43 replies to this topic

[Paqu]

DeloresAbernathy, on 14 May 2017 - 09:54 AM, said:

Wow nice video Komiving. Very intense. I've never seen a flames in action before ... I'm going to give that a try.

And Paque I will try the AC20 on the 3N as well as the AC10/5 build with lasers that Koniving recommended, but my concern is Ghost Heat. I don't think I'll be able to time the shots right when things are happening, and having only one shot to fire at a time seems to me a little limiting, even if it's a big one. Maybe AC20 and AC10.

Thanks again to all for the help!

Dont sweat about the timing. It quickly comes naturally as you start going left click, right click, twist, left, right, twist etc. The half second pause is so short it almost feels like you are not really just firing one shot at a time but two. Even if you slip and fire too fast it "only" generates ~40% heat so its not too bad.

Not to mention how fun it is to see people starting to freak out when big shots just keep on coming nonstop.

Problem with mixing AC10 and AC20 is that you will have different reload speed and velocity so it becomes tricky to land both shots on moving targets.

[Ade the Rare]

For some reason everyone seems to have forgotten the UltraAC5

This is a nice, simple build, with two firing groups. The UltraAC5 rounds really shake a target, making accurate return fire difficult, the range is decent (enough to suppress snipers within 1200m) and it's rapid fire rate and projectile speed means it's still decent at shooting up any harassing lights around you *and you have 4xSL*.

It's also forgiving! You miss with an AC20 round, then it's cooldown time. Miss with an UltraAC5? Fire it again!

Don't rush into *T1 meta-builds*; have some fun!

[Koniving]

This is very true. I personally don't dive into UAC/5s too much, but I know once the UAC/2s come in I'll be all over them.

I forgot, were Light AC/2 and Light AC/5 on the list or no?

I'd be more than happy to trade my one shot AC/5s for some burst fire Light AC/5s (as they couldn't possibly do them as one shot without them obsoleting the standard AC/5).

(Yes I'll be all over the RAC/5s but I doubt I'll be able to manage them on a Rifleman; save my Dragon for that honor.)

[Koniving]

DeloresAbernathy, on 14 May 2017 - 09:54 AM, said:

Wow nice video Komiving. Very intense. I've never seen a flames in action before ... I'm going to give that a try.

And Paque I will try the AC20 on the 3N as well as the AC10/5 build with lasers that Koniving recommended, but my concern is Ghost Heat. I don't think I'll be able to time the shots right when things are happening, and having only one shot to fire at a time seems to me a little limiting, even if it's a big one. Maybe AC20 and AC10.

Thanks again to all for the help!

Flamers look (and act) very differently now. Back then due to a number of issues, they were made to do some damage and no actual heat on enemies and I used them as blinders. (I also used an exploit that they've fixed, I was actually using 4 flamers and each pair would alternate to not trigger excess heat... now that trick doesn't work).

Good news is they do some serious heating of the enemy and a single flamer is pretty effective. They also don't blind you the user anymore.
Bad news is they look like crappy torches now, don't blind anyone, and after 4 seconds with a timer equally long for cooling off that it doesn't show you) will do astronomical amounts of heat (which this time shortens for each flamer used).

Far as ghost heat, if you use one AC/20 instead of two, you should be fine. No ghost heat there.

Here's an idea of what an unquirked AC/20 can do, so imagine what a velocity, cooldown quirked AC/20 can do in a Rifleman's uh, arms? They don't exactly have hands.

Edited by Koniving, 14 May 2017 - 02:27 PM.

[Rogue Jedi]

Koniving, on 14 May 2017 - 01:55 PM, said:

I forgot, were Light AC/2 and Light AC/5 on the list or no?

Unfortunately not.

[SilentFenris]

Koniving, on 14 May 2017 - 01:55 PM, said:

I forgot, were Light AC/2 and Light AC/5 on the list or no?

Rogue Jedi, on 15 May 2017 - 02:18 AM, said:

Unfortunately not.

