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Tip Of The Spear Mechs


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#1 Phoenix 72

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Posted 29 July 2018 - 03:37 AM

Hello fellas,

I am looking for some recommendations as far as tip of the spear Mechs go. I mostly play Mediums and some Heavies to decent effort. I have over 1100 matches played so far, but I would not call any of my current Mechs well suited to pushing. I most play support builds, but keep running into the problem that hide and seek seems to be the current meta and no pushing when in a good position. I keep calling for pushes and I am ignored. So the last 3 times that I decided to lead the push, I did so with a Kit Fox, Crab and Marauder, respectively. ;)

I think the Marauder can do that relatively okay, but I am wondering whether there are Mechs better suited to it. Atlas and Annihilator seem the obvious choice, but I have often seen them focused down way before reaching the enemy line that I am beginning to wonder whether they are actually a good choice. Or whether it was just bad builds on the Mechs.

#2 Horseman

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Posted 29 July 2018 - 05:51 AM

Roughneck. Structure quirks that right out of the box bring its' structure only a few points short from that of a 100-tonner, and it's one of very few mechs with both structure and armor quirks - on top of that, its' main weapons are placed in cockpit-level harpoints. Since Survival tree is a multiplier and Heavies get more out of it ( +15% Armor, +30% Structure ) than Assaults (+10% Armor, +25% structure), once fully skilled your structure will have more HP than that of a fully skilled 100-tonner.

A RGH with full Survival tree gets 51 armor / 40 structure on arms, 79/59 on sides, 109/82 on CT and 74/53 on legs - the armor is somewhere between a 75 and 80-tonner assuming full Survival tree.

In other words... 80-tonner's armor, 100+ tonner's structure, 65-tonner's agility. And you can build an entire drop deck out of them with a few tons to spare.

Edited by Horseman, 29 July 2018 - 05:51 AM.


#3 Phoenix 72

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Posted 29 July 2018 - 11:41 AM

Hmmm... I have a Roughneck 3A, Laser Vomit version (2LL, 5ML). It's fairly hot in a protracted brawl and dps is relatively low... Might be worth trying something like this?

https://mwo.smurfy-n...9b64602f34c0c45

#4 Horseman

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Posted 29 July 2018 - 12:42 PM

If you're going for a brawler, that's probably not the right variant. Try 2A, it has some hefty weapon quirks - but Powerhouse, 1C and 1A will run the same builds (AC20/UAC10/UAC20 + SRMs/MRMs), with only quirk differences.

#5 Phoenix 72

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Posted 29 July 2018 - 09:34 PM

The build I posted is for the 2A. ;) I like to do builds that do not limit me to one range and that also do not have a minimum range. If I can do something from medium to short range, I am fine. I stopped playing pure Brawlers after Polar Highlands became the map I got 4 out of 6 matches, a few months ago. I no longer get PH as often, but the builds have worked for me. (by my standards)

#6 Eisenhorne

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Posted 29 July 2018 - 10:52 PM

Roughneck 2A or Victor 9S are my choices for this role.

The RGH-2A is great with Heavy Gauss + 3 Medium Pulse. You have a full dead side that way, so you can just rotate to give the enemy your empty shoulder and absorb some truly punishing fire into it. When you lose your Heavy Gauss, you still have 3 medium pulse, so you can keep fighting long after losing both shoulders even. It's durable, fast, and deadly.

The Victor VTR-9S runs an AC20, and 3 Artemis SRM6's. Mine goes 70 KPH (after speed tweak), and can jump. It's got some great durability quirks, and with it's speed and agility, you can lead a push, take a few shots at the enemy, and get to cover in time for your teammates to move up and take some of the heat so you can survive to back them up. The trick is never to run directly at an enemy... you're running towards cover, so yea you take a few hits, but hopefully the team pushes behind you and you can rejoin the fight after they push past you.

#7 GweNTLeR

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Posted 30 July 2018 - 12:34 AM

The marauder is probably the best IS heavy for pushes... Twin LB10 with 4/5 mediums on 3R/5M or MRM60/70 on 5D with 5 mediums, with great hotboxes, defensive quirks and slim profile.
To the mechs mentioned above I'd add black knight family with med pulses and huge XL(they all are great) and orions with MRMs and ultras/rotaries.
Use these for reference:
https://mwo.smurfy-n...763049418e3ee78
https://mwo.smurfy-n...22b17a1693ca878

#8 Ruccus

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Posted 30 July 2018 - 06:30 AM

The first mech that comes to my mind as something to barrel through the front line of an enemy force would probably be the Cataphract CTF-3L. Big armour quirks help it out (22 on the CT, 15 on the torsos and legs, 11 on the arms) and it's got a 15% cooldown on the ballistic hardpoint (perfect for an AC20).

Something like this CTF-3L goes 76kph and will barrel through the enemy line when you trigger MASC. You can swap the 330LFE for a Standard 300 with another half-ton of armour shaving for extra durability while still having a respectable 69.4kph top speed (plus MASC).

