72 replies to this topic

[NRP]

Between my STK brawler and my AWS-8R brawler, I am convinced Catapults are basically impossible to kill 1v1. Atlases, bring em on. Catapults, forget it. Not without help. If any of you pros have any tips, feel free to share. I've unloaded everything I've got front, back, sides, you name it. I've even LL'd them from long range before brawling. Doesn't make any difference. They just turn red then white, but are otherwise unaffected. Anyone else notice this?

[Typatty]

NRP, on 05 January 2013 - 08:27 PM, said:

Between my STK brawler and my AWS-8R brawler, I am convinced Catapults are basically impossible to kill 1v1. Atlases, bring em on. Catapults, forget it. Not without help. If any of you pros have any tips, feel free to share. I've unloaded everything I've got front, back, sides, you name it. I've even LL'd them from long range before brawling. Doesn't make any difference. They just turn red then white, but are otherwise unaffected. Anyone else notice this?

Are you referring to catapults that use mass SRM?

[Wrenchfarm]

NRP, on 05 January 2013 - 08:27 PM, said:

Between my STK brawler and my AWS-8R brawler, I am convinced Catapults are basically impossible to kill 1v1. Atlases, bring em on. Catapults, forget it. Not without help. If any of you pros have any tips, feel free to share. I've unloaded everything I've got front, back, sides, you name it. I've even LL'd them from long range before brawling. Doesn't make any difference. They just turn red then white, but are otherwise unaffected. Anyone else notice this?

They can be tough since it is sometimes hard to hit a specific torso component given their weird shape. It might be worth clipping their missile boxes (especially on an A-1) or taking out a leg. Mostly though I think it is a perception thing. Just keep smacking them and they'll eventually go down

[NRP]

All Catapult variants as far as I have seen. I seriously avoid these damn things. All I do is waste all my ammo (which is limited to 3 tons my 8R).

[Typatty]

A good tactic against catapalts to make sure you hit their center torso from the side is to shoot for the front half of the side near the nose. The back half will only count towards the side torso armor.

Edited by Typatty, 07 January 2013 - 12:36 PM.

[Mechteric]

In that first SRM build that leg armor is a bit low considering that's where you stuff all your ammo, I'd recommend getting that armor up at least 10-15 additional points per leg because there's plenty of people who know that's where your ammo is.

[Typatty]

CapperDeluxe, on 07 January 2013 - 12:49 PM, said:

In that first SRM build that leg armor is a bit low considering that's where you stuff all your ammo, I'd recommend getting that armor up at least 10-15 additional points per leg because there's plenty of people who know that's where your ammo is.

Ah, at first I thought you meant the 9M, but yeah, you mean the 8R. I've found that 39-45 is safe since I get legged so rarely in an AWS, but if it feels low you can pull two from each arm to boost it up a bit. Hell, with the lowered Head hitbox I sometimes pull two armor off of the Head to put an extra point on each leg.

[Kmieciu]

An Awesome can dish out a lot of hurt, no doubt about it.
The thing is, it has enormous side torsos, a perfect target for a AC/20 Cat.

Edited by Kmieciu, 08 January 2013 - 06:05 AM.

[NRP]

I've been wrecking a lot of Cataphracts lately with my 8R. They are fast enough to run away, but they never do. I guess they think all those auto cannons will save them.

[Typatty]

Kmieciu, on 08 January 2013 - 06:05 AM, said:

An Awesome can dish out a lot of hurt, no doubt about it.
The thing is, it has enormous side torsos, a perfect target for a AC/20 Cat.

Yeah, AC20s, Gauss, anything that does a lot of damage to one spot at once is pretty much the most dangerous weapon to face in an AWS in my opinion. It helps to have redundant weapon systems so you can still keep fighting if you lose a side torso, but it's tough when you can't spread incoming damage.

NRP, on 08 January 2013 - 07:50 AM, said:

I've been wrecking a lot of Cataphracts lately with my 8R. They are fast enough to run away, but they never do. I guess they think all those auto cannons will save them.

