So, You Want to Run a Merc Company: Heavy & Assault Mechs ~ MechWarrior 5 Career Guide (2022) ep. 4

In this episode Manus discusses the heavy and assault mechs he uses the most.
Intro: 00:00
Greetings Mercenaries: 02:34
The Best Heavy & Assault Mechs: 04:05
Stalker 3H: 04:44
BattleMaster 1D: 05:29
Archer 2S: 06:00
Black Knight 6B: 06:48
Orion K: 08:40
GrassHopper 5H: 09:27
Atlas D & RS: 09:45
#MW5
#Battletech
#MechBuilds

[@ksb7938]

The skits at the beginning are genuinely not good

[@00Phish]

I wasn't going to subscribe because of the skit but seeing as the creator took it well, I respect that. Enjoy another sub.

[@draygonsol7863]

Grabbed a Stalker 3F extremely early on after having several horrible game restarts with bad luck happening constantly. Until saw this cheap and slightly damaged machine, grabbed it up repaired it and focused on defense missions to build myself back up and it did wonderfully. I've never fallen this much in love with a base loadout before and used it as intended instead of trying to be cheeky like I always had. This mech taught me the value of being patient and a new found love for multi ranged loadouts.

[@SinnerBeta]

Battlemaster was my first assault in MW5 and I really fell in love with with it, but Stalker is my classic underdog of the class. Black Knight is for when I feel a fancy pants but my heavy slot is usually filled by something less in-universe rare. As for AI lancemates I prefer to the Awesome for them - three PPCs, nothing fancy for them to screw up or rush in with.

[@Justowner]

I feel like the awesome is the best AI lance-mate assault. I don't think Ive ever had serious damage on it even when missions go side-ways.

[@IRateVideosInTheComments]

Mine was an atlas, I liked finding high tier mechs

[@rhoetusochten4211]

The "Our Mrs Reynolds" allusion got you my up vote. Just bought/downloaded MW5 last night, (on sale now!) So I'm testing the online community waters. I like your style.

[@neogoterra]

People always sleep on the Victor feel like most people can be surprised on how good it actually can be.

[@Papercut337]

I just swap the Jump Jets for more armor. Makes the Victor much more survivable for my lancemates.

[@neogoterra]

@@Papercut337 same that or just put one or two jump jets in to help getting around also double heatsinks are really useful

[@danielmyers-cowan3416]

Hell yea, twin medium rifles with a AC5, few medium lazers and srm4 is a dope kit. Snipes cabins like a unit while still being zippy and durable

[@neogoterra]

@@danielmyers-cowan3416 I tend to go with a lbx10 a pair of srm 4 and two or three medium lasers maxed out armor with jump jets and if possible a light engine or endo structure I call it the taurian special cuz it gets up in thr enemy's face and tells them to get off its lawn.

[@acehigh79]

Like the gauss rifle variant of the victor. Same with the Zeus.

[@Kepora1]

In my experience, all I can say is **HIGHLANDER FUCK YEAH**

[@matty5888]

I usually run two AS7-K and the Stalker variant with EW as a missile boat in 90-100 difficulty zones. Put two ER large in the stalker and he will fire continuously from a distance. Atlas' run er ppc and solid slug lbx. With their AMS I can snipe comfortably in the Corsair or Nightstar.

[@ImperviousSC]

I found an Archer-2K on the market recently, and i absolutely love that as my command mech. Max armour, 2x large lasers, and 2x SSRM6 is just a really nice balance of range damage and some really nasty close range DPS. It runs a bit hot when trying to use everything at once, but it's manageable. I find that lancemates are awful at using LRMs, so I basically never run any LRMs on anything, and I also seem to have better results from SSRMs than regular SRMs. I also find that the humble medium lasers are one of the most efficient weapons for medium-close range combats, so I aim to use mechs that can mount at least 2 of them when possible. The Stalker variant with ECM is nice. I'm a fan of keeping one in my lance, but I only take it out when I know I'm in for a rough fight as it is soooooo slow. Like everything else, I mount SSRMs on it instead of LRMs, and give it to a lancemate. I'm a big fan of mixing up my lances. I really like having one lancemate using primarily PPCs for the long range, so something like an Awesome or a Warhammer is pretty often in my lance. However, I find that a second mech mounting PPCs does not make as big of an impact on a battle as the first one does, so I try to never take more than 1 at a time. Some direct fire ballistic mech is also useful, like a Jagermech with AC5s or one of the Marauder variants with the torso mounted ballistic weapon (I downgrade the weapons on Marauders from PPCs to large lasers to help minimize heat issues). These seem great at dealing with vehicles and VTOLs really quickly at moderate and close range, and are great at distracting enemy mechs, and this consistently does a good chunk of the lance's damage. It's also nice to have some kind of close-range brawler in the lance too, to help distract the enemy and take their attention away from either myself or my longer-range mechs that typically do most of the damage. For that I've been a fan of the Thunderbolt and Hunchback if I can't fit a big assault mech. I find that both of them are very efficient brawlers for their weight. My typical lance seems to always be something like myself in a mech that hits out to moderate range and is capable of brawling (so my Archer 2K or something like a Marauder or Jagermech), a Warhammer or Awesome as my 2nd mech, a Marauder or Jagermech as my 3rd mech, and a brawler as my 4th mech (I definitely seem to use my Hunchback most often for weight reasons). If weight is an issue where I can't run 4 of these mechs, I'll typically just use the first 3 mechs only, and I'll take on the brawling role myself as needed. I also have a Phoenix Hawk-2 in my cold storage that I used for a long time. That ECM came in so handy. It also handled an upgrade to a PPC fairly well in the hands of a lancemate.

