Help! Use of Light mechs and C3

[Come and See]

Loki Prime

Pwn and C3 all in one. 

[=KoS= Eldragon]

Loki Prime

Pwn and C3 all in one. 

Indeed. If you don't like the lack of armor, you're using it wrong. 

[Terragent]

There is, however, nothing wrong with not liking the exorbitant price tag.

[sleet01]

I finally tried the Loki Prime the other night, and it is lovely.  At one point I was scouting for an assault wave and picked off three damaged mechs as they tried to limp home, all in the course of about a minute. 

In my opinion, C3 on its own is good but not great.  People will get a bit of early warning  / extended lock range, but I think it's limited in practice unless you manage your forward position extremely well.  What's *really* good is C3 + BAP/BHP + GECM.  You'll see BAs from hundreds of meters away, which means everyone in your net will see them too.  You'll spot APCs, even when they're powered down, which means anyone in your net will too.  You'll detect GECM battle formations before they'll detect you, if only by a few hundred meters, which means fewer surprises for your teammates.  Add in NARC and you can turn the whole game around.

[AlfalphaCat]

 Try an an Owens B if you want a good scout.  It doesn't have all the goodies that the Ravens or the Owey C have, but it does have BHP rather than the BAP on the C.

Ravens are great, but I personally ever use the Prime if I want to Narc, it is a good little knife fighter too, if need be, and it does as it is not even near as fast as the Owens.  Speed is what makes it shine as a scout.  Also don't worry about having to go passive if the enemy catches wind of you, better that you GTFO, or find a better position to scout from, and you can always pop it back on so as not to leave your team 'blind'.

Some may argue that the Owens C is better, even in this respect, but I'd say that all those damn lasers make you stick out like a sore thumb.  The B is just sneakier.

[Dragonlord]

I finally tried the Loki Prime the other night, and it is lovely.  At one point I was scouting for an assault wave and picked off three damaged mechs as they tried to limp home, all in the course of about a minute. 

In my opinion, C3 on its own is good but not great.  People will get a bit of early warning  / extended lock range, but I think it's limited in practice unless you manage your forward position extremely well.  What's *really* good is C3 + BAP/BHP + GECM.  You'll see BAs from hundreds of meters away, which means everyone in your net will see them too.  You'll spot APCs, even when they're powered down, which means anyone in your net will too.  You'll detect GECM battle formations before they'll detect you, if only by a few hundred meters, which means fewer surprises for your teammates.  Add in NARC and you can turn the whole game around.

And this is where the Raven comes in

I remember having a match once during 0.4.x
Had a guy on my team that really knew how to use the ravens abilities and the narcs.
I was in an arrow mech myself.
This guy would Narc an enemy mech, then I would fire my arrows as would another guy in an arrow mech.
A few seconds later, all that was left of the enemy mech was a pile of scrap metal, regardless of the class of the mech that was hit.

Incredible what you can do if you just have a few ppl who know how to play certain mech types.

[Bloodycrow]

Disregarding the strange and hard-to-use loadout, I've been trying to make use of the Loki B as a mid-game C3+Narc-er, as it has more armor and stronger weapons than the Raven Prime, but that lack of BAP can really be felt. I'd like to see it lose one of the free tons for it (if that would even be enough), but that is going into the realm of min/maxing, which isn't part of this discussion..

Either way, if you're the only C3 on the field, even if it's a loadout without BHP/BAP, it does make a difference.