Alright, I'm getting close to finishing my Atlases (ugh, finally!) so I am wicked excited to get around to picking up some Victors! I really like the look of the VTR-9K as I think being able to mount 3 energy weapons is an amazingly efficient way to deal a ton of damage throughout a match. I'm surprised to see less than a page of builds for this mech, though! Maybe it all boils down to everybody owning Dragon Slayers but me. Anyways, just from my experience with other mechs, reading comments on Victor builds, and messing around in Smurfy it seems that the XL350 is really the sweet spot for this mech. A lot of builds also completely ignore the missile tubes, but I think those have a good value for some light defense and some additional damage if things get tight. Also, even though the UAC5 recently got nerfed, I still think its a viable weapon - especially if you're a mid-range fighter who is constantly on the move. I think this mech looks pretty solid on paper, but it will be a while before I'm able to take it for a spin. I'm also debating how many Victors to keep as I only have one spare mech bay so keeping more than one would either involve for realz money or selling off some of my other precious mechs. Any comments are much appreciated! A less melty variant with 200% more jumpy goodness!
For a mid range fighter it's good, but the lack of many JJ kinda hurts the brawling potential. 5-5 stars for the mods
I'm always on the fence about how many jump jets to include in a build. The first one makes a huge difference for spreading out damage and general maneuverability, but there are definitely some diminishing returns from there. I've not found a good post or video entailing the differences between the number of jump jets you have on a mech and I've only done some cursory experiments myself aside from what I've noticed from actual gameplay with my Blackjacks and Cataphract-3D. It's a simple matter to make it more jumpy, though, as there is the space and tonnage available in this mech. I've annotated the jumpier version to the first post.
I'm uncertain where you're getting this information; with an XL350, the Victor is surprisingly nimble, and even a single jumpjet can make a huge difference in maneuverability, and the ability to spread damage. In my personal experience, don Zappo, 2 JJs seems to be the sweet spot. You really can do it with a single JJ, but 2 gives you... what, 11 meters of jumping?, which helps to get you to places other Mechs cannot, such as up and down in Canyon Network. For a frame of reference, 11 meters seems to be the EXACT amount the Victor needs to jump from the ground up to the Sigma point on River city, from the lower city side. The build looks pretty good, but I'll agree with Vergere that you'll be in your best spot as a mid-range shooter, rather than getting too up close and personal. Use those JJs' additional maneuverability to find a perch, take your shots, and get out when you're spotted. Of course, that's my PERSONAL opinion on the matter; when I get brawling in my Victor, I just prefer to have a reaaaaaally big gun in my arm; something the 9K admittedly lacks the capability to carry.
I like a lot of JJ, as I run Victor's very frequently. I use these mechs a poptarts, even with LL. So the ability to go as high as possible to ensure ALL of my laser hits makes me very happy. as for the XL engine comment, you must know I also run XL 300's and higher in the Victor, So I know how nimble these mechs are without JJ in the first place.
I'm revisiting Victors now and have to say this is the loadout I changed my 9K up to. The 9S is unique because you can use an ac20 and the 9B is my 2ac5/2ppc mech, so this particular loadout not only meets the uniqueness of this variant, it's also something different than the other two variants which is important to me. I usually am not the biggest fan of 3LL groups, but the uac5 paired with it as well as the keep it simple stupid streaks make it fun to run.
It is true that this loadout can be run on the Dragon Slayer as well, but based on the handful of testing grounds runs I've done, the grouping of the 3 LL on the left arm makes targeting just a bit easier in certain respects. I like the fact that it does come with Endo Steel standard, though I'm a little disappointed that DHS aren't included as well. The only real downside is the UAC's potential for jamming, for which I prefer either an AC10 or the other Victor variants' ability to mount multiple AC5s. As far as the whole JJ debate, 3 seems to be a good number that I've found for most builds, though 4 obviously works better. Since the other variants can't mount more than that, I haven't had the chance to experiment until now. I'm going to try running this variant with the 340 XL from PB since I don't have a 350 handy. Hopefully the agility doesn't suffer too much...
Yeah, I've been working on revising the Victors lately as well, too. It always kills me that you can't put an AC20 in the single ballistic slot in this arm as I think AC20 + 3 LLas would be a pretty fantastic build on this chassis. That being said, I think you can get a lot more mileage out of the UAC/5 than out of the AC10 or any other ballistic you can shove in there. As an alternative, the "Blue Screen of Death" variant http://www.mechspecs.com/forum/index.php?topic=3798.0 also works well if you'd prefer SRM4s instead of streaks. I go back and forth between those two builds it seems.