Also, no specialized ammuntions for legacy autocannons; or PPC Capacitors either.

[Serpentine Shel Serpentine]

The Rifkemen LK build that Koniving suggested is working much better than my old build and I think the new skill tree helps a lot when the mech is fully specced out in structure/armor and ballistics (combined with the remaining quirks). So thanks a lot for all the help!

[Koniving]

DeloresAbernathy, on 17 May 2017 - 05:02 AM, said:

The Rifkemen LK build that Koniving suggested is working much better than my old build and I think the new skill tree helps a lot when the mech is fully specced out in structure/armor and ballistics (combined with the remaining quirks). So thanks a lot for all the help!

You're welcome. What about the 3N?

[Serpentine Shel Serpentine]

I had less luck with the new 3N build so stuck to the LK for now, once I can skill up the 3N I'll give it a try. I think it needs a lot of structure nodes and ballistics nodes to raise the offensive quirks back to where they were. When I get to that I'll report back.

[Koniving]

My LK hasn't been happy after the changes.

[Serpentine Shel Serpentine]

Koniving, on 19 May 2017 - 09:54 AM, said:

My LK hasn't been happy after the changes.

How so Koniving? For the LK I focused on survivability "skills" and then firepower. That seemed to help a lot with the LK staying alive so for me it went from a death trap to a good performing mech (for me that just means on average more kills than deaths). The 3N variant not so much, perhaps because it has fewer skill nodes. The 3N still dies a lot, so far.

Edited by DeloresAbernathy, 20 May 2017 - 07:02 AM.

[Koniving]

I took 56 out of firepower, 24 out of survival, 2 out of mobility, and 7 out of operations.

Surviving is not one of its strong suits anymore.

[PaquIS]

DeloresAbernathy, on 20 May 2017 - 02:44 AM, said:

The 3N variant not so much, perhaps because it has fewer skill nodes. The 3N still dies a lot, so far.

At first I went for the survival tree for the 3N, but since it doesn't have any structure quirks to begin with it just felt like it wasn't all that much more tankier. On top of that the nerfs for its offensive quirks hurt my favourite dual AC20 build quite a lot since I didn't have enough points left to be used to really go heavy on the firepower tree.

So what was my solution? I decided to make it the glass cannon it always was and dropped all nodes from survival tree and invested heavily on the offensive part. Velocity is about 10% slower than it used to be despite having all velocity nodes, but the cooldown is about the same (well little slower), but on the plus side I got extra ammo and little bit better maximum effective range.

You really need to play it as a second line fire support and if possible try to peek over hills to expose as little as possible. If Iam on resting heat I usually just go straight for alpha strike once. Often I alpha twice if I know I wont be able to get any more shots off on anyone. Doing that has actually scored me two instagibbed fresh clan assaults so far (Kodiak and Marauder IIC) when those shots landed on the head. Not to mention how devastating alpha is against the lights, especially the Locust.

Here is my build if you are interested:
https://www.dropbox....0611_1.jpg?dl=0


And this is how the skill tree looks like:

Firepower:
https://www.dropbox....0435_1.jpg?dl=0

Mobility:
https://www.dropbox....0445_1.jpg?dl=0

Sensors:
https://www.dropbox....0450_1.jpg?dl=0

The one last remaining point is on auxiliary so I can have two consumables.

[Koniving]

I went with another super light heavy, the 60 ton Dragon. Specifically my 5N.
It honestly felt like 91 hexes isn't enough... I really to debate on what to get. Some mobility, some survival, a lot of firepower...




There's the results of my first try with it. It feels...very different. I think I took up too much in the torso mobility.

[Rogue Jedi]

Koniving, on 20 May 2017 - 11:14 AM, said:

I went with another super light heavy, the 60 ton Dragon. Specifically my 5N.
It honestly felt like 91 hexes isn't enough... I really to debate on what to get.

