81 replies to this topic

[Jungle Rhino]

The only issue I have with this build is that anybody with any sense who sees an Awesome doing 80+ kmph knows immediately it is running an XL and punches out a side torso

While yes it will ruin the back of an Atlas - first you have to get there!

Edited by Jungle Rhino, 03 January 2013 - 05:14 AM.

[Tremendous Upside]

Jungle Rhino, on 03 January 2013 - 05:13 AM, said:

The only issue I have with this build is that anybody with any sense who sees an Awesome doing 80+ kmph knows immediately it is running an XL and punches out a side torso

While yes it will ruin the back of an Atlas - first you have to get there!

Very true... But by the same token, anyone running an 80+ AWS that's "letting" folks take pot shots at him is probably going to die soon to begin with. The choice of engine won't make much of a difference. I think you have to look at it this way. Forget about the vulnerability issue - just for a second, and ask yourself this question. Did my mechs become "more surviveable" after I got the maneuverability and speed tweak pilot perks? Of course they did. Mechs are MUCH more surviveable after you unlock those. Putting a BIG XL into an AWS does the same exact thing. You can outrun other assaults by more than 20kph with the XL385 (86 top speed) and you'll twist and turn faster as well. Imagine if you got a 20% boost from speed tweak.... And THEN ask yourself if having to die maybe once every few nights from a side torso blast is worth it. That's honestly all it comes down to. Side torso deaths from XL engines are far less frequent than getting cored straight down the center. It's way less than 5 percent of my deaths for sure - and I run XLs in almost everything I own... Now granted, if the XL only gives you slight boost in performance over stock I'd probably stick with standard -- but a 20kph boost is massive in any weight class.

[Kaishaku]

My current 9M build. Only played two games with it so far and done VERY well.

3 SRM4 no artemis: For close range punch particularly large/slow mechs
2 Med Pulse: For close range harass
2 Large Lasers: Medium to long range DPS.

385XL
20 DHS (Heat efficiency 1.18
416 armour

Pros: For a mech with a top speed of 80+ kmph with speed tweak this variant has a very good weapon payload and armour for that speed. This makes is a great skirmisher flanking other mechs delivering great damage before running off before it can take critical damage from bigger threats while being an absolute nightmare for slower or similar speed mediums and heavies. This variant unlike most Awesomes has extremely good heat management.

Cons: Bloody expensive to make. This mech will easily set you back 20mil in credits but is well worth the investment if you can hit with SRMs. The other main con is the fact that it requires the use of an XL engine combined with a fat torso it really lowers the ability of this mech to sustain damage. That being said it is an assault mech so by default it has a fair bit of armour and HP to begin with.

[Alexanderwolf]

This is my current 9M build that I am having a blast playing.

Armament:
2xLPL
4xMPL
1xSRM6------1 ton ammo
1 AMS---------1 ton ammo

Endo Steel
Max armor
center torso set to 70


I currently use this as an ambuse assualt class mech, I hold back well the brawlers engage and then I head out at full speed which is 80kph with the speed boost from the elite skill. It has the ability to alpha 59 points into someones back, the heat eff is only 1 so I tend to only use the SRM when I know every missle is going to hit, a side note is that the SRM6 in the arm tends to be very accurate since it is only shooting off 2 missles at a time.

Equipment:
19 DHS
XL 350 engine

mondules
Advanced zoom (used when running it as a ER PPC build)

[The Amazing Atomic Spaniel]

Banky, on 03 January 2013 - 07:32 AM, said:

Side torso deaths from XL engines are far less frequent than getting cored straight down the center.

This has also been true in my (limited) experience in pug games. I was rather apprehensive about the survivability of my 80 kmh 3PPC 3ML 9M, but I can't say I've noticed much difference over a standard engine. The Awesome's CT is such an easy target people just shoot me there instead.

[Taizan]

I just wanted to come back to this thread and throw in my build with which I am quite happy atm. I've deleted my 8Q because laser boating just isn't viable on the AWS (too many heat issues if you want to do viable damage).

XL 385 for maxiumum speed
FP: 57
Speed: 77.9 (Base), 86 with speed tweak

1 LL
3 MPL
2 SRM 4
1 SRM 6
AMS + 1t
3t SRM

[Loqgar]

I would never use anything but a large XL engine in an Awsome-9M.

With an XL 380 you can "out run anything you can't out gun", this is critical, you cant take a stalker with 5x SRM6 or an Atlas with an AC20 face to face but at 80+ you have better options.

