148 replies to this topic

[RickySpanish]

Mycroft Sandoval-Davion, on 22 April 2019 - 06:14 PM, said:

MAD2 is laughably inferior to KGCs. I find the mobility OK, but the CT is squishy AF. 120 armor CT on a mech that can't effectively twist is insane. Torso HPs are suicide except for the MAD-4HP, which relegates you to knuckle dragging arm HPs. I run a few missions in it a day until I get tired of it's BS and switch to other mechs. Even the MAD-4HP seems to under-perform compared to my CP-11P, which is 10 tons lighter. To be fair, I haven't been spending as much time on the cheese grater as on the other variants, so it might redeem itself with some more quirks. All in all I find it disappointing. I really wanted to like this mech, but it needs a lot of work. That dorsal HP in particular needs attention. Effing that up this badly makes me wonder about the level of quality we will see in MW5

The 4HP is quite good yep, but the rest blow chunks because of the gun, as you said. I think the reason it's a little on the nerfed side is PGI knew a lot of people got it with their MW5 preorder. Better to be cautious than to have stacks of super buffed Assaults. That all CT gun hitbox though... Jebus.

[Y E O N N E]

RickySpanish, on 22 April 2019 - 07:44 PM, said:

The 4HP is quite good yep, but the rest blow chunks because of the gun, as you said. I think the reason it's a little on the nerfed side is PGI knew a lot of people got it with their MW5 preorder. Better to be cautious than to have stacks of super buffed Assaults. That all CT gun hitbox though... Jebus.

They did the same thing to the Nightstar and it's still meh. The two 'Mechs perform roughly the same.

[Skippy The Danger Squirrel]

I like my Marauder IIs. The 4HP has potential for some serious damage with MRM or SRM boating. I tried LRM, but the nerf is still there and makes them pretty much useless. The missile health buff really helped get MRM and SRM volleys through AMS screens. My favorite is the 5A. I'm running 2 LB-10-x and 6 medium lasers. What's not to love about two giant, fast firing shotguns? Plenty of armor, good maneuverability for its size and the high mounted ballistics hard points score big with me. My least favorite is the laser puke variant. Haven't come across anything that does sufficient damage without overheating. Maintaining a near 1:1 K/D with these beasts so far.

[meteorol]

Skrapiron, on 23 April 2019 - 08:18 AM, said:

I'm running 2 LB-10-x and 6 medium lasers. What's not to love about two giant, fast firing shotguns?

The fact that both Anni and Fafnir can use four giant, fast firing shotguns?

Skrapiron, on 23 April 2019 - 08:18 AM, said:

Plenty of armor, good maneuverability for its size and the high mounted ballistics hard points score big with me.

And the fact that both Anni and Fafnir have more armor and either ecm or backup weapons to go along with those ?

[Skippy The Danger Squirrel]

The Anni and Fafnir have hit boxed the size of Texas. I don't even need to aim to hit one, just point in their general direction. The best part about abusing Anni drivers is on Mining Colony where their towering behemoths are easily picked off because they are so far above any available cover.

[meteorol]

Skrapiron, on 23 April 2019 - 11:31 AM, said:

The Anni and Fafnir have hit boxed the size of Texas. I don't even need to aim to hit one, just point in their general direction. The best part about abusing Anni drivers is on Mining Colony where their towering behemoths are easily picked off because they are so far above any available cover.

Do you realize that the MAD 2 "top cannon" is all CT hitbox and can be hit from every angle with zero chance of shielding it? It can even be shot before you see the enemy when crossing ridges, because it's considerably higher than the cockpit.

If you want to make an argument for the MAD 2 compared to those significantly better mechs, you should take a look at this

https://imgur.com/a/HgLFvoO

and ask yourself if hitboxes are really a strength of the MAD 2. Because they aren't.

Edited by meteorol, 23 April 2019 - 11:45 AM.

[Battlemaster56]

Just give the MAD II armor quirks to match the levels of the Fafnir (not the 4hp that thing is fine). The only thing really keeping the Fapnir and Anni up is the combination of having good armor quirks and able to boat a large amount of firepower and that's a deadly combo not many mechs boast about.

