14 replies to this topic

[Quess Paraya]

Hello boys, I am a new recruit and making practice as cadet.
I play a lot FPS like Doom 2, Quake and Unreal, but just installed MWO.
I saw I am having a lot of bonus money for my first 25 matches, to help me buying my first mech.
Well, I am playing the Highlander trial and I like it (hard to strife in this game, but I will be more confident).
A player told me that there is a site in which I can modify mechs, so I tried it.
Now I have a doubt about mech build.

One option is engine 300XL, 3 JJ, AMS, 2 Ultra 10, Streak SRM6, LRM20 + Artemis IV, 3 Med Lasers.

The other one is engine 300XL, NO JJ, 2 Ultra 10, Streak SRM6, LRM20 (NO Artemis), 2 Large Pulse Lasers.

Which is better? My real doubt is about JJ: are they really useful in battle?

Thankyou all. Oh, ofcourse, any suggestion is welcome, about which side play and which first mech buy.

[TheWarhammer]

Welcome to MWO! The answer is... There is no answer. Everyone is going to tell you this or that, but it comes down to your play style. How do YOU like to play. There are some things that work better with others, but it really comes down to what YOU like and how YOU like to play.
Since you're so new, the best thing would be to try out as much as you can in the different classes to get a feel of what they are like; what their roles are, what kinds of systems (offensive and defensive) they can mount and what YOU personally enjoy the most.

Have fun and always remember, it's supposed to be about fun.

[Gagis]

The hitboxes and weapon hardpoints on the Highlander IIC are not great so its not very popular. Mixed loadouts also don't tend to do well.

Jump jets are an advantage but not necessarily worth much investment, so a lot of people run just 1 JJ on every chassis that can hold one.

My recommendation for first mech right now would probably be the Warhammer 6R since it can run a lot of different versatile loadouts, a few of which are outrageously good. Hellbringer also gets recommended often. It's a bit more fragile and a bit of an one trick pony with how good the loadout you can see on the trial hellbringer is, but can use ECM.

[LastActionHobbit]

Hey, I found BlackhawkSC's video on this topic real helpful when starting out:



Just so happened that I won a Hellbringer in my second week of playing and I do agree with the video's conclusion that a Hellbringer is a very new player friendly Mech.

[Koniving]

Personally, in both cases you're driving an oven.

I would consolidate the weapons into 3 groups as opposed to four. This means changing the missile launchers from two separate ones into two identical ones intended for the same range. If the range happens to compliment one of the other weapons, all the better. If doing so does save some tonnage, you should try putting in some more heatsinks if possible to help mitigate how hot the other weapons are.

[SilentFenris]

Advice in a completely different direction - For your Second purchase, buy a heavy-class Clan Omnimech, Ebon Jaguar is my suggestion, why?

Omni pods can be swapped in an omni mech to change the hardpoints on the mech, so you can go from ballistics to missiles by swapping pods instead of buying a whole new mech.

Back when I owned just a few mechs I wasted a lot of c-bills swapping out weapons to experiment with different builds on Thunderbolts and Wolverines. Variety of builds was still very limited. Omnimechs allow you to try more builds on a single mech than owning half a dozen regular Battlemechs. Would have saved me quite a bit of time and frustration if omnimechs were available then.

Also - NEVER SELL A MECH. Never know when a quirk-pass will bring it from looser to superstar.

[Barkem Squirrel]

Well welcome and have fun.

Now as to what mech, augh. So many play stiles, type of load outs, there is no one silver bullet.

[Phoenix 72]

Welcome to Mechwarrior Online. There are so many things one can recommend to make you more effective and a lot of the time it says a lot about the personal preferences of the people doing the recommendations and not much about what kind of playstyle you are looking for.

There are a number of great chassis that I can recommend that do quite well. For the first few Mechs, I tend to recommend IS Mediums, because they can take a good amount of punishment. And surviving longer will help you learn the game better.

What what I usually recommend for new players is either the Crab (example):


Also very good is the Bushwacker:


For Heavy Mechs, I can second the Warhammer 6R mentioned above because it can do a number of builds well. Also, Roughnecks are often quite good, because, again, they can take significant punishment.

But all that ignores completely the kind of gameplay you enjoy. All of these Mechs are straight up frontliners. Hard to take down, so even when you die, you have helped your team by using up the enemies heat scale. They assume you move with the pack and fight what they fight.

For flanking, sniping and other roles? Not suited.

I would recommend to stick with Medium and Heavy Mechs while you learn the game and the maps. Lights and Assaults require different gameplay and more map and situation awareness than most new players usually have.

