Tie Dyed Ninja, on 28 October 2021 - 05:38 PM, said:
Someone asked in another thread, but of course it's locked because MWO forum. So I decided to make a new thread because I still think it can benefit newbies who might happen to read this. Here's the first mech I made when I came back to the game on my new account. I'm years out of practice, but it's still not uncommon for me to get 600 to 1000 damage and 2 or 3 kills in this thing. And it takes almost no skill. It's basically just stay behind (but close to) your team and click buttons when you get a lock. You can spend almost 100% of your time in cover until you run out of ammo. It's not the best mech, but it is the easiest. Just keep in mind that a catapult isn't very tanky for a heavy and you have an IS XL engine, so your goal is to not get shot at and just hide until you're out of ammo. Then try to squeeze another kill out of the medium lasers. But even if you don't by then you're basically guaranteed a skill raise anyway. I'd say out of my LOSSES this thing gets me an = 20% of the time and a skill gain 55% of the time. And that's only counting losses. Of course there's the occasional game where some awesome will triple PPC you in the LT from across the map before you leave the spawn, but to paraphrase Fight Club, "On a long enough timeline the win rate for an LRM boat rises to 85%"
Skill wise get the target decay nodes and the seismic sensor nodes from sensors (seismic sensors because lights love to sneak up behind LRM boats) and all the missile related nodes from firepower, especially the ammo ones. All the velocity nodes too. Then it's just whatever.
To explain my advice; the #1 problem of LRMs is losing lock and not getting surprise buttsecks from a 8 MG Piranha who will crit all your weapons before you even know what happened. Target decay lets you keep lock 3.5 seconds after a target enters cover. Assuming you actually watch radar, seismic will give you forewarning about the impending piranha violation and let you get your team to rid you of him. Velocity let's your missiles get there faster, which means less chance to lose lock. Stuff like missile spread is just a bonus that makes you slightly more likely for a hit to be a kill. The main thing as a solo is just to hit at all. If you can consistently hit you'll get top damage just about always. Not usually top kills, but that's for later. Even on a loss with no kills it's basically impossible to lose skill on an 800 damage game. Nothing will help you hit t1 like consistent, reliable damage, and nothing has reliably high damage like a lurm boat.
Again, I'm not saying it's the best thing to drive, just the thing that let's you hit tier 1 without knowing what you're doing. When you know how to play better I'm sure you'll want to switch, but for a total beginner it's the closest thing to foolproof that the game offers.
My personal opinion that your
Catapult is not the best thing for a newbie.
First, it creates some bad habits in a newbie. For example, it does actually not teach him to aim. With those LRMs, it teaches him just that pointing in the general direction of enemy is enough. Well, in my opinion, it is not.
It teaches newbies to passivity: "
so your goal is to not get shot at and just hide until you're out of ammo". If something, 'Mech should teach newbies how to aim and how to maneuver on the battlefield.
The second thing is your "
the impending piranha violation and let you get your team to rid you of him." It is nobody else's obligation to save your ***. It is "your" job foremost that you should take care about your 'Mech.
As Tier 1 player I have some doubts that this LRM
Catapult is
"just the thing that let's you hit tier 1 without knowing what you're doing".
Almost forgot: CASE on your build is not neccessary. In case of internal ammo explosion, your Lurmboat would die to XL engine kill anyway.
Tie Dyed Ninja, on 28 October 2021 - 08:40 PM, said:
I spent beta getting a 3.6 K/D in the first Jenner I ever bought.
That is just a history. The current MWO gameplay is different.