66 replies to this topic

[Airoge]

So Ive been trying the various Trial Mechs out and so far Ive decided I like the larger size mechs, Im still new and being able to take a hit or well 20 is nice for me.... I also while not ALWAYS staying at a distance it seems to be the best tactic for me at the moment till I get more skilled.

Having said that a few questions... Is the atlas the best out there for the person like me who wants to hit someone hard fast since I still suck at up closee engagements?

Also what are the best wpns for long range non sniping as well as sniping... Id like to find a mech that can do both till I can afford to specialize... I know missiles are good but what other options are there?

The problem with the trials is they dont show you everything so that leaves me a lot of questions before I spend my CB


ATM Im looking at the various catapults as well as the Atlas's but Im open to suggestions

I havent spent ant CB yet and am only at 1.3 mill but I seem to be getting a lot from cadet bonus's so hopefully I can get to whatever is needed. I just dont want to foolishly spend my CB on a crap mech.... I also ofc know nothing about the various loadouts as I cant really play with that on trial mechs.

Thanks for your help

[JP Josh]

heavy mech all the cat line is very verstyle

but for you do you like direct fire? or indirect

while the cat is able to do direct due to cockpit lockation it gets headed very fast in mellees.

either a dragon or catrfact would fit you a little better

Edited by JP Josh, 29 December 2012 - 11:11 PM.

[Airoge]

K Ill take a look at those as well...

What about the atlas, are they better or worse in a fight?

[Deadoon]

For fast heavy strikers your best bets are the dragon or cicada, the atlas is a line support mech, it is a slow hulking mass of destruction that rips other mechs apart with ease. It is not very agile or graceful, but carries enough weapons that that doesn't matter.

But for a beginner, I'd suggest starting with the dragon overall, it gives you a bit of missiles, a bit of ballistics and a good high speed. The Dragon 1c will get you a bit of everything, with enough lasers to keep going if you don't take enough ammo.


But My suggestion is to not get a mech until you play all 25 of your cadet matches.

Airoge, on 29 December 2012 - 11:12 PM, said:

K Ill take a look at those as well...

What about the atlas, are they better or worse in a fight?

The atlas is slow, and cumbersome, It will keep you alive, but also make you among the top targets in battle due to how many weapons you can carry, if you want any atlas you should go with the d-dc and get this 400k piece of equipment known as an ECM.

You should have noticed a few of it's effects already.

The problem is about choosing a "better" mech is that almost every mech is better than another in some aspect. A catapult is better distributed armor positions and slightly better armored than an dragon, but a dragon can mount all 3 classes of weapons and is faster.

An awesome is able to carry many more missiles and more energy weapons on average than an atlas, but an atlas is much more heavily armored and carries ballistics for a bigger impact.While ths stalker is the best "missile boat" mech as it mounts immense amounts of lasers as well, and acts as a laser boat as a secondary function.

If you do not like missiles at all, your best bet for a direct fire mech would likely be the catapult k2.

Edited by Deadoon, 29 December 2012 - 11:19 PM.

[Airoge]

so far out of the trial mechs Im liking the centurian followed by teh stalker if that gives you any idea of my style... tthe centurian can take a hit or 2 and the LRM + artemis, whatever artemis is I like it lol

it seems to do better then the other LRM mechs in the trial list

[Airoge]

my biggest issue so far other then manuvering is heat management, seems like Im always overiding shut downs

[Deadoon]

Airoge, on 29 December 2012 - 11:20 PM, said:

so far out of the trial mechs Im liking the centurian followed by teh stalker if that gives you any idea of my style... tthe centurian can take a hit or 2 and the LRM + artemis, whatever artemis is I like it lol

it seems to do better then the other LRM mechs in the trial list

Artemis increases the accuracy of missiles within line of sight, you can still fire from a lock on even if you cannot see your enemy, but the accuracy is the same as if they were normal lrm.

Also this does exclude the dragon from mechs you would like, no missiles support to speak of, only 2 slots in the center.
But it does bring in another mech you might like, the ctf 2x a heavy mech with a good amount of armor and a admirable amount of missiles capacity, you could easily mount an artemis lrm 20 in there and leave enough room for other weapons and adequate ammo for everything. you also would move at speeds that would be likely be acceptable to get into battle at.

