So. Now that the preorder page is up, let's see what we have here on Martian's Legendary Game-Saving Best 'Mech Ever Released in MWO.
CRD-3R:
This gets the 1E/1B/1M in each arm, as well as 2M in each shoulder, for a total of 2E/2B/6M. The expected hardpoint inflation, really - the Crusader is all about chunkin' missiles, so they gave it extra missiles to chunk. 4M in the torso provides room for a decent SRM armament as well as all the Murms one could need to Murm a Murmer. The ballistic hardpoints are mostly a waste, nobody's playing a Crusader for cannons in the arms. There's Riflemen or JagerMechs for that. This one gets no jets or other supplementary equipment, it's pure armor-and-weapons. Quirks will almost certainly center on enhancing the stock mixed-bracket loadout because 'Mech Dad reasons, and having the otherwise generous six missile hardpoints split between the arms and the torso causes convergence issues. Four-and-two is not how people want to fire their missiles, even if having a couple of launchers on fully articulated arms allows better tracking against fast aggressors. 'Best Builds' are likely gonna be mixed Murm/Surm boats looking to fire a maximum of warheads in one click, as 2E isn't enough for a respectable supplemental energy array. Expect low engine ratings and mixed-warhead brawlers - four sixes and two MRM-10s can fire in one click for most of the same damage as six SRM-6s, and CRD-3R pilots with some mojo can try to fit 20s instead of 10s.
CRD-5K:
4E/4M, with the missiles split evenly between the arms and the beams focused in the torso. No ECM, no MASC, but it does have moderate jump capacity with four possible jets. This is the dedicated brawler variant, with a comfortable max of SRM hardpoints in the Stank Fists and enough energy in the torso for a proper supplemental beam array. Expect to see quad sixes, usually Artemis'd, stacked with MPLs and the classic One Jump Jet Comp Thing that drives me nuts. This is almost certainly going to be considered the 'Best' non-Hero 'Mech and the only one you might see in comp circles. Those arms will come off
right quick, but while it has them the 5K will be a dangerous close-quarters 'Mech. Ironically the variant least likely to lean on MRMs, given that it's the only variant canonically equipped with them.
CRD-5M:
Marik Weirdness abounds. You get undesirably assymetric hardpoints, with 1E/1M in the left Stank Fist and 2E/1M/1B in the right. One additional M hardpoint per shoulder and dual AMS, though not dual laser AMS since one of the AMS hardpoints is locked to the dome. Average four-jet jump capacity, average engine for its size. Almost entirely unremarkable variant, not quite fish or fowl. 3E is pretty scant for an energy array, 4M is sufficient for missiles but hampered by being split between arms and torso. The single cannon hardpoint is a waste, and MWO players hate AMS as it is so the dual AMS thing won't ever really come up. Doubtless the Cauldron will assign it some manner of bizarre quirkology in an attempt to make it less boring, but I don't foresee anything that could possibly make it competitive with even just the basic 3R Crusader, let alone the 5K or the Hero.
CRD-6T:
The much-vaunted fourteen energy variant, with a very high engine cap nobody will ever use and best-in-chassis jump capability people will also never use. Already broke this down earlier in the thread - the actual factual
only way to make use of all fourteen hardpoints is to put two Big Energy in the shoulder hardpoints and fill the slot-limited 6E arms with small lasers. Anything else and you don't have the weight or the space to use all fourteen hardpoints. Ghost Heat disallows the stock Nova Prime armament and this thing will be so absolutely starved for slot space to cram more heat sinks into, you're likely to see folks try and do Succession Wars-era STD/STD/STD engine/armor/structure and tolerate the disastrous weight loss in search for One Last DHS for whichever cockamamie energy
thing they intend to do. Simply too many beam hardpoints for Sphere technology to make effective use of.
CRD-7L:
The Liao Sneekee Boi variant with ECM capability, mediocre jump capability, and a reduced engine capacity nobody cares about because The Meta is to put the tiniest feeblest lamest engine you can get away with in anything fifty tons or up anyways. Hardpoint layout semi-mimics the base 3R variant, with six missiles spread between Fists and Nipples backed up by two entire energy hardpoints - one in the dome, one in the CT.
