Lurms (first time use) A journey to the dark side.

After dropping on Polar Highlands several times in a row, and getting my a$$ handed to me more than I care to admit by the lurm spammer specialists, I got pissed and took a turn to the dark side. Yes, in my frustration I decided to strip the SRM's off of my MAD-5D and outfit it with LRM's in the HctPeace69 THE PEACE BLASTER config.


Two matches later I dropped on Polar and attached myself to a 0XP... gotta get me one of those.
First impressions... It's a good build, and I did fairly good on the map (3 kills 4 KMD and 645 DMG), but LRM's are definitely a coordinated effort. Without spotters to keep the lock there was a lot of wasted effort on my part... probably due to my lack of skill more than anything else. I'm not saying that there is no place for them in the game, but for me, gone was the thrill of piloting, gone was the devastating punch of 4MPL's mixed with dual arty SRM6's and gone was the capacity to scare away lights with the ERLL I had in my previous build.


I also had problems, to my embarrassment, with my knee jerk reaction to fire my missiles in conjunction with the MPL's

I did survive the match, but the whole experience left me feeling severely hollow....

My journey to the dark side? The paycheck was nice, not dying was nice, but I'm not sure I will be doing that again.

Meh! Anyway, thoughts? Discussion? Chastisement?

 

I try to build a lurm-boat on every mechtype I own. Even though it is the darkside, they have cake there and we all know what is said about cake.
Back on topic, it can just be plain fun, is easy c-bills, and easy damage (kmdd). Even when playing lurms can be done as a (useless) turret.

Now in case you want to be a "good" lurmer. You will bring your own TAG, fit target retention and sensor range. Max out on jumpjets and put as many LRM/10+A as your mech will allow. A dense cluster of medium (pulse) lasers as back-up is a must. Then you stay within 100-200 meters of your main friendly force and shower, suppress, kill whatever lock you can get.

Enjoy

 

Tag will stack with Arty?
Is a command console worth it?
LRM10's over 15's?

 

No. But TC on clan mechs can be useful if you've got energy/ballistics worth mentioning.

 

So if I was to outfit the MAD-5D, something like this?

 

Short version: 3 tons for a command console that MUST occupy your head space is, sadly, almost never worth it in MWO.

Long version: I say almost never because there are some builds with free tonnage in the 70+ ton club that can benefit from the sensors and target info (NOT lock speed), but it just never seems to pay off the way it should, making its use either a happy accident or an intentional design challenge. Especially when compared to the generally superior Targeting Computers, the Command Console's main benefit is Target Info Gathering buff (stacks with the module!) and taking up only one crit slot, which, granted, is that much more precious for IS. The main reason it's still rarely worth it for IS is because if you have three tons to spare and have max slot usage, that's either 3 tons you could be throwing into your engine rating or a Ferro-Fibrous upgrade you should probably turn into standard armor for more slots..

 

@Aylek Thanks, not much in my hangar suited for LRM's. I could probably fit a TBR or a EBJ I may have a Griffin that could do the job....
Oh, no..... My journey to the dark side is complete.

 

I would do this:

Not pure Lurms, but at least you get to snipe with PPC when you find the chance.

 

Generally speaking, i don't put Artemis on an LRM5 or LRM10s, only go LRM15+A or LRM20+A (but LRM 20 is rarely/never worth it, in my experience) I like the original darkside build here. I have a very similar King Crab, and it performs great. 1260 LRM ammo i find to be a nice sweet spot for mechs that aren't pure LRM boats.

 

Sorry, i don't understand - what do you mean by the "dark side"? Does Darth Vader use Lurms??! Or is it the "Black Sky"? :-D

Ok seriously - the fun in MWO really depends on your favored gameplay style. Not everybody finds it very exciting to use Long Range Missiles shooting practically from the shadows without real demanding Aiming Skills required. The best thrill in MWO is still to get into Brawling Range and really trade some heavy well-aimed blows, just like in a Boxing Battle. If you love nothing else than Brawling then stay playing as a 1st line Brawler - every Pilot should play out his strength and that begins with the fun you have with specific Weapon Types. You like it All Direct and all Brawling Aggression, great the Team needs such guys. But the Team also needs some Lights, some Tanks, but also some LRMs. Every Role has its specific gamestyle and each one can make fun if played effectively.

