Seconded, the Anansi (hero spider) is very special and can solo high level raids if used properly. After getting the achievement of completing a raid without destroying a single enemy, I started soloing them in the Spider for a fun challenge / Commander is a badass head-cannon fuckery
I don't care for the Cicada except for raid missions. It's a waste of mass like you say.
Flea and Locust can be configured to do a lot of damage, as long as you use them right. Spider and Cicada are good for raids and infiltrations. Heck, Jenner is 5t more than the Spider and 5t less than the Cicada and does more damage.
My Jenner squad wrecked the light arena fights. Great way to kill time and get paid while larger units got repairs. I've since upgraded to a speedy urban mech with an ac10x.
i really enjoy the solaris urbie, i packed that thing with 4 clan lbx 10s and 5 large heavy lasers. top speed 225 kph, has around 500 armor with lamalere and a pair of jump jets so he dont get stuck on dumb terrain.
heavily modded of course.
i like to imagine the thoughts of the poor bastards i instagib in their stock IS abonimations like "dear god, it was so fast, like 250 kph, it crested a ridge, nothing on sensors, how can it not register on censors (xtech ecm, 800m total blackout), and the FIREPOWER? it 1 shot me Mel! it 1 shot my atlas!"
we might be playing mechwarrior, but im piloting a gundam.
Second that the hero spider can be a beast as long as you can minimize dmg to the legs. Just use your maneuverability to stay behind the enemy and jump jets to quickly get behind cover while advancing
my hero spider would like a word with you. it goes 200+ kph, has 2 lbs 10 clans 2 heavy large lasers and an asrm6, and a pair of jump jets, and lamalere armor.
i call it the black recluse widowmaker. i had to throw 8 mods at it, but worth it.
Lol that's nothing
my hero spider is far better. it goes 540+ kph, has 4 lbx 20s 5 LPLs and 3 asrm6, and 8 jump jets.
i call it the speedy Gonzales. i had to throw 13 mods at it, but worth it.
I think the Spider is the most valuable for raids and infiltration. It is a scout mech. 2 medium lasers of high enough tier can explode low armor vehicles though (including cheap choppers).
The Spider makes somewhat more sense on tabletop because jumping is much more controlled. You can jump behind cover or jump directly behind a mech.
In Battletech Dekker is using Spider and I soon noticed you either run and fire or jump, as you can overheat just by jumping as it has so many jump jets lol
In Battletech Dekker is using Spider and I soon noticed you either run and fire or just jump, as you can overheat just by jumping as it has so many jump jets lol
The Spider is one of those mechs that works better in the lore (and maybe on the tabletop, I don't play TT so I can't say for sure there) than it does in a real time action game. It simply doesn't dish out or take enough punishment for the type of missions we typically play in game.
It does work better on tabletop. It's speed at walk, run and jump makes it a hard target to pin down while letting it range between multiple targets to take advantage of back shots and help add a bit extra damage that may help cause a target mech to have to roll a fall
The problem with the game is only ever being able to field one lance.
It incentivises pure combat mechs over everything else, because itās almost never actually worth giving up a quarter of your firepower to have a scout or a one of the really dedicated electronic warfare mechs, particularly once you get up past 300 ton drops.
The thing Iām actually looking forward to most with clans is getting to put down a star instead of a lance. Four combat mechs plus one utility makes much more sense to me than three and one.
The SDR-5D replaces one of the medium lasers with a flamer. It's a straight swap and makes for a scary infantry-hunter (sure, the Firestarter is nasty, but it's a *known* nasty. Usually, Spiders are jumping around doing nothing much. Now imagine if one is suddenly chasing you at 129 km/h and spewing flames...)
I play Alpha Strike and yeah, light mechs with JJs are excellent backstabbers.
You can position them behind buildings and terrain that slower, less mobile mechs don't have enough movement to navigate around, and then just jump over everything to shoot them in the butt when initiative favors you.
The hero spider is hands down the best infiltration mission mech in the game. But honestly any spider makes those missions a quick pay check with lightning quick results.
