Revisiting the Regis By Pat Willis#224534

Today we're looking at another niode Jurassic mecha the Regis. As usual all pertinent purchase information is contained in the side image. As to their starting weapons, they come standard issue with two Twin Grazer cannons, two Flavian Spear lasers,  five Heat Lasers, and four Hyper Amps they are ready for a fight straight off the assembly line. Please note this is taken from one of my Regis mechas as the basis for this review. As such it is based on a Regis sitting at my level of 116.

Now before equipment is installed I'm looking at +54% laser damage, 3X damage 10%, Crit - Kill 10%, Fork 20%, Trample Shield 40%, Laser shield 25%, Trample 10%,Auto repair 5, Precision 5, Projectile damage +15%, Wide Fork 8%, 2X damage 10%, and a dodge of 2. That's a pretty hefty laundry list of mecha abilities that can be made better by filling in the equipment slots.

I have 6 Cockpit slots, 6 Chassis slots, 5 Engine slots, 4 Shield slots, and 42 weapon slots available to me. This mecha gives you some room to play with. It allows you plenty of room to dial in your precision rating, gives decent dodge slots with the Chassis, and if you do it right with engines you can eek out every last bit of speed. The shields aren't a complete set so you're down one slot. But careful selection can net you decent protection overall.

Now what does this mecha excel at? Laser damage hands down is its primary weapon ability. Yes, it has bonuses to projectile as well but at nowhere near the percentages that are for laser damage. Of course as with most mechas you can set it up how you like for weapons systems and go to town with it. However this is telling you right off the bat it is a monster with lasers, and it has a Crit - Kill ability that can be capitalized on with proper equipment set up. This mecha is perfect for the Crit - Kill club group of lasers I am so fond of. The Blue Dragon, Cherenkov Ray, and the Archfiend respectively.

So you get a small laundry list of abilities, some nice starting weapons, decent weapon and equipment slots, and it is fairly fast on the draw for using laser and being 90 tons. Sure it'll cost you a bit in resources to get a hold of one, but truth be told they are well worth it. To me about the only thing that ruins this mecha is all the stupid limits on lasers and equipment at the higher levels/ ranges. If you have more than a handful of these you'll notice as you go on outfitting and equipping them, that well they are slowly declining in performance.

Why? Because after a time you get locked out of the good weapons and gear and have to make due with the vulnerable, slow you down, give you problems gear. So be smart keep a many of these as you like but be forewarned after a time gear and equipment gets scarce and your Regis variants will start to decline the further away they get from the original purchase. Yes they can handle niode and crystal gear/weapons just fine. It's just that let's be honest here niode gear gives you more overall which makes it more appetizing for this mecha model.

The same can be said for the weapons systems honestly. So the mecha itself is great. Equipment slots are all right there, weapon slots likewise accessible, it's just the dumb limits on the gear, and some of the limitations on the weapons themselves as far as slowing you down or leaving you vulnerable that totally suck. Especially when you're limited on shield slots from the get go to cover your ass with. But if worked right, with a careful selection of weapons and gear these things become Crit - Kill monsters. That almost makes the rest of the BS worthwhile trying to outfit more than a couple at a time.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Semi - Stable Power Field Equipment Review By Pat Willis#224534

For mechas 45 - 65 tons in weight comes this awesome engine, which will run you 240 Ferrite, 285 Bioptics, and 40 Niodes. It sports Speed at +17, Trample at 4%, Freeze at 9%, and is laser vulnerable at 8%. The speed is just great plain and simple, nothing in its weight class can really compare on that level.

The Trample is always a bonus, cause lets face it why not damage the line behind the one trying to gun you down? Freeze is welcome no matter what really, as it just stops your opponent for a round which leads to a free hit on them for more damage. Laser vulnerable here is at a small percentage and should be covered by shields easily, as usual if you have the slots you can keep going until you break even with no vulnerabilities. So for its weight class this is a speedy piece of engine equipment and can amplify your damage to a strong degree, not one to pass on this is for certain.









Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Aspis Mecha Review By Pat Willis#224534

 Today we'll be looking at the Jurassic mecha the Aspis, please note it is a niode mecha and all pertinent purchase information is available in the image to the side. As usual I'll be basing the review off of the couple I own.

