This is my grinder for the SHD-5M. I play this with the mindset of long-range, direct-fire support, letting my LL and AC/5 do the majority of my heavy lifting. Stick with your team's main force and take your shots wisely, not allowing yourself to become too high of a focus. Let your range serve you. With a little patience, you will wound the enemy and support your heavier teammates with the more rigid builds who can take more punishment. Hold your position and keep up consistent fire. In time, you will draw plenty of attention to yourself and become the focus of other ranged attackers or a force of lights. If the battle stays long-range, simply find cover for a few seconds and let the enemy snipers find new targets before your re-engage. Once the fight comes in close (either lights or an enemy push) open up with your SRMs. This mech can put out a respectable 12.5 DPS. Be mindful of your XL and keep yourself mobile - twisting all the way. Your LLas and SRM4s have the same cooldown time, making them ideal for a mobile striker. Focus down your enemy's vulnerable areas or their largest firepower and keep moving. Lights are fairly manageable with the slight spread of SRMs and a sweeping 18 damage energy on an articulated arm. Just lead their legs, loose your SRMs and come back into them with your dual Lasers. I left the stock engine since it is a very comfortable speed for a medium. I feel this keeps me quick enough for engagements and repositioning and a single JJ gives me maneuverability to keep myself out of trouble up close. Moreover, the XL275 keeps me fast enough to assist in capping. Pros: Range - Solid damage up to ~800m, AC/5 up to ~1300m (Beyond that don't waste ammo) Mobility - Fast enough to outrun the heavies and nimble enough to dance with lighter mechs Agility - Arm mounted dual Large Lasers keep just about any target in your sights and continue dishing out pain Cons: Mid-sized XL in a medium means low armor w/ mid-speed and requires more caution to pilot Moderate Ammo - Enough to fight/Not enough to waste Single Jump Jet means maneuverability, not actual flight Can be slightly hot without Elite skills Alternates: The Compromise. Drop one SRM4 to an SRM2 and gain some speed. The Mad Capper. Drop SRMs and 16 points of armor to gain 1T AC/5 ammo and an XL320, putting you up to 103.7 after tweak. [img width=700 height=437]http://i.imgur.com/fcRdfak.jpg[/img]
Dropped one heat sink from the original build to add another ton of SRM ammo. Balances out much better.
Looks like a great ride. A little extra heat for a little extra DPS. It's just crazy how survivable these chassis are even with XLs. I believe it was Thursday night with some of the U.M.A.D. guys I was hopping around River City and got down to 13% before finally being taken down. I'm LOVING the survivability. As far as your load-out, Enileph, I really like that you are able to get two extra JJ in there. The AC/2 vs AC/5 is simply an adjustment for play-style. I'd personally prefer to be able to use the AC/5 more in close-range fights (saving myself the heat of an AC/2 and not have to keep my torso facing the target as much) but, at the same time, the SRM8 and LL have the same cool-down and are GREAT for spinning around, unleashing a 34 point salvo and twisting back away and you save the AC ammo for longer ranges... Both builds just feel very natural in this variant - covering all ranges and giving very commanding maneuverability.
Been experimenting with this a bit. I find that a single AC5 isn't as powerful as I'd like, so this UAC5 gives double the potential firepower (during jamtime you just take some cover). Didn't use the SRMs as much so I skimmed down to a SRM2 in the head, for just a tiny bit more cockpit shake close range (lower cooldown) but mostly so I could cram in another ton of ammo for the UAC. Also removed a ton of ammo for more heatsinks, to keep poking with 2xLL and a UAC5 more effectively. EDIT: Oh and needless to say, the first shot I fired with the UAC5 (since a looooong time) obviously jammed ^^, yet, it works fantastic! This is quite possibly my highest medium mech score.
New version I'll be trying out: The PPC+UAC5 doesn't quite cut it for me, and SRMs are bad at registering. SSRMs should give decent light protection (while you can use ERLL sparingly) but the main strength is the ranged damage. I expect I should be able to do equally well as the previous score I posted