228 replies to this topic

[justcallme A S H]

Until you have 8 fully skilled mechs / 2 decks.

1 x Long Range
1 x Midrange

You should not be playing in Faction Play. Bringing stock mechs as a new player is just ruining the experience for everyone.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Since I didn't see anyone mention it yet.
You can save some money early on by moving engines from one mech to another, as long as it supports that engine. Useful for expensive XLs if you have another mech it works with.
Obviously, you'll want to ensure you have complete mechs ready to go soon.
And, if you leave a match early, that mech is still locked so you can't swap between two mechs and one engine that way. You'd have to play something else that's ready.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 09 January 2020 - 03:25 PM.

[justcallme A S H]

BAP - mostly useless.

L-AMS - is also mostly useless save for a select few Clan mechs that can actually run it without being overly penalised.

Targeting Comps - Amazing. A TC1, at the cost of 1T - if you have 1T spare... Is a great use of the spare tonnage. Don't take a TC however if you can fit another heatsink for instance, that's more important. TC helps speed up the 'paperdoll' appearing, so you can see where to shoot a mech if it is weak plus a bunch of other bonuses... Probably not so much important when starting out - becomes more useful once you master everything. Again DHS or armour probabaly better uses early on.

[Leone]

If you have a Laser AMS system on a mech, I'd suggest replacing it with a standard ams and a tonne of ams ammo. You can always switch off the ams system to avoid wasting ammo if need be, but usually one tonne is enough to close and wreck face. And it doesn't use up precious precious heat.

Seriously, everyone on the field is constrained by, and fighting the heat mechanics. Don't make it harder on yourself than you need to.

As for BAP, it's mostly a brawling tool to shut down ECM so I could get friendly fire support, but I only added it onto mechs back in the day when ECM had greater coverage. Right now, as you're learning, I'd suggest working on the basics, making your own mech better, before you start thinking about your team. I mean, yeah, it does the added sensor range, but that's more a Command and Control thing.

~Leone

Edited by Leone, 09 January 2020 - 06:45 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Targeting Computers Lv1 and Lv2, especially for the IS mechs are pretty useful. I say IS mechs especially 'cause their DHS takes 3 slots unlike 2 for the C-DHS. Hence, you can't fit IS DHS in CT and Legs but you can fit in a Lv2 TC in there, provided you have the spare tonnage and slots.

If you are building a long-ranged ERLL mech for FW, you can use TC 5 and above for the range boost. You can stack projectile speed for PPCs with TC as well.

Regarding LAMS, you need a DHS or two neutralize the amount of heat a single one produces when destroying missiles. So, they're very build-oriented and shouldn't be used in laser-vomit builds. It's just too much heat for shooting down missiles when there's a better alternate, the regular AMS, which does the same thing at 1.5t (0.5 for the AMS and 1t for ammo) and 2 slots and doesn't produce any heat.

That said, I wouldn't bring AMS on mechs that have provision for only 1. Bring AMS on mechs that have 2 or more. The more AMS you bring the better but again, it is map dependent and even that can be situational. There are freak moments where even on Polar, the enemy team won't have that many missiles. Bring around 0.75t of ammo per AMS. It's enough for most matches.

[Vxheous]

BLOODWOLF333, on 09 January 2020 - 09:41 PM, said:

All these tips are really helping and I am listening. Today I changed the Wolfhound to 6 MPLSR and am doing 5:1 front/rear armor (I know I could probably do more) and I killed the last four mechs (I think 1 or 2 mediums and 2 or 3 heavies that were all pretty badly chewed up) of the game as the last man alive in a domination quick match and won the game for our side. I dont think I should have been able to pull that off but, just a lot of zigging and zagging in my 8/12 WLF-2.

So, I finally have 91/91 skill points invested in the WLF, I know theres no point in unlocking the JJ tree since it cant equip them but, is there any point in unlocking the rest of the nodes in the trees or just start converting everything into GXP to level my other mechs that I dont get to play as often?

There's no reason to unlock any more nodes, or waste MC converting GXP. Just play for the cbills. That's still way too much back armour, and 6 MPL on the wolfhound gets really hot (it's good for certain competitive play maps), you should drop it to 5 MPL (only 1 in arm) and put in 2 double heatsinks. Your listed skills look a little wonky though, not sure how you allocated your 91 pts, but this would be what I would suggest:

Edited by Vxheous, 09 January 2020 - 10:00 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Try to aim for at least 1.3 Heat Management for laser vomits. I can be a little harder based on loadouts, especially on Light mechs but 1.3 is pretty manageable. Once you get the Heat Gen. nodes, Cool Run and Cool Shots nodes, you can pump out more damage.

Some trade-off to consider... Speed vs Heat Dissipation from Cool Run vs Radar Dep.

Regarding unlocking more nodes, know that you can only have 91 ACTIVE skill nodes at a time. If you unlock more, you need to disable some old ones to accommodate the new nodes. At a later time, if you decide to change back, you can just swap them out. Just don't click "RESPEC". It removes all of you nodes and doesn't refund your XP. You can re-enable those nodes again for no cost but you cannot trade them for new ones. You'll still need to purchase the new ones with C-bills and XP.

