62 replies to this topic

[Sennin]

I run almost the same build and have for a while. The HBK-SP is my favorite 'Mech in the game at the moment. I personally run a STD 250 Engine, 3 Tons of SRM Ammo, and .5 Tons less armor but more heatsinks. Either way my tactics for the 'Mech are similar. I usually have a lancemate that plays an Atlas so I escort him until I can see the flow of the battle and what opponents are damaged enough that I can assist in downing them quickly so the team can focus on more pressing targets. It's a very rewarding 'Mech if you have the patience to learn it. It's killing power can make you overconfident sometimes, attacking swiftly and returning to your lancemates is key with this 'Mech. If you dont you will eventually overextend into enemy lines and get yourself killed.

[Cleverbird]

Isn't this pretty much the default build? Only with an upped engine and DHS?

[Kivin]

Cleverbird, on 13 November 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

Isn't this pretty much the default build? Only with an upped engine and DHS?

I honestly couldn't tell you what default is. Because - you know what? - I've made dozens of changes since I made the initial purchase.

[fo diggity]

John MatriX82, on 13 November 2012 - 03:40 PM, said:

If you make it, go for a std 250, it will save up 1 or 3 crits for an heatsink that can stay within the engine and not outside from it as with the 245.

I guess I don't understand how this feature works. So the engine just has a heatsink in it? Does it count as a Double?

EDIT: seems like that's the case. I dropped a DHS and added in the 250 and my HE stayed the same. I had to drop two ML and replace with SL, but then I put another SL in the head slot so I really only lost one damage and some range while improving heat. Thanks for the tip!

Edited by fo diggity, 13 November 2012 - 06:27 PM.

[Raso]

Cleverbird, on 13 November 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

Isn't this pretty much the default build? Only with an upped engine and DHS?

TBH the default build is already pretty sick. All that you really need to do is to tweak it to taste. To me, step one was to replace the small laser and some lower leg armor with another heat sink. Later I upgraded to an endo steel skeleton so I could fit Artemis and an AMS with a ton of ammo.

That's the beauty of the 4SP, however, it's ready to drop right out of the box! You just need to tweak it a bit! Swap an engine, go for pulse lasers, add an AMS, all it really needs are a few tweaks here and there to get it where you want it!

Edited by Raso, 13 November 2012 - 07:04 PM.

[Jedi Outcast]

I'll rip your Hunchback's arms off with my centurion and beat you to a pulp with them.

Edited by Interrogator, 13 November 2012 - 07:26 PM.

[sycocys]

Interrogator, on 13 November 2012 - 07:26 PM, said:

I'll rip your Hunchback's arms off with my centurion and beat you to a pulp with them.

I'll see you on the battlefield!


I didn't even see this post, but's it's close to the same build I ended up with. If your patient its a true force to be reckoned with.
Trying the ams for a few matches, but being that you can usually out run to cover I have rarely needed it more than the extra srm ammo. My main difference (with ams) is a sm las in the head as + 3 damage for the srm shot. Might pop this back to med when I drop the ams again.

To the guy that posted about sinks in the arm to worry about - well once you lose the arm, you lose 2 lasers and that heat. It doesn't quite balance, but it's not too far off.

I'd say def go with the 250 engine though, no point in having a sink outside of your engine taking up an extra crit slot.

[sarkun]

Fellow 4SP pilot here - love the mech, have a similar build, but I run with 260XL engine - with speed tweak I go just over 90 kph - that is seriously fast for a 4ML 2SRM6 machine - it's like death on wheels, supercharged. I rarely get less than 3 kills per match - I do get killed 'cause of the xl engine, but man am I having fun

I run with TAG (no heat) and AMS to be a team player - I can pretty much run for cover if I see the 'Missiles Incoming' warning, but I try to escort some assaults before I break for an attack run - a multiple AMS umbrella is a pretty sight

I only have 2 tons of SRM ammo, so I frequently run out - I try to go for back shots with them - perfectly doable with a 90kph mech.

