Piloting skill for Heavy/Assault mechs?

[Siven80]

Has anyone been trying the Piloting skills for Heavy/Assault mechs?

Specifically thinking frontline mechs trying to get close for melee and/or flanking, how much evasion can you get with them, can they even move fast enough to get enough evasion to be worth it?

 

[BunglingLummox]

I'd recommend it for a Banshee (sprint until you can punch), and as an option for some of the faster heavies. As a rule, though, I tend to prefer Bulwark, even for mediums. I'm currently trying to figure out if it's worth building for both as the ultimate all-rounder (with the added bonus that Piloting is an obvious plus for Juggernaut, even if it doesn't play well with Bulwark).

 

[Dheran]

I have Behemoth specced for Juggernaut/Evasive Movement on my heaviest 'mech - Thunderbolt SE Custom with SRMs, MLas, SLas and jump jets.
She is brilliant in it - max jump gives you 5 evasion and Bulwark reduces damage if I don't need to move with her. That +20% to sprint also makes a huge difference for a heavy.

 

[Tnarien]

The +20% springing distance means that 4/6s can easily keep pace with 5/8s, and in a crazy high piloting build can potentially even hit 6x Evasion (I'll have to confirm that, but I know they can hit 5x).

It's exquisitely useful if applied smartly.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Has anyone been trying the Piloting skills for Heavy/Assault mechs?

Specifically thinking frontline mechs trying to get close for melee and/or flanking, how much evasion can you get with them, can they even move fast enough to get enough evasion to be worth it?

If you intend do jump a lot with assault mechs, I highly recommend the piloting skills. If you intend to primarily walk/sprint, I do not.

If you know the tabletop game, you can probably guess where I'm going with this: Highlander burials.

DFA requires piloting skills to hit in the first place and when jumping around in an assault with 3 jump jets and the Evasive movement passive skill you gain 4 evasion pips at max distance which is quite noticeable. Just jumping straight up to rotate or 1 move to the side generates two pips.

In short, if you are planning on running a Highlander the classic way, duking it out at all ranges using your normal weapons, jumping to shoot people from behind or from the side, occasionally when the situation warrants performing DFAs, and Steiner Scout Lance style using an assault mech as scout, piloting is a great skill. Taking the Evasion passive skill is highly recommended and the Ace Pilot is occasionally, but rarely, useful. But when it is useful, it is very useful.

Goes for any jumping assault mech of course, but the Highlander is the classic mech for this purpose.

This combines very handily with the guts skills. Take the 5 skill, Bulwark, and never look back. Each turn in combat you'll either end up guarded or with 4 defensive pips depending on whether repositioning is in your interest of not. It is a very strong combination. Take it on one or two mechwarriors in jump-enabled mechs in an assault lance and you'll not be disappointed.

(Of course there's fierce competition for the slots and you'll want at least one frontliner assault mech with multiple big hitting LOS weapons and multishot/breaching shot/bulwark... Probably a slow plodding Battlemaster or (eventually) Atlas, but you can at least afford to take one mech where jumping is an integral part of its combat!)

 

[Conray]

even though EC get less valuable in late game pve (too many different sources of damage chipping away as you are normally outmatched, and very high opponent gunnery skill),
i still like to use on my assault scout (evasive move, sensor lock, master tactician) and my assault tank/brawler (evasive move, acepilot, bulwark).
to get the most out of it i would also recommend using JJ.

 

[Cmdr Meltdown]

Piloting can be very useful for a heavy or assault mech, if only for the physical combat bonusses it gives, although it depends largely on the type. (anything long range support doesn't really benefit)

 

[Drasius]

Has anyone been trying the Piloting skills for Heavy/Assault mechs?

Specifically thinking frontline mechs trying to get close for melee and/or flanking, how much evasion can you get with them, can they even move fast enough to get enough evasion to be worth it?

