13 replies to this topic

[Bronze Knight]

I was going to buy the Resistance Two: Crab pack but then I got to thinking that I never see them in game, was wondering, why?

Granted it doesn't have ECM, and playing around with it in mech lab looks like it'll be hard to get above 100kph with a decent amount of weapons, so my guess is that's most of the reason I never see them.

Kinda wanted to make a mobile sniper with 4x ER LL... and I like its derptastic looks, with its little radar dish.

[The Basilisk]

There is no problem with the Crab.
You don't see them much in QP because its just an awfully boring mech. (at least thats the main reason with me)
An other reason is ... when you go into QP its mostly for the money or some event. So you use a mech that can do certain things verrrrrrry good. (ECM SRM Griffin, SSRM Crow, Dakka Hunchback IIC or laser back IIC)
The Crab is a decent medium range laser support mech....its just not OP or does anything fantastic...its just all over OK.

[Anunknownlurker]

Crab is a solid mech, reasonably fast, reasonably tough, reasonably armed....and that's the problem with it I think. I agree with The Basilisk; in QP there are other, better earners in the medium class.

The chassis is pretty XL friendly and I run XLs in most of mine; just wiggle the nose rather than full torso twist.

Having said that, there are some workable builds, 27SL with 5 MPLs, 27B with 3 ERLLs and I play my 27 with 2 LPLs, 3 MLs and 2 AMS just for a laugh.

Overall, I like the Crab as a mech and the 27 is my 2nd most played mech (337 games) with a positive W/L and just under 1.0 KDR (which I do need to work on!)

I am not sure I'd recommend buying them for real money but as a Cbill purchase, it's a solid mech and, given your description of what you want, the 27B may well give you what you want (although I am not sure you can fit 4 ERLLs on any of them?).

[Bronze Knight]

Jimmy DiGriz, on 24 April 2017 - 02:08 AM, said:

I am not sure I'd recommend buying them for real money but as a Cbill purchase, it's a solid mech and, given your description of what you want, the 27B may well give you what you want (although I am not sure you can fit 4 ERLLs on any of them?).

I bought the pack, wanted the Resistance Crab with the Cbill boost and wanted some more camo colors.

You can fit 4 ERLL on the 27B it's just probably a bad idea to do so...

[Tesunie]

Bronze Knight, on 24 April 2017 - 12:05 AM, said:

I was going to buy the Resistance Two: Crab pack but then I got to thinking that I never see them in game, was wondering, why?

Granted it doesn't have ECM, and playing around with it in mech lab looks like it'll be hard to get above 100kph with a decent amount of weapons, so my guess is that's most of the reason I never see them.

Kinda wanted to make a mobile sniper with 4x ER LL... and I like its derptastic looks, with its little radar dish.

The Crab is a very durable mech with good hit boxes, but it can only do one thing, energy weapons. There is no variety and energy only can run really hot.

It's hit boxes are also very friendly to spreading damage, but much like a Stalker, it can be fairly easy to lose a side torso quickly. It can work reasonably well with an XL engine as it can spread damage if you know what you are doing, but it also can be a reasonable mech with a Std engine as well.

I have all the Crabs released in the game so far, and I do love them. I only have three builds though, but quirks lets one build behave differently between two different variants.


As for a quad ERLL build... I think you'd be hard pressed to do it, maybe even too hard pressed. You'd run hot even for a normal energy build...

If you are looking for long range support, my triple ERLL Crab build may be to your liking (you can remove the head ML if desired for another heat sink). Runs cool and ~80 KPH is a reasonably fast speed. Twist a little and sacrifice side torsos to keep yourself alive longer when possible. I have this build on the 27 and the 27B. One has range quirks making it even better at out ranging opponents, and the other has cooling quirks, letting it get into a reasonable mid range brawl instead (while still maintaining range).

The 27SL I created into a PPC jump sniper, but there are obvious other options that could be done if desired. Goes fast with it's XL engine, over 100 KPH, and has JJs to pop up with. A little more fragile, but if you use your JJs to your advantage it can do a lot of work. You can also easily place LPLs on the build without any real difficulty, besides losing some accurate pop and shoot abilities.

The Crab 20 is my "speed Crab". If you like to go fast, this may appease you there. It's on the verge of being at light mech speeds, capping at 120 after speed tweak. LLs provide some reasonable range punch, and the MLs provide some brawling boost damage. Of course, you can always change this to a five ML build, which is more common. Watch out though as it has an XL engine. Make sure you keep your side torsos safe by spreading damage to a better location (such as the other side torso if possible).


There are plenty of other things the Crabs can do, but it's all going to be energy only. Great mechs and I love them when I play IS. Once the new tech comes in, and the LFE comes into the game, the Crab is probably going to see a boost in abilities and survivability. As it is currently in game, you may have to choose between speed or durability.


As a note: All armor values are not exact. Adjust your front and back armor to suit your own preferences. All I did was hit "max armor" in Smurfy for faster mech construction.

[Bronze Knight]

Thank you, everyone! I'm doing surprisingly well with the 27® [had my first 5 kill game with it!] and 27B, not a fan of the 20 but that may be because I'm broke and can't change the build at the moment.

Still, I'll probably sell the 20 and get the 27SL at some point. That Civil War update can't get here soon enough.



(Ya know for a competitive online arena shooter this community is far more friendly than I thought it would be.)

[Tesunie]

Bronze Knight, on 25 April 2017 - 07:13 AM, said:

Thank you, everyone! I'm doing surprisingly well with the 27® [had my first 5 kill game with it!] and 27B, not a fan of the 20 but that may be because I'm broke and can't change the build at the moment.

Still, I'll probably sell the 20 and get the 27SL at some point. That Civil War update can't get here soon enough.



(Ya know for a competitive online arena shooter this community is far more friendly than I thought it would be.)

I would recommend you keep the 27SL. It's the only Crab capable of taking JJs on it, and that can be an advantage. Of course, if you just don't like it, you don't have to keep it at all. And the 20's worthy of being looked at if you want speed, as it's the only Crab that can take such a large engine and go as fast as some lights.

But yeah, I like the 27 and 27B better myself as well. I get the best results with those two.


It's actually rather casual for most of us, though there are still elements and people who are more competitive. Many of us play the game simply because "Battletech", and we really want others to fall in love with the series as much as we already have.

[Karl the Plumber]

The crab is amazing. You can't go wrong with it, and it's a great chassis for learning how to maximize damage spreading.

[Erronius]

I'm actually kind of excited to see how tanky the Crabs will be when going heavy into the Survival skill tree (along with Wolfhounds and Marauders, possibly). Zombie builds might be especially lulzy.

[stealthraccoon]

Almost all mine go out with a STD300, and I rarely notice the lack of JJ's on my fav 27B, and usually forget I have them when I run 27SL. Yeah, it does suffer from green laser syndrome, and gets tedious, but the can get out of some crazy situations (often without an arm or two); still capable of dishing damage with just some head and CT slots.

[Skrapha]

I bought the Resistance 2 Pack, and I have to say I found the mechs....kinda boring. The Mauler is a ton of fun since you can vary the loadout, but the others are all laser boats, which is fun, but the mech lab shenanigans that we all enjoy are rather limited with them. The colors, mech bays, and premium time make the pack more than worth it in my opinion, since alone they add up to over 90 bucks. THe black Knights ® variant looks SO much better than the standard, with its geometry and storm trooper helmet. Wolfhound...I honestly have yet to even basic them, but I enjoy the crabs, though the mounts are very low (a main theme in the mech pack, minus the mauler of course). When you get your unit to bring out all the crabs and form a crab rush it is very fun, as well as a mob of maulers mauling mechs! The crab works best when he goes fast, as a tankish flanker, a side brawler and an atlas's best friend and sidekick. Just remember to wiggle. STD engines are of course the best, but limit the weaponry alot, but they do allow for zomby crabs. If you have gone up against a crab on the battlefield you know how annoyingly hard they are to kill.

[Tesunie]

Skrapha, on 03 May 2017 - 01:37 PM, said:

... I enjoy the crabs, though the mounts are very low ...

I've heard many people say this, but in all the time I've used Crabs (and I've used them a lot), I found their mounts to be rather reasonable. The cockpit is up high on the mech, but the arms are reasonably high (in my opinion). I also think that the the physical cockpit and where you actually play from are in two different spots. The actual cockpit is rather high, but I seem to feel that when I'm playing inside a crab, the visuals are from the radar dish on top. (I tested this once, where it was Crab standing next to Crab. It looked like I was viewing down on the other Crab's cockpit, even though they should be the same height.)

[jss78]

My two favourite builds are this CRB-27B with STD-250, 3xERLL, 1xML, and this CRB-27 with STD-260, 2xLL, 3xML, 2xAMS.

The first is a pure sniper build. Non-optimal because of the low mounts, but it tends to make up for it by being so survivable. Optionally drop the ML and add a DHS.

The second is a mid-range machine geared towards running escort for bigger 'mechs. You have enough range for most engagements, but not excessive. Try to place yourself in a big cluster of friendlies to maximise the usefulness of the twin-AMS. The value of this 'mech depends heavily on the amount of LRM's you see -- I notice OP is in Tier 5, so maybe they are more common there?

I really like STD-engined Crabs. As laser-boat mediums they are kind of boring and really the most pedestrian 'mech you could possibly get. But they are immensely survivable and kind of flexible generalists (especially that CRB-27 linked above) which makes them very relaxing to play in Randoms.

Edited by jss78, 03 May 2017 - 05:28 PM.

[Erronius]

Tesunie, on 03 May 2017 - 05:12 PM, said:

I've heard many people say this, but in all the time I've used Crabs (and I've used them a lot), I found their mounts to be rather reasonable. The cockpit is up high on the mech, but the arms are reasonably high (in my opinion).

I kept having issues with a 3xERLL -27B build, but I also didn't spend a lot of time trying to get used to it. Every so often I try it again, play a few games, and change it back to something else like MLas.

I'm sure that if I spent the time trying to get the feel for it, that I could eliminate the issue with clipping the 2 arm mounted ERLLs on hill crests. I just never stuck with the ERLL builds long enough to get to that point, is my guess.