10 replies to this topic

[Lan Pyrelight]

As the topic states, I'm a "filthy casual" getting back after more than a year hiatus (simply because I couldn't devote as much time as I'd have liked). And when I did get back, I got floored with the skill tree changes and what seems to be a very confusing change so I hope someone can give some advice.

My questions are as follows:

1.) Can one still enjoy the game without allocating skill points? The last thing I want is to get kicked out of matches simply for having what may be considered a gimped mech. The reason I ask is because of my confusion with the skill tree (i.e. is more speed really that effective? etc.) and lack of c-bills to even consider multiple respecs to try it out. Not to mentioned I have completely forgotten which mechs I maxed out and which I didn't which leaves me utterly confused as to what to do with the points.
2.) Related to question 1, how do I find out what skills benefit which mech more? For example, for "fun" I would have placed an Advanced Zoom on a Commando with a PPC attached. Now that would require spending 4 points which would be mostly useless most of the time on that commando and force me to spend c-bills/XP to unlock a new skill instead of being able to just "move" the advanced zoom to another mech.
3.) If I simply "play" for fun (as usual) and skill what I think "might" be fun, will that lead again to being kicked out of matches for having gimped builds?
4.) How long in general would it take to get enough skills/c-bills to fully skill 1 mech? I seem to read anywhere between 4-9 hours worth of matches can get you a max-skilled mech (all 237 unlocked). Is that accurate?
5.) Are Locust builds still frowned upon? Last I played I got nasty stares for bringing a wet paper napkin to a fight which made it a pain to level up. The Locust still holds a special place in my heart and it's a shame to let them rust.

Thanks for any advice.

[KhanBhacKeD]

Hello and great you get back to us.

For answering you,

1) You can but the less you have skilled the mech, the less he is effective so better you have to be. Especially if you don't play serious builds. So sorry to tell you I'm not sure you can have that much fun with some grimped builds.

2) Technically only 1 word : Logic. For example you speak of a commando with ppc with advanced zoom, did you really need a x4 (or x5 I don't remember) zoom a 600 meters. You just have to think logically. And going back to point 1 : apply the same logic for spead tweak : does direwolf top speed is worth the X skill points I'm gonna to spend on speed tweak. If you need advice on skill tree, you can come on the FRR/Kurita hub and looking for me on the MJ12 channel.

3) Same statement as 1 but remember that the baddest mech on great hand could be powerful. (and it could just mean you love this mech and you understand how to pay it)

4) Dépend on you results, but I think the 4h to 9h is quite reasonable.

5) Locust is lovely but you still have nearly no armor (more than 25 tonner BTW...) but you have to remember to don't give easy shot (don't stare, don't move in straight lines and fear streakers, and maybe ATMs to if the enemy player is good with)


I hope I have helped you and as I said in 2 you can ask me on vocal if needed. I play at eu timezone but I think you can catch me on the Saturday and Sunday if you are NA

Have goods drops

Edited by Uan Harox, 14 September 2017 - 09:38 PM.

[Xaat Xuun]

1) yes, but not advised, if you're just Quick play, go with what you feel is right to you. A lot might depend what your load out is like. The new skill tree you won't be able to match, what it was like before the new skills

2) I like having advance zoom on any mech that has a long range weapon.

3)not kicked, but bitched at if in Faction play, may also happen in Quick play, no one really knows where you spent your skill points, just your loadout, you'll be more to hearing about your loadout. if it's that bad

4) sure you can unlock all the skills, but you can only use 91. so choose wisely and save some C-Bills.

5) dunno, never see them in Faction, but are fun as hell in Quickplay

[SpiralFace]

1.) yes, but its pretty identicle to taking a 'Mech with zero skills on it prior to the Skill Tree. Eventually, you will want to skill into your 'Mech. If you really don't want to waist points, just play the 'Mech a few times with zero skills on and then think to yourself "what will make this better" and just speck in that direction in the skill tree. Some 'Mechs will want more Mobility, Some will want more Survivability, and the only skill tree that doesn't see high end benefits for most builds is the JJ tree. (although I do like JJ heat reductions for clan mech's with lots of JJ's.)

2.) Don't worry too much about relevancy. Even top level tend to disagree on the exact layout of the skill tree. A lot of it comes down to personal preference and how the tree compliments your playstyle. On some 'Mechs you'll want to compound on benefits it already has such as if you have a high amount of armor / structure on a 'Mech in the first place, compound on generous baseline Agility stats, etc. On others, you'll want to make up for deficiencies a 'Mech might have. All depends on your personal preference in play style.

