My new Awesome really lives up to its chassis name. Mechwarriors, meet Nightwing - soon to be the bane of opponents throughout the Inner Sphere. What makes this monster so deadly? Well friend, let me lay it on the line for ya. ER/PPC: Mounting the long range weapon on the arm means you can bring it to bear in the maximum number of combat scenarios. Accurate sniping - check. Firing from cover - double check. Tracking those pesky lights - you got it! Now you can hit with confidence at any range - from point blank, all the way out to 1500 meters. When you bring the lightning, you bring the pain! 2x LLas: These beauties provide most of your brawling firepower, with 18 damage delivered in 4.25 second intervals. Don't forget to use them as mid-range weapons too. they hold optimum range all the way out to 450 meters. So power 'em up, and go melt some armor! 3x MLas: Helping out with the brawler punch, this group hits with 15 damage on 3s intervals. They are the shortest range weapons on this build, losing optimum range past the 270 meter mark. But hey, remember that you can use 'em to keep shooting while your mech cools down from the bigger weapons. Essentially, they should be your bread and butter in any close range battle. And trust me, even little stabs will kill in the long run. STD 300: Being fitted with a basic fusion engine allows this mech to brawl more reliably, by reducing the kill zones on the mech. It also helps limit the Achilles heel of the Awesome chassis - that notorious side torso destruction. Well, you still gots lot of side torsi, but it won't kill ya whenever they get blown to dust. Having the engine maxed to the limit lets you get to any fight that much sooner. So don't you be skipping on that number now! And hey, we need to talk 'bout heat before I forget. If you remember to cycle your weapons carefully, this bad boy will never overheat. Thats thanks in no small part to its ridiculous number of Double Heat Sinks. All freaking twenty-two of 'em! Yeah, its essentially the 80 ton mech equivalent of a refrigerator. Which is good news for you, 'cause you're gonna need every ounce of that heat dispersing capability to unload pain as fast as you possibly can! Also of importance, this mech build doesn't have any problems the so-called ghost heat that's been plaguing some mech loadouts. I don't know what causes it any more than the next mechwarrior, but you can be sure that you won't see any of it on this loadout. It don't matter how much you abuse them weapons! If I still haven't convinced you of the awesomely awesome power that this AWS-8Q brandishes, then you must be a stubborn Steiner with your throttle hand stuck on a lumbering Atlas. If that's the case, then there was never any hope for you anyway, and why did you even stick around to listen to me yack my jaw off?
AMS: Never leave home without it. Changing the ERPPC to a standard PPC will sacrifice range but give you much better heat management. Also, a more aggressive armor distribution, though not as aggressive as I like my AWS to have. You can always take a bit of armor off the back to add a heatsink back for +.21 sustained dps (coolrun.)
