Okay so I've settled on this for the moment. I feel like I have maximised the number of hardpoints and their locations pretty well, and the TC works nicely with the PPC quirks. Provides solid mid-range pin-point damage (hills and ramps are your friends - those HPPCs are so well placed and your silhouette is so much better face on) and then there's decent brawling capabilities when battle is joined. _
Yeah the side-torsos on these things feel like they're made of cottage cheese. I'm hoping maxing out the defence tree will help, but STD engines certainly do have their appeal.
I think its a geometry issue. Look at where their arms are. You're not really getting any arm coverage from them. The ST is nearly completely exposed when they rotate.
Yup. As you say, there's no arm coverage whatsoever and if you're side on you're basically a yacht on legs. One does like to try and get efficacy and crazy scores out of difficult chassis, so I'm happy enough.
I've been struggling with this variant. Started with standard LL/ML laser vomit. It just doesn't have the mobility, hardpoints, and hitboxes to be a good laser peaker. I think this HPPC loadout should be a passable build, going to give it a shot. 30 pinpoint highmounted is nice, but it can't compete with what a lot of other assaults can put downrange. 30 damage from 6xML is also pretty nice, but they're quite low mounted. This thing is going to be a struggle.
Tbh the variant with a gazillion missile tubes is the only one that feels half decent to me, and there's a Cyclops that's arguably at least as good. These chonky MADs need a gentle quirkening, really. Just some left and right torso armour would probably do it - dial out the awful geometry.
Skilling it up I found the posted build to be ridiculously hot, I took out one of the ML's and added AMS: _ Fully skilled though the heat is manageable. I went with: https://tarogato-mwo.github.io/mwo_skill_planner/?06a4877d-7f14-11e9-a242-9949696a0f10 I wouldn't call it a 5-star mech, but the build is workable.
You can sacrifice some speed in favor of STD325 and +1 DHS _ EDIT: and yet, I don't like it. If it loses right side, it will be left with almost no weapons and cooling will be overkill. If it loses left side, it will become very likely too hot.
5/5, When i noticed that you can two HPPC in those high mounts this became the clear solution! On what i had previously thought was a pretty meh mech.