Of the Heavy to Assault mechs, which ones are the best...

[Pherdnut]

... at melee + support spam:
... at sniping/being-squishy/running-away
.. at doing horrible things to a 'mech's core on the first shot at standard+ range?

[The Pollie]

The Orion-V makes for a nightmarish LRM-boat. The Orion-K is a grand frontliner. Both can brawl and assault. Orion is for life.

[dergefata]

I use a Stalker for my LRM platform. 2xLRM20, 2xLRM15, seven tons of ammo. That still leaves room for a lot of armor, and since range is so crazy and indirect, the lack of mobility doesn't really hurt. But wow, 70 missiles at a time makes things really simple.

Highlander is amazing. I core Atlases in one shot with that thing.

Oh, and pulling one LL off a Black Knight and stacking it full of mediums+++ lets you melt essentially anything, while still maintaining a relatively stable heat profile. Plus Black Knights melee like a boss.

[[d20]MintSkittle]

From what I've been reading, Grasshopper is beastly in melee with 6 support slots, Stalker is good LRM platform with 4 missile slots, and King Crab for coring mechs with dual AC/20s.

[Tom]

Atlas, SRM6's +4 dmg, AC20, and ML, means precision strike hurts up close. Due to range being pretty non existent in this game, you only have to wait for the enemy to walk upto you and fire ones, (bulwark it) then fire back, and anything from a victor/zeus, downwards, or higher if your lucky, is cored and ded in one move.

Get a morale boost from the kill, and do it again, and again. (assumming high enough pilot skills)

[Mhblis]

Grasshopper or Black Knight is a nasty Cavlart unit. You can load them.out with a solid selection of Mlasers and SRM. Jump into back side call shot next Mech.

Stalker is the LRM boat.

Sadly our Ballistic boat options are limited but the Jeager makes a solid long range hit and run option here.

-----

Others have already listed other options around AC20 and I've yet to build a melee I really enjoy so no comment.

[Rabidnid]

Originally posted by The Pollie:

The Orion-V makes for a nightmarish LRM-boat. The Orion-K is a grand frontliner. Both can brawl and assault. Orion is for life.

Pretty much. My Orion V has a dauss rifle and 2 LRM6s amd an SRM4, My Orion K has an AC20, 2xML and 2xSRM6

[Chitoloco]

Atlas
Atlas
Atlas
Atlas
Forgot the other one but it starts with an A.

[Hammer]

Black Knight and 3 Orions, slipped gauss onto one of the Orions and JJs for all. All pilots near max skills and ruling the battlefield. Mobility and varied weapons making for extremely solid lance. Later on replaced gauss Orion with JJ-equiped Highlander and continued to romp.

[BrowneHawk]

The Orion heavy is currently out performing my assults. Banshee and Battlemaster have been disappointing. Might be using them wrong.

[Zloth]

Originally posted by Prismbot:

Atlas
Atlas
Atlas
Atlas
Forgot the other one but it starts with an A.

Awesome? ;)

[Asuzu]

Originally posted by Pherdnut:

... at melee + support spam:
... at sniping/being-squishy/running-away
.. at doing horrible things to a 'mech's core on the first shot at standard+ range?

4 King Crabs, 400 tonn drop
2 tanks with 2x AC/20
2 missile spammers with 4xLRM20

Will stomp anything that moves and ask for more.

[sevenmelons]

Grasshopper w/ Max MLs and Max Machine guns corese almost everyone on precision strike close range.
Machine guns are so OP!

[Kel'Ithra]

Orion is fairly frightening depending on how its built.
Mine uses a AC5++ (stab/crit), Lrm 20 +++ (+2stab, crit), 4 medium lasers and it stays relatively cool. And Pilot can point blank everything since lrm has min 30 m instead of 120 due to skill.) Havent gotten an Assault yet.

[Path]

Originally posted by Asuzu:

Originally posted by Pherdnut:

... at melee + support spam:
... at sniping/being-squishy/running-away
.. at doing horrible things to a 'mech's core on the first shot at standard+ range?

4 King Crabs, 400 tonn drop
2 tanks with 2x AC/20
2 missile spammers with 4xLRM20

Will stomp anything that moves and ask for more.

How do you fit 4xLRM20s into a King Crab when all their hardpoints are in the LT?

[Lunardelta]

My Orion with 3 LRM 15's and 5 tons of ammo. 1 LRM rack has +2 dmg, another has +1 dmg, the third has +stability dmg and +crit chance(still not sure what that means). My pilot is like on a constant run of high spirits so using the inspiration to make a called shot I can core or kneecap almost every light, medium, and heavy mech on the field. I added a full array of jump jets which adds to the mobility gain. I love using this mech on the highland maps as I can get out of range and LOS for most mechs very quickly and rain death on them without taking a single hit.