39 replies to this topic

[Wyald Katt]

I'm still working my 6 small pulse ECM'd ACH to 400+ dmg matches. Only thing I've noticed is that some targets may be more durable than before. Teamwork, cover, not going YOLO helps. I went Sensors, Ops, Mobility, Survival.

I LOVE my 12 medium Nova. Bawls hawt laser vomit!

Just have to find your skill node mix to work with how you play the mech.

[Darian DelFord]

I had this whole long post ready and then my dang U-Verse went out and I lost it so I will sum it up.

1. For lights to be competitive skill tree needs to be unique and NOT the same for every damn weight class out there.

2. Lights vs PPFLD and High Alpha's need to be addressed.

3. Those mechs that got bigger due to the rescale needs defense buffs added in. (Anyone else notice when they were previewing that patch the did not show ANY mechs getting bigger only the Catapult and one other getting smaller)

4. RADAR PROFILES NEED TO BE ADJUSTED, A LOCUST SHOULD NOT HAVE THE SAME RADAR SIGNATURE AS AN ATLAS.

5. The current implementation of clan streaks vs lights need to be addressed. They were a PITA prior to this patch and now they are completely out of whack vs lights. Oh yeah.... FIX THE ARTEMIS BUG WITH STREAKS

But as long as you have heavies and assaults who strip all their leg and back armor complaining about a locust killing them in less than 10 seconds nothing will change.

Edited by Darian DelFord, 26 May 2017 - 05:55 PM.

[DAYLEET]

My Wolfhound did great, my FS9 did great too except for the -K that i tried without any mobility tree and that was a terrible mistake lol. Loadout was not apt for a slugish light, dunno what i was thinking.

Personally, its not been that easy to keep in an assault back for a long time.

My problem now with my lights are the mediums that have a lot of armor/structure. They can dish damage without losing sight of me and hardly seeing their armor change colours after a good hit is bad for the morale! Still need to learn which mech generally does what quirks/skill wise.

[sycocys]

I never had bad luck with Commandos, yes they were out done in firepower by most other lights (other than the Lolcust) but they never lost their spot at being flat out ninjas.

Some do have kind of meh hardpoints even for Commandos, but they are all workable - the 2D (ecm) has been the worst one since they nerfed down streaks, but really not all that bad - would be right up there if you could use the xl240 instead of ecm.

[Darian DelFord]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 26 May 2017 - 03:06 PM, said:

In other news, apparently the JR7-F is making a comeback for some reason,

Won't last, I have been playing my Jenners ALOT, and it is still just as vulnerable as ever. Heck just got out of a match with maximum mobility and I could not even stay behind a war hawk. He was still able to get me in his arm sights. Do not know what he was specced though.

The only Jenner that is even remotely competitive is the Oxide and that is only due to its over all quirks and load out

Edited by Darian DelFord, 26 May 2017 - 06:31 PM.

[sycocys]

Darian DelFord, on 26 May 2017 - 06:25 PM, said:

Won't last, I have been playing my Jenners ALOT, and it is still just as vulnerable as ever. Heck just got out of a match with maximum mobility and I could not even stay behind a war hawk. He was still able to get me in his arm sights. Do not know what he was specced though.

Well really Jenners shouldn't be able to stay right behind a mech with those little chicken legs they'd break right off.

[Y E O N N E]

sycocys, on 26 May 2017 - 06:27 PM, said:

Well really Jenners shouldn't be able to stay right behind a mech with those little chicken legs they'd break right off.

The IS Jenners don't have chicken legs...

That being said, the JR7-F is the poke 'Mech. It shouldn't be knife-fighting like that. That's what the Locust is for.

[Darian DelFord]

Yeonne Greene, on 26 May 2017 - 06:42 PM, said:

The IS Jenners don't have chicken legs...

That being said, the JR7-F is the poke 'Mech. It shouldn't be knife-fighting like that. That's what the Locust is for.

Problem is the locust got hit the hardest with the accel/decel of the skill tree.

