Discussion of Ice Ferret Preview

Worst thing is those arms look very wide too so crap for peek a boo. From the screenshots slightly tighter arms than the Nova which is a pain as your energy armament is mostly arm based......

 

It's a Clan Cicada without ECM or space... Meanwhile: my locust was buffed and I bought a Deaths Knell and Ember. (Even though I'm in a clan now... I have a need for speed).

 

Prime is the shit body then, shorted with one Energy slot. The only thing it is useful is to replace the RA with the Aarm and so 2x cERPPC, and even then it is inferior to the clan lights or is lights or cicada or... (you know what I mean).

No worry about stock build, as they are shit anyways.

IFR-Custom-1:
CT: 1E
LT: 1M
LA: 2E
RA: 1E
Faster, non-jj Vindicator? Well, cERML is pretty good, so use this as a heavier faster light with a cSRM6(+A).

 

Armor kind of balances the bigger profile out. It's still easier to hit than even a cicada, but anything that goes 130 kph+ is hard to land an SRM or autocannon salvo on.

 

Unless its had a velocity buff... wait!

 

Good luck as it doesn't have 12t of pod space tragically.

 

Its really something like 2 ERLL and a TC1 or 1 ERLL, 3 ERML, TC1 and a DHS or ERPPC/LPL and 3 ERML.

Not very impressive relative to the Cicada 3M.

Could try 2 SRM6+3t ammo and 3 ERML on the Primary.

 

First impressions of the ice ferret, its bad, real bad. If any clan mech needed the ability to switch engines, this would be the mech. If you could drop it down to something like and xl 235 like an blackjack you might have something. But right now it pretty much sucks. This one might sit in the garage until the clan quirks come.

 

Doing 4x cERML and a SRM6+A, 13 DHS. (chassis comes with 12 DHS). Doing ok.
Is trying the 4x cERML + SRM4 version.
One variant comes with +A.

Feels fast, but paper thin. Hitbox is definitely bigger than a light, or a cicada. Firepower is a bit better than cicada though.
Good for whacking up xp/cbills it seems, but not good at pulling his weight in combat.

The ballistic arm is useless, not enough tonnage to carry even a cAC5 effectively, barely able to use a cLBX2 which means little, and only fucking idiots would use 1x MG. You are better off with a cERSL.

 

DAMN IT. I took ice ferret out tonight as a joke. Stock a Prime.

I loves.

Ice Fherot.

 

I was never so dissappointed in a Mech.. oh wait, yes I was.... LCT-1V....
What's the sense in using a Lighthunter when there are no Lights to hunt? lol...

I had som excessive testing yesterday, so here are my 2 Cents on the Ferret:

Looks:
Ugly duckling... but nice cockpit with great visibilty.
Don't use the Camo though. Weapons will shwo w/o textures. This makes them easy targets for the enemy.

Mobility:
129/140kph sounds great for a med... but mobility is another thing. Yes, it has a great twistrange but it's turn ratio is wiiiiiide as my mommas ass.
The Stormcrow is far more agile than the Ferret, and though the Ferret could outrun almost any other Mechs but a light, in close combat it requires a lot of torso twisting... too much for my taste to aim with precision.

Deployment:
Due to the mobility range, the Ferret doe snot excel in urban fighting. In open areas it's a good target for gauss and friends....it's still a big target, even when moving fast.
So, what to do?
Imho the Ferret feels more comfortable as a second line unit or a medium scout, keeping it away from the front line as long as possible and peeking here and there for a lucky shot. Hit and run tactics seemed to work best for me. In the rare cases I had to chase lights it fulfilled the role perfectly.
Although I wasn't able to get the killing blow, I kept the lights occupied and running. The only light that got me worried was the Ember.

Weapons:
Hardpoints..... we need hardpoints.
OK, the Ferret sacrifices firepower for speed. I'm not quite sure I like it.
Almost all wepons are, although there's plenty of space in the sidetorsos, arm mounted and thus easily stripped since the arms itself are small, but the mounted weapons are bulky. It's greatest drawback is, that it cannot mount any of the big guns, not even an AC5, and be effective with it.
In direct comparison with it'S IS-counterparts it's a joke. Any BJ or Vindicator will tear a Ferret apart before it can seriously damage it (at least in the most cases).

