Mechwarrior 4/Mercs - What are your favorite rides?

[target_destroyed]

Lights -

I usually go w/ a Raven or Cougar. The Raven is great for that one "stealth" mission for Davion. Load it up w/ electronics and a single ER Large Pulse Laser.

Mediums -

Hands down the Uziel or Stormcrow. The Stormcrow is brutal in Solaris if you load it up w/ SRMs.

Heavies -

Love the Summoner and Thanatos' 360-degree torso twist.

Assaults -

Sunder and Executioner. The Executioner is the best assault for Solaris imo, once you load it up w/ 3 LBXAC20's, an ER Large Laser, and a bunch of engine.

[Johnny 'NKH' Leyland]

Ryoken, fast with 4 ERLLs and JJz

[Scotty]

Light - Cougar

Medium - Uziel or Hellhound.  Wait, no, definitely the Hellhound.

Heavy - Summoner or Thanatos.  Usually the Summoner.

Assault - None.  I hate the assaults in MW4.

[Force of Nature]

Light - Cougar, Panther, Koto (CTF)

Medium - Bushwacker, Blackhawk

Heavy - Madcat, Thor, Novacat

Assault - Cyclops, Annihilator, Longbow

Force

[Humansquish]

Light: Uller. Sure the Raven is better, but as a Jade Falcon I just love the Uller.

Medium: In Battletech I think mediums are great, but they really aren't that great in MW. I usually took an Uziel.

Heavy: Cauldron Born

Assault: Highlander, the Warhawk is also quite fun.

[martian]

Almost exclusively Warhammer or Marauder, or when city fighting occurs Hunchback. Too bad that today everyone seems riding Assaults with Gauss rifles, as if there are no other 'Mechs.

And by the way, it's great to take Longinus or Salamander battlearmor. Great fun...

[Batman]

I'm a fan of the Wolfhound, Bushwacker, Hellhound, Ryoken, Argus, Thanatos, Black Knight, Awesome, Atlas, and Fafnir whenever I can get my hands on them. Often I will take a lighter 'Mech because it has hardpoints I like.

[Peter Smith]

I claim the Diemos and the Behemoth.

[CitizenErased]

Not to threadjack, but I've just started getting into this game and I'm having a hell of a time getting the hang of the way the weapons and hardpoints work. Anyone got any suggestions for what works and what doesn't - effective weapons, good general-purpose rides, dogs to avoid sticking your lancemates in, etc?

[Humansquish]

Are you just doing the campaign fighting the computer, or will you be playing online against real people?

[Batman]

Not to threadjack, but I've just started getting into this game and I'm having a hell of a time getting the hang of the way the weapons and hardpoints work. Anyone got any suggestions for what works and what doesn't - effective weapons, good general-purpose rides, dogs to avoid sticking your lancemates in, etc?

Well, I always try to maximize ferro fibrous armor on my 'Mechs at least to the nearest half-ton. Some people will tell you to go with specialized armor, but then you become really vulnerable to the other 50% of the enemies you come up against.

If you have a 'Mech with two or more consecutive ballistic (yellow) hardpoints then it's a good idea to stick a 10 or 20-class AC there and give yourself two to three tons of ammo. Ballistic 'Mechs are usually the best 'Mechs you can get because of the capacity of ACs to do quick and brutal damage. Load up on a bunch of lasers to back them up. I usually like to have at least one long range beam (red) weapon like a PPC or LLAS so I can dispatch tanks at range or soften up enemy 'Mechs. If you have to go with a LLAS I'd be sure to take two or more. It's always good to have a few medium lasers for skirmishing while your big weapons reload/recharge. Of course, that just means that you need to spend half your mass on heat sinks. I usually don't need speed too much and I don't use special equipment very often because I find it almost useless.

If you look at my earlier post you can find a list of 'Mechs that suit my piloting style really well. You'll notice that common favorites like the Catapult, Vulture, Longbow, and Mad Cat/Mad Cat II are not on that list. That's because of their overdependence on missile (green) hardpoints. I don't find missiles to be all that reliable. The impact time is too slow and the damage is too little in most cases for me to be bothered by them. Maybe others will disagree, but I like a straight up brawl because I can win it.

Treasure your Black Knights and Gladiators when you get them. They maximize the energy/ballistic combo better than any 'Mechs of their class and better than some heavier classes.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I really liked the Black Knight.  I only used lighter stuff until I could get a Knight.  If need be, I'd use something bigger, but I didn't have any particular favorites.  I distinctly recall using the Atlas, Templar, Hauptmann, Sunder, and Fafnir at various times.
 
 
of course, I played campaign almost exclusively, often with heat off.  Black Knight w/4 CERPPCs owns when you're doing that.  With heat on, not so much.

[target_destroyed]

I never have much luck w/ the Black Knight. It's got a great selection of hardpoints and electronics options, but whenever I pilot that thing it's like a huge "shoot at me and only me" sign appears on my mech.

[Top Sergeant]

I take a Thor with an LB-20X in each arm.  8)

[Youngblood]

I've had the most success...

In a Bushwacker. :-[

[target_destroyed]

Not to threadjack, but I've just started getting into this game and I'm having a hell of a time getting the hang of the way the weapons and hardpoints work. Anyone got any suggestions for what works and what doesn't - effective weapons, good general-purpose rides, dogs to avoid sticking your lancemates in, etc?

Well the Wolfhound is a great mech to start with, and a good support mech to stick lancemates in. Throw a PPC on it and a couple small lasers and it can easily take out most of the vehicle targets you're faced with in the early missions. The Puma is a good choice as it carries a pair of ERPPCs and is a threat to much heavier mechs. I usually take the Cougar though.

Believe it or not, I find the Chimera to be a pretty decent medium mech. It's cheap and pretty good if you arm it w/ a PPC, SSRM6 and Clan AC/5. The Uziel and Ryoken are also excellent choices and have good hardpoint options.

I tend to favor the Thor and Thanatos in the heavy category for their 360-degree torso twist as I mentioned above (the Raven and Vulture are the only other mechs capable of doing this). Both have a decent selection of hardpoints, and the Thanatos can carry a Heavy Gauss Rifle. The Argus can be pretty wicked too w/ a pair of LBXAC10s.

The Sunder and Gladiator are the best general purpose assaults imo, and can carry up to 4 ERPPCs. The Sunder also has a great torso twist range for getting up close and personal. The Hauptmann is pretty good too, but it's shoulder-mounted weapon pod tends to get shot off immediately.

As mentioned above, LRMs tend to suck in MW4. They take too long to lock on and tend to spread damage around. Pulse Lasers aren't very good either due to their poor damage to heat ratio. PPCs, Gauss Rifles and ACs are the best weapons.

[pickledtezcat]

I've never tried multiplayer, but in the campaign you should try the thunderbolt missiles.

A longbow with 3 Tbolt launchers and a bunch of ammo can kill anything in the campaign before they can get in range.
Just send in your lancemates and then shoot off the missiles from a distance. Pretty boring but it allows me to finish the final mission on hard difficulty setting.

If you were playing online as part of a team the Tbolt bowman could be a valuable team asset.

Lighterweight I go with fast mechs armed with LBX20s and a bunch of (non ER) large lasers. You can usually fire off three standard Large lasers with only 5 extra heat sinks. The Thor can do this well.

Meduim weight, anything that can hold a LBX20 or two and some SRMs.

Of course all these short range weapons need special tactics. High speed and good use of terrain is best.

[Batman]

of course, I played campaign almost exclusively, often with heat off.  Black Knight w/4 CERPPCs owns when you're doing that.  With heat on, not so much.

Even with the heat on those 4 PPCs are close to manageable, but you can't use them in every terrain. You can probably get more efficiency by replacing two PPCs with two large lasers and more heat sinks. I usually use two heavy energy weapons and one heavy ballistic to balance out the heat some. It's a very versatile 'Mech.

