6 replies to this topic

[Leone]

So, Been three years or there-bouts since we've talked about the Phoenix Hawk. I want to love them, I really do. They were one of my favourite lore mechs from Battletech, after Prototype Shadowhawk LAMs. Still lose soo much firepower when they lose their arms, but the armour buff's made 'em fairly tanky at least~!

I actually got some impressive results with my PXH-1B, the 'Angel on your Wings' in the new Canyon map. The one jump jet is enough to get in and out of wherever I need, and I used it to corral the enemy, harassing them from the valleys and displacing to keep 'em penned up whilst my team surrounded em and got brave enough to start taking out mechs.

Boasting a full quarter of the twelve large lasers I have across all my mechs it makes for a decent midrange poking mech with just enough brawl to shut down and leg a light or bail if heavier. Granted a decent pilot'll notice the heat from the flamer, but then they aren't shooting me as much, so win/win.

Anyone else got some decent Phoenix Hawk builds that feel viable?

~Leone.

[B3taCentauri]

I'm still very new so I don't really have the hang of the whole builds thing, but the PHX-2 I've just purchased (love at first sight, it looks absolutely gorgeous!) has been kitted out thusly. I went for a Light engine since I'm still not sure about the XL, but I might upgrade later when I'm feeling a bit more confident, and swap the MLs for MPLs. The nimbleness of a 300, jump jets, and ECM should be enough to keep me out of trouble against the bigger mechs.

The alternative build is dropping the engine back to a 295, losing a jump jet, and mounting a Beagle on it for anti-ECM work, but I'm not sure if that's worth it.

[martian]

B3taCentauri, on 25 May 2021 - 12:42 PM, said:

I'm still very new so I don't really have the hang of the whole builds thing, but the PHX-2 I've just purchased (love at first sight, it looks absolutely gorgeous!) has been kitted out thusly. I went for a Light engine since I'm still not sure about the XL, but I might upgrade later when I'm feeling a bit more confident, and swap the MLs for MPLs. The nimbleness of a 300, jump jets, and ECM should be enough to keep me out of trouble against the bigger mechs.

Maybe switching to ER Medium Lasers?

B3taCentauri, on 25 May 2021 - 12:42 PM, said:

The alternative build is dropping the engine back to a 295, losing a jump jet, and mounting a Beagle on it for anti-ECM work, but I'm not sure if that's worth it.

I do not think that BAP is worth it.

[B3taCentauri]

martian, on 25 May 2021 - 12:53 PM, said:

Maybe switching to ER Medium Lasers?

I was wondering about that. Their slightly longer cooldown and additional heat generation put me off a bit since the mech is quite a close-range one. Is the range worth the slightly reduced damage output?

[Leone]

B3taCentauri, on 25 May 2021 - 12:42 PM, said:

I'm still very new so I don't really have the hang of the whole builds thing, but the PHX-2 I've just purchased (love at first sight, it looks absolutely gorgeous!) has been kitted out thusly. I went for a Light engine since I'm still not sure about the XL, but I might upgrade later when I'm feeling a bit more confident, and swap the MLs for MPLs. The nimbleness of a 300, jump jets, and ECM should be enough to keep me out of trouble against the bigger mechs.

Fair. The decision to go XL despite the fact that my build would be great for dead-siding was the fact that it was designed for peeking, with the expectation that my left'll be covered by cover, and if I'm in the brawl the flamers and machine gun means enough face time I'm prolly losing my weapons torso anyways.

(Hint for the poke, rather'n act like a sliding door in and out, where you slide back into cover, think of it like sliding a door closed than opening it like a normal door, twist outta the way whilst pulling into cover to remove your torso from the firing line faster.)

Now, for the 2, with an even mix of weapons on both sides? Totally better to go Light Fusion in my opinion.

martian, on 25 May 2021 - 12:53 PM, said:

I do not think that BAP is worth it.

Concur.

Think about it like this, your weaponry is fairly short range, so you don't need the sensor boost. Granted, faster paper-doll info is good, but you're sacrificing a jumpjet and a heatsink tonnage wise. On a heavier mech where slots're more important than tonnage, sure. I do that for some assault brawlers. In the light to medium range, you wanna put as much mech as possible into survival and firepower. Sensors boost and targetting info'll hafta be replaced by pure mechwarrior skill since it'll weigh less.

You ever wanna talk builds, just make a post. You put up a build an plenty o' folk often with different build ideas'll be happy to talk mechs with ya. Sure some'll just post a cookie cutter meta build, but most of us don't mind explaining our reasoning.

B3taCentauri, on 25 May 2021 - 01:37 PM, said:

I was wondering about that. Their slightly longer cooldown and additional heat generation put me off a bit since the mech is quite a close-range one. Is the range worth the slightly reduced damage output?

Personally, I disagree. Others don't. It depends on what you're doing with the mech. If'n you can survive using them mediums at ~300, then keep it up. If you find yourself often poking about at 400~500, then ER 'em up.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 25 May 2021 - 01:41 PM.

[B3taCentauri]

Leone, on 25 May 2021 - 01:38 PM, said:

Personally, I disagree. Others don't. It depends on what you're doing with the mech. If'n you can survive using them mediums at ~300, then keep it up. If you find yourself often poking about at 400~500, then ER 'em up.

~Leone.

Thank you for all the advice! The main problem I have with the build is knowing where to put skill points. I have part of one mapped out but I'm not entirely sure where to put the rest. Some durability, maybe a bit more in firepower, not sure about anything else, though.

a1f1b830d600d9a1004000000000000000000000000000030a7ff7e000000 - Current tentative investments

[Leone]

Okay, lemme give you my advice, then, lemme explain how a friend of mine who plays completely differently does it.

So for me. When I get a new mech I play it first an earn some XP old school, (I've got General XP sitting around I could use, but let's ignore that and learn the mech.) Whilst testing out the mech and testing builds I ask myself, did the mech overheat? Did I die to damage? If yes to overheating I go operations, 15 points'll net me the full heat containment and 3 of five cool runs. If I die to damage instead I go Survival first, grabbing the whole bottom. 21 points minimum for every mech I own in survival.

Then once I've survival where I want it, and whether I decide to go operations or not (and aside from the rare dual gauss build almost always do,) I look at firepower and mobility. Do I need to twist more? If yes, the left side of mobility has twist speed, and an easy nine points nets me three twist speeds for the brawling. For a fragile medium like the pheonix hawk I figured I'd go more. Like having a faster engine without the weight cost. 15 points'll net you three speed tweaks. there's also a few low hanging torso twists you can grab if'n you want.

Finally, your firepower looks good, though I'll go down the center an skip the heat generation to save on points if'n I wanna put points into sensors. Which I usually completely ignore. Save ecm mechs without sensors are appearantly fairly pointless.

a43400007600d9a10d4190ccfff1d0606c64c0000e86f1731a7ff7e000000 Would be my full skill tree though I'd probably skip the seismic and radar deprivation for more survival or firepower.

Then, I've a friend who uses their general points to grab full ECM nodes before doing anything else with their mech and then purchasing seismic and further Radar Deprivation with earned XP like you did. They're higher tier than me, so might be solid advice. After that though, Survival and operations and firepower for survivability and heat management. they tend to ignore movement. Their playstyle is more stick with the team where ever they go, avoid getting shot and shoot the enemy as much as possible.

In my opinion the Phoenix Hawk should be played like an ambush predator, picking off the sick and the weak, or like a pack hunter overwhelming the enemy with numbers and mobility.

~Leone

Edited by Leone, 25 May 2021 - 03:11 PM.