Revision as of 03:45, 29 May 2021

Mech Spotlight #2: The Valiant

Welcome to the second Mech Spotlight, an intermittent series where I take a look at a chassis in BTA that I love more than is perhaps reasonable. This spotlight is on the famous Clan OmniMech, the Summoner.

Technical Specifications

The Summoner is a 70 ton heavy Clan OmniMech. There are 9 variants of the Summoner, with a wide variety of loadouts between them. The Summoner, as a Clan OmniMech, has both the Clan positive/negative quirks as well as the OmniMech quirk, giving it extremely rapid repair and refit times, even when blasted into scrap. The Summoner's affinity is Unlimited Power, which gives 10% damage to all energy, missile, and ballistic weapons, just enhancing its flexibility.

Variants

The Summoner comes with 9 variants, however as an OmniMech, they aren't actually that different. Because the base gear on OmniMechs is locked to the chassis, most variants are interchangeable. The only thing to consider when looking at OmniMechs is their hardpoint layout and the Summoner actually has no hardpoint variation among its variants, having 2 omni hardpoints in both arms and both side torsos on every variant.

Model Info

The Summoner model comes from MechWarrior Online, which is made by Piranha Games Inc.

Summoner Overview

Because it is an OmniMech, going through the variants is largely pointless so I won't bother. They're defined only by their stock loadouts. Instead, with OmniMechs I'll be discussing their "base gear" and how that defines the chassis. The Summoner itself is an interesting chassis, if a little strange. As a 70 tonner, the Summoner's 350-rated Clan XL engine gives it a high ground speed of 6 hexes on a walk and 9 on a sprint. Additionally, the 5 hard-mounted heavy jump jets increase the maneuverability by a significant amount, giving the Summoner the ability to get anywhere on the field of battle relatively quickly. It comes with hard-mounted Clan Ferro-Fibrous armor, for a little weight-saving, but lacks Endo-Steel. The heat sinks are fixed Clan DHS as well as fixed E-Cooling +4, ensuring the Summoner has excellent heat dissipation at all times (84 heat in a neutral environment).

Looking over the chassis, the thing that comes to mind is that the Summoner was made for maneuverability over everything. It is fast for its weight and the jump capability really improves upon that maneuverability. This suggests to me that it would serve best in a sort of fast flanker role: coming around the side of the enemy to pressure the flanks and distract them while the main combat force takes advantage of that distraction. The lack of Endo-Steel means that it can carry slightly less tonnage than would be idea, but the cXL engine and the cFF armor do give enough weight-savings for decent loadouts. Coming with 8 hardpoints across the whole body gives a good spread of possible builds, with both laser spam and missile spam working well. The main weapons that the Summoner cannot make use of effectively are heavy ballistics, as it just doesn't have the space. From stock, the mech has 22.5 tons of pod space to work with, which isn't enough for heavy ballistics. At best, it could do a 20-class AC of some flavor and a few lasers for backup, but there's much better chassis for that than the Summoner. One of my personal favorite Summoner builds is SRM spam with ArtIV. The mech can easily carry SRM 30+ with ammo and thanks to its speed and maneuverability it can put those SRMs where it hurts, every time.

The Summoner is a mech that I like quite a bit. I enjoy the heavy flanker role and the Summoner does it better than a lot of other mechs. It's not great at holding a line and trading fire and it's not an incredibly versatile 'mech due to limited pod space, but if you use it to its strengths (fast, heavy, flanking strikes) it'll serve you well. Not a huge amount else to really say: it's got a specific job, it does it well, it looks good doing it, not much to complain about. The only real negative the 'mech has in my eyes is the fairly glaring lack of Endo-Steel. Almost every variant has space for it, it's just a silly omission by the original mech designers.

Conclusion

The Summoner is a 'mech with a role. Use it in that role and you'll profit. Don't, and don't. Simple as that. Come back next time for a wild card mech that you might not think about too much!

