50 replies to this topic

[Lefty Lucy]

If you're a new player grinding your way through c-bills with a trial mech (you know you could just buy some MC ), then you likely want to get into your own, personal ride as quickly as possible.

However, if you do end up buying a Commando because it's simply the first mech available, in the long run you're likely to be disappointed. The Commando simply isn't as good as the other light mechs, for various reasons I wont get into here.

Instead, I suggest that you save up for a medium chassis. Medium mechs have a lot of versatility, and can "plug holes" where other mech classes might not be able to. While they're not going to excel at any particular role, you can build a medium mech to be an asset to any team.

As a particular medium mech, I suggest saving up for the HBK-4SP. It costs 3.6 million C-bills, so it will take you roughly twice as long to save up for it, but the wait is worth it.

The HBK-4SP has 5 laser and 2 missile hard points. 4 of the laser hard points are mounted in fully-articulated arms, to give you excellent range of fire against even the most agile of opponents. I cannot stress how much of an advantage this is, especially with hit-scan weapons. An opponent cannot seek blind spots above or below you, and the HBK chassis has an excellent torso twist range so mechs are not even safe behind you. The last laser hard point is mounted in your head, meaning you can fight even after all of your limbs and side torsos have been removed.

The two missile hard points are mounted in the left and right torso, so that the 4SP does not have the same vulnerable "hunch" that other HBK chassis do. Missile hard points are extremely versatile, giving you the opportunity to run LRMs to support your team, streak missiles to defend your heavier pals against light mechs, or a couple of SRM-6 packs for raw damage output.

In short, the HBK-4SP is an extremely versatile weapons platform that will allow you to tinker for a wide variety of play styles and roles. In addition, it has medium-mech economy; you're not going to have any rounds in the red running this reliable trooper. I highly recommend it.

[Bryan Kerensky]

I agree the 4SP grants you a large number of possible alternatives to a traditional brawler, definitely better than buying multiple mechs to fill multiple roles.

[wuselfuzz]

Lefty Lucy, on 29 October 2012 - 11:37 PM, said:

The last laser hard point is mounted in your head, meaning you can fight even after all of your limbs and side torsos have been removed.

Tis only a flesh wound!

[MustrumRidcully]

The HKB-4SP is definitely one of my favorites. It's relatively versatile (though it can't mount ballistics, which can be a drawback).

If you find the HKB-4SP too expensive and rather try your hand at a light, I would at least wait for the Jenner. The variant with 6 energy hardpoints is excellent, though I personally favor the one with SRMs. But that's just because I love SRMs.

wuselfuzz, on 29 October 2012 - 11:43 PM, said:

Tis only a flesh wound!

Exactly. I believe, though, the term is "Zombie Build", not Black Knight build- all weapons in the head and center torso, so you can lose everything else and still fight.

Edited by MustrumRidcully, 29 October 2012 - 11:47 PM.

[Lefty Lucy]

wuselfuzz, on 29 October 2012 - 11:43 PM, said:

Tis only a flesh wound!

I have been known to say such things in game

[Knyght]

Ehh, I have to disagree. The Hunchy 4SP is a lovely 'mech, but the Commando is pretty awesome too. The best part about it (other than it being amazing) is that the repair costs are a pittance. Just get the 1B, stick 3 MLAS on it, ditch the other weapons, pile on the heatsinks. Other tweaks are optional. No reload costs, little repair costs even if you get cored every game.

It is so cheap to repair that I reckon you can actually get a Hunchback (slightly) quicker by getting a Commando first and reaping the extra C-Bills benefit. Someone else can do the maths and prove me wrong, though. But regardless, running circles around people's XL engine'd uber-expensive Atlases with the cheapest 'mech in the game is pretty fun. It's also a nice 'mech for trying to distract a couple of mechs by going for a cap midgame, giving your team a numbers advantage while you give a couple of the enemies the run-around in your 25 ton trollmobile. Fun times.

[Wolfskin]

Lefty Lucy, on 29 October 2012 - 11:37 PM, said:

However, if you do end up buying a Commando because it's simply the first mech available, in the long run you're likely to be disappointed.

