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Whats A Good Starter Package To Buy?


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#1 RushLimbaugh

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Posted 23 April 2018 - 04:31 PM

I just started playing like a day or two ago, I absolutely love the game. I ended up buying a Marauder 3R and doing a double PPC and Ultra AC/5 build with all the credits I had from the tutorial and playing a couple matches, I am now broke pretty much. Anyways that doesn't really have anything to do with what I am trying to ask.

I would like to purchase a pack, I was gunna grab some premium time for 12 bucks but the solaris 7 pack is only 18 more dollars and I get a ton of mechs and premium time anyways. I am just wondering is there a better pack out there? Or is that solaris pack a pretty damn good starting package. It's relatively cheap from what I can gather some of the other packs are convoluted and expensive. (by convoluted I mean a bit hard to see what I am actually getting).

Would appreciate the help, any suggestions for a newbie would be appreciated. Looking forward to battletech tomorrow and that's what kinda got me back into this game. Just happen to really enjoy playing it this time around.

#2 Ruccus

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Posted 23 April 2018 - 04:46 PM

The Solaris 7 pack is a really nice value for a new player. I think the Mad Dog hero in the pack is the only one that's close to a 'turnkey' mech in that once you put the weapons in it that you want it'll be good to go, but the others can be upgraded with your cadet bonus and/or c-bills gained while skilling up your Mad Dog.

#3 Roughneck45

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Posted 23 April 2018 - 05:02 PM

The Solaris 7 pack is the best bang for your buck, no doubt. The mechs themselves aren't that special compared to the standard variants, but that many mechs and that much variety for 30 dollars cannot be beat.

Edited by Roughneck45, 23 April 2018 - 05:02 PM.


#4 TheCaptainJZ

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Posted 24 April 2018 - 05:34 AM

The Solaris pack is great. Can't get a better deal and none of the mechs are horrible.

#5 MechaBattler

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Posted 24 April 2018 - 09:35 AM

As has been said repeatedly. Solaris 7 mechpack is the best bang for your buck. The only downside is if you're more of a clan player, since it only has a Mad Dog. But with 7 heroes. It'll be easier to skill them out thanks to the c-bill bonus and 30 days premium time it comes with. You'll be less likely to run out of c-bills that way.

Otherwise a Mad Cat II or Marauder IIC are generally considered really good. The Hellbringer is also roundly considered to be a great new player mech. So the Virago hero Hellbringer could be a good money earner for someone starting out, throw on the omnipod with ECM and go town with that bad boy! But it will cost you the same as a Basic mech pack and comes with no premium time.

Edited by MechaBattler, 24 April 2018 - 09:36 AM.


#6 Exilyth

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 05:21 AM

The solaris 7 pack has the highest hero mech to money ratio currently.
If you don't own any of the mechs in it yet, it's a great value.

Lot's of different chassis in different weight classes make it easier to learn more about how each weight class plays.

Atlas, Banshee: The assaults are the second slowest in the pack, but they can put on the most weapons and armour.

Rifleman: This second line heavy has most weapons mounted in the arms at cockpit height, making it good for poking. Not the best armour though.

Griffin: This medium can either play bodyguard for one of your teams assaults or flank around and harass the enemy.

Firestarter: This light is taller and a bit slower than many other lights, but can still be deadly. Try to attack the enemies back while they're busy engaging your team.

Urbanmech: The slowest light with the default engine, the Urbanmech survives by being the least intimidating target around. Play other mechs until you can put in a bigger engine (don't sell the STD 60 - afaik there's currently no way to get them back), then stick to the most intimidating mech on your side and supplement their firepower with your own.

Mad Dog: The heavy clan mech is an omnimech, meaning you can change omnipods with parts from other variants of the chassis. Buying other pods for C-Bills, you can get up to 3 missile slots in each side torso and/or up to 3 energy slots in each arm or 1 ballistic slot in each arm - making this chassis quite variable. The unique feature of this variant is the center torso energy slots, which other Mad Dog variants do not have.


edit:
For possible builds, see the following thread:
https://mwomercs.com...ro-pack-builds/

Edited by Exilyth, 25 April 2018 - 05:25 AM.


#7 Spheroid

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 06:08 AM

I would say a Locust mastery pack or the Bushwacker/Rifleman standard pack. The Solaris bundle is by far the best deal but honestly how often are you going to play most of the mechs in QP or FP? Banshee and Atlas are nowhere near the top of assaults nor is the Griffin.

Urbanmech K9 is a good single purchase and so is the Marauder IIC standard pack. Are you playing S7 mostly?

Edited by Spheroid, 25 April 2018 - 06:16 AM.


#8 Exilyth

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 10:37 AM

View PostSpheroid, on 25 April 2018 - 06:08 AM, said:

I would say a Locust mastery pack


I was considering to mention that too - but the Locust requires a certain playstyle that isn't easy to pick up. Being as squishy as it is, I would not recommend the Locust to new players/as the first light mech to pickup.

