Tell me about ... The Blood Asp

[Scrollreader]

This mech is pretty awesome looking.  It looks /angry/.

But I'm not sure how well it performs, specifically, vs a Mad Cat II.

The reason I ask is that I'm putting together a Diamond Shark force.
I can of course, as everyone's favorite Used Mech Salesmen, justify having a Blood Asp.  And it looks pretty solid.
But I have a couple questions:

1) Which configurations do you favor?  The prime looks pretty nifty, but then so does the A variant.  I'm not sure about the others, but it might just be my irrational preference for symetrical designs.

2) How does it stack up against other Clan Assaults, in general, and the Mad Cat II, in specific?  I'm not really a fan (personally) of the Mad Cat II, III, and Arctic Wolf, visually  (I mean, you could pretty much field an entire Cluster with Mad Cats of various sizes).  On the other hand ... it /is/ good business, if I choose to go stomp things in one of our best selling models.  And I'm not sure how often I'd really get more use out of the Blood Asp as opposed to the solid Mad Cat II.

Thanks in advance!

[Southern Coyote]

Against a Mad Cat II (or any of the subsequent mechs), the Blood Asp is going to eat it alive.  The Asp is easily one of the best assault omnimechs in the game.  You'll always want the asp over the Mad Cat II.

Some good variants:

Prime - It's solid.  Got a decent heat curve, with enough Gauss ammo to make things interesting.  The Streak 6 is a little low on ammo for me though.

A - Excellent sniper.  The HLL's with make close range fighting fun, especially slaved to the TarComp.  Plus an ECM Suite and jump jets makes it a fun config.

E - Good at all ranges.  The ERPPC's with the TarComp makes them easier to fire at range.  The MPL's, with the TarComp, will give you a -3 modifier.  The 4 ATM 3's are interesting.  With the ER ammo, they aren't really worth it.  Where they really shine are at medium to close range, since you can use the standard or the HE ammo. Plus, it jumps.

G - Another good sniper.  The HAG 40, a pair of ERLL and a TarComp make it great for staying at range. 

Honestly, the Blood Asp is a pretty awesome mech.  And you'll wind up preferring it to the Mad Cat II for the sheer amount of damage potential it can put out. 

[Diablo48]

Honestly, the Mad Cat Mk. II is kind of a piece of junk so the Blood Asp wins hands down.  You can get comparable performance out of a standard Timber Wolf if you feel so inclined which makes most other options a good idea if you are looking to fill a slot in an assault formation.

[Ian Sharpe]

I don't think its as much in favour of the Blood Asp, esp not the Prime.  The two have comparable armour, the same primary guns(the Mk II has deeper magazines and can afford to use them though) and I'm not a fan of the HMLs on something as slow as a 4/6 assault.  The Blood Asp Prime has possibly a better secondary battery but 4 ERMLs are nothing to sneeze at either, since the Mad Cat Mk II can still use its GRs and LRMs.  The Mad Cat's biggest weakness is its dependance on ammo weapons and most notable to me, only 27 points on the arms to expose the GRs to crits/explosion/pilot damage.   Its LRM ammo is in the side torsos but those are pretty crit packed with non-explosive items surrounding them.

The A matches up pretty well and should win. 

The B is my favourite Blood Asp for its high consistent damage output, and has enough hole punching and crit-seeking to get the job done.   

The C could probably do it against the Mad Cat Mk II. 

The D could get the job done at range, I'm not inclined to close. 

The E should be able to get the win as well, though its ranged damage is pretty similar to the Mad Cat MK II. 

[Headshot]

Prime - It's solid.  Got a decent heat curve, with enough Gauss ammo to make things interesting.  The Streak 6 is a little low on ammo for me though.

Wha..?  ???

[DarkISI]

Prime - It's solid.  Got a decent heat curve, with enough Gauss ammo to make things interesting.  The Streak 6 is a little low on ammo for me though.

15 Shots for a single Streak 6 is low for you? Have you ever managed to run low on a Streak SRM ammo, if you only have a single launcher?

[God and Davion]

I ran low of SSRM6 ammo once. In fact, I also ran low of targets at the same time. I dealt a world of hurt. Hm... nice Stormcrow A. [notworthy] [notworthy] [notworthy] [notworthy]

[A. Lurker]

I remember running out of SSRM6 ammo a few times...of course, that was generally with custom designs feeding multiple launchers off of a single ton.

Totally worth it. :D We now return you to your Blood Asp discussion in progress...

[Headshot]

Its just that the SSRM ammo on the Prime will last three to four times as long as the Gauss ammo, so that sentence had me a tad confused...

[A. Lurker]

Its just that the SSRM ammo on the Prime will last three to four times as long as the Gauss ammo, so that sentence had me a tad confused...

Agreed. I generally consider sixteen shots for a Gauss rifle to be the functional minimum, so "enough ammo to make things interesting" would be more along the lines of less common counts like twenty-four or perhaps even thirty-two.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Southern Coyote is usually the kind of Clanner who doesn't expect to ever really need more than eight shots. Look at Clan culture and then try to tell me with a straight face that those wouldn't exist. ;)

[Headshot]

Got a point there, given the Timberwolf and Mad Cat Primes, those eight shots may almost seem excessive to a pre-invasion Clanner... ::)

[JadeHellbringer]

He said enough ammo to make things interesting... running out of ammo sure gets my interest!  ;D

[Southern Coyote]

15 Shots for a single Streak 6 is low for you? Have you ever managed to run low on a Streak SRM ammo, if you only have a single launcher?

Yes.  In fact, I did run out of ammo on the Streak 6.  It was a binary on binary game, and wound up being very close quarters.  I burned thru the Streak 6 fast.  But it's a personal preference.  It has enough ammo (more than enough) for a standard Clan trial.  But playing against some of the guys I play against, I like to have a mountain of ammo.  They tend to do pretty strange stuff with their movement and I've got a serious case of hate dice. 

[Southern Coyote]

Agreed. I generally consider sixteen shots for a Gauss rifle to be the functional minimum, so "enough ammo to make things interesting" would be more along the lines of less common counts like twenty-four or perhaps even thirty-two.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Southern Coyote is usually the kind of Clanner who doesn't expect to ever really need more than eight shots. Look at Clan culture and then try to tell me with a straight face that those wouldn't exist. ;)

It's like the Summoner Prime in this case.  Both has very low ammo to work with.  But enough for a standard clan trial. 

Plus, with a Guass rifle, I expect to get less ammo on a Clan mech.  But I expected a little, just a little bit, more ammo from the Streak 6. 

Sorry to piss so many people off... :-\

[A. Lurker]

It's like the Summoner Prime in this case.  Both has very low ammo to work with.  But enough for a standard clan trial. 

Plus, with a Guass rifle, I expect to get less ammo on a Clan mech.  But I expected a little, just a little bit, more ammo from the Streak 6. 

Sorry to piss so many people off... :-\

I think it's not so much "piss off" as "confuse". Fact is, fifteen shots for a Streak rack will last you longer than sixteen for a Gauss under all but the most unusual circumstances, and once you do run out the Clan Streak-6 is a three-ton paperweight while the Clan Gauss weighs four times as much and may (barring TacOps rules) still explode on you long after the fact.

So most of us would rather skimp on the Streak ammo a little than on that for the GR. It's not as though Streaks weren't the most ammo-efficient weapon in the game already (among those that use ammo in the first place, anyway), after all. :)

[Southern Coyote]

Eh, it's fine.  I just happened to be looking at the RS when responding, and happened to think "Gee, that doesn't seem like a lot of ammo for the Streak."  And happened to remember this game where I burned through the Streak 6 like a 7 year old with Halloween candy.

But I usually don't use the Prime, but one of the other variants.  Usually the E.  I like ATMs alot, so those are my preferred missile system. 

[Headshot]

So most of us would rather skimp on the Streak ammo a little than on that for the GR.

In fact i'd happily drop the entire launcher for more ammo for the main guns...

[Ian Sharpe]

In fact i'd happily drop the entire launcher for more ammo for the main guns...

Just downgrade the MPLs to HMLs... ;)

[cold1]

In fact i'd happily drop the entire launcher for more ammo for the main guns...

Lose the launcher and ammo for more gauss ammo and another MPL and you're set.

This is my favorite mech, my preferred faction makes it, it's a 4/6 assault, and it looks just plain scary.

All of the configs are effective.  The prime does lack gauss ammo but if you're using it like you should that's ok.  Close with the target as fast as you can (you shouldn't be fighting a light with it) and hammer away with the GR's then when you get to mid range add in the SRM and MPL's.  Keep going in and when you get close unload the HML's.  The thing is meant to be a walking wall that just unloads death as it closes.

For a campaign or longer fight just dump the SRM and add more gauss ammo...