A big note as someone who has spent many hours in faction; NEVER REINFORCE. this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. If you die first, wait for everyone else to die and move out as a group. Many times if you try and reinforce, you will get to the fight as all your friends have died and then its 3 damaged guys and you against 5+ moderately damaged enemies, and in this case now you've lost 2 mechs before their second wave has dropped. The exception is defence. In this case, if you are on say wave 1 and dont die, push out if ur below 70% health or have low ammo. If you die before the wave starts feel free to reinforce, but this is basically the only exception. Otherwise, NEVER REINFORCE.
For is i recommend 2 annis, a commando and an assassin if defending, an anni and 3 bushwackers is great for attacking. On clan side, 2 kodiaks and 2 piranhas is a very good way to go. That being said, mostly just go with what makes you feel comfortable and for attack on siege, try and keep it above 75 kph on at least 3 of your drops, the anni should be your last drop if ur going to bring it at all, noone expects the 4th wave anni
Mad 2c B, Mad 2c B, Your choice of medium mech, either Pirannah or Critlynx. Madcat2c first 2 waves, your light 3rd wave, and medium for mop up. For mediums I would suggest either the wub Hunchback that he suggest, Vapor Eagle with ATMS, Huntsmen Pakett with streaks. Utility Mechs you should have Warhawk-Prime with Quad PPC, Hellbringer Laser vomit, Ebon Jag Laservomit, Hellbringer with Er Large lasers. Also one other thing that Blackhawk does not mention is double cool shot double artillery strike is extremely useful for faction play. Almost all my faction play mechs have it. Its easy extra dps.
I don't use consumables because they have a net negative effect on your CBill earnings. They're designed as CBill sinks by PGI and they do that job pretty well. Yes they're effective, but you pay the price. I only recommend it for people who have CBs to spare, and certainly for new-ish players that's not a good idea.
Hey man, do try it sometimes. Some games are really intense and comes down to the last mechs in a 48 v 48 (link - th-cam.com/video/_FuFqJ_N6uw/w-d-xo.html)
I need to try out your BAS-D build. I built it as a MC-II-B clone. Matter of fact, I will try out your dakka build on the D, though it might be a better laser boat. The dakka builds were running ECM.
I theory crafted with the 2x10s and 2x5's but one of the 5's is on the relatively low mounted arm, you give up the ECM, and your weapons become left oriented, which in the solo queue, doesn't work as well as right stacked.
Most people only have 1 account lol... I have multiple accounts, initially to be able to join different factions but it turned out not to be necessary.
What is your suggestion for getting into FP games? I tried playing with my friends but the queue was unreasonably long. Any suggestions to cut the time?
You're welcome! If someone's lucky enough to buy the right mechpack, for example the MCII or Blood Asp pack, it'll give them 3 or sometimes 4 of the 6 mechs they need right away. I'm not suggesting people do that, but if they did it cuts down half the work of getting into FP (you just need to skill them).
2 EMPs on your team in that match which is pretty lucky. That's one of the things about dropping solo, sometimes you get the better team and sometimes you don't.
looking for a little advice on my Assault purchase. I'm a casual player and I'm building a clan Deck since my "guild" is mainly just clan contracts and more have CLan Drop Decks as well. My issue is I'm a Casual player. and not the greatest. When I shine though I do 500+ damage a match but I make dumb mistakes. now due to my Casual playing it takes some time for me to get the money for a single Mech. in fact I think on 2 of the 9~ MEchs I have were bought with cbills. the others are Loyalty and MC. I'm considering just buying an Assault with MC or when the drop deals thing on the site is good. my current Drop deck is EBJ-EC Laser Vommit, a Loyalty Nova S set up like the one you used in this video, and a ACW-P set up as Laser vommit. I can fit an Exact 100 ton Assault in the build. I'm also not against just running 2-3 Heavies and a Medium TBH. Most of my FP will be with my "guild" so I believe I should be able to be fine with running Heavies. What's your recommendations?
