Premium Time vs Hero Mech

What do Premium Time and Hero Mechs have in common?

Premium Time and Hero Mechs have two things in common: 1) They will cost you Mechwarrior Credits ( or simply “mc”). 2) They will provide you with a bonus to your c-bills earned from each match played. The bonus is really huge, and you will see up to 250,000 c-bills in a great match being pushed to your account. The bonuses even stack if you have both active at the same time resulting in close to double c-bills earned.

Where do Premium Time and Hero Mechs differ?

Apart from the 50% vs 30% c-bill bonus, there are some other differences which cannot be compared as easily. Everybody has to decide for themselves, which of these things he/she cares more about.

Premium Time	Hero Mech
Lasts a fixed amount of days.	Lasts forever.
Will expire, whether you play or not.	Does not care if you play or not.
50% c-bill bonus.	30% c-bill bonus.
50% more xp and GXP gained.	No bonus to xp or GXP.
No Mech or other items provided.	Unique variant.
No cosmetic bonuses.	Unique skin.
Works on all Mechs you play.	Works only on the Hero variant.

The following graph illustrates when the smaller, but permanent, Hero Mech bonus surpasses a 30 day premium time package. Assuming you are playing almost every day of your 30 day premium time, the Hero Mech will surpass the Premium Time package after roughly 50 days. However, this also requires, that you played your Hero Mech variant only. The amount of XP and GXP gained during 30-50 days of continuous play with premium time active is also quite significant. Using premium time will boost your GXP quite heavily and unlocking upgrades on your new chassis was never that easy.

Which Premium Time Package is the best?

 Premium Time vs Hero Mech is a very personal decision. If you don’t care about the Mech itself and play MWO constantly, getting Premium Time is usually the better choice when looking at time frames of a few months. The most practical (and arguably best) Premium Time package is the one for 30 days.

If you want to play hardcore for a weekend or so, get the 3 days pack. Its value is better than the one for only 1 day. If you want to go crazy on your free week, get the 7 days package. The 7 days package is worth more if you play at least 6 of the 7 days. On to the 30 days package: This package is so awesome because you only need to play 15 out of the 30 days to make it worth your money. The bigger packs 180 and 360 days are not worth it in my opinion. You would need to play 163/180 or 288/360 days respectively in order to achieve the same C-Bills to MC ratio as the 30 days pack. If you are actually considering getting the 180 or 360 days pack, consider buying a Hero Mech instead or at least purchase the time in multiple 30 days packages. You will have the same effect, but with more flexibility and more value. Maybe PGI will adjust the larger packages at some time in the future.

TL/DR

What premium time to get? 30 days premium time is the best value for almost all situations.

I don’t want premium time, I want a Hero Mech! All things considered, the Dragon (C), The X-5 and Pretty Baby have the best values.

---

Get Connected!

If you know of an excellent build, resource, or guide, submit it and maybe it will be featured on mwo-builds.net and seen by thousands of players. You can submit builds by sending us an e-mail, post it in the official looking-for-builds thread, or send us a private message via the official forums. You can also submit guides and builds via Facebook or Twitter (see below). Join hundreds of other Mechwarrior enthusiasts and like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Receive the latest guides and the best MWO builds directly to your favourite social platform!

Follow @mwobuildsnet

---

Read More

MWO Project Phoenix

What is MWO Project Phoenix?

Project Phoenix is a special offer for our beloved F2P game, Mechwarrior Online. The bundle includes Hero Mechs, regular variants, Mech bay slots for all of those, special cockpit items, a ton of premium time and a special forum avatar (similar to the current founders’ avatars).

What will it cost?

MWO Project Phoenix comes in 4 different sizes:

• Talon – Tier 1 – 20$
• Storm – Tier 2 – 40$
• Guardian – Tier 3 – 60$
• Overlord – Tier 4 – 80$

Is that actually worth to get Project Phoenix?

tl/dr: Project Phoenix’s game content is worth more than equivalent stuff bought with regular mc. If you get the Overlord (80$) package, the value is more than double.

Total MC equivalent of all packages and their value:

1. Talon ~6,100: 122% value
2. Storm ~14,625: 146% value
3. Guardian ~28,000: 186% value
4. Overlord ~46,275: 231% value

From a purely economical perspective, it is very worthwhile to get one of the packages, the bigger the better. One possible downside is, that you probably don´t want to spend mc on chassis you could regularly get for just a bunch of c-bills. On the other hand, you will get multiple things which you can only get for mc and some only in this package: the Hero Phoenix Mechs will no longer be available at some point. The forum avatar is something to show off your dedication to Mechwarrior. Right here, click to view if you are looking to start playing games as a whole new hobby at home or even early morning commute, it is important that you choose a casino match your gaming needs.

