91 replies to this topic

[Gas Guzzler]

Hm people saying its not good?

That almost makes me want to play.

Almost...

Ya'll might see this on the field at some point if you haven't already.

https://mwo.smurfy-n...8a0573c822dc3d7

Edited by Gas Guzzler, 16 May 2018 - 02:22 PM.

[RelativeQuanta]

Viktor Drake, on 16 May 2018 - 02:14 PM, said:

It is a fricken 90 ton Assault mech, what they heck are you expecting, it to dance like a ballerina ?

Seriously, it has the exact same mobility stats as the Marauder IIC and that is considered one of the best Assaults in the game.

Now I do honestly feel PGI has over nerfed Assault Mech mobility in general but by comparison I don't think the Blood Asp has it any worse off than any other Assault mech of similar firepower and performance potential.

Well, at least they gave a pretty sizable buff to the Assault mobility tree. I found in the past that it makes a big difference for the MCII. I haven't tried it yet since the patch though, but I imagine it's noticeable since I was pretty sure I could tell the last time they buffed assault yaw rate nodes.

[Tordin]

Funzo, on 15 May 2018 - 03:39 PM, said:

Current Blood Asp (B)mobility stats vs Highlander IIC (b variant) (No skills for either mech)

Blood Asp B
Accel - 10.79 KPH
Decel - 13.88 KPH
Turn Rate - 34.95 (Deg)
Torso Turn Rate - 63 (Deg)

Highlander IIC B (325 XL)
Accel - 20.02 KPH
Decel - 17.22 KPH
Turn Rate - 45.26 (Deg)
Torso Turn Rate - 81 (Deg)

ABSOLUTELY BRUTAL PGI!!

Ok. I dont know which word Im gonna use but thats... ********. Whats the reason?
Im IS mainly but love to pilot clan mechs to. But I sure as all heck can say I want Clan pure OMNIS be on the top somewhat overall regarding their uniqeness/ lore etc than the Solahma battlemechs. Same for IS battlemech should set the prime example for the tech sides not IS omnis, but there I guess its the other way around... All in the sake of balance yeah I know... I know!

Omnipods needs serious buffs, omni mechs with those fixed engines needs serious buffs. Also omni assaults could.. NO should have big buffs to armor and structure to at LEAST compensate for the lack in mobility. + 20 armor on all torso components and + 10 armor on legs and arms. A nice start. i want to get the sense of DREAD when I face off against dire wolves, warhawks, blood asps in QP even if its 12 vs 12. Only in S7 that happens 1 on 1, but there the annis rule supreme so encountering dires even in tier 2? rare.

[Gas Guzzler]

10.79? Isn't that what the MCII, MAD-IIC, and Mauler all have as well?

[Nightbird]

Gas Guzzler, on 16 May 2018 - 02:19 PM, said:

Hm people saying its not good?

It's fine, all the ECM variants. The rest, esp the c-bill bonus variants are worse off than the MCII.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Some things I have notice that make it better than the MCII.

More Tanky. Yes this is very subjective but the MCII has a very easy to identify and hit CT and that has been the one thing I haven't liked about the MCII since the day it was released. The Blood Asp doesn't seem to have this issue or at least not as bad so it feels a hell of alot tankier to me despite having the same armor values.

More Lazors. Yep, you can mount a hell of alot more lasers on the Blood Asp, damn near too many for the chassis to support. This gives you some unique energy or honestly mixed builds that you cannot do with the MCII.

Higher, high mounts. I know this seems like it is inconsequential but surprisingly it is not. I have found that because the mounts are actually higher than the cockpit, if you can see a mech over an obstruction, you will hit that mech. On the MCII, generally these shots just fall shy of being able to clear that obstruction because all the hard points are located about a meter lower than those on the Blood Asp.

Better missile builds. Ok I am sure someone will debate this but mounting missiles on a MCII and giving yourself rabbit ears is a sure way to losing a ST. Seriously those ears dramatically reduce the MCIIs survivability. On the Blood Asp if your crazy like me and are willing to drop the cash to unlock the hero, you can come up with some crazy missile based builds that don't require you to carry around two targets on top of your mech that scream, "shoot me".

