BLR-1S Hammer (2x LRM15+A, 1x SRM6+A, 1x PPC, 2x MLas, AMS, XL300)

My first thought when looking at the 1S variant was like 'Oh, a humanoid Stalker. I already got those.'

So I went on and tested both I_AM_ZHOUL's LRM version as well as the SRM-Brawler by Lucinator. Both of them looked OKish on paper, just enough for grinding through the basics and forget this variant, right?

Nope, both of them seemed to be lacking the one or other way. Maybe it's just because I know these builds from playing Stalkers and mastering the AWS-8R with LRMs, maybe it's just me... But both of them did not deliver what I expected from a nice assault mech like the BLR. So with all the money spent on DHS and Artemis I began tinkering with the variant myself.

This is the result:



As I like versatile mechs with both good punch directly and indirectly, this build is perfect for my preferred playstyle. Lots of LRMs in the beginning of a round or for finishing of opponents retreating, and additional direct firepower worthwhile of an assault mech already mounting massive LRMs. A very flexible loadout with massive firepower while retaining enough speed to keep up with the other heavy ones.

It's hard to imagine, but I like this variant of the BLR now. There is just a single Stalker variant which could mirror this build (STK-3H, being the only one with sufficiently sized missile launchers), but short of this the loadout is pretty unique to the BLR-1S.

 

Thanks for the input. This looks pretty viable as well.

Don't be misled by my build's heat efficiency, though, as you'd either combine the LRMs and the PPC at range or Lasers, SRM and possibly the PPC at mid or short range. When used like this the build's heat efficiency is m7ch better than shown in the lab's overview.

I think using a big engine more or less leads to more brawl-oriented builds where I'd rather use just a single LRM launcher (if any at all).

In the end this comes down to playstyle.