13 replies to this topic

[w0qj]

Q: If you must put invest in 3 skill nodes, which of the following (A) or (B ) is better for Assault/Heavy mech?

(A) 3x Hill Climb skill nodes <== traditional choice
(B ) 3x Kinetic Burst

Comments:

3x Hill Climb skill nodes: helpful to get to battlefield faster. Not supposed to need Hill Climb during a fight (counted as a piloting error for Assault/Heavy mechs!).

3x Kinetic Burst: also helps your mech to climb up a hill to some degree, and Kinetic Burst also gives your mech faster acceleration, perhaps sidestepping some enemy shots for damage reduction!

Q: If you must put invest in 3 skill nodes, which of the following (A) or (B ) is better for Assault/Heavy mech?

[Obelix drives an Atlas]

depends on the mech, as always


have JJs? kinetic.
cornerpeak? kinetic.
ridgepeak? hillclimb I guess.

manly mech, brawling it out? guess neither is needed

[LordNothing]

should also point out that masc can be used as peak assist, as it lets you corner better. wish it had some boosters in the skill tree though.

i almost never use hill climb at all or kinetic except on lights and fast mediums.

Edited by LordNothing, 24 July 2023 - 09:54 AM.

[sycocys]

I don't generally use either unless its on a mech from the old system. I prefer points into shock absorbance to mitigate some of the damage from the silly maps if for some reason I have extra after torso pitch.

[TheCaptainJZ]

I'd do kinetic. 3 nodes doesn't give you much but is more useful overall than hill climb. Thank goodness hill climb actually works now instead of when it was bugged and actually made it worse! That said, there's other skills that could be more useful than either of these.

[RockmachinE]

Positioning, peeking, mobility and timing in general is extremely important in MWO and kinetic burst improves all of those, especially with slower builds.

Hill climb is situational, while kinetic burst will always contribute.

Kinetic burst wins hands down, but ultimately it's up to the build and your playstyle.

[Vorpal Puppy]

If you make me choose, kinetic burst, as others have said. However, there are likely better choices. Most nodes only make a marginal difference. I find its better to use them to amplify what your mech does well, than to try to use them to negate a weakness.

[Meep Meep]

LordNothing, on 24 July 2023 - 09:52 AM, said:

should also point out that masc can be used as peak assist, as it lets you corner better. wish it had some boosters in the skill tree though.

Masc is a multiplier and it multiplies all the mobility nodes so the more you take the more you boost and thats for top speed, acel, decel and cornering. You can pull some pretty insane moves in a masc fle with all mobility nodes filled.

[Marcel Leander]

I don't think I would take an Annihilator out without hillclimb. That thing would struggle with stairs.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Marcel Leander, on 24 July 2023 - 11:09 PM, said:

I don't think I would take an Annihilator out without hillclimb. That thing would struggle with stairs.

The kinetic boost nodes also won't help much because they're based on a % increase and a % increase of a low number is...low. If you take them all, then it would be noticeable, but probably not much with just 3. Torse twist speed would be more useful.

[Void Angel]

Kinetic Burst is likely the better option, but torso speed or anchor turn are better either way. Always presuming that you've got full survivability and whatever weapon/heat nodes you need, being able to turn faster is probably the best mobility option - and while you get less out of mobility nodes in an Assault, you're also buying off one of the main drawbacks of that weight class.

That being said, 3 skill nodes are going to be hard to notice in either of the trees you mentioned with an Assault, and you'd likely be better off putting those points into enhancing your consumables. Or buying radar deprivation; you always want one point of that.

[Marcel Leander]

TheCaptainJZ, on 25 July 2023 - 06:14 AM, said:

The kinetic boost nodes also won't help much because they're based on a % increase and a % increase of a low number is...low. If you take them all, then it would be noticeable, but probably not much with just 3. Torse twist speed would be more useful.

I really only take Kinetic Burst when I want the Speed Tweak. And the irony is that when the original speed is low, the boost is low. But it's the really slow mechs that need a little extra speed the most.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Marcel Leander, on 25 July 2023 - 11:14 AM, said:

I really only take Kinetic Burst when I want the Speed Tweak. And the irony is that when the original speed is low, the boost is low. But it's the really slow mechs that need a little extra speed the most.

There's a number of nodes that I wish were fixed numbers, not percent of a base stat. Speed tweak for example. Each of the 5 nodes could grant you +2 kph (for +10 kph total)--or a little more. That would make it at least useful for an Annihilator. As it it currently, it's not the best investment of skill points. And this also caps lights at a smaller benefit, since they go so fast, they wouldn't need it anyway, but the netcode infamously has had issues with fast mechs.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 25 July 2023 - 03:59 PM.

[Void Angel]

Eh, that would effectively yield increasing returns as weight increased. Sure, you do get a smaller actual number increase with things as they are, but the proportion is the same, and the skill node scales with the designed drawbacks of both weight classes and certain 'mechs with lower engine caps (the Annihilator is a great example.) It's like WoW; a lot of people when I was still playing would describe armor as providing diminishing returns - because the more points of armor you had, the smaller the increase in your damage reduction % you would get. But the purpose of armor in WoW (or MWO) isn't to block damage - that's its mechanism. The purpose is to increase time to kill - the amount of time you can survive against a given amount of incoming DPS. WoW's armor reduction curve actually yields linear returns.

Similarly, Speed Tweak exists to allow you to move proportionally faster on the battlefield; this allows you the tactical advantage of getting places just a little faster than you otherwise would, beating enemies to sight lines, objectives, etc. But since speed-to-weight is one of the major ways large 'mechs are balanced against smaller ones, a 10KPH increase in an Annihilator would cost you a whopping 15 tons, while a 35-ton 'mech like the Wolfhound could buy that increase for 2.5. Even if you were using an XL on that Annihilator, you're looking at 8 tons, to the Wolfhound's 1.5. Not only do the proportions not match up, but the degree to which a 'mech's intended drawbacks are mitigated is different, too.

I see why the idea appeals, but I think it would break more things than it fixes - one increasing returns mechanic is enough. =)

Edited by Void Angel, 26 July 2023 - 11:05 AM.