14 replies to this topic

[Gaius Quentius Quentii]

Hi all,

As I move on to a new mech (dragon), I thought I'd share the 3 builds I've used to "master" the centurion. It's been at the very least a good mech for developing some discipline, awareness and teamwork, a calm hand, etc.; I often got isolated and exposed too easily through simple carelessness -- and paid for it more spectacularly than if I'd used, say, a hunchback (or so I suppose).

Still, I have had some good runs with the cent, particularly as a fire support and strike unit. And never on my own. I have to say that my first few runs with the dragon actually felt...easier. Let's see if the feeling persists...

So all 3 builds carry 288 standard armor (H: 18, CT: 36/14, LT: 32/12, RT: 32/12, LA: 32, RA: 32, LL: 34, RL: 34). They also share the same XL 250 engine. The 255 might be better, but I was trying not to be so obsessively MIN-MAXy. The 260's great, especially post-speed tweak, but the builds were fragile enough with that extra half ton of armor. At least in my hands.

CN9-A w/endo steel and dhs:
ra: uac/5 x1 (ammo x4)
ct: mlas x2
lt: srm6 x3 (ammo x2)

CN9-AL w/endo steel, dhs and artemis:
ra: erllas x2
ct: mlas x2
lt: srm6 x2 (ammo x2)
dhs x4

CN9-D w/endo steel, dhs and artemis:
ra: uac/2 x2 (ammo x2)
ct: mlas x2
lt: srm6 x2 (ammo x2)

Any comments welcome, especially thoughts from anyone taking any of these for a spin -- and tips on improvement, as I'm not quite done with cents yet.

About those SRMs: I was well over 300 matches before I found out about the missile bay door switch (/, ?). So in case you don't know, certain mechs need to open their missile bays before they actually fire, resulting in a delay between trigger and launch. Manually opening the bay will get rid of the delay, albeit with weakened armor in that location. I usually save it until I know I'll soon be using those SRMs.

GLHF!

[LordDante]

i didnt knew that missile door thingie !
thx

[Wrenchfarm]

Gah! An XL in a Cent!? With significantly trimmed armor on top of that!? Do they blow up in a stiff breeze?

I'm glad it worked for you, but I gotta say that seems like a recipe for disaster.

What kind of heat efficiency do you get on the CN9-AL? I run mine with a 245 STD engine, 2 LLAS, 2 MLAS, and don't even have a prayer of slotting in SRMs. My heat is fine but can still climb if I continually fire all 4 lasers. I gotta think that hammering ERLLAS with even fewer sinks would heat strokes your mech pretty quick.

As always, use whatever works for you - but I am super skeptical of these builds.

[Gaius Quentius Quentii]

LordDante, on 10 December 2012 - 03:51 AM, said:

i didnt knew that missile door thingie !
thx

You're welcome. I forgot to say, by the way, that there's an indicator light (on the left in the centurion cockpit) that goes from yellow (closed) to green (open). It's unfortunately so tiny on my screen that I can't always tell yellow apart from green...

Wrenchfarm, on 10 December 2012 - 07:12 AM, said:

Do they blow up in a stiff breeze?

No, but they do blow over in sustained gunfire.

Like I said, they are relatively fragile; I made that concession when I decided to try to play gun boat, or DPSer, rather than tank -- a mobile weapons platform for at least harassing distant targets (direct fire support) then for strafing, hit-and-run...runs through a gun battle (strike), not Mech Tyson (hyuk hyuk).

The builds definitely taught me to appreciate cover.

Re: the AL, as I recall (on mobile device now), it had a heat efficiency rating of .95. I could manage at least 2 alpha strikes before shutdown, depending on if I was running, was fresh and cool to the battle, etc. Lately I've set the groups containing the ERLLs and the MLs to chain fire. Not as many spectacular kills (usually involving surprise attacks on battle-worn mechs), but not as many shutdowns either.

In the end, though, these builds are more for damaging the other team than dueling mechs.

