Is the gekko any good ?

Every weapon system leveled up and in the right hands and in the right situation can be "good". Conversely,The same applies to weapons at low levels used by inexperienced pilots in the wrong situations.

To Me, Gekkos dont start to shine unless you have 3 or more on a bot and there at least level 10. The trick to running them is to let them recharge a good bit before firing them again, just because its shooting a beam doesnt mean its doing damage ( ie, the guy who never lets his finger off the fire button to let them to recharge).

1 Gekko = bad. 2 Gekko = so so. 3 Gekko = good. 4 Gekko (maxed) = for the love of god stop shooting at me! !@#$ing Patton took half my life before I even make it to the first beacon!

I'm trying not to...

Actually, I'm in the process of leveling up a Leo to experiment with Ember/Redeemer and Magnums. If i get my greedy little hands on a Dragoon, you can be sure I'll try it on a Leo as well. I better get some Gekkos leveled up too...

Like this?

Gekkos are currently the best sniper weapon. It has the most DPS of any long-range weapon (1100m), it can do the DPS of half a Zeus (and even a bit better burst) from the other side of the map. 

I hate sniping, but I still enjoy 2 Gekkos on my Gekko Zeus Natasha. If you can prevent falling asleep when you're sniping, you could go for a Gekko Leo or Patton.

This is a great post.

On my main account, when I ran it often and before the K-Bots were released, I had enough of everything but Artillery and Hydra/Spirals upgraded to 9 to run just about any build.  While yes, I lagged behind my clanmates as they rose to higher leagues, I was able to try everything that interested me.  For me, 3 games with the same hangar was odd.  I think I have settled on a hangar on my current iOS acct but even then it's not unlikely that i will switch out something before long.  (I am the same way with open world non linear RPGs like Skyrim or FO4... doing the side quests... all of them, and getting all of the weapons/equipment is part of the joy for me.)  Competition is never first on my reasons to play games... enjoyment and some form of escapism, is.

As to the OP... Gekkos are deffo worth leveling and using if you are wanting to have LR in your hangar.  Leo Zeus Gekko is my favorite gekko build right now, but the Treb or Tempest or Nashorn versions have all done well in lower to upper middle leagues.  I prefer the Leo because if I run Gekkos I like to have them as my main weapon.  On a Leo, the Light weapons become the "main" weapons and the Heavy is supplemental.  That's why I like the Zeus on it... I hit with Gekkos out to 1100 and only use the Zeus when peeps get closer and because that combination of weapons allows for a good showing of myself if I encounter a Haechi or Kumiho.  With a Leo's HP and the Zeus' fast cycle time, it can actually fare well as a MR bot if you need to, allowing me to stay in it longer than if it was a pure sniper build.  That said, a Treb is a good addition if you are sure you want to stay in the Sniper mode while in the bot.  Tempest is not the best pairing for Gekkos if you are going against CQB, pretty decent if you are against MR bots; but if your goal is to be an anti sniper... it's downright fun. 

Anyway, don't worry if they don't seem to do what you want right away.  Get them to 9 ASAP and take your time learning their intricacies.  They are pretty dang effective.

Just got this baby.
I hope I won't regret it because it will be my last purchase 'till new economy.
(And I'm not even confident about later...)

I am sorry to disappoint you, but this build is not so good. The damage output is not much higher than a PDB Griffin, but it’s soooo slow and every Orkan bot will shred you in seconds. In my opinion, the Ember is worth running only on a Lancelot (great firepower, frontal shield and Rush ability) or on an Inquisitor (great firepower, high mobility, Stealth). Every other single-Ember build is less versatile than a PDB Griffin, IMHO. Anyway, you will enjoy the constant firepower of the Magnums

For the OP: the Gekko Patton is one of the best snipers in the game. The problem is that running a sniper puts you in disadvantage on smaller maps (which are the majority) and I’m not sure if it’s worth the gold. The 4th and 5th slot, at least 4 Orkans, a Taran Ancilot and 2 Zeus are higher priorities in my opinion.

@dreamweaver, I'm starting to agree with you. It's really hard to do a build with one Ember. I've done the Lancelot thing, and it doesn't really work for me. It's even more of an Orkan bait than the Leo. Between the Ember and the Redeemer, I like the Redeemer better. Sure, the Ember looks better on paper, but the Redeemer pairs better with other energy weapons like the Taran and the Magnum so that even if you only have 1 Redeemer, you can make an effective build.

As for Gekkos, I don't see as many of them as I used to ever since I got into Expert. It's funny, I actually saw more maxed Gekkos in Diamond! I guess those people were likely tankers who had maxed their Gekkos and then went down to pummel the lower leagues. Trebs are still very much evident in Expert though, and with the upcoming Arbalest, I forsee people replacing their Gekkos with Arbalests.

Unless you like microwaving reds from 1000m away, I wouldn't invest too much time upgrading Gekkos. Mine are still level 8. I might bring a couple to level 9 as I slowly upgrade my hangar bots builds, but they're likely lower on the priority list. I'm only using 2 Gekkos right now on a Gekko/Zeus Nat. That is a very effective build on the large maps and suits me fine because I don't really like staying at 1000m. I'll use the Gekkos for some quick damage at the early red beacon runners and then follow up with Zeus at 600m.

I saw a maxed MK2 disco patton one day. It freaked me out...

A few months back there was a bug where all gekkos were behaving as if maxed to level 12 regardless of their actual level. Almost overnight there was gekkos everywhere. I tried out a gekko Patton and was impressed by the damage, but I was a little late to to the party. Like 2 days later they fixed the bug and my low to mid level gekkos weren't cutting it any more. So I'd say multiple high level gekkos are great, but gekkos have long upgrade times. So there's that. When I won 2 shocktrain I put together a gekko shocktrain Griffin. Very good. The gekkos worked very nicely with shocktrain. I would hold the fire button down until just before the 3 second ST cool down finished which is also about how long it takes to completely drain the gekkos. Then both would be fully charged and ready to fire again at almost the same time(I think gekkos are just slightly faster). Plus Griffin makes for a pretty good ST platform with it's jump ability. That build alone makes upgrading a couple of gekkos worth it if you have or plan to get 2 shocktrains. G-shock Griff.

Nashorns>kang dae

I run a 10/10 Patton Gekko on long maps like Yama and Canyon, and occasionally on Springfield. I have to say that I'm not super impressed. I only tried the Darth Vader/Disco Patton because I needed a fifth bot for my second hangar, and I had the Gekkos collecting dust in a corner. Now that they're up to a decent level, I'm still not super happy with them. I might start the match with them, but if I haven't been melted by a quad treb Butch in the first couple of minutes, I'll usually eject in to my Gunship Griff, for some midrange dusting. I may eventually move two of the Gekkos and my two Zeus to a Natasha, but I'm still undecided.