42 replies to this topic

[Curccu]

XL XL and XL
Speed = life

one possible 17 build is also 6xSPL and 1xSL it requires only stripping of the head fully and two points elsewhere, works pretty good.

[Daggett]

Kiran Yagami, on 05 December 2018 - 05:46 PM, said:

Why would I play a Flea over a Piranha?

Because dodging all sorts of stuff with MASC is fun. When trained in the art of MASC-FU and with some sense for recycle times you can dodge almost anything most QP players throw at you. Also the Flea's cockpit is much more spacious.

Of cause if maximum matchscore is your goal then the Piranha will probably serve you better because of it's higher DPS.

Edited by Daggett, 06 December 2018 - 01:19 AM.

[Weeny Machine]

Yeonne Greene, on 05 December 2018 - 11:16 PM, said:

XL 170 on every single one of my Fleas.

Strongest, IMHO, is the 17 with 2x MPL and 5x SL (don't do ERSL until skilled for heat, but you will probably find SL range more than adequate and value its lower heat and faster cooldown more than the +50 range on ERs).

The FLE with 7x SPL is also quite potent, but requires a LOT of armor stripping and relies on evasion and flat-out killing the target before he can do meaningful damage. It's a hands-down better duelist than the MPL+SL, but the MPL+SL is more reliable in a larger variety of situations, a sort of budget Wolfhound.

Some people have no idea how great a 7SPL Flea really is... it is one of my best mechs

Plus: People will focus on a PIR at once. A Flea gets often ignored mwaha haha haha

Edited by Bush Hopper, 06 December 2018 - 02:23 AM.

[Brizna]

I bought FLEA 17. At first I didn't want to waste the time clicking at the skill maze nor the GSP since I guessed I would play a couple matches and forget about it so I played it unlevelled, guess what? 1st match six kills and 600 dmg, the following matches not that great but very solid.

As pointed out previously, with proper MASC usage this mech is incredibly hard to hit, anything that lives long can do a lot damage.

Solid little mech, very satisfied with it, and this comes from some who used to be a light specialist but came to hate lights after the great nerf to all small laser weapons.

Man some of my fondest memories are with TDK first and MLX (4cSPL) later, back when MLX was garbage, good old times. I have over 1000 matches between the two mechs (WITH POSITIVE STATS WHOOHOOO!!! )

PGI: "They are having too much fun, nerf it."

[Valyknir]

UnofficialOperator, on 05 December 2018 - 11:33 PM, said:

Alright thanks guys. MPG told me the same ingame. Was just wondering how to fit it without XL...

Just seem so risky.

Did you guys do XL before completing survival tree?

I run lights a lot and usually only invest in the survival skill tree if there's already hefty survival quirks on the chassis; ie. Urbanmech or Wolfhound.

You're just not getting enough benefit for the skill point investment. Only gaining 4 points of armor to your CT for the 16 skill points by going down the left side of the survival tree seems like a bad trade to me. Kinda like taking mobility nodes on a Dire Wolf.

The Flea's biggest strength is not getting shot back. So it's best to spend your points in furthering that goal.

[Daggett]

UnofficialOperator, on 05 December 2018 - 11:33 PM, said:

Alright thanks guys. MPG told me the same ingame. Was just wondering how to fit it without XL...

Just seem so risky.

Did you guys do XL before completing survival tree?

Since most players try to leg lights because torso damage is spread a lot XL is usually the way to go, regardless of skills. I can't recall dying to XL in my lights, it's almost always the legs that kill me. The Flea's ST's are not that big anyway.

As long as you keep moving it should be quite hard to aim at your ST's, and the really big stuff like dual heavy gauss will one-shot you anyway, regardless where it hits.

The question of survival tree or not simply comes down to how much you intent to brawl. An SPL knifefighter will probably need every point of HP it can get to survive the few big shots that hit it. A ML build however can easily do without survival tree since you have a good poking range to keep out of harm's way.

Edited by Daggett, 06 December 2018 - 03:33 AM.

