20 replies to this topic

[Kazenoma]

Topic. I'm coming back to the game from a long hiatus and have absolutely no idea what mechs are good for what roles now.

I'm looking for a sniping setup that can put out 500+ damage reliably (no crazy heat issues) and still has enough mobility to stay alive in the pug queue. Ideally a fast heavy, but assaults could work too.

What are the go-to mechs for something like this?

[Kitty Bacon]

Hello and welcome back!

The Roughneck has been a good heavy mech for long range sniping. Since the guns are on the shoulders, it does pretty well in the peek and poke department. Plus it is fairly tanky for taking hits. RGH-3A

Though that is just one mech on the IS side. I don't mess with Clan mechs anymore, but I have seen the K2 Catapult with dual Heavy PPCs do well or the King Crab with 2 Gauss 2 ERLLs as well. Even the Awesme 8Q with 3 Heavy PPCs performs pretty well at 600m. Its 45 alpha can really hit something hard.

Edited by Kitty Bacon, 29 August 2017 - 10:03 AM.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

The Summoner is pretty good at sniping.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...1df3a990e8fe23f

It has some quirks in the omnipods, so you'll want to get the ones that help PPCs the most, I think I got it pretty close in that build there without checking ingame.

The mech moves at least 81kph, which can be upgraded through skills if you want, it has jump jets to get into good positions and move around terrain faster, and its 2 ERPPCs are mounted directly below the cockpit, so if you can see the enemy, you can shoot it. You can also jump up in the air from behind cover, cut the jump jets so your crosshairs stablize, then fire your PPCs at a target, and fall back down behind cover without taking much, if any, return fire. Pro pilots who use these things can manage to peek out only their cockpit and the top level of their guns to get a shot off.

Its a reliable mech of mine, my stats say I average 541 damage in it, KDR of 3.62, win rate of 1.63. Its one of my best mechs.

It doesn't really put out as much damage as a laser build would, but the ERPPCs are much more precise, killing targets much quicker with much less wasted damage, its very easy to kill light mechs with it once you get accurate.

[Roughneck45]

IMO "pure sniper" builds in this game are dual clan ER PPC builds.

Summoners - JJ's, great cooling
Linebackers - Ground speed, great cooling
Hunchbacks - JJ's, good cooling
Shadowcats - JJ's, ground speed, ECM, poor cooling
Adders - ground speed, quirked, decent cooling

Many other mechs can run it but these ones are the best.

The key here is, obviously, being able to land your shots. If you aren't hitting at least 80% of the time you'll only be a detriment to your team.

Edited by Roughneck45, 29 August 2017 - 03:23 PM.

[CheeseThief]

The most reliable 500 damage sniper I've seen is the ERLL Locust 1V. -30% laser cooldown by default, knock another 10% off via the skill tree, then poke, poke and poke some more.


Otherwise Clan tech has the advantage when it comes to damage and range, making it easier to rack up a large damage score over the course of a match. Pick any 81kmph clan medium or heavy (which is most of them), slap as many cERLLs, cERPPCs or cGauss as you feel comfortable with and you have a decent high mobility sniper build.

Shadowcats in particular are near exclusively played as sniper mechs, squat and bouncy but still with enough pod space for an ECM and 2 cERPPCs.

[Steel Raven]

My Jester with 4X ER Large Lasers does fairly well, works with the CPLT-K2 as well.

[Gaius Cavadus]

I roll an 81kph Dragon with a gauss rifle and 2xERLLs. Fantastic mech.

[Burning2nd]

If you can run a glass ship then its locust..
if you need some armor to cover your mistakes, then shadowcat
If you want to fight it out, Hunchback
if you want to just unload ammo duel guass k2 cat

while its cool to want to be a sniper.. Im not sure if this role is the same as you remember it.. you might want to look for something a little more aggressive and useful chance are the first shot you take will give away your position and with in seconds youll have fast movers flanking you... effectively shutting your idea down

although if you pull enough of alpha lance off you might give your team the chance they need to do what they have to do

Good luck mechwarrior

[Keltan]

Hellbringer with 4x ERLL is a good sniper for me. High mounted weapons and can bring ECM. Don't have a summoner so can't compare. Range is 800+, so not as good as a gauss rifle, but I'm terrible with those.

[Torothin]

Shadow cat hands down. Roll with either PPC or ELRR. I have also done the dual Gauss Hunchback which is nice. Not as good as the mobility the shadow cat gives though.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Keltan, on 31 August 2017 - 10:15 AM, said:

Hellbringer with 4x ERLL is a good sniper for me. High mounted weapons and can bring ECM. Don't have a summoner so can't compare. Range is 800+, so not as good as a gauss rifle, but I'm terrible with those.

800+ is better than a gauss rifle. Gauss only have 660m range. Both have x2 for their max.

[battledoggo]

to leech onto this thread since I'm in a similar boat. does anyone have a good shadow cat loadout for this purpose? just bought the SHC-MI.

[Torothin]

You want the SHC-B with ER PPCs and heat sinks. ECM helps.

[v4skunk]

Linebacker with a ER PPC in each side torso and filled to the brim with heatsinks.
Use the super high weapon mounts to abuse the terrain while peaking crests.

[stealthraccoon]

I like my Wolfie:
[smurfy]http://mwo.smurfy-ne...caefa2587ae28b7[/smurfy]

[Athom83]

The Blackjack (I prefer the DC for this) with 2 UAC/2s is a really good long ranged support mech that I quite reliably put out 500 damage games in. As with all Blackjacks, it is pretty squishy and you should never use a XL engine in them. If you lose a ST you only lose half your firepower because the majority of viable builds for it is always symetrical, so you had to run a std 175 engine until the LFE came out so now you can run with a LFE 225.

[Bigbacon]

dual ERPPC cheetah.. seriously. You will have almost no armor but you want mobility, ecm, and 30 points of damage, it works.

[Archie4Strings]

Go for the Summoner with Dual PPC (as shown already) or take the Night Gyr (with Dual Gauss and ER Large or ER Medium as secondary). The Summoner can jump and got a decent Speed. The Night Gyr is kind of slow (64,8), but also got JJ.
Others dont really make sense that much. Roughneck? Never seen a roughneck sniper, guess its for a reason. Neither he got JJ or is fast.
Dragon might Work, Linebacker as well. But all the Top Teams go for Summoner or Night Gyr Snipers. Also i do, and it is fun and working really well!

[gooddragon2]

If you're really good with timing, you could get a light gauss rifle and jump jets on something with ecm. You'd be really hard to detect since the gauss doesn't advertise your position like a ppc or a laser. You wouldn't deal much damage though.

I'd personally go with a light clan mech adder prime with 2 or 3 er large lasers. Being a light mech is like having camouflage because heavy mechs won't prioritize you. So you can skirmish in maps where sniping isn't appropriate and you can snipe and reposition with reasonable speed on maps where it is.

[Lightfoot]

You said mobility. Question is how much?

Arctic Cheetah or some fast Light with ECM and ER Mediums is a nice flanker. Just don't get on their radar. If you do you have the speed to evade before they can mount a response.

Nova Cat is a little slow, but nothing beats it's ER power ability. Nova cat was made for large long range energy. Anything else is a missed opportunity.

In between you have the Shadow Cat, Hellbringer and soon, the Thanatos.