Previous Mech Spotlights

Mech Spotlight #1: The Valiant

Mech Spotlight #2: The Summoner

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-=Mech Spotlight #1: The Valiant=
+<div id="" class="" style="clear: right; margin: -1em 0 0 10px; float: right; padding: 10px; background: transparent; width: 200px; ">__TOC__</div>
-<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"">
+= Mech Spotlight #2: The Valiant =
+Welcome to the second Mech Spotlight, an intermittent series where I take a look at a chassis in BTA that I love more than is perhaps reasonable. This spotlight is on the famous [[Factions#Clans|Clan]] OmniMech, the [[Summoner]].
-Welcome to the first Mech Spotlight, an intermittent series where I take a look at a chassis in BTA that I feel deserves more attention than it gets normally. This spotlight is on a quirky and under-loved light mech, the Valiant.
+[[File:Mech_Spotlight_2_Summoner_01.png|900px]]
-[[File:Mech Spotlight 1 Valiant 01.png|900px]]
+== Technical Specifications ==
+The Summoner is a 70 ton heavy Clan OmniMech. There are 9 variants of the Summoner, with a wide variety of loadouts between them. The Summoner, as a Clan OmniMech, has both the Clan positive/negative [[Mech Quirks|quirks]] as well as the OmniMech quirk, giving it extremely rapid repair and refit times, even when blasted into scrap. The Summoner's [[Pilot Affinities|affinity]] is Unlimited Power, which gives 10% damage to all energy, missile, and ballistic weapons, just enhancing its flexibility.
-==Technical Specifications==
+== Variants ==
-The Valiant is a 30 ton light Inner Sphere BattleMech. There are 6 variants of the Valiant, which cover a wide variety of hardpoints among them. The Valiant's quirk is Improved Targeting, providing a +1 bonus on weapon attacks. The Valiant's affinity is Precise Shot, providing another +1 bonus on weapon attacks. The quirk and affinity combine to make it among the most accurate of light mechs. The Valiant's main claim-to-fame is that four of its six configurations mount melee weapons, three with a Hatchet and one with a Mace (one of only a few mechs with a Mace in all of BTA in fact). Two configurations also mount a Small Shield, for added durability.
+The Summoner comes with 9 variants, however as an OmniMech, they aren't actually that different. Because the base gear on OmniMechs is locked to the chassis, most variants are interchangeable. The only thing to consider when looking at OmniMechs is their hardpoint layout and the Summoner actually has no hardpoint variation among its variants, having 2 omni hardpoints in both arms and both side torsos on every variant.
-==Variants==
+== Model Info ==
-The Valiant comes in six flavors: the -K5, -K7, -L2, -L7, -M4, and -M6. The -K5/-K7 are the traditional energy variants with hatchets. The -L2/-L7 are the two variants without a melee weapon. The -M4/-M6 are sort of the oddball variants that do unusual things while still maintaining the mech's melee heritage with a hatchet or mace.
+The Summoner model comes from MechWarrior Online, which is made by Piranha Games Inc.
-===V4-LNT-K5===
+== Summoner Overview ==
-The K5 is a simple variant, made with no advanced technology beyond the arm-mounted Small Shield. Thanks to the shield, the K5 is one of the most durable Valiants. It has basic hardpoints, 3 energy and 3 support, giving it decent combat options, though 1 support is occupied by the hardwired hatchet. Additionally, because of the hardwired shield, it has less available tonnage than other Valiants. It also comes with single heat sinks, the only variant to do so, making it expensive to refit. It is fielded by Local Govt, the Magistracy, the Marians, the Outworlds, the Rim Collection, and the Taurians, meaning it is widely available.
-[[File:V4-LNT-K5.png|900px]]
+[[File:SMN-PRIME.png|900px]]
-===V4-LNT-K7===
+Because it is an OmniMech, going through the variants is largely pointless so I won't bother. They're defined only by their stock loadouts. Instead, with OmniMechs I'll be discussing their "base gear" and how that defines the chassis. The Summoner itself is an interesting chassis, if a little strange. As a 70 tonner, the Summoner's 350-rated [[Engine XL#Engine XL (C)|Clan XL]] engine gives it a high ground speed of 6 hexes on a walk and 9 on a sprint. Additionally, the 5 hard-mounted heavy jump jets increase the maneuverability by a significant amount, giving the Summoner the ability to get anywhere on the field of battle relatively quickly. It comes with hard-mounted Clan [[Ferro-Fibrous]] armor, for a little weight-saving, but lacks [[Endo-Steel]]. The heat sinks are fixed [[Heat Sink Kits#Heat Sink Kit (CDHS)|Clan DHS]] as well as fixed [[E-Cooling#E-Cooling + 4|E-Cooling +4]], ensuring the Summoner has excellent heat dissipation at all times (84 heat in a neutral environment).
-The K7 is the "stock" Valiant. It carries the hardwired hatchet but no shield. It also has similar hardpoints to the K5, with 3 energy and 4 support (one occupied by the hatchet of course). However, it comes with a larger engine, double heat sinks, and MASC, as well as the extra tonnage without the shield, making the K7 a little easier to use than the K5. It is fielded by Local Govt, the Kuritans, the Davions, and the Steiners, making it widely available.
-[[File:V4-LNT-K7.png|900px]]
