Regular group games to showcase the builds: [hr] Ca-Caw! The Raven 3L is probably one of the best mechs in the game, ECM, fast and the 2 ERLL build has proven itself deadly multiple times! ..... and then there's the other two variants. 4X has jumpjets but its hardpoints are garbage (unless you want to do an AC20 joke build), and the 2X doesn't have the jumpjets, and is still heavily outclassed by the other 35 tonners in the weapons it can bring. Here is how I'm levelling out my Ravens while being an asset to my team in the cheapest way possible. No DHS (this costs almost as much as the mech itself!), TAG and NARC are your friends for being the most free-to-play friendly grind! Ideally: Get a Shadowhawk 5M first Why? It has an XL275 which is the perfect max engine for these two little bugs (birds?). Besides that it is a very good mech that you probably don't want to sell. The RVN-3L is a keeper too but can equip larger engines until 295 rating. You can also just buy the XL275, even though it's suboptimal (XL280 has same weight but is too high engine rating for these mechs) and thus you'll get less value out of it. After mastering ravens you can put it in the centurion or hunchback as max rating engine. (Hunchback 4J with only energy or Hunchback 4SP come to mind). It can also function as a surrogate XL280, which is a very common engine in many mechs such as Jagers and Cataphracts. Other Mechs that come with an XL275 are the Griffin 3M, Wolverine 7K and Heavy Metal (MC only) (thanks to epikt for this information!) If you don't want to get the XL engine, a STD225 minus one heat sink is equal in weight. However you lose a LOT of speed and some heat efficiency with that. With a speed of merely 104 with this little armor, The close range NARC build is NOT an option. After this, you can use one of the following builds as an example. Note that this is about as hot as you want to get, because we're running Standard Heat Sinks here: Tag+Long Range: These mechs are great for getting assist cash, because you have the range to scrape anybody with your ERLL. TAG is there to help your LRM boats out and some more xp/cash. This is a good build for people who prefer to stay behind a bit in their sub-optimal mechs, with some backup weapons at close range/open targets. NARC+tag: In order to get some real experience, you need to rely on spotting assists, as grazing with a laser doesn't grant you any XP. NARC is awesome since the latest patch, and you can be certain at least some missile boats will be around. The downside though is that you will be dependant on their skills (or lack thereof), and you'll have to get a bit closer than you might want to. These mechs don't have speed tweak and running
For those you don't like the Shadowhawk, other mechs come stock with an XL275: Griffin 3M, Wolverine 7K and Heavy metal.
Added a video that shows two builds in action, with and without consumables. These are the ones I personally used to cheaply basic them out.
Great post SubjectSeven! I tried the builds you suggest but found in PUG (as you point out) that the support role wasn't providing me much in the way of results. I am running the 2X and 4X with an XL260 and XL210 respectively because I had them in the garage so that doesn't help. I switched over to 2 LL in the right arm (like I am running on the 3L with ER) and have had good results, even with single heat sinks. You do have to be extra careful in the Raven with the XL210 to stay away from enemy lights because they kill you quick. On hot maps I sometimes have to take a break but it's a good excuse to find another group to hide with. I've found that if I hunker down with the big boys and slide and snipe with the LL's in both the 2X and 4X that I'm getting 2-400 damage per game, with the odd outlier. They are also good at hanging out at base in a losing game and putting some consolation damage on the winning team. It sucks to lose but the sooner I'm through these mechs the sooner I can upgrade my 3L and use the mechbays for something else. Your post has saved me tons of time by inspiring me to NOT upgrade the 2X and 4X as well as convinced me to try out NARC and Tag which are pretty cool and would be more useful if I were with an organized team. Thanks.
Great post. I tried the 3 med Laser+TAG+NARC version of the 2x from the video, but using the NARC got me killed way too much, way to early. I know what you're gonna say next, and yeah, I was probably doing it wrong. I dropped the NARC, swapped in an ERLL for one of the ML's and my results have been a lot better. Submitted for your approval:
That said, if you have the thing in the garage, better upgrade it to DHS and leave it there. These mech are fun.
