11 replies to this topic

[Gotta Go]

Hello all,
The current loot bag event(s) let me choose a Hero Mech from the four weight classes. I chose the Arctic Cheetah for my light.

When it comes to the other three classes I have little to no playtime to base a choice so I thought I would open this massive can of worms by asking for suggestions to narrow down my choices for the other classes.

I am not a brawler by any stretch, so I don't see me getting up close and personal. My current favorite build is my Arctic Cheetah with 2x ER Large Lasers (ERLL), and Jump Jets (JJ), with the skill tree geared for that build.

I am not a fan of pure ballistic or missile builds as I see myself running empty and being a stick on the field. I know with practice I can learn to balance my firing and not running dry but the number of battles that I would need to learn this is likely to be high.

So as to my options for Mechs:
Medium: JJ, ERLL, or maybe mix or ERLL and some type of close in weapon(s) for later in the game.

Heavy: Similar to Medium but more energy and/or ERLL and missile/ballistic mix.

Assault: JJ (even possible or viable), and again similar to Medium and Heavy, just more of all.

So what do all of you suggest?

Still a Mech Noob,
Gotta Go

[TheCaptainJZ]

I don't feel qualified to give a "best" answer but do you prefer Clan or IS? Given that you selected the Artic Cheetah, do you want to stick with clantech?

For the medium, the hero Shadowcat might be more your thing. It has a similar playstyle to an Artic Cheetah. Usually fitted with cERPPCs rather than cERLL, but you can use cERLL too.

[Gotta Go]

I tried the Arctic Cheetah as a trial mech and really liked the abilities. I am not wedded to Clan over IS, so what ever choices fit the bill.

Gotta Go

[Void Angel]

Whether or not you run dry depends on how much ammo you can carry relative to your fire discipline, not on your fire discipline alone. Are you familiar with GrimMechs? One of the neat things it does is tell you how much damage the ammunition you're carrying does - that'll help you get over your fear of ammo-dependent builds (I used to have the same worry; if necessary, ease yourself into it by carrying a backup laser or two.)

As far as the Medium, go for the Shadow Cat. Accelerate to top speed, hit the MASC, and jump - you'll never sell the chassis. Swap out some pods for ECM and quirks, and you can put long-range harassing power into a highly mobile chassis that can really harass well. I go between ERPPCs and cERLLs, depending on how much I want to encourage the enemy to turn and look at me instead of my team.

[Kaiju-Killer]

I am probably not qualified in any way to give advice on mechs for long range tactics because I only really play brawl builds but Heavy Metal is a solid choice for a assault with JJs. It also has the quirk set of not having any JJ recoil so firing while jumping is smooth as butter. Fix it up with LLs or PPCs and It'd probably work fine. It does have enough room for a gauss rifle in the arm and can hold 5 JJs instead of the normal 3-4 on other assault mechs. Then again I only run brawl builds but it seems to work for both types of play styles. (having tested both types on the mech)

[epikt]

I don't see a good medium hero for ERLLs, so: how do you feel about ERPPCs?
If you don't mind them, the Rival (Vapor Eagle) is a great mech, with JJ and MASC.

For the heavies, I'd suggest:
- Virago (Hellbringer). It doesn't have JJs, but it has ECM (you place the value you want at this) and good mounts, it's kind of the ERLLas king;
- if you fancy IS mechs, the Jester (Catapult) can do a nice ERLLas-boat, with JJs;
- if you want to give the gauss+ERLLas combo a try, the best pick is the Jade Kite (Night Gyr), with lots of JJs - it also can do a lot of other things, like UAC/2s.

For the assaults, here are my picks:
- the Rancor (Blood Asp), the best ERLLas-boat in the class, with a big TC or with backup weapons, your choice;
- if you want extreme range La Malinche is your mech, with a whooping +25% range and a big TC.

Hope it helps.

Edited by epikt, 24 July 2023 - 08:53 PM.

[Gotta Go]

Thanks to: epikt, Kaiju-Killer, Void Angel, and The CaptainJZ.

Your suggestions helped narrow down heavy and assault choices, not sure which ones I will decide on but now I have a smaller pool to check.

My medium choices are not panning out, however, the Shadow Cat, like other medium mechs has the energy weapons in the arms. It is more of a personal choice, but I like having an arm to lose before my torso, unless the torso is targeted.

I did find three mediums that fit the bill of energy weapons, torso mounted, and jump jets.

Blackjack Arrow
Griffin Sparky
Hellspawn Paralyzer

The MechDB site that epikt and Void Angel linked to was a great help in narrowing down the type of mech I was trying to find.

Any suggestions on how to outfit the above mechs.

Gotta Go

[Tarl Cabot]

Meds but will provide mostly non-heroes to pick up, if you want to wait for when there are on sale. The Huntsman is really the only one that works in both its default configuration, or allows you to change up its hardpoints by switching out omnipods. Check them out in the Store, and you can do test configuration in the lab and take them into the Testing Grounds. Provided a few more med omnimechs that can be reconfig to your liking

• SHADOWHAWK 2K non-hero High Energy mounts. For long range - 2*ERPPC/2*4SRM, same w/LPL, then 3*ERLL/2*4SRM same with setup LL. I tend to have long/short range weapon setup on these. You could also just go per energy on it. I have 5 w/different but similar setups
  
• HUNTSMAN - The Hero Pakhet w/Energy in the arms and SRM4s for close range to keep the set of 8, then you could switch out the omnipods for different hardpoints in different locations. Or alt C w/2 energy (ERPPC, LPL, ERLL) in the left torso + 3 SRM4
  
• Vapor Eagle as mentioned by the previous poster, and since it is an omnimech, switch out omnipods to change up the hardpoints to your liking.
  