It won't hurt anyone giving every MAD II variant but the 4hp atleast 15-20+ armor buff and smart agility buff so it can twist properly.

Edited by Battlemaster56, 23 April 2019 - 11:47 AM.

[Prototelis]

Believe it or not, the ANNI also has really good hitboxes for a humanoid. That CT is p. small from the front, you can shake damage around like a bird walker.

[RickySpanish]

Yup comparing MAD II to the Annihilator is just pointless, it's not even in the same league. Fixing the CT cannon is just what is needed simply to make the non 4HP variants minimally viable as 100 ton 'Mechs.

[ChapeL]

How do you fix such a cannon in a game that is deadset on not having special locations on mechs ? (By special location, I mean like they did in MW3 for the MadCat's missile racks, Black Knight shield,etc )

[C E Dwyer]

WrathOfDeadguy, on 16 April 2019 - 06:14 PM, said:

It is absurdly easy to headshot. The cockpit hitbox is huge, and dead in the middle of the CT.

This is the only real issue with it,

[Ruccus]

ChapeL, on 23 April 2019 - 12:43 PM, said:

How do you fix such a cannon in a game that is deadset on not having special locations on mechs ? (By special location, I mean like they did in MW3 for the MadCat's missile racks, Black Knight shield,etc )

There are a few things they could do. Simple route is to add a decent amount of armour to the CT and call it a day. This would make the mech more durable, but with only the MAD-6S having any CT weapon hardpoints (aside from AMS) you could still strip the torsos of a Marauder 2 to make him a stick if you don't want to go through the extra CT armour.

The second option would be to bring the left and right torso hitboxes up to cover each side of the gun so the gun is RT or LT, depending on from what side you're shooting. This makes it easier to strip each side torso, but harder to CT core.

Third option would be to bring up the left torso to cover the left side, but keep the right side as CT. This would allow shielding with the left side as well as reduce the ease of stripping the RT guns from the opposite side.

[Maddermax]

Can't say about the others, but the 4HP is pretty much bang on, and can definitely bring the pain with MRM120 or 8xSRM6. Definitely not a weak mech, and it rolls damage well enough without the dorsal gun. Cockpit might be an issue, but I haven't been headshot yet - it'll happen though, I'm sure - store your ammo in the arms rather than the head, if they're not stripped.

I can see what people are saying about the dorsal guns on the other variants being an issue (haven't had time to take them out yet), but I think that could be fixed by bringing the side torso hit boxes up to the sides of the guns, the same as it is on the annihilator head. It would still be a liability, but no longer a fatal one. I mean, the gun could also be lowered a little into the chassis, but it looks pretty cool as is I think.

Edited by Maddermax, 23 April 2019 - 08:47 PM.

[Captain Caveman DE]

I like the 4HP; the rest is just straight worse than any 100t mech we have currently *not counting the 1-legged Anni with LFE who lost a ST already and stuff*
pls fix the damn thing, it is really no fun to pilot these. which is a shame, as the model is quite nice.

Edited by Captain Caveman DE, 24 April 2019 - 07:24 AM.

[panzer1b]

Honestly less bad then i anticipated a super unagile marauder to be, but it also suprised me how bad the hitboxes are in game (especially with that stupid top cannon which is present even if you stick a ERSL in it).

Basically the missile one is from my experience the best (i dont own them myself but ive seen enough of them in game to have a decent understanding of what it can and cant do well). It has enough damage output that if it can get into 300m you are hosed, but it comes at the expense of agility and speed, so you more or less get a free kill if you can either flank it while engaged or stay outside of SRM range. MRMs are also pretty decent on it, but there are honestly other better choices for MRM-120s like the night star hero (better agility and such, and well its about the only thing that mech can do). Like most brawlers, high risk but extremely devastating to anyone who it manages to catch up close. Id say on par with scorch, way better armor, but worse mobility.

The dakka models are ok, but tend to suffer from a lack of hardpoints to truly boat UACs like most assaults would be doing. Still, it can run a mix of UACs and PPCs, and any mech that can do that is at least going to be viable in QP. What kills these is obviously the hitbox above the cockpit, but thats sorta common to all of the new marauders besides the missile version.

