27 replies to this topic

[Vellron2005]

Here's a list of mechs I've found to be surprisingly tanky:

1) Lights: Arctic Cheeta, Urbanmech (or as I like to call it the Mini-Atlas) - Also Locust and Myst Lynx if you include lagshield.

2) Mediums: Nova, Assassin, Huntsman, Stormcrow

3) Heavies: Archer, Mad Dog, Timberwolf, Hellbringer, Marauder, Ebon Jaguar

4) Assaults: Atlas, Supernova, Mauler (a recent suprise for me), Awesome (newest addition, still testing but good results so far), Battlemaster, King Crab, Marauder IIC,

Note that if you get focused, you will die in seconds in any of these, and you can't simply push an enemy and expect to survive.. When I say tanky, I take into account full survival tree and at least basic torso-twisting skill.

Edited by Vellron2005, 12 October 2017 - 02:52 AM.

[Lykaon]

Mountain Mechwarrior, on 11 October 2017 - 05:00 PM, said:

Hello All,

A simple question, I hope. By weight what are the potentially tankiest mechs?

This should reflect hitboxes, quirks, skill tree, etc.

I assume the IS Annihilator tops out the 100 ton range.

Thanks

Well you passive tankyness or mechs with the most damage to take. Like the Annihilator

And you have active tankyness and that being mechs with a mix of mobility and armor to maximize the potential armor use.

Here are some examples.

An Annihilator has huge amounts of armor andt structure and when fully invested into the survival skills is among the "tankyest" a mechs with raw stats of armor and structure.

However,the Annihilator is also among the slowest of mechs so has difficulty evading damage. Theoreticly the Annihilator can soak massive amounts of damage but it's lack of mobility will reduce it's ability to diffuse the damage over multiple body sections with active defensive movement.

Next up we have a Clan Executioner a 95 ton clan omnimech with less armor (and defensive armor/structure quirks). The Executioner is noticably less inherently "tanky" but the Executioner is much much more mobile. With it's MASC and faster movements with the Executioner it is much easier to execute defensive moves like evasion and twisting allowing a skilled pilot to gain more out of the lower armor values present.

Taking this evasion over soak principle to the furthest conclusion. Evasion is always better than soaking.

You will run out of armor

The enemy will never run out of missing

In my opinion based upon several years of observations in MWo the mechs that survive the longest under fire the most evasive ones.

Thus the "tankiest" mechs are probably Commandos and Locusts.

[Khobai]

There is no tanking in MWO. At least not in 12v12. Even the toughest assaults and squirreliest lights die too fast to be considered armor/evasion tanks.

This is why we need to go back to 8v8. Because mechs actually had roles then. It wasnt just hiding behind rocks and poking and heavies being superior to everything else. 12v12 made it so firing lines and long range became the dominant playstyle. 8v8 allowed for more diverse tactics.

8v8 with balanced clan tech would be the best direction for this game.

Edited by Khobai, 12 October 2017 - 06:55 AM.

[TLBFestus]

Honestly, compared to how they should be there isn't a truly "tanky" mech in this game.

If you are going to go for what you have, then it's difficult to answer. A 30 ton mech can last way longer than some of the largest 80-100 ton mechs in the game, not for armor value but because of the ability to spread damage.

[Kin3ticX]

tanking is more an RPG thing, not how its done in mwo at all. There are mechs that have extra health but it doesn't afford you extra carelessness with incoming fire per say. You can also think of it as a slight handicap for brawler builds or generally weaker mechs. Others like the ANH have extra structure probably because they are so slow and big.

[LordNothing]

annihilators are great at tanking. mine take a lot more abuse than my ultraviolet does. it also has exceptionally well armored side torsos so if you unlock every torso speed node you can last a really long time with twisting. theres also an atlas that at one point had really good armor quirks, if thats still the case you might want to try that. whammies are also really tanky for a heavy.

Edited by LordNothing, 12 October 2017 - 04:08 PM.

[SilentScreamer]

If the OP truly wants to "tank" as per MMORPGs what Kin3ticX says is correct, you arein the wrong type of game.

Mech are finite because armor/structure is finite (Zathus is also finite, this is wrong tool and a tangent). X points of damage are you are killed. "Tanks" work in MMOs because there are healers which replenish HP or prevent damage. There are no such abilities in MWO,

If by tank the OP wants to be able to take as much damage as possible my suggestions are:
1) put as much armor as you can on forward torsos and NEVER turn your back to the enemy
2) Use terrain and positioning to block incoming LRMs
3) Dead side your build. design your mech with all weapins on one side. Use a Clan XL engine or IS standard or LF engine. Thunderbolt 9Se(C) is a good example of the build. Whenever you take fire turn your weaponless side to the enemy. Even after you loose your weaponless side it will continue to absorb hits, only 25% will pass from a side torso to the center torso. So if you have 80 points of armor CT your opponents will pump 320 points of damage into that "dead" side before your center fails. That is assuming you twist/protect perfectly and take no other damage.

If you want to try on an assault mech try Marauder IIC, Stalkers and King Crabs as their geometry is favorable to twisting far enough to block their center torsos with arms or side torso. Do not forget to pick Skills from Mobility and Survival Trees.

Finally, when your armor is gone let another teamate take the lead and the hits. Your guns are too valuable for you to sacrafice yourself and your mech. This sort of teamwork is refered to as sharing armor and very useful to win matches.

Edited by SilentScreamer, 12 October 2017 - 08:36 PM.

[Nightbird]

There are 5 degrees of tankiness in MWO, where within the same tonnage and without considering survival quirks/skill tree, there are large differences in the damage you can take before being incapacitated or killed. From worst to best:

5th: XL engine, w/ big side torsos that cannot be shielded with arms. (XL Marauder, Stalker, etc). Don't do it.
4th: LF engine, w/o shield arms (LFE Marauder, LFE Stalker, etc)
3nd: XL engine, w/ shield arms (XL Banshee, XL Warhammer, etc), C-XL engine w/o shield arms (C-XL Marauder IIC, C-XL Dire, etc)
2nd: LF engine w/ shield arms (LFE Cyclops, Atlas, Warhammer, etc), C-XL engine w/ shield arms (C-XL Gargoyle, LInebacker, Huntsman, etc), STD engine w/o shield arms (STD Marauder, Stalker, etc)
1st: STD engine w/shield arms (STD Atlas, Anni, etc)

First of all, this assumes you're using arms to shield when not shooting. If you don't do this, every mech is a death trap.

Second of all, tanking damage is good but if you give up the ability to deal damage back you're just delaying your death a little. Using a mech optimized for tanking is only good in very rare cases where you're in a team that will make use of every second of you tanking. Outside of this rare circumstance, dealing more damage is better.

Third, look at how high C-XL is in that list.

Edited by Nightbird, 12 October 2017 - 04:51 PM.