MA - another ranking/upgrade thread

Only sense I'll throw at you is balance the Fun side of the equation with the resource management/bot advancement choice. You gotta enjoy what you play! But short term enjoyment has to be balanced against long term planning if you are F2P... so... this one is on you

FWIW - I take advantage of the Prodigy deals, the 4.99 crates that come with 500 A-Coins, if I need a few coins. I don't do it too often, but if I was really struggling between two bots and only had enough A Coins to upgrade 1, as long as the game is as OK as it is as far as the gameplay being P2W or not, I will drop that 5$ once or twice to get what I need. I don't get to grind often so... it's my answer to these type questions lol. If you are staying F2P though, then yeah, I go back to my previous paragraph.

I think it depends on what division you're in too. I had plans and plans and plans but in the end, I went with what was most effective. Ever since I hit Division 1, I've noticed the CPC games jump in difficulty, and the Tournament games easy only for the first 2 days. I had a similar decision, and in the end, I dumped my resources into my Juggernaut, even though it's my least favourite bot.  My KS is my fave bot and the most effective in Tournaments, but lets face it, in a CPC game with more humans than AI, I get creamed super fast in it. So, given a choice to R4 my Panther, KS or Jugg, I went Jugg. My Guardian and Ares are already at R4.

The R4 Jugg with PC8 is an absolute beast. It's finally got the HP, shield strength and firepower that it was always hinted at but never quite had. The only thing it doesn't have is speed, but in its place is an implacable unstoppable pushing machine that can push into red territory and take it from them and maybe even slap them around a bit. 

I had to put my Panther back to RPG6 which isn't too bad since that was my first kick butt mech. I still might end up picking up the MR6 for it though because the Stasis Field should work wonders when paired up with those.

My Ares remains with LA8 cause in my opinion, it's the superior sniper mech, head and shoulders above Guardian and Panther for this role. That's because it's shield is easy to use and lets me aim my shots. Yes, the Panther's Stasis Field is indestructible but it's harder to use effectively when sniping opportunities happen in the blink of an eye.

My Guardian remains with MR8 cause that's my most powerful weapon, and when you get in close enough to use the System Crash, you definitely want to kill your target cause if you don't, you're toast.

And, last but not least, I like Killshot with Jav6 the best. If there were a Jav8 in the game, I'd be all over it. But, the closest thing is the RM8, which isn't nearly close enough.

What weapons are you guys running on the Lancer? Perhaps I need to revisit this little guy.
Just opened my 5th hangar slot, and stuck my Paragon in there.

Javelin 4’s on mine at the moment. Perfect little hit-and-run machine. I think part of why it can last so long is because it can duck out of trouble quickly at any time, plus jump to places where other mechs can’t reach you. I stumbled back on it fir a challenge one day, and it’s remained in my active hangar ever since, the only time it comes out is when I have a MD challenge. I’m just amazed at how much havoc I can wreak with it. 

But now I’m having second thoughts. Again. Or maybe it’s third or fourth thoughts. I took a look at the bump in HP and dash damage if you rank up the Killshot to R4, and damm is that tempting. I have the time it takes to earn another 500 a-coins to figure it out. But at least I think I’ve narrowed it down to just Killshot or Lancer - which one goes first. 

Danny Linguini, You'll find that the Jav4 just doesn't have enough oomph soon enough. Its the main reason why I shelved and gave up on my Shadow. First, the Shadow upgrades slowly and secondly, the Jav4 isn't enough to even strip the shield on some high level Juggs.

If you get bumped any higher, I'd give up on the Jav4's and just run Jav6 on the Killshot and have something that is more effective for CPC games. I've found that you actually don't really need more than one beacon capper in CPC because by the time your first mech is killed, you're either ahead in territory and can spawn anywhere, or you're losing ground and can only spawn at home base. You'll want a tank to push forward, an attacker to quickly kill a red that is encroaching, or spawn a sniper mech on big maps.

I just started playing my Lancer with Jav 4s and I get how you feel. But you have to take it all the way to L5 to be able to put 6s on it, so I don't think I'll rank it past 3 for a long time. Seems like there are a lot of fun weapon combos for KS at R4, so I'd probably do that instead.