I wholeheartedly agree on this one. Also on your mentioning of the Hunchback as a great mech.

Lefty Lucy, on 29 October 2012 - 11:37 PM, said:

The Commando simply isn't as good as the other light mechs, for various reasons I wont get into here.

I wholeheartedly disagree on this one. Please refrain from stating such nonsense. Everyone has to figure out wich mech is to his liking. I'm driving a COM with good success (and waaaay more fun than say an Awesome or a Hunchback).

Luckily in this game more tons don't equal more efficiency! Don't mess with this truth by uttering personal sentiments.

[Kmieciu]

HBK-4SP is IMHO the most user friendly mech out there. Very easy to use without any significant drawbacks or quirks. It should be given as a free mech. You can turn it into a brawler or a LRM support. If you take out the missile launcher and install 4 Medium Pulse Lasers on the arms and fill the torso with heat sinks, you get a close range tank. Pinpoint hitscan damage. Even a monkey could use it.

It doesn`t get any easier than this. Oh wait! It does! Put 2 MPL and 2 Streaks and don`t worry about overheating! Light mechs will leave you alone!

Missing ballistics is not a drawback: they are hard to use due to lag, and there`s only one viable weapon (Gauss).

While I mastered a Commando during the closed beta, I won`t recommend it for a new player. It requires a lot more skill, and will get you killed on your first mistake. It`s too fast and too fragile for someone who doesn`t know the maps. And you can`t have one variant that does it all: you either choose between 1 missile 3 energy; 2 missile 2 energy or 3 missile 1 energy. Did I mention Streaks were expensive?

Edited by Kmieciu, 30 October 2012 - 03:53 AM.

[michaelius]

Commando will make lot more money than any trial mech and you lose only a few hundred k cbills when selling it later so i advise 2D with streaks as first mech to anyone starting.

[Redshift2k5]

Knyght, on 30 October 2012 - 01:45 AM, said:

Ehh, I have to disagree. The Hunchy 4SP is a lovely 'mech, but the Commando is pretty awesome too. The best part about it (other than it being amazing) is that the repair costs are a pittance. Just get the 1B, stick 3 MLAS on it, ditch the other weapons, pile on the heatsinks. Other tweaks are optional. No reload costs, little repair costs even if you get cored every game.

It is so cheap to repair that I reckon you can actually get a Hunchback (slightly) quicker by getting a Commando first and reaping the extra C-Bills benefit. Someone else can do the maths and prove me wrong, though. But regardless, running circles around people's XL engine'd uber-expensive Atlases with the cheapest 'mech in the game is pretty fun. It's also a nice 'mech for trying to distract a couple of mechs by going for a cap midgame, giving your team a numbers advantage while you give a couple of the enemies the run-around in your 25 ton trollmobile. Fun times.

This is going to depend on the pilot's skill (and the pilot's team), as well as preference; if the pilot is a lackluster Light Mech pilot, this route may prove longer. If the pilot can perform within his role's limitation then it could very well be more profitable... But personal preference must also be taken into account. Maybe faster to earn C-bills, but if it's a less enjoyable chassis, it might be better to keep saving for a Medium.

[fenderbender]

Yeah, I have to slightly disagree.
IF the pilot has no problems driving a light getting a commando first will get you cbills way faster then using trial-grind.But as said, it depends on the pilot. For many starters the commando might be too hard to play, agreed. But in many occasions a commando will still be way more fun to play then those strange trial loadouts they put out.

[Draken X]

If you want a general-purpose mech that can perform a variety of combat roles, you may go for Centurion. Though not as good or powerful as the Hunchback chassis (HBK-4SP, HBK-4G, HBK-4H, HBK-4J), but the Centurion chassis (CN9-A, CN9-AL, upcoming CN9-D) can do a lot more combat roles with a decent flexibility.

CN9-AL has a slightly better endurance than any existing Hunchbacks in terms of armor tonnage, which makes CN9-AL better for tanking than with CN9-A, and thus the CN9-AL can be a better brawler than the CN9-A if you customized it. Besides, both CN9-A and CN9-AL have a mulit-range weapon loadouts that allows you to provide fire-support for other mechs, since Centurion isn't typically good for close-range brawling. You can customize your Centurion chassis loadout for your favorable combat performances without much of restrictions.

