IronSoul

Oh yes, that went very poorly. There was much pain to be had. Koji missile has potential too if you can spare the EN, since there's PA break too. Well, more PA break than Dearborns. Though I've never seen a Nuke with with Dearborns so that could be interesting. Try that first. My face will be available to test it. Edit Also, Hyde. If we both got time tonight I want to fight again.

Yeah but you can have intuitive and easy to use while rewarding difficult play, I think that's what some people are saying. The problem isn't noobs using noob combos, it's vets using noob combos, which usually promotes a cycle of noob combos hard to break until someone finds the balls to break that system. Also, yay, part balance challenge. Gonna work on something, but I ain't gonna do it all in one go. Make mistakes that way.

I've had to use Macs a bit for a couple years at college now and while I have a general idea on how to use one, I have yet to have a really good experience with one. I might prefer it over a PC with Vista, but that's about it. Also, my tablet PC with about 4 gig only cost me about 900

Edit: Didn't realize how long this was, if you're too lazy to read the technicalities, just skip to SUMMARY in bold below: Weight is very important on close range ACs, moreso than on the average lightweight. It affects acceleration and breaking ability, which are both key to obtaining the control on an AC possible in order to move at high speeds and maintain a circa 150 or less range. Even on non rushing ACs though, there's no need to use every back, shoulder, or even every arm slot. If an AC works perfectly with three weapons, you use three weapons; anything else would be dead weight/drain. Most of my best ACs only use three weapons (Iron Maiden, though that has weapon arms, more proper examples include Aether and Volsung IV). But, that said, if this AC seriously expects to rush effectively, you will have to make a lot of changes to make it work properly. First off, anyone using Aliya/C on a serious AC is out of their mind. Even if you could make the part work, Lancel does the job infinitely better and weighs slightly more, drains a good deal less. WG does everything better while weighing less, Ekhazar does a comparable performance, Latona does well, and Lahire's low weight and decent stats makes up for the poor drain. I'm actually going to suggest Latona arms as well. The stats are very good even for solid shell weapons and for negligible drain. After doing this, you can go to Lahire to cut down on weight, or Judith max cap tunes if you need that 90K+ cap size. Main on a rusher should ideally be Virtue, but if you have trouble with its poor vertical like I do, give Lahire or Aliya a spin. Hyde says Latona might be quick enough, so if you can't handle the EN of the first three boosters as all, it's at least better than Polaris, and again saves weight. Sides should be Latona or similar. Granted it's true that I am a big fan of things like Lahire or Holofernes sides, but I've been learning the hard way that these boosters with their high durations are detrimental to rushing games way more than they are helpful. Weapons are nice. SUMMARY Core (in order) : WG, Ek, Latona, Lahire, or Lancel Arms: Latona Genrator: Judith or Lahire Main Boost: Virtue, Aliya, Lahire or Latona Side Boost: Latona

Judith is fine for this, it's not like the dude's rolling a sniper and a machine gun or something. Judith's the only FCS in AC4 with good standard and missile lock as well, which is going to matter more on this than a dual processing that's hardly being stressed at all. I'd sooner go with Aliya/A. Aliya arms were always pretty nice in AC4, but Aliya/C drains a lot. Unlike FA it's actually worth the drain, but it takes some time to get used to the additional drain and Salaux was usually servable on lightweights.

The only exception for that is if you're known for really not bitching unless the red flag is really deserved and then some, and you're in a room of a bunch of people that know it. The other guy might call you a whiner, but then you'll have a bunch of people smack the kid back down. I agree with the comment though. Only time bladers are a problem are when they constantly shadow hit, because it's a lot more difficult to dodge a hit you already avoided on your screen.

Normally I'd agree but it could really go either way with the weapons on here. The Brocken will benefit a lot from Kamal's PA breaking, and the SC can work witha rifle serving as a spam pairing weapon. It's certainly easier than lining up two stun weapons. I'd try it anyway, but I think that's more based on preference than set in stone. Might be a little heavy for my taste (though you only have a few load tunes on WG legs, so maybe not,) but I really like this regardless. This is probably the first time a self proclaimed "top tier" AC actually was somewhere around top tier. Props.

Yeah that's kinda true. It's about your only chance against ECM too. Without a back radar, that shit is hosed. Refresh is kinda nice too, especially for anything involving CQ or AA. I've had a few SNAFUs with AA especially due to a poor refresh on Hogire or something. Should try that on some of my rushers actually. It's not like I ever use four slots on my lightweights.

