342 replies to this topic

[DGTLDaemon]

Here's another Skill Tree, this time for a NVA-A dual PPC poptart. It can be adapted to any Clan PPC poptart; however, if you have ECM (read: Shadowcat), you'll have 3 extra points to invest in Firepower.

Let's begin with the screenshots again:





And now the explanation for each tree:

1) Sensors. Here we're taking the shortest path to Radar Deprivation and Advanced Zoom. An ECM mech will pick up Enhanced ECM + Advanced Zoom instead, saving 3 skill points. Radar Deprivation is necessary because you'll be operating at roughly the same range as LRM boats, so you pretty much need to be immune to LRMs. Advanced Zoom is highly useful for any sniper mech, although some people with good eyesight and/or high-resolution monitors can do without it.

2) Operations. Here we're picking up all Cool Run and Heat Containment nodes while avoiding as many non-essential nodes as possible. PPC boats run hot, so we need all heat management that we can get.

3) Mobility. This one is tricky. On the one hand, a PPC sniper needs to move around a lot, changing positions, making sure you don't get rushed by enemy lights or don't get left behind when your team is nascaring. On the other, you don't need as much accel/decel/torso twist because you are not going to be brawling or poking around corners. Therefore, we are taking the shortest path to Speed Tweak to ensure we have good top speed, and don't pick up anything else.

4) Firepower. PPCs don't get any weapon-specific nodes, but they do need Velocity and Heat Generation, so we prioritize those nodes. Range and Cooldown are less useful, because Clan PPCs already have decent range, and your DPS is going to be limited by your heat management rather than your cooldown times.

And that's it. Have fun

P.S. Credit goes to Jay Leon Hart for pointing out even a more optimal path in the Mobility tree

Edited by DGTLDaemon, 18 May 2017 - 01:24 AM.

[Jay Leon Hart]

DGTLDaemon, on 18 May 2017 - 12:36 AM, said:

3) Mobility. This one is tricky. On the one hand, a PPC sniper needs to move around a lot, changing positions, making sure you don't get rushed by enemy lights or don't get left behind when your team is nascaring. On the other, you don't need as much accel/decel/torso twist because you are not going to be brawling or poking around corners. Therefore, we are taking the shortest path to Speed Tweak to ensure we have good top speed, and don't pick up anything else.

If you take the central Torso Pitch node in Mobility, you can save another 4 5 points.
Right path example
[Edit] Altered link, missed a skippable Kinetic Burst node and skipped Speed Tweak earlier [/Edit]

Edited by Jay Leon Hart, 18 May 2017 - 01:10 AM.

[DGTLDaemon]

Jay Leon Hart, on 18 May 2017 - 12:50 AM, said:

If you take the central Torso Pitch node in Mobility, you can save another 4 points.

Excellent, thank you! Original post updated.

Edited by DGTLDaemon, 18 May 2017 - 01:16 AM.

[Bud Crue]

Mcgral18, on 18 May 2017 - 12:11 AM, said:

TL:DR?
Go for Heat Efficiency, and ensure you have a minimum Agility level
My KDK3 did NOT have a minimum agility level, so I outright stripped two other Trees to make that happen.


From that point on, the essentials are complete. You can do as you see fit from there, but there are certain optimal settings for certain trees. IE, survival tree GREATLY benefits from existing IS or Armor quirks

I like your views here for a medium. And I think it applies equally to a fast heavy like some of my brawly Quickdraw variants as well...luckily I can't save their node-outs due to the dup error so I didn't screw them up by dumping everything into mobility as I had planned, and I can instead use this as a guide for a couple of them (if and when they get that error fixed).

One question: I am seeing a lot of different views on Seismic and Derp. Above you are suggesting that Seismic (as a medium brawler) is more important than Derp; in fact you don't even bother with it. It seems to me that in QP (at least before the skills tree) that Derp was far more useful in countering LRMs than Seismic was in detecting enemy movement in most circumstances (Mining and other select maps being the exceptions). Is this due to a change in the game (many are saying derp is now "useless", etc.) or are your experiences just different. As a scrub it is hard for me to let go of the mentality that I have to have Derp else suffer the wrath of the LRMers.

