Kenneth was bouncing around the place with his usual enthesiasm akin to a kitten being gently electrocuted.
Ron Frye had wandered in, supposedly for a social visit, but we all knew he was sniffing around to see if anyone had handed in any photos of the inside of the Valkyries locker room.
Even Patrick was having an unusual sober moment and decided that since we had a visitor, he should attempt to look professional (why I have no idea... Ron has known him for years and is well aware of his tendencies...) and called a staff meeting to see if we had any ideas for articles.
David > Yeah, I got something. since the release of the reaper we now have a full compliment of niode mechs up in 95-100 ton, one for each weapon type. Fext, Rumbaba, Notos, Reaper and apparently the Boreas is included in that list to round it out.
Whats the most useful/best/favourite or what is a lemon? etc... discuss.
Kenneth > Don't forget the Apatatron (Brontosaurus)
David > According to Molly, the Potatotron doesn't fall in the same class as its a dual rather than single weapon type platform, but it may fit in with comments further down why you wouldn't bother with a Rumbaba
Kenneth > Which is in my opinion ridiculous making the slowest mech on the table paired with the slowest weapon system.
Patrick > With that line up I have to go with the Fext. 9 times damage and the availability of weapons that can dish out high damage for higher levels is a great mix. They aren't as slow as many would think given the equipment now becoming available, they have nice armor and the slots aren't bad at all. That and the intimidating look of them, yeah the Reaper looks slick as well but it does seem a bit of a Fext copy cat but a Projectile one. Never mind smart pilots have been using high damage projectile weapons on the Fext since a couple days of it being available to all.
Kenneth > Yeah, the Fext is my favorite, but I always have been a sucker for the lasers.
Patrick > Lemon for me would be the Humblahblah, just missile based crab looking tetris mecha doesn't impress me using and specializing in the slowest weapons in the game.
David > Maybe the method to their madness was to make it so ugly you couldn't get a lock on, therefore it actually gets a chance to fire...?
Kenneth > For me the Apatatron is the loser. It's so slow that mechs in the 80T range can pick them off fairly easily.
Also: The Humbaba looks fantastic when you get 3-4 in a line twerking in unison. ;-)
David > And I'm guessing Boreas as top pick, seeing as how wall of Boreas has taken over from wall of Torrent?Kenneth > The definite 95 ton workhorse.
Patrick > Actually I've been moving my Boreas to the 2nd and 3rd lines and moving my Fext up front. Trying a wall formation of Fexts have seen them in action and they seem to be more devastating in effectiveness than the Bores wall.
Kenneth > I can't wait to be able to do this. But how do you get enough lasers to pull it off?
David > Is that in terms of quick kills from overcharge shots? Because I know that the Boreas guys tend to rely on keeping you frozen until they can grind you down...
Kenneth > Freeze and fork. Deadly combo.
Patrick > Mostly crit kills and overcharge shots for the Fexts.
David > Yeah, see I'm not getting that with mine.... far more regularly its my Boreas that do the higher damage, and crits are spaced out among everyone, but mine are admittedly rigged for ice damage rather than freeze with a fast weapon type.
Kenneth > I've seen some fantastic projectile/freeze builds with the Bors.
David > Yeah, Steve Ross over in the AFF shared that build a few faction wars ago.
Patrick > Fexts are actually monsters with projectile and laser combos, but you need to spend some niodes to do it up right. So yeah probably the more accessible option would be the Boreas all things considered
Kenneth > The fact that the Boreas being 95 ton helps a lot since it has access to more equipment to help with it's builds.
David > Ah, that's an interesting point... all 5 have been designed to showcase a particular weapon type with each one, but it seems like pilots are ignoring that and going for a more hybrid build... two we've just touched on are Boreas with projectiles and Fext with a laser/projectile combo...
Kenneth > I don't personally know enough about the Nacho to know of hybrid builds yet. The Bor has kind of a cool fire hybrid you can do with it, which is freakishly deadly when you stack the freeze component onto it.
It was at this point that Ron stopped trying to slide small and easily pawnable items into his pocket and delivered one of his sermons...
Ron > The Boreas and the Fext are awesome in my book....one is a freezing machine and the other is a crit killing nightmare with heavy DPS to back it up....both also have the armor platform necessary to stand up to major assaults.....
