On the subject of C-Bill earners... ;)

On a quest to find a set of c-bill earners after being shocked at how low my rewards were for the TDR-9S despite getting a steady 2.5-3 kills a battle on average.

I'm looking at lights and mediums c-bill earners to churn matches in as those two get almost immediately into matches. Often in a heavy I can wait the full 5 minutes which is: a) boring; and b) lost money earning time. The Pirates Bane does the job for me in the lights and has got me up to 519K before but I'll like some other options so playing around (suggestions welcome). The Jester (4 LL, 2 AMS) is my slot if I need to go in a heavy in lance and my interest is c-bills particularly as it runs dual overloaded AMS so also helps those near me stay alive. I often run a DWF (dual gauss, dual large pulse and quad ERML or ER SL) for assault c-bills.

Anyway that leaves my medium slot and my favourite mechs in that weight class don't have hero/invasion/pheonix/founder bonuses. Kept flirting with the idea of the Golden Boy, Yen-lo-Wang and Sparky as I used to do well in all three. Tried the @fx8230 's EptaCrow (4 MPL/3 SPL)... and wow I failed to control the heat. watched him in the 7? SPL version and thought maybe I'd try that. Tried the X-5 and it just seemed to die a lot but that was to an extent my inexperience with the build nowadays. Anyway this morning I got into my WVR-6 (R) Mini Dragon build as it was fun, mobile and the fastest mech I've ever leveled to mastered which is usually a good sign but as I generally get put into a heavy slot I've not used it since. It also has to complete with the insane WVR-6K of which I have two pre modded for CW!

https://www.mechspecs.com/threads/wvr-6r-mini-dragon-2x-ac5-1x-mlas-1x-jj-xl300.7846/

First battle was hopeful... 4 kills (including @Durandal so all the sweeter as usually he hands me a gaping hole where my engine used to be!) and 317k.

Then came match two....

Good match where we looked to be in a really bad position as they held the centre and we were on the ramps. We had to work really hard to constantly attract attention at different entrances and then hit and run at others. Then suddenly our assaults at the other entrance get caught in a crossfire and start dying. I pushed inside and went on a rampage....



All three screenshots for the c-bill breakdown to show how things stacked up:







What can I say... guess I may have found the missing mech.

 

My 7 SPL build is :



While it's a great killer, and you can get a lot of solo kills, you will be lacking in the assist department given the range (even tho you do get 191 range cumulative) and damage is so accurate and fast that you'll end up with less destructions and damage, but same kills, so usually nets me much less then that.
It will earn some ECM jamming bonus but that's not very much cbills.

The Wolverines overall are great c-bills makers as I had similar results with them :

https://www.mechspecs.com/threads/wvr-club-of-1000.5694/#post-63882

Especially the mini dragon has it all for the solo drops, fast, JJs, very big DPS vs people who don't shield properly or expose, cool and good at all ranges but effective up to 600.

I didn't screen rewards but more or less they were in that department.
An hero of course would be amazing Sparky, Golden boy can probably earn the same or more, but they are much less fun imo, especially LRM one.

For a fun pulse Hero you could try :



Or just go classic and :



As for lights I think the Ember is still the best cbills grinder in solo que if we speak about combat perfomance, oxide and huggin are more rollercoasters where you can get 7 kills and a lot of damage or die very early in solo. But the Locust is an hero too, and while in the combat department it's inferior, it brings ECM that in solo drops is game changing. So probably you are already using the best mech for lights overall.

 

The lazercrows in all versions do extremely well for me in earnings, 400k+ is not unusual (inc 30% prime and 50% premium).

The minidragon is something I've had since prequirk but picked up again when I went through the list of mechs, pretty amazing little guy that one.

 

Yeah now I wish I had the 30% bonus on the SCR, it's the perfect solo mech for me.

 

Well match three was a simple 3k and 278K:



Match 4 was a disasterous 1 kill and rape.... shouldn't have tried to save that KCB vs the 1 light....... wait no a firestarter, jenner, 2 SCR and a HBR... still 150k at least for a loss in which I didn't do much in all honesty.

Match 5 ... ready to scream as can't have screenshot this as occupied chatting to my gf about what to have for lunch (mans gotta get his priorities right!) ..... 452,906, another 6 kills, 2 assists and 1,144 damage. We actually won on points despite being 1 locust, 1 something and my WVR vs 2 lights... my CT was black and my ammo out so 1 ML and chasing an oxide with no ammo (queue Benny Hill music). Their other light was saved by the 750 marker as our locust legged him at the death. Coincidentally a good, tense and razor edge match. Also first time I've run out of ammo.

