39 replies to this topic

[Snazzy Dragon]

First of all, before they even buy a mech, let them know that this game is hard. THey'll lose. A lot. They'll have bad games. It's the nature of the beast. And then you go with how Yeonne put it;

Yeonne Greene, on 06 April 2017 - 02:16 PM, said:

What kind of player are you? Do you want a 'Mech that can mitigate your lack of experience and let you do okay in spite of that disadvantage or are you a player who responds well to tough love and want a 'Mech that is unforgiving and will force you to learn the game quickly to do well with?

Former, Storm Crow. Latter, Centurion.

Warhammers and thunderbolts will also be rough to you at first. Timber wolf and hellbringer will go easy on you, like the stormcrow.

[Kubernetes]

Blackjack. It's cheap, doesn't explode on sight, has good high mounts that teach you to use cover.

The Timby is great, but it's very expensive. You can buy three Blackjacks and a 235XL engine for the same price as one Timby. Also, all that armor + firepower tends to breed overconfidence in noobs. That's bad in combination with a mech that is often a priority target.

[Snazzy Dragon]

Kubernetes, on 06 April 2017 - 07:45 PM, said:

Blackjack. It's cheap, doesn't explode on sight, has good high mounts that teach you to use cover.

The Timby is great, but it's very expensive. You can buy three Blackjacks and a 235XL engine for the same price as one Timby. Also, all that armor + firepower tends to breed overconfidence in noobs. That's bad in combination with a mech that is often a priority target.

UPGRADES

IS MECHS ARE NOT CHEAPER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Y E O N N E]

Snazzy Dragon, on 06 April 2017 - 07:43 PM, said:

Warhammers and thunderbolts will also be rough to you at first. Timber wolf and hellbringer will go easy on you, like the stormcrow.

I don't want to recommend heavies because even the good IS ones can enable bad habits. They are also more expensive to buy and outfit.

Thuds are very nice, however. The TDR-5SS, TDR-9SE, and TDR-5S-T are the must-buys, very forgiving to play with their generous quirks, good geometry, and small size. I would probably recommend them over Warhammers, they just roll damage better.

HBR, I don't think it's actually that easy. Their geo makes them squishier than you'd expect, with easily isolated components. Their more asymmetrical nature also makes them tricky since almost everybody knows to shoot off the left torso.

Edited by Yeonne Greene, 06 April 2017 - 07:55 PM.

[Ted Wayz]

Yeonne Greene, on 06 April 2017 - 07:54 PM, said:

They are also more expensive to buy and outfit.

Which I think is a good thing. Means more time behind the underhive steering wheel.

Seriously though, find your niche then target a mech. If you feel most comfortable in a light buy a light, medium go for a medium, etc. Metamechs usually will give you an idea of what is ezmode and what is Vindicator mode.

[Y E O N N E]

Ted Wayz, on 06 April 2017 - 08:04 PM, said:

Which I think is a good thing. Means more time behind the underhive steering wheel.

Seriously though, find your niche then target a mech. If you feel most comfortable in a light buy a light, medium go for a medium, etc. Metamechs usually will give you an idea of what is ezmode and what is Vindicator mode.

Yeah, generally I agree. I chose 'Mechs I thought looked cool and then focused the crap out of them. You need to establish a baseline from whch point you can judge everything else in the game as you lean, though, so I guess the real question is if you want a 'Mech that is a good yardstick to measure the differences between weight classes and chassis, which one would you pick?

[Kasumi Sumika]

Thunderbolt 9S 2 LPL, 3 ML, 2 AMS, STD280

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a1bec3f939c5778

* Laser vomit 2LPL 3ML with good cooling efficiency
* Decent speed for Heavy
* 2 AMS to protected you from lurms in lower tier
* 2 LPL on High mount
* Price is only about 9,3 Million C-Bills

[Jackal Noble]

Not the ebon jaguar because it's soft as marshmallows.

[Y E O N N E]

Kasumi Sumika, on 06 April 2017 - 08:22 PM, said:

Thunderbolt 9S 2 LPL, 3 ML, 2 AMS, STD280

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a1bec3f939c5778

* Laser vomit 2LPL 3ML with good cooling efficiency
* Decent speed for Heavy
* 2 AMS to protected you from lurms in lower tier
* 2 LPL on High mount
* Price is only about 9,3 Million C-Bills

y u no 2x ERPPC...

[Kasumi Sumika]

Yeonne Greene, on 06 April 2017 - 08:24 PM, said:

y u no 2x ERPPC...

LPL have more newbie friendly due to heat management.

