10 replies to this topic

[Hit the Deck]

Currently only exist on the IS side as far as I can remember - 'mechs like the Atlases or Highlanders. Basically those which are quirked for durability, can't really excel at long range, and have relatively small engine cap for its tonnage.

Do you find that they are useful or useless most of the time? Of course noone doubts their potential to deal considerable damage

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Hit the Deck, on 04 January 2018 - 06:45 PM, said:

Currently only exist on the IS side as far as I can remember - 'mechs like the Atlases or Highlanders. Basically those which are quirked for durability, can't really excel at long range, and have relatively small engine cap for its tonnage.

Do you find that they are useful or useless most of the time? Of course noone doubts their potential to deal considerable damage

They're kinda good for ambushes if they can setup right or go around paths that aren't very open. Once they're up close they pretty much demolish anyone, but getting up close is the problem.

[Xiphias]

Generally speaking you want brawlers to be fast so that they can get into effective range, spread damage, and flank/circle targets. Slow brawls for that reason are fairly bad because they get destroyed before they can get close enough to be useful. If your brawler isn't faster than the mechs you are chasing they can kite you forever.

That said, heavy brawlers can work well in certain group settings. There is something to be said for having much more armor for the other team to blast through. An example a fast brawler vs a durable brawler from back before SPLs were nerfed was the SPL Gargoyle vs the Atlas. Against a ranged team the Gargoyle was usually better because it was a fast assault ~80kph. It could push on top of ranged decks quickly and destroy them. A counter to this "fast brawl" deck was the run "heavy brawl" this used Atlases as the assaults. Heavy brawl beats fast brawl because fast brawl can't out DPS heavy brawl to make up the armor difference. Ranged decks usually beat heavy brawl because the slow Atlases get torn to pieces before they can get close enough.

Orion/OrionIIC were/are decent heavy brawl mechs while the Lineback is a good fast brawl mech. The summoner is somewhere in between.

If you can fore the engagement at close range without having to cross open terrain heavy/durable brawlers are better. In any case DPS > Durability in most situations.

[4rcs1ne]

Atlai and slow brawlers in general are pretty much only as useful as the team around you. Without a decent, supporting team, you essentially turn into a giant damage farm for the enemies with longer or mid-range weapons. In other words, they'll kill you before you have a chance to utilize your weapons effectively.

However, with a good team, the AS7-S turns into a giant wrecking ball of death, but again, playing a mech like this is always a gamble in the solo queue. (Unless you're someone like Proton of course)

Edited by Matt2496, 04 January 2018 - 07:09 PM.

[Humpday]

Well that Atlas brawler has been useless for a long while now, and has been since I started playing back in Feb 2017...final nail for that guy was the Engine Dsync.

Highlander brawler? Whats that, I've never ever seen that fielded...99% of the time it has LRMs on it.

King Crab brawler...again, haven't seen one of those in a very long time, if ever...probably because it was probably dead within the first 3 minutes of the fight and never made it to the fight.

So yeah...pretty much useless in anyone's hands other than the likes of the very best players. For which even they struggle with fielding those builds.

I'd rather take a brawl Cyclops, MKII-2, Scorch, Orion-IIC, Bushy...than any of those slow poke "durable" mechs, which is deceptive really...that durability is offset by the fact that you're always first focus when you expose, then compounded further with lack of ability to adequately spread damage due to poor torso yaw speed, which is then again further compounded by the fac that you are so big that you're impossible to miss

...which is why it never feels like you're tanking much on those mechs despite having crazy amounts of armor.

Anni is the only assault that can both tank a lot of damage, and dish it out...despite it being a turtle...but generally speaking those build aren't really "brawl loadouts" i guess. I guess you can consider Hgauss or lbx60 brawl? I dunno.

[Hit the Deck]

Humpday, on 04 January 2018 - 07:22 PM, said:

...
Highlander brawler? Whats that, I've never ever seen that fielded...99% of the time it has LRMs on it.
...

HGN-733C

Atlas, HGN, Victor, and Orion brawlers usually have similar loadouts consisting of single AC/20 + SRMs. The Cent is the smallest 'Mech which can carry AC/20+SRMs, but it's not slow like its bigger siblings.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Hit the Deck, on 04 January 2018 - 07:30 PM, said:

HGN-733C

Atlas, HGN, Victor, and Orion brawlers usually have similar loadouts consisting of single AC/20 + SRMs. The Cent is the smallest 'Mech which can carry AC/20+SRMs, but it's not slow like its bigger siblings.

More modernized concept: HGN-733C

[Y E O N N E]

They are very niche.

With all that armor giving them staying-power, they are excellent for setting up ambushes, e.g. holding a gate in Invasion. On the offense, they can be decent on small maps like Mining Collective or HPG Manifold for taking a position.

Outside of those two cases, they get picked apart rather easily.

[El Bandito]

Hit the Deck, on 04 January 2018 - 06:45 PM, said:

Currently only exist on the IS side as far as I can remember - 'mechs like the Atlases or Highlanders. Basically those which are quirked for durability, can't really excel at long range, and have relatively small engine cap for its tonnage.

Do you find that they are useful or useless most of the time? Of course noone doubts their potential to deal considerable damage

Clans got durable brawler as well, in the form of Highlander-IIC. The Hero variant is one of the deadliest brawlers.

Edited by El Bandito, 04 January 2018 - 09:16 PM.

[VitriolicViolet]

i like my Highlanders even if they are slow. i tend to do well enough in them, not many bad games but not many great ones. i do best in the 733, 733P and 732B.

HGN-733
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b124ff0ccebc90c

HGN-733P
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a7c50f6fa782380

HGN-732B
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...86e8272f281668a

HGN-IIC
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...bc12ec1e77ebb10

HGN-IIC-KP
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b4872c77c79094b

HGN-IIC-C
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...7ecdf6cd141f83b

Edited by VitriolicViolet, 04 January 2018 - 09:25 PM.

[Hit the Deck]

El Bandito, on 04 January 2018 - 09:12 PM, said:

Clans got durable brawler as well, in the form of Highlander-IIC. The Hero variant is one of the deadliest brawlers.

I think the structure buffs are somewhat small for its class, but they are inded deadlier than the IS version (like most of the other IICs).