43 replies to this topic

[Gevurah]

Thanks for reading this.

Edits are at the end!

There have been many guides written on the Centurion mech; including individual builds and variants. I encourage you to search for something specific, if you cannot find it in this guide.

My goal here is to provide more functional 'how to use' information on the Centurion variants available in MWOMercs. I intend to make it detailed though obviously there are limits. This mech is frankly too flexible to write something for every single situation, but I feel some might find benefit in what I've learned about this mech over the past few months.

A little background on me: I love battletech & mechwarrior, but enjoy the medium mechs the most. I feel this makes me somewhat an oddity in MW games as most people tend to gravitate to light mechs for speed or heavier mechs for firepower. I want the best of both worlds: to me I love the speed of a lighter mech, the versatility of heavier mechs, and close range dueling capability of something with lots of ballistic slots or missiles.

On to the mech. The centurion is an interesting mech with some rather unusual traits. The first is that it's left arm is in effect by designed to be a shield. This includes a fin which extends up to help protect your vulnerable cockpit. Utilization of the left arm as an effective shield is VITAL to playing a centurion. Three of the variants actually allowed you make cross body shots with your ballistic arm while using your left arm as a shield to soak fire. This effectively gives you 32 points of free armor, extending your combat capacity significantly. In fact, with many of the variants boasting significant torso weaponry, this mech excels at survival. While it's firepower is usually around a 7 out of 10, the fact that you can effectively stay in the game until the bitter or glorious end cannot be overlooked. It is not uncommon to see this mech running around armless, even legless with only it's missile or laser slots remaining still firing away. For this reason, I am not a fan of XL engines in this chassis as it significantly reduces the durability/longevity. While the high speed is great, the trade off is you die quite literally 3-5 times as fast due to the engine being placed across your entire torso. Your arms are very large targets on this mech, so once those are gone you're going to need that torso armor to survive.

Despite the reduced torso twist radius, the fact that you have a high powered weapon typically placed on your usually mobile arm allows you to make shots literally on the edge of your screen while dogfighting. IE you can keep your shield arm in the way while shooting over it at the enemy from relative safety.

While many point to the hunchback as a more effective platform, I believe my own
experiences show that in the hands of a skilled pilot a centurion can easily outfight both of the other medium mech platforms currently available (Hunchback and Cicada). The hunchback has little use for it's comically small arms, relying mostly on it's huge pod(s)to fight with. Taking the pod out of the fight is relatively easy considering they have to keep it facing you to use it. The cicada is very fast, but relatively underpowered. It's basically a larger version of a light mech.

Shared traits of all Variants:
Left arm never mounts weapons.
Jump jets are never available.
All tend to put heavy weapons in the right arm.
All can carry a very respectable maximum of 338 points of armor. If you consider you're able to use your left arm as a shield, that basically give you 32 "Free" points of armor to use as a soak at any given time.
The fact your center torso weapons will always be available means it makes good sense to put double heat sinks on this mech. Ferro Fibrous armor is a mixed bag - in many cases I use it for weight reduction but you have to be mindful of the loss of slots. As such, it's the least important of the available upgrades.
All variants start with a WHOPPING 48 points of armor in each leg. I recommend
immediately reducing those values from 48 to 30-35 to free up vital tonnage. Likewise you will see nearly all of my builds put the ammo in the legs or cockpit. This is because it helps save the cost of CASE being necessary. It's a calculated risk on my part. In the case of putting ammo in the cockpit usually when that is breached you are likely dead anyways. You could probably go thinner but even with this much I still have only been legged about 3 times in the plethora of games I've done in this mech. 48 points is simply beyond overkill.

At worst, those points can be better reallocated to LT/CT/RT.

Now on to specific variant(s).
The CN9-A - This is a base level coming in at a very reasonable 3,697,000 C-Bills or 1,480 MC.
This is an excellent variant, though it's basic equipment is somewhat lacking. It is, however, an excellent mech once upgraded. The first thing you're going to want to pick up is endo-steel. The 2.5 ton weight improvement can then be immediately shuttled into a newer engine. I prefer a standard 225-245. The largest you can fit on this mech is a 260. Bear in mind as you go up in engine speed it comes with more and more heat sinks. So you can probably get rid of 1 or 2 depending on what speed you get.

