Trick with the Dragon. Funnel armor forward. No speed under 70 kph, 80+ preferred, 90+ is attainable. If you've mastered the art of using the "o" crosshair separate from the "+" crosshair, the Dragon will be a phenomenal mech.
If you have not, well if you get one you'll have plenty of chance to learn. Armlock off (but keep left shift handy for when you need it), and Left CTRL + Mouse gives you Arm Aiming. With both torso twist and arm aiming, it's possible to hit enemies directly behind you without exposing your back and while running away if you need to. Preferably though, you'll follow the Dragon's mantra.
Hammerhai, on 27 September 2013 - 11:39 AM, said:
As Koniving puts it - you are the hidden knife in the boot. You are the stab in the back. You live for "thanks for the help" - and if you bring any other mentality to playing a dragon you are the pile of smoking metal on the battlefield.
Couldn't find the original, but that about sums it.
In other words, don't fight on the front line. Sweep in from the side, sneak behind the enemy and finish them off when they're weak. Rush to support units that are in trouble but salvageable and get the heck out before things get hairy.
One mustn't confuse brawling as a whole being in bad situation with assaults being unable to brawl. Whenever brawling has been in a good position in the power balance brawling assaults have shined; those mechs are: Atlas, Victor, Cyclops, Executioner and Gargoyle. Any of these mechs will struggle to do well now, but that's because at the moment brawling sucks, that might change any time.
Of that list, I think Gargoyle is highly out of place. It's an 80 ton Dragon with maybe half the available tonnage that a Dragon could dedicate to firepower. A glorified Light Hunter in every sense of the word.
That said, my Victors and Cyclopses do pretty good for the most part. The trick is if you're going to brawl it needs to be one on one or no worse than one versus 2. Once you throw in a third enemy, your brawl is basically you being funneled into a slaughter.
Following up on that worst case scenario for brawling, turning 1 on 2 into 1 against 0 isn't impossible even for the lightest of mediums. Trial Cicada (40 tons) turns 2 enemies (totaling 75 tons) into mince meat despite being terribly outmatched. The twin computer voices are edited in. The more robotic one is MWO's unreleased closed beta Betty, and I used it to help describe what's going on during combat. The faster, more direct voice is from Mechwarrior 3.
When cSPL and cERSL were brawling weapons Gargoyle was an awe inspiring thing at short range, it particularly fitted well with organized teams that wanted to surprise the enemy with a fast all out brawl, Legio IX a small, casual and average skilled unit achieved several victories (and plenty defeats too ) this way against far superior units by simply pressing W in the right way and brawling things to a point where personal mech warrior skill matters little.
But yes, right now GAR is a "heavy medium" and it's a terrible mech, but this is not because it's not a brawling mech but because the balance of the season has nerfed into the ground all things related to brawling but SRMs.
If I want to get a feel of Dakka gameplay, should I test it out on a Medium mech, let's say HBK-IIC first? I don't think I am ready for Assaults for now...
Any recommended skill tree build for Ballistic HBK-IIC? Recommended loadout is the same as the trial mech? I.e. 2x UAC10 2x C-ERML?
Edit: Sigh, sorry guys, I think for the moment I am really comfortable with the laser vomit mechanism. Just did another 1k+ damage on the HBR-Prime.
For Laser Vomit Assaults, suitable mechs would be the MAD-IIC and SNV?
You can easily do twin UAC10 in HBK-IIC, and while not as strong as it was once it's a viable mech and can be a good way to experiment with dakka and see if you like it.
That said dakka with a medium and with an assault are two quite different experiences, with a medium you are likely to look for flanks from where you can fire unretaliated while with an assault you have to decide on a firing lane, position yourself and try to out trade anything that gets in front of you.
You can easily do twin UAC10 in HBK-IIC, and while not as strong as it was once it's a viable mech and can be a good way to experiment with dakka and see if you like it.
That said dakka with a medium and with an assault are two quite different experiences, with a medium you are likely to look for flanks from where you can fire unretaliated while with an assault you have to decide on a firing lane, position yourself and try to out trade anything that gets in front of you.
Very true about the play style. I got totally smashed using the Trial Mech trying to face them instead of flanking. Quite squishy imo.
Yes, HBK IIC is a glass cannon, it packs huge fire power for its tonnage but its hit boxes are notoriously bad and it lacks any defensive quirks, be aware of it at all times.
Yes, HBK IIC is a glass cannon, it packs huge fire power for its tonnage but its hit boxes are notoriously bad and it lacks any defensive quirks, be aware of it at all times.
What about Assault Laser Vomit builds? MAD-IIC or SNV is more suited?
