I'm starting this thread so players can post what they think of the Locust with the new quirks. You can talk about all Locusts or just one in particular. I, personally, only own one, the 3M, so I'm wondering what players think of the others especially those other than the 3M and 1E. I've tried a few loadouts with the 3M, all with max engine and ferro and endo and the Locust is mastered. One was the 5 medium lasers and the other was the 4 small pulses and 1 medium. My damage per game went up with both, but much more with the 4 small pulses. I was seeing a decent amount of 300-600 damage games with that build. I was surprised since I almost always do better with medium lasers because of the extra range. The added range and cooldown must be enough for me to use the small pulses effectively. One thing I did notice with both builds was that the mech seemed more fragile. The added range and cooldowns on other mechs has made it harder to avoid damage.
With the quirks I took my Locust from under a dustpile and optimised them. So far only played 3M and 3S, solely playing an annoying bug once the big boys get close to each other. 3M I ran with 5 SPLs alphaing or streaming depending on the situation - avg 1.32 kills per match 3S I ran with 4 SRMs just running as flanker/finisher - avg 2.5-ish kills per drop They are still squishy as hell though,... And some direwolf pilot legged me in 1 alpha. Kudos to that aim.
Of all the Mechs I run, the locust got some of the most questionable quirks, I believe. Overall: leg structure, kind of welcome. RA&LA armor boost, yay? Should've applied to the legs I think. Accel and decel, a bit noticeable, not unwelcome. The 3S, a Mech with 4 missile hardpoints had 2 of the 6 weapon quirks apply to them. Does that seem right to you? The 1V; pretty sure they got this idea from the NGNG guys; have you seen them play a Locust? Yeah, they have no idea how to run this Mech. 3M, pulse range: fantastic, pulse cooldown: not very noticeable. With the 1E, I kinda wish they had done SPL instead of SL, but I guess that's just me. Quirks are fine. I really think they could've done something great for the 3S, but maybe I'm just hopeful.
I, personally, think they should have gone with utility quirks with the Locust. Better sensors, harder to detect, harder to get a lock that sort of thing. But that might encourage role warfare and we can't have that, no sir! The 3M and 1E are probably the only competitive Locusts because srm's weigh too much to have a good amount of weapons and ammo with a max or near max engine. If you can keep the mech alive those 5 or 6 energy weapons can rack up a lot of damage. With the missile versions your damaged is capped. Whether NGNG recommended the 1V ERLL quirk doesn't matter. It can't be saved because 4 mg's or 1 ERLL aren't really that useful by themselves and the 10 heat sinks rule means you have one or the other. But NGNG isn't alone in not knowing how to pilot a Locust. A lot of players don't really realize that the Locust is fragile and if you're not good enough to stay alive you could have twin ac20's and still be useless.
LCT-1E (6E): SL buff... murr. Not sure if the huge buff is useful for SL, but at least half for ML. Plus, you will have spare tonnage as you do not have enough space to put other stuff anyways even with MAX 6x SL and engine. SHS is fucking stupid since you have more cooling with just 10 DHS. Still using ML. That having said, LCT-3M with 5 ML is probably better. LCT-1M (2E2M): ML + Missile buff. Probably good for SRM + ML combo. This, or you can go SRM4 and use one ML. LCT-1V (1E4B): ERLL + Ballistic buff... well, I use ERLL with this anyways, Ballistic is for MG. Well, original build of this crap variant is ERLL + 2xMG, so this makes sense. Then again, I was the one suggesting this so that might not be fair. You can go for 4x MG and a half bonus MPL I guess, if you want. LCT-3M (5E2AMS): SPL buff. SPL have a good dps now so this might worth a try, but not sure if it is good for LCT. Use as half bonus for ML. (you can sub in ML easily) I am just worrying about getting that close even with range buff. Have to do more test, but still, it is a good buff. LCT-3S (1E4M): ML + missile buff. Looks ok to me.
Doesn't really fit the mechanics or help the locust much though. Tragic thing is the Locusts can't even afford the weight for a BAP unless you geld them. The quirks definitely help and in fact I barely needed to change anything except on the 1V where I rather weirdly carried a LPL. Averaged a kill a game with it pre quirks and was just a fun mech.
I tried the 1 lpl on the 1V and found it unsatisifying. But than I found the 1V hateful and sold it after basics. Interestingly, I've seen at least one 1V lately with an ac2. That had to be a troll build! Actually, I run a bap in my 3M. With endo, ferro, three heat sinks to bring it to ten, and a max engine you have 6.1 tons for equipment. I drop some armor to bring it to 6.5. I've not really noticed survivability issues compared to when I have max armor. In fact, this fits perfectly with 5 spl's, but I couldn't really see putting a bap on any other Locusts.
This beast even has its thread on Mechspecs! Yeah! 300dmg cap for the win! Troll aside, I would have sold the -1V for a long time if mine wasn't the Phoenix edition (can't sell, snif).
Great video! At least you can hit with that ac2, which makes it fun to watch. I find something deeply satisfying about hitting enemies with ac weapons. The ac2 Locust I saw recently couldn't hit the broad side of a, of a, umm, direwolf. He must have been using a joystick. If I ever rebuy the 1V I'll have to try this just for the fun of it. And isn't that the whole reason to pilot a Locust, for the pure fun of it? I have had more fun piloting my Locust then any other mech. The quirks just allow me to do better than mediocre damage along the way
