25 replies to this topic

[DavidStarr]

I know it's probably too early to ask since the update just arrived and people are only starting to explore the possibilities. Still, I want to get this thread out here.

So, did you guys find any mechs/builds that became much more viable than they previously were? Any meh mechs that became average? Any average ones that became great?

[ShooterMcGavin80]

My Spider 5K is ...pretty weaksauce now.

I used to be able to work pretty hard and get a good game in. Now it is garbage.

I can only assume that a couple of my other favorite mechs that had good chassis quirks (BJ-1, RFL-3N) are also kinda weaksauce now.

My Stormcrow feels very different but seems to be about the same level of effectiveness. The extra tankiness of heavies and assaults means mechs are going down a bit slower. My ammo doesn't seem to last as long or get the job done.

[Javin]

Right now the Arctic Cheetah, Ebon Jaguar, and Hellbringer are very very good.

Right now IS mechs got a serious nerf hammer on range, maneuverability, agility, heat, duration, and cooldown while the majority of clan mechs got seriously buffed in the same areas.

[VirtualSmitty]

For the IS, with the right trees, i've found improvements to the Rifleman, Orions, Cataphracts, Atlas, and King Crab.

[Yumoshiri]

my panther lost a little damage output (5-10%), but it gained a lot in survivability. im not sure if i like the trade off.

[DavidStarr]

Precentor Martial Donald J Trump, on 17 May 2017 - 06:17 AM, said:

King Crab.

How do you skill your KGC(s)?

[VirtualSmitty]

DavidStarr, on 17 May 2017 - 06:54 AM, said:

How do you skill your KGC(s)?

Durability and mobility.

[DavidStarr]

Precentor Martial Donald J Trump, on 17 May 2017 - 08:19 AM, said:

Durability and mobility.

Mobility and King Crab... do mix now?

[VirtualSmitty]

DavidStarr, on 17 May 2017 - 08:51 AM, said:

Mobility and King Crab... do mix now?

Yea i'm liking it. Firepower buffs aren't as noticeable to me since it never really had much in the way of ballistic buffs to begin with.

[William Mountbank]

Urbie with a STD60 is a proper turret now.

But I feel like the Huggin is totally trash now, even with lots of Firepower skills.

[Heckbird]

The survival tree is really good for my wolfhounds. I've got armor and structure buffs that give my wolfhounds the armor of a 55 toner.

[ShooterMcGavin80]

For what it is worth here is my experience so far:

MANDATORY:

Armor/Structure tree:
33 points. Skip the AMS overload nodes but otherwise max out. Every mech will probably want this.

Agility tree:
21 points. Take the shortest amount of path to get all the speed tweaks. Focus on anchor turns, hard brakes/kinetic bursts to get there. I think probably every mech will want to do this with the exception only of a super duper slow piece of crap. Even then though, the little bit of extra speed improves your survivability by easier positioning.

Jump Jets:
0 points. Probably get zero if you even have jump jets, but that could be debatable.

Mech Operations:
20 points. You definitely nearly max this one out, only skipping a few speed retention and quick ignition nodes. The only mech that might not want to max this out is a super cool running all guass build. Otherwise I think every mech wants this.

That takes 74 points, leaving you with 17 to spend. I went with:

17 'flex' points:

Miscellaneous/Auxiliary:
6 points. Go left one, then right down the middle and finish at 'Consumable slot 4'. This gives you 3 consumable spaces and excellent cool shot abilities. I go double cool shot and 1 UAV. If you are not a build with heat management issues then you can either spend these points on the sensor or weapon tree.

Sensor Systems:
I only spent one point here to get the first Target info Gathering node and I'm not sure I really should have even bothered with that. I think spending too deeply on this whole tree might be a waste. Radar Deprivation and ECM aren't what they used to be. If you are an ERLL/Gauss/ERPPC sniper you may need to make the minimal investment of 4 points to get the advanced zoom. If you are a LRM boat then you may want to go for the target decay nodes with your last flex points. Otherwise I think there is better combat value in speed, armor, and extra consumables.

And lastly, Weapons!:
I filled this out last with my remaining 10 'flex' points. I really think spending too deeply on this weapon tree is not as effective for you as the armor, speed, and heat management trees. My 10 points got me to 'Cooldown 6' and 'Heat Gen 4'. If you want to go deeper on the weapon tree, I'd sacrifice sensor tree slots and auxiliary slots before giving up any armor/speed/heat tree points.

In a Stormcrow set up for close brawling with ERSL and SRM6A, this set up seems to have worked out very well for me, and I think it will work for almost any mech that doesn't need advanced zoom.

I'll say in closing though; having to click through 91 hexagons and fret about 'am I making the right choices' is a garbage, garbage add-on to the game. The mech lab is where we should be customizing our mechs. A fully pathed out mech versus a stock mech is no contest, and there is no reason a skilled veteran player should have such a ridiculous edge over a newb in a stock mech. The time threshold for new players to learn and work all this out is not something most people can manage if they only have a couple hours of playing time a week.

