What to aim for?

[Helfdane]

What is the best spot to hit a mech to do most efficient damage? I usually focus on the center, but that probably is the most fortified part of a mech right?

[Ishan451]

You have a paper doll cutout in the top right of your UI, when you lock the target. It will tell you the weakspots of your target. Always lock your targets before shooting them, so you can see their weakspots. You aim for the weakspots.


If they are undamaged...


... i will aim for a side torso or an arm, depending on the mech i am looking at. Rifleman or Centurions.. i'll usually take their guns before bothering with their CT.

Taking out a side torso usually means taking a good junk of its damage potential, either because they were running Clan XL or Light XL engines, or because i know that the mech has a lot of weapons in its right or left side. If its an IS XL engine, you kill them outright like that, which is the quickest way to kill any mech...

Assaults are the only mechs aim for the CT from the get go. Taking their side torsos is not worth it, and i am most likely not the only one shooting at them at that time.

I do not see much point in aiming for the legs, unless its a fast light mech, because Legs have more armor than a CT. I maintain.. if you can hit the legs of a mech, you usually can hit its torso much easier, but since a lot of people go for the legs of light mechs.. its usually one of the most damaged parts, despite it also being the most armored parts. But if you have point damage weapons like Gauss or PPC... you can cripple or kill a light mech with a well placed shot to their side torso, with about 25ish Armor on the side torso, most mechs will chew through the side with a single alpha.. and if you are lucky take out critical components. If you can get to 40ish damage, you might even sheer of the side with a single hit.

[Dakota]

I usually go for the CT or side torsos. Side torsos is the better option unless the CT is already heavily damaged or the mech has bad hitboxes though. Most people will spread damage away from their CT to stay alive, so your shots to the CT will often spread damage to both of the side torsos anyway. If you aim for the side torsos you can often get people to try to shield their CT only to make it easier for you to hit the sides. Taking out both side torsos kills any mech with an LFE engine or CXL engine, and taking out a single side torso kills a mech with an IS XL engine, you also get paid more because taking out a side torso gives you bonus damage points for the health remaining on the arm attached to that side.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally posted by Helfdane:

What is the best spot to hit a mech to do most efficient damage?

Depends on the mech and firepower at your disposal. Rear torso is always weakest, legs are pretty tough but losing one cripples mobility (and two is death). If you know the hardpoints or can guess engine type you may have other priorities. Legs on lights and mediums are a pretty easy target/

I usually focus on the center, but that probably is the most fortified part of a mech right?

Yes. Remember mechs are divided into distinct sections. Center of mass shots often spread damage across torso and arm sections.

[BOYCOTT S-T-E-A-M!]

Focusing on legs can be good depending on the mech.

Unlike the torso sections they only have one armor value shared for front and back so it doesn't matter where you shoot the leg from its drawing from a single hitpoint pool. Due to this you can have multiple people attacking a mechs legs while surrounding it without spreading the damage around.

Losing a leg kills the speed of a mech something fierce. Its pretty much a death sentence for a mech especially if its a light or medium that relies on speed. Losing both legs is a kill.

As an additional minor bonus... taking out both legs as opposed to exploding the mechs reactor from killing the torso will also net you a larger amount of CBs for the salvage bonus at the end of a match.

[Deckire]

I say it really depends on the mech, if you can tell that it is a XL Build, I ussually go for the Torsos especially on Inner SPhere Mechs.

But CT is ussually the best Bet.

Originally posted by Ishan451:

I do not see much point in aiming for the legs, unless its a fast light mech, because Legs have more armor than a CT. I maintain.. if you can hit the legs of a mech, you usually can hit its torso much easier, but since a lot of people go for the legs of light mechs..

I sorta disagree, Legs are actually one of the more vunerable items on most mechs. Most Pilots who really need to cut out tonnage to add more ammo, cut out a small amount from the 6 armor from the Cockpit and 20-40 from the legs. Especially in quick play. (very few of my mechs have maxed Leg Armor, espeically my Ballistic based mechs.)

Also depending on teh variant, Mechs like Marauder, and Crabs are very good at splitting damage, so taking them out by CT is incredibly tough, but because of their Reverse joints, their legs are much wider and easier to take out.

[Nightmare1]

The best thing to do, is to press your "R" button and lock the Mech. Then read the paper doll and attack the most damaged part. If the Left torso is open, hit it instead of the CT, for example.

If you don't know, can't lock the Mech, or don't have time to wait for the lock, then you can't go wrong with shooting at any of the three torsos.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by heroguanlet:

Legs are actually one of the more vunerable items on most mechs. Most Pilots who really need to cut out tonnage to add more ammo, cut out a small amount from the 6 armor from the Cockpit and 20-40 from the legs.