[@roguerifter9724]

My main Mechwarrior 5 character uses a Grasshopper-5P with a Grasshopper-5N as a backup for multi missions contracts. Both Mechs have the standard PPCs replaced with ER PPCs. For high tonnage mission I give my Lancemates a Catapault or Archer, a Maruder-3D, and an Awesome or Warhammer-6D I don't remember what my last ride in the story campaign was because I never finished it I had salvaged a or bought a Warhammer-3D.and I was very excited because one of my favorite pre-Helm memory core mech custom designs I created which I ran in many Battletech games and Mechwarrior Tabletop RPG campaigns was a slightly modified Warhammer-6D. Unfortuantely I soon discovered that for some insane reason the Mechwarrior V developershad set the medification rules to prevent the changes I wanted to make. Basically the Warhammer-6D is a 6R with all the ammo and ammo dependent weapons removed, four tons or armor added to the legs and a couple of extra heat sinks. My variant replaces half the extra leg armor with jump jets and for some reason in Mechwarrior V there are strict limits on what Mechs and Mech variants can equip jump jets. After I couldn't make the mods I wanted I returned to my free mode Rasalhague based Merc unit run where I already had my Grasshopper-5N, (I got my 5P a few days later)

[@NUCLEARxREDACTED]

Really new to mw5 but so far a simple kingcrab-0000 with 2 burst fire ac-20 and a ppc, hold the missiles, is my favorite. Chews through enemies really well. If I need to make sure stuff dies fast, I bring it along.

[@burnttacoconspiracy5786]

My personal use Assault 'mech is the Stalker STK-3F fitted with 2 PPCs, 4 SRM 6s, and 4 Flamers, the PPCs cover range and accuracy well enough, meanwhile the SRMs cover just about any enemy within 300m. Once they get in range of my flamers then it's as simple as frying em and peppering them with the SRMs until I can finish off the main body with the PPCs, very effective.

[@hopelessdecoy]

I really like the Orion and certain varients of the catapult as my heavies and the cyclops and king crab as the assault mechs

[@owlsayssouth]

Love the flavor. Very nice. My favorite heavy mech is the marauder. It's a solid platform for bearing faces in. If it had a draw back, it's the lack of regular missile options for some LRM indirect fire support. But why fighting targets in LOS, I would take one over any other 75 ton mech. I love my Atlases. You can build them into whatever role you want in 100 tons. The classic build is actually really great. I love explaining to enemies that the Range stat on the AC20 is a suggestion not a rule, and blasting them from 2-3 klicks out.

[@johnathan651]

The double light rifles works great on the Thunderbolt, too. I usually drop the SRM 2, but always switch the LRMs for a SRM 6.

[@JamesSavik]

As a rookie who didn't want to learn sixty different mechs, so I specialized in the Warhammer. It's not the strongest mech ever, but it is nicely balanced. If you learn to get the most out of it, you will be a pain to run into.

[@ShadrackMeduson]

The hero black widow variant of the warhammer is a beast with max armor capacity and double heat sinks. Tho i replace the mp lasers with normal medium lasers and the er ppc for normal ppc. To add more heat sinks for total heat performance

[@asrafkhalid1231]

warhammer is one of the heavy mech i loved beside marauder cause headshotting assaults or other heavy with ppc/large n medium laser

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

The Warhammer - because in war 'good enough' is perfect. I for one prefer the Marauder (and especially the Marauder II) over the Warhammer, but it is a solid mech nonetheless.