EDIT -

Lastly, thinking about it some more, the IS mechs generally had their weapon quirks nerfed. However, the weapon tree is the most 'point dense' in order to re-acheive those weapon quirks. So an IS mech will be passing on speed, heat gen, and armor in order to re-achieve what they once were offensively.

This is bad. I've only played my Spider, Blackjack, and Rifleman, and boy howdy are they not what they used to be. The Stormcrow build I run though is still quite solid.

Edited by ShooterMcGavin80, 18 May 2017 - 03:38 PM.

[Karl the Plumber]

I'm running a mini case study on my Awesome 9M right now. It was the fourth mech I bought, and I had a lot of (bad) configurations on it over the months. Before I got a ton of CBills and could spec out anything I wanted, I had settled into this layout: maxed armor in everything but the left arm and head, 320XL engine, 3LPL (one in each torso) and an ERPPC in the right arm. The rest of the tonnage is in heat sinks. It played as a fairly reasonable, moderately quick, fairly nimble assault brawler.

After the skill tree came out, I maxed the Survival tree minus the AMS, maxed the Mobility tree minus the Speed Tweak, put a ton of points into the Operations tree in Cool Run and Heat containment, and put the remainder of the points in Weapon range. I played a handful of matches, and I'm convinced that the skill tree has improved the damage output, the mobility, and the survivability of my Awesome. The range boost means that I might do a little less DPS, but I can shoot earlier and at more targets, and the Ops tree picks up the slack that the old heat containment and cool run did before. The mobility tree seems to be, at this point, a much more effective method of enhancing my brawlers compared to the old max-engine-and-go method.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the skill trees. I think that with a little acclimation, I can use them to make my snipers snipier, my brawlers brawlier, and my skirmishers almost relevant.

[DavidStarr]

ShooterMcGavin80, on 18 May 2017 - 02:09 PM, said:

I filled this out last with my remaining 10 'flex' points. I really think spending too deeply on this weapon tree is not as effective for you as the armor, speed, and heat management trees.

Is it your judgement, then, that Cool Run + Heat Containment beats Heat Generation in the weapon tree? I'm too lazy to do the math (and I'm not sure I understand the rules to correctly apply those percentages anyway).

My instinct was to max out armor and max or almost max operations, but skip mobility altogether to save points for weaponry.

[Trenchbird]

Apparently the Victor, of all things. The new SRM mountings makes it a decent jump brawler, and the skill tree pumping on extra armor and whatnot make it a viable choice again.

[littlebulb1]

I know many mechs are suffering and many clan mechs are buffed a bit much. I'd like to address that the Summoner is one that lost a lot of its fun meter due to the skill tree. Even going full mobility tree doesn't make it feel unique anymore. They removed it's 5% extra speed and does not turn as well, making it feel very unsatisfying to play the mech. This is due to the Summoners horrendous weapon distribution areas, sure it's one of the mechs that uses all 3 weapon types in a unique way, but this makes the mech very weak at putting out damage, so the only thing that made it good before was the insane amount of quirks it had. Buff the summoner! It's dying! And its such an iconic mech to me.

[TimeBomb572]

My Cannon/SRM Centurions (AH and A[C]) seem to function better after skilling them than I remember before the skill tree. The CN9-AL however, which was one of my best performers, is now slightly worse for me than the other two. I'm not great at heat management and I'm not done changing the skill tree around for that one specifically, but a CN9 with structure, firepower, and mobility now seems to be on par with the other mediums and even the 60-65 ton heavies IMO. I also run standards in them due to shielding hard with the left side. Running an XL and using the shield arm approach is certain death for me.

But this is coming from a tier 5 player, so that could be it. Maybe they just got more noob friendly.

[Luminis]

I don't have enough seat time in it yet, but I bought a Dragon DRG-1C and it feels surprisingly strong.

This is what I run mine like:
DRG-1C

Not yet sure about the build. The XL is a considerable liability, but the notoriously horrible Dragon has a few things going for it at present, I think:

• it's agile. The agility profile feels more like a medium than a heavy.
  
• It's fast. The 325 engine gives it a good 91 kph with a few Speed Tweaks.
  
• it's durable. Probably the main selling point, it has a lot of Armour and Structure from quirks and the Survival Tree stacks nicely with that.
  
• It retained it energy range and cooldown quirks which really, really helps with the 3LPL damage output.

More testing is needed, but I'm pleasantly surprised.

[Kaldrenborn]

As far as major improvements, the Commando and Highlander really stand out to me.
This build is brawly as hell! HGN-733C

My new favoite Commando. No ECM, but I like this one a lot.

[Steel Raven]

I was getting my as kicked in my Sparky once I got to Tier 2, it was real depressing but it's a killer machine once again post Skill Tree. I'm still struggling with my 2 go two heavies but they where my guinea pigs for the skill tree.

LRMs are more annoying now that Radar Derp and ECM requires decent investment.