3.) I think its really hard to screw it up, but its still possible. Those armor skills are not going to do you much good if you strip armor off a 'Mech in the first place. Those speed tweak skills aren't going to benefit you as much if you put a lower engine in as opposed to a larger engine, and if your only putting one JJ on a 'Mech the JJ tree isn't really going to do anything for you. By all means have fun. But don't just throw all your points into completely random paths and expect a good return for it. Think about what role you want to play in that 'Mech, even if it is just for fun, and think of ways that can compliment the role you want to play.

4.) Too many factors to tell. Depends on your skill level and your average performance in a match, while also factoring other things such as premium time, or if your willing to spend gxp. Just remember that if you used to play prior to the skill tree release, you have "legacy xp" and "historical and general SP" for your time playing the older 'Mechs. Always remember, spend "general SP" first (if you mastered a 'Mech previously, you will have 91 of them allowing you to have one full tree "max out.") Historical XP is XP that is on a 'Mech chassis type that can be converted over. I find that it takes about as long as before to max out a single chassis IF you also account for the fact that you used to have to also basic 2 additional 'Mechs compared to now. (So now a single 'Mech grind is about as bad as basicing 3 chassis' and then mastering one of them.)

5.) No joke, Locusts used to be one of the top light 'Mechs for a bit. They lost a little bit of their luster with the skill tree, but they are still quite nasty if used properly. Just make sure you don't stop moving, juke as much as you can, and really take the time to figure out if you want to play a "pokey" locust that trys to keep a bit of range with lots of medium lasers, or a knife fighter that dives in to secure kills. You might get a few sideways looks in faction play if you brought one given the generous tonnage IS has to play with. But in Quickplay / Large group drops, they are very fun and viable provided you take the time to learn how to use them. As they are not an easy ride to use. But its entirely possible to do work with them if you know what your doing.

[Hemholtz]

1) As what Uan Harox/Xaat Xuun/SpiralFace says. But imagine having 25 more armor points or structure points (or both) on an Atlas when you spend 32 nodes in Survival...or more range to weapons....or more speed with a lower tonnage engine, freeing up more weight for stuff.

2) Not sure. This is more personal preference. Some say Survival not that useful since you get focus fired upon...some say anchor turns/hard brake/kinetic burst for lights/mediums while assaults take torso yaw/speed, etc. The metamechs website has a section on skills which you could have a look through.

3) Not sure how anyone is gonna kick you. Besides, no one on your team can see your loadouts...the first thing anyone complains about tends to be frontline assaults like Atlas,etc carrying LRMs and standing at the back, etc. And the red team isn't going to complain at your loadout...just laugh at you.

4) You can only use 91 out of 237 skill nodes. De-activating nodes cost nothing but re-activating already "bought" nodes just needs XP (maybe C-bills...gotta check)

5) Don't think Locusts were frowned upon...according to the locust thread, they probably lost some bite but really, you're in a locust. Locust pilots are crazy as it is.
---- I stand corrected about the "lost some bite" part and tremble in horror.... https://mwomercs.com.../page__st__4740

Edited by Hemholtz, 14 September 2017 - 10:48 PM.

[SnagaDance]

First of all. You should have seen a balance sheet upon your return to the game that showed you how much you got returned because of the Skill tree change.

First there's Historic Skillpoints (HSP). any previously unlocked skills for mech have been returned as HSP. A fully mastered mech under the old system will have granted you 91HSP for that particular chassis. When you want to obtain SP for skilling your mechs convert these first!!!!

Because of unlocking Modules you will also have gotten General Skill Points (GSP). This can actually be quite a lot, many players have gotten so much GSP that they don't even have to grind the next 50 or so mechs for those 91 needed SP.
Don't have any HSP for a chassis but want to obtain SP without spending C-bills or MechXP/GXP? Just go for GSP, especially if you have a lot of it.

Lastly there will have been a refund of GXP, C-bills for buying modules and even C-bills (and MC) from (premium) consumables. Even if you won them through events.

All in all it should ne quite the little treasure trove.


Now on to your points:

1) No problem playing, but like said it's just an unskilled mech. What I personally do is that I like to play the mech, and if I arbitrarily determine the mech has 'done good' (we won the match, I qualified for an event condition, I got x damage, I like how funny it fell down after being killed, whatever) I spend 5 SP on it (often coming from its HSP, otherwise its GSP in my case).

This way I really get a feel for what I need to help make that mech better. Regardless of 'optimal skill templates' from Metamechs or this and that other player. They can be excellent base guides but in the end skilling a mech is an individual process closely linked to your individual playstyle.

2) You like to play casual and fun? Then don't worry about getting yourself Advanced Zoom nodes for the fun of it. It will only cost a little XP (I'd use the now rather useless stash of GXP) to reskill if you really want. Just play like you want.