[John MatriX82]

fo diggity, on 13 November 2012 - 06:15 PM, said:

EDIT: seems like that's the case. I dropped a DHS and added in the 250 and my HE stayed the same. I had to drop two ML and replace with SL, but then I put another SL in the head slot so I really only lost one damage and some range while improving heat. Thanks for the tip!

remind: take the engine value and subdivide for 25. A 245 has a value of 9.8, which means the engine can mount only 9 heatsinks and the 10th must be placed outside, while 250 has 10, 275 has 10 + 1 that can be added inside the engine and so on. This is useful when you need room for empty criticals for ENDO and also gives you an advantage: engine DHS work as 2.0, while added DHS outside the engine dissipate only 1.4. Glad to help

sarkun, on 14 November 2012 - 01:13 AM, said:

Fellow 4SP pilot here - love the mech, have a similar build, but I run with 260XL engine - with speed tweak I go just over 90 kph - that is seriously fast for a 4ML 2SRM6 machine - it's like death on wheels, supercharged. I rarely get less than 3 kills per match - I do get killed 'cause of the xl engine, but man am I having fun

I run with TAG (no heat) and AMS to be a team player - I can pretty much run for cover if I see the 'Missiles Incoming' warning, but I try to escort some assaults before I break for an attack run - a multiple AMS umbrella is a pretty sight

I only have 2 tons of SRM ammo, so I frequently run out - I try to go for back shots with them - perfectly doable with a 90kph mech.

As I said earlier I run a similar config, except I have 5 mlas, 3 tons for ASRM6 that I won't rearm, otherwise rearm costs go sky high due to the artemis ammo. 55 damage, who cares for the XL as much as I'm around nothing is safe!

[Mu]

I run with 2xArtemis SRM6, a 260 standard engine and a bunch of small lasers. It's more of a surprise ninja attack mech but it can really mess up other Hunchbacks if it comes to it. I'm a big fan of SLs due to their efficiency and I'll usually prefer upping my speed and using those on a fast maneuverable mech.

The spread on the SRMs is pretty manageable and similar to what SRMs were like a few months ago. I've taken out Commandos at 200m with them.

[Wildhound]

I'm pretty new to the game and after reading this thread I bought a HBK-4SP as my first mech. I followed your spec, but removed two of the SRM ammo and put in the Standard 250 engine instead.

First game with it fully upgraded - 3 kills, 3 assists.

Thanks!

[Kivin]

John MatriX82, on 13 November 2012 - 03:40 PM, said:

If you make it, go for a std 250, it will save up 1 or 3 crits for an heatsink that can stay within the engine and not outside from it as with the 245.

You're 0.5 tonnes out of budget for a 250, assuming you drop a DHS.

Wildhound, on 14 November 2012 - 06:50 PM, said:

I'm pretty new to the game and after reading this thread I bought a HBK-4SP as my first mech. I followed your spec, but removed two of the SRM ammo and put in the Standard 250 engine instead.

First game with it fully upgraded - 3 kills, 3 assists.

Thanks!

Glad it is working out for you.

-----

Several people have suggested running a 260 engine, be it XL or other wise. I don't think this is a good idea (and I've tried it for 20+ hrs). My rationale:

- If you need to **** of trouble, the speed delta probably wont make the difference between getting pitted.
- If you're using the XL variant, the speed delta almost certainly will make the difference of getting pitted... you know what I mean!
- The max speed of my build is very important, but equally important is knowing when to slow down and coast in your victim's blind spots; there's a tonne of acceleration control. I think this trivializes the 260 engines because...
... - The cost is too high. A 245 (or a 250, mayhaps if someone can convince me) let's you fit the perfect zen of speed and fire power. I dread losing the careful balance this mech constitutes in order to go back to a 260.

Edited by Kivin, 17 November 2012 - 04:57 PM.

[RedrumnCoke]

I like your build. My take on it is as follows:


Hunchback HBK-4SP
Speed: 87.1 (w/Speed Tweak)
Firepower: 45
Heat Efficiency: 1.27
Armor: 320
Endo Steel
With Artemis

Head:18 armor, Medium Laser
Center Torso: 40 armor, Standard Engine 250
Center Torso Rear: 20 armor
Right Torso: 30 armor, SRM6, Double Heat Sink
Right Torso Rear: 15 armor
Left Torso: 30 armor, SRM6, Double Heat Sink
Left Torso Rear: 15 armor
Right Arm: 32 armor, Medium Laser, Double Heat Sink
Left Arm: 32 armor, Medium Laser, Double Heat Sink
Right Leg: 44 armor, SRM ammo (2 tons)
Left Leg: 44 armor, SRM ammo (2 tons)

I feel upgrading to a 250 engine is worth it. I made room for it by removing one double heat sink and .5 ton of armor. In exchange for slightly less armor I got better heat efficiency (the extra heat sink in the engine counts as a true double whereas the external one I removed only counts as 1.4) and slightly faster run speed.