You should ask your unit which mech they want you to run. If they have no recommendation and you want a "generally good" clan assault, one of the Mad Cat Mark IIs is a good choice, like the MCII-B. You can see my video on that chassis here th-cam.com/video/hrfbCMdb6yo/w-d-xo.html You don't have to use up all the tonnage. It's fine to leave some tonnage on the table to take better mechs. Just not too many tons. I don't recommend laser vomit to be the light/light-medium in your drop because they're supposed to be dropped last and you want the last mech to be good finishers. Laser vomit, which is a term for mixing medium class lasers and large class lasers, is for trading, not for killing off hurt mechs. If you mean you've got an MPL boat, then that's fine.
@@BlackhawkSC i know you suggested the MCII-B and i dont doubt that. Im kinda wanting to run the Marauder IIC. I used to RP Battletech and this is the MWO version of the Stone Rhino my character used. You mentioned a variant of that. The company im in is fairly casual so they say to just run what i want including tossing a trial into the deck to complete it xD
Haha OK, yeah you should run what you want. It's just that FP can be full of tryhards and it can be tough to do well without the right deck. The MAD-IIC is a good mech though, just not as good as the Mad Cat IIC.
@@BlackhawkSC which Varient of the MAD IIC would you recommend and how would you equip it? I already have a lot of lasers. The EBJ-EC has 2LL and 6 ERML. The ACW-P is 1LL(might be pulse cant remember) and 5 ERML may swap this around tbh, MPLs and maybe shoulder missiles. I find missiles are good against Lught Mechs.
There's a ballistic variant, which is the -A. If you must run a MAD-IIC and want to avoid lasers, that's the only variant you can do that in. 2xUAC5+1xUAC10+ERPPC with an XL350 engine (the rest ammo). If you run the base variant, you can do 9xMPL split into two groups.
Plz halp, cbills are not an issue. I run 2 hbr 2hll 4mlas, tbr 2lpl 4mlas, shc 2xppc. Overbuffed mechs of freebirth scum won 5 games of 5 this night. Was my first fp play in a year. What are the better deck?
The video gives you some general guidelines and example builds to use for a FP deck. The HBR and SHC builds don't have good DPS values for FP. The SHC and TBR don't have good firepower to weight ratios. Those two factors are pretty important in FP. The HBR should use LPLs instead of HLLs. If you do the math (which I've already done), the LPL build give you better sustained damage. Even in that case I'd still only take that build out in cold maps. A better deck would be MCII-B/2x EBJ or HBR/ACH or 2xMCII-B/HBK-IIC or HBK-IIC-A/PIR-3. Check the video for specific build types you should be taking on the 2 heavies in the middle.
@@Tequila628 as I recommended in the vid you can/should have an LRM mech yourself. It's better to take advantage of the map you're given than to counter whatever the enemy has. Another way to look at it is offensive potential > defensive potential when it comes to choosing mechs.
Im just coming back - can you actually play Faction Play and get a drop? Before it used to be nothing but ghost drop after ghost drop followed by a ton of waiting....
Assassin 21 with 4 srm 4s is amazing if you have the tonnage, commando 1d with 2 srm4s is good if ur really good with fast lights, otherwise 2d with 3 srm4s if ur lacking on tonnage and not good at going 160 kph.
When you get an FP match, there's the prep screen where you see who your teammates are, as well as the map and game mode. You'll see a countdown timer on that screen. You have at least one minute to recognize the map and select your mechs.
BlackhawkSC ohhhh, we can change our drop deck before you drop, I was always use one drop deck for clan and the other for IS, that explains a lot why other people have correct mech for the map. Also which key do you bind for consumables?
