Some of the points I would make could already been posted here, but anyway:
1. People in BA tear me to shreds. I can never get a fix on them. What is the best weapon/tactic against BA?
Keep medium distance, unless you want to break the fight completely. If you too far away, you would have troubles seeing BA and your radar wouldn't track it's signature, if you're too close, BA could get into your blind spot or keep behind you. 100-200m is a sweet spot for me.
BAs are small targets and extremely maneuverable, especially if they are skilled in using their jump jets. Moreover, they could hide behind a smallest rock so the best tactic is to engage them in the open and try to wait for the moment when their JJs are recharging(after a long jump, for example) and their maneuverability is limited. Don't let them get too close to you, as they can throw their C8 explosive at you, which is extremely dangerous for a mech. MHL is also dangerous but is limited to 150m so if pressed by MHL-equipped BA, you keep the distance.
Circle of death is not very effective against BA, the best tactic is to backpedal while keeping BA in your sight. and it's the only good tactic for a lone assault, attacked by a single BA. It could be tricky though as you need to consider the terrain behind you. Getting stuck while fighting a BA could be fatal. If BA jumped on your mech, the best way to get rid of him is to call for assistance from your team. BA couldn't move a lot while sitting on your mech so it's an easy target for your teammates. If you're alone in such situation, you can try to eject and engage BA on foot, but it's not really a good tactic as dedicated BAs are usually have better weapons and chances are skilled at BA combat as well.
Never ignore BA if you're not fast enough to escape from it, especially if you're alone. If attacked by multiple BAs, don't be distracted by them, jumping around you. Choose one of them and concentrate your efforts on killing him, as if it's the only BA around you. Keep pressing until you kill him or he completely escapes from you or hides, then switch to another BA. And keep your eyes open you the targets of opportunity. But, keep in mind that 2-3 BAs working together could be extremely dangerous, so it's usually a better tactic to disengage and retreat instead of fighting them.
Anti-BA weapons of choice:
(ER)MBL: Good range, formidable damage against BA, usually negligible heat. Fire 2-3 of these simultaneously and you can shoot BA in one salvo without being extremely precise.
AC5 and UAC5: Even a couple of rounds of this cannons could rip BAs to shreds. With full-auto fire, great RoF, very good range and almost no heat generation, (U)AC5s are perfect for hunting BA. The only downside is their rareness(only a handful of assets mount them) and limited ammo supply.
RAC2s and RAC5s: pretty much the same as (U)AC5. Wind-up time make it harder to hit a BA that is popping back and forth from the cover but better RoF make it really good for hitting BA in the air or in the open ground.
Good against BA:
(ER)LBL: Practically the same as MBL but as it generates more heat it could give you some troubles on mech with bad heat management.
(U)AC2s and MGs: excellent RoF allows these weapons to keep BA under constant stream of bullets. But as damage is quite low, you need to hose BA for some time to kill it. Thus those weapons usually used as an addition to lasers or heavier ACs to boost damage to BA or to scare BA away.
MRMs, SRMs and SSRMs: Direct trajectory and wire-guidance(except for SRMs) as well as good splash damage allows these missiles to kill BA quite easily, if it's close to the ground. On the other hand, jumping BA are much harder to hit my missiles.
Somehow good:
(ER)PPC: this one is tricky. It's splash damage and good projectile speed as well as formidable damage allows you to kill BA in one hit. Hardest part, though is to actually hit it. Best way to use PPC as an anti-BA weapon is to wait untill BA is on the ground(or better yet, he's just landed after a long jump) and fire PPC into it. Even if the projectile miss, large splash area will guarantee you a kill. Firing PPCs into a jumping BA is really hard and shouldn't be done, unless you have very good aim.
(U)AC10s and 20s: almost the same as PPCs(excellent damage and splash), but it's projectile are a little slower and max range is shorter.
MPLs and LPLs: with it's beam "pulsing" on and off during the discharge, it's harder to use pulse lasers against BA. Shorter range, compared to beam lasers is also a problem.
