As the title says, I'm finally going to buy an assault Mech, and I'm looking for suggestions. My play style so far is sniper/skirmisher. I've newer been as good at brawling, so I tend to either use sniper weapons like the my LLas or PPC K2 builds, or something fast like a 6xMlas Cicada, so I can engage and disengage at will. I'm a fairly casual player, so I don't have 50 million to spend like some of you guys, but I like to think I'm a pretty good pilot. What I'm looking for is a way to make myself useful in an Assault. I don't like the coward assault pilots who waste time hiding while their teammates get killed, and I'm not wanting to go the LRM boat route. Also, I'd like to try something a little different than my normal mostly-energy-focused builds. (I used to love a Gauss rifle in early beta, but having it in the side torso of my K2 nowadays is just asking for trouble, so something along the "Gauss in an arm" lines appeals to me. Here is what I'm looking at so far: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=146&l=307336ee69d4e02de91ec3cac78fbc6df8d04c6a I like the idea of a ballistic weapon, and the Banshee has a lot of tonnage to make for some really heavy builds, plus I could swap in an AC/20 when I get the feel for guns. But this still feels like a "standard" Vorus build, and I want to expand my playstyle. http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=71&l=d2f7b092ba1afdd94ed904b1f84abe6ab35212b1 I hate fighting Lights, did I mention that? This seems like something that might come in handy on the battlefield; enough damage to take on bigger Mechs, but some SSRMs to make the little guys fear me. And if I don't use the JJ much, I can have 4 more tons to play with. http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=71&l=2822435ab1903e7d0ea885d1b4d08aee524d11db A little more focused on taking out bigger targets, and I get my Gauss this time. I like this one because it just does all kinds of damage. Rawr! Now, my general thoughts on Assaults Mechs, to see if I'm missing anything: Awesome - Seems easy to kill, I've never really been afraid of them at any point in the game. Also, energy-focused, so just kind of a bigger version of my normal playstyle Atlas - I hate the Atlas, I'll never use it. Not really rational, I've just always hated the way it looks. Banshee - Big and heavy, some interesting possibilities, (4xAC/2 looks like fun...) but I don't seem to see them much ingame, are they underpowered or something? Battlemaster - I like the possibilities here, there are some cool setups I can see, (Dual AC/2, plus lasers, or even Gauss in the arm again, etc) but I'm not sure about the 85 tons, seems a little light to me. What is the general consensus regarding the Battlemaster? Highlander - Only 90 tons, but there seem to be a lot of them ingame, and I like the JJ option. I think I'm leaning toward a Highlander at this point. Stalker - I don't really like being tied down to only energy and missiles. They do seem really tough ingame though. I seem to be kind of stuck between the Banshee, Battlemaster, and Highlander, but if I had to pick right now, I'd go with the Highlander-733. If you've read all the way through this, I thank you, and thank you in advance for any comments.
Pick a chassis, not a single mech variant. You should buy 3 of them to really make it worth it. (grinding isn't always fun, but it best to do) Victors are good (which you didn't mention), and are not reliant on LRMs. They are good against any opponent. Try playing the trial Victor for now and see if you like it. It has a really good selection of weapons. I would say Battlemasters as your second pick, they are LRM heavy, but they can also do ballistics or energy pretty well, so theya re very versatile. Also, you have a lot of options to choose from in terms of chassis.
Victors are my personal favorites. They were recently nerfed, but, even with the mobility nerf, are quite agile. With their JJs, their mobility makes it very easy to spread damage (making XL Engines acceptable) and can move quite quickly for their size. Stalkers are BRUTALLY effective, however, they are very slow, have no arm articulation, and, they tend to rely on missiles, and, unless you pay for the Hero variant, have no ballistic options. Battlemasters have some great variety, LRMs to Gauss to Energy. They feel very sluggish to me, but, I'm usually in lighter chassis. Highlanders are unquestionable. They are devastating mechs. I just perfer the Victor, because you can do nearly all the same builds, but, for less C-Bills (engine to speed and chassis price) and will be much more agile. My 2¢.
I'm not an active mech jockey, more of a theorist really. All I can offer are suggestions for builds that I think might work in MWO. In the end, it'll be your CBills/MC paying for the privilege of testing them out. I recently came up with an idea for a Heavy Metal Highlander build, focusing on manoeuvrability and by extension survivability. As the parent chassis must be bought with MC, I also tried to keep costs down to by using relatively standard weapons, common engine rating etc. http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=69&l=4f715c92a99fc359fc4290aab2e0411138fc69e1 If you are wanting to pilot an Assault Mech, search out some clips on YouTube or the forums posted by Assault pilots. It'll give you a better idea where to start. P.S - If you ever change your mind about Stalkers, let me know. They are something of a worrying obsession of mine! As for Stalker pilots, Blagg Zear is the man to see.
Everyone has said some good points about the other chassi (and I generally agree), so I'll heave in a few points on the Banshee. It's not a bad mech, but it is kinda a go between the Battlemaster and the Atlas. The Banshee has a little more speed then the Atlas, more hardpoints for weapons but less armor. I think many people simple go for the more speedier Battlemaster or for the heavier Atlas. You can do some spectacular Banshee builds though. http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=146&l=1bfb78aa7cc10af4b63d424510a3ddd0583665a5
For me, the Banshee BNC-3E is one of the heaviest hitters in the game, even with the recent nerf to AC5s and AC2s. My biggest issue with the Banshee chassis, though, is that the BNC-3S is pretty mediocre, and the BNC-3M is even worse, making them a pain in the ass to grind. Everyone else has also mentioned the Victor, and truthfully, I used to completely discount them. After screwing around in the trial Victor, though, they are surprisingly effective and fun to play. Assuming it's still around after today's patch, I would definitely recommend taking it out for a spin.
How to make yourself useful at playing an assault: get good at brawling. I would not like having a sniping assault in my team. And the class is not really fit for skirmishing unless you mount the XL400. Honestly, assaults have more tonnage but can barely mount more weaponry than a heavy, because most of it will be used for a higher engine rating (so you don't slow down to an absolute crawl) and more armor. the armor difference between heavy and assault is percentually less than between medium and heavy though. Compare the CTF-3D with the meta Victors and Highlanders for example. They can mount the same stuff, but the Cataphract is slightly faster and has less armor. You don't need armor poptarting/poking but speed at long range (proven by the might of ECM cicadas and ravens). And if you can barely run 65 kph without sacrificing the armor/firepower you get from an assault, what's the point of engaging and disengaging? Instead, you should be careful when to engage, and then never stop the assault as you overwhelm everyone in sight with your large apperance, a lot of fire power and the team that hides behind you. I took on assaults so I could lead charges and fire a lot of hurt in to people's faces. Walk in, fire a bunch of death. Assaults are supposed to be a meat shield (or a LRM boat because those weapons are too heavy to boat in huge salvos on anything less). However, as you're looking for input on which assault mech to pilot as well: Banshee: SLUGGISH DEATH MACHINE! I piloted Stalkers since the day they came out and loved them. Once I hopped into a banshee that's supposed to be somewhat similar in speed I was frustrated everytime I played them (until they were mastered, then I was just annoyed). 95 tons is a bad place to start when venturing into assault-land. The power difference between the variants is also pretty substantial. The 3E is by far the best variant, the ballistics give it an unmatched DPS compared to most other assaults, making it the most powerful killing machine if someone trying to fight you. 3M is meh. lots of speed and lots of heat for energy only. 3S is interesting, but I don't like it as much as I thought I would. Can run some devastating alpha builds, but is as slow as a stalker at max speed. Battlemaster: I quite enjoyed getting them from the phoenix package. High energy hardpoints, many energy hardpoints and some ballistics/missiles as you please. They also have a high max engine rating and aren't too heavy with just 85 tons. I think this would be your best bet for starting off as they will not feel as slow as many other chassis. If you mount a high enough XL engine they can even move like a larger heavy with more armor. And every variant is very different but similar in how strong they are making them 'more enjoyable' to grind through as they're not the same all the time. Even the 1D and the 1G are different IMO. the amount of hardpoints in the 1G motivate you to boat medium lasers and such to walk into people and melt them, while the higher twist range and ballistic focus of the 1D motivates you to run around people and blow them up without taking too much of their shots. Highlander: I haven't played this chassis but they're 90 tons, a middle ground between the slow-until-mastered banshee and the Battlemaster. They can mount jumpjets and that's great, but as of the mobility nerf you need many of them, and they weigh 2 tons each. I suppose that severely limits how 'assault' the rest of the mech can be, as you'll have to get 8 tons from the armor, the wspeed, the loadout, or a combination of those. That said, people seem to do well enough in them and they have much more to say about it than I do. I think the 733C and Heavy Metal are regarded as the best variants because they can mount two ballistic weapons. If you're not going to use the increased amount of energy/missile hardpoints from the other variants anyway I'd get those since they can run 'meta' better. Stalker: As I said earlier, I played stalkers since they came out. I love them. Though my preferred role is to brawl with them, they're probably better suited as a long range chassis. They behave a bit like a Jager, as in that they're slow, have huge side torsos, only vertical arms but with high hardpoints and are mostly meant to carry an extreme amount of firepower to the enemy. The huge side torsos are a double edged sword as it means you can spread damage very easily (once got my last kill at 17%, legged and red CT because my rightside could tank the damage) but you can also lose your firepower very easily as people can just blow off your sides and ignore you. If you decide to get a stalker after all, I suggest the 3F (better torso twist), 5M (CT hardpoints!) or Misery (CT and ballistic hardpoints!!), and the 5S (Dual AMS!)