+Looking over the chassis, the thing that comes to mind is that the Summoner was made for maneuverability over everything. It is fast for its weight and the jump capability really improves upon that maneuverability. This suggests to me that it would serve best in a sort of fast flanker role: coming around the side of the enemy to pressure the flanks and distract them while the main combat force takes advantage of that distraction. The lack of Endo-Steel means that it can carry slightly less tonnage than would be idea, but the cXL engine and the cFF armor do give enough weight-savings for decent loadouts. Coming with 8 hardpoints across the whole body gives a good spread of possible builds, with both laser spam and missile spam working well. The main weapons that the Summoner cannot make use of effectively are heavy ballistics, as it just doesn't have the space. From stock, the mech has 22.5 tons of pod space to work with, which isn't enough for heavy ballistics. At best, it could do a 20-class AC of some flavor and a few lasers for backup, but there's much better chassis for that than the Summoner. One of my personal favorite Summoner builds is SRM spam with ArtIV. The mech can easily carry SRM 30+ with ammo and thanks to its speed and maneuverability it can put those SRMs where it hurts, every time.
-===V4-LNT-L2===
+The Summoner is a mech that I like quite a bit. I enjoy the heavy flanker role and the Summoner does it better than a lot of other mechs. It's not great at holding a line and trading fire and it's not an incredibly versatile 'mech due to limited pod space, but if you use it to its strengths (fast, heavy, flanking strikes) it'll serve you well. Not a huge amount else to really say: it's got a specific job, it does it well, it looks good doing it, not much to complain about. The only real negative the 'mech has in my eyes is the fairly glaring lack of Endo-Steel. Almost every variant has space for it, it's just a silly omission by the original mech designers.
-The first melee-less Valiant, the L2 is a missile-focused design. It comes with good components, such as double heat sinks, an XL engine, CASE, and heavy ferro-fibrous armor, making it a good acquisition early on in a career. It has 5 missile hardpoints as well, making it an excellent early-game SRM carrier, though it lacks the tonnage to do much else, being far too light for LRMs or Thunderbolts. It would make a passable MML carrier however. It is fielded by only the Draconis Combine, making it hard to come across.
-[[File:V4-LNT-L2.png|900px]]
+== Conclusion ==
+The Summoner is a 'mech with a role. Use it in that role and you'll profit. Don't, and don't. Simple as that. Come back next time for a wild card mech that you might not think about too much!
-===V4-LNT-L7===
+= Previous Mech Spotlights =
-The second melee-less Valiant, the L7 is a focused ballistic design. It is the slowest Valiant out of the box but has the most available space thanks to the slower engine and being the only Valiant with Endo-Steel. It also has mixed hardpoints, 3 ballistic/2 energy/1 support, giving it a variety of possible builds. It makes a good early-game direct fire support design with light autocannons or perhaps a single larger autocannon. Thanks to the endo-steel, it would also make a good twin Large Laser or PPC carrier early on. It comes with decent components, such as double heat sinks, CASE, and a Light Engine. It is fielded only by the Federated Suns, making it hard to come across.
+[[Mech Spotlight 1: The Valiant|Mech Spotlight #1: The Valiant]]
-[[File:V4-LNT-L7.png|900px]]
+[[Mech Spotlight 2: The Summoner|Mech Spotlight #2: The Summoner]]
-===V4-LNT-M4===
+[[Category:Mech Spotlights]]
-One of the so-called "weird" Valiants, the M4 carries a hatchet like the K series Valiants, as well as double heat sinks and some ER Medium Lasers, but it uses most of the tonnage it gets from its heavy ferro-fibrous armor on a pair of Mortar/2s with both suppressant and inferno ammo. This gives it unusual hardpoints: 2 ballistic/3 energy/2 support (one used by the hatchet). The ballistics are torso mounted, giving them increased protection over the L7's arm mounts. The M4 is fielded by Local Govt, the Magistracy, the Circinians, the Outworlds, the Rim Collection, and the Taurians, meaning it is widely available.
-[[File:V4-LNT-M4.png|900px]]
-===V4-LNT-M6===
-The other so-called "weird" Valiant, the M6 is another missile focused design, with exclusively missile and support hardpoints (one of which is occupied by a mace). The mace gives the mech some unique hitting power and makes it stand out among melee mechs in BTA. The M6 also mounts a hardwired small shield, giving the M6 further durability on-par with the K5. It comes with good early-game components, such as double heat sinks, ferro-fibrous armor, and an XL engine. It is fielded only by Local Govt, Pirates, and the Tortugans, making it moderately uncommon to come across.
-[[File:V4-LNT-M6.png|900px]]
-==Conclusion==
-The Valiant is a versatile, wide-spread, interesting chassis. Though it has a reputation as a light melee chassis, the L series Valiants demonstrate that it makes a fine weapon carrier as well. I encourage you to give the Valiant a try, it does some unique things (such as a mace/shield combo or being an excellent light missile carrier) and is worth your time. Come back next time, when we stop in with the Clans for a moment!
-</div>

Difference between revisions of "Mech Spotlights"