Trust me not being able to target ecm people sucks, if youre using thunderbolts TAGs are still really helpful. Get real, Its 1 ton. You arent doing anything more useful than countering ecm with that 1 ton, and no beagle probe isn't gonna do the same job because a TAG will let you paint the target and retain your indirect lock on longer for several seconds (which I have tested it works on thunderbolts too.) and this is important when you consider that the second or third indirect shot with these weapon systems as your target flees behind cover can often be the killshot.
Marauder II-4HP is my main mech, love that thing. Personally I run 8 MRM 10's and 4 Medium Pulse Lasers on mine. Great Mech, Great Video. Thanks for your content Baradul. Always enjoyable and informative.
that's actually the entire point ... actual tabletop weapon is a single projectile with any launcher functioning as a larger autocannon caliber equivalent so yea imagine a single guided autocannon 20 shot ... one might understand why the went with clustermissiles instead (with the exception of TBM5) .. and seriously take an archer with 6 TBM 5 or 2 TBM5+ 2 TBM10 ... if you get someones backside this weapon is even more terrifying than a equivalent autocannon or ppc combination because the damage is more or less guaranteed
I personally run a near identical build, but I included the passive Beagle via dropping the added DHS and the jumpjet (I never use JJs on Assaults, they're too slow mid-air), and then added 1 1/2 tons more ammo (1/2t in the arm, 1t in the CT on top of the one he showed). The loadout Baradul & myself use can and will one-shot a medium in the back if you turn away, even if you have 10pts on all back locations. And he's 105% accurate about Thuds being utterly horrible now at tracking fast targets. If you see a light that's running sideways from you, you probably will never hit it especially if it's a Locust, Flea, or Piranha - don't bother wasting ammo unless its deliberate to make them panic. OTOH if it's running straight at you or straight away? Its dead. Very. Very. Dead.
Mean Baby rocks with the Thunderbolts bar none. 2x20s and 2xs 15 bolts. Plenty of ammo, armor, heat manageability. It's an amazing build. Give it a try.
@@jordanrea9564 Hahaa. I know exactly what you mean. Especially the lights, they are like I'll get up close and personal and as soon as they get an alpha they either vaporize or they turn around and buzz off. LOL
I've been doing 2 20s and 2 5s on the Hatamoto 27T (S) because it can get the weapon velocity up over 400, and I like that. :D It's been working well for me.
Try the Battlemaster-3S with a pair of 20's. The 30% cooldown quirk with the 30% velocity quirk is delicious (and you get a nice rack of torso lasers to go with).
I run a 8 or 9 thunderbolt 5's for constant spam. Best match so far was 1267 damage. Either 4 ersml or 4 mlas. Probe, light engine and small TC and JJ's to keep shooting.
the one thing that really gets a skill check with thunderbolts is the entire, you never know how high they are gona fly thing i dont know how many times i shoot them and they hit the ground, i move forward 2 feet and they fly so high in the sky they hit a bridge
I would replace the Thunderbolts 20s with 2 Thunderbolts 10, because a single Thunderbolts 10 weighs 7 tons so total weight for using two of them is 14 tons while a single Thunderbolt 20 weighs 15 tons by itself. For my build, I added a advanced sensor package and a beagle active probe so my marauder can lock on faster visually when I see an enemy mech.
I actually found my Thunderbolts arent hitting the target very often now since the patch and after some testing I realized missile mechs with over 60% total velocity depending on the target and the mech you are using the thunderbolts tracking isn't strong enough for it to kick in soon enough to hit the target within certain distance windows even at higher ground because they instead fly in a straight line and pass overhead and hit behind the target. I found my favorite light missile mech, the (Locust-1m) has a total of 65% missile velocity with quirks and it is not able to hit its targets reliably at all at 300 meters all the way to 50m range in some cases depending on your angle and your targets mech height. It really makes that build feel weird now, I'm a little sad but I'm not sure there's anything I can do.
You know what would be fun? Dropping into a light or in a duo with another light and running behind enemy lines, marking targets continuously and chatting to the team, identifying target classifications and vectors to sort of manipulate the teams into/give the option of following some semblance of Zellbrigen.
I love how Thunderbolts feel now. I was running and Archer 2R with 2 Thunderbolt 10's and it felt really ineffectual prepatch, now they zoom towards to the target and.
