16 replies to this topic

[a supporting character]

how strict is that thing for reducing wait times? is it strict by weight or actual category?

like if it says to reduce wait i should use mediums is the 5 ton heavier 60 tonner gona have that much of an affect?
i always try to follow what weight it says i should use, and it works! i like mediums best but wana try 60 tonners after readng another topic.
but i dont wana use heavy mechs at all because of the long wait time for gettin into a match.
thanks

[Koniving]

Edit: Accidentally double quoted.

a supporting character, on 24 November 2017 - 07:49 PM, said:

how strict is that thing for reducing wait times? is it strict by weight or actual category?

like if it says to reduce wait i should use mediums is the 5 ton heavier 60 tonner gona have that much of an affect?
i always try to follow what weight it says i should use, and it works! i like mediums best but wana try 60 tonners after readng another topic.
but i dont wana use heavy mechs at all because of the long wait time for gettin into a match.
thanks

Actual category. You don't "have" to comply with it. But uber late at night when the server population is at its lowest, there's a significant impact to adhering to it versus not (a difference of 7 minutes waiting with no match when ignoring it versus less than 2 minutes by saying screw it and then grabbing a mech of the suggested class.)

During normal US daytime, however, you can safely just ignore it.

It possible that your wait times at the time of your posting is due to the waning server population at this time of night It helps if you make sure to select all three servers to help reduce that wait. The other aspect is as a new player you're probably in (do they start tier 4 or 5 now?) either way, that's a contributing factor, too. The first minute or two goes into "unlocking" gates such as weight matching and tier matching.

By unlocking what I mean is after a certain amount of time it throws certain aspects of match making out the window, so the longer you wait the more aspects it throws out.

Sometimes a really long wait is followed by the bizarre. For instance the night before last there was a match against 9 Locusts, 1 Urbanmech and 2 assaults. Our team had 2 lights, 3 assaults, 2 heavy and 5 mediums. It was... different. ....They won by a landslide.

Edited by Koniving, 24 November 2017 - 09:38 PM.

[a supporting character]

Koniving, on 24 November 2017 - 09:32 PM, said:

Edit: Accidentally double quoted.

Actual category. You don't "have" to comply with it. But uber late at night when the server population is at its lowest, there's a significant impact to adhering to it versus not (a difference of 7 minutes waiting with no match when ignoring it versus less than 2 minutes by saying screw it and then grabbing a mech of the suggested class.)

During normal US daytime, however, you can safely just ignore it.

It possible that your wait times at the time of your posting is due to the waning server population at this time of night It helps if you make sure to select all three servers to help reduce that wait. The other aspect is as a new player you're probably in (do they start tier 4 or 5 now?) either way, that's a contributing factor, too. The first minute or two goes into "unlocking" gates such as weight matching and tier matching.

By unlocking what I mean is after a certain amount of time it throws certain aspects of match making out the window, so the longer you wait the more aspects it throws out.

Sometimes a really long wait is followed by the bizarre. For instance the night before last there was a match against 9 Locusts, 1 Urbanmech and 2 assaults. Our team had 2 lights, 3 assaults, 2 heavy and 5 mediums. It was... different. ....They won by a landslide.

thanks:) u just saved me from buying dragons that r on sale!

[Koniving]

Somewhat sad I saved you from that. Dragons are pretty awesome in my opinion, though I do feel that they benefit greatly from having some intermediate to advanced knowledge about MWO. Particularly taking control of the arms separately from the torso (Armlock off, using left CTRL and aiming with just the "o" crosshair. The Dragons have an impressive arm range, and most of their weapons are arm mounted so there's a lot of benefits that they gain from players knowing how to use that as they run and strafe).

Wait til early December and you'll see cbill mechs on sale. Save up in anticipation of it.

[Horseman]

Yeah, the hero Dragons are kind of meh. From the C-Bill variants, 5N (dakka) and 1C (laservomit) can do quite well.

[Koniving]

Hey now, the hero Dragon with the laser arms does really well too.
The other one is pretty meh as it really just feels the same as any Dragon.

[a supporting character]

thanks for the advice Konniving n Horseman:)

any medium or small heroes worth getting?

