Sarsaparilla Kid, on 30 May 2017 - 08:22 AM, said:
So, for all those that can spec a mech in 2 minutes...how exactly did the new trees give us the diversity and customization that we were looking for if you're just using the same cookie-cutter builds for every mech? If you're not putting a little thought into what type of mech you are skilling up, what existing quirks it already has, how the engine desync affected its mobility, what kind of weapons you are likely to equip it with and what role you want it to have (brawl, long-range, etc.), then we should have just stuck with the old system and PGI's time could have been better spent elsewhere...like on new maps that we haven't had for 7-8 months.
I have 186 mechs and I've skilled out probably 40 of them by now. Sometimes, yea, it takes me 2min to skill out a mech but sometimes it takes me an entire night. What's the difference you wonder? It depends entirely on if I have a clearly defined build and role for the mech I'm skilling. This is mostly something that will happen with my older mechs that I have a lot of gametime on. I know exactly how they play, or rather how I want them to play. I know if I need more agility, more armor, more heatgen, more range, more cooldown, radar dep, adv zoom, ECM and what kind of consumable I want (I limit myself to max of 2).
The exact process goes like this: I look at my ERLL Cicada that has ECM. I know it runs redonk hot and I know it's fast enough to evade most lights for long enough to get back to the team usually but a little extra doesn't hurt so I bank on 3 speed tweak nodes. Agility is fine otherwise. I want as much range as possible and I want both ECM nodes and I want Adv zoom but I can skip any radar dep I don't need to get to ECM. Extra armor isn't needed on the ECM Cicada but my non ECM Cicada sniper runs with a lot of armor and Radar dep 60%). I know I can skip cooldown nodes where possible but I want at least 3 of the 4 duration nodes. I wont ever use UAVs or Seismic but I'll want two strikes.
Now this doesn't take me any time to figure out, I already know all of this from having played the mech a lot. I also know roughly what nodes to pick up and that takes me about 1 minute or so. I then fine tune it by deselecting a few nodes here and there and adding them elsewhere. This kind of refinement on a build I already know inside and out takes another minute. So 2 minutes is probably what I'd expect it to take for an initial skill of a well known mech. I'll tend to maybe move a few nodes, no more than say 10 or 15 after a couple more matches just to get it perfect for that specific mech if I feel a really need seizmic, or Radar Dep or I don't need as many nodes in Ops or if I need more etc.
On the other hand when I buy a brand new mech (I have plenty of GSP) and I really don't have a clue what to do wit it I spend half an hour or more in the mechlab trying out different things, seeing what inherent bonuses it has in terms of quirks, agility, hardpoints or omnipods. I get a feel for what kind of a build would work best on it or If I can do some kind of crazy fun/party build, something only it can really do. Once I have it I start experimenting in the skill tree and regularly check how it effects weapon stats, agility, armor, etc. This can take an hour or more, sometimes I'll scrap it completely and start over. Once I'm happy I'll save the skill tree and build, take it into a match or into training grounds and see how it goes. I'll then refine the build as I get to know it more intimately, take it on long walks on river city, make her hot on tourmaline or go cliff climbing on canyon.
Each one of my mechs has their own, personalized skill trees, each point has been considered and placed for a reason because either the node is something I want or it goes to a node I want and I'm happy with paying the cost to get to it. Each one of my mechs are unique, they are mine.
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