The role of the Thor

[DrKillinger]

Hi guys

The Thor/Summoner is my favorite mech, and has been since I saw the Battletech cartoon as a child, and this love of the chassis continued through to Mechwarrior 4. In MWLL, however, it seems to be a bit lackluster. I have no doubt it can do damage in skilled hands, but other options for similar costs seem more effective. The mixed range of weaponry is a definite downside, but how does it's armor compare to other heavy mechs?

I must say that I find the Thanatos is more appealing as a brawler due to its 360 degree torso twist. The jump jets on the Thor can be effective for a quick escape, though.
For long range fights, other mechs have more missiles and/or direct fire weapons.

Where does the Thor stand? A jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none? My successes in the Thor have been mostly in the B variant, as a close-range fighter, but it is important to use the jump-jets to avoid point-blank fights to bring the ATM9 to bear.

I would appreciate other mechwarrior's thoughts!

[=KoS= Saber15]

I find them all extremely meh. The Prime is fun to use but it never feels like you're accomplishing anything in it, the A is poo compared the Thanatos D IMO, the B is pretty schizophrenic with a missile that has a minimum range of 150 meters matched to a LBX20, and C is just too damn expensive; why buy the C when I could buy a Loki Prime for a little bit more?

[~SJ~ Tajin Nevversan]

I do kinda like the Prime.

Use it mostly as an allround-mech to support others and occasionally shoot down ASF.
So yeah... it's most useful in a defensive position.

[ELH_Vivicector]

Hm. Strange to see such topic... Thor A is one of the best brawlers available. C is what you use when you want some fast jump-capable long range fighter. Prime is universal as any Prime. B is a good mid-to-close range mech.

They are all fine. 3 types of main weapons is not a real problem.

[=KoS= Eldragon]

Thor works great for the kind of pilot that can manage a very mixed loadout and engage multiple targets. A multitask-er so to speak. Most Thor variants do poorly in dueling or anyone trying to lone-wolf it. But you can grab a Thor and know that your weapon loadout will pair nicely with whomever you team up with.

 The mixed weapon loadouts are also really useful in TC mode, where you find yourself fighting at 900 meters then < 200 meters, then back to 900 in rapid succession.

Its a Jack of All Trades, master of none.

[DrKillinger]

I see your point, Eldragon, teamwork is key to making the most of this mech!

As an aside, why is the MWLL Thor so hideous he has such slender hips!

[(TLL)CapperDeluxe]

A pair of Thors of mixed configurations are hellish let me tell you.  I recall steamrolling several enemies with me in the LBX/ATM Thor and a friendly in the UAC20 variant. Their armor, speed, low cost make them a pretty ideal killing machine.  Kinda like a heavier Bushwhacker.

[=CJW=YalK]

I see your point, Eldragon, teamwork is key to making the most of this mech!

As an aside, why is the MWLL Thor so hideous he has such slender hips!

Because it was designed by a blind monkey on LSD that thought that's what the Tro was Supposed too look like, not what it actually looks like.....luckily, there is no 3rd person view so if you like too pilot it, you won't have too look at it much....

It's actually a strength cause whenever I fight it my first thought is never how to fight it but "god, why does it look like that".....


In my honest and very humble opinion with respect too the fact I couldn't do any better....

[xDeityx]

Because it was designed by a blind monkey on LSD that thought that's what the Tro was Supposed too look like, not what it actually looks like.....luckily, there is no 3rd person view so if you like too pilot it, you won't have too look at it much....

It's actually a strength cause whenever I fight it my first thought is never how to fight it but "god, why does it look like that".....


In my honest and very humble opinion with respect too the fact I couldn't do any better....

Wow.

[-AAA-]

Humble?  Riiiiiight.

Once again, I refer to:



Back on topic; why does everybody say you need to be some sort of ace to use the Thor?  Is managing three different weapons really over the heads of most MWLL players?  I don't think so.  It's just not min/max'ed, so it requires forethought on it's usage (always have an escape route in mind) and you need to protect your assault pod arm.  Asides from those two drawbacks, it's a very good all-around chassis, especially for the price.