The above calculation was based on the following assumptions:

• Unique Phoenix Variants cost the same as current Hero Mechs.
• Regular Variants are average values based on current prices.
• Premium time is valued as if purchased in the most economical way possible.
• Medallions and Mech Bay slots prices according to the current cost in the game.
• You preorder before July 25th in order to receive +30 days premium time.

Official MWO Project Phoenix Link

Official Project Phoenix FAQ

Detailed Calculation Google Spreadsheet

---

Get Connected!

If you know of an excellent build, resource, or guide, submit it and maybe it will be featured on mwo-builds.net and seen by thousands of players. You can submit builds by sending us an e-mail, post it in the official looking-for-builds thread, or send us a private message via the official forums. You can also submit guides and builds via Facebook or Twitter (see below). Join hundreds of other Mechwarrior enthusiasts and like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Receive the latest guides and the best MWO builds directly to your favourite social platform!

Follow @mwobuildsnet

---

Read More

Fastest Way to Get C-Bills in Mechwarrior Online

One of the most frequent questions on the (Mechwarrior Online) internet is: What is the fastest way to get c-bills in Mechwarrior Online? There is no easy answer to this, but there are certain things which can be easily optimized. Depending on what chassis’ are available to you, you can focus on doing certain things during the matches. The following sections will provide you with everything you need to know in order to maximize the c-bills you squeeze out of each match played.

Killing Blows – Difficulty: high – Reward: high

Let’s start with the most obvious one to get more c-bills: get more killing blows. Killing blows reward you with extra c-bills and you will usually receive some “Component Destruction” bonuses as well. If you are having trouble getting killing blows, we recommend looking at guides which use high pinpoint damage weapons and or bursty load-outs. Such weapons include the AC/20, (ER)PPCs, Large Pulse Lasers, and SRM4/6s. Since builds are changing constantly, no specific guide is shown here. However, you will quickly find one to your liking by navigating the above menu via “by Role/Weapon”.

Kill Assists – Difficulty: medium – Reward: high

Kill Assists reward you with a similar amount of c-bills, comparable to actual killing blows. The C-Bills for a killing assist are not related to the amount of damage you have dealt. Thus merely brushing an enemy will provide you with a killing assist once the enemy goes down. A very good weapon for this is the (ER)Large Laser. When you see an enemy for the first time, try to hit him with the Large Laser, then start fighting like you would normally do. Smaller caliber auto-cannons (AC/2, AC/5 and UltraAC/5) are also a decent choice since they can fire over very high distances. (ER)PPCs are possible but much harder to hit and definitely a commitment on your build if you choose to wield one. At the beginning of the match use these weapons to leave your mark on an enemy, before engaging in the brawl. On this link everything you need to know about casinos from myth, and why they belong in the fantasy aisle.

Spotting Assists – Difficulty: easy – Reward: medium

You receive a smaller amount for spotting assists than for killing blows, but they can happen more frequently. These kind of assists are also very useful for getting a lot of experience. Spotting assists are awarded if an ally’s missiles hit your target and you targeted it as the first player. In order to maximize the amount of spotting assists you receive in a match do the following:

1. Whenever you see a red rectangle, press R to target it.
2. If you see the incoming missile symbol above your target, do not change your target until the missile symbol disappears again and/or you start to receive spotting assists.
3. Profit!

Final note on spotting assists: if you can spare the slot, equip the module “Advanced Target Decay”. It will greatly increase the duration of your lock. This will ensure more spotting assists when your target dodges behind covers and allied LRMs are incoming.

TAG Assists – Difficulty: medium – Reward: high

A TAG counts as an energy weapon and is a kind of a laser pointer. Assign TAG to a separate weapon group which is easily accessible (e.g. group 1). You must keep the TAG pressed down in order to successfully tag an enemy. An active TAG is indicated by a red bullseye/crosshair symbol over the enemy Mech. Important: TAG must be active on the target at the moment the missiles from your allies are impacting on the enemy. If you TAG an enemy, your team’s LRM boats are firing and you lose the TAG shortly before the missiles hit, you will receive no c-bills!

