Crabs

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Crabs

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 4:29 am

BlueFlames
Posts: 465
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:24 am
Location: SSX Vault 12
No puns in the title, because they're all horrible...

Right, so if you bought a Resistance II pack, or you compulsively browse the in-game store in MWO, you may be looking at the Crab and thinking, "What's the point?" This is a valid question, especially if you already own a mastered Hunchback 4P, which enjoys more energy hardpoints clustered in a higher mounting position. While I could list off little things that each Crab variant has over the HBK-4P, I'll instead make the general note that all of the Crabs enjoy a higher engine cap. Of the thirteen builds that I highlight in this post, only two of them have an engine that a Hunchback can mount.

Relating to the engines, a word of caution: If you're going to use a high-powered engine in a medium mech, you'll have little choice but to utilize XL engines. A standard 300 consumes half the chassis' available weight. That's about as far as you can go in terms of engine output before you have to decide if you want to run a mech with no guns or settle for the squishiness that comes with an extra-light engine.

And that said, the Crab is squishy with an XL engine. It gains no durability quirks for the side torso sections, and those side torsos have a much larger profile to hit, from any angle, than the previously-highlighted Grasshopper. Adding to that, three of the four variants--including the CRB-20, with its ludicrous 350 engine cap--have no durability quirks for the legs. It's best to think of the Crab similarly to the Cicada: It says 'medium' on the tin, but it needs to be piloted like a light. Stay mobile.

Having mentioned the standard 300, that's not a bad engine for this chassis. A 300-rated engine will offer the Crab mobility identical to that of a Stormcrow. Since three of the variants have three energy hardpoints spread across the center torso and head, the Crab can remain a notable threat, even after losing both side torsos. That's not a bad combination of characteristics for a medium chassis to boast.

Finally, most of the weapon quirks are pretty ignorable. The CRB-27b gets an energy heat bonus, which helps it with sustained damage output, but the rest are all range and rate-of-fire quirks with such small bonuses attached that you'll hardly notice them.

Anyway, on with the builds:


CRB-27 (R)

The standout feature of the CRB-27 is its dual-AMS hardpoints. While it won't score you many points, having a mobile mech with dual-AMS can be of great use to your team, since you can position yourself near large targets and help screen out a surprisingly large number of incoming LRMs.

My main build for the CRB-27 also makes use of the chassis' energy range quirk by mounting a large laser in each claw. This gives it some reach, so you can support your team, while shooting down missiles or keep some range, while harrassing the hostile firing line from the flank. The two medium pulse lasers in the center torso add a little more punch to ward off anything fast enough to close distance with you.

If you don't like the squishiness of the XL325, you can opt for a STD300. You have to downgrade the pulse lasers to regular small lasers, which isn't such a big deal, but you also have to lose three heat sinks. Inner Sphere large lasers are not exceptionally hot weapons, but with only eleven double heat sinks, once you've built your heat up to capacity, you'll have to take cover for quite some time to cool off. You might consider dropping the AMS to retain some of the heat sinks, but if you are going to abandon one of the unique features of the variant, you might want to consider utilizing a different variant.

Alternative to downgrading the secondary weapons to enhance the mech's durability, I also gave thought to downgrading the secondary weapons to bulk up the primary weapons. This one drops the medium pulse lasers to medium lasers and gives up two heat sinks in order to upgrade the large lasers to large pulse lasers. While you lose some maximum range, the large pulse and medium lasers have very similar range profiles, moreso because the medium lasers benefit from an additional range bonus, allowing you to bring all of your weapons to bear more regularly. Again, you're doing this partially at the expense of heat dissipation, so while in any particular instance, you might be able to deal more damage, over the course of an entire match, your total damage output may even out.


