26 replies to this topic

[Spare Parts Bin]

Hey, guys and gals. Last year I bought the Catapult,Cataphract, and Stalker Mastery Bundles to replace mechs I sold to previously finance Direwolves and Timberwolves. Currently I am using a Direwolf Ultraviolet, Stalker Misery,Catapult Jester,Supernova Broiler, Black Widow, and Champion models to maximize my c-bill intake while I have 70+ days of premium time.
I have enough real money to purchase a Timberwolf Warrent and a Linebacker or Madcat MK2 standard pack + the hero omni or mech.
I need your honest input which would better suit my play style. I am a brawler who favors mixed builds, combining missles(atms or mrms), ppc,lasers,and autocannons or lmgs.
I hear good things about both these models.

[FupDup]

The Linebacker is way better for brawling due to its speed, agility, and relative durability compared to the Mad Cat Mk. 2. However, it doesn't have the tonnage for effective mixed builds. You'd have to commit to one or maybe two weapon types (e.g. pulse + SRMs or something).

The Mad Kitty can easily handle the weight of several different weapon types, but its mobility and speed make it not quite ideal for the brawler role. Its hitboxes are also easy to isolate, making it easy to cripple if the red team knows you're coming. It's best off as a mid to long range ground pounder.

It's really a matter of picking which traits are more important, because you can't get them all with either of these two robots.

Edited by FupDup, 14 January 2018 - 11:23 AM.

[Y E O N N E]

Champions don't have a C-bill bonus, they have an XP bonus. Hero and (S) 'Mechs have the C-bill bonus.

Linebacker definitely suits your described preferences more. MPL, SRMs, and the occasional ERPPC work on it quite well and it's right at home brawling with fantastic speed, agility, and geometry.

The Mad Cat Mk. II is more of a trade or ballistics 'Mech.

[Jay Leon Hart]

As mentioned, the Linebacker is better with small arms - lasers, SRMs, ATMs. The heaviest you will do well with are Large class lasers, ERPPCs or Gauss + lasers on the LBK-B. The Redline is worth it for the C-Bill boost & 3E RT to go with the 3E LT of the LBK-C.

The Mad Cat Mk II has the tonnage for mixed loadouts, but performs best with heavy ballistics + energy on the MCII-1, MCII-B & Deathstrike.

[N0ni]

It really comes down to what traits you like to have during the brawl. Is firepower more important or mobility?

If you want sheer firepower in a brawl, the Mk II is your safest bet since you have enough tonnage to mix and match to your liking depending on the variant. Just be wary the downside to Mk II is its terrible mobility (mostly just accel/decel), where ever you stage it you're pretty much committed.

If you prefer mobility, being able to get out if need be, then Linebacker. While tonnage is somewhat limited due to the nature of the large XL engine, you'll still manage to mix some lighter brawling weapons.

[Spare Parts Bin]

Thanks y'all.

I am still on the fence about the Madcat MK2. The Linebacker sounds good. Do they have ballistic hardpoints available? One or two Lbx2 acs, an Ultra AC5, or 2+LMGs help, but adding ARMs and MPls puts me in the sweet spot.

What are your thoughts about the Warrent Timberwolf Hero?

[Nema Nabojiv]

Spare Parts Bin, on 14 January 2018 - 11:15 AM, said:

I have enough real money to purchase a Timberwolf Warrent and a Linebacker or Madcat MK2 standard pack + the hero omni or mech.

You dont need to buy pack, Mad Cats are available for space money. And its always better to buy one and try it out, see how you like it as a mech, and then buy others if you know how you want to build them.

[N0ni]

Spare Parts Bin, on 14 January 2018 - 11:55 AM, said:

What are your thoughts about the Warrent Timberwolf Hero?

Warrant is not worth it at all. Timberwolf has had its moment of glory, but now it's merely a shadow of its former self. Handles like a slug and the Warrant has no hardpoints in the CT which makes it automatically worse than the others (The S comes with a JJ so you don't really need the JJ pods, the Prime comes with ballistic if you wanted MGs to a brawl build, the rest come with energy).

If you really want a Timberwolf with a C-Bill bonus i would get the steam pack which comes with the C (energy center) + some MC/C-Bills/Premium time/colors/pattern (and idk how you feel about Thunderbolts, but you get the 9SE as well with CBill boost)

[Nema Nabojiv]

also, tinberwolfs are bad and anything a timberwolf can do others can do better.

[Angus McFife VI]

Spare Parts Bin, on 14 January 2018 - 11:15 AM, said:

Hey, guys and gals. Last year I bought the Catapult,Cataphract, and Stalker Mastery Bundles to replace mechs I sold to previously finance Direwolves and Timberwolves. Currently I am using a Direwolf Ultraviolet, Stalker Misery,Catapult Jester,Supernova Broiler, Black Widow, and Champion models to maximize my c-bill intake while I have 70+ days of premium time.
I have enough real money to purchase a Timberwolf Warrent and a Linebacker or Madcat MK2 standard pack + the hero omni or mech.
I need your honest input which would better suit my play style. I am a brawler who favors mixed builds, combining missles(atms or mrms), ppc,lasers,and autocannons or lmgs.
I hear good things about both these models.

Linebackers make godly SRM brawlers, that I know

[FupDup]

Spare Parts Bin, on 14 January 2018 - 11:55 AM, said:

Thanks y'all.

I am still on the fence about the Madcat MK2. The Linebacker sounds good. Do they have ballistic hardpoints available? One or two Lbx2 acs, an Ultra AC5, or 2+LMGs help, but adding ARMs and MPls puts me in the sweet spot.

What are your thoughts about the Warrent Timberwolf Hero?

