I had been lamenting my Vindicator after the quirk pass as the build I had for this got only the most minor of support, and the build that got supported was what I had always used my BJ-3 for. Well, taking a closer look at things these last couple of days, I've decided that this mech is a better blackjack than the BJ-3 so I have dismissed the BJ-3 from my stable and added this mech back into the rotation! Let's just look at the quirks: BJ-3 Energy Weapon Cooldown 12.5% PPC Range 20% Energy Weapon Range 10% PPC Velocity 20% Torso Yaw Speed 43.8% VND-1AA Energy Weapon Cooldown 12.5% PPC Heat Generation -20% Energy Weapon Heat Generation -10% PPC Velocity 20% So... they both get the PPC velocity buff. They both get the same cooldown buff. The VND-1AA get 20% heat decrease (and 10% global) while the BJ-3 gets a 20% range buff. I don't know about you, but I find a 20% heat decrease for PPCs to be WAY more useful than a range increase. Coupled with the fact that this little mech can absolutely book it across the battlefield, and it can mount dual AMS, I have accepted this as the superior mech. Say hello to your new Vindicator overlords. I've always run this with the dual AMS as that was one feature that attracted me to this mech in the first place. I'll be monitoring it in my plays to see how much usage it really gets. If it turns out to be a waste of tonnage, I'll switch to this faster, jumpier, cooler variant: Energy Weapon Cooldown 12.5% PPC Heat Generation -20% Energy Weapon Heat Generation -10% PPC Velocity 20%
I've been running this variant of the build recently with moderate success and fun play style. Running X2 ML on hot/moderate maps is just too much for the mech to handle where the brunt of your damage is your ppc alpha or chain fire. Having a single medium laser in your head slot is ideal as the left arm is more of a shield that you turn into fire when under attack. This mech plays a lot like the centurion AH since you basically have an energy AC20 (the X2 PPCs) on your low hanging right arm and use your left arm as the shield. While weaker to 90m engagements from lights due to minnimum range and only a single ML for defense, X2 ML isn't much of an upgrade vs heavier lights like a firestarter. Your advantage over an AH includes your very agile speed at 110.9km and Locust 3M style of play where you stay with the mech pack and provide and AMS umbrella for allies while having left over ammo for solo roaming. The 3rd jump jet is great for positioning and mediocre poptarting. The head laser is great shooting on the left side around cover while your PPC brunt is on your right side. Also the frame of the mech is slender and not quite as tall as other medium mech which gives it a great hitbox, especially the head. The only other changes I've made to your build include putting the AMS ammo in the legs since they rarely ever get blown off, having your Ams ammo explode in your center torso is death (maybe you'll live slightly longer with a red core). 2 Jump jets are moved to the center torso and the remainder jump jet is put in the right torso since you plan on blowing your left arm off to absorb fire. Like you said earlier, running without the double ams gimps the advantage this mech brings and is often a death sentence when repositioning or if a light scouts you. Also head shots are so rare to take on this mech (aside from artillery/air strike) it feels like a Spider. I swapped some head armor to leg armor. *Edit* While this thing generally runs hot, the heat reduction perk really stabilizes the mech just right with 11 heat sinks especially if you are sparingly using your ML or chain firing at high heat.