[Koniving]

If we knew more about you and your playstyle I could easily give some suggestions, but if I give them blindly you may end up with something that I might like... but you may not... and in the end what matters is whether or not you like what you get. So give us details.

Great Speed, armor, firepower, a good mixture of two or an adequate balance of the three?

Any particular favorites on weapon types? Preferring Inner Sphere or Clan technology? Etc., etc., etc.

(You're welcome by the way, we're here to help.)

[a supporting character]

i been experimenting with all the trial mechs but like medium best. all weapons are ok 4 me. i sometime brawl n other times i sit back n snipe n sometims i escort slow tanks and back em up.
i got into rank 4. i tend to stay with the grp
i dont like mechs that cant run at least 80. i think mostly prefer the inner sphere mechs so far.
the medium trial mechs i like best is HBK and KTO.
favorite triall small is RVN
Heavy i like way the EBJ n HBR handle but i hate the weapons they have.
big ones i hate but the DWF and STK are nice

Edited by a supporting character, 25 November 2017 - 06:12 PM.

[Koniving]

Any mech's weapons can be changed once you own them. Clan Omnimechs like the Hellbringer and the Ebon Jaguar can have their equipment and even their hardpoints changed by swapping body parts. (This will also be true of IS Omnimechs when we see them next year).

Clan and IS Battlemechs let you change armor and structure materials, heatsink type, swap engines, etc.
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Note: If your browser won't let you do full screen, you can click on the "Youtube" button for ANY of these videos to open its respective page where you can full screen them.

Warning: I covered all the mediums and lights and there's youtube videos of me using them whenever possible [and a single video of the b33f using the Ghillie]. Those which don't fit the bill outright say it. I give reasons for why some are considered bad, good, etc. and my own opinions when they conflict with popular opinion, so nothing is without reason.

Spoiler

With the first 3things you listed, I'd definitely say a Hunchback if you were just looking for a mech. When it comes to heroes, Hunchback hero is okay to good but it is not particularly fantastic. Its basically a Hunchback that combines part of the 4G with part of the 4SP.

Good news is, it controls and fights like a Hunchback. Bad news is it doesn't feel any different; one would think with a name like Grid Iron it'd be faster than normal Hunchbacks but it isn't.
And you can make a Hunchback reasonably fast, but as you do you also sacrifice firepower. Here's an example.

And the very first time that build was ran (as recorded by Lordred who was filming me).


For fun, this short clip is me leading a lance of Hunchbacks. I'm the one with green.

Unfortunately when the entire enemy team came down on us we split up our firepower with different priorities and as such we were slaughtered. But until then, damn.

Hunchbacks are the "king of Urban environments". Set a Hunchback in a place with a lot of buildings or obstacles and tight corners, and it won't matter if you're prey is 75 tons heavier with the advantage of surprise, or a total of several hundred tons back to back.

For fun, here's an Raven pretending its a Hunchback... and doing damn good at it.

I personally do enjoy the Golden Boy, which is the Kintaro hero. However when the Kintaro first released it had a terrible issue with its hitboxes that -- though fixed within a week -- forever damned the Kintaro in the eyes of many players at the time... and so you will find many people that scream at the top of their lungs how terrible the Kintaro is.
I however highly disagree.

This chase cam is by Lordred and follows me in a Kintaro Golden Boy. This is not the most ideal build but a fun little "why not".

And this one has me in a Kintaro 20.


This Kintaro 18 video is NOT very interesting, but within 20 seconds of where I set the starting point, you'll see an amazing close call with LRM missiles curving to hit me right in the cockpit and a perfect evasion of them.

I've evolved my base design to enjoy an LRM-20 or LRM-15 in the shoulder, a couple of torso mounted Streaks, and either SRMs or MRMs mounted on the arms. Ultimately this leads to four weapon groups so it isn't for everyone. More "dedicated" builds tend to be common, too.

I particularly like the Assassin hero "Dark Death", but I don't like Assassins (in MWO; in BT they're great) in general. They are very fragile but 113 kph at stock and many make them even faster. I tend to go around 97 because I need a little weight for some firepower but even then it's kinda weak on it.

Phoenix Hawks are a favorite of mine, but to really enjoy them (similar to Dragons) you would need to master the art of aiming with just the arms (which looks so badass since you can see both of your hands wielding guns from the cockpitand watch as they tilt and track with your mouse.)