I think that is the idea, it forces you to make potentialy tough decisions, if it was a no brainer what would be the point

below is off topic hence the spoiler, but my methodoligy after skilling about 15 Mechs

Spoiler

the way I have been doing it is basicly concentrating on the defining trait of the Mech,for example

2 of my favorete Mechs are the SDR-5V with 11 JJs and VPR-M of course the defining trait of both is that they jump better than pretty much anything else so I maxed out Jumpjets for both (and was plesently suprised that with max JJ skills the Spider jumps noticably higher than the unskilled Viper),
Then for the 5V which is realy not about firepower I maxed out cooldown and laser duration from firepower, got all the UAV skills, the 3rd consumable slot (for 2 UAVs and an arty) and capture accelerator, as the 5V is faster than everything except the Locust and 1 varient of the Commando I maxed out speed tweak and took most of the sensors tree, including more than half the "old module" skills.

the VPR-M is far more heavily armed than the SDR-5V so I took more of firepower for more MG ammo ^{(the build is 6 ERSL and 4 MGs)} allowing me to drop some ammo for a much needed extra heat sink, ignored the weapon cooldown skills as far as possible as the 6 ERSL are rather warm I took the cool run and heat containment skills ^{(pointless on the 5V as it does not need much cooling for just 2 MPL)} and again as it is a reasionably fast Mech I took speed tweak, the UAV skills and as much of sensors as I had points left for

however to complete the assualt section of the persional challange I decided to take out an AS7-S(L) set up as a pure brawler, with an AC20, 4 SRM4 and 4 MPL, for that guy I decided, after trying on testing grounds, it needed better torso twist so I got most of twist speed from mobility, then took most of firepower some of suvivability, coolrun and heat containment, using my last few skill points for as much target info as I could afford

[B0oN]

Ahhhh, the beauty of skilltree at work

Decisions, decisions ...

Good luck, lady and gents .

[Koniving]

I was really displeased with the number of hard brakes I was forced to take.

Hard brake, for those whom didn't own the Pretty Baby when it first came out is a trait that decelerates you. As it happens this 'trait' compounds the negative effects of climbing hills as for some reason that faster deceleration applies during hill climbing. The Pretty Baby was a hero mech that had the punishment of having terrible brakes; something that actually proved to be a rewarding merit as it almost literally allowed you to climb any slope with that negative deceleration 'quirk'.

So to be forced to take it to be able to get to any other mobility quirks...sucks.

[Serpentine Shel Serpentine]

Dual AC20 is interesting and I would not have done for fear of Ghost Heat. According to smuprhys, to fire two AC20s its 30 heat. I suppose it's workable, since that's all you have and if you add in the heat reduction quirks and assuming one can survive the cool down to the next shot.

[Rogue Jedi]

DeloresAbernathy, on 20 May 2017 - 01:17 PM, said:

Dual AC20 is interesting and I would not have done for fear of Ghost Heat. According to smuprhys, to fire two AC20s its 30 heat. I suppose it's workable, since that's all you have and if you add in the heat reduction quirks and assuming one can survive the cool down to the next shot.

a simple solution to the heat issues is to have 2 fire groups assigned to them, chain fire and alpha, or left and right, fire the both together when you think you need it, otherwise fire them a half second apart for 12 heat over half a second rather than an instant 30 heat

[PaquIS]

DeloresAbernathy, on 20 May 2017 - 01:17 PM, said:

Dual AC20 is interesting and I would not have done for fear of Ghost Heat. According to smuprhys, to fire two AC20s its 30 heat. I suppose it's workable, since that's all you have and if you add in the heat reduction quirks and assuming one can survive the cool down to the next shot.

You can fire two alphas + two single shots without overheating. 30 heat = the same heat you get for firing two ER PPC's.

I have three weapon groups. Left mouse for left arm, right mouse for right arm and third mouse button for chain fire which is usefull on situations where I know I can keep shooting for a longer time and want to get maximum dps without the fear of hitting ghost heat.