24 replies to this topic

[Dragonporn]

Lights only. Anything else just if you feel suicidal. Thing is, most IS mechs are a lot tougher than most Clan mechs I had pleasure to pilot, and throwing such an advantage away for extra stuff you can fit in doesn't sound very smart. Even on Lights it feels quite too risky, but you really need every extra space you can get there, so no choice.

[GweNTLeR]

in most situations when the mech is not quirked towards survival but could boat a huge engine it is XL friendly. Because higher mobility=better survival
The best example are banshees, where there is a single model with good armor quirks and the rest could boat big engines.

Edited by GweNTLeR, 10 July 2018 - 09:42 PM.

[LordNothing]

lights, some fast mediums, some heavies and assaults (like xl400 banshees and battlemasters). they got their niche, but my go to engine class is usually the lfe. stds have even fewer niches than xl, mostly assaults and anything that needs the crit space.

Edited by LordNothing, 11 July 2018 - 05:32 AM.

[KoalaBrownie]

Knightswatch, on 10 July 2018 - 04:34 AM, said:

Hi guys, I generally dislike XLs cuz they make everything i use feel so vulnerable, so just wondering which IS mechs you think are the most XL friendly?

Marauder 3R or anything else with buffed structure

[LowSubmarino]

Dragonporn, on 10 July 2018 - 09:37 PM, said:

Lights only. Anything else just if you feel suicidal. Thing is, most IS mechs are a lot tougher than most Clan mechs I had pleasure to pilot, and throwing such an advantage away for extra stuff you can fit in doesn't sound very smart. Even on Lights it feels quite too risky, but you really need every extra space you can get there, so no choice.

Oh, but in some IS mechs you turn mechs into mean little monsters with that kind of speed and firepower when utilizing XLs.

The difference between a LFE Uziel 6p and an XL 6p is......huge.

Turns the mech into a completly different caliber of monster.

Mobility and firepower are fantastic ways to kill enemies rather early than late. By now there is a lot of weapons in mwo which arent that accurate. Or hard to be accurate with. Missiles, clan acs, a lot of lasers, especially clan lasers. In very agile mechs, you can spread that dmg so well. Specially with JJs.

Theres some mechs and builds that are so strong with XL that even IS XLs inherent instability and fragility doesnt diminish their effectiveness.

Some builds are already build around agility, reduzed face time and good hardpoints as primary defense. Speed is insanely good to not get killed. Being fast is awesome in mwo. Bringing good firepower with that speed is even better. Oh, theres a few really good XL builds. IS has formidable laser durations compared to clan. Lots of clan weapons burn so long, that they will actually struggle to focus one component on very agile mechs. And they produce more heat.

It depends what role you wanne play.
But as a fast skirmisher loosing one torso reduces your effectiveness so massively that I never build around survivability. Only if I have points left. Primary objective is always speed (unlike basically all streamers I see that regularly neglect speed all the time) and firepower. A good balance. I always wanne kill anything that is faster than me and be agile anough to avoid anything larger than me.

And I never worshiped open brawls so much. I like dishing out dmg while never taking any dmg. Thats fun for me. I love trading well. So XL plays perfectly into that playstyle. The difference between being dead in fast, squishy skirmishers (or loosing a side torso) is just a few bigger hits. Maybe 1 or 2 good hits from heavy weapons. So.....yeah, you can take one to three more punches in non-XL engines.

That doesnt make any sense for glass cannons though. You dont wanne get hit anyway. being able to absorb one or two punches more without dying (or being crippled by loosing a side torso in non-XL) is nothing compared to being way faster with more firepower. IS has pretty precise weapons. Specially the smaller laser calibers can be quite lethal if boated. Best defense is to kill enemies quickly.

For defensive/evasive trader-builds IS XL is very strong.

In a number of builds even with the XL weakness they have surpassed what anything on clan side could do. In that specific weight class theres nothing that is dangerous when I play my most favorit XL build. The only thing that is dangeours is a close quarter face shot of srm spam or massive amounts of streaks.

But apart from that by now you actually fitght at significant advantages with XL engines in certain builds.

Take clans way too long burn times. Those get you killed. Because when things get hectic you will struggle to hit fast mechs single components. Even the clan mpls jsut burn too long.

IS lasers are fantastic. Screw range. How many long and ultra long engagements do we have in mwo. Sniping was never that popular and apart from Polar maybe theres just way too much movement and matches on tiny brawl maps (eg hpg) for e.g. clan ER LLs to truely shine.

Playing as a skirmisher vs clan mechs in QP is kinda op really. They struggle to land dmd on single components. ON big slow mechs,yeah. But not on fast moving mechs. I would take an IS XL any day over a more sturdy mech that has these obscene burn times that just get you killed. A weaopn is worthless if you cant deliver the dmg where you want to.