@@taladel101 it would probably be fine if the video wasn't monetized, or used as a vehicle for an advertiser. In addition, though this isn't really on topic, I highly recommend "Measure of a Hero", voiced by Mage Leader. I highly ... un-recommend(?) Hmmm. Don't read or listen to Ideal war. It's nonsense, and outdated, and has very little to say of any value to our world or battletech's
I know people complain that the thunderbolts are like really weak to AMS but like... What's stopping people from mixing them in with LRM 20s to act like a screen for them?
Lol Baradul. Great games. Thank you for the entertaining video..you would have gotten even more hits in over the ridges if you had remembered you have jump jets. 😄
@@MrWhateverfits BeagleAP only helps on mechs that enter its range.. So for long(er) range - absolutely.. The Tag 100% counters any mech's ECM that it is pointed at - but only for as long as it is pointed at them. BAPs work on anything near you (but I dont know if they can break stealth tbh) so.. Both have a place to be.. I tend to run (L)BAPs whenever its possible+feasible and TAG with ANY lock-on weapon. I see/use BAPs more as an defensive ECCM-System, while the TAG is an "offensive" one. A designator with 100% ECM/Stealth counter while on target
So I had trouble hitting a stealth flea. I tagged him, locked in and my missiles kept over-shooting him even when they were supposed to be direct-fire when he was close. Then he got a little farther range, and boom! Dead Flea. But I can’t understand why I wasn’t hitting and it was like the attempt to kill the ML(?) on Tourmaline. Anyone see that before?
Sort of. They melt to any amount of AMS if someone is happening to run that and their DPS and damage per tonnage is worse than LRMS, but they focus their damage more effectively so better at stripping components.
Woof, those things can do a lot in the right situation. They are fairly hot and the range is pretty limited. Obviously AMS is a hard counter. A niche weapon, they could probably stand a slight DPS buff in terms of the rate of fire.
If you mean the Pattern its the "Davion Pattern" For Colors Im taking a guess (comparing ingame to the video): - Davion Blue - CS 2023 Red / Resistance Red - Wolf Silver / Healing White or Another "Off-" White But tbh, that could also be just Davion Blue+Red+White and compression and stuff doing its thing on the colors on my screen. xD
Oh. I watched various streamers and they keep saying “the weakness of this mech is that it is slow” about every 100 ton mech they review, with a 300 engine installed, the standard choice. Isn't it obvious that a 100 ton assault mech has a standard speed of 50 km/h, why mention that it is slow? Has anyone seen a 100 tonn mech fluttering like a butterfly a “good” (for such a streamer) speed of 70 km/h? If 50 km/h = slow for a 100 ton mech, then what speed is normal according to the streamer? Which one is good? 65 is normal, 80 is good? It’s kind of nonsense to say “slow mech” about a 100 ton mech with a 300 engine. Because there is no “fast” 100 ton mech in the gradation of this streamer. The 300-325 engine is the standard choice for the 100 ton mech. If it is faster than 52 km/h (without bonuses), then this is a specific build, either with reduced firepower, or with a special set of slots for weapons. 50 IS NOT SLOW, THIS IS THE DEFAULT SPEED. Otherwise, why doesn’t he then say “the weakness of the mech is that it cannot fly into space and carry out orbital bombardment”? Because this is the NORMAL state of a mech when it cannot do orbital bombardment or it moves 50 km/h with 100 tons of weight. My adequate gradation: 40 - slow, 48 - normal, 55 - good, 60 - very good, even faster - extraordinary option.
50kph is average for a 100 ton assault mech but slow compared to the speeds of lighter mechs. In quickplay where teammates are prone to leaving you behind it's worth mentioning that assault speed can be, and often is, a problem. Especially when talking to an audience that doesn't necessarily have tons of experience in the game (When I was a noob it helped to have such things reinforced over and over again in videos to provide context). Most non-assault mechs in MWO are running 60+ kph in my experience in quick play so calling out assaults for being below that is a pretty reasonable statement.
Yes of course but we are still running a tag because it's most powerful ability (targeting and canceling ecm) still works for thunderbolts and it retains the indirect lock on bonus as well if you paint your target with it.
