67 replies to this topic

[Dewil]

I have one XL300 engine for 3 Mechs right now

Dragon, Jenner and Streak Cat.

[Arcturious]

Had massive heart attacks all yesterday lol. I had included the HS's twice in my spreadsheet, so thought my builds were up to 4 tons off. Then this morning realised I had also counted the savings from FF & ES twice lol, which add up to 4.5T. So the net result is I have actually gained a half a ton, whew.

Going over the sheets again to confirm but everything should be correct for the 5N now.

I've been trying to spread my playtime across my other mechs but just keep coming back to my Dragon. Already have far more exp in it than I can use, trying to save up for the other variants at the moment so I can work up to elite skills.

Loving every minute of it

[ZodiacX]

My favorite thing to do with the 5N can technically be viewed as a "Joke" build because it utilizes 3 machines guns.
Keep in mind that I ran this before the inclusion of Endo-Steel and DHS, so it is being reworked currently to find a more optimal setup.

Back before those 2 upgrades were available:
XL 350
2x MPL
1x SRM-6
3x MG
AMS
Maxed armor except for legs

This was a fast, heavy mech which could alpha harder, run faster, and take more abuse than the swayback.
The 3MG are unmatched by any other ballistics option for weight, at 3.5 tons (with 2 tons of ammo => over 2 minutes of sustained fire) while the next lightest is an AC/2 at 6 tons without ammo.
Also, zero heat generation allowed me to use them while managing my use of MPL and SRMs.

Arguably I could have opted for 3 HS, also a smaller engine to save more weight, but that defeats the intent of the build. This was designed to close gaps, run circles around atlai, respond to threats, essentially to be mobile.

Also, having weapons in both arms meant losing 1 didn't completely ruin me.

Clearly with the advent of ES I have more tonnage, and DHS I have better heat dissipation so it is currently being reworked with LL, and may get a ballistics upgrade.

Edited by ZodiacX, 05 November 2012 - 03:38 PM.

[Card]

Put an XL315 engine in that puppy, endo-steel, a gauss rifle in the right arm, 2 medium pulse lasers in the left arm, and a streak 2-pack in the CT. Add AMS and nearly max the armor, 3 tons of ammo for the rifle, 1 ton for the streaks and 1 ton for the AMS.

Use the MPL's, the streaks, and your speed against lights. Snipe with the gauss when the opportunity presents itself. At knife-fighting range, use your superior speed and manueverabilty to stay in their rear arc. When they're drawing a bead on you, tickle their face with the MPL's to throw their aim off, and then pound them with the gauss rifle.

It's a very durable build, and one that allows you to play a lot of roles. You can fight toe-to-toe, chase lights off your spawn, cut behind the bad guys and eat up their fire support, stand on their base and draw some aggro from the frontline - and as long as you play smart and use cover, you can live long enough to make it count for something.

[SmithMPBT]

Any of the Gauss builds with XL engine giving you 90kph+ speed gives you a good fast reaction mech. Plugging breaches or reinforcing a CAP.

[Mavairo]

MadPanda, on 05 November 2012 - 09:46 AM, said:

I did as you suggested Mavairo. I already had the atlas-K purchased (my first mech) so I ripped the xl-300 engine from him. I tried first what you suggested with the gauss/ac2 combo with two med pulse lasers on the other hand but I found myself heating up really quickly. I dropped the ac2 because I also felt that wasn't serving me at all but was only generating a lot of heat. I also dropped the two medium pulse lasers because they heated up too fast as well.

So after some trial I ended up with a gauss with 6 ton of ammo (keeps me well served through out the game) and a large pulse laser on the other hand. I'm using both armor and structure upgrades (my slots are tight as a fiddle). And I must admit this new pimped up dragon is a beast! I'm on top of the damage dealt chart almost every game and racking up kills nicely. The good movement speed and the arm targeting are really good. Looks like my dragon went from crap to gold, thanks to everyone for good advices! I'm using the dragon now as my main mech and having a lot of fun.

Must have made a typo. I meant standard medium lasers. they keep your damage honest, and with the AC2 they do really good sustained dps. I run 4 tons of ammo on both ballistic weapons and find I usually have more rounds than there are targets at the end of the day. Alphas are really hard on the heat with that setup, but if you chain fire, or have easy use of multiple mouse buttons (or have a # pad on the side of your mouse like I do with the razer naga, or now the new logitech mmo mouse) it's heat is much more manageable.

