Bombast, on 29 December 2017 - 10:40 PM, said:
To be fair, if its who I think it is, it wasn't so much Clanners trying something new, as it is a group of jerks intentionally trolling IS players, dragging out matches to 15 minutes just to get people angry.
I can say the exact same thing to those blasted 3 ERLL cicada pilots that go into a game and annoy people, cost the IS side an automatic loss since they lack DPS and 3 brawlers are down 1 man which makes it hard to do anything vs 4 clanners, and then ofc the cicada decides to run and hide doing occasional damage, maybee 1-2 kills but not exactly winning.
Then again, as a clan loyalist i DO NOT play meta in scout mode since trying to outbrawl 4 well built IS brawlers is NEVER gonna happen unless they got potatos or are down 1-2 guys (aforementioned cicada situation, or afkers). Id much rather use clan's range advantage and presense at mid range to wear the IS brawlers down enough that when the brawl does start (and any good team will eventually get in range to do it) our team stands a decent chance of killing them quickly. Ofc i dont use ERLLs since they suck outside of pure snipe-fests like alpine or boreal, but i do use HLLs and ERMLs and even HMLs and ive been able to singlehandedly win against 3 players when i run non-meta builds and stay outside of 400m. Had my share of games where i was in a shadowcat with 2HLL and 6 LMG and i solo killed 4 players (my team evaporated instantly with the combined damage being like at best 300), ive also had some super carry games in my ice fridge, ECM+speed means i can run in, backstab someone for 50 points of alfa strike, and then reposition b4 they know what hit em. That and focused damage is a hell of alot more useful then spamming streaks all over shield arms.
Anyways, forcing stock builds only goes to limit ones viable mechs from 20+ chassises to like a handful, although the situation isnt THAT bad if you are willing to brach away from meta and look at builds that will be able to actually do something more then cook themselves or instantly die the second they are spotted due to excessive armor stripping. Here is a comprehensive list of mechs and variants that i looked at and said "i could honestly bring this is into a game and get some damage done". Obviously discounting (C) versions and all hero mechs since a good amount of them are solid.
IS mechs:
Javelin 11A
Raven 3L (only for narcing, as a combat mech hell no)
Wolfhound 2
Blackjack 3
Cicada 3F
Enforcer 4P
Griffin 2N
Grasshopper 5P
Roughneck 3A
Thunderbolt 9S
Battlemaster 3M
Cyclops 11P
King Crab 000B
Stalker 5M, 3FB
Clan mechs:
Cougar: C, E, and H (C is most "meta" since its gauss vomit, rest are at least useable)
Hunchback 2C A, B, C
Ice fridge D, P
Nova PRIME, A (PRIME is actually solid laser vomit, just hot as balls and can only get off 1 alfa b4 repos)
Shadowcat PRIME, A, B, H
Stormcrow PRIME, D, B
Viper A
Ebon D
Linebacker B, C, D
Maddog H
Orion 2C B, C
Timberwolf S, D, A
Executioner A
Gargoyle D, B
Highlander 2C C
Kodiak 5
MCII ALL
Marauder 2C B, C
Supernova 1, 3
Warhawk C
Now few of these mechs are good, but all of the above list is something id at least be willing to bring bone stock into a game if i had no choice to customize ANY aspect of them and had to use them with exactly what they ship with. Honorable mentions go to:
COU-C, gauss vomit meta, just a bit hot and stupidly slow
HBK-IIC-C, 2 uac10s with enough ammo to feed them and 4 backup ERMLs, if you can handle being slow its actually decent
SCR-PRIME, its a meta build for mid-long range but bad hardpoint locations
SCR-B, best LRM boat you can get out of the box, good amount of tubes, got narc, plenty of ammo, and backup SRMs
Note how none of the IS mechs id actually consider bringing are considered good, just acceptable and not something thats worthless and stupid. IS has too many potentially good mechs with STD heat sinks which turn you into a self-roasting oven, too many XLs on heavys/assaults, and alot of stupid things like 4+ different weapon systems that no normal persona can manage nor do they sync together at all. Clan at least has the crow (which is a very solid performer out of the box on a couple models), IS has pretty much nothing that really stands out as above subpar.
5
