19 replies to this topic

[Castigatus]

So since it came up in the June patch thread I thought I would make a topic for it.

Now stock mechs are generally regarded as a bit crap for various reasons, armour distribution and weird weapon loadouts being two of most common, but obviously, that's not always the case.

So what are stock mechs that you would regard as, if not great, at least not hot garbage.

[1453 R]

I maintain that a new player who's fond of heavies could do much worse than a stock NCT-D. I've been running the 'Mech with its stock armor distribution for much of the Lightspeed event month, and the only changes I made were to drop the TC5 to a TC3 in order to pack in an active probe and an additional heat sink. A change I made after several matches in the original, bone-stock NCT-D, which has quickly become one of my best-performing heavies. Three HLLs you can fire all at once with no Spoopy Heat penalties and an autocannon that's proven itself to be a lovely complement to the burners. It's a very good 'Mech, especially when you get all your heat handling skills unlocked for it.

[Leone]

Stock Nova Prime.

~Leone.

[Valdarion Silarius]

I'd say the Warhawk Prime is pretty solid out of the box.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Some inner sphere mechs with good stock load outs include the Hunchback 4J and the Stalker FB. They’re not perfect and can be improved, but do their job very well out of the gate and feature near max armor and decent cooling.

you also might consider picking up an excellent chassis like the Warhammer 6R, which doesn’t suck in stock and can be rebuilt to an extremely solid mech.

[Gagis]

The ones mentioned in the other thread were:
Supernova 1
Warhawk Prime.
Rifleman IIC
Mist Lynx G
Nova Cat Prime

Some Annihilators maybe, ERPPC Awesome maybe, some LRM boats maybe

[Here comes BarHaid from 3025]

I do well in the Archer 2R, and the Centurion Yen-Lo Wang. CN9-A isn't bad either. Lights are a lot harder stock, but the Commando COM-1B is pretty good.

[Valdarion Silarius]

Gagis, on 18 June 2021 - 10:37 AM, said:

The ones mentioned in the other thread were:
Supernova 1
Warhawk Prime.
Rifleman IIC
Mist Lynx G
Nova Cat Prime

Some Annihilators maybe, ERPPC Awesome maybe, some LRM boats maybe

If we are talking about true stock mechs right out of the box, then I couldn't recommend the Rifleman IIC. Out of the box it goes an abysmal 48.6 kmph, which for the life of me I do not understand why PGI stuck with that engine stock speed. Even in MW2 the mech right out of the box goes 54 kmph and that slow speed is supplemented by jump jets. IMHO you at least need to go 54 kmph to keep up with nascar rotation as a fire support mech.

Nova Cat prime suffers from terrible center torso hitboxes. With longer ER LL burn time that means alot of front time exposure. You are better off running LRM's or ATM's until PGI revisits this mech with better durability quirks and/or mech rescaling happens to narrow the hitboxes.

[Castigatus]

Gagis, on 18 June 2021 - 10:37 AM, said:

The ones mentioned in the other thread were:
Supernova 1
Warhawk Prime.
Rifleman IIC
Mist Lynx G
Nova Cat Prime

Some Annihilators maybe, ERPPC Awesome maybe, some LRM boats maybe

My only issue with stock annihilators is the absolutely abysmal speed on most of them, 32kph is not a speed I want to be stuck at.

[Alstren]

A good stock mech would be the Fafnir 5. Now that said may I interest you in some ****** meme mechs that are indeed stock builds? The Urbi L and Charger 1A1 are hilarious.

The Urbi L because 32kph with an ac20 on a light is funny.

And the Charger 1A1 because its meant to fight in a way that only works on Tabletop. In MWO it lacks the only things that make it function.

Edited by Alstren, 18 June 2021 - 02:37 PM.

[FinnMcKool]

well the clan mechs defiantly have an edge,
All the hero's and Champion Mechs,
but they really aren't stock

I do like the Centurions, Catapults and Hunchbacks ,,,,but thats just because i like them.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Expanding my list of good stock inner sphere mechs. They’re good because they have decent firepower, good cooling, and near max armor. With upgrades they get even better.

Blackjack BJ3
Hunchback 4J
roughneck 3A
Grasshopper 5P
Stalker FB
MarauderII 4L

And a few meh stock mechs you can run out of the box that can be improved later into high tier solid performers… because if you’re buying these things with limited c-bills, you want strong mechs at the end.

Warhammer 6R
Corsair 7A

There are a lot of great inner sphere mechs that aren’t on the list because their stock load outs make them deathtraps with XL engines or they’re ridiculously under gunned. Or both in the case of the Roughneck 2A, for example.

and I included no mechs that you need to buy with MC.