[Horseman]

Quess Paraya, on 12 April 2019 - 07:08 AM, said:

One option is engine 300XL, 3 JJ, AMS, 2 Ultra 10, Streak SRM6, LRM20 + Artemis IV, 3 Med Lasers.
The other one is engine 300XL, NO JJ, 2 Ultra 10, Streak SRM6, LRM20 (NO Artemis), 2 Large Pulse Lasers.
Which is better?

They're both terrible. Your weapons should roughly match range and cooldowns, preferably also firing mode.
I'm counting four different weapon systems on each of your builds - an effective build in this game should have no more than three, and even that's a stretch.

Quote

My real doubt is about JJ: are they really useful in battle?

Generally yes.

Quote

Thankyou all. Oh, ofcourse, any suggestion is welcome, about which side play and which first mech buy.

The faction you choose in Faction Play has no impact on Quick Play or Solaris.
I recommend picking Mad Cat Mk II B as your first buy - XL325, 2xUAC10, 2xLB10X, three heat sinks in engine, fill the rest of space with ammo. It's relentlessly brutal.

Edited by Horseman, 13 April 2019 - 03:06 AM.

[Mighty Spike]

Yea,as the others said. Dont mix too many Weapons together,makes it more worse then good. Learn to manage at beginning not more then 3 weapon groups.
As example: I run mostly mix build heavys, mostly Lasers and AC´s or SRM´s. I arange the lasers side based. left lasers mouse button1 -right lasers mouse button 2 and my AC´s or SRM on he thumb button.
So i can fire ,while standing behind cover, only the wepaons that hit for sure and avoid so unnecessary heat. Learning weapongroup & heatmanagement is essential in mWO
. Hm to that build: i would put out that lurm20 and ssrm6 and rather put in maybe a 3rd Large pulse laser and/or some more Heatsinks in any case hot thingy 2 uac10 work fine in chainfire together for me a bit less jaming with some clicking discipline.
." I would" means do whatever YOU feel comfort with Find your own playstyle and experimt with different weapontypes but again dont mix to much of them together It needs some time to find your way but dont give up it´s worth.

Edited by Mighty Spike, 13 April 2019 - 03:39 AM.

[Quess Paraya]

Hey boys, thankyou all.
I've tried many different mechs and different weapons and I've realized that I love ultracannons and hate missles.
So I bought a Blood Asp with ECM and JJ. Equipped it with 4 Er meds and 2 UAC10. It does a lot of damage and it seems to be very solid.
Now I've ended my Cadet's training battles. Wish me good luck. Now the game's gonna be serious.

Oh, one last tip pls: in order to build a good FP team, I am thinking to cover all mech types, so 90-75-65-25
I've thought to buy a multi-purpose mech like TimberWolf, a fast attack like Linebacker and.... well, 25t Mist Lynx only....

Is that a good formation to fight (at start, at last)?
Thankyouall again !!!

Edited by Quess Paraya, 13 April 2019 - 06:10 AM.

[Horseman]

Quess Paraya, on 13 April 2019 - 06:10 AM, said:

Oh, one last tip pls: in order to build a good FP team, I am thinking to cover all mech types, so 90-75-65-25
I've thought to buy a multi-purpose mech like TimberWolf, a fast attack like Linebacker and.... well, 25t Mist Lynx only....

Is that a good formation to fight (at start, at last)?
Thankyouall again !!!

A "multi-purpose drop deck" is code for "tries everything, excels at nothing".
FP drop decks must be optimized for certain engagement types and ranges (so as to match the map you'll be dropping on). Sometimes this involves using duplicates of the same chassis and build.

You'll want to refer to resources linked in this recent thread: https://mwomercs.com...out-discussion/

Edited by Horseman, 13 April 2019 - 09:36 AM.

[Koniving]

Missiles might become worthwhile again after the next post, but right now they are so easily shot down *** missile HP is so meager that a person whom hasn't ate or drank for a week would probably have more health.

Overall, given your past games, I would think an assault would be so slow and terrible that it would be awful. Mediums to heavies tend to be the sort that often better fit newer players.

This said, my own experiences with the Highlander (IS version, not the IIC Clan version).
These are the Highlander Heavy Metal; I'd say a regular one but my regular one is missile-centric.
Providing support for a much lighter friend, which soon showcases the ability to very rapidly go from engagement to kill to engagement to kill with minimal down time. (Well cooled, low heat, DPS-oriented LBX and AC/2 ballistic combination, 3 ML, 2 Streak SRM-2s for fast pests.)