#9 RushLimbaugh

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 01:43 PM

View PostSpheroid, on 25 April 2018 - 06:08 AM, said:

I would say a Locust mastery pack or the Bushwacker/Rifleman standard pack. The Solaris bundle is by far the best deal but honestly how often are you going to play most of the mechs in QP or FP? Banshee and Atlas are nowhere near the top of assaults nor is the Griffin.

Urbanmech K9 is a good single purchase and so is the Marauder IIC standard pack. Are you playing S7 mostly?

I've only been doing quick play, and I am tier 5 since I just started. Appreciate all the help guys. Wish the mechs weren't so expensive individually. Paying nearly 15 bucks for one mech I may or may not like is kind of nuts.

Edited by RushLimbaugh, 25 April 2018 - 01:44 PM.


#10 Leone

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 02:01 PM

I like to think of it as getting free mechs for tipping the creators. The game truely is free to play, so I forgive them their expensive costs, since, ya know, 'tis optional.

~Leone.

#11 Ruccus

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 04:13 PM

View PostRushLimbaugh, on 25 April 2018 - 01:43 PM, said:


I've only been doing quick play, and I am tier 5 since I just started. Appreciate all the help guys. Wish the mechs weren't so expensive individually. Paying nearly 15 bucks for one mech I may or may not like is kind of nuts.


I started playing back in beta and there's one mindset that I've followed that's worked well for me. I never gave PGI a dime of my money until the thought crossed my mind that I'd been getting good entertainment value out of MWO for free so it was only right I give them some money for the entertainment they'd already given me. That spurred me to buy the Phoenix mech Storm Pack (Locust 1V and Shadowhawk 2H).

Do not pay full price on any mech or mech pack unless you are doing it in part or in full to support PGI and thank them for giving you the gaming entertainment you've already experienced, and that includes the Solaris 7 Pack. If you go through your cadet training and felt you got or will get $30 worth of entertainment out of MWO then the Solaris 7 pack is a great smorgasbord option to allow you to experience a lot of the various playstyles once they're kitted out.

You've got the prototypical light mech in the Firestarter hero, Firestorm. You've got the light that plays like a medium in the Ubrbanmech hero, Street Cleaner. You've got a prototypical medium mech in the Griffin hero, Ares. You've got a heavy support mech in the Rifleman hero, Dao Breaker. You've got a solid clan heavy to learn about omnimechs in the Mad Dog hero, Revanant. You've got a jumping support Assault in the Banshee hero Siren, and in the Atlas hero Kraken you've got a big assault mech and the iconic image of Battletech.

This game truly is free to play and that's part of the reason I support them.

#12 Yumoshiri

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 04:36 PM

Solaris, no doubt. While there are some individual mechs that perform better in the hands of better pilots in other packages - for a new player on the other hand, you get so much diversity with the Solaris package. Completely differnet mechs with different playstyles, at a price of only 4.4$ per hero, as where individual heroes usually go for anywhere between 5$ to 25$ per mech. The advantage of a hero mech is that they have a permanent 30% increase to your c-bill production per game, combined with the premium time which you get for a month in the package, your c-bills almost double.

Other packs usually just contain mechs of the same type (often no hero) in combination with 30 days premium. Often, you can buy these mechs (if they are the standard type, not a hero), for c-bills in the shop.

So please yourself getting a bunch of heroes, rake up some cash, and buy a few more with c-bills. Welcome to the collectors club haha

#13 Koniving

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 04:41 PM

As an owner of...well over 700 in packs alone gathered since 2012...

The Solaris 7 pack is certainly the best deal at the moment, there's a wide sample of mechs to work with and they have reasonable similarities in some cases to what some consider to be some of the better "heroes" in the game. (This is partly because some of them are slight variations; PGI nipped themselves in the foot when they based the original Rifleman hero after the "greatest Rifleman pilot to ever live" and his Legend Killer, whom was a Solaris 7 competitor. As such PGI made up a mech that's similar but not quite when they were compiling their lore based collection.)

Some of them are actually preferable -- to me -- than heroes that they are similar to. The firestarter hero in the solaris pack is the inverse of the Ember firestarter hero, which truth be told makes it very capable for those whom use the arms and torso separately as it lets you keep your ballistics on the enemy (which are low to zero heat) and then you can bring your high heat high power weapons to bare only when it is going to count. The Ember is the opposite you can keep the high heat weapons on the target but the no heat machine gun pepper spray is hardly ever able to be put to good use unless your enemy is slow and unaware.

Firestarter's Solaris hero, the Firestorm, also has the highest acceleration and torso/arm speeds as well as braking speeds Firestarter.