It sports a speed of 46.3->84.2 km/h. While this is tepid by light mech standards, it works very well for close combat dogfights and most general situations. This mech seems very happy when running around 72kph. While other variants of this chassis can go faster, this one has by far the most balanced and useful slot allotment. The right arm is movable and allows for the great cross-body method described earlier.

Starting load out:
1xAC10
1xLRM10
2xMLas, 64.8kph out of the box, 272 points of armor.

Hard-points:
1 Ballistic Hard-point (RA)
2 Energy Hard-points (CT)
3 Missile Hard-points (LT)

Most notably this load out, in canon, is described as a sort of bodyguard mech for fire support mechs. It works reasonably well in that role. In the downtime, the LRM's are good for racking up damage on targeted enemies.

I however, think on this mech that the LRMS are in general, a waste. It takes up entirely too much space and ends up giving this mech a 'master of none' feeling out of the box. This is primarily due to the low speed. In general it functions fine unless you're being focused. A few minor upgrades/changes will resolve this in kind.

I find that I pretty much cannot live without some manner of SRM on this. Indeed, there are three missile slots; to not use them to maximum benefit is to do yourself a disservice.

A combination of LRM5 for utility and 2xStream2 or 1xSRM6 is a simple, but very functional change which makes all the difference. Also for consideration is that no matter what the LAST weapon you will have is always going to be your center torso. For that reason, I don't like using medium lasers unless I have to. Their lack of punch seems a waste. I prefer a single large laser, which is a bit unorthodox but gives long range versatility and short range focused power. If saving weight, I'll try to slot in 2 medium pulse lasers. I find they hit more easily and consistently as well as deliver slightly more damage to the target.

The relatively big AC10 is hard to use effectively. At close range the shots can be difficult to lead with on fast targets; at long range the damage is diminished. On top of that the damage is only slightly better than average.
Moreover, it's weight is higher than the LBXAC10, which seems far more useful in the close range support role this mech is intended and best suited for.

One build I prefer is a triple SRM6 build. It has a HUGE short range punch. The ballistic arm is replaced with a simple AC/2, though I've sometimes snuck an Ultra AC/5 in at the expense of ammo or lasers. With that said, here are some of my favorite builds.

The SRM6 nuker:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a67cc68de627924
Highlights: 304 points of armor, 2xMPL, 3xSRM6, 1xAC2. 76 kph (84 w/speed tweak). DHS, Endo, even Ferro for maximum weight savings.
Downsides: Alphas cause a LOT of heat, even with DHS.

SRM6+UAC5 w/out ammo shortages.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...16548dbd1ea9b33
Same as above, gives up vital center torso lasers though to be able to put up a good fight with missiles and UAC. Damage output is fairly significant.
Downsides: no center torso lasers and is completely ammo dependent.

SRM6+UAC5+2xML w/ small ammo pool:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...0ee9901d09bca93
This one has two center torso medium lasers, a UAC, 3 SRM6's, 304 points of armor but only 1 ton of SRM and UAC ammo. It dries up very fast. Great design if you want to dump as much damage as possible before you lose your equipment (say if you find you're not a
terrific dog-fighter and lose your arm/etc very quickly).

The "Balanced" build:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...dffc74464171163
LRM5 for pecking away at the enemy at maximum range; LBX10 & 2 streak SRM2's for
infighting. 2 Medium lasers round out the arrangement. Packs a good punch and can be used in pretty much any circumstance.

My usual build:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...f76086cff6e816b
2xML, 2xSRM6, 1xLBX10. This is my alpha machine. I simply run up, alpha strike the cockpit, rinse, repeat. Damage values run from respectable (300-400) to great (800-1000+) depending on how you play. Ammo consumption is reasonable but not unmanageable. With this setup you can pretty much go toe to toe most anything.

Variant 2: The CN9-AH - No longer available in game. Closest you'll find is the YLW, though it's a far cry from the AH in terms of slot allotment.

