Just a small observation I have done after playing the Misery, having seen a few in action and piloting my second Stalker currently, a 5M I always want to cry when I see a Misery being turned into a PPC-only boat, even neglecting the one thing it has that makes it special... the ballistic slot. Every Stalker can be a PPC-only boat, there is nothing special or creative there... just a lot of cheese. In retrospect, I would have given the Misery the following hardpoints: - RA: 1 Energy & 1 Missile (10) - RT: 1 Missile (6) - CT: 1 Energy - LT: 1 Ballistic - LA: 1 Energy & 1 Missile (10) It would have been a great display of offering mechs which work against the current Meta of PPC and Gauss boating. This Misery would have made a marvelous brawler with 3 SRM6s and an LB 10-X or even an LRM carrier with ballistic and energy support weaponry. I might be biased because I am currently loving my 5M to bits with 5 SRM6s + Artemis but I have to say, a chance was missed to make the Misery truely unique.
I've done the SRM build on the 5M, I actually like it better on the 3F - a bit more manageable heat, and more utility out of the energy slots (I'm running 4xASRM6, 2xER LL, and 4xML). On my 5M I've tried 5xASRM6+5xML and 5xSRM4+5xML (I liked this one better), but right now I'm prepped for BAP buff with 4xLL, tag, and 5xSSRM2. My issue with the Misery is it loses out on what makes the Stalker so powerful - the hardpoints. The two most popular are 5M (5 missile + 5 energy) and 3F (4 missile + 6 energy). The 5S has the same as 3F (but with AMS being crap, the 3F's torso twist pulls ahead), and the 4N even has 3 missile + 6 energy. The lowest aside from Misery is the 3H (4 and 4) but it has the capacity to do LRM20s. There are very few builds for the Misery that wouldn't be done better on an Atlas. A Misery brawler build, like 5x ML + AC20 + SRM6 could be done on an Atlas AS7-D with AC20 + 2xLPL + 2xML + 2xSRM6. This picks up a better zombie, 5 damage on the laser burst and double the SRM power. A Misery sniper build, like Gauss + 4x PPC, can be done on an RS with more tons devoted to firepower. Then there's the fact that any LRM+Gauss builds can be done with a 20-tube launcher on Highlanders and Atlai, but only 6 tubes on here. I intend to get the Misery when it goes on sale, but I don't expect it to be the greatest thing ever. About the only build I've seen so far that would NOT be better on an Atlas/Highlander is Gauss + 5xLL.
I'm all about the misery because of that ballistic slot. For PUG matches I run with maxed armor, STD 300, 3 LLs, 2 MLs and a UAC/5. If i'm not pugging, i swap out the UAC for an AC/20 and drop a bunch of armor and play fire support. I pretty much base both builds around that ballistic. Just too much fun. I've never thought about Hero mechs as better, just unique. I own three, Misery (stalker with a big ass gun) Ilya Muromets (3 Ballistic/3 energy) and the X5 (Cicada with missile hardpoints) I like em all because of that unique setup.
