61 replies to this topic

[Roc Ingersol]

Hello! <o

I'm hoping to get a few opinions from more experienced players regarding the hunchback IIC. I haven't finished my first 25 matches yet and as of now i'm sitting on a little over 19 million cbills. 10 of the 18 or so matches I played have been with the hunchback. It just seemed to click with me. I have tried mechs from each weight class more than once. I will probably finish the other few cadet matches with that mech and I am seriously considering buy at least two of them. They seem pretty versatile between the variants but..........I don't want to end up having buyers remorse or anything. At the same time, I realize there are a buttload of other mechs that I haven't tried and won't be able to without buying them. I have just been fllowing a lot of supernovas, kodiaks and dire wolves around and supporting them. That would probably be my style. I've learned that to wander off is to die horribly.

I've also read that the Stormcrow and Timberwolf would be better but at the same time they are much more expensive.

Thank you in advance.

Edited by Chuck E Finley, 24 February 2017 - 12:59 AM.

[General Solo]

Do it, its a great mech

[Tilakkam]

You cant go wrong with buying IIC mechs, so... try other trial mechs and then make a choice.

[JENNER llC]

ton for ton hunchie IIC is one of the best mechs in the game, a bit of a glass cannon yes but it has everything that is ideal in a mech

amazingly high mounts and dmg output capability for 50ton mech
no locked jumpjets and engines like the stormcrow & timberwolf, so you can modify more to taste
no quirks to be nerfed so future safe

there are so many different builds you can field with it too so overall very good value for your cbills so feel free to be confident in your investment

just uh.. dont get shot

[sT3V3]

I have 3 and 2 IS HBK's

love em'

[Black Phoebe]

JENNER llC, on 24 February 2017 - 01:20 AM, said:

ton for ton hunchie IIC is one of the best mechs in the game, a bit of a glass cannon yes but it has everything that is ideal in a mech

That pretty much sums it up. Being a little fragile is probably the only weakness it has. If the Mech "clicked" with you, you should be fine and there should be no buyers remorse. The trick is to play somewhat cautious without drifting into timidity.

Personally i like the Stormcrow or the Nova more, because i prefer to be in the middle of the fight and those two can take more of a beating before they go down. But that is personal preference, i guess.

Edited by Black Phoebe, 24 February 2017 - 02:16 AM.

[Boulangerie]

Black Phoebe, on 24 February 2017 - 02:15 AM, said:

That pretty much sums it up. Being a little fragile is probably the only weakness it has. If the Mech "clicked" with you, you should be fine and there should be no buyers remorse. The trick is to play somewhat cautious without drifting into timidity.

Personally i like the Stormcrow or the Nova more, because i prefer to be in the middle of the fight and those two can take more of a beating before they go down. But that is personal preference, i guess.

Just to clarify here, when Black Phoebe says the HBK IIC is more fragile, it's because it spreads the damage less effectively than the Nova and the Stormcrow. I don't believe any of these clan mechs have Structure or Armor quirks, although the SCR is a 55 tonner, so naturally has better HP values than the 2 50 ton mechs. The HBK IIC has large shoulder weapon mounts, which funnels damage into your side torsos. It's the price you pay for having that loadout

[Rogue Jedi]

the one thing you need to bear in mind if you buy a HBK-IIC is that the trial version has a larger engine than any HBK IIC you can get for cbills, so for the same movement profile you are currently getting you will need an XL255 engine costing 4.1 million cbills, otherwise with the stock engine (an XL200) you will be 18kph slower, however if you plan to buy multiple HBK IICs that is a one off expense as you can transfer it between varients

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 24 February 2017 - 04:23 AM.

[Black Phoebe]

Boulangerie, on 24 February 2017 - 02:24 AM, said:

Just to clarify here, when Black Phoebe says the HBK IIC is more fragile, it's because it spreads the damage less effectively than the Nova and the Stormcrow. I don't believe any of these clan mechs have Structure or Armor quirks, although the SCR is a 55 tonner, so naturally has better HP values than the 2 50 ton mechs. The HBK IIC has large shoulder weapon mounts, which funnels damage into your side torsos. It's the price you pay for having that loadout

You are right, all three Mechs have a very similar amount of armor, but the HBK does not spread the damage as well as the other two do. The Nova has minor structure and/or armor quirks, but they are not really important in this case.

