17 replies to this topic

[Koops]

Have folks generally forgotten about the dragons? I bought the dragon bundle a long time ago, played the hell out of it before I really started to buckle down and learn the game. Please keep in mind, I don't consider learning the nuances of the game as work, its a trial and error process that I finally started to pay attention to the error and learn from them a bit. I actually looked at my stats and realized that I was pretty much a potato and wasn't bringing much value to the team, so I figured if I was going to play, at least learn how to.

Anyways, I played with mostly clan mechs for the last few weeks because lets be honest, they are more forgiving of errors. Focused pretty much on the hellbringer, ebon jaguar, and the huntsman. Once I got them all to positive K/D number, not impressive by any means but at least to the positive, I moved back to my IS mechs and started some serious tinkering. I love the variety of the IS mechs and I put XL engines in damn near all of them, so I am always one 'oops' away from spectating, but I enjoy pushing as much stuff into a chasis as I can. With the mass influx of new mechs, there is something for everyones taste. I have no idea what the current meta is so it does not really factor into my decisions when outfitting a mech.

Back to the Dragons. They are weak, no way around that. There is a better mech for any situation. But, there is just something about them! My current flavor is the Flame. Got it in the bundle, liked the 30 percent credit boost, didn't really understand it much, put 4 ER large lasers on it, and poked away. Wasn't terribly successful as any veteran pilot can tell you. It did ok, 300 average damage games or so, higher if the stars aligned. It just never really clicked. So, after my clan experiences, changed it up, suddenly it clicks a bit. Maybe I finally found my fighting style?

Sniping holds no allure for me, long range poking bores the hell out of me as well, I like to get in there and scrap. I want to act and make others react, not wait for their push and try to figure out how to counter it. Through my experiences, which others learned a long time ago and I just caught up to, I realized a couple thing. Speed is good! Heat management is good! Armor is good! Twisting is good! Which bot can let me do all those things?

Flame.

I have this girl packed as full as she can get, no empty spots in the chasis:

340XL (98.4 KPH with skills)
3 Dual heat Sinks in the engine spaces
AC10 shotgun ( 3 tons of ammo)
4 Med Pulse Lasers
Endo, Fiber, Dual heat sinks.
Max armor except for the legs which are at around 70ish if I remember correctly.

She is a fighter! AC10 keeps em rocking and is glorious once the armor is opened a bit. Pulse lasers can fire pretty much non-stop, heat is just not a factor. She has the speed to circle, the armor to keep her in the fight, and can get out of trouble about as quickly as she got into it. My recent success is, I'm sure, just based on the fact that you don't see them much anymore and folks forgot how to fight them. But i had my very first game cracking 1100 damage last night and at 34 points for an alpha, that is non-stop shooting baby and close enough to kiss em on the cheek.

Again, I know damn near any mech will do better at any particular role, but not many of them do it cooler =) 100kph dragon was cool back in the day and its still cool! Ugly *** mech giving em hell!

I'll keep running it not because it brings so much value to the team, I just like driving it and games are supposed to be fun.

[Bigbacon]

and alternate to try is a STD300 + AC20 + 4xML. one of those stay with the pack versions.

Sucks that Dragons were pretty bad, then they heavily quirked them which made them fun (and not OP), and now they are back to pretty much meh all around. I'm not sure if making them super fast is worth it anymore. If you get stuck out you get cored immediately because the CT is just so large.

back in the quirks it was a fast, maneuverable, hit and run kind of mech and a nice light chaser.

[Mad Ox]

One of the first mechs I mastered have both Hero's and love them much. They seem to me to be a more nimble better armored bigger brother of the Hunchback (Flame perfect for it AC20/4x MLand additional LRM5 added). I so love that little missile slot in chest 1 LRM 5 and 1 ton of ammo gives 36 total shots, at start of battle plinking away before I rev up the engines and brawl it out. Its got good turning and pretty fast for its size.

People have hated on them for the longest time for huge center torso and sure it would bite me from time to time. But at same time it really taught me to twist back and forth. Learned to treat Dragon as a bodyguard support the bigger boys let them take damage while you zip in and unload.

Looking forward to getting back to them with new tech see how I can update things.

[Karl the Plumber]

I have an intensely stupid 3xAC2 ERPPC build I run on my 5N, and I do alright with it. Sometimes fire support does win the day.