Overall my findings is that the Blood Asp and the MCII kind of trade blows back and forward as to which is better.

Deathstrike for example is exceptionally good for a dual UAC/10, 6 energy build or even a Dual Gauss, 6 Energy build because of quirks and hard point locations but when you compare the Blood Asp to any of the C-bill variants, with the proper omnipods, they kind of smoke the rest of them with this type of build simply because you can mount dual UAC/10s and 4 Energy mounts up just as high on a Blood Asp as easily as you can on a MCII however with the Blood Asp you still have room in the arms for even more lasers.

Then you have the MCII-B which honestly is a superior straight up Dakka mech being able to mount Dual UAC/10, Dual UAC/5 and a couple lasers as back up with effortless ease but on the other hand you can do a Dual UAC/10, Single UAC/5 build on the Blood ASP with 6 lasers of some type and ECM which might actually be more powerful overall than the MCII-B's Dakka build.

So honestly I really don't feel that you can honestly say one is better than the other when the reality is that one is only better then the other only depending on the builds you feel most comfortable using.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 16 May 2018 - 06:04 PM.

[Vellron2005]

Viktor Drake, on 16 May 2018 - 06:02 PM, said:

Better missile builds. Ok I am sure someone will debate this but mounting missiles on a MCII and giving yourself rabbit ears is a sure way to losing a ST. Seriously those ears dramatically reduce the MCIIs survivability. On the Blood Asp if your crazy like me and are willing to drop the cash to unlock the hero, you can come up with some crazy missile based builds that don't require you to carry around two targets on top of your mech that scream, "shoot me".

And here is me to debate you!

Sure, the "bunny ears" can be a problem if you're using ATMs or SRM, but they are not a problem with LRM. The MCII however, can mount more missiles than a non-hero Blood Asp.

SImply cose' it gets four slots on the torsos, and not a single one in the CT, you can mount LRM80, while in non-hero builds of the BAS-Prime you can only go as high as LRM55..

But I find that LRM55 + 4CMPL in the high torso mounts is shockingly good..

I used that build yesterday to have four 800+ damage games yesterday, with 2 of those games being 1000+ damage (bunch of kills and KMDDs included), and not all were on Polar..

The MCII is a superior Dedicated LRM boat, but the BAS-Prime is much tankyer, and the mixed build playstyle suits it for this role (the "come share armor you noob" tryhards will love it)

Hero-omnipod build for LRM boats on the BAS-PRIME could look something like this:

BAS-PRIME

This would put it on-par with premium LRM Supernova builds, but it has a few issues.. first off, you don't actually use the hero, just it's omnipods, cose' you need that CT missile slot of the Prime.

Secondly, you have better laser secondaries, but they are torso mounted, so you can't shoot the light that's facehugging you.

BUT, you can, however, shoot a much more powerful punch into medium range..

But.. alas.. no Jump Jets.. although.. superior top speed.

Edited by Vellron2005, 16 May 2018 - 11:30 PM.

[Thorn Hallis]

It performs as expected. ECM is really helpful in QP, while I reserve the Prime(S) and Rancor for S7.

[Anjian]

I was expecting to regret my purchase but after putting my Prime S through its paces, I am more than pleasantly surprised. This will be a sticker in my hanger.

[Luminis]

Maybe it's me being too aggressive following a... Less than stellar week at work, but my god, my performance in the BAS-B has plummeted. Been using the meta six ERML, two Gauss build. Sample size is still low, but I feel like I need to go back on my earlier impression a little bit: People in solo Q have apparently learned that there's more dangerous stuff than HBRs without red doritos out there now and that they can remove it quickly by nuking the STs and making the Gausses go boom. It's weird how squishy it's starting to feel, but then again, it's not mastered yet and thus lacks crit reduction, armor and Structure. We'll see how it goes once there's less BAS around and a little less tonnage in the field.

