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Has anyone tried NARC on Cat A-1?


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#1 Hex Pallett

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Posted 04 November 2012 - 11:34 AM

If I recall correctly, NARC is meant to be guiding SRM to work like SSRM...so has anyone tried Cat A-1 with NARC and, like 5xSRM6? Isn't that suppose to be like the ultimate brawler thing? Theoretically the weapon system would be twice heavier and produce lesstwice the heat, but has more than doubled damage output.

I don't have A-1 so I wonder if anyone has tried it yet.

Edited by Helmstif, 04 November 2012 - 11:39 AM.


#2 MadPanda

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Posted 04 November 2012 - 11:50 AM

I have the A-Cat so I will give this a try and report the results.

#3 Hex Pallett

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Posted 04 November 2012 - 01:29 PM

Thanks brotha. Sounds like DHS would be helpful in the build too.

#4 MadPanda

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Posted 04 November 2012 - 02:07 PM

Have to postpone the testing for a while. Running very low on c-bills :). If anyone richer can try it out sooner, I would also like to hear about the results.

#5 MadPanda

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Posted 04 November 2012 - 03:59 PM

Mustered enough cb's to give it a try and the results are in. The build is complete *****. The main problems are:

#1: The narc beacon is hard to latch on to enemies. It felt like trying to hit a light mech with gauss rifle. This also with the fact that you get 6 of them per ton. Also it lasts 15 sec only so you need to re-hit them constantly. You can learn to aim so this is not the deal breaker, #2 however is.

#2: The narc beacon doesn't actually make all missiles hit. This was a pretty surprising discovery. The beacon was latched on to the enemy mech (shows the little icon on the mech so im 100% sure) and I was at about 100m away shooting my srm6's and more than half were missing. I don't know if the beacon is bugged or what, but it doesn't work like a magnet that pulls every missile in.

In most of my tries (I did several games) I was shot to red armor while trying to latch a beacon on them so this is skill demanding build to start with when it comes to hitting your targets. The second big deal was the fact that not all missiles are pulled in by the beacon. My best run was to get a target down to 80% (a streak-cat) before he killed me. Streak cats still reign supreme compered to this. Even if some top-player can make this work, it doesn't seem like worth the effort. Maybe if the beacon is made better (or bug fixed?) later on this might become usable.

#6 Silra

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Posted 04 November 2012 - 06:22 PM

Hehloes there, maybe I can shed some light on this.

While scouting for LRM boats with my Commando I tested both NARC and TAG rather extensively, so here is my opinion on them.

NARC in its current form is just garbage. Firstly it's dumb-fire missile, not a homing one, making it difficult to get onto a target. Then you (or someone else) has to still have vision of said target for the LRMs to be able to shoot at it. This means you have to hang around after deploying the beacon to keep an eye on the enemy.
Not to mention it comes at minimum weight of 4 tons (3 tons for NARC + 1 ton ammo) and that only includes 7 shots of NARC. This weight limitation makes it really unwieldy for light mechs. Also of note is that the NARC only lasts approx 30 seconds and then must be re-applied.

TAG on the other hand needs to be constantly aimed at the target, which can be a bit tricky when running around at 146kph (what my Commando goes at). But since I have to hang about to look at the target anyway even when using NARC, I find that using TAG is much easier on a light mech, especially the thing comes in 1ton weight package and can never run out of ammo.

The saving grace for NARC is that once you have fired it, as long as the target keeps getting spotted, you can go about your own business.
On the flip side I have been practising holding a TAG on different target than what I am shooting at, and while difficult to pull off, it is not impossible at all.

I can see the NARC being deployed by a brawler of some sort who can afford the weight (Hunchie or Cent as example) to help the LRM boats, and then go on their merry way to destroy the opposition. However this can be tricky to pull off in PUGs, so you do need a friend or two around for it to be really workable.
However putting the NARC on something who wants to fire LRMs from far away is not really feasible due to the dumb-fire nature of the missile.

Hopefully that answered some of your questions, and if not, feel free to ask specifics.

#7 Hex Pallett

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Posted 04 November 2012 - 07:43 PM

Thanks for the experiment brothers. I guess beta is beta....





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