[Brizna]

Daggett, on 06 December 2018 - 03:31 AM, said:

Since most players try to leg lights because torso damage is spread a lot XL is usually the way to go, regardless of skills. I can't recall dying to XL in my lights, it's almost always the legs that kill me. The Flea's ST's are not that big anyway.

As long as you keep moving it should be quite hard to aim at your ST's, and the really big stuff like dual heavy gauss will one-shot you anyway, regardless where it hits.

The question of survival tree or not simply comes down to how much you intent to brawl. An SPL knifefighter will probably need every point of HP it can get to survive the few big shots that hit it. A ML build however can easily do without survival tree since you have a good poking range to keep out of harm's way.

Despite common sense makes you think you are safer at ML range, you are actually safer at 20 m from your target than at 300 m, where you actually are in the most dangerous range zone. Further away and you are too far, closer and you are too quick to track reliably with the cross-hair, and nope. And I am not talking about leg-humping (which I abhor) , simply about the fact that a very small movement at 20 m range makes you move a wide area on your enemy's view screen making targeting you very difficult.

[Daggett]

Brizna, on 06 December 2018 - 03:46 AM, said:

Despite common sense makes you think you are safer at ML range, you are actually safer at 20 m from your target than at 300 m, where you actually are in the most dangerous range zone. Further away and you are too far, closer and you are too quick to track reliably with the cross-hair, and nope. And I am not talking about leg-humping (which I abhor) , simply about the fact that a very small movement at 20 m range makes you move a wide area on your enemy's view screen making targeting you very difficult.

I'd say it depends on the mech you are using. A Flea using MASC and cover is extremely hard to hit at 300m range when it's peeking in an unpredictable way. Especially the FLE-17 with it's 6 high mounts on cockpit-level makes a great hill peeker.

In a brawl however things are much more hectic and chances are much higher that you do a mistake or another enemy joins the brawl at the wrong moment. Good players will punish any mistake made by a 20t mech pilot in front of them.

[Matthew Ace]

I like my energy boat Flea with 7 ERML, or more recently and to a lesser extent, 6 ERML and MASC.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

MASC is love, MASC is (flea)-life

[The pessimistic optimist]

Kiran Yagami, on 05 December 2018 - 05:46 PM, said:

Why would I play a Flea over a Piranha?

Your trading fire power for survivability Also med pulse ER smalls work well together on the Flea I like those over std meds. One med pulse 6 er smalls. One med pulse 6 er smalls a nice fast pin point 25.5 alpha with higher cool down then std meds.FLE-17

Edited by SirSmokes, 06 December 2018 - 08:23 AM.

[El Bandito]

SirSmokes, on 06 December 2018 - 08:11 AM, said:

Your trading fire power for survivability Also med pulse ER smalls work well together on the Flea I like those over std meds. One med pulse 6 er smalls. One med pulse 6 er smalls a nice fast pin point 25.5 alpha with higher cool down then std meds.FLE-17

Why single heatsinks? You can use Light Ferro to free up space for DHS instead for better cooling. FLE-17 modified

[LordNothing]

i actually saved my last gxp for the flea. i had enough to insta master 3 of them and then get 66 points on the 4th one. leveling lights tends to suck they really need every upgrade they can get to become the murder machines they are meant to be. its not like leveling a medium or heavy where you can just nascar around and derp your way to mastery.

Edited by LordNothing, 06 December 2018 - 08:42 AM.

[LordNothing]

Curccu, on 06 December 2018 - 12:55 AM, said:

XL XL and XL
Speed = life

one possible 17 build is also 6xSPL and 1xSL it requires only stripping of the head fully and two points elsewhere, works pretty good.

i had to use an lfe on the stealth flea to max out its hardpoints, install dhs, and endo. rest were all xls. the machine gun fleas can keep their shs since they dont get very hot.

Edited by LordNothing, 06 December 2018 - 08:47 AM.