Variant 3: The CN9-AL - The "las boat" version of the A. Comes in at 3,552,238 C-Bills or 1,425 MC. So slightly cheaper to buy on the outset. Works the same, but only with more heat sinks standard, more laser/energy weapon slots while still retaining the moving arm. Top speed is still limited to a 260 engine, meaning a maximum of 84.2km/h. Once again endo-steel is a must (as with all variants) as a first choice of upgrades to free up vital tonnage. I also like to lighten up the leg armor as well as you know. This frees up a significant amount of weight and gives a lot more flexibility for weapons.


Starting load out:
16xheat sinks
1xLarge Laser
1xSmall Laser
Starts with MAXIMUM 338 armor (dropping leg armor to 31 from 48 gives an immediate 1.5 tons of free space); endo steel adds another 2.5 for 4 extra free tons.
2xMedium laser
and 1xLRM10.

Hard-points:
0xBallistic
4xEnergy(CT & RA)
2xMissile(LT)

This load out is very similar to the A variant, with the only changes being allotments and starting load out It's pretty efficient on heat from the outset, so DHS is less of a priority; however as you upgrade it you will find it eventually will become necessary.

Note: I'm not really into energy weapon builds. So you'll probably find better out there; this is simply what I use to grind EXP to get back to my CN9-A and CN9-YLW.

Builds:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...58ea8d42577119d
2lpl 2ssrm. Pretty straightforward. Heat is an issue, but it's manageable. Switch to streaks when you run hot.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...9fe8fdc1972e561
1 ER PPC, 1 ER LL, 1 LRM 10.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c908d2fbf5f017d
2 ER PPCS, 1 ER LL – this is a sniper build. It uses an XL260 engine as a calculated risk. The goal here is mobility and long distance shots so ideally you won't get in a close range firefight.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...79a1ae32cd376a2
1 LL (for heat), 2 ML, and 2SRM6. It's a basic setup, not as powerful as I'd like but similar to my preferred build. You can improve it a lot, but I don't plan on dumping a ton of money into this mech – mostly I'm just doing it to elite it so I can get master on the ones I care about.

Variant 4: CN9-D – Coming in at a whopping 8,158,590 C-Bills or 3265 MC, this (currently a trial) mech is equipped per battltech lore with star-league era refit technology. It's essentially a CN9-A with bonus goodies on it. It comes standard with Artemis IV and an XL engine.

Stock load out:
1xLBX10, 1xLRM10(Artemis), 2xML. Stock speed is a blistering 97.2 km/h right out of the box, making this a wicked fast version of the Centurion platform. Indeed it's also got the highest top speed, with the capability to put in a full size 390 engine! Granted, you'll be using half your mech for engine, but hey – 126.4 km/h right?!

Hard-points:
2xEnergy (CT)
2xBallistic (RA)
2xMissile (LT)

So on it's face, this mech seems great. High speed, great mobility, decent weapons, fast missile lock – etc. However it's exceedingly hard to play to its strengths because the XL engine again dooms this mech to an early death as many people who have used the trial version can attest to. Simply put this mech almost always ends up a brawler. While the LBX and Medium Lasers work fine for that, the XL engine and broad torso will invariably bring you to a quick and ignominious end.

That said, it's got a lot of great potential and probably represents the best POSSIBLE Centurion in terms of builds.

Most of the builds that are done in the CN9-A can be done here veritably identically; I'm not going to repeat them.

I will however, put up a few of my more interesting ones for your review.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...2ad524977e3157d
1xUAC5, 2xML, 1xLRM10(Artemis), 1xAnti Missile System.
This first one I think is how the mech should really come stock. When you are running an XL engine, you really don't want to get into protracted engagements. Your goal should be to use your superior speed to keep the fight at a great distance while peppering the enemy with LRM and UAC ammo. The AMS will help mitigate counter fire from enemy LRM's when you're exposed. This is a hit and run mech, designed to lay down rapid damage and fade away just as quick. Armor's been reworked to be more useful and survivable.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...7942c441bb4b6a5
This is my “not long for this world” variant. Designed to run in, hit the enemy, and hopefully run like hell before being blown up. Doesn't carry much ammo, but I left a full 1.5 tons remaining for either a bigger engine, AMS, machine gun, more ammo, etc. It dumps the Artemis to make room for more weapons.

