My version of the stalker with 5 Large Lasers. Quite the hothead eh? I usually run this with 2 coolant flushes because I already mastered this mech. If you don't use the STD 300 engine, you could also add more heat sinks to it, or you could shear off some leg armor to make weight for heat sinks if you choose to run the STD 300. Pretty weak rear armor, which is common in my builds. If you're in Terra Therma, Caustic Valley or Tourmaline Desert, you should chain the large lasers as I do.
I've been running a variation of this in my Misery, but with 24 DHS and only 400 armor. Makes it a little more vulnerable, but if you balance the armor loss carefully, it can work extremely well. And those 24 DHS allow you to keep the burn going considerably longer. (The build I've posted here I just went max armor and then shaved off the legs and arms till I had enough; but as I said, balance is key. I have found that it can be beneficial to lose a bit on the empty side torsos in order to give the legs slightly more.)
Sexy, but I'd go for this: 1 less DHS and of course 3kph slower, but stalkers are hella slow anyway and I think that the survivability is necessary on a slow sustained damage dealer such as this build.
That's yet another good variant, Seven. The idea behind mine is to get the maximum possible heat efficiency with 5 LLs, though at the obvious cost of rather low armor. It can be a dangerous risk, especially if the enemy decides to shoot for your legs. But most rounds I've run in it, the enemy targets my torsos like they would any other 'Mech/build. It can work either way; obviously with the 285 engine you have much better survivability on your arms and legs, which may very well be worth the loss in speed and heat efficiency. I may have to try that out. In any case, my current armor values for the build are: head - 8 center torso - 90/18 (front/back) side torsos - 60/12 (front/back) arms - 35 legs - 35 I sometimes offset the arms and legs to give the legs a bit more, for purposes of survivability, but then, when they do shoot high, they easily blow your arms off, in which case you lose alot of the firepower. So I like to keep a good balance.
I don't have an issue with the arm armor in it's current state, people just fire at your huge ST anyway and take out your weaponry that way. However, runnin only 35 armor on each leg is a BAD idea. My general rule is to have my legs added up never be lower than my CT, because skilled pilots I've encountered and myself at least test your leg armor at some point. Also, 45% HE is still very managable and definitely worth staying around longer for ^^
Totally agree with you there, Seven, the low leg armor is more of a problem than on the arms. I ran a couple rounds with a build similar to the last one you posted, though with a STD280 and max armor everywhere. It ran nicely, the speed drop was definitely noticeable, though not terrible, and there was a hot point on Tourmaline when I thought to myself, "I wish I had that other DHS." But in the end, both matches went well. In fact, the one on Tourmaline was quite a kicker for me! My damage wasn't insane or anything, but with all those high-ELO players on both teams, I was pretty tickled that I got top damage, kills, and match-score! Here's a couple of screen-shots: No arty- or air-strikes, no cool-shots; just good old Large Lasers and DHS! (Who says pop-tarting cheeze will always conquer? ) Sorry, Phil, couldn't resist! But yeah, the build works awesome, even with the lowered speed and heat efficiency. I will probably keep running it this way, as the extra survivability definitely contributes to overall performance. Thanks!
My Variation of the Stalker 5-M with 21 total Double Heatsinks. I use extended LL range as well 1200 Damage match with commentary. o7 Strapt
I like the Laserboat idea on the stalker, but I found 5 to be to much for only 20 DHS, esp. on mordor / turmaline and that caustic map. So I run mine with 4 LLas and 24 DHS, STD 310 and 480 armor. Keeps me going a lot longer, 3 alphas in a row are no problem. This helps in close combat, where I used to shut down to early before. Can't really avoid that, as soon as lights take notice of you, they hunt you.
With ghost heat it is silly to have 5xLLas. If you ever fire more than 2LLas at the same time you generate way too much heat. 3xLLas generates 24.53 heat which makes the third LLAS generate as much heat as 1.5xLLAS. 4 makes the 4th generates as much heat as 1.84xLLAs and the fifth one generates as much as 2.26xLLAs. It makes sense to fire a maximum of 2 LLAs at a time alternating arms. You don't want to ditch your CT weapons because when you get your arms blown off you're useless. With my build I dropped the 5fth LLAS for a MLas. Put on nearly max armour with an AMS and 23DHS with the STD300 engine which is a mere 2 km/h slower than OPs build. Weapons in the CT are much harder to shoot over hills and around corners than the arms so you are more likely to be wasting heat scorching grass. With the MLas you will be closer to your enemies when you finally shoot it and will less often waste the shots shooting into the ground. The Mlas also doesn't contribute to the ghost heat and can be fired with every volley once in range.
You don't have to alpha all the time. If you have a 0.5 second delay between firing your weapons ghost heat does not occur. the 5 LL gives you a way to constantly chain your lasers together and add a tiny bit of burst with the CT laser (and have a LL in the CT is a lot more useful than a medium, considering how easy it is to lose your side torsos in a stalker). The cooler version of this is generally the 4 ERLLas stalker with 24 DHS.
Psiclone, I've run a build similar to the one you posted, and yeah, it works great. I used a MPLaser instead of a MLaser, but essentially, dropping that 5th LLaser for the extra engine size, DHS, and armor can be very rewarding. It works great, though 5 LLasers works great too. In general, I'll take either one on the flip of a coin, though obviously it takes longer than that to switch out the builds! My most recent version of the 5LL build has a STD290 and 23 DHS. Enables rather good speed and maneuverability, while keeping high counts of both heat efficiency and armor. I still love taking out that STD300, 24 DHS, 5 LL build though. Livin' on the edge!
You realize that the 4xLLas/5xLLas Stalker (w/22-24 DHS) is and forever will be one of the most powerful builds in the game? Even if fired in three weapon group (2x, 2x, 1x) it's over 10DPS with REMARKABLE heat efficiency when chain fired in 2x2x1 groupings, it can sustain for enough time to core TWO Atlas before shutdown. Brutal. That is the only word.
What's great about this build is that you can either single-fire the lasers, or you can set them up to fire in bursts of 2-2-1. Here are some videos of a couple runs I had, using both techniques. Though my damage wasn't exceptional or anything in either match, I did have top damage, kills, and match-scores both times. They died so easily: So much ELO, so much Pop-Tart Cheeze, and still my Stalker rules:
