What Mech do you recommend for the role...

[M0ntS4intM1chel]

...of a dedicated Spotter/Scout for my long-range-firesupport. I have thought of a Phoenix Hawk, a Firestarter, a Hatchetman, a Grasshopper and an Assassin as possible candidates to fill in that role.

All i do have on stock right now is the Assassin, Grasshopper and Hatchetman, though. i've been testing the Assassin recently. It's agile and fast, yet once evasion wears off it takes further hits pretty badly.

What do you think?

[danko9696]

If you're going to use Sensor Lock then you don't need the mech to be fast. You can use a high alpha heavier mech for that role, visually spotting while firing sometimes and Sensor Locking when out of LoS other times. What you want in any case is for it to have JJs.

[Amigo]

This game has unlimited drop tonnage with mission difficulty more or less tied to it. Picking a light mech on a mission means you are effectively gimping yourself limiting your lance's survivability and firepower.

[pete]

Originally posted by Amigo:

This game has unlimited drop tonnage with mission difficulty more or less tied to it. Picking a light mech on a mission means you are effectively gimping yourself limiting your lance's survivability and firepower.

I agree. I prefer a more homogenous lance of about the same tonnage & about the same speed. Your 'scout' in my opinion should be the pilot with Sensor lock - Dekker is great!

[Neithan]

Just put your "sensor lock" guy in the most fragile mech of your lance, preferably fitted with energy/ballistic weapons for mid/long-range and jump jets, and either get into safe position in sensor range to light enemies up, or if there are targets already, give fire support.

[pete]

Originally posted by Neithan:

Just put your "sensor lock" guy in the most fragile mech of your lance, preferably fitted with energy/ballistic weapons for mid/long-range and jump jets, and either get into safe position in sensor range to light enemies up, or if there are targets already, give fire support.

Sure if you want the sensor lock guy killed - go ahead - and while you're at it - why not strip all the armour off your mechs so you can put in more weapons?

[Neithan]

Originally posted by pete:

Originally posted by Neithan:

Just put your "sensor lock" guy in the most fragile mech of your lance, preferably fitted with energy/ballistic weapons for mid/long-range and jump jets, and either get into safe position in sensor range to light enemies up, or if there are targets already, give fire support.

Sure if you want the sensor lock guy killed - go ahead - an while you're at it - why not strip all the armour off your mechs so you can put in more weapons?

Being in the most fragile mech doesn't mean to have him get killed, but rather keep him out of harms way and use the sensor lock... as using that ability does mean you won't attack yourself, so if one of your mechs should have it, why not the most fragile one? Just keep him in cover while at sensor range, and profit. No relation to stripping of all your mechs off their armor, D'uh..

Just in case you misinterpreted my post, "putting your sensor-lock guy in your most fragile mech" does NOT mean to put him into your worst mech, but to put him in your weakest mech out of your best 4 mechs, as he will not contribute with damage while he is sensor-locking.. but sure, put your sensor-lock guy into an Atlas to light up targets for your heavy and med mechs..

[edit]
As Amigo said, there is no drop tonnage penalty, so no reason to not use your best mechs (ready) in any mission. And then you should use your sensor-lock guy in your "weakest" mech, as using sensor lock will prevent himself from dealing damage, but support your other damage-dealers.

[thegeodemon]

The SLDF Phoenix Hawk is really good at spotting with the rangefinder.
It has a jump jet advantage and great cooling, with very respectable damage buff from its perk. Use with a +Hit defense mod on a high pilot skill to get -30% chance to be hit on top of whatever evasion you get from a 200m jump. (A LOT)

Until ya get that, I'd just recommend dropping a rangefinder on your 2nd brawler mech. The mech thats always on point gets wounded pilots too much, so injury resist on that one.

[pete]

Originally posted by Neithan:

Originally posted by pete:

Sure if you want the sensor lock guy killed - go ahead - an while you're at it - why not strip all the armour off your mechs so you can put in more weapons?

Being in the most fragile mech doesn't mean to have him get killed, but rather keep him out of harms way and use the sensor lock... as using that ability does mean you won't attack yourself, so if one of your mechs should have it, why not the most fragile one? Just keep him in cover while at sensor range, and profit. No relation to stripping of all your mechs off their armor, D'uh..

Just in case you misinterpreted my post, "putting your sensor-lock guy in your most fragile mech" does NOT mean to put him into your worst mech, but to put him in your weakest mech out of your best 4 mechs, as he will not contribute with damage while he is sensor-locking.. but sure, put your sensor-lock guy into an Atlas to light up targets for your heavy and med mechs..