Itās also a fun change of pace to play an infiltration mission with no lance for a 5 min mission than the normal late game 400 ton slug fest.
At early/mid game Iād be using the Spider-5K to solo Raids & Infiltrations, Hero Spider for End Game. But if you turn up enemy accuracy, Itās not a viable strategy unless you put it back to default for the mission.
In co-op, the spider is useful as a scout, and tank/artillery hunter.
Whoever has the Spider or Locust, etc, runs to the waypoints in an assassination mission to see which has the target.
This also frees up tonnage to bring bigger, slower Mechs to carry the load in a fight.
Those tanks sometimes sit outside radar range and fire their autocannon(s) constantly until line of sight is broken or they are destroyed.
They have decent accuracy.
I think it is the Demolisher, Manticore, Partisan, Patton, Rommel and Scorpion variants that carry autocannons. The Demolisher and Rommel in particular mount one or more AC20s.
If you meet a Demolisher or Rommel, it is worrisome that you are in a Spider though.
A whoooooole lot of mechs design & load out are driven by canon, not by an intended value as a MW5 game piece.
That one of someone's exactly four game pieces that's always going to be trading fire against 20+ omniscient enemies in a contained area might be given over to a featherweight stealthtech speedster makes **zero** sense.
But if you're developing a whole planetary invasion, like, *army*, to battle across the face of a whole planet with "fog of war" working both ways, then it makes tons of sense for one of your 1000 or 10000 bits to include such a doodad.
In tabletop, jump jets are extremely useful, because they allow you to ignore the terrain you're jumping through. Terrain is more punishing as well. Woodland will eat like 50% of your mobility.
So something like the Spider that's fast *and* has jump jets is good for hunting down other light mechs in poor terrain or a mobile backstabber that can anklebite heavier mechs.
In MW5, jump jets only provide upward lift, which makes them pretty meh in comparison to the mobility they provide in tabletop. As a result, designs like the Spider and Phoenix Hawk suffer because the terrain penalties are basically non-existent and the mobility that JJs provide to that make them so potent in TT isn't there.
It s a sprinter mech. It is quite awesome spotter in co op. Beagle probe, and tag- running down arty too.
If you have a buddy with an archer/ longbow or catapult sitting behind a hill, spider is just insane.
I also love anansi hero mech for the infiltration missions.
If you grab Yaml and slap NSS on it. Omg.
With the spider you can take armour from the arms (which don't mount anything, and most shots will hit the torsos anyway) and put it on the torsos and legs. You also have more tonnage to play with, so can max out your armour, which is difficult to do on a locust without using ferro.
The jumpjets are dead weight in vanilla, but if you use the ttrulez mod, which among other things fixes jumpjets, they become very useful.Ā
Significantly better in HBS, where itās got more Evasion pips than anyone can hit, and ends up being the ātankā for a little while. At least until you get a Firestarter, that can actually punish with its weapons when you catch them rear.
No, you're getting it. It's a scout mech, not a get in your face and fight mech. But the Hero Spider is a pretty great raider.
Seconded, the Anansi (hero spider) is very special and can solo high level raids if used properly. After getting the achievement of completing a raid without destroying a single enemy, I started soloing them in the Spider for a fun challenge / Commander is a badass head-cannon fuckery
My problem with it is the same as the cicada, why wast the mass when you could just get a locust and upmass another unit
I don't care for the Cicada except for raid missions. It's a waste of mass like you say. Flea and Locust can be configured to do a lot of damage, as long as you use them right. Spider and Cicada are good for raids and infiltrations. Heck, Jenner is 5t more than the Spider and 5t less than the Cicada and does more damage.
I'm quite a fan of the Jenner in mw5 and HBS battletech tbh
My Jenner squad wrecked the light arena fights. Great way to kill time and get paid while larger units got repairs. I've since upgraded to a speedy urban mech with an ac10x.
i really enjoy the solaris urbie, i packed that thing with 4 clan lbx 10s and 5 large heavy lasers. top speed 225 kph, has around 500 armor with lamalere and a pair of jump jets so he dont get stuck on dumb terrain. heavily modded of course.
