Hello Everyone, SpeedKatMcNasty here (which is my Steam name if anyone wants to play MP)
Ive racked up about 41 hours in game so far, with about 30 of it being in MP (plus Beta). In that time, I've gone through many different lance types and styles until I finally settled onto one i really like. My personal belief is that this is the best current "meta".
As you might have guessed from the title, this lance relies heavily on jump jets and the maneuverability they give you. Jump Jets in my opinion are one of the most underrated pieces of equipment currently in our arsenals. Many, many times, i have seen streamers rush to dismount them and replace them with a heatsink or two due to their "uselessness". However, JJs are anything but underpowered and are actually rather game breaking.
The power of Jump Jets lies in their single action maneuverability. What i mean by this, is that its often possible to move the same distance with a jump as it is with a sprint. However with a sprint, you give up your ability to fire after, chose your exact facing (spread that damage while you close), and most importantly brace. See, with a full distance jump you will almost always obtain 4 evasion chevrons. For those who don't know, an evasion chevron reduces the enemies hit chance by 5%, thus theoretically reducing your damage taken by 5%. Now after jumping full distance and getting 20% damage reduction, you can then brace and get another 50% damage reduction, thus giving you 60% (theoretical) damage reduction and a sprint move in a single turn. LRMs/PPCs are useless against you, and you can be in effective firing range of them in a turn or two after first contact, regardless of terrain. Closing distance is no problem, and you laugh at LRM boating corner campers, thus negating the entire current supposed "meta".
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So the lance I'm going to focus on here is is for the "War" C-Bill setting, however its quite easy to scale this down to "Battle" if you like.
Lance at a glance: Thunderbolt x2, Vindicator, Firestarter
Thunderbolt 5SE - 4 ML, 2 SRM6, 3 Machine Guns, 4 JJ, 7 Heatsinks
Commentary: What an excellent design the Thunderbolt is. Just look at those bars in the top left of the lab. Great protection, high firepower, and heat efficient. Your only lacking trait here is range, which using your Jump Jets is no issue. Make sure to use your left arm as a shield (rotate!). Your DFA is also no slouch, use it when you're overheated to give yourself a turn to cool down while still doing massive damage.
Vindicator 1R - 4 ML, 1 SRM6, 2 Machine Guns, 4 JJ, 5 Heatsinks
Commentary: By far my favorite mech in the game. Its basically a smaller, even more efficient Thunderbolt. Extreme armor protection for its weight, good damage, and even more heat efficient. An absolute workhorse for the cost.
Firestarter H - 6 Flamers, 6 JJ
Commentary: Nothing really out of the ordinary here. MLs were dropped for more Flamers, armor, and Jump Jets. Its basically impossible to kill if used correctly, and I've outlined its specific use in detail in the strategy section below.
Mech Warriors - Wildfire, Buckshot, Apex, Paradise
Commentary: Again, pretty standard. Only exception is Paradise, whos special ability use with the Firestarter I've outlined in the strategy section.
Overall Strategy:
First turns - Find the enemy lance as quickly as possible. Jump max distance towards their starting area and brace every turn until first contact. Never, ever, under any circumstance sprint anywhere. If you need to move somewhere, Jump and brace. Keep your lance together at all times, and by together i mean in adjacent points. Remember you want to concentrate your firepower, not spread out all over the map.
First contact - Your number 1 priority here is to find out what mechs they have, and which contact each is. Your ultimate goal is to pick the best target, and you cant do that if you have idea what you're going after. Always reserve and see if they move their mechs, then take careful notes on which is their light, medium and heavy radar blip. Use your firestarter here if you have to, as its heavily armored, hard to hit and can jump halfway across the map. Reserve it to the Assault phase, jump it into the middle of their team and brace, take notes on the enemy, then jump back when the turn cycles.
Once you know whats what, you have to pick your target. If you got lucky, the enemy has a mech separated from the others. You're going to have to use your judgment here though. Many separated targets are worthless to chase after, like a light mech you wont be able to kill in one turn, a PPC Vindicator, or something like that. I cant tell you what to do here. If you have no good targets, then always go after the mech that has the most firepower. Keep in mind that this is not always the heaviest mech. Hunchbacks and Trebuchets for example are almost certainly not the heaviest enemy mech on the "War" C-Bill setting, but they will rip you to shreds if you don't take them out fast.
Once you're Engaged - Now that you've found your target and decided to engage you need to jump in. Always aim for the back of the mech. Many players are surprised by how far mechs can jump, and so often you can get 2 or even 3 mechs in to back shot on turn 1 of the fight, winning the match for you right there with an early kill. Sometimes though, you're going to have to jump one turn into the firing line before you can get a good back shot on the following turn. Don't worry about this too much, Jump to get 4 evasion, then brace and weather the storm with minimal damage. Reserve you movement as much as you can. Sometimes your opponent will get greedy and move too close making them an easy target, where as they wouldn't have had you moved earlier.
The firestarter is a special case. Use your firestarter to harass the strongest enemy mech that your big 3 aren't currently fighting. Always keep their #2 mech hot enough to either have to melee or do nothing. Use your pilot skill to its maximum effect by reserving the firestarter to the Assault Phase, then jumping it in and flaming, then flaming again in the light phase and jumping out. You are nearly guaranteed a shutdown with this tactic, at no risk to the firestarter, and shutdowns are horrible. They are the worst thing that can happen to your mech.
Till the End - Back shot, back shot, back shot, until they're dizzy from spinning around. Don't worry too much about your rear armor, its very strong and your firestarter should have their #2 mech shutdown, leaving them with little firepower. You should be able to take out a mech every other turn, possibly even in 1 turn with some RNG luck and a rear shot with your big 3 all at once. I've found so far that their is little counter to this tactic, and have used it effectively again and again.
____________________________________________________________________
Thats my case for Jump Jets being considered a meta contender. What did you think? Any changes to the example lance? Any obvious counters to Jump Jets you can think of? Let me know down below.
Ive racked up about 41 hours in game so far, with about 30 of it being in MP (plus Beta). In that time, I've gone through many different lance types and styles until I finally settled onto one i really like. My personal belief is that this is the best current "meta".
As you might have guessed from the title, this lance relies heavily on jump jets and the maneuverability they give you. Jump Jets in my opinion are one of the most underrated pieces of equipment currently in our arsenals. Many, many times, i have seen streamers rush to dismount them and replace them with a heatsink or two due to their "uselessness". However, JJs are anything but underpowered and are actually rather game breaking.
The power of Jump Jets lies in their single action maneuverability. What i mean by this, is that its often possible to move the same distance with a jump as it is with a sprint. However with a sprint, you give up your ability to fire after, chose your exact facing (spread that damage while you close), and most importantly brace. See, with a full distance jump you will almost always obtain 4 evasion chevrons. For those who don't know, an evasion chevron reduces the enemies hit chance by 5%, thus theoretically reducing your damage taken by 5%. Now after jumping full distance and getting 20% damage reduction, you can then brace and get another 50% damage reduction, thus giving you 60% (theoretical) damage reduction and a sprint move in a single turn. LRMs/PPCs are useless against you, and you can be in effective firing range of them in a turn or two after first contact, regardless of terrain. Closing distance is no problem, and you laugh at LRM boating corner campers, thus negating the entire current supposed "meta".
______________________________________________________
So the lance I'm going to focus on here is is for the "War" C-Bill setting, however its quite easy to scale this down to "Battle" if you like.
Lance at a glance: Thunderbolt x2, Vindicator, Firestarter
Thunderbolt 5SE - 4 ML, 2 SRM6, 3 Machine Guns, 4 JJ, 7 Heatsinks
Commentary: What an excellent design the Thunderbolt is. Just look at those bars in the top left of the lab. Great protection, high firepower, and heat efficient. Your only lacking trait here is range, which using your Jump Jets is no issue. Make sure to use your left arm as a shield (rotate!). Your DFA is also no slouch, use it when you're overheated to give yourself a turn to cool down while still doing massive damage.