Centurions fit everything of your first four as does its hero the arena gladiator Yen Lo Wang. For a "free" sample, you could try the Centurion AH. The AH uses ballistics and missiles. The Yen Lo Wang uses Ballistics and Energy. Both are the only Centurions that can also carry an AC/20 or UAC/20. Since the Yen Lo Wang only needs ammo for the ballistics while the AH needs ammo for ballistics and missiles, the Yen Lo Wang has an easier time getting away with bigger engines and higher speeds.

Here's two videos with two different Yen Lo Wang builds. Feel free to skip a couple of minutes into either one. The Wang Squad's first enemy is a light, which shows some of the difficulty that ballistic users have against lights. But later it turns into an all out brawl between two Yen Lo Wangs and 6 enemies.. and the Wangs come out on top. It then rushes the enemy base, taking on multiple enemies plus turrets, and with no arms, one leg, etc... it still wins.

The second video has a lot more closed in combat. Unlike wide open spaces it is much harder to maneuver, requiring more precise movements. It is always harder to handle these situations but luckily this time I'm sporting an AC/20 for a big upfront punch.

Centurions are canonically escort mechs. Though specifically they are intended in lore to escort Trebuchets, they can pretty much escort any mech.

Speaking of Trebuchets (note I can't spell the hero's French name so I'm not even gonna try and just bolded Trebuchet instead), like Kintaros (and in fact these are just 50 ton Kintaros), Trebs don't have the most amazing reputation. But those whom actually run them have high praise for them including myself. These 50 ton mediums can go up to over 150 kph though at that point the weapon options are really impractical. Stick with 110 or less. Its hero makes a good ranged escort mech, could do a loadout with some long range and some close up missiles or four close up missiles and some long range lasers, etc. This video has the Trebuchet 7K in chase cam. The only variant that can carry ballistics.

At the start I'm paused to dig up some lore about the Centurion or Hunchback before realizing we're loaded up in the match then I run in. This build is known on Youtube as the Trollbuchet, which has had a few variations that had flamers at one point, but basically its a high speed harasser that despite how on paper it should be absolute garbage... has taken on mechs twice its weight at their full health right in their face...

....and still wins. (Yep, that's me, face to face with the Atlas using MGs 4 times weaker than today's MGs, 2 SRM-4s, and 2 Flamers which at the time did 0.14 damage per second. [MGs back then did 0.4 damage/second... for comparison MGs do 0.8 damage/second now]. Flamers at the time did zero heat to enemies meaning there was absolutely no reason to use them. Despite how heavily armed this Atlas was, I took him down with very little help from Lordred's Commando which only carried a single SRM-6 and this Gauss shot that it just took basically broke that launcher so there was just the small laser left.)

(Side note: Despite how the angle looks, the Trebuchet is nowhere near as tall as the Atlas. That's a perspective issue.)

Wolverine's Quarantine. If you want a mech that can do literally anything better than well and still have a few things it does great at, look no further than the Wolverine. 55 tons, compact in size yet heftily resilient, this guy not only can slug it out in MWO, it is a mech that also literally slugs it out in lore as it is known to occasionally drop its autocannon and slug other mechs in a flurry of punches or sling them down with a grapple, kick the enemy while its down and then pick its autocannon back up to rejoin the fray. They jump pretty well too for 55 tons when you sport all 7 jumpjets.

If you sport just one JJ, however, your jump's gonna look like this.

(I still slaughtered this Victor. Please note this was at a time when the Victor was considered the top of the meta, so at the time it was a lot more impressive than people might consider it to be today).
The Wolverine's Quarantine hero is a good mix of the 7K and the 6R. (Pictured above is the 6R. As it happens I believe its best non-hero variants are the 7K and the 6R).

There are Griffins and Shadowhawks. I love Griffins, I don't have much love for "Sparky" the Griffin hero. Not a fan of energy only hero mechs but if you do enjoy laser or PPC vomit, Sparky's your mech. As mechs they have the best view of the outside you can get from within an IS mech, you can see in almost every direction, including directly above you. Like Wolverines, their jumping ability is amazing.