• Hunchback IIC- again, since it is an omnipod, purchasing the Hero gets you the center Torso, all other sections/omnipods can be switched out to suit your flavor. Arms are small though so no shield arms.

Notice the above are primarily setup for Energy/SRMs setups. And to stress playing with the mechlab and taking said mechs on a test run against 8 just standing there IS mechs , without needing to purchase anything. Change up the maps, esp the hot maps vs cold maps, as well as different terrains.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 26 July 2023 - 06:37 AM.

[Void Angel]

(He's picking a Medium Hero from the Event, Tarl.)

Many people prefer energy weapons in the torsos; it's better for convergence, and harder to strip. Although, concerns about stripping get less important with larger 'mechs, because people will often just side-core you when your 'mech isn't small enough that the arms tend to get in the way regardless. The Shadow Cat's architecture is such that it's pretty hard to get an arm without significantly damaging the torso anyway, so nobody even tries to strip you. Conversely, the IS (not the IIC Clan version) Hunchback's eponymous hunch is so large and unwieldly that it literally defies any attempt to spread damage away from it (I love my IS hunchbacks for purely sentimental reasons, but stay away from that 'mech.)

I also have to offer some general build advice: in general, avoid "bracket" builds. These are builds that try to have a gun for all ranges; while some weapons (notably ballistics) can combine differing range brackets to Great Effect, often you just end up being under-armed at whatever range you're trying to fight. An Atlas that's carrying LRMS with an AC/20 is literally a Medium 'mech at all ranges. Similarly, avoid trying to use weapons with wildly different ballistic characteristics together: even if that Atlas went Gauss Rifle with LRMS (don't,) he wouldn't be able to hold onto his missile lock and lead a moving target with his Gauss Rifle at the same time.

As for the 'mechs you're looking to build, let me see... Honestly, GrimMechs's suggested builds are excellent starting points, and are often the optimized builds for that chassis overall:

• For the Arrow, I'd use their standard LL/LMG build.
  
• For Sparky, the Griffin Hero, try some Heavy PPCs.
  
• And for the Paralyzer, you can go with ERMLs for a zap-and-fade combat style.
  
• You could also try the Pakhet; this build isn't how I run mine; I use the stock configuration for SRM/MPL brawling, but the chassis is a great, agile Medium, and the hero looks great.
  
• The other 'mechs Tarl suggests are good options as well.

I'd also encourage you to consider the Grey Death. Yes, it's ammo-dependent, but if you burn through 1700 damage in a match, you're having a good day - even if you only put half of that damage on target. While Mediums in general tend to be rather rare these days (by far the most common is the Shadow Cat,) Shadow Hawks are one that I still see around, and their 'mech architecture is very good for spreading damage. I run mine with an XL.

[CFC Conky]

Since MWO has an ‘economy’, sometimes I just pick the most expensive mech if offered gratis. For the heavy heroes, I believe it’s the Virago, which also happens to be a very good variant.

I picked up a second Rancor since it is not only a good energy platform, being an OmniMech makes it versatile.

All of avoid Angel’s medium hero recommendations are valid.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

Edited by CFC Conky, 26 July 2023 - 11:16 AM.

[VeeOt Dragon]

yeah i am having a bit of trouble myself making up my mind and i have been playing for years (the light was easy, Street Cleaner for the win, can never go wrong with an Urbie and it was the one hero of that chassis i don't have (that just leaves i think the R-60L to complete the set (other than real cash only ones or event ones i missed))

the Arrow is one i am looking at myself with 2 ER LL and 6 MGs it might be fun.

the other ones i am debating are the Uziel- Belial (the Uziel got some love in the last patch) 4 LPPC, 2 MRM 10

or one of the Griffons (leanin towards the Ares 4 LPPC and MRM 20 as well

[Kaiju-Killer]

Paralyzer is interesting, I had it once but got rid of it, can't remember why. Sparky is a good choice for medium to closer range fighting from what I have experienced. The Arrow is interesting but it's job is done better by the Viper F which is another born machine gun boater. All in all if you want longer ranged stuff I'd say the Shadow Cat hero, but I suppose you could pull it off with Sparky by mounting ER PPCs or something and maybe Paralyzer could use LLs? ECM would be useful for longer range stuff and out of all the heroes on that list I think (emphasis on think) that the Shadow Cat hero has the capability to have EDM since the Shadow Cat is an omnipod mech and you could switch out whatever you need for whatever build type you currently enjoy the most. Paralyzer might have ECM but I have never really used the Hellspawn so I wouldn't know .

Kaiju-Killer, on 26 July 2023 - 05:54 PM, said:

Paralyzer is interesting, I had it once but got rid of it, can't remember why. Sparky is a good choice for medium to closer range fighting from what I have experienced. The Arrow is interesting but it's job is done better by the Viper F which is another born machine gun boater. All in all if you want longer ranged stuff I'd say the Shadow Cat hero, but I suppose you could pull it off with Sparky by mounting ER PPCs or something and maybe Paralyzer could use LLs? ECM would be useful for longer range stuff and out of all the heroes on that list I think (emphasis on think) that the Shadow Cat hero has the capability to have EDM since the Shadow Cat is an omnipod mech and you could switch out whatever you need for whatever build type you currently enjoy the most. Paralyzer might have ECM but I have never really used the Hellspawn so I wouldn't know .

ECM*
Accidentally spelt it wrong lol.