5 replies to this topic

[TheFourthAlly]

Howdy,

I've been playing this for about a year and a half now, I got about 25 or so Mechs and enjoy most of them.

I fell for the paint job of the Nightstar special, the 9J (S) and pre-ordered that pack. Thing is, I own a total of one assault, the Battlemaster 1G that came with an event. I'm fairly bad in that one imo, have not found a build I can make work for me either.

I figured I have about a month to get at least a tiny bit better with Assaults before the Nightstar release. Currently I play at lot of Lights and Mediums and but have also Heavies I do well in.

I like dakka and lasers mostly, seem to do better at the mid-range, although lately I have build up a bit more patience to position and wait to close (and die horribly as well of course). I have not gotten the hang of LRMs, doesn't seem to be my thing.

I think I do best (in terms of consistency) with my 2x AC10 Black Widow, an AC20 HBK-4G, a LPL/ ML TBR-A and a 3x ERLL HBK-4P.

A 2x SRM6 and spl HBK-4SP, a SRM6 build on another TBR, a stabby Cheetah and my Locusts seem very hit and miss in terms of successful games. I enjoy playing them though and can wreck face with them (if the reds to not wreck me first).

I have a fair amount of c-bills built up and would be happy to pick up one or two Assaults to try and get my head around that playstyle a bit more. It's time to expand a bit anyway.

Not sure if this is entirely suitable for the new player help section, but I am new to Assaults as such.

[The Basilisk]

TheFourthAlly, on 19 September 2017 - 03:20 AM, said:

Howdy,

I've been playing this for about a year and a half now, I got about 25 or so Mechs and enjoy most of them.

I fell for the paint job of the Nightstar special, the 9J (S) and pre-ordered that pack. Thing is, I own a total of one assault, the Battlemaster 1G that came with an event. I'm fairly bad in that one imo, have not found a build I can make work for me either.

I figured I have about a month to get at least a tiny bit better with Assaults before the Nightstar release. Currently I play at lot of Lights and Mediums and but have also Heavies I do well in.

I like dakka and lasers mostly, seem to do better at the mid-range, although lately I have build up a bit more patience to position and wait to close (and die horribly as well of course). I have not gotten the hang of LRMs, doesn't seem to be my thing.

I think I do best (in terms of consistency) with my 2x AC10 Black Widow, an AC20 HBK-4G, a LPL/ ML TBR-A and a 3x ERLL HBK-4P.

A 2x SRM6 and spl HBK-4SP, a SRM6 build on another TBR, a stabby Cheetah and my Locusts seem very hit and miss in terms of successful games. I enjoy playing them though and can wreck face with them (if the reds to not wreck me first).

I have a fair amount of c-bills built up and would be happy to pick up one or two Assaults to try and get my head around that playstyle a bit more. It's time to expand a bit anyway.

Not sure if this is entirely suitable for the new player help section, but I am new to Assaults as such.

Greetings,
well Mr Fourth Ally there are a lot of differences between assault Battlemechs and ASSAULT battlemechs.

If you compare the super heavy class there are "true" Assaults like the Annihilator, the Atlas, the Direwolf and the Kodiak or Mechs like Battlemaster and Marauder IIC.

The faster Assaults actually act more like slow heavys with a bit more firepower, armor and cooling while the slow assaults primarily use their shocking firepower/stopingpower and armor to get around.

There are also chassis that are more suitable for brawling (Executioner, Gargoyle and Atlas) or more for Trading (Banshee, Battlemaster, MADIIC) and others for medium to longrange firesupport (Annihilator, Direwolf, Warhawk)

Battlemaster 1G f.e. profits mainly from its ability to combine a decent punch with acceptable mobility and durability.
1G Laser
1G MRMLaser mix
1G PPC
1G AC Laser mix
While Battlemaster sure can take a respectable ammount of damage he absolutely can not just walk into the open and start to fire. Use you mobility and good timing to bring your firepower to bear where it counts.
While most heavys with similar loadouts have to make serious compromises on speed, armor or heat management the battlemaster has more room to combine those traits without large trade- offs.

The Nightstar you are waiting for will be more along the lines of the classic assaults with a topspeed of ~60-70kph it will still get around quite fast for an assault, but with large tradeoffs.
His loadout with large ballistics and energy weapons on high mounts also hints on serious hillpoking and ranged trading potential but its weight of 95 tonns and the associated mobility will be a big hinderance when trying to poke and fade.

Long story short...there are quite a lot different playstyles with assaults.
Lets see what the nighty realy can do when it comes out and then come back and discuss.
A lot whill be determined by its hitboxes and internal mobility quirks.

Edited by The Basilisk, 19 September 2017 - 05:00 AM.

[Leone]

I offer advice for the fledgling assualt pilot herein. Some of it's just general build and battlefield awareness, but the real thing to remember with assualts is your slow, so you gotta commit to everything you do.

Work on map awareness and learning to read the ongoing battlefield. With an assualt you kinda gotta outthink your opposition in order to make the best of your machine.

~Leone.

[Tier5 Kerensky]

Biggest difficulty with assults is piloting the weaker assults like Dire Wolf. It may not look like weak but it's slow speed makes it really vunerable, and specially unseasoned players will probably get caught out in open with them, all the time, dying fast with no significant damage done.

Nightstar should be decent.
You will need lots of cbills to get LFE engines for them. You'd want to have most assults to go about 55 to 60 km/h. I doubt they would have strong enough quirks to be really XL safe which they come stock with. You can try them but you will very likely benefit from better LFE engines. Plus 285 rated engine on 95 ton assult is weakish. You'd really benefit from faster. If you ask, no we don't know yet what kind of quirks it will get. It won't get huge quirks like Annihilator though.

You will also need cbills to get endo. None comes stock with it. Some assults might do okay without endo, particularly ones which need slots for double heat sinks, but my guess Nightstar won't be needing so much of them.

Battlemaster is fairly different than Nightstar, but here's something you try.

Battlemaster is best known and used by, it's high cockpit and high torso mounts. You take a position just behind some hill or other similiar cover, you push out just so you can see the enemy, fire, then pull back into cover. Doing so you only expose a small part of your mech, making you rather difficult to damage. Of course you won't have that oppoturnity all the time, but that's what you aim for.

I kept STD340 , standard internals and single heatsinks it comes stock with it, so that you don't need to dump extra cbills for it. Thats is not good, but it's sufficient for practise.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...58f2bcd2dab66a2

Place the small lasers first, then large pulses. Doing so will place the large pulse to higher mounts. You don't need to use the small lasers at all, their only function is to place the large pulse on top. Two of the mounts will be little above cockpit level and one will be little below. 3 large pulse offer decent firepower, range and easy of use.

Due to single heatsinks and standard engine that thing will be really hot. If you end up liking your results with Battlemaster 1G you can first upgrade the heatsinks into double, then later maybe take endo. Depending on weapons Battlemaster 1G might also keep standard internals, as then it allows to take more double heatsinks. But double heatsinks is a must for all serious configs, because it trades away nothing expect cbills.

Edited by Teer Kerensky, 19 September 2017 - 01:36 PM.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Got 20 dollars to play with? Buy a MadCat MkII before it comes out for C-Bills (meaning before it gets the NERF hammer)

[TheFourthAlly]

Thanks a bunch folks. Again this place does not disappoint. I have obviously not been playing this Battlemaster to it's strengths.

I'll try out the builds and keep in mind what it should be better at and give that a whirl.

Due to events, some premium time and occasional hero well used, I have a nice nest egg of about 85 million spacebucks in waiting for the new arrivals. So I think I can spare a few to experiment a bit with some builds and maybe another Assault as well.