Hi, Firstly since this is my first post I Thought I'd start off well by going off-topic. so a big hello, I'm verb, have been playing Battletech the board game for about twenty years, and although I've only been playing mwo for a week or two, I played mechwarrior 4 : mercs for several years. So here is my dilemma, I've got a hunchback hbk-4SP and a hbk-4G all tanked on the basic efficiencies, so I'm looking for my third Hunchback. However I'm really undecided. So far I've played mostly with the jenners, and really enjoyed the contrast that the close-up brawling style of play the HBK's offer. Any recommendations?
HBK-4P is the obvious recommendation. A bit of a different playstyle. The 4H, 4P and 4SP are widely regarded as the best Hunchback variations.
@the7sins - thats kinda why I asked, I'm having a great time with short range brawling with the other HBK's I have, but I'm open to trying out one that offers a different playstyle, for instance is it worth trying to be a missile boat with the 4J?
At the current time? Missile boating with LRMs in a hunchback would be useless. I havent really played around with the HBK models to be entirely sure, in fact the only HBK I own is the 4SP and with 5 small lasers and 2 SRM 6s on it, I can say for sure that I enjoy the build. If youre shoving LRMs on it, be wary, but If your taking SRMs or Streaks into a fight, youd be a pretty decent light hunter.
I mastered Hunchbacks on the -G -P and -SP models (G because it was on trial, P because it was said to be good and SP because I wanted a missile carrier and the Salty Dog build looked fun, although some people sneer at putting LRMs on an SP). I run the -P on my "Jack" (of all trades, master of none) build, which is basically a Deathray, sans medium lasers and with more heatsinks because I suck at heat management when I have that target in my crosshairs ... "just one more shot he'll be down..."
I'm starting to like some of the ideas behind some of the builds for the -P especially Marec's "jack" build, though I like the concept of 2 PPC's or ERLL's with a couple of ML's or MPL's
If you want a daka-daka, try this. Not fast, but it sure can deal a lot of pain. Or you could try brawling. A very good scout killer. You could even switch out the SRMs for LRMs if you wanted to go as a support role.
thanks @The7Sins , however as mentioned before I've already got the 4G and 4SP (both pretty much stock weaponry), I'm looking for my third variant
I highly recommend the 4P. It's doom for anything light that gets close when you're using 9 MLAS and can chew heavy and assault backfat like no other if it can get in behind one. It also melts after a few alphas but does wonderful damage in the meantime. It's also often a toss-up on whether the collective thinks the 4P or the 4SP are the best Hunchies.
4SP is easily the best variant and easiest to score in FOR ME... 4P does get a lotta love from me also though. My alternate at the moment is the J, which is really not the greatest of hardpoint layouts mostly due to the physical locating of missiles and energy weps in the same torso component (the hunch). In many ways it is a less capable rearrangement of the SP hard points. So pretty much anything you want to do with the J, the SP can probably do better. I find running it as a missile boat both challenging and rewarding however - that is the Stormbringer variant in the J section of the HBK forums if you'd like to read up on what that's about. I'll be playing with that for a while longer I think because it still isn't optimized and it's a nice alternative to the brawling playstyle... a fun change of pace if you like to play a support role once in a while. I wouldn't recommend the J for much else though since you already have an SP and almost anything you try with the J the SP can already do better probably. So yeah: 4P for sure I would say. It can be quite the terror when set up well.
ok so I'm pretty much sold on the 4P, rather than go for 9ml I'm thinking of a build that utilises ppc's ( probably er's ok more heat but more functionality ) or large lasers
The low weight of energy weapons and the expansion to the 275 engine should make the 4P the nastiest brawler of the bunch.
Well why not you try a completely hunch less variant like the 4J http://www.mechspecs.com/forum/index.php?topic=6204.0 So what do you call a hunchless hunch back?
