28 replies to this topic

[Chrithu]

CannonFodder86, on 14 November 2012 - 12:15 AM, said:

have you tried double LB10X? should give decent punch and make catching lights a little easier.

Been there. Chainfiring them is fun on targets with cracked armor. Versus fully armored Mechs it just plain out sucks and performs way worse than dual AC/10.

Edit: Still I decided to revisit that build, just because I wanted to escape the long range meta. And well: If you wait with your attack until your team has put some long range fire on the enemy you can truely wreak havoc with that beast. Still I can't decide which alternative is better:

300 XL, 4ML, 2 LBX 10, 6T Ammo, 1 extra DHS
250 STD, 4ML, 2 LBX 10, 4T Ammo

Edited by Jason Parker, 24 July 2013 - 01:03 AM.

[Mawai]

There is also the classic Gauss K2

2x Gauss Rifle + 6 tons of ammo
2x ML
XL 225 + 1 DHS
Endo steel
AMS + 1 ton

With speed tweak it goes 61 which will keep up with most heavy/assaults ... stay a bit behind the front line and support your team mates ... aim your shots. Extremely effective

The dual UAC5 builds are also really good but beware of jamming,

[Endo Steel]

This is the build I've been using recently, it has incredible pinpoint DPS but you have to have a steady hand (which I do not)

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...898b1e9456649ea

If you can catch a large enemy off-guard you can down him in just a few volleys which is important because after that heat will start to be an issue. If you come under fire, you will be unable to keep your shots focused on a single point and your combat effectiveness goes down greatly. For this reason I've started chaining the SRMs just to keep the enemy knocked long enough to line up my shot.

Also, an elite Catapult has SIGNIFICANTLY better torso speed and range, which allows a new strategy of finding a good spot and stopping your mech still for a few seconds, this will speed up your heat dissipation while your torso twist allows you to function almost like a turret with much faster and more stable aiming than when you're moving. Once again you need allies to take fire while you do this as a little bit of knock will lower your effectiveness considerably. The acceleration and deceleration efficiencies are also key to this strategy, especially at Elite level.

In general, if you're looking to get Elite for your K2, a brawler C1 is a similar style that will get you the prerequisites you need.

[Johnny Two Legs]

I struggle with the idea of a brawling K2 Cat with an XL engine. I know most people hit the side torso anyway but it's still a vulnerability that I don't like.
Before the ghost heat sink mechanic was introduced (grumble grumble) I ran a LasCat build - 4 LLasers, Std 300 engine, DHS, ES, and close to max armour.
It ran hot if i alpha'ed 3 times (2 on hot maps). It didnt have the instant death dealing damage of the Gauss or AC20 Cat's but it was durable and during long matches it was a consistant performer than had no weakness that XL engins builds really suffer from mid-late game.
Now it's a hot mech due to the ghost heat mechanic, but if I'm careful and either rotate the LLaser fire individually or fire in batches of two, it's a competent short-mid range mech - and with close to max armour and travelling at close to 90kph - it's no slouch either.

It was also listed as one of the mech designs in the Run Hot or Die league.

j2l.

Edited by Johnny Two Legs, 29 July 2013 - 06:58 PM.

[POOTYTANGASAUR]

416 armor, endo, 14 dhs, 5 medium lasers, ac20 (4tons), ams (1ton), std 300 engine
Can take on nearly any mech and stomp them. I take on brawler d-dcs and with a little torso twist can win. A 70tonner that can take down a 100tonner regularly is extremely valuable to its team.

[Johnny Two Legs]

Endo Steel, on 29 July 2013 - 04:45 PM, said:

This is the build I've been using recently, it has incredible pinpoint DPS but you have to have a steady hand (which I do not)

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...898b1e9456649ea

If you can catch a large enemy off-guard you can down him in just a few volleys which is important because after that heat will start to be an issue. If you come under fire, you will be unable to keep your shots focused on a single point and your combat effectiveness goes down greatly. For this reason I've started chaining the SRMs just to keep the enemy knocked long enough to line up my shot.

