Personal experience with mechs. Grasshopper and Black knight.

[gudbrandur]

Hi guys, I was hoping you might enlighten me what these mechs are good for? they are big and beefy and good lookin (and cool name for one). But I hardly see a point in using them, with all these energy hardpoints and lack of ballistics. Do you really just load them up with Mediumlasers?

[Seminole Wolf]

Black Night works well with any of the following options:
1. All medium lasers
2. Medium lasers and 6 machine guns (I think that's the max) for point-blank confrontations
3. 2 large lasers and the rest medium. If you pair this up with at least one pilot who can get sensor locks at range, then the Black Knight can participate in long-range pot-shotting.

The Black Night also has some good speed and jump capability if you give it the maximum allowed number of jump jets. This allows a pilot to hide out of sight or out of range and even jump out of the bushes (so to speak) and deal out a killing blow.

I recommend using a pilot with at least 9 rankings for gunnery and tactical, and if your pilot has less than 7 for guts, you should consider adding armor or adding a cockpit mod. With lasers being so accurate, having a pilot with 10 x x 10 rankings will also help increase the odds for successful headshot kills. That has saved me on several occasions when my other mechs already have their hands full wearing down one or two heavy opponents and then a fresh undamaged enemy mech or vehicle closes quickly from out of nowhere. When that happens, it's critical to take out the newcomer with a killshot if you can or else the enemy mechs plus the newcomer will just spread your lance too thin and take them apart.

The Grasshopper is great in the mid-game, also with all medium lasers and either flamers or machine guns for up-close surgery. Fast mover and good jumper. I use the Grasshopper less and less now that I have 2 Black Nights in my bays and one in storage. But during the mid-game, I sometimes would put two Grasshoppers in my lance, and with devastating effect.

For mechs that can carry a large number of support weapons, remember this: six machine guns can by themselves do as much as 90 damage. Combine that with another close-up attack such as a slew of medium lasers, an AC-20, or a melee or DFA strike, and you have one heck of a mech-killing combination. If your Grasshopper or Black Knight pilot has lower rankings for gunnery and tactical, then you might want to consider jumping behind the enemy and shooting at the rear center torso. Your hit chances are higher than trying for a headshot and that armor is often very thin.

As with any heavily-energy-dependent mechs, make sure you provide adequate heat management and possibly a pilot who can use the coolant skill. To be most effective, your Black Knight needs to be able to launch an Alpha Strike and in the very next turn still needs to be able to fire at least 3 or 4 medium lasers without suffering overheating. 3 or 4 lasers have a much better chance to hit a weak spot and deal critical damage than a single laser, even if you have a highly ranked pilot at the controls. Heatsinks and/or heat exchangers are a must for a Black Knight or a Grasshopper.

If he can't do that (shoot and shoot again), these mechs just won't be able to get their pilot out of trouble or deal a death blow to get those last 1 or 2 structure points on the head of an enemy that somehow is still standing after his Alpha Strike. An enemy mech with even just 1 structure point remaining can still kill you at point blank range. If he fails, then your next attack should end the confrontation and you can't do that if your inspiration doesn't allow a called shot and your heat situation prevents you from firing more than one medium laser.

When you do your non-priority missions, take an occasional mission and leave your Black Knight and Grasshopper on the Argo. This prevents you from becoming too dependent on either one, which can result in you losing pilots. Remember that it's part of a team and use it in that way.

[danko9696]

Yep, both are very good, and with the right equipment they are deadly. Not the best but still competitive and better than some assaults. The only con is that you need to get closer to the target in order to be able to use the SLs.

MLs+SLs make for a excellent headcapping combo even in the late game but you need good cooling (TEX, DHS), if you don't then MGs allow you to add some extra damage without more heat, but once you can then go with SLs because they do more damage and they work much better with precision Shots.

One tactic would be to go for two consecutive alphas (usually after jumping) aimed at the head manipulating initiative (or using two similar mechs) so the target cannot return fire in between your two salvos, aimed at the head of a mech having 0-20% max damage reduction to maximize the chances. Alternatively, if you don't have high tactics (lvl 9) then I wouldn't go for headcapping (because the chances would be too low) but rather using them as brawlers or regular hit and run, or just use another mech. It's when you have decent cooling when energy weapons shine.

[JC]

stacks of ML's+SL's also works great.. You can often do called shots on legs with 65%+ to farm a mech. A single alpha can leg many mechs. Larger mechs soften them up with a round or so of missiles, then do the leg shot.


You can use this tactic with one of the Quickdraws or a thunderbolt 5SS as well.

[wesnef]

The Grasshopper kicks butt all the way into the post-endgame.

7 Medium Lasers, and whatever mix of 6 Small Lasers & Machine Guns you prefer (or can manage the heat for, with Exchangers & Double Heatsinks.