But may i ask you - ever aimed for consistent 12 Assists every match... ever aimed for 12 Kills in a Match? If yes - LRMs is a must-have to reach every single Target on the Map. Imo you just have to dust off that outdated perception of "Running LRM Launchers = Mainly play chickenhearted Artillery Tank".

Instead you can just build some Mechs, which has a balanced mix of Long Range and Close Range Firepower, . With such a Mix you can let it rain to scare back Snipers, you can also assist your Main Brawlers by just staying behind them and shoot Missiles over their Shoulders or you can also add some Direct Firepower from the side, or you do both, if you can load enough Heat Sinks to shoot all of your Weapons together.

Just do me a favor - don't just think in Black or White. In my good old MW2 Days i always liked the Mechs with some LRMs and good nuff Direct Fireweapons e.g. the Mad Cat. If you want to have some fun with LRMs, just do it as i do - build some nasty Missile Boat Brawlers, not the classic Long Range Missiles Artillery Mechs, which are useless in CQC. Deal damage on all Ranges - just like the Mad Cat - the ultimate Allrounder! But if you don't like to be an Allrounder, then just stay as a Specialist - that's quite enough.

 

Personally I don't think MAD is a good lurm carrier.
For pure long range lurms there are many better choices. A simple catapult would be better at it than the mashed up mad cat.
Then again, whil I would not do all rounder build I do think a hybrid missile boat it more useful in most situations. Brawlers may be harder to balance out since effective lurms would use XL but a mid range mech with some LL/PPC to go with your lurms makes everything easier.

 

Hmm, well I use LRM boats a lot for various silly reasons, enjoying the fun of the outraged howls of victims ranting about 'no skill losers with LRMs' being only one of them

So a few thoughts............

The Mad Dog you posted is in effect a version of the Catapault builds with 2 LRM 15 and MLs, but without the greenhouse for a nose. Both are pretty effective but I always find that the kills come mostly from the MLs not the LRMs. When running one of these sorts of builds I try to stay around a brawler group (just behind) and do my business quite close in- 500m or less for sure.

So a few pointers based solely on my experience - others' mileage may vary

• For a true LRM boat you need at least 45 tubes, to overwhelm AMS and still do some damage. 60 or 80 tube builds are awesome but quite tricky to get right - you never have enough ammo for long fights so have to get at folk and smash them before your ammo dries up
• Fit TAG when ever you can (a TAG is worth much more to your ability to do damage than an ML say) - TAG gets you locks, locks get you damage and kills, simples
• Always fit BAP / CAP
• Artemis is tricky - I usually use it but some of my best boats (in terms of kill / death ratios) actually don't have it - tubes without artemis are lighter & that gives you more ammo
• You NEVER have enough ammo. Ammo is death waiting to happen (hopefully to the enemy, when it explodes in your mech, well.....)
• You can fire LRM at 1000m, and a lot more in some cases with quirks and modules, but mostly DON'T - the travel time is too long and there is too much chance that your target will get into cover, evade etc - this is obviously more true the faster the target mech and less true if its lumbering about like a pregnant cow. Sweet spot I'd say is around 600-700m
• Don't waste ammo - see range issue above
• The other aspect of range is this - if you stay at maximum you will quite likely be a long way behind the main or at least nearest huddle of other mechs on your team - this usually leads to your death as some kind soul in a firestater will loop around and pick you off - hiding behind an Atlas is always a good idea
• LRM boats are greatly enhanced by teaming up together, using co-ordinated targetting- 2 boats with 45 tubes do more than twice the damage each get operating singly, so do more than 3 etc. Not always possible I know, but even in PUG groups try to team up, If you can do it in a unit who know how to call targets you are golden.....
• Use the right modules - target decay is a must as it gives you more time to hit after launching on targets being tricksy. Mixed feelings about the range modules - they look nice but see my comments above. There is some surprise value and fun to be had slapping a pile of LRMs into someone at 1200m - they often aren't being 'LRM aware' as they think they are out of range but over-all I'm not sure its worth it tbh
• chain fire - use it when you should, not all the time. Typical use for me with chain fire would be switching to it if I have to target a light mech moving fast - its much harder for them to constantly evade a constant stream then play duck and cover with large gobs of missiles in one salvo. Its other use is getting the kill. Often you will have hammered a target into one coat of paint short of death, to have someone crit him with a twinkly laser and get your kill - if you chain fire on near death targets its more likely that one of your salvos will do the business.

