MechWarrior Online: Warhawk B, WHK-B, Video Series

Here are a collection of videos where I run the Warhawk B, WHK-B, 85 ton assault Clan battlemech. I primarily run it as a LRM boat with four LRM15, three Medium Pulse Lasers, and a TAG.


In the below video I fail to carry my solo queue drop team to victory. I get 3 kills and 7 assists on 1244 damage in Tourmaline Desert.

MechWarrior Online: Gimpy Talks About Clan Mechs, Game Modes, and Missile Mechs

A new player was watching my Twitch stream the other night and he had a few questions about MechWarrior Online. So, since my dinner was waiting for me, I spent the next 30 or so minutes answering his questions. The video recording is below. :)



Smurfy link: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab

MechWarrior Online: Clan Collection Wave 3

I'm surprised I held out this long (3 days), but I just bought the Clan Collection Wave 3 Gladiator pack. The four extra variants and mech bays were just too hard to resist (Must have them all!). Plus, the 111 days of banked Premium Time (60 from Gladiator pack and 51 days from Monthly Rewards) is nice to have.

In all honesty, when I first saw the list of mechs included I wasn't too impressed as I already have the iconic Clan mechs (Mad Cat, Vulture, Daishi, Loki, and Thor). But then I took a look at the Mech Specs on the Clan Collection Wave 3 page and was convinced I "needed" these mechs.

I am not a Clan only or Inner Sphere only person, but here's why I "need" these mechs.

Arctic Cheetah (Hankyu) - a true fast moving 30 ton light mech with ECM and Jump Jets.

Shadow Cat - a 45 ton medium mech with decent speed, ECM, and Jump Jets.

Ebon Jaguar (Cauldron-Born) - typical fast moving 65 ton Clan heavy mech with lots of hard point variations to choose from.

Executioner (Gladiator) - a 95 ton assault mech with Jump Jets that is fairly quick for an assault mech. The weapon load may be lacking at first glance, but it's in-game performance will determine how viable it really is and I think there's enough hard point variation to make it useful.

Now, the Shadow Cat and Executioner also have MASC (burst of speed engine modifier), but how it will be implemented is still an unknown. In the past PGI has stated MASC equipped engines have proved problematic because the game's net code has difficulty handling hit detection on mechs traveling at speeds over 170 kph. The Shadow Cat and Executioner more than likely will not approach 170 kph, but it should be interesting how they handle MASC and what the downside(s) to running it will be. If PGI can get it to work well without messing up hit detection, we may be seeing more MASC equipped mechs for both the Clans and Inner Sphere in the near future.

That's it for now and these mechs will not be available until June. So, there's plenty of time to speculate on how useful these mechs will be in all parts of the game and I believe they will be. Check out the Mech Specs section of the Clan Collection Wave 3 page and see for yourself.

MechWarrior Online: Mech Quirks

The November 4 patch brought probably one of the bigger updates to MechWarrior Online... Mech Quirks for Inner Sphere mechs. Although a handful of Inner Sphere mechs were given quirks (some positive, some negative) a while back, the list was fairly short or the quirks were not very effective.

The MWO community was not impressed and generally ignored quirks unless they effected one of their favorite mechs in a negative way (e.g. negative torso twisting and chassis turning on Victors). Not a big deal until the Clans arrived back in June. Clan mechs have been dominating the battlefield since then and most Inner Sphere mechs have been viewed as being sub-par or lacking. Piranha Games took these views to heart and stepped up their introduction of quirks to all of the existing Inner Sphere mechs.

The results so far have been impressive. Not everyone is happy with which mechs got which quirks, but overall, I feel they have made a positive difference in the game play by bringing some Inner Sphere mechs up to a similar damage potential as the Clan mechs. In the past week, I have noticed more variation in the Inner Sphere mechs being played and not quite so many Clan mechs on the battlefield.

Of course, it is still early and Clan mechs will be getting their quirks adjusted soon. But, if you haven't played MechWarrior Online recently, I suggest you do and take one of your old Inner Sphere mechs out for a spin. There are some nice changes and you might be surprised.

Be sure to check out this site that, as far as I can tell, has all of the quirks for all of the Inner Sphere mechs, It's very useful and easy to use.

MechWarrior Online: Mad Dog (Vulture) Video Series

Here is a video series of various Mad Dog, aka Vulture, builds I have been using.

In the below match on Alpine Peaks, I am using the MDD-B with two LRM20 with Artemis, four ER Medium Lasers, and a TAG. I get 4 kills and 8 assists on 879 damage.

MechWarrior Online: 1 Year Customer Appreciation Program

September 17, 2014 will mark the one year anniversary of the MechWarrior Online launch event in San Francisco, California. It's hard to believe it has only been one year. It seems like it has been longer than only one year and, despite what some naysayers have said, a lot has happened since then.

