10 replies to this topic

[Dorthak]

So, standard question: What should I get as my first mech. I've run the first 35 missions, have about 21M C-bills.

I want a mech that has a decent short range punch, and the ability to snipe - I've been very frustrated by trial mechs that are either all-short range or all-long range. I'm thinking I want direct-file long range rather than LRMs, Lasers seem like the way to go, as at long range not needing to wait for shot to land seems like a good idea.

So I'm thinking that what I want is a medium or heavy chassis with 2 ER Large lasers and 2-4 AC-10s or AC20s. Lasers for long range, ACs for in close? Does this seem like a reasonable combo?

What's a good chassis for something like this? I'd prefer IS over Clan, but I'll take either, if the price is affordable. I think I'm leaning towards heavy rather than medium, for the survivability.

[Dorthak]

Hmm, playing with the smurfy mech lab, it looks like there's no good way to squeeze 2 ER large lasers, 2 AC-10s (let alone 20s) and all the other stuff into a heavy chassis. Unless there's a particular one that'd work?

[Alexander of Macedon]

You could do that with a slow JM6-S or WHM-6R. Could also do dual cUAC/10s + dual cERLLas on a Night Gyr or something.

But there's not much reason to. They have radically different firing profiles and ideal engagement ranges in both cases. You're better off just sticking to one or the other (and few heavies/assaults should ever be touching ERLLas.

This is the dual AC/10 Rifleman build I run: RFL-3C. If you notice yourself dying before you're through most of your ammo, you can up the lasers to mediums + a few heatsinks and drop a few tons of ammo, or lose some ammo and use a bigger engine; I took the 255 because I had a spare.

Edited by Alexander of Macedon, 15 April 2017 - 08:19 PM.

[Dorthak]

Found a way to build it into a Timberwolf, but it seems a wacky build, with low armor and ammo. Thoughts?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...d6d73beb2e609b3

[Nostalgic Supremacy]

Since you seem unsure of what you want, I'd suggest picking up a heavy clan omnimech. My personal favorite is the Ebon Jaguar.

It's generally a bad idea to mix weapon ranges. When you do that, you are sub optimal at just about every range. Since you don't want dedicated long range or dedicated short range, why not just go medium range?

I would suggest this build:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c148fb9e17db2fb

With this build, you end up having 2 Large Pulse Lasers on a high mount, which is super useful for peeking and getting free damage off at ranges of 600+ meters. 4 ER Medium lasers gives you more firepower on anything withing 450m or so. Firing all lasers at once is pretty scary, even at a short range. The high number of heatsinks enables you to have surprisingly high sustained damage for an all laser build. The LPLs are also very efficient, so you can pretty much spam them for free damage as you just barely expose yourself. This is the exact build which I used to "get good" at this game.

The flexibility of the EBJ will allow you to run a wide range of builds, including several with UACs. Its hard to go wrong with.

Edited by Nostalgic Supremacy, 15 April 2017 - 08:41 PM.

[Nostalgic Supremacy]

Dorthak, on 15 April 2017 - 08:17 PM, said:

Found a way to build it into a Timberwolf, but it seems a wacky build, with low armor and ammo. Thoughts?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...d6d73beb2e609b3

Non ultra AC's are useless on clan mechs. 1 ton of ammo is WAY too low. With two 10's, you should probably aim for at least 4.5 tons of ammo.


For UACs, you could run something like this on the EBJ:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...d4c207dfd7fab5c

Edited by Nostalgic Supremacy, 15 April 2017 - 08:29 PM.

[Dorthak]

Nostalgic Supremacy, on 15 April 2017 - 08:22 PM, said:

I would suggest this build:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c148fb9e17db2fb

With this build, you end up having 2 Large Pulse Lasers on a high mount, which is super useful for peeking and getting free damage off at ranges off 600+ meters. 4 ER Medium lasers gives you more firepower on anything withing 450m or so.

Oooh, I rather like that.... May have to go this route.

Thanks!

[Ertur]

Caveat: just because you can doesn't mean you should.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...f33ecbe22feddb2

[Mawcor]

So, some things to note about the weapons selection you're looking for: the weight of the bare minimum of weaponry that you're looking at, two large lasers and two AC10s, is going to be 34 tons for IS and 30 tons for Clan, and that's before any auxiliary elements like ammo or heat sinks. Keeping in mind that this is also before the engine and armor, that's going to be very tough to run on a medium. And that's just for the smallest option. Big autocannons are heavy. You might want to consider trying an assault if you want that kind of loadout.

The other thing to note, is that conventional wisdom says that it's better to pick a range bracket, build around that bracket, and then use position to keep enemies at that range as much as possible. Now, I wouldn't call it strictly necessary, and I often don't quite adhere to that myself. But I think it's worth noting what you might be getting yourself into. Personally, my preference is for what I call a focused build, where most of my weapon tonnage is devoted to one range but I add an option or two for another. So for example, a gauss rifle paired with a cluster of medium or small lasers, or a single ER large laser or PPC for ranged harrassment on an otherwise short ranged build.
Also worth noting that AC10s have 450 optimum range, which while not long range I have found is enough for mid-range poking.

I was just barely able to cram two AC10s and two ERLarge into a Warhammer, but it moves really slowly. If you're willing to downgrade to LBX 10s you could up the engine a bit. The Marauder and Orion could both run builds with a pair of LBX 10s in the side torso and ERLL in the arms, but then you have the issue that your close quarters weapons are in the high mounts and your long range weapons are low.
Clans get a bit easier, partially because the overall lower tonnage of weaponry, and partly because you could cheat and use ERML as your longer ranged weapons, with their optimum range of 400.
Personally, I would either limit myself to a single ballistic, use smaller ballistics (which are less alpha but longer range and a bit more versatile), or use fewer/smaller energy and accept a shorter overall range.

If you really want to use ERLL and AC20, and are willing to go up a weight class, my thought was the King Crab. The energy mounts there are high for poking while on approach, and then you have two AC20 for when you close in or the enemy comes to you.

[Nostalgic Supremacy]

Dorthak, on 15 April 2017 - 08:31 PM, said:

Oooh, I rather like that.... May have to go this route.

Thanks!

No problem. I suggest 3 firing groups, 1 for the 2 ER mediums in torso, 1 for the 2 ER mediums in the arm, and then 1 for the 2 LPL's.

EBJ is a great chassis with lots of different options, and is by far my most used. You can message me in game or on here if you need more info.

Edited by Nostalgic Supremacy, 15 April 2017 - 08:36 PM.

[Roughneck45]

If you are looking for efficiency in your mechs check out metamechs.com. Tons of builds to comb through and all are good.

Edited by Roughneck45, 15 April 2017 - 08:42 PM.