Earlier...QN9-A had a gauss rifle with 2 srm4s and 1 srm2, plus the usual MLs. I don't remember the engine (235 maybe, still XL). This was probably most like the -AL in that it was more of a strike than support mech, but my poor gun-fu just had me wasting nickel-ferrous slugs. And while it had more armor (304 was it?), I found hiding in terrain more helpful.

Of course, it did have an XL engine. Is there a decent standard engine that'd be fast enough while retaining a decent long-range weapon and enough SRMs?

Also, anyone have a clue as to which light chassis might work better?

[_Rorschach_]

For my CNs I tend to forego on the ballistics and instead near max armor, big engines and SRMs (except on the AL, that one gets LLs). That gives me a second shield arm which is especially important on my -D since it's running an XL and the HUGE hitboxes for the side torsos of cents. The tonnage that's left goes into heat sinks (all my builds run quite cool except for my PPC sniper CPLT).
I don't really like arm mounted ballistics. They never seem to work out for me. Torso mounted isn't a problem though strangely enough...
Imo only a -D should run with an XL to take advantage of the high top speed. All other Cents should be build for survivability and zombieing. It's stunning how much damage one can rack up simply by staying alive a LONG time shooting with whatever's in the body parts still loosely attached to your CT.

Edited by pack wolf, 10 December 2012 - 03:20 PM.

[Super Mono]

I think large pulse lasers would work better for the AL. Less heat and more damage while giving up any long-range attack. You want to get in close and use SRMs to kill anyway.

[Cerlin]

All interesting builds, I will try some of them out. I also recently discovered the bay door trick as well, though I was unaware of the downsides. How much armor do you lose? I only ask because I have been running with it open all match.

Edited by Cerlin, 10 December 2012 - 07:03 PM.

[Budor]

Maybe theres more people blind like me, heres what i got from a friend:

The baydoors have a light in the cockpit indicating if they are open or closed. On the Centurions its on the left "strut/brace" in your view. On the Catapults its 2 lights, one on each strut.

yellow=closed, green=open.

Edited by Budor, 10 December 2012 - 07:46 PM.

[FranticD1ng0]

i might have to try out your D config that one sounds like fun, but does is the DHS worth it? I haven't tried out DHS at all just wondering if its worth the investment?

[_Rorschach_]

For engines 250 and above you need at least 6 external heatsinks for SHS to become more crit-space effective. They are never more tonnage effective. Imo they are a no brainer for every reasonable build except some assault mech builds. Only there can you run out of crit space before running out of tonnage.

[FranticD1ng0]

Thanks for the info bout the DHS pack wolf, been working real well. What are your thoughts on a D with a 360 xl, 2x med pulse lasers, 2x streaks, 2x machine guns, 304 armor w/ DHS? I've been messing around with it and its kinda fun so far. With the 360 xl I can get up to 125kph with the speed tweak.

[Outfoxed]

I run somthing similure with 2x AC/2 but those that know me I have been supporting the DAKKA since clossed beta. What I play arround with most is the engine some time standard some times XL... love the speed... love the brawl. Cannot decide.

[Ursh]

With the cents, it's all about learning to love your srm packs. I've elited out all the cents, including the YLW, and I've mastered the CN-9D. I run the other cents in a fairly standard configuration, but with the 9D I run it as a fast mech with only 2 med lasers, and two SRM6 with artemis.

I always max out the armor on my cents.

[_Rorschach_]

@FranticD1ng0

It looks like a reasonable build. I haven't gone above the stock 300XL yet though because I don't want to give up on my dual SRM6, I just like them too much . At some point I feel there's diminishing returns for additional speed once you pass the 100-110 kph mark. But that's just an opinion, lots of people prefer to go 120 and more (and I have to admit, they ARE harder to hit). Streaks are a pretty good alternative to SRM6 unless you run into ECM. Certainly helps in saving weight for the bigger engine.
I still haven't really tried out MGs, so I can't comment on that. From what I read on the forums some people swear by them to blow up ammo in vulnerable sections, others consider them a waste of tonnage. I probably should mount some at some point just to find out which group is right. After all they are pretty cheap and light.

