Posted 21 July 2018 - 06:10 PM
A bit late reply, but here is my opinion
Hugin is great, and if you boat MRMs, you can get insane dps out of it. As long as you stick to your second line, and punish assaults and heavies that expose, you'll set your team up for wins on armor-stripped enemies... and if you catch an open component, you'll crit them out in a heartbeat.
It also can lob MRM 30, or MRM 40 at about 750 meters away.... for full damage, though the spread will be pretty terrible. Makes a great suppression tool, and with practice, you can punish enemy second line snipers with a hail of missiles. You're also great for hammering past multiple AMS and chewing their ammo up. Recent patch BUFFED MRM ammo count to 340 at ton... you can be pushing 374ish with skills... meaning you only need 3 tons with a pure MRM build to be set for huge games. I've easily averaged between 4 and 800 damage even in subpar matchmaking... and I've ALWAYS out scored most assaults and heavies on damage in losses by a long shot.
The other ravens are, in my mind, decent, but are out performed as brawlers, AND pouncers by your pick of the Arctic wolf, or even the Linebacker (who is just nastier than you at a similar speed).
I admit I tend to trade speed on my raven for firepower... namely because most people do not expect Ravens to be serious threats. My number one mech of all time, by about 2000 games, is the Raven 3L.
ECM skilled out, plus sensor perks, equals a scout mech that is simply unequaled in the game, and you also are only out sneaked by the ECM Flea and ECM Locust, imho.
But as to the raven 3L's true master-tier greatness? It's when you take the ECM coverage, communication with your team mates, and abuse positioning advantage to make yourself nearly undetectable until late game, and you can remain a low priority target for your enemies... You don't need Narc to spot for your allied LRM boats, and while quite devastating situationally when suppored by a proper LRM battery, you really can do about as good a job of spotting visually and abusing target decay.
My go to 3L build is pretty dumb. People tell me so, and yet, I average 3-500 damage games, and often bring in huge point scores due to the amount of spotting, flanking, and ECM shielding and assists I get with it. Don't laugh when you see it... but give me the benefit of the doubt for a minute.
2x LRM 5, With, or without artemis. (Artemis previously was a waste, but with the ammunition upgrade last patch, Artemis is certainly viable), and I bring round about 1100 to 1200 missiles. ECM. And maybe a beagle, too, so you can spot enemies at about 2000m distance. (Giving your team early intel makes intel way more valuable.).
The 3L, fully upgraded, can lob itls LRMS out to about 1215m targets... enemies typically assume they are safe from LRM fire at about 1000 meters... you'll be astounded how often they won't try to duck behind cover, or simply will not have had -time- to get to cover before you can get 30-100 points of damage on them.
This build is -amazing-. I've found myself routinely matching catapults, Archers, and even Supernovas damage in around, because I get the LRM damage started way earlier than them, and can sustain it indefinitely. I also have one big, huge advantage with this lovely butcherbird...
Stealthy positioning, and enough speed to re position in relative safety. I don't have to hide behind my allies... and wait until they spot for me. I self spot, and rain my 10 damage a shot down on enemies. I prioritize big, slower targets, over little targets that lack AMS coverage, and without fail I can kick them from 100% down to around 80-85% with ease... mostly in side torsos and CTs, to boot. If I manage to do that to two or three enemy mechs BEFORE the main brawl engages... well, our team already has a huge advantage. I also pay attention to vulnerable targets, like enemy flankers who lack ECM coverage... they are often forced to break off their attacks when 10 missiles come raining in on them every 2 ish seconds, as most flanker mechs are very vulnerable to sustained LRM impacts... and you'll be amazed how often your shots, if you are positioning right, will score home on thin back armor, and crit components... it's mostly a pschological effect.
finally, I spread the love. I never stop shooting, and never waste shots at targets I am not hitting steadily. I watch my minimap, and pay attention to the priority targets... I add my LRM 10 fire to support any ally who needs it- and due to my 1150 meters of actual firing range, I can easily support any ally on the entire battlefield, most of the time. Secondly, I pay attention to what enemies are damaged, and falling back to second line... I focus them immediately, because, it breaks their morale to push forwards and support allies, if they are hiding from my missiles. If they're already orange or red on armor, I -will- score internals in a savlo or two... and I've often secured kills, or crippled enemies that would have otherwise lived to fight as fire support for the enemy later.
I know I've thrown a wall of text here... because the 3L is a subtle mech. The reason I swear by the 3L, is because it's brilliance comes from it's unique blend of so many above average traits... nothing about the mech is spectacular, except it's sensor range ability, but nothing about the Raven is -bad-.
Oh, one last piece of advice. NEVER run an XL engine. Run a Light engine, and keep your speed as close to 101-104 as you can. Max your sensors and firepower tree, and don't waste time with mobility... the Raven will never win any speed tournaments, and mechs that are much faster than its upper limit are also smaller and more nimble than it. Play to the Raven's strengths... put your beak towards the enemy, use cover, hillcrests, ridges, and buildings to spot enemies without being shot, hold your locks, call targets, and never stop shooting. If you get pressured, withdraw behind allies, and swap sides of your team's line. If the enemy yields a side of the map, range forward aggressively, and put LRM fire in perpindicular to their line. You'll put them under much more morale pressure than you'd expect, and can often frustrate enemies into splitting their attention to try to fire back at you, or hunt you down. So long as you're cunning and attentive, you'll be able to dissapear before they reach you... and punish them for their folly a good bit too, when they realize their blunder and attempt to reform. You can extend the value of your flanks- and can go up slope, spot, and slide down slope, staying 100% in cover about 50% of the time, and only needing a tiny fraction of exposure between firings in many cases.
I can rant for hours, as you can see, about this build... frankly, two raven 3Ls, or a 3l married with a hugin, could easily replace three heavy or assault LRM boats in a round, making up through positioning and cunning what those LRM boats would have in raw volume of fire.
And the best part of this mech is...
You're essentially guaranteed to pull your own weight. Ravens aren't very sturdy mechs, and dying due to an enemy push or bad luck, happens sometimes... but so long as you follow my formula, you'll still be matching your average team mate for points and damage done by the mid game when you get killed. And unlike the LRM boat who gets pounced to death by enemy lights, you have both the sensor ability, ECM capcity, and speed to avoid that fate most of the time... and even if it -does- happen to you, your team is only out 35 tons, not 80 or 90, and that tonnage is able to be spent on nasty meta builds or whatever else.
Working as part of a 2 or 3 man LRM team, this build is absolutely murderous. As you can do more than spot... you can contribute respectable LRM DPS. I ran this about two hours ago from this post's writing, with a single Archer, and Catapult. THey each ran LRM 15, and I ran LRM 10. The results were crushing victories for our team... even on River City, where LRMs are often a handicap, not a virtue. Why? Because I was able to spot early, hold spots, AND rotate along the avenues to get shots in rapidly, neutralizing the terrain difficulties. I did about 348 damage (Not stellar), but i got 11 assists, 2 kills, 4 component destroys, and an more than a third of a million C bills, WITHOUT premium or event gains.