The trek continues!

PS: 21 kills in 5 matches and only 1 death.

 

Match 6:





Nuff said a disastrous result with the mighty 6R marching on - 3 kills out of our max 3 in that loss - 180k.

Match 7:





Nice solid performance from team aggressive and reactive. 4 kills, 7 assists and 357k c-bills.

Match 8:





Two deliberate disconnects - 1 didn't want to play the map and the other obviously decided that loss of the Hunchback doomed us....

We tried hard but they just bum rushed us - we killed 7. Two kills 5 assists but an awful 153k c-bills.

Match 9:





Died embarrassingly after starting on a roll. After killing a DWF, Atlas and CTF-3D got too cocky and chased a raven right into their KCB at point blank range... plus 4 others... ooops. Lasted long enough to get the Raven...

4 kills, 5 assists and almost 329k c-bills.

Last match of test:





Well I'd have liked a good last match but instead I watched our team turn a 6-3 lead into a desperate loss. I died trying to save two of ours that were cut off and never saw the HBK sneak up behind me.

Still it showcases the 6R I guess as it still got 3 kills 2 assists and almost 251k c-bills.

Overall 37 kills, 38 assists and 3,012,500 (approx).

3.7 kills, 3.8 assists and 301,250 c-bills average per match.

PS: Not sure why match 8 isn't showing as works fine for me in edit mode or if I click on it....

 

I make decent 250K a game in my Pirate's Bane

 

I have three radar dep modules so I typically set up three +30% mechs when I am farming c-bills. Currently I'm using the Hellbringer-Prime with 6MPLs, TC2 and a ton of heat sinks. My CN9-AH with the bulldog build - 2 SRM4 and one AC20 with XL255. King Crab 000 with 4 AC-5's, 2 MPLs, XL330 and 10+ tons of ammo. I average over 200K per game in these with a pretty bimodal distribution, depending on whether the team wins or loses and whether I have a good or lousy game. They all play pretty differently so if I get bored of one or have a crappy game I can switch and get something new.

 

I've found a hero mech with an AC20 generally does me pretty good. It's not the kills and assists and damage that get the money, it's component destructions and solo kills. If you can consistently rip stuff off and do the bulk of the work on a few mechs, you'll get money pretty consistently.

 

Yeah you play the system for what it is. Kill stealing gains you almost nothing under the current system financially. Strangely people do believe they should be rewarded for not doing much work according to the threads on the main MWO forums...

There are lots of ways to generate income by playstyle and you generally do better if you try to use as many methods as you can as they other chain together. Flank someone and shoot them, duck into cover so their sensors don't spot you and then get another reward for not taking return fire. Thats three right there. There are similar sets as you've mentioned - brawling, kill, solo kill and highest damage on that mech are all easy to get together.

At times you don't use those as its better to break up an attack in a light, e.g. last night in my TDK when I was constantly shooting and hiding pilots from one entrance to pull people away from the one our team was bottlenecked at after being 3 down, but ultimately it generally comes together unless you get killed really early. Thats when if you're solo you mysteriously change to another pre-prepped mech and instantly go back in! Group... ok you might as well try to ghost peopel and pass intel!

 

I've had success both with the Misery and Gray Death as well, and probably will with others that will fit the mold. Heck, I even liked the Flame with the AC20, especially when GH came out for LLs.

 

What on earth are you using on the Grey Death as hat is the most boring and bland hero mech I've ever played in?

 

https://www.mechspecs.com/threads/shd-gd-shadowback-plus-1x-ac20-4x-mlas-2xjj-std255.7690/

The fx8320 tweaked version, that is.

 

Suppose I never thought of that as I have the Wang and new Cent for the AC20 role.

 

I find when focused my AC20 survives longer in GD than YLW. I also have easier use of and more MLs.

YLW has better pure zombie potential (usually runs an XL negating that), makes better use of the AC20, and has better speed in a AC20 build.

 

Yeah my YLW is STD and used in groups.

 

If you have a STD in the YLW you can probably go faster in GD.

 

Having to armor both arms really hurts the GD's tonnage spread. 265/270 would be better speed per ton, or a DHS, or a 2nd JJ so you can actally fly.