CRB-20

Remember how I mentioned that the Crab should be thought of as an oversized light mech? That is especially true of the CRB-20. Its party-piece is a 350 engine cap, and when you're given a high engine cap, you may as well use it. With a 350-rated engine and speed tweak, the Crab runs over 120kph, so it really can keep up with the light mechs. Roll with them in the opening reconnaissance phase of a match; do the ridiculous flanking maneuvers and fade into the background, before you face any return fire; touch the enemy base in Assault mode, then disappear, when the enemy team gives their back to the rest of your team, and so on and so forth.

What do you mount alongside that huge engine, then? I'm fond of large pulse lasers, personally. The short beam duration helps minimize exposure time, while firing, allowing you to make better use of your mobility to stay alive. The small lasers again help to enhance close-range damage output, though they are less a defensive weapon and more something to add to a sudden strike, when you get cheeky enough to sneak up behind something heavy, slow, and alone.

My second build is something a little more typical of fast Crabs in the wild. Five medium pulse lasers offer a similarly-sized alpha strike to the previous build, and the additional heat sinks allow it to hang around in a fight longer, before overheating. Personally, I don't care for this configuration's lack of reach, but if you are more willing to deliberately get close to your targets than I am, then the range may be less of an issue for you.

The CRB-20 was the first variant that I had begun to build out, since the XL350 that I had bought for my Grasshopper 5J was screaming to be utilized in a medium mech. I was curious how much speed I would have to sacrifice to make equivilent standard engine builds, so I used the previous configuration as a template and came up with a standard 300 configuration. I don't run this one, because like dropping the AMS from the CRB-27, you are discarding what makes the CRB-20 unique by not utilizing a giant engine.

For shits and giggles, then, what do you have to give up to run a standard 350 engine in a Crab? Basically everything. Three medium lasers is all you get, if you want to run with a standard 350. You might be able to peel off another couple tons of armor and upgrade one or two of those lasers to pulse lasers, but you are still going to have less firepower than your typical Locust or Jenner, so if you want to make use of that huge engine cap, just accept the squishiness and mount an XL350.


CRB-27b

The CRB-27b is the only Crab variant that moves the weapon hardpoints around a bit. You get two energy hardpoints in each claw and only one in the center torso. This encourages you to mount a bigger energy weapon in your torso, where it will be available, until you die, and more weapons overall, since you may as well fill the hardpoints.

Right, so let's put the biggest energy weapon in the center torso that will fit: a large pulse laser. Again, because of the matching range profile, medium lasers make a natural companion weapon for the large pulse laser, so I mount five of them in the remaining hardpoints. Because this is a mid-range mech, I opt to use the standard 300 engine in my primary configuration. You won't want to go as far afield in this build as you might in one of the CRB-20 configurations, but you still have the mobility to dance around the edge of your team's firing line, and you'll be able to remain a threat to the bitter end with that giant laser in your torso. Heat management can be tricky, but is mitigated slightly by the variant's heat generation quirk and can be further eased by intelligent weapon grouping. (I opt for a group with the left arm lasers, a group with the right arm and head lasers, and a final group for the large pulse laser.)

If you don't want to give up the mobility of a bigger engine, though, an XL325 build makes sense as well. The weight savings is invested in additional heat sinks and upgrading several of the medium lasers to medium pulse lasers. That throws off the matching range profiles of your weapons, but if you do not upgrade those lasers, then you are left with three tons and hardly any critical slots. There may yet be some more fiddling that could be done with this design, but each change that I made brought it closer to the CRB-27 configurations.

Besides the number of hardpoints being unique to the CRB-27b, the placement is also unique. Having two hardpoints in each claw, means that you can mount two weapons very close to each other and have them trace a nearly parallel path to their target. This is useful for PPCs. To maximize the benefit of a lopsided loadout, I stripped the left side of everything of value and mounted a standard 275 engine. What else has a shield side, closely-paired energy hardpoints, and can carry a standard 275 engine? Yes, this is a build better suited to a Hunchback 4P, if you already own one. If the Crab is your entry point to energy-heavy medium mechs, though, then this is a reasonable build.


