43 replies to this topic

[Lukoi Banacek]

I don't find these all that hard to deal with or kill unless I simply blunder into one at close range and have to eat dakka. While tanky, it's not capable of being much of a mobile platform, whether it's QP, FP or Competitive imo. It's a mech to play for fun, but it's not top tier imo.

[Snazzy Dragon]

I wouldn't recommend it if you aren't able to pull high numbers in other assaults because of how large and specifically how tall it is. Particularly, if you've tried the dire wolf and executioner and done poorly in them, then the mech is not for you; the annihilator combines the weaknesses of both mechs with inferior IS tech to boot. The best build is easily 6 AC5s, but if you're not 80% accurate or more the thing is too damn large and will lose trades and take lots of return fire upon exposing.

[Tier5 Kerensky]

Personally I would recommend not to take Annihilator. So often in end scores I see them perform pretty bad, because they get left behind. I think Thanatos or Nightstar is quite a lot better. Those armor and stucture quirks will just mean it will survive few seconds more when taken down.

I don't have one so I just speak on what I see on scores. And I often engage and harass them, I don't need to kill one, just harass it a bit to force it to turn and that will often help to get it stranded so others with more force will take it out clean.

Edited by Teer Kerensky, 27 August 2017 - 01:21 AM.

[Curccu]

Christophe Ivanov, on 26 August 2017 - 03:20 PM, said:

got mine 4 days ago. Got the first three and currently running the A1 version. The most dumb thing I seen was the engine rating. 32 KPH....really? I bumped it up to 48.6 KPH, same speed as my Dire Wolfs at the cost of 3 to 5 million C-bills which I think it stupid to pay for that. Should be the same engine rating as the DW mechs to begin with.

Battletech stock, that is how ALL MWO mechs are sold to you.

But yes that is what every Annihilator owner does 1st, buy 300 rated engine, Usually LFE or XL

[Y E O N N E]

Curccu, on 27 August 2017 - 01:30 AM, said:

Battletech stock, that is how ALL MWO mechs are sold to you.

But yes that is what every Annihilator owner does 1st, buy 300 rated engine, Usually LFE or XL

Not all of them. B33f runs his with a 250 and consistently tops scoreboards with it, win or lose.

[Stonefalcon]

Curccu, on 27 August 2017 - 01:30 AM, said:

Battletech stock, that is how ALL MWO mechs are sold to you.

But yes that is what every Annihilator owner does 1st, buy 300 rated engine, Usually LFE or XL

While 300 is the recommended engine rating it's not typically essential, many of my builds run a 250 or 275 and run just fine. I actually prefer my 1E build with a 275, just means I can fit an extra 5 heat sinks so about an extra 15%ish cooling vs a 10% loss of speed.

Also, the Annihilator has such a large amount of weight space you can get away with a lot of builds running a STD.

Edited by Stonefalcon, 27 August 2017 - 02:47 AM.

[Clownwarlord]

Sadly the annihilator is a Nay for one reason.

Slow. Yeah it is a 100 tons but the reason why it is so slow is because of the engine cap of 300 which means 48.6 with no speed tweak and 52. something with speed tweak.

[MagicIndex]

Mavairo, on 26 August 2017 - 02:04 PM, said:

Returning mwo vet here, I came back to a host of new guns, mechs and game modes that I'm still sorting through and relearning in addition to the basic fundamentals which I've let go by the way side in my absence lol.

So I've been eyeballing smurfy, and the annihilator specifically. How good are it's hit boxes? The thought of 4 rotary AC5s is kind of giggly after my still limited testing of two of them on my muromets.

6xAC5
4xAC10
4xLBX10
2RAC5+3LPL
2HPPC+3LPL+4LMG
2AC20+3LPL
2AC20+2HPPC
2HGR+2HPPC
2HGR+3LL
...etc.

Annie not about speed... she's about FIREPOWER. Survival nodes are MANDATORY.

Spoiler

P.S. This must be an obvious DECAL on Annihilator....

Spoiler

Edited by MagicIndex, 27 August 2017 - 06:50 AM.

[JC Daxion]

Honestly, i find anything more than one RAC way to hot anyway.. Maybe 2 work, but it gets hot so fast. If you wanna RAC, mix it with cool running weapons for sure, AC's or gauss maybe? I dunno.. what ever it is, make sure you are running with high cooldown rates, aka lots of heat sinks

[Angel of Annihilation]

Clownwarlord, on 27 August 2017 - 02:50 AM, said:

Sadly the annihilator is a Nay for one reason.

Slow. Yeah it is a 100 tons but the reason why it is so slow is because of the engine cap of 300 which means 48.6 with no speed tweak and 52. something with speed tweak.

But that is preference rather than anything to do with how well the mech performs overall. I mean there are alot of Assault mechs that don't break 60 kph with their best builds. Also even if it had a higher engine cap you probably wouldn't mount a much larger engine because you need to weight to run all those Ballistics, ammo and DHS.

[MischiefSC]

2xrac5
2xuac5
2xuac2

LFE

Ammo.

Some extra DHS.

Over 40 DPS for 3 seconds pretty consistently.

Dissolving stuff for giggles.

[CanadianCyrus]

The Annihilator with its current armor quirks is a definite yes. Should the quirks be nerfed or disappear, then I would be hesitant to say yes. That said the Annihilator has some decent weapon hardpoint locations and can definitely bring the toys to put out some solid damage. My current favorite loadout is a slight modification to the 1P (reinforcement pack) and swap out one arm of Rac2&5 with a UAC10 and that allows me to fire all weapons at once without ghost heat. RAC 2 + RAC 5 + UAC10 + 4xML can put out a solid amount of damage in a short amount of time.