For a heavy? Yeah, Grasshoppers make for great flankers and it's very common to get 5 pips from a jump and I think 6 is doable too. Ace Pilot means you can shoot and then determine where it's best to move if your target died/fell over/is still a threat or if you just so happen to have a nice shot where you are, you can do that and then move flat out to generate pips and keep flanking.

The stability bonus is nice too, especially if you're often playing rock'em sock'em with the bad guys.

For assaults, the same applies in the manner of use for Ace Pilot, but you really need JJ's to make best use of it I feel, so something like a traditional Victor with a big amount of punchy short range weapons and jets will do fairly well, though you're still going to want to have a decent slab of armour. If you wanted to make a Banshee work, I'd probably suggest the Piloting skills would be rather high on the priority list too.

 

[_Sohei_]

Makes those short Hunchback legs sprint fast as well. Well, not fast, but fast enough to keep up with the lance.

 

[Balkri]

Currently Behemoth is my main brawler, full guts skills and then max piloting.

She use a Dragon with max armor, machineguns, medium lasers and 2 SRMx4.

When sprinting it can get up to 5 evasion, is deadly from medium to short range.

When ussing jump jets she gain easilly 3 evasion. Is mostly a short range flanker but when needed she punch enemies to reduce their initiative and tear them with machinegun fire.

So yeah, at least with a Dragon piloting is very usefull, any short range mech can benefit in some way from it.

 

[Cmdr Meltdown]

I am ever so grateful for the extra sprinting speed in my Highlander. That thing is slow!

 

[Bersercker]

Has anyone been trying the Piloting skills for Heavy/Assault mechs?

Specifically thinking frontline mechs trying to get close for melee and/or flanking, how much evasion can you get with them, can they even move fast enough to get enough evasion to be worth it?

Afaik, with maxed piloting you can get 4 evasion on jump and 5 evasion on sprint using an Atlas. Mechs with 4 jumpjets and 120+ speed like Battlemaster, Banshee or any heavy can get 6 evasion on sprint and 5 on jump, so almost the same as locust.

 

[Luminis]

Now, let me preface this by saying that, in the campaign, I don't see a reason to not drop a full Assault lance late-game. With that in mind:

The best perk Piloting gives you, melee hit chance aside, is the +20% sprinting distance at seven. The skills, however, feel really lacklustre on most Assaults. The only exception, from my point of view, is the BNC-3M; it's huge engine is a nasty drawback, but six Evasive Chevrons thanks to Evasive Movement is nothing to sneeze at and it's just about the only Assault that makes decent use of Ace Pilot, I feel, as it can actually create at least some distance.

That aside though, nah. Not worth it. You're rather immobile on most Assaults, so you're far better off with Bulwark instead of Evasive Movement. Juggernaut is pretty bad once you start facing mostly Assaults and really, with how Slow Assaults - Banshee aside - are, you're not gonna be punching too many Mechs, anyway.

That leaves Firepower and Tactics for your two-skill path. Master Tactician is always useful, especially to get Called Shots on downed enemy Assaults before the AI gets them back up (which it usually prioritises). Sensor Lock is okay, though I really don't miss it much when not using it; the AI isn't smart enough to keep its units outside of your FoV, at any rate. Breaching Shot + Multi Target is a bit of a trap as it can sorta beguile you into splitting fire instead of focusing a single Mech to take enemy firepower of the field, but it's insanely helpful if you're farming for maximum salvage. With +Stab LRM20 and such, you can easily knock down two, three, maybe even four Mechs a turn if you split your fire right.

So, personal preference:

With Scout Banshee: 1x Evasive Movement, Sensor Lock & Master Tactician; 3x Bulwark, Multi Target & Breaching Shot.
Without Scout Banshee: 1x Bulwark, Sensor Lock & Master Tactician; 3x Bulwark, Multi Target & Breaching Shot.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

The best perk Piloting gives you, melee hit chance aside, is the +20% sprinting distance at seven. The skills, however, feel really lacklustre on most Assaults. The only exception, from my point of view, is the BNC-3M; it's huge engine is a nasty drawback, but six Evasive Chevrons thanks to Evasive Movement is nothing to sneeze at and it's just about the only Assault that makes decent use of Ace Pilot, I feel, as it can actually create at least some distance.