Laser models are imo the worst. You can carry a very similar payload on a heavy, and they have the same limitation as all IS assaults, inability to boat excessive DHS like a clam would be able to do. Every time i see the 3LPL+ERMLs build i just laugh since it will pretty much roast itself too quickly to win any sustained fight, and if you push it its game over for the assault unless you were already very badly damaged before the encounter. I guess you can boat SHS, but then you get a super slow mech that is pretty much unable to get into effective range of most laser weapons, and there are better things to run 5-6ERLLs on in the 1st place.

Not entirely bad, but defenetely not a meta mech in its current form...

[Ken Harkin]

Skrapiron, on 23 April 2019 - 08:18 AM, said:

I like my Marauder IIs. The 4HP has potential for some serious damage with MRM or SRM boating. I tried LRM, but the nerf is still there and makes them pretty much useless. The missile health buff really helped get MRM and SRM volleys through AMS screens. My favorite is the 5A. I'm running 2 LB-10-x and 6 medium lasers. What's not to love about two giant, fast firing shotguns? Plenty of armor, good maneuverability for its size and the high mounted ballistics hard points score big with me. My least favorite is the laser puke variant. Haven't come across anything that does sufficient damage without overheating. Maintaining a near 1:1 K/D with these beasts so far.

Except you can take MAD5M with 2 LBX10, 5 ML which is more maneuverable, has better hit boxes, costs 25 tons less and doesn't have the big "Shoot Me First!" sign which hangs off of a 100 ton assault.

An extra 25 tons for one more ML isn't worth it.

What I really can't wait for is the Marauder with the missile mounts on each torso coming out when MW5 drops. That is going to be sweet!

[Ruccus]

Ken Harkin, on 24 April 2019 - 01:48 PM, said:

Except you can take MAD5M with 2 LBX10, 5 ML which is more maneuverable, has better hit boxes, costs 25 tons less and doesn't have the big "Shoot Me First!" sign which hangs off of a 100 ton assault.

An extra 25 tons for one more ML isn't worth it.

To be fair the 2xLB10X, 6xML build for the MAD-4A runs cooler than the 2xLB10X, 5xML build on the MAD-5M. My MAD-5M currently has a 2xLB10X, 4xML build on it because the fifth laser makes it too hot. My MAD-5A is currently equipped with a 2xLB10X and 6xMLs with enough tonnage left over for AMS, 18 heatsinks and a targeting computer. It runs cold and can output around 280 damage before overheating.

For those wanting more punch the 6 MLs can be swapped out for 6 MPLs, but you'd lose the AMS, targeting computer, and heatsinks for a bigger alpha at a closer range. Personally if the MAD-5A had something like a 10% pulse laser range quirk I'd run this build, but without quirks the MPL's range is too limiting on an assault mech that can't quickly close the distance between an enemy mech.

With 6xMPLs I'd rather run an AC20, 2xUAC5s, or 2xAC5s so I could use a large LFE to close distances quicker.

[Steve Pryde]

meteorol, on 23 April 2019 - 11:42 AM, said:

you should take a look at this

https://imgur.com/a/HgLFvoO

and ask yourself if hitboxes are really a strength of the MAD 2. Because they aren't.

What are the tiny flaps(?) on the back of each sidetorso counting?

Edited by Steve Pryde, 25 April 2019 - 03:59 AM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Ken Harkin, on 24 April 2019 - 01:48 PM, said:

What I really can't wait for is the Marauder with the missile mounts on each torso coming out when MW5 drops. That is going to be sweet!

That's the one with ECM, right? I'm looking forward to that as well. I also like the thought of having the Catapult with two big ACs in the torsos but unfortunately, I think, it doesn't have JJ capability.

Edit:- I read that slightly incorrectly. That Marauder is going to be released next month along with 3 other special mechs (Warhammer, Catapult and King Crab) if you've pre-ordered MW5. So yeah, that ECM Marauder is going to be great.

Edited by FRAGTAST1C, 25 April 2019 - 04:12 AM.

[MiZia]

Maybe it just as the right time to make a petition to pgi to get rid of structure quirks (on every mech that have em) and just give armor instead cuz u know...as armor is gone everything just crits