Vindicator 1R - 4 ML, 1 SRM6, 2 Machine Guns, 4 JJ, 5 Heatsinks
Commentary: By far my favorite mech in the game. Its basically a smaller, even more efficient Thunderbolt. Extreme armor protection for its weight, good damage, and even more heat efficient. An absolute workhorse for the cost.
Firestarter H - 6 Flamers, 6 JJ
Commentary: Nothing really out of the ordinary here. MLs were dropped for more Flamers, armor, and Jump Jets. Its basically impossible to kill if used correctly, and I've outlined its specific use in detail in the strategy section below.
Mech Warriors - Wildfire, Buckshot, Apex, Paradise
Commentary: Again, pretty standard. Only exception is Paradise, whos special ability use with the Firestarter I've outlined in the strategy section.
Overall Strategy:
First turns - Find the enemy lance as quickly as possible. Jump max distance towards their starting area and brace every turn until first contact. Never, ever, under any circumstance sprint anywhere. If you need to move somewhere, Jump and brace. Keep your lance together at all times, and by together i mean in adjacent points. Remember you want to concentrate your firepower, not spread out all over the map.
First contact - Your number 1 priority here is to find out what mechs they have, and which contact each is. Your ultimate goal is to pick the best target, and you cant do that if you have idea what you're going after. Always reserve and see if they move their mechs, then take careful notes on which is their light, medium and heavy radar blip. Use your firestarter here if you have to, as its heavily armored, hard to hit and can jump halfway across the map. Reserve it to the Assault phase, jump it into the middle of their team and brace, take notes on the enemy, then jump back when the turn cycles.
Once you know whats what, you have to pick your target. If you got lucky, the enemy has a mech separated from the others. You're going to have to use your judgment here though. Many separated targets are worthless to chase after, like a light mech you wont be able to kill in one turn, a PPC Vindicator, or something like that. I cant tell you what to do here. If you have no good targets, then always go after the mech that has the most firepower. Keep in mind that this is not always the heaviest mech. Hunchbacks and Trebuchets for example are almost certainly not the heaviest enemy mech on the "War" C-Bill setting, but they will rip you to shreds if you don't take them out fast.
Once you're Engaged - Now that you've found your target and decided to engage you need to jump in. Always aim for the back of the mech. Many players are surprised by how far mechs can jump, and so often you can get 2 or even 3 mechs in to back shot on turn 1 of the fight, winning the match for you right there with an early kill. Sometimes though, you're going to have to jump one turn into the firing line before you can get a good back shot on the following turn. Don't worry about this too much, Jump to get 4 evasion, then brace and weather the storm with minimal damage. Reserve you movement as much as you can. Sometimes your opponent will get greedy and move too close making them an easy target, where as they wouldn't have had you moved earlier.
The firestarter is a special case. Use your firestarter to harass the strongest enemy mech that your big 3 aren't currently fighting. Always keep their #2 mech hot enough to either have to melee or do nothing. Use your pilot skill to its maximum effect by reserving the firestarter to the Assault Phase, then jumping it in and flaming, then flaming again in the light phase and jumping out. You are nearly guaranteed a shutdown with this tactic, at no risk to the firestarter, and shutdowns are horrible. They are the worst thing that can happen to your mech.
Till the End - Back shot, back shot, back shot, until they're dizzy from spinning around. Don't worry too much about your rear armor, its very strong and your firestarter should have their #2 mech shutdown, leaving them with little firepower. You should be able to take out a mech every other turn, possibly even in 1 turn with some RNG luck and a rear shot with your big 3 all at once. I've found so far that their is little counter to this tactic, and have used it effectively again and again.
____________________________________________________________________
Thats my case for Jump Jets being considered a meta contender. What did you think? Any changes to the example lance? Any obvious counters to Jump Jets you can think of? Let me know down below.
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