Sagara Sousuke 011011001, on 05 March 2019 - 11:17 AM, said:
The Bushwacker started life as a RAC 5 build but in the hunt for DPS I went UAC 10 + 3 srm 4s. Then I went (2) UAC 10s and just this week I've pushed further and am running 2 UAC 10s + 2 srm 2. XL 270. I have missile and ballistic nodes, full armor, some radar derp and extra consum. (I use an artie and a uav)
Personally I would suggest not mixing up weapons, that greatly differ in effective range and/or the way they deal damage (i.e. sustained fire vs frontloaded). IMO you should build your mech to do one thing well and then adjust your tactics accordingly.
For an X2 Bushwacker I would suggest a build like
this. Bushwacker has fairly good frontal profile that allows you to spread damage rather well even when facetanking with sustained fire weapons like RACs, hence its one of the best chassis for said weapon. For this build you want to pick both enchanced UAC/RAC nodes, both magazine capacity nodes and nearly all armor and structure nodes. Since Bushwackers have quirks for additional armor, if you can't have all armor and structure nodes, focus on the armor ones as they would give you more. The build is rather cold, so you don't have to invest much into heat realated nodes and can focus on range and cooldown. I would suggest picking a lot of mobility nodes too in order to get speed tweak due to a rather small engine, but that is not really necessery.
In that mech you need a lot of facetime to dish the damage, so try either working with your assaults and shoot enemies while bigger guys beside you are getting focused, or aggressively flank and find angles where its hard for your enemies to shoot back due to terrain, elevation, torso angles or simply being engaged with the rest of your team and looking in other direction. The build isn't really suited for hunting lights, so focus on bigger targets.
Sagara Sousuke 011011001, on 05 March 2019 - 11:17 AM, said:
The Warhammer started as a (2) AC 10 + 4 med lasers which worked well through to tier 3. At tier 3 I didn't feel I was getting enough DPS so I pushed in 2 uac 10s + med pulse lasers. I originally had a LE but when the update occured I went to an XL 275. I have UAC and laser nodes, speed tweak, mostly full armor a bit of operations and an extra consum. (I use an artie and a cool shot)
Since Warhammer-6R has PPC specific quirks it is a good idea in my mind to utilize the weapon. PPCs on a 6R will have -10% generated heat and 20% extra projectile velocity. It is also a good idea on this mech because it isn't really great for poking, and you need to be able to dish your damage as soon as possible, hence frontloaded PPCs perform well. I would suggest something like
this. It has a seemingly underwhelming 30 damage alpha, but PPCs and AC5s synergize really well, and that means your 30 damage would land into the same component easily up to 500-600m. Two 5s allow you to fire them indefinitely, which is good in terms of DPS when you need it more than peeking, like when you are fighting something within your PPC 90m minimal range.
For skill tree I would focus on survival, heat generation and weapon cooldown. Mobility is also very useful since Warhammer can spread the damage really well when you use empty arms as shields. Contrary to the Bushwacker it has additional structure quirks, so prioritize structure skill nodes for more benefits if you can't take all armor and structure ones.
Alternatively you can try something like
this. A more or less standart laserboat with weapons selection dictated by range synergy and ghost heat limitations. You use this mech like any other based around IS LPLs, try to engage at around 350-450m, where most enemy short range weapons like SRMs do nothing and LBXs/MRMs spread too much. Again, 43 alpha damage might not seem like much, but you can do three in a row easily. LPL duration is 0.67s, which means that about 30 of that 43 alpha would be pretty much pinpoint. If it runs too hot, you can always downgrade ERMLs to just MLs, albeit with some loss of range synergy.
For skills just like any laserboat focus on heat generation/dissipation nodes, primarily operations tree. Also lots of survival tree nodes again. Range nodes also come in handy and easily aquired along the way to heat nodes in weapons tree.
A general note regarding all Warhammers is that they should be used to peek around the side of cover (tall buildings) rather than on top of cover (rolling hills). You can peek around the side with full height not worrying about your relatively low placed weapons, fire an alpha and immidiately torso twist to use arms as damage spounge or simply minimize your profile.
Sagara Sousuke 011011001, on 05 March 2019 - 11:17 AM, said:
Gameplay-wise I know how to torso twist damage. One weakness I am aware of is I aim for center of mass when I know I should go for components unless the target is cored. I remember last night for instance squaring up against a mc II with acs and i stupidly went center instead of taking off the arms.
A general gameplay tip would reflect what I've already mentioned above ... If you are getting killed on the frontline or simply lacking range - flank aggressively, but always make sure there is cover available at flanking position for you and little to no cover available for the enemy from your direction. 'Stick with the team' is a good concept, but not necesserily beneficial. Same way 'nascar' isn't necesserily bad either. What matters in flanking/nascar is not whether you do it or not, but what you do when you do it. If you can shoot the enemy constantly and at convenient angles along your flanking movement then it is good. Perfect if the enemy can't shoot you back or is forced to do so at extreme torso twist angles and/or without cover.
Also, do not be afraid to take the initiative. A team/player that takes inititative and dictates the range and manner of engagement is usually a team/player that wins. The more active you are and the more work you do, the more experience you get as a pilot. Learning from that experience translates into skill.
Sagara Sousuke 011011001, on 05 March 2019 - 11:17 AM, said:
Would appreciate any advice or if you have played me and have feedback I'd love to hear. Since hitting tier 2 I feel i've hit a wall and am not having fun.
I am afraid the game is typically considered less 'fun' at higher tiers regardless of whether you hit a wall or not. I would of course suggest joining a unit or simply making a few friends among solo players you run across often enough so you can drop in a group and have more fun this way. Joining a decent unit with TeamSpeak/comms also helps in terms of tips, mechbuilds and whatnot since you can easily ask people you know and do it quicker than via forums. That might not be for everyone, but I strongly recommend it since it usually prolongs the time you can tolerate the grind of the game by quite a lot.
In any case, hope any of this helps. If you have more questions or some specific questions feel free to ask. Also feel free to add me in-game. I'm sure same goes for most people helping out here.
Edited by PhoenixFire55, 06 March 2019 - 02:18 AM.
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