Variant 5: CN9-YLW – The “Yen-Lo-Wang” - aka “the wang”. In lore, this was the solaris ArenaMech piloted by the famous Kai Allard-Laio. The only premium (MC only) mech on our list; comes in at 3750 MC, making it the cheapest 'hero' mech in the game as of this writing.

The primary advantage to this variant is it's 30% cbill boost. It also has a very vibrant and non-changeable paint job.

Starting load out:
215 engine (vs 200 in A/AL); to a max of 280 (some online sources claim 260, this is wrong). This gives it a slightly faster 69.7 KPH speed out of the box.
AC/20 and 2 ML's – that's it.
Max 338 armor.

Hard-points:
2xBallistic (RA)
2xEnergy (CT)
1xAMS

Oh, did we mention you can't move the right arm horizontally either?

And that's it. So at a glance, it's a centurion with a bullseye for a paint job, worse slot allocation, and a busted arm. Frankly many people can't stand this mech.

I, however, love it. It has some special offsets that make it different from any other centurion to compensate for the busted arm: For one it has an additional 30 degrees in range of motion. Stock centurions can turn 90 degrees; this one can go 120, without any bonuses. Next up the torso speed is very high, having also been increased significantly. Putting in larger engines will actually make this even faster. So rather than shooting across the body what you actually want to do is whip the torso rapidly to soak a big barrage and unload with your main gun when they're on cool down It's actually pretty easy to do with practice.

While you can shoehorn an XL280 engine into this mech it really isn't worth it. With the lack of cross-body shooting you're begging to get killed. The top speed is only marginally higher than a stock centurion too – with a 280 engine in you can push I think 90.7km/h without speed tweak. So realistically you're going to take some lumps. I prefer a 235 or 245 standard engine, giving me a solid top speed in the 70's or 80's with speed tweak.

The bread and butter of this mech is that it can fit an AC/20 into it's arm. There' s really not a whole lot of options with this mech in terms of configuration due to it's low slot allocation. I personally prefer keeping the AC/20 on. I know some people put a Gauss or 2xUAC5 but I just really think it's the one huge advantage of this mech so why not use it?

The long and the short of it is, it's a unique mech that will force you to adapt your play style but hey – it's cheap to own, looks pretty cool, can fit an AC20 in the arm, is great at dogfighting, is highly mobile AND gives you 30% more C-Bills per game to boot!

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN LEARN TO DO WITH YOUR YLW IS USE THE AC20 EFFECTIVELY! That means get close enough to hit for the full 20 damage, be smart enough to keep your gun from being blown away after 2 shots are fired, and to know the 'feel' of the slower AC/20 projectile so you don't miss! Wasted shots with an AC/20 are painful since ammo is in short supply.

If you're going to C-Bill grind, here are the builds I prefer:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...67517d33d25002a
1xAC20, 1xERLL. The goal with this design is to pepper at range with the ERLL until they close in to to range with the AC20. Carries 4 tons of ammo because you will definitely need it. Double heat sinks are pretty much a must due to the heat generated by the AC/20.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...fc3a7331d96ba23
1xAC20, 2xMPL, 1xAMS. This was my build for a long time. The AMS is useful in many situations. CASE is used because there was an extra .5t available. 3 tons of AC20 ammo, though I found I tended to shoot through this. The damage is slightly higher in close quarters than with the ERLL, though you're limited in range which means your overall damage is usually lower. You can pull the engine, pull the AMS and put in

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c46046e74b0dbb6
This is what the above got upgraded to – a 245 engine (vs 225) for an 87.3 kph speed tweaked top end. Two medium pulse lasers, and an AC20. No AMS, no CASE.