[edit]
As Amigo said, there is no drop tonnage penalty, so no reason to not use your best mechs (ready) in any mission. And then you should use your sensor-lock guy in your "weakest" mech, as using sensor lock will prevent himself from dealing damage, but support your other damage-dealers.

My stripping armour comment was sarcasm - which doesn;t work well in text!!

But as you only have 4 mechs (and you really only need 4 mechs) why would you handicap yourself with a mech that will die as soon as an enemy looks at it? and remove a quarter of your combat capability voluntarily? The sensor lock is pilot thing and not mech based - and yes before the gospel of jump jet is preached - the high movement thingy can help - but I prefer to put my sensor lock person in a fully armed and fully capable direct fire mech - worked well for the 9,217 hours I've played

[Eagle_of_Fire]

I assume the question goes for vanilla?

My two answers would be: a) just don't use artillery support type of mech if you need a second mech to make it work. b) Any mech in direct view range of the enemy would do. The only pilots I have which have sensor lock are those who I want to pilot my assault, which mean I only take sensor lock because I have no other choice when I beeline for the +1 initiative skill.

[pete]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

I assume the question goes for vanilla?

My two answers would be: a) just don't use artillery support type of mech if you need a second mech to make it work. b) Any mech in direct view range of the enemy would do. The only pilots I have which have sensor lock are those who I want to pilot my assault, which mean I only take sensor lock because I have no other choice when I beeline for the +1 initiative skill.

You don't need a second mech as a spotter - you need a sensor lock pilot for the actual skill - the actual mech only confers its individual firepower/armour/movement capabilities.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by pete:

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

I assume the question goes for vanilla?

My two answers would be: a) just don't use artillery support type of mech if you need a second mech to make it work. b) Any mech in direct view range of the enemy would do. The only pilots I have which have sensor lock are those who I want to pilot my assault, which mean I only take sensor lock because I have no other choice when I beeline for the +1 initiative skill.

You don't need a second mech as a spotter - you need a sensor lock pilot for the actual skill - the actual mech only confers its individual firepower/armour/movement capabilities.

You misunderstand. Why would I waste a pilot/mech turn when I can simply spot by looking directly at the enemy while contributing to the damage/fight?

[pete]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

Originally posted by pete:

You don't need a second mech as a spotter - you need a sensor lock pilot for the actual skill - the actual mech only confers its individual firepower/armour/movement capabilities.

You misunderstand. Why would I waste a pilot/mech turn when I can simply spot by looking directly at the enemy while contributing to the damage/fight?

If you were using terrain to hide while you rain lovely LRM's ?

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Then you would simply never get anything done because LRMs damage is almost non existent.

I've done it before. Run a mech dedicated to LRMs. It was glorious and ran something like 5 armor on every single location... BUT, and that is a big but: that mech would never have killed anything short of paper thin mechs or turrets on its own. There is only two ways to get things done in regard to missiles in this game: either go full blown on SRMs with damage (and they do add up to a lot) or go the LRM route and bank on stability damage instead, going with volume. Then once those enemy mechs are on the ground use your spotters which are nearby anyways to destroy them easily.

One or the other you won't achieve anything unless you have those spotters. If you use sensor lock to get a second mech to do damage with LRMs then you are simply neutering half of your team potential.

[pete]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

Then you would simply never get anything done because LRMs damage is almost non existent.

I've done it before. Run a mech dedicated to LRMs. It was glorious and ran something like 5 armor on every single location... BUT, and that is a big but: that mech would never have killed anything short of paper thin mechs or turrets on its own. There is only two ways to get things done in regard to missiles in this game: either go full blown on SRMs with damage (and they do add up to a lot) or go the LRM route and bank on stability damage instead, going with volume. Then once those enemy mechs are on the ground use your spotters which are nearby anyways to destroy them easily.

One or the other you won't achieve anything unless you have those spotters. If you use sensor lock to get a second mech to do damage with LRMs then you are simply neutering half of your team potential.

Ok - sorry to burst your bubble - but that is exactly how I play. You need as many LRM15's or LRM20's (especially the ++ or +++ versions). My sensor lock mech normally does NOT have LRMs but there are 2 missile boats and a general purpose load out on final mech. Plus while using terrain as cover makes it harder for the bad guys to hit you.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

I'm not arguing you that it can't be done. I'm simply stating a fact that it is more than sub optimal.

Now, if we were discussing Rogue Tech or TT then this would be a completely different discussion. But hey, if you want to take 4x the time for a normal mission than it should then you do you.