There are some other fun LRM builds, like the goldenboy build with LRM 5s and 2500+ ammo (Aylek was that you?) that I always think of as the 'golden shower' build . There's a Cat that runs similar and you are going to see me in an Archer with some daft number of LRM 5s on it soon as I won't be able to resist, but I really run those as fun, not for effect, though don't under estimate them. Especially if they are paired / teamed with traditional boat builds they can be really really nasty.

I ran a Battlemaster LRM 45 build, (quirks on LL meant I had to rebuild it for laser vomit in CW) and still run a Stalker 45 and a Warhawk 45 (which is really nasty as it has loads of ammo and MPLs not MLs as its twinkly bits), and others out of some of the more recent releases. The builds are close enough to them are all on mechspecs somewhere

 

CG 55 Missile Boat complete with
2 5" 54 caliber autocannons (20 rounds per minute)
2 MK41 VLS 61 tube variable loadout Missle Launchers
6 50 Cal Machine gun mounts (for soft targets)
8 tube Harpoon Missile launcher
2 Phalanx CIWS AMS
4 radar illuminators (tag)
active/passive ECM suite
UAV
Full 360° SPY1A Multi purpose radar
Multiple 360° Search/Fire Control radars
100+ simultaneous track 360° target retention
Active/Passive sonar (seismic)
4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbine engines
Speed 60kph

A real missile boat!
Sorry, selfless plug for my old ship

 

I appreciate the feedback guys all good advice. I am probably not going to go with a pure missile boat... That would just be frustrating for me, and if I wanted to do a pure missile boat, well...... we are on MechSpecs!

It's more likely, at least to start, I will go with more of a hybrid LRM/Close in setup so I can still have some fun beating up on targets once they are softened up enough.

Zot, Durandal, Karl, Aylek, eni, Blagg, Chris, you guys are great, and I appreciate the advice.

MadCat was my favorite in MW2 spent many nights blasting baddies in it back in the day.

 

I can't reccomend true missile boats [aka: true dark side] unless you're dropping with a group that's supporting it (TAG, spot discipline, NARC), as this is the only way it's going to be effective and fun. On heavier mechs, it is possible to mount 45 or so tubes with sufficient backup weaponry, so long as you maintain firing discipline both for heat reasons and not-wasting-your-ammo reasons. A mech with 10-20 tubes should only be a 'true' lurm boat if you're a light, and even then, WTFUDOINBRAH?

Like Blagg, I have a fondness for mixed loadouts, and will often take a SRM based build here, swap out one or two of its systems for some lurms, and do quite well in them. You lose the close range burst, but if you are playing at midrange anyway you can practice many skills at once. However, this is also a distinct playstyle, so not everyone will enjoy it! Do what's right for you.

 

BAD SKIDOG! BACK TO THE RACK WITH YOU!

(I named one of my builds after that glorious CIWS. One of the most wicked sounds outside of a GAU10 being fired)

 

LoL, it was a momentary lapse of reason!...... At least I didn't kill my father!

 

LRMs are like a moped. Fun to ride until your friends see you.

They are an effective platform and can be utilized well. I don't disrespect the weapon as I have been suppressed, forced to change tactics, and killed by them numerous times. However, I don't respect the pilot behind them if he merely sits behind cover and uses indirect fire from other player's spotting to use them.

If I see a guy with LRMs, a TAG, and who tanks his share of damage while throwing up some arrows, I'll give him props. That, however, is not Polarbear Trashlands of the last few weeks. That is just a map of "Bring 'em so you can spam." No me gusta.

Then again, I'm a salty ol' curmudgeon.