Airoge, on 29 December 2012 - 11:31 PM, said:

my biggest issue so far other then manuvering is heat management, seems like Im always overiding shut downs

That is an issue with most "standard" mech designs, they overheat quickly. However custom mechs can do overhauls to their mech, such as endosteel structure which uses up slots, but weighs less or double heatsinks, which are bulkier when outside the engine, but increase heat dissipation greatly over regular heatsinks.
With double heatsinks, you can fire much more often and such, but they are a form of diminishing returns, due to pgi not properly implementing them.
The ones in your engine itself run at double the efficiency of regular heatsinks, so you effectively have 20 heatsinks in your engine rather than 10, but beyond those 10 in your engine they only run at 1.4X efficiency of normal heatsinks. still save you immense amounts of weight for the heat dissipation.

For the Ctf only get doubles, you don't have much slottage, but you will have a good supply of weight.

Edited by Deadoon, 29 December 2012 - 11:41 PM.

[Lucky Noob]

Its not an easy to answer that but il try to help a bit.

I am an Light Pilot ( Raven ) and yes i love my ECM .

If i see an Atlas, yuppie , i run behind him and tralala unload my lasers and my SRM in his nice backtorso.

An Atlas is an Mashine of destruction. Meet his Firepower and it makes toast out of me. sadly hes quiet slow so i can outmanover him easy.
You will often go Toe on Toe with your enemies as you cant run away.

As i have seen you tryed the Trial Cent who is the best Cent variant avaible. Hes extreme fast ( i hate em with my Raven as they can nearly catch up.)

If he is your Playstyle why not use him ?

if you like it one Number more heavy then the Dragon is exact your Type, and if you like going into assault class then an Awsome 9M coud be your Way. ( incredibble speed, heavy weapon loadout many Armor.)

But be warned if you take an assault, your enemy get one too

[Gaeb]

Airoge, on 29 December 2012 - 11:31 PM, said:

my biggest issue so far other then manuvering is heat management, seems like Im always overiding shut downs

That will change with access to double heat sinks (1.5MM upgrade) and the basic exp unlocks (which double if you get 8/8 basics on 3 different mech chassis of the same type - so if you own 3 Hunchbacks and get 8/8 on all 3 you get +15% cooling or whatnot).

I echo the Catapult suggestion - really one of the strongest chassis out there. Atlas is my favorite, but it is *very* slow. Catapults can go fast if you build them for it, Atlas can't top 62KPH. I would also recommend looking into the Hunchback - the SP and P variants are very strong, and with a 250 engine they go 87KPH when speed tweak'd -- so they're pretty fast, with good firepower and good armor, not to mention the best torso+arm twist radius in the game.

Edit: I highly recommend the Hunchback SP as a first mech. 4-5ML + 2SRM4or6 (or 2 SSRM2) is a solid weapon loadout. Else, try the Catapult C1. http://mwomercs.com/...t-mech-cplt-c1/

Edited by Gaeb, 29 December 2012 - 11:41 PM.

[Lucky Noob]

Airoge, on 29 December 2012 - 11:31 PM, said:

my biggest issue so far other then manuvering is heat management, seems like Im always overiding shut downs

i dont know if the Trial variant use Doubble heatsinks, if not simply use them in your own.
Other Ways in your own mech is include Endo Steel Armor for weight reduction and add some heatsinks.

The Finetuning of your own mech is always intresting and in most Times it leades to an build youre realy like.

[Gaeb]

You also might want to browse the battlemech guide forum, lots of good info and build/chassis discussions.
http://mwomercs.com/...96-battlemechs/

[Airoge]

I check that out ty

one other question, I see some purple mechs and cammo mechs and I gather those are upgrades you pay for with rl cash....

as this is a beta, do you know if upgrades like that will carry over into the non beta version? not that Im lookin at payin money right now just a useful thing to know.

[Gaeb]

Airoge, on 29 December 2012 - 11:51 PM, said:

I check that out ty

one other question, I see some purple mechs and cammo mechs and I gather those are upgrades you pay for with rl cash....

as this is a beta, do you know if upgrades like that will carry over into the non beta version? not that Im lookin at payin money right now just a useful thing to know.

1) Devs announced that there will be no wipes going foward, so anything you buy/use now you keep
2) Hero mechs cost MC (4-6K ish)
3) Some (not all) paint jobs and camo cost MC (varies, most cost MC)

[Airoge]

and the only way to get MC is with rl money I assume?

[Prophet of Entropy]

Airoge, on 29 December 2012 - 11:12 PM, said:

K Ill take a look at those as well...

