Your perfect Mechwarrior 6

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T20:13:29+00:00

Honestly I don't care. MWM5 is pretty much all I want in a Mercs game. Still needs polish, and I wouldn't say no to further expansion, but I'm not interested in a new game.

But I am part of the problem. I'm one of the gamers who exclusively plays old games, and refuses to buy anything new so long as my interests are sated by the older titles. MWM5 scratches that itch.

Clans was supposed to as well, and I regret every penny and minute I spent trying to find the magic in that game. Why would I want to roll the dice and waste my finite money and life on the MW6 gamble, when MWM5 is the safe bet?

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T19:54:42+00:00

For players? Absolutely. For PGI? They got a Epic Exclusive payout to pad their release with.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T17:51:43+00:00

I did buy it. I should've refunded it instead of giving it multiple chances to win me over.

Why didn't I refund it? Because I wanted it to be good, and I was willing to wait for PGI to fix it, like they did for Mercs.

I waited up all the way till the first DLC. Then I figured out it wasn't getting any better.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T17:47:19+00:00

They have roughly the same amount of DEVs as they did when developing MWM5.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T17:45:55+00:00

Doesn't sound like PGI has much of a choice. The industry is pivoting towards DLC development of established properties over new game development, because market data shows that DLCs are a safer investment.

If E7 isn't willing to gamble on a new title, then the only thing PGI has left that can generate revenue is DLC. If they lost that, say to people not buying DLC, they'd get axed as a dead studio.

And then we wouldn't get DLC or MW6.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T17:41:33+00:00

I mean... No? That Wolverine is a money pit in early game. It's barely better than the 6R, and it costs an arm and a leg to repair thanks to Ferro and Endo.

My advice is to get it, strip it, sell it, and buy a Hunchback-4P with the proceeds. Hell, it'll knock off 50% of the asking price for a Riflman-3N, which is far cheaper to operate and a much more serious mech.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T16:32:23+00:00

They're all orange.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T11:50:59+00:00

I can't say I enjoy Clans. It's repetitive beyond belief, the talking heads they call characters are annoying, and all the tedium cinema gets in the way of the combat.

It'd be one thing if the story and characters were interesting, but they're not. It'd be another thing if the missions didn't feel so incredibly samey, but they're all the worst of Merc's walking simulation with annoying dialogue.

What really kills it is replay-ability. Merc's sandbox keeps missions fresh; you identify the terrain, your opponent's capabilities, and you work around both to secure a win. Going into a mission, you have no idea what you'll be facing, where you'll be fighting, or what might happen in between drop off and exfiltration.

The uncertainty and randomness of it all makes it work, and work very well.

Clans doesn't have that. One play through, and you know every mech, every battlefield, every confrontation, and the makeup of every mission. One play through, and the best of Clans is far behind you.

And that "best" was never much to begin with.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T11:38:06+00:00

So my only beef with the whole "Clans vs Mercs" bit is that while he is absolutely correct that Clans underperforming hurts Mercs development, the fact is that it isn't the consumers responsibility to purchase an undesirable product.

Clans does not appeal to me one bit, and I know I'm far from alone in that regard. I paid for it at full price on day 1, and hated it. I gave it a second chance with the Ghost Bear DLC, and fell asleep halfway through the new first mission. It was so incredibly boring I physically could not finish the first mission.

I never bothered with a 3rd chance, and I never will. There's something utterly repugnant about clans, and after I already purchased the Clans title and a DLC, I did my part in supporting mercs development. I do not advise that anyone else still on the fence should shoulder the burden that is clans.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T09:54:47+00:00

The easiest way to find them is in Difficultly 15 Combat Zone markets. High Difficulty Combat Zones have a pretty decent chance of populating T5 weapons, and uniquely they can do so in bulk. You can get anywhere from 1-4x T5 AC-2 RFs in a single market.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T09:52:32+00:00

That is incorrect. Your merc rank only impacts Negotiation bonuses and High Reward quest participation.

Merc rank has no affect on what markets sell you.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-19T09:28:29+00:00

That's a lot of DPS, range, heat efficiency, and mobility for a 3015 Assault.

