57 replies to this topic

[ImaginaryFireball]

Does the new +20% crit damage quirk make the Archer, if not good, at least worth using? It's one of my favorite 'mechs in BT, but in MWO it seems to be overshadowed by literally anything with more than one missile hardpoints.

[Novakaine]

?? Archers by construction have more than one missile hardpoint.

[ImaginaryFireball]

I meant that most mechs with more than one missile hardpoint are better missile carriers than the Archer, not that the Archer didn't have more than one.

[foamyesque]

The Archer's a fine machine. In particular, the Tempest is a good MRM platform and has ECM and the 5W is a capable SRM-bomber.

[ImaginaryFireball]

I guess what I'm really wondering about is weather the added critical damage is enough to make it stand out from the competition. Anything with at least one missile point and one or two missile quirks is a capable MRM carrier. The Marauder 9M, for example (it even has ECM as well). The Catapult A1 is also a good IS heavy SRMa boat. Is the Archer's new gimmick enough to make it worth considering over the competition in the similar niches?

[feeWAIVER]

Archers have missile pod doors.
So from a certain perspective, they are 20% better than any missile mech that doesn't.

[kalashnikity]

Any mech with a cockpit that low is going to have issues with getting shot while not being able even see how is shooting you, having piloted one that is the only complaint I have, but it's a big one.

Nightstar has the same issue but worse, since it is so slow, when you star getting shot by someone you can't see it takes even longer to get out of the line of fire.

[Meep Meep]

Hrmm, that crit bonus is stronger than it looks because each missile gets its own crit roll and when you add in the skill tree nodes welp.

My cat c4 with artemis lrm15 does very well on open components so this should be much better.

Guess I'll give this one a try and see.

arc-2r

[SafeScanner]

Why not use MRM's you can share armor and not require any locks?

Edited by SafeScanner, 02 June 2023 - 02:08 AM.

[LordNothing]

i dont know if it was ever unplayable. been using it as an mrm boat and it does a reasonable job of racking damage. the trial archer in the event, now that was crap. doesnt even have bap as far as i can tell.

Edited by LordNothing, 02 June 2023 - 03:48 AM.

[CFC Conky]

LordNothing, on 02 June 2023 - 03:47 AM, said:

i dont know if it was ever unplayable. been using it as an mrm boat and it does a reasonable job of racking damage. the trial archer in the event, now that was crap. doesnt even have bap as far as i can tell.

At higher tiers that trial Archer would be unpleasant to run.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

[Meep Meep]

SafeScanner, on 02 June 2023 - 02:02 AM, said:

Why not use MRM's you can share armor and not require any locks?

I play it the same since lrm do not require locks either if you have the same los as with mrm. Plus they arc over the top of your firing line or ridges or far far away. I find them far more useful than mrm even if you mix it up with the brawlers provided you keep that 180m minimum and 6 er smalls are 23 damage a pop if they try to rush you. Kinda wish they would do the clan thing with IS lrm minimum range too though in practice if I'm getting rushed inside of the minimum range it means all the meat shields have died anyways.

[kalashnikity]

The archer is eminently playable, I was getting ~1000 point games in the trial version, despite the Small Lasers (WTF, mate, why do the trial builds love SL so much?!?!?)

It is a beast. I really want to try MPL and MRMs.

[BLACKR0SE]

With a good team, you can accomplish a lot. But with a bad team, they will definitely destroy you. I've previously created a great machine, but I couldn't get the desired efficiency. I don't know what happened after the update.

I really like the design of that machine, it looks very nice, but I can't get the desired efficiency from it.

Edited by TAMTAMBABY, 06 June 2023 - 09:06 AM.

[BLACKR0SE]

Now you've got me thinking about it. I'll buy it again

[kalashnikity]

the check engine light, on 06 June 2023 - 08:48 AM, said:

The SLs cover minimum range on the LRMs (not very strongly, but still) and are very forgiving on heat gen. The trial Archer definitely was not fun to play typically, but I think a good part of that is that LRMs honestly feel like crap to use in most situations. Massed SLs definitely **** people up inside 160m but what the Archer has does not qualify. MPL and MRM might be okay but snubs or LPPCs are probably better combinations if available. MPL and MRM are both heat intensive, but they don't sync very well and the MRMs can stand alone anyway. MRMs are kind-of a stare weapon but not really. MLs and SLs are usually just there because they're less tonnage-intensive and relatively modest on heat - you can poptart ok with MRMs but poptarting with lasers is a *****.

I love the build, just swap to erSL and you can jack fools up between 180 and 400 meters.

I get the heat management, no quirks means you really need it. But even the trial fle uses the SL, LOL.

[foamyesque]

the check engine light, on 06 June 2023 - 08:48 AM, said:

The SLs cover minimum range on the LRMs (not very strongly, but still) and are very forgiving on heat gen. The trial Archer definitely was not fun to play typically, but I think a good part of that is that LRMs honestly feel like crap to use in most situations. Massed SLs definitely **** people up inside 160m but what the Archer has does not qualify. MPL and MRM might be okay but snubs or LPPCs are probably better combinations if available. MPL and MRM are both heat intensive, but they don't sync very well and the MRMs can stand alone anyway. MRMs are kind-of a stare weapon but not really. MLs and SLs are usually just there because they're less tonnage-intensive and relatively modest on heat - you can poptart ok with MRMs but poptarting with lasers is a *****.

I have an MRM Tempest; I started with ERMLs but they were way too spicy, swapped down to ERSLs to fix the heat balance. I considered standard MLs, but I wanted to free up some tonnage as well for ammo.

[Meep Meep]

After playing a bit its an ok mech. The ecm hero is better just because of ecm but any of them are going to be heavily team reliant no matter how you have it fit. It's just not a very durable mech and you more or less have to use xl if you want to fit enough ammo and energy unless you want to waddle along at assault speed. To be honest I'll be sticking to the cat c4 over any of them even the ecm tempest.

[CFC Conky]

The trial Archer's 5xSL won't do much to a larger mech but it still is close to an AC20's damage output without the heat and can be effective when pushed by a light mech. In the lower tiers, good light mech drivers aren't that plentiful so the SLs amount to a useful defence against them in my opinion.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

Edited by CFC Conky, 06 June 2023 - 10:14 AM.

[BLACKR0SE]

Here we are talking about an MRM machine every 2 minutes, and when I enter the game, Alpine Peaks map appears. Don't even mention it. Seriously, it's detrimental.