Also, you still get credited for TAG hits a friend told me from his experiences with it. Still he wants to do something else with it. And it doesn’t hurt for any other missiles on your team. It did help me in my first match I tried this in to target ECM mechs.
@@reginaldsafety6090 well it's countering ECM potentially but don't forget a TAG gives you an increase in behind line of sight lock on duration as long as you painted the target before they go behind cover. It's like 3 seconds I believe, it's substantial enough.
That push in the second game was phenomenal! The team came together and responded to the other team in a most satisfyingly devastating manner :)
Trust me not being able to target ecm people sucks, if youre using thunderbolts TAGs are still really helpful. Get real, Its 1 ton. You arent doing anything more useful than countering ecm with that 1 ton, and no beagle probe isn't gonna do the same job because a TAG will let you paint the target and retain your indirect lock on longer for several seconds (which I have tested it works on thunderbolts too.) and this is important when you consider that the second or third indirect shot with these weapon systems as your target flees behind cover can often be the killshot.
Marauder II-4HP is my main mech, love that thing. Personally I run 8 MRM 10's and 4 Medium Pulse Lasers on mine. Great Mech, Great Video. Thanks for your content Baradul. Always enjoyable and informative.
The T-bolts have an insane amount of single component damage I have found.
I mean thats the point of the weapon. You trade damage and range to get single component dmg
that's actually the entire point ... actual tabletop weapon is a single projectile with any launcher functioning as a larger autocannon caliber equivalent so yea imagine a single guided autocannon 20 shot ... one might understand why the went with clustermissiles instead (with the exception of TBM5) ..
and seriously take an archer with 6 TBM 5 or 2 TBM5+ 2 TBM10 ... if you get someones backside this weapon is even more terrifying than a equivalent autocannon or ppc combination
because the damage is more or less guaranteed
@@MrTBSC I take an archer with 3 TBM 10's and some med lasers. Pretty good. I might consider dropping the XL for something more like what you said.
I personally run a near identical build, but I included the passive Beagle via dropping the added DHS and the jumpjet (I never use JJs on Assaults, they're too slow mid-air), and then added 1 1/2 tons more ammo (1/2t in the arm, 1t in the CT on top of the one he showed). The loadout Baradul & myself use can and will one-shot a medium in the back if you turn away, even if you have 10pts on all back locations.
And he's 105% accurate about Thuds being utterly horrible now at tracking fast targets. If you see a light that's running sideways from you, you probably will never hit it especially if it's a Locust, Flea, or Piranha - don't bother wasting ammo unless its deliberate to make them panic. OTOH if it's running straight at you or straight away? Its dead. Very. Very. Dead.
I was just noticing that increased hit failure on lights. Thanks for info
Mean Baby rocks with the Thunderbolts bar none. 2x20s and 2xs 15 bolts. Plenty of ammo, armor, heat manageability. It's an amazing build. Give it a try.
Yeah I've been running mine with two tbolt 20s and two lrm 20s it's funny cause people can't pick weather to run away or get closer to me
@@jordanrea9564 Hahaa. I know exactly what you mean. Especially the lights, they are like I'll get up close and personal and as soon as they get an alpha they either vaporize or they turn around and buzz off. LOL
Warhammer 7s is fun with thunderbolts, 40% missile velocity quirk!
I've been doing 2 20s and 2 5s on the Hatamoto 27T (S) because it can get the weapon velocity up over 400, and I like that. :D
It's been working well for me.
Try the Battlemaster-3S with a pair of 20's. The 30% cooldown quirk with the 30% velocity quirk is delicious (and you get a nice rack of torso lasers to go with).
I run a 8 or 9 thunderbolt 5's for constant spam. Best match so far was 1267 damage. Either 4 ersml or 4 mlas. Probe, light engine and small TC and JJ's to keep shooting.
the one thing that really gets a skill check with thunderbolts is the entire, you never know how high they are gona fly thing
i dont know how many times i shoot them and they hit the ground, i move forward 2 feet and they fly so high in the sky they hit a bridge
That's why I like the 5's and 10's, I often fire a single shot to check the flight line and follow with the fast-click chain fire or alpha
I'm rocking one with a thunder/60 set, tag, 3 er meds.
Really love it. The alpha strike followed by fast-click volleys is really interesting and fun.
I would replace the Thunderbolts 20s with 2 Thunderbolts 10, because a single Thunderbolts 10 weighs 7 tons so total weight for using two of them is 14 tons while a single Thunderbolt 20 weighs 15 tons by itself.
For my build, I added a advanced sensor package and a beagle active probe so my marauder can lock on faster visually when I see an enemy mech.
Similar line of thought. Mine is all TB 5's and 10's, 60 total. Tag, 3 er med. Big engine for the 2 or 3 internal sinks.
I actually found my Thunderbolts arent hitting the target very often now since the patch and after some testing I realized missile mechs with over 60% total velocity depending on the target and the mech you are using the thunderbolts tracking isn't strong enough for it to kick in soon enough to hit the target within certain distance windows even at higher ground because they instead fly in a straight line and pass overhead and hit behind the target. I found my favorite light missile mech, the (Locust-1m) has a total of 65% missile velocity with quirks and it is not able to hit its targets reliably at all at 300 meters all the way to 50m range in some cases depending on your angle and your targets mech height. It really makes that build feel weird now, I'm a little sad but I'm not sure there's anything I can do.
would definitely love to see more videos with these new weapon systems!
You know what would be fun?
Dropping into a light or in a duo with another light and running behind enemy lines, marking targets continuously and chatting to the team, identifying target classifications and vectors to sort of manipulate the teams into/give the option of following some semblance of Zellbrigen.
Awesome fight, as always, buddy. I would love to see you do a Naga someday.
That Warlord o7
I love how Thunderbolts feel now. I was running and Archer 2R with 2 Thunderbolt 10's and it felt really ineffectual prepatch, now they zoom towards to the target and.
Awesome run!!! 10 out of 10!!!
Baradul you should do a series were you read the BattleTech books :D
Like an audio book or review?
@@averywhitaker3513 like an audio book, maybe with comments on the mech builds described in the book and how he would do it :D
@@taladel101 might not be legal, but I'd have to check the law for that. I know that there are some audio books available on TH-cam though?
@@taladel101 it would probably be fine if the video wasn't monetized, or used as a vehicle for an advertiser.
In addition, though this isn't really on topic, I highly recommend "Measure of a Hero", voiced by Mage Leader.
I highly ... un-recommend(?) Hmmm. Don't read or listen to Ideal war. It's nonsense, and outdated, and has very little to say of any value to our world or battletech's
I know people complain that the thunderbolts are like really weak to AMS but like... What's stopping people from mixing them in with LRM 20s to act like a screen for them?
might have said this already elsewhere but personally i´d use TBMs similar to ATMs so more direct fire and indirect just as a bonus
I upped my armor a lot. Very different style from lrms
Great Video! Thank You!
Lol Baradul. Great games. Thank you for the entertaining video..you would have gotten even more hits in over the ridges if you had remembered you have jump jets. 😄
I liked the laugh when you saw the damage from the first round. The round felt so 'meh', lots of watching missiles hit terrain. But, guess not!
I thought the popup on the tbolt says it won't benefit from TAG?
tag will still counter ECM and stealth, though. The thunderbolt just doesn't get the other benefits.
That is correct, confirmed through the weapons.xml file.
@@Artificer1911 So is a tag better then a beagle probe? cause with thunderbolts the tag is doing the same thing.
@@MrWhateverfits BeagleAP only helps on mechs that enter its range.. So for long(er) range - absolutely..
The Tag 100% counters any mech's ECM that it is pointed at - but only for as long as it is pointed at them.
BAPs work on anything near you (but I dont know if they can break stealth tbh) so.. Both have a place to be..
I tend to run (L)BAPs whenever its possible+feasible and TAG with ANY lock-on weapon.
I see/use BAPs more as an defensive ECCM-System, while the TAG is an "offensive" one. A designator with 100% ECM/Stealth counter while on target
Yeah BAP doesn't counter stealth so it loses to tag there
Everyone is running Thundercocks on the Marauder II-4HP these days ...
Thunder-.. Thunder-.. THUNDERC0X!!
Thunderbolts are go!
I don't know if it's a bug or not, but i find thunderbolts often miss when at about 200m range, Even for stationary targets, even on testing grounds.
Nice rocket robot there...
It does seem like you did a lot of damage, but I'm still not sure the buffs are enough to make this an enjoyable weapon system.
So I had trouble hitting a stealth flea. I tagged him, locked in and my missiles kept over-shooting him even when they were supposed to be direct-fire when he was close. Then he got a little farther range, and boom! Dead Flea. But I can’t understand why I wasn’t hitting and it was like the attempt to kill the ML(?) on Tourmaline. Anyone see that before?
Yes it SLAPS😂🎉😂🎉
kept 3 medium lasers, tag and targeting
I have a build for you tanatos 5s with 2 ultra ac 10s and 2 er medium lasers. I have done 1300 damage in it so it can shred
Those look like they're probably way better than LRMs now right?
Sort of. They melt to any amount of AMS if someone is happening to run that and their DPS and damage per tonnage is worse than LRMS, but they focus their damage more effectively so better at stripping components.
Boom.
Woof, those things can do a lot in the right situation. They are fairly hot and the range is pretty limited. Obviously AMS is a hard counter. A niche weapon, they could probably stand a slight DPS buff in terms of the rate of fire.
what color scheme is that exactly?
If you mean the Pattern its the "Davion Pattern"
For Colors Im taking a guess (comparing ingame to the video):
- Davion Blue
- CS 2023 Red / Resistance Red
- Wolf Silver / Healing White or Another "Off-" White
But tbh, that could also be just Davion Blue+Red+White and compression and stuff doing its thing on the colors on my screen. xD
Oh. I watched various streamers and they keep saying “the weakness of this mech is that it is slow” about every 100 ton mech they review, with a 300 engine installed, the standard choice. Isn't it obvious that a 100 ton assault mech has a standard speed of 50 km/h, why mention that it is slow? Has anyone seen a 100 tonn mech fluttering like a butterfly a “good” (for such a streamer) speed of 70 km/h? If 50 km/h = slow for a 100 ton mech, then what speed is normal according to the streamer? Which one is good? 65 is normal, 80 is good? It’s kind of nonsense to say “slow mech” about a 100 ton mech with a 300 engine. Because there is no “fast” 100 ton mech in the gradation of this streamer. The 300-325 engine is the standard choice for the 100 ton mech. If it is faster than 52 km/h (without bonuses), then this is a specific build, either with reduced firepower, or with a special set of slots for weapons. 50 IS NOT SLOW, THIS IS THE DEFAULT SPEED. Otherwise, why doesn’t he then say “the weakness of the mech is that it cannot fly into space and carry out orbital bombardment”? Because this is the NORMAL state of a mech when it cannot do orbital bombardment or it moves 50 km/h with 100 tons of weight.
My adequate gradation: 40 - slow, 48 - normal, 55 - good, 60 - very good, even faster - extraordinary option.
50kph is average for a 100 ton assault mech but slow compared to the speeds of lighter mechs. In quickplay where teammates are prone to leaving you behind it's worth mentioning that assault speed can be, and often is, a problem. Especially when talking to an audience that doesn't necessarily have tons of experience in the game (When I was a noob it helped to have such things reinforced over and over again in videos to provide context). Most non-assault mechs in MWO are running 60+ kph in my experience in quick play so calling out assaults for being below that is a pretty reasonable statement.
Rating.
any missiles are not your weapon)))
In-game notes say that Thunderbolts don't benefit from TAG Bara
It’s there to cut through ecm. It doesn’t make the missles better. It just allows you to actually lock an ecm mech
Everyone knows to max out range skills with the thunderbolts right!? And say it with me "... are not affected by tag and narc!"
Yes of course but we are still running a tag because it's most powerful ability (targeting and canceling ecm) still works for thunderbolts and it retains the indirect lock on bonus as well if you paint your target with it.
THUNDER BOLTS ARE UNAFFECTED BY TAG!!!!!
Yeah, I don't think that the TAG is doing anything here.
Still counters ECM and stealth, you just don't get the lock on speed up type bonuses
Also, you still get credited for TAG hits a friend told me from his experiences with it. Still he wants to do something else with it. And it doesn’t hurt for any other missiles on your team. It did help me in my first match I tried this in to target ECM mechs.
@@reginaldsafety6090 well it's countering ECM potentially but don't forget a TAG gives you an increase in behind line of sight lock on duration as long as you painted the target before they go behind cover. It's like 3 seconds I believe, it's substantial enough.