[Bud Crue]

Cato Phoenix, on 17 May 2017 - 08:09 PM, said:

Premise is that speed is life. This is the most slim way to go max speed, with a strong amount of accel/decel/turning on the way. Torso pitch and Yaw are less desirable (but still useful) stepping stones. This favors turning over torso twist as I personally think that's the biggest change from previous to current. Note that Anchor Turn (X1,2) and Torso Twist (Y1,2) are interchangeable and Speed Tweak nodes Z1+2 are freely exchangeable for customization purposes.

I like that use of 21 nodes A LOT. However, do you expect that with the overall slow down and decreased agility of mechs that the "loss" of not having all the torso twist nodes is a big deal...that "slow down" is what allows one to "get away with" skimping on the twist focused nodes? One of the vibes I get from the forums is that mobility is where the average joe ought to be spending their nodes, so on my more fragile ISXL running mechs I had assumed I should max out mobility for at least this purpose, but you and many others are not suggesting this. Just curious if you (or others) could delve more into the rationale here.

[Scyther]

@Bud Crue:
For myself, Radar Dep is the more important. It isn't just about LRMs although that is important. The longer your blip is visible, the more likely someone is to notice you, pre-aim where you are going to come out, move to intercept you, or spoil your stealthy ninja-like 'STOMP STOMP STOMP' approach on some unsuspecting fattie. (Yes, Stomp-Ninjas are a thing)

Seismic I rarely use, because I am in fact almost never standing still when an enemy is that close. Also keep in mind that 'max Seismic' was nerfed from 250m to 200m in the new tree, so it is already 20% less effective than it was. In FP matches when you are trying to detect foes on other side of barriers, or maybe group/comp team matches where people actually use strategy, or if you are playing a standoff sniper/LRMboat and want warning about lights behind you, I can see it being useful. RaDep, otoh, is useful to me in almost every mech, almost every match.

This is all from solo-PUG QP point of view BTW as that is 95% of my matches.

Edited by MadBadger, 18 May 2017 - 03:39 AM.

[DGTLDaemon]

And finally, let's take a look at Clan dakka mechs. This guide was written for the Night Gyr running 4xUAC5 and Marauder IIC running 2xUAC10+4xERML, but it can be used on any mech that either boats UACs or uses them as a primary weapon with something else (usually lasers) as a backup.

The trees:





And now the explanation:

1) Sensors. A pretty standard investment of 16 points to get Radar Deprivation, nothing exciting here. If you're playing an ECM mech, you can save 3 points here, although I'm not aware of any Clan ECM mechs that make good dakka boats.

2) Operations. Another standard investment of 20 points to get all all the Cool Run and Heat Containment nodes while avoiding non-essential nodes. There was a time when UAC5s ran very cool and required little heat management, but it is not the case anymore. UAC10s were always pretty hot. So we need to maximize our heat efficiency if we want to sustain good DPS.

3) Mobility. Here we're picking up everything except for three Torso Pitch nodes in the middle. I'd rather invest all 40 points in the mobility tree, because the latest patch was essentially a global mobility nerf, but we need those 3 points elsewhere. Torso Pitch is the easiest to sacrifice because it is useful only in specific situations (when firing uphill or downhill).

4) Firepower. UACs benefit from four node types:
- UAC jam chance
- Velocity
- Cooldown
- Magazine capacity
We prioritize those, picking up a few range nodes along the way. We really don't need range, because your effective range will be limited by travel time and projectile spread rather than the theoretical maximum range of your weapons, but unfortunately, we have to invest several points in range because of how the skill tree is structured (thank you, PGI, for this wonderful opportunity to deeply customize our mechs!).

And that's a total of 91 skill points. Enjoy

[Bud Crue]

MadBadger, on 18 May 2017 - 03:38 AM, said:

@Bud Crue:
For myself, Radar Dep is the more important. It isn't just about LRMs although that is important. The longer your blip is visible, the more likely someone is to notice you, pre-aim where you are going to come out, move to intercept you, or spoil your stealthy ninja-like 'STOMP STOMP STOMP' approach on some unsuspecting fattie. (Yes, Stomp-Ninjas are a thing)

Seismic I rarely use, because I am in fact almost never standing still when an enemy is that close. Also keep in mind that 'max Seismic' was nerfed from 250m to 200m in the new tree, so it is already 20% less effective than it was. In FP matches when you are trying to detect foes on other side of barriers, or maybe group/comp team matches where people actually use strategy, or if you are playing a standoff sniper/LRMboat and want warning about lights behind you, I can see it being useful. RaDep, otoh, is useful to me in almost every mech, almost every match.

