[MA] I don't like Bastion

Yeah, it's unbalanced. Stalker is still the OP mech of the game. It's absurd how quick you can kill off an opponent with right implants.

With the gold range implant it should be able to rack up some really good killstreaks. DL12s are all-round probably the best weapons for Stalker, but they can't quite rack up as many kills as an AT12 Stalker when it really gets going. Also the ATs seem way way better for FFA. I first tried DLs but they just are too slow. Made a huge difference when I switched.

Redfiend - Adding some thoughts to what you're saying. I'm at 6200sp but interestingly while I get matches against some of the 6700+ players, it's less often and usually not the top skilled. At the high levels, MM does a pretty good job of separating folks out, and frankly even if I am going up against the newest gear, I really only feel stomped when my AI becomes completely incompetent. The only exception lies in tankers, where folks have the most meta maxed gear on three mechs and two weak ones they never run. Unfortunately MM is now vulnerable to this strategy but it still requires a skilled player to really do well with it.

If this was last year, I'd have disagreed and say low spenders can still climb the ranks as long as they only focus on tournament meta builds. This game releases a decent amount of content that isn't worth buying aside from experimentation/fun and very few builds really dominate in tournament. I spent basically the whole of last year only focusing on those and climbed from high-4000s I think to what I have now. At the higher levels, implant scrap starts becoming an issue - it's best priced at 99¢ per 5K but it does add up.

But there are a couple of things that have happened now that might have a big enough impact on the game economy to end that strategy (always in Dec/January they do this). One, there definitely seems to have been a soft nerf last month of Rocket Mortars, diminishing their damage radius. While we all kind of hate RMs, they were the main way for f2p-ish players to earn in tourney. I basically built most of my hangar on the back of my RM Killy. Now that path is less viable for newer players and the replacements do mostly require spending $ to first buy the gear.

FFA may be the second big issue, although it's early and I'm not totally sure how it'll shake out. But from my experiences yesterday I noticed that a decent amount of my meta tourney gear wasn't the best for FFA, particularly Disc Launchers which unload too slow. And while some other players were reporting success with EMRs, I kept finding that my opponents were too close and my Railguns (which many new players have skipped getting) did better. Some of the other weapons that seem to do well are all ones I haven't finished levelling because of my old 5v5 strategy - SG8s, MR12s, maybe VRPG16. And while I did well with Surge and Killy, I have a feeling this mode will favor tanks. With tournament now alternating between TDM and FFA, it does seem like folks might have to focus on upgrading two separate hangars to earn A-Coins, which could kill off low spenders advancing entirely. But I have to play FFA a lot more to be sure. A lot of gear holds its value for a pretty long time in this game. There's a good chance there will be enough overlap and variety among the new maps that folks can make it work.

Overall, the game economy is on a serious decline (forgot to mention the removal of the implant discount) and this might be the final nails in the coffin for lower spenders. F2p was frankly dead already and given the lack of ads, there is some sense in requiring players to pay a little something. I am not going to coast though just yet. I was expecting a disheartening turn on game economics.in the winter. I have ended up taking breaks from the game the previous two Januaries due to similar changes (usually accompanied by MM getting really cranked up in difficulty for a few weeks). But after a bit of an adjustment, I've found I can still make it work. We'll see how it shakes out this time around.

FYI, at the higher end the AI in FFA is way harsher. It's all R6/max and they are mostly all sporting meta weapons and mechs. Guess that is the substitute for cranking up the MM in previous years.

I think FFA is showing the best builds for the fastest kills. While fastest kill builds will rock in any mode, there's still certain situations where other builds will shine in certain modes. I think F2P players will still be ok as long as they stick to those builds and play to their strengths.

Hey, I'm curious - did you try out Paragon in FFA at all? I was kinda surprised by how PITA the AI Paragons were. Admittedly, they were maxed with maxed Legendary pilots boosting their health and weapons, and have AI-level accuracy, but Paragons do have 14k more health than Panthers. Mine's stuck at R5.5, but I know yours is maxed. Any luck with it?

Koalabear - That's cool to hear on Paragon. I could definitely see that with its dash of speed that it could be good working the corners with DL16s. It's only like 1875 AC for me to take mine to R6, but like 1.4M credits to max it. That's the hold up there, but I think I'll bump it up on my list.

I have started dropping Guardian RG16 as my first mech and I recommend trying that. The first mech often goes down fast because several AI will spawn nearby but between the ability and unloading the RGs close-up, I find it's a good one to get a couple kills at least to start. And if it dies fast, then it's not your best mech, so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I have been running Stalker AT10s and it is solid. I actually tried splitting my AT10s and 12s between it and my Surge a couple times but I found it was better to keep the 12s on my Surge. Between its high HP and damage boosting ability, Stalker lasts long enough that the 10s work fine while my Surge really needs those 12s. And it took me a while to get the hang of Stalker too. It is an ambush peekaboo mech although what you're looking to do is get a concentration of enemy and mow them all down 4/5 at a time with the ability. But that's in CPC more - in FFA it's just all flying at you so fast.

I am trying to grind it out on FFA. It's really annoying that you can't access the maps in custom games to figure out how they fit together. But I am hoping after a bit I'll adjust. And I'm watching YT vids to see what the maxed crowd is doing. FFA seems pretty hard to get a good handle on though. So many different types of AI that you can't get an easy feel for how much damage it takes to kill them or for them to kill you. And trying to consistently spawn in a location is a problem too. Right now I am treating it like grinding for 1st in Grandmaster. Expect to play more games and care less about winning matches than just accumulating points overall. Emotionally distance myself from the results of any particular match. Taking a day off was good for calming down the bracket chase. Hopefully soon the novelty will die down and folks will settle into a rhythm on how many points they grind for. Until then, I am just burning extra tickets. I need my A-Coins, dangnabit!