@@BlackhawkSC Issue is, having a deck/mech that is dependent on only a couple of maps in the entire rotation is rather wasteful. There are opportunities for other builds in every map though. Issue is, IS typically has faster moving mechs, so their ability to run to cover and keep free from locks is typically better. Plus, their penchant for pushing in quick for a more advantageous in-your-face brawl really limits the capabilities of LRMs. Therefore, my unit focused on high-DPS brawlers, longer-range snipers/harrassers, fast-moving lights, or the hit&run meta with massive alpha-dmg. vomit-comets.
@@ESCfromNome thankfully in FP you know the map beforehand so you bring LRMs when it's the right map to do so. Also note that this guide is for solo FP. I said this pretty clearly in the video if I remember correctly. In group FP you can make anything work, LRMs or not LRMs.
Join an FP unit and you won't wait that long. It's more interesting than QP because you know the map ahead of time and you can customize your deck based on the map.
A big note as someone who has spent many hours in faction; NEVER REINFORCE. this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. If you die first, wait for everyone else to die and move out as a group. Many times if you try and reinforce, you will get to the fight as all your friends have died and then its 3 damaged guys and you against 5+ moderately damaged enemies, and in this case now you've lost 2 mechs before their second wave has dropped. The exception is defence. In this case, if you are on say wave 1 and dont die, push out if ur below 70% health or have low ammo. If you die before the wave starts feel free to reinforce, but this is basically the only exception. Otherwise, NEVER REINFORCE.
Great video man more people need to listen to this that play solo
So glad you made this, just started dabbling in faction play for the first time today
You're welcome, hope you'll enjoy it.
A good drop deck for IS is two "Assault Lights" such as urbanmechs and then two 100-ton assaults such as fafnir's, annihilators, etc.
For is i recommend 2 annis, a commando and an assassin if defending, an anni and 3 bushwackers is great for attacking. On clan side, 2 kodiaks and 2 piranhas is a very good way to go. That being said, mostly just go with what makes you feel comfortable and for attack on siege, try and keep it above 75 kph on at least 3 of your drops, the anni should be your last drop if ur going to bring it at all, noone expects the 4th wave anni
Well done and helpful. Year later and still relevant.
I used to do 4 maddogs when the weight limit was 240. It was really pretty good especially in siege.
Mad 2c B, Mad 2c B, Your choice of medium mech, either Pirannah or Critlynx. Madcat2c first 2 waves, your light 3rd wave, and medium for mop up. For mediums I would suggest either the wub Hunchback that he suggest, Vapor Eagle with ATMS, Huntsmen Pakett with streaks. Utility Mechs you should have Warhawk-Prime with Quad PPC, Hellbringer Laser vomit, Ebon Jag Laservomit, Hellbringer with Er Large lasers. Also one other thing that Blackhawk does not mention is double cool shot double artillery strike is extremely useful for faction play. Almost all my faction play mechs have it. Its easy extra dps.
I don't use consumables because they have a net negative effect on your CBill earnings. They're designed as CBill sinks by PGI and they do that job pretty well. Yes they're effective, but you pay the price. I only recommend it for people who have CBs to spare, and certainly for new-ish players that's not a good idea.
@@BlackhawkSC Fair enough point. I do recommend making the switch once your established though.
Thanks a lot. I will miss these events, but someday, I'll give FP a try.
tha
Hey man, do try it sometimes. Some games are really intense and comes down to the last mechs in a 48 v 48 (link - th-cam.com/video/_FuFqJ_N6uw/w-d-xo.html)
@@BlackhawkSC Ok, interesting. if it's gonna be like this game.. well. Beeing stomped is never fun. At least in QP it's over in no time. ;)
tha
I need to try out your BAS-D build. I built it as a MC-II-B clone. Matter of fact, I will try out your dakka build on the D, though it might be a better laser boat. The dakka builds were running ECM.
I theory crafted with the 2x10s and 2x5's but one of the 5's is on the relatively low mounted arm, you give up the ECM, and your weapons become left oriented, which in the solo queue, doesn't work as well as right stacked.
Good information, nice game! Thanks!
