The Requirkening

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The Requirkening

PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 5:20 am

BlueFlames
Posts: 465
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:24 am
Location: SSX Vault 12
Today was a big patch day for MWO. Lots of general balance changes migrated out of the public test environment and into the live servers, and most of the Inner Sphere mechs have had their quirks significantly revised. While PGI is developing a better understanding of their game and what makes and breaks a mech, resulting in fewer ludicrously powerful go-to variants on this pass, it's also still their wont to overcompensate when addressing problems, meaning some of the bad variants are amazing again.

That said, I've been looking over and trying out some of the altered mechs that I own. Here's my first-day impressions:


CRB-27sl

I've been playing with my jumping, PPC-sniping Crab most of this evening. This particular variant was almost untouched, except that the durability quirk on the arms was reduced, and durability was slightly improved on the side torso sections. It's a subtle change, but it really improves the mech's ability to survive under fire. There's just a little more margin for error, when you take your shot and have to twist away from the enemy to shield an open torso section.

Most of this post is going to focus on mechs that experienced more extreme changes, but even the chassis variants that experienced a light touch in this balance pass are worth taking for a spin again.


CRB-27b

A fairly common theme among the quirk changes was to reduce the magnitude of quirks for specific weapons and move the lost value into the corresponding general weapon quirk. For the CRB-27b, that meant the ER large laser heat generation quirk got reduced, but the general heat generation quirk was raised to a 10% bonus. Given that this is the Crab with an extra energy hard point, that's an important boost that will help it keep fighting longer.

In the same vein, the CRB-27b, along with the other two non-jumping Crabs, had significant durability quirks added to the legs and all torso sections. Seriously, it's a 50% bonus to the internal structure of each of these sections. In the Crab build thread, I said that these were pretty squishy mechs, owing to the need to mount XL engines in many of the builds, and their lack of durability quirks in the legs and side torsos, but these huge structure quirks do quite a bit to resolve that problem with the chassis.


GHR-5H

Remember how the high shoulder hardpoints made this my favorite of the Grasshoppers? Yeah.... It also won the quirk lottery on this pass. Gone are the stupid cooldown quirks for medium lasers and missiles. In their place, the energy heat generation quirk was boosted to 15%, and an energy range quirk of 15% was added on top of that. If you pile on a 10% range module for your PPCs, they will do full damage out to 675m and can still tickle a mech at 1350m. The extra bonus to heat generation is nice, but that range quirk is not to be underestimated on a mech with high-mounted weapons.

All of the Grasshoppers also got additional mobility quirks. The net effect of these quirks was largely to shield the Grasshopper from the effects of reducing the skill tree bonuses. This helps the GHR-5H retain an important ability of a sniping mech that it was in danger of losing--the ability to reposition quickly.


HBK-4SP

I could tell you about the quirks for this variant, but you wouldn't believe me. The GHR-5H won the quirk lottery, but the HBK-4SP started a quirk stock brokerage as a cover for a pyramid scheme and made a comfortable retirement in a non-extradition country, before the feds could figure out what was going on.

Go forth and brawl.


PNT-10K

The PNT-10K used to have a massive ERPPC heat generation bonus. Most of that has been turned into a general energy heat generation bonus. It's now a general bonus of 20% and an additional 5% for ERPPCs. For a primarily energy-based mech, that's nuts. On top of that, all of the Panthers got a sizable durability buff, helping to make up for their low engine cap.

The next build thread was going to be Wolfhounds, and the Panthers in my mechbay were going to continue gathering dust. Because the PNT-10K got such a boost, though, I might wind up building out and mastering the Panthers ahead of or instead of the Wolfhounds.

Re: The Requirkening

PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 1:54 am

User avatar
Ozone
Posts: 850
Joined: Sat Feb 19, 2005 5:52 pm
Location: 93m miles from Sol.
Mmmm...
This may kick my arse into getting in a bit more often. Loved my 4SP till it got eclipsed by other mechs, would be nice to see it as a viable zippy brawler again.
Plus it'd be nice to power up the UAC5/ML/MG Jaeger and see if it can still rip chest-pieces to shreds.
Thats for the heads up.
"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" George Bush, Jan. 11, 2000

Re: The Requirkening

PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:16 am

BlueFlames
Posts: 465
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:24 am
Location: SSX Vault 12
The game feels pretty good right now. It's a good time to jump back in. In addition to the balance shuffling, frequent events providing a couple days of premium time each is really easing the grind too.

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