Advice on Dragon, Cataphract, Archer and Orion and more

[Ilostmycactus]

Hey guys, I'm looking to pick up some more of the cheap heavies this sale and am looking for your input.

Firstly, does anyone have experience with the Dragon 5n and triple uac2s? I already got the grand dragon this sale, but I have a thing for hyper quirked mechs. It seems fun in testing, but I know that face time is deadly atm so I'm not quite sold. I want usable, not impossible.

Does anyone have a favorite cataphract variant?

Does anyone have any non tempest archer builds/favorite variant?

Lastly, do you prefer the clan orion or Is orion for the mini atlas build? Clan has about 20kph more and can alpha a ton, but less armor. Is has a lot more armor but is slower and can alpha only a few times.

Or perhaps you have a different orion recommendation.

For the one phoenix hawk put on sale, is it good or preferable to the other variants?

If you know of other hyper quirked mechs on sale or similarly cheap ones let me know.

Thanks for your help

Edit: I've been having a lot of fun in the meta Timber S laservomit ecm build, any other similar laservomit mechs?

[🎃MaximusBlastalot🎃]

There really arent many comparatively good dragon/cataphract/archer builds outside dakka dragon/cataphract and tempest (at least unless the rumored rocket launcher changes go live). You can run some lrm/mrm builds on archers to the shock of pretty much no one, and thats about it. Somone has to be at the bottom.

Originally posted by Ilostmycactus:

Lastly, do you prefer the clan orion or Is orion for the mini atlas build? Clan has about 20kph more and can alpha a ton, but less armor. Is has a lot more armor but is slower and can alpha only a few times.

You need to look up the actual hitbox between the clan orion and the IS the clan orion side torsos tank for the center, less of the arms count as side torso and teh arms slightly cover the side torsos more. So the higher armor dosent make as large of a difference if you are torso twisting.The is has a bad hitbox and is super quirked for armor, the clan has an okay hitbox but still alot of armor.

As far as orions (both factions) in gen they are good for gauss+erppcs/lpl/Srm+boom.The standouts the clan hero due to the masc allowing a heavy mech to run around at "slow" light speeds and turn/handle like a faster meduim while having the firepower/armor of a weaker assault (its shocking how uncommon it is). You can also run atm builds on some of the brawl focused clan orions. The is hero is good as well but it dosent have masc so it lacks that sort of stark contrast.

[JC]

I run my Dragon with 2 UAC5's..

I do enjoy my 3 UAC5 Cataphract hero, and i also run a one with a UAC20+ECM, I forget which one it is,.

[Captainn]

Does anyone have a favorite cataphract variant?

3L. MASC that gets you going to 89kph, AC/20, and 2x snPPC or 3x erPPC

[Thundercracker]

Originally posted by Genghis Lepre-Khan:

2 UAC5s isn't fitting in there unless they removed the lower arm actuators.

so you can fit them if you remove the actuators? what effect does this have?

[Thundercracker]

Originally posted by Genghis Lepre-Khan:

Removing lower arm actuators on Clan Omnis makes it impossible to swing arms side to side. On the Dragon-5N this would mean no more dragon dab but honestly the damage it would crank out would likely make up for it in spades.

ah, so it's more than a slot full of junk, and what good are hand actuators?

[🎃MaximusBlastalot🎃]

Originally posted by Terrorsaur:

Originally posted by Genghis Lepre-Khan:

Removing lower arm actuators on Clan Omnis makes it impossible to swing arms side to side. On the Dragon-5N this would mean no more dragon dab but honestly the damage it would crank out would likely make up for it in spades.

ah, so it's more than a slot full of junk, and what good are hand actuators?

Lets be real here arms in gen need a buff. Its kinda silly no one ever talks about it.The game is completely torso centric to the point of almost defeating that this is a mech game and not a tank game. Heck it often determines if a mech or variant is meta or trash. Its just unfortunate that theres 0 chance it will ever be adressed at this point.

Also overlaps with the whole agility problem of assaults/low agl heavies vs lights.

[🎃MaximusBlastalot🎃]

Originally posted by Genghis Lepre-Khan:

Torsocentrism has been a problem since Mechwarrior 2 really. Probably not going away. Tabletop arm mounts could do some crazy ♥♥♥♥. No lower arm actuators (see: Blackjack)? You could flip your arms 180 degrees and fire into your rear arc. Some mechs had a quirk called Hyperextending Actuators that let you do that even with lower arm actuators.

Theres still alot they could have done to lower the disparity such as a universal lowered heat buildup of weapons on arms or having an optional 0.1 second animation or lock button that raises the arm to shoulder level for mechs with applicable actuators.

[Maddermax]

I’m a big fan of the dakka dragon, and doing the dragon dab. It’s not the worlds greatest mech, but it’s a fun alternative that can still be effective.

I have a thumb button that I bound to free look, so I can just hold it to make the dragon dab happen, and it just comes naturally after a bit of practise.

Honestly, the only thing that annoys me always is that arm mounts are so low, so a lot of shots will be caught on terrain as you’re shooting from the hip. The arm mobility is nice through.

[JC]

Originally posted by Genghis Lepre-Khan:

Originally posted by JC:

I run my Dragon with 2 UAC5's..

I do enjoy my 3 UAC5 Cataphract hero, and i also run a one with a UAC20+ECM, I forget which one it is,.

You can't fit 2 UAC5s in the Dragon-5N's arm. I think people used to run UAC5/2x AC2 before the Civil War update, but 2 UAC5s isn't fitting in there unless they removed the lower arm actuators.

My bad, i was thinking about my 1n which has 2 AC5's in the arm, the 5n i run 3UAC2's, and then i have a Fang with UAC10+2 lpl's

cataphracts, OXP UAC20+4ERML's+t4+ecm, 4X 4 AC5's, IM 3UAC5's+PPC


Soo many mechs that i haven't played for years.. it's hard to keep everything strait.. BUT these are mechs i've spent a ton of time playing in over the years.. I'm almost done finishing up lvling a few more, then i get to work on playing with all the old ones and swap skill trees..

[Harukage]

XL Grand Dragon. 3 Snubs and 2 SRM4s. Had a blast playing it. Need to test it now with Snubs buffed, must be even better.

[Zyrrashijn]

Originally posted by Harukage:

XL Grand Dragon. 3 Snubs and 2 SRM4s. Had a blast playing it. Need to test it now with Snubs buffed, must be even better.

Except you're running into Ghostheat now with 3 Snubs.

[Harukage]

Replace them with dual heavy ppcs then.

[Thundercracker]

Originally posted by Zyrrashijn:

Originally posted by Harukage:

XL Grand Dragon. 3 Snubs and 2 SRM4s. Had a blast playing it. Need to test it now with Snubs buffed, must be even better.

Except you're running into Ghostheat now with 3 Snubs.

use stagger fire and click three times really fast.

[JC]

Originally posted by Harukage:

Replace them with dual heavy ppcs then.

I have the grand dragon too, but it's not really my thing. It does make a great Dual Heavy PPC mech. add in a couple extra ERML's or just add heatsinks/bigger engine. Which ever you like i suppose. But it's a pretty solid hill humper with it's very high mounts.

[NamelessOne]

Originally posted by Terrorsaur:

Originally posted by Zyrrashijn:

Except you're running into Ghostheat now with 3 Snubs.

use stagger fire and click three times really fast.

If you fire too fast you still incur ghost heat penalty. It also negates the the point of grouping precise point fire weapons.