21 replies to this topic

[BaconCouch]

Its got a cannon arm, its got LRMs, and it has jump jets, and good heat efficiency, with speed.
GRF-1
Any idea what could be improved? Does it suck? Love it?

[process]

General observations:

• You won't be able to use those large lasers frequently enough to make them worth the tonnage. Depending on your role, consider 3 medium lasers, or pair of large/ER large lasers. Even without ghost heat, 12 double heatsinks aren't nearly enough.
  
• Don't skimp on leg armor. For whatever reason, Griffins seem to suffer legging deaths more than anything. If you need extra points, take it out of the head or left arm.

[Elkfire]

I'd argue that he has plenty of leg armor, but I don't run griffons (nor have I seen very many). Shadowhawks are similar, though, and with this build he's probably going to be staying at range anyway.

I do agree, though, that taking off a large laser and making use of that tonnage for other things would be a good plan. You -could- upgrade the two remaining LLs to ERs if you're planning on staying exclusively at range, OP, but if you intend them to be all-purpose weapons you could just upgrade those LRM5s with Artemis, maybe put in some more ammo and/or heat sinks with the extra tonnage removing one LL gives you. Also, if you're losing a laser, you could put in a TAG to help with your own LRMS and those of your team.

As far as armor is concerned, I agree with Process again in saying that you could stand to skim some off the left arm to put on the legs, and maybe redistribute a few more points to the rear torsos (I like to have somewhere in the mid to early teens when it comes to rear armor levels).

Edited by Elkfire, 15 January 2014 - 09:12 AM.

[BaconCouch]

I think i agree that I should take armor off the fake arm and put it to the legs for sure.
I however have never really had issues with taking shots to the back. That maybe counts for 1/20 of my deaths in game, I run that amount even in assault mechs, makes for a tough front, and it suits my playstyle.
I grabbed an artemis, dropped ferro armor, made one of the LL's a heat sink, and increased leg armor at the expense of arm and head armor.

GRF-1N

Edited by BaconCouch, 15 January 2014 - 10:22 AM.

[Mad Pilot MkIV]

I was never a big fan of the LRM business, but if you really want to run the Griffin as an LRM boat, then the -1S will be the best. This fit has everything: TAG, BAP, Artemis, truckload of ammo and even some jumpjets.

However the -1N can be amazing as an SRM splatform.

Edited by Mad Pilot MkIV, 15 January 2014 - 12:58 PM.

[Elyam]

Op, your build is fine except for the back armor. Get the armor up to 12+ on the sides and 14+ on center. I run with 14/16/14 or 16/20/16. The triple LLAS are fine as long as you exercise trigger control and know when to use them chained or combined. The 3 light LRM launchers are good for harassment.

You are building this as solely a mid-long ranged sniper, which the Griffin has always been, but you're leaving out another of its ideal roles, which is agile brawl disruptor. This role necessitates all or most jets, leaping into furballs and using jet agility, engine power, and the mech's huge torso arcs to create chaos in the midst of the enemy. A good pilot can enter the fray and last for nearly a half-minute before retreat to cover or allies and cause very beneficial disruption.

Primary build for this role I run with 275XL, 7 jets, full armor minus a half ton, Endo, AMS, DHS, ERPPC, LRM-10A, 2 MLAS, 2 SSRM-2, and BAP. Heat isn't a problem with judicious use of the particle cannon in the close ranges. It's the most successful design I've run with during the whole time of MWO. (and very happy I am with that since being a TT GRF pilot since the start of BT).

Edited by Elyam, 15 January 2014 - 04:07 PM.

[Sandra McCrow]

Griffin benifits from very large arms... well benefits if you are ok loosing them. And you will as in every hot situation that occurs when one makes mistake you will lose your arms... Losing majority of your damage like this is a bad idea.

[BaconCouch]

Elyam, on 15 January 2014 - 04:04 PM, said:

Op, your build is fine except for the back armor. Get the armor up to 12+ on the sides and 14+ on center. I run with 14/16/14 or 16/20/16. The triple LLAS are fine as long as you exercise trigger control and know when to use them chained or combined. The 3 light LRM launchers are good for harassment.

You are building this as solely a mid-long ranged sniper, which the Griffin has always been, but you're leaving out another of its ideal roles, which is agile brawl disruptor. This role necessitates all or most jets, leaping into furballs and using jet agility, engine power, and the mech's huge torso arcs to create chaos in the midst of the enemy. A good pilot can enter the fray and last for nearly a half-minute before retreat to cover or allies and cause very beneficial disruption.

I was kinda aiming for the skirmisher role, fast enough to choose my engagement distance, soften someone up with lrms, and finishing them off when they close with the LLs.
Why increase the back armor however? I find I rarely if ever die from back shots, my map awareness is good for the most part.
Ive also realized, I could take this concept a step further, and go with the Wolverine-6K for a real laser lightshow.

WVR-6K

Might be more simple, but its faster, with more pew pew.

Edited by BaconCouch, 16 January 2014 - 06:20 AM.

[Sandra McCrow]

3LL and LRM15 and only 1 jj? there is no reason to take it over the Cent-AL, is there? And Cent will grant you a one LL till the end...