*UPDATES 3/7/13*

Per patch notes:

Centurion Variant Quirks. (each variant gets it's own quirks)

- Increased CN9-A and CN9-AL max engine to 275 (from 260).
- Increased CN9-YLW max engine to 300 (from 280).
- Increased CN9-A and CN9-AL torso twist angle to 100 (from 90).
- Decreased CN9-A, CN9-AL, and CN9-D max horizontal arm angle to 35 (from 40).
- Increased CN9-A and CN9-AL turning rate by 10%.
- Increased CN9-YLW turning rate by 5%.
- Decreased acceleration rate of all Centurions by 10%.
- Increased the deceleration rate of the CN9-A, CN9-AL, and CN9-D by 10%.

Changes to the guide: With the A/AL/D shooting over the shield as described above doesn't require you put the circle all the way to the edge of the screen. It makes it considerably easier.
The turn rates make this a significantly potent brawler. The turning rate changes really assist with high speed maneuvering.
Higher engine speeds affect torso twist rate; the YLW already had stupidly high twist rate (twist speed), so 300 I find is practically instantaneous, though the tradeoffs are too much for me.


And that about covers it! I appreciate you taking the time to read this and welcome any comments. Feel free to post your builds too

Edited by Gevurah, 07 March 2013 - 09:24 AM.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

I've mastered 3 Centurions (A/AL/YLW).

I've played a lot of different ways with them from the dual ER PPC/LLas sniper, to the normal 1 Ranged, 2 MLas and a smattering of LRM/SRM builds.

In the end these are the 3 Builds I've landed on.

A - 3 SRM6 w/ Artemis, AMS, 2 Med Lasers and the biggest engine I could fit. I forgot exactly but I go 90KPH with speed tweak.

I've found this is my best brawler. Due to the size of maps I've found I don't get into many mid-range battles, I'm either long range or short range. So this is my short range Centurion.

The main thing here, is an errant shot to my right arm doesn't do a damn thing. I keep spitting out damage like crazy. At 90 KPH I am able to flank and shoot a triple SRM6 into the back of a heavier mech and gut him pretty quick. So I can be in the thick of things pumping out damage, and if they ignore me it's not good for them.

AL - Tag in my right arm, 2 Med Lasers, 2 LRM 15's with Artemis and the normal engine.

This is sort of the same deal, my arm is irrellevant. I'm long range support, I have my own TAG incase of ECM. I can throw down a lot of damage, and I have enough ammo to last all but the longest battles. 2 Med lasers obviously allow me to zombie if ammo does run out.

YLW - AC20 and Med Lasers and a larger engine.

Nothing fancy here, I added FF and ES so I could make myself faster and close in. I don't like YLW personally. Unless i'm totally ignored even with torso twisting to shield it, I lose the AC20 pretty quick. If I am left alone, well obviously the AC20 hurts like hell.

As you can see, I'm more of a specialist, I've never been a fan of the "jack of all trades" for lower weight class mechs. It's fine when you have 75 or 100 tons to add a few different types of weapons. But when you have 50 tons to work with, I find it's much better to do one thing as well as possible.

[Gevurah]

I agree; though honestly I like having SOMETHING on the arm, as long as it's not machine guns; so AC2 is as low as I go. It also makes for some long range shooting in case you have to change your role a little until the fight draws closer. I have to say though my CN9-A 'usual build' is so much fun I almost won't play anything else. C-Bill grinding or exp grinding is the only thing that pulls me away from it. That LBX meshes up so PERFECTLY with the 2xSRM6.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

I did the AC/2 thing for a while, but found all it did was distract me. It's damage is so low, and it lines up differently than the SRMs and MLas that I was seeing very little benefit for the tonnage. So I gave it up for speed/ammo/AMS.

I want to like the LB-X but I've read so many threads explaining the mechanics and the issues behind it that I tend to shy away from it at this point.

Honestly the biggest thing I've found with my Centurion is to NEVER, EVER go alone. You need to have people near you at all times (Aside from LRM boating sometimes). It's taken a lot of patience to play it, I will wait 30-45 seconds after the team engage before I wade in to avoid being the main target.

[Gevurah]

Wow.. this is creepy: they list the 3srm6x2mlx2ac build and it just came out today several hours after my post. Though he chooses an XL engine (no idea why either).

