25 replies to this topic

[Jyrox]

Saw a Panther jumping from roof to roof in River City.

Bought the 10k.

It was awful until you skilled it up by buying two others.

Then the Panther was made bigger.

Then the skills got re-vamped.

PPC Panther has been unplayable for a while.

It needs help.

E.G. My Spider 5V has 2 SPL, tht do a combined 7 damage at 2.4 seconds. That is 2.92

The Panther fires at 4 seconds. That is 2.5 DPS

The Spider does not overheat.

Change a Panther PPC to ERPPC...it overheats.

Stick in SRM4 for CC you have 25 shots...

Do I have to make a video and show you how neglected it is?

[El Bandito]

PPC Panther is alive and well. Just use 2xSNPPC on the 10K, or the 9R.

Edited by El Bandito, 10 September 2018 - 08:48 PM.

[MadHornet]

Panther 10P and 8Z are the best variants right now. The PPC ones are best played with snub's, but they don't have enough range and are impossible to play as brawlers.

The 10P with max cooldown nodes on top of the quirks can fire insanely fast. Twin ultra 2's or an ultra 10 are destructive (but prepare to move fairly slow, so get all of the armor nodes). The 8Z can do 3 large lasers that fire very quickly. Good ranged damage with minimal exposure around corners, so the biggest thing to watch out for is not overheating.

The slow and stocky lights need as much firepower as they can reasonably muster, which is why ATM boat/laser vomit Adders and Cougars are the top build types for those 'mechs. PPC's don't cut it anymore, we must move on.

[JediPanther]

Panther works great as a brawler and skirmisher. It's the second tanky-ist light IS have next to urbie. Go for med pulses and srm 4s on chain fire with an lfe. Skill up the 18 points for armor and rest into fire power or mech ops for cool run or heat gen. Add on the ammo racks for more srm ammo.

PNT-10Kminiasn

[Grus]

6mpl panther is wicked.

[YueFei]

JediPanther, on 10 September 2018 - 08:51 PM, said:

Panther works great as a brawler and skirmisher. It's the second tanky-ist light IS have next to urbie. Go for med pulses and srm 4s on chain fire with an lfe. Skill up the 18 points for armor and rest into fire power or mech ops for cool run or heat gen. Add on the ammo racks for more srm ammo.

PNT-10Kminiasn

Why would you chainfire the SRM4's?

In MW3 and MW4 it actually made some sense to sometimes chain-fire stuff because the weapon impacts were "real", and would actually shove your opponent's aim-point around, so if you timed it correctly you could hit him just before he loosed his volley and make him shoot the dirt. Chain-firing gave you a chance to do that whereas if you fired your entire load simultaneously, he'd know he had a free shot until all your weapons cycled. But even then, the idea was to shoot most of your intended volley, and hold one weapon in reserve to try to disrupt his shot.

In MWO, where screen shake is purely cosmetic, that doesn't work.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

The Panther was, for a time after it came out, one of my favorite 'Mechs to drive. It lost out big in the rescale, and it's never quite gotten back to where it used to be.

There's exactly one thing the PNT-10K is good at, and that's poptarting. It's a baby VND-1AA (y'know, before the Vindi got decent durability quirks). I'm not a fan of running min-range weapons like PPCs without a backup for knife-fighting, and my current favorite lights are the slowest of the slow, so I rebuilt my Resistance 10K thusly. It did better after the rebuild than before, when I was still running an ERPPC and 8xJJ (holdover from when it had better ERPPC quirkage). It's still not great, but it feels like a proper Panther and works if I'm in the right headspace for a challenge 'Mech. Alternate version with higher initial RoF but lower sustain. Cheekier version with all the jets (the only advantage the poor 10K really has over the otherwise-superior 9R).

Disclaimer: I'm a colossal goof who runs suboptimal builds for the fun of it, and the 10K is one of the 'Mechs I do that with as a matter of habit. The above builds are to be taken with a generous pinch of salt.