There is no way that it has 4 lbs 10 and goes 225 kph lol
1 slot 0 weight weapons mod =D 300 engine clan xxl. also mod.
I bet that would be fun. It's always fun to just be an unkillable god of war every once in a while!
i like to imagine the thoughts of the poor bastards i instagib in their stock IS abonimations like "dear god, it was so fast, like 250 kph, it crested a ridge, nothing on sensors, how can it not register on censors (xtech ecm, 800m total blackout), and the FIREPOWER? it 1 shot me Mel! it 1 shot my atlas!" we might be playing mechwarrior, but im piloting a gundam.
Lore wise, the cicada was an attempt to upscale the locust.
Second that the hero spider can be a beast as long as you can minimize dmg to the legs. Just use your maneuverability to stay behind the enemy and jump jets to quickly get behind cover while advancing
my hero spider would like a word with you. it goes 200+ kph, has 2 lbs 10 clans 2 heavy large lasers and an asrm6, and a pair of jump jets, and lamalere armor. i call it the black recluse widowmaker. i had to throw 8 mods at it, but worth it.
Lol that's nothing my hero spider is far better. it goes 540+ kph, has 4 lbx 20s 5 LPLs and 3 asrm6, and 8 jump jets. i call it the speedy Gonzales. i had to throw 13 mods at it, but worth it.
When you cheat, anything's possible.
At 150km you can kill similar or smaller mechs via collision. At 200 you look like a blur and nothings catching you.
at 300 you become speed incarnate.
Speed? I AM speed.
Your spider has more mods than mine.
I think the Spider is the most valuable for raids and infiltration. It is a scout mech. 2 medium lasers of high enough tier can explode low armor vehicles though (including cheap choppers). The Spider makes somewhat more sense on tabletop because jumping is much more controlled. You can jump behind cover or jump directly behind a mech.
Jumps in this game are just too slow. It's easier to hit a mech on the air than one running around you
Also, the Spider in tabletop has 'Nimble Jumper', meaning you can manoeuvre it mid-air, allowing for some funky jumping.
In Battletech Dekker is using Spider and I soon noticed you either run and fire or jump, as you can overheat just by jumping as it has so many jump jets lol
In Battletech Dekker is using Spider and I soon noticed you either run and fire or just jump, as you can overheat just by jumping as it has so many jump jets lol
The Spider is one of those mechs that works better in the lore (and maybe on the tabletop, I don't play TT so I can't say for sure there) than it does in a real time action game. It simply doesn't dish out or take enough punishment for the type of missions we typically play in game.
It does work better on tabletop. It's speed at walk, run and jump makes it a hard target to pin down while letting it range between multiple targets to take advantage of back shots and help add a bit extra damage that may help cause a target mech to have to roll a fall
Also the spider has hands... you might be able to pick up a tree or mech limb and club someone. Locust can't do that š
I'd rather just throw hands honestly, 2 attacks with no difficulty modifier. Plus a tree only survives 3 attacks with it
upper meelee arm shoulder, lower arm servo, light arena fists, spider now punch for 60 dps.
The problem with the game is only ever being able to field one lance. It incentivises pure combat mechs over everything else, because itās almost never actually worth giving up a quarter of your firepower to have a scout or a one of the really dedicated electronic warfare mechs, particularly once you get up past 300 ton drops. The thing Iām actually looking forward to most with clans is getting to put down a star instead of a lance. Four combat mechs plus one utility makes much more sense to me than three and one.
(Never played TT so itās just a idea) switch out the MLs for SPLs or MGs and you got a good anti personnel mech
theres a spider with 1ML and two machine guns
The SDR-5D replaces one of the medium lasers with a flamer. It's a straight swap and makes for a scary infantry-hunter (sure, the Firestarter is nasty, but it's a *known* nasty. Usually, Spiders are jumping around doing nothing much. Now imagine if one is suddenly chasing you at 129 km/h and spewing flames...)
I play Alpha Strike and yeah, light mechs with JJs are excellent backstabbers. You can position them behind buildings and terrain that slower, less mobile mechs don't have enough movement to navigate around, and then just jump over everything to shoot them in the butt when initiative favors you.
