21 replies to this topic

[gooddragon1]

I've heard a number of ways to deal with light mechs (shooting the legs with lasers on chain fire, positioning, and such).

What is an efficient way to deal with assault mechs? Is there an assault mech build that does well at killing them? Would this build: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...e0d8ae8df9bb24a from here be any good at dealing with them? (I've got a 4 er mL, 2 er LL warhammer build that I'm enjoying flanking with at the moment).

Commentary in general about dealing with assault mechs is good too.

[General Solo]

Never stare at an assault mech when you are in its firing arc.
You wanna engage an assault mech from the sides and back if possible.
I generally go for CT as most assaults don't twist dat good.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

To beat assault mechs you have to out trade them. If an assault is in a great position it will be very hard to take out usually. You'll want one of two things, a poptart or a high alpha fast skirmisher.

An assault can reliably be worn down even by a mech with dual ERPPCs if the pilot can poptart against said assault repeatedly to put in damage without taking return fire, thus outrading the enemy through dodging. A good poptarter can even push out full laser alphas while poptarting.

Skirmishers with high alpha strikes (50-80 damage) and mid range can usually poke the assault with a good amount of damage and get back to cover without them noticing as long as they don't just attack the assault frontally, try to flank to the side a bit or pop out from different areas of cover so his crosshair won't be on you when you peek.


Assaults generally aren't very mobile, and usually have massive amounts of firepower and decent armor, but due to their low agility they will be slower to actually move their crosshairs to you, take advantage of that. Generally assaults don't counter other assaults well, it depends on the build, a long range assault will beat a brawl assault at long range and the reverse is true up close. Annihilator is the most armored, slow, and high DPS assault, so it could generally win any direct fight against other assaults as long as its in range and able to get hits, but other assaults that are faster with higher mounts such as the Battlemaster could kite it and poke without exposing much.

[Audacious Aubergine]

Aim for the legs, too. Different people might have different ideas but I tend to shave armour from the legs first, leaving them a bit easier to shred than the rest of the mech. Assaults are normally slow enough as it is, legging one is practically tolling the death bell.
Also, shoot them in the back for mostly the same reasons

[gooddragon1]

What if you get rolled by a force of assault mechs? (I play quick play, tactics are "Keep to the code" - Pirates of the Carribean)

I like to use large lasers to skirmish, saving up for that supernova build from the video. Guess I'll try to leg them.

[Audacious Aubergine]

If you get rolled by multiple assaults then you're toast regardless, at that point I just pop a UAV to get as many posthumous c-bills as I possibly can and go down guns blazing

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

gooddragon1, on 06 October 2017 - 09:22 PM, said:

What if you get rolled by a force of assault mechs? (I play quick play, tactics are "Keep to the code" - Pirates of the Carribean)

I like to use large lasers to skirmish, saving up for that supernova build from the video. Guess I'll try to leg them.

You're pretty much a dead man if a force of assault mechs decides to push you and your team doesn't have a solid firing line or at least a line of kiting skirmishers. Since you like to use large lasers you should be able to outrange enemies who are pushing, so in that situation fall back and fire from range. I'd really recommend a faster mech than a Supernova for that though, as a Supernova will just get overrun since its slow, no chance to run.

If you are in a Supernova running 6 ERLL you're pretty much a dead man if the enemy pushes you with a close range build, a decent medium mech brawler would likely have the advantage, if a squad of Atlases just walk over the hill its GG.

Also about legs, you have to take both out to kill a mech, and even when people strip a ton of armor from each leg they both add up to more total health than the center torso and the moment you come up against someone who knows not to strip their leg armor more than 10 points or so you're pretty much doomed.

The 6 ERLL Supernova is a mech all about power positioning. It is seen in competitive play time to time due to the high levels of teamwork supporting the mech and allowing it to take up a position of power, essentially the high ground, in a match so that it can constantly punish any enemies who try to make damage trades with your team. In an average quickplay match you likely won't have anything close to that level of teamwork, so you'll have to learn the flow of battle pretty well and make sure you put in a lot of damage before the teams close into the mid range where you'll be out traded by high damage laser alpha builds.

Good luck, maybe its just me, but I just can't stand slow moving mechs anymore, nothing under 70kph for me.

[The Basilisk]

Since you will outperform most assault mechs in most likely any way except pure total number of hitpoints I don't realy understand the topic.

