best dragon variant?

[AAA]

and their builds please Thank you.

[Desperado]

best is very subjective...whatever weapons you are good with, use those

[Ishan451]

5N used to be the Meta and has the highest burst with dual uAC5... its also the one most people run these days with tripple AC2s. It however comes at the price of having all its weapons in the arms, and uAC5s are only really interesting as long as you do not get unlucky and have them jam all the time.

The 1N is the most reliable one. It comes with -25% on AC5 cooldowns.. and still 15% on ballistics. So unless you plan to run the tripple AC2 build or uAC5s.. i would pick the 1N. Moving one energy hardpoint to the Side torso also gives the Dragon much needed durability.

The 1C is your best choice if you want one big bore Ballistic, like an AC10 or a Gaussrifle. It is also your best option if you do not want to run Ballistics[mwo.smurfy-net.de] at all on the Dragon.

[Shotgun]

The 5N with 3x UAC/2, by far, especially if you have a macro.

[Xilo The Odd]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

The 5N with 3x UAC/2, by far, especially if you have a macro.

its probably the one mech i macro on, just because having a bullet hose that doesnt lock up entirely on an arm is fun.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Xilo The Odd:

because having a bullet hose that doesnt lock up entirely on an arm is fun.

The problem with it, and i am seeing it all the time, is that its all in one arm and Dragons with that build frequently end up "de-armed".

As fun as the 3 AC2 (or uAC2) might be, it seems to be prone to end up without its weapon arm sooner than later, and for that reason alone i would probably pick the 1N and use the tripple AC2 stuff to the Jaeger mech.

[The Fifth Horseman]

5N. Either 3UAC2s or 2xLL+UAC10.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Originally posted by Xilo The Odd:

because having a bullet hose that doesnt lock up entirely on an arm is fun.

The problem with it, and i am seeing it all the time, is that its all in one arm and Dragons with that build frequently end up "de-armed".

As fun as the 3 AC2 (or uAC2) might be, it seems to be prone to end up without its weapon arm sooner than later, and for that reason alone i would probably pick the 1N and use the tripple AC2 stuff to the Jaeger mech.

I almost never lost the right arm before dying in that thing.

[Nero]

DRG-1C. 2 high mounted lasers. The Flame hero might be worth considering too.
5N is a joke you don't have the tonnage for ballistics and once that arm is gone you're gone as well.

That mech is capable of 97KPH. If you don't intend to make use of its speed, then you're in the wrong mech.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally posted by WitchingSnake:

5N is a joke you don't have the tonnage for ballistics

You do, it's a matter of building the mech correctly.

and once that arm is gone you're gone as well.

That - AGAIN - depends on your build. The UAC10 + 2xLL build doesn't suffer from that issue, and you can always take a Standard engine and shield with your dead side.

That mech is capable of 97KPH. If you don't intend to make use of its speed, then you're in the wrong mech.

That mech is quirked for firepower. If you want speed as your main asset, switch to a Quickdraw.

[Nero]

It has all these amazing quirks because it is so badly designed.

What engine we talking about anyway? I take its an STD280 or Light 300. I'd not take anything below Light 340.

Look I respect your opinion, but I stand by what I said. I deem it a bad idea.
I owned the 1C in 2016. Sold it when I bought the Linebacker.

When you make a mech, you should try to excel at something. The Dragon obviously has the edge on speed. I do not see this edge in firepower especially not when its all in that one arm. The build with 2xLL sounds like a medium. I had a trebuchet with that loadout, I suggest to switch to that if you want that.

edit: I've just seen that the Dragon has 28 structure in its ST while the Trebuchet has 38.

[Xilo The Odd]

Originally posted by WitchingSnake:

DRG-1C. 2 high mounted lasers. The Flame hero might be worth considering too.
5N is a joke you don't have the tonnage for ballistics and once that arm is gone you're gone as well.

That mech is capable of 97KPH. If you don't intend to make use of its speed, then you're in the wrong mech.

thats the drawback of the 5N running heavy on the ballistic either means a lack of other firepower, or moving slowly and sitting on the secondary line for support fire, not really what the dragon was designed for.

Flame is a great hero with a lot of applications, due to its ballistic being torso mounted, AND sits very high on the chassis i'd say overall its one of the better chassis, Fang is an OK hero too but its basically a slightly better quirked 1C, with C bill bonus being one of the quirks :P

Dragons in general are a kurita flank heavy, they get in, they use that big gorilla arm to block shots and fire back, then in normal cirumstances you'd be pulse lasering and using SRMs along side that ballistic in a brawl.

light engines are GREAT in dragons, XLs are so so but can also be incredible in the right hands.

I wouldnt run an XL engine build till your comfortable with your torso twist defense but once you've learned that angle that can protect a side torso from pretty much all gun fire, an XL can be an excellent way to keep your speed up and your firepower.

but for someone who hasnt used dragon chassis yet i'd stick to lights. standard if your using flame and wanna do silly things like a LBX 20 or Heavy Gauss.

@Snake: typically the lowest i'd use in a dragon is a 300 for engine size, it keeps its speed up compareable to an assault if not better, which is fine because they have the armor of an assault despite being a 60 ton heavy.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

I almost never lost the right arm before dying in that thing.

I don't doubt you, and it might be just cognitive bias on my part, but as i said.. i usually see Dragons with all weapons in one arm and all weapons being red, because its the fastest way to disable the mech.

Originally posted by Xilo The Odd:

@Snake: typically the lowest i'd use in a dragon is a 300 for engine size, it keeps its speed up compareable to an assault if not better, which is fine because they have the armor of an assault despite being a 60 ton heavy.

With an 300 engine you should have a speed of 81kph, that is above IS assault speeds.

[Nero]

Yeah 81KPH is great for IS. Standard for Clan.

[Xilo The Odd]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Originally posted by Shotgun:

I almost never lost the right arm before dying in that thing.

I don't doubt you, and it might be just cognitive bias on my part, but as i said.. i usually see Dragons with all weapons in one arm and all weapons being red, because its the fastest way to disable the mech.

Originally posted by Xilo The Odd:

@Snake: typically the lowest i'd use in a dragon is a 300 for engine size, it keeps its speed up compareable to an assault if not better, which is fine because they have the armor of an assault despite being a 60 ton heavy.

With an 300 engine you should have a speed of 81kph, that is above IS assault speeds.

yep, not to say going faster is a bad thing, but for what the dragon is you sacrafice a lot of firepower to do it. or you go XL and maybe pack the same firepower, but the speed increase from 81 to anything it can do above that, doesnt feel worth it.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally posted by WitchingSnake:

What engine we talking about anyway?

250-270, typically.

I take its an STD280 or Light 300. I'd not take anything below Light 340.

That leaves you at only around 17 tons for weapons.

I do not see this edge in firepower especially not when its all in that one arm. The build with 2xLL sounds like a medium.

UAC10 + 2xLL, not just 2xLL.

I had a trebuchet with that loadout, I suggest to switch to that if you want that.

Except the TBT-7K doesn't have UAC jam chance, ballistic range, ballistic velocity or laser duration quirks. You wouldn't get the damage on target quite as well as that Dragon does.

Originally posted by Xilo The Odd:

thats the drawback of the 5N running heavy on the ballistic either means a lack of other firepower, or moving slowly and sitting on the secondary line for support fire, not really what the dragon was designed for.

Do not expect player meta to match lore, in any game ever.