A cool running, ammunition based concept with overlapping ranges and indirect fire capabilities. ECM counters included. See your opponets feint to heat while you constandly keep them under heavy fire.
decent build man, not really a beast in any 1 department but average in a few. Due to the change of SSRMs hitting multiple targets now their power has been WAY reduced and imo should be replaced with SRM2s. This way you can dish out way more damage and have more weight for other things once you also remove that BAP, if u want. SRMs dont need BAP but if you just want that little bit of extra support go for it. Also, any LRM boat will beat you in a LRM contest and any direct fire brawler would also beat you. I'm assuming this guy was designed as just a general support mech that follows the heavier more specialized firepower mechs around. Also the LT could lose the BAP and JJ slots and move em to the RT to help crit pad those XLs a little better 3/5 just because everything this guy tries to do, others can do better.
Agreed on the placement and and partly on the SSRM change, though I still prefer them because it allows me to concentrate purly on aiming the AC20 and SSRM are still effective in chasing of lights and ruining their aim. Concerning the roleclassification I have to say that this mech actually outperforms most miissle boats and pure brawlers because he is able to exploit their weaknesses in a direct confrontation(read attack them out of their comfort zone while still being dangerous in it) + combine that with the Highlanders excelent dmg spread capability... This mech is not pure support it is designed to be able to fill the role needed and make use of opportunities wherever they show. Well, thinking about it you could call it support, since it is able to compensate the weak spots of his comrades - nonetheless it is frighteningly effective against any kind of more specialised builds in one on one situations. BAP has been fitted on this mech long before the ECMcounterpatch since it grants exceptional combat overview combined with the sensor modules and I would dearly miss it if it was replaced.
I honestly see this as a waste of this chassis potential. But, as it stand's, you should add AMS to add protection to yourself and others. I rate 2-5, because I want some ammo independent weapons in this chassis. as shown.
all fair points. the reason SSRMs are weaker now is because they no longer go straight for the same targets. The damage from them is split up between joints and different locations now so in the long run those SSRMs will never really be enough to bring down a light than can circle the shit out of this mech. And i promise, if u can aim an ac/20 at short ranges you can aim SRMs. Streaks just arent what they used to be anymore, they went down for the worse and strictly imo here, are one of the worst weapons in the game right now. And id really like to know how this mech can exploit anything. not in a sarcastic way. Most missile boats are rockin twice as many missiles as you or at least another 15. If they didnt then its not a boat. Just numbers alone would dictate that you cant compete with almost double your LRM output. And any true brawler is going to have WAY more firepower than just an a/c20 and they will be faster than you, highlander or not you are still slow as molasses in the MW world. NTM many brawlers use things such as a/c 5s which will WAY out range your a/c20 and all they have to do is hide behind a rock or cliff or building or something to stop the LRM spam. and still out range and outgun you. Highlanders arent known for being hard to hit. Main problem with this mech isnt that its not specialized. It's that for any one of your weapons to do well, you have to sacrifice the other one. Only in very small and few circumstances will you be able to actually unleash your full arsenal. Essentially this makes you half a mech. This is why this guy is a full support whether you play him like that or not. This guy can never be the star of the show.
That aiming SRM is not harder then aiming ac20 is right but the point you aim at to hit a moving target is differend and that leads to more misaimed shots - furthermore SSRM may be weaker then before due to the slit dmg but guaranteed dmg at random location combined with the impact effect is still better then split damage that misses more often. True it is mostly psychological warfare but there are lucky shots once in a while. The reason why i favour all ranges designs over single purpose ones is simple: your exsamples assume I would meet the specialist in it´s comfort zone and stay in there for the whole duration of the fight - that is definitely not the case in most matches. True they may have greater firepower in their range but in a normal combatsituations the distance and LOS between targets is in a constand flow and this mech can attack at all ranges - it also runs very cool - most specialised builds do have to sacrifice part of their firepower due to heatissues while this mech can keep pressing. Examples: What does a brawler do when confronted with LRM fire at range? take cover and try to close the distance or die a painfull death, right? What does a lrm boat do when confronted with a Brawler near by? Try to gain distance, break LOS or die a painfull death, right? What does either of them do when confronted with a balanced build like this? Well, if unlucky(wrong range) die a painful death without being able to return fire effectively, if lucky, meet painfull resistance in its own comfort zone without the option to retreat painlessly and with the posibility of this mech entering a zone they can not fight in. Thing is this mech does not really need to bring all of its weapons to bear at the same time if the opponent is basically defenseless at the current range. It can just stay there comfortably and shred him away. If the enemy does not want that to happen or it is better at the current range the zone where all weapons effective ranges overlapp will be crossed soner or later and that will be very painfull since both main weapons(ac20 +LRM 20) do pack quite a punsh. Specialised builds can be very effective in organised groups but allround builds are definitely supirior in unorganised ones and competative in organised ones because they can help out wherever they need to or opportunity arises. Excuse this exessive wall of text it has been quite a long and hot night here... Thx for the feedback btw it is much apreciated
you're not wrong on anything man. But it seems like you're determining your mechs ability on mostly a 1v1 basis. This is usually not the case. To your examples: when a brawler is confronted with lrm fire at range, he moves to safety and lets the snipers, lrms take over to get you. Now the advantage is back on their side. Granted you should have a team backing you up as well. But, in a 1v1 situation, personally ive never had trouble bridging the gap to under 180m. Usually there's enough terrain to cover my approach. And any serious brawler can handle more than a couple a/c20 shots and gain the big advantage over you. When an LRM boat is confronted with a brawler: This one is a bit more rare unless your team is losing pretty hard. Most of the time this wont happen because any LRM boat is going to be behind their whole team, which means you wont ever get close enough to brawl. If someone should close that distance, most LRM boats actually carry a good arsenal of medium-short range weapons. My Pretty Baby launches 30 LRMs and has 2 PPCs for those that get closer than they should. Most stalker boats have somewhere around 4-5 lasers as well as their LRMs. However it works, your a/c 20 isnt enough to beat out any of those loadouts at optimum a/c20 distance. And against heavies and assaults, 2 SSRMs these days is negligible. Dont get me wrong man, im not saying this is a crap build. It has a lot of firepower, some of my favorite weapons, and it WILL net kills from time to time. Its just that you dont bring enough firepower in any one department. And any enemy that is under fire of any of these weapons will simply move. You cant chase anyone down and they can all chase you down. Simply put, this guy is just OK at any given range or situation. You dont ever have a true advantage and positioning alone gives the enemy an advantage over you.
Both builds you mentioned are quite good as well. The Pretty Babe can support it´s LRMs with PPC shots at meduim and long range(a little open to opponents under 90m though) and the stalker has good closerange support similar to an ac20 in rangeeffectiveness but a lot more spread - both of them are more vunerable to heat though and none of them has JJ (read a Highlander is not as dependant on good LOS and positioning as other groundcrawlers are to make his LRMs hit, refresh locks and evade or spread enemy fire). They are respectable enemys but I would not fear them. True they are all assaults with selfdefence options at all ranges and vunerable too faster mechs by design but JJ give an undenyable edge here offensively aswell as defensively compared to similar designs, like your exsamples, without them. To the teamplaypart: you describes well an organised groups behaviour but that also means that the ones that take over have to be aware of the problem(less likely random groups especially since you probably do not know their loadout and skill) and eventually have to reposition and assumes that they are not bound elsewhere to do so effectively. All means downtimes and potentual gaps, however short under optimal conditions, that can be used to an advantage by a team with balanced allround bulds and similar or even less coordination.
