This build and it's variants are THE reason to get the YLW. It's a true killer as soon as you learn to protect your right arm.
With current LRM boats and clan mechs (and pop tarts before that) damage is too high to pretend you can slowly zombie your way to victory every time. If you aren't running 300XL in Wang you aren't playing it to max potential. At 106.9kph I keep my right arm safer a lot longer than being stripped down to 2 lasers before being finished off shortly after. Dash by, target some rear torsos and get out.
I only got me the YLW a few days ago as I needed a third CN9 to master my 2 gifted ones. The thing is, I have hated CN9s since closed beta,... and now I can't understand why! The AH is a killstealing monster and this YLW,... wow what a beast! I get 2-5 kills on every match in which we do not get rolled. It's simply an amazing mech!
4/5, To pop in and steal a kill this thing is great! YLW can be a beast if played right but it is not a front line death machine as mentioned in the OP. I give it 4/5 because it packs a wallop and moves at a decent pace but that XL is the bottleneck. Great build, not awesome (no pun intended) but great!
I did some very decent modifications to my Wang which take the sum of quirks granted into consideration. Will add the build here later today (Smurfy sucks on a mobile), but maybe even a new thread is justified.
Double post 4tw! Centurion Yen Lo Wang 50t (4) - Torso Pitch Speed 24.4% - Turn Rate 5% - Additional Armor (LA) 16 - Additional Structure (RA) 16 - AC/20 Range 10% - Ballistic Range 10% - AC/20 Cooldown 10% - Ballistic Cooldown 10% - AC/20 Velocity 10% - Ballistic Velocity 10% - Cooldown 12.5% One needs to take those quirks into consideration when optimizing the Wang. You'll use your ammo much faster because of both range and ccooldown quirks, you're turning faster and you've got some additional armor and structure for added protection. 4 tons of ammo will be gone quickly, you definitely need more. Here are 3 ideas:
Aylek the XL 300 is the one I'm using. Only difference is I stripped some armour and swap the 1/2T for 1T of ammo. Add AC20 range and cooldown modules and its a killer. The increased range changes it from close range brawler and makes it effective at up to med range. And you have the ammo, might as well use it for some long range shots. I still get games where I round a corner and get a side torso blown out. But in general its the mech in which I end up with decent dmg, couple of kills and quite often almost all my armour removed and red internals (but still kicking ). As stated use it's speed, shield arm, large twist angel (you have back armour, use it and get a nice even tan from the laser fomit!) and ignore the med lasers! Lasers are there for some extra dmg when you have a nice big fat target with its back turned to you. Or some light of in the distance that you don't want to waste a AC round on. Or when you run out of ammo, though that doesn't happen all that often.
Been running my Yen-Lo alot lately as my Medium-Class, Solo-Queue, C-Bill Grinder. And though I still use the AC20+MPL version, I have been running it for quite a while now with an XL280, so I can carry 5 tons of ammo and still have almost max-armor in my shield arm. Here's a match from earlier today, which was actually my first match of the day. I had several other good ones afterwards, but none were as good as this. (No consumables, as usual) Here's the video, as promised:
OP's build is pretty much the cookie cutter for the most effective YLW available. There are some basic changes to make though: Move all the ammo to the right torso - ammo legs leads to loosing XL engines in the current meta - you don't have space for CASE, so the RT is the part you will naturally shield the most (right torso is hidden when you try to hide the right arm). Up the leg armour! Drop some armour from the head and left arm and move it to the legs - again, legging mediums is incredibly popular right now. Move some back armour to the front - the Wang can twist so far and so fast that back armour isn't all that necessary - 5 points at absolute most, 3/4 is usually fine. AC/20 Range and Hill Climb mods are excellent in this mech - Hill Climb is game changing on canyon network especially. AC/20 range mod almost completely eliminates bullet drop. Fav Mech <3
If I run this in CW, I go max ammo on the ac20 reduce mdls to 1. I'm pretty good at keeping that right arm not exposed since I have mastered this mech. Then I have cool down and range ac 20 modules. If I go lower ammo I run a BAP with sensor range and target info. Find those weak spots quicker and also negate any ECM mechs near me.
4/5, What I used on my YLW but watchout, it's using XL engine so if you can't torso twist and spread the damage evenly, it's GG for you..
Mine's setup like Falconium's with XL 280 and MPL with lots of ammo. With the quirks and now skill trees I like to cap out range and cooldown to keep your main armament firing all battle. Here's my skill tree for Yen Lo Wang, bearing in mind I've only been playing again for less than 2 weeks. However I think I have a firm grasp on this build. https://kitlaan.gitlab.io/mwoskill/?p=cdd8644c-506c-11e7-ae4c-6bd4828ca12c&s=Weapons
5/5, Great build. Had a number of great games with this build. Some games not so much, but that was more me than the build. When it comes together, it is a devastating build.
I still run this build, albeit this version with an XL280: _ This mech has, by far, been one of my favorite hero mechs since I bought it years back. Just got out of a match where it changed a 2-9 disadvantage into a 12-9 victory, tearing up mechs one at a time, and I STILL didn't run out of ammo (though it was close). I did color it so its distinctive pattern doesn't immediately get the right arm stripped, but by making sure I have some points in mobility to help speed up torso twisting, this guy spreads damage super well. I have loved, and will always love this build XD
True, though that does open up the possibility of an explosion in a ST that I can't necessarily afford happening. Ammo on this one has really always been right in a sweet spot, even in a long match, if you're firing smart, you shouldn't be running out of ammo (I had a little under a ton left by the time it was all over)...could pop up to an XL285, but the speed difference isn't really huge at that point at only about 2 KPH. It's a super old build that I probably could change around a bit, but I'm not sure if it's really worth dropping extra cbills for such small changes XD