the following benefits from 42 total skill nodes:
Spoiler
PNT-10P Backhand (Panther)This is a low-speed (relatively) combat Light. I use this 'mech for surprise combat and to fulfill a role close to what more phlegmatic Light 'mechs on the Clan side engage in, sticking around the main group and brawling like a Medium.
In Live, I have this 'mech Mastered.
On the PTS, I have the following benefits from 45 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
LCT-3S Obnoxtrous (Locust)This 'mech is set up with a more typical weapons/engine loadout for a Light 'mech - not all of my Lights are set up to do things that most other players don't care to do. Yeah, I'm aware of that.
In Live, I have this 'mech Mastered.
On the PTS, I have the following benefits from 50 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
Medium 'MechsBJ-3 Sap (Blackjack)
This 'mech is set for a combination of sniping and Close Quarters Combat. It has, on live, the heat capacity to do either at any given time, but runs hot if it attempts to mix the big lasers into combat. This is the main variant with which I discovered long ago that the Blackjack isn't nearly as squishy as it's made out to be, if you can figure out how to afford to run a Standard engine.
In Live, this 'mech is long since Mastered.
In PTS, I have the following benefits from 91 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
ENF-4R Vinyl (Enforcer)This Enforcer has a fairly straightforwards loadout, with a lot of smaller laser weapons to work together with the AC/10 for a fairly punchy brawler.
On the Live server, this 'mech is Mastered.
In the PTS, I have the following benefits from 39 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
HBK-4G Igor (Hunchback)Not seeing many 4G Hunchbacks around, I can only assume this build, if not typical, is fairly close to typical. Most likely, most players would forego the machine guns for a third Medium Laser and an eleventh heat sink, or slightly more engine weight. I like the machine guns for breaking things, and they're lost when that right arm laser would be anyways. And no, Hunchback arms don't make good shields, which is why it's the one on the hunch side that I skimped armor on.
Live, this 'mech is Mastered.
For the PTS, I have the following benefits from 59 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
Heavy 'MechsARC-5W Thorgirdr (Archer)
Yep, it's a missile caddy. This one has plenty of backup in the form of a 16-SRM volley, though, and is in the process of proving very worthy, able to alternate as-needed between frontline and support operations. Having a Standard engine due to very light launchers helps too, of course. I found long ago that 4 LRM-5s is the absolute minimum for a constant-missile 'pester-chain', and 5 is relatively comfortable- 6 is too many, and anyone loading a 5W with a full nine LRM launchers is making a greivous mistake. Also, no matter what launchers you have, if you have more than 1300 LRM ammo, you're putting WAY too much ammo in (even 1300 is more than you need in anything but FW, and it's still pushing it then.)
In Live, this 'mech is Elited, but not Mastered.
In PTS, this 'mech has the following benefits from 30 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
CTF-1X Thresher (Cataphract)This was one of my very first 'mechs, and to this day is a mainstay for me. I've found it to be plenty durable despite its wide face, and the weapons loadout, while unfocused, has always been weirdly effective (not necessarily amazing, mind you, but very stable in terms of usability). It's slow thanks to the standard engine that grants it some of its toughness, but that means staying with the Assaults better, and it certainly packs comparable total weapons.
In Live this 'mech is so Mastered you have no idea.
In PTS, this 'mech has the following benefits from 91 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
GHR-5P Fickle Freddy (Grasshopper)This is probably a pretty recognizable 'Hopper. The usual don't use the ER lasers with the rest of the laser suite so on and so forth. When picking Skill Nodes, I tried to guess a way to keep the Large Pulse and the Mediums on a nearly-identical total firing cycle length.
Live, this 'mech is Mastered.
In PTS, this 'mech gains the following benefits from 42 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
QKD-4H Blotter (Quickdraw)Yeah, the 'mech which inspired me to change my pilot name. I love this thing. I loved it when it was bad and huge, I love it the same now it's.... less huge. It's not great, it's not optimized, but it's so fun and I've learned to do silly things with it (like blow through enemy formations from behind to cause confusion).
Live, this 'Mech is so Mastered. So happily Mastered.
In PTS, this 'mech gains the following benefits from 42 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
RFL-5D Slapman (Rifleman)Hybrid corner-shooter/Brawler. Yeah, I know ERPPCs have sniper range and regular peeps don't, but I'd rather be able to start brawling right away when warranted than have to hide or run for a few seconds to cool down first (or risk shutting down when something appears in my face).
In Live, this 'Mech is Mastered.
In PTS, this 'Mech gains the following benefits from 46 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
Assault 'MechsAWS-8R Thunderous (Awesome)
OH LOOK IT'S NOT AN LRM BOAT BE SALTY.
In Live, this 'mech is Mastered.
In PTS, this 'Mech gains the following benefits from 45 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
BNC-3M Shrieker (Banshee)One of my newer 'mechs, this is probably typical of those who think the 5 or 6 LPL route is a little too heat/trigger management heavy and would like to be able to avoid shutting down in the event they suddenly worry enough to hit the ALL THE LASERS button. I say 'probably' because I don't see the Banshee being driven much by people who didn't get and master it right away when it became available to them.
