Just finished the game on expert, few tips and observations

[sanicek]

- never had to issue a single command in the battlefield overview, just used it rarely to check terrain
- didn't set foot in a simulator
- missiles and projectile weapons may as well not exist in the game, just use energy weapons
- use more of the same chassis to get xp faster, don't be afraid to skip tiers. energy weapon focused mechs are the best, nova is a tier above anything else in her tonnage warhawk later on is great as well
- level evasion to max before anything else. don't waste affinity on crap, save for assault mechs and dire wolf. you won't have enough skillpoints to max everything on NPC pilots, you can ignore the missile/projectile skills and get generic heat and handling bonuses
- standardize, stack multipliers, don't waste research on random weapons, get mech upgrades and PPC and pulse, those 2 weapons are really the only thing you need (with heat sinks replacing missiles/projectile where needed). upgrade them then slap them on every mech
- don't rush in, hang back, kite them backwards, focus fire one by one. stand in water whenever possible
- I finished most missions with like 80% mech health
- only had to restart 3 missions
- the sokol one in the start as I was learning things and didn't have all the mech builds started
- heir to the dragon, this one is probably the hardest in game at that stage. but hang back, stand in water
- some mission where you have to prevent mechs from fleeing, once I knew the pattern it was piece of cake as well tho

[Igel.]

why Pulse over ER Lasers ?

[panzerd18]

How much harder is expert vs normal?

I started on normal and am a bit disappointed I'm not use missiles and ballistics more as lasers and ppc are just so much better.

[Lyote]

I've been shredding Expert with twin LBX5s, the scatter ones.
Ballistics are fine.

Originally posted by Igel.:

why Pulse over ER Lasers ?

Pulse has a far shorter burn time than regular lasers.
Tends to result in more of the total damage application going to the part you aimed at rather than getting spread around when the target moves or twists.

[Andyface]

Game seems to have minimal ghost heat (wtf?) so the best setup I found was 14 MPLAS on a DWF for The Butter Knife. Cores anything under 70 tons in 1 shot, 2 cycles for everything else.

With heat/duration/damage upgrades it gets pretty comical how fast you can melt the "boss" enemies.

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

energy boats aren't the best IMO. energy boats with 1 LRM 20 per mech and 3 tons of ammo are best. Every time you hit focus target the target gets an LRM 80 to the face. If you really want best then best is laser boat+1 LRM 20 per mech. LRMs are better to have on every mech because often the ai will lose some dps to not having LOS and the 4 LRM 20s on every target leads to alot more damage uptime because heat is minimal and they all have enough ammo to shoot non stop all mission (and boy will they lmao).

Even most assaults drop to the first volley of missiles and lasers even if you don't shoot. I just tell them to take out targets while i pick smaller fights for fun.

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

Originally posted by Andyface:

Game seems to have minimal ghost heat (wtf?) so the best setup I found was 14 MPLAS on a DWF for The Butter Knife. Cores anything under 70 tons in 1 shot, 2 cycles for everything else.

With heat/duration/damage upgrades it gets pretty comical how fast you can melt the "boss" enemies.

Ghost heat is only a real thing in MWO for balancing purposes. Its not a thing in mercs or clans.