EDIT: I was a little tired when I made this... The Wolverine looks like it will be a pretty good brawler. Disregard my whining in this post. ___ As far as I can tell, the Wolverine has no redeeming qualities. Arm-mounted ballistics with a hand actuator means minimal heavy-duty weaponry, and the energy hardpoint is pitiful. The only thing this thing can do right is missiles, and don't we already have a treb? Not to mention its counterpart, the griffin, already has missiles covered (plus some nicer energy hardpoints). What do you do with this thing? Gauss and an SRM? SRM 18? Dual AC/5's? LB 10-X and SRM? Every build on this thing seems lackluster. I suppose you could use it as a pseudo-centurion with JJ's, but I can almost guarantee the hitboxes on the cent will be superior. Someone argue this, please, because I'm stumped.
As awesome as a flying centurion would be. The Shadow Hawk is going to put any other medium mechs that have been announced/released to shame... The CN9-A also comes with a ballistic slot in the arm. It's the AL that doesnt. So the Wolverine is still lacking an energy hardpoint.
The CN9-A has a ballistic arm - it just doesn't have the weight to use it in the normal zombie builds... If you went apples to apples (and my post is admittedly not), and just compared the two with standard engines, it'd come down to one ML vs. jets+higher armor cap (and of course hit boxes and maneuverability in general). Hard to say for sure how it'll fare till we have more info. As for the ShadowHawk? I'd be more concerned with the gigantic hunch and the limited missile tubes than anything on the Wolverine. Sure it's iconic - and I'm excited to get it for sure... but I definitely have questions about how viable it's going to be. I'm not at all sold that it's going to be a "better" medium than the CN9-D or the BJ-1. Or even cicadas for that matter (which for my money are the best skirmishing mediums in the game).
Keep in mind my edit... It was literally 4 in the morning and I was tired and thinking about MWO and shit. The mech looks fine, fantastic even.
Aren't the missile port numbers shown on Smurfy temporary until release? For example, with both the Orion and Kintaro, they've both come with initial small ports, that expand out to meet the launcher that you put in it. I think it's their workaround the the limit in mechs like the Victor and Highlander that bug out when you try to fit specific launchers in. Personally, I'm excited just for the prospect of more Medium mechs altogether.