I personally think CN9-AL is one of the viable mechs you can get aside HBK4-SP. I tried using it for quite some times, and I love it. And I managed to get a very high kill-death ratio in many matches with CN9-AL a several days back. You can modify your CN9-AL build to be as powerful as Yen-Lo-Wang, or should I say an alternative version of Yen-Lo-Wang, but you need a double heat sink upgrade and either an Endo-steel or Ferro-Fibrous armor upgrade to make the CN9-AL much more effective and efficient in its combat performances.

Hunchback is a decent mech of choice, but it doesn't mean that the Centurion is a liability either, even though the Centurion (especially CN9-A) can be a bit user-unfriendly than the Hunchback. Both Hunchback and Centurion are a good mech of choice.

PS: And yes, light mechs require a lot of skills and somewhat straining to pilot with, and thus can be discouraging for some of the new players out there.

Edited by Draken X, 30 October 2012 - 05:15 AM.

[Northbear]

i like the com. i have bought two do to the resets both i lower the engine size slightly to up the armor count, drop the srm's for ssrm2 then mpl it. works good enough to get out of the trial mechs for me

[BeaverWeasel]

I heartily agree with this recommenation. The Commando has it's uses, but it's a specialized mech - bad for starting out with if you don't know what playstyle suits you. The HBK-4SP can brawl, can LRM boat, can flyswat, can snipe with LL or PPCs. It lacks ballistics, but a brand-new player might get frustrated by those.

[Pwnnoyer]

I think that people should be warned that jumping into the first Commando they can afford is not a great way to get kills, but it still has its uses for both the team and the player. As mentioned above, it earns money much faster than a trial mech, it's cheap to repair, and you get the benefit of XP. With spotting bonuses, it's really easy to earn a lot of XP over multiple variants and bump up to the higher bonuses. By the time you've got a successful bank account going, you can beef it up with an XL engine and keep a really fun harassing mech for when you get bored with your slower mechs.

For most folks, yeah, think before you buy.

[Lefty Lucy]

michaelius, on 30 October 2012 - 04:23 AM, said:

Commando will make lot more money than any trial mech and you lose only a few hundred k cbills when selling it later so i advise 2D with streaks as first mech to anyone starting.

Especially with the reduced sell costs for mechs as of the last patch, my tests in CB indicated that as a c-bill farmer, assuming you're not playing on pre-mades, buying a commando is not a good return on investment unless your eventual plan is to purchase an assault mech.

[slayerkdm]

Just another vote for the 4SP. As for skipping the commando, personnal choice I think there. The 4SP is defenetly the choice in the Hunchback though. I only play Hunchbacks and I find it by far the most versatile, strongest.

For cheap builds, its hard to beat the G variant. Much weaker to be sure, but if you run a 3 MG/ML laser build, you can run standard engines, single heatsinks and regular armour and structure.

As side note, I think the 245 engines, in either XL or standard are the sweet spot for performance, price and tonnage.

[Jasta85]

I personally love both the hunchback and commando. The commando may not match up to the Jenner in overal stays but I still love it, plus it's dirt cheap to purchase and maintain. You can make tons of money with it simply because cost of repairs (even if destroyed) is almost always below 20k.

For the hunchback, all the varients have pros and cons, although I personally prefer my 9 small laser varient. It can run pretty fast with a decent engine and it deals out damage really consistantly with hardly any heat problems.

[Pekiti]

The 4SP is a great platform, with lots of flexibility for play styles.

While I enjoyed the Commando, it does take some effort to pilot well, especially if you aren't familiar with maps. With the recent changes (running into mechs doesn't knock them down) it may be easier to drive.

[Vechs]

You should update the guide and mention that the Commando is excellent for some playstyles, but it's not friendly for new players. That's a big distinction to make.

(I've taken down an Awesome and Raven by myself in a SRM commando. Fun times. )