241 replies to this topic

[Wildstreak]

Has anyone ever made a good Assault with 50% cooling rated by Smurfy's lab?

[NRP]

I think someone made a 3 PPC 9M that had something like 50% heat efficiency.

Whether that is a "good" Assault mech is debatable though.

[Tahribator]

I found 3 PPC's on Awesome 8Q/9M horrible to be honest. Especially on 9M you need to make snapshots while going 85kph and when you do that they don't converge in time. Resulting in three beams going all over the place. You need to stay on target for a few seconds for proper convergence.

I did an 8T build with 4 PPC on arms in same slot and the difference is night and day.

Edited by Tahribator, 23 April 2013 - 08:45 AM.

[Hex Pallett]

Tahribator, on 23 April 2013 - 08:38 AM, said:

I found 3 PPC's on Awesome 8Q/9M horrible to be honest. Especially on 9M you need to make snapshots while going 85kph and when you do that they don't converge in time. Resulting in three beams going all over the place. You need to stay on target for a few seconds for proper convergence.

Arm lock is your solution.

[Tahribator]

It's not about arm lock, body hardpoints also take time to converge.

[Aethos]

congrats on your placement Tahribator in the tourney. Came up against you in a match in your 9M. I finished somewhere around 37th using solely my PB.

Edited by Aethos, 23 April 2013 - 09:00 PM.

[Kiiyor]

NRP, on 23 April 2013 - 06:23 AM, said:

I think someone made a 3 PPC 9M that had something like 50% heat efficiency.

Whether that is a "good" Assault mech is debatable though.

My tourney 9M, the PAINBOW is at 45% efficiency with 3ppc's, but I carry 3 mlas also, which drops it to 33.

Got me to second in the awesome bracket. I hated PPCs originally as the convergence can be an issue, but I found that arm lock keeps everything steady if you hold it on for a while. I do love me some PPCs.

[NRP]

Congrats on your performance! I was wondering what builds you, Bata, and Tahribator ran in the tourney.

I've been going back and forth between 3 PPCs and 4 LLs on my 9M. I'm a bit underwhelmed by the 4 LL build, as it seems to take an awfully long time to kill something (which is a problem when they're shooting at you too). I think PPCs kill a bit quicker and you can "snapshot" enemies, but you really have to have good situational awareness because you have no decent close range defense.

[Tahribator]

Thanks guys, I really tried but fell a bit short. I tried every build concievable, but I had success with the build I posted one page back getting one round with 1000'ish and one with 950 damage. Apart from those, 3LPL build was great in city maps. 3PPC+3SSRM2 wasn't bad as well. I even ran LRM20 in left arm when I got bored. It was pretty funny enemies getting annoyed with that stream of missiles. All of these are with 9M of course.

Though I think a great build doesn't help much in the tourney, you really need some luck in team compositions as well for that "perfect" round. When you have poptart other contestant highlanders poptarting around, there isn't much left of enemy/your team when you safely make it to the enemy.

Btw I saw Bata running all of the Awesomes on rotation. Once I saw him with a 4LL 9M and another with SRM boat 8V. Also 8Q with 3LL+4ML(not sure).

[Kiiyor]

Tahribator, on 24 April 2013 - 09:26 AM, said:

Thanks guys, I really tried but fell a bit short. I tried every build concievable, but I had success with the build I posted one page back getting one round with 1000'ish and one with 950 damage. Apart from those, 3LPL build was great in city maps. 3PPC+3SSRM2 wasn't bad as well. I even ran LRM20 in left arm when I got bored. It was pretty funny enemies getting annoyed with that stream of missiles. All of these are with 9M of course.

Though I think a great build doesn't help much in the tourney, you really need some luck in team compositions as well for that "perfect" round. When you have poptart other contestant highlanders poptarting around, there isn't much left of enemy/your team when you safely make it to the enemy.

Btw I saw Bata running all of the Awesomes on rotation. Once I saw him with a 4LL 9M and another with SRM boat 8V. Also 8Q with 3LL+4ML(not sure).