As for speed....when you are running a mech that big you are going to have to sacrifice speed, but the equipment slots in both more than help compensate for that obstacle....
As for the Humbaba....it just feels like another version of an Apatotron....if I want a 100 ton missile mech, I would do better to save my niodes and grab a Typhoon instead, which is an overall better missile mech in my book anyway.....
I am on the fence with the Notos....it is definitely a kick ass fire mech, but fire is just a raw damage attack and lacks the finesse delivered with crit kill or freeze weapons and just gives you splash or burn which are not as good as trample, fork, wide fork etc. that you can get from missile weapons....so, I have never been that excited about fire weapons...that is a preference issue however, so I will not say it is a good or bad mech due to my jaded opinions on the matter.....
And finally the Reaper......it is a good projectile mech....it delivers a massive direct damage assault and it has a nice trample, combined with the formidable armor platform of a 100 ton mech...but.....it is just a slightly jazzed up version of the Corsair....why waste niodes on a mech when you can pick up a crystal mech that does the same thing with only marginally lower stats.....
Myself, I am aiming for a formation of Boreas, Fext, (for crit kill lasers and freezing ice weaponry) and Typhoons (for area effect missile weaponry) with support from Corsairs or Magnus (for projectile weapons and raw direct damage)....with (for special formation fillers or to field special weapons I have collected along the way) Yallans or Ignis (for flame).....
Yallans, Regis, and Jadoons are also great heavy mechs to fill in gaps if you don't mind dropping down to 90 or 95 tons instead of 100
Kenneth > For my money, the Anubis is the best missile chucker with the highest surviveability out there. I've been told by a couple Fusion guys that the fire hybrid Bor outperforms the Notos because of the high percentile freeze component. The best Apatotron build I've seen are projectile builds simply because that behemoth needs all the speed help it can muster, but I'd like to see this projectile/laser build for the Fext that Patrick is talking about.
David > I was wondering how many folks were sticking with the Anubis... I know I haven't bothered with a Rumbaba because I've already got Anubii doing that duty, and like the Boreas, at 95 tons they have just that slightly better access to equipment
Kenneth > I agree. With the equipment access, I feel the Anubis is really hard to beat for top slot in the missile deployment classes.
David > Guys, any more comments, because this is getting close to being able to collate and publish. From what I can see, Anubis over Rumbaba, the Boreas and Fext are good, undecided on Notos and the Reaper is good but expensive for what you get.
I'm also seeing that people aren't going with what what weapon type the mechs were actually built for, so what the top level players might actually want is a generic platform niode mech, like a 100 ton Keradon
Patrick > I got nothing to add really, I'm all for the Boreas and it may be more economical to get one and outfit it but for my money nothing beats a fully loaded Fext with projectiles and lasers. So yeah that's my take...
Kenneth > Hmm, next time, what about a hybrid build challenge for us? Like come up with a flame based Potatotron or a laser based Anubis, that sort of thing?
Patrick > Sure why not. If someone wants to mess with their builds to give us a more accurate run down that would be interesting.
Kenneth > Let's see... who's high enough level that could really show some great percentages on new hybrid BFM builds..... rhymes with Mavid ShuLackum...
David > Sorry mate, we both know that it's Pat that skims the percentage off the top... all he would have to do is divert a small amount from his alcohol fund and he could either retire or make any build he wants.
Besides, unfortunately that Reaper is above my grade as well <grumble> ... but I've got my eye on them to start replacing my Dreadnought fleet.
Patrick > I'll put in a solid review of the Reaper when mine is done. It's only level 45, with 2,2,1,2 for equip slots and 26 for weapon slots. Thus far looks to be a solid build.
And leave my alcohol fund alone, it takes a lot of liquid courage to ride with the Brotherhood...
Anyway, you know I'd volunteer but sold my Tatertron and Anubis for niodes and went on an equipment spree.
Kenneth > I need to do that. I'm sitting with an Ignis, Anubis, and Nacho waiting on my Fext leveling, which should be in time for the Clan War.
I could use about 5k niodes right now for equipment to balance out the leveling...
And so, with the conversation looking as if it was going to turn to Kenneth once again forlornly trying to hit Patrick up for a pay rise (instead of the usual embezzlement or blackmail that previous editors have gone in for) we wrapped things up.
Contributors : Pat Willis #224534, David McCallum #701548, Kenneth Hicks#846092, Ron Frye #879655