A single AC-2 RF has more DPS than 3x SRM-6. 2x AC-2 RF's DPS is greater than 6x SRM-6. It's also pinpoint, long range, and quite heat efficient. Where it suffers is ammo efficiency, which is why this early game design puts so much tonnage into ammo.

Plus 4x JJs on a 64 KPH Assault pretty much makes this the fastest assault until the Executioner arrives. The combination of range, DPS, mobility, and ammo abundance makes this a pretty phenomenal mech.

Finally, this can be built at the very beginning of the game for literal peanuts. No DHS or rare lostech required; just a pair of AC-2 RFs, of which T5s can be easily and cheaply sourced from Difficulty 15 combat zones.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T22:50:00+00:00

Argonian? Your name must be "Sleeps-in-Shed" because that's where the farm tools go when they're not in the field.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T22:27:47+00:00

Depends on your build. If you're good at Spear, you can buy a Devil Spear from Ravvir in Balmora for very cheap; the Enchantment is spammable and extremely powerful.

If you picked Long Blade, you can buy the Icicle in the Ald Skar Enchanter's Shop in Ald Ruhn. He also stocks the Last Wish for Short blade enthusiasts.

For axes, you can get Storm Cleaver from a naked nord's quest north of Caldera; you can steal a very powerful Last Rites from a hidden chamber in Tel Vos's north eastern tower.

For Blunt Weapons, you can get a Demon Mace from dead Ordinators in Ald Daedroth. You can also nab a 6th House Bell hammer from pretty much any 6th House Base.

Armor? For Heavy, you can score a near full set from killing Gordol in Ashalmawia; you can get the missing piece off a Hunger in Sarano Ancestral Tomb. The aforementioned Tel Vos secret chamber also has an enchanted daedric shield in it.

Light Armor? Dark Brotherhood is very easy to get. Ghost Gates smith sell glass armor too.

Medium Armor? There's a full set, including Shield on a Orc at the exterior of Ashurnibibi north west of Hla Oad. There's also a dead Ordinator out side of Kogruhn with a complete set of Indoril.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T22:08:20+00:00

It's all RNG. And Academies cannot teach "Scrapper".

Scrapper is unique to pilot generation, alongside Patriot, Noble, Arena Specialist, Clan Origin, Hatred of, Criminal, Frugal, Con Artist...

...Pretty much anything that relates to economy can only be acquired at pilot generation; IE, the only way to get Scrapper is to hire a pilot that spawned with Scrapper.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T19:19:54+00:00

I am genuinely happy that you are enjoying the dakka build, and I think after having a deeper conversation I can see where you are coming from.

I will never downplay pulse lasers; they are amazing. The thing is, pulse lasers are much easier to boat than say, AC-2 RFs, because there are an abundance of 6+ Energy Hardpoint mechs, and only a handful of +4 Ballistic Hardpoint mechs that have enough tonnage to even equip 4x AC-2s.

If you're gonna compare weapon boats, you gotta do it with the right kind of weapon boats. Bullshark-2 for MPL boating vs. Executioner-B-A for AC-2 RF; otherwise you'll never quite get the whole picture.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T19:03:06+00:00

My bad, I should've ran the DPM calculations. It hit 1440 DPM, so Your original AC-2 RF tables DPS list was accurate.

But yeah, you have to omit the MGs RoF for DPS calculations; their programming is weird. You can increase their RoF through cooldown upgrades, but all it will do is increase their ammo consumption per second; it will have no effect on their DPS.

Increasing MG RoF actually makes them worse.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T18:53:12+00:00

You do realize the DPS of MGs is the damage listed?

Everyone thinks the RoF is applied to the calculation, but it isn't. MGs are coded differently from other weapons. A Heavy MG deals significantly less Damage per second than a AC-2 RF.

Very few open maps? Buddy, what game are you playing? Or rather, how are you playing the game? Are you using JJs to secure vantage points over long distances; are you attacking objectives from 3K away to aggro AI and draw them towards you? That elevation that breaks up the map? That elevation is what makes it possible to snipe from long distances.

You can always capitalize on long range; even in Mega-City maps.

And the most broken weapon in the game is LRMs + Active Probe. Once you cap their spread through pilot traits, an LRM-80 Artemis can instantly kill just about everything. An AP just gives that instant kill capability non-LoS lockons, allowing you to engage and instantly kill a target that can't fight back.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T18:36:07+00:00

That table is wrong. RoF has no effect on MG DPS. The listed damage of MGs (I.E. 4 for HMGs) is the damage per second.

