We finally got a hero cat! I'm intrigued to buy it, but there is an obvious question i read on a lot of boards (including official) without any decent answer. "Is it worth the MC?" The question is pretty stupid but considering it IS a hero to buy with MC it better be performing well. run whatever feels fun for you. So let's ask, will my team profit from a Jester if i keep in mind that i could have brought another heavy? The standard catapult chassis features some badass fast torsotwist of 120° stock. That means almost 170° mastered and i think everyone knows those strange fights hunting a cat that just fires backwards. On the jester they reduce it to 95°. Well, ok, won't matter at all in laserboating it. The vertical twist is somewhat limited, 16° stock, even a Jager can beat this. I do see a problem when it comes to vertical, as the vertical torso movement on cats is pretty limited. They even reduce the vertical arm movement a bit, which should not matter too much but adds to the weight of the problem. Running a "brawling" C1 or C4 you know about the cats' weakness. Bullet-magnet torso, huge arm hit"boxes" (well it's boxes for real) and here comes the part i'm talking about: Considering you're using jumpjets to maneuver in combat, you will have a hard time firing from the sky or ledges beause you can't even spit 15° below you. There is no cooling depending on weight class, so all 'mechs perform equal here. You got six energy slots on quite a lot of other mechs in all ranges, custom tailored to brawling situations. Full ML builds are a common sight on Jenners, 4SPs (and dreaded here), Quickdraws, heck i run my Firebrand with 6ML AND two LBXes. So what to do with the Jester on my team if i just could have brought the FB or the QKD? Sniping? Waste of slots. Boring. I can mount longrage stuff on everything. Meh. Use it as a K2 w/ jumpjets? Viable, though the ballistics help control the heat a lot, which is a reason for the K2s neat performance imho. Support brawling teammembers with lazor-pewpew? Dangerous with a cat, better done in a QKD. So the only thing i can imagine is to run it with the fastest engine (Jester can run 350/355) and use the engineslots to cram it up with DHS and MLs for a fat Jenner on crack or a heavy energy weapon array (tough on the weight though) or two ER-PPCs for the lulz, the first making a bit more sense. What do you think?
Do you even remember the Energy sniper 3D's? This is the Pay to Do version in the Catapult Tree. Do you remember how the K2 can brawl with ERPPC's and ML? Do you know how large the Cockpit is on the Catapult? dual AC20 headshots all day going against it. Do you know that the JJ make most of these problems evaporate in it's trail smoke? Do you know how to use Coolshots? Because they WILL be your friend for this mech; every time is 4:20.
Yes! Yes. Yes -.- Depends. Yes!!! The PPC-3D came to my mind as well, got one of those in my garage and it is absolutely brutal and sick if run with coolshots. Was one of the fastest mechs to master. I'd take that one over the Jester though, it can take some sick punishment and it got arms . Well maybe i should watch it some more..
Have to say, the paint pattern KICKS ASS!!! Just take off the ugy green and replace it with white/gold (or red in some extreme cases) For the classic you replace the orange with pink.
I love it to bits - What other heavy can rock 2 PPC's, 4 Med Las, JJ, 2 AMS, and still have an XL350 taking you around 95kph? Its not EXTREMELY strong, but its bloody fun!
Well if you love CATs, it is a good Buy. If you love to Poptard with this Chassis, this has the high Arms-HPs AND JJs. And if you want a fast CAT, this is the one, which outruns most other Heavies. You can watch my latest Video, where i pilot the Jester in Skirmish-Ninja-Style.
I like the Jester alot aswell, the dual AMS plus three tons of AMS ammo (extended AMS range and soon AMS "overdrive") is gold worth during the missile meta. It does have the issue of CT being huge so it's not a "in your face" brawler but the speed of it makes for a great jouster.