Either way, I'm glad you're enjoying your 5N now. It's easily one of the most under rated under respected mechs in the game. It's such a high precision, mobile shooter that I almost feel bad when I use it anymore heh. A 5N in the hands of a proper shootist is utterly terrifying to deal with. (all dragons are very shootist friendly mind, but the 5N especially)

One of my other faves I mentioned earlier, was the Gauss, and 2 Large Lasers setup. I nick named it the surgeon for rather obvious reasons

Edited by Mavairo, 05 November 2012 - 06:30 PM.

[MagicHamsta]

Does dying count as something to do with your Dragon-5N?

[Dewil]

MagicHamsta, on 05 November 2012 - 07:15 PM, said:

Does dying count as something to do with your Dragon-5N?

No, because if you use your speed to your advantage you will rarely do that. But if you treat it like a brawler and run straight into the enemy you'll die.

[0rca]

I've finally found two builds that perform well for me. Both builds based on mixture of long ranged fire support + anti-light defense. Also both builds fill free tonnage with DHS, have reduced side torso and legs armor and use:

- Endo-Steel
- DHS
- XL300
- AMS with 1 ton ammo

Build 1:
- ER PPC x 2
- LB 10-X AC with 2 or 3 tons ammo

Build 2: (336 armor / 12 heatsinks)
- Gauss Rifle with 3 tons ammo
- ER PPC
- SSRM2 with 1 ton ammo

First one is very heat-heavy, so for suppressing unlocked LRM boats and other snipers (using heat vision for every map except caustic) I use only single ER PPC. Shoot both when sure to hit. Same goes for Gauss in second build, mainly because of limited and very expensive ammo. LBX is great for taking down lights and shooting atlases in rear torso that lost all armor =)

I started using second build mainly because I manage to hit lights with ER PPC / Gauss quite often, it has nothing against lights except SSRM.

Edited by 0rca, 08 November 2012 - 04:45 PM.

[BlackSquirrel]

One AC/5 and one ultra AC5... Then whatever else you want... Put on staggered fire...have fun. Actually rocks.

[0rca]

Currently I think my new build outperforms previous ones. Its:

- ER PPC
- LB 10-x AC
- SSRM 2
- Med Pulse Laser

SSRM and MPL are in the same weapon group for simplicity.

[Selfish]

I think it's fair to say the 5N is my least favorite Dragon variant. It only has one missile hardpoint in its torso, so losing an arm is a massive blow to your efficacy. The benefits of just arm mounted lasers and ballistics isn't really worth it unless you want to fit at least two energy and ballistics in the arms. It's really better off hanging further back than its torso redundant variants, but I just can't do it. The need for dakka is too strong in me.

XL 325
Endo-Steel
DHS (4)

2x LPL
3x MG (1 ton)
1 SRM 4 (1 ton)
AMS (1 ton)

I've been running this build in a lance of lights/mediums. I can keep up and provide close range fire support, distractions, anything until the brawlers show up. The dual Large Pulse Lasers are your main source of damage, and they're near the equivalent to an AC20. Machine guns suck, and the SRM 4 is really better at crit seeking. They sound fantastic, though, which makes up for not doing much of anything.

[prox]

min. xl 300, gauss (4t) and lasers of choice. 500+ dmg if played right.

[I Just Ate Your Grapes Bro]

MadPanda, on 04 November 2012 - 11:39 AM, said:

I've bought 4 mechs and there is only one purchase I deeply regret, it's the Dragon 5N. Like a nuub I just looked that it had 3 ballistic slots and thought I could do some cool stuff with multiple AC's.

Well, problem #1 was that ALL the ballistic points are in the right arm. Alright I tried to make it work and managed to strip everything and put in 3 Ac2's on him. Problem #2 the heat from the AC's being in the same arm was so huge I heated up literally after few seconds. I also had to sacrifice a lot of armor to be able to fit in 3 AC2's making my left side pretty much a one shot for anyone who went for it.

The only 3 ballistic weps I can mount without being total paper is 3 machine guns and I tried that too, they seem to tickle people. I have no idea where to take this mech, any ideas?

This was one of the first mechs I ever used, i loved it initially, I did 3 mg with 2 tons of ammo and 2 medium lasers with enough heatsinks that chainfiring them wasn't an issue. I think it also had an SRM with 1-2 tons of ammo in it, can't remember for sure... I averaged about 4-600 damage per round though I had to WORK for that, it was a fun build and now machine guns are supposed to be more effective against internals so it might be even better but my mechs have since been reset and now I only run in mediums.

Edited by Ehrithane, 09 November 2012 - 03:46 PM.

[malibu43]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I was just going ask about 1N vs 1C and figured another thread didn't make sense. I'm planning on buying a dragon next and was initially looking at the 1N. However, as I thought about it, I realized that the second ballistics slot on the arm may not be as useful as having 2 energy weapons on the opposite arm or having the ability to try more energy heavy builds with 4 energy hard points total. I'm not that concerned about the lack of a second missile hardpoint; most builds I've thought about only involve one missile launcher. I would prefer to have the AC5 over the AC2, though.