[Tarl Cabot]

Black Phoebe, on 24 February 2017 - 03:10 AM, said:

You are right, all three Mechs have a very similar amount of armor, but the HBK does not spread the damage as well as the other two do. The Nova has minor structure and/or armor quirks, but they are not really important in this case.

Just for some other clarification, Hunchbacks (small arms also) have humanoid shape whereas the Stormcrow (larger arms)/Nova are chicken walkers so the section layout are slightly different.

https://mwomercs.com...x-localization/

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 24 February 2017 - 03:46 AM.

[Roughneck45]

Buy it. You'll have zero regrets. Great Mech.

[TercieI]

Terrific robot. The base and A are the standouts (I have four As...)

[The Jerol]

Another supportive post for the IIc. I have three of them and love them all. They are squishy, but they are not intended to be in the front line. The high weapon mounts will teach you to hill hump and how to position yourself properly. My own limited history and improvement can be seen in the performance of my IIc's, with the IIc(O) (30% C-bill bonus) being the version of the chassis I take out the most now and with which I have the best success. I run it with dual high mounted clan UAC-10s and 2x ERMLs.

The drawbacks as I said are it's large hit boxes and overall squishyness... it's not particularly agile, but the clan XL engine really helps with survivability. For new players, I think it is a fantastic mech as you don't want to lead the charge just yet and this mech performs best as a mid-range fire support (DPS) unit.

As others have said, you just can't go wrong with this mech.


TJ

[B L O O D W I T C H]

The Jerol, on 24 February 2017 - 06:24 AM, said:

Another supportive post for the IIc. I have three of them and love them all. They are squishy, but they are not intended to be in the front line.

Quad SRM6+A Hunchy IIC-B begs to differ.

Tho, agreed with most of the replies here. IIC hunchies are performer.
The only one i don't like much is the IIC variant. 50 tons isn't enough to mount four ballistics (quad uac2 doesn't count lol)

For me, the C, B and especially the 2-ERPPC A variant perform very well. The mech is easy to handle.
I'd actually pay for a c-bills boost B or C variant. Sadly the IIC and IIC-C are the weaker variants (tho, still strong compared to other mechs).

[Roc Ingersol]

SWEEEET! Thanks for the responses. It's not often that I make a good decision, but when I do I drink whiskey.

I did notice that the mech dies pretty quickly when I jander off and walk it into a bad neighborhood. But if I stay with bigger mechs they have a tendency to overlook me for bigger threats. I got three VERY lucky kills in one match from hitting the ones that ignored me in the back.

I have just one more question though; is there one engine that performs the best between the variants?

Edited by Chuck E Finley, 24 February 2017 - 07:55 AM.

[Roughneck45]

Chuck E Finley, on 24 February 2017 - 07:52 AM, said:

I have just one more question though; is there one engine that performs the best between the variants?

That depends on the builds you want.

I'd say the XL275, but that's better for the missile and laser variants. Its too much tonnage for the ballistic one if you are trying to stack AC's.

Metamechs has a lot of good builds if you need ideas.

Edited by Roughneck45, 24 February 2017 - 08:03 AM.

[TercieI]

Roughneck45, on 24 February 2017 - 08:02 AM, said:

That depends on the builds you want.

I'd say the XL275, but that's better for the missile and laser variants. Its too much tonnage for the ballistic one if you are trying to stack AC's.

Metamechs has a lot of good builds if you need ideas.

To echo Roughneck's comments:

The XL275 is best for the A&B, but the XL255 works better for the "base" and C. The only reason to go below that is dual gauss, but I do not recommend that build for a new player at all. Those two engines should "do you fine" for the chassis as a whole.

Edited by TercieI, 24 February 2017 - 08:08 AM.

[Roc Ingersol]

Thank you.

[Koniving]

Chuck E Finley, on 24 February 2017 - 12:51 AM, said:

Hello! <o

I'm hoping to get a few opinions from more experienced players regarding the hunchback IIC. I haven't finished my first 25 matches yet and as of now i'm sitting on a little over 19 million cbills. 10 of the 18 or so matches I played have been with the hunchback. It just seemed to click with me. I have tried mechs from each weight class more than once. I will probably finish the other few cadet matches with that mech and I am seriously considering buy at least two of them. They seem pretty versatile between the variants but..........I don't want to end up having buyers remorse or anything. At the same time, I realize there are a buttload of other mechs that I haven't tried and won't be able to without buying them. I have just been fllowing a lot of supernovas, kodiaks and dire wolves around and supporting them. That would probably be my style. I've learned that to wander off is to die horribly.