The starting arsenal isn't too bad really. It comes off the showroom floor with 3 Tri - Slagger lasers, 1 Sikuliaq ice weapon, 2 H. Blast Plate projectile weapons, 1 Death Head missile, 1 Ol' Willie Pete Fire weapon, and 5 Rail cannons.

All in all not a bad array of weapons, and proof of intent of this mecha being one of the ones capable of handling multiple weapon types.

You may quickly outgrow most of what it is packing, and of course as you do, replacing the weapons can become an awesome headache. But let's look at the build stats, and slots to see if we can't play around some with this design. Built in before equipment this mecha packs Trample Shield at 88%, Precision of (12), 3X Damage 18%, 2X Damage 18%, Splash Shield 30%, Fork 15%, Fork Shield 25%, Wide Fork Shield 50%, Auto Repair (4), and Crit - Kill 6%. (Using my pilot level Aspsis at 116 for this review, results may vary.)

For equipment I have 5 Cockpit, 5 Chassis, 5 Engine, 6 Shield and 42 weapon slots to play with. Now that is a decent amount of slots to build up your Precision, Dodge, Speed, and various Shielding systems on top of what this mecha already packs as an on board package. Of course how you set it up will depend on your play style. But please note unlike many mecha that come equipped with multiple weapon types from the get go, this ones stats do not reflect that at all in the build.

Instead this is pretty intensely focused on defensive measures given all the inbuilt shielding and slots for even more shielding. Adding in equipment of course will add to your arsenal in the form of bonuses to damage for your given weapon types but that is it. This mecha seems to concentrate on defensive as opposed to offensive measures.

It'll give you bonuses on 2X & 3X damage, as well as Fork for inbuilt mecha ability but it is up to you to properly capitalize on that with weapon abilities/load outs. Niode equipment as well as weapons may serve you better than crystal here as they have more abilities/damage/power to them. With that said however this mecha handles both crystal and niode gear with ease, just you will probably get more out of it, if you niode it out.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

40 Ton Specialist by the G.G. Editorial Team (and various hangers on)

Oh great.


After the last one provided some fruitful discussion, Patrick decided to get all keen, including throwing around heretical phrases like 'Regular Staff Meetings', 'Topical Discussion Points' and 'Invite People In'.


Joy.


Kenneth was actually looking ill at the prospect of having to do some work for a change.


So, onto this weeks round table discussion, and the subject matter:


40 ton specialists... is this the purvey of multiple KotM winners only, or can others use this effectively?

Associated question, what are the best mechs in this class and what would be the lightest you would realistically use? Also consider equipment load-out, are there any do's or don'ts?



Kenneth : One of my favorite 40T specs I've seen out there is run by a clanmate of mine and it's all crystal mecha. All crystal you say? That's because he runs solid Nephilaxes with Zadoks as back up. Tons of guns, leveling abilities for higher levels, a lot of bang for the buck.

Of course the traditional 40T lineup has to be Keradons. Tough, scrappy, at 35T they really do withstand and dish out the punishment.

I've recently seen a lot of people incorporating the Buccaneer which is the best laser mech for it's weight class. Also, the Buc has leveling bonuses well into the 100s so it just keeps getting better with age.

Orcuses and iMechs get used, but my personal opinion is they melt away to a good Keradon barrage, and I've seen a select few people pull it off with Axebots.



David : There's no doubt that Nephs and Zadoks are effective, but I wouldn't exactly consider them as crystal mechs per se... you can only get them through repeated gold medals in 2 events.

I have seen those formations, and they are either run by long term campers or pay players (both of which tend to have a negative connotation to the newer members of the community) or in one very notable case, a crystal based hard leveling KotM junkie.

I guess that loops back to the first question... do the KotM winners essentially have this division locked out from everyone else?



Joel : Yeah, I can't call either mech crystal considering it usually takes a niode expense to pull off a win to acquire either



Kenneth : Considering the weight class, I agree with your statement that campers and veteran accounts definitely have this class sewn up. Unless someone wants to spend $1500 on solid Keradons and Bucs with gear and weapson, then they could do it. But there are so many accounts with 1-4 years in lower ranks that have done nothing but gain these mechs as clan war prizes, KoTM prizes, etc., that there's no piercing it as an "average" new account coming up.



Joel : Pretty much yeah.



