The moment I saw the KGC-000, I knew I wanted to make this work. It took a lot of testing, as well as trial and error, but I can now give an overview of this build, how it works, and how to make it work better. To begin, this build is not intended for alpha strikes. Personally, all I want is to unload that delicious 39.288 DPS right into my enemies faces, but even after hours of testing, a KGC can only manage to fire all weapons for about 2 seconds before overheating. So usually, it's just a bad idea to try. With the obvious disappointment out of the way, here's the good news. This build is an absolute beast in urban combat. Because you've got 3 RACs on each arm, you're not limited by the side of a corner you're shooting from. Peeking is incredibly easy, and you can mow everything down from the comfortable range the RACs give you. And on that note, let's talk range. Even past the recommended 500 meters, the RACs are phenomenal. No you won't be sniping light mechs out of their cockpits, but in the right position you can stop even the most well coordinated push dead in it's tracks by just unloading into their face from 1000 meters away. Nobody walks forward into that. That said it has some limits. While it shines in medium range and puts heads down at long range, it suffers at close range. In order to last those long fights, high armor is absolutely necessary. A 300 LE is about the heaviest I can personally stand, and anything else you would remove would be either the weapons or their ammo, which quickly defeats the purpose. Why am I talking about weight? Because of light mechs. With the slow turning speed of a 300 light engine, and a weapon that requires a wind-up time, you will absolutely SUFFER from light mechs if you're not careful and they get in close. Stick to walls and rocks and put your back to them when you can, but honestly, make friends with your own lights and mediums, they'll be your saving grace every time, and you their's. So can this thing fight on it's own? Kind of, no, not really. Because of the RAC's windup, you really have to pick your own battles. That's a lot easier in situations where you're grouped up. That means you're also not the best at breaking through defensive lines or rushing enemy positions. You're just too slow, success means learning to do it the crab's way. But once you do, it's absolutely worth it. Lastly, let's talk details. One of the most important ones is jamming. Since you have six of these things and can only really afford to fire 3 of them at once, jamming isn't actually a concern. Unless you run out of ammo, there's no reason for you not to keep shooting at a target. Occasionally you will run into heat problems, especially in brawls, but as long as you're quick with your fingers and can turn off one or two of your guns, you'll actually find that you don't struggle even in drawn out fights. This is a build that absolutely rewards skill and practice. TL;DR: Don't fire all guns at once, stay in any cover you'd like, fire at any distance you like, get comfortable being slow, and get a strong fear of being on your own. This isn't a commando, it's a king.
It's been about half a year since I first posted this build, and since then I've grown as both a pilot and an engineer. I've explored a few dozen other mech, played around with good and bad ideas, and learned what works and what doesn't. But in all that time, there's one thing that has never changed: My king crab! Well, maybe a few things have changed... What was wrong? Not much from a conceptual level, but a lot from a functional one. Too much armor in the wrong places, not enough armor in the right ones, ammo that's too easy to shoot, guns that are too hard to shoot, and a few other kinks that just needed to get ironed out. Conceptually it's the same, but now it's been refined. Armor. This was an experience thing. I didn't know how much front armor mattered, and how little head armor did, luckily it was a quick lesson. It's mostly stripped in the back now, surprise attacks aren't too scary with the crab's turning speed. Another small note is the arm armor: Everyone always shoots the center of a crab, no one shoots the arms. Ammo. If you didn't know, the ammo draw in mechwarrior is weird. The first points of ammo that are taken are from the head, then the torso, then right torso, left torso, left arm, left leg, right leg, and right arm. I find it strange, but it's also somewhat useful. Firing so many RAC/2s means that it's relatively safe to put ammo in the torso slots. They drain fast, and as long as you're not slow, they drain before your shell cracks. Heat. Easy changes here. Instead of getting as many heat gen perks as I physically could, I went and got all the cool run perks from the operations tree. It makes a huge difference. I also learned about consumables, and the value of coolshot. Needless to say I bring two slots of coolshot into every battle. RAC goes brrrt and now it don't stop. What else? Not much else changed. I reduced the engine to a 275 LE. It's not really a big change, it goes from slow to slightly more slow. I also added an AMS, those things are like masks, the more of us that equip them the better. In closing, I love this thing so much. It's the only build I've kept since the start of my time in MWO, and it's a build that I never get bored of. I see plenty of MAD-3Rs with tripple RAC, or MAD-4Ls with quad, and I've tried those too, but the problems I always encounter with them are the same problems that the king crab has always solved. The KGC-000 can hold six RAC/2s without any sacrifice to armor, engine, or luxury. It can fire three or four of them at a time, and if those jam, it has more always ready to go. It can turn on a dime, and it's ideal range is up to 600 meters, pushing 1000 whenever you need to. Even with one arm, and one leg, I've clawed this thing out of battles that I swore I would lose before even beginning. And, of course, when all else fails, there's nothing as cathartic as activating your override, charging the enemy, and killing as many of them as you can before either they kill you or you blow from the heat. I wouldn't trade this mech for any other. TL;DR: Half a year old and going strong, It's still the king, baby.
I dug some more and found out from a staff post. LE280 has the same weight as LE275 so no reason not to use a LE280 instead. _
I appreciate the correction. Though I don't think the ammo thing changes the core point, I'll be getting a 280 for my own crab. Thanks HKO2006!