Extremely limited energy options, but a CT snub peep or LPL backing up the same sort of mixed SRM/MRM multi-warhead brawler loadouts as the 3R with ECM coverage means this is likely the only non-Hero that stands a chance of challenging the 5K's status as Most Meta-Friendly, Actually Dangerous Variant. The dogvomit engine cap definitely hurts its viability as a brawler, this thing moves assault 'Mech speed at best, but if the Robit Gods smile upon 'Mech Dads and locate that CT energy high enough to poke? The LPL builds can at least score some minor dings prior to the lategame push of a typical MWO match. Unlikely to receive much if any significant offensive quirking due to having good* hardpoints, ECM,
and jets, even if nobody will ever use the lastmost.
And finally...
CRD-CRAEL:
Piranha decided to move Crusader packs by making the Crusader Hero a sixty-five ton Spheroid Piranha and bank on blatant power creep to sell digital robits. The sad part is that it's probably gonna work. Much as it grinds my gears to admit it, Crael is going to be one of the game's most dangerous brawlers. Ten light machine guns backed by four SRM-6s achieves horrifying DPS and is perfectly doable on the variant. Standard machine guns is equally doable and achieves even more stupid damage numbers, but heavily constricts the 'Mech's range; LMGs mesh better with the SRM launchers' range and honestly feel like the right choice. The madlads who manage to cram ten HMGs onto the blurdy thing will basically be your 'Melee' option in MWO, but that will be a meme build at best.
The worst part is that unlike lightweight machine gun screwkakke 'Mechs like the Mist Lynx or Doomfish, Crael doesn't
need to stare at you to hurt you. It can operate like a conventional SRM brawler if it has to, firing salvos of missiles and twisting off incoming fire while ducking in and out of cover. Crael doesn't
have to commit to an MG strafing run to accomplish its job, the way other Sphere machine gun memes like the JM6-DD or Arrow do. It can opt to fight like a regular (if rather undergunned, for the era) SRM bomber instead and save its machine guns for when it has an advantage to press. It is with great sadness and irritation that I admit that Crael is likely to be one of the Inner Sphere's strongest Hero 'Mechs. Not necessarily because it's a Crusader, but because this sort of pandering kinda annoys me. If at any point machine guns stop being good the way half the damned forum insists they should, Crael goes from phenomenal to phlub, which is
also annoying.
Overall?
The base, C-billionaire Crusaders will amplify the Sphere's heavy brawler game, offering mixed-warhead MRM/SRM brawler loadouts that weren't readily available in the weight bracket before. Hardpoint inflation serves 'Mech Dads well - the CPLT-A1 would like to know where
its four free hardpoints are, since the Crusader gets 6M and also four extra hardpoints besides. They're not going to accomplish anything the Sphere couldn't already do, but they might accomplish it at a lower weight point than the Sphere had ready access to before, or in a chassis better able to handle close combat. It's not likely to take the place of tippy-top Compy Boi cannon-centric machines like the Warhammer, but sheer late-stage MWO hardpoint glut means it's likely going to be a premiere missile chunker in the weight class. And of course the Hero is going to explode the forum with complaints of
PEE TWO DUBBLEYOO with an absolutely unmatched morass of hardpoints and almost twice the machine gun spam capacity of its nearest competitors without being reliant on those machine guns.
Not the worst pack you could buy, by any means. Pricy, with no El Cheapo entry point, but they also dispensed with the whole 'Reinforcements' thing so eh.
Course, the new 'Collector's' pack is five bucks more than the old 'base pack + reinforcements' price point, but you're not supposed to notice that. 'Mech Dads will be overjoyed that four out of their five base Crusaders will at least be adequate, and two of them might even be Good. Not that any of them will care. Crusader pre-orders will consists of exactly two kinds of people - 'Mech Dads playing the CRD-3R stock loadout with minimal alterations whilst complaining about MWO's whole Solaris-y over-optimized, Untrue To BattleTech™ thing, or people running Crael because sixty-five ton Spheroid Piranha with secondary heavy missile battery instead.
I will say this: definitely a better note to leave 'Mech intros off on than the gorram
Dervish.
Edited by 1453 R, 01 April 2022 - 05:56 AM.
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Lumovanis, on 31 March 2022 - 08:49 AM, said:
