Casual WVR-7D "VII-Seven" (MRM30, MRM20, JJ, MASC, XL275)

5/5,

2 ratings

Very similar to what I was running. Something like this.

 

Well, I had a 340 engine that was free.

 

WVR-7D "Sandblaster" (1x MRM 20, 1x MRM 30, LFE280) + alt


Description:​

For quite a while, I was not a fan of the Wolverine chassis. Its hitboxes are really chunky, and it has a really large, well-defined CT for opponents to focus down. In terms of 55-tonners, for a lighter brawler, I always preferred the Bushwacker; for a fire-support build, I always preferred the Shadow Hawk. Then someone showed me this build.

The mass-MRM Wolverine 7D makes for a very mobile harasser that can punch quite a ways above its weight class. The two missile hardpoints on the 7D are very tightly clustered next to the cockpit, giving it an overall very tight spread. In addition, it has absurd quirks for missile weapons, with -20% missile cooldown and +10% missile velocity, and the chassis has better acceleration, deceleration, twist speed, and turn speed than even many lighter medium mechs. The large CT doesn't actually matter as much as you might think, in the face of how easily this chassis can roll incoming damage. With a few jump jets, this can move around maps like Canyon Network or Mining Collective and flank around to exactly where your opponents don't want you to be and sand-blast armor off.

Video:




Build:
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There's some wiggle-room in the build. Dropping armor or jump jets gets you a head-mounted laser (I recommend medium or small pulse, to finishing without sacrificing too much) or an extra heat sink. Freeing up a critical slot gets you Ferro-Fibrous armor to beef up the armor more, or to run a larger engine. You could also drop a ton of ammo or the heat sink to get maximum jump jets (a very reasonable trade-off if you're focusing on this as a mobile harasser). If you drop some armor, ammo and/or equipment, you could upgrade the MRM30 to a 40. I'm not a fan of that personally because of how the cooldown for 20s and 40s don't sync up, the build runs noticeably hotter, and you have to sacrifice a bit too much, in my opinion, to make it fit.

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An XL engine on this build is a very interesting question. I know quite a few people who would only run this with an XL because you're basically dead if you lose your left torso, and a few more people who would hate to run an XL on this because they like being able to sacrifice the dead side torso. The build runs hot enough that some more people still feel like you may as well run an XL anyway because you will likely cook yourself if you lose your dead side torso anyway. It fits reasonably even without an XL engine, so I think each way is up to personal preference.

Whichever your preference on that subject, the space savings from running an XL engine can be used to fit MASC, as the Wolverine 7D is one of the few Inner Sphere mechs that can mount that piece of equipment, for bursts of greater top speed, turn rate and acceleration. I personally run mine with a Light engine because I don't lose my weapon-side quickly enough for that to matter, and I prefer being able to fire just a few more times, even if it kills me, after losing my dead side torso. That said, I have run into situations where I wished I had MASC. You can see both situations in the above video.

Comparisons to other mechs:​

The two biggest comparisons are to the other mediums that are fairly popular MRM boats: the Trebuchet and the Dervish. The five extra tons on the Wolverine chassis gets you a much more comfortable blend of speed, durability and firepower, in my opinion, especially combined with the Wolverine's generally higher mobility stats. What the Trebuchet 7M does get, though, is a ridiculous -20% missile heat generation quirk, while keeping the same missile cooldown and missile velocity quirks. Having done the math, a Wolverine with the same build would have to run two extra double heat sinks to be almost equivalent in cooling, so when comparing them keep in mind that you essentially have two extra heat sinks on the Trebuchet 7M. If you run an XL engine in your Wolverine 7D anyway without MASC, and think the build runs too hot for you, I think the Trebuchet is definitely worth considering, I just don't like how squishy and sluggish it is by comparison, myself.

With the same build on the Dervish, the Dervish's armor and structure quirks, thinner hitboxes, and hardpoints split between both side torsos make it quite a bit tankier. With the same build as above, also, the Dervish's lack of hand actuators actually lets you switch to Ferro-Fibrous armor as well, saving some tonnage for extra armor or an extra jump jet. The Wolverine 7D is far more aggressively quirked, however, with -20% missile cooldown (compared to -10% missile cooldown, or -10% missile spread, depending on the variant), and can fit MASC for bursts of better mobility. I run my own Dervish as a tankier, line-holding mech with MRM60 without jump jets, and use the Wolverine 7D as a more mobile harasser. These setups seem to play to the chassis' strengths better.

Skills:​

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https://kitlaan.gitlab.io/mwoskill/?h=a1330b001fe00355ebaefefff7f00000000000000e86f023021c3b0a2211f

For my skill tree, I ran my usual left-side-with-Heat-Gen in the Firepower tree. Recently, I've been questioning as to whether the High Explosive nodes are really worth it, but it's just a two-node investment that you would need to put into Cooldown 1 and 3 for the rest of the tree if you want to skip them and it's extra average damage, but if you're picking up those Cooldown nodes anyway then those could be two points you can put somewhere else.

With many mechs that are 50+ tons, I'm usually of the opinion that every little bit helps when it comes to tank, so I picked up the full Survival tree since I tend to end up in fairly scrappy brawls when I play strikers like this. If you disagree, I would put these points in the Mobility tree to get Speed Tweak, especially if you run a larger XL engine. Since the chassis' base mobility stats are so ridiculously good, though, I wouldn't waste any points picking up any extra Anchor Turn or Torso Speed nodes.

To cool off a little quicker, I'm running 11 points in Operations to pick up a few Cool Run nodes. If you don't like taking a small amount of Cool Run nodes and have a few extra points, consider cutting through Quick Ignition 2 and 3 to get Heat Containment 4 and 5. The extra total 15% to your total heat capacity does help mechs that can reasonably poke and disengage, I just prefer a little better sustain over a better maximum capacity.

On every mech I play, I always take at least one node of Radar Deprivation and Seismic Sensor, for the information they give me. Since this mech is fairly squishy and is a reasonable harasser, I put a few extra points I had leftover into getting 60% Radar Deprivation. In Auxiliary, I spent my last 11 points in skilling up both CoolShots and air/artillery strikes. CoolShots can help in emergencies when you really need to finish a target, and the mech is mobile enough that you can put artillery strikes where they need to go.

 

I like the name

If you don’t use the MASC, this build can be done on the WVR-7K. Quirks are slightly lower than the 7D though, but still very good. However the 7K is better suited for SRMs and with 3SRM6A, 2MPLs and 1ERSL it is one of my most successful mediums.

I may get the 7D on the next sale so I don’t have to switch builds on my 7K.

This is how I would run it - XL300 and the MASC, 3JJs should be enough:

 

This build is so much fun, so maneuverable. I use XL295 MASC and 5JJ, 4 tons amo. 27 armour on each arm.