[Arkansas Warrior]

When I did use heat I usually replaced 2 of them with CLPLs and HS IIRC.  Gave me a faster-charging weapon to take low-chance shots or burn through vees not named Demolisher.

[Requiem_for_a_Moth]

The 'mech I used to beat the game the first time I played through it (clan trial ending) was a Loki with two Ultra AC-20s (I think, they might have been LBX-20's, it's been a while) and medium lasers (or maybe pulse lasers). I don't remember what I was in for the other endings, but I think I normally ended up in a Gladiator.

Mech Preference by weight class:

Light: Wolfhound, Cougar
Medium: Ryoken, Hellhound
Heavy: Summoner, Loki
Assault: Gladiator, Sunder

Note: I never got any of the 'mech expansion packs, so I only got to play with what came with the game.

[topcat]

If I wanted to win big in campaign mode, I'd choose from four mechs: Puma, Hellhound, Thor, or Daishi.  In multiplayer, I use Uller, Uziel, Thor, or Gladiator.  If I want to have fun, then I'd grab an Uller, which is weird, because I'm totally a "big mech" guy when playing CBT.  I just loved running around in the thing in MW4M.

[target_destroyed]

If I wanted to win big in campaign mode, I'd choose from four mechs: Puma, Hellhound, Thor, or Daishi. 

I hate the Daishi in MW4. It's like they forgot the "omni" part of omnimechs. The thing just has a flat-out stupid (not in a good way) config of hardpoints. It's great if you want to mount a pile of autocannons, but energy fans are s.o.l. A Daishi w/ only enough space to mount a single ppc, puh-lease.  ::)

[topcat]

I loves me some ballistics in campaign mode.  Multiplayer was always packed with jumpsniping laserboats, last I played it.

[Darren]

My favorite for online multiplayer games has always been the Highlander, usually loaded with either LB-10s and lasers or with RAC-2s and a LL.

For general consumption:
Light: Have to go with the Cougar. 
Medium: Hellhound or Uziel
Heavy: Thanatos, hands down.
Assault: Sunder or Gladiator, though I find myself drifting to the Awesome sometimes...

[Fear Factory]

I used to curb stomp people with the "Dasher."  Damn game is so top heavy it's not even funny.

[Dragon Cat]

Puma
Hellhound/Shadow Cat
Thanatos
Diashi/Templar

[FedSunsBorn]

Light: Wolfhound, a energy boat that looks good and has decent speed and moves. I usually go with a LL or PPC in the arm and couple of small or medium lasers as back up. Oh and I also like the Osiris with it's great speed, jj's and great short range firepower.

Medium: Bushwacker due to my personal config of 1 LBX-20 AC, 1 LL, 2 SSRM6'S and I sometimes switch the SSRM'S for LRM's for missions that require fire support.

Heavy: Thanatos, drop the JJ's and weapons and add 1LL, 1Gauss, 1LBX10, 2 ML, 1SSRM or LRM. Jack of all trades with little heat problems. I also like a RAC varient Argus that I came up with.

Assault: I want to like the Templar but the huge side torso's usually get smashed in early so I will go with the Sunder. Great mech with alot of firepower, armor and also with enough speed to actually get to an objective in decent time. 1PPC, 1GAUSS, 2LL, 2ML,  1 SSRM6. All around firepower. [drool]

[Demon55]

I used to curb stomp people with the "Dasher."  Damn game is so top heavy it's not even funny.

A reason I stopped playing.  Too many darned assaults.

My favorite Lights:  Wolfhound, Puma, Osiris, Owens, Cougar
Mediums: Ryoken, Uziel, Hellhound, Shadow Cat
Heavy: Marauder, Catapult, Warhammer, Mad Cat, Summoner, Nova Cat, Black Knight
Assaults: Victor, Masakari

[Batman]

There's more variety at the heavy and assault class but you probably see more medium 'Mechs in the game. there might be more heavies, but I appreciate the diversity at the top.

[Fear Factory]

If diversity is a bunch of assault boats jump sniping then you can have it.   #P