This is all from solo-PUG QP point of view BTW as that is 95% of my matches.

Agreed. I have (had) seismic on a lot of builds and it was always a novelty to notice its effects on the minimap because I so rarely stand still -except when grouping for a push up the center ramps, etc. on maps like Mining-. So a lot of times it is just a waste. But Derp? Yeah, in the past it has certainly been useful for staying out of sight but also in making the rain stop sooner rather than later when I get under cover. Can't quantify the amount of damage it has reduced, but it has reduced damage more often than not for me, and thus why to my terribad habits it "seems" like more of a necessity.

Edited by Bud Crue, 18 May 2017 - 03:45 AM.

[DGTLDaemon]

Bud Crue, on 18 May 2017 - 03:29 AM, said:

It seems to me that in QP (at least before the skills tree) that Derp was far more useful in countering LRMs than Seismic was in detecting enemy movement in most circumstances (Mining and other select maps being the exceptions). Is this due to a change in the game (many are saying derp is now "useless", etc.) or are your experiences just different. As a scrub it is hard for me to let go of the mentality that I have to have Derp else suffer the wrath of the LRMers.

I am with you on this one I've always viewed Radar Derp as an essential means of protection against LRMs, and relied on my own eyes to detect the enemy rather than on the seismic wallhack I am currently running Radar Derp on all my non-ECM mechs (or at least those that I bothered to skill out), and it's definitely as valuable as before.

MadBadger, on 18 May 2017 - 03:38 AM, said:

This is all from solo-PUG QP point of view BTW as that is 95% of my matches.

Yeah, back in the days when I played CW I remember a lot of people saying that Radar Derp was useless in CW, because you're always moving in a deathball anyway, and no one ever brings LRMs to CW. Don't know if it has changed or not

Edited by DGTLDaemon, 18 May 2017 - 03:50 AM.

[Bud Crue]

DGTLDaemon, on 18 May 2017 - 03:46 AM, said:

I am with you on this one I've always viewed Radar Derp as an essential means of protection against LRMs, and relied on my own eyes to detect the enemy rather than on the seismic wallhack I am currently running Radar Derp on all my non-ECM mechs (or at least those that I bothered to skill out), and it's definitely as valuable as before.

Yeah, but if I recall correctly Mcgral plays competitively and I asked the question above mainly to see if that experience is biasing his view? LRMs are such a rarity at that level of play (or so I understand) so is it that he just doesn't consider them a problem (be it due to their rarity and/or his own expertise at dealing with them)?

If that is the case I just want to get that out there because my goal for this little endeavor is to try and focus on node paths that are not only broadly applicable but also of particular use for new players. The changes to derp, ecm, target blah, blah, blah makes it hard to know if derp as changed under the skills tree even helps the presumed noob or not. Then add different perspectives of the relative cost/benefits of everything as viewed from different levels of play and the whole thing get too damn confusing for the likes of me.

[DGTLDaemon]

Bud Crue, on 18 May 2017 - 03:55 AM, said:

Yeah, but if I recall correctly Mcgral plays competitively and I asked the question above mainly to see if that experience is biasing his view? LRMs are such a rarity at that level of play (or so I understand) so is it that he just doesn't consider them a problem (be it due to their rarity and/or his own expertise at dealing with them)?

I'm playing at T1, and I'm seeing a couple of lurm boats in each match. It's not a lurmageddon like it was when the Archer came out, but they can really ruin your day if you don't stay in cover and/or don't have Radar Derp. Maybe in truly competitive play (12v12 teams) LRMs are less of an issue because you can push into lurm boats or send your lights after them, but in pug matches, LRM mechs are a serious threat even at higher tiers.
By the way, things may change a bit with introduction of Laser AMS with the new tech. If it can provide reasonable protection against LRMs without a serios tonnage/space/heat cost, it may make Radar Derp obsolete.