[DrSaphron]

. I dont own the mech myself but from fighting against them i can honestly say that you never EVER want to take one on head on and staring them down is a sure fire trip back to the mech lab. With that said though if a LMG light gets on their back side they'll fall apart really fast, and for the love of god DO NOT PUT AN XL IN IT!!! LFE, sure, but never XL.

[Mavairo]

MagicIndex, on 27 August 2017 - 06:48 AM, said:

6xAC5
4xAC10
4xLBX10
2RAC5+3LPL
2HPPC+3LPL+4LMG
2AC20+3LPL
2AC20+2HPPC
2HGR+2HPPC
2HGR+3LL
...etc.

Annie not about speed... she's about FIREPOWER. Survival nodes are MANDATORY.

Spoiler

P.S. This must be an obvious DECAL on Annihilator....

Spoiler

Sold sir.

Thanks everyone, I think she'll be a fun if not somewhat quirky addition to the stable.

The thought of having that much firepower on tap, is just lulz.

[panzer1b]

Its by no means a bad mech (and if you underestimate the thing ur as good as dead), but its one of the more situational mechs that only shines in very specific maps and situations, defenetely not a generalist murder mech. You need to have the top engine capable, and even then you will be left behind half the time (pretty much any mech that goes below 65 is at a huge risk of being left in a nascar (and like it or not, ~50% of the games ive seen tend to devolve into some form of nascar).

Aside from that, if you get a map that benefits defensive play (and doesnt mandate going above 60kph), the thing can bring enough firepower to make anyone go cry behind a rock (assuming they arent dead by that point). That ofc assumes you dont get hit by 3-4 mechs at once, no amount of armor will protect you against 300 or so damage (especially if most of it is hitscan or PPFLD).

TLDR, if you enjoy slow mechs such as the dire or mauler, then kodiak may very well be your thing, and it plays very similarly with the exception of having enough armor quirks to actually tank any mech in that game 1v1, if you dont enjoy slow mechs (or like me just do terribly in them), then no amount of firepower will make the thing truly fun or effective in your hands.

[MischiefSC]

You don't play an Anni to go all tryhard.

You do it because you want to delete a mech or two with a blast of broken, clown shoes wearing unreasonable firepower before you get focused down.

[AppleseeN]

Annie is jus a BEAST... slow but steady. Just get 6 AC5... and push any direction you want.
Armor quirks are actually fair replacement of low engine cap. Plus if you go to Sirvival Nodes, it's just a Juggernaut, a walking battleship made for slow but sure steamroll of enemy.

[Chaotic_Harmony]

2 RAC5, 2LBX-10, 2MPL with a 280 engine in the 2A seems to do me well about 90% of the time. It's a mech that requires good battlefield knowledge, and good positioning, to be good. If you are caught unawares, or just in a bad spot, you'll lose a ton of armor if not die outright.

I personally love it, and I'm not even an Assault Mech pilot. Point, Click, Delete. That's the Annie's game.

[invernomuto]

AnTi90d, on 26 August 2017 - 03:50 PM, said:

If you really want an IS assault mech, go Battlemaster or Cyclops for Cbills.. or NightStar if you have cash. (It'll be out very soon. If you want it, get the Reinforcements pack as it has the best variant.)

Why are you assuming that the Nightstar will be a good Assault mech? I already preordered one, I am just curious since we do not know hitboxes, quirks, etc.

Mavairo, on 27 August 2017 - 08:45 AM, said:

Sold sir.

Thanks everyone, I think she'll be a fun if not somewhat quirky addition to the stable.

The thought of having that much firepower on tap, is just lulz.

Let us know your impression with the mechzilla...

[Christophe Ivanov]

Been playing my Anni ever since I got it. 2XRAC5's with 6 slots of 1 ton ammo plus 2XER Large Lasers with 7 Double heat sinks, rest up- armored. YES you do need to watch that heat with this setup as it's Alpha strike is at 129. You could use 3 or 4 medium ER Lasers to lessen the heat spike, but if you take the time to practice...you DO PRACTICE right? you'll learn how to lessen it's impact, As others have explained in various builds, there are ways to counter the ghost heat which in my opinion is a dumb thing to begin with as we are dealing with technology hundreds of years in the future. My opinion folks!

My view in combat.. the Anni like all Assaults, are supportive mechs and work well with other Assaults and other members of your Team. Having said that we all know that's not the case all the time for reasons such as NASCARing lights and Mediums, etc.

One amusing quirk is I have had others follow me knowing I'm gonna give a world of hurt to our opponents and they watch who I am going to fight with. Once I get the opponent down close to a kill, they open up and well, they end up with an easy kill. While I find that annoying as I lost a kill to a team mate, crap happens and well, the enemy is dead, move onto the next one!

This past weekend, I notice when I am in combat, the opponents will attempt to take me out first for obvious reasons. Case I point, my Anni up against 5 enemy, while I dished out what I could, one Anni against 4 or 5 wont take much t kill me.

My best combat to date was with not one, but THREE other Anni's While I got a single kill (and was killed too) we put a major dent in the enemy and was an easy mop up for the rest of the team! Why? Because us three Anni's stuck together!

My 2 C-Bills worth.

Edited by Christophe Ivanov, 29 August 2017 - 10:20 AM.