Casual ZEU-5S "Sceptre" (1xUAC5, 3xLL, LE350) +Alt

Thread in 'ZEU-5S' started by waaaaaaaat, Aug 28, 2018.

  1. waaaaaaaat

    waaaaaaaat Active Member

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    Straightforward and fast striker. It does not play like an assault at all, and is best used as supporting fire or quickly finding a new angle. The idea is to play to the Zeus's strengths: high mobility for its weight with enough sustained firepower to fight on its own or support any mech over 40 tons. No SRMs because we're not brawling much, and no LRMs or MRMs so we can focus on precisely aiming at components.


    The single Ultra AC5 does not sound like much but take a look at the quirks:
    • Ballistic Weapon Cooldown −15%
    • IS Ultra AC/5 Jam Chance −30%
    • Heat Generation −10%
    The jam chance and faster cooldown makes the U/AC5 more viable for suppressive fire even without being able to carry more than one of them. It hits fast enough that someone might think they are being fired on by something more powerful. Double tap for a shot you can't miss, single tap for a riskier or distant shot. No need to fire at all beyond 750m. I haven't done the math, but the DPS should be somewhere closer to an un-quirked U/AC10, but it weighs 4 tons less and has a longer effective range and higher velocity. And this is the best the build can do, so it will have to work.

    The main weapons are the large lasers, which also benefit from:
    • Heat Generation −10%
    • Energy Weapon Range +5%
    You can use ERLLs but they come with a longer cooldown, more heat, and therefore slightly lower sustained DPS. Either laser syncs well with U/AC5 range, so it is down to personal preference. The build works pretty badly as a sniper with its low mounts since you have to expose most of your mech to get a long range burn, which is why I chose the shorter range Large Laser.

    Here is an alternative build with an XL375 (5 kph faster), and room for a TCIII.



    If you don't want to fill up the 3 slots and 3 tons extra with a TCIII, there is some flexibility since you can fit some combination of an AMS, extra armor, a pair of Rocket Launcher 10 in the right arm, or an XL380. There is room for whatever you prefer, as long as it isn't more heatsinks or a Rocket Launcher 15 or an SRM system.

    The Light Engine variant is probably the better build, and has the same armor and heat. The main reason I've tried the XL variant is that it seems like a skirmishing Zeus is almost more likely to be center cored than lose a side torso. The LE variant allows you to use the right arm and torso as a shield since all of the weapons are on the left side, but realistically, you will be showing your face a lot to get lots of U/AC5 shots in so your whole upper body is vulnerable. And why not play it even safer with a standard engine? It's probably imaginable to end a round as a stick with a single large laser, but not with the risks you'll be taking by putting out all the damage you can while you're alive. A standard engine would be so much slower (likely a STD320 if you want 17 heatsinks and no armor tradeoffs) that it would play quite differently and make the single autocannon feel even weaker since it's no brawling weapon.
     
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