For those that do not know.... locust got hit by about 35-40%

[chucklesMuch]

Darian DelFord, on 26 May 2017 - 07:11 PM, said:

Problem is the locust got hit the hardest with the accel/decel of the skill tree.

For those that do not know.... locust got hit by about 35-40%

I'm waiting for somebody to chime that this is okay, as lights are only meant to tag/narc/spot etc...

[Y E O N N E]

Darian DelFord, on 26 May 2017 - 07:11 PM, said:

Problem is the locust got hit the hardest with the accel/decel of the skill tree.

For those that do not know.... locust got hit by about 35-40%

I mean, it sucks, but they can still start and stop well enough once you spec into the tree. And now that we get properly rewarded for slowing down to turn, that helps.

[DGTLDaemon]

Bush Hopper, on 26 May 2017 - 10:45 AM, said:

All I see is mid-/long range laser vomit, gauss/ppc - even on extreme range - and a lurmfest. So, it is no surprise that this happens.

Yup. Right after the patch I saw a lot of people rushing out in the open, apparently trying out their new super-tanky mechs with maxed out survival trees. Atlas pilots especially liked acting like invincible supermen. But after a while, people realized that a few points of extra armor or structure don't mean sh*t against proper focus fire from cover, and things went back to normal. Now it's a PPC sniper fest on maps like Frozen City and Grim Plexus (starting to really hate those two maps for that), and mid-range laser vomit/dakka/gauss everywhere else, with some lurms thrown in. Well, maybe a bit more lurms than before, but not by much. I'm not sure what PGI were trying to achieve by reducing overall mech mobility and increasing armor/structure, but nothing has really changed as a result.

[FalconerGray]

I've been having success with my ACH, though I don't play in the traditional anklebiter role.

5xCERML+ECM, skill tree focuses on Sensors, Operations, Mobility and Firepower. It feels as if I'm hotter and less agile compared to before (not by much though) but I'm starting to find the extra sensor info to be a big help.

While I could manage it before, I now definitely don't want to be a in close range engagement or a light v light dogfight. But if I can stick to my gameplan and have the OpFor play to my strengths, I feel stronger and more effective overall.

[Weeny Machine]

Darian DelFord, on 26 May 2017 - 06:25 PM, said:

Won't last, I have been playing my Jenners ALOT, and it is still just as vulnerable as ever. Heck just got out of a match with maximum mobility and I could not even stay behind a war hawk. He was still able to get me in his arm sights. Do not know what he was specced though.

The only Jenner that is even remotely competitive is the Oxide and that is only due to its over all quirks and load out

Jup. It is still often next to impossible to stay out of a heavies and in some cases assaults firing arc for a meaningful time. Coupled with heating up too quickly, longer weapon CDs etc means that brawling is a no, no, no...except, as someone in this thread said, if you are patient - meaning that you need to twiddle your tumbs the first minutes of a match until targets are softened up. That's not very entertaining.

Else lights are pressed into drive-by-shooting. Which is like playing with lrms and sprinkling some damage over the enemy while running away with your skirts lifted. Yup, that's a bit exaggerated but you get what I mean

legatoblues, on 26 May 2017 - 10:04 PM, said:

I've been having success with my ACH, though I don't play in the traditional anklebiter role.

5xCERML+ECM, skill tree focuses on Sensors, Operations, Mobility and Firepower. It feels as if I'm hotter and less agile compared to before (not by much though) but I'm starting to find the extra sensor info to be a big help.

While I could manage it before, I now definitely don't want to be a in close range engagement or a light v light dogfight. But if I can stick to my gameplan and have the OpFor play to my strengths, I feel stronger and more effective overall.

Jup, that is what I meant. You don't want to go near the enemy with a light. Which is nonsense in itself. Especially because the IS lights don't have the luxury of fielding 1t medium lasers with such a range




Sidenote:
What baffles me is the absence of streak boats even despite a lot of people tried/have tried their lights last week. It seems lights seems to be of no real concern anymore /chuckle

Edited by Bush Hopper, 26 May 2017 - 10:35 PM.

