So... how are things...

IP Check would not work. Families would have multiple account for each member. You don't want your piece of shit sister/brother to ruin your mech setup and things, don't you.

But Griefing and hunting on newbies is only fun for so long, pretty sure it is not the norm, maybe only on event where you would want to go for the tip tier of a mech or something.

My ELO remains low for all the seasons, clowning around too much with random acts of stupidity.

 

Anytime I'm in a short range mech and Alpine comes up, as soon as the round begins I just override alpha and kill myself, then quit match and drop again as fast as possible.

 

You're doing it wrong then I've had some of my best Alpine matches in my Firestarter and Timber Wolf, both of which are nothing but close range...just gotta be patient.

 

Yeah exactly, patience isn't always an option.

 

Still not feeling 100% comfortable with Timber Wolf just yet, but I've had a few good 4-5 kill rounds. Just trying different builds, all of which involve JJs and cERPPC in that wildcard 'S' RT. Just getting the feel for the mech still and PPC adjustments. It's gonna be a long grind to the top again poptarting in this mech given current meta but I feel it'll be viable when I get the subtleties under thumb. In the meantime I've had a blast with Nova, just a complete assblaster of a mech for solo pugging.

 

Zeus is calling you

 

Meh that's too simple for me, back in the day for practice I'd take my 3D out with only 2 ppcs, one in each hand. But if you do that these days you get no hand actuators left/right reticle-wise, so... I do think putting 2 in one hand and use that one 'S' or 'D' hand for quirk might be interesting, though, could recover a bit of actuator reticle there.

...I'm still not feeling cool with 3 JJs tbh, it doesn't do it for me, so I've been working more off 4 JJs in C, 5 in S, with 1 PPC in 'S' RT and then trying other stuff.

I've really not enjoyed the Timber Wolf experience to be honest so far, but I know it's legit as a mech - I can feel it - and I know I've got some killer ideas for it. My Heavy Elo has plummeted... as in grinding S and C variants, I lost about 75% of my matches and died twice as many kills... it was brutal... now I'm down in what I'd prolly call the 'B' tier (and the 'A' tier is not the true elite pro tier either). I did a few AFK rounds in the basic grind as well, really I lost about 80 out of 110 matches doing my 2 Timbers. But now over this past weekend or so I've brought it back to around .80 for wins and kd, tbh. You have to remember when I quit my Heavy Elo was at the literal top, so I've been getting facepumped by new meta while rusty in a unbasic'd mech... it sucked and I didn't even bother trying til master.

Just taking my time with it, at least somewhat... trying different things out, feeling out the armor soaking, clearance for tarting, etc. Those things are subtle and take time, so I'm just working with the PPC and keeping it simple for now. Other stuff like a pack of MLs, or some LRMs on chain, etc.

 

Yeah I'm just waiting for you to put up some footage so I can crib off you.

I'm an unashamed proponent of the dual ER PPC Nova but I really need to devote a lot of time to them as I barely used them currently for a number of reasons.

In a way I was hoping you'd find 2-3 JJ enough so I could work out where I was going wrong as I don't find they give me enough push, whereas 5-6 feels totally different in the air.

 

yeah, it's a trade for higher weapon mounts vs. aim flexibility. Personally, the very large engine in the Timberwolf provides enough twist speed to eliminate the need for arm actuators in many/most situations. The 2x JJ isn't enough to clear terrain with the arms, but it is usually enough to get the cockpit and the torso mounted ERPPCs high enough to fire. Another advantage of the torso mounts is you can lose your arms and still have you heavy hitting weapons.

 

Nova with just 1 cERPPC in the shoulder and a pack of 6 lasers is fun, 3 in each hand rest DHS and tc1:

Unfortunately I've been focusing on my two other builds. I'm posting them later today or tomorrow, they're featured in new Sauce episode. But I really like this tart:



This has 2 functions and both are at least somewhat useful and precise.

Yeah that's why Koreanese and I eventually refined the competitive 3D tart to just the Gauss and 2 PPCs up in shoulders, cuz you could just use the arms for pure soaking (also armor shave for tonnage). It worked when mechs were a bit more agile and JJs weren't so nerfed, just throwing the pinpoint off of crosshair. Everything came from shoulders.

I think for precise aiming, shoulder crosshairing is still best for minimum clearance shoulder tarting, Timber no exception, but I don't want it to be at the cost of the reticle - so I can't do 1 cERPPC in each hand. If you're running 2 cERPPCs up top in Timber, you aren't running max JJs. So there's a tit-for-tat thing going on there that I'm still trying to find my sweet spot for.

