what do I want out of my pilots who are doing the different roles? Which abilities synergize?
There's a few combinations of skills that give titles to your MechWarriors; that means their skills synergize well for that kind of role:what do I want out of my pilots who are doing the different roles? Which abilities synergize?
| None | Breaching Shot | Ace Pilot | Coolant Vent | Master Tactician |
None | Recruit | - | - | - | - |
Multi-target | Gunner | - | Flanker | Gladiator | Striker |
Sure Footing | Pilot | Skirmisher | - | Brawler | Scout |
Bulwark | Defender | Lancer | Outrider | - | Vanguard |
Sensor Lock | Tactician | Sharpshooter | Recon | Sentinel | - |
I usually aim for at least one of the Guts 5/Piloting 5 abilities on most pilots, just for damage reduction.
After that, it becomes a bit more varied. A pilot I expect to toss missiles from long range will get Multi-target/Breaching Shot (the two gunnery abilities); I may even toss the defensive ability and go Sensor Lock (Tactics 5) for my second ability on this one, just because the tactics tree is so important for LRM-boats. You usually only need 1 of these in a mission, and they tend to be less likely to get injured/killed, so getting one is a high priority, but you can take your time on training up a second (although you'll want a backup eventually).
I rarely use multi-target on non-LRM-boats; I usually prefer to focus my fire and try to damage or cripple the enemy one at a time, as quickly as possible. The main reason I take it with long-range-missiles is because if your enemy is using bulwark and in cover/guarded, you will do almost no damage without breaching shot anyway, so you might as well be able to use breaching shot on your primary target and be able to spread the love to others as well.
Ace pilot can be deadly if you are extremely good; I am not that good, so I generally don't use it. I generally go for Master Tactician as my "default" second option, although I like to have a couple of coolant vent pilots for mechs that tend to run high heat (something like a Grasshopper loaded up with lasers and no access to fancier heat sinks yet).
But ultimately, it comes down to your play-style. I like master tactician because I enjoy running around with giant assault mechs and still being able to control the initiative, but if you prefer to run mostly smaller mechs, it will do very little for you as you are always already at a higher initiative than your opponents anyway, and you might seriously consider Ace Pilot instead. Conversely, because I am regularly running around with multiple Master Tacticians (who all have to have picked up sensor lock to get to that point), I have no need for a specialized Sensor Lock pilot, but if I were less addicted to Master Tactician, I'd probably want to include a Sensor Lock pilot in whatever other line-up I was using.
The perk itself isn't necessarily skill based, but it works best with lighter mechs, both to be able to do things like "wait for the enemy to move, walk up to them and fire, then the next turn starts and you get to fire again and then run away" (which either requires you to use vigilance/other initiative manipulation or to have a mech that otherwise has an initiative advantage, i.e. a lighter mech), and because you aren't taking Master Tactician (which can seriously crimp your ability to mess with initiative in general if you are running around in an assault).how is ace pilot skill based? Just wondering? It seems pretty straight forward
And being able to use lighter mechs to punch significantly above your weight is definitely skill based.