HBK-4SP "Didn't Need That Side Anyway" (2xMRM10, 4xERML, STD 255)

Foreword:

Greetings again fellow, Mechwarriors. As the new kid on the block I decided to give out my build for the Hunchback 4SP, and few tidbits for the reasons why this is my get to go Hunchback now a days.

As a interesting tidbit. I've been running Hunchbacks for most of my time at MWO and I previously ran this variant with 2xSRM6 /w. Art and 4xSmlPL

Main Argument:

I present to you. Hunchback-4SP with MRMs



The silent cheers are deafening, so thank you.

Ok few pointers. Yes we are running and STD engine and it's size is 255 Where is other variants people do tend to run the XL engines and be able to pack few MRM20s but hear me out.

Hunchback for a medium mech has fairly big side torso hit boxes. Your side torsos usually get more punishment than the center torso, specially when you are packing most or all of your weapons on your side torsos or the arms that are connected to said torso.

Spoiler: Hunchback Hitbox locations

Curtesy if "Rainbow Unikorn" https://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/96395-hit-box-localisation/

Engine:

To combat this The hunchback has good armour quirks by default but I still don't see the value of running a XL engine on a hunchie. Add to to the fact that you should be going to pick every armor skill point in the tree you'd be running with a whopping 69 Armor on CT and 50 armor on each side torso. Followed by 65 structure on CT and 49 on each respective side. Which makes this Hunchie fairly beefy on the battlefield.

With an STD 255 you can still get to speeds up to speed of 88,79 kph with speed tweak

STD Engines speed = 82,6 kph
82,6x1,075*=88,795 kph
[* = 7,5% speed increase from all Speed tweak Skills]

Weaponry:

Now on to the fun part, the weaponry. We have measly 2xMRM10's and 4xERMedlas, which in paper doesn't seem to be much for a mech of this caliber but you'd be surprised how well it performs. With the skills I have. it lowers the MRM rotation time to 3,74 Seconds. which is 0,24 Seconds more than SRM6's but the added range coupled with more powerful secondary weapon variants makes this a nice and good contender for Med to close range brawler.

We are only sporting 2 tons of ammo because with the missile rack skills you are sporting 720 missiles in your reserves which equals to 36 full volleys of missiles, so you shouldn't' be having any ammunition problems during any of your skirmishes. If you wish to you can drop the one ton of ammo to to either add one more laser to your head slot or add one more heat sink to increase your sustainability

Shots with 2 tons of MRM ammo
(600+120*)/20=36 (Full 20 Missile Volleys) // Theoretical damage of 720 pts
[* = 2 skills points in Missile Racks (60 rockets more per tonne)]

Shots with 1 ton of MRM ammo
(300+60*)/20=18 (Full 20 Missile Volleys) // Theoretical damage of 360 pts
[* = 2 skills points in Missile Racks (60 rockets more per tonne)]

To compliment the build we will be running 4xERMedL which can be changed to normal MedLs if you feel like a heat is an issue which it shouldn't really be, depending on your fire control.

Skills:

I know people run their skills as their want but I'll shed some light on the way I have set up mine.

For skills I'd be running a build of 20/33/21/0/0/15/2 For a couple of reasons

Spoiler: Skill Tree Hunchback 4SP

Main focus is ot keep your mech up and running for as long as possible for which we prioritize on the Survival tree and the mobility and sensors. Main idea for you to be the mech that refuses to go down easily. With full on structure and armor skills you are beefy enough to receive punishment as you either advance towards the enemy or start trading blows with them. The radar deprivation is a pretty no brainer for this mech as you lack ECM and AMS on this build to get out of enemies missile locks is a good thing.

For the final available skill points I put everything that i can to get all the missile specific skills to increase the damage potential of this build followed by ADV. Salvos for that extra oomph.

Afterword:

As you notice that you'll be running 3 Double Heat sinks on the each side torso which will increase your component survivability because how the crit mechanics of the game works (Component with more critical slots gets taken out first, followed by the weapon with the smallest amount of critical slots.) So in theory this means your MRMs are the final thing to go before your side torso explodes.

Hope this gave you some insight of how I play this mech and if you are looking for a Mid to Close range Hunchie, you should give this a try.

(For those who are daredevils like me I still recommend the 4xSmlPl and 2xSRM6 /w. Art variant)

Spoiler: 4xSmlPl, 2xSMR6 /w. Art

 

Better weapon heat. More damage. You don't have to use every hard point with MRMs. They are their own brand of special. (They all fire at the same cooldown. The higher the MRM, the better heat you get.)

 

This is a Smart idea. I will need to test this one out. Thanks for the heads up.

 

You get back tonnage slightly. There's a benefit its just buried.

 

I agree that the mrm40 is a powerful thing but then it would fall in to the same problem I have with the other Hbk variants. If you rely solely on a single big weapon. Said weapon is easily targetted by concentrated enemy fire, specially how big the side torsos are on the Hbk. We can agree to disagree on this fact. Also the Hbk only has only 10 tubes per shoulder so the rocket launch time is 4times as long as having 10 missiles per shoulder.

This would mean you need to expose your front even longer perioids of time. So the more "fire and forget" style that srms and mrm10s give you. Gives you overall better maneuverability.

 

Er sml is not a bad option either, but then again you could ask, why not just med Las due to the fact that if you still use only 2 tons of ammo with Ammo rack skills you are able to shoot both tubes 24 times in a battle. This would free 1,5 tons from the ErSML build to put in to more heavier secondary weapons or to heat sinks.

Or even invest in ams with 1 ton of ammo.

Edit: Or leave the half tonne of ammo which would put you in to 30 shots with both tubes firing. (600+120+150+30)/30=30 and then invest to ams and half tonne of ammo because radar deprivation will do the most work against the missiles fired at you.

Edit 2: if just having 2 1/2 tons of ammo you will be rocking a whopping 900 missiles and with missile accuracy of 70% you have potential damage of 630 pts. and if you are having an off day and lets say that only 50% of your missiles hit you have a potential damage of 450 pts.