Well we could look at arms for example. Straight away, Lemur 2 and Loris. Banned those, we ran to Macaque, FL, Gibbon 2 maybe etc. Ban those, and we go to what, XS, Gibbon 2, Lemur? Dunno what next after those, Gibbon 1 or something. Radiators. Ananda was the best. If we ever did ban that, R92, Hazel, etc. Ban those, go on to the next. Laser rifles. MiniK, Shade. Next, Hollow. Next, Sawa, Shade 2, Skull. Go on to the next. Either way, you ban a few things in LR, the next choices were really obvious. Even if there was a gradient of some sort, the fact of the matter was you could pretty much tell someone cut and dry how to improve an AC. That's kinda there in FA, but you can still go a tier down, it's not going to screw you over as much even if the skill level between players is at least fairly close. Weapons especially show that. There's way more variety for weapons in FA even with lag. In LR, you used a couple things in even semi serious play and that was it.

Pretty much everyone on 360 that's seen me probably knows who I am by now, but anyway: GT: IronSoul89 Always spoiling for a fight. Come on, come and get me.

Yeah but that's fairly inevitable in most AC parts are like that, however, calling the parts here aren't quite so much as bad as you're describing. A domino effect like that was completely inevitable in LR because the tier gaps were so large. There's a gap between say...Lancel and Aliya, but there's a more subtle gradient in FA, and some arguable merits to "lower" tier parts. Like Ekhazar or not, it has its uses to a lot of people. Lahire has merits, Lancel still has some uses. Certain combinations of parts can also mix together to meet some of the more top tier parts. Agryros/A is a good example of that.

WG core had more of an edge in 1.2 and 1.3 (though I'm not sure about earlier, especially with Muskingum the way it was, and with no ability to shoot down or run from missiles really). However, in 1.4, flares are really good and have tones of ammo, ECM's pretty effective, some nice missile combos use shoulders, P Marrow still has uses, etc. The lack of shoulder parts really matter more in 1.4 with the improvement most of them got. That and stability (which I know you don't care about) has lately put Ekhazar over WG (or maybe Latona in your case for drain, if you were to hypothetically go that way). WG's good, but I'd say it's more like upper mid tier in terms of overall performance (though it's probably still one of the top cores, in lieu of any really good midweight core besides Ekhazar, Lancel is okay). As for overall balance, Autosight could make certain frames in AC4 total bullshit, but that's more mechanic than part balance. I'd say 1.6 AC4 was the most balanced overall for parts. FA could probably get away with that even with the higher part amount, but From would need a new reg for that and I imagine they're too busy with AC5 among other things to work on that. Any reg that would turn off the community right now mid hype would probably be a bad idea anyway. Although, Raiden Quads would probably be broken on LAN. They're already top tier with grenade lag. OPS would probably be bullshit too without lag.

Not to mention LR had the worst mobility mechanics I can remember and some of the worst part balance to grace an AC game. There's something seriously wrong when your only choices in a game are to be more or less absurdly cheap or completely ineffectual. Even the fail of FA 1.2 was at least a temporary snafu. LR mechanics you were stuck with.

From what little I can remember, Deneb and Spica make Gemma look good. Also, Aliya/A might have some merits on the right AC. Some people speculate it tracks better, but one thing it definitely has going for it is the system recovery. Okay, not the most important stat most of the time, but here's something nice about it in this case. Aliya/A's recovery is so fast that after an AA blast you can almost instantly fire a shot with a full lock on, certainly before the AC can escape. Pair with a good nade launcher and you can really fuck up someone's AA game even if you get hit.

I'm glad someone pointed out Musselshell. That's a damn good part for jousting. I definitely think it beats Dearborn any day. As for 47...I used to hate it, less so now, though it's a far cry from what was my favorite rifle in AC4. It's okay but it's not really worth the weight considering the 63ANAR or Labiata do everything pretty much better. There are those that say having Autosight off makes the low melee hurt less, which is possible, but in my experiences it feels noticeably less accurate that it was in 4 as well. Damn shame, 47ANNR was a rifle I had actually liked in 4. Made my already meh chipping game even worse. No. Pulse Shottie sure, but there's no way in hell that the other pulse guns can seriously work. Medler Z couldn't beat Ethos with an AC specifically designed for Gemma, (for those of you that have used Ethos, you know how bad that is, for those who haven't, see how far you get with 5000 EN Recovery). It kinda worked in 1.2 EN wise, but at that point CQ was so awful there was no chance.

Okay so I had one of these topics back on the old forum for AC4, and I figured we all know the game enough now to have occasionally dug up a good gun that might be less popular than its more cookie counterparts (63 rifles, Raiden, 49ANSC, etc), and decided to make a topic for them. So yeah, parts that work for you that aren't whored, and why. Doesn't necessarily have to be weapons, but you should have an explanation for it being decent. I'll start: Sirius Type: Back Mount Description: Hi Lasers have lost some popularity due to the alleged theory of them lagging a lot, though it has been argued that some of this lag is actually due to PA grazing which is less apparent due to poor attenuation. However, whichever the case may be, Sirius seems to have an excellent shot registry, and is good for a consistent 5-7K (I think leaning more towards seven). It's heavier and drains more than Acrux, but the damage is fairly comparable, and it lasts a lot longer. Argyros/A Type: Arm Part Description: Usually this arm (and every other heavyweight arm) is beaten out by the exceptional offensive prowess of Hilbert, however, Argyros has some very nice defensive merits. It's shell defense is very good and its EN defense passable, which by itself probably wouldn't be of much use compared to Hilbert, but it has one other very good thing going for it: it's much lighter. Lighter means that you can fit a better back mount (arm mounts usually suffering from poor precision), or you can fit them onto a heavy midweight for a good defense boost without sacrificing mobility as you would for Hilbert and other parts. Indeed, with a midweight leg set and Argyros arms, you could easily make an AC only slightly heavier than the average mid but with far better defense for its weight. Lower precision takes some getting used to, but a couple weapon swaps (ie: Altair for Avior) can make the change a lot easier, and provide a much better defense to weight ratio. Your turn guys.