For SRS BSNS, though, the "best" Panthers are still micro-brawler builds for the 9R and 8Z. The Panther is over-sized for its tonnage, but its hitboxes are about even with the Wolfhound's, and they actually LFE a bit better because they have cooler-running SRMs to fall back on if they lose the LT and start running hot. Replacing the MLs with MPLs and the LFEs with XLs also works, if you'd rather have less facetime than more survivability. Or, y'know, SPLs instead of MLs if you like tickling people instead of killing them. Options are always nice.

Edited by WrathOfDeadguy, 10 September 2018 - 10:37 PM.

[Yumoshiri]

Panthers are pretty solid if you understand what it needs. Sure, they are no wolfhound. Not every mech can be meta.

[Chortles]

You forgot that PPCs have longer range than SPL and it has pinpoint damage. Panthers also have ridiculous armor quirks. Why would you use ERPPC when regulars and snub nosed exist? Panthers don't have the tonnage to put in heat sinks to counter ERPPC heat. Why would you use SRMs when you can fit two PPCs on it? The reasons Panthers are lacking are because they have a low engine cap and their weapons are low mounted. I would very much prefer to play a two PPC Panther than a two SPL Spider.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Chortles, on 11 September 2018 - 12:21 AM, said:

Why would you use SRMs when you can fit two PPCs on it?

2xPPC builds make good pocket-poptarts, but they're also risky as hell unless you've got a reliable wingman. If you're Pugging it, though? Better to drop 5 points of damage for HPPC or PPC+LPPC and bring something to cover your own deadzone with, even if it's just one launcher. Panthers aren't the quickest, even with maxed-out engines... PPC-only Panthers are food if they run into other lights or any of the faster mediums. SRMs prevent drawn-out bouts of helpless flailing followed by entirely pointless messy death.

[Weeny Machine]

Grus, on 10 September 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

6mpl panther is wicked.

Yeah, sure. Too bad that there is a max of 4 energy hardpoints on the Panthers.

[JediPanther]

YueFei, on 10 September 2018 - 09:02 PM, said:

Why would you chainfire the SRM4's?

In MW3 and MW4 it actually made some sense to sometimes chain-fire stuff because the weapon impacts were "real", and would actually shove your opponent's aim-point around, so if you timed it correctly you could hit him just before he loosed his volley and make him shoot the dirt. Chain-firing gave you a chance to do that whereas if you fired your entire load simultaneously, he'd know he had a free shot until all your weapons cycled. But even then, the idea was to shoot most of your intended volley, and hold one weapon in reserve to try to disrupt his shot.

In MWO, where screen shake is purely cosmetic, that doesn't work.

Chain fire srms for five reasons.
1. Heat management
2. Screen shake does exist in mwo hence the screen shake reduction nodes in skill tree. What make the lrm5 build so annoying wasn't just the constant damage but the screen shake. Now a single ams can shoot down all of a lrm 5 with ease.
3. The psychological effect of hitting your target more. A lot of people can't stand to see the damage indicators constantly flashing from weapons fire like racs or chain fired ssrms 2-4s.
4. Hit reg. When you have subpar hardware such as my pc still using the gtx660 you get better chance of hitting a fast moving target. Since I mostly run lights hit reg and knowing how to fight/counter other light builds matters a lot.
5. Weapon grouping with such limited amount of weapons means that if/when the enemy has overheated you can simply fire the weapon group not set to chain fire for the greater damage or just \ and done.

Panthers with mid to short range weapons combined with the second highest armor for IS lights make them great for brawling and late match when the enemy is mostly damaged. Their crap-tastic 250 engine cap means they will not work as an anti-light hunter killer so it's best to try and avoid duels with enemy lights.

The 10p has a 300 rating but with its ammo dependency and need of xl for nearly all builds make it the worst pnt. KK has 2e on each arm which avoids the gorilla arm the rest suffer from. KK is a very good mech too and I love mine.

