Casual BAS-A "Double Double" (2x cLBX5, 2x cERPPC, 6x cERuL)

Between my BAS-B Work-around and my version of Excalibaard's Blood splat (less armor, artemis and more ammo) I have two solid performing "try-hard" Blood Asps...

As such, I wanted something more laid back that required less thought to use. What I ended up with definitely leans a lot more towards "simple and straight forward" than it does to "high performance". By tagging this casual, I mean "show up to work in pajamas" casual...

It also looks purty; not sure why that matters to me but it does. The two high double-barreled weapon mounts are why I gave it the name.



The concept is simple peak, shoot, retreat and repeat. Its a long range, fire support type of machine and it shouldn't be taken into a brawl.

It actually goes against how I think an assault should be used but a little variety is a nice thing.

 

Be careful: posted build has no armor values and it looks like you have to strip ~2-3 tons of armor to actually fit it.

Also, if you are fitting for a almost pure sniper, I would swap LBX5 for AC5 for the increased pinpoint at range and so you can pinpoint fire both shoulder weapons even at longer ranges. Also, I had to swap ERSL to ERuL to get enough tonnage to fit what I think it is a decent amount of armor

This phrase triggers me: with the current meta, pure brawl assaults are extremely risky and are no where as optimal or reliable compared to medium or long ranged builds, which is especially true with recent DHS buff, which indirectly buffed ranged fights with hotter weapons (even if someone manages to get close to you, you can fire more frequently close range). It's true that pure ranged snipers has no DPS or alpha strike compared to medium ranged builds or brawlers, but as long as they shoot almost non-stop, they have their role to either counter-snipe lighter foes or soften up targets before other friendlies get closer and at range for their own weapons.

Best case scenario: they can deal damage and receive none in return (free trade) until the enemy formation is close enough to brawl, but the formed firing line is so efficient the enemy team can't push because it's either to afraid or dies too quickly.

The catch for snipers is that they must find a good ranged positiong where they are visible enough to shoot almost anything, while taking little to no damage in return AND attracting attention to themselves. To be fair, it's very hard and not everyone can manage to aim AND position properly. E.G.: they should be sneaky to position on a hill top, but enemies will notice only when they get hit by a full alpha in their CT, when it's too late and can only see the sniper moving back to cover.

A dual gauss Blood Asp that shoots only its gausses could be very painful to watch (or a quad gauss kodiak), but as long as it keeps on firing almost non-stop and most of its trades are positive or free, it is playing well and will be an important asset for the final victory. Whatever the build, the important fact is to deal more damage meaningful for the final kill compared to the damage you receive (so no LRM boat will achieve this if it has to expose itself to get a lock).

 

Good catch on the armor and the cERuL's vs. cERSL's. It was always supposed to Micro lasers. Thanks. I fixed the Smurfy link.

I went for LBX's because clan PPC's already splash and I didn't want to buy normal clan ACs, when I have LBX's in my inventory.

As far as how assault 'mechs should be played... You're completely right. I play solo queue exclusively, so that shapes my thinking to a good degree. In solo queue I find that if assault 'mechs don't lead from the front the whole battle line tends to either fall apart or not even form in the first place. Its not fair to the players running assault 'mechs, but I've gotten used to taking on more responsibility for a match's outcome than I probably should. It's not so much about how I feel assaults should be played as what works consistently in solo queue.

Then again the whole idea behind this 'mech config is "Screw it... I'm just going to do what I want."

 

After more testing I moved this build over on to my Rancor adding a Double heat sink, 1 ton of ammo and 1 ton of armor.