Which Mechs to use and which to avoid

[warmachine79]

Last games I often use the Shadowcat A because the UAC20 just is great fun and the Awesome (B?) with 6 Large Beam Lasers - two full salvos to a leg will mobility kill any mech. Once on marshes when I had a good position I piled up 4 cripples at the same location . I'd like to see a Gunboat with 6 UACs instead of 6 LBLs. Maybe, not UAC20, but 6 UAC10 or 6 RAC2/5.

[Arbiter]

Last games I often use the Shadowcat A because the UAC20 just is great fun and the Awesome (B?) with 6 Large Beam Lasers - two full salvos to a leg will mobility kill any mech. Once on marshes when I had a good position I piled up 4 cripples at the same location . I'd like to see a Gunboat with 6 UACs instead of 6 LBLs. Maybe, not UAC20, but 6 UAC10 or 6 RAC2/5.

6 UAC10's would be sick. I don't know that there's a mech on the field that could survive 2 alpha strikes and they recycle in what, 5 seconds. On one hand I'd like to pilot it, on the other...killing assault mechs in 5-6 seconds flat would probably be a bit broken...

[warmachine79]

Last games I often use the Shadowcat A because the UAC20 just is great fun and the Awesome (B?) with 6 Large Beam Lasers - two full salvos to a leg will mobility kill any mech. Once on marshes when I had a good position I piled up 4 cripples at the same location . I'd like to see a Gunboat with 6 UACs instead of 6 LBLs. Maybe, not UAC20, but 6 UAC10 or 6 RAC2/5.

6 UAC10's would be sick. I don't know that there's a mech on the field that could survive 2 alpha strikes and they recycle in what, 5 seconds. On one hand I'd like to pilot it, on the other...killing assault mechs in 5-6 seconds flat would probably be a bit broken...

Then maybe AC10?

[Danger]

One of the major flaws and misgivings about the lottery payoff effect of getting kill shots.  I really don't like that aspect of the cbill algorithm.

Agreed. I think there need to be some kind of kill bonus, but right now I have way too munch incentive to sit back and only fire on mostly damaged targets.

Those incentives seem to be self reinforcing as well.
0) Kill shot gives a big bonus, everyone likes c-bills/points.
1) Most mechs are packing long range, big punch weapons (Gauss/L. Laser/ERPPC/LRM). So a mech can be polished off quickly from afar by someone else.
2) Running into close range is just a recipe for getting killed. Even more incentive to hang back and pick off targets.
3) Once you fire, you have revealed your position. Better to wait and make sure that shot counts.
4) If you fire and not kill the enemy, someone else will get the kill shot as your weapons reload. See #1.
5) Even on the short range brawl maps like Inferno and Marshes, there are still ample locations to sit back and pick off targets for the kill.

I think the solution will also depend on the short-range brawler becoming more viable. (such as reducing Gauss ammo/ton, upping Med. laser damage, etc), more maps, and reducing the bonus for killing off a mech.

I agree about the whole sitting back and picking your shots. I hate taking out 85 % of a mechs armor only to have someone else get a kill while my Heavy gauss rifles and ppcs are recharging/reloading. :/. A few days ago I got like 4 kills, my buddy got 10, I did 90% of the damage to 8 of 10 mechs he killed, he just happend to swoop in and finish them off while I was reloading.

[~SJ~ Blhurr]

This is probably the wrong thread to continue on with this but what would be wrong with upping the payoff for damage done and reducing the payoff for kill shots?

[MaverickOriginal]

Uller: easy to kill (unless running at top speed)
Bushwacker: hard to kill, but will get better weaponry with mechlab (its basically bait)
Hollander: to easy to get your gun blown off
Awsome: too slow, hard to miss, significantly less armor than atlas

using NARC, seeing an awsome is like a wet-dream. Mauler, warhammer, bushwacker, and atlas all seem to survive LRM spam better.

[Buzz_Litebeer]

The only mechs I have been using are

Uller with Gaus
Hollander with Heavy Gaus
Thanatos Heavy Gaus

Awesome 6 lbl - Most Maps
Novacat 6 cerl - marshes
Novacat 4 lpl - Inferno (never overheats).

LRM spam has killed me far less since they added AMS to the awesome.

I used to use the Shadowcat with Gaus and PPC, but the Hollander Heavy Gaus does even MORE firepower this patch because they re-classified it as heavyKinetic instead of just Kinetic, which means it has no penalties when doing damage.

So it does a full 3100 damage now per shot, were it used to do 2480 per shot.

Which is almost 2-3 times the damage of the gaus.  (regardless of what the wiki says, the wiki is calcing wrong or something, you can look into the files directly and just get the damages from them).

3 large lasers do 2400 or so damage, so 6 do 4800 damage, which is plenty to kill lots of mechs in two solid salvos.  (note some of this is guesswork based on patch .1.0 but it still seems to hold true, my methodology was to use the demolisher which has X amount of armor, shoot it with a laser, and see how much percentage the armor goes down, and use that to judge damage).

Which is why I use laser vehicles.