As such, unless you plan on trying new weapon systems that require entirely new nodes, I wouldn't unlock more. For e.g., with something like the Rifleman Dao Breaker, I can go with only AC5s and have 91 nodes specific to this build. Then, I can switch to 4x LL build since it can do that pretty decently, and then purchase new nodes and swap them out for the old one. This isn't recommended but hey, it's your mech.

[FRAGTAST1C]

You could use MechDB instead...

https://mech.nav-alpha.com/

[Horseman]

BLOODWOLF333, on 09 January 2020 - 06:05 PM, said:

When would a BAP be more useful than a laser AMS on a mech? And these targeting computers....I dont see myself ever taking one over more heatsinks or armor if it isnt already maxed.

BAP is useful for lock-on missile carriers. The sensor range boost slightly helps with indirect lock times for LRMs and ATMs, but more importantly - it works as if you had an ECM in counter mode, protecting you from being jammed by a single nearby enemy ECM.
For lock-on missiles that can be life or death at times.

BLOODWOLF333, on 09 January 2020 - 09:41 PM, said:

Today I changed the Wolfhound to 6 MPLSR

The heat management on 6xMPL is rather bad, try 5xMPL and see if it works better for you.

Quote

So, I finally have 91/91 skill points invested in the WLF, I know theres no point in unlocking the JJ tree since it cant equip them but, is there any point in unlocking the rest of the nodes in the trees or just start converting everything into GXP to level my other mechs that I dont get to play as often?

1. Not unless you're optimizing your Skill Tree - everyone makes tweaks sometims.
2. GXP conversion costs MC and - take that from an experienced player - is entirely pointless.
3. If you need more GXP, a season of playing Solaris for the 25 matches per division to qualify for rewards will net you a fair amount of GXP.

BLOODWOLF333, on 09 January 2020 - 02:15 PM, said:

Like Solaris my impression is build the most heavily armored and armed mech, doesnt need jump jets, doesnt need to be fast, don't really need any special equipment just make a bruiser and duke it out. Yeah I've seen fast light jumpers take out the heavies in a division but, if the heavy player is able to manipulate the map selection and get a claustrophobic map where the light's movement advantage is lessened they will stand a better chance. But, I lose a lot in Solaris with not having a mech in every division and all those losses were hurting my Tier so, I quit Solaris.

Losing in Solaris doesn't affect your tier. Solaris has it's own ranking system - SSR - which is separate for each division AND is counted separately for 1v1 and 2v2 queues.

Quote

and everyone is blocking everyone else's shot and usually aren't more than 3-4 abreast so the enemy only has to deal with 3-4 mechs at a time. And then the front starts getting chewed up and they begin to back pedal while other players are, "keeping pushing!" and then things just fall apart.

The rule is: get in, then veer to the side and let fresher mechs take the point. Stopping in a bottleneck on any map is a deadly mistake.

Quote

If this was megamek I'd have the assault lance go in line-abreast, with Barvo lance (med-heavies) as fire support behind the assaults, maybe have the assaults stagger so that FS can actually get some shots in, and then Alpha lance (fast lights) behind fire support and once we are in the gates they can take off and start flanking and stabbing the enemy in the back.

This isn't megamek and that strategy wouldn't work. For the attackers, in the first wave or two the point is to cause heavier losses for the defenders than for your own side - destroying turrets and O-Gens is a helpful bonus but not priority. The next two depend on the outcome - either you're going to have breathing room to push into the base and take out the gens and then Omega, or you're going to have to do the same thing but under heavy fire.

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They also don't want you bringing in LRM boats to FP but how else will you take out the gate generators without LRMs?

You aren't going to take them out with LRMs, as they no longer lock to static targets.
Take position on a nearby hill or ramp - there's always one near a gate generator in FP - and the generator will be easy to hit with direct fire weapons from there.

Quote

Im not really used to reading the map yet either, wish it could be zoomed out so, it takes me a little bit to expand it and then try to guess what grid I seen that mech in if it was too far away for a target lock,

Press B for the Battlegrid. It can be zoomed in and out using your scroll wheel.

[n00biwan]

Siege mode does have tactics all it's own, mostly differing flavours of 12 man push/rush for the attackers and different firing line/defensive positions for the defenders. An exception is boreal vault where the attackers can run a creeping death style, slow, pokey push with ERLL and such (you can still take 12 brawlers and rush but works best with teamwork).

LRM are hated by many, for various reasons I won't mention or your thread will devolve into another LRM argument thread, but are sometimes useful on defence (esp boreal vault) and situationally in other areas, mostly you're better off taking direct fire for the appropriate range, it's almost never good to take them on attack.

Edited by n00biwan, 10 January 2020 - 01:55 AM.

[Prototelis]

LRMs are not useful in Siege defense on boreal. There is ample hard cover to trade from. All you're doing is creating stacked trades against your team.