To make room for Artemis, I removed 1 Medium Laser and 1 Double Heat Sink (with 1 less Med Laser it isn't needed). If you are good at targeting specific body parts (got a few cockpit kills already) then the tighter SRM spread more than makes up for the loss of 5 damage.

Last tweak I made was to move one of the Medium Lasers to the head so that:

a. If surrounded by teammates on each side I could still shoot straight w/o hitting friendlies.

b. If arms and left/right torsos destroyed, I can still keep fighting. Not as good of a zombie as my Centurion CN9-A but at least more useful than a weaponless mech.

Of course, this is just what suits my play style. That is the great thing about this game, enough variety in build combinations to suit everyone.

Edited by RedrumnCoke, 26 November 2012 - 12:17 AM.

[Grimnir79]

I have almost the same build for my mech, except that I have a large laser in my right arm.

- standard engine 200
- endo steel
- DHS
- 2 x SRM6 w/ 2 tons of ammo
- large laser in right arm
- 2 x medium laser in left arm
- 1 x MPL in head
- AMS
- as many DHS as you can fit on remaining space

This build gives me plenty of close range firepower, but also gives me some long range capabilities. Will get a bit hot when firing all the energy weapons, but as long as you don't use the LL to much in close combat you will be ok.

I'm considering upgrading to the 250 standard engine after reading this post.

[Ryft]

Been playing hunchbacks exclusively on my way towards mastering them. The SP was my first, and it's a Bulldozer build. I tried tweaking it from what's here, but in the end I went back to it. When I finally unlocked elite skills I immediately purchased every single one of them with banked mech XP, and took this thing out for a match since I hadn't used it in a long while.

H&#@ S^$% did I forget how much butt this thing kicks. We cleaned house that match... I scored a couple kills while supporting two heavies and a few lights, and came in ahead of my usual scores on damage caused.

Thankfully I get to pick this beast back up again soon to grind out 21,500 XP for my module slot.

[Magnifiscent]

So that's why it's so easy to kill Hunchies from the back...

My Cent -D does this better, imho.

[Sorho]

I made the mistake of buying a 4G first because I'm a sucker for a huge cannon, but 4SP is deffo next on my list

[Lavrenti]

Sorho, on 26 November 2012 - 03:37 PM, said:

I made the mistake of buying a 4G first because I'm a sucker for a huge cannon<snip>

Easy mistake to make. As it turns out, the 4H is a better 4G than the 4G is.

[Dirty Dawg]

This looks like a sweet build. I think the Hunchback will be the first mech I try to master, and this variant is definitely on my list.

[superteds]

Try this;

Quote

Chassis Name: Hunchback

Model Name: HBK-4SP
Variant Name: MPL

Engine: 250 Reg Engine
Internal Type: Endo Steel
Armor Type: Std Armor
Heat Sinks: 11 (10) Double Heat Sinks

Tonnage: 50.00
Speed: 81.0 kph
Armor Total: 320
Alpha Strike Damage: 59.00
Alpha Strike Heat: 32.00
Firepower: 15.15 dps
Heat Efficiency: 18.48%
Effective Range of Loadout: 270m

Head: 18/18
Right Torso: 40/48
Right Rear Torso: 8/48
Center Torso: 52/64
Center Rear Torso: 12/64
Left Torso: 40/48
Left Rear Torso: 8/48
Right Arm: 32/32
Left Arm: 32/32
Right Leg: 39/48
Left Leg: 39/48

Right Arm:
Medium Pulse Laser
Medium Pulse Laser

Left Arm:
Medium Pulse Laser
Medium Pulse Laser

Right Torso:
SRM6
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel

Left Torso:
SRM6
Double Heat Sink
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel
Endo Steel

Center Torso:
SRM Ammo
SRM Ammo

Head:
Medium Laser

Right Leg:
SRM Ammo

Left Leg:

File created using MWO Mechbay

4x MPL (2 groups, 1 group per arm) for swatting lights
2x SRM6 w/ 3t ammo
1x MLas in the head for zombie work. drop this for a tag+more armour/1t SRM ammo

For hit and run you don't run into heat issues, and a 3rd group with the MPLs on chain helps keep you cool for a sustained brawl.