With 4 jump jets, it's the "light" Scout/Assassin in your Assault lance. Jump it behind anything and precision shot the rear CT. Heck, for lots of things, you can just precision shot the front CT. When you're overheated, punch away with all your support weapons.

I love the Grasshopper, I use it all the time.

[JC]

Ohh i forgot, that Coolshot skill is really great with energy boats. a grasshopper with the extra evasion slot, or multi-target + bulwurk/Coolant is a pretty hot set up got a BK pilot :)

[Jack Jester]

Blackknight:
a coolent vent pilot, PPC's+medium Laser's+light laser's and you onehit the most light and medium mechs.

Grasshopper is ok but i prefer a Kintaro (better initiative, 5 jj's) with SRM's (dmg like a heavy from side or back) and a ace pilot

[danko9696]

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

Blackknight:
a coolent vent pilot, PPC's+medium Laser's+light laser's and you onehit the most light and medium mechs.

Grasshopper is ok but i prefer a Kintaro (better initiative, 5 jj's) with SRM's (dmg like a heavy from side or back) and a ace pilot

The PPC is not very good if you also have SLs. You can negate the penalty if you have high enough stats, but then you're one stat point bellow Called Shot Mastery, and once you get it is way better to go for a headcapper setup with ML+SL which has a decent chance to kill any mech in the open, not just light and meds.

A Kintaro is too fragile for the late game compared to the other two and runs much hotter, while both GRH/BLK are still quite good in the endgame. And at that stage of the game the Grasshopper is a bit more deadly than the Black Knight, although it runs a bit hotter.

[Jack Jester]

Originally posted by danko9696:

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

Blackknight:
a coolent vent pilot, PPC's+medium Laser's+light laser's and you onehit the most light and medium mechs.

Grasshopper is ok but i prefer a Kintaro (better initiative, 5 jj's) with SRM's (dmg like a heavy from side or back) and a ace pilot

The PPC is not very good if you also have SLs. You can negate the penalty if you have high enough stats, but then you're one stat point bellow Called Shot Mastery, and once you get it is way better to go for a headcapper setup with ML+SL which has a decent chance to kill any mech in the open, not just light and meds.

A Kintaro is too fragile for the late game compared to the other two and runs much hotter, while both GRH/BLK are still quite good in the endgame. And at that stage of the game the Grasshopper is a bit more deadly than the Black Knight, although it runs a bit hotter.

PPC's are very good weapons, +++ PPC's are the best weapons combined with a coolent vent pilot. They do dmg, stab-dmg and debuffs 5% hit chance and you dont need ammu.

In my lance Kintaro with ace pilot has the most kills in 4-5 star missions. He is a very agil finisher!

for me it works very fine and i never had any issues against more than 1 or 2 heavy/assault enemy lances.

on the highest settings, the game ist too easy in my oppinion!

[Big mean bunny]

The Grasshopper is just fantastic as a scout for late game with that many ap slots It can be a great flamer mech, it can mitigate heat by going hand to hand mods + MG's or fully stacked medium laz and ap slots with a called shot pilot you can quite often get clean head hits. that many ap slots make it great for nailing high evasion /spore cloud/mineral deposit hugging mechs. I would rate it as the best below assault in my hanger. If you pair it with a Cyclops it can do dastardly double actions on heavies and above.

[JC]

i need a hopper, but i finally got my crab

[drager55891]

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

Originally posted by danko9696:

The PPC is not very good if you also have SLs. You can negate the penalty if you have high enough stats, but then you're one stat point bellow Called Shot Mastery, and once you get it is way better to go for a headcapper setup with ML+SL which has a decent chance to kill any mech in the open, not just light and meds.

A Kintaro is too fragile for the late game compared to the other two and runs much hotter, while both GRH/BLK are still quite good in the endgame. And at that stage of the game the Grasshopper is a bit more deadly than the Black Knight, although it runs a bit hotter.

PPC's are very good weapons, +++ PPC's are the best weapons combined with a coolent vent pilot. They do dmg, stab-dmg and debuffs 5% hit chance and you dont need ammu.

In my lance Kintaro with ace pilot has the most kills in 4-5 star missions. He is a very agil finisher!

for me it works very fine and i never had any issues against more than 1 or 2 heavy/assault enemy lances.

on the highest settings, the game ist too easy in my oppinion!

The problem with the PPC is the cost to use. +35 compare to to ML which is lie +12 each. Then there a 7 ton compares to ML 1 ton.

I still keep one on my mech so I have long range attack and if need be a breaching shot.

[danko9696]

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

PPC's are very good weapons, +++ PPC's are the best weapons combined with a coolent vent pilot. They do dmg, stab-dmg and debuffs 5% hit chance and you dont need ammu.

In my lance Kintaro with ace pilot has the most kills in 4-5 star missions. He is a very agil finisher!

for me it works very fine and i never had any issues against more than 1 or 2 heavy/assault enemy lances.

on the highest settings, the game ist too easy in my oppinion!

