148 replies to this topic

[Prototelis]

Have you ever noticed that matches usually turn into a brawl at some point anyways?

[Battlemaster56]

Usually by the third minute.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Prototelis, on 18 April 2019 - 02:07 AM, said:

Have you ever noticed that matches usually turn into a brawl at some point anyways?

A brawl at 300m is what's happening now. I'm not joking.

When I was piloting the Orion IIC, I invested lots into the mobility tree and was running at over 83kph. With that, I couldn't care less if the team sat back 'cause I could run around and either charge through or keep flanking. Now, the 56kph Marauder with 8 SRM 6 feels nearly useless when my team mates are running away from the enemies. Hence why I'm trying 8 MRM 10s. It feels ok. But the SRMs were more or less me trying to initiate a fight, dishing out 600 damage and exploding violently.

[Sjorpha]

FRAGTAST1C, on 18 April 2019 - 01:51 AM, said:

3 LPL and 5 MPL, you say? What's the heat management like? I'm trying 3 LL and 5 ERML and I can barely alpha twice. With all the skill nodes dedicated to heat and cool runs, then it'll be better I think but the Pulse vomit looks like it's extremely toasty.

As for SRM 6 bomber, how do you play that when both the teams never engage at anything closer than 300m. The moment I try to flank and get the damage off, I die having barely done 600 damage.

You have 20DHS, so heat management is slightly better than a heavy pulsevomit with the same loadout like the GHR 5P or WHM 6D (18-19DHS) but slightly worse than a wubshee (21DHS) You can alpha twice before having to only use either the LPLs or the MPLs. It plays very similar to the wubshee as you have the same 3 high mount LPLs for the initial midrange poking and the same max alpha. 120damage in 3.5 seconds is enough burst to warrant some downtime. So the pros are jumpjets, more tanky and the arm mounted mpls are better against light mechs and close range component focusing. The cons are slower, a bit hotter and can't sacrifice arms for shielding.

MAD-4A

I'm comfortable playing high alpha laser builds, so I don't find it that hot. There are several laservomit builds that are much hotter and still very strong.

I don't share your experience on the SRM bomber so I can't really argue that point. My experience is that most quickplay games close to brawl distance sooner rather than later, if it's later you'll have to netflix and chill for a bit but as far as I can see the current quickplay meta is very brawl friendly. Also the burst damage output of 8SRM6A is high enough that you can do a single sacrificial engagement and still kill something and score high. If you make a kill and 600+ damage that's more than enough to be a positive contribution especially if you do it early in the match, so I don't really see a problem with that.

MAD-4HP

Now it is of course better in Faction Play where you can pick it for specific maps and choose to go full brawl as a whole team, I even think it might be tied with the Cyclops 10Q for best invasion attack missile brawler in FP.

I run it with maxed out mobility tree to push it to 60kph and get some agility which is nice for quickplay, and the rest split between weapons and durability, but for Faction Play you can probably go max durability and weapons instead.

Edited by Sjorpha, 18 April 2019 - 03:35 AM.

[meteorol]

Sjorpha, on 18 April 2019 - 03:14 AM, said:

You have 20DHS, so heat management is slightly better than a heavy pulsevomit with the same loadout like the GHR 5P or WHM 6D (18-19DHS) but slightly worse than a wubshee (21DHS) You can alpha twice before having to only use either the LPLs or the MPLs. It plays very similar to the wubshee as you have the same 3 high mount LPLs for the initial midrange poking and the same max alpha. So the pros are jumpjets, more tanky and the arm mounted mpls are better against light mechs and close range component focusing. The cons are slower, a bit hotter and can't sacrifice arms for shielding.

It has considerably worse agility than the BNC. 11/12 accel/decel compared to 22/17 on the BNC, turn rate/torso turn rate 35/63 for Mad II compared to 47/85 on the BNC. And for IS pulse lasers, personally i'd prefer the BNCs 10% range and 5% cooldown over 10% duration any day. If it had armor quirks instead of structure, maybe. But as it stands, i don't see much reason to use it over a BNC (or even a heavy).

[Thorn Hallis]

I put 3 ERLL, 2 MP and 3 flamers in my 4A. It's still on SHS and zero skillpoints, so it runs very hot, but it works in QP. I plan to switch the ERLLs to LPLs, after I mastered it. And DHS of course.

[Sjorpha]

meteorol, on 18 April 2019 - 03:29 AM, said:

It has considerably worse agility than the BNC. 11/12 accel/decel compared to 22/17 on the BNC, turn rate/torso turn rate 35/63 for Mad II compared to 47/85 on the BNC. And for IS pulse lasers, personally i'd prefer the BNCs 10% range and 5% cooldown over 10% duration any day. If it had armor quirks instead of structure, maybe. But as it stands, i don't see much reason to use it over a BNC (or even a heavy).

I agree that all things considered it's a bit worse than the Wubshee, but I still think it's the best build you can do on it.

Better agility would be the most sensible buff for the MAD II imo.

Edited by Sjorpha, 18 April 2019 - 04:02 AM.

[FLG 01]

Sjorpha, on 18 April 2019 - 04:00 AM, said:

Better agility would be the most sensible buff for the MAD II imo.

Yes. As far as raw firepower is concerned, the Marauder II simply lacks the hardpoints (and predictably so).

PGI could buff the durability and it would work, I guess, but I would prefer greater agility to make the Mech unique and useful among the IS 100t units.