[The pessimistic optimist]

El Bandito, on 06 December 2018 - 08:36 AM, said:

Why single heatsinks? You can use Light Ferro to free up space for DHS instead for better cooling. FLE-17 modified

Was being a cheap skate.Full ferro give you few more build options at cost of heat management. I don't like having to spend the money to go to doubles if I want to change the build. A lot of the time with the Flea its hit and run tactics so not having having a lot of heat management not a problem. If you plan on sticking around and brawling yea go doubles.

Edited by SirSmokes, 06 December 2018 - 09:09 AM.

[Prototelis]

SirSmokes, on 06 December 2018 - 08:11 AM, said:

Your trading fire power for survivability Also med pulse ER smalls work well together on the Flea I like those over std meds. One med pulse 6 er smalls. One med pulse 6 er smalls a nice fast pin point 25.5 alpha with higher cool down then std meds.FLE-17

Almost double your DPS with standard smalls.

ER smalls only sound cooler, there isn't anything worthwhile for what you have to trade for 50 extra meters.

[Alex Morgaine]

I've gotten some decent matches in a 0 SP flea just weaving like a madman and at the end going "how did I survive that?!"
next big tourney should be 0 SP mechs only :3

think about it, how many builds would fail due to no additional cooling or manuevering from skill tree? only 1 consumable?

[tutzdes]

UnofficialOperator, on 05 December 2018 - 05:44 PM, said:

Because its too damn hard.

Average 160 damage wattttttttttt????

Last few games were like less than 50 damage especially when an assault sneezes on you.

o7 Flea pilots

I leveled all the Collector pack Fleas from 0 XP (save for FLE-17 duplicate and FLE-15 which is in the proccess).

The only problematic one was FLE-19 (no MASC, one energy, 8 ballistics, 1 missile). After reaching 30-40 SP it became pretty viable too.

Ah there were some rough edges when I started playing FLE-R5K. An attempt to make it a pure energy boat was a mistkae. As a micro-Commando with 2xSRMs+3xERSLs it was fine.

Currently leveling FLE-15 (no MASC, 3xMPLs+2xSLs), with experience from piloting other Fleas it just works.

Like ocular tb just said, FLE-17 and FLE-20 are just nuts! Weren't hard to level at all, easer than any Javelin, Raven, Osiris, Lynx or Jenner for instance.

[Daggett]

SirSmokes, on 06 December 2018 - 08:58 AM, said:

Was being a cheap skate.Full ferro give you few more build options at cost of heat management. I don't like having to spend the money to go to doubles if I want to change the build. A lot of the time with the Flea its hit and run tactics so not having having a lot of heat management not a problem. If you plan on sticking around and brawling yea go doubles.

The problem with this reasoning is that MWO QP matches are rather short. So if you want to leave your mark during those few minutes you kinda need to fire as much as possible even with hit&run builds. Switching to DHS increases your heat dissipation by almost 60% which is a huge difference.

In a light you will usually get presented with lots of great opportunities to attack repeatedly without receiving return fire, for example if an enemy is already engaged in a brawl with a teammate. In such situations you don't hit and run. You rather want to fire as much alphas as possible while the target is distracted. And then 60% more DPS will of cause have a much more impact on winning the match.

So please do your team a favor and equip DHS if you intent to run a mech regularly. There are only very few mechs/builds where DHS can be worse than SHS, like the FLE-19. The FLE-17 however is always better with DHS, there really is no exception and therefore you will never have to switch back to SHS.

Edited by Daggett, 06 December 2018 - 05:42 PM.

[Y E O N N E]

Prototelis, on 06 December 2018 - 09:57 AM, said:

Almost double your DPS with standard smalls.

ER smalls only sound cooler, there isn't anything worthwhile for what you have to trade for 50 extra meters.

To add more perspective to this:

A Flea can sprint at 177.6 kph, which translates to 49.3 m/s. So in roughly 1 second of running with MASC, you've made up that distance.

That +50 range is +33% extra over a standard Small, but it with the penalty of +100% extra heat and +22% longer cooldown. Worth it? Basically never.