Patrick : Honestly the lowest tonnage mechas I own are a Vizi, Zadok, ( 45&35 tonners respectively) and a Megazome at 65 tons. Only reason I keep them is they are winnings and every now and again I find it fun to equip them with big toys and let them run amok in the enemy lines. With that said however I don't go for lower tonnage, like at all. My play style has always been... I've out grown it? What can I get in sell back, cause I'm not going to realistically use it much any more. Yeah, yeah, but everyone should have a formation of whatever for clan wars and KOTM. Okay knock yourself out getting that many mechas. Me I can barely keep up with the upgrade costs on what I have, much less a whole hanger of obsolete mechas I only kick the dust off of once a month. Admittedly I am more comfortable in the 75 ton and up range.

But if I HAD to pick a 40 tonner to use I'd choose the Nifthel. I love ice mechas that's a solid choice. Don't remember all the slots and what goes where, been so long since I had one. I do remember the few I had were work horses and could take an ice arsenal and make it a thing of destructive beauty. Sorry on this one I couldn't be more in depth but as I said once I have decided I'm done with a tonnage range, for the most part it's sold off.



David : Actually Pat, you are possibly more help than you imagine (and I never thought I'd hear myself say that..).

On the understanding that you are a reasonably experienced pilot and know how to put a formation up when sober, if we had a hypothetical situation where the Powers That Be hit us with a mandatory 40 ton spec in a war and Joel turned round and said, "Pat, you're going to be fighting as a 40 this war, to bad, so sad, sucks to be you...", would you go for a solid Nifthel wall or try and mix and match?

And of course if its the latter, what would you use, where and why, building from the ground up?


Joel : 40t's are one of the trickier spec's to flesh out well......if you're going to talk ABSOLUTE crystal you're talking a Nifthel for sure......if you're talking prize mechs you're talking a Nephilax hands down HOWEVER for clarity here on which mechs perform best there should be "crystal [*coughs* or rather...niode] clarity"



At this point Joel popped some vid slugs into the machine to show us some noteable 40 ton battle replays.

Or rather he did after a few false starts; I'm reasonably open minded but even I was reaching for the brain bleach...



Joel : So what I'm saying is Nephs are great...especially when properly & equiped BUT you can't overlook the flying purple people eater.

Now it's more reliable for most gold medal winners to fill their 55t spec with Vizi's where possible but you'll all have to watch those MMI & Zeon replays in your own time if you've not already (if you've not the battles are fun to watch) pew pew pew!

Although the Buccaneer is decent I don't believe it will ever be a more viable mech when compared to a Keradon for instance and although I've seen some Banshee heavy formations I wasn't impressed when considering the costs.......unless you're willing & capable to swallow oceans of xp hunting mechs in limited availability missions you'd better have the gold medal wins to back up the formation with those mechs that can only be won if you're intent on running a strong either 40t or 55t with confidence.



Patrick : Alright I have given it some thought. Given it's me I'd probably do a wall formation of Nifthel mecha. I'd weaponize them much like my Boreas with ice and projectile combos. So I'd have Polar Vortex's going off with Winter Grasp's, and add in Chronysis Rails, Vadhars, etc to top off the damage front. Make an ice sculpture out of the enemy and smash it is the basic effect I'd be going for. Load them up with Zirconium Windshields, Hip Hopper Hips, and mix up the engines with Scrub Grubs, as well as Omnigrav Rotationals.

Or switch it up slightly and lean towards the laser damage with some of the big bastards they have available. Then add in a full compliment of shields either crystal or niode. I'm still of the opinion equipment is mainly useless as long as it is detrimental to your mecha in some way (Speed negatives, vulnerabilities etc)

So by and large I try to save time and resources by pretending those pieces don't exist/ never happened. I honestly resent the fact they charge us such astronomical prices for crap that actually can hurt your mecha, but that's another rant for another day.



Kenneth : The crystal account I talked about earlier belongs to a Lvl 108 who loves his comics and loves his KotMs. The Buccaneer is the only 40 T that I know that gets upgrades as far as it does.


David : Unfortunately I don't own one of the Buccaneer's although I have seen it at low levels and it does look a bit tasty, but further than that I can't really comment.

Tell you what I can comment on... the Banshee. It's got those same long upgrade paths that the Buccaneer does, and even though you might consider it too light in this weight class, mine is carving up Nifthels and Holmes.

