We're a growing site built from the ground up to share builds and guides
curated by some of the top players in the game.
What is GrimMechs?
GrimMechs is a tier list and mech builds database curated by some of the top competitive players in the game. It seeks to provide a variety of builds for every mech that are fully optimised for maximum performance and rated on a scale from god tier to trash tier.
News, October 2021:
Ever since game balance has been taken over by The Cauldron, MWO has been in a constant state of flux. While The Cauldron is not done yet, most of what they set out to initially do has made it into the game by now and had some time to settle in. As things are solidifying, it's finally time for GrimMechs to reassess the ratings on our Tier Lists and play catch up with all the new builds people are running.
In the coming week, we'll be updating the list of builds that we consider S-tier mechs for General/QP. Visit our Discord server and leave us some recommendations for builds YOU think should comprise S-tier General and we'll consider them.
Build Database
While the Tier Lists have not been updated yet, we HAVE been adding builds to our Database. Check it out if you haven't recently, you can sort the table by Updated date to see what's new!
MechDB 2.0
All build links on the site have now been converted to MechDB 2.0 links. Thanks to Kill2Blit for helping us with this and working on the new update to his site! MechDB 2.0 is still a work in progress, so if you have any feedback regarding the new site, drop by the MechDB Discord to share your thoughts and suggestions.
GrimMechs Focus Weeks
Each week we'll choose one item to focus on and devote the week to discussing it on the GrimMechs Discord. This week we're taking suggestions for General/QP S-tier mechs, so head over there and let us know what mechs you think deserve to be rated as the best! In future weeks we may choose topics such as "SPL mechs" or "LPPC mechs" or "Marauder builds" and work on flushing out our Database and Tier Lists with each topic in turn.
If you would like to see anything added, or if you have questions about builds or tier placecement, or would like to make suggestions! ... then please join our Discord.
Past updates:
5 January 2021 - General Tier List, Nova Cat, Incubus, Adder
Spoiler
- The General Tier List has been updated and will continue to be revised. The game hasn't evolved much in the past years but player behaviour has, so you'll find quite a few changes here as we've re-evaluated what has settled well into the current meta.
- Nova Cat build guide added. Thanks to KhanCipher for submitting builds and doing some writing which I've appropriated.
- Incubus build guide has been live for a while now. Written by Tarogato.
- Adder build guide added. Written by Tarogato.
- Just about every single hero mech in the game now has at least one suggested build in the database.
23 May 2019 - Champion, Marauder II, Cougar, plus sitewide improvements
Spoiler
Three new Build Guides are up, and these chasses have been added to our Tier Lists:
- Champion
- Marauder II
- Cougar
Rifleman IIC
We are polishing this Build Guide right now. Until it is made public, you can find our Rifleman IIC builds here.
MW5 pre-order variants
We have some optimal builds for these mechs in our database now. Check them out here:
- CPLT-C2
- WHM-9D
- MAD-9M
- KGC-001
Build Database
If you haven't checked it out recently, do visit the Database. Over the past two months, we've added our entire backlog of mech builds, so there's a decent list of mechs that goes beyond just what we have Build Guides for.
Filtering!
There are now buttons at the top of the Tier Lists and Database where you can filter and search by various categories. The filters are saved to the URL, so you can link other people directly to specific filtered views.
Build Codes!!!!
All builds now have an icon nearby where you can copy the Build Code to import directly into MWO. Some builds can be done on more than one variant of a chassis and you can choose which variant you want the code to be for. This feature is currently only supported by GrimMechs. =]
Direct linking in Guides
When you click on the name of a build or variant, you can copy the page URL to share a direct link with others.So if I wanted to show you straight to this LB30 Black Widow, I can do that.
I want to sincerely thank Scuro for all his time, effort, and patience in working with me to code these new features.I may turn the tiller, but Scuro is at the oars doing the thankless hardwork behind the scenes. So if you get a chance, thank him!
Visit our Discord server to provide feedback and suggestions, or just have a chat. We're constantly arguing over discussing builds and game mechanics, and there's plenty of room for more chaos voices to enter the fold. =]
7 Mar 2019 - Dervish theorycraft, Annihilator, Hunchback IIC, and new Contributors
Spoiler
- We've done a bunch of builds for the Dervish, it might help you decide if you'd like to buy it.
- Annihilator has been added.
- Hunchback IIC has been added.
- Build Guides have been prettified and show more information now.
- A lot of boring back-end work is going on. Content injections will accelerate as we wrap up our necessities.
- Lizzee and ---Val--- have been added as contributors - both players with deep pedigrees in the competitive scene.
3 February 2019 - GrimMechs launch
Spoiler
OwO what is this?
GrimMechs is the shiny new replacement for the now out-dated Metamechs.com. It is a mech builds and tier list resource curated by some of the top competitive players in the game. Okay, so it's not all that shiny, yet. But come join our Discord server and provide feedback to help shape the site aesthetically, functionally, and content-ally!