I've also read that the Stormcrow and Timberwolf would be better but at the same time they are much more expensive.

Thank you in advance.

Good afternoon and welcome to MWO.

I will address this out of order. Forgive me.

The Stormcrow and the TimberWolf and by extension the Night Gyr are "better." because they are at the peak of their weight classes. Stormcrow and Timber Wolf especially since they are also incredibly fast. However, with great power comes great responsibility and in this case, the responsibility is in how you learn the game.

If you start with what is effectively the best 'equipment' you can possibly muster, anything else might seem sour in comparison, and any bad habits you learned will be difficult to overcome in the future. This said, those three mechs have their flaws as well as do any mech. The Stormcrow for example has long legs, and most people don't seem to think of this early on... but it wouldn't be nearly as "good" if people just shot the legs out.

The Timber Wolf has large front torsos; in fact they are freaking huge and so people often have very little armor on the rear... and in fact if they put "decent" amounts of rear armor on they are severely gimping themselves to an easy death from the front or sides. Also, many don't realize it but the Timber Wolf has a huge cockpit, and is heavily susceptible to a one hit kill against specific Inner Sphere designs. Jagermechs, certain Riflemen, Maulers, and King Crabs are especially likely to turn a Timber Wolf into mincemeat within an instant if given the opportunity and carrying two AC/20s. At maximum armor the cockpit has a total of 33 health. Two Inner Sphere AC/20s instantly delivers 40 damage into a single pinpoint location.

Night Gyr is considerably slower than the Timber Wolf, and like the Stormcrow and Timber Wolf it is an Omnimech and cannot change the engine size at all. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The disadvantage is obvious, lack of speed. The advantage is that the Night Gyr is designed to carry weapons. Lots of them and heavy ones too. It also has a humanoid design, which means unlike the Timber Wolf it cannot get away with massive amounts of frontal armor as the rear hitboxes are much larger.

------------

As for the Hunchback IIC, it is very similar to the Inner Sphere's Hunchback. Agile, versatile, capable of many roles and compatible with many playstyles. Both machines will serve you will, and since 2012's closed beta it has been among the most recommended "new player" mechs ever, since they are easy to use with little knowledge of the game and actually only improve as you learn more about the game.

For example their biggest weapons are on the torso. Hunchbacks have great torso twist and tilt ranges, so you won't feel gimped even when just starting out you probably have armlock on. That keeps you down to one crosshair and keeps aiming nice and simple.

Continuing the example: As you develop and grow confident in basic controls, you can unlock the arms... giving you a second crosshair. This second one will move much faster, and allow you to make the mech even more versatile than before by allowing you even greater vertical range, as well as the ability to engage more than one target at a time, as well as easily fret off light harassers from the assaults you are protecting while still providing heavy firepower to support the assaults in their tough endeavors.

Basically, a Hunchback, IS standard or Clan IIC, is a mech you will keep for life because it starts as very useful and as your skillset improves, its usefulness will improve with you.

I own every Hunchback. Even the ones you cannot buy. I have only ever sold one... and I bought it back within 3 weeks because I regretted that decision.
If this builds any additional credit, I own 217 mechs.
11 of them are Hunchbacks and Hunchback IICs. There are only 10 unique Hunchbacks. The 11th is the Founder's Edition 4G only available before the game went into open beta.
4G, 4G(Founder's edition)
4H
4J
4P
4SP (right side; I'm using the 4P on the left of this split screen two player mock-up view of me and a comrade.)
Grid Iron.
Each link leads to a video. I don't have any IIC videos up yet, I'm sorry.

Edited by Koniving, 24 February 2017 - 10:19 AM.

[TercieI]

@Kon...no, the SCR is not better than the HBK-IIC. Locked engine and low mounts make it inferior. The HBK-IIC is pretty much the best medium in the game now. You see very few others in high tier comp even when weight is not a factor.