Update

Sarah’s Mech donations exceed $50,000 in just a few days and charity Mech is featured on Canadian news station CBC.
http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/BC/ID/2398278247/ Starting at 18:30

Sarah’s Jenner and Cancer Research

During May 2013, the community was moved by the early death of one of  the youngest Mechwarriors, Sarah. The community asked for a special edition Mech whose earnings should go directly to cancer research. PGI heard the pleas of the community and moved quickly to make this awesome idea a reality. Now the Sarah Jenner Mech is live for only 10$. I have compiled a custom mini-FAQ, but you can check out the official FAQ, as well. They already raised over 15,000$ in the first couple hours. As a proud Mechwarrior and having close relatives taken from me by cancer, I have already purchased mine, too. What are you waiting for? Be a hero today!

Note, that the offer is only valid until August 20th and will never ever be available again after that point.

Links to click on

• Official Sarah’s Jenner MWOMercs web page – Go there to buy your Mech now and donate directly to Cancer Research.
• Forum Thread that started the fundraiser - Read through these moving articles to see where all this started.
• Original Forum thread about Sarah – The tragic story started over here.
• Cancer Research Canada – This is where all the money will go to. PGI does not earn anything on this.
• Complete official Sarah’s Jenner FAQ page – The most important points are listed here, but be sure to read the official FAQ before doing anything else.

The Mech Specs

Although nobody should really care about that, here is it for the stats-nuts. The Mech’s paint job is inspired by the original fundraiser thread and is definitely unique. The hardpoints are that of a Jenner JR7-D, already one of the best Mechs out there and, most importantly, Sarah’s favourite Mech. The armament is also inspired by Sarah’s preferences: 4x Medium Lasers and 2x StreakSRM2. A beast on the battlefield.

Sarah’s Mech Mini-FAQ

Q: When I buy Sarah’s Mech, does the full $10 go to the Canadian Cancer Society?
A: 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society, net of applicable Sales Taxes and third-party transaction fees such as credit card and payment processing fees. These fees typically represent less than 4%. For clarity, IGP and PGI are not keeping any money from the donated funds.

Q: Can I buy Sarah’s Mech for MC?
A: No. The nature of this charitable transaction prevents us from accepting MC as a donation currency. We’ve been working hard to ensure that all funds from this initiative go directly to charity; this is completely separate from other in-game purchases.

Q: Why isn’t Sarah’s Mech in my MechBay immediately after I’ve purchase it from the buy page?
A: In order to accommodate this special charity sale, our payment system is completely separate from our other game purchases. Sarah’s Mech will appear in-game on August 23. We may be able to add Sarah’s Mech earlier in batches, but the feasibility of this will be determined by our developers at our regular scheduled maintenance periods. Rest assured, we’ll do our best to get Sarah’s Mech to you as quickly as we can after you’ve made your purchase, but no later than August 23.

Q: Do I need a Mech Bay?
A: No – we are also bundling a special Mech Bay that is exclusively attached to Sarah’s Mech, which cannot be used with other `Mechs.

Q: Will Sarah’s Mech have the regular stats and pilot tree?
A: Sarah Jenner Variant will be treated as a regular JR7-D for the purposes of Stat tracking and Pilot Tree upgrades. Sarah’s Mech provides a 10% XP boost per match played.

Q: What is the refund policy for this particular Mech?
A: There will be no refunds of Sarah’s Mech, as the proceeds are donated directly to charity.

Q: Will this Mech ever become available again after the August 20th cut-off?
A: No – this is your only chance to get this once-in-a-lifetime ‘Mech. Be a hero and just do it!

Q: Can I spend more than $10 on Sarah’s Mech?
A: No. Donations beyond the $10 promotion will have to be done directly to the charity of your choice.

Q: Can Sarah’s Mech colours be changed.
A: Yes!

Q: Can I get a tax receipt for my donation?
A: You will receive a receipt through our payment provider with your purchase. However, we are unable to issue you a charitable tax receipt. If you wish to make a donation and receive a tax receipt, we encourage you to donate directly to your local cancer society.

 

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Ilya Muromets (Cataphract Hero Mech) Dual Gauss Sniper Build

With the recent patch discouraging PPC and AC/20 boats, Cataphracts have been struggling to find new builds. If you are running you a 2X, you can build a brawler following this Cataphract 2X brawler guide. A more popular variant is the Ilya Muromets, the Hero Mech. A friend of mine at the Hell’s Black Aces Merc Corp showed me a build which has quickly become popular amongst competitive gamers. An Ilya Muromets build which is equipped with dual Gauss Rifles, Medium Lasers, and a Machine Gun. High alpha strikes, way above average dps and no heat issues what so ever make this Mech a fearsome opponent.

AMS + Machine Gun for critical hits and survivability

Higher movement speed version with AMS

Higher movement speed version without AMS but 3rd Medium Laser

•  Cataphract plus XL-engine makes you very susceptible to frontal damage. If you come under heavy LRM, AC or PPC fire from the front, take cover immediately or you will die in seconds.
• Always use your Gauss Rifles together. The pinpoint damage will make short work of what ever component you are targeting.
• When at close range, keep those Medium Lasers and the Machine Gun fire buttons held down! It is almost impossible to overheat with this build.
• Your damage output is easily focused on one point, and the damage per second at close surpasses most other builds currently in the game. If you are entangled in a brawl, keep firing all the time. Your enemies will most likely underestimate your firepower and only turn around, when it is already to late.