With a large XL engine you can take more double heat sinks than any other mech in the game. Cooling is often time the limiting factor in dealing damage, so more heat sinks = more damage, then use your speed to hit the enemy where it matters the most.

Twist speed is also really important on the Awesome because you really need to spread damage across your whole mech. I think an awesome has 340 points of upper body armor (counting arms but not head) really use your shield arms and twist speed to spread the damage around and you can keep killing for a long time. With an XL engine, and small hard to crit weapons, you will have most of your fire power until the end.

Don't forget about missiles either. An Awesome is really a magnet for missiles with the giant torso. 80+ KPH can really save your *** if you're paying attention.

If you want an assault mech that goes slow I think there are better options, Atlas, Stalker, a different Awesome, really what does the AWS-9M have going for it but the ability to use a large XL engine? Sure you could get a std 380 for 19 more tons but that is more than my entire weapons payload.

The 9M is my favorite mech to date with the most accumulated XP even after converting a large chunk of it to avoid grinding the crappy ravens.

[NRP]

I'm currently grinding a basically stock 8T to cover the basics so I can get the speed tweak for my 9M and 8R. Holy crap, I think just about every death has been a CT core shot. It's clear to me that a slow Awesome is a dead Awesome. You'd think the devs would give us a little more armor in the CT.

[Quickmcj]

I find this build fun but I cannot help comparing it to the Catapult-C1:

If I make a C1:

XL300
4xMed pulse
2xSRM6 Artemis
AMS

I get:

74.7 kph
54 Alpha
383 armor
1.27 Heat efficiency.

Compare that to 9M:

XL375
4xMed pulse
2xSRM4
1XSRM6
AMS

I get:

75.9 kph
59 Alpha
384 armor
1.31 Heat efficiency.

Now something to consider when comparing these two Mechs:

The speed of the 9M is good, but the turning radius is enormous. I do not know the mechanics but turning radius seems to be affected by engine size and Mech weight. The 9M is like a truck with a very fast engine. The top speed is great but put it on a racetrack and it will be slower than an old VW Beetle.

Side torso is much harder to hit on the C1 because they are small and on top of that they are also covered by the giant arms on both sides.

I have the founder C1 so the mech gives founders bonus.

Everybody wants to kill a 80+ kph 9M, but most people will ignore the founder C1.

The price for the 9M is ~20 mil.

So help me out here, atm I do not see the point unless you want a more difficult mech which is much more expensive?

[NRP]

What help do you need? Seems like you've done your homework. Only you can answer the question "Is an Awesome right for me?"

[Fuggles]

My 9m is a beast, but I sold the rest. With the stalker out now, it pretty much makes the lesser variants obsolete, the 3f can do anything any 8x can but better.

If they made it so you could put maybe a 330 or so in the 8s, they would be a lot better.

[NRP]

I'm loving my 8R and 9M. Of these two, I think I (slightly) prefer my 8R brawler because I tend to get more kills with it (it's a beast up close). But they play so differently from one another that it's easy to love them both. I rarely play any of my other mechs.

[Grimlox]

Quickmcj, on 07 January 2013 - 01:10 PM, said:

I find this build fun but I cannot help comparing it to the Catapult-C1:

If I make a C1:

XL300
4xMed pulse
2xSRM6 Artemis
AMS

I get:

74.7 kph
54 Alpha
383 armor
1.27 Heat efficiency.

Compare that to 9M:

XL375
4xMed pulse
2xSRM4
1XSRM6
AMS

I get:

75.9 kph
59 Alpha
384 armor
1.31 Heat efficiency.

Now something to consider when comparing these two Mechs:

The speed of the 9M is good, but the turning radius is enormous. I do not know the mechanics but turning radius seems to be affected by engine size and Mech weight. The 9M is like a truck with a very fast engine. The top speed is great but put it on a racetrack and it will be slower than an old VW Beetle.

Side torso is much harder to hit on the C1 because they are small and on top of that they are also covered by the giant arms on both sides.

I have the founder C1 so the mech gives founders bonus.

Everybody wants to kill a 80+ kph 9M, but most people will ignore the founder C1.

The price for the 9M is ~20 mil.

So help me out here, atm I do not see the point unless you want a more difficult mech which is much more expensive?

Not sure of your exact build, but I tweaked the awesome a bit for you:


75.9 kph ---------------> 76.9KM/h
59 Alpha ---------------> 59 Alpha
384 armor --------------> 448 Armour
1.31 Heat efficiency. -------> Doesn't show in my mech builder, but 22DHS

I put in the XL 380 engine because it weighs the same as the 375. So now it's 2.2km faster than the C1 and has 64 more armour (pretty significant).

