245 replies to this topic

[Hyperman]

I'm using my FANG with double AC5s (4t ammo), 3 MLs and a SRM6 (1t ammo) with an 300XL engine, armor almost maxed out.

[HansBlix WMD]

Not sure if someone mentioned this earlier on, but as Hayashi mentioned the arm energy points of the Flame are its only unique (well, uniquely good) feature.

To capitalize on this, you want to be moving fast and control-aim your arms on your target to try to get some of their early hits on your arms and side torso. Later in the fight in crunch time you need your center torso to be able to take the big hits.

To enable doing this more easily and while taking less fire, the short duration of pulse lasers helps just a little bit. Especially since moving and control-aiming your mouse separately takes a lot of concentration and having to do it for a half- or quarter-second less is a major help.

Here are two flame builds that stood out to me as the best. They both use endo, ferro and DHS.

260 STD, AC20, 4xMPL. Yes it's slower b/c of the small engine but that alpha strike is deadly, and people don't often expect it from you (most dragons have smaller caliber ballistics). You can't fit the AC20 with an XL engine, sadly.

300XL, 2xLPL, 2XML, AC/10 or LBX-10. This is faster but with a slightly smaller alpha and more heat issues due to the LPL. However for extended brawls and late game where capping becomes an issue you really want that extra speed. Personally I prefer the LBX10 because of the extra ton of ammo and awesome shotgun sound/visuals but I'm sure the AC/10 is slightly more effective because of the pinpoint damage.

I also notice that enemy mechs really, really really don't like my FLAME. I'm not sure why that is. It's fat, red and has a toothy grin on the front. I think people see them as easy targets to be honest. Whatever the case, recognize this and either use it to your advantage to drag people out of position, or play very cautiously early in the match when all the heavy hitters are out strutting their stuff.

Maneuverable mechs with strong alphas are exceptionally valuable in the latter stages of a game (especially conquest) so if you make a fast dragon, play like a rabbit in the beginning and a, well, dragon in the end.

[NUSQUAM]

FLAME -
Gauss(3t ammo),
LLx2,
MLx2,
Endo,
XL295,
320 Armor,
12DHS.

Great alpha(43). Can run hot if you're not careful but using hit and run tactics, sniping or supporting assaults make this build very deadly and my favorite by far. It's killing power and speed are hard to beat.

The AC/20 build is fun but limits its range and versitility. My sniper variant(Which is now my 1C) and second favorite build for this chasis is XL300, Gauss, ERPPC, ERLL.

FANG -
Gauss(3t ammo),
MLx3,
SRM4,
Endo,
Ferro,
XL360,
340 Armor,
10DHS.

Fast and a great skirmisher. Hits hard and fast and can fuction at all ranges and in different roles.

[Oni Ralas]

/Bump

My Flame:

4mla
1Gauss w/ 4 tons
XL350
Endo
Ferro
DHS
1DHS (in engine)


Speed. SPEED is the name of the game. You should be running ~103.9KPH with speed tweak. Your total firepower number is a mere 35, however the low recycle time of both the MLAS and Gauss (about the same time) means you will alpha them quite a bit. Runs surprisingly cool overall, but in the thick (if you keep alphaing your mlas) you may find yourself redlineing.


You are NOT going to strait up brawl against some other heavies or assaults. You can however appear out of nowhere and drop a 35pt alpha square in the center of someone's back or sides and disappear. The gauss will reach out and touch someone on longer maps, do don't be afraid to let a few go if you have a clear shot. Duck and dive out of buildings and cover - imagine yourself about 10 tons lighter and 10' shorter Those red CT's you see on your screen are dinner bells for a hungry dragon. I'm not saying go kill steel, but you are there to confuse and harass. A wounded animal is your cup of tea, not some fresh painted Atlas (unless you know you can out dance it). Let the assaults duke it out while you punch holes in those behemoth's sides. Oh, and you can murder lights due to your speed and maneuverability - Gauss takes a bit of getting used to when dealing with small targets though.

I've put out almost 1000 damage in a single match before. I run this mech all the time and I love her.