[Darky101]

1.
Laservomit:
Has the best of all worlds.
Two consumable coolshots.
Only misses 1 Heatgen skill. (yes I had to take High explosives and missile spread to save nodes.
Has some mobility.
Has all laser duration skills.
FULL Radarderp and Seismic
[Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/HiQxSZg.jpg)


2.
Assault SRM Brawler:
(or any SRM brawler that also needs mobility)
High priority is Survivability and Mobility.
Mostly the left side of the Survival tree to efectively get all (-1) armor nodes
In the agility tree main things to get are: Twist speed, speed tweek, Kinetic burst and Twist angle(Torso Yaw). Prefer Anchor turn over Pitch beacause you dont charge into a brawl alone so you shouldn't have to look up, you go for the big (white) guys that cant jump.
Radar derp and seismic.
2 spare nodes for ECM or AMS overload. You brawl so potatoes might fly. AMS directly reduces that damage.
Fire power tree: left side for hte Heat gen and missile nodes.
+1 missile reck on an assault levels of amo saves 1 ton ad a heatsink.
+1 consumable, equip Coolshot and UAV(to call in friendly flying potatoes)
[Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/gzo7uqJ.png)
Dont skimp on heat sinks with this one.
If you're hot: [Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/Z0HvSM5.png) You also have more amo so you can replace 1 ton for a heatsink.

3.
Cut the crap! I just wanna play my mech!
a.
Ok!Does it have armor quircks?
Yes!
Hows the mobility?
Good!
Does it have ecm?
No.
Here you go:[Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/dq59Ugq.png)
Radar derp, Seismic, almost max armor, almost max heat. 2 consumables.

b.
Ok!Does it have armor quircks?
No!
Hows the mobility?
Bad!
Does it have ecm?
No.
Here you go: [Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/5DcYOgD.png)
Radar Derp, Seismic, almost max heat. 2 consumables. Keep moving!
Survival tree is only truely worth it if your choice mech already has extra armor quircks.
Your best defense in this case is mobility.

c.
If I have ecm?
Ecm is only 2 more points, remove any two points from one of the above builds. Agility and armor are totaly interchangeable, 21 points each. Survival tree is best when your mech already has some bonus armor quircks.

d.
What if I wanna focus more on firepower.
Ok have a look at this:[Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/pqO897z.png)
Its a basic template, that has consumable options, max heat, Seismic and radarderp.
Now you wanna split the remaining 34 (+13 preselected Heat gen)points between mobility armor and firepower, maybe two extra for ecm.
Preselected Heat gen points are there to show you that you should lean towards the left side, its more node efficient.
For lasers use the laservom build above.

Long range:
Focus is on range Velocity advanced zoom and heat:
Long range Uac: [Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/2Lkxzfe.png)
Long range Ac:[Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/8OnljdA.png)
PPC:[Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/PBl99ic.png)

Gauss/dual gaus rifle:[Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/SuWjYOr.png)
Gaus rifles dont need heat management so we droped Mech ops.
Advanced zoom, cooldown, range, seismic, radar derp.
You have the agility to quicly change sniping positions.
You have armor bonus because once the Gaus rifle is exposed youre in trouble.
+1 consumable slot for uav and air strike. Pop uav if you get seismic readings. You snipe so you should have vision to know where to drop that air strike.
If you try to invest more in firepower you have to take skills that dont benefit fort these builds, Well Heat gen does, but only if you have backup lasers.

Short range:
This is a general short range fighter that gets most worthwile advantages with as little nodes used as possible.
[Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/oNe38l6.png)

Edited by Darky101, 19 May 2017 - 05:57 AM.

[Wattila]

Bud Crue, on 18 May 2017 - 03:37 AM, said:

I like that use of 21 nodes A LOT. However, do you expect that with the overall slow down and decreased agility of mechs that the "loss" of not having all the torso twist nodes is a big deal...that "slow down" is what allows one to "get away with" skimping on the twist focused nodes? One of the vibes I get from the forums is that mobility is where the average joe ought to be spending their nodes, so on my more fragile ISXL running mechs I had assumed I should max out mobility for at least this purpose, but you and many others are not suggesting this. Just curious if you (or others) could delve more into the rationale here.

I believe the rationale for mobility is that you shouldn't strive to edge out the other guy in a trade by being a better punching bag, but should rather trade without taking meaningful return damage (or should at least be able to spread the damage evenly). That requires good positioning and agility. Investing heavily in the survival tree is planning for failure, since you're basically expecting to get hit a lot (plus it's also poor value).