[Chortles]

WrathOfDeadguy, on 11 September 2018 - 07:17 AM, said:

2xPPC builds make good pocket-poptarts, but they're also risky as hell unless you've got a reliable wingman. If you're Pugging it, though? Better to drop 5 points of damage for HPPC or PPC+LPPC and bring something to cover your own deadzone with, even if it's just one launcher. Panthers aren't the quickest, even with maxed-out engines... PPC-only Panthers are food if they run into other lights or any of the faster mediums. SRMs prevent drawn-out bouts of helpless flailing followed by entirely pointless messy death.

If I play solo in my Panther, it would probably be with snub nosed. Only with groups would I bring regular PPCs. A single SRM4 isn't really going to deter lights especially when it is going to cost a total of 3 tons for it to be operational. That tonnage would be better off going into jump jets to try to avoid the minimum range and for poptarting.

[Chados]

I run with one ERPPC and two SRM4 on a 10K, and that isn’t bad. You can have a lot of jump with the leftover weight available

[FupDup]

WrathOfDeadguy, on 11 September 2018 - 07:17 AM, said:

2xPPC builds make good pocket-poptarts, but they're also risky as hell unless you've got a reliable wingman. If you're Pugging it, though? Better to drop 5 points of damage for HPPC or PPC+LPPC and bring something to cover your own deadzone with, even if it's just one launcher. Panthers aren't the quickest, even with maxed-out engines... PPC-only Panthers are food if they run into other lights or any of the faster mediums. SRMs prevent drawn-out bouts of helpless flailing followed by entirely pointless messy death.

Another issue is that you're putting all your eggs into a single hitbox. People just have to shoot that arm off and you're helpless. I've literally lost a match because we had two disarmed Panthers being unable to contribute.

[VitriolicViolet]

urgh i have all the Panthers except the hero, the only one i ever use is the 10P. i dont really like the rest very much

With full cooldown nodes + quirks it gets 37% cooldown reduction on ballistics.
i load mine up with an AC10, 2 and half tons of ammo (67 shots with ammo nodes) and a XL 265 plus mobility nodes.

It hits 128 kph, and the AC10 fires once every 1.4 seconds (stock AC5 is once every 1.6). ive also swapped the AC10 for an LB10 and and 2 RL10s.

In any case its great at hunting lights (especially the LB +RL build), or hammering something thats distracted

Edited by VitriolicViolet, 11 September 2018 - 05:14 PM.

[Variant1]

panther aint rubbish. Its best played as either a support or long range sniper.

[Grus]

Bush Hopper, on 11 September 2018 - 08:22 AM, said:

Yeah, sure. Too bad that there is a max of 4 energy hardpoints on the Panthers.

Was thinking of the Grinner on accident with 5mpl my bad.

[MischiefSC]

El Bandito, on 10 September 2018 - 08:48 PM, said:

PPC Panther is alive and well. Just use 2xSNPPC on the 10K, or the 9R.

There's a variant with 3 E on the arm, I run 3 LL with it. The ® variant that gets the 30% boosts. While it lacks the Ravens high mounts it's far, far tankier and the quirks are better. For a 3LL poke light it's... not terrible. It's got its place on a couple of FW maps. You'll get more damage out than the poptart.

Edited by MischiefSC, 11 September 2018 - 09:32 PM.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

FupDup, on 11 September 2018 - 04:18 PM, said:

Another issue is that you're putting all your eggs into a single hitbox. People just have to shoot that arm off and you're helpless. I've literally lost a match because we had two disarmed Panthers being unable to contribute.

Yeah, that too. IMO, if you've got CT hardpoints... use 'em. Especially if your main weapons are in a giant, squishy, low-slung arm. Consumables are not the same thing as a real backup weapon, even if it's just a single launcher. A weapon is a weapon when the alternative is to sit there and cry until the game's over.