Bad against BA:
Gauss, HGauss and LtGauss: as it has no splash damage, you need a direct hit. It still could be used but requires very good aim to hit a BA.
SBLs and SPLs: with extremely short range and low damage it's almost useless against BA, and only should be considered a backup weapon.
Flamers: it has boosted damage against BA but slow stream speed and short range make it hard to use against small, maneuverable target. The best use for a flamer in a fight against BA is to try to "smoke out" BA , hidden behind a cover.
Unusable against BA:
LRMs and ArrowIVs: having a 300m "blind spot", this missiles are only could be used against BA at long range or "dumbfired" at extremely short range when looking at the ground so that some of the missiles would hit the ground and damage BA with their splash.
LongTom: Being a stationary target when deployed to fire it's cannon and sluggish when on the move, it's an easy pray for a BA. If you caught in LT without any escort in, your best chances are either call for help or engage BA on foot. Taking some Anti-BA weapon(BA MG, Flamer) with you, when piloting LT is a wise choice.
2. Same question as #1, but with the flying units
AC2s AC5s and RACs are the weapon of choice for AA duty. LBLs and MBLs could be easier to hit with but their damage against aeros are not really impressive.
LBXs have excellent damage against Aeros but their range is extremely limited so it's more of a weapons of opportunity, than a dedicated AA guns.
Keep in mind, that mech, even when crouched, have limited torso elevation, so they cannot attack aeros that are directly above them. AA tanks(partisan, Huit) and Harassers, on the other hand, could fire vertically up so that vehicles are much better suited to engage flying assets.
Air to air combat is still rudimentary in MWLL due to almost non-existent flight model, so taking an aero to take down another aero is not the best choice.
3. Is center torso/head the main/best target area?
Targeting CT or HD is the fastest way to kill the mech, but sometimes "arming" is the better option, especially in the case of mechs that have most of their weapons on the arms. Targeting the biggest gun(SCat C's Gauss arm, Holly's RT, Thanny's HGauss) could be very effective is your opponent has one. Legging is somehow questionable as many players view it as a bad sportsmanship to use it as a primary tactic. Rear torso(rear armor section for tanks) is also a good target, as it's armor is usually thinner and with RT armor gone, enemy would not only loose half of it's speed but also would receive more damage when RT or CT is hit. When attacking tanks, shooting turret is the best choice as
not only their weapons are located there but it's easily targetable from any angle of engagement.
As the rule of thumb though, the best tactic is to attack is to attack the most damaged part of the mech. It allow you to exploit enemy's weakness and cripple it fast, reducing it's capabilities.
4. Opinions will vary on this one, but what is the best starting mech and why?
Until you're refine your skills, best rides for you are Owens B and Cougar A.
Owens B is an SRM boat, it's extremely fast and well armored. 2xSSRM6 would allow you to kill a most light mehcs quite fast so you could hop in do some damage here and there and then run away, boosting your speed with MASC, when you smell trouble.
Cougar A is a jump-capable LRM boat, that is a good starting support mech. It's helpless if engaged in close combat, so staying 400-700m behind your brawlers and supporting them is a best tactic for that mech. Cougar C isn't the most fun to ride IMO but it could let you earn some cbills to buy a better mech, if brawling is not for you.
5. What is the best weapon to buy for BA?
MHL/PPC combo is most popular loadout in 0.3.2. MHL is deadly for both BAs and mechs at close range while PPC could fire up to 700-800m and also packs quite a punch. TAG and BA MG are almost useless, the former is usually ignored by LRM boats, the latter could onlt damage BAs and is not very powerful against them either. And don't forget to buy C8 charges, they could do tremendous amount of damage to mechs.
6. Are there any good websites/guides for MWLL so I can research myself?
As was already said,
MWLL Wiki has some useful
guides. I also recommend reading
pro tips thread for some useful advices. Just keep in mind that some of the posts there are from the times of 0.1.X or 0.2.X so older posts are not always in line with current state of play.
Hope this would be helpful.
