14 replies to this topic

[TehPwnzor]

Is he any good? I saw him in the store, and so far is is my favorite. He looks super cool and has a TON of armor. I am just wondering if I should wait another 5 million CB to buy him, or if I should buy another Mech that is much cheaper. I already have Catapult and Crab bought.

[Rogue Jedi]

The King Crab is a 100 ton Mech so will feel very slow and sluggish compared to your other Mechs and while it can bring a lot of armour if it is focused down by the enemy team that armour will go in a few seconds.

If knowing that you are still interested then go ahead.

If you are going to get one consider the following, the Cbill variants all have Balistic weapons in each arm, energy in the right torso and missies on the left, the main diferance between variants are the number of hard points in each location, so decide which is most useful to you and chose the relevant varient

[Koniving]

Up to you what you want to do with your money.

I like him. I have three of them. The 000[L] (an Annual reward mech a few years ago; same as 000.)., the 000B, and the 000B(S) from Steam's assault pack during a sale which is the same as the 000B but with a 30% cbill earnings bonus when it is played.

My Kings and their loadouts. You can click on a picture to make it bigger.
000 (L)

(The decal on the very nose reads "HI THERE!")


000B (the royal guard variant of the SLDF in Battletech lore.).


I don't have any skill unlocks on this model yet, as such I have not put the quirks up on display.
This is why the armor limits are vastly different, too.

000B (Steam)


I haven't had a chance to try most of the new guns on them yet (268 mechs, not enough time), though I have little doubt that any ballistic weapons that are NOT the Heavy-Gauss will work great with the King Crab. The HG cannot fit on an arm.

This mech loves ballistic weapons. I've used PPC builds too but they aren't as effective, and I got plenty of mechs that can amass lasers. The Streaks are loaded to help deal with light mechs, as are the MGs and lasers on most of my variants, the King Crab is NOT quick at turning. It twists pretty good though. (I don't have mobility unlocks.)

Before you manage good unlocks, or if long range maps keep trending, there's no denying the value of a Gauss Rifle build or one with some LRMs and hefty backups. Once you get your unlocks however, turn it into anything you want.

Edited by Koniving, 28 October 2017 - 11:09 AM.

[Spheroid]

Its going to take you quite a while to grind five million, especially if you are still diverting c-bills into the skill tree. If you want a budget mech I recommend something like a Wolfhound, Blackjack, Rifleman, Jagermech or Thunderbolt. Those all can be run in fairly effective improved stock builds in short order.

If you have seven million, an Artic Cheetah Prime is a good pickup.

Edited by Spheroid, 28 October 2017 - 11:48 AM.

[Nightbird]

Not a beginner mech, save up and get a hellbringer or ebon jaguar and you'll make cbills much faster in the future.

Edited by Nightbird, 28 October 2017 - 11:51 AM.

[Koniving]

Make sure you're digging into your loot bags, that will help your income quite a bit.

The cheapest King Crab is the quad zero (0000) which is why I didn't get him, I knew I could get it with cbills at some point (any mech with a [#] where the hashtag is a letter, is normally bought with cash or rewarded/won and gives a 30% cbill bonus).

I've only got one with cbills (and then the next week the assault pack on steam went on sale for 25 bucks; 25 bucks for two 100 ton assaults with a 30% cbill bonus? Naturally I got it). Saving up for big mechs requires a little bit of dedication and time. Some advice to help with earnings: Pack a TAG on your Catapult or Crab; LRMs or Streaks or ATMs that hit your "tagged" target will give you cbill bonuses. Shoot everyone at least once, that way you cash in on an assist when they die... regardless of how long it has been. Move as part of the group.

And if there's no room to shoot the enemy, keep an eye out behind you. Did that today, I moved up into a position of cover because I was too exposed. Four assaults moved up and took up ALL the space in front of me, so I turned around and sure enough there were 3 enemies moving around behind our front line, so I pot shotted them and kept them away until one was weak enough to kill then I chased him down and tore him a new one and started on another guy before I got killed.

(And one last tip: If you see "Low Signal" on your minimap, there's a stealthy pain in the rear hanging out nearby. Saw it today really early in a match. I halted. Switched to thermal. Looked around with left CTRL (and holding shift to lock my arms and not give it away). Not seeing anything, I turned around and saw an ECM Locust standing there as if I wouldn't see him. Shot him real good point blank and he ran for the hills. Warned the team and right as I did, another teammate in the area (a Catapult) sent out a Commwheel "Help!" from the spot I was in. I came over and found the Locust on another mech's head, where he soon fell off. Me in my Vindicator and the Catapult K2 with RACs both began blasting that Locust to smithereens.)

[Koniving]

If I were to suggest an alternative to the King Crab in terms of cbill price (and assuming you want to keep up your current trend of Inner Sphere mechs), perhaps I could suggest the Marauder? It literally looks like a skinny King Crab.

Starting from the 4th one and going down are my Marauders. (the first 3 are Marauder IICs).

[Napoleon_Blownapart]

when considering what mech to get I look for very high weapon mounts, too many of my older mechs shoot the ground when shooting enemies.The KCG has very high laser mounts on its shoulder.

[Koniving]

That is a valid point. If your weapon mounts are low avoid fighting up hill.

[Stf Sgt Marblez]

@ OP, KGC was my first ride. I love him to death, but as others have said, he is not very new player freindly. Big hitboxes just about negate the armor bonuses, convergence is a huge hinderance as it's wide as a barn.

If you do pick up this beastie, Id reccomend slapping an LFE on there, 320 should get the job done on the kph factor. Never XL a King Crab. Never.

Now as far as weapons? Honestly, thats up to you, some things work better than other things, so test things and see what works for your playstyle.

o7

[Tier5 Kerensky]

I would consider it medicore assult at best.

On the good side, it doesn't have too low engine cap. The bad this is you will need a lot of more cbills to give it a nice engine, make the required upgrades and stuff like that. You're looking close to 20 million to make it as good as it can get.

For a new player I would not recommend it, even though at low tier you can do amazing things with mechs that simply are too weak on higher tiers. I remember when I had a Locust and Nova I had such amazing time every time with the trial King Crab, but that was close to 2 years ago, with quite a few top mechs not yet in the game, and I was in tier 5 where engagements are slower and less lethal.

I would definetly suggest looking something smaller.

[MechaBattler]

If you can get into weapons range and have some team support. It is a brutal war machine.

[Koniving]

As a follow up...
He went for the King Crab and sold his other two mechs.

....and he seems to be enjoying it immensely, considering the loadout that he had at the time I encountered it in private matches to be "too OP". I agree it is a cheese factory with extra custard. Though it has its weaknesses.

[The Cyberserker]

TehPwnzor, on 28 October 2017 - 10:24 AM, said:

Is he any good? I saw him in the store, and so far is is my favorite. He looks super cool and has a TON of armor. I am just wondering if I should wait another 5 million CB to buy him, or if I should buy another Mech that is much cheaper. I already have Catapult and Crab bought.

Personally I don't like it. The arms are too low and way too spread. Sometimes when you shoot it hits things so far to the side you couldn't even see them.

[Napoleon_Blownapart]