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Tier 5 Mechs of Choice - Series one of five for Mechs of choice in each tier!

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Hello, new Mechwarrior Online player! This is a five series guide on purchasing, building, and playing Mechs. The basics: MWO (Mechwarrior Online) is a first person, Mech combat simulator. You can purchase these Mechs through MWO's main currency that is easily made, known as C-Bills. Mechwarrior Credits (or MC) is bought with real money, and is needed to purchase Mech Bays to store mechs (extremely important, buy MC and Mech Bays if Mech Bays are on sale), Hero Mechs, which give a 30% increase to C-Bill income when playing games with that Mech and have unique hardpoints and paintjobs, Champion Mechs, which are community created loadouts for a Mech that prove exceedingly efficient in battle, Premium Time, which grants a 50% increase to C-Bills regardless of the Mech played, and this does stack with Hero Mechs. Premium time also grants a 50% increase to Experience Points. We will not be discussing the Experience points, as this is a guide for purchasing, building, and playing a Mech.

After each subgroup of Mech, I will leave a rating out of 10, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.


Light Mech: Light Mechs are small, fast Mechs with low armor, low firepower, but extremely high speed. They usually scout out the enemy team, as they can escape easily with their high speed. They usually sport a small array of weapons, and some can indeed pack a punch. Light Mechs usually carry Lasers, Short-Range Missiles, and Machine guns. In this series, I only recommend two light mechs, and the easiest one to use is right here:
This is the Arctic Cheetah. Weighing in at 30 tons, running at 129.6 kilometers an hour, with high firepower, and ECM, this little Mech does anything a light pilot could as for, and does it extremely well. This version of the mech uses the longer range, lighter Extended Range Small Laser. ECM stands for Electronic Countermeasure. Within 90 meters, friendly Mechs can't be targeted by Long Range Missiles, including you, and are generally harder to target unless they stare at you for a very long time. Within 90 meters, enemy Mechs will be unable to target friendly Mechs, and their minimap/radar will be jammed, making them unable to see friendly Mechs on their minimap. The Arctic Cheetah can take a few hits, but not much. Speed, in this case, is your armor, and run, run run, EVERYWHERE. The Arctic Cheetah also has many jumpjets, to jump onto buildings, clear obstacles, and can be used to jump over an enemy as to confuse him. I do not advise you to take a Light as your first Mech, as they are generally harder to pilot because their armor is thin. But if you want to, use the Arctic Cheetah, and this Mech is the only Mech that will be good in every single Tier that I display.
Rating:
Ease of use: 5/10
Speed: 8.5/10
Firepower: 4/10
Armor: 3/10
Heat: 5/10

Medium Mech: Medium Mechs are more armed and armored than Light Mechs, but do not usually have the same amount of speed that they do. They are also larger, and therefore easier to hit. Medium Mechs, however, are fairly versatile and can adapt to many situations. They can take more hits, and pack a meaner punch. The one and only staple beginner's Mech, here is is:
The Hunchback. Carrying the largest cannon in the game, and a couple of lasers for backup, this is the ultimate build for poking in and out of a fight. The housing for the cannon, however, is absolutely massive, so when taking fire to your right torso, twist your torso and let the left side soak up damage. Lasers and autocannons differ in that lasers deal damage over a short time, but travel instantly, and autocannon rounds have a travel time, but deal damage all at once. Use the huge cannon to kill light mechs in one shot, hit other Mechs very hard, and throw in the lasers to make it a party. DO NOT CHARGE IN ALONE, however, as you are still not very tanky, so skirt the edges of the fight and just keep shooting that huge gun.
Rating:
Ease of use: 9/10
Speed: 6.5/10
Firepower: 6.5/10
Armor: 6/10
Heat: 5/10

Heavy Mech: Heavy Mechs are the most popular choice for nearly half of the MWO community, and for good reason. They have a larger amount of firepower than medium mechs, move at a medium pace (some even at the speed of some Mediums) and can use even bigger weapons. Right now, for beginners, my choice is:
[smurfy][/smurfy]
The Thunderbolt. Three Large Pulse lasers and very low heat with quirks make this Mech extremely easy to use, yet yield fantastic results. Just shoot the bad guys in the face when they are within 400 meters, with fast cooldown, low heat and low duration beams of blue goodness.
Rating:
Ease of use: 9/10
Speed: 5.5/10
Firepower: 6.5/10 (Same rating as the HBK, but have unlimited shots, are longer range, fire faster
Armor: 7.5/10
Heat: 6.5/10

Assault Mech: The titans of battlefield, Assault Mechs carry huge amounts of armor and firepower, but can be very slow. Some though, can move at Heavy Mech speed. The amount of armor, however, more than compensates, as Assault Mechs can take an absolute beating before being taken down. They can also give an absolute beating to any that stand in their path. I give you: [smurfy][/smurfy]
The Stalker. This build can actually be done on any one of the Stalkers, including the Hero variant.
The reason I choose the Stalker is this: the lasers are extremely high mounted on the Mech. In MWO, the position of a weapon is important. Weapons fired do not go straight out of the crosshair like other shooters. So, if your lasers are very high on the Mech, you can do a strategy known as Hill-Humping. You essentially find a hill, wherever enemies are, and expose a small portion of the top of your Mech. This reduces the size of a target, and a smaller target is harder to hit. When you are hill humping, back off when your lasers are on cooldown. Speaking of your lasers, never fire all four at once unless you have really low heat at the time. Fire two and two, while looking over a hill, then climb back down until the lasers are off cooldown. If too many people see you and start waiting for your head to pop over the hill again, move to another hill, ridge, or whatever piece of cover that can hide most of your mech, and keep hill-humping. Stalkers can also take lots and lots of damage.
Rating:
Ease of use: 6.5/10
Speed: 4/10
Firepower: 7.5/10
Armor: 9/10
Heat: 4/10

With these builds, you can learn the ins and outs of MWO. I personally recommend the Hunchback and the Thunderbolt due to their balance of speed, firepower and armor. Good luck out there, new Mechwarrior, and have fun playing this game!

 

After engine desync, I would honestly recommend new players avoid Assault 'Mechs for the most part, until they're a bit more familiar with maps and strategies. Especially in Tier 5, your team is pretty unreliable, and so you really need the extra speed to deal with issues of being out of position in relation to your team. I recommend a minimum speed of 81 kph, which is obtainable with some Heavies.

This is nothing against this guide, it's a great guide, and these builds are still viable, it's just outdated.