• You can lose the TAG while missiles are still in the air, but you must reestablish the TAG contact before they impact. Otherwise no TAG assist is awarded.
• SSRM2s also award TAG assists so don´t hesitate to activate TAG while brawling with allies.
• Aim your TAG at enemies which are untargetable (due to the ECM protection). They will be targetable as long as you keep the TAG active. Your team will thank you for that and you will receive even more TAG assists.

A build with which TAGging is quite easy can be found on this very page: Raven 3L TAG Build with ECM

Hero Mechs – Difficulty: requires MC – Reward: high

All hero Mechs provide a “30% c-bill boost”. This means that every c-bill you earn from a match in which you pilot a hero Mech variant will be multiplied by a factor of 1.3! If you played well, it is easy to break the 200.000 c-bill mark. Playing other Mechs will not provide you a bonus from just owning a hero Mech. The c-bill bonus only applies to rounds where you pilot the hero Mech. The big downside is that hero Mechs may only be bought for MC (Mechwarrior Credits) which you only get for real hard currency. If you don’t want to spend real money on this game it is no problem. If you can afford to pay 20-50 dollars for a hero Mech, you will most certainly enjoy a unique variant with an awesome paint job and a time saving 30% c-bill boost. If you don’t know which hero Mech to buy, click here for a complete listing of all hero Mech builds available on mwo-builds.net. View all Hero Mech builds

Premium Time – Difficulty: requires MC – Reward: very high

Apart from getting an insane bonus to c-bills earned, no matter what Mech you choose, you will also receive a ton of (G)XP during that time. If Premium Time and Hero Mechs are good for you depends on your playtime and style. A short guide can be found here. Guide: Premium Time vs Hero Mechs

And finally a screenshot of one of my best rounds ever (c-bill wise). Played on a Misery with active Premium Time from my Project Phoenix early bird bonus:

---

Get Connected!

If you know of an excellent build, resource, or guide, submit it and maybe it will be featured on mwo-builds.net and seen by thousands of players. You can submit builds by sending us an e-mail, post it in the official looking-for-builds thread, or send us a private message via the official forums. You can also submit guides and builds via Facebook or Twitter (see below). Join hundreds of other Mechwarrior enthusiasts and like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Receive the latest guides and the best MWO builds directly to your favourite social platform!

Follow @mwobuildsnet

---

Read More

The following variants are currently the best Mechs in MWO. They are the ones which can have the most impact on a solo PUG game. We are aware of the fact that there is no such thing as “the best Mech”. However, there are certain variants which can do what other variants can not do. They have better hardpoint distributions or allocations. Their geometry might advantageous or can do what other variants can do in addition to something else. If you are not sure which Mech to buy and play a lot solo (or in small groups) choose one from the lists below. Now without further due, here is the best Mechwarrior Online Mechs list ordered by weight class.

This listing is being reworked and updated. The last update was in September 2013.

1. Raven 3L  -  Good Raven 3L Build
2. Jenner F
3. Jenner D
4. Commando 2D
5. Spider 5D
6. Jenner K

1. Trebuchet 5J / 7M
2. Cicada 3M
3. Centurion 9A
4. Hunchback 4P
5. Kintaro
6. Hunchback 4SP
7. Blackjack

1. Cataphract 3D
2. Quickdraw
3. Ilya Muromets (Cataphract Hero Mech)
4. Jagermech
5. Catapult
6. Dragon

1. Highlander 732 / 733P
2. Atlas D-DC
3. Stalkers, especially 3F, 5M, and Misery (Stalker Hero Mech)
4. Heavy Metal (Highlander Hero Mech)
5. Victor (all variants)
6. Atlas RS and D

There are two extensive threads on this topic in the official forums. If you want a more in-depth comparison of these and all the other variants in the game check out these two threads:

Thread 1 by MavRCK MavRCK is an accomplished professional MWO player.

Thread 2 by 80Bit 80Bit always strives to provide information for newer players.

---

Get Connected!

If you know of an excellent build, resource, or guide, submit it and maybe it will be featured on mwo-builds.net and seen by thousands of players. You can submit builds by sending us an e-mail, post it in the official looking-for-builds thread, or send us a private message via the official forums. You can also submit guides and builds via Facebook or Twitter (see below). Join hundreds of other Mechwarrior enthusiasts and like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Receive the latest guides and the best MWO builds directly to your favourite social platform!

