Mechwarrior Online

[Threash]

Why does this stupid game insist on going into windowed mode?

[Slayerik]

There is a checkbox in options for it, I think.

[Arthur_Parker]

I tried the sam-bot as an atlas and found it lacking

It's all down to preference for what you like.  Although it may look like it, I'm not arguing with that, just a couple of points I think are worth mentioning.

ONE: the arms on an atlas have more components, so you lose room for two double heatsinks

That's correct, however the Atlas can fit a standard 360 engine which has space for 4 DHS, the stalker engine can only fit 2, so you get those 2 back.  The components missing on the Stalker are the lower arm & hand actuators, which if you check in game means you have to turn your torso in the stalker to point the arms left or right, while the Atlas has almost (apart from the corners) full screen movement, including diagonal without torso twisting.  Atlas also has the tonnage and crit space for an AMS with ammo.

TWO: the arms on an atlas shoot from a much lower position, whereas stalker arms are up near the top of the mech; you can peek over the top of a ridge and send out a laser alpha with very little of your body showing

I tried your build just because you mentioned this, I like that a lot and it could be very handy sometimes.  I generally had the left arm on one mouse button and the right on another, just to shoot round corners, so being able to use ridge lines as well is pretty good.

THREE: stalker arms are teeny and not very vulnerable; atlas arms are big and easily shootable

That's back to what Merusk said, I personally would prefer someone doing 40 damage to my arms rather than my side/center torso even, as in this case, I'm using arm mounted weapons.

FOUR: you lose out on the 3F's bizarrely high torso range and motion, which lets you swat lights

I think the twist speed on a standard 360 engine Atlas is about the same as the Stalker, I'm comparing full unlocked elite Atlas skills against full unlocked Stalker and can't really see much different in twist speed.  I think it's 80 to 85 in the stalker's favour for torso twist range but as mentioned above, the extra arm movement on the Atlas means I think it would have a clear advantage here.

I was using Stalker 3F 65 kph (armour 448/526, 24 DHS) -  Atlas RS 64.2 kph (Armour 464/614, 24 DHS)

I'm really not saying I don't like yours, I only played one match with it and got 4 kills, the following match in the Atlas I lost as the enemy based rushed while I was checking out arm movement.  I just like that for non ecm mechs there are varied builds that work.  I'm a lot less keen on severely limited number of ecm enabled mechs.

[Ironwood]

A Motherfucking Centurion just took down 6 of us.  Last man standing too.

Fuck me, I'd kill to know what he was driving, but he utterly, utterly wrecked shit up.

[HaemishM]

I tried putting as many large lasers on my Catapult as I could. I tried builds with 3 large lasers and 2 types of SRM's but the heat was just too much. I finally settled on a decent compromise. Nothing but 3 large lasers and a anti-missle system (plus beagle active probe) and as many DHS as I could fit. I still overheat at times but I'm MUCH more effective than I was trying to fit LRM's or SRM's on there. I get the feeling lasers may need some kind of nerf because this shit can absolutely WRECK a location if targeted right.

[Merusk]

A Motherfucking Centurion just took down 6 of us.  Last man standing too.

Fuck me, I'd kill to know what he was driving, but he utterly, utterly wrecked shit up.

The Cents with what *sound* like dual ACs seem to regularly wreck shit.  Even the Yen-Lo variant does well.   I've tried running dual AC5s in my Hunch but I can't afford a fast enough engine so I get faceraped when I run in to things.  Dishes out decent damage until then because it fires so fast, though. 

[5150]

A Motherfucking Centurion just took down 6 of us.  Last man standing too.

Fuck me, I'd kill to know what he was driving, but he utterly, utterly wrecked shit up.

The Cents with what *sound* like dual ACs seem to regularly wreck shit.  Even the Yen-Lo variant does well.   I've tried running dual AC5s in my Hunch but I can't afford a fast enough engine so I get faceraped when I run in to things.  Dishes out decent damage until then because it fires so fast, though. 

Might be dual Ultra AC/5's. Watched a Cat pilot with 2 Ultras (paired as an alpha) a while back and he killed loads

[Threash]

Stalker 3F (non-negotiable, it has better turning and torso radius)

Each arm: 56 armor, 2 large lasers, 2 DHS
Each side torso: 62/10 armor, 4 DHS
Center torso: 93/10 armor, 310 standard engine with 2 additional heat sinks
Each leg: 49 armor

Excepting the legs, max armor, and the equivalent of about 40 single heat sinks. The weapons are all on the arms but this has literally never been an issue (the side torso has never once not gone out well before the arm)

4LLAS has so far been the most satisfying way to play this game; the shots are not very subject to hinky netcode or guesswork in target leading; I simply pick a side torso and laser it clear through with surgical precision, 36 damage every time I fire.

Someone watched me take down an atlas this way; lasered the ballistic torso off, then kept lasering the dead side until it cored him. Not an inch of his armor anywhere else was even scratched.

