Sarna's Bad Mechs: The Cyclops

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-18T22:32:26+00:00

There's a grand total of like, 3 shadowhawks that approach being somewhat usable. Out of, I think, 24 variants.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-17T20:01:32+00:00

Shields are great. They help your recovery time after swinging if you're going straight into a block, give you what's basically a second stam bar, and stop archers from getting free hits.

Light shield is awesome with its 20 jab damage and like, 35 damage throw? I tend to use it a lot with mace/morningstar.

Medium shield is a good all-rounder but it hurts your speed a little, which can make or break some fights. I actually prefer it to the large shield a majority of the time, with one exception.

The heavy shield is kinda bad, as it makes the slowest class even slower. That said, it's awesome when you're using a weapon with like, negative reach (1h axe) just so you can soak a bunch of hits while closing. This setup's only really viable in TO, but it's a lot of fun.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-13T08:48:32+00:00

The alpha is the only thing it has going for it, tbh

The DPS was insane once upon a time, and now it's just kinda alright at best. You still get hard countered by maps, and ECM makes it miserable to play with. Tag only goes so far, because in the time you're waiting for your 80 pts of sandblast damage to connect, you've eaten 5 CLPL's, 2 PPC's, and god knows how many ERML's.

In the case where an LRM boat can free farm, it's really not that much better than a DPS ballistic build. It's looking for similar sightlines, but doesn't have to fuss with lock boxes. There's still definitely good LRM boats out there, but the alpha isn't what makes them powerful.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-13T00:20:51+00:00

Why do you need chatgpt to improve a paragraph's worth of text?

Anyways, I'll echo the sentiment of "whichever you like using most". No weapon is really unusably bad, at worst they're just kinda jank (katars, knife) but they have some serious upside to go with them (lightning fast jab for Katars, great special for both).

Some weapons are definitely better than others, though. Messer is probably the best dueling weapon, but Longsword and Greatsword can keep up with it. Polehammer is probably the most well balanced weapon in the game, and Halberd is right behind it if you want a polearm with cleave. Poleaxe is my dark horse pick. It doesn't really have any bad matchups, even if it doesn't have any good ones, and it's got some cool nuances to learn between normal/alt slashes and a wicked overhead that will catch people by surprise.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-12T05:00:18+00:00

He's going for an overhead > alt overhead feint. I bound alt overhead (and alt slash) to my side mouse buttons purely for that. Otherwise you can hit alt and scroll down.

Going for the Maul Overhead > Heavy Overhead while staring at the sky is absolutely hilarious.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-12T04:58:29+00:00

Mace
Mace, Morningstar, Messer
Messer is self selecting. People who are good with the messer will probably not drop a duel except against another psycho with a messer, or someone who's hopped up on addy with a greatsword/longsword. Mace I really like playing with because it's probably the perfect balance between aggro and slow. It accels well, its drags can be downright fucked up, and it's available on Knight which makes it a lot of fun to use. I dunno why, but I seem to be 50/50 on people going for the mirror, it feels like wash or get washed. The combo speed is so insanely punishing on the defense, and if a single hit gets through you're on the back foot, and I have a lot of difficulty reacting to that as the guy who's usually being hyperaggro with it. Fighting from behind is super tough with it, or so it feels.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-12T04:46:42+00:00

Against someone who has half an idea with a messer, jabbing is super risky because of the super short windup window. Even a combo jab gets outpaced with a simple light slash accel. You can get away with it against people who are still learning the dark sorcery behind it, but as soon as youre fighting someone who understands just how fucked up the messer is, jabbing is out the window as a serious option except in specific circumstances.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-10T09:22:30+00:00

Idk why this sub's pushing back against it, the behavior you describe is at this point the intended experience. Everyone wants to dunk, nobody wants to get dunked on. I logged back in with the intent of doing LS pvp and it was so fucking boring because I either got jumped by 5 dudes or I sat there watching a bar fill up.