Bud Crue, on 18 May 2017 - 03:55 AM, said:

If that is the case I just want to get that out there because my goal for this little endeavor is to try and focus on node paths that are not only broadly applicable but also of particular use for new players. The changes to derp, ecm, target blah, blah, blah makes it hard to know if derp as changed under the skills tree even helps the presumed noob or not. Then add different perspectives of the relative cost/benefits of everything as viewed from different levels of play and the whole thing get too damn confusing for the likes of me.

Radar Derp and Seismic were used because they were pretty much the only decent modules. Now that you have to make sacrifices for the nodes, their usefulness needs to be re-evaluated. Most of the sensor tree is in fact quality of life stuff you can do without. Seismic is very useful, though. I have a habit of stopping every now and then to check the Seismic. It's especially useful on couple FP maps where there's a ridge separating two teams. Needs to be the 200m version, though, but 100m is fine for corners. It's 6 points for the 100m, and 12 if you want both nodes. I like TIG, so wouldn't feel bad skilling the tree like so. I plan to play without either for a while to get an idea how much they're really needed.

Edited by Wattila, 18 May 2017 - 05:56 AM.

[R Valentine]

Wattila, on 18 May 2017 - 05:42 AM, said:

I believe the rationale for mobility is that you shouldn't strive to edge out the other guy in a trade by being a better punching bag, but should rather trade without taking meaningful return damage (or should at least be able to spread the damage evenly). That requires good positioning and agility. Investing heavily in the survival tree is planning for failure, since you're basically expecting to get hit a lot (plus it's also poor value).

"Trading" is not how you win. I don't trade, and I think it's going to end up as a trade I don't take it. I shoot and then move back before return fire can reach me, and preferably before they even look to see where I'm shooting from. Then my next shot is free as well. Once it might be a trade, I change positions. Mobility is the only way to make trades free.

[DGTLDaemon]

Wattila, on 18 May 2017 - 05:42 AM, said:

I believe the rationale for mobility is that you shouldn't strive to edge out the other guy in a trade by being a better punching bag, but should rather trade without taking meaningful return damage (or should at least be able to spread the damage evenly). That requires good positioning and agility. Investing heavily in the survival tree is planning for failure, since you're basically expecting to get hit a lot (plus it's also poor value).

I think the Survival tree may prove useful in CW when playing in a well-coordinated team that can push into the enemy and overrun them. Pug matches are all about trading, and will probably always be because usually no one is DCing even at higher tiers. The best most pug "teams" can do is try not to stray too far away from the big blue blob on the map. Coordinated pushes are virtually non-existent. In this kind of environment, high mobility gives you a definite advantage. I've been investing heavily in the Mobility tree on most of my mechs (except for PPC poptarts), and I haven't been disappointed so far.

[Wattila]

DGTLDaemon, on 18 May 2017 - 06:11 AM, said:

I think the Survival tree may prove useful in CW when playing in a well-coordinated team that can push into the enemy and overrun them. Pug matches are all about trading, and will probably always be because usually no one is DCing even at higher tiers. The best most pug "teams" can do is try not to stray too far away from the big blue blob on the map. Coordinated pushes are virtually non-existent. In this kind of environment, high mobility gives you a definite advantage. I've been investing heavily in the Mobility tree on most of my mechs (except for PPC poptarts), and I haven't been disappointed so far.

I have specced survival on my FP mechs, namely armor for DRG-1C and structure for GHR-5P and BLR-2C - all with superb armor/struct quirks (because, why use anything else since offensive quirks got nuked). Not sure if it's worth, but might be useful in coordinated pushes where you're expected to share armor. Also tempted to bring a 5MPL STD engine VND-1R with full armor quirks one day, that thing should tank like a boss .

Edited by Wattila, 18 May 2017 - 06:25 AM.

[DGTLDaemon]

And now let us take a look at a Clan ERLL sniper build. This guide was written primarily for three popular Clan laser sniper builds: Arctic Cheetah with 2xERLL, ShadowCat with 3xERLL and Hellbringer with 4xERLL. Since all three of those mechs carry ECM, I am not including a non-ECM version of the build. However, if you want to try it on a non-ECM mech, you'll need to sacrifice 3 points from the Firepower tree and put them into Sensors to unlock Radar Deprivation instead of Enhanced ECM.

The trees:





And the explanation:

1) Sensors. We are putting 15 points here to get Enhanced ECM and Advanced Zoom. The former is required to unlock the full potential of our ECM, and the latter is mandatory because we're running a sniper mech.

