I am Jager. What makes us special.

Thread in 'Jagermech' started by Tr0unce, Nov 22, 2013.

  1. Tr0unce

    Tr0unce Active Member

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    You are Jagermech... or at least you are thinking about it.

    In under three weeks I have now logged over 500 games in Jagers. Despite being new to the game, I carry a long competitive gaming history that extends from Gladiator Champion and Grand Marshall in WoW, to a Masters level SC2 player, and one of only a handful of players to slay Hell mode diablo before it was nerfed. My eye for the Nuances of a game, the intended creases and understanding the intention of mechanics has led me to some universal observations about this charming Mech.

    So let's talk Jager.

    Jagermech Jm6-s was the first mech I purchased. After saving up around 7mill in trial mechs, I went shopping. I furiously looked through the heavies for something that looked both fun and competitive. Funny enough, the shallow reason I ended up spending my C-bill life savings on the Jager was because it CAME with 2 AC5's and 2 AC2's. I figured that meant at least I wouldn't have to buy those guns. I didn't know much of what that meant- but seeing the 4 barrels staring out at me like I owed them money and those linebacker type legs just screamed this is the mech for me. I thought the head looked a little generically lame, little personality, a cold faceless T that looked like a shape they put there because they ran out of other shapes.

    Still, the big guns THOUGH! It had to be tough, it was a heavy after all(giggle.) And 4 big guns? 4! BOOM, BOOM! BOOM, BOOM!

    Now after a very long journey that included deciding the Game makers did a swell enough job to have earned some of my money and buying the Fireband, and mastering the entire Jager family; I will tell you the actual- cold hard reasons- why the Jager is special, and exactly what its character intends for it to do:

    The Jager doesn't shoot dirt.
    The primary feature of the Jager is its very high mounted hardpoints.
    No matter what build you do with the thing, your primary weapons are going to be in your arms. There is no shortage of variety; from the 6 ballistic arm hard points of the DD, 4 ballistic arm hard points of the S, to the 2 missiles, 2 ballistic on the A, and finally the 2 Energy, 2 Ballistic variant of the FB.

    The Advantages of these 4+ high mounted hard points is that if you can see it- you can shoot it. The Jager Pilot will often take this for granted- a short time in a mech that does not have this will remind you why it is critical. Nothing is more frustrating than lining up a shot, hitting your alpha- only to see a shower of dirt pixels.

    More over this is defensively beneficial, as you only need expose 10% of your mech to fire. This makes spotting you a chore and lining a shot that can hit you take precious moments longer than had you been more exposed. Additionally, lowering yourself out of eyesight once being fired upon is nearly instant. This makes the cliff a very welcoming home for the the Jager.

    All this is on 4+ hard points on a mech that is allowed to weigh 65 tons which means that whatever you load onto these arms, you're going to have alot of fire power.

    Jagers have 2 spots to be shot at- Side Torso and MISS!

    A Peculiar feature of the Jager is giant protruding side fins stretching out of the side Torso. These monstrosities on top of already huge side torso's that take up most of the space on the mech ensure that from nearly any angle but head on, your center torso is very very unlikely to be hit.

    This sounds great you'd think. Center torso kills(getting cored) are incredibly frustrating when you have a full health mech. However there is a strange duality in that the relatively vulnerable Jager constantly demands more speed. It doesn't have the arms of an Atlas to protect it- its only real defense against a large attack is to run. More over, all that fire power is useless if you can't get it on target. This is a central conflict of the Jager- The vulnerability to nearly every specialized attacker that pushes you into being a timid high powered sniper versus the raw firepower you're carrying being utterly devastating if you can quickly get to a fight where you will not be the only target.

    Both of these tendencies push you towards the XL Engines- where those big side Torsii become big liabilities. The XL engine provides both high speed and the capacity for more firepower- something your inner sniper and inner bully both love. But they bring you to the next big conflict for the Jager- using an XL engine means those giant defensive fins are instead giant engine bull's eyes. And since nearly every shot hits these oversize targets, it's character as a timid sniper or brutal bully are only reinforced further.

    To be clear: A Jager providing support in a fight where his force is superior in numbers will quickly decimate what would ordinarily be a drawn out engagement. An ignored Jager sniping does the same nearly as quickly. But a targeted Jager is frustratingly vulnerable. A Good light pilot will give even the most specialized Jager builds fits. A Medium pilot can light you up and get away from you and repeat. Most other heavies with less specialized chassis have no problem with fighting you head on. And trying to fight an Assault class such as an Atlas with a single Jager is about as hopeless as it gets if he's not already heavily damaged.

