Finally finished Elite in all of my Dragons and decided it was time to try a K2. Added an XL300 (left over from my Dragons) and DHS and swapped out the PPC's for ERPPCs. I added AMS and BAP since I had some space left over. My first match was conquest on River City Night (bleh), but I got one kill after dueling with a Cent for a few minutes. By the time that was over, I realized it was 7 vs 1. I almost took out a stalker before I got toasted. The dual ERPPCs are nice as long as heat is under control.

Next I'm going to try out a 2x UAC5 + 4x MLAS build. Then I need to decide if I want to buy more Cats (C1 and C4 probably) to "Elite" the chassis, or if I want to venture on to something else. I have time for that though, since I'll need another 6M CB before I can afford my next mech anyway.

Speaking of Elite, do you guys try and unlock Elite on your mechs, or do you just stick with the different mechs that you really like? I've unlocked Elite on Hunchbacks, Ravens, and Dragons now. It can be a grind if there are variants that you don't like, and it can get boring using the same chassis so much. But it's hard to pass up the free 10% speed increase and eventual free 15% heat dissapation and free 20% heat cap boost. I'm thinking the K2, C1, and C4 do enough things differently that it may be fun to have all 3. Planing on "trying" to avoid the cheese builds...

Both, stick with favorite mechs and trying to get ranked up. The minimum # of mechs, not a full set. I still rebuild even my old standby's, so they don't really get old for me.
The ER PPC's are hard to keep cool, but when you manage it, they're extremely handy. Firing in sequence helps with them and they fire fast enough to still be pretty accurate for hitting the same body panel.

Yeah, I'm thinking of assigning the left PPC to the left mouse button and the right to the right mouse button. That way I can fire them simultaneously or in chain mode, or shoot around corners/friendlies more effectively. That leave middle mouse button for the lazors, and then I have to see if button 4 will work for the MG's on the rare occasions that they get used.

That's how I assign, group 1/left is LMB, group 2/right is RMB, middle button is group 3.
Good to have a scheme that carries over, helps me keep straight which button for the guns I'm sticking out to shoot.

I'm running a K2 with a ST245, 2x AC20s and 2MLs. Double heat sinks keep me cool and 60kph is a decent speed.

Always get 2-3 kills per map. 50pt Alpha is a killer.

Pick yourself up an A1 and stack it with srms. Everything explodes...even Kludger. :-)

He feels about those things like I feel about the craven.

S

Haha LOL Kelen

Yeah the K2 is a good mech, but just beware that the K2 and A1 get lots of special love from anyone that spots them due to their known danger, not long ago I ran into a K2 with AC/20x2 and it was a painful experience until I could shoot those ears off

So far I tend to just jump around and stick with favorite mechs, I have not done ELITE or MASTER in any of them, but I think the Cataphract will be my first one that I am going to do ELITE on, loving my CTF-3D with the jump jets, and saving up for the 4X dakka dakka in the next day or two.

Shooting the ears off a Cat will not stop the AC20s, the hard points are in the side torso. (I've bolstered the armor on mine )

Anyone tried a Gaussapult?

Ah thanks vonKhan, that would explain some of my pain with that particular encounter

Well, I freaking love the K2. ERPPC's, MLAS, and MG's with a 300XL and all the DHS I can fit is great. I through on AMS and BAP since I had room left over and I have been frequently getting 400-500 damage with it. It's a nice change of pace to kinda camp near ridges or cover and pop people with the PPCs, as opposed to all the running around I've been doing in Dragons.

I tried the Dual UAC5 build, but the UAC5's are so low that I had to walk my whole self up over a ridge on Alpine to take any shots. Several matches in a row of me getting CT'd and doing hardly any damage was enough to send me running back to my ERPPC build!

Almost have all the basic stuff unlocked and almost have enough saved up for my next Cat. Trying to decide what I want... A1 sounds fun, but I'm just uncomfortable having all my weapons up in those "shoot me here!" ears. Been thinking of going with a C4 - 2 x LRM15, 2 x SRM6, and 2 MLAS. It's a nice balanced build, but I'm worried it might be too balanced.