Shadowhawks are kind of the opposite for me, I don't like them but their hero the Gray Death is pretty good. A Shadowhawk is basically a 55 ton want-to-be Hunchback with terrible mobility. Its turning and torso twisting is sluggish at best. Lack of peripheral vision won't bother many but I do look to my sides often. Your own autocannons or machine guns can blind you as they fire between the excessive flashes or smoke. Mobility issues can be improved with the skill tree. After a few torso and turning related unlocks, SHKs tend to get high praise and quite a following. They just won't ever compare to my slower but significantly more manueverable Hunchback.

I can't and therefore won't get into Clan heroes, but the Viper's hero and by extension the Viper is a lot of fun. It ranks holy **** on speed, modest on firepower and in the trash bin for durability. But isn't that what fun's all about?

Enforcers and Crabs are good mechs. The Enforcer's Ghillie does fit with your desired role but as I do not have one, I can't talk about it. Here's someone else using one with ECM and Stealth Armor.

He does some actual fighting around 4 minutes in but guess it goes to show... either some people are oblivious or the Ghillie blends in that well.

The Crab hero is a mech that I personally love. However there's no practical build that you could do for it that takes advantage of what it does best and still reaches 81+ kph.

That leaves the Vindicator. No. Just no. I love Vindicators in Battletech; they're a Liao (my faction) staple. In MWO they are nearly unusable and I'm the guy that makes the "bad mechs" work far past expectations and even I think there's little to no hope for them.

And the Uziel. Very limited experience with this new mech. Don't know a thing about its hero. In general Uziels have a lot of hardpoints which means a lot of options. .... and there's no way to properly utilize even most of them, so you really have to pick and choose what you want to do with it and focus. You cannot generalize and get good results with a Uziel you must specialize or you'll hate it.
-------

IS lights.


Wolfhound's hero Grinner is my favorite. Though to be honest.. I basically made a Panther out of it. Single Heavy PPC, stealth ECM armor, sped it up ever so slightly. Good fun. Panther without jumpjets though feels weird. Beyond that, basically this would be an ECM totting energy-only laser vomit mech. Two Light PPCs and a Snub-nose PPC make for a good combo too.

Panther's hero Katana Kat I turned into a jumping Wolfhound. Panthers are known for being very slow but highly durable. Still you can get a top speed of 113 kph out of one.

Osiris's Sekhmet looks tangibly good on paper. Never used one and don't own any. Too new.

Jenners are pretty good, the Jenner's Oxide is trying to imitate a Clan Jenner IIC with mixed results. They are pretty good don't get me wrong, but it can't jump and relies entirely on ammo.

The Urbanmech's K9 fits everything but speed, though you can fix that but you will be fragile if you try for too high above 80 by going with an XL engine, or you'll sacrifice too much firepower if you go the STD route. You could go LFE, but an Urbanmech is best with a standard engine to absorb immense amounts of damage. Urbies in general also possess a neat ability in which they have 360 degree torso twist in MWO to make up for the lack of arm-flipping.

The Javelin apparently has some fans. I admit the Javelin's Hi There! is actually pretty decent.

Three that I like but can't recommend are the Spider hero Anansi, the Locust hero PIrate's Bane and the Commando hero The Death's Knell. If you try to use either of these mechs to escort the group, you'll be insta-gibbed. Can't hold still in these mechs as they are easily one-shotted.

The Raven's hero is....terrible. The Huginn is 4 ballistics, 2 missiles on a mech that doesn't have enough weight to carry the ammo needed to support any hefty build so you have to specialize. The new tech upgrade this year gave some better options, of which I highly recommend Light MGs for range. Might try for it later on, but I cannot recommend it as a first, second or even third hero.

And that covers them all.
For a Heavy similar to Hellbringer or Ebon Jaguar on the IS side...
Thunderbolt OR Warhammer and Marauder respectively.
Thunderbolts are pretty awesome in my book but its Top Dawg has no appeal.
Warhammers are good, sturdy fun and the Black Widow looks good. (I don't own one sadly.)
The Marauders are among the IS's best mechs, and its hero Bounty Hunter II looks solid on paper (I don't own it.)