Hunchback (not the IIC) is far from squishy if you wanted to try that route, can fit the same triple AC/2 setup that this Dragon has into a very cheap Hunchback and be very tanky.
I have a video with the build, but it was recorded when triple AC/2 was given ghost heat -- but not announced as ghost heat for a month after that. (Ghost heat has since been removed and you can do this to your heart's content now). You're welcome to watch it, BUT keep in mind it's being recorded by a man (me) that is less than happy about it.
In both of those videos, keep in mind it's before quirks or the new skill tree and prior to hitbox improvements. Both mechs tank even better today than they did back then... and they tanked hard back then. Firing pattern is achieved through a macro which slows down and spreads my fire.
The SIGNIFICANTLY FASTER burst fire is achieved by using the macro to separate the three cooldown timers so that they don't fire at the same time... and then firing at normal speed by holding the mouse button to fire. (In other words, the insanely fast fire was "Normal fire", and the slow 3 round burst is the macro; macros do NOT provide faster ways to shoot or allow for any form of cheating in terms of using them to manage firing groups.)
(Note 2: The bolded faster firing rate I mention only appears in the "You're welcome to watch it" video. At the time of playing as the Dragon I had not yet learned about it.)
For comparison to TODAY (because those are old videos and I'm too lazy to do a new one), here's two builds with standard Hunchback 4Hs done this year, one with a UAC/5 (Showcases chosen skillset, too. Meaningful combat begins at 7:21, though the stuff before it has numerous helpful tips including the kind of exchange to avoid when it comes to dealing with a light.) and another a UAC/5 which takes on multiple mediums, heavies and assaults face to face (Combat here begins at 2:41. There's no commentary, but the time leading up to that is getting into a flanking position behind the ENTIRE enemy force before engaging.). The takeaway is their ability to take abuse even if you intentionally opt to be slow. If you opt to Dakka-Back as an IS Hunchback, the 4G is the variant to use.
The 4H Hunchback has the added advantage of while it carries a ballistic weapon... it is still largely a laser vomit model so it won't be far from your comfort zone.
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Supernovas make decent laser vomit mechs. Marauder IIC can do both laser vomit and some ballistics if you want to try a crossbreed of the two in an assault class.
Would put my Supernovas here but I guess I never took a screenshot of them. There's this from when I was trying to ask around for what paintjob to go with; Supernova's in the bottom right.
But I do have my Marauders and Marauder IICs right here.
As you can see, two of my Marauder IICs are Dakka-loaded and each sports 4 or more lasers on top of that. So there's your one stop shop.
Added links to my Supernova picture and my Marauder collection.
Side note: The grey Marauder's an IS Heavy and is my Dakka Marauder. Mistook that to be among the IICs; but the green one above is the IIC sporting a triple UAC/2 build (Triple UAC/5 is also doable and very easy to achieve but at the time I wanted more range due to it being a faction play build during defense heavy issues). Because why not?
Currently..
No skill tree as I haven't taken it for a spin since before the skill tree change (I'm more of an IS kinda guy).
Side note:
The video you were meant to be welcome to watch at your own volition was actually this one. The other one just kinda played out and tested firing times; this one has actual combat. Skip to 8 minutes. (Side note, playing the video my toddler began dancing to the AC/2 firing.) Again, note the penalties have all been removed from AC/2s entirely.
MAD IIC is in my opinion a superior mech to SNV in all regards, because it's an 85 toner it's still pretty agile and it has very good hit boxes as long as they fire you from the front, sides and rear are very vulnerable.
MAD CAT IIC seams to be a superior mech, but it's not available to buy in game, only for real $$$ at the moment.
The Marauder IIC is probably your ideal option. While not the dakka beast the Kodiak or Mauler are it's reasonably tanky and more important it's reasonably nimble by comparison.
Since you're still getting used to the game (it's a steep curve, no question) you're probably better served by the mobility of the MAD IIC. In Quickplay the biggest trouble assaults have is being left behind. Taking an assault that can still go about 70kph will help you stick with the team and get out of bad situations better.
The Marauder IIC is probably your ideal option. While not the dakka beast the Kodiak or Mauler are it's reasonably tanky and more important it's reasonably nimble by comparison.
Since you're still getting used to the game (it's a steep curve, no question) you're probably better served by the mobility of the MAD IIC. In Quickplay the biggest trouble assaults have is being left behind. Taking an assault that can still go about 70kph will help you stick with the team and get out of bad situations better.
Thanks. I have decided on the MAD-IIC base variant, probably laser vomit build. Just waiting for the C-Bill sales for now.
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Hammerhai, on 27 September 2013 - 11:39 AM, said:
) this way against far superior units by simply pressing W in the right way and brawling things to a point where personal mech warrior skill matters little.
