A Battlemaster for the budget-conscious...lol: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=119&l=6d3f7bd22416fbf59d38aa42eb2c8b5d24f46ea9 Yes, folks, this is a design with standard single heat sinks on it. Madness, you say? Yes in most cases that would be, but I was "forced" into this situation when the Phoenix package landed on my virtual doorstep (er, mechbay). I should have put this one out a bit sooner to help the other Phoenix members, but school and the holidays have kept life just a bit too interesting. The purchase of the Phoenix package actually presented me with the unprecedented situation of having more mechs to upgrade than I had the C-Bills or equipment to upgrade to my liking, so it quickly became necessary to figure out how to make as many of these mechs viable and able to be fielded as possible with the least investment of money. Thus, this little design was born. While it may not have the overwhelming, crushing firepower of a "standard" assault mech, it also does not need the investment of 1.5 million in c-bills for double heat sinks to work and is quite survivable with the standard engine and lack of ammunition. Key to making this work is careful weapons usage. The large laser should only be used at the longer ranges, with the occasional close-up pot-shot in crunch situations. On the hot maps, you really have to watch your heat and can spend more time ducking for cover to cool off, but the single-firing of the medium lasers can keep you alive and kicking even when the heat is soaring into the danger zone. Cooler maps allow for group-firing of the medium lasers, which offer a fairly punishing strike when properly aimed. On all maps, stick to whatever bodies of water are around when possible, the single heat sinks in the legs gain some efficiency in water. This design will also work on the 1G, though keeping the extra two mediums is of course up to pilot preference.
The problem with such a budget build is: my Thunderbolt 5SS can do the same with 1 more LL and 1 more ML, more speed and more cooling. Even my hunchback would have superior firepower (but the armor doesn't quite match up). It's of course nice if you don't have to spend that much money, but you're still going to be a 'liability' to your team and this build should be immediately discarded once you get 1,5 mil C-bills for DHS, which you can also just farm on other mechs, where it'll be faster because you can do better.
Yeah, this certainly isn't a long term solution for sure. It was more of an "I'm bored & want to try out my new toys" kind of thing. It may seem like a liability compared to more modified mechs, but I actually managed to get a few kills with it, which undoubtedly helped the c-bill grind. I love that build on the 5SS as well, though that also requires the DHS upgrade to really make it work. Interestingly, I've actually had more success with Vergere's LRM and medium laser build, and the similar build on the 9SE which drops a few lasers, but replaces them with streaks and jump jets.
I run the 'Synergy' build for the TDR-5SS at the moment and it's a keeper. Getting around 550 damage consistently in rounds. Back to your build: the c-bill grind is just as easy on any other mech, even easier if you have hero mechs. The only scenario here I'd run this is if the Battlemaster is my only mech and I'd be forced to choose between stock builds or this, but as it's a mix/max site and people generally do have other mechs to grind that extra 1,5M per mech on, I just have to point out that the build is essentially underpowered and in almost all cases pointless.