3) Not getting the kicked part, but everyone gets the moaners now and then. I just hold my mouth and check the end screen. In the end I've usually done for more damage/kills/assists than the moaner(s), and done so in a mech one or two weight classes lower as well. Haters are gonna hate.

4) Can't really say, with all the HSP and GSP I haver this hasn't been an issue yet, maybe ask me in 2 years time

5) Locusts are great! You are by default crazy for driving it so who cares what some meta try-hards are saying? Besides they can be crazy effective, always great fun to pilot and even if you get one-shotted who can blame you? That's Locust life.

Ever seen videos from TheB33f? For some reason he has let his old Youtube channel collect dust but he started a new one called TheB33f highlights: https://www.youtube....6m2dsrLZ3uvbvnQ

Check out his Locust videos (about 4 months to a year old, he has done a ton of them) and revel in the power and insanity of the Locust!

[Lan Pyrelight]

Thanks everyone for the replies It's great to see so many helpful pilots still on the forums.

I'll take that advice and give the game a whirl again. Maybe you'll see some crazy Locust pilot running around like a headless chicken XD

[Roughneck45]

The skill tree looks overwhelming but its fairly simple once you get used to it. It's usually best to stack skills with your quirks, so if you have bonus structure/armor/whatever you should buff it further in the skill tree.

Focus on the nodes you know you'll want and go all out for them. Energy boat? Heat and duration nodes. Using ECM? Get the buff nodes. Missiles? Missile and lock related nodes if applicable. As long as it makes sense you can't go wrong.

Edited by Roughneck45, 15 September 2017 - 03:54 PM.

[Xaat Xuun]

Lan Pyrelight, on 15 September 2017 - 02:41 PM, said:

Locust pilot running around like a headless chicken XD

Heh . . I don't think there is any other way to piloting a Locust

[CFC Conky]

Hey Lan,

Having an unskilled mech in quick play is no big deal, the way things are these days your team either rolls over the other team or vice versa and having a fully skiled mech will not make much of a difference imo. That said, qp is still a lot of fun so just go for it.

Locusts are fine, light mechs with lots of light machine guns are pretty popular at the moment but Locusts are not among them.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

[Horseman]

Lan Pyrelight, on 14 September 2017 - 09:12 PM, said:

1.) Can one still enjoy the game without allocating skill points? The last thing I want is to get kicked out of matches simply for having what may be considered a gimped mech. The reason I ask is because of my confusion with the skill tree (i.e. is more speed really that effective? etc.) and lack of c-bills to even consider multiple respecs to try it out. Not to mentioned I have completely forgotten which mechs I maxed out and which I didn't which leaves me utterly confused as to what to do with the points.

The refund gave you GSP for old modules as well as HSP for skilled out mechs. A generic skill loadout that's a suboptimal fit is better than no skill loadout at all - take this as a generic starting point to work from - you will want to make adjustments depending on your specific chassis and loadout: https://tarogato-mwo...97-b5b3b3d460d9

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2.) Related to question 1, how do I find out what skills benefit which mech more? For example, for "fun" I would have placed an Advanced Zoom on a Commando with a PPC attached. Now that would require spending 4 points which would be mostly useless most of the time on that commando and force me to spend c-bills/XP to unlock a new skill instead of being able to just "move" the advanced zoom to another mech.

Most mechs will benefit from the survival, heat and cooldown buffs with some exceptions - eg Heat Reduction and Heat Dissipation will not help pure MG / Gauss builds, Cooldown will not help builds that use RACs and MGs since it does not benefit their ROF (and isn't a priority if your build tends to run hot after only 2-3 salvos). and on the lightest mechs you'll probably want mobility over survival (since their survival depends more on not getting hit)
It's an excercise in min/maxing, most of the time.

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3.) If I simply "play" for fun (as usual) and skill what I think "might" be fun, will that lead again to being kicked out of matches for having gimped builds?

There's no kick feature in this game, and the other players don't see your skill build.

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4.) How long in general would it take to get enough skills/c-bills to fully skill 1 mech? I seem to read anywhere between 4-9 hours worth of matches can get you a max-skilled mech (all 237 unlocked). Is that accurate?

You may be better off spreading efforts between several mechs over a few days to take advantage of the 2x XP buff for your first daily victory per each mech.
Also, you're capped at 91 active skill nodes per mech at any given time. Even chassis I wasted a lot of nodes on don't go over 150 nodes purchased.

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5.) Are Locust builds still frowned upon? Last I played I got nasty stares for bringing a wet paper napkin to a fight which made it a pain to level up. The Locust still holds a special place in my heart and it's a shame to let them rust.

They're fine. Pirates' Bane can use stealth armor (newtech), which also helps.

Edited by Horseman, 17 September 2017 - 08:39 AM.