[Mechteric]

Swap out the 3 LL for 2 PPC and you'd probably be better off. That said I would never condone running less than 30 LRMs on a mech, especially without having TAG, BAP, and Artermis otherwise your missiles are just gonna get chewed up by AMS and make you waste your time trying to get locks when instead you could be focusing just on direct damage.

[Elyam]

Well, the back armor recommendation was to ensure the disruptor role could be achieved. But if you're confident that you won't be in situations where the back is threatened, do what you think works for you. Maybe mine is a holdover from decades of TT, but I can't feel comfortable when the back armor is lower than a certain point...

[Krujiente]

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...91f05e5a80f9701
I like lrmishers but this would add some ability for direct fire in the mix. The left arm energy mount is plenty high to make a good sniping weapon. I'd use the lrms to disrupt and soften and the PPC to snipe things where you think it'll hurt the most/disrupt ECM on an atlas for your team.
(disclaimer: I tend to run pretty hot for a lot of people, but that ERPPC firing on its own shouldn't be hard to control for most. I have played a griffin but don't have one. I'd set the lrms to chainfire to make a more controlled heat build, if it has AMS I just wouldn't fire lrms into it, you have another option with that PPC use it :V Save the LRMs for angering AC40 jagers with the screen shake and pummeling lights running around.

CapperDeluxe, on 16 January 2014 - 07:12 AM, said:

Swap out the 3 LL for 2 PPC and you'd probably be better off. That said I would never condone running less than 30 LRMs on a mech, especially without having TAG, BAP, and Artermis otherwise your missiles are just gonna get chewed up by AMS and make you waste your time trying to get locks when instead you could be focusing just on direct damage.

You don't need artemis on a lrmisher and bap's not that big a deal either. A medium with lrms should always be fast have JJs and a tag though. Lrmishers get their own targets (they get line of sight on them themselves) so all that artemis and BAP is just extra tonnage a medium doesn't need.

Elyam, on 18 January 2014 - 08:47 AM, said:

Well, the back armor recommendation was to ensure the disruptor role could be achieved. But if you're confident that you won't be in situations where the back is threatened, do what you think works for you. Maybe mine is a holdover from decades of TT, but I can't feel comfortable when the back armor is lower than a certain point...

A griffin can turn freakishly all the way around. Its terrifying.

http://i83.photobuck...zps79341f7f.jpg

[Elyam]

Know it well. Still, I got me thresholds...

[Buckminster]

CapperDeluxe, on 16 January 2014 - 07:12 AM, said:

Swap out the 3 LL for 2 PPC and you'd probably be better off. That said I would never condone running less than 30 LRMs on a mech, especially without having TAG, BAP, and Artermis otherwise your missiles are just gonna get chewed up by AMS and make you waste your time trying to get locks when instead you could be focusing just on direct damage.

Not necessarily true.

I run a LRM25 (10+5+5+5) on my Griffin 3N with TAG, but without Artemis or BAP, and it's fairly effective. I have an LL in the torso as backup, and between that and the LRMs it's proving to be far more lethal than I ever would have thought.

[Scrawny Cowboy]

Don't have a saber package but once c-bill Griffins are patched in gonna give this a spin

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...fa44b878fc0f474
Four streaks (two tons ammo), lard laser in the arm, PPC in the torso (was thinking giving the ER a try but probably will be too much), four JJ's, BAP, endo, FF, DHS, and a Std 250

Might be a lil slow for some, but I don't have much luck with XL's in mediums

[Alaskan Nobody]

Scrawny Cowboy, on 22 January 2014 - 10:11 AM, said:

Don't have a saber package but once c-bill Griffins are patched in gonna give this a spin
..............

That looks like it has a fair amount of potential....

I dunno though, to me the biggest advantage the Griffin has is it's higher mobility over the SHD family (IE the more JJ) and while you have several in there, the lose (some) effectiveness IMO without the bigger engine.

Also: I would not worry to much about the XL in the Griffin - I have been using them in mine, and while I can spread damage very well (34% is my record low in one if I recall correctly - 40-50something for the SHDs.. but I tend to forget to twist with them) I have yet to die from a sidetorso. (have had them opened up and lost weapons out of them though)


....I may have to try that build though - or one very similar.

[Buckminster]

I've also used XLs in all of my Griffin builds, it hasn't been a huge liability.

My favorite Shadow Hawk build has been a 4 Streaks + Gauss, so your 4 Streak griffin should do fine. It's going to run awfully hot with a PPC and a large laser, though, so you may want to trim that a little - maybe drop one and bump your engine back up.

[PawPaWuFF]

my take on an super upgraded stock griffin-1N
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b489756d71eda44

[Vanguard319]

Just my opinion, but you'd be better off in Yen Lo Wang than any of the Griffin variants. Not only are they not very durable, but virtually all their hardpoints are focused on only one area. I know they're meant to be snipers, but once you fire on someone, you'll be picked apart in seconds. Worst three mechs in the game.

[process]

Thought I'd share a few effective builds I found -- two skirmishers and a medium range support:

GRF-1N
GRF-1S
GRF-3M

Edited by process, 28 January 2014 - 03:36 PM.