Posted 26 December 2019 - 09:35 AM
Mechlab's DPS value assumes you are heatcapped when they give you that number, which is at best a idea of how effective a mech will be. What counts more in actual games is your burst DPS up to about 5-10s of sustained fire, after that you have almost always either killed your enemy, or been forced back into cover by them, which is convenient as you can use that time when hidden to cool down.
Reason the MCII-B or BAS is so powerful right now in QP, is that it does almost 27 burst DPS right away, albeit since you are almost guaranteed to jam 1 of the guns on teh 1st or second doubletap, its closer to ~20 for all intents and piurposes, and that DPS (very unlucky jamming aside) can be sustained until heatcap for long enough to get assault kill with good aim via CT coring (so ~10s or so depending on how many DHS you have onboard). After that ~10s, you are pretty much gauranteed to have attracted enough enemy attention to force you behind cover (or you are killed if badly positioned), so the so called "sustained DPS" that mechlab gives you really doesnt matter all that much realistically. Ofc you will get the occasional game where you are utterly ignored and are able to go ham the entire time, but its so rare that you shouldnt build mechs for that once in a 10 games match where you stay heatcapped for over a minute and never stop shooting.
Anyways, to add some of my opinions as to doing well with brawl:
Most important, is patience. Even on bad maps like polar or alpine, most teams will eventually brawl, you just need to not get shot at and save armor till end game where a single fresh brawler can easily flatten 2-3 damaged enemies even by yolo charging straight at them (ive seen this countless times in QP, a single 100% fresh enemy comes out of nowhere and what everyone thought was a autowin actually turns around). Your best bet is to hang near the fattys, both to keep fire away from you (most people will prefer to shoot a fatlas over a hunchback given 2 targets at the same range), and to deny enemy light mechs easy kills (most decent light pilots arent stupid enough to try and solo backstab a fatty that has any sort of support nearby at least not early game when both are fairly fresh).
The other, is to learn when to commit and when to hang back. This takes practice and knowledge of how the maps tend to play out, and wont be learned in a day, but if you want to brawl, and arent playing a hybrid brawler that still has some ranged options like one of my BAS (2xuac10+1xuac20), you need to understand that committing to a fight often means you will not be able to leave it, and that you NEED to commit sooner or later to do anything useful in a match. If you are a hybrid, you can still deal dmg at a distance from relative safety, but if every gun on the mech is 300m or less, when you commit, everyone is likely to focus you down (unless the entire team attacks at the same time which is super rare in QP). Myself, the easiest thing to commit against are isolated or damaged mechs, onces that i know i can remove from teh battle without being wrecked in the process, and NEVER charge into a firing line without your whole team behind you in a push (again, rarely happens in QP, most of teh time you end up dying alone cause they back out at the last second). Your goal as a brawler is to overpower enemy mechs by having better single click damage (allowing you to shield), and higher DPS (brawlers usually have both superior burst and sustain to anything that runs hot. Still, be wary of dakka fattys, if its got 4 or more uacs on it, you are pretty much going to loose a 1v1 against it, especially at short ranges where he wont miss any shots.
Next thing, build for mobility. If the mech cant go at least 80kph its going to require very good positioning skills to do anything useful with. I do pay slow brawlers, but most of those are hyrbids (dual HGR is probably best example), allowing me to at least shoot at 500m or so if i have to, and most of those are also used in a coordinated team setting (where the low speed wont leave you behind). I dont have a 4SP, but ive played 1 before and while the LFE is riskier then a STD, you should probably be running a engine large enough to move in and out of battle quickly since it lets you both commit quicker and retreat if you have to (there is no such thing as retreating in a bralwer that goes under 60kph, it just doesnt happen).
Anyways, as for some more specific build advice:
4SP: obviously 2 SRM-6A with either 4ML, 4ERML, or perhaps 3 MPLs (MPL is arguably one of the best brawl lasers the IS has as it has good damage per click (unlike the near worthless SPLs), and is both heat efficient and has very short burntime making it near PPFLD. ERMLs give you a sorta hybrid but less deadly at short range setup, since you can start to harass at 500m with those guns, but will be almost 100% reliant on SRMs up close, the others are defenetely 100% brawl oriented though and will allow some laser use during the splat rampage without instantly cooking you.
orion: not sure what the total hardpoints on that (im assuming its a IS onion) are, but ive seen alot of good come from onions with 1 AC20 and either a stack of SRMs alongside it, or 4MLs. The AC20+4ML setup used to be brawler meta for heavys on IS side, and still works if you can hit with the slow velocity AC20. Also, the old classic, AC-20 with SRMs, 1 click at short range, 2 clicks a bit farther since the velocity isnt 100% identical. Both those builds is what you should try on the orion, and if you have the clan one, 1LBX/UAC20 and 4 SRM-6A, its basically a fatlas that goes almost 80kph, hits stupidly hard if you can get into 250m, and is tanky enough to stay alive at that range against 1-2 enemies. Dont bother with 1 AC-10 on any mech, you need 2 AC010s to make that worthwhile, and a single 1 is just a waste of tonnage. Weapons that dont sync well with each other in this game dont really work. I know in lore the onions did carry AC10+LRM+SRM+MLs (thats what ive seen in MW5), but in MWO a single AC10 is useless for all itents and purposes (i tried that on a few mechs, it never works). If you want to complement SRM/ML, AC-20 works better.
1
