In the 16 oct 2018 patch, the AWS-8Q got its ISPPC ghost heat limit raised by one! Thus, the only natural thing to do is to abuse this new advantage
Woa, interesting usage of standard heat sinks! I experimented with the PPC's and ERPPC's. In the end I ended up with this, which I was very happy with as I was skilling it up: With ERPPC's it is nice not having to worry about lights getting under your minimum range. I know whenever I am driving my light, the potential for point blank single shot kills makes me a lot more careful about engaging. Fully skilled the heat management is pretty good. Skills: https://kitlaan.gitlab.io/mwoskill/?p=jsonbin1.5c29972d8c05c52ebad19e86#s=Weapons Heavy PPC version (ooh baby):
Skill tree can be improved: Range is important because you can hit hard even outside optimal range (each HPPC deals 10 damage at 720 meters without skills!) Heat gen is important because build will tend to be very hot, plus less heat generated means more sustained DPS Structure nodes are garbage: best case scenario they increase the total HP count +3 / +5 compared to armor, but don't forget critical hits, especially those from MGs and LBXs, will deal 15% of that critical damage to the actual structure HPs, so you will melt like butter anyway. Armor is always the best choice, unless you want to skill into both for maxium tankiness Heat containment is useless: it doesn't improve cooling efficiency and increase in maximum threashold is negligible. Seismic sensor is nice, but 1 node is more than often useless with a mere 100 meters range. Get both or get none. You should be skilling into 1 or 2 consumables, because you can't fit 5 consumables and 3 nodes would go to waste. IMHO UAVs are useless because you shouldn't be brawling and if you ever happen to need one, you either pushed too hard or left behind for some reason, you ain't gonna survive it anyway when faced by a brawler. Airstrikes aren't really worth it because 3xHPPC will likely kill anything you see when aimed properly. My skill tree would be something like this: max heat gen, almost max range, almost max velocity, skill into armor, max coolrun, skill into radar deprivation, get advanced zoom, skill into coolshots. https://kitlaan.gitlab.io/mwoskill/?p=jsonbin1.5c2f73e92c87fa273066e384#s=Weapons
I agree with most of your skill tree decisions and yours will also get great enhanced performance out of the mech. If I may defend a couple of my decisions: Range yes, going full 15% is acceptable. With the ERPPC's I found it to be slightly less necessary, most quick play combat occurs under 800 meters. However, if I did the HPPC build I would definitely have gone full 15%. I only skipped 2 heat outlier heat gen nodes. To get them you have to get 4 essentially dead nodes that I wanted elsewhere- Ordinarily yes, I agree with you on structure. On the survival tree I usually like to go all or nothing, but on this one I only had enough points leftover to make a moderate impact, especially since this mech has structure quirks. I figured for a mech that has a potential to overheat (heheh) better to go for structure rather than get the extra 2-3 points of armor on each component, which really doesn't slow down your death very much. Heat containment is also an all-or-nothing commitment. Get all 15% or get nothing. According to https://mech.nav-alpha.com/#f5220152_AWS-8Q the build has a heat capacity of 54.5. + 15% = 62.675 heat capacity. Essentially this means you can alpha again on the first encounter a bit more rapidly than if you didn't get the nodes. Agreed that only 1 node on the seismic sensor is pretty useless, but it was an extra point that fit better there than anywhere else I strongly disagree that UAV's are useless. Even on a long range standoff mech like this they are useful. Sitting in a good firing position but worried about possible skirmishers flanking you? A UAV gives you early warning. Forced to close the range with the rest of the team? A UAV gives you huge intel and is a pretty big annoyance for the enemy. Also, if going UAV's, it is best to get the full range nodes on them. But like I said your skill tree is also pretty excellent Carlo, these are just personal choices.