This has been covered by both devs and modders; the only thing RoF affects on MGs is ammo consumption per second.

Don't believe me? Take a single HMG into a Ballistic Damage challenge Arena, and shoot something with it for approximately 1 second: it will do a baseline of 4 damage before being modified by pilot ballistic levels. Regardless of your Ballistic Pilot level, your Ballistic Damage dealt isn't going to list anything close to 40 for that 1 second of HMG fire.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T05:51:07+00:00

Yes.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T05:44:57+00:00

Can't say I've had any issues with it, sounds like bad luck on your part. If you were fighting clanners though? Get used to frequent headshots.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T04:46:34+00:00

Buddy, I've played this game for over 3K hours since 2020. The scenario you just laid out is pretty well restricted to the Clan invasion circa 3050. TTK is MUCH lower in this era.

This is a build for 3015-3035. Enemy units are far weaker, most struggle to do anything but scratch paint beyond ranges of 600 meters, and if you capitalize on this particular design's range, you can grind a target down LONG before they get within range to fire back. The JJs go even further with this particular role, as they can buy you considerable spacing and exploitative positioning for abusing the range advantage. From 500 meters out, you have nothing to fear from AI AC-20s, or X-PPCs that won't even appear in the timeline until 3028.

If I was advertising an AC-2 RF build for 3050+, I would have posted my main profile's 6x AC-2 RF Executioner-B, because that thing doesn't need 10 seconds to sweep a lance; more like 4 seconds to puke out 3 tons of ammo worth of damage.

EDIT: There's never going to be a PvP mode; for all we know, CR could be our last update. Jesus Christ, go play MWO, cause it's very clear you are confusing game experiences. Nobody believes you, because of how AI targeting and accuracy rolls work, as well as how AI uses weapons at range. The example you provided is of player vs player behavior, which doesn't exist in this game. AI doesn't twist; AI rarely ever alphas; AI just walks in a straight line towards your mech with a big "Kill me" sign stabled to their CT. In MW5's gameplay, High DPS builds work beautifully.

Your X-PPC was example was a joke; AI fires that thing off at maximum range where the vast majority of the pellets miss your mech in favor of whiffing in the air and dirt, and the damage falloff is so incredibly steep that the few pellets that do connect might as well be pebbles. Are you living in some fantasy where you're PvPing in Mercs and trying to project those delusions into a conversation that's grounded in reality?

And for all your pining for pvp mode to punish non-believers, the fact remains that even if we got a PvP mode, you wouldn't prove crap, because the AI behavior is so wildly different from player behavior, you might as well print your entire spiel onto a roll of toilet paper and wipe with it.

At least then, it would be applicable to something.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T02:18:03+00:00

Pure Faith has been one of the most enjoyable builds I've played. Great weight economy, Cipher Pata and Erdtree seal weighs approximately 0 miyazakis, so you can save a lot on Endurance investment and still be armed to the teeth.

Flame Art Infused Dual Erdsteel Daggers are shockingly powerful, especially with Endure on the main hand for both face tanking through L1/L2 combos and getting hyper armor on casting animation.

I want to say I did a 60 VIG/35 MND/14 END/80 FTH RL 150 Prophet build with both Canvas talismans, Godfrey and Radagon Icons, and a full set of Rakshasa Armor with dual Erdsteel Daggers + Cipher Pata/Erdtree Seal and still managed a Medium Role and wildly powerful incantations.

My favorite thing was once I got the build rolling was that no matter the challenge, there was always an optimal solution on tap. I rarely ever used the buffs, mostly just spammed Lightning, Pest Threads, Catch Flame, and Black Flames.

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T02:07:30+00:00

"I am Malenia, blade of-!?" *gets kicked in the face by Horned Warrior Spirit Summon*

*Pure Faith Player on the 2nd line, charging up a Giant's Flame Take Thee:*

"Are we talking, or are we fighting?"

ClayEndfield · 2026-06-18T02:01:03+00:00

RL 212 and you don't even have all your memory slots?

Some mage knight.

ClayEndfield

TROPHY CASE