So comparing to the C1 in every category I'd say it goes faster, has a higher alpha strike, has quite a bit more armour, and I believe you are only running 20 DHS (max with your engine iirc) so the Awesome I built has 2 more DHS to top it off.

Here's a link to my build: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...eb742566ce96749

The awesome can even have 480 armour easily with only 20 DHS that I believe you have on your C1.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a6d2fa9b4cc7578

So this way it has almost 100 more armour, more speed, same DHS's and higher alpha than your C1. Not bad.

The real question for most people would be why would I go for a C1? Founder's bonus isn't really a valid comparison for a lot of people (myself included).

I like the torso twist on the C1 and it would handle a bit better in a brawl (maybe not as much as you think if you've never piloted a 9m with a 380 in it but still a bit better I would think,)

[Quickmcj]

Thank you for your nice reply

Well the reason why my 9M is so "low" on armor is that I do not want to waste weight on armor where it is not needed. So in my 9M the legs have 30 armor and the arms have 35. I save 3.5 ton which is used for DHS and ammo instead (I got 23 DHS). Some could argue that more armor is needed in the arms because they are used for blocking shots.

People always go for core on the awesome, at least that is my experience. I have yet to be legged in the 9M.

The turning radius for the 9M is enourmous compared to the C1.

Also lets not forget its a 20M expensive Mech ^^

Anyways I think I really should not compare those two, the point with the 9M is to have fun Its fun because its an assault class mech running at 80+ kph

[Soy]

Stop using a ******* SRM6 in the arm slot of the 9M. That missile hardpoint is a 2-tube.

That is a waste of 2 tons.

It only fires 2 missiles out of that arm, 3 salvos from that arm slot is a joke. Stick a Streak 2 in there and save some tonnage, it's an absolute no brainer.

If you really want SRMs for brawling punch, use the chest for 2x SRM4. They will fire correctly and it will be only 2 salvos total for 8 missiles going straight ahead, rather than 6 firing in 3 salvos of 2 and a **** angle for bad convergence with other arm wep.

Edited by Soy, 12 January 2013 - 02:55 PM.

[Cleverbird]

I never quite understood why people are against fitting larger missile weapons in small tube slots. So what if there's a SRM6 in there, it still shoots 6 missiles, right? Just a little slower, and a heck of a lot more accurate than just blasting them all at the same time.

Plus, with the amount of ECM I've been seeing, I dont really think SSRMs are worth it anymore.

[Flagrant]

Srm6 shoots out the arm with no spread. That's 15 damage in a tight circle. Why is that a waste of tons?

[Soy]

No spread eh?
I've yet to encounter someone who stands still when you SRM them. 3 salvos takes a while - less valuable for snapshotting if using XL (torso twisting to soread dmg if brawling/soaking dmg)... Convergence from that arm can be tricky if moving fast and any 9M not moving fast is derping...Landing 2xSRM4 out of the 9Ms chest is muuuuuch easier than landing an SRM6 out of the 2-tuber arm firing 3 salvos.
Sure if you're firing at DCs or ok fine, 'sneaking' up on some LRM boats, but otherwise... why not downgrade to a 2 or Streak and save tonnage for other stuff?
I don't have a rule of thumb that I must play down to the tube size when using a missile hsrdpoint but it does come into the equation at some point.
I'm just trying to point out that rocking an SRM6 in that slot really does change what you can do with the remaining hsrdpoints and its not a lot. It sorta pidgeonholes the 9M but if you're building around a role to utilize that good stationary/chasedown wep then your overall utility will suffer (lightswatting, etc)...

Edited by Soy, 13 January 2013 - 05:24 AM.

[Wrenchfarm]

Taizan, on 06 January 2013 - 07:22 AM, said:

I just wanted to come back to this thread and throw in my build with which I am quite happy atm. I've deleted my 8Q because laser boating just isn't viable on the AWS (too many heat issues if you want to do viable damage).

I disagree. I laserboat 4xLLAS and 3xMLAS in my 8Q and do just fine. Not sure why you are running into such issues. Are you using the maximum engine size to fit two extra DHS in there?

[NRP]

I'm considering getting an 8Q. 4 LLs and 3 MLs would totally wreak things. Can you post s smurfy build of your 8Q, Wrenchfarm?