[Redvan]

my latest line has been
Osiris B (thats the one with MASC and uac5 right?)
Scat Prime
Thanny B (basically a Scat Prime with 1 additional laser and 360 torso, its awesome, ty 420 for introducing us)
MKII Prime if I feel like shitsygiggling

[RabbidFerret]

Mine is eerily similar to red's

Osiris (2 LBL)
Scat (PPC+CGuass+2MGs)
Thanatos(CGuass+2LBL+2MBL)
MadCat MKII (2CGuass + 2 CLRM10 + 4 ERMBL)

I like things with Jump Jets. I love the Thanatos the most. The lasers work well at any range and allow precision shots for dealing with cockpits or BA. Enough ammo room for 24 CGuass shots. Combine that with a 360 torso, Jump Jets and a GECM and you get nothing but pure love.

Oh and another note. I love the Mauler's weapon loadouts and it absolutely shreds other mechs. I would use it all the time if it wasn't for that damn windscreen bar running across the center of your targeting ridicule. Seriously? Is there a way to turn your modeled mech cockpit off?

[~SJ~ Xarg]

LRM and AC/UAC become even better, off the top of my head. Oh, and PPC. Splash will rule the day.

[Danger]

I seem to have good luck with the vulture Gauss variant, the awesome 4 lpl version, and the mk2 beatstick.

Not a mech but the partisan prime is kick ass! I usually can kill 1-3 light mechs early game which lets me get into a medium or heavy almost immediately. Getting stuck on stumps and whatnot can be problematic at time though lol.

[Salvatoris]

Really depends on your play style.  For instance, I pretty much shun SCATS but other swear by them.

I'll run as BA until I can afford a scat and then I stick with them the rest of the round, even if I am spawning with 110k.  It's great all around mech. It's got a great balance of speed, maneuverability and firepower, with the bonus of jump-jets.  I know some people complain about the current functionality of jump-jets, but I personally hate to leave the hangar without them.  It was my weapon of choice in Mech3, one trick pony that it was.  It's even better with a variety of weapons instead of 14 er small.  

[HAARP]

I only use the Scat Prime since the others are below my sense of honour. Especially the UAC20 Scat, which is about 10 tons overweight.

[Taemien]

I like using the Uller to start out. The Guass variant is just such a good slugger and the 2 medium lasers are pretty solid to keep the damage going during reloading.

Past that, it really depends on what the other team is fielding and the terrain. If its Inferno or Extremity, its gotta be something with JJ's. In the wide open maps I'll take some missiles or lt guass. But I do prefer getting up close or medium range.

I'm not a big fan of the Scat, the only variant I like is the guass one and that feels like a big uller and not effective at that point of the game. The 2 PPC 2 Flamer Puma is just nasty. It can slug with bigger mechs and take care of BA. A great escort to a LRM Cougar.

For the later game I'll pack either a Catapult or Thanatos if I can get my hands on it. Past that its a Mauler or Atlas. After I slugged it out with a MkII in a Scat I lost respect for them. Even when I see them while in a smaller mech I close with them and still do pretty well, enough to get a promotion out of it. But an Atlas... you just avoid lol. Takes teamwork to bring it down.

I'm not a big fan of the hollander. I love my big weapons, but I like having some medium punch secondary weapons to go with them. The hollander doesn't have that.

Madcats, Novacats... just too hyped up. In MW4 we trained to make them obsolete to us while using Thannys (in fact we trained to take Daishi's 1v1 for the planetary league we were in). In MC you could have gotten 6 Atlases for the cost of 4 madcats, which my friends and I did, to great effect (enough to make MSN Zoners say "No IS" in their game rooms). Here in MWLL Madcats are pretty decent. I like the spread of weapons on them, but I won't be caught piloting one. Novacats... haven't tried one yet, seem pretty (too) common. I'm not a non-conformist, but if everyone uses something, tactics are built around it. I like keeping peeps guessing.

Screw it, get a raven with a narc and be a nuisance 

[Haunted]

I only use the Scat Prime since the others are below my sense of honour. Especially the UAC20 Scat, which is about 10 tons overweight.

Quite an overstatement...
The canon scat has an active probe (1t).. the MWLL one doesn't and a cERPPC weigths 6 tons. The cERMBLs weight 1t each. The cUAC20 and cGauss weight both 12t. So it can be argued that the scat with cUAC20 and cERPPC is around 3t overweight, not 10t.

And the Heavy Gauss Hollander II, that you do use a lot. Is also overweight. The canon one does not have jump jets. And i am not sure it carries 4t of ammo. And alone those jump jets can make its overweight similar to the scat ones you always complain about (depending on how many).
Oh by the way both mechs are 45t, and the Hollander armament weights 22t and the scats 20t (ammo included) (yes the scats MASC is 2t, making them equal).

So stop complaining about the scat if you are running around in a Heavy Gauss Hollander, please. (btw. the scat in 0.2.0 might be gimped, it's leg armor seem to be as low as it's arm armor.... that alone would make the Heavy Gauss Hollander more overweight than the scat)

And yes I do agree that many mechs are overweight in MWLL (that should be corrected, and the devs know about the overweight). If all were it might be ok. But some variants are, some are not (thats not so good).

ps.:
Take all weight calculations with a grain of salt, since we do not know if the devs use the same weapon weights (they might not, since weapons stats (dmg, rof , range etc.) are different). And I couldn't find information on the amount of armor, reactor type, and number of jump jets build in the MWLL variants.