Edited by ScrapIron Prime, 20 June 2021 - 06:41 PM.

[Kanil]

Arnold The Governator, on 18 June 2021 - 12:24 PM, said:

Out of the box it goes an abysmal 48.6 kmph, which for the life of me I do not understand why PGI stuck with that engine stock speed.

Because... that's how fast it goes with it's stock engine? It seems extremely straightforward? 3/5 'mechs move 3/5... (or well, 3/4.5, because we don't round, because we don't have hexes.)

Edited by Kanil, 18 June 2021 - 09:51 PM.

[w0qj]

The Hunchback IIC (HBK-IIC, and HBK-IIC-A) for ballistic and laser builds respectively are having a renaissance, due to the revamped Canyon Network probably.

If you *really* like it, you can also go for the HBK-IIC(O) hero mech which is still available!

I also adore the Nova Prime (NVA-Prime) laser vomit + JJ.
Just wish it had AMS though (without losing its omnimech Set-of-8 bonuses).

Leone, on 18 June 2021 - 09:01 AM, said:

Stock Nova Prime.

[Gagis]

w0qj, on 18 June 2021 - 11:25 PM, said:

The Hunchback IIC (HBK-IIC, and HBK-IIC-A) for ballistic and laser builds respectively are having a renaissance, due to the revamped Canyon Network probably.

If you *really* like it, you can also go for the HBK-IIC(O) hero mech which is still available!

Their stock losdouts have practically no armour on the ballistic version and very little on the other.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Gagis, on 18 June 2021 - 11:33 PM, said:

Their stock losdouts have practically no armour on the ballistic version and very little on the other.

Agreed. Can’t recommend hunchback IIC stock builds for this reason. When the enemy decides to shoot back, you’re instantly cored.

[PocketYoda]

Crabs are good stock, not the hero.. Warhawk with 4 ppc is great.. (Dump the LRM though)

The problem with most stock builds is they are designed for table top Battletech not MWO so their heat gen is crazy broken.

ScrapIron Prime, on 19 June 2021 - 04:51 AM, said:

Agreed. Can’t recommend hunchback IIC stock builds for this reason. When the enemy decides to shoot back, you’re instantly cored.

You just explained the problem with 90% of mediums in the current power creep.. Its why lowering the TTK was bad.

Edited by MechaGnome, 19 June 2021 - 05:47 PM.

[Escef]

The Thunderbolt 9SE is playable stock. 15 double sinks, a LPL, 3xML, jets, an LRM10 for early in the match, well armored... I've seen worse.

The Black Knight 6B is kinda' toasty, but if you have the trigger discipline needed to bracket fire with it, you can make it work.

The Warhammer 7S is a bit on the fragile side, but it has guns and double sinks for them.

And dear gawds, how has no one mentioned the Stormcrow Prime? The only changes worth making to it are frontloading the armor more, and maybe swapping out the side torsos for the C variant's so you can elevate the ERLLs a bit. The stock loadouts of the B and C variants aren't bad, either.

[1453 R]

The Stormcrow Prime is a great one, yeah. Love Stormcrows in general, and a surprising number of their stock fits are perfectly usable out of the box. The Bravo doesn't have as much endurance as people generally want from a MWO machine, but while its Quack/20 ammo lasts it's a terror.

Really, what one is looking for in a "Good Stock Mech" is generally the following:

-DHS/good heat dissipation - can the 'Mech shoot more than once a year?
-Max/near-max armor allocation - did the tabletop designers leave half the armor of the 'Mech in ways that do not work out in MWO?
-Reasonable ammo reserves - do you have more than thirty seconds' continuous fire from your munitions-based weapons?
-A reasonably focused armament - does the 'Mech have a Heinz 57 little-bit-of-everything armament that invalidates it in MWO, or does it have two or three focused, effective weapons groups?

A 'Mech that misses any single one of those is either Not Great or completely invalidated as a Good Stock Build. Any 'Mech that misses more than one is 100% no bueno for Gud Stockness. Clan 'Mechs generally have an edge since all of them have DHS and most have advanced structure upgrades so their base configurations have fewer holes than Sphere stuff. Most Sphere stuff is stuck in TL1, which doesn't do them any favors in MWO. Sadly.

Edited by 1453 R, 20 June 2021 - 11:39 AM.

[LordNothing]

i have been using the mostly stock loadouts on nova cats. maybe tweaking the armor or heat sink config but other than that ive been leaving them mostly stock, and with good results too.