That said, you do you. I feel like there is a lot less need to chase meta in this game and there hasn't been enough experimentation yet to truly know what is and isn't worth it. Personally I am still trying to get all my bots to 3.7 but I think I'll then park everything there except my Juggs and Ares, while I pour resources into weapons for a long time. I'm definitely thinking of focusing on the Jav 4s for a bit because of my Lancer. Doesn't really seem like any other weapon for it will be half as effective.

Good breakdown but not entirely sure what the conclusion is meant to be. There seem to be a lot of fun options in speed/flanking bots category to try out and because they upgrade by 2 energy units, it seems like E4 and E6 weapons will be worth upgrading for those. Javs are uniquely fun and I really like RPGs too. Given how many bots these work well on, seems like long-term they'll be worth investing in now. Even when taking a Killshot to R4, as the OP was wondering about, it still seems like Jav 6s are going to be one of the best weapons still to equip. So you get better HP and a lot better dash damage (and try out some other good 8 combos like Missile Racks and Pulse Cannons) but often end up playing Javs still. Pretty sure this is why scape211 only recently took his KS to R4.

Anyway I'm just mulling ideas but I can definitely see a case for upgrading Javs in particular more than the bots that carry them. Tanks do need to go to R4, so you can equip E8 weapons and not compete for the same limited pool of 6s. And Killshot's R4 dash damage is a big leap up, it does seem worthwhile for just that alone.

besides the Jav6 killshot, my current goal is to upgrade bots to handle level 8 energy, and improve or acquire level 8 weapons

And avoiding these brainfarts is exactly why I'm bringing everything up evenly, with a focus on weapons beyond 3.7.

MR8 is like Javelin 6 on Juggy. Does it work? Yes. Is it a waste? Yes, unless your main goal is to be insufferable.

Well, it’s done. Killshot ended up getting the nod after all that hemming and hawing. What kicked it over the edge was a bunch of tournament games this morning, which reminded me that the jav Killshot is my go-to mech in most tournament matches, usually lasting the entire game and getting top mech. That’s where the best resources are to be gotten, so between that and a nice bump in HP and dash damage, it just made sense. Also realized the javs are a few thousand credits away from 3.7, so they will be next to get ranked up. After that, probably Jugs, but that’s still a long way off, so who knows.

Danny Linguini
Health is a resource, playing hide and seek in the toughest mech in the game is a waste.
Effective in tournament, where K/D is the only thing that matters. Not so much in CpC, where staying alive in a single mech gets a 4 cap loss and a dead team as a prize.

I'm not trying to do anything. You're taking an opinion on a videogame as a personal attack/insult.

Ares is the better missile rack platform.

Juggernaut is differentiated from Ares by it's base health, ground speed, and shield mechanic.

Missile racks have a long cooldown time.

Ares' shield is more variable because the shield going down early adds more time to it's cooldown. It also has a time limit regardless of the damage it takes. Because of that, the long cooldown meshes better with the Ares, as using cover/remaining disengaged from the fight can serve a dual purpose.

Juggernaut gets punished if it lacks the ability to retaliate, and even the slight ground speed disadvantage makes it more difficult to play cover. It's higher health pool and lower shield cooldown timer makes it better at persistent brawling, such as Pulse, Carbines, or even the stasis/lance combo.

Health is a resource. Using high cooldown weapons with a bot better suited to be the sponge on the battlefield is a waste, the same way using persistent damage weapons on a bot that goes down easier when it's shield goes down is a waste.

Will high cooldown burst weapons make a Jug playing proper cover harder to kill? Yes. Is that Jug playing cover, because it can't shoot,likely getting something else on it's team killed? Also yes.

By the numbers, it's maximizing the active/CD timers of the weapons with the Active/CD timers of the mech.

What’s the difference between taking fire while unloading your clip or taking fire while waiting to reload? I don’t care what it looks like on paper or by the numbers; I have equally leveled pulse cannon 6’s and MR 6’s, I’ve played both on the Jug on the same maps, and IN PRACTICE I do far better with the MR’s on my Jug than with PC’s. And no, that’s NOT playing hide-and-seek or ducking into cover every reload, that’s trying to stand my ground protecting a CP. I can’t imagine the results would be any different between PC8’s and MR8’s.