Also he elected to armor up the legs. Huh. As well as put 4 tons of SRM ammo in. Well, same basic idea. The SRMS are the key to victory with the cent

Well, nifty nonetheless.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

I can't bring myself to do an XL engine. I don't feel like the Centurion fits it. If you want to go that fast you are better off with a smaller mech.

I always lower my leg armor due to the way fights go right now. You can notch an extra ton of ammo in because of it.

I do think the 3srm 6, 2 ml, AC/2 (or not) build is definitely one of the strongest. In the end I don't feel like you can put all of your ducks into the arm weapon slot though. Until they made the Cent model smaller it's just asking to do no damage during a match due to a random hit.

[Wrenchfarm]

Lovely guide Gevurah. Sometimes I feel alone in my affection for the Centurion. When I mention cross body shooting to get the most out of the shield arm, people's eyes roll, but it isn't actually all that hard to do!

That said, I find it interesting how differently we build our Cents! I almost always try to get a 250 in there. The extra 2.0 internal DHS is worth more than an external, so I'll cut sinks to fit in a bigger engine if I have to. I feel like Cents need good speed to survive.

While you are lukewarm on the CN9-AL, it is my favourite of the varients. The builds I use for it include -
Laser boat -
DHS+Endo
250STD engine
2xLLAS
2xMLAS
near max armour (I think 1 or 2 points are shaved off each leg)
17 DHS
- It sounds simple and it is. But I swear it gets it done. 2xLLAS in the right arm is beastly. Keep your aiming tight and you're basically hitting them harder than a guass rifle. You can get fancy with PPCs, but I find the Cent just can't handle the heat, and I like the lasers better for the type of brawling it gets into anyway, leave the lighting bolts to the Awesomes. Learn to love aiming across your chest and make good use of the mobility, and you can top the score board on a regular basis with this "simple" build.

LRM support -
DHS+Endo
250STD
2xMLAS in CT
MLAS, TAG in RA
LRM15, LRM5
3 tons of ammo in legs
Near max armour

Skirt around the main battle about 300-500m out and add on the hurt. This build focuses on using the moderate LRM payload to make life unpleasent for the enemy. Particularly adept at flagging ECM Atlai and making them suffer from a sudden shower of team LRMs. Wait for the the Atlas to engage one of your big hitters or be otherwise distracted, use your speed to stay out of his LOS as best you can and out of the ECM bubble so your teammates can know where they need to focus fire. 3xMLAS is light, but you can still brawl in out and defend yourself in a pinch.

Ghetto Trebuchet -
This build breaks a lot of my own rules about Centurions to give you a Trebuchet experience early -

DHS, Endo, Artemis
250XL engine
3xMLAS, TAG
2xLRM15+Artemis
4 tons of ammo in the legs
320 armour

While the LRM support build adds missiles to a brawling mech, the Ghetto Treb goes all in. The XL engine means you REALLY want to avoid being in the scrap. The good new is, nobody expects a Cent to carry such a massive LRM payload. 30 Aretmis backed missiles with the quick locks TAG provides a huge battlefield presence.

As far as the Yen-Lo-Wang goes, I like to keep it simple and clean.
DHS, Endo, Ferro
250STD engine
AC20
2xMLAS
4 tons of Ammo
322 armour
No additional heatsinks

That's all you need. Run fast, send huge slugs into the enemy. The limited weapon load out means the internal sinks in a 250 with DHS is all you need.

[Mental Hippie]

Really dig the guide, have been eyeing doing some Centurions for some time, maybe I will try after mastering my Stalkers. I am especially interested in the CN9-D for the speed.

Anyone tried something like this?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...5342e979e687787

2xSRM6+Artemis with 2 tons of ammo.
2xMPL
XL 340 (Almost 125kph with speed tweak)

The funny thing is that it is only 2 MPL short in firepower compared to my fav Hunchie build, but 30KPH faster! Both arms are to be used as extra armor, maybe ammo would be better kept in legs? Idea is to constantly be on the move while fighting, dodging from cover to cover, but of course do an alpha or three at some tasty backplates if the opportunity presents itself.