[Skipmagnet]

The EBJ is every bit as good as a Timber Wolf, but won't be focused. But for a brand new player? Cyclops P. It's pretty quick for an assault, has excellent vision, can run ecm and has high ballistic mounts. It's also extremely affordable on cadet bonus plus Academy pay. As far as Baby's First BattleMech gies, you could certainly do worse.

[Y E O N N E]

Kasumi Sumika, on 06 April 2017 - 08:31 PM, said:

LPL have more newbie friendly due to heat management.

I suppose it is, though on a 280 you've got #alltheheatsinks. I run a pair on a 295 and it's still super frosty.

[Marius Romanis]

If Clan its easy to choose.

Hellbringers if they suck at getting behind cover / dodging lurms

Ebon jags if their already decent/have a brain at this kind of game.

Why? because their omni, you can buy 1 mech and do 2-3(hbr) 4-5(ebj) different decent builds without having to buy more mechs. They also have 3 decent variants for rule of 3(becoz of omni) (might be going if skill tree ever gets launched)

If they want to scout, 3 of the 4 HBK-IIC mechs are great for rule of 3.

for IS its a different story. Grasshoppers with 2 decent variants would probably be my 1st choice (5p 2 good builds, 5h 2 good builds), griffins (2n and 3m) being my 2nd choice, locust or spider (1v or 5k) 3rd and 4th choice coz cheap, Battlemasters (2c and 1g)5th choice coz expensive and game decider if that tonnage goes down for now benefit assaults are more expensive and less accepting of mistakes in position or of dying losing that much tonnage by your team.

Edited by CadoAzazel, 06 April 2017 - 09:30 PM.

[Jackal Noble]

Ebon jaguar - it's made of Putin's teeth.

[Lorcryst NySell]

Hmmm ...

I'd say the IS Hunchbacks, but I'm biased since that was the 'Mech I randomly rolled in my first BattleTech RPG campaign 20 years ago.

I bought a couple after the Academy and the first 25 drops with the Cadet Bonuses, and I was pleasantly surprised : they are relatively easy to play, and more importantly they have the potential to teach you a lot of very important skills like patience, positionning, awareness, torso-twisting and more.

They can also be very frustrating and punishing if you do mistakes in them.

The 4SP will teach you how to splat with SRMs.

The 4P will teach you how to alpha-strike with laser vomit and heat management.

And the other variants, 4G, 4H and 4J will teach you how to use an AC20, AC 10 and LRM10, respectively.

They all have good Module slots (2/2/2), they only things they are lacking are ECM and JumpJets.

Finally, they are relatively cheap with the basic configuration (around 3.5 millions each), meaning that you can get 3 or 4 (for the rule of three and diversity) with the 25 millions cadet bonus without spending all your CBills.

But first of all, I'd play a lot with the Trial 'Mechs, to get a feeling of what you like, what works for you, what you hate, and what you cannot make work.

There is no real need to "meta out the wazoo" when you're starting, learning the "basics" of the game is more important I think, and that chassis can effectively allow you to "git gud" with a variety of configurations.

I don't really know what Clan 'Mech to recommend though, those are not my strong suit.

[Amsro]

cazidin, on 06 April 2017 - 02:05 PM, said:

Let them pilot a Vindicator. It'll give them a strong understanding of the future frustrations they'll have with PGI and thoroughly test their talent.

I started with spiders, cheap, quick and teach you all kinds of things about the game.

Searching for a match in one as I post this.

[FireStoat]

Huntsman for the new player. Unreal weapon options with numerous omnipod hardpoints, 24 full tons of pod space, exceptionally useful jump jets. It only has a moderate amount of speed and mobility, but if it's used for what it's intended - a team player / Assault escort - the new player can learn the game and be a big help to the team at the same time.

[BrunoSSace]

Molten Metal is a Youtuber and made a video on this topic. He gave a list of good friendly Mechs to buy. While I don't agree with the no Hunchbacks, I understand why he did it. Watch it, share it, like it, and Subscribe. Hes a good player and knows his stuff. Bruno



Edit to fix the link \o/

Edited by BrunoSSace, 07 April 2017 - 02:25 AM.

[Xetelian]

Storm Crow prime

One of the few stock mechs that doesn't have half armor and a terrible loadout.

This mech comes with cXL Endo/FF and can snipe or alpha mid range and melt faces.

SCR-PRIME



Later on, after they've made their first cBills for a load-out they can change to just about anything, Ballistics, better Laser vomit, Missiles SRM or LRM. It's a Swiss army knife of a mech.

Only 5 tons shy of being heavy and funs 97 KPH so someone can retreat from a bad position fast.

[Skipmagnet]

Mmmm, SCR prime is a good one. You can also pop off a heat sink and add a TC1 for extra critical shenanigans. At least you used to be able to do that. New TC1 is kinda sad.