Yeah, Bata gutted me with his LL build in one match. We spent the first few min of that match grilling each other about our loadouts.

The LLs are great for sustained damage; if you can stay alive and focus on side torsos you can rack up horrifying damage numbers. One of my matches was around the 1200 mark in a LL Awesome, and bizarrely it happened when I decided to stop trying for damage and concentrate on having fun and eviscerating everything as a brawler. I'd been getting frustrated with my playstyle, as the more I tried to play for damage, the worse I did. In one match I declawed a highlander with a lucky torso shot, then spent the rest of the match trying to peel it like I was some sort of giant sized drunken mechanical surgeon, before the rest of his team crested a ridge behind me and gutted me before I could scream "there's always time for lubricant". I felt a little dirty after that, and started playing better when I stopped trying so hard.

The last day of the tourney though, that was brutal. Most of the matches I was in were straight up charges, and were over in 5 min. It was getting harder and harder to get damage, as the matches either weren't lasting long enough, or (worse) were full of skilled players trying to up their spots on the leader boards. I saw lots of matches where pretty much EVERYONE ended up with 400 or so damage. Luck started to play a part in it then, but those were also some of the most fun matches I've been in.

Anyhoo, congrats all. That was glorious fun.

[xengk]

Im just starting out with a 8Q, pick it up after trying out the trial 8Q.

AWS-8Q
2x PPC (RA)
2x Llaz (RT,LT)
1x Mlaz (HD)
STD 270
480 Armour
19 DHS

The PPCs are set to chain fire and great for shooting at an angle without presenting my CT, and can keep firing without overheating to discourage pursuit. The laz are for shooting into a brawl or use to peel light off my mech.
Being a long time pilot of HBK and CN have already conditioned me to use the blank arm as a shield.
Engine might seems a little slow but Im in no hurry to rush into battle and would rather comes in when the fighting have started.

Still trying to get the hang of it, racking up alot of assist but not much kill, and damage is hovering around 300~400 with 43% accuracy.

I definitely could use a few pointers from experienced AWS pilots.

[NRP]

I'm thinking of throwing ERPPCs on my PB and just trying to be a long range support/sniper mech. Can only mount two though, so not sure how effective it would be. Trying to find a role for this thing.

[Regrets]

NRP, on 26 April 2013 - 08:09 AM, said:

I'm thinking of throwing ERPPCs on my PB and just trying to be a long range support/sniper mech. Can only mount two though, so not sure how effective it would be. Trying to find a role for this thing.

Doesn't look like something that a stalker could do better. 1 torso erppc + 1 arm erppc is not going to be fun to aim and you still end up with way less hardpoints/tonnage than the stalker.

[NRP]

@xengk
That seems like a solid 8Q build. If you want to get more kills, you might look into getting the Target Info module. Use it to check out damaged enemies, and focus on those with weak or no CT armor. You'll get more killing blows this way and won't have to trade shots with full health enemies. I find if I have to trade shots with with a full health enemy, my AWS is pretty much wrecked if I survive the encounter. So I think the best strategy for Awesomes is to pick on wounded enemies, especially those you can finish off quickly.

But really, dealing as much damage as you can does help your team, even if you don't get the kills. That is why a lot of people talk about "damage done per match". Generally, a teammate who does a lot of damage is a valuable teammate.

Good luck, and keep at it. If you can pilot an AWS successfully, you can pilot any mech successfully.

[NRP]

Regrets, on 26 April 2013 - 08:21 AM, said:

Doesn't look like something that a stalker could do better. 1 torso erppc + 1 arm erppc is not going to be fun to aim and you still end up with way less hardpoints/tonnage than the stalker.

I already have PPC boating stalkers. I want to find a use for my PB in the current meta. I like driving the PB a lot better than stalkers, which I find to be too slow and cumbersome for my tastes.

So, while I appreciate your advice to "just use a stalker", it really does miss the point.