So, are the 1N and 1C the same, except for the weapons hardpoints and armor values? Can I buy a 1C, lower the armor to the 1N values and swap an AC5 for the AC2 and end up with the same effective build on the battlefield? This would give me a 1N with the added energy flexibility of the 1C.

[Tremendous Upside]

malibu43, on 09 November 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I was just going ask about 1N vs 1C and figured another thread didn't make sense. I'm planning on buying a dragon next and was initially looking at the 1N. However, as I thought about it, I realized that the second ballistics slot on the arm may not be as useful as having 2 energy weapons on the opposite arm or having the ability to try more energy heavy builds with 4 energy hard points total. I'm not that concerned about the lack of a second missile hardpoint; most builds I've thought about only involve one missile launcher. I would prefer to have the AC5 over the AC2, though.

So, are the 1N and 1C the same, except for the weapons hardpoints and armor values? Can I buy a 1C, lower the armor to the 1N values and swap an AC5 for the AC2 and end up with the same effective build on the battlefield? This would give me a 1N with the added energy flexibility of the 1C.

The easy build on the 1C is XL300, 1 Gauss, 4ML (with Endo and DHS). The extra armor IS nice to have... But the way I look at the difference in the two is "4 small energy weapons or 2 larger ones". The missile hard points aren't a big deal because you don't have much room in CT for that anyway. It's 2 small rocket racks (1N) or 1 larger one... Or you can just ignore the missile ports entirely. Bottom line is that all 3 chassis can easily field plenty of firepower. There isn't a "wrong" choice.

[Selfish]

malibu43, on 09 November 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I was just going ask about 1N vs 1C and figured another thread didn't make sense. I'm planning on buying a dragon next and was initially looking at the 1N. However, as I thought about it, I realized that the second ballistics slot on the arm may not be as useful as having 2 energy weapons on the opposite arm or having the ability to try more energy heavy builds with 4 energy hard points total. I'm not that concerned about the lack of a second missile hardpoint; most builds I've thought about only involve one missile launcher. I would prefer to have the AC5 over the AC2, though.

So, are the 1N and 1C the same, except for the weapons hardpoints and armor values? Can I buy a 1C, lower the armor to the 1N values and swap an AC5 for the AC2 and end up with the same effective build on the battlefield? This would give me a 1N with the added energy flexibility of the 1C.

Yes, I believe they're functionally the same. At least they will be until the quirk system adapts them. Some chassis variants have access to better engines and such, but I don't believe the Dragons have this distinction. Someone may know better, we'll see.

The majority of the builds posted here are transferrable to the 1N/1C, and arguably better at it depending on whether or not you favor having torso mounted fallback weapons. The 5N only has 1 missile hardpoint in its torso. 1C has 2E+1M, and 1N has 1E+2M.

Edited by Selfish, 09 November 2012 - 05:24 PM.

[Texas Merc]

ac10
srm6
LL

u can do that with any dragon and have success

[Backlandshippie]

Maybe bit wrong topic but its about dragons so...

Prolly best version of dragon is 1N with 2 ballistics, 2 missile and 2 energypoints...

pair it with:
xl 300
2 x SRM4 with 3 tons of ammo
Gauss Riffle with 4 tons of ammo
2 x C.A.S.E
TAG
1 heatsink
Max up armor in torso.. strip from the legs...

in early game its speed makes it nice sniping machine
end game is what u are aiming for...

alphashot of 35 makes it nice taking out most of mechs at endgame... heatefficency is also nice... around 1.75, so no much heatproblems even alphashotting all of ammo... my fav build... very efficient, but u need good team around you.

As u progres to elite it gives u also nice speed boost taking this baby to 88 kmph.

[Volts]

Banky, on 09 November 2012 - 05:12 PM, said:

The easy build on the 1C is XL300, 1 Gauss, 4ML (with Endo and DHS). The extra armor IS nice to have... But the way I look at the difference in the two is "4 small energy weapons or 2 larger ones". The missile hard points aren't a big deal because you don't have much room in CT for that anyway. It's 2 small rocket racks (1N) or 1 larger one... Or you can just ignore the missile ports entirely. Bottom line is that all 3 chassis can easily field plenty of firepower. There isn't a "wrong" choice.

I am currently using this with the addition of the LRM10 (2T ammo for gauss and lrm, case and reduced armor in legs).

Working out very well for me with plenty of range on the gauss, indirect with the lrm10 and 4 ML for close in work.

Possibly the build and variant I'll stay with.