So, I waffle between 18/19 DHS, taking armour off to add one, then putting it back. Currently it stands like this. The key here is that you want to maximize your first 3-4 Alphas, because you'll be alternating firing 'arms' after that. If you're in an especially hilly map (say, Forest Colony) you can often run in, double alpha someones back, and then run back out. Once they turn away again, you'll probably only need one more alpha to do them in. Against lights, (this will sound weird) I tend to shoot their arms off. A lot of pilots don't fully armour their arms, and on a Jenner that means you can take one off in 1.5 alphas, meaning they've lost a lot of firepower, and you've exposed their side torso. Also, as you're taller than Lights, firing down at their arms, even if you miss, often hits their legs. Again a lot of pilots (inexplicably) low-armour their legs, meaning that you can often 'leg' an opponent very quickly, especially if they try to circle you. Your biggest threat will be very, very fast lights that catch you in a turn. Oddly, the best option here is often to do what I call (oh so cleverly, just you wait!) a faux-Immelman turn. Essentially you go straight, drawing them into line with your back, then abruptly stop, wheel to the left, and don't move forward. At this point they usually either slam into me (and get alpha'd to their arm/CT/ST), or they turn around me, offering me a glorious side-shot of their arm/ST/legs. Don't be afraid to abruptly brake in circle fights vs. Lights (BUT NEVER EVER HEAVIES OR ASSAULTS, EVER! EVER!) and let them 'overshoot' you. A useful 'tactic' is to sit back here and wait for the flanking Lights that will inevitably come for your base/LRM boats. If they have sustained virtually ANY rear damage you can often core them with a single shot from behind (try to hit a side torso if you can, as 99% of them will have XL, and that will have less armour than the CT rear). Anyway, try it out, let me know what you think
With the two sneaky bastard builds Garth has posted in the small/medium classes, I don't even want to know what he does with a heavy/assault chassis. Probably something that loves to creep out and say SURPRISE like my 2xGauss+2xERPPC Cataphract or my 6xPPC Awesome... Incidentally, those also trade crazy heat management for insane levels of firepower. Someone remind me to post those up sometime after finals week/holidays
I have an XL295, instead of the 300, and one less DHS so I can fit an AMS (Which I use mostly for the benefit of those around me, as I can usually outrun missiles.) but other than that, this is essentially the same build I use, and it by far my favorite Cicada setup. If you let the Heavies and Assaults get the enemy's attention, you can do some serious damage taking off arms, legs, or against the ones who don't pay attention to you at all, you can core them in the back.
Can I give this one six stars? This is the whole reason I sold my BJ-1X. Such a good mech! And, by the way, this is the real reason why the max alpha is set to 6 for MLs and not anything lower...
Garth's 40 tons of death... I run this grouping the left + 1CT ML and the right +1CT ML together and just fire each group with a slight delay. You pretty much never end up overheating that way. You might get "hot" when you're plowing the face off a fresh stalker or atlas - but otherwise, it's almost too easy to face off against anything 1v1 with this mech/build. It takes a solid beating for it's size and if you're running with seismic and target info gathering, you just wait for the infighting to start and rake in the kills and damage by weaving in and out hitting side torsos and backs. Only problem is that I don't know if I like this one better or Garth's 3M
Thoughts on the variant after taking it basic to mastery: It's worth putting arm armor on (10+) as it catches many bullets. Capitolize on being a low priority target - throw your DPS behind friendly pushes like a 4P when possible. Use your mobility to keep lights off heavier mech's backs. Let the big guys focus on the engagement, not the harassment. Be a scalpel - rotate through targets, hunt and disable/kill cored enemies who rotate out. Harass - hit the back of the enemy formation. Personal variants: Speed demon variant (runs with jenners): Brawler variant (more arm armor for shields and DHS for sustained engagements): http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y240/terto1234/ScreenShot0041_zps41e5894b.jpg[/img]
Here is my Variant with XL330 (from the DS) for even more Speed. It's based on tfun90's Variant, only going for more speed than armor. With the Speed Upgrade this build makes real good sense.
i took a similar approach, 1 less DHS, but instead of XL330 i took a 320 and added an AMS better defensive, only 2% Cool. Eff. loss and a little bit more armor
I've been doing pretty well in this build the last couple of days. I have a lot of room for improvement, but I've had a couple great games.
Does Garth even play still after leaving PGI? This was a pretty fearsome jack of all trades back in the day and I still use it on occasion.
It has less firepower, speed, and inferior hit boxes when compared with most Firestarter builds. It's my least favourite Cicada by far. Unfortunately this one seems to bring nothing unique or hugely useful to the table.
5/5, In case you didn't notice, this is the best build for the CDA-2A. o7 Garth Erlam, wherever you may be.
I perfer my DHS to be on something with more armor, they are too flimsy on the arms, mind as well use those tonnage to boost speed. But yeah, Thanks Garth Erlam, if you are still playing. Took my old 2A out for a ride after selling the free one. (I am keeping that engine) This is still fun to play with. (didn't use the applejack paintjob though, they need to have an apple decal/beautymark for it to be applejeck, right?)
5/5, Great build, still works in the KDK and Oxide meta of today, June 2016. I wanted to go really fast, so here's a variation with a XL 340 that I've been running.