13 replies to this topic

[Tarogato]

I'm curious what you perceive to be the most used builds in the game, regardless of their effectiveness. Not the builds you play, but the builds you see other people playing.

A couple examples I'm starting with:

Thanatos - dual gauss + ECM/Stealth
Raven - LPPC + Narc Stealth
Locust hero - ML MG Stealth
Shadow Cat - ERPPC ECM

I also know that ECM Dire Wolf and ECM Timberwolf are the most common variants played in the game, but what builds do you see on them the most often?

[The Mech behind you]

Hellbringer, Hunchie IIC - Heavy Large Lasers + ER Med Lasers
Flea - Stealth + 5 Small Lasers
Incubus - 2 Heavy Large Lasers + MGs
Jenner IIC, Kit Fox, Arctic Wolf, Catapult - SRM Bomber
Urbie - Snubs
Vapor Eagle - 3 ERPPCs
Bushwacker - 2 RAC5s
Phoenix Hawk - 4 LPPCs
Night Gyr - Gauss + ERPPCs
Nova Cat, Archer, Supernova - Lurms
Rifleman IIC, Sun Spider - UAC2s
Summoner - ATM3s
Crusader - either 4 SRM6s + MGs or about 74 Small Lasers
Executioner - 2 ERPPCs + SPLs/MPLs
MCIIs - UAC5s + UAC10s
Annihilator - AC5s
Awesome - 3 HPPCs
Cyclops - 4 LBX10s
Fafnir - 2 Heavy Gauss + 5 ER Med Lasers

Edited by The Mech behind you, 23 June 2023 - 08:18 AM.

[Luminios]

LCT-PB 4SPL 2MG ECM
ACW-1 SRMS
SNS-D 4UAC2
MCII-MWK 3UAC5 2UAC10 or some other sort of dakka

Of those I feel like I see the Moonwalker by far the most.

[Bud Crue]

Here's what I see most commonly with the most common builds. I'll start with assaults:

- Ani's seem to be mostly the 3AC10 3LPPC build but I think that is due to the trial mech.
- Dires are mostly 2Gauss 4ERLL and occasionally 8AC2
- Kodiaks almost exclusively 4AC10 1ERPPC, but sometime I still see LBX instead of the ACs
- Marauder II- 7-ERLL (the 4A I think)
- Stalkers 2N 6ERLL sometimes with ECM (3FB), also laser vomit 7Ds
- MC-IIs mostly the new one (I don't recall the name) but mostly the UAC10s and 5s build. Haven't seen more than a couple MCii-Bs since the legendary dropped.
- Hadn't seen any Warhawks in a while but they seemed to be everywhere the last couple of nights running the traditional 4ERPPC.

Edited by Bud Crue, 23 June 2023 - 02:20 PM.

[sycocys]

the check engine light, on 23 June 2023 - 09:01 AM, said:

DWF-C, 4 ERLL 2 Gauss ECM

Kind of weird to not see at least 1 of these every other match.

[Chloe Cole Kerensky]

Pirate's Bane, obligatory stealth and small lasers. I still can't figure out how that build does so well.

[Tarogato]

the check engine light, on 23 June 2023 - 02:59 PM, said:

Obligatory "why do you even give a **** Tarogato". Go farm info from your Discord and Outreach, those are the guys who "know". I find mere curiosity to be very unlikely. There's an ulterior motive. Hell you probably conjured up half these builds. You gonna act surprised a lot of people run them?

Considering making vids on a few popular builds, particularly ones that aren't so great and explain why they aren't so great. Gauss Thanatos is kinda like ... peak of intersection between high popularity and low effectiveness.

No ulterior motives, just curious what other people are witnessing out in the wild.