This build was brought to my attention by Smeg of the Hell’s Black Aces Merc Corp. Check out their web page!

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> Click here for August 20th Patch Notes <

MWO Patch Notes July 16th

Today’s Tuesday is patch day in Mechwarrior Online. Some long awaited changes have finally made it into the game. The patch notes address alpha strikes, sniper builds, victor, ssrm2 targeting and some other smaller stuff. The following list provides a quick summary for those who want the most important facts of the current patch notes straight up.

Patch Notes Summary TL/DR

• You will now generate a lot more heat if you fire multiple weapons of the same kind at once.
• The regular Victor variants are now available for c-bills.
• SSRMs will now randomly target different body parts.
• Regular SMRs had their damage increased by 33%.
• You can now select a map when running Testing Grounds.
• Crosshair Jump Jet shake has been reduced.
• Atlas RS(C) Champion Mech can now be bought for mc.
• You will take damage if you overheat (originally only if beyond 120%, now starting at 100%).
• Various bug, performance and graphical fixes.

Heat Scale for Alpha Strikes

A new game-changing mechanic is in place which increases the heat produced from firing weapons if one fires multiple weapons of the same kind at the same time. This will greatly reduce the effectiveness of sniper builds like Stalker PPC boats, “AC/40″ builds and SRM boats. LRM boats, Large Laser and Medium Laser crazy builds are affected to a small degree as well. However, not all weapons are affected.

If you would like to learn more about this, check out this guide: MWO Heat Penalty System explained without formulas

Weapon System	Max Useable	Heat Penalty
AC/20	1	very high
PPC	2	high
ER PPC	2	high
Medium Laser	6	low
Large Laser	2	medium
StreakSRM	4	low
SRM2	4	low
SRM4	4	low
SRM6	3	low
LRM15	2	medium

The first column indicates the weapon in question. The “Max Useable” columns indicates how many of this weapon one can fire at the same time without generating more heat than usual. The third column, “Heat Penalty”, describes how much extra heat per additionally fired weapon beyond the threshold you will generate.

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Original Official MWO Patch Notes July 18th

Open Beta Update #21

Upcoming Patch – Tuesday July 16th @ 10AM – 1PM PDT

Patch Number: 1.2.231

Change Log

UPDATE

Greetings MechWarriors

Top 10 Awesome things in this patch. #inmyopinion

Number 10. Visual bug Fixes – Bye Bye Flickering terrain! #thatisbetter

Number 9. Performance Improvements! We’ve been hard at work optimizing the code so 12 v 12 won’t hurt your frames as much. #cantwaitfor12vs12

Number 8. The Victor is available for C-bills now! Those with mech bays and fat C-bill accounts are recommended to purchase this ‘Mech immediately. #greatmech

Number 7...

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July 2nd Patch Notes Summary

Small changes in comparison, but they will change how we’ll play the game. Here is a short summary of the patch notes. Full original patch notes below.

• New Hero Mech: Dragon Slayer (Victor chassis, 80t)
• New (Trial) Champion Mech: Atlas AS7-RS(C)
• Slopes will slow your Mech down and steep slopes will no longer be traversable.
• New Pattern for Jenner Founder’s Mech
• Environmental sounds have been added to all maps
• FPS Button has been re-enabled (hotkey F9)
• Mechs will take damage if they overheat to 120% heat or more

Original Official Patch Notes

PATCHNOTES:

UPDATE

Greetings MechWarriors,

So we have gone and done it again! Victor Hero is releasing first and what a beauty it is. Having The Dragon Slayer in your Mech lab will probably melt your face off with pure “Mech goodness”...

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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.

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One of the most viewed build on this blog is the Atlas D-DC all-round brawler build by Strawberry5. He and myself have played this build countless times and have proven its worth in PUG games. Mechwarrior Online has evolved since then, and strategies have changed. This Atlas brawler build has been adjusted slightly to better fit 2013 meta-game requirements. If you don’t like PPCs and want to look really good on the score board (damage dealt, kills, match score, etc) give this build a try. You will not be disappointed.

If you need AMS in this Atlas build, try swapping it for the Beagle Active Probe. Do not remove ammunition in exchange for the AMS since it is already carrying the absolute minimum for extended fights.

In comparison to the old Atlas brawler build, the new version trades the AMS, ammunition and movement speed for range, a BAP and burst damage.

• Use the high max range of your double Ultra AC/5 to lay down suppressing fire and chip away at enemies during the first minutes of the match. Enemy LRM-boats and other long range builds will duck back behind cover, and potential future enemies will have their starting armor reduced.
  
• Fire your Ultra AC/5s by single clicking at all times (1.1sec). Restrain yourself from holding down the key as they will most likely jam very fast and your actual damage output will decline. Only gamble on your weapons not jamming when being faced with certain death.
• Keep in mind that your ECM will not protect you from LRM barrages while it is set to counter mode.
• Although you have a BAP, it might be useful to counter an enemy ECM at times. The default hotkey for switching ECM modes is J.
• If you are engaged in an all-out close quarters fight, do not overheat due to alpha striking all the time. It will mean certain death. Instead, refrain from using the lasers and keep using your missiles and ballistic weapons only.

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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!

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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.

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