For example:

• Four new maps (Tourmaline Desert, Crimson Strait, HPG Manifold, and Terra Therma)
• UI 2.0
• Private Lobbies
• Many new Inner Sphere mechs and 8 Clan Invasion mechs
• Community Warfare Part 1: Unit creation
• Numerous bugs squashed
• Numerous weapon and equipment adjustments
• Mech Modules of various types. Weapon modules being the most notable.
• Quirks for Clan mechs and some Inner Sphere mechs

And I'm sure there are some things I have forgotten.

The best part of this anniversary is Piranha Games's Customer Appreciation Program

As a long time player and customer, I stand to get quite a few nice toys. The most notable being:

• Exclusive Centurion variant: CN9-AH with a 30% C-Bill bonus
• Exclusive Atlas variant: AS7-S with a 30% C-Bill bonus
• Exclusive King Crab: KGC-000 (my guess at the model) with a 30% C-Bill bonus
• Founders mechs C-Bill bonus increased from 25% to 30%
• Exclusive Mad Dog/Vulture Clan Invasion mech with 30% C-Bill bonus and two variants when I buy the Wave 2 Man-O-War package

 All in all, some very nice and much appreciated rewards for being a loyal customer.

Thank you Piranha Games

MechWarrior Online: Warhawk (Masakari) Prime, WHK-PRIME, Video Series

Here are a series of video where I pilot the Warhawk Prime, WHK-PRIME, also known as the Masakari. My favorite build so far is four Clan Large Pulse Lasers and a Mark VI Targeting Computer. Between the variant being built to support four Clan ER PPCs and the increased range of the lasers (641 meters) thanks to the Targeting Computer, this build is very heat efficient and can be quite deadly.

In the video below, I pilot the Warhawk Prime with four Clan Large Pulse Lasers in a Frozen City Night Assault match. A perfect place for this heat intensive build. I get 5 kills and 4 assists on 622

damage.

MechWarrior Online: Stormcrow (Ryoken) Video Series

Here are a series of videos of the Stormcrow, aka Ryoken,, a 55 ton medium Clan mech. The Omnipods allow for many different builds across the three variants.

In the video below I pilot the Stormcrow Prime variant with two Clan ER Large Lasers and three Clan ER Medium Lasers in a Frozen City Night Assault match. I get 4 kills and 6 assists on 582 damage.

MechWarrior Online: Nova (Black Hawk) Video Series

Here are a series of videos of the Nova, a 50 ton medium Clan mech. The Nova is also known as the Black Hawk. The Omnipods allow for many different builds across the three variants.

The video below is an Assault match that took place in HPG Manifold. I am piloting the Nova Prime with 4 Clan ER Medium Lasers, 6 Clan ER Small Lasers, and 4 Machine Guns. I get 2 kills and 7 assists on 649 damage.

 

In this Assault match in Tourmaline Desert, we are an eight man Death's Hand Brigade group and come back from being down 1-6 to win the match. I get 3 kills and 5 assists on 916 damage.

MechWarrior Online: Timber Wolf (Mad Cat) Video Series

Here are a collection of videos of the Timber Wolf Clan Mech, also known as the Mad Cat. The builds of each variant can be very diverse thanks to Omnipods.

Below is a match where I pilot a Timber Wolf Prime I modified to resemble an "Unseen" fan favorite mech, the Marauder (MAD-2R in this case). It has two Clan ERPPC, two Clan ER Medium Lasers, and a Clan Ultra AC 5. I have lovingly dubbed it the Marauder Cat. :) I get 6 kills and 3 assists on 943 damage.

This match took place during hour 23 of Extra Life 2014. Somehow I manage to get 4 kills and 5 assists on 735 damage. I am piloting a Timber Wolf C, TBR-C, with two ER Large Lasers, two ER Medium Lasers, and two LRM15 with Artemis.

MechWarrior Online: Clan Invasion Preview on Public Test Server

After a rocky start when the Test Server hamster couldn't handle everyone trying to log in and redeem their Clan Mechs, the fun began. A lot of fun. Clan mechs are different and powerful, but they are not over powered as many people, including myself, feared they would be.

Of course, the real test is going to be on Tuesday, June 17 when everything goes live and a few weeks have passed. Even though most of the mechs I ran into yesterday were Clanners, the Inner Sphere mechs did not seem to be overwhelmed or lacking at all when fighting them.

PGI has done an excellent job modeling the mechs and the changes to the Clan weapons are great with the Clan machine guns probably taking the best sound effects award and the Clan missiles taking the visual effects award.Of course, the best thing is perhaps the way we can customize the Clan mechs via Omnipods. The possibilities are exciting.

I'm really looking forward to Tuesday when we can play and build the Clan mechs for real. If you would like to see some actual game footage, check out my five hour Twitch recording here.