Clan tech needs adjusting IMO

First, the TBR: Its an agile heavy mech that can go as fast as mediums, load assault-class weaponry, have JJ, torso twist quite efficiently and of course lose a torso. Can have huge alpha, can lrm-boat, can srm-boat, can poptart, can mount ballistics, can mix two of these quite effectively.

For example the 2xCERPPC 4xCSRM6 build - you can drop 78 damage in a single alpha at quite fast recycle time at close range, and poptart at 810m+ range, all while having 90kph speed and sturdy armor. I wont even mention CGauss+2xCERPPC, since its essentially a DS on amphethamine. You can LRMboat with Battlemaster-like backup weaponry - 4+xCERML+CMG.

It has no disadvantages. It's not straight gamebreaking, but it's obviously a better choice than ANY other heavy, and a lot of other mechs.

Looking at the Stormcrow - its also essentially a superior medium mech. 110kph, very agile, better or similar weaponry to a shadowhawk (that would go like, 15-20kph slower with it), jj, raven-like torso twist capability. And shadowhawk was already better than every other medium.

Direwolf obviously has huge DPS no matter what you stick on it. But *at least* its slow as hell and its CT is easy to target. That seems fair.

On the other hand, clan lights seem a bit underpowered. Didn't pilot one, but 100kph on a paper-thin armored light mech already seems wrong.

And the weapons: I think C-ER Lasers were overdone with the range boost. I understand theyre even more DOT than IS Lasers, but 450m on a CERML makes it essentially almost a 1t IS LL.

What are your thoughts on the topic? I think i'm not really alienated in my thoughts here.

 

Just being slightly nitpicking but 89.1 and 106.9.

Direwolves in a lance as fire support can be very good as can Warhawks so don't discount them on the power scale.

In an enclosed space like the canyon on Frozen City Night Direwolves are deadly.

Of course the Direwolves on my teams this morning have deliberately suicided or solo charged enemy lines ...

Seeing a surprising lack of ERPPC/Gauss TBR's outside organised play tbh - lots of TBR's in organised lances with ERPPC/SRM or LRM/energy.

 

That's my major concern.

 

Well yeah, now you understand why the Timber Wolf is the most iconic Mech in the Battletech franchise.

ok to be serious again: What is much more problematic atm is the strange Hitbox of some Clan Mechs, especially the Timberwolf. It has a very slim CT area, so even if you visually hit the CT, the Damage goes to the ST. In my latest video you can see how i stormed a Red CT Timber Wolf, i shot shot at his Torso with SRMs and some MedLas, but instead being cored it lost a orange(!) Sidetorso in the end. Ok thereafter he went down, but still very strange.

The Stormcrow also has this issue. Some days ago i ran after one for a time span of 10seconds and hit it multiple times with a deadly combo of UAC5+A2, 2SRM4s and 2MLas. The color went from fresh to orange only. Very strange! I thought he maxed Rear CT Armor.

About the Clan Weapons - well, yeah, i find them somehow superpowered compared to the IS Versions. You have less weight, less critslots needed plus more Range and Firepower. But this is close to the Lore Specs and we have to live with it. However PGI will do some further nerfs in the future i guess, but nothing too much to make them similar to IS Versions.

I think the Clan Weapons as they are is ok. Not perfectly balanced, but ok. It would be imo a much more important step to patch the Hitbox matters. I don`t want to take hrs before i can kill a Timber Wolf, while he can shred me into pieces in some few seconds.

 

In the boardgame, my friends and I found that you basically needed between 1.25 and 1.5 times the IS tonnage versus the Clans. Not sure what that would work out to in MWO, but it would be better to give the IS a tonnage advantage than to nerf clan technology to IS levels.

 

We have a few different threads like this and we normally would like to argue around comparisons.

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=101&l=2c309c71589505ba19ac8eb3fde02261a3c0a692

This is slower, warmer and without JJ. But not by that much.

The attempt to balance clan weapons being lighter and warmer, longer duration on beams and more ac bullets is interesting though I expect we will see tweaks in the next month.

The main things I find with the TBR that are over the top is the JJ's and the hitbox bug. If they remove the JJ's (recall that Aiden Pryde had to give up weapons to fit JJ's in order to jump the river) and fix the hitbox so TBR CT is as vulnerable ad it should be, I'm ok with it. Or some kind of rebalance with JJ's on clan mechs.

The DWF is a nerf waiting to happen, don't know what but something needs to be done. HexaUac5's everywhere. It's like walking into a 50' cal machinegun.

Haven't messed around with the Crow yet but they haven't been dominating that bad?

 

The S torsos should have come with a fall damage quirk, not a heat damage quirk. Basically nerf the JJs into not being able to poptart, but just to use as a way to navigate terrain (going up or coming down, not both). Max the JJs at 1 per torso omnipod as well. That would eliminate the ability to jump and have enough remaining capacity to use for a soft landing.

Either that, or eliminate the JJ hardpoints on the S torsos and hard-mount a single un-removable JJ to the S chassis CT and put a heavy fall damage quirk on that.

 

I still think Jump Jets are way more overpowered than all of clan tech period. I still see tons of 3D's and Dragon Slayers tearing up clan mechs left and right. Was there a single mech in the tournament that didn't have them?
How about just nerf all jump jets period, they need to generate a lot of heat, take longer to recharge, and do more damage to the mechs as they jump up and down. That would solve a lot of the dumb poptarting problems which are already popping up with the clan mechs. Then go in and fix some of the maps that almost require you to have them so they aren't so necessary.

 

I wanted to get a Summoner instead of TBR, good that i took the latter.

I feel everything is slowly shifting back to old metagame though, with the addition of the superior TBR poptart. Too bad, I loved the DIREWOLF LANCE IN YOUR FACE EAT UAC AND DIE brawling of the first release days

 

my only griefs are with UAC and missile boats.

 

The only problem i have with Clan UAC is that it sounds like someone beating a tincan with a spoon. IS ACs have so much more oomph

 

I bought the Kit Fox pack after I found out they had a ECM option so I'm only into the Clan deal for $30.

So far from what I've seen I'd say the Timberwolf and Stormcrow has to favorable hit boxes.

These same kind of complaints were made about the Cataphract, Victor, and Shadowhawk when they first came out.

Hopefully if PGI does bring out the nerf gun they take it slow and only hit the problems not a shotgun solution.

 

In the latest news, they talk about the changes to jumpjets, where heavier mechs will take significant damage if they allow themselves to drop from high heights. They'll have to save some jump fuel in order to prevent this. Which should result in smaller jumps.

Think this will take some of the steam out of the poptart meta? Of which the Timber Wolf is a part of?

 

I agree completely. I don't think the TBR is a OP but the addition of unrestricted JJ makes it a tad over the top. I'd be fine with locking 2 in the CT section with a JJ nerf for the Side Torsos (less height?) so that running just 1 is pretty lack luster. I do not think the other parts of manuverability need to be changed, because those are just a result of the 375 Engine. That is a lot of engine that removes a lot of pod space.

 

UACs, AC2 and AC5 have absolutely awful sounds. Like angry door knocks or something terribly boring and nothing like a goddamn cannon.