12 replies to this topic

[Victoly]

I've been playing with this idea for ... well, probably 24 hours, which is no time at all, and I'm not an incredibly experienced pilot, but here goes...
I'm looking to build a 'Mech that uses primarily Flamers to send the enemy's heat levels through the roof. They were one of my favorites back in the MW3 days.

Seems that the Cicada fits the concept pretty well, as its most common hard points are Energy-based. I really like the CDA-3M for its ECM and the ability to mount a possibly hard-hitting Ballistic Hard point.

Possibly something like this:
[CDA-3M]
x3 FLAM replacing x2 MLAS and x1 SPLAS
keep x1 UAC5
keep ECM
keep AMS

I figure with this, running circles around a HBK or heavier wouldn't be too hard, and when their core shuts them down, hit 'em hard with the UAC5.

Problems I see are... damage output without help from a team, XL Engine vulnerability, and the question of "How good are flamers, really?" I wonder if I'll be doing a better job of turning myself into a roasted marshmallow rather than injuring or crippling my enemy.

Any suggestions on builds for the CDA-3M or another light or medium are more than welcome. Like I said, I'm not incredibly skilled or experienced; I'm looking to learn here.

[Socket7]

You will overheat yourself with flamers before you will overheat your enemy. In fact, it's not possible to push an enemy into shutdown with flamers. They'll have to push it into override by shooting at you.

They are less then worthless, they are an active hazard to your own mech.

[Victoly]

Huh... well. Guess that pushes my idea into the garbage. Sad day!

[Toko5000]

I did try this out with my Atlas using 4x flamers. It was pretty funny because people tend to freak out when an atlas is right in front of them firing 4 flamers and they do usually overheat. The mechs would fire frantically, shut down, then my teammates would kill them.

lulz Not really useful against someone who knows what they're doing but fun in a pub game.

[Socket7]

Toko5000, on 18 December 2012 - 08:42 AM, said:

I did try this out with my Atlas using 4x flamers. It was pretty funny because people tend to freak out when an atlas is right in front of them firing 4 flamers and they do usually overheat. The mechs would fire frantically, shut down, then my teammates would kill them.

lulz Not really useful against someone who knows what they're doing but fun in a pub game.

Yeah, they'll blind someone and disorient them, they can even push framerates into the toilet, but with regards to actively dealing damage, you're best off with real weapons. The amount of damage you'll do plinking away at them while shutdown (if they shutdown) is less then what you could get if you just brought DPS.

[Victoly]

Lol, so fun in the games I play. Well, if I find myself with 7 million CBills floating around, I might have to poke around with flamers for fun, at least, anyway.

I do like the look of the CDA-3M, anyway, so I may end up picking it up for the sake of ... well, actually using it. I've read a build or two on them and it sounds like my kind of fun- maybe some pulse lasers and an AC? Or perhaps just pulse lasers... oh, the joys of MechWarrior.

Funny how, before, I thought of myself as more of a "GIVE ME ALL THE MISSILES" guy... and now I'm playing with fire and lasers instead... huh...

[MadPanda]

I bought the hunchback 4P which has 6 energy points in the right torso just to try out mass flamers. The results were really bad. The flamer is currently just broken weapon. It reads that it generates 0.6 heat but in reality it generates massive amount of heat instantly. I jumped from 0% to 40% after starting to shoot all of them at the same time. The technical explanation was something that the flamers make the air around them heat up which raises your heat levels. After the initial massive heat burst YOU get (not the enemy, but you), then the heat climbs up normally, 0.6 heat at a time. It still heats you up really fast. And if you stop shooting, and then start again, you get the massive initial heat burst again. This weapon isn't just weak, it's broken from coding point of view. Absolutely no reason to pick it up.

[Victoly]

I wonder if they had similar problems when programming for MWIV, since they switched to a projectile weapon at that point.

Heck, I wonder if that'll become a new weapon, or something- plasma shots, maybe? Since they don't seem to exist as anything but "Flamers" anywhere else in the Battletech Universe... I doubt it. Oh well!

I really hope they fix it. I love me some flamethrowers, and making the enemy panic from heat is even more fun.

[Gigastrike]

I don't think there is a single weapon in the game that needs a buff more than flamers. I'd love to see them made viable.

[Scrawny Cowboy]

Use to run two flamers in my Atlas RS right arm back in closed beta. Was very handy to have to scare off anyone that wanted to exploit your vertical torso pitch.

[The Basilisk]

There are no core overload or Reaktor explosions in MWO.
ATM Flammers are ineffectual weapons that surely will slow down the enemys heat dissipation but won't do real dmg nor will you be able to fire them the needed ammount of time for taking real effect. Your own heat scale will just jump out of the cockpit in search for some lake to jump in.

[Quad Ace]

I actually had a single success running a 4p loaded with all flamers. If you do 2 groups, and chainfire, they're actually heat stable. It WILL heat up an enemy (he could only get off a single small laser), but you do next to no damage and become the biggest target ever.

It was a lot of fun, but I can't see it working in any but the most specific of circumstances

[Dr B00t]

i noticed flamers are really only useful after your enemy is already overheated...it can almost lock them into that state