This is simply just not going to happen with missiles or ballistics, it's got a very healthy range, and you can swat lights, too.

I'm still averaging about 600 damage a game, and my KDR is approaching 2.5. wow.

Thanks for this, i just started and was getting wrecked with the free mechs.  One thing i don't get is how to put 2 regular heat sinks on the torso, once i upgraded to double heat sinks it removed the option to use regular ones and took out all the old ones i had.

[Ironwood]

You can't mix sinks.  Double or single.

[Threash]

Then you can't put those two aditional heat sinks on the center torso, unless i screwed something up!

[Der Helm]

You can put them in the engine, though. (if your engine is 300 or larger you can put 2 heatsinks in)

[Ironwood]

Edit :  Yeah, that.

[Arthur_Parker]

You just drag them on top of the engine, not the two empty slots.  They actually disappear inside it.

[Threash]

Ohhh, thanks got it now.

[Ironwood]

ECM's in a random is pretty much make or break at this stage.

[Arthur_Parker]

Assault matches seem to have more 4 man teams playing than Conquest and if you drop with a team in the game you are twice as likely to be on the wrong side.  I find the experienced team players are used to Assault and tend to stick with it when playing with team mates.

So I like to play Conquest matches when I'm pugging, one of my cheesy builds is the following for making cbills.

Stalker 3F

5 medium lasers, tag on one torso slot, 4 x LRM15 (no artemis), xl300 engine, 8 tons LRM ammo.
16 double heat sinks
Armour, head 18, CT 96/12, Side Torso 62/10, arms 32, legs 41

There's not much skill involved, just positioning yourself behind the main line and firing the LRMs all at once.  You have to fire them all at once because once someone sees 60 lrms coming they tend to go for cover very quickly.  Tag is pretty good now as you can break ecm bubbles from range if you keep someone tagged, target them, then LRM them and it's nice to kill Atlas D-DCs.

I have 3 weapon groups, 1 just for tag, 2 tag with lrms, 3 tag with 5 medium lasers.  Only use the lasers when someone is moving to cover, to save lrm ammo or when they get close as they run hot.  You have enough armour/medium lasers to stand a fair chance if someone gets close, unlike a dedicated LRM catapult.

60 LRMs is 108 damage if they all hit, it's spread out damage but a hunchback will generally die in two volleys, lights might die in one.

[Ironwood]

Currently toodling about in a Cataphract.  Had 4 AC and a couple of smalls and an LRM 5 rack, but realised that I wasn't using the last 2.

So now it has FF, ES and 2 Ultras with 2 ACs.

It really is FUN to drive, especially when you core out an Atlas head.  Done that twice today, with much laughing along.

[Slayerik]

Yeah, I love my Cata with
2 AC/5
2 Ultra AC 5
(ES, I think)

I kicked an Atlas' ass so bad the other day (jam gods were good to me) he asked WTF was that. It's great, but occasionally a conquest battle will go long enough to run me outta ammo. I am usually top 2 in damage with it, though.

[satael]

Yeah, I love my Cata with
2 AC/5
2 Ultra AC 5
(ES, I think)

I kicked an Atlas' ass so bad the other day (jam gods were good to me) he asked WTF was that. It's great, but occasionally a conquest battle will go long enough to run me outta ammo. I am usually top 2 in damage with it, though.

My luck with ultras is the opposite...most of the time they seem to be jammed (once had 2 ultras both jam on the first shots of the match  )

[Slayerik]

That's where the two regular AC5's keep me at least hitting things when it happens...

[Slayerik]

Made an Awesome with 4 LLs....starting to dominate with it. AWS-8Q model I think... Endosteel and lots of heat sinks.

[Zaljerem]

I'm very fond of the Cataphract chassis.

My current favorite build:

CTF-3D

2 Jumpjets
Endo Steel
XL 280 Engine
13 Double Heat Sinks

2 PPC
1 AC/10
1 Medium Laser
1 Medium Pulse Laser
1 AMS


A dual PPC / AC-10 salvo can be brutal ... I've taken a few people out at long range with one salvo.

Also enjoying the CTF-2X:

Endo Steel
Standard 280 Engine
17 Heat Sinks

1 Large Laser
2 Medium Laser
1 AC/5
2 LRM 5
1 AMS

Versatile, I don't run a lot of LRM builds so it's a nice change to have some onboard.

And of course, my Ilya Muromets: "Apocrypha"

Endo Steel
XL 280 Engine
11 Double Heat Sinks

2 Medium Laser
1 Small Laser
1 AC/10
2 Ultra AC/5
1 AMS

My love affair with the Cataphract started here when it was released, I bought the other variants just to level and I think I like them more.

[Slayerik]

Well, brother (Zal really is my brother), I'll see your dual PPC and AC10 and raise ya a 5 PPC Awesome! At first, I started running it as a joke. I had 6 PPCs, and every time I fired it shutdown. So I tweaked it some. And tweaked it some more. Then got good at hit and run sniper tactics. Then I got advanced zoom. Now I am usually near the top, if not the top, damage. Just had this game...every shot seemed to be on the money. One thing I like about the build, is even if you dont end up with a ton of damage, the damage you do is usually to center mass and effective. It's not LRM spray damage.