Follow @mwobuildsnet

---

Read More

Ever wondered if you should buy double heat sinks for one of your mechs, but didn´t want to spend so many millions just to try it and fail? Ever wondered how exactly the internal structure of the new mech you are saving for looks like? If it is at all possible to make that armament work? Wouldn´t it be nice to have an online tool that simulates the mechbay from Mechwarrior Online 1:1 and always have the most up-to-date patching data? Look no further, your prayers have been answered:

A guy named Smurfynet made a stats look-up site which automatically generates the data from the game files. In this way it is accurate at all times. However, the most excellent feature of the page is a mechbay simulator. It works exactly like the current mechbay in the game and allows you to plan and experiment with builds. If you register for the site you will also be allowed to store mech setups in your personal online mechbay.

Link to the Smurfy free online Mechbay tool – Click here!

The builds on this site will feature a link in the following style which you can simply click to view the setup on smurf-net:

Be sure to check out the thread in the official forums and drop him a like:

Read More

In case you haven’t found this thread I definitely recommend checking it out. A guy named Ohmwrecker put together all the cheatsheets a serious Mech pilot needs. The thread includes easy to read sheets on the following:

• All Mech hardpoints with locations on the respective chassis (Image, PDF, Exel)
• Complete and up to date weapons lists (Image, PDF, Exel)
• Information on all engines and their exact stats (Image, PDF, Exel)
• All Pilot Upgrades
• …

Ohmwrecker received the community contributor award for his contributions. Check out all the sheets in the official thread and leave him a nice response: http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/27065-ohms-quick-reference-sheets-for-all-mech-hardpoints-weapons-engines-pilot-lab-images-pdfs-excel-inside/ Be sure to check out his Youtube channel as well: http://www.youtube.com/maskedgamer

 

Read More

Endo Steel Structure is a Mech upgrade that you may purchase for roughly one million c-bills on every Mech (depending on Mech size). It will provide you with a hand full more tons (5% of the total weight) to play with but also occupy many critical slots (the lines where you put your equipment in).

Cost versus gain

Depending on your mech´s size the upgrade will roughly cost one million c-bills. Beware that undoing the upgrade will cost you roughly half that amount again! In addition,you will lose internal space to put items, called critical slots; 14 to be precise. In turn your mech´s structure will weigh only half and thus adding 5% more tonnage to play with. These 5% depend on your Mech size and can be calculated as “Maximum tonnage times .05″. Example: for an Atlas you will have 100 tons and upgrading Endo Steel Structure will yield you 5 additional tons. A Hunchback weighing only 50 tons will get a bonus of 2.5 tons.

How does it work ingame: Dynamic Structure Slots

Once you´ve purchased the Endo Steel Structure upgrade, you will notice two new kinds of items appearing in your critical slots (the lines where you equip your stuff): Dynamic Structure Slot and Structure Slot. These mark the places where the Endo Steel Structure resides within your Mech. However, they can be automatically moved to a certain extent: Dynamic Structure Slots can be treated like free slots. The Structure will be moved to another part of your Mech (where ever some space is left), and you can mount your items in Dynamic Structure Slots like in any other free slot.

Once you no longer see Dynamic Structure Slots you are out of space. If you are out of space and still have some tons left, I´d recommend maxing out armor and see if you can upgrade a weapon to something heavier without using up (much) more space e.g. Medium Laser to Medium Pulse Laser.

When to purchase Endo Steel Structure

The following list will give you a rough idea on when to consider Endo Steel and when you should think of something else. However, certain situations and builds may contradict these guidelines.

• Endo Steel Structure is  highly recommended on light and medium Mechs. Heavys often times but normally never a good idea on Assaults.
• If you need more heat sinks and/or more ammunition do not go for Endo Steel, but consider upgrading to Double Heat Sinks.
• If you are planning not to put much/anything in your arms go for Endo Steel Upgrade.
• The smaller/lighter your Mech the higher the chance Endo Steel is worth a look.
• If your Mech runs with a lot of lasers, stream srm2 and other small weapons with little/no ammo Endo Steel Structure is worth a look, too.

Read More

This blog´s main (and probably sole purpose) will be to collect the best Mechwarrior Online builds in a central location. Through the various wordpress.com features you´ll be able to easily browse builds by mech, role, or class.

If you haven´t got the game yet note that the game is now in open beta. This means that the game is free to play for everyone. There will also be no more data wipes which means that every cbill and xp you gather will be saved even if the game reaches release.

Be sure to head over to http://mwomercs.com/ to create your free account right now and start downloading the game! See you on the battlefield!

Read More