I grabbed a Heavy at random... i think we both can agree that this is a 'common' build for the Black Knight?
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=320&l=de5795c2205202815991274bf65ec8eb530364ad

Personally i run mine like this: BL-6-KNT[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

But that is not here nor there, lets stick with the version from Metamechs.... the Blackknight gets 12 addtional structure for both side and legs... 17 for the CT via quirks, which aren't in this.

In the meta mech version you have 58 to 58 armor, with the same inner structure. So you'd take as long to chew through its leg as you would through its Side Torso.. but if you chew is hide torso he'll also loose half its weapon load (and would blow up, because its a standard xl engine)


Lets grab another one... you mentioned the Marauder:

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=345&l=1ada25754e4df138915416d62b290a7ac7e24eff


These is the marauder hitbox: https://i.imgur.com/2fTBtGl.png https://i.imgur.com/hBTLs8p.png

If you aim for the right shoulder just above the RT weapon mount, even if the guy twists, you'll still hit its sidetorso.

The Marauder rolls damage well, because people target CT mostly. But people that target its shoulders will always hit its side torso, and in the Meta Mech build you not only have a mere difference of 4 points, but also take all its weapons if you shave that right torso.



Shall we grab one more? Lets grab the Timberwolf:

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=165&l=385de263dcc0a12ea4f75ecf3af5d66e095bdb7a

2 points of difference with an absurdly low back armor (from our back armor thread a few weeks ago, we know that most people run at least 8 points)...

Those were 3 mechs grabbed from Metamech.com... which even though it seems a bit outdated is probably one of the sites most people go to, to grab some builds, even if not, you can see quite nice that mostly people, even when skimping on leg armor, will likely still have armor comparable to their side armor, that is because maxed out you'd have more leg armor than side torso armor, with the same inner structure rating.

Unless there is some situation in which you get extra quirks to boost a side torso, like say the IS Hunchback...there is really no point in going for the legs on mechs bigger than light mechs, and things like the Cicada.


It is just not worth it, unless its already damaged... and that is where the whole "lock your targets so you know where to shoot" thing comes into place.

Shooting at the legs of an undamaged mech? Nah, forget it. Rather take some of its guns, cooling and all the good stuff, instead of hoping someone gimped themselves.

[Xilo The Odd]

all depends on the mechs in play and the game mode at hand. anything capture based like conquest or escort or incursion, if its fast i'll take a leg off if i think i can. for skirmish and assault i'll focus cores out or side torso if i think they may be running a XL engine and will die from it.

as for mech dependancies for a lot of em i know where they have the larger cluster of weapons on em if they are built that way and will focus that side first.

i rarely aim for arms, those occasions are for things with 3 AMS like a kit fox or ECM. sometimes if they heavy load the arms with weapons i'll do it too. this is a good way to neuter things like a nova or panther. the bulk of their firepower is arm mounted.

its a lot of snap decision making and study of what your commonly fighting to determine where you'll be shooting on average.

[Zyana]

I target mostly to head, if lucky kill with single AC20 shot.

[Dakota]

Originally posted by Zyana:

I target mostly to head, if lucky kill with single AC20 shot.

You'll need two shots from an AC20 to kill people from headshots usually.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally posted by Zyana:

I target mostly to head, if lucky kill with single AC20 shot.

Headshots aren't really a thing in MWO unless your opponent is shut down from overheating or sucks at evading.

[DecadeRX]

Originally posted by Zyana:

I target mostly to head, if lucky kill with single AC20 shot.

I've yet to see anyone go down from a headshot. I've only been hit there twice, and I think I've only gotten like two headshots on other mechs.

If you're aiming for the head, you're aiming for a target less than 10% of the entire mech's mass. No wonder you have problems taking things down.

[Zyana]

Mostly its me who goes down by headshot, but anyway.. in close range fight shoting window part of any mech, may work. :P
(mostly happens when light run right front of me and i just fall down).

[DecadeRX]

Originally posted by Zyana:

Mostly its me who goes down by headshot, but anyway.. in close range fight shoting window part of any mech, may work. :P
(mostly happens when light run right front of me and i just fall down).

You know the point of aiming at center of mass is because it's the easiest way to score a hit, right? If you're aiming to 'maybe get a hit', you're going to spend a lot of time missing, and a lot more dying. Just aim at the body, instead of standing still, and presenting such a massive target of yourself, and you'll go down less.

[83athom]

Originally posted by Dakota:

Originally posted by Zyana:

I target mostly to head, if lucky kill with single AC20 shot.

You'll need two shots from an AC20 to kill people from headshots usually.

Usually people forgo head armor and you can get headshots with one. My first headshot was on one such Cyclops.