    So in the end these ridiculous fins end up being an extremely defining feature of the Jager. Whether they are defending your torso while using a standard engine or making you more... "Jagery" while using an XL engine.

    I wish I had arms like a T-Rex
    Poor Jager, someone forgot to put arms on it! Apparently mechs are unable to point their arms straight out so the only way to give the Jager high hard points in the arms was to cut them off and attach them to the shoulder. That might not be exact canon...

    Anyway. These tiny arms are likely what drove the developers to put those stupid defensive fins on the torso in the first place since unlike most mechs of your stature, your arms cannot serve as shields. They are basically only the size of the weapon you put on them, and do not cover your torso at all. A bit like a bad boxer who doesn't keep his elbow tucked into his ribcage, the Jager pilot will find his side torso's obliterated in nearly all of his deaths.

    The flipside of this of course is that these teeny little arms do not make easy targets. Which is a decent compromise as that's where all your most valuable weapons are placed. This means losing an arm is very unlikely, and that lessening the armor on it is less punishing than it would be for most other Mechs.

    Missiles are OP!

    Our poor Jager can't catch a break when it comes to missiles. No matter how well you hide, when you are looking at a battlefield you can be locked on for missiles. But you are not a tiny mech that can just out run them around some distant corner. You're a giant Jager that loves his cliff and that is very easy to hit when running for missile cover. As far as your ability to take missiles, the side fins thankfully do not extend into a helmet- and so the fact that you have an extremely heavily armored torso makes you very resilient to their top down attack.

    But trying to get away from the INCOMING MISSILE that won't quit flashing? Better hope you can find cover without anything seeing you... Did I mention your a gigantic mech, with a gigantic torso that every Mech on the map can see? And no arms protecting your engine? The real problem the Jager has with missiles is that it can do little to get to missile cover if it's not already at a spot that serves the purpose. You are both too slow and too big to run without someone noticing- and unless there is another teammate Jager right next to you- they inevitably target you. Big 'ole vulnerable you.



    So there ya have it, my take on what it is to be a Jager. The enormous menacing mech with big weapons on its ... shoulders. They come as long range snipers, or as comically intimidating dual AC20s, as xl 340 medium damage speedsters, or mega alpha producing racks of lazers and firepower. But all follow the same tendency:. Violent double teamer(or triple or quadruple...,) and/or high powered vulnerable sniper.
     
  2. Blagg Zear

    Blagg Zear Star Lord

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    I love my Jagers too! But i don't play them much anymore, because they were one of the first chassis i mastered. Only if i find some new interesting builds to test. Jagers are like Crocodiles - they can kill very fast but they depend on Water just like the Jager depends on Cover, Ridges and Teammates. So most of the rounds are either have a chain of quick&dirty kills or early deaths within the first two engagements against Heavies or Assaults. Each Variant is interesting, so lot of fun to master the Jager.

    If the Jager ever get's another Hero-Variant i'd wish some JJs and Arm.mounted Energy-gunz! Though the image of a jumpy Jager is very strange -> OP!
     
  3. Tr0unce

    Tr0unce Active Member

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    You mean you want dual arm mounted energy guns? Cuz the fb already has arm mounted energy :p
     
  4. Blagg Zear

    Blagg Zear Star Lord

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    I mean Arm mounted Energy.Hardpoints Plus JJs for Jumpsniping with PPCs ;)
     
  5. m00slim25

    m00slim25 New Member

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    It's a Blackjack :rofl:
     
  6. Blagg Zear

    Blagg Zear Star Lord

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    A 65t heavy Black Jack. Yeaaaaaah!
     
  7. Cpt Chattahah

    Cpt Chattahah Min-Max Maniac

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    If only the Thunderbolt SE had high arms.

    I'm with you guys. LOVE my Jags. My first mech was a JR7-F, next two were Jagers. I love the Ballistic badassery (yes, it's a word. look it up!) you can accomplish. There are times when ballistics get nerfed or hit registry is broken. However, I can never bring myself to sell off my last Jag. I've gotta keep at least one in the Stable and have re-bought the -A and -DD at least once a piece after selling.

    Our sides are exposed and wide, our heavy weaponry is an easy target, we cannot sprint, nor can we move our arms side-to-side. However, our mobile turrets match with the best of 'em!