Best part was headshotting that centurion from about 300. And this wasn't even a snow board!

So now I've added a 5 PPC boat that shuts down at least 5 times a match, and sometimes for a long while. But there is something extremely satisfying about one shotting a raven. Fuck you, and your ECM bitch.

[Samprimary]

I guess I get to preen my ego some

[Lantyssa]

Man, I suck in comparison.  Though I hate sniper builds.  Something about giant robots says I need to be in their face.

Probably also has to do with Commandos not getting a lot of kills.

[Slayerik]

I guess I get to preen my ego some

Nicely done. Though now you gotta do it in a horrible build ;)

[Samprimary]

Man, I suck in comparison.  Though I hate sniper builds.  Something about giant robots says I need to be in their face.

Probably also has to do with Commandos not getting a lot of kills.

I don't like sniper builds either, cause right now it's pretty much a brawler's paradise.

[Zetleft]

Went back to playing with my Hunchies and have a very fun 4SP build.  79 max speed (about to get speed tweak) 5 Med L and 2 artemis srm 6s.  With ams in case I play on a pug with no ecm, which is all the time.  I love running on outskirts of battle to come behind lrm boats and disintegrate back torso armor in a few salvos.  Those srms are so nice on internals crits.   I don't get alot of kills but I do a great job of disrupting the enemy and giving my team time to do something.  Have a lousy 4P in storage just used to have a 3rd variant that I want to outfit with some LLasers or a PPC build just light on money to really upgrade it yet. 

[Slayerik]

Man, I just can't quite seem to get the 4SP to work for me. I never tried artemis, though. I like my 4J (which is basically the same thing), and I just do exactly the same thing as you do - but with 4 Medium Pulse and an SRM 6. I see you on quite a bit, both of us doing this would be insta gib on things.

[Samprimary]

I have always loathed the hunchback and I considered it the dirty generic pleb mech in every mw game so far. That said, right from the beginning, I realized MWO is allowing it to shine as the straightforward, well-rounded everymech that excels in its role and holds its own even in a heavy brawl. It is to be discounted at its own peril.



Yesterday I had a ridiculous game that topped my previous score and ended with me doing more damage than the rest of my team, or the entire enemy team, combined. I decided to noodle around with brawlery, put 6 SRM6's and 4 MLAS's on one of my stalkers, and went into a river city night match.

I came up behind an atlas in lower city. It was busy shooting at someone off in the distance. I touched my nose to its butt and fired everything. Then I walked over its corpse and towards the tunnel that goes underneath the higher starting zone. You know that thing? yeah. I was like "ugh lame I'm going to be in this tunnel while everyone gets the kills above me" Then a wounded stalker shows up in front of me, and I was like oh hey yeah okay! and i one-shot it. Then a completely unharmed stalker falls down into there with me and i'm like heck yeah bro! and we fight and i kill it and am now getting pretty wounded. Then ANOTHER stalker falls in and I'm like hmm uh oh. But it was okay because I was point blank to it and it had nothing but five PPC's, which it valiantly alphastriked into my face, chipping my paint before it shut down. So I blew it up too. Then I came out the other end and got into it with a legged hunchback, which I missiled into oblivion.

My mech build is COMPLETELY STUPID (seriously one of the SRM6's is in a narc tube) but it was just quintessentially perfect for atlas butts and point blank five PPC stalkers in a hallway so I got a completely stupid score as a result.

[Zetleft]

Should definitely try it out together, I've seen some brutal Hunchie rushes before that really worked well.   Now full raven squads are more standard. But yeah just 2 of us focusing on one boat would just be death.  4J is the only one I haven't messed with.  The thing about the 4SP that is different from the others is that all your weapons are spaced out.  2 lasers in each arm with backup laser in head that I only start using when I do lose one of the arms, otherwise too much overheating.  1 SRM in each torso so I'm pretty much always able to fight until I'm cored.   I think artemis helps out a bit with spread, I seem to land alot more hits with it now.  

[Zetleft]

Damn sam they just lined up for you to take out the trash, sounds like a lethal build.  I threw away srms before on my mechs but I'm slowly going back and seeing the benefit. 

[Slayerik]

Nice Sam, that sounds fun :) I have been deciding on my next mech, and I think it might be a Centurion. I just can't afford big shit.

[Samprimary]

I really still have no idea if my stalker missileboat is a good mech or not because it has yet to be in a match where inexplicably hapless enemies do not stumble in front of it, freak out, and melt down firing ppcs and lrm's at me.

[Slayerik]

I think it stops being coincidence after a few times :)

Been messing around, theorycrafting a cicada with Dual Ultra AC5s. Why? Cause I'm a sucker for stupid builds.

My other thought was a centurion with 3 x SRM 6 and an LBX-10. Run right up on shit, thrust your junk at em.