[Stingz]

Mental Hippie, on 09 January 2013 - 03:54 PM, said:

Really dig the guide, have been eyeing doing some Centurions for some time, maybe I will try after mastering my Stalkers. I am especially interested in the CN9-D for the speed.

Anyone tried something like this?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...5342e979e687787

2xSRM6+Artemis with 2 tons of ammo.
2xMPL
XL 340 (Almost 125kph with speed tweak)

The funny thing is that it is only 2 MPL short in firepower compared to my fav Hunchie build, but 30KPH faster! Both arms are to be used as extra armor, maybe ammo would be better kept in legs? Idea is to constantly be on the move while fighting, dodging from cover to cover, but of course do an alpha or three at some tasty back-plates if the opportunity presents itself.

Shave armor off the arms since you don't use them. Max out the leg armor, high-speed mechs get legged often.

[TruePoindexter]

Personally I'm a fan of a near stock loadout on the Yen-Lo-Wang. The AC20's range is short so using MPL's and further reducing the firing range is an issue at least for me. Here's a video from some gameplay:

Build: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...68529259a359470

[Wrenchfarm]

TruePoindexter, on 09 January 2013 - 05:15 PM, said:

-Awesome vid

Really nice showcase of the YLWs staying power! With a very exciting ending to boot. Nice job man.

[Clideb50]

Very awesome guide. I would recomend this to anyone looking at trying a centurion.
Personally I run this build. http://mwo.smurfy-ne...9607f1fe5585d1c
Depending on who I go up against, I usaly get about 200-300 damage on average per match, and up to 500 on a good day. Might try this with an lb10x, and see if results are better.

[Gevurah]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback! I prefer the LBX + 2xSRM6 over 3xSRM6 because you can direct the fire easier (for hitting those pesky moving targets) and it's slightly higher DPS (damage per second) due to a faster cooldown. It cycles very fast, at 2.5 seconds. With my 2xML, 2xSRM6, 1xLBXAC10 build I am at 50 firepower. It's plenty and with the ability to easily direct my fire I use it as a counter against other centurions/SRM boats by aiming for the missile bay/pod, in the hope I'll take out their weapons before they take out mine.

Regulus 1990 - try the LBX; it's pricey but the AC10 is difficult to use effectively (at least when not grouped with other weapons) and it's cost in weight is 1 ton higher than the LBX.

If I was running the AC10 I'd run it with LRM's because there's no way I'd want to use the AC10 up close vs the LBX. Ironically, the AC20 works great up close, perhaps due to the reduced projectile speed? If you really like the long distance single shot of the AC10 then change it out for a UAC5, which is superior as a weapon on all counts.

WTB Clan tech, sigh :/

[Jungle Rhino]

gevurah, on 10 January 2013 - 12:56 PM, said:

Regulus 1990 - try the LBX; it's pricey but the AC10 is difficult to use effectively (at least when not grouped with other weapons) and it's cost in weight is 1 ton higher than the LBX.

If I was running the AC10 I'd run it with LRM's because there's no way I'd want to use the AC10 up close vs the LBX. Ironically, the AC20 works great up close, perhaps due to the reduced projectile speed? If you really like the long distance single shot of the AC10 then change it out for a UAC5, which is superior as a weapon on all counts.

WTB Clan tech, sigh :/

I disagree the AC10 is a great weapon up close. It does 4DPS if you can land your shots (which does take practise) which is one of the highest DPS of any direct fire weapon in the game. The LBX is IMO inferior simply because even if you do hit with all 10 pellets you are still spreading the damage around which is not an efficient way to disable or kill a mech. Plus the LBX has no utility out to long range, with an AC10 you can participate in early game sniping out to 700m and still be hitting for fairly solid damage thanks to the slow damage fall off of ballistics past optimal.

Ironically I don't run AC10s on any of my Cents as it is simply so heavy but it is something I am working on - I do run them on Cataphracts however and get good mileage there as they can absorb the weight much easier in their builds.

