More fun than peein' on a spark plug! Maybe not optimal and yadda yadda but I'm posting it because I'm having a lot of fun with it. Obvious strengths are the range and the alpha, and ER's for no min limitation. Dragons also articulate well so you have some vertical and turning flexibility with one of the ERPPC's at least. Drawbacks are of course the heat issue and just general PPC aiming challenges. I dunno though, I don't find the heat difficult to manage. 18 doubles cools things off rather quickly... like once you hear the sizzling stop after an alpha you're generally good to go again. Chaining can also be done for a fairly long period with this setup. I like that it's fast (81), carries 400 pts of armor and that no one on the map is safe. Hitting things is a different story, but 99% of the time there's a shot there you can take anyway. And I don't care who you are or what you're driving - 3 PPC's crank you in the face, you back up. So if you need to keep someone's head down (or remove it)... this is right up there with a dual gauss setup for that. I run 3 groups: 1: Arm (Unlocked) 2: Torso (Chain fire) 3: God is Pissed at You :angry: and um, yeah... group3 gets used as often as possible heh heh... So all kidding aside give it a try if you haven't, it's a tremendously fun ride once you get the hang of the groups and the aiming, etc.... And don't sweat it if you're not exactly the PPC bullseye wizard, that'll come with practice. This is really the first mech I've put PPC's on ever. It was just one of those, "what the heck, let's try it" deals and it turned out really well for me, especially in terms of the fun factor. Surviving the round will get you into the 400-600 pt damage range no problemo, but I've had 3 kills with as little as 250-300 dmg just because of the alpha. Once the armor starts comin off people, it doesn't take much... I find though that once people see a 3ERPPC shot go off the entire 8-man enemy team goes "Yes, I must now go hunt down and kill that 3 ERPPC dragon no matter who is attacking me or what part of the map I am on, yes, I must now go kill him immediately..." So ummmm... yeah, just be aware of that Thanks for reading, enjoy! :wink:
I tried this on my Fang, but couldn't really get the hang of it. It's more bursty than doing Gauss+PPC, but I think the later would give you better longevity. I'm running a 6 PPC build on my Stalker, and I've become convinced that alpha is the only way to go with PPC builds. Their power lies in placing all of the damage on a single point. Chaining them lessens the chance of that happening. I would use the manual arm lock for the alpha strike to increase the pinpoint potency. Aiming will hopefully be easier when ballistic HSR comes in.
Yeah I think people see 'ERPPC' and immediately think they'll be turned into a smoking crater because of the heat... it's honestly not THAT bad... it CAN be managed...
I love the ERPPC, but heat management is a skill that takes time to really master. Even the best pilot gets caught up in the action and forgets override or coolant. I like your build. Mythweaver
warchanter, a hint i give you, drop one of the ppcs and put heatsinks in its place and maybe a backup weapon if there is any room left. you think you are having fun with 3 ppc only because you havent tried shooting 2 ppcs with little fear of overheating.
I feel like it's better to stick with 2 ppc because the 2 torso slots are way higher than the arm ones and a lot of the time you'll be either unable to fire 1 or exposing your mech more than you should to give your arms breathing room. The 1c can hull down like a jager with it's shoulder and it seems like a shame to waste it if you're going the long range route.