Awesome suggestions! Thanks to everyone, you all provided a LOT of good info. I hadn't even thought of watching some vids of Assault pilots, that's a great idea. I really want to get good at brawling, because like SubjectSeven said, sniping Assaults are annoying at best. I will definitely play with the trial Assault to try to get a feel for it.
From the perspective of a Light, since you mentioned you hate them I can say that I find Banshees, Atlases, and Victors to be far easier targets than Highlanders or Stalkers. Battlemasters are middle of the road. This is assuming mastered efficiencies on any of the above. Victors, with that turn speed nerf they got a while back, are much easier to corner now than they were before, while Atlas/Banshee mechs just tend not to turn well enough to handle a light (or three) maneuvering around them. For some reason, Stalkers always seem to pivot faster than I expect them to and get off a shot, which makes for a nasty surprise. Highlanders have the same thing. Battlemasters are probably the hardest to judge as a Light, since 9/10 of the ones I see are clearly not expertly driven, and I often get 2-3 alphas off into their backs before they respond (often killing them without them turning to fire back). The few expert pilots I've seen in them, however, were very good at twisting to keep lights at bay...even if they lost, they did a good bit of damage on the way out. Banshees, I should mention, are usually my first targets btw. This is not because they're the easiest to kill (Atlas is far easier to beat in a Jenner/Firestarted IMO), but because they tend to be some of the nastiest damage on the field. A lot of people hop into Atlases, but I've seen many more BNC pilots who could dole out the hate. Generally, I'll see a lot more Atlases under 100 damage than Banshees.
Thanks for the perspective! That's actually really good to know. By the way, did you ever play Star Trek Bridge Commander? (Or maybe Star Trek Legacy) I seem to remember a Durandal from a long time ago.
I think the Victors and Highlanders are incredibly sluggish after the twist speed nerf. The are just too slow moving, especially the Highlanders, although I have been piloting a lot of heavy's lately so that might be it too. In my opinion, you could never go wrong with the Highlander pre-nerf. Now? I'm not sure. They are still incredible chassis to fight with, and good weapons platforms. Never tried any of the others besides Victors so I can't give my honest opinion on them, although the banshee looks sweet as hell for boating AC's. It's like a much heavier Jaeger. EDIT: My first chassis of all time was the Highlander, and I loved them so much I bought the Heavy Metal when it was on sale. They were my favorite chassis to play with, and it was such an easy grind for XP. I would definitely suggest them over the Victor though, as the Victors got hit harder with the nerf bat than the Highlanders
I don't like the Victor. I do, however, run a Highlander with a similar build to that AC10/LLas/SSRM2 you posted and it's a solid mech that's very capable of holding it's own against any weight class.
Last time "love" for the Victor cut its heart out and made it as sluggish as an Atlas... with the 20% nerfs to turn speed/torso twist. Honestly, my Banshees turn faster and the torso feels far more responsive. @OP Personally i like Banshees and Battlemasters (as you have to master 3.. Battlemaster is most versatile, you have Laserboats, a lovely missileboat and one that has a ballistics arm, and 85 tons means they are not too sluggish.
My take on the Assaults, I don't own every variant on every chassis so I am just doing this from what I have: Awesome: Awesome is not awesome. They act like oversized heavy. Not what I would suggest. There is a couple variant that can make cool uber-LRM boats though, like 8R and 8V. 8T is the crappy middle child of this not awesone series, I think. the tonnage is a bit tight for the all energy variant 8Q, and hardpoints positioned too low. The brawler variant like 9M and Pretty Baby is an acquired taste. Victor: Fast and kinda agile, speed almost like a heavy, and JJ to boot. Quite good actually, but little difference between variants. They make good poptarts. 9B and 9S can both hold AC20 at the arm, and they are quite similar actually, both are nice. 9K is in a weird spot, one extra energy for the inability to use AC20, IMO not worth it (but you have no choice unless you get the MC Hero Dragon Slayer). Dragon Slayer is quite unique in hardpoints, and opinion varies also. I for one enjoy the uniqueness. Battlemaster: Somewhat agile heavy, with lots of body energy hardpoints, and assortment of missile and ballistic. A fun and variated series. The ST body energy hardpoints mounts high on the shoulders, good for shooting. There are usually more than enough hardpoints for you to min/max the build with, so it is nice to try new things. Ballistic series have 1D, 1G and the new 3M. Difference is between the number of ballistic hardpoints in that ONE arm, and number of energy hardpoints. Choose what you like. 1S is THE missile mech, wonderful SRM boat if you want it. 3S is like 1S with less missile and more energy hardpoint, does not own this, LRM maybe? Stalker: Not fast, but powerful, and nicely grouped weapon. A good series. 