This was my attempt at building a sniper mech. I've always been pretty big on brawling, and I the one thing I worried about with making a sniper mech is the possible lack of close range support. However, I didn't want to take away from the long range capabilities of this mech. I was simply just going to make it 2x ERPPC and a Guass, but with the change to Guass, I decided against it, and used an AC/10 instead, which has similar range to the PPC as well as damage. It worked out pretty well, but I still suffered at close range. So, i took out two heatsinks and replaced them with Medium lasers, and it worked out Amazingly. Like this, I have great long range capability, and good short range brawling, without too much of a sacrifice between either.
I find this to be an excellent build. You have a 30 point strike @ 450m with good damage capability out to 540m and a relatively cool 20 point shot in tight with the AC10 acting as the crossover weapon. The only tweak I've made is to go with a full complement of 4 tons for the AC which extends its all-range utility. I use 2 groups: PPC's&AC for +90m and the AC&meds for sub 90m or when near the thermal threshold inside of 300m. Dropping the 2 heatsinks heats you up faster but you're still looking at a good 3 shots with the PPC/AC combo before you get seriously warm. Having the extra AC rounds is worth it in my estimation because you can pound away in tight and not worry about your ammo. Downside is, as usual, the XL - but Cat side torsos are relatively invisible as long as you're not giving them to anyone. The large center torso on the Cat is much more the issue and I don't know that going standard on this or any other Cat really helps a whole lot. The heat is just something you have to learn to manage. Just because something runs hot doesn't mean it's bad - if you learn anything from Soy listen to him when he says "Use your damn heat meter!" If you're not running hot then you can probably be getting more out of your mech - it's OK to push as long as you know where the edge is. All in all it's not a bad simulation of the Gauss/PPC combo and with the AC10 you get the perk of having the instantaneous shot as opposed to having to charge the Gauss. A little less range obviously and 5 points short of the Gauss/PPC combo but working into sub-450 ranges is usually not hard to do. And 30 point strikes will still get you a lot of criticals and kill shots. Case in point: had a game tonite I went 2K&3A on only like 300 damage... so this thing can throw out some pretty devastating shots when given the opportunity. There is a smidge of a convergence issue at longer ranges due to the unmatched projectile speeds but in that 90-450m sweet spot you're not gonna notice it very much. +540 is where it really shows up. So if you like your pinpoint damage and don't wanna give up too much when the fight gets close I highly recommend you give this config a test drive - it's a keeper!. Nice job Mirenheart! Slightly altered config for reference:
Thank you very much! I would like to mention that I tried ER's on this build, and it did not work at all. Too often would I fire them, only to suddenly shut down with no warning.
Food for thought, if I were to go for a PPC+AC sniping K2, I'd probably go with this: I actually have this built on a Firebrand with a few minor differences, it's pretty solid firepower. 2AC5 puts out a constant 6.67 DPS when you're too hot to shoot PPCs, negating most of the need for MLas' DPS. You will of course be torso bound so stick with a buddy. Edit: Oh, there's a thread for that build. http://www.mechspecs.com/forum/index.php?topic=2844.0
Almost all my favorite heavy/assault mechs move 60-65 kph, I guess I'm used to it. One could probably shave a ton of AC5 ammo, an external-to-engine DHS, and some arm armor to bump up to the XL255.