2) Operations. Standard investment of 20 points to unlock all heat management nodes, saving 5 points on non-essential nodes in the process.

3) Mobility. As a sniper mech, we need high top speed to reposition quickly, and high acceleration/deceleration to be able to poke efficiently and avoid return fire. However, we don't need the turn rate or torso twist speed as we won't be brawling. Therefore, we're picking up all Speed Tweak, Kinetic Burst and Hand Brake nodes while minimizing our investment in other nodes.

4) Firepower. The four Laser Duration nodes are crucial here, as long burn time has always been the bane of Clan large lasers. We also need to maximize our heat efficiency, because all three builds listed above run pretty hot. Therefore, we're taking the shortest path to the Laser Duration nodes and then use the remaining points to pick up as many adjacent Heat Generation nodes as possible. Range is also useful, because we'll be trading with the PPC crowd. Cooldown is less useful, because our DPS will be limited by heat management rather than cooldown times.

And this should be my final short guide for the Clan mechs. We've now covered laser vomits, dakka, PPC poptarts and laser snipers. Hope this helps someone build their mechs

Edited by DGTLDaemon, 18 May 2017 - 11:16 AM.

[Cato Phoenix]

Bud Crue, on 18 May 2017 - 03:37 AM, said:

I like that use of 21 nodes A LOT. However, do you expect that with the overall slow down and decreased agility of mechs that the "loss" of not having all the torso twist nodes is a big deal...that "slow down" is what allows one to "get away with" skimping on the twist focused nodes? One of the vibes I get from the forums is that mobility is where the average joe ought to be spending their nodes, so on my more fragile ISXL running mechs I had assumed I should max out mobility for at least this purpose, but you and many others are not suggesting this. Just curious if you (or others) could delve more into the rationale here.

I think it needs to be felt out per player - thats why I included the two groupings above (the right sided accel/decel and AT block and the left sided torso speed block gated behind torso yaw) - I think it's probably quite worthwhile and a good substitution for armor or one of the firepower arms. In my build at the bottom (24 nodes) you can see I have: It's also relatively easy to break one of the speed arms up into the previous blocks. To regain a general baseline, it might be best to have 1 anchor turn and 1 torso speed from the interchangeable starred nodes, which gets you closer to the previous skill numbers, but I sort of went for simplicity and symmetry there.

17.5% accel - 2.5% more than prior tree
17.5% decel - 2.5 % more than prior tree
20% turn rate increase - 15% more than prior tree
7% twist speed. (2% more than prior tree).

So on paper the bonuses are better - in game I'm still feeling things out. I do think you can go too mobile, though, because my aiming timing is very heavily keyed to the driving feel of the mechs, and you have to find that happy medium between snap aiming, manuevering, and damage avoidance.

As I move forward, I might move more anchor turn into twist speed, and possibly speed tweak to get back to a certain feel.

[Big Tin Man]

I put this on my Battlemaster with 5 ERLL for FW sniping (i.e. Alpine, Boreal, or Polar). Seems to work quite well. Full effect ERLL vomit to 848m, heavy tanky front armor. No need for mobility or sensors at that range.

Edited by Big Tin Man, 18 May 2017 - 12:26 PM.

[Robaticus56]

I wanted to give my input since so many people seem to be frustrated and confused with this new skill tree. Any change this drastic and extensive is bound to rustle some jimmies, but once you get the hang of the tree its not that bad. I mean if you want a big skill tree take a look the the Path of Exile skill tree lol. Anyway here is my 2 cents on the skill tree.

TLDR
More Armor = MOAR DAMAGE!
Less heat = MOAR DAMAGE!

Baseline Skill Tree
Tree [48 points]:




This is the bare minimum for a baseline tree that I would set on the vast majority of mechs. The driving idea behind my tree is defense. As we all know the best offense is a good defense. Also a good defense amounts to more time on the battlefield and thus more time to do damage too the enemy. The other key idea behind my tree is heat mitigation. The less heat you create the more you get to shoot your teammates' backs, uh I mean the enemy. The more you can shoot the more you have the potential to do damage
I will also say that at least a few points into the Agility Tree are also recommended, but I'll cover that in a bit.