Again for me I'm looking at the 'S' RT being a cERPPC, then other stuff along with it... couple other derp ideas I've had are 'S' RT as cERPPC, 'S' LT as cLBX10, or to use 2 cERPPC in S right hand and just recover some reticle action from the left hand. Just while I feel out the finer points of the cERPPC.

 

That's one setup I haven't tried, A single cERPPC in the shoulder, max JJ, and mediums in the arms with lower actuators. 5x JJ to poke with the cERPPC would be nice and it will run cooler, just less alpha

 

Yep... that one's ok. Since it's less alpha if anything packing more ranged pinpoint than you (aka a lot of potential targets) actually looks at you or wants to post up and trade shots, well then you can't act like a face stareing laserwhore with the Mediums. You just can't fling enough to go back n forth with some of those folks.

So... stuff like that lack of extra oomph... that's why I'm looking at that silly LBX10 in 'S' LT... look at the projectile speed compared to cERPPC...

I'm just still in the clouds so to speak when I get something concrete and refine my ppc skill again, I'll start getting serious with Timber.

 

I emailed PGI practically 2 weeks ago asking if they'd just simply delete the Legacy Centurion from my account/mechbay, I can't stand looking at it cuz I'll never use it and don't even see why I received it since I quit before the game technically launched. So...

...today I log in and it's gone and I have an extra mech bay.

Seems like they're a lot nicer without IGP around or something. I dunno, whatever. Cool shit.

 

Yeah, after they announced what the Phoenix medalions would actually do in-game, I asked If I could change one of my duplicate Kurita medallions to a Steiner medallion. When IGP was there, I was told no. I tried again last week and they said it would be changed on the 17th (today) patch

 

Hell yeah for SCHTIEENAGH!

 

I have a question about quirks. I dunno if IS have anything similar, but lets use Summoner as an example.

Real simple question, check it.

So the "Prime" Right Arm gives Energy Cooldown 10%. Is it applied in some sort of global manner? Or does it only apply to the weapons using hardpoints in that right arm, in this case 1 energy?

It impacts the whole mech in terms of cooling right, not just the right arm... correct?

 

Its global unless it specifically specifies otherwise and the only time I've see that has been with armour/structure.

So for example the Nova Prime's right arm gives energy heat generation -5% and the Nova Prime's left arm gives energy heat generation -5% for a 10% heat reduction on my paired torso mounted ER PPC's.

 

My heavy is still insanely high.

For example, basicing Summoner D I have 9 wins, 22 losses... really tired of seeing nothing but tryhards in my heavy bracket. My Summoner KD is still 1 luckily tho, having fun with 2 PPC in arm.

Not only that but matchmaker is at least twice as long, if not more. Every other bracket is perfectly fine in terms of quickness and balanced matches. This alone makes me play lights a lot more than I ever did before, especially since meta makes most matches an utter snoozefest behind rocks.

Btw the Summoner has - quite literally - nothing going for it. It can potentially be outgunned by a Locust. Lets break it down real quick ok... locked max JJs, lack of many hardpoints, no shoulder alphaing hardpoints and yet vulnerable low slung arms, huge box torso, not fast, tall profile, shit quirks. Wtf? I still like it though. I think it's basically a Clan version of the Quickdraw, well, the old meta Quickdraw.

 

Sometime between when I quit and when I returned, this game stopped being a first person shooter, and became a first tank shooter. All of the boulder humping is really pretty silly to be honest.

Essentially all of the actual piloting has been taken out of the equation, the only things that get away with it are certain lights that can still abuse broken hitboxes.

It all boils down to whos running the most competitive starelaser shit and can find positioning and timing where they can fling it without getting countermelted. There's not a lot of skill involved in that - tactics and strategy, yes, but not a lot of actual piloting or skill except for aiming.

I honestly think the meta right now, all things considered, is probably the worst I've ever seen it in this game. I'm not saying it isn't balanced, it's more balanced than it used to be, but at the cost of doing anything remotely... well... actiony. There were times when it was all DDC atlas camping in group matches, and that had by far more action than the typical shit I see. Maybe 2 or 3 rounds in a session remind me of the way the game used to play out... the rest turn into nascar or a race for lights to go kill afkers or stranded dires cuz of how trashy the spread spawns are now.

 

Here's my current Summoner D win loss:

SUMMONER SMN-D 64 21 41 0.51

Why does this game have Elo again? The playerbase can't sustain it. It's fucking stupid.

update - 5 more losses in a row, at least I've done twice as little damage in twice as many rounds compared to Nova B while grinding mastery.