[Fang01]

Fang is best Dragon.

[Phelan Boots]

I ran Flame with an XL400, RAC/2, and 4x MPLs until I got to tier 3. It was really fun in tier 4, but it seems the high face time of the RAC is holding it down in t3. The high mounted ballistic is great when paired with quick arm MPLs.

[The Trumpet of Gabriel]

LFE, UAC20, and 4 mL = profit

[Fang01]

Phelan Boots, on 15 October 2017 - 07:14 PM, said:

I ran Flame with an XL400, RAC/2, and 4x MPLs until I got to tier 3. It was really fun in tier 4, but it seems the high face time of the RAC is holding it down in t3. The high mounted ballistic is great when paired with quick arm MPLs.

The cap is 360 sooooooo yeahhhh no

[Spare Parts Bin]

I have never owned a Dragon. Y'all make them sound interesting.

[Warboss_Jon]

While playing through the tutorial I saw the Fang in the test lineup and it was love at first sight. I've been a 1c guy ever since.

I only just started playing, but I've theory crafted this:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...92b7538ded06602

My current build has a 300 light engine, no ams and Ferro armor instead of light, and I can average 5-600 dmg a game. I figured the loss on 6% bonus armor, 10% speed and 3% cooling is gonna be worth the ams and ac ammo.

Although I'm new and not one to truly say I think the value of the dragon seems highly overlooked. To me, it's a heavy flanker/ flanker bully so versatility is the name of the game. Played in a support role I've already seen a lot of success with this mech despite my green boots.

[Leone]

Minor nitpick, the Light Fusion Engine could be nudged upto 280. I mean, yeah, I've a few 275s I bought for lore reasons, but if you're looking to min/max in MWO, there's no reason not to take the next step up. The system allows it. Also the leg ammo. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do it all the time. But you got a case in there. Might as well make the most of it. Or toss it and go all leg an Arm for ammo.

Personally, I accept I'mma die by ammo explosion every once inna blue moon, and I'd make small tweaks to get this DRG-1C. And yes, I traded some armour offa the left arm. I don't care for that arm as much as the right, and seriously would love players targetting that side. It's a tactic I use sometimes, feel free to disregard an drop that extra heatsink I threw in for a half tonne of ammo somewhere.

Edit: If you've already bought that LFE, then it's fine, deal with it. It's not worth the cost to swap out just yet, but remember that.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 28 January 2018 - 06:25 PM.

[HammerMaster]

Sadly...no longer a relevant mech do to hard point bloat power creep.
.

[Koniving]

Momenaut, on 28 January 2018 - 05:35 PM, said:

While playing through the tutorial I saw the Fang in the test lineup and it was love at first sight. I've been a 1c guy ever since.

I only just started playing, but I've theory crafted this:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...92b7538ded06602

My current build has a 300 light engine, no ams and Ferro armor instead of light, and I can average 5-600 dmg a game. I figured the loss on 6% bonus armor, 10% speed and 3% cooling is gonna be worth the ams and ac ammo.

Although I'm new and not one to truly say I think the value of the dragon seems highly overlooked. To me, it's a heavy flanker/ flanker bully so versatility is the name of the game. Played in a support role I've already seen a lot of success with this mech despite my green boots.

Minor change suggestions:
Move two tons of ammo in with the AC/10; the AC/10 will protect them.
Move the remaining two tons of ammo from the left torso into the right leg.
Remove the CASE, repurpose the half ton into something else.

Personally I also removed 1 ton of ammunition (its excessive), removed the Light Ferro, took two points off of the head armor to make a full even ton left over. Which I then used to put a double heatsink in with the AMS. Also rearranged the AMS ammo into the head, MRM ammo into the leg (since it goes bye bye quickly and I want to have AMS ammo even when the leg is blown off)... changed the ER mediums to a laser I prefer..

And wound up with this. <--Suggestion for your build.
Then shortly after, I wound up with this. 'Cause I decided I wanted to get the dust off of my old Dragon.
And finally came up with this. Because LFE is expensive and I don't personally like them. The heat/speed penalties for losing a side torso are too much. Plus I got a bigger STD engine in.

(The two after are what I played around with as ideas for my own new build.)