And now the variants:

Prime

After 19 Matches I was stressed, enraged, annoyed and dissapointed. Most Kills were stolen right under my nose.
My damage output was in betweem outrageously low up to 500, bit mostly around 190.
I tried several Loadouts for the Prime, and finally I got stuck with this:


A
12 Matches... tried out different lasercombos and was stuck with 4ERM, but I also tried ERL/3ERM.
But the result in general was the same as with the prime. I missed some killing blows by mere milliseconds and got killed a lot by gauss and AC20's.
But still, as the experience with this particular chassis grew, I became more confident. The good thing is, that the laservariant can keep up with most lights and keep them at bay for a rather long period. Since it has more armour it can withstand a lot of pain from Spiders and Embers.




C
Still not fieldtested, but this is without a dobt destined to be a missiler due to the stock hardpoints and pre-installed Artemis.
And still... a pain the ass to outfit. If you thought the Ferret would be placed somwhere in-between the Adder and the Stormcrow... you were wrong.
3 SRM6... ok, you can fit them.. but ammo will be a problem, even if you remove Artemis.
My variants run SRM4's and SSRM4's... and there's not even enough space to get a TAG installed. It's not nearly as effective as the 4SRM6 Adder and not even half as powerful as the Splatcrow....
You will have to rely on your speed instead of (the non-existing) raw firepower.




Summary:
The Ferret is not a good fighter, nor an explicit brawler.. it lacks the firepower. For me it fits more in the role of a medium scout.
As such I would like to see it perform as a LRM-Spotter with TAG and/or NARC.
Or even as fast longrange supporter with LRM'S or PPC.

 

Warning .... slight sarcasm incoming......

How dare you provide a useful and meaninful analysis! The odd people twittering Russ keep telling him its wonderful (thanks Bishop Steiner et al for your non factual twitter based campaigns)....

 

Midnight, you have been here long enough. Please post the proper format with the HTTPS. If you need to know how you can read in the FAQ.

 

My experience differs greatly from midnight's.

I decided finally after a few games with my clan that I'd take the Ferret (since I'm randomly called ferret, it was unavoidable to take my avatar mech).

I left the prime bone stock to further tempt some of the guys to leg me if I really dropped in it.

Well I don't know what happened but we won every single match where I took the ferret and I averaged 400 damage a game in the Prime and LBX2 models.

I played aggressive and often dashed right by the enemy team to draw fire almost playing like a light and last night I could not miss with my ER ppc. I usually suck with ppc, maybe the speed buff?

I would run ahead with our spider and sniff out the other team and when I did find them just start peekaboo sniping with my ppc as I found the arm height adequate with the cockpit level. Whatever it was the return fire kept blasting hillside.

I hounded lights, strafed heavies and glued myself to the backs of assaults.

The only change I made eventually was dropping Streak-2 for a SRM4. I kept the cAP since it effectively shutdown ECM of lights I was having at it with.

Its a stocky little mech with that hitbox, it makes a great peekabooer and overall I would class its role as a 'Strafer'.

Would I take it to CW over my Stormcrow? No but if I had 45-50 tons left in my 240 limit I would happily take it over the Fox, Adder or Nova.

 

Well.. never underestimate the power of a fucking team that rather tests quirks against rocks and such things instead of fighting the enemy.....
maybe today will be better.

 

Lol.

Just killed my ninth Ferret of the day.... rather vulnerable.

 

Not this Ferret. What are you running? I don't think anything gave me particular trouble. I made sure to crush other Ferrets I came across.

 

Probably the shit config Prime, the other two are more reasonable.

The Icy is lacking hardpoints as is, Prime is even worse getting cheated with one less energy hardpoint in return for a little quirk that is not worth it.

 

HBK-4G (AC20 build) and TDR-5SS (MPL build) mainly.

 

I saw a prime ferret with 2xLPL last game, sounded quite good tbh.