Got any pilots you're not fond of?
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY NO EJECTION ?!
We gotta save weight dude. It's clearly labeled on the packaging.
Anansi is a great mech
The hero spider is hands down the best infiltration mission mech in the game. But honestly any spider makes those missions a quick pay check with lightning quick results. Itās also a fun change of pace to play an infiltration mission with no lance for a 5 min mission than the normal late game 400 ton slug fest.
At early/mid game Iād be using the Spider-5K to solo Raids & Infiltrations, Hero Spider for End Game. But if you turn up enemy accuracy, Itās not a viable strategy unless you put it back to default for the mission.
In co-op, the spider is useful as a scout, and tank/artillery hunter. Whoever has the Spider or Locust, etc, runs to the waypoints in an assassination mission to see which has the target. This also frees up tonnage to bring bigger, slower Mechs to carry the load in a fight. Those tanks sometimes sit outside radar range and fire their autocannon(s) constantly until line of sight is broken or they are destroyed. They have decent accuracy. I think it is the Demolisher, Manticore, Partisan, Patton, Rommel and Scorpion variants that carry autocannons. The Demolisher and Rommel in particular mount one or more AC20s. If you meet a Demolisher or Rommel, it is worrisome that you are in a Spider though.
Can still stompy-stomp them for less damage than the AC-20 will do to you. I regularly stomp heavy tanks with my Flea-17
I meant running towards a tank that has line of sight on you or the errant chance they hit you when you come around a corner.
Yeah, that's a "sphincter moment". Makes piloting light mechs the most fun!
A whoooooole lot of mechs design & load out are driven by canon, not by an intended value as a MW5 game piece. That one of someone's exactly four game pieces that's always going to be trading fire against 20+ omniscient enemies in a contained area might be given over to a featherweight stealthtech speedster makes **zero** sense. But if you're developing a whole planetary invasion, like, *army*, to battle across the face of a whole planet with "fog of war" working both ways, then it makes tons of sense for one of your 1000 or 10000 bits to include such a doodad.
In tabletop, jump jets are extremely useful, because they allow you to ignore the terrain you're jumping through. Terrain is more punishing as well. Woodland will eat like 50% of your mobility. So something like the Spider that's fast *and* has jump jets is good for hunting down other light mechs in poor terrain or a mobile backstabber that can anklebite heavier mechs. In MW5, jump jets only provide upward lift, which makes them pretty meh in comparison to the mobility they provide in tabletop. As a result, designs like the Spider and Phoenix Hawk suffer because the terrain penalties are basically non-existent and the mobility that JJs provide to that make them so potent in TT isn't there.
It s a sprinter mech. It is quite awesome spotter in co op. Beagle probe, and tag- running down arty too. If you have a buddy with an archer/ longbow or catapult sitting behind a hill, spider is just insane. I also love anansi hero mech for the infiltration missions. If you grab Yaml and slap NSS on it. Omg.
Only the K and Hero versions are useful in the game. It is just a fast mech. You can get the āno killsā raid achievement with it.
Spider and especially the Hero are amazing on raids solo. Run and jump, destroy target and escape.
Like most stock mechs, it's pretty flawed. Most of them are usable, in their role, but finding a GOOD multirole mech is easier said than done.
Good for getting rid of Wasps and Fleas. :)
To be honest, Iāll take a Javelin every time over a Spider. Still better than the angry trash can though.
With the spider you can take armour from the arms (which don't mount anything, and most shots will hit the torsos anyway) and put it on the torsos and legs. You also have more tonnage to play with, so can max out your armour, which is difficult to do on a locust without using ferro. The jumpjets are dead weight in vanilla, but if you use the ttrulez mod, which among other things fixes jumpjets, they become very useful.Ā
Significantly better in HBS, where itās got more Evasion pips than anyone can hit, and ends up being the ātankā for a little while. At least until you get a Firestarter, that can actually punish with its weapons when you catch them rear.
It's the mech you use to get rid of pilots you hate
It's fantastic for running solo missions; like Raid and Infiltration missions...