The Siren (Banshee hero) is similar to what La Malanche could and should have been and in truth is better. But like all Banshees, it suffers from the fact that the mech is built for speed and its hardpoints require a little multi-tasking. Like anything fast it can't handle the abuse as well as it should.

The Kraken is effectively an Atlas K with a hint of Atlas RS. The Boar's Head (a separate Atlas hero) was a souped up Atlas RS with a dash of Atlas K. Either way, it's similar enough to pull through. Where the two differ is the Boar's Head accelerates a little faster and twists a little faster. The Kraken's at standard Atlas values there, but it pulls through instead by ranking in with the mech variants that have the highest crit chance resistance in the game. (And by reducing the crit chances so substantially, it significantly reduces the potential catastrophic chance-based structure damage caused by weapons.)

The Dao Breaker (Rifleman hero) is a pretty decent start into support fire. The hardpoints are pretty good and give some options that the Legend Killer cannot provide. However, it sets on level with the 3N for potential armor, which when compared to the abuse the Legend Killer can take, makes this mech seem kinda fragile. Where it does have an advantage is 20% more torso twist range than all non-3N Riflemen.

The Urbie in the Solaris pack is pretty much another Urbie with the only thing standing out is that it can hold the biggest engine of ALL the urbies. (Normal max is 180, its max is 210). Keep in mind that comes with having to factor in the engine's weight, which means if you do go that fast you won't be able to carry some of the bigger weapons. Urbanmechs can carry hefty firepower if slow, and carry the heaviest armor of all lights.

The Griffin hero Ares ranks up there with the Griffin 3M and 5M in terms of tankability due to quirks, it has better turn speed than some but suffers compared to some other Griffins (with the 1S apparently being the best). It lacks any weapon or heat quirks, unlike most Griffins however. Honestly I prefer it to Sparky.

The Mad Dog's effectively another Mad Dog... but damn does it look good.
Like really good. Sports car good.

#14 Koniving

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 04:44 PM

View PostRushLimbaugh, on 25 April 2018 - 01:43 PM, said:

I've only been doing quick play, and I am tier 5 since I just started. Appreciate all the help guys. Wish the mechs weren't so expensive individually. Paying nearly 15 bucks for one mech I may or may not like is kind of nuts.

Never buy with MC without a sale.
MC's better used for cosmetics and mechbays.

The "packs" on the website, though, is for 3 variants of a given mech. But still 3 mechs for 15 to 20 dollars without the permanent 30% bonus to cbill earnings, or 10 to 15 for a hero of a pack that you've already bought into... yeah the Solaris 7 deal is practically a no brainer.

#15 Zergling

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 07:06 PM

Add me to the chorus of people recommending the Solaris pack. You just can't beat that value or utility for a new player.

#16 Koniving

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Posted 26 April 2018 - 04:47 AM

Little warning as its often overlooked...

The Urbanmech has 360 degrees of torso twist. This takes some getting used to. Remember the C and F keys. One centers the torso to legs, the other centers the legs to torso.

#17 DFM

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Posted 30 April 2018 - 03:25 PM

for $20, Mech packs like the ones on the main page will give you 3 out of a (usual) total of 7 variants of that chassis(5 normal, 1 hero, and a "hero" version of the basic one, a (S) version)

This will also give you 30 days of Premium time, ($12 on the store alone), 3 mech bays for said mechs(900MC, roughly $5),

If you order them when they come out(and wait the X months to get them) you get some extra's as well. like colors, decals, cockpit items. All things that CAN be bought afterwords for MC.

There are also "Mastery Packs" which to my understanding is related to the old way of skills/modules etc. You basically needed 3 mechs of the same chassis to master it.

these vary in price by weight of mech(Locust pack is $13, Atlas is $41), but all contain 3 mechs, 30 days of Premium time, and 3 Mech bays. 1 of the mechs in each of the mastery packs is something that you can buy in store with C-bills. The other 2 variants are a Hero (+30% C-bill) and a Champion(+30% xp) which can only be bought for MC. I *BELIEVE* that the Premium time for these older packs is still counted as banked premium time. Which means that those 30 days, won't activate on your login to the game and countdown from there. You choose when you want that countdown to start(sadly, you cannot stop it).

The Solaris pack is great value if you don't have mechs of those chassis. I picked it up.

Buy, or not. I choose to, cuz it gives me the warm and fuzzies to support someone fighting HG in court(even if nothing of that money i spend is actually going towards that.)

#18 Elizander

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Posted 01 May 2018 - 04:52 PM

I'd go with the Solaris pack for starters unless you already have a specific mech in mind that you really want. You can experiment with many different mechs/playstyles while maintaining your 30% c-bill bonus while doing so.

The packs we bought at the very beginning of the game usually only had 1 mech with a 30% bonus so Solaris is leaps and bounds better than what we started with. Posted Image





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