I've been doing single Gauss builds on the BAS-Prime and despite the lack of ECM, have performed better overall than I did with the -B variant. Same disclaimer applies, not mastered yet, yadda yadda, but I've quite liked builds like two LPL, four ERML, single Gauss. To test my impression about the ST Gauss being something of a universal issue for me, I've started using a weird UAC10 build that's been okay all around. I'll probably test SNV-esque pulse laser vomit next (with inferior base pack pods FeelsBadMan) just to further test my theory.

Lastly, the variant I initially dismissed somewhat due to the most locked equipment, the -A, has been my best of the bunch despite having the least skill points so far. Been using two LB20 and six ERSL to be all sneaky and cheeky and get into people's faces. Surprises me still how well I've been doing in comparison, I expected the baby Deathstrike with ECM to be the big hitter of the bunch, not this one.

Long story short, I'm starting to feel like having your Clan Gauss in big, unquirked STs is a far bigger drawback than I initially anticipated.

Edited by Luminis, 18 May 2018 - 06:22 PM.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Luminis, on 18 May 2018 - 06:20 PM, said:

Maybe it's me being too aggressive following a... Less than stellar week at work, but my god, my performance in the BAS-B has plummeted. Been using the meta six ERML, two Gauss build. Sample size is still low, but I feel like I need to go back on my earlier impression a little bit: People in solo Q have apparently learned that there's more dangerous stuff than HBRs without red doritos out there now and that they can remove it quickly by nuking the STs and making the Gausses go boom. It's weird how squishy it's starting to feel, but then again, it's not mastered yet and thus lacks crit reduction, armor and Structure. We'll see how it goes once there's less BAS around and a little less tonnage in the field.

I've been doing single Gauss builds on the BAS-Prime and despite the lack of ECM, have performed better overall than I did with the -B variant. Same disclaimer applies, not mastered yet, yadda yadda, but I've quite liked builds like two LPL, four ERML, single Gauss. To test my impression about the ST Gauss being something of a universal issue for me, I've started using a weird UAC10 build that's been okay all around. I'll probably test SNV-esque pulse laser vomit next (with inferior base pack pods FeelsBadMan) just to further test my theory.

Lastly, the variant I initially dismissed somewhat due to the most locked equipment, the -A, has been my best of the bunch despite having the least skill points so far. Been using two LB20 and six ERSL to be all sneaky and cheeky and get into people's faces. Surprises me still how well I've been doing in comparison, I expected the baby Deathstrike with ECM to be the big hitter of the bunch, not this one.

Long story short, I'm starting to feel like having your Clan Gauss in big, unquirked STs is a far bigger drawback than I initially anticipated.

I ditched the Gauss Rifles because like you, I was finding them exploding way too often. Honestly I hate Gauss Rifles, especially Clan Gauss Rifles. Between the charge up mechanic and them exploding when sneezed upon, I just can't deal with them any more.

Also the Blood Asp absolutely doesn't come into its own until you have the skilled out. For one, they are one of those mechs that tends to be just a tad too hot running until you get your heat reduction nodes filled out. I also think they need a fairly large investment in the mobility try to push them into usable levels of speed and agility though I am sure some feel that armor and structure might be the better choice. Either way though, you just need the Blood Asp mastered for them to really shine.

Edit: I almost forgot that they were going to be enlarging the kill boxes...urrr...umm....ST mounts to the point the mech was going to become a deathtrap so maybe they will end up just a shinny piece of horse hockey when mastered instead of actually shining.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 18 May 2018 - 06:46 PM.

[BTGbullseye]

Luminis, on 18 May 2018 - 06:20 PM, said:

People in solo Q have apparently learned that there's more dangerous stuff than HBRs without red doritos out there now and that they can remove it quickly by nuking the STs and making the Gausses go boom.

Swap them out for UAC10s... Worked for me to get better DPS and better survivability.

[Thorn Hallis]

Gauss rifles only work if you can stay far far away. Otherwise the STs just make boom.

[Captain Polux]

Been using dual lb20s and 6mpls. It's a mean build :0

[El Bandito]

Luminis, on 15 May 2018 - 08:51 PM, said:

Pretty much? Acceleration, deceleration, turn rate and torso speed are exactly identical, only thing that's inferior is the yaw angle, but it doe get LAAs to compensate.