[Soy]

Made a 2nd showcase video for my old 9M build last night, figured this might be a good thread to drop it in, maybe people pick up some tips or tricks or something -

[NRP]

That was an awesome match, Soy! Are you using SRMs too, or were those from your Jager teammate?

I admit I haven't even considered LRMs because of the nerf, but the PB is kind of designed for them. You seemed to use them to great effect.

[Regrets]

NRP, on 26 April 2013 - 08:37 AM, said:

I already have PPC boating stalkers. I want to find a use for my PB in the current meta. I like driving the PB a lot better than stalkers, which I find to be too slow and cumbersome for my tastes.

So, while I appreciate your advice to "just use a stalker", it really does miss the point.

I thought it was pretty good advice, and I wasn't talking about boating. If you want to go 2ERPPC + missile stuff then the stalker is going to be way better. The only reason to go PB is to stick in fat XL in there... Ok so what builds will do better with the enhanced speed? LPL would be nice, I would be pretty hestitant to build out a 'brawler', certainly balanced builds do well with XLs. So... I don't know, maybe go something like LPL in arm, ERPPC or EELL in torso, LRM15+art in side and SRM6+art or 2SSRM2 in the arm. This way your arm weapons converge for close ranges and torso for the longer range weapons...something like this. Even then you are stuck with LRM but no tag, which is less than optimal if you ask me.

[Soy]

NRP, on 26 April 2013 - 08:49 AM, said:

That was an awesome match, Soy! Are you using SRMs too, or were those from your Jager teammate?

I admit I haven't even considered LRMs because of the nerf, but the PB is kind of designed for them. You seemed to use them to great effect.

Thanks man!

Was soloing, that Jager teammate that lived til the end, Khanscott or w/e, he's decent player, seen him a couple other times. But yeah, umm, my 9M playstyle is mostly a mix of direct and indirect suppression, mobile support, and flanking/striking. I find the LRMs are a nice filler weapon because they can be used to scout over hills for enemies via confirming AMS, don't add much heat, and sometimes after a vanguard scenario where you've soaked a decent amount of damage, you can still punch if you are too afraid to even pop your head out cuz of a cored CT or something. Swing arms like King Kong if closing in for kills/brawl, never stop moving, annnnd yeah. That's about it. The build details are in the youtube info or mechspecs.com 9M section.

ps - i take that back i wasn't soloing, i was helping a noobie friend grind up cash to upgrade his K2 out of stock engine, but he died early (that's when i looked over the edge down at theta and walked back like "f*** it")

Edited by Soy, 26 April 2013 - 12:25 PM.

[xengk]

NRP, on 26 April 2013 - 08:33 AM, said:

@xengk
That seems like a solid 8Q build. If you want to get more kills, you might look into getting the Target Info module. Use it to check out damaged enemies, and focus on those with weak or no CT armor. You'll get more killing blows this way and won't have to trade shots with full health enemies. I find if I have to trade shots with with a full health enemy, my AWS is pretty much wrecked if I survive the encounter. So I think the best strategy for Awesomes is to pick on wounded enemies, especially those you can finish off quickly.

But really, dealing as much damage as you can does help your team, even if you don't get the kills. That is why a lot of people talk about "damage done per match". Generally, a teammate who does a lot of damage is a valuable teammate.

Good luck, and keep at it. If you can pilot an AWS successfully, you can pilot any mech successfully.

Thanks for the feedback.
Was having quite the bad time last night encountering many fast light and medium, with my PPC hardly hitting, and reworked the loadout.

I think this is one of the so call cheese build?
Now I understand why it is so good.
AWS-8Q_LL
2x LLaz (RA)
1x LLaz (RT)
2x LLaz (LT)
AMS
STD 300
Endo Steel
19 DHS
494 Amour (Max)
Target Info Gather Module
Cool shot 9x9

Weapon groups
1. All torso LLaz on chainfire
2. All arm Llaz on groupfire
3. All torso Llaz on groupfire

Overall damage has gone up to 350~550 each match, and will often score at least 1 kill.
Hit Accuracy at 82%.