     
  8. Sucitraf

    Sucitraf Well-Known Member

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    I am a recent convert to Jagermechs. :)

    I used to see them on the battlefield and do one of two things:

    1) Turn my Spider around and run for cover
    2) Dart in and shoot at the exposed Side Torso and pray they had an XL

    Now, I enjoy running around with STD engines (for now at least, XLs are pricey) and watching the horror in Light/Mediums as they blow off my right torso, only to be killed by everything on my left side. Yea it sucks that I lost half my weapons, but hey, I'm still alive, and they usually aren't expecting me to fight back after they just overheated to alpha strike thinking they got a kill (oops, run on sentence).

    Of course, nothing will ever completely steal my love for Spider/Kintaros, but this will be my Heavy Mech love. :)
     
  9. Excalibaard

    Excalibaard 101 010 Staff Member

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    The best thing about jagers is that you can run the highest sustained dps in game, better than assaults. As long as you stay back you'll do a great job of tearing people to pieces. Of course there's also the silly in-your-face-with-an-xl jager, which still deals just scary amounts of damage so that people run in fear instead of getting your aide torso. These mechs are so awesome!
     
  10. Cpt Chattahah

    Cpt Chattahah Min-Max Maniac

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    "Scary" is the perfect word for Jags.
     
  11. Falconium

    Falconium Administrator Staff Member

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    All so true!

    As stated many times over, Jaggers dish out some SERIOUS damage, with DPS and Alpha counts that often make Assaults look pathetic in comparison --- don't get me wrong though; I love my Big Bad Boys as much as the next guy.

    I must say, one thing I noticed about Jaggers even before I bought them, (and which I must admit further influenced my decision), is the amount of damage per match that Jaggers tend to do, in general. If I were asked to state which 'Mech Chassis I thought tended to do the most damage per the weight of the 'Mech itself, Jaggers would be my #1 vote every time. I consistently see Jaggers outperform much heavier 'Mechs, more so than any other Chassis out there.
     
  12. Motörhead

    Motörhead Benefactor

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    I agree the best part is the sustained DPS, only the BNC-3E can really outperform it without a doubt at the same range in the assault mechs, but that's 30 tons more.
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2014
  13. knightwolf47

    knightwolf47 Active Member

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    I was a bit skeptical of Jagers when i first started looking at them. I wasn't a big fan of ballistics at the time, and the armor was fairly laughable. Then I played a bunch of matches, watched Jagers, with the AC20 and even the standard loadouts, ripping things up pretty well (including myself..lol).

    After seeing this, I decided to spend some MC to buy the Firebrand when it went on sale. After playing a few rounds with the standard loadout, I was hooked. Spent a bit of time and cash to add first a dual AC10 loadout, then the dual LBX, and have had a blast playing it. While I haven't done a lot of ridge-peeking just yet, I seriously enjoyed being able to fire on targets well above or below me that I was unable to hit while running similar loadouts in the Cat K2. Currently looking to move back to a Rifle-Jager loadout to take advantage of the arm-mounted energy points & use other variants to run the above loadouts.

    I look forward to getting the other Jagers and eliting them out.
     
  14. CX 1237

    CX 1237 Active Member

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    I've found that running a std295-300 is the sweet spot in my jagers (JM6A: 4 srm4+a, 2 mg, 2 MLas. JM6-DD: AC10, 3 MG, 2 MLas. JM6-FB: 2 LPLas, 2 MPLas, 2 MG.)
    All of them got 350+ armor, endo, DHS and AMS.

    AC40/2 gauss can and do silly alpha damage, but, they require a fair bit of luck and a lot of skill to spread that damage and avoid getting their torsos or gauss rifles blown off.

    /CX
     
  15. Psyco X

    Psyco X New Member

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    Just got my JM6-DD (i'm into ballistics ^_^) and played arround with different builds.
    I'm fairly new to MWO and got some questions especially to the mechlab build pics postet here:
    There are always 2 speeds shown, one with blue and one with green background, the speed with green background is always higher than the blue one. how are they linked?
    If i put my current built (3xAC5 +210 ammo 2ML, std structure single hs FF armor XL300) in the configurator i can see i actually run only the blue speed. how do i get the green (better) one?

    Thx 4 hints

    PS: please excuse bad grammar/spelling or wrong vocabulary, english is a foreign language to me :)
     
  16. enileph

    enileph Star Lord

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    2x Gauss, or 2x AC20.
    The end.
     
  17. Auriga

    Auriga MechSpecs Addict

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    Most of the info in this wiki is not updated since clan's release, but this page is still accurate and true: http://mwo.gamepedia.com/Pilot_Lab

    One in the second level is called "speed tweak", thats the green speed, when u unlock that skill for each mech model.
     
  18. Psyco X

    Psyco X New Member

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    ty, somehow missed that. thx!
     
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