I've had this same experience with cataphracts. What I like to do is slowly strafe them so that they have to lead their autocannons while I pepper them with SRMs, making it harder for them to aim. The cataphract torso is so compact (plus the cataphract has to face you directly to shoot) that SRMs directly to the CT while slowly strafing works really well.

[Pkunk]

I finally got the money for an XL engine. I'm now running 285XL with 4xMPLAS and 3xsrm4. But I have to say it's a build I'm going to have to get used to. The srm4 isn't at all like the 3xsrm6 on an atlas for example where there is a sudden burst of missles. These come in more of a stream so you kinda have to keep track like a laser.

[Typatty]

Pkunk, on 08 January 2013 - 03:29 PM, said:

I finally got the money for an XL engine. I'm now running 285XL with 4xMPLAS and 3xsrm4. But I have to say it's a build I'm going to have to get used to. The srm4 isn't at all like the 3xsrm6 on an atlas for example where there is a sudden burst of missles. These come in more of a stream so you kinda have to keep track like a laser.

Nice! You might want to think about upgrading your lasers to Large Lasers and keeping the SRM4s. Until you get a faster XL on the 9M it doesn't realize it's real potential as a fast brawler, but the 9M is also really good with a few Large Lasers on it. Since you probably have extra tonnage available from the slower XL, you could probably compensate for the slower speed by having stronger, longer-range weaponry.

I, too, had to get used to the stream of srms. One of the good things about the stream is that it keeps the enemy shaking longer.

[BlindEyeCharlie]

I bought my 9M in closed beta. once I had the cash and elite skills done i Jammed a xl385 and like 31 or 32 SHS in him. Dropped 6 mpl lasers on him and just destroyed people.

Heat was 0 issue and i could alpha strike the whole match and never overheat. I have had matches with over 1100 damage with this build.

Once live hit and they jacked the heat up 25% on the MPL this build even with 23 DHS just didnt fly as I was overheating very very quickly and i tried about every weapon grouping I could think of.

I have moved my build to 4 ML and 2 LL grouped into 2 groups of 2 ML and 1LL. I can get off 4 alphas before i get a overheating warning, and if i play smart, I can fire my groupings 1 at a time and only on acid world have to worry about heat.

Tho this build is no where near as powerfull as the closed beta build, having an assault mech going 84.x mph that can cycle the lasers quickly is a force to be reckoned with.

I found this thread by accident, and after reading im gonna play around some with the srm's and see what i can come up with.

Charlie

[Typatty]

BlindEyeCharlie, on 09 January 2013 - 10:01 AM, said:

I bought my 9M in closed beta. once I had the cash and elite skills done i Jammed a xl385 and like 31 or 32 SHS in him. Dropped 6 mpl lasers on him and just destroyed people.

Heat was 0 issue and i could alpha strike the whole match and never overheat. I have had matches with over 1100 damage with this build.

Once live hit and they jacked the heat up 25% on the MPL this build even with 23 DHS just didnt fly as I was overheating very very quickly and i tried about every weapon grouping I could think of.

I have moved my build to 4 ML and 2 LL grouped into 2 groups of 2 ML and 1LL. I can get off 4 alphas before i get a overheating warning, and if i play smart, I can fire my groupings 1 at a time and only on acid world have to worry about heat.

Tho this build is no where near as powerfull as the closed beta build, having an assault mech going 84.x mph that can cycle the lasers quickly is a force to be reckoned with.

I found this thread by accident, and after reading im gonna play around some with the srm's and see what i can come up with.

Charlie

Lately I've been playing my 9M with 3 LL, all in the torsos. It never overheats with all of the DBL HS and it's equivalent to 6 long-range medium lasers (27 damage at 450 meters). If you like laserboating the 9M I'd suggest trying that one out. Otherwise 3 MPL and SRM4s work well without heat problems too.

