298 replies to this topic

[BLOODWOLF333]

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?

[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.

[BLOODWOLF333]

Yeah this was my first mech so i started putting points into sensors before I read the skill tree guides. So, as I get SP I'm removing them from sensors and putting them into where they should go since Im at the 91 cap.

I've just been going off my spreadsheet and setting my heatsinks to allow for 3 alpha strikes before overheat taking all the advantages into account. I read on here that the Heat Management score does not take into account laser duration for heat dissipation times so, i made a spreadsheet to do the math for me. Seems like we cant do attachments here?

(This is for the Scout Griffin)

Edited by BLOODWOLF333, 09 January 2020 - 10:49 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

You could use MechDB instead...

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

[BLOODWOLF333]

Spreadsheet
https://drive.google...zYN9cO34wlaPOvG

Calculated all the weapons damage per minute, damage per ton and damage per heat.
Planner tab calculates how many heat sinks are required for 3 alpha strikes before overheat.
Skills tab I was just mapping out the trees so, I could plan ahead for what I wanted.
Base Skills tab is the base nodes I want for each mech (heat and armor hardening) and then the mobility section I went through the store and recorded the lowest and highest values for the mobility stats from all the mechs (didnt find an online resource that already had this stuff) so, I could then compare what 100 ton Assault mech I wanted to buy next and see how maneuverable it is compare to all the other mechs. Annihilator I think had the lowest mobility stats of any mech, that thing is a boat.

Edited by BLOODWOLF333, 09 January 2020 - 11:10 PM.

[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.

Quote

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.

[BLOODWOLF333]

Horseman, on 09 January 2020 - 11:49 PM, said:

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

Right but, doing that on the move or under fire is difficult for me. So, if i see an enemy that is more than a grid outside of the map at it's normal size and Im not hidden or able to stop and pull the big map up then I just don't say anything since I cant give the teammates anything really useful. I'll get used to it.

[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.

[BLOODWOLF333]

Rick88, on 11 January 2020 - 10:24 AM, said:

...
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.

Oh yeah, I have already encountered some obnoxious little hotpocket-eating mother's basement trolls in QP who are already dead and then want to trash talk the players left alive. I love that blockedlist feature lol

[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

[BLOODWOLF333]

thievingmagpi, on 11 January 2020 - 02:08 PM, said:

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

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.

Edited by BLOODWOLF333, 11 January 2020 - 09:27 PM.

[BLOODWOLF333]

I've learned that you can get behind a player, tap him on the right shoulder (hit his right rear torso so, he gets the red flashing damage indicator) and keep sweeping around the left behind him....and they keep falling for it.

[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.

[BLOODWOLF333]

Ultra AC/20: It fires 3-rounds and consumes 3-rounds of ammo each trigger pull so, does each round do 20 damage or does each round do 20/3 damage? If it's 20/3 then the RAC/5 is the better weapon. I hope thats not the case.

[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.