Now admittedly with it being that light (10 tons underweight for the class we are discussing) it has access to unused freebies I've gathered over the years, so it is not skimped on for gear... but it is currently destroying or mission killing 3 or more mechs per fight on average, which is a pretty fair exchange rate in anyone's books.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it fares against the niode and prize mechs.

It's fast becoming a favourite.


It was at this point that Kenneth and myself realised that the Brotherhood contingent were not necessarily playing with a full deck. I know that the Smurfs and Bunnies run some serious contraband stimulants, but these guys had been imbibing something decidedly dodgy.


Joel : By the way, the dinner table that I have in the kitchen....it's a round table......

Thing is....I don't like tables that aren't round.........worse yet those rectangular ones I frequent where I'm asked to sit at the head of..........it may provide me a better view but I've never appreciated feeling like a spectacle or center piece and I really dislike past experience or knowledge dictating that I assume the head of the table......having said that I believe that it is well past time that most of this information was publicly available but my loyalties are as they always will be to the brothers & sisters that join us in war from the hood alone.

There was in my opinion only one absolute master of the specialist & it's not <redacted> <giggles>....it never was....that guy still doesn't test all the options when it comes to equipment & weapon combinations.......let alone apply needed theory so he just ends up throwing niodes at problems........now <redacted>  on the other hand.....now we're talking some theory application to get me interested.....but still pales when compared to the true master of the specialist.

Having said that.......yeah....there are PLENTY of do's & don'ts for 30-55t equips & weapon load outs......hmmmmm can I smell a Multifuel Turbine vaporising itself again or is it the scent of my last smoke calling me towards another

Okay......55t....don't try to outWarg a bunch of Vizi's... It's a health hazard.....



Ron : One sentence of four words, six syllables total....."Nifthels with Holmes support"...maybe not as hard a punch as an all KotM reward mech formation....but, it can, and has, beat one as well as hold its own.

This is an example of how equipping and arming your mechs can many times be far more important than the mechs themselves.


David : Positioning and arming in the line? or would that be giving away Brotherhood secrets?


Ron : I don't think that's a big secret mate.....positioning your mechs, arming them, equipping them, etc etc etc. is the most important, hardest to learn, and longest to get down, skill that every player needs to have in their arsenal.....

What I am saying is, yes a formation composed entirely of 40 ton KotM prize mechs is a Goliath to fight, but a formation of 40 ton Nifthels with Holmes support, if properly equipped and armed, as well as being appropriately deployed, can be the David that kicks that Goliath's <redacted> into the dirt


Joel : Just don't argue with the purple people eaters!


Kenneth : <Pops in a vid slug>

Here's one example of a solid Nephilax formation. And while he levels slow, I wouldn't really call this account a true camper.


Joel : Oh Kenneth....he camps harder than than a refugee detention centre. If you're looking for total nephs just look at his hits....unimaginative as they are <giggles>.



At this point the conversation degraded into the never ending slanging match around levelling versus camping.


But I think at the end of the day, everyone agreed that the best 40 ton mechs to have in your formation are...


Novums!


And on that bombshell, GOODNIGHT!

Contributors : Pat Willis #224534, David McCallum #701548, Kenneth Hicks#846092, Ron Frye #879655, Joel Parras #637457

S.M.A.S.H. 8 Equipment Review By Pat Willis#224534

A cockpit piece of Niode equipment for 75-90 tonners. It will run you 892 Ferrite, 644 Bioptics, and 42 Niodes to get a hold of one. Its abilities are Freeze 8%, Laser damage+8%, Missile Damage +8%, Projectile damage +8%, Fire Damage +8%, and Ice damage +8%.

So this little piece covers every kind of damage a mecha can use and enhances it by +8% , as well as enhances a mechas freeze ratio by 8%. As long as you are in the proper tonnage range to use this I say go nuts and stack away with it, as it will only give you damage bonuses, and no vulnerabilities to be seen on it. As always mecha build stats, equipment load out, and skill point allocation will also play into how the damage comes across, but you really can't go wrong here.

\







Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Saturn Shield Equipment Review by David McCallum #701548

Patrick originally put me on a different journalistic assignment, but you know what?


All the monkeys I could give ran away and climbed trees.


Possibly due to the sheer shock and awe of the latest freeby that the Gamescrafstmen have produced for the bonus attack package this war.


And its another shield!


Love a shield!