Edited by Ruccus, 30 July 2018 - 06:31 AM.


#9 Phoenix 72

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Posted 31 July 2018 - 11:24 AM

Okay, bought a Roughneck 2A for now. Do not have the money to kit him out, yet, but I am planning to go with double LBX10 and 3MPLs. I am just wondering, does it make sense to put the two LBX on the same side for convergence and to give you a dead side for tanking, or does it make more sense to put one LBX into each side (torso/arm) in case you lose a side torso?

Thanks for all the other suggestions, I am going to take a look at those, too, at a later time. Right now I need to earn enough money for this Mech before I can buy more. :) Will probably pick 1-2 more of the ones recommended here. :)

#10 Eisenhorne

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Posted 31 July 2018 - 11:46 AM

I would put them in the same shoulder for convergence, but that means you must take a Standard engine instead of a Light engine, so you'll be slower. Maybe use regular mediums instead of medium pulses to save weight.

#11 Phoenix 72

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Posted 31 July 2018 - 11:58 AM

I was probably unclear. The 2A has one Ballistic in the right arm, one in right torso, one in left arm. So no need for a standard engine, I can put one into the arm and one in the torso. I needed to do that anyway. Current plan is this:

https://mwo.smurfy-n...974bbfd5c0d919c

Although I can strip the left arm to gain enough weight for one more ton of ammo, if needed. I do want to have the AMS for some additional team-saving utility. I am not going to be all that fast anyway. ;)

#12 Eisenhorne

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Posted 31 July 2018 - 12:07 PM

Eh, I'd probably partially strip the arm/legs (and get rid of the AMS honestly) to get a LFE 280 or LFE 285 in there. You really only need 3-4 tons of ammo for the LBX10's, you'll be fine with what you got. Going 70 KPH minimum in a brawler is very important though.

#13 Phoenix 72

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Posted 31 July 2018 - 08:43 PM

I will have to try it like this for now. I do not have enough money to afford the last LBX10 at the moment, let alone a different engine. I cannibalised the current one from a different Mech. I know the AMS causes me to lose some performance and while I personally rarely have problems with being lurmed, others in my teams are not so lucky. I try to help them out if I can. I mostly play QP and the way teams are built there currently makes me play only Mechs with AMS.

I am still skilling up my Crab 27, too.

#14 Phoenix 72

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Posted 01 August 2018 - 09:15 PM

Completed the first two matches with the new Roughneck. I am 1:1. Agility feels good. I was often able to peek, fire and retreat before any serious return fire came in. Speed feels okay right now. I was a bit surprised at the damage I did and the amount of kills I got. It felt like I had not actually been shooting all that much. It was not uber damage, but I had expected less at the time I was killed. My surviveability is a bit low at the moment. I died surprisingly quick, too. ;) But that is probably more due to it not being skilled and me not knowing what it can survive and what it cannot, yet.

It was a good recommendation, I can work with that. :) Thanks for the suggestion.

#15 Phoenix 72

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Posted 03 August 2018 - 12:05 PM

I am struggling a bit with the relatively low arm mount... And I agree that the Mech is too slow. I am considering switching the 2 LBX10 for 1 LBX20... Any suggestions on that?

#16 Eisenhorne

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Posted 03 August 2018 - 12:21 PM

If you're going to do LBX20, you need to use a Standard engine since it's so big. It only has 1 missile hardpoint, so you can't throw a bunch of SRM's on it to brawl, either. I'd suggest this Heavy Gauss build... the medium pulse ensure you're still a threat even after the gauss is out of ammo or blown off.

If you really wanna use the LBX20 though, I'd probably run a similar build, but with a bigger engine. Like this.

#17 Phoenix 72

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Posted 05 August 2018 - 05:08 AM

Thanks for the suggestions, Eisenhorne. I did something comparable to your LBX20 build. I am using a STD300 Engine, so I can use one more ton of ammo (no magazine capacity yet), 1 more heatsink and retain a little more shield arm armour. The 2.5 kph are not that huge a loss for me. :)

I moved the 2 LBX10 to the Marauder 3R that I could not get to work for me, and now I can. ;) Funny how a little change does that. Now I have 1 mid range tip of the spear and one close range. Both of who work quite nicely for me now. :) So again, thanks a lot for all the help. Just need to finish skilled the Mechs now.

#18 Jaeger Hunter

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Posted 11 August 2018 - 08:44 AM

On my RGH 2A I run an AC20/ 3 SML/ MRM40 with a LT250, its not a fast mech at 62 but is very reliable. If you want a true brawler a RGH 1C w/ 3 HMGs and 4 SRM6s will keep u in the fight and deadly, it also is able to run a LT 300 with that build. A really really run mech is a RGH 1B w/ 2 MRM 40s and 3 LMGs, you can brawl her with a LT 250 or pop tart with an XL 300, I prefer the pop tart. I run all of these mechs successfully in FP, Roughnecks are awesome.

#19 Herz aus Stahl

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Posted 04 October 2018 - 06:11 AM

I think this is a quite powerful variant:
RGH-2A





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