12 replies to this topic

[CFC Conky]

Hello all,

Any current Firestarters drivers out there?

I was going through the hangar and remembered I have a couple of Firestarters, the Ember and the -S(C), so I decided to take them out for a spin.

I'm running 4xmg and 4xML on the Ember with an xl240, and on the -S I'm running 5xMPL and an xl295. I'm doing ok-ish (very heavy on the -ish ), with the Ember and the -S is a bit of a disaster.

I know they have apparently suffered from the re-scaling a couple of years ago. Are there any 'current' Firestarter drivers out there and do you have any tips on how to get the most out of them in today's game environment?

Thanks!
CFC Conky

[Koniving]

Firestarters, Panthers and Wolfhounds are among the game's tallest lights for the IS.

Panther and Wolfhound have some benefits in armor; much more so the slow panther. Wolfhounds are very skimpped in terms of armor benefits but in their favor is speed.

The Firestarters, out of the three chassis, are the shortest of the "giant lights."
They also got a big health boost but it is all in "structure", not armor.
Focus your armor forward, do not run in straight lines (towards or away from the enemy) twist whenever possible to prevent or reduce your back exposure whenever retreating. Remember you can JUMP...

If you make use of your arm aiming skills, separate the torso and arm weapons.

If you do not make use of the arm aiming reticle "o" and only use the + reticle, then separate weapons by LEFT SIDE and RIGHT SIDE.

Speed is important, but so is survival. LFE is probably very recommended.
Some people, like myself, don't rely on speed. For us we use STD engines. (because then that lower speed comes another great reality; the "reduced" speed of losing an ST with the LFE is traumatizing with smaller engines, so STD just works better for me).

(With my preferred sorts of weapons, high speed doesn't work for me.)

Spoiler

Whether you rely on speed or cunning and positioning,make your attacks count. Go for weakened enemies. If your foe is not weakened, go for the legs as no matter how the fight goes, her you gotta fight it out or run, its always easier if they're limping.

Don't be afraid to STAND on the enemy.


From this position, you can shoot them.

And they can't shoot you back....

Unless they're smart enough to unlock their arms.

Edited by Koniving, 07 April 2018 - 11:13 AM.

[CFC Conky]

Hi K,

Thanks for the advice. I have a number of light mechs but they are not my primary weight-class. I do like the Wolfhound, especially the Grinner. Your thoughts on engines are interesting since I always thought the conventional wisdom when running IS lights is to put xl engines in them.

My biggest challenge at the moment is hitting while going 130+km/h but I suppose that will come in time.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

[Koniving]

Gotta remember, the three giant lights... are as tall as medium mechs. As such XL engines and big side torsos do not mix well. The speeds they have available to them, also, aren't as good as those available to most lights. As such the "Go XL or go home" is the same as saying play football without protective gear and always get the ball; you're gonna leave in a stretcher.

I prefer 100 to 110 kph for my own speeds. I treat my Wolfhound, Panther and Firestarters as different variations of heavy hitters or close-up harassers. For example my Ember sports a MPL, 2 SL, and 4 MG with a standard engine. It cuts in, harasses weakened enemies, leaps on top of them and shoots 'em dead whenever possible. It still goes over 100 kph which is the perfect speed to make sure all the hits really matter.

My FS-H is basically a Hollander; Gauss Rifle, TAG (to make sure my ammo isn't wasted on invisible walls, and the "target" icon draws attention and gets other players to engage it).

My FS-A is basically sporting a plethora of SPLs and a huge standard engine. Though this has yet to be updated since the skill tree.

My Panthers are sporting mostly STD or LF engines, with PPCs or large lasers. Some have SRMs or LRMs.

My Wolfhounds of which I have two, run the 104 kph 6 ML skirmisher WLF-2 and the Grinner hero mech which is basically a stealth-armored ECM Steiner-built "Panther" with a top speed of 120 kph.

