Linebacker and Marauder IIC/Nightstar (or both) Variants/Builds

[Frosk]

So yeah, I was kind of saddened when I missed out on the FLYING LINEBACKER from last years loyalty program and am hoping to pickup a LBK-H (or at least give another Linebacker variant the LBK-H side torso omnipods) and was wondering how one goes about making Linebacker builds?

Also, I am pretty much in love with the Marauder and, as such, getting a Marauder IIC or Nightstar (or both ) is fairly high on my list of priorities. Which variant(s) are worth picking up and which ones should be avoided like the plague? And again how would one go about making builds for them? I've tried mucking around in Smurfy to see if I can just make big "beefed-up" versions of my marauder builds and had little success due to me being horrible at deciding on what to sacrifice (i.e. armour, and how much of it) in order to free up more tonneage.


P.S. Example builds would be appreciated!

[Ishan451]

I got the loyality variant of the H... and i have it set up like this:

LBK-H[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

SRM4s for the lower hardpoints in the arms, because SRM6 hit the ground to frequently and i noticed i am, thus, firing srm4s anyway.


I also have run a LBK-PRIME[mwo.smurfy-net.de] with ATM9s, a Tag and two ER Small lasers... as long as you understand that you can dumb fire the ATMs... its actually a quite nice build... you show up, tag your target and pepper them with dual ATM9s.... and you disappear. Especially light mechs will hate you.

But that being said... its not nearly as good as my favorite build, unfortunately that one can only be done with the REDLINE[mwo.smurfy-net.de] .... but you can do something meaner with the LBK-H[mwo.smurfy-net.de] ... it has one more SRM6... however you probably should fire the SRM6s.. then the SRM4s... or even consider exchanging the SRM4 for 2s for the sole purpose of getting the 6s into the higher mount.


The way i use my Redline is by having a weapon group for the left side and the right side. All SRM are one one group... and lasers are half and half... allowing me to better manage my heat... as it runs quite hot.

[Frosk]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

I got the loyality variant of the H... and i have it set up like this:

LBK-H[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

SRM4s for the lower hardpoints in the arms, because SRM6 hit the ground to frequently and i noticed i am, thus, firing srm4s anyway.


I also have run a LBK-PRIME[mwo.smurfy-net.de] with ATM9s, a Tag and two ER Small lasers... as long as you understand that you can dumb fire the ATMs... its actually a quite nice build... you show up, tag your target and pepper them with dual ATM9s.... and you disappear. Especially light mechs will hate you.

But that being said... its not nearly as good as my favorite build, unfortunately that one can only be done with the REDLINE[mwo.smurfy-net.de] .... but you can do something meaner with the LBK-H[mwo.smurfy-net.de] ... it has one more SRM6... however you probably should fire the SRM6s.. then the SRM4s... or even consider exchanging the SRM4 for 2s for the sole purpose of getting the 6s into the higher mount.


The way i use my Redline is by having a weapon group for the left side and the right side. All SRM are one one group... and lasers are half and half... allowing me to better manage my heat... as it runs quite hot.

Awesome! so that's the linebacker sorted... now for the other mechs haha

[Captain Michael Vulpi]

Another useful build for the linebacker is as a laser boat load it up with heavy lasers and pulse lasers shove as many heatsinks as you can in there and you are off to the races

The nightstar is becoming my personal favorite IS assault mech and I found one of the stock builds funny the 9FC with minor tweaks to taste works pretty well as a brawling version of the mech.

[Frosk]

Originally posted by Captain Michael Vulpi:

Another useful build for the linebacker is as a laser boat load it up with heavy lasers and pulse lasers shove as many heatsinks as you can in there and you are off to the races

Thanks! I may consider giving it a go (The LBK-H has a ridiculous amount of energy hardpoints by default, without swapping omnipods) but I haven't ran many "pure" laser boats before.

Originally posted by Captain Michael Vulpi:

The nightstar is becoming my personal favorite IS assault mech and I found one of the stock builds funny the 9FC with minor tweaks to taste works pretty well as a brawling version of the mech.

Finally news regarding the Nightstar!
Really been wanting to give the "Marauders older cousin" a go.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Frosk:

The LBK-H has a ridiculous amount of energy hardpoints by default

You mean 5? :)

[Frosk]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Originally posted by Frosk:

The LBK-H has a ridiculous amount of energy hardpoints by default

You mean 5? :)

Yeah just that was a cuck up by me.... I had been looking at the hero linebacker and was thinking of that for some reason. Even then the hardpoints are the same but hey it looks like a lot when you consider how many hardpoints most linebackers have in total

[Frosk]

I'm having trouble making Linebacker builds, it seems like one of those mechs were you're limited by tonneage much more than slots.