Live, this 'mech is Elited, but not Mastered.
In PTS, this 'mech gains the following benefits from 24 Skill Nodes:
Spoiler
MAL-2P Ordox (Mauler)Had to include a Mauler, right? I set this thing up for ALL THE BRAWLS. Turned out pretty effective in live, particularly with very small, almost unnoticeable missile shoulder boxes.
Live, this 'mech is Mastered.
In PTS, this 'mech has 38 Skill Nodes, granting it the following:
Spoiler
STK-5S Predator (Stalker)Stalkers were my first or second Assault, I don't recall for sure which. This one is set up with the capacity to act both as an LRM caddy and a vicious CQC laser fighter. I modestly break my own rule on LRM ammo here because first of all the 'mech is slow as molasses and needs enough ammo to last as long as it can take to get to closer ranges with the enemy repeatedly opening up range and also because I've been called on for CW/FW before and once in a while you need a rain of missiles that just lasts and lasts.
Live, this is a Mastered 'mech.
In the PTS, this 'mech has 71 Skill Nodes for the following benefits:
Spoiler
Iteration One- 11th February, 2017Time to play some matches and see what it feels like.
BNC-3M Shrieker
Live
After three QP matches (Approx. 10AM PDT):
Well, this is kind of a mess. I'm not piloting this well at the moment.
Life in higher-tier games is hard, and the 5-LPL BLR (with cooldown module) does a pretty good job picking apart the poor Shrieker, as does a focused and centered team. On the other hand, when it can get in close to things that are even a little less optimized? Whoo, the output is hellacious- lower heat means much more consistent and frequent fire. Moves at a decent clip, too, and having a Standard engine means I can often keep going when the opfor is sure I should be dead.
Not the best by any means, but not bad at all, and definitely has the durability and firepower to stick it out when not forced to stay at longer ranges. Torso pitch is a bit rough, though, and lack of arm weapons means that while Mediums are hilariously squishy, Lights can be an issue to deal with.
Seems to work best as either a wrecking ball-distraction to get into the enemy and turn their attention away from frailer or more injured allies, or to discourage multiple peekers when on a team holding a stable defensive position.
After nine QP matches (Approx 11 AM PDT):
Okay, now I've got this down. Haven't been playing my Banshees much lately, which would explain why I was having trouble getting into the swing of this thing. It actually runs cooler than I expected, which is nice- it means winning a lot of Assault vs Assault fights due to opponents shutting down while I still have weapon options.
The wrecking-ball thing still works, though, because the BNC is tough enough and this loadout is fast-firing and cool enough to be an unignorable distraction for several seconds even if I don't kill anything, which encourages teammates to push in and secure kills and ground they wouldn't have if they still felt like they needed to hide-and-peek.
Things this 'mech seems to want: More durability, more range on the Medium Lasers (the Large Pulses have just enough to work for longer mid-range), a bit more agility (torso twist soaking with arm shields), Radar Deprivation/AMS improvements (it's very tall, so LRMs hit it over obstacles a lot), and of course, better heat handling would be brilliant.
Things this 'mech could do without: Arm agility, possibly fire rate? Most of the Efficiencies are useful here, with the obvious exceptions (Pinpoint....)
ARC-5W Thorgirdr
PTS
After three matches (Approx noon PDT):
Well that was edifying. Queue right now seems to consist of almost entirely assault 'mechs with an occasional heavy thrown in for not much change in flavor. I picked up some top speed and other Lower mobility nodes in anticipation of dealing with lighter 'mechs, and that's just not going right now. Decay duration is, of course, still useful as ever, and the turn rate is okay when I need to spread damage, but holy insert your choice of expletive here, it just doesn't matter when in a 4v4 and 3/4 of the match is Assaults. I may need to wait for more people to be on before trying this on PTS.
FS9-S Etrigan
PTS
After three matches (Roughly 1:30 PDT):
Wow this is rough. This build really doesn't work very well in 4v4- there's not enough of an allied force to really team up with. It doesn't help at all that over 3/4 of the 'mechs on the PTS right now are Assaults, meaning one misstep is instant death unless you're TURBOFAST. The nearly pure flow of already predominant-in-Live designs is getting annoying, too, I'm starting to wonder if more than two people have even caught on to half the point of the new skill setup.
Maybe I'll have more luck going back to the Shrieker, even though the Assault queue has been utterly choked so far and my first try to use it resulted in a ten minute wait with no game...
BNC-3M Shrieker
PTS
After three QP matches (Roughly 2:20 PM PDT):
Well, that was interesting. Overall, it runs a little bit hotter, and is slightly less agile (lack of torso twist benefits), but that aside it feels about the same. That's pretty remarkable given I have no torso twist nodes at all, none of the Operations heat capacity nodes, and less than half of Speed Tweak. 18% turn rate for mah feets is pretty useful on a 'mech like this.
I continue to be frustrated by seeing almost entirely the same builds on the PTS as on Live servers, though.
-QKD-CR0
Edited by Quickdraw Crobat, 04 March 2017 - 07:18 PM.