[Krazy Kat]

Great guide! The twist left and shoot over your left arm never occurred to me. Nice!

Wrenchfarm, on 09 January 2013 - 02:37 PM, said:

As far as the Yen-Lo-Wang goes, I like to keep it simple and clean.
DHS, Endo, Ferro
250STD engine
AC20
2xMLAS
4 tons of Ammo
322 armour
No additional heatsinks

That's all you need. Run fast, send huge slugs into the enemy. The limited weapon load out means the internal sinks in a 250 with DHS is all you need.

I just tried a similar YLW build. Fast, no XL engine. One of the few mediums that can have ES and FF. So far I have liked it a lot. Less armor and 1 ton less ammo and you can add AMS.

Edited by Krazy Kat, 10 January 2013 - 07:36 PM.

[StraferX]

Fantastic Guide for the Well seasoned and the New commers to check out. Well written and thought out, thanks for taking the time to do so. The Cent is my Fav class and i average 4oo and get at least 5 kill assist and a kill or 2. YLW is my best feeling MEch and my A build is pretty comfy for me as well. I do play Cataphract and get more kills and average over 500 but not near as fun to play or as helpfull to my team as the Wang.

[Clideb50]

The AC10 does work in close quarters. It just takes practice to get good with it. I save it for the slow meds, and heavier mechs where I don't have to worry about leading a target too much.

[Hiii Power]

Wrenchfarm, on 09 January 2013 - 02:37 PM, said:

While you are lukewarm on the CN9-AL, it is my favourite of the varients. The builds I use for it include -
Laser boat -
DHS+Endo
250STD engine
2xLLAS
2xMLAS
near max armour (I think 1 or 2 points are shaved off each leg)
17 DHS
- It sounds simple and it is. But I swear it gets it done. 2xLLAS in the right arm is beastly. Keep your aiming tight and you're basically hitting them harder than a guass rifle. You can get fancy with PPCs, but I find the Cent just can't handle the heat, and I like the lasers better for the type of brawling it gets into anyway, leave the lighting bolts to the Awesomes. Learn to love aiming across your chest and make good use of the mobility, and you can top the score board on a regular basis with this "simple" build.

Now that build is crazy! Thank you for this one!

[Skadi]

Im just gonna put it out there... Stop hugging mech, Stop trying to brawl Assults solo, stop stopping...

Not trying to troll, im serious, as a fanatic assult pilot (i have all the assults mastered), when you hug me i laugh and alpha you and take off what ever half of your mech is in my reticle, that or i get pissed because your on my team hugging a enemy atlas getting killed, preventing us from firing at that long atlas that we could have brught down long ago, this also applys to assult brawling, and stop stopping... yeah i said it... when you stop in a centurion, you might as well have just hit self destruct, you are frail in comparison to most mechs, and we WILL ignore what ever is on us just to alpha you one and break you apart.

[GrimlockONE]

Skadi, on 14 February 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

Im just gonna put it out there... Stop hugging mech, Stop trying to brawl Assults solo, stop stopping...

Not trying to troll, im serious, as a fanatic assult pilot (i have all the assults mastered), when you hug me i laugh and alpha you and take off what ever half of your mech is in my reticle, that or i get pissed because your on my team hugging a enemy atlas getting killed, preventing us from firing at that long atlas that we could have brught down long ago, this also applys to assult brawling, and stop stopping... yeah i said it... when you stop in a centurion, you might as well have just hit self destruct, you are frail in comparison to most mechs, and we WILL ignore what ever is on us just to alpha you one and break you apart.

Almost thought you said "fantastic" not "fanatic".

There are to many variables and I care not enough to go into every detail but a skilled medium pilot can take down an assault level chassis in a 1v1. Now, some of the prerequisites would be a fast medium, plenty of cover, and no outside interference from other players. Out in open ground on caustic would lend itself to the Assault since they would bring all weapons to bare. River city among the buildings would cater to the Medium, using altering attack angles.

Prefered tactic in my 4SP and CN9-A is to flank and pick off missile boats from the back ranks. Never stop running is the mantra of medium pilot.