[Pkunk]

Typatty, on 08 January 2013 - 04:23 PM, said:

Nice! You might want to think about upgrading your lasers to Large Lasers and keeping the SRM4s. Until you get a faster XL on the 9M it doesn't realize it's real potential as a fast brawler, but the 9M is also really good with a few Large Lasers on it. Since you probably have extra tonnage available from the slower XL, you could probably compensate for the slower speed by having stronger, longer-range weaponry.

I, too, had to get used to the stream of srms. One of the good things about the stream is that it keeps the enemy shaking longer.

I have the 385XL I mean So engine is fast enough hihi! I have so far found that the srm4's are the key. If I hit them right I can melt most mediums in a couple of volleys. I think I actually headshotted a dragon with them.

I could run 1 LLas and 3MLas and lose a bit of ammo but I've got such good results with what I have now (AWS-9M) I'm gonna stick with it a while. Fun

Edited by Pkunk, 09 January 2013 - 12:54 PM.

[Alexander 1978]

NRP, on 05 January 2013 - 08:27 PM, said:

Between my STK brawler and my AWS-8R brawler, I am convinced Catapults are basically impossible to kill 1v1. Atlases, bring em on. Catapults, forget it. Not without help. If any of you pros have any tips, feel free to share. I've unloaded everything I've got front, back, sides, you name it. I've even LL'd them from long range before brawling. Doesn't make any difference. They just turn red then white, but are otherwise unaffected. Anyone else notice this?

Since I mastered the Catapult already I can tell you that many players will put their ammo in their legs. And some of them even lower armor on the legs at the same time. So if you face a Catapult with 6 SRM6 on or a Streak Cat, just shoot at the legs. They are normally easy to hit from all sides. Take out one and they are slow as a turtle. Take out both and they are gone.

Going for the "ears" where their missile slots are in is also a good Idea (as mentioned before by Wrenchfarm) for those Catapults that have "ears". The K2 Cat's can be a pain too since they are widely used with some bad pinpoint damage builds like dual Gaussrifles, dual AC/20's or quad PPC's / Large Lasers.

Here I'd try the same tactic. Give the legs a few shots and see if they turn orange or red instead of just a bright yellow. If a few hits drop them to a dark orange or even red then just concentrate your full firepower on their legs. Once they lose one they become easy targets because of the lost speed. You can even outmanouver them in this state and try to get to their rear armor which (in most cases) will be even thinner then their leg armor. But shooting off the other leg will do the same thing and take the mech out of the match.

I hope this helps you out a bit when fighting Catapults.

Alexander 1978


Edit: Corrected some mistakes

Edited by Alexander 1978, 16 January 2013 - 12:55 AM.

[NRP]

Thanks for the tips, Alexander! Will definitely give it a try.

I've been working on my Cats lately (K2 and A1), and I'm not sure why I've been having trouble against them. I don't seem to last long at all in a Cat. I guess I have been doing it wrong all along. So far the only Cat I like is the K2.

[NRP]

The double XP weekend motivated me to get more Awesomes.

8Q:
STD285
6 LLs (grouped in twos)
Endo
DHS
HE = 1.09
max armor

Heat is very manageable. You can fire groups of two LLs for quite a while before getting a heat warning. An alpha takes you to 70% heat on Caustic.

8T:
STD290
4 LLs
1 MPL
2 SRM6s
DHS
max armor

This is one of my favorite mechs. Symmetrical hard point layouts are, well . . . awesome. Really easy to fire around teammates who drift into your lane. And the MPL + SRM6s are great finishers.

[ElLocoMarko]

Well written and compelling. Many of the AWS I have met in the battlefield have not performed so well... more people need to read your guide

You have a definite preference for LL and ERLL for sniping. Many like the PPC guarantee that the damage will hit one location. Thoughts? I have theories but you have tons of play time and I'd like to hear it from you.

Typatty?

Edited by ElLocoMarko, 22 January 2013 - 01:55 PM.

[Just wanna play]

so how some are these builds after the srm/lrm nerf?? alpha wise they look pathetic, am i wrong? 72 alpha is now 56