I must be a noob only have 1 account lol. Nice video. I always like advice with my IS drop decks.
Most people only have 1 account lol... I have multiple accounts, initially to be able to join different factions but it turned out not to be necessary.
Awesome video thank you so much
What is your suggestion for getting into FP games? I tried playing with my friends but the queue was unreasonably long. Any suggestions to cut the time?
Usually events will draw a lot of people in. Right now FP doesn't get played much outside of events. Also look at the call to arms popup.
@@BlackhawkSCThanks I appreciate your fast response ! I don't have a lot of experience from fp usually my team gets faced rolled -_- Great video too
Nice video and suggestions.... i dont have most of the mechs you listed but i can atleast make them the right template/role. Thnaks!
You're welcome! If someone's lucky enough to buy the right mechpack, for example the MCII or Blood Asp pack, it'll give them 3 or sometimes 4 of the 6 mechs they need right away. I'm not suggesting people do that, but if they did it cuts down half the work of getting into FP (you just need to skill them).
2 EMPs on your team in that match which is pretty lucky. That's one of the things about dropping solo, sometimes you get the better team and sometimes you don't.
It would have been closer without them. It's not uncommon though to have one or two very good players on either side.
Can you show the IS drop deck in action as well?
Next time there's an FP event hopefully I'll remember to do it. I didn't want to make this video too long.
looking for a little advice on my Assault purchase. I'm a casual player and I'm building a clan Deck since my "guild" is mainly just clan contracts and more have CLan Drop Decks as well. My issue is I'm a Casual player. and not the greatest. When I shine though I do 500+ damage a match but I make dumb mistakes. now due to my Casual playing it takes some time for me to get the money for a single Mech. in fact I think on 2 of the 9~ MEchs I have were bought with cbills. the others are Loyalty and MC. I'm considering just buying an Assault with MC or when the drop deals thing on the site is good. my current Drop deck is EBJ-EC Laser Vommit, a Loyalty Nova S set up like the one you used in this video, and a ACW-P set up as Laser vommit. I can fit an Exact 100 ton Assault in the build. I'm also not against just running 2-3 Heavies and a Medium TBH. Most of my FP will be with my "guild" so I believe I should be able to be fine with running Heavies. What's your recommendations?
You should ask your unit which mech they want you to run. If they have no recommendation and you want a "generally good" clan assault, one of the Mad Cat Mark IIs is a good choice, like the MCII-B. You can see my video on that chassis here th-cam.com/video/hrfbCMdb6yo/w-d-xo.html
You don't have to use up all the tonnage. It's fine to leave some tonnage on the table to take better mechs. Just not too many tons.
I don't recommend laser vomit to be the light/light-medium in your drop because they're supposed to be dropped last and you want the last mech to be good finishers. Laser vomit, which is a term for mixing medium class lasers and large class lasers, is for trading, not for killing off hurt mechs. If you mean you've got an MPL boat, then that's fine.
@@BlackhawkSC i know you suggested the MCII-B and i dont doubt that. Im kinda wanting to run the Marauder IIC. I used to RP Battletech and this is the MWO version of the Stone Rhino my character used. You mentioned a variant of that.
The company im in is fairly casual so they say to just run what i want including tossing a trial into the deck to complete it xD
Haha OK, yeah you should run what you want. It's just that FP can be full of tryhards and it can be tough to do well without the right deck. The MAD-IIC is a good mech though, just not as good as the Mad Cat IIC.
@@BlackhawkSC which Varient of the MAD IIC would you recommend and how would you equip it? I already have a lot of lasers. The EBJ-EC has 2LL and 6 ERML. The ACW-P is 1LL(might be pulse cant remember) and 5 ERML may swap this around tbh, MPLs and maybe shoulder missiles. I find missiles are good against Lught Mechs.
There's a ballistic variant, which is the -A. If you must run a MAD-IIC and want to avoid lasers, that's the only variant you can do that in. 2xUAC5+1xUAC10+ERPPC with an XL350 engine (the rest ammo). If you run the base variant, you can do 9xMPL split into two groups.
