7 replies to this topic

[Farix]

Now that I have almost reached mastery on my three Hunchbacks. I'm looking to move to a heavy mech. But I don't know which to go with, either a Cataphract or a Dragon. Why would I chose one over the other and which three variants would be good to level up with.

Edited by Farix, 17 December 2012 - 06:20 PM.

[Smeghead87]

I too am struggling to choose a heavy mech to play, none of them really inspire me. I might get a catapult depending on how tomorrows TAG buff works out.

[TruePoindexter]

Dragon - fast paced gameplay with an emphasis on hit and run
Cataphract - everything else

[Wrenchfarm]

The Dragons play like beefy medium mechs. Personally I love that feeling, but you may be looking for a change.

Phracts lend themselves to slower but powerful builds. You can put a lot of nasty weapons in them. Running with an XL is a (risky) option if you want to keep some mobility and still leverage the Phracts many hardpoints.

Catapults lend themselves to boating builds. SRM boats, dual AC20s/Gauss, LRMs are less dominant than they used to be but still viable with TAG.

It depends on what you want to do and what kind of player you are. If you like to flank the enemy and a lot of adaptability, the Dragon is a good choice. The Phract and Cat offer different types of heavy support fire, but both need to work with their team for the best effect.

[themoob]

The Cataphract is the only REAL heavy mech (big, tough, but not a walking fortress like an assault).

Dragons are just oversized medium mechs.

Catapults are meant to be fire support mechs, but MWO has turned them into the go-to platform for cheesebuilds.

[TruePoindexter]

themoob, on 17 December 2012 - 05:50 PM, said:

The Cataphract is the only REAL heavy mech (big, tough, but not a walking fortress like an assault).

Dragons are just oversized medium mechs.

Catapults are meant to be fire support mechs, but MWO has turned them into the go-to platform for cheesebuilds.

Even in TT Catapults were kinda the cheese kings. Until the clans - then they became targets.

[Hex Pallett]

I'm just gonna be a lazy a$$ and copy paste what I posted on another post:


Dragon: Oversized light. With a large engine you could run up to 100+ km/h. XL engine is need, however, if you wanna carry enough weapon system, so keep moving and firing. Also, hardpoints are not exactly distributed well, so not a good idea if you wanna upgrade all the way.

Catapult: Arguably the best long range supporter. All Catapults are very good missile boats, with the exception of K2 which can be a good sniper with PPCs, LL and ballistics. Currently suppressed hard by ECM, so you might wanna find a good ECM teammate or arm yourself with TAG. Also, most crucial missile hardpoints are located in arms, which are quite easy to focus fire on, so be careful when brawling.

Cataphract: Arguably the best ballistic/energy weapon platform, not mentioning the hero 'Mech that can mount 2x Gauss in arms. Hardpoints are very well distributed on most variants. I've never used a Cataphract but seems to me that they're farely threatening. The only problem I find is that Cataphract's ugly flat upper torso are highly vulnerable against SRM boats.

[Kommisar]

The Devs have said that larger maps are coming. The first in January (Desert). My opinion is that once we get larger areas to fight in and over, mechs like the Dragon will find their place to shine. Right now, on maps that are, what? Around 1.5km x 1.5km with the fighting mostly concentrated (check those heat maps, great analytical tool!!!) in 10% of that overall area. This be chicken wire boxing matches right now. Brawling matches. What matters is weight of fire and armor. And I will include "Lag Shields" as a defensive armor here. This is not the fight that mechs like the Dragon were designed for.

When we have big maps (I have no idea what size is coming), then the whole paradigm (meta) of the current game changes. Now, react time matters. You're decision cycle timing becomes a noticable factor. (Side Note: Go read Boyds work on Decision Cycle Game Theory... good stuff) In any combat area, how fast you can move (reactively or proactively) is the part of the cycle that your mech will control. The "Act" portion. The faster your mech, the quicker you can "Act", move forward in the cycle, and get inside your opponent's cycle.

So, faster is better. Yes, to an extent. The other parts of "Act", however, involves shooting stuff and correcting the enemies behavior. This is where the Dragon is, perhaps, a great mech. Let's look at what it brings to the table.

• Fast. You are no fast light; but you are fast enough that a smart light pilot is not going to ignore you. You are fast enough to get across a map quick enough to matter in most instances.
  
• Armored. You do carry a good amount of armor. More than 2 lights put together. Enough that an Atlas pilot like myself can't ignore you if you get behind me with the notion that my hunchback escort can run you off before you do to much damage. More than enough to discourage a light mech from wanting to mix it up with you in a stand up fight.
  
• Weapons. Not a good boat build. But, you have good variety and good options to be a reactive mech.

LRMs are going to make a come back. I already know how, it's just a matter of when. You're not a missile boat, but you can mount a decent long range volley. Not enough to bother most assaults... but enough to worry a medium and certainly a light mech as you are closing. Better yet, combined with your speed, you can quickly add weight of fire to multiple engagements. Again, as an Atlas driver, I dearly appreciate every support hit that my allies can land on a target that I am slugging it out with. Even 5 points of damage can give me an edge.


You have that ballistic arm. 3x AC/2s are a great harrasment combo. Especially against slower moving assaults. AC/5s are solid. And an AC/10 or bigger will cause any assault mech to pause and worry if they have already been in a fight. And, now, an arm mounted Gauss is sort of ideal. You don't have to worry as much about the gauss blowing up.

You can mount some decent energy weapons. The ER could even become a staple weapon once we have larger maps and you can use it's range with the ability to keep the distance. Or pack on some medium pulses to run off light mechs.

Finally, you still bring enough armor and firepower that you can contribute to a stand up fight when needed. Especially if you are smart about it and use the speed to flank the enemy line.

This is all speculation right now. I don't know what the Devs are handing over in terms of larger maps. But if they are significantly bigger, expect to see the Dragon come out of the back of people's mech bays and shine as Heavy Cav.

Edited by Kommisar, 18 December 2012 - 06:17 AM.