Here is the Grimm Variant, which is a slight tweak of a build given to me by a buddy of mine. I saw a lot of these during the tournament weekend of March 21-23rd, 2014 when LurmAgeddon 2.0 was taking place. If you are grinding Stalkers you can actually use this build on the following: STK-3F STK-3F(C) STK-4N STK-5M STK-5S Keep in mind that this mech requires a good deal of situational awareness and heat discipline. You can not lean on those Medium Lasers at the same time you are pumping out the LRMs. I also recommend that you learn to chain fire the LRM15s so that you can keep a constant stream of pain raining down on your enemies as well as manage your heat a little bit better. This mech is totally capable of 1000+ damage matches EASILY (as pictured below)...
I prefer my TAG up high in an arm for minimum exposure TAGging. Also, LRM10s in the side torso so you don't take a full second to fire 3 salvos before you get to reloading should make room for AMS. Here's my STD engine var (dual AMS variant to boot, those in position to LRM are in positoin to be LRMed): It's a bit slow, but if you can get out of dodge with only losing one side, you can keep a fair amount of firepower on the battlefield. Probably best used with a spotter, not just playing red box whack-a-mole off random friendly soft contacts.
XL engines? In Stalkers? Okay then!? Here's a possible hybrid of the ideas put forward so far: I've crit-padded the side torsos in an attempt to improve survivability, but the end result is still far from ideal. Dropping down to an LRM50 gave me more tonnage to play with. Firing pattern is 30+20. If only the 3H had a fifth Energy hard-point! 50 missile Alpha Strike, with Artemis, BAP and TAG, backed up by quad MLas. LRMageddon at its theoretical finest!
I'll give that STD version a try TFun but I do like the build the way it is. I do see your wisdom in raising the level of the TAG though as there are times where I just want my shoulders peaking. I'll have to do some more testing of this within the next day or two.
After testing the new placement this morning you are 100% right. I have adjusted the OP build sheet as well as gone back and rerecorded this build for the upcoming Stalkers vid. Not sold on the LRM10s (the sheer volume of AMS out there tends to knock most of them, if not all of them out) but the TAG thing was spot on. Cheers!
I gave this a try today and this thing is stupid fun. So many people rage when you steal their kills from 1000m out! Zap Zap, gotcha! 5/5 for me, especially with the TAG placement info thanks to TFun.
The title says "STF-3F" instead of "STK-3F" Looks like a souped up trial stalker! While I'm not fond of XL engines in these things (they can often mount enough firepower with a std engine so why cripple your survivability for a few larger lasers?), I can see that it's necessary if you want to build a decent (heavy) LRM boat. I'm a bit worried about running out of ammo though with 24 full salvos / 96 salvos on chainfire. I'd trade the torso ML and maybe even the 3rd arm ML for more exploding critslots that gives 27 or 30 full salvos; 108 / 120 chainfired missile volleys and that is above my personal minimum for missile weapons of 25 shots
If you time this right you can do a mega amount of damage AND steal the kill. Wait till the torso(s) are red and then BOOM shakalaka you got yourself a stolen kill! 5 stars from me because I have stolen more kills in this than any other Stalker!
Perhaps I went side torso 10's for the STD engine and AMS more than anything I still dont see the side torso 15's as a huge benefit.
I'm building this on my alt account now to do some testing in matches. You could be right, the extra 180 missiles helps make up the difference as you can fire longer; it might balance out in the end. The STD engine definitely is nice even though its slow as hell LOL. I will give this a fair shake after I finish building it and get a feel for it.