Assaults are either slow (Dire, Atlas, Stalker, Annihilator) or woefully undergunned (Executioner, Gargoyle) or dispite their huge silhuette forced to get close in to use their phalanx of smal weapons.

The few Assaults that are still quite threatening despite their crippling downsides have normaly a distinct single strong point they rely on.

This point is what you need to know about the respective chassis not about Assaults in general.

Those facts are also pretty obvious in most cases like the low hardpoints on an Atlas that makes him unsuitable for long range engagements or forces him to use lrms. Both points that make him vulnerable for trading medium to longrange fire.

Other Example is the Direwolf that is so slow and unwieldy that it has excruciatingly large dead corners. Executioner and Gargoyle can have dangerous firepower from lasers but tend to run hot fast and are extremely vulnerable from above.

And so on...every chassis has its strengths and weaknesses that you have to find and learn and use.

Edited by The Basilisk, 07 October 2017 - 01:01 AM.

[Rabid Turtle]

It also depends on the mech. For example, i've learned to try and take the arms off most Warhawks. They are pretty much neutered. Every mech has a strength and weakness to keep balance. Spectating your matches if you die, watching videos and fighting each mech will help you learn how/when to fight them and when to haul @$$ outta there.

Use comms in your matches. Nine times out of ten there is an experienced Mech Warrior that will tell you how to fight each mech. That's how I learned how to fight most Warhawks.

Edited by Stevenson Ellis, 08 October 2017 - 11:19 AM.

[CFC Conky]

Never fight fair when going up against assault-class mechs, gang up on them, focused fire is the way to go. That said, if you are in an agile mech and the big guy is isolated, try to backstab them. If they get their backs up against a wall or terrain, well, it's probably best to go find another target if you have that option.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

[JigglyMoobs]

gooddragon1, on 06 October 2017 - 09:22 PM, said:

What if you get rolled by a force of assault mechs? (I play quick play, tactics are "Keep to the code" - Pirates of the Carribean)

I like to use large lasers to skirmish, saving up for that supernova build from the video. Guess I'll try to leg them.

The Supernova build isn't that great for taking on assaults (unless from very long range) because it takes a lot of face time to melt through their armor. Assaults are vulnerable mechs with great mobility (preferably jump jets) and high alpha short duration firepower (eg a Summoner with erppcs), LRM boats if they can't reach you (eg a LRM 80 Supernova), or other assaults with higher DPS (eg a 2xUAC5+2xUAC10 clan assault, 5xUAC5 annihilator, 6xUAC2 Mauler).

The Deathstrike with 2xGauss + laser vomit is good at taking out other assaults too.

As an assault pilot, when fighting another assault, one strategy is to put all of your firepower precisely into a component that can remove a great deal of the opposing assault's fire power. So, for example, agaisnt a dakka whale I might go for a side torso first. Another strategy is to put dakka directly on the cockpit to blind them. That's a really annoying tactic that works well with very high firing rate weapons.

If assaults are armor stripped, light mech machinegun boats can easily crit their weapons.

The general rule is that if you are lighter than the assault use your mobility and minimize face time. If you are in another assault mech focus your firepower and cripple their weapons. If you see a King Crab join the feast as your teammates use it for target practice.

Edited by JigglyMoobs, 08 October 2017 - 03:35 PM.

[Fox With A Shotgun]

If you're in a light mech with a NARC, you could plop a NARC on one and just run away. LRMs will do one of two things to it: it'd force the assault mech to take cover for 30-50 seconds (depending on duration of NARC), or kill it by LRM barrage. Either way, it takes the assault out of the fight either permanently or temporarily.

Otherwise, get out of its frontal arc and call for help. I've had a match where a dakka Mauler got taken out of the fight doing only 9 damage the whole match because my 3 HLL kitfox and a SPL-MG Viper pincered it from opposite sides. It couldn't face one of us without exposing its rear to the other, and if it turned to face one of us, the one that it's facing would just go back into cover and the other starts to shoot at its exposed rear.

Also as a side note, if it's a dakka or missile-based IS assault, it's worth noting that they usually have ammo in the under-armoured legs. Hit those with critseeking weapons and you might end up with a nice firework display.

[Wolfways]

1) Make sure it's not shooting at you.
2) blow out its ct.

Assault mechs are the weakest mechs in the game due to their lack of ability to effectively spread incoming damage.