[Bishop Steiner]

FLG 01, on 17 April 2019 - 06:02 PM, said:

It is ok. I still believe it needs better agility to make use of its overall favourable geometry, and then it could be great.

To be honest I love it either way because it looks like a true Marauder, especially the cockpit. Not being DoA is good enough for me - for now. It is fun.



Isn't it kind of a running gag that the Bememoth sports the largest SPL ever?

that's what she said!!!!!

[Knight Captain Morgan]

I tried to make use of the PPC quirk at first but wound up with a pulse laser build very similar to my battlemaster. While it’s not as agile, it is tankier, for a assault, that’s a good trade off.

[Koniving]

Bishop Steiner, on 17 April 2019 - 05:25 PM, said:

Interestingly I can't find where hat idea started. It's no in the TRO, but I here it stated often.

The Sarna entry lists it as this: "The design featured Large Pulse Lasers in each arm, twin Gauss Rifles mounted behind flip-open circular firing ports on each side torso, and an almost superfluous Small Pulse Laser located above the cockpit. "

Yet.... that is also not in any source I can find. Kind of frustrating.

I know where you ****** up, you didn't look at the ORIGINAL TRO 3055.

The 3055 Revised says "Twin Gauss Rifles"

The original 3055 says "Twin Gauss CANNON", singular.

Mech Factory (which takes it from old TROs word for word.)



And now that I'm home, TRO 3055.

"Twin Gauss Cannon"

[Koniving]

But, they also ****** up in listing "2 gauss cannon" in the armament, probably leading to yet more ****.

All in all, there's one barrel, two guns in the original concept. The Stone Rhino 2, though, has two barrels.


Sarna even points out a change in engine in order to do so...which is the weird thing, as its the first mention right after the engine change.

Comically, it "kept the shock absorbing cowls" on the arms that protected the delicate lasers by having a couple of extra long barrels that could hit something and slide back, allowing the arms to be used in melee attacks...yet the art very clearly has removed them as the lasers are right in your face

And it isn't because they copied the destroid monster MK II, as that machine has never had fewer than 3 barrels on top, so it was a deliberate choice to do a single barrel.

Edited by Koniving, 18 April 2019 - 10:26 AM.

[Y E O N N E]

Having played it even more, I think this 'Mech needs more agility. Other than the 4HP, which is a wrecking ball, it doesn't have the firepower to justify 100 tons. It needs to be able to bring what piddly firepower it has to bear more readily.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

I like the Mech design itself, but the gameplay is bleh

Not enough CT/Head energy mounts
Too much energy focus/not enough ballistics or missile
Side torso absorbs most of the damage
Too dang hecking slow

I had some really good matches with the 4L, but overall, I won't be using this chassis a lot unless I wanna do somethin different

[Tombe0]

From what I've found so far, aside from 4HP (all the srm!) and possibly 4L (eeeecm!) Marauder II certainly IS NOT a frontline Assault. It's like Clanner Blood Asp in that regard. But when you play it as second liner from the 5-600 meter range, it starts to work beautifully. Just hope your frontliners stay there, because if they start to fall back, you need to be already moving yourself, otherwise YOU will be the (very soon dead) frontline.

4HP is like the Fist of an angry deity, it can do insane amounts of damage in a short time, problem is getting out unless it was a 1vs1

[Matthew Ace]

Assault Jump Jets needs some buff for a start.

Next, I'm still trying to find sweet spot on the MAD-4A (I'm not there yet). Unlike the Anny 1E, they do not come with heat quirks unskilled so the energy weapons become taxing (but at least this has the option of running larger engine). They do however come with burn time quirk which makes them run better with laser weaponry IMO (PPC velo quirk is not enough for me to want PPCs on them so far, I have tried.)

[Y E O N N E]

Matthew Ace, on 19 April 2019 - 01:42 AM, said:

Assault Jump Jets needs some buff for a start.

Next, I'm still trying to find sweet spot on the MAD-4A (I'm not there yet). Unlike the Anny 1E, they do not come with heat quirks unskilled so the energy weapons become taxing (but at least this has the option of running larger engine). They do however come with burn time quirk which makes them run better with laser weaponry IMO (PPC velo quirk is not enough for me to want PPCs on them so far, I have tried.)

4x LPL + 4xERML with 22 DHS

or

6x LL + 2x ERML with 21 DHS

[Anjian]

Prototelis, on 18 April 2019 - 02:07 AM, said:

Have you ever noticed that matches usually turn into a brawl at some point anyways?

Kind of like Star Trek battles that starts with starships firing phasers at each other and ending up with captains going manno o manno CQC?

[Bishop Steiner]

Koniving, on 18 April 2019 - 10:12 AM, said:

I know where you ****** up, you didn't look at the ORIGINAL TRO 3055.

The 3055 Revised says "Twin Gauss Rifles"

The original 3055 says "Twin Gauss CANNON", singular.

Mech Factory (which takes it from old TROs word for word.)



And now that I'm home, TRO 3055.

"Twin Gauss Cannon"

One, I own and referred to the original print of TRO 3055.

You are aware that one of the accepted plurals of Cannon...is Cannon? As in "how many cannon did you bring?"

If it were singular the phrasing would be "A twin guass cannon".

Note the entry: "The Behemoth features Twin Gauss Cannon and A single Large Pulse Laser mounted in each arm. "

The second was using a singular format.

Sorry hoss, no **** up involved.

[Gas Guzzler]

Can you guys like take this to the BattleTech Discussion forum or something?