[U94]

I think this is a pretty hard question to answer since most people (me included) aren't really trying to remember what their teammates & enemies are running but from my experience here are some I remember:

Dakka dire woof
ACW-1 with combination of srm2 and 4/6
Viper with mgs
Jenner IIC with srms (I blame Sneaky Snek's jenner challenge for this one)
Timberwolf/Hellbringer with lasvom
Nightstars with various dakka builds
More than a few mrm mediums, primarily shadow hawk & dervish
Craels (surprisingly few 6ts recently? at least compared to craels)
Various locusts, primarily the PB
Mad cats, primarily dakka
Fafnirs, heavy gauss though I see a few lbx ones too
Supernovas, usually some kind of laservomit
Blood Asp, many different builds but generally of the dakka/ppc type
Stalkers, usually lasvom

Edited by U94, 23 June 2023 - 10:21 PM.

[Bud Crue]

Tarogato, on 23 June 2023 - 07:00 PM, said:

Considering making vids on a few popular builds, particularly ones that aren't so great and explain why they aren't so great. Gauss Thanatos is kinda like ... peak of intersection between high popularity and low effectiveness.

No ulterior motives, just curious what other people are witnessing out in the wild.

For what its worth, I for one have no interest in another video of a top tier player playing "popular" builds. I think most of us know what is common and what is common tends to be what works, and there are plenty of videos out there showing the joys of such mechs. We've all seen elites sitting at extreme range in a ERLL whatever mech showing us how to play with "skill" or montages of someone shooting out back after back of unsuspecting victims in a light with the alpha potential of some heavies. Be it a ERLL/Gauss ECM Dire, 6SRM Jenner IIC, or whatever. There are videos out there for just about all of the most common builds.

But what I would very much like to see are videos showing how skilled players play the dross of this game. How you people make the worst variants shine. How you make some of the crapier variants and builds, not the most common or even the best, excel. Show me a few videos of a Spider 5V getting a thousand damage and explaining how it is consistently just as combat effective as that Dire or even that Jenner IIC (because when I use it as the game intends: to cap out, people on both teams tend to get pissed). Show me a video that explains how the Champion hero is as good as, if not better, than a Wolverine or Quickdraw similarly built and why I should play it. Why I ought to give an XL laser vomit Grasshopper a go over just about any other heavy laser vomit, especially those on the clan side (I haven't seen more than a handful of hoppers in game in months, maybe a year, but I see vomit and ERLL Hellbringers nearly every match). That kinda thing. But another video showing me how to stand still in a stealth Thant popping targets at extreme range for 12 minutes is not of any interest whatsoever; its been done. There's even videos where people reposition occasionally!

As an illustration, someone posted a video the other day of a Sparky doing some work. I see a Sparkys in game like two or three times in a year. After that video, I rebuilt mine and played it for a few and saw a few others as well. It was refreshing, even if I still sucked in the thing. But that video is what inspired me to try something uncommon rather than my same ole' mechs that I and everyone else seem to take fairly regularly.

Edit: oh, and speaking of uncommon, if you really want to make an interesting video, how about something that showcases builds where standard IS PPC(s) shine over the other PPC variants.

Edited by Bud Crue, 24 June 2023 - 04:38 AM.

[LOLZ4]

You guys forgot about one particular build, Marauder II, the 4L variant 2xEr PPC + 2 Gauss, ECM. Almost always wearing black or dark blue paint.

[Bassault]

LRM Catapults
Laservomit Hunchback IICs
2 erppc Rivals with or without machineguns
4 ERLL 2 Gauss ECM Dire Wolves
2 Gauss 2 ERPPC ECM Marauder 4L
MRM Archers
Narc ravens
2 LPL 6 ERMED ECM Timberwolf (May have some laser variations)
6 snub Awesome
2 Heavy Large Arctic Cheetah
Marauder 4hp with a shitload of lrm5s
2 snub ECM Urbanmech
Jenner IIC with srms
ATM Huntsman
AC20 Yen Lo Wang Centurion
LRM Boat Mad Dog
either 4 SRM+A Arctic Wolf or the SRM6s with SRM2s Arctic Wolf
4 Snub Dragon
HGR ERMED ECM Fafnirs
2 HLL 6 ERMED ECM Hellbringer (may have some laser variations)
ERPPC shadowcat

There are also many mechs that I see often but their loadout often varies. This includes kitfoxes, incubus, Marauder IIs and Marauder IIC

Edited by Bassault, 24 June 2023 - 09:40 AM.