[justcallme A S H]

n00biwan, on 10 January 2020 - 01:54 AM, said:

Siege mode does have tactics all it's own,

Yep.

Siege absolutely plays out different to how QP maps in FP do. Especially in team vs team, lots of different things to be done/played out there for sure.

[n00biwan]

Prototelis, on 10 January 2020 - 02:02 AM, said:

LRMs are not useful in Siege defense on boreal. There is ample hard cover to trade from. All you're doing is creating stacked trades against your team.

You might be right, I mean, you are, really, but an organised lrm heavy defence will give a lot of teams (by which I mean whoever the 12 attackers are, not necessarily a premade) trouble.

I nearly always just go all out erll on defence and some on attack for boreal, only own a few lrm mechs, mostly out of a sense of completionism and to be able to have an opinion about them.

[Rick88]

Since you like the technical side of things, which is good, on Youtube BlackhawkSC has some great vids on mech builds, etc. and he dives into more of the technical side than other showcase vids. I started playing just last year and it was watching his videos on the Hellbringer that convinced me to make that my first mech. Very QP friendly: ECM, mobile; and lasers tend to be more forgiving for a beginner than dakka or ppcs, etc. It's also an omnimech so you can do all sorts of ish with it down the road. Kanijashi also has some nice videos for beginners on basics like torso twisting, utilizing jumpjets, and even some settings preferences for mouse sensitivity, etc. Very intro in a lot of cases, but that's the foundation you build from. So just like Ash said earlier about chainfiring, if you can make good habits early on and avoid bad ones, you'll be better off in the long run, so those tutorials are definitely worth a watch.

The advice I'd give that helped me the most once I started applying it, is to be patient. You want to get out there and shoot and yada yada, but if you're the only mech the enemies see on a ridgeline, you may get an alpha off, but you'll have 4-6x as much return fire, so stick to the teammates, try and engage smartly (dealing damage without taking it is best), and watch that minimap. The longer you stay alive, the better you'll do and the more that helps the team.

Welcome to the game, have fun, and don't sweat any gloryholes that talk out the side of their neck during a match only to end it with 200 dmg.

[thievingmagpi]

BLOODWOLF333, on 09 January 2020 - 09:41 PM, said:

All these tips are really helping and I am listening. Today I changed the Wolfhound to 6 MPLSR and am doing 5:1 front/rear armor (I know I could probably do more) and I killed the last four mechs (I think 1 or 2 mediums and 2 or 3 heavies that were all pretty badly chewed up) of the game as the last man alive in a domination quick match and won the game for our side. I dont think I should have been able to pull that off but, just a lot of zigging and zagging in my 8/12 WLF-2.

So, I finally have 91/91 skill points invested in the WLF, I know theres no point in unlocking the JJ tree since it cant equip them but, is there any point in unlocking the rest of the nodes in the trees or just start converting everything into GXP to level my other mechs that I dont get to play as often?

looks like you're shifting towards a more high-risk, high-reward playstyle and that's great. soon enough you'll be running with almost no back armour

[Horseman]

BLOODWOLF333, on 11 January 2020 - 04:23 PM, said:

I changed all my mechs to 8:1 front/rear armor recently as well. And has anyone noticed that if you type and send a message that pressing enter is also going to deselect whatever weapon you have highlighted from the group too? Very annoying.

EDIT: changed toggle group to \ idk if Enter was the default or if I changed it and messed it up.

The default is supposed to be right Ctrl.

[Aidan Crenshaw]

The IS UAC20 fires 3 shells for 6.67 dmg each. But you can doubletap it and fire again during the cooldown for even more burst damage. At the risk of a multi-seconds jam (7.5s for the 20, before skill-tree).
And yes, the RAC/5 has technically more DPS, but the UAC20 is burst-fire against the damage over time of the RAC, so you have less facetime delivering the UAC's damage potential, which means less potential returnfire.

[Horseman]

The weapon you should be comparing with the RAC5 is the UAC10, not UAC20. Same damage per heat, higher burst damage (you can double-tap the UAC10 to deal as much damage in under a second as the RAC5 would take 3s to deal factoring in the spin-up) and higher long-term DPS (factoring in weapon jams, the UAC10 does as much average DPS as the RAC5's peak DPS).

EDIT: That's what I get for writing when half-awake. Ignore that last bit.

Edited by Horseman, 15 January 2020 - 11:29 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

BLOODWOLF333, on 14 January 2020 - 05:45 PM, said:

I tested this and respec just unselects all the nodes of a tree but, you dont lose them or have to buy again and re-enabling them is free from what I have seen.

Yes, I've already said that you can re-enable them. What Respec should ACTUALLY mean is that your previous exp should get refunded so that you can enable new nodes for free. THAT doesn't happen. So, there is no point in Respec except for disabling all the nodes while never getting any refund. You might as well buy more than 91 nodes and enable/disable anything after.

[Mech Walesa]

750h clocked. still not using consumables. too expensive.