I keep looking at this guy thinking he may be able to do well...but then i look at his hardpoints and actual weight capabilities...and i wonder if I can really load this guy out to be effective. Maybe im not seein something here but this guy seems to shine at being a brawler...but aside from that....he gets out-performed in the lrm/srm/energy boat areas or even a mix of them for that matter. Maybe it's the jump jets that make him different. I've fought several today and none of them have really worried me aside from having to chase them down. I really want this guy to be really good, but it seems like a catapult can do all the same things, but better.
This mech is a brawler plain and simple or a speedy sniper platform. Remember MW4 and the Novacat? This is like kinda like that. Beam Boat with some Speed
Is the consensus so far that XLs are okay to use in this chassis? I've played about 10 games and had some cases where my side torso got blown out. If standards are the way to go, the Quickdraw would be (essentially) a larger Hunchback 4SP or 4P with JJ capability. Using XLs opens up a lot more possibilities weapon wise. Then again, everyone likes to run XLs in Jagers and those have gigantic side torsos.
I can't even stand to use JJs for general manoeuvrability now. That shake is nauseating. It's true, it gets outperformed pretty much everywhere I can think of. The Flame is a much better LL platform in the same tonnage and speed. The missile variants only have 14 tubes over 1-2 ST hardpoints and a CT hardpoint so there's no way they can be competitive with Cats or even Trebs. Both have JJs too so no real advantage there. The BJ-3 has the same number of hardpoints as the 5K only better distributed with 2 in each arm. They're also higher. Also has JJs. I'm not seeing any uniquely useful builds for them. Maybe they'll come out with a cool hero for it. They say they bumped the Orion for this because it fit better with current meta. A meta they previously shutdown with the JJ nerf, haha. The chassis is even more useless if XLs aren't viable. It seems like they should be fine based on the mechlab selection of the side torsos. I suppose the hitbox could be different (worse) though. Jagers with XLs have to be the most fragile heavies around. They're only not suicidal used in a disciplined sniper.
I own the 4H, and have kitted it out mostly like this, spent all I had saved up on it and the DHS, hence no Endo, not that I'd know what to do with the extra tonnage with what engines I own. It's just not quite enough. 330 is the biggest engine I own, but switch to Endo, and bigger ones will fit no bother. My current thoughts on this mech... Solo PUGging is a painful affair. Dropping with an experienced 4-man it has to stay out of the initial firefight, but once the scrum starts, it can rack up the kills with the SSRM against mediums to assaults. Have yet to be able to take down a light in it. My signature move is to hide behind a teammate, get a SSRM lock on an enemy, and jump up from behind my meat shield, letting loose with everything.
I only had a few matches last night, so I can't be categoric, but I felt my side torsos took a lot of damage and I ended most of my games with a torso destroyed. Thus I'm happy with the STD.
I ran my 4H quite a bit last night. I run 2 LL in the RT, ML in each arm and a 4 and 6 srm, 335xl. This mech is a great skirmisher, it simply does not pack the armour to brawl imo. I can put out enough Alpha to back the bigger guys off a bit which allows me to use my speed to disengage and find my lance mates for back up. To me, and this is my opinion, the hit boxes on the side torsos are not that big, def. smaller than the AWS-9M I pilot most days. To that point, I play the 4H much like my 9M and had reasonable success last night. It's a good mech, I like the hard points. You just have to keep in mind it's more like a cruiser-weight, not a true heavy. Use it's speed to get out of trouble. Use cover to save that precious small amount of armour, and watch your legs.. I went back and beefed up the leg armour a bit as the things are long and wide and seem to draw fire. I give it a 7.5 at this point and with a little more use and tinkering will likely move up to a 8.5. Over all, I like the mech.
Another bad mech after blackjack. Other Heavy mechs do the job much better. It performs like a Hunchback. PS. There is an error under 5K. It has 6 energy + 1 missile...not 5 + 2. Please correct me if I am wrong
The blackjack is awesome, run it along with some lights and you'll see its power. In the same way the QD works really well supporting mediums. Sure these mach are 'maybe' not so good for pugging, but they have a role and do it really really well
I agree wholeheartedly. Both the Blackjack and the Quickdraw are role specific and when used as such can really dish. Trying to shoehorn them into a role they are not designed for will bring mixed results at best.
In MWO, I consider the bottom weight (or two) of a given class as the lower tier. In Battletech, Assaults were rare, and a 50-ton 'mech was truly a medium, it sat in the middle of the range between 20 and 75 tons. Now, there's at least one assault in every battle. This drives the middle 'mech up. Now the Dragon and Quickdraw need to fill the slot that the Hunch and Cent did back in the day. Look no further than the obsolescence of the Awesome (80 tons) to see what I mean. The 'fract is 5 tons lighter, but runs faster and carries almost as much hurt. The Stalker is 5 tons heavier, but fills the assault role so much better.
I actually really enjoy this mech, it's one of my favorites in the game. Most often I use 6 ML's , run over 100kph, I am very heat efficient and have had a lot of success brawling in this thing. The size and placement of the torsos make it one of the few mechs bigger than a light in which the XL is favorable in most situations.
It took a while, but I did get a good build down with the 5K (2x PPC and quad ML). Very strong medium range striker. The 4H and 4G on the other hand, I have had less luck with. Still messing around with the one I didn't sell (4G).
I am on my 3rd and it seems like mostly a pile of scrap mettle, fragile.. but I wont call it a POS until I have all 3 up to expert. But I am leaning on the side of POS