And this one is so far up my alley, it hit the wall at the far end and had to do a back flip!


Tonnage range between 65 and 80, so mountable on most Heavies and the Lighter Huge mechs. That's mid range clans, or the three cruiserweight specialist types. Comparative to other shields, it straddles Gamma and Delta grade pieces.


Shielding stats are 37% Fork, 32% Splash, Wide Fork 50% and a straight blocking ability of 21 damage points. 11% Fire Shield and a 7% Ice vulnerability is the reverse of any of the standard ice shields, either single aspect or the newer dual units.


Now the Fire and Ice statistics are lower than both the Gamma and Delta shields, but straight shield aspect is almost slap bang between the 2, making this a reasonable addition alongside the Gamma shields.


Now the veterans will have already noticed that while the previous prize pack shield (the Deflector Dish) was very definitely a rear rank piece, it bears pointing out to our newer players that this was squarely designed as a front line piece.

To get any of the extra protection that the Saturn gives (and you won't get them all together) you need Evador Bolts, Calibrated Joints or niode equipment like Telemetry Kits. The point being, it takes away from chassis which is dodge, therefore making your front line vulnerable.


Not with the Saturn Shield!


And of course, 65 and 70 Ton don't even get the above options, they have had to give up a shield in any case.


I can see these things being well popular....

Submitted by David McCallum #701548

Fearsome Aspect Equipment Review By Pat Willis#224534

This is Niode Chassis equipment for 75-90 ton mechas. I tried to find them in the shop but couldn't for the life of me find any. I know I got mine this last raid out, and have to wonder if they are now just tourney/raid specific rewards. They do 3X and 2X damage at 15%, Freeze at 25%, have a dodge of (8), Shield of (20), and Speed at -2.

Now given the speed hindrance I doubt folks will be stacking more than a couple here and there, who knows I could be wrong. The 2&3X damage make these ideal for most of the mid to BMF mecha that have such augmentations in their build design as is. The Freeze rate being that high percentage wise makes me wonder if these are specifically made for Ice mecha, the added shielding is really just icing on the cake here. If you can scrounge a few of these up, load up as much as you can and go to town making carnage out of your opponent.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Doorkicker Is At It Again By Pat Willis#224534

As you may know  (if you read the site) my projectile specialist Actual Intelligence battle personality interface is named Doorkicker. He started off life as a Oggun mecha. He loved his projectile weapons, and his style at the time was best described as spray n pray.

From there he got upgraded into an Ammonite. I thought maybe that would stick but the A.I. did not care for the interface and described the capabilities of the mecha as, "limited." But he stayed in the Ammo for quite some time despite his constant bitching and arguments against it.

I offered to switch him to a Harrell, but he declined. With his reasoning being it was too limited like the Ammo, and really just wasn't his look. So we skipped over the Harrell, and actually skipped over the Antithesis as well. That was simply because he wasn't fond of Dr. Drake, having fought him and his clones before, the mecha had a low opinion of both the man and any machine he may make. Granted the Antis are great machines, but you try telling that to a sentient program who argues using data from the insides of a mecha I've never seen before.

He did settle into the Magnus mecha quickly and easily when we finally got a couple. He said he liked the added options of missile and projectile allowing him to hit from various distances for maximum effect. Never mind we have equipment pieces that could have modified him at any time to take different weapon types, but hey lets go for the one with two types as build ins.

Keep in mind I never said this A.I. was "in its right mind". Personally I think his programming is a little left of center, and he enjoys blowing things up a little too much. But he has a proven kill count, we've faced just about every kind of mecha out there at one point or another together, and he's just dammed fun to pilot. So because of those reasons I offered him yet another upgrade.

Yup, I put that loony son of a snavrum A.I. into a Reaper. Was it the smartest thing to do? Probably not, but it had to beat the time I tried to let him bond with and overwrite a Nakshi mecha. That didn't end well for any one. Two Brotherhood hangers destroyed, a small fleet of mechas damaged and a Nakshi that had to be put down from the experience. So in view of past ideas in regards to this A.I. this wasn't necessarily the worst idea I ever had, maybe not the best, but certainly not the worst.

Now Doorkicker seems very at home in his Reaper shell. The big problem now is getting him to watch his ammo expenditure. The big mechas pack a ton of ammunition storage, which is great for prolonged conflicts. However it isn't so great when you are using a A.I. that is used to very limited ammo storage, and realizes its ammo now is in the tens of thousands per gun as opposed to just the thousands.