Structure [25 points]:
Reasoning - This is by far the most important tree if you plan on being shot at, which is almost all mechs. Honestly you can't go wrong with this tree. This is a pretty straight forward tree, get the armor and structure nodes. The armor and structure nodes are your friends. Also don't get psyched out by the fact that the structure nodes are twice as much as the armor nodes. There is twice as much armor on a component than structure, i.e. the CT on a Grasshopper has 44 Structure and it has 88 Armor.

Extras - If you want some more armor and structure because you are brawling or on the front lines all the time, I would take the extra armor and structure nodes behind the reinforced casing nodes. Also feel free to take the reinforced casing nodes if you components are getting critted out all the time, this happens ALOT to the SRM-6's on my HBK-4SP. Since my main weapon is being destroyed before my side torso I would take the reinforced casing nodes. If you are running AMS and have 2 spare points invest them into the AMS nodes.


Operations [13 points]:
Reasoning - The main takeaway from this tree is Cool Run and Heat Containment. Cool Run increases your heat dissipation, that is, it increases the effectiveness of your heat sinks. Heat Containment increases your heat capacity, meaning you can rack up even more heat before shutdown. The other nodes are just extra goddies... except for speed retention, I don't like speed retention. By the time speed retention is used, when you get legged, 90% of the time you are destroyed shortly after anyway. You can use those points elsewhere with much greater effect.

Extras - Improved gyros is a decent skill if you are a brawler or on the front lines. Basically if you are going to spend extra points in the Structure Tree you should seriously consider improved gyros. If you have an itchy trigger finger and find yourself staring at a red cockpit (overheating) all the time then quick ignition is for you. Hill climb is meh.


Sensors [9 points]:
Reasoning - You want radar derp, unless you have ECM but thats another story for another day. Radar derp is useful for many situations, not just protecting yourself from the hellstorm of LRMs out there. It is useful for breaking line of sight so the enemy has to lock onto you again to see your weak spots. It comes back to the theme of staying alive. I ignored seismic because I don't think that 1 node is worth it and the cost is really steep to get both nodes. I would how ever definitely consider both seismic nodes for a brawler, if points allow.

Extras - Target info gathering is not the main priority but its unavoidable on the way to radar derp. And it is now even more useful due to the base targeting times being increased. Stay away from target retention, it's really only useful for tracking lights that are running around big mechs but there are much better ways to deal with that than target retention. Also ignore advanced zoom, if you need advanced zoom to see a target you probably are wasting heat and time by shooting at it. Maybe if you are really intent on using it for your ER large sniper, outside of that its definitely not worth the points. Sensor range is pretty meh.


Miscellaneous [1 point]:
Reasoning - If you are going to use consumables at all take the 1 POINT investment to unlock a second slot. However if you are a cheapskate thrifty player like me and don't use consumables because you gotta buy moar mechs, don't take it.


Now for Agility

Agility should be tailored more towards the mech's role, weight and relative speed. For instance on a light mech or a striker (fast and lighter mech like a BJ-1X) you would want speed tweak because speed is your defense and have less of an emphasis in kinetic burst and hard brake.

Now if you have a Heavy or Assault you want NEED kinetic burst and hard break so you don't break your finger on the w key to reach max speed. Speed tweak is a more case more case by case basis now. I would take speed tweak on an Atlas but probably wouldn't take it on a Grasshopper with and XL340 because I could use those points better in the firepower tree. Speed tweak is dependent on your optimal range, A brawler will probably take speed tweak while a longer range mech like a gauss PPC Ebon Jag might not. Essentially, the longer your range the less you need speed tweak.

If you are going to be brawling torso speed is a must, you gotta get those shield arms out there and quick.

Pickup torso pitch (up and down) nodes if the bulk of your weapons are torso mounted. It comes in very handy when you encounter the more vertical terrain.


Here is an example of an Agility Tree for a light mech or striker:


Here is an example of an Agility Tree for a laser vomit mech:


Firepower
Put your remaining points into Firepower or wherever you see fit. A few tips for firepower though, prioritize heat gen over cooldown every time unless it's a gauss build or a Spider 5K. Basically if you can overheat reasonably quick get heat gen. Range can also be quite useful. Shooting farther means you don't have to be as close to do max damage and can help you out in alot of situations, especially with SRMs.

Edited by Robaticus56, 18 May 2017 - 04:55 PM.