[~SJ~MausGMR]

The role of the Thor is to promote peace and love through a forced 1.5 second break period from death and destruction, everyone knows that

[Bill]

What Maus said.

I'll also add we really don't need to have the exact same conversation we had like last month regarding the TRO?

It's Defender's baby and whilst it's not universally loved the dude put in shit loads of hours to get it done to the point that we actually have a Thor in game.

Also the A rocks the house, hard.

[=KoS= Finalizer]

As long as the server you're playing on isn't busy taking a shit with hit detection, the Thor A is an absolute monster for brawling; it's essentially the brawling brother of the Thanny D, trading armor and ECM for more damage output and JJ manuverability, all while maintaining a low price for such a powerhouse. It's a really fun variant to pilot if you wanna just demolish some stuff, particular bigger, slower targets.

The C suffers from overpriced clan energy weapons; I feel like if I can afford it, I may as well try to get the extra 10k to get the Novacat E for more damage output and a more homogenous weapons loadout. It's not a bad mech per se, just not an attractive choice to me.

The Prime and B suffer from being jack-of-all-trades designs in an environment where jack-of-all-trades essentially means useless.

If I could make another variant, I'd take the Prime as a basis, swap out the LBX20 for a Gauss Rifle, downgrade the LRM15 to an LRM10, and stick a pair of ERMBLs in the side torsos. Granted, it'd basically be a Scat C with backup weapons, but I think it'd still be an attractive combination with the plus of being on a more heavily armored chassis.

My only real beef with the MWLL design is that the legs look a bit lanky and unimposing compared to other designs. That said, I have to say I prefer Ghogiel's Thor model over the official MWLL one, though I doubt that would ever get implemented into MWLL, not to mention that there's been no word from Ghog regarding that model for a few months now.

[lordgrog]

Eh, most of the mechs have useless or 'meh' varients (often most of the varients). Thor A is really fantastic for 85k though - I'd swap the CLPulse and flamers for a trio of CERMediums, but that's just me (and would probably push up the price). Usually do muuuch better in the Thor A than the 85k rival Thanny D (but it is nice to have a Thanatos that doesn't suck). Thor B can be great on maps like TC_DV when there's plenty of ASF about and no AA - although again, a trio of CERMediums would be more useful than the CHL.

The chassis's fine, more than fine even. Mechlab will be kind to the Summoner.

[xInVicTuSx]

Prime is boss
A is BEAST
B is meh
C is aight

There are things you can do with the Thor that you CANNOT do with other clan assets around that price bracket. 

The Thanatos is similar, but it's supposed to be, it was based of the Thor after-all and shares the price brackets.

The Thor only really suffers from lack of variants at the moment, and by that I mean lack of D and E variants.

Imagine the Thanatos without the D and E... yeah...

In the Prime you need to buy one ton of LRM and one ton of LBX. Basically you need to be firing at something every moment, spam those LRMs, if you see someone camping in the distance while closing in on a brawler just fire off a salvo and it may very well hit if they dont move. Fire off that LBX at 300m~ too, don't wait until you're spitting distance. Also you need to master hitting point blank with LRMs, you get some beast damage and good mobility in a brawl if you can pull that off consistently.

The A is simple, UAC20 and win games.

B is bleh now, I never take it anymore, HLL are not really worth it in single packages at the moment and it would probably be better off with a couple HML instead. This thing used to be almost as good at the A but then Heavy lasers and ATMs both got nerfed so now it isn't really worth it. I might try it again to reassess.
Take off that LBX20 and put a Gauss on it and we have a deal. 

The C is... weird... it has some nice firepower but its hard to poptart too much with it as it gets hot quick even with its DHS. The LRM20 is nice but honestly since you never brawl in the thing it actually hurts, as LRMs really hurt point blank. It is so expensive that people are right in saying there are better options in that bracket.