[@roguerifter9724]

I like the Warhammer 6D a lot. A slightly modded 6D is one of my favorite designs that works at pre- Helm Death memory core 31st century tech levels. Unfortunately for some reson the developers programmed the game so removing two tons of armor to add Jump Jets was impossible otherwise a Warhammer variant would have been my character's primary ride for the rest of the story campaign (Which I never finished due to not being alble to modify the Warhammer and having a Mech I adored in my free mode campaign.

[@PeachDragon_]

It is in fact good enough to do anything

[@Hexsyn]

I appreciate the firefly reference

[@hideshisface1886]

Stalker 3H is kind of redundant, though, if you do not use it with LRM20. 3F already has SRM and LRM10, and if you sacrifice some heat, or Large Lasers, you can go with LRM15. FB variant gives you LRM15 with Artemis, ER Lasers and ECM to boot - if you manage to get short burst version of ER LL, and MLs, heat isn't much of a problem, and you maintain the same monstrous DPS this thing can do, while being more lenient with heat management. As for Battlemasters - there is also an ECM variant, fairly similar to 1D. You can easily mount a PPC on this beast, and 4 medium pulses if you sacrifice the machine guns. Archers are nice, but run quite hot if they spam LRMs. That said, AGK hero variant is a monster is specialised for LRMs, because of Beagle - both in player and AI hands, as it can fire without line of sight detection in medium range. With Black Knight - you can't go wrong with it - medium laser spam boat, PPC/ER LL hand, it will also work. Obviously there are Atlases - RS variant from my experience works well in AI hands. Give it PPCs in arms for longer ranges, SRM and LBX-10 for short and you've got yourself a pretty potent beast. Or, you can go with LRM20, 4 MLs and Gauss - this should also shred anything at any range quite consistently. I'd say that Awesomes are also worth a mention - wonderful in hand of AI - 3PPCs do wonders. And mech is also pretty cold - it can basically keep firing forever without much problems with heat. You also can't really go wrong with Warhammers - very good weapon selection on them, though they do tend to run a bit hot - but a full lance of them usually shreds anything before heat management becomes a problem.

[@luckyomen]

I used to run an Annihilator with fast AC5s and a standard loadout of lasers. It was a lucky pickup and always outperformed the Atlas in most situations. The height made it a decent sniper mech and I have little concern for speed outside of Artillery concerns. I usually had a pair of Marauders as back up and an Urbanmech when the tonnage allowed. For heavier engagements, an Archer was always welcome as fire support. Rainy days saw the use of 2 Banshees and a Stalker when I wanted to bring out all the stops.

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

The Annihilator is like a walking skyscraper. Very slow, but a prominent view. If you're running a mission where the enemies come to you that won't be a problem. If you need to cover 6-8 kilometers though you're looking at 20 minutes of walking time...

[@ShadrackMeduson]

Try the annihilator with 4 slug LBX autocanons. With level 4 or 5 you can destroy whole lances of heavy or assault mechs on your own. No other weapons needed so max up ammo, amor and double heat sinks and bam a real dakka machine.

[@aeonise]

The Stalker 3H and 3F variants are probably my favorite base-game Assaults because 1) nothing makes me happier than sniping some fool with 4 PPCs (except sniping them with 6 Clan ER PPCs, but that's mod territory), and 2) having all 4 at the very top of the chassis but still on the "arms" makes the Stalker a master at peeking over cover to snipe.

[@CapnArrich]

I personally enjoy the Stalker STK-SFB variant. It drops some rockets and picks up a Guardian ECM, and with its remaining weapon points, you can give it some pepper. Still, glad to see it on the list.

[@Papercut337]

The Black Knight intro was perfect “luckily the best of them was a dumbass so I just shot him in the face when he shut down” lol the Black Knight is one of my favorite mechs as well, and I make similar modifications. The problem is that in MWO, everyone zeroes in on the CT, and I get cored super early.

[@liquidleopard4495]

The first few times I used a couple of Stalkers, I made the mistake of having my AI minions drive them. Half the lance fell behind, and wasn't there when I needed them. The solution was to drive the slow-ass mech myself. That way everyone can keep up.

[@ManusDextra]

Or... You COULD slow down. I'm pretty sure there's a control for formation speed to keep everyone together. .. just saying.

[@yollnahkriin6604]

I would add Annihilators and Stalker -3F. Annis are just most powwerful mechs in whole game with no doubt, both in armor and dmg(as an example, my main Anni had 4 heavy rifles and 4 medium lasers which is enough to two-shot any mech in game in torso from ~1km), while Stalker 3F is best brawler in game with 4 SRM-6, 2 PPC and 4 MP lasers.

[@yollnahkriin6604]

And also most hero assault-heavy mechs are OP, hero KK Carapace is just strongest mech in game, hero Kintaro can ONE-shot most mechs while being medium, hero Raven runs 140 km\h and outdpses most assaults, and hero Javeline with 2 SRM-6 and 4 M lasers which is best light mech in game.