Playing it effectively like a Charger in fluff-and-lore, rapidly engaging enemy after enemy in rapid succession while commanding the entire team through the battlemap. Charging begins in 30 seconds. I give out periodic commands in the lull between enemies that I rush. Toward the end is a very dangerous situation, due to attrition I've lost firepower due to ammo issues and getting shot at. My last volley of orders was immediately followed by the realization that only I and two others in the same lance were left. Everyone else got butchered. So when I came up against the last enemy by myself. I was vulnerable to a near-instant death and had only a trio of medium lasers left...but got 'em.

In a sense, due to a large 325 XL engine, it was possible to play it like a lighter assault / hefty heavy and charge up to things. The cool running setup allowed it the endurance to keep fighting and fighting, as did good armor all around (which made it really depend on getting in there up close and personal, where a front-loaded armor setup would need to keep distance and not let anything behind it, my build was actually dependent upon any additional enemies getting behind me so I could focus one at a time, as two or more in front of me would be the end of me).

To this day, I still use this design with a minor tweak. The AC/2 became far too hot.. Tried the Ultra AC/2 thinking that jam times would allow it to cool off. Yeah...that didn't work. LBX-2 wasn't working either though I think that had to do with slots. So I tried the RAC/2... the heat is much cooler than the AC/2 in the long run, the DPS is better and apparently more intimidating as when I rush someone with the RAC/2 and LBX-10 enemies back away. This helps significantly as when they're twisting and backing away they aren't shooting back.

I should mention the RAC isn't available for the Clan side of things. But it is fun to use.

------------

Lets see..
The combination tallies to 255 tons, not sure what the Clans are permitted currently but it may be a good idea to check that limit before tallying them in case if its 240 or 250 which were common weight limits.

This said people will probably shun the Timber Wolf as without filling the skill tree, its torso twisting ability is slower than a trashcan without legs. It makes a great weapons platform, though. Since you love autocannons, perhaps the Night Gyr might better suit you? Same weight. Ballistic focused. "Laser heatsinks" on it allows it to ignore environmental heat (and cold, so its a double edged sword).

In that arrangement, the 65 or the 25 tonner might be the best to start with. I usually find it better to start with my fastest jumpiest mech and shred the second or third gate while both teams focus on the primary gate, giving us an alternative point of ingress and hopefully splitting the enemy force so that we could have a better chance of getting in instead of forming a line for the slaughter like in some tower defense game.

Good luck to you.

[Steel Raven]

Quess Paraya, on 13 April 2019 - 06:10 AM, said:

Hey boys, thankyou all.
I've tried many different mechs and different weapons and I've realized that I love ultracannons and hate missles.
So I bought a Blood Asp with ECM and JJ. Equipped it with 4 Er meds and 2 UAC10. It does a lot of damage and it seems to be very solid.
Now I've ended my Cadet's training battles. Wish me good luck. Now the game's gonna be serious.

Oh, one last tip pls: in order to build a good FP team, I am thinking to cover all mech types, so 90-75-65-25
I've thought to buy a multi-purpose mech like TimberWolf, a fast attack like Linebacker and.... well, 25t Mist Lynx only....

Is that a good formation to fight (at start, at last)?
Thankyouall again !!!

Welcome to the game, sounds like you already have a good feel for things.

For drop decks, your best bet is finding some synergy with your team (I dropping solo in FP, it can be painful) but from my solo experience, building one Long Range drop deck and one Mid Rage drop deck gets you the most mileage until you grind enough MCs for another drop deck for more flexibility.

You can use Mid Range mech builds on most maps. The Arctic Maps like Boreal Vault, Polar Highland and Alpine Peaks is when most drop with ER LL builds to farm damage from afar.

Hellbringer is a 65 tone Omni to consider. Gives you allot of options from Long Range to Mid. Linebacker is defiantly a solid choice as well.

The T-Wolf requires some love to find a build that works for you, the 75 tone Orion IIC is allot more forgivable with armor quirks of a assault mech. Orion IIC is more niche than the T-Wolf but I have a feeling you might like the Orion IIC C if you liked the Highlander IIC.

... I never tried the Myst Links but plenty have killed me using the MG build... Though you can also go 90-65-65-35 and get the 35 ton Arctic Cheetah. Little smaller but a little more power + ECM.

Got plenty of options depending on your play style and team.

Edited by Steel Raven, 13 April 2019 - 12:27 PM.

[The6thMessenger]

Dude, that's too much weapons.