The LBK does have ballistic hardpoints, but your tonnage for using ACs or Gauss is pretty limited. Use Smurfys to theorycraft your build before you buy.

LBK-BASE

Your max ballistic capacity is 4 (LBK-C right arm, LBK-C right torso, LBK-RL left arm), but using all of that would limit your other weapons (only a max of 4 lasers backup until the LBK-H comes out for C-Bills, then you could have 5 lasers).

[Spare Parts Bin]

Based on your responses I am now leaning toward the Linebackers. For a little more money than I would have spent on a Timberwolf Warrant, I can have an ecm equipped Cataphract and Stalker. I know these do not have the + 30% c-bill perks. As for the T-Bolts they are on my list of mastery bundles to buy after my 70+ days of premium time run out.

[Jay Leon Hart]

Spare Parts Bin, on 14 January 2018 - 11:55 AM, said:

The Linebacker sounds good. Do they have ballistic hardpoints available? One or two Lbx2 acs, an Ultra AC5, or 2+LMGs help, but adding ARMs and MPls puts me in the sweet spot.

LBKs have ballistics on the following OmniPods;
LBK-B RT - 1B
LBK-C RT - 2B, 1E
LBK-C RA - 1B
Redline LA - 1B

So up to 1B per arm and 2B in the RT for 4B total

Two class-2 ACs are workable, but 2 class-5 ACs will struggle for ammo. A single class-10 AC leaves a good amount of tonnage for ammo & back-up, especially if you strip an arm or two. A single class-20 AC had 5.5 free tons with a single arm stripped. I can recommend Gauss + 3 ERML on the LBK-B, strip the RA for 2.5 tons of ammo.

Edited by Jay Leon Hart, 14 January 2018 - 12:44 PM.

[Spare Parts Bin]

These Linebackers sound better and better. I could use the rt&left arm ballistic omnipods as well as rt&left torso missle and energy hardpoints to build these Omnis to my liking.

I thank you all for your input.

[Xetelian]

I think energy and SRMs are the best thing you can put on a LBK.

You only get 16.5 tons to work with so light weapons are ideal and a LBX5 or UAC5 is 7 tons which is almost HALF of your total available tonnage.

I have a build on my REDLINE that I think is pretty decent. It has worked out well for me, I use the SRMs as my main weapon with the lasers coming in only when I have heat to spare.

You can also do Laser Vomit.

You can also do Medium Pulse lasers

I assume you're getting the hero because you mentioned owning a buttload of heroes so far. All of these builds except the 6 MPL can be replicated using regular pods, for 6 MPL you'll put one in an arm and take off a DHS to armor up that arm.

You can do something like this 2xATM9 but that is entirely up to you. You said you wanted to brawl though.


As far as the MCII goes I think it is a wonderful pack and the hero is god tier.

You like mixed load outs you said here is an example of the MCII-1 with a bit of everything. This is far from the meta build for it though.

I'm not an expert but I don't think the MCII is much of a brawler but there is the Scorch build on the MCII-2 but it isn't super easy to use being only ~63 KPH and mostly 270m. I bring a lot of ammo, you may not need this much. I also traded the LBX20s in for Gauss rifles on mine.

The MCII-4 can have ATMs and lasers.


The MCII and the LBK are both good mechs.

Edited by Xetelian, 14 January 2018 - 01:56 PM.

[Spare Parts Bin]

I have never purchased a clan standard pack before, I have only bought the Direwolf Ultraviolet. Do either the Collector's or Standard packs provide 30 days premium time? I promise this my last question.

[Y E O N N E]

Yes, both will provide Premium Time. Collector's will actually give you 60 days.

[Clownwarlord]

I wont tell you what to spend your money on or if you will get value out of something. I belive that is for the person solely to decide on there own.

As for the mech I can tell you I enjoy playing my Linebackers as 2 ERPPC shoot and scoot. As for my Mad Cat Mk. II I enjoy the B variant with its dakka build and the dual gauss laser on my DS. The timber wolf my favorite has always been the prime and just running the simple but stil optimal laser vomit.

All in my opinion fun but again it is your choice to spend money on them.

[UnofficialOperator]

Its really what you'd like to do in the game. If you are just enjoying the game as is and not stats chasing and not trying to get better at the game then play whichever you prefer. I understand that some people just like big stompy mech game.

If you are going to chase stats or get better at the game, then I was going to recommend DS because of my own bias as I play mainly assaults. Personally, I don't really like LBK but judging from your stats from the past 18 seasons, it doesn't seem that you are doing that well in assaults. So perhaps a change to a faster and more agile mech might help you learn better positioning etc.

You could probably just buy a LBK for cbills and test it out ingame first before committing to a hero mech.

No offence intended.

[Spare Parts Bin]

UnofficialOperator, on 14 January 2018 - 09:27 PM, said:

Its really what you'd like to do in the game. If you are just enjoying the game as is and not stats chasing and not trying to get better at the game then play whichever you prefer. I understand that some people just like big stompy mech game.

If you are going to chase stats or get better at the game, then I was going to recommend DS because of my own bias as I play mainly assaults. Personally, I don't really like LBK but judging from your stats from the past 18 seasons, it doesn't seem that you are doing that well in assaults. So perhaps a change to a faster and more agile mech might help you learn better positioning etc.

You could probably just buy a LBK for cbills and test it out ingame first before committing to a hero mech.

No offence intended.

No offense taken. I am not the best pilot of anything. I enjoy heavies/assaults. However I do not play on a daily basis, life's other priorities intrude. At best I get 1-8 games 1-3 times a week. Depending on PUG participation so games score 400-900 damage,etc, and others are 50-200 damage. I need at least one person to work with which does not always happen. Such is the path we trod.