[@LutherMahoney]

4 heavy rifles? I can't even find ammo for the one I have.

[@FrostyThundertrod]

I like your blacknight build

[@monostripeexplosiveexplora2374]

Well, everyone is always ending up with the steiner scout lance set-up.

[@D64nz]

1:00 Just waiting for him to give me the honest trailer to Comstar.

[@bigboi7817]

Cheap and easy lance is 2 Awesomes and a Stalker LRM/laser boat along with whatever youre driving at endgame. I prefer the marauders with xl and junp jets.

[@kevingrozni]

"and stupid people need things to spend money on, too!" Funny as hell.

[@tennoskoom2233]

another Black Knight 6B enjoyer I see! if you swap everything to short burst type lasers, and add on 2 more DHS, you'll rarely overheat, if at all. A very flexible and resilient build, somehow the black knight just takes less damage overall, maybe it's the hitboxes. And when you upgrade it, it's very simple to hit the 20% (15% energy + 5% damage tuning) boost and have room left for armor, cooling or energy range. For Atlases, may I suggest the Atlas K with AMS? It is a long range monster that can defend the lance, and when partnered with say a Battlemaster P (BAP + ECM), becomes a nearly indestructible fortress.

[@nickevans7116]

Hear me out, I run the flee

[@whydoyougottahavthis]

I'm sucking at this game and finding that putting tons of high rate ultra or auto cannons and high end machine guns even as they do a lot of damage if they are tier 4, and hosing the living shit out of the cockpit of any mech at distance or up close is working out for the moment

[@jacobhamilton2473]

I fell in love with the ac-10 burst first time I used it on my starter centurion. Most medium mech legs can only take a couple of bursts before they were limping and easy pickings for my Lance mates to pick off while I hunt down another target.

[@kevobot9342]

My first assault in this game was a Zeus that I got from discount dans

[@matthewgodwin6688]

Long range can be guided and small unguided or stream I got dlc and now chemical laser that reduced heat generated How get ecm and tags Can you put them on any mech or do you need certain mech I don't use ppc cause it almost impossible hit light mech

[@adarvirohfanbelarus8889]

5:27 wow, didn't notice I can check the damage stats, I just was blind for that table:D

[@timothyferrelli8274]

EPIC VOICE GUY!!!!!!

[@bradhedgehog12]

That’s good to know but the thing is Where and when can you find these mechs. All I have for the time being are 50 to 55 tons. A centurion two Trecbects and a Shadow Hawk. For now

[@DailyFrankPeter]

9:44 there should definitely be a variant where the AC is in lower CT. They should call it ASD-CK

[@badship01]

I think the Stalker 3FB is better than the Stalker 3H ... Double Heat Sink, Endosteel and also a ECM

[@commando0110]

i see you like 12 rear armor as well

[@GreatFreedom]

for IS mechs the king crab, otherwise clan mechs i ts the savage wolf

[@Original-Yellow]

Tabletop or in mw5 I'll never understand how people make the archer work It just doesn't for me

[@acehigh79]

I love the archer. I downgraded the lrm launchers to lrm 10's. That allows me to also run 4 er med lasers. All extra tonnage goes to heat sinks.

[@donnerrob6615]

The best mech in the whole game isn't mentioned...the KGC-CAR Hero with 4 UAC5... that mech is an anti-everything weapon...

[@jasonmcdonald9352]

I like to give my AI pilots the Atlas k

[@MrKoprulu]

My first heavy was a mackie killroy, my god its a shitter but I've found not a funnier gunboat.

[@Xenobears]

The marauder II 4a is one of my personal favorites… it’s not the BEST assault mech (not by a long shot), but it’s fun. The firepower seems underwhelming on the energy-only 4a variant, but you get jump jets, copious armor, and enough heat sinks to effectively say “what’s heat management?” and face roll your weapon groups. In universe it feels like a great choice for deployments where consumable supply drops might be scarce. In game I just enjoy melting fools from above. The Hero variant King Crab is another favorite-two SRM packs and four tier five ultra autocannons can shred enemies surprisingly quickly.

[@GuTTs1975]

4 min in to get to the useful info

[@casualwoodchuck]

Video waste a bunch of time with random adlive Creator content of the guy pretending to talk to a computer about his personal life

[@LSDon-gs7bz]

so i was gonna bitch about the stupid opening but it seems someone beat me to it if he had to put that remark in the video lol

[@discoceto9988]

don't listen to that guy the skits are super fun

[@McMackster]

Why you shotting on Elon Musk, he's the best thing to ever happen to Twitter.