5 replies to this topic

[Kaptain]

Is anyone else avoiding this huge tree all-together? It has by far the most nodes and the bonus from each is very low. I've found myself avoiding it altogether.

If I want my mech to run cooler (- heat gen) I go operations.
If I want more range I either get closer (using mobility) or change weapons.
If I want more firepower I add weapons or upgrade them.

Maybe its a good tree for lights/meds?
Anyone having luck with it?

[Greyboots]

Yeah, it's a convoluted pain in the butt but I use it on all my mechs to greater or lesser extents. It's not so bad once you figure out the paths.

[Generic Internetter]

The FW meta is going to be:

• Laser Range
  
• Laser Cooldown
  
• Weapon Heat Reduction (whatever it's called)
  
• Armour
  
• Structure

So are you really keeping up with the meta by investing into the other trees?
I'm not disagreeing with you, it just seems kind of incomplete to be discussing the skill tree without keeping the typical FW meta play in focus.

[Hastur Azargo]

I play QP, so can't comment on FW, but yeah, I also avoid weapons tree unless I'm running a fast ECM mech with ranged weapons for sniping.

• Heat gen is okay, but it's spread too far and wide,
  
• So is cooldown,
  
• Range is not very useful with its current return for investment,
  
• Missile crit damage quirks are strange, considering we now have anti-crit skills in survival tree,
  
• LBX and missile spread reduction seems too low
  
• UAC jam chance might not be bad for those UAC boats, but that's still just a random benefit, and they're too far down the tree.
  
• 15% laser duration reductions seems like the only clear winner, but again, it requires considerable point investment.

All in all I prefer to go Survival/Mobility/Operations, and I'm finding it to be more fun than weapon-tree builds. YMMV of course. In fact, I find survival tree to be the best addition with this patch, as it achieved what PGI couldn't reliably achieve with all the weapons balance passes - increased TTK. You now pay far less for getting hit with potshots, and focus fire is more important than ever, so I love it.

[Exard3k]

Weapons tree is great. If it's to expensive for you, your choice. I made mine

Edited by Exard3k, 23 May 2017 - 10:02 AM.

[Trev Firestorm]

Like heat gen, range, Ammo nodes. The other missile nodes I've picked up on a few mechs but I'm not sure about the effect, UAC jam chance would be better served as Jam Time Reduction nodes, laser duration has nice numbers but translate to not much real effect in practice for most of the lasers. Not sure about LBX nodes or gauss charge. It is a hell of an investment to get most of these things.
Survival tree feels too weak unless the mech is already quirked anyway, still take it on a lot of mechs but it feels a little wasteful.
Mobility, some mechs need the help, others feel decent enough without it that I'd rather stack firepower/survival.
Operations, depends largely on the mech, cool mechs can ignore this tree safely.
Sensors, I prefer to take 12(?) points on most mechs for minimal seismic/60%dep but unless the mech has some LRMs, ECM, or is some sort of scout this tree is low priority.