28 replies to this topic

[Jun Watarase]

I look at the viper, then I look at the Assassin and I cry. There is just not much you can do in a 40 ton with less than 8.5 tons of pod space after maxing out armor. Especially in FP where tonnage efficiency is critical.

Your highest damage loadout is probably a VPR-C with 5x heavy smallers and 4x MGs, unfortunately your effective range is like 110m which is a death sentence for a 40 tonner with bad hitboxes and next to no offensive quirks.

Or a VPR-A with 4x heavy med lasers.

Unfotunately the fundamental problem is the hitboxes are bad and the ACH can do the same or better builds 10 tons lighter.

Edited by Jun Watarase, 22 October 2017 - 08:16 AM.

[Noey Bunny]

Jun Watarase, on 22 October 2017 - 07:53 AM, said:

I look at the viper, then I look at the Assassin and I cry. There is just not much you can do in a 40 ton with less than 8.5 tons of pod space after maxing out armor. Especially in FP where tonnage efficiency is critical.

Your highest damage loadout is probably a VPR-C with 5x heavy smallers and 4x MGs, unfortunately your effective range is like 110m which is a death sentence for a 40 tonner with bad hitboxes and next to no offensive quirks.

Or a VPR-A with 4x heavy med lasers.

Unfotunately the fundamental problem is the hitboxes are bad and the ACH can do the same or better builds 10 tons lighter.

I bought the full pack of vipers on pre-order and regret it greatly, there's no denying that the viper can do well, but it's scraping the bottom of the barrel on excelling at anything of it's own volition, unless your main criteria for what makes a good mech is whether or not it can escape the atmosphere with it's jump jets, because the viper has that in spades.

While it's weaknesses do outplay it's strengths, there are some excellent ways to utilize this mech.

but do remember, it's lack of armour or structure and large size means that it's not going to brawl, and while it feels fast, its speed isn't going to save you (the afforementioned hitboxes really are awful, the arms do nothing to protect the gigantic ST's)

Also important, is that you'll lose fights with lights if you aren't smart, use your cover wisely and know where to shoot and when to run to your heavies for back up. Even more so, the huge reserves of jumpjets will let you get into positions that are highly unexpected, probably the biggest advantage that the viper has.

I run my medusa as a disrupting skimisher for the majority of the match with 4 C-MPL and 2DHS all in the Torso, the arms are just flappy noodle appendages and are typically obliterated the moment you even think the words 'laser wash' or 'LRM'.

There's a lot of love for the MG built vipers but i say nay. The one big problem is how paper the viper is, you need low face time weapons so you can burst and hide, the viper really can't afford to be staring at someone to get DPS out with MG's, that's a lot of time spent when you should be repositioning to a new firing location.

Either way, the viper takes a lot of skill Try not to be too discouraged and practice being sneaky sneaky!!

Edited by Kittenkawa11, 22 October 2017 - 10:40 AM.

[Lykaon]

I have had some success with 4 Hvy Mediums and 4 LMGs w/1.5 tons ammo + 2 DHS and a little head armor stripped to make a full half ton for LMG ammo.

It's a hit and runner and not ideal for dueling other quick mechs due to the long burn durations and cooldown on the heavy lasers but it does unleash some impressive damage each cooldown cycle for a 40 ton mech.

I use it has a little helper for the big boys.

[50 50]

The set of 8 bonuses don't help it much either.

I haven't been using mine much recently but am revisiting the builds with the new tech now to see how different configs feel and play.

The VPR-A was the only variant I never changed the omni pods on and I use it as a scout and spotter.
4 ER mediums in the torso. TAG and NARC in the arms.

The VPR-B gets a nice PPC velocity bonus, but lack of free tonnage limits you to one. If Clan ever get light PPCs it would be friggin funny on this thing.

The VPR-C is the one to use with the MGs and you have 3 choices depending on range you want to fight at. HSMLs + MGs or HMDL + LMGs or Micro SPLs + HMGs if you really want to check out their camo scheme up close.

The Medusa does ok with ER Mediums.

Not really happy with the mixed SRM + SPL build for the VPR-D or anything on the Prime at the moment.

Right at the moment I haven't mixed and matched the omnipods, but you can get a reasonable splat build going with 3 SRMS and a dedicated laser build with up to 11 hard points. Will have to put those two together again at one point and go flying about the maps.

As the others have said, it is very fragile especially compared with other mechs of similar tonnages and it runs hot with pretty much any build. Good boom and zoom mech.

The best bit is the speed and those awesome jump jets.
Serious fun and more so with skills in the jump jet tree.

[Aleski]

I use my Medusa with 6xER SL and 4xLMG, works like a charm.

The B33f build with 4xLMG and 4xHML is pretty beastly too. It's a great finisher mech.

The 5xERML build is pretty nice too... You can jump like a crazy in dat mech and sneak behind assaults pretty easily. But the hitboxes and armor valor make you very very vulnerable. You don't want to be focused by your ennemies. So play it sneaky or hide behind your teammate anytime you can.

[Daggett]

The Viper has two main advantages: Jump jets and the high number of hardpoints for it's speed. If you don't find a way to utilize those perks, it makes no sense to run a Viper, because other mechs perform better in standard roles.

I had quite some success with a one-shot backstabber with 4HML+5HSL for a staggered 72.5pt alpha to (almost) instantly rip off a side-torso (or kill most non-assaults by going for CT) and a flamer-viper for headshotting (4HML+6Flamer). But both require quite some skill and are far from being consistent. You will have some very exiting matches, but expect to also have lots of bad ones where you can't find isolated easy targets or where you run into a wolf-pack.

So my credo is: You don't run a Viper to maximize your chance of winning, you run it for those gameplay situations no other mech can provide yet.

Edited by Daggett, 23 October 2017 - 04:07 AM.

[Snowbluff]

Yeah I run 5 flamers 4 HML. I'm bad at headshots, but I one shot a cheetah a few days ago.

The HLL sounds like a good idea. The range lets you use the JJ. However, wouldn't ERML be better to save some tonnage for heat sinks?

Yeah I run 5 flamers 4 HML. I'm bad at headshots, but I one shot a cheetah a few days ago.

The HLL sounds like a good idea. The range lets you use the JJ. However, wouldn't ERML be better to save some tonnage for heat sinks?

[Snazzy Dragon]

The best viper build is to replace it with an arctic wolf, obviously.

[TLBFestus]

El Bandito, on 21 October 2017 - 07:27 PM, said:

I made a lightsaber version with 2xHLL.

Ya know, you're right, they DO sound like light sabers!