Edited by Koniving, 07 April 2018 - 12:52 PM.

[CFC Conky]

Hi K,

Took a quick look in the mechlab, and I see what you mean. By dropping a couple of JJs and shaving a bit of armor here and there I can get my Ember going just about as fast as with an xl240, but with much better survivability.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

[Koniving]

Shave it from the head.
I run mine with 2 points there. (I run MOST of mine with 2 armor, evidently here I use 4.)


Regardless of 100 kph or significantly faster than that... who is gonna try to aim a lot of firepower for that tiny thing when most of these suckers are running XL engines and the torsos are that big and meaty.


When I did run it with an XL, it had an AC/5 and AC/2 combo which then changed to an AC/5, triple MG, twin MPL build.


93 kph, did pretty good (but was a lot shorter at the time). Since then however I changed to the above build due to its much larger size and the problems presented by easy side torso death.

Edited by Koniving, 07 April 2018 - 02:18 PM.

[MechaBattler]

I like to run the Ember with RAC5 and 2ERSmall. xD

Six ER Mediums gives the Firestarter some decent firepower at a decent range. I like to harass until someone has an exposed section. Then I go over the top to pop that section.

[Koniving]

Now that I've started to run it again, the first thing I did was trade the fast shooting twin SL for twin ER SL so I won't have to get as close. Though the firing rate's cut down a bit which kinda alienates the constant harassment, the added range has made general skirmishing a bit easier to enter and leave. Debated going LMGs but since they aren't in the arms, I generally prefer that they hit harder.

When I get the FS hero from the Solaris pack, I'll go the LMG route in the arms and probably full-on pulse lasers in the torsos for that hard punch.

MechaBattler, on 07 April 2018 - 02:46 PM, said:

I like to run the Ember with RAC5 and 2ERSmall. xD

Six ER Mediums gives the Firestarter some decent firepower at a decent range. I like to harass until someone has an exposed section. Then I go over the top to pop that section.

My joke build from earlier today before rebuilding it back pumped in two RAC/2s on an XL 180... to good effect under the right conditions. Not as good as my RAC/2 Osiris "Screw this I got no skill unlocks so why not have fun) build, however.

[Koniving]

Just performed my abuse test.

1 Ember, built as above (with ER SLs instead of SLs).. dropped into a murder ball at the 3:40~ mark.

7 enemies in a murder ball. Had an issue with the wireless keyboard, but beyond running into a wall longer than intended, I basically ran back and forth with minimal turning and let them blast me while I did what damage I could with no actual effort in survival.

So, give or take a couple of seconds..
It took 7 people 55 seconds to kill me.
If we subtract a generous 20 seconds from that, we can say that without other players distracting them it might've taken them 35 seconds to kill me were they not being butchered between my shooting their weak spots and allies finishing them off.

Considering that they were all salivating at the mouth to bite into me to the point of blasting each other... I'd say that was pretty damn durable. Keep in mind this is with a full survival tree.

[Guy Humual]

What is the point of this mech? it's massive, so you're not sneaking up on anyone, It's weapons are all below the head so you're not peaking, it's slower than most lights so you're not running anyone down, the flamers usually over heat me before overheating the enemy mech, It doesn't seem to have any armor or structural quarks so even if you cool someone down that one shot they get isn't something you can soak, and if I'm in a group most people seem to target the firestarter before even the assaults and heaves. It's a free kill. The good games I've had on it I can count on one hand and even that one good game I had, it was because the enemies didn't know what they were doing, or my teammates were great. Hands down the worst mech I own. I suppose it might be fun as a veteran of the game to play on hard mode but I can't see any use for this POS.