[Meep Meep]

Chloe Cole Kerensky, on 23 June 2023 - 04:26 PM, said:

Pirate's Bane, obligatory stealth and small lasers. I still can't figure out how that build does so well.

You don't show up on radar unless hit with tag or ppc and the small lasers have almost no betraying hit sound.

This allows you to sneak up right to the sensor disruption limit and take out rear torso or ct without the target catching on until the critical damage announcement. Even more effective if the target is currently shooting or taking fire.

I prefer er meds and lmg myself and use the ecm to shoot from outside detection range.

[Chloe Cole Kerensky]

the check engine light, on 24 June 2023 - 09:17 AM, said:

Saw a NCT that WASN'T a LRMboat last night and did a double take.

Screenshot or it didn't happen.

[VeeOt Dragon]

Bud Crue, on 24 June 2023 - 04:31 AM, said:

For what its worth, I for one have no interest in another video of a top tier player playing "popular" builds. I think most of us know what is common and what is common tends to be what works, and there are plenty of videos out there showing the joys of such mechs. We've all seen elites sitting at extreme range in a ERLL whatever mech showing us how to play with "skill" or montages of someone shooting out back after back of unsuspecting victims in a light with the alpha potential of some heavies. Be it a ERLL/Gauss ECM Dire, 6SRM Jenner IIC, or whatever. There are videos out there for just about all of the most common builds.

But what I would very much like to see are videos showing how skilled players play the dross of this game. How you people make the worst variants shine. How you make some of the crapier variants and builds, not the most common or even the best, excel. Show me a few videos of a Spider 5V getting a thousand damage and explaining how it is consistently just as combat effective as that Dire or even that Jenner IIC (because when I use it as the game intends: to cap out, people on both teams tend to get pissed). Show me a video that explains how the Champion hero is as good as, if not better, than a Wolverine or Quickdraw similarly built and why I should play it. Why I ought to give an XL laser vomit Grasshopper a go over just about any other heavy laser vomit, especially those on the clan side (I haven't seen more than a handful of hoppers in game in months, maybe a year, but I see vomit and ERLL Hellbringers nearly every match). That kinda thing. But another video showing me how to stand still in a stealth Thant popping targets at extreme range for 12 minutes is not of any interest whatsoever; its been done. There's even videos where people reposition occasionally!

As an illustration, someone posted a video the other day of a Sparky doing some work. I see a Sparkys in game like two or three times in a year. After that video, I rebuilt mine and played it for a few and saw a few others as well. It was refreshing, even if I still sucked in the thing. But that video is what inspired me to try something uncommon rather than my same ole' mechs that I and everyone else seem to take fairly regularly.

Edit: oh, and speaking of uncommon, if you really want to make an interesting video, how about something that showcases builds where standard IS PPC(s) shine over the other PPC variants.

i agree with this, i would much rather see vids on underused mechs and builds. hell i get a kick out of games where i see a mech (usually while spectating) that is running an odd build but doing work. gets boring seeing the same 3 or 4 mechs with the same handful of builds every match. the higher in tiers you get the worse it gets. don't go calling yourself an "Elite" player while only ever using the most meta of meta mechs/builds. pull those same numbers in a a crappy mech with a sub optimal build and we will talk.

but yeah i much prefer unusual or just uncommon builds. though i do understand that certain mechs just do certain builds extremely well over any others (like the Catapult-C4 running LRMs it just does it extremely well) because of heavy quirks.

the youtubers i watch that do MWO are ones that do more unusual builds. been watching one guy off and on who has been doing commenter suggested builds. its refreshing. also vids that are more new player friendly are always a plus, giving some basic info and different aspects of the game with some go to general tips for various built types without giving specific builds that they should only use.

Edited by VeeOt Dragon, 27 June 2023 - 05:01 PM.