His training exercises go something like this.....

Me - Remember you have ammo that doesn't mean you have to blow it all in one shot. Basic three count and chill on the guns got it?

Doorkicker - Got it!
1...2...3... release.
1...2...3... release.

Me - Good, yup just like that.

Doorkicker - 1,000....2,000...

Me - No wait, hold on....

Doorkicker - 3,000...

Me - Just knock it off you know better!

Doorkicker - Ammo reserves barely touched...

Me - Stop it! Don't you dare....

Doorkicker - Safety disengaged. ALL THE AMMO!!!!

Me - Damn it Kicker....

So yeah some more training and maybe a personality tweak or three may be in order for him in the near future if he can't calm down. Until then we train, I level the mecha, and try and get him to understand the concept of ammo conservation.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Crossfire Hybrid Design By Pat Willis#224534

I have put this mecha in the Spotlight before, roughly one level ago so not much has changed. However I have decided to go ahead and switch up his weapon systems a bit. You see a Fext is a laser machine set up to do multiple damage modifiers in a single hit. This applies itself beautifully to the higher end damage lasers on hand. But the damage modifiers will go off regardless of what weapons you put in. So aside from the Lasers, how do you get the best bang out of your Fext?

I looked at other weapon types and decided for my personal play style to mix up the lasers with projectile weapons. Projectiles do high end damage if you're the right level to purchase such weapons. They also have nice weapon abilities like Trample and X2 or X3 damage, not to mention they are generally fast weapons as a whole. So these abilities combined with the inbuilt bonuses on a Fext got me thinking about a hybrid laser/projectile wielding design.

Please note as with all my builds I am not saying it's the best mecha out there, nor is it the worst. I simply put these up to show you where my mind is at on a given mecha at a given time. Here are the results....

Level: 116 / 116
Armor: 1532

Laser Damage + 51%
Missile Damage + 6%
Fire Damage + 7%
Proj. Damage + 30%
Speed + 59
3X Damage 87%
Trample 33%
Fork 9%
2X Damage 57%
1.5X Damage 65%
Crit-Kill 16%
Dodge (79)
Precision (74)
Shield (151)
Trample Shield 79%
Ice Shield 42%
Laser Shield 12%
Proj. Shield 38%
Proj. Shield (30)
Fire Vulnerable 15%
Missile Vulnerable 8%

Class: Fext
Weapons: 49

Crossfire

1532 Armor = base armor + 461.33% from upgrades and skills

Mech Bonuses: (Without Equipment)
Laser Damage + 41%
Speed - 27
Speed + 26
3X Damage 28%
Fork 9%
1.5X Damage 65%
2X Damage 21%
Trample Shield 70%
Ice Shield 70%
Precision (5)

As to what all is in it...
7 Cockpit slots with 5 Predicative Analysis, 1 Oculus Drift, 1 Retro Controls.

Chassis is 6 slots all Lateral Stabilizers

Engine 6 slots with 5 Orcus Wheels, and 1 Quantum Pulse.

Shields are 4 slots with 2 Viridel Epsilon, 1Crabworth Epsilon, and 1 Lightning shield.

Weapon slots 9 Blue Dragons, 2 Rage Pulsars, 4 Kaos Beams, 2 Blossoming Beams, 5 Galaxy Eyes, 5 Harmonic Disruptors, 2 Nutcrackers, 9 Kanabos, 3 Vadhar, 1 Exacto shot, 7 Big Berthas.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Corsair Mecha Review By Pat Willis#224534

Today we'll be looking at the 100 Ton crystal mecha, the Corsair. As usual all pertinent purchase information is in the image provided here, and I will be basing my review on the ones I own at my pilot level of 116.

To start with, off the showroom floor these come equipped with 2 Arbitrators , 2 Hex Cannons, 2 Smooth Bore, 2 Rail Cannons, and 3 Maulers. So it's looking to be set up for another solid projectile damage build with the starting weapons.

But then we get into build bonuses and realize this mecha has a secondary weapon build bonus. As the bonuses before equipment read as follows...... Ice Damage +11%, Projectile Damage +38%, 2X Damage 33%, 3X Damage 9%, Trample at 19%, base Dodge at 6, Auto Repair of 1, basic Shield at 8, Trample shield at 30%, Fork shield at 45%, and Wide Fork shield at 50%.

