40 replies to this topic

[bug3at3r]

Decided to put some money into this game. Was gonna get premium but decided in the end a good hero mech would be a better bang for my buck.

So to all those that have hero mechs, which do you find best? Leaning towards the phract, but I heard one of the dragon variants were pretty good. So what says the community?

[CrushLibs]

ilya end of discussion
**edit**

Dragon can go 107 kph which is nice but ilya can pack twice the firepower.

Why run when you can just blow off the CT of the mech you are fighting with :-)

Edited by CrushLibs, 26 January 2013 - 10:09 PM.

[One Medic Army]

Ilya or Flame.
Depends how much you like ballistics, and how fast you want to go.

[Duncan Aravain]

Yup. Please close thread.

[RickySpanish]

Ilya has some brilliant builds, and it has the advantage of not being a Dragon.

[Warrax the Chaos Warrior]

Centurion, Dragon, and Commando are all considered by many to be sub-optimal chassis; and their hero variants tend to share that stigma. Cataphract is a strong, hard-hitting heavy and it's hero variant is very effective. So yea, you can't go wrong with the Ilya.

[bug3at3r]

...wasn't expecting it to be this universal, but my mind is made up (Ilya). Thanks all.

[Wintersdark]

Yeah, the Ilya is probably the best bet, though I feel the Flame comes in a close second. It's squishier due to the tonnage difference, but it's faster and can still pack a wallop with 4 LL's or a gauss+stuff.

[Ursh]

I have a Flame and a Yen Lo Wang.

I got the YLW when it was the only hero mech, and I really like the Flame because is has a truly outstanding hardpoint layout.

My recommendation though is to buy the Ilya. It's simply better than the rest of them.

[Dukarriope]

I personally don't like the 'phracts but most people can't go wrong the Ilya. I'm personally fond of my Flame.

[Malora Sidewinder]

I'd say probably either the fang or ilya.
neither is particularly great, but they're both better than the yen-lo wang.
Although to be fair a lot of people really love their yen-lo-wangs, so figure.

[Wrenchfarm]

Wang is cheap(er) and a reliable workhorse. It's true that it is rather limited, but a lot of people sell it short too. It gets fun to dump on things.

If you don't mind spending the money, Ilya or Flame. If you're on a budget but really want something with a cbill boost, YLW.

[c0d3x]

Sounds like you already made your choice, Ilya. Can't go wrong with it. I would add that if you prefer fighting >270m the Ilya is more often better, and if you like brawling <270m the Flame is a bit better. I have them both, and play the flame much more often, it is just more fun for me. The Fang and Yen Lo are both just worse. The Death's Knell is..... almost always the worst mech on the field. imho.

Good huntings.

[Voidsinger]

I'd say Ilya if you have low latency (I ping 280ms, which makes ballistics a gamble).

Flame is definitely nice. Hardpoint layout is brilliant, and the paintjob much nicer.

Fang - unless you really want 2 ballistic slots in the arm, get a Dragon 1 C instead.

The Wang is a touch limited (no missiles), but has 3 module slots (4 with Master module). It also has the infamous Centurion Zombie mode if you aren't running XL. Never underrate the AC/20 in the arm.

Death's Knell - for Commando buffs only.

[De La Fresniere]

Yep, Flame or Ilya depending on your personal preferences (ballistics firepower, or speed). It really is as simple as that.

YLW only has very slighly higher potential speed and its only remarkable ability is to equip an AC/20 in its arm where it will promptly get shot off, making it quite unreliable.

Fang is just plain unremarkable.

I had founder's MC collecting dust so I got the Flame myself; I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't already have the MC, but I don't regret getting it, I've never owned a mech anywhere as good as my Flame and it's got a bunch of possible loadouts so it's very fun to play with and allows plenty of variety so you don't get tired of it.

[J4ckInthebox]

The Knell is a reliable choice too. A very annoying little cockroach that can make surprisingly good games.

Edited by J4ckInthebox, 27 January 2013 - 12:46 AM.

[Johnny Reb]

Being a fan of lasozs the Flame is great, all in the arm! Not a big ballistic fan but the IL has you covered there with good speed if you cram all those ballistics in! Don't own an IL cause, above.

[Zolaz]

If you are good, any of the Hero mechs are good. If you are learning then take the largest hero mech you can pilot and put a bunch of armor on it. If you are bad, then just go play Hello Kitty Online.

[Protoculture]

None. They all cost at least 300% more than they should.

[OneEyed Jack]

I have YLW, Flame and Ilya.

YLW can be fun, and it'll get you the bonus Cb, but it has nothing else to recommend it as an option to other Cents besides the AC20. Just the single gun in an arm that draws more fire than the ears on a Cat and has some serious convergence issues. The problem is total lack of options. With the only other hardpoints being 2 Energy is the CT, you don't have anywhere else to put any significant weapons.

The Flame is great, but suffers from the current matchmaking. You just brought a Dragon to a Cat-fight. Odds are the other team just got a Catapult or Cataphract, either of which will have more firepower and armor than you. Actually, a Dragon, Flame in particular, can have pretty comparable firepower, but sacrifices speed and just ends up a lightly armored version of it's larger brethren.

There's nothing particularly special about Ilya, but it has a lot of options. It stands out primarily for not having any significant drawbacks. It's the heaviest chassis in the class and can mount comparable loadouts to the other variants, barring missiles. It's hardpoints are in locations with plenty of space, so you can play around with any size guns, barring only an arm-mounted AC20.

Downsides? Low-slung wide-mounted arms make intervening cover on your end, especially friendly mechs, a bit of an issue and causes some convergence issues. Mostly this affects sniping, though it can be a decent PPC sniper with high-mounted torso energy slots. No CT or head weapons at all make zombie-mode less than ideal. Only 3 energy slots make using large energy weapons somewhat problematic, as there's no useful light ballistics to fill in as backup weapons.

Protoculture, on 27 January 2013 - 03:22 AM, said:

None. They all cost at least 300% more than they should.

This is a cheapskate response. I tend to look at value as it compares to the amount of time I had to work to pay for something. I figure the amount of work I put in to pay for my YLW, and later my Ilya, were more than made up for in the time they saved me farming C-bills when I wanted to buy other mechs or gear. The Flame was just for fun, since I already had the Ilya (which is probably my favorite mech to play) to farm with.