Wow, i cant believe it! The Thunderbolt can go Zombie like hell! We focusfired at one and it just didnt want to die.. at least not at 10+ Health! It fell at 7%!!? Unbelievable. I think, this is the Centurion of the Heavies! It's such a pity, that none of the Variants have any CT-Weaponhardpoint..
Most of the times I've died in my 9SE, I've died below 15% health. I've often lived with all the armor stripped off the front torso. The one outlier was when my SRM ammo cooked off at 45%, and I went up like a Davion wedding. The TBolt doesn't have any zombie slots, so it's no Centurion. However, I've found it surprisingly easy to pick where you take the hit (at least compared to the Dragons, Hunchbacks and Catapults I'm used to piloting).
TDRs with a STD engine can soak like hell, and it's really a pitty there isn't a single zombie weapons. However, when mounting an XL, the mechs seems to die rather quickly. Must be it's hitboxes. For this reason I only use an XL on the 9S as damage can be mitigated better here because of the JJs. All my 5S builds carry a STD, though (already sold the 5SS). What are your thoughts about this?
I run the 5S as Missile Boat with XL300 and i perform well. If i got caught close range i'm dead anyways with poor secondary weapons (3x MLas, 2x MG). The 9S runs with STD300 as Close Range Alphastriker (5x MLas, 2x SRM6+A). I'm happy with my Thunderpussies.
The SE makes a monster brawler as well. I really feel the JJ give you the advantage of spreading damage. Even after the JJ nerf. You can lose either side torso and still have dual LPLs or LL or 3x MLas to continue your hopping sprint to victory. If SRMs weren't so broken, I would cram my dual Artemis 6-packs back in there and run with 5x MLas. However, until hit registry on SRMs is fixed, the STD300, 2x LPL and 3x MLas build tears it up. Very survivable.