The site isn't that pretty yet, I'm flying by the seat of my pants in CSS-land. But everything is at least readable, eh? =D (except for mobile, will be a while before I clean that up)
Initial launch only includes four complete build guides:
Two tier lists, of which the top two tiers have been filled out completely:*
- General Tier List - mechs rated according to general use, such as Quickplay, be it solo or group queue.
- Specialist Tier List - mechs rated according to range bracket, useful for strategic play in group queue, comp play, and factionplay.
*While we've done our best to fill out and organise the top two tiers for both of these lists, we still might have gotten some things in the wrong order or missed others entirely. Drop by Discord to provide feedback. Tier Lists are always evolving!
Coming soon!
We have a bunch of build guides essentially complete, just waiting on a little bit of polishing. They will be added soon!
- [ISEN] Scuro - all the programming and coding and database integration, all the back-end work that makes this site tick
- [ISEN] Tarogato - project direction, site design, mech builds & tier list input
- [EON] denAirwalkerrr - mech builds & tier list input
- [G0ON] Metachanic - mech builds & tier list input
- [-D5-] Navid A1 - mech builds & tier list input
- [EmP] Bows3r - mech builds & tier list input
- [ISEN] Blaketown - mech builds & tier list input
- [JGx] Krasnopesky - mech builds & tier list input
- [228] Jay Z - mech builds & tier list input (yes we will have the Jay Z Stalker guide =D)
That's an interesting Gauss build on the Vapor Eagle, but the chassis on the whole is a lot more fragile than one would think. In quick play you had better hope you aren't the sole complement to the other team's higher tier players or you have shot yourself in both feet. A rifle in the arm will go off very quickly once someone sees your loadout. I would not recommend running the 'Mech with so few points in rear armour.
PhilTKaswahl, on 04 February 2019 - 05:35 AM, said:
I've been looking for a dual LB20 heavy carrier for the IS, so I'm looking forward to trying that 6R suggestion.
careful with that; it's a fun and rewarding build - but it really works better with a team, so GQ or FW stuff.
too slow for the nascar-QP more often than not
Edited by Captain Caveman DE, 04 February 2019 - 07:30 AM.
Captain Caveman DE, on 04 February 2019 - 07:28 AM, said:
careful with that; it's a fun and rewarding build - but it really works better with a team, so GQ or FW stuff.
too slow for the nascar-QP more often than not
Eh, I'll risk it. I also have an LB10X + MRM 60 Brawler Atlas Kraken that risks the same that I nonetheless have fun with when things go right.
When things don't, well, I took the risk of bringing a slow, team-dependent build to the chaos QP. It's on me.
Edited by PhilTKaswahl, 04 February 2019 - 07:37 AM.
Captain Caveman DE, on 04 February 2019 - 07:28 AM, said:
careful with that; it's a fun and rewarding build - but it really works better with a team, so GQ or FW stuff.
too slow for the nascar-QP more often than not
If you want a fun, fast, and tanky lbx carrier- look at a victor 9A1. Triple lbx10 that goes 60+ kph and has 4 JJ for maneuvering. I’ve been skulking mine up and I average 500-800 damage games in SQ.
lobsterhierarchy, on 04 February 2019 - 07:44 AM, said:
If you want a fun, fast, and tanky lbx carrier- look at a victor 9A1. Triple lbx10 that goes 60+ kph and has 4 JJ for maneuvering. I’ve been skulking mine up and I average 500-800 damage games in SQ.
I prefer the AC/10 9A1, personally. One of the few mechs that can take triple AC/10s without really making compromises.
PhilTKaswahl, on 04 February 2019 - 07:35 AM, said:
Eh, I'll risk it. I also have an LB10X + MRM 60 Brawler Atlas Kraken that risks the same that I nonetheless have fun with when things go right.
When things don't, well, I took the risk of bringing a slow, team-dependent build to the chaos QP. It's on me.
Boomhammer is fine for QP, in a 1v1 it's almost unmatched thanks to the torso location of the guns. I used it a lot in S7 (with less ammo and medium lasers) until I discovered the God Duelist that is the LB-20x/SRM Warhawk-B. Unfortunately, the Warhawk lacks ammo and has a huge side torso ammo storage problem that translates poorly outside of a straight duel. I would say though, from T3 to T2 every single one of my brawler builds became more or less useless.
That gauss VGL is rather handy, I threw in a second JJ as the single one just is slightly short of the thrust I need to get around. I find it runs cool enough to not require operations tree investment or heat gen nodes, so I put most of my points into armouring up and increasing agility. 80 kph with 2 gauss rifles, medium lasers and two arty strikes with a UAV to boot means plenty of power to force reds out of position.
Edited by RickySpanish, 04 February 2019 - 03:33 PM.
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