So I bought the jenner mastery pack. A couple of the folks I know swear by them. But I can't make them work. I've done different setups and different play styles. It just seems that the enemy mechs could be charging at me backwards, firing in completely the other direction, and my CT will explode. I'm pretty good at twisting to spread damage around, but this one just completely eludes me. So I figure I'll ask before I just write them off... anyone got some advice? The only thing I can think of is maybe trying to be sneakier. But that only gets you so far...
watch videos of people running them. The Jenner plays very similar to a Locust, but it has better armor and more firepower. Plus, JJ.
This. The Jenner needs to be played very carefully, otherwise yeah, you'll lose your CT easily. Torso-twisting doesn't do a whole lot with this video, as it really is ALL CT, with very little ST or Arm on the things. So yeah, expect to always be crit CT before anything else, and try your hardest to AVOID getting shot at enough that they will crit your CT.
That may be the issue. The lights I pilot are more like Rambo setups (Firestarters and Huginn usually). I've never played the "treat it like paper" light mech before... I'm used to being able to take on anything with appropriate amounts of twisting and taking shots at back armour as I run past it, or jump over it.
My suggestion is to get used to skirmishing, rather than straight up brawling like the Firestarter can do. Zip in, fire an alpha, and start your exit immediately, maybe popping off another alpha on your way out. Get out of sight, relocate, and repeat, preferably when your teammates are engaging your targets so they are distracted. Your teammates are one of your greatest weapons in a Jenner, they will keep fire off you by their mere presence so long as you engage AFTER them by a half second or so.
More of a jousting mech than a jump into the middle of the team and kill everything one... I'd tried that with Oxide and the F, but perhaps not enough.
I'm still getting my light qualifies for the weekend, but maybe after I finish getting them, I can record some Jenner videos to help.
Which is absolutely useless in a Jenner since it takes everything in the CT. One way to think positive about this is to remove armor from side torsos and gain tonnage (for example, my JR7-F build). Anyway, the Jenner is way more fragile than the firestarter, you'll have to act accordingly. The Jenner has one asset: the highly position hardpoints. Basically, you see something you can hit it without the need to expose yourself further. This make a good close/mid range harasser. Here are the Jenner videos I made, if you find this of interrest: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG55a3QJ1fcigfC6RbY5e4jMaZimQH7rS Nothing very recent, but nothing really changed.
That was the exact JR7-F setup I used. The "Freak" video is helpful. Lots of explanation on why you're doing things instead of just footage. I grinned when jousting was specifically mentioned. It seems that I have generally the right idea but I get greedy and take hits I don't need to. These seem to need a more conservative playstyle than I'm used to so some adjustments are needed on my part.
To be completely honest, you got the most OP light in the game right now, the Firestarter, which is objectively superior to any other light, and the second best overall considering the hero, the Raven, so any of them will seem worse compared. After the quirks the Jenner lost all the advantages it had over the Firestarter. What @epikt posted (paired with XL300 2 internal slots) made them much cooler then the other lights without quirks, but now they are still hotter for the quirks, plus they have less range on ML build, less firepower/heat on the MPL build, can't even compare in the SPL build, and the big CT. They can still be great mechs (got 2x 8 kills game on them), but right now I see no reason for bringing them over a firestarter, even if they have higher hardpoints. A match in a Jenner would probably better on the same kind of Firestarter. Even the Oxide, which is a nice mech, is outclassed by the Huggin JJs, more accuracy with the +A and 700 ammo, at least in my opinion. Oh and the DPS is slightly higher on the Huggin even 2vs4 SRM thanks to quirks (and then add the Artemis too, which indirectly boost it even more). The range boost is also tremendous, paired with artemis you can fire at assaults from a long distance. At the moment I think the locust 1E might be even better in PUGs/solos then the Jenner F.
This is still one of my best mechs. Use her as a flanker/skirmisher. Quick strikes at full throttle and escape! JR7-F can EASILY pull 600-800 damage per match and 1000 in every 30 or so. The thing is a monster. 30 damage alpha with 150kph? Rockstar-mode engage. Engage from a flank on an enemy who is already focused on another target, get a few alphas as you approach and pass by, and get back to cover. Rinse and repeat! Even as an assaulting scout, with full alphas, use of cover, and chain-fire, you can put consistent damage onto enemies to take down targets twice your size with relative ease. Just remember, manage heat and use cover. The JR7 can be an epic destructive force!
I would never say it lost all advantages against Firestarters. Jenner-F still has better harpoint locaitons, slightly faster, is the "TINY" archetype compared to the Firestarter's "SMALL" thus it maneuvers in terrain better, and last but no least, it is more XL friendly. That very large CT may take a lot of damage, but at least your XL engine is safer and less risk to get insta-killed on a weaker side-torso.
True, but the Firestarter has been overquirked while the Jenner got almost no love. A good geometry and hardpoint location can't compete with massive quirks, especially heat generation and cooldown ones. Not to mention the FS already had few advantages over the Jenner, for example being more brawl friendly (back in the days the Ember was the popular variant).
Firestarter also has a lot more hardpoints in general despite being the same tonnage. The jenner just doesn't support the playstyle I enjoy. I'll keep em around, but it's unlikely that they'll see much play. I did enjoy the Jenner F but the SRM variants throw me for a loop. I think it might just be that I hate SRM mechs. I found that I disliked any srm stormcrow I played as well.
This is all true, but other then the weapon placement, the others are marginal for me. The reason is 50+ alpha builds are very common now, so you can maneuver or go slightly faster, but once you have a damage magnet in the CT it doesn't really matter anymore vs people who can aim. I find that the Firestarter is second to tanking in lights only vs Spiders, damage just spreads itself on them. Added to the offensive comparison, I think we will never see a Jenner over a Firestarter in a competitive match (tournies are incoming so I think we will have a confirmation soon).
Totally agree from the comp-side. You will not see Jenners. But that is mainly because competitive games are usually a coordinated brawl and less peeking. If the Jenner was optimized via quirks to be a better peeking mech, you might actually see it in competitive again.
I agree, the F would need reduced laser duration, and the K would need the old heat gen quirk. I don't really see why they don't get some little extra love given how much the Firestarters were buffed, but I guess it's the "gotta switch the meta" PGI style marketing.
The -F deserves a minor boost to the range quirk, in addition to the duration (which is a good idea to make it really peak-oriented). The -K is currently almost OK, but suffers the comparison with the FS9-S. The Oxide is fine. But let's not forget the -D, which is imho the weak variant at the moment. It only has a small missile cooldown quirk, which orients it to the brawl. A SPLas cooldown quirk would be nice.
I prefer if they add energy cooldown quirk for D, and add heat reduction for F. 7.5% is ok. That way bboth SPL and ML build benefits.
I'd like a laser duration quirk more on the F, it can already boat 15 DHS, the duration would help the peek style more