[mistlynx4life]

In the opinion of a dedicated Mist Lynx pilot, there are a couple things to consider when engaging an Assault:

1) Is it alone or far enough from friends that I can avoid being outright obliterated as soon as I open fire? I'm okay with one or two friends, maybe, if they're also big and slow - but then I'll be spreading my fire between all three (assuming there's no obviously wounded/open targets or something) so as to be unpredictable and add Friendly Fire to my arsenal. If my main target is near a wall or something that it can back up to before I get at least one good pass at its back, I need to be patient and wait. If it's several Assaults, I'll let my team know that it's a good time to push because I'm tying up lots of firepower.

2) Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes... and then don't stop. I can usually tell when I've got an Assault on the ropes - they suddenly stop focusing on trying to kill me and begin to back up or head for the nearest cover or towards their teammates. That's the point at which you know you've got them scared. Keep firing but be aware that if they have any other Lights left, they're probably being screamed at for help. *That's* the time to disengage.

3) I usually focus weapons, believe it or not. I watch for what loadout they have and then consider the best trade - if this kills me (and it's very possible it will), what's the best way to help my team with my death? It's not legging an LRM Assault, for instance - I want to target those launchers. Hunchbacks are easy targets for this because of the giant hunch that usually carries the bulk of their firepower. A Hunchback without a Hunch is both significantly reduced in offensive capability and probably really sad inside. Also consider heat - what weapons are they going to use against me and is it likely that they will overheat or lose their ability to shoot at me beyond an alpha or two? I'm going to push a 'mech that looks like it runs hot and let it keep those toasty weapons, but that's just me.

Those are just my initial/primary thoughts regarding my Mist Lynx versus any given Assault. My goal is rarely to finish them off - I want to keep them busy, and probably a couple of their friends in some fashion, while I let my own buddies know that now's a good time to roll the Reds.

#mistlynx4life

[JigglyMoobs]

Also choose when you fight.

Assaults are hard to take down when their armor is fresh, but your 6 machine guns are lethal when their armor is gone.

One incredibly effective way of using the myst lynx is as a professional reaper of injured mechs. This helps the team tremendously because you take their firepower off the field as fast as possible. Along the way you can secure multiple kills per round.

[mistlynx4life]

JigglyMoobs, on 06 November 2017 - 03:05 PM, said:

Also choose when you fight.

Assaults are hard to take down when their armor is fresh, but your 6 machine guns are lethal when their armor is gone.

One incredibly effective way of using the myst lynx is as a professional reaper of injured mechs. This helps the team tremendously because you take their firepower off the field as fast as possible. Along the way you can secure multiple kills per round.

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm one of those crazy Lynx pilots that *doesn't* run the Meta Build. That's predictable and will earn me focused firing from the Reds these days. I spent hundreds of hours getting by with two or three Machine Guns just fine. Not knocking the 8MGs but it's just not my style (in QuickPlay, where I spend most of my time - in Group Play I'll bring it because that's a different dynamic of play).

[JigglyMoobs]

mistlynx4life, on 06 November 2017 - 03:19 PM, said:

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm one of those crazy Lynx pilots that *doesn't* run the Meta Build. That's predictable and will earn me focused firing from the Reds these days. I spent hundreds of hours getting by with two or three Machine Guns just fine. Not knocking the 8MGs but it's just not my style (in QuickPlay, where I spend most of my time - in Group Play I'll bring it because that's a different dynamic of play).

Haha, makes sense Koniving liked your post first. This really tugs at his heartstrings.

[Void Angel]

But if the meta build is well-known enough to warrant focus-fire, they're going to shoot at you for being a Mist Lynx anyway, before they even see your build - it'll just be reflex.

[mistlynx4life]

Void Angel, on 06 November 2017 - 05:54 PM, said:

But if the meta build is well-known enough to warrant focus-fire, they're going to shoot at you for being a Mist Lynx anyway, before they even see your build - it'll just be reflex.

In which case I'll be happy to have significantly more armor when utilizing my "LOOK AT MEEEEE!" tactics. As a bonus, I won't have salty Reds claiming that the MG Lynx is 'Easy Mode'. But here I am, hijacking the thread as feared...

[JigglyMoobs]

Void Angel, on 06 November 2017 - 05:54 PM, said:

But if the meta build is well-known enough to warrant focus-fire, they're going to shoot at you for being a Mist Lynx anyway, before they even see your build - it'll just be reflex.

KILL IT! KILL IT WITH STREAKS AND FLAMERS!!!