Oh yeah I guess the last thing I should mention about my style is that unlike 90% of XBL, I absolutely refuse to Autosight, which is evidently a big deal there. I'm known for it, so might as well mention it.

Mobility and offensive firepower. Been the approach pretty much since SL. That said I dig the quads and light mid frames, almost all of them have one cannon (and most of those are generally sniper cannons). My favorite combo at this time is probably Becrux/49ANSC, though I'm still fond of Altair/49ANSC, and Raiden/49ANSC. Used to AA a bit, bigger fan of standard OB now. I'm stupid enough to use Aliya/Aliya/Lahire (or Aliya/Lahire/Lahire) on the majority of my frames) while workin a small generator. As for combat style, I like mid range, but I like to be able to change my position on a whim (hence the booster setup). If someone has MG/shotgun or the like, I'm backpedaling, if someone's got railcannons, I'll get closer and kill you that way, if I see three at you coming at me, I'm running like a bitch. Story? I made Iron Maiden back in 1.2 (360 at least), and she's spawned a thousand knockoffs since then. I also made Ethos, a special quad named after a very *special* member from old ACO.

Eh Motorcobra can with with an assault rifle well enough, but I do agree with the generator. Judith's a good one, Lahire's pretty decent too. Also, for the love of God, change that fucking main booster. Judith has and always will be a backpedalling booster. Latona might be enough on PS3, but ideally you should be looking at Lahire, Aliya, or Virtue. No reason not to be using Lahire FCS on this either. Also, just throwing this out there, but by and large, both PSN and XBL are full of bitches that will complain about anything that they can't beat. What you're doing with back boosting and nailing is totally legit.

Yeah that makes sense. Though the lag on FA probably increases the chances of PA grazing to some degree. I don't think lasers have AOE damage, which might explain the belief of higher lag for hi lasers. Since they don't knock down PA, people probably think the shots are lagging even if its a graze. Becrux and Acrux seem to suffer less than this, and both of those fire two shots and therefore have a bigger area of effect. What do you guys think of this?

Maybe, but it could also just be a stabilization animation. That would be smart though. We'll see. Also, I know it's a minor thing, but if the PS2 could process different booster colors, the next gen consoles should be able to do the same thing.

Hm I have a question for ya Niji, are those scrapes tied in with the occasional shot from a cannon (namely snipers and probably rails) only doing about a hundred damage to your average midweight? I've seen that a few times but since the shots online are usually dead on on their screen, no one's really put together a solid answer for that sort of thing. As for hitboxes, I'm pretty damn certain that quad hitboxes are a lot larger. Hitting those things with grenades is a lot easier (and I mean in the air, not the ground. Shots seem to register on them more provided they aren't Dusk blading or something, since, at least in my experience, most shots seem to miss on the other screen horizontally than vertically.

Luckily most of the 360 clans are pretty tight together, most are competitive, and generally where one or two go, the others might follow, at least for guns. The problem is that many 360ers tend to stay away from forums, especially when their only working examples for the longest time were ACO and ShameFaqs. I think if you got the teams over the rest might be fairly simple, but it's getting them that's the trick. SWAT has a few lurkers on here 360 wise so if I can get the rest on and doing something, shit might get easier. SOO listens to me some. No promises with the others though. The fact this site has a lot of potential unlike many past AC sites in recent memory might help a little. We'll see. Multi clan organization's really simple though for the clans there though. As a general rule, clan guys are often in one gun clan, and possibly one blade clan, or visa versa, and those two branches are so isolated from each other that they don't really matter. Even then though, the guys usually associate more with one than the other.

AC1, though I think AC2 might've been out at the time. Didn't have a PS2 back though until about a year after that. I think, like Griff, I got the PS2 more or less for AC2.

I know we already talked about it, but to get the ball rolling: 102 to Marve. The combo's reliable and has an excellent damage rate due to Marve. Toss the Sapla on opposite of Marve, you'll save a lot of drain and weight, and when the two run dry, you can drop yourself to be a lot lighter. You got no shoulders either, so no reason not to use the WG core for a defense boost, unless you really need the stability.