Also, an elite Catapult has SIGNIFICANTLY better torso speed and range, which allows a new strategy of finding a good spot and stopping your mech still for a few seconds, this will speed up your heat dissipation while your torso twist allows you to function almost like a turret with much faster and more stable aiming than when you're moving. Once again you need allies to take fire while you do this as a little bit of knock will lower your effectiveness considerably. The acceleration and deceleration efficiencies are also key to this strategy, especially at Elite level.

In general, if you're looking to get Elite for your K2, a brawler C1 is a similar style that will get you the prerequisites you need.

I agree with this in general.
I run a SplatCat, either with 6 SRM6's (no JJ's) or 6 SRM4's (with JJ's) - and all with Artemis and an XL300 engine.
The SRM6 hits like a convoy of Mac trucks, the SRM4 less so but it has JJ's and better heat management.

The XL engine and the very exposed missile pods are a vulnerability you have to be very careful of. A SplatCat, IMO, does well just behind other units when close range combat starts. As long as you're not a primary target, you can achieve crazy levels of damage, XP and credits.
When targeted, either because you are alone or because there are better pilots then you are easily neutered.

j2/

[Greyrook]

I've been trying to find a good loadout to make my founders C1 viable, and I found one (well, two similar builds around the same idea) that has been getting me fairly good results.

SRM4: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...22e592d4ea1ebe9
SRM6: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b895619cf29a0e9

It's not exactly a pure brawler, it's taking advantage of the ERPPC versatility and putting on some SRMs for close-up spread damage. I'm not entirely convinced either direction for 4s versus 6s, but I just started with the build and getting back to MWO in general, so it'll take some time for the cream to rise. As usual I see no disadvantage for putting XLs on Cats beyond the critical slot usage.

There's also some fiddling that can be done with the lasers, I usually prefer mediums but mpls have their advantages. The only problem is the weapon spread requires more groups than I can assign directly to my mouse. I always separate PPCs, so the other 2 are just all the lasers and all the missiles respectively. This means it runs hot--especially so with the mpls--but I've been getting around 400-500 damage on good matches, 600+ if I get some lucky ammo explosions.

Tactics for it are generally to make use of its speed, get to a good snipe spot and harrass with those ERs, then fall back and join the main battle group to give their lights a hard time while taking on the enemy line with your lasers and ERs. The obvious cons are that you're in a catapult, so by the time the lines converge for true brawling, your nose has generally taken quite a beating. But, if you're good about fading in and out, making sure the enemy isn't focusing on you too much you can clean up nicely. Spiders, however, are such a pain (you have no idea) if you're like me and haven't used SRMs extensively before. I think I've taken them down more with lasers and the PPCs than with the SRMs.

The nice thing about it is that it's pretty unexpected, I haven't seen a build like it before personally (But I've also been away for a while, so maybe this build has already been tried and scrapped). Not that I'm the first to put PPCs on a C1, but it's generally to make an LRM sniper for both direct and indirect support. It doesn't seem to work well for me in that configuration, I tried LRM10s but the differences between positioning for direct vs indirect makes it really just not do either to great effect. Better to just make it dangerous close up, with the option of some long-range pain because snipe battles are so common right now. It's also very maneuverable for a Cat, 2 JJs will get you up most normal terrain lickety-split and provide some quick repositioning options that the K2 sorely lacks.

Thus, I'm dubbing this the "Variable Brawler" build for the C1, since it also relies on a variety of weapon types.

[LauLiao]

There's lots of loadout discussions here, but I personally don't like the Cat at all as a brawler just because of the geometry of the mech. Giant torsos and a center-of-mass cockpit leave it vulnerable. Also, the ears instead of arms leave the torso even more vulnerable.

[Greyrook]

LauLiao, on 31 July 2013 - 01:00 PM, said:

There's lots of loadout discussions here, but I personally don't like the Cat at all as a brawler just because of the geometry of the mech. Giant torsos and a center-of-mass cockpit leave it vulnerable. Also, the ears instead of arms leave the torso even more vulnerable.

I hope most should be aware of its failings as a brawler by now, but yeah. Really the only advantage it has as a brawler is you don't have to worry about XL drawbacks because the CT is so big anyway. But its lack of actuated arms and restrictive hardpoint numbers are tough to get around to be sure. That's why I pretty much made it a sniper with SRMs, if that makes any sense.