So we have a ice and lead thrower on our hands, granted the ice damage boost is nowhere near the projectile boost, but the gap can be closed with proper equipment set up. Speaking of equipment this mecha gives you some decent room to play with in that category. 5 Cockpit slots, 4 Chassis slots, 4 Engine slots, 6 Shield slots, and 34 Weapon slots round off this machine.

Okay so it has only 4 slots for Chassis and Engine equipment, so while your 100 ton mecha may never dace the ballet when dodging, or set any land speed records with its engine slots, there is still room to make it pretty workable. The inbuilt shielding here is a nice touch and can be further modified with the full out 6 Shield slots.

Really this mecha can be made into a Jack of all trades with how you set it up for weapons/equipment, and in your formation. I have found personally that these make some fine support mechas. They provide excellent backup fire and abilities to the battle that compliment my point, center, and last mecha positions. Put them in a line up with Ice mecha and watch them throw in additional ice damage, and maybe eek a freeze or two out of the support fire. Of course they make for excellent projectile support as well as they are more comfortable with projectile weapons, which is reflected in the build bonus.

So we have what looks to be a solid 100 ton mecha from the get go, with decent stats, and equipment slots that open up as you level it. Will it ever stand it's ground against say a Fext or a Reaper? Possibly if you outfit it right, but understand no amount of outfitting in the world will save you if one of those decides to Crit-Kill you, or take you out in one major overcharged shot. In either situation it doesn't matter what you are piloting you are dead meat. But it gets the job done otherwise. A solid design with decent build stats, room to grow, and options available to you for modifications and changing it out.

Also please remember this mecha is a dual wielder in both ice and projectile damage. Outfit accordingly to get the most out of your model. This will never be a Frigis, Freon, Sever, or a Boreas in so far as what it can do with ice weapons. However it will serve you well in a support role to such mechas as long as you remember that it can, and does ice damage bonuses really well.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

The Harrell A Second Look By Pat Willis#224534

Today we'll be taking another look at the crystal based, lead spitting Harrell mecha. We have reviewed this mecha before in our pages, however as I have leveled since the last article was written, I figured it was time for a second look.

 All basic purchase information is in the side image here. Please note this 85 ton mecha comes equipped with 1 Hex Cannon, 3 Wrecker Shots, 2 Smooth Bore, 2 Rail Guns, and 2 Maulers for a starting arsenal. Per usual I'll be basing my review off of the one I have, so please note this review is based on a Harrell sitting at level 116.

They really don't have much to them for build bonuses. Basic Projectile Damage bonus at +27%, 2X Damage bonus at 28%, 3X damage bonus at 27%, basic Shield at 24, and a slow ability at 8.

Now while they don't have a lot of beginning build bonuses, they attempt to make up for it with equipment slots. I have  6 Cockpit slots, 6 Chassis slots, 3 Engine slots, 5 Shield slots, and 29 weapon slots available to me.

Now the only real let down here is the Engine slots. You will be able to add some speed to your mecha but unless you go with some premium niode gear don't expect overly much, and even then depending on what you put in it still may not be very fast. However it attempts to make up for this by specializing in Projectile weapons. Needless to say those are some of the fastest firing weapons in game so it evens out a bit there.

The Cockpit slots are ample enough to fill out with some killer Precision, and the Chassis slots are set up to give this mecha decent dodge stat. So between the two you should be able to lock on and dance around incoming fire for dodge. The 29 weapon slots allow for a excellent choice of weapons. Granted depending on how you outfit the rest of your machine, it doesn't have to rely solely on Projectile weaponry.

As with most mechas you can set this up to meet your individual needs in battle. As these are solid Projectile throwers of course the majority of weapon bonuses go towards that particular type of weapon. But we all know customization is key, so don't be surprised if you run into hybrid designs centering on Fire/Ice/Laser damage, along with the build bonus of Projectile. So like most mechas this can be rigged for multiple weapon  choices. However it should be noted the build bonus here is strongly centered on Projectile weaponry, so use that to your advantage whenever possible.

All things considered it is a rather solid design, allows for customization, and can bring the pain to enemy lines rather easily. Just watch what you are putting into this mecha and pay attention to its stats and you should have no problem at all following the dots to this mechas full potential.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534