3F is the basic with extra better arm angle. 3S is the same thing, but with 2x AMS instead of the agle bonus, choose either one. 3H is for LRM, with 20 tubes for each arm. 5M is a nasty brawler, with 5 missile hardpoints for things like SRM! Misery is the ONLY Ballistic variant, with some interesting build. **4N IS A PIECE OF CRAP, NEVER NEVER EVER BUY THIS, YOU GIVE UP HARDPOINTS FOR NOTHING AT ALL. PIECE OF SHIT** Highlander: They are not toooo slow, but definitely not fast. They have JJ, but at 2 tons each, you probably only need one and only one JJ. They may seem like an oversized Victor, but actually quite different. Oh, each variant plays a bit differently, so it is less boring. 732... not sure, but I heard they can poptart decently. 733 is the missile variant, so to speak. 733C can have AC20 in the arm. 733P is the energy variant. Heavy Metal have hardpoints that are similar to the Victor series. Banshee: Slow, but high damage output. Oh, did I mention SLOW? HUGE variations between variants. 3E is one of the deadliest ballistic monster that ever walks. This guy winks at you the wrong way and you can die. Slow. Deadly. 3M is a 8 energy hardpoint variant. Slow AND Hot. It is ok I guess if you like really energy. 3S has a nice mix of hardpoints. Once again high damge output. Slow. Extra Slow actually. Really slow. LA MALINCHE is like a slightly smaller Atlas. I guess you can get this one if you really don't want 3M/3S. Atlas: Slow, Powerful, Huge. What is not to love. Oh, and ECM on D-DC. Feels like inside a Titan in 40k, if you know the feeling. D-DC. ECM! ECM! ECM! Even without ECM this is probably the best variant (but please don't take ECM off this) RS gets 4x energy hardpoint to the arm, if you want things like 4x LLas this is the variant. Boar's Head have 6x energy hardpoint to the arm! It is actually quite similar to RS in a way. D is like a weakened D-DC that does not have ECM, also less missile, but you have two CT energy for zombie. *K is a neutered version of Atlas. Giving up many good hardpoints for 2x AMS. NOT WORTH IT. DO NOT GET*
My take on the Assaults: Awesome: The Awesome is ok. Not the best Assault, but can be a good Support Fighter with either LRMs or PPCs. Victor: Agile Brawler with some nice AC Builds. Yes, it got nerfed. But it's still a viable agile (JJs!) Assault Mech. Battlemaster: A very versatile Assault Mech. Can load every kind of Builds. Great Missile Boat or heavy Dakka Monster. Stalker: One of my favorite Assaults. It can Lurmageddon, can Laserboat, can PPC Strike, can BFG. WOW! Great Mega Chicken! Highlander: Well, one of the least played Assaults by me. Dont know why. Maybe because i don't like to play boring Poptard-Meta. If it had some Torso B-Slots.. or even Triple Arms Dakka, it would be a great Assault. But as it is, nothing too special. Banshee: Well, the 3E is the new Brawler King. The other Variants okish - almost all Weapons in the Torso.. Atlas: The Classic Iconic Assault Mech - a Must Have! Especially the DDC with ECM. The Rest, well, very similar. Don`t buy the K - too expensive and pretty bad Weapon Hardpoints compared to the other ones. @OP If you like to Poptard, go for the Highlander or the Victor. If you like Dakka Power instead go for the Banshee, the Battlemaster or the Victor. If you like Missile Boats the Stalker, the Awesome and the Battlemaster 1S should be your choice! If you simply want to play BOSS and have ECM, the Atlas is your only option.
Only ST game I really ever played online was Star Trek: Armada, and I was Durandal there too. Used the name for about 20 years, so it shows up in a lot of places
From all available variants of all assaults I personally feel the following 3 to stand out: AWS-8R: With 4x15 missle tubes in the torso, a head mounted TAG, fully armored shield arms and still enough tonnage to load crazy ammounts of ammo this -imho- is currently the very best missle boat ingame. I did serveral 1000+ dmg games in this while dropping solo, with only basic skills unlocked and no module equipped. HGN-733C: Mainly because of the lacking arm acuator (which the other variants do have) freeing up enough space for 2x UAC5s (or 1 AC20). Togehter with 2x torso mounted PPC and JJ this is a really versatile sniper/long range direct fire support mech with still enough tonnage to mount 3x SSRM2 aswell vs. nasty lights comming up close. AS7-D-DC: This can basically take the same loadout as the 733C (2x ERLL/PPCs, 2x UAC5/AC5, 3x SSRM2/SRM4) while trading speed and JJs for brute armor, STD engine and most importantly ECM. No way subtle yet very effective.