I really want the jump jets on this thing but at the same time 6 seems excessive (and I wasn't aware that the jump jets were inbuilt as part of the omnipods)

How's this? https://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=673&l=1f0365b8929664f043c7c8c2f40b7e0fea47924d

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Frosk:

How's this? https://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=673&l=1f0365b8929664f043c7c8c2f40b7e0fea47924d

That is all over the place and will melt your mech :p

The SRM have a max range of 270 (without quirks), meaning after 270 they go poof.
Your ER Mediums have a range of 400, with damage fall off until 800 (without quirks)...
Your ER Small laser has a range of 200.... fall off to 400.
Your ER Pulse Lasers have a range of 330... fall off to 660.

What's your planned engagement range on this one? 270? 400?


And you probably don't need 6 jump jets.. 3 should do the trick. So how about this:

LBK-H[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

Your ER Small lasers sync up with the SRMs... sort of. You lose a bit of damage to the max range of 270 from your 200, but since you want to be in range of the SRM to use them, you'll be below 250is meters anway.

You also probably don't need 2ton of ammo for the SRMs. One ton is 25 trigger pulls. That is over a minute of engagement time. I would try a match with only 1 ton.. put the spare ton into a heatsink.

And the ER Large laser... i would put in the highest hardpoint. Would have to check which one that is, its either the first weapon you put in there or the last. That way you can ridge peek with it.

With 3 jump jets you'll still have a jump of 20ish meters... and if you think you gonna bunny hop in a Linebacker you are wrong regardless.

It will melt you just the same if you use the large laser... but without it, the LB runs a little better. You could also decide to put those 4 tons into heatsinks and run it even cooler.

Thing is.. you have a lot of speed in the LB... and each moment you are disengaged to cool off, is a moment you are not bringing your fire to bear on the enemy. And if you overheat you are dead. The LB is a barndoor of a mech... and everyone is gonna happily send you into an early grave if you overheat.

[Frosk]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Originally posted by Frosk:

How's this? https://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=673&l=1f0365b8929664f043c7c8c2f40b7e0fea47924d

That is all over the place and will melt your mech :p

The SRM have a max range of 270 (without quirks), meaning after 270 they go poof.
Your ER Mediums have a range of 400, with damage fall off until 800 (without quirks)...
Your ER Small laser has a range of 200.... fall off to 400.
Your ER Pulse Lasers have a range of 330... fall off to 660.

What's your planned engagement range on this one? 270? 400?


And you probably don't need 6 jump jets.. 3 should do the trick. So how about this:

LBK-H[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

Your ER Small lasers sync up with the SRMs... sort of. You lose a bit of damage to the max range of 270 from your 200, but since you want to be in range of the SRM to use them, you'll be below 250is meters anway.

You also probably don't need 2ton of ammo for the SRMs. One ton is 25 trigger pulls. That is over a minute of engagement time. I would try a match with only 1 ton.. put the spare ton into a heatsink.

And the ER Large laser... i would put in the highest hardpoint. Would have to check which one that is, its either the first weapon you put in there or the last. That way you can ridge peek with it.

With 3 jump jets you'll still have a jump of 20ish meters... and if you think you gonna bunny hop in a Linebacker you are wrong regardless.

It will melt you just the same if you use the large laser... but without it, the LB runs a little better. You could also decide to put those 4 tons into heatsinks and run it even cooler.

Thing is.. you have a lot of speed in the LB... and each moment you are disengaged to cool off, is a moment you are not bringing your fire to bear on the enemy. And if you overheat you are dead. The LB is a barndoor of a mech... and everyone is gonna happily send you into an early grave if you overheat.

Yeah only using just one of the LBK-H side torsos seems to be the way to go

[Super-XIX]

The NSR-9P is easily the best all-around Nightstar. 3 AC10s + 2 ERMLs, 2 LB20Xs + 2 SNPPCs, or 4 LB10Xs are all solid loadouts.

My favorite MAD-IIC is the -A variant with an UAC10 + 2 UAC5s + 4 ERSLs. It's sort of like the Dakka KDK or MCII, but with a much better midrange peeking profile.

[lefty1117]

what's different with the loyalty variants besides the paint job?

[Frosk]

Originally posted by lefty1117:

what's different with the loyalty variants besides the paint job?

For a while there were no non-loyalty versions of them. The loyalty versions are basically hero mechs, so they get a c-bills boost whereas the non-loyalty variants do not

[Frosk]

Originally posted by The Superjew:

The NSR-9P is easily the best all-around Nightstar. 3 AC10s + 2 ERMLs, 2 LB20Xs + 2 SNPPCs, or 4 LB10Xs are all solid loadouts.

My favorite MAD-IIC is the -A variant with an UAC10 + 2 UAC5s + 4 ERSLs. It's sort of like the Dakka KDK or MCII, but with a much better midrange peeking profile.

I'll have to check those out!

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by lefty1117:

what's different with the loyalty variants besides the paint job?

There is none.