Thinking behind your Drop Deck?

As I have all my mechs mastered I was 85% dropping in CW this weekend and was looking with much fascination at the mechs people were dropping with. At some point I twigged that most of them almost looked random even on players that were doing well so realised I must be missing something. So I thought I'd just ask!

My drop decks are always based around a simple ethos - high damage and survivability, with an eye to the expected state of the match when I use them. Currently 2 x DRG-1N, 1 x WVR-6R and 1 x TDR-9SE. Against clans I swap the WVR for a second TDR.







The first Dragon is always my primary damage and kill dealer as people are testing the other side etc and the battle is focused and channeled.

The second usually dies fast as I get focused down quickly and they've decided they can't ignore me. Its not ego but I often get 4-8 kills with the first so its a good response by them.

The WVR-6R is good damage, fast and high maneuverability so I can roam to whichever gate or area the enemy are at, make a hit at their Omega etc or pick up lights heading for ours. Its delicate though and can't really stand up to a clan heavy. Even if I win a 1v1 I'm usually badly damaged. Its good at flanking and can easily take down a target from the side again and again, particularly against IS XL setups.

The TDR's always drop last as they can tank a lot. They're my desperation build when I have to dig in deep and survive. High damage, standard engine, great hitboxes, good at peeping or going head to head. Great against lights as most can't survive more than 2-3 on target volleys. Decent survivability against clan scum....

So whats the theory behind your drop deck?

 

Mine is very simple: Two sniping mechs, two brawling mechs, at least one ECM. That's what I started with on day one, and it's worked every time.

Snipers: Raven 3L, Stalker 4N
Brawlers: Firestarter A, Dragon 1N

With that set, I can dictate how I fight each match...I tend to open with the snipers, but bring in the Firestarter when there's a chance for a good flank.

 

Mine is based on a couple of set rules rather than mechs,...

1. Ammo is just a liability. The only ammo dependant equipment I bring is AMS
2. Dropdeck should include:
   1. Long to mid-range weaponry
   2. One breakthrough mech with
      1. Decent armor
      2. High alpha
      3. Pinpoint damage
   3. A large number of flankers
      1. Very mobile
      2. High alpha
      3. Pinpoint damage
   4. ECM
3. Radar deprivation on any mech without ECM
4. UAV in every mech
5. Airstrike in every mech

This typically translates into 2 mediums (WVR-6K/BJ-1X), a light (RVN-3L/LCT-PB) and an iron fist (TDR-9SE/TDR-5SS/STK-5S)

 

Yeah you have the two things I don't have - very long range fire as I really can't afford fire much over say 650m or I'm losing too much damage for the ammo usage, plus dedicated fast lights.

 

I drop in my 4LL Hellbringer first. Provides ECM and a great sniper mech for gate sniping. It has both arms a the left side torso for absorbing a serious amount of damage. Heat is obviously an issue but when I started to use this build there were only two CW maps, one of which was snow.



My second mech is my Timberwolf laser vomit. Fairly self explanitory. Great damage, survivablity, speed. Great mech!



Then I drop in a laser vomit crow. Same reasoning as the Timberwolf.



Finally I drop in a 4MPL Ice Ferret. Fast as anything else out there. She is always the last mech I drop in, fun as anything zipping about lasering legs off. Keeping up with those sneaky IS lights that try to gen rush toward the end of a match is a must.

 

Interesting point re consumables. As I've played more and more CW I've switched so every mech has a UAV as there are so many choke points you want to know if there's people on the other side or rather how many. Even if its up for a few seconds you can get the numbers and know how many people you need to crush that group or if to just wait them out.

Don't really agree on the ammo side for your primary damage dealers but certainly my last is deliberately non ammo based.

 

Fairly cookie cutter clan deck because it works so well.

Hows the Hellbringer heat generally as I rarely see the loadouts due to ECM preventing locks so can't tell if that's a standard fit?

I will say I find Hellbringers quite easy to chop down... if you can locate them. Of course that range advantage is huge if quite a few of your side have erll.

 

Yeah, I use UAVs in almost every drop. Mostly for intel gathering* so as to inform the team of movement in our backs, who's behind a hill, where the enemy is, how many,...

Often 1 single, well-placed UAV can tilt the tide of a battle. Never leave home without them.


*Supporting LRMs is just a C-bill extra

 

As a clan player I avoid ammo based mechs in CW. S-SRM/SRM are decent enough as are LRM but I find the AC to be a poor choice due to damage spread and the amount of ammo consumption per shot. Gauss is viable but often has ammo limitations.

@Remarius the Hellbringer is pretty decent, if you remember to torso twist and stay mobile. The head mounted LL can fire over the gates, often without reply and when needed I alpha the RT LL. Quickly burns down mechs. I'll normaly get a couple of kills and hit 1k+ damage before the gates are breached. Chain firing 4 LL into a component makes big holes in anything. I would never run it in Public/Group queue. To vulnerable, to hot.

 

Very interesting perspective. So used to being on the other side I never even realised about the head mounted ERLL!

My ammo comment was really aimed at IS Ballistic builds as I usually get 9+ kills a battle unless I fuck up badly or the other side just successfully zergs. People open themselves up to a lot of damage in CW while I generally peep and fire. People are weird.

 

I IS ballistics. But I've always been a clanner. Next time I do some CW drops I will take a few screen shots of my Hellbringer scores for you, if you like.

