39 replies to this topic

[cazidin]

Greetings MechWarriors. Today I have a few simple questions. With the various agility nerfs and the new skill tree, are Heavies still #1? I see more of them, on the IS side anyway, happily moving at 64-70 KPH as opposed to the high 70's-low 80's to match their Clan counterparts but how are Mediums now?

I'm looking to purchase a 50-80 ton mech to add to my stables but what would be a good addition? I've already tried Hunchbacks, and didn't much care for them. I excel in both a Nova and Stormcrow but I've never played a Summoner, due to their weird shape. How are Thunderbolts? Warhammers? What are some good mechs and of those mechs which is a good variant for either laser vomit, PPCs or Dakka?

[Scyther]

Thunderbolts and Warhammers are both good, although in the past they were mostly made so by their quirk selection. (WarHammer in particular has low arm mounts which can be bothersome, but nice torso mounts). Grasshoppers a good heavy for high mount laser vomit, also Marauders can provide both dakka and laser in decent mounts.

[Skanderborg]

Ebon Jaguar is very useable. Excellent high mounts and can run any build well. The whole downside is poor hit boxes making it fragile compared to its peers.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Warhammers got de-quirked pretty well, but are still viable due to their excellent torso hardpoints. The 6R is brilliant for dual autocannon, gauss, or PPCs. The 6D is great for a 3 LPL build.

For a triple large laser plus SRM configuration, check out the Thunderbolt 5S. Its quirked and tanky.

[Tier5 Kerensky]

At least with Clan tech, several heavies are good, but assults are best.

Marauder IIC and Supernova to put names to them. Maybe Kodiak too but I play Dire Wolf better than Kodiak and Dire is meh at best.

[Wattila]

The $$$ Thunderbolt variant is good because it has the best base agility, structure quirks, and hardpoints. The c-bill variants are just ok, with 5SS probably being slightly better than the rest. The Dragon 1C does everything better at 60tons, so wouldn't bother with thuds.

Warhammer 6R is still good, been getting 1k QP games with both the UAC5/PPC and Gauss/ML builds. I like the GHR-5P over the WHM-6D now because of the superior hardpoints and structure quirks (JJ is also nice). The 6D can still kind of do the XL280 5xLPL insanity build better because all the torso hardpoints are high, but that's about it.

Anyway, any IS mech without heavy structure or armor quirks is currently a trashcan, so that should limit the selection considerably.

[El Bandito]

50-80 tons? EBJ, Hellbringer, Orion-IIC, NGyr, Warhammer-6D, Top Dog, HBK-IIC-A.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Wattila, on 25 May 2017 - 12:29 PM, said:

The Dragon 1C does everything better at 60tons, so wouldn't bother with thuds.

You can do a pretty credible Dragon 1C with 3 LL and an LBX10, but you need XL to pull it off. Otherwise with a STD you're looking at 3LL, SRM6, and one MG (or two on the Fang hero). A Thunderbolt 5S can hit 3 LL plus 2 SRM6.

Things will get juicier once the Light Fusion Engines drop.

[Athom83]

You may enjoy the Enforcer. Bushwacker and Griffin are both ones I enjoy for SRM splat. The Wolverine with arm heavy hardpoints may be the closes thing to the Stormcrows and Novas that the IS has in that range. The Marauder and Orion are IS 75 ton heavies that I both recommend. For Laser or PPCs I'd recommend the Grasshopper and Black Knight. If you want to go all the way to the 80 ton, you'd want the Zeus over the Victor. The 9S for las-vomit, the 6T for PPCs + missiles. The 9S2 is a good all rounder for having 2 AC/5 or 2 AC/2 along with medium lasers and the SRM fist.

[Y E O N N E]

ScrapIron Prime, on 25 May 2017 - 12:39 PM, said:

You can do a pretty credible Dragon 1C with 3 LL and an LBX10, but you need XL to pull it off. Otherwise with a STD you're looking at 3LL, SRM6, and one MG (or two on the Fang hero). A Thunderbolt 5S can hit 3 LL plus 2 SRM6.

Things will get juicier once the Light Fusion Engines drop.

Drop the LB-10X entirely on the DRG-1C and do 3x ERLL or 3x LPL. That's a proper monster. Can run both on STD or XL, you pick.

[The6thMessenger]

If you haven't got a tibbers, get one. Either TBR-S, A, D, C -- steer clear of Prime, it sucks.

[Carl Vickers]

Yeonne Greene, on 25 May 2017 - 05:08 PM, said:

Drop the LB-10X entirely on the DRG-1C and do 3x ERLL or 3x LPL. That's a proper monster. Can run both on STD or XL, you pick.

Spec survival tree and end up with 108 front CT armor as well.

[CFC Conky]

For heavies I'm a fan of the Marauder-3R; put two Lbx-10's on it and let 'er rip

For mediums, the Griffin-2N is fun as is the Centurion-A

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

[Y E O N N E]

Carl Vickers, on 25 May 2017 - 05:50 PM, said:

Spec survival tree and end up with 108 front CT armor as well.

The armor is indeed insane. Personally, though, I spec for agility. At 800+ meters, the armor is less valuable than the ability to evade well enough that you've rendered Gauss and ERPPC ineffective as counters. Also, 94 CT stock, still insane.

[Carl Vickers]

Yeonne Greene, on 25 May 2017 - 06:17 PM, said:

The armor is indeed insane. Personally, though, I spec for agility. At 800+ meters, the armor is less valuable than the ability to evade well enough that you've rendered Gauss and ERPPC ineffective as counters. Also, 94 CT stock, still insane.

Very true, I dont recommend survival tree for 98% of mechs, just few that get nice quirks which make it worth while. I think I built my 1c with a XL335 and 3 large pulse, just made sure I got some of the accel stuff from mobility as it goes at 90kmh and thats not too bad for a heavy, twists nicely as well.

[sycocys]

Griffin - Sparky if you have freely obtained MC laying about.

Although at this if you are sitting on a pile of c-bills it would probably be best to just wait until the new tech and energy weapon screw up are all in place.

[PaquIS]

Yeonne Greene, on 25 May 2017 - 06:17 PM, said:

The armor is indeed insane. Personally, though, I spec for agility. At 800+ meters, the armor is less valuable than the ability to evade well enough that you've rendered Gauss and ERPPC ineffective as counters. Also, 94 CT stock, still insane.

Well the Dragon is one of those rare mechs that has both the armor and structure quirks so it benefits from both in the skill tree. I took all the armor and skeletar skills and it sure can take a beating.

I felt like I dont have to go super heavy on the agility as its quite agile as is. Now Iam just waiting for the LFE engines to come out so I can have a proper shield side without losing too much speed in exchange.

[Johnny Z]

I do ok in old school lights but they are seriously under gunned compared to newer mech and clan mechs. 2 missile launchers on the flimsy commando arm is a prime example. Boating with many of the old school light mechs simply isn't an option.

Maybe the new tech will improve this.

By the way my mechs are never lag shielded.

Edited by Johnny Z, 25 May 2017 - 08:22 PM.

[justcallme A S H]

El Bandito, on 25 May 2017 - 12:31 PM, said:

50-80 tons? EBJ, Hellbringer, Orion-IIC, NGyr, Warhammer-6D, Top Dog, HBK-IIC-A.

GHP 5H is still boss also

5P has desirable quirks also, depends what you wanna run. Both work

[Trollfeed]

Crabs and that one shadowhawk with triple shoulder mount for 3xLPL actually got better due to skill tree because they had very minimal quirks. They were decent before it and now they are actually pretty good.

Edited by Trollfeed, 25 May 2017 - 08:30 PM.