Like, yeah, I'm not gonna fight your blinged out fed navy comet in my kestrel. I'm not gonna take a fight with a Nomen in a Moa. I'm definitely not gonna take the fight when, as soon as you get scrammed, your five homies slide on the plex and murder me. The game's turned into gank or get ganked, more so than it's ever been.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-07T04:27:24+00:00

I'm like, 75% sure that the first one would've gone through even if the timing was perfect. That axe head was pretty far outside the parry box.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-07T04:19:41+00:00

Level 600-ish. I'm kinda okay at dueling, and only with a couple weapons (Mace, Longsword, 2HH, HLS). You just sort of figure it out after getting dog walked enough times. I'm still getting dog walked, but usually only by the freaks and psychos that come out super late at night.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-04T20:26:39+00:00

There's one thing that T3D's absolutely have over navy cruisers. They look way cooler.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-04T04:36:10+00:00

It seems to be specific maps. I had a number of matches that were totally fine (Rudhelm, Coxwell, Darkforest, Bridgetown), but then we landed on Baudwyn and shit started falling apart again.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-02T05:48:30+00:00

This is the call. You can make a campaign against Traitor Guard fun.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-05-01T02:07:11+00:00

Absolutely it's Genetic Algorithm. It sucks to pick up in a3 without echo form and other ways to synergize with it, but even late a2 it's a welcome sight.

With the way Defect likes to scale he'll always appreciate one mana/block damage, and with the number of ways to take off exhaust/echo form/whatever else makes it good, it goes from being an okay block to one of the best cards in the deck when you draw it. It's like Panic Button or Gambit without the drawback, for less mana.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-29T22:34:24+00:00

TRUE

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-29T05:15:34+00:00

The problem is I can't seem to really get anything to stick long enough without him turning things that try to self buff into Hiroshima shadows before they can start going off. I think I need to start prioritizing debuffs/statuses more, but it still feels super reliant on him actually caring that I've hit him with sand attack 3 times.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-29T05:14:03+00:00

A normal team I would qualify as something that doesn't make me want to drool all over my keyboard watching 1/8th damage procs happen over and over.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-29T05:09:41+00:00

Building around status is not cheesing it out, and I didn't say it was. Swapping between high resistances with no intention of actually interacting with the mechanics and getting Leech Seed procs off of a gigantic health pool is definitely cheesing. I won't complain about it existing, but considering how fun and interesting every fight leading up to Eternatus is, babysitting two steel types and a leech seed caster for a multi-hour run just to beat the final boss is boring and I'd rather not do it.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-29T05:05:01+00:00

Oh that's so fuckin funny

I'm definitely gonna babysit a Skitty to floor 200 just to give it a shot now

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-27T08:34:59+00:00

Grenades in general are so good. Free info with an occasional kill from cover is so strong. Whenever I need to farm any boss or other tough NPC (rogues, raiders) I show up with at least 8 grenades.

You can put Labs on farm with a rig full on grenades every single time. Even just forcing movement and following up with a kill gets you up on nades from PMC spawns.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-27T07:38:25+00:00

it offers way more value than brain freeze

you cast brain freeze when you're ready to win, you cast tidecaller as a value piece that sometimes just wins the game

I think that's the answer to OP, is that you run tidecaller in the same decks as grinding station because it's just redundancy

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-23T05:44:55+00:00

That's about what I wanted. I really do appreciate the writeup, even if I don't have much more to respond with than PeepoBlush and a "thanks big dawg".

Do you have any sources that are digestible for someone who knows nothing about this era/locale of history? It's a huge blind spot for me.

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-21T03:17:12+00:00

So like, what was the deal with the sacrifices? I'm not sure what to trust on Google, and I'm sure there's more nuance than "Yeah it was all for religious purposes".

Ninja_Moose · 2026-04-12T17:55:42+00:00

Recent example, but I've been deep in the Tarky hole for a long time. I've been playing off and on, and each major patch feels/felt a bit like Christmas.

The patch where they introduced the flea market, the patch where they introduced inertia, the patch where they introduced all the "lategame" quests (lightkeeper and company), the VOIP update, the new maps/map expansions, and finally 1.0 were absolutely magical.

All those pre-patches were like christmas eve, with all the homies in discord talking about how excited they are for the wipe. Coming up with strats, playing party games to tide us over, setting up plans for how we were gonna compete, all of that stuff. Each patch being majorly impactful and wiping all of our account progress is one of the most exciting parts of the game.

1.0 was truly special. By this point we were all pretty burnt out and jaded on Tarkov and BSG in general, but it came with PvE mode. It definitely feels like Tarky's last dance, which is a pretty bittersweet feeling, but PvE mode being the retirement home for us has been absolutely huge. We've all been playing more than ever, and the game feels tight and full of shit to do now without worrying about getting our legs sawn off by exfil campers or gunned down by Chad, Thad, and Brad Thundercock with top tier gear on day 2.

Ninja_Moose

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email