16 replies to this topic

[Hellbringer]

Gents,

ive been tooling around and i still cant seem to find a decent enough 4x ams build for the Pir-A. 3 Laser AMS and 1 regular AMS is too toasty and you'll get shut down in like 3 seconds under sustain LRM fire. 2 Laser and 2 regular AMS is good, but cant carry enough ammo to make it through faction play.

Stumped as to how to make this thing actually worth a damn. p.s. using all light mg's in order to save tonnage and ammo.

[Acersecomic]

Cut off head armor, arms armor, recuce engine to the highest 4t to save half a ton (you lose a heat sink compared to 5.5 engine), add 8 MGs, 4AMS and 3t AMS ammo, rest is MG, protect the team and peak on open mechs to crit components and then go full all out in later stages of the match.

[Hellbringer]

i tried that with the 4 regular AMS. you run outta ams ammo quite quickly. Thats why ive been swapping in the laser ams to counter this ammo problem. Arms and head already have 0 armor, so its just the ammo problem.

Been trying it with 2 heavy medium lasers and it seems to perform okay, but not great.

[Nightbird]

just do XL100 engine to get more ammo, 81kph is plenty if you're doing AMS shield

https://mwo.smurfy-n...d5d97ae568ded02

[Lykaon]

Acersecomic, on 04 April 2019 - 06:34 AM, said:

Cut off head armor, arms armor, recuce engine to the highest 4t to save half a ton (you lose a heat sink compared to 5.5 engine), add 8 MGs, 4AMS and 3t AMS ammo, rest is MG, protect the team and peak on open mechs to crit components and then go full all out in later stages of the match.

If you are focusing on MGs then you may try 2X LAMS,2X AMS you should have heat to spare to keep the LAMS running.

[Lykaon]

Nightbird, on 04 April 2019 - 06:58 AM, said:

just do XL100 engine to get more ammo, 81kph is plenty if you're doing AMS shield

https://mwo.smurfy-n...d5d97ae568ded02

Wouldn't want to bring that paper mech anywhere near as close as heavy small lasers require.

You could try 100XL w/ 10 DHS Endo/ferro

Cut head armor down -5 and each arm down to -9.

Payload would be 4 x AMS w/ 3.5 tons ammo and a CT mounter ER-Lrg Laser.

Still not good but at least I can be 1.5km away and still dish damage

Edited by Lykaon, 04 April 2019 - 06:15 PM.

[The6thMessenger]

2x LAMS + 2x AMS + 3x ERML/HML for me.

PIR-A AMS-boat + Med Lasers | XL170

Just change between ERML/HML depending on your approach. You still have 50% of your AMS if the standard AMS exhausts ammo.

Edited by The6thMessenger, 04 April 2019 - 06:24 PM.

[Maugged]

Nightbird, on 04 April 2019 - 06:58 AM, said:

just do XL100 engine to get more ammo, 81kph is plenty if you're doing AMS shield

https://mwo.smurfy-n...d5d97ae568ded02

I had a go at this build and today in a game i ended up overheating from the LAMS(i wasn't even shooting), it was pretty intensive missile wise. So i just switched the LAMS for a normal AMS and i was able to fit an XL 120 which gives me a top speed of 97.2 without skills.

PIR-A

[Nightbird]

Maugged, on 06 April 2019 - 01:43 PM, said:

I had a go at this build and today in a game i ended up overheating from the LAMS(i wasn't even shooting), it was pretty intensive missile wise. So i just switched the LAMS for a normal AMS and i was able to fit an XL 120 which gives me a top speed of 97.2 without skills.

PIR-A

Better to remove a DHS and go straight to XL145 if you go this route. (https://mwo.smurfy-n...657ca0f6b57cb7d)

You can also turn off the LAMS when you get to 90% heat.

Edited by Nightbird, 06 April 2019 - 02:54 PM.

[Nightbird]

here's an updated 3AMS 1LAMS build, the first had too much head armor.

https://mwo.smurfy-n...3b0927b5ad40cb6

[Maugged]

Nightbird, on 06 April 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

Better to remove a DHS and go straight to XL145 if you go this route. (https://mwo.smurfy-n...657ca0f6b57cb7d)

You can also turn off the LAMS when you get to 90% heat.

I'll try that thanks.

[Cyanogene]

Was running around with 4x ams, around 10k ammo and one flamer. Took down a whopping 100 missiles. Top tier build, will play again.

[The6thMessenger]

Nightbird, on 06 April 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

You can also turn off the LAMS when you get to 90% heat.

If I wanted to turn off my LAMS, my AMS is also turned off. xD

[Hellbringer]

too bad you cant selectively turn off laser ams and still keep regular ams going. that would be great.

[Curccu]

Nightbird, on 06 April 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

You can also turn off the LAMS when you get to 90% heat.

Is it possible to turn off just LAMS not AMS? I have not found a way (haven't done much research either really) to do that

[PhoenixFire55]

You just can't make a 20t mech with 7 tons for weapons/equipment vialbe if you invest into 4 LAMS/AMS since that investment pretty much takes all available tonnage. It is a very good and mobile AMS shield for your team, but it does nothing else.

Personally I run 4xLAMS, which you have to turn on/off all the time due to heat, all the remaining tonnage is filled with 8 MGs and MG ammo. You do nothing but stay near your team for most of the match dodging strikes and hoping that in late game the enemy will have open mechs that you can work on with MGs critting out their weapons.

It can easily shoot down 1-2k missiles per match, but I still feel like I'm better off actually killing mechs that shoot those missiles with a normal Piranha, so Piranha-A remains strictly an event mech that you take out for a spin for one game to do that 500 AMS missile destroyed challenge.

[Brizna]

Yeah pretty much what PhoenixFire55 said, only thing I would do differently is not using 4 LAMS, but a mix of LAMS and AMS, I have settled in 2 and 2, but 1 and 3 may be feasible without having to toggle AMS off so frequently, obviously that's going to depend a lot on the map you drop in being hot, cold or average, but also the amount of LRMs flying around, in LRM dense matches just two can slowly over heat you in 2 and 2 configuration even in Polar Highlands and you have little control over that in QP so I advise caution and being ready to toggle them off when necessary

What is clear is that in a mech that generates almost no heat you should take advantage of that by using at least some LAMS.