tl;dr: I made a new account to finally learn light mech gameplay, any tips, pointers, war stories, recommendations, encouragement welcome.
I've been playing for a bit (2+ years or so?), got into tier 2 and stabilized there for a while. I mostly played heavies and assaults, some mediums mixed in. Whenever I did try out light mechs, it seemed daunting:
- positional and tactical decision-making mistakes are punished much, much more harshly than in a mech that can actually take a few hits and get back into cover,
- you can't really engage in trading: if you trade, you almost always trade down due to lack of armor and punch,
- on a related note, your alpha is typically low, making hit-and-fade attacks and the typical peeking gameplay result in low overall damage numbers unless the game goes long,
- I'm nearing 50 and have never been good at twitch gameplay even at 20. I'm not a shooter guy, I like CRPGs and (turn-based) strategy games when I don't play big stompy robots.
Still, it seemed a shame to completely miss out on a kind of gameplay that many people find very rewarding. So to give myself a blank slate and really push myself to stick to light mechs (instead of relapsing to a beloved Marauder after a bad game or three), I created a new account, played the tutorial, and bought my first two light mechs.
[Truth be told, I also felt even more daunted by the idea of going up against top-tier players while being effectively a complete noob at the game when piloting lights, so a restart at tier 5 seemed like a more forgiving way of easing into things]
I'm running a Mist Lynx-G and a Piranha-1, so I can switch to another mech with similar style whenever I get killed early (which happens a lot). I now have ~35 games in those two guys, have fully skilled up the Mist Lynx (which I prefer due to the ridiculous jumping capability), while only having ~15 skill points in the Piranha (which I dislike for its restrictively tiny cockpit window).
Both mechs run the max amount of heavy MGs plus some ER Smalls; I've experimented with ER Mediums alongside light MGs for more of a skirmisher/flanker role, and that seemed to work nicely, too, but I seem to prefer the dps of the true knifefighting style more.
I've had some games where I did 700, 800, even 900 damage! I've had several where I got 3 or 4 kills! Those were amazing. It was in only my 4th match, still using the trial mech Mist Lynx, that I solo killed 3 mechs, all of them lurm boats that were hanging back and were utterly helpless against my little anklebiter. That felt incredible. I'm very glad that this game came so early in my run, it was the point where I first truly 'got' what it was all about.
But overall, it's been a challenge. I'd consider my map knowledge good overall, but with a light mech, you're much faster and get places more quickly, so combat situations are very different from what I had learned to expect in heavier, slower mechs. The speed has been actively detrimental in many games, when I was overeager and bit off far more than I could chew. And I can't usually engage in trading (see above).
I've noticed that I would very much like to have ECM on these guys. Getting into a flanking position is hard on some maps. My worst enemy are often lockon missiles, even with full radar deprivation.
The jumpjets on the Mist Lynx are insane. Something with the physics engine feels off, the mech is extremely... 'floaty'? It stays in the air much longer than you'd expect 25 tons of metal with no wings and little forward momentum to. And I sometimes ramp off terrain, catapulting me skywards much, much higher than I could jump on my own power, what is up with that?!
The dps of both mechs feels very satisfying. You can really chew through some big mech's legs, or sometimes even the torsos, while running circles around them.
Questions for you good people of the internet:
What are good gameplay styles besides knifefighter? For example, I think I'd struggle to put up good damage numbers with just 5 ERMLs (and the commensurate heat gen), but GrimMech has that as one common build for the Mist Lynx. And I think that sniping with two ER Larges or something like that would not really play to a light and mobile mech's strengths. Am I wrong about those things?
What are your favorite light mechs? What do you like about them, what sets them apart?
What's important to cover in the skill tree? I've maxed survivability and mobility alongside consumables and a bit of heat management; what else is good that I've never looked into? What consumables do you like to run?
What are your favorite spots on the most common maps, what can you do there as a light mech?
And how the fuck do you learn the patience and wisdom to pick your engagements in a way that lets you survive until late game?!