First, I don't dislike the PPC, in fact my favorite mech setup is a 5xPPC++ boat. But it is not the best weapon, not even in the top five. The debuff is nice but negligible unless you can hoard many of them, and that's hard; it's not very damage/weight/heat efficient, ammo is not a concern, and stab damage is underwhelming in the late game when you can core or headcap almost constantly. And among the setups that can headcap with ease are both the Grasshopper and Black Knight. Not the best at it, compared with some assaults, but still very competent and better than many other assaults.
That said, if you can mass the PPCs (and the only mech which can is the A-II) then the debuff now becomes actually useful, you don't need to mix lower range weapons to add more firepower and TEX also works more efficiently for better heat management, so can stay at long range while dealing good damage. In that very niche scenario the PPC is good, although still not the best. LL+++ are much better in general, because they have both +acc and +dmg.

Using a PPC together with close range weapons such as SLs is not a good combo. It can work, because almost anything works, but it's not very effective. Why using a PPC wasting its range in order to use SLs when you can add more MLs which are way more efficient?. You can have close to 66% to headcap a 100t full armored King Crab with a Grasshopper using ML+SLs. That's in a different league than merely killing light/meds. Those are the kind of builds that can make stab damage irrelevant in the later stages of the game due to how effective are.

The Kintaro is a good medium mech but it's not super good. It has five missile hardpoints, which is a huge plus, but lacks the weight to get the best of them while at the same time having good armor and cooling. The Cent-A is actually somewhat better IMO, it stays a bit behind in alpha firepower but it has much better sustainability and faster recovery, which can easily end in a lot more damage done overall, better defensive capabilities due to better cooling and far more frequent use of JJs (you can actually cool down quite a bit while jumping max distance + brace, for example), which allow the setup to be more flexible and more active without risking going for melee for cooling down. And this Cent-A also I wouldn't say is super good, most 50-55t mechs are on par.

[Petrothian]

both are very good at killing people's cockpits (and the people in it) when loaded full of medium lasers and have a pilot maxed out of called shots % (18%)

[drager55891]

Originally posted by danko9696:

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

PPC's are very good weapons, +++ PPC's are the best weapons combined with a coolent vent pilot. They do dmg, stab-dmg and debuffs 5% hit chance and you dont need ammu.

In my lance Kintaro with ace pilot has the most kills in 4-5 star missions. He is a very agil finisher!

for me it works very fine and i never had any issues against more than 1 or 2 heavy/assault enemy lances.

on the highest settings, the game ist too easy in my oppinion!

First, I don't dislike the PPC, in fact my favorite mech setup is a 5xPPC++ boat. But it is not the best weapon, not even in the top five. The debuff is nice but negligible unless you can hoard many of them, and that's hard; it's not very damage/weight/heat efficient, ammo is not a concern, and stab damage is underwhelming in the late game when you can core or headcap almost constantly. And among the setups that can headcap with ease are both the Grasshopper and Black Knight. Not the best at it, compared with some assaults, but still very competent and better than many other assaults.
That said, if you can mass the PPCs (and the only mech which can is the A-II) then the debuff now becomes actually useful, you don't need to mix lower range weapons to add more firepower and TEX also works more efficiently for better heat management, so can stay at long range while dealing good damage. In that very niche scenario the PPC is good, although still not the best. LL+++ are much better in general, because they have both +acc and +dmg.

Using a PPC together with close range weapons such as SLs is not a good combo. It can work, because almost anything works, but it's not very effective. Why using a PPC wasting its range in order to use SLs when you can add more MLs which are way more efficient?. You can have close to 66% to headcap a 100t full armored King Crab with a Grasshopper using ML+SLs. That's in a different league than merely killing light/meds. Those are the kind of builds that can make stab damage irrelevant in the later stages of the game due to how effective are.

The Kintaro is a good medium mech but it's not super good. It has five missile hardpoints, which is a huge plus, but lacks the weight to get the best of them while at the same time having good armor and cooling. The Cent-A is actually somewhat better IMO, it stays a bit behind in alpha firepower but it has much better sustainability and faster recovery, which can easily end in a lot more damage done overall, better defensive capabilities due to better cooling and far more frequent use of JJs (you can actually cool down quite a bit while jumping max distance + brace, for example), which allow the setup to be more flexible and more active without risking going for melee for cooling down. And this Cent-A also I wouldn't say is super good, most 50-55t mechs are on par.

I think you can argue that PPC is a good breaching shot weapon when you compare it to the other choices.

[JC]

I like PPC's with Breach, to leg mechs. Do a high % called shot, and leg a priority target, or maybe take out the RT on a HBK 4G for example. I don't really power game though so i don't really just take the best mechs, and highest damage. I like taking RP style lances with mixed mechs and see what happens.