[Gaius Quentius Quentii]

pack wolf, on 10 December 2012 - 03:19 PM, said:

I don't really like arm mounted ballistics. They never seem to work out for me. Torso mounted isn't a problem though strangely enough...
Imo only a -D should run with an XL to take advantage of the high top speed. All other Cents should be build for survivability and zombieing. It's stunning how much damage one can rack up simply by staying alive a LONG time shooting with whatever's in the body parts still loosely attached to your CT.

It's when ballistics (or PPCs, which my current dragon torso-mounts) are on the torso that I run into problems. Even with the torso-twist and convergence tweaks, it's still harder to lead a target. I'm a bad shot anyway, so you can imagine how leading SRMs can go.

I didn't zombie well when I still had a standard engine; didn't last long enough to. So I said, what the heck, if I'm going to die anyway...

Super Mono, on 10 December 2012 - 03:29 PM, said:

I think large pulse lasers would work better for the AL. Less heat and more damage while giving up any long-range attack. You want to get in close and use SRMs to kill anyway.

These builds kind of evolved from wanting to kill things from long range while retaining something short-range protection. The AL's still a bit like that, but the other two have long-range damage more than long-range kills in mind, which usually keeps me more mindful of cover, teammates, etc. Now if only I could hit more than I miss.

Speaking of long-range kills, with that older gauss rifle build, I was able to kill what looked like an atlas (in heat view) in two shots. Must've gotten the head. You think he would've moved though.

Cerlin, on 10 December 2012 - 07:02 PM, said:

All interesting builds, I will try some of them out. I also recently discovered the bay door trick as well, though I was unaware of the downsides. How much armor do you lose? I only ask because I have been running with it open all match.

Let me know how they work for you, and if you have any ideas for improvement.

Not sure but I think I read somewhere that it's a 10% reduction while the bays are open. Tried a quick look but couldn't find that post again -- I was skimming pretty quickly though.

Budor, on 10 December 2012 - 07:46 PM, said:

Maybe theres more people blind like me, heres what i got from a friend:

The baydoors have a light in the cockpit indicating if they are open or closed. On the Centurions its on the left "strut/brace" in your view. On the Catapults its 2 lights, one on each strut.

yellow=closed, green=open.

Is it just the Centurions and Catapults then?

FranticD1ng0, on 11 December 2012 - 12:18 AM, said:

i might have to try out your D config that one sounds like fun, but does is the DHS worth it? I haven't tried out DHS at all just wondering if its worth the investment?

I think the DHS is always worth it. With no extra heat sinks, that build still shut down from time to time, usually in an intense brawl when I'm panic-firing the lasers. Keeping them on chain fire helps, which is where I keep all the lasers at on the -AL too.

Vafer, on 11 December 2012 - 02:10 AM, said:

I run somthing similure with 2x AC/2 but those that know me I have been supporting the DAKKA since clossed beta. What I play arround with most is the engine some time standard some times XL... love the speed... love the brawl. Cannot decide.

The speed's saved my hide a bunch of times. Still, do you think there's a standard that'd be fast enough?

Ursh, on 11 December 2012 - 02:17 AM, said:

With the cents, it's all about learning to love your srm packs. I've elited out all the cents, including the YLW, and I've mastered the CN-9D. I run the other cents in a fairly standard configuration, but with the 9D I run it as a fast mech with only 2 med lasers, and two SRM6 with artemis.

I always max out the armor on my cents.

Taking a break from dying in my dragon, took the -A out for a spin and did pretty well, including a frantic firefight where I blew an atlas' back apart then a catapult's face or chest (it was pretty frantic). Mostly with SRMs. Point blank. Then someone blew apart my left torso.

I've grown to love those SRMs. Also saved me that time this awesome popped out from between some buildings and legged me. That wasn't point blank either. Having hurt his CT from afar earlier helped too.

If only I could fit even two in my dragon...

RE: maxing out armor, maybe I should look into trading some speed for it. I tend to work from the opposite direction, going from the base 272 up.