Now the purpose of the holly is a fire support. Let everyone else run in, you tag along and pick off targets. It can effectively delimb a mech rather quickly. Just don't be the target.
The problem is why would you even take a Hollander Prime over a different support mech, like the iPoke Uziel or the Gauss Uller, both of which are available at the same time as the Holly Prime IIRC. They both offer more/equal firepower, are more survivable, and have equal or more speed. Neither of those have JJs, but they have far superior firepower. The other Hollander variants are fine (but give us a special slot for the HUGE GUN please), but the Hollander has a really awkward loadout. The quad small pulse lasers are laughably useless; 200m range on a mech that needs to stay at least 500m to survive. Swap out the SPLs for ER Medium Lasers and you've got a nice loadout.
The Uziel's Lt Gauss don't do shit to anything heavy or heavier. The Kit Fox doesn't have the staying power of a Hollander with only 1 ton spare. The SPLs are more or less designed to be useless against anything other than an unlucky BA.
I don't see why some people are hating on the Hollander. You've simply got to keep a low profile. Know when to go passive, when to hide behind a hill, and when to perch yourself on a nice vantage point and peg away with the superior range of the Gauss Rifle. Ideally, never, ever get engaged in a fight. I think it's got itself a unique role, and that's the role it was designed for: lightweight, cheap heavy weapons platform. Glass cannon, all the way.
I did pretty well doing that with the Hollander Prime. The HGauss version can be played similarly, but much more in a close support role, and the purple round screams "rape me for points" so you've got to be savvy with survival. The UAC20 version is much more subtle. The RAC5 is... something.
Very much this.
I was on Kagoshima last night in Hollander C. We had just captured a base and everyone split. I stayed and hid in a nearby canyon on passive waiting for another attack. Sure enough 3 lights come in soon enough and I dispatch the first puma with a barrage of gun fire before it know whats going on. Granted once my cover was blown I was a sitting duck for the other two due to how close I was, but getting the jump on the enemy is the key with Hollander.
I love lighting mechs up with the RAC5 up close and personal.