[Zordicron]

I was actually going to just make a thread for this as i recently 1/1 mastered both of these using my Overlord Premium time. Just went with them for raking in the C-bills, but ended up really likeing the performance of the two once I settled on a loadout that fit me.

I had a harder time with Fang then Flame finding a loadout. I was doing AC10 and LL's, but could only fit a XL260 in with enough DHS to run cool. Not enough speed for a Dragon, but prior to the heat changes recently, it worked rather well as a support fire mech to an Assault on my team.This is what it was:

Endo
XL 260(pretty slow for a dragon)
3 LL
1 AC10 2 tons ammo
mostly full armor, and DHS to fill in the rest of tons

It had more firepower then what i ended up with, but the 3rd LL on the torso was clunky. And after the heat stuff, i ended up putting it on its own trigger. this helped for the heat, but also made the clunky aiming worse. When all but one weapon is on arm mount, that one weapon is kind of tedious, especially once a close range fight began. Still, it had a solid alpha, and heat was OK on most maps, and easy on frozen city and even alpine. Still, after the heat changes, I felt there was room for improvement.

Just wingman in and focus. Not too many kills, but lots of dmg/assist for money. Then the heat stuff popped in, and brawling has returned quite a bit. So I changed it out. Here is what I ended up with:

Endo
XL 300
16 DHS
2 LL
2 AC2 3 tons ammo
Pretty much full armor except legs were fairly low and I swiped like 5 points off the head to round it off.

This fell into the support fire role better then the AC10, as it gave me better range, and more speed. It could get too hot on Tourmaline if I was fireing all of it in a brawl, but otherwise it was pretty easy to manage. Made a good light hunter too with 2 LL. Was pretty easy to land all the AC2 ammo in a support role. Used cover, stuck the right side of the mech out so right arm was clear, Pang pang pang pang at whatever was not looking my way. I skipped the laser torso mount, and the missiles.

I think dropping the torso LL and switching back to AC10, and using the extra tons for engine would also turn out well, but at a shorter range. I stuck with AC2 because a lot of players tend to wig out when all that ballistics fire is blowing up in their face, and 8 DPS(on paper) is pretty good.

The Flame. Suffice to say, I found this mech much easier to load out, the energy points fit better with trying to get speed out of it. Originally I had 4 LL, XL300 and then Endo and as much DHS as i could cram in. Worked very well. Set triggers left and right to respective mouse buttons for corner shots. The alpha was good also, and lights got annihilated. When the heat changes came in, the alpha part was too hot to handle on Tourmaline. Stagger fire between left and right arms was ok, but really diminished the pinpoint ability, enough so that I went looking for something new.

i am glad I did. While performance isnt hats off better, compared to pre-heat 4 LL, in the new heat game, I found it worked really well- better in the new heat then the 4LL loadout. Here is what I ended up with:

Endo
XL340
19 DHS
BAP
1 PPC
3ML
1 SRM6 1 ton ammo
Only missing some armor on the legs

It plays like the support role of the fang, with less overall long range dmg(but really handy anti ECM PPC fire) but it also can really hold its own in a close range fight. I had started with 3 MPL and no missiles, but the heat was too much. Missile SPANKS into player faces also disorients them briefly it seems, something MPL do not do, at all. With 19 DHS, you can fire that PPC all day on tourmaline. You can fire the 3 ML and SRM6 for a long time too. The loadout is really brutal at about 120M. With 101kph after tweak, it is also really easy to out turn lights, and also to find your way behind big fatties in a brawl. It is almost fast enough to out maneuver an Atlas in the open and stay behind it, if you are really quick on the throttle and watch for the switchback, you can stay behind them a long time.

Edited by Eldagore, 24 July 2013 - 08:35 PM.

[Verrue]

Since the 12 vs 12 , did your flame/fang/dragon setup changed ?

My flame yes !

XL300
1 Gauss / 4 ammo
2 med pulse
2 med laser
400 armor
Heat at 1.35


Found out that having only 2 ammo of gauss will not last long.


On the plus side, having 12 vs 12 mean an increase of kills as there is far more damaged mech on the battlefield. My flame pick up many target of opportunity/ assist in those big match.

Flanking is now a must for any dragon pilot.

Edited by Verrue, 06 August 2013 - 05:09 PM.