Having LAA can be bad for the MCII-B. If it didn't have LAA, then I could have crammed in quad CAC10s, and really own mechs left and right.

[Koniving]

Stridercal, on 15 May 2018 - 03:36 PM, said:

I hated it in tabletop, and it seems like the side torsos are ripe to be plucked. Can't wait to kill a few tonight...

Blood Asp or Mad Cat II?
If the latter, that may be why its doing so good. Its got a giant center torso if you shoot the fuselage. Just wasting your time if you go for the STs, the CT can be hit from any angle thanks to the fuselage.

Blood Asp.. probably, I'll be honest I haven't played to see them yet.

[Luminis]

El Bandito, on 19 May 2018 - 05:55 AM, said:

Having LAA can be bad for the MCII-B. If it didn't have LAA, then I could have crammed in quad CAC10s, and really own mechs left and right.

Well, optional LAAs solve that. Was mostly talking about the yaw angle, though.

[Humpday]

Idk it I can see this thing working for many people, its just not my mech.

That left hand stack is bad due to the right hand prone rotations.
The gauss blows up if any one sneezes at you.
Anything you put on it is hot as balls(clan so duh)

Its best staying out back at range, which conflicts with my playstyle which is primarily(right now) up in your face.

I can say its not a bad mech by any stretch, but there is too much of it that conflicts with my personal style of play.

Oh well, I have pretty mech to look at in mech bay.

[DGTLDaemon]

So I finally got myself a basic Blood Asp pack, and it turns out that BAS-A with 2xLPL+6xMPL works ok



Basically it's a popular MAD-IIC laser vomit build, but with ECM and 1 jump jet. It does suffer somewhat from the knuckle-dragging syndrome, but on the plus side it has a slightly better jaw angle than Marauder IIC So nothing particularly impressive, but I guess the mech has its niche. And I really wanted a decent Clan assault with ECM (MAD-IIC-D doesn't count because you can't do much with its hardpoints).

[Angel of Annihilation]

Humpday, on 19 May 2018 - 10:35 AM, said:

Idk it I can see this thing working for many people, its just not my mech.

That left hand stack is bad due to the right hand prone rotations.
The gauss blows up if any one sneezes at you.
Anything you put on it is hot as balls(clan so duh)

Its best staying out back at range, which conflicts with my playstyle which is primarily(right now) up in your face.

I can say its not a bad mech by any stretch, but there is too much of it that conflicts with my personal style of play.

Oh well, I have pretty mech to look at in mech bay.

I want to give you props for coming out and admitting or at least acknowledging that the issue your having with the Blood Asp is probably due to your personal preferences rather than condemning the mech being DOA. It is nice when someone can take a step back and honestly evaluate a mech outside their own personal comfort zone.

As for the playstyle this mech requires, honestly I am playing close support, frontline and brawling in mine with great success so I know it can be done. Gauss is obviously a No No and I ended up stripping mind off after only about 3 matches or so.

My best brawler build unfortunately requires the Rancor but it is a beast. I combine the Rancor ST pods with the Prime CT giving me 3 Missile slots. I run 3 x SRM6, 2 x LPL and 4 x MPL on I think 24 DHS. It can get a bit toasty before skills if your not careful but if you grab all the heat reduction skills, it becomes very comfortable to run. What is great about this build is it can actually be effective at most ranges you will engage in and is not locked into just brawling. If you also skill for range which you will get alot of anyway when your going to for the heat nodes in the Firepower tree, those LPLs can damn near do full damage out to 700m so if you get stuck on Polar you can still poke relatively well. Then the MPLs act as mid range and can reach out to damn near 400m so you have mid ranged covered. Finally the 3 x SRM6 gives you that close range hammer. Basically it is a mech effective at all ranges that just gets better and better as the enemy gets closer and closer.

So overall, the Blood Asp, at least currently, is one of my favorite mechs in the game. I say currently because I really don't know how well it is going to do if PGI goes ahead with their plan to increase the size of the ST hitboxes by about 100% to accommodate the "Looks Cool" crowd. All I do know is that increase the size of hitboxes is NEVER a good thing and won't benefit the mech in any way, shape or fashion.