CRB-27sl

The CRB-27sl has two important features going for it: It has jump jets, and it has a structure buff for the legs. Some of the previous builds that feature an XL325 may be more appealing on the CRB-27sl, since it will be a little more difficult for your opponents to sweep your legs, and the jump jets can further enhance your mobility. That said, I took a slightly different angle in building out my CRB-27sl.

Jump jets also enable PPC sniping. The same principles apply to this build as do to my primary Grasshopper 5H build, except that class IV jump jets are better at lifting 50-ton mechs than class III jump jets are at lifting 70-ton mechs. You have a strong secondary battery that covers you within the minimum range of the PPCs, and because you won't be firing the PPCs when you are firing your secondary weapons, the mech runs cooler than it first appears it would. The claw-mounted PPCs are lower on the Crab than the shoulder-mounted PPCs on the Grasshopper, so be aware that you'll be more exposed when you are firing, but if you are jump sniping, the difference in exposure time should be small.

Again, I decided to see what I could do to transplant a standard engine into the above build, and the only real option is to sacrifice the secondary battery. This already renders you vulnerable to light mechs that get in close, but on top of that, dropping the rating to 275--a necessity to save weight--means you just won't be able to pull range, when something does get too close. You can give up the jump jets to restore some close range weapons, but then you are back into, "Why am I not using my Swayback?" territory again.

Right, so I bought the XL300 for the PPC build. How can I iterate on that build with that engine? Well, PPCs can be easily swapped for large pulse lasers, and if you pull out a couple of heat sinks, you can add a secondary battery of another large pulse laser! This isn't as terrible an idea as it might initially sound. Because the large pulse laser has such a short burn time, you can jump and fire as you drop back into cover and, with a steady hand, deal almost full damage to your target. The downside is that you have to be a lot closer to your target than you were with the PPCs, and you don't have quite the same speed that the XL325 builds provide. Honestly, I'd stick with the PPCs.


An Almost Final Note

I mentioned that the quirks are largely ignorable. You may also have noticed that, except for the CRB-27b, the hardpoint layouts are all identical. Most of these builds are interchangable with only minor tweaks. Would one of the CRB-27 builds be better with jump jets? Grab a CRB-27sl, drop the AMS, and use the tonnage to add four jump jets. Would you prefer the PPC build on the CRB-27sl, if both PPCs were in one arm? Swap the variant out for a CRB-27b. Whether this fungibility is a strength or weakness of the chassis is up to you to decide.


If I had to pick three...

With the Grasshopper, recommending three variants was easy, because the 5J was pretty clearly the runt of the litter, and so you get the three that are not the 5J. With the Crab there isn't one that stands out as being worse than the rest. They are all very similar, and the ways in which they are unique don't foul them up in any egregious way.

Indeed, I like the unique features of each variant. I enjoy a mobile dual-AMS platform. I enjoy a medium mech that dares to scamper about with the lights. I enjoy the combined staying and firepower that the 27b's hardpoints encourage. Anyone who was around in the MW4 days will remember my proclivity for jumping around the map.

Which one of those do you care about the least? That's the variant you don't buy.

...

Or you're content with your Swayback and you don't care about any of this Crab nonsense in the first place.

Re: Crabs

PostPosted: Tue Nov 24, 2015 5:28 pm

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Chimera
Posts: 325
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2004 6:52 am
Location: Madison, WI
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I haven't yet tried out the Crab; which I guess is odd since that was a favorite mech back in MW2: Mercenaries.
Pain is weakness leaving your body.

Re: Crabs

PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:01 pm

BlueFlames
Posts: 465
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:24 am
Location: SSX Vault 12
In MWO, the Crab feels rather like the bastard child of a Cicada and a Swayback. The combination of mobility and a heavy energy punch can be fun, but if you've already got one or both of those other two, I could see the Crab being a difficult purchase to justify, unless you're just flush with C-Bills.

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