[Horseman]

Momenaut, on 28 January 2018 - 05:35 PM, said:

I only just started playing, but I've theory crafted this:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...92b7538ded06602

My current build has a 300 light engine, no ams and Ferro armor instead of light, and I can average 5-600 dmg a game. I figured the loss on 6% bonus armor, 10% speed and 3% cooling is gonna be worth the ams and ac ammo.

Although I'm new and not one to truly say I think the value of the dragon seems highly overlooked. To me, it's a heavy flanker/ flanker bully so versatility is the name of the game. Played in a support role I've already seen a lot of success with this mech despite my green boots.

DRG-5N skirmisher / flanker build: Smurfy Skills Alternate skills for Laser Duration You can swap seismic sensor for additional survival or consumable nodes if you prefer. With the laser duration build, skills stack with the chassis quirk to 30% total - 0.77s for LLs/ERLLs, just slightly longer than the normal 0.67s duration found on LPLs .

DRG-1C "brawlgon" built after some brawl experiences with the build above: Smurfy, Skills - this is fairly similar to what you have going on yours.

DRG-5N dakka build (which you might have seen in QP before): Smurfy, Skills Same remark on seismic as above. The MLs are there as a cheap boost to your firepower and backup in case someone shoots off your gun arm or you run out of ammo.

Lay down enough dakka and you'll be thankful for the extra heat dissipation, but if your playstyle has you spending more time cooling down you can always swap the sinks for Light Ferro and extra ammo .

Dragon 1N is the odd one out, but can be built as a heat-efficient DPS fire support: Smurfy (XL), Smurfy (LFE), Skills

Edited by Horseman, 28 January 2018 - 11:02 PM.

[Warboss_Jon]

Wow, so much dragon love! Thanks for the feedback guys, these builds have given me a lot to think about. I read up more about the AMS and decided to ditch it and left myself with some spare tonnage.

So I've ended up with this now: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...4a17b910b4fedb5

I still like the MRM's for the ECM invulnerability and range (and 4 extra crit chances) but I feel like I can do everything. With the LLAS I can hill hump, and I still retain decent ranged alpha (reason I previously had ER's,) I'm reliable on any map against any size mech, and my dps is better than before.

My general game plan is to hold a modest flank and abuse my acceleration and hp pool to win peak battles. The goal being to pressure them while our backline does work and hopefully make their frontline give up ground.

I'm super duper happy with this now guys. Thanks a lot and see you on the battlefield.

o7

Edited by Momenaut, 30 January 2018 - 02:17 AM.

[Spare Parts Bin]

Warboss_Jon, on 29 January 2018 - 09:01 PM, said:

Wow, so much dragon love! Thanks for the feedback guys, these builds have given me a lot to think about. I read up more about the AMS and decided to ditch it and left myself with some spare tonnage.

So I've ended up with this now: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...4a17b910b4fedb5

I still like the MRM's for the ECM invulnerability and range (and 4 extra crit chances) but I feel like I can do everything. With the LLAS I can hill hump, and I still retain decent ranged alpha (reason I previously had ER's,) I'm reliable on any map against any size mech, and my dps is better than before.

My general game plan is to hold a modest flank and abuse my acceleration and hp pool to win peak battles. The goal being to pressure them while our backline does work and hopefully make their frontline give up ground.

I'm super duper happy with this now guys. Thanks a lot and see you on the battlefield.

o7

AMS is useful on certain maps like Polar Highlands. You may or may not need it.

[DiatoicClaw166]

I run mine with an LFE 270/4 MLas/AC-20/Mrm 10 in the snoop cause it makes me look like I sneeze at people plus why dafuq not. Help bust mechs open like a bag of potato chips, bon appetit.

[ShiverMeRivets]

Flame is the best dragon and the only one I really like.

My most successful build is AC10+4MPL+LFE300:
https://mwo.smurfy-n...9b579ea6bd02428
The targeting computer is completely optional, but with just 1 crit slot left, there are not many other options.

Another one I used to run is LB20X brawler with LB20X+4ML+STD300:
https://mwo.smurfy-n...0b59f9d59d4ac83
LB20X is a pretty lousy cannon beyond 200 meters, but is good in the late game and against lights.
STD engine allows you to lose the right ST and keep going with most of your firepower and cooling intact.

AC20+4MPL is viable, but requites a downgrade to LFE280 to get enough cooling and ammo. However I feel that the above two builds play out better. AC20 is not easy to use on a mech that is very mobile and shoots while running. Cataphract 0XP is much better for this loadout.