My favorite heavy is the Archer (Footage using a joke build for my very first time using one.). My favorite heavy heroes are the Orion Protector. (Footage) and the Legend Killer (Not footage of the hero, but recent footage of a Rifleman 3C [which is almost identical] with only the Advanced Zoom unlocked)

Mkay. That covers them all.

[Koniving]

Since I didn't see the addition of assaults..

The Stalker hero, Misery is really good. Hardpoint wise it is basically an Atlas. Like all Stalkers that don't have XL engines (so basically unlike the trial Stalker), the Misery can tank amazing amounts of damage, far more than it actually has the health for. This is due to the large hitboxes for the side torsos and the narrow strip for its center torso. Once destroyed a torso, leg or arm hitbox reduces any damage done to it by 60%. before transferring the remaining 40% inward (Arm ones reduce to tiny stubs after being destroyed). If it goes through the arm then the ST before getting to the CT, it is reduced by another 60%. This is why Stalkers can tank so much. (And also why Stalkers with XL engines die so quickly).

[a supporting character]

Thanks much for the tips:) i like kintaro n hunback n ghillie. maybe ill get one!
gona watch the videos now n then decide. thanks!

[Koniving]

I'm gonna be in the field today so I'll try to get some new vids.

Got a ~lot~ of Hunchback vids out already so I'll skip that, but will try to fill out the roster of vids with mechs I don't have much footage of.

[Koniving]

You know, I forgot a mech afterall. Blackjack. Meets the criteria in everything except speed (if you want good firepower, the speed won't be there but otherwise it can do the speed). Its hero, the Arrow, can carry 6 ballistics and 3 energy.

And Bushwacker. I'm underwhelmed by it but it meets all the criteria. The hero sports 3 ballistic slots in different body parts, 4 energy (1 CT and 3 left arm) and one missile (LT). And the most atrocious paint scheme I have ever seen. (The pattern isn't bad, the color selection is just.....what were they thinking?)

Edited by Koniving, 26 November 2017 - 11:29 AM.

[Koniving]

a supporting character, on 26 November 2017 - 06:24 AM, said:

Thanks much for the tips:) i like kintaro n hunback n ghillie. maybe ill get one!
gona watch the videos now n then decide. thanks!

Hey how did you fair? You still got the less than 25 matches color. Need a hand?

[a supporting character]

Koniving, on 30 November 2017 - 04:54 AM, said:

Hey how did you fair? You still got the less than 25 matches color. Need a hand?

thanks for all the tips! i appreciate it. i been playin a little sometime still seein if i like this game so far its kina intersting

[Koniving]

It'll go up and down. My personal advice is to play MWO in moderation, alongside the upcoming Battletech or Mw5: Mercs. MWO unfortunately focuses so hard on multiplayer that the ever rich universe that it is pretty much lost.

A good comparison for the universe of Mechwarrior/Battletech... is Firefly and Game of Thrones with mechs...and its a universe that started in 1984 and while it draws from many influences, it has also influenced a great many things.

Spoiler

One example is the Klingons of Star Trek would, some six years later, adopt many attributes of the "Clans" from the Next Generation onward. The Romulans were always pretty shifty but they and later the Cardassians seem to have adopted House Liao's general personality. So it is really interesting to see that there's this butterfly effect of influences coming in and pouring out of the universe into other great shows.

Not sure if you're a Star Trek fan, but if you are... you may find something here quite familiar as something like it has happened in TNG, and especially in DS9... despite this being written before Star Trek TNG ever did its first episode.


Another Honor Duel in a Trial of Grievance.
To the right, a Mechwarrior of Clan Diamond Shark. To the left, an Elemental (Battle Armor Infantry) of Clan Ghost Bear.

For a brief taste..

Spoiler

Though this game below isn't all that great and the opening cinematic has some pretty normal sounding voices, one cannot deny it sets up the video after it perfectly. Skip to 26 seconds. It talks about the uniting of House Davion and Steiner (prior to the Clan invasion; somewhat ignored in MWO). House Kurita, mentioned here with their Hatomoto Chi, their Panthers... are also the home of the Kintaro. As it happens, the Enforcer (which the Ghillie is a hero mech of this chassis) is also depicted here, which is a primarily Davion mech.

News and TV programs in universe, on the topic of the planet Carver V and the House Davion/Steiner civil war 5 years ahead of our current timeline.

See you in the field again.