How do you put your own mech in to the drop deck, 🤔?
Plz halp, cbills are not an issue. I run 2 hbr 2hll 4mlas, tbr 2lpl 4mlas, shc 2xppc. Overbuffed mechs of freebirth scum won 5 games of 5 this night. Was my first fp play in a year. What are the better deck?
The video gives you some general guidelines and example builds to use for a FP deck. The HBR and SHC builds don't have good DPS values for FP. The SHC and TBR don't have good firepower to weight ratios. Those two factors are pretty important in FP.
The HBR should use LPLs instead of HLLs. If you do the math (which I've already done), the LPL build give you better sustained damage. Even in that case I'd still only take that build out in cold maps.
A better deck would be MCII-B/2x EBJ or HBR/ACH or 2xMCII-B/HBK-IIC or HBK-IIC-A/PIR-3. Check the video for specific build types you should be taking on the 2 heavies in the middle.
@@BlackhawkSC thank you, Blackhawk!!! And if I want to bring only ecm mechs to counter lrm savants? Maybe blood asp, 2 hbr and a ach or pir?
@@Tequila628 as I recommended in the vid you can/should have an LRM mech yourself. It's better to take advantage of the map you're given than to counter whatever the enemy has. Another way to look at it is offensive potential > defensive potential when it comes to choosing mechs.
Im just coming back - can you actually play Faction Play and get a drop? Before it used to be nothing but ghost drop after ghost drop followed by a ton of waiting....
During events there are a lot of people playing
Is there an IS light option that you could use for cbills instead of MC?
WLF-2 with 5xMPL. COM-2D 3xSRM4. Anything that can boat a lot of MPLs or SRMs.
Assassin 21 with 4 srm 4s is amazing if you have the tonnage, commando 1d with 2 srm4s is good if ur really good with fast lights, otherwise 2d with 3 srm4s if ur lacking on tonnage and not good at going 160 kph.
How do you know which map you would get?
When you get an FP match, there's the prep screen where you see who your teammates are, as well as the map and game mode. You'll see a countdown timer on that screen. You have at least one minute to recognize the map and select your mechs.
BlackhawkSC ohhhh, we can change our drop deck before you drop, I was always use one drop deck for clan and the other for IS, that explains a lot why other people have correct mech for the map. Also which key do you bind for consumables?
Mouse wheel up and down for strikes. Up for airstrike, down for arty. LShift for cool shot. Home for UAV.
BlackhawkSC Thanks for the information, it is really helpful.
I don’t understand faction at all still!
You mean you don't understand the purpose of the game mode or something else?
Oh dear, please no LRM-Assaults. My unit made a point of almost NEVER bringing LRMs to FP matches.
When there's a good LRM map they can be pretty powerful. Your unit is gimping themselves if they have this rule.
@@BlackhawkSC Issue is, having a deck/mech that is dependent on only a couple of maps in the entire rotation is rather wasteful. There are opportunities for other builds in every map though. Issue is, IS typically has faster moving mechs, so their ability to run to cover and keep free from locks is typically better. Plus, their penchant for pushing in quick for a more advantageous in-your-face brawl really limits the capabilities of LRMs.
Therefore, my unit focused on high-DPS brawlers, longer-range snipers/harrassers, fast-moving lights, or the hit&run meta with massive alpha-dmg. vomit-comets.
@@ESCfromNome thankfully in FP you know the map beforehand so you bring LRMs when it's the right map to do so.
Also note that this guide is for solo FP. I said this pretty clearly in the video if I remember correctly. In group FP you can make anything work, LRMs or not LRMs.
Why though... Faction Play is so similar to Free Play and you have to wait a lot longer? Aka it's broken and boring.
Join an FP unit and you won't wait that long. It's more interesting than QP because you know the map ahead of time and you can customize your deck based on the map.