What about the atlas, are they better or worse in a fight?

the thing about the atlas is its very easy to find yourself in bad position specialy when your new. having alot of armor is nice but not being able to run or reposition is why i wouldnt recommend atlases to new players. having twice the armor of someone isnt going to help you as much as youd think if you get caught alone or the people your with run and leave you to die.

catapults are extremely effective mechs, they can be fast and their turning and torso twisting is exceptional. it also can run some of the best builds, k2 2gauss, 6srm6 a1, 3med las, tag and 2alrm15s c1. ive broken 1k damage in a match in cats nearly as much as atlases.

Airoge, on 29 December 2012 - 11:55 PM, said:

and the only way to get MC is with rl money I assume?

yes

Edited by Prophet of Entropy, 30 December 2012 - 12:00 AM.

[Gaeb]

Airoge, on 29 December 2012 - 11:55 PM, said:

and the only way to get MC is with rl money I assume?

Yep. Typical microtransaction route (same as xbox live or League of Legends or Tribes ascend etc) ... the big gold MC button at the top of the screen gives price ranges. Like most microtransactions game you get better value per dollar if you spend more dollars at once.

[Airoge]

gauss havent had a chance to play with those yet ... nor a lot of wpns actually

so if I were to pick catapult for instance, I see the A1 has a ton of missile ability but against a ECM Id be kinda screwed... so would you reccoimend a C4 ... I hate being new lol so many things I dont know about what sort of wpns are out there.

[Mahws]

Paint jobs can be applied to any skin you own, you can buy a limited selection of colors for the basic pattern with CBills, everything else costs MC. There are no more resets planned, so anything you buy is bought for good.

If you're looking for something heavier and a little easier to pilot your best bets are probably the Catapult, Cataphract, Stalker or Atlas.

If you can't stand being slow get a heavy (Catapult if you want missiles with energy, Cataphract if you want to be able to field a mix of weapons). If you'd rather be slower and bigger get the Stalker if you want a missile boat or an Atlas if you want something that can fight both at close and long range (the stalker has a very limited torso twist range making it a fairly poor brawler).

Before you make any decisions check out Smurfy's excellent stat list and online mechlab. Click on the name of the mech you're interested in and have a look at how you can set it up before making the purchase.

Edit:
The C4 is a better choice. The 6xSRM6 A1 build is a pretty devastating mech, but it's also a bit of a one trick pony.

Edited by Mahws, 30 December 2012 - 12:08 AM.

[Gaeb]

Airoge, on 30 December 2012 - 12:04 AM, said:

gauss havent had a chance to play with those yet ... nor a lot of wpns actually

so if I were to pick catapult for instance, I see the A1 has a ton of missile ability but against a ECM Id be kinda screwed... so would you reccoimend a C4 ... I hate being new lol so many things I dont know about what sort of wpns are out there.

Catapult Variants : K2, A1, C1 - I'd start with the C1. Remember, SRM's don't require locks. (SSRM and LRM do)

K2 - 4E+2B slots is unique in that you get nice hard-to-hit torso mounted ballstic hardpoints ... Gausspult (2 Gauss Rifle), AC20Pult (2AC20), and Laserboat (4 energy slots in arm/torso - fill with LL/PPC type weapons) are all popular uses.
A1 - 6M slots : 6 SRM6 build is popular, but you could also mix SSRM/SRM/LRM
C1 - 4E+2M gives a lot of flexibility, you could go 2LL + TAG + 2LRM15 for instance, or just laserboat with 2 SRM6's, or 3 large lasers or 2 PPC+2ML+2SSRM2, etc....

... for comparison:
C4 - 4M+2E and the E are center torso mounted (so, you can't run anything bigger than 2ML) --- probably the most limited variant other than the A1 (which is specialized but gets a lot of mileage due to that specialization)

I echo whoever mentioned this website; its handy: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/

Edited by Gaeb, 30 December 2012 - 12:18 AM.

[Prophet of Entropy]

Airoge, on 30 December 2012 - 12:04 AM, said:

gauss havent had a chance to play with those yet ... nor a lot of wpns actually

so if I were to pick catapult for instance, I see the A1 has a ton of missile ability but against a ECM Id be kinda screwed... so would you reccoimend a C4 ... I hate being new lol so many things I dont know about what sort of wpns are out there.

c4 was fine before ecm, now not so much, if you rely on lock on weapons like streaks or lrms as a new player, every ecm mech will probably roll you. i wouldnt rely on lock on weapons unless your running with a freind or 2 with ecm