Evasive Movement/Ace Pilot/Bulwark Highlander used as a flanker and generally mobile cavalry.

Try it out. You get the best of both worlds: 3-4 evasive pips whenever you reposition by jumping (usually + cover that turn) whether you jump before or after shooting, and guarded when you don't.

It does mean no multishot shenanigans and being limited to unloading the full arsenal on one mech a turn from the best position to do it in - but that's pretty much the role of a flanker anyway.

 

[Luminis]

Evasive Movement/Ace Pilot/Bulwark Highlander used as a flanker and generally mobile cavalry.

I find flankers to be pretty underwhelming in general. LRMs and their indirect firing capabilities make flanking superfluous, from my experience. I mean, yeah, I could move around the battlefield a lot, try to get an angle, find a good target and nuke it; or I could get LoS / Sensor Lock and blast it to hell with 150 LRMs a turn...

 

[Balkri]

I find flankers to be pretty underwhelming in general. LRMs and their indirect firing capabilities make flanking superfluous, from my experience. I mean, yeah, I could move around the battlefield a lot, try to get an angle, find a good target and nuke it; or I could get LoS / Sensor Lock and blast it to hell with 150 LRMs a turn...

The main advantage or flanking, or to be more specific of shooting enemies in the back, is to reduce the area were your alpha strike will spread.

You only have to deal with 3 total hit zones when shooting fron the back, that is the real strengh of a flanker.

 

[Harmattan Assassin]

Has anyone been trying the Piloting skills for Heavy/Assault mechs?

Specifically thinking frontline mechs trying to get close for melee and/or flanking, how much evasion can you get with them, can they even move fast enough to get enough evasion to be worth it?

The other skills will likely benefit you more, but eventually when you've reached level 10 in gunnery, guts and tactics - go back and get the piloting skills (the +20% sprint speed gives them more movement points). By that level evasion chevrons are meaningless, but the ability to physically move a farther distance is quite useful.

 

[ItWasRhetorical]

Multi-Target. Especially with mechs that have support weapons at different ranges. Don't get Juggernaut, because by the time you're using assaults, you're fighting assaults, and so it doesn't do anything.

Besides that? I've got a couple of suggestions.

First, Sensor Lock and Master Tactician - combined with the Vigilance morale power, you can get an Assault that moves with Mediums - and if you don't want to move, you get free stability reduction - the main thing here is it's an ability that always gives you something, no matter the situation, although some are more powerful in certain circumstances. Sensor Lock is just something you pick up on the way to Master Tactician, but it does have situational applications. Also, as you're playing with slower mechs, you might not always have a shot, so at least you can do something.

Second - Evasive Move and Breaching Shot. Depends on the mech this, but a Skirmisher setup can give you a bit more survivability, and Breaching Shot combos well with Multi-target. Also, quite a few Assaults and Heavies are built with a hole-puncher that benefits from Breaching Shot. Use Vigilance liberally to get a free Brace for even more survivability - works well on a sprinting Banshee to draw fire.

 

[XT6Wagon]

oh yes, Piloting skills are great. Sprint speed boost makes it possible to 6 evasion assault mechs and get them to the objective in time to do stuff. The move after firing is also really nice if you rotate what is taking the incoming fire. you can fire then back up out of LOS or just behind the mech you want to take the next shots.

 

[William Pryde]

The +20% springing distance means that 4/6s can easily keep pace with 5/8s, and in a crazy high piloting build can potentially even hit 6x Evasion (I'll have to confirm that, but I know they can hit 5x).

It's exquisitely useful if applied smartly.

I can confirm that for you. A sprinting Banshee on a road with +20% sprint distance can hit 6 evasion chevrons.