9 replies to this topic

[Marquis De Lafayette]

After taking a week off of MWO, I have spent 8+ hours over the past 2 days skilling up and play-testing ONLY the mechs I regularly play in my FW decks...and I have probably several more hours to go to finish this out. Whatever one thinks of the merits of skill-tree I think this new process is generally regarded as a soul-crushing, time-suck.

However, I am a Clan loyalist currently, so I am not even having to touch my IS decks and won't till Civil War probably. So, I have 1/2 the work to do (and I suppose 1/2 the frustration) that you Mercs do.

My question is if skill-tree is effecting any Merc units decisions on flipping factions (IS, Clan)?

I would think folks might be tempted to stay with one side for longer (while they get that sides mechs fully skilled out), before switching and doing it all again.

[Mycroft000]

My unit has unofficially decided that we're going to keep Clan contracts until the time jump.

I for one don't necessarily hold the skill tree responsible for that, but it is a factor. However I've been working on learning to play quite a few of my mechs "unskilled" so that once I start giving them their benefits, I can actually get a feel for what is valuable and what isn't.

[Leone]

My unit's pretty much always been clan. I've been talking about switching to IS in hopes of faster queue times, but it has nothing to do with the tree, merely preference.

Really, once you've found a few skill branches you like, it's fairly simple to just skill up, drop in CW, and figure if you wanna tweak the build for that mech. Maybe drop some mobility to go further inna firepower for a certain mech or what have you.

~Leone.

[DarklightCA]

I don't know what the fuss is about. It only takes me a few minutes to skill a mech, sometimes even less than that. I already know how I want to skill a mech depending on what I use it for. Most mechs can skill the same besides for the firepower tree, others require some extra help in other areas but for the most part the useful skills are pretty straight forward.

[ccrider]

We are staying IS four awhile as the queue times are super fast. Though I really want to run my linebackers.

[justcallme A S H]

Marquis De Lafayette, on 23 May 2017 - 11:16 AM, said:

My question is if skill-tree is effecting any Merc units decisions on flipping factions (IS, Clan)?

Absolutely it is.

Clan is the place to be right now. Why?

1. Epic buff to Clan range for ballistic/energy vs the over IS nerf to range (on most mechs).

2. New tech coming in the next patch means the IS META *might* change. Why go IS right and basically have to totally reassess come patch time.


This is why 54MR is Clan currently. New tech will drop, also some "laser balance" pass - god knows what that will un-balance. So yeah, right now that is what most units would be thinking IMO.

That said wait times are through the roof as the population is all time low, not due to one side or other having higher population (IS also has wait times). Tukk and Skill Tree have seen to that. I haven't played in nearly a week and probably won't really till July because of the unbalanced rubbish we will no doubt get dumped on us in 3 weeks time.

Edited by justcallme A S H, 24 May 2017 - 07:04 AM.

[Marius Evander]

I had 8 mechs skilled up and ready for 2 dropdecks the 1st day, had 16 ready by the 3rd day it really wasnt that difficult or time consuming, i enjoyed have a fun new thing to do for a few hours.

[Marquis De Lafayette]

justcallme A S H, on 24 May 2017 - 07:02 AM, said:

Absolutely it is.

Clan is the place to be right now. Why?

1. Epic buff to Clan range for ballistic/energy vs the over IS nerf to range (on most mechs).

2. New tech coming in the next patch means the IS META *might* change. Why go IS right and basically have to totally reassess come patch time.


This is why 54MR is Clan currently. New tech will drop, also some "laser balance" pass - god knows what that will un-balance. So yeah, right now that is what most units would be thinking IMO.

That said wait times are through the roof as the population is all time low, not due to one side or other having higher population (IS also has wait times). Tukk and Skill Tree have seen to that. I haven't played in nearly a week and probably won't really till July because of the unbalanced rubbish we will no doubt get dumped on us in 3 weeks time.

I can absolutely see why there would be hesitancy to go IS for the reasons you listed. I have described PGI doing skill-tree, engine de-coupling and new tech all in such short order as PGI's way of rolling a proverbial grenade into the "Balance room", closing the door and seeing what happens.

I personally bought 5 IS Mechs on sale this week, just for fun...but won't touch them till the new tech drops and I can see what skills might make the best sense in light of new tech.

Edited by Marquis De Lafayette, 24 May 2017 - 07:38 AM.

[Marquis De Lafayette]

Cadoazreal, on 24 May 2017 - 07:25 AM, said:

I had 8 mechs skilled up and ready for 2 dropdecks the 1st day, had 16 ready by the 3rd day it really wasnt that difficult or time consuming, i enjoyed have a fun new thing to do for a few hours.

Yeah...we were back in FW last night. Some of our guys (me included) took a week off post-tuk, then took a couple of days to get their head around Skill Tree and how mechs are playing now, then we went back to FW last night....with enough skilled and tested mechs to do some basic decks. So, my timetable was actually about the same as yours....it has gotten much easier with time to skill mechs quicker, as one knows more now how those skills are actually playing (and are valuable or not)...so, less testing now is involved for me personally anyway.

Edited by Marquis De Lafayette, 24 May 2017 - 08:00 AM.

[C E Dwyer]

I've stopped grouping up with my unit, because I'm finding the whole process very tedious, I don't think it will be a factor in what they chose as we have people that are big for both IS and clan so they play switch a roo