That said now the quirks have settled down I'm slowly working my way through all my IS mechs and rebuilding them/leveling them. Nearly finished my panthers, they are all excellent little mechs.

 

Sure, I'm always fascinated by CW and peoples thinking/performance - what happened, why and what can we do better next time.

 

My IS dropdecks are base on 4 facts :

1) IS autocannons are superior
2) IS SRMs are superior
3) some quirked mechs are very good, especially good if they have quirked SRMs or Autocannons.
4) IS lights are superior

So my dropdecks changes, but it's always orbitating around those concepts

My Clan Dropdeck will be 3 hellbringers with the same build and 1 SCR, hellbringer is the best ECM carrier that can boat one of the most efficient ton/range/damage weapon and a lot of DHS and a filler.

 

What are you using on the Hellbringers?

 

28DHS with with 459m range, and cd and range modules that both work for the same weapon are a great, plus ECM and heavy armor.

Or as first mech :



Great mounts, same cool. eff.
This uses the clan XL advantage to it's best it's pretty amazing
Once you drop the energy side, you are 100% heat efficient, with a gauss and an ERML left.

Bringing 3 of those means you can cover for most of the time your team in ECM, while having a decent firepower.

PS : I realized I'd have to bring a 45T as 4rth mech

So it will have to be an ice ferret, but keep in mind that then it will be a ShadowCAt later on, so 4 ECM mechs. Meaning if you do this in a 12 men, enemy basically can't use sensors for the entire match



Still not bad build for CW.

And also, using over and over the same weapon, of course trains for a better accuracy. All those mechs would have ERML in a good quantity.

 

Not much deep thinking on my decks.
Of course, if I'm grouped and we agree on a particular strat I choose my mechs accordingly. But most of the time I just bring mechs I enjoy, that can deal damage and are versatile. I also always keep a solid laserboat for the last drop (hunchback-4P for example). As I rarely pilot assaults I don't have problem with the tonnage restriction.
Most of my desks include at least one Dragon-1N (classic ERLLas+2AC/5s, with 11 tons of ammo to keep the distance). Other typical mechs are: Jenner-F (6 MLas), BJ-1X (8 MLas), Dragon-1C (4 ERLLas or 2PPC+AC/10, depends on the mood), Hunchback-4P (9MLas), Jagermech-S (2 gauss),... oh, and Wubverine, before they.... oh no it's so sad I don't want to think about it
As for modules, I have radar deprivation on all mechs, the zoom thingy on the mid/long range ones. UAV on all mechs, as well as an arty that I rarely use (but just in case).

That being said, I don't play much CW.

 

Nope, you're pretty much right in this case.

I don't do much CW but my drop deck is pretty much built around "i'm good at killing things in these mechs" - off the top of my head, a Blackjack, a Firebrand, a Wolverine, and something else (crab?) that are pretty much just built for throwing bullets/lasers downrange.

 

2 Timberwolves, 1 SCR and 1 kitfox. Why? Because two timberwolves.

 

1 King Crab with a macro on the UACs
1 Dragon (cause meta Dragon)
1 Raven (cause it's my bread and butter)
1 Firestarter (may swap this now that I have a champion 3L)

Usually I take the Crab first if I'm on Defense. I can mow muthatrucka's down and have enough ammo to make her last
The Dragon I usually use for hunting down mechs
The Raven is for everything as that is one of my best mechs
The Firestarter is when everything else has been smoked and I need to fill up a spot on the ship

 

Haven't been playing much CW recently, but my drop deck philosophy was basically:

1) Don't leave any tonnage on the table.

You have 240, so you better be using it. I know some people specialize in lights, so they'll go light on their decks, but I'm pretty bad in them, so I try to fill up my tonnage.​

2) Choose your most efficient mechs

My best performing mechs (that is to say my most consistent) are the SHD-2H, TDR-9SE, CTF-IM, and the KCB-000. Now out of these, the CTF-IM is just not a great CW mech for me since it's low slung arms really don't work that great for me in the CW maps. Now as for the KGB-000, I just can't fit it in to my deck without giving up way too much to keep the other mechs I want.
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So my deck is basically built around the SHD-2H and the TDR-9SE, which leaves 120 tons to play with. If I wanted to take a KGB-000 with me, I would also have to include a Locust, which I am terrible with, so I have to decide if I want 4 good mechs, or 3 good ones, and 1 shite. I also want to bring in something relatively tanky, so for now I've settled on a BLR-1G laservomit build which I am really happy with (well except for the low torso twist). That leaves me with 35 tons which fits in either a RVN-3L, a Firestarter, or a JR7-F.

My drop strategy for defense is basically start with the SHD-2H (2xAC5 + 1 x AC2) which is great for defending the gates. Once the gates fall and my hawk gets overrun, I'll bring in the BLR-1G (2x LPLas + 5x MLas + STD340) to defend the entrances and tank incoming fire. Once that goes down, I'll bring in my light which generally chases down Stormcrows that get through our first line of defense. I finish with my TDR-9SE, and this is where it gets a bit controversial since I still prefer an XL build on this thing (3x LPLas + 2x MPLas + XL300). I find that with the speed and faster turning, even running a XL is pretty survivable.

When I'm attacking, I'll still generally start with the SHD-2H, but then go with the TDR-9SE, followed by the Light, then the BLR-1G for the finish though usually by that point we've either already won, or are dead in the water.

So yeah, my deck is pretty random because I start with the mechs I enjoy playing the most and build around that.