The Grendel's a nice enough 'mech. I think it's biggest weakness was being in the same weight class and the same TRO as the Shadow Cat, a mech that's a trillion times more popular and, being fair, somewhat better looking. Kinda gets overshadowed and all.
I think the Grendel's biggest weakness is it's omni pods. It's got a good chassis, good speed/movement profile, and it's got some decent variants, but like the Gargoyle, there's something similar that does things better b/c of the pods. For the movement profile, most people will pick a Viper, and for the firepower it's a Stormcrow. Would most people think it's not so good if the Prime had dropped the missiles and gone with pulse lasers instead of ER versions? The A is just the reverse, swap the Pulse Laser for a pair of ER's. The place where you get into big trouble is the ones with autocannons, they are generally too heavy for a chassis this size. I like the H variant, just get an improved HLL is all.
The Grendel is a beast against IS Regulars.... against Clan Elites, well, that mobility doesn't give it quite the same edge and it can be pasted.
So aside from the Grendel, what Omni's are the Sharks known for &/or helped create ?
IIRC they did help w/ the Coyote originals, but I'm looking for more common models.
I know some of the 2nd Line units are Shark built but I'm looking for Omni's specifically.
I'm changing from a full wolf cluster down to a Trinary of the same paint scheme & using the rest to create stars of other clans.
Well, looking at TROs, there's also the Huntsman, it's only 5 tons heavier, but b/c it's slower, it has 10 more tons of podspace, and moving 5/8/5 the two can work in a big-brother, little-brother role supporting each other. That's the only other one I specifically saw to be used in significant numbers by the Sharks. Another goo place to look for ideas is the 3072 RATs in WoRS.