[Weeny Machine]

Ok, it seems we are back to the "normal" state after the patch's curiousity wore off: the number of lights I see in matches has decreased again.

[Valhallan]

Furbies are funner now, also flyboy cicada with max jump tree

[kuma8877]

Bush Hopper, on 27 May 2017 - 01:03 PM, said:

Ok, it seems we are back to the "normal" state after the patch's curiousity wore off: the number of lights I see in matches has decreased again.

Don't forget tho that we have a score based (mostly damage) event going on. You have to be a fairly competent light pilot to churn the butter for the event to make it go by with relative quickness. Hence the even more pronounced shift to heavies again. Get the event over quickly and then refocus on further utilizing the double xp to skill what you can. I think it's a false settling at this point.

[Nameless King]

Bush Hopper, on 26 May 2017 - 10:45 AM, said:

Please bear in mind I am referring to Quick Play and not to FW.


In general: Before the patch sniping was the dominant playstyle. Lurming was there to some degree. Brawling was nearly dead but a brawler who got close by storming (if he wasn't too softened up beforehand by too much long range fire) or being sneaky had a chance to cause some serious damage.

After the patch the gameplay seems to be often even more static - which I wouldn't have believed possible. The whole battle often is a Verdun revival (for the non-historians: static trench warfare at its ummm "finest").

All I see is mid-/long range laser vomit, gauss/ppc - even on extreme range - and a lurmfest. So, it is no surprise that this happens.

What amplifies this behaviour is, however, the longer CD and heat dispersion.

These two last points make it also problematic for brawlers. Simply because they cannot take a target out fast anymore while snipers or mid-range laser vomiters simply lolalpha and then crawl behind a rock and wait for the heat to go down and rinse and repeat.

For lights the situation seems in most cases worse than before. The 35t still get easily hit because of their huge size. While you can roll the laser vomit to some extend, you cannot roll the enormous pin-point crap. Nevertheless the prior will sooner or later open your torsi because the vomit is quite high.

Basically, lights are reduced to 2 roles. Either a second rate sniper - evey fast medium can do it better and redeploy quickly as well or unrewarding drive-by-shooting. You just sprinkle your damage over the mech trying to get as much as possible in one place while running past behind the next obstacle.

And heck, you will nevertheless get hit when you do the latter.

Going into an in-fight seems to be still suicide. You have to run away anway because soon you will get "missile incoming" blaring at you.

Investing into the survial tree doesn't seem to do anything (for non-armour quirked lights).

Whatever. Soon a certain beta begins and I can take a break because I am honestly fed-up by the static gameplay and the state of light mechs.

Yep lights suck.

[Y E O N N E]

Lolanecdotes.

[Zolaz]

Have to run an ECM ninja or a long ranged poker. ACH is a great ninja, just roll around the outside of the engagement and circle to the back of the enemy. Normally they will be all clumped together in a little wonderful ball. Drop some Arty on them. Duck into cover incase someone is looking around. Then Arty again. If you hit the murderball filled with slow moving Heavies and Assaults you have just made your damage for the round. Probably out damaged the majority of the players in the match as well. Then you just sit in the back and wait till either your team folds and you have to brawl or your team comes in and you shoot backs.

Long ranged poker ... move around and shoot stuff. Preferably on the flanks. When the enemy notices you, use your speed to get to the enemies opposite flank. Just keep peppering shots and supporting the push and whoever is killing surats. If your team folds then you run away shooting over your shoulder. Dont stop moving and watch out for lights trying to swarm you.

[Weeny Machine]

kuma8877, on 27 May 2017 - 01:32 PM, said:

Don't forget tho that we have a score based (mostly damage) event going on. You have to be a fairly competent light pilot to churn the butter for the event to make it go by with relative quickness. Hence the even more pronounced shift to heavies again. Get the event over quickly and then refocus on further utilizing the double xp to skill what you can. I think it's a false settling at this point.

So, there is an event where you need a high match score. And you say that therefore lights are not played but other weight classes. Your own words.

I think you come to the wrong conclusion. The classes are simply prefered because it is easier to get a relatively high score consistently.