[Erronius]

Guy Humual, on 30 April 2018 - 12:23 PM, said:

What is the point of this mech? it's massive, so you're not sneaking up on anyone, It's weapons are all below the head so you're not peaking, it's slower than most lights so you're not running anyone down, the flamers usually over heat me before overheating the enemy mech, It doesn't seem to have any armor or structural quarks so even if you cool someone down that one shot they get isn't something you can soak, and if I'm in a group most people seem to target the firestarter before even the assaults and heaves. It's a free kill. The good games I've had on it I can count on one hand and even that one good game I had, it was because the enemies didn't know what they were doing, or my teammates were great. Hands down the worst mech I own. I suppose it might be fun as a veteran of the game to play on hard mode but I can't see any use for this POS.

This is one of those mechs I think you either really need to be a good light pilot in general to use, or you need to spend a lot of time playing it to get a really good feel. But frankly it doesn't really seem to bring enough to the table for me to spend any time playing them over other mechs.

There are pilots that can make this mech look decent, but then again those same pilots could strap 2 MGs to a lawn tractor and drive around in MWO and still get kills.

I think my time is much better spent playing Urbies.

[Guy Humual]

Erronius, on 03 May 2018 - 03:19 PM, said:

This is one of those mechs I think you either really need to be a good light pilot in general to use, or you need to spend a lot of time playing it to get a really good feel. But frankly it doesn't really seem to bring enough to the table for me to spend any time playing them over other mechs.

There are pilots that can make this mech look decent, but then again those same pilots could strap 2 MGs to a lawn tractor and drive around in MWO and still get kills.

I think my time is much better spent playing Urbies.

The Urbie is a fantastic mech, not only is it tanky, but it's can torso twist a full 360, and it's pretty squat so it's not easy to hit. There's plenty of good reason people love them. I got my firestarter as part of the Solaris hero mech pack and it's easily the worst mech in that pack. I don't even know what to do with it to make it good. It's just designed to be terrible.

I can't say I've ever played a match to date with it where I thought to myself: "Wow, this was a good choice. I'm glad I brought my firestarter." Usually I'm thinking, "Well this was a waste," or at best: "Wow, I didn't die, despite the fact I was in a firestarter"

[Rando Slim]

I'm a lot like the OP, I've been playing MWO forever and basically because I was being an anti meta scrub I refused to buy them when they were all the rage. Remember, there was a time the FS was the exact same nightmare the Arctic Cheetah was for a while......it and the Raven 3L and Jenner F and maaaaybe Spider 5d were the ONLY lights worth driving for quite a while. I just bought a FS-A on the current sale and am trying to just skill it up from zero and save my historic sp.......ive played 5 matches so far and failed to break 200 damage in any of them (one match I was on my way but got killed by a team mate). I managed to get about 12 nodes unlocked and it's painful. I was trying to have fun and run an xl-270 with 2 flamers in the ct, 2 medium pulse in the torsos, and 4 er smalls in the arms with 3 jumpers. It looks good on paper but man am I doing bad, ttk is just too low there's too many clan mechs that can react fast enough to ruin your day. I'll severely annoy or mess up one or two mechs but I'm so damaged from the encounter I can't continue or just outright dead. In general even just being t2 and trying to skill a mech during peak hours is just a headache. I admit I'm rusty at piloting lights but I expected myself to do better. I gotta get the hang of the roght amount of flamer to use so I don't overheat myself also. I really wanted to stick with the theme and use flamers cause I've never really seriously tried them, but I'm probably gonna have to ditch them eventually in favor of better hit and run weaponry.

I'm thinking of trying to use its high mounts to try being a crappy poptart with twin light ppcs and as many er smalls or er mediums as it can cool efficiently. I've also thought of maybe just one snub nose in the right torso and as many er smalls or regular mediums as possible. I could also keep my current build but just switch the flamers for even more we smalls but then I bump into ghost heat firing a full alpha with the med pulses. I guess I might be down to try a light fusion engine 270 and just be boring and boat 6 of whatever fits at that point with a heat rating hopefully at least 1.25.

I'll figure something out. It's stuff like this that kills my stats.

Edited by Rando Slim, 30 May 2018 - 09:32 AM.