On Trial. A review of current trial mechs for Mechwarrior Online November 2016 Part 1

Greetings and welcome to The Brethren Academy trial mech review column "On Trial" a review of trial mechs currently available for use in Mechwarrior Online.  In Part 1 I am reviewing the Clan Jenner IIC and the Inner Sphere Panther 10K.  

I've played four matches with each of these mechs to get a feel for how they play, what their role is and weather or not I think they make good trial mechs.  I hope to get through all 12 trial mechs available before they change them.

    

Jenner IIC

The Jenner IIC is a 35 ton Clan light mech armed with 4 SRM 4s and 2 SRM 2s with a top speed of 135.5 kph and 230 points of armor.

Game 1: River City, Skirmish. 0/12 loss.  Crap round for me Taken out after doing only 80 damage but still out damaged 4 other mechs.  Not a great round to start off with.  Attacked a Kodiak delivering two full salvos and one half before getting cored out by several mechs.  Mech has speed and jumping and a good enough alpha.  Just a bad round.  

 

Game 2: Terra Therma, Skirmish.  4/12 loss.  Better round than the first.  I did 339 damage with one KMDD.  The mech performed much better damage wise but I was more careful not to try and solo with it.  Heat was difficult to manage with a Clan SRM build.  I overheated at least four times.  

 

Game 3: River City, Skirmish. 9/12 loss.  The team communicated better.  I did 401 damage with two KMDD.  Only overheated one time but it is still a very hot mech for a new player to run.  

 

Game 4: Mining Collective, Skirmish. 12/9 win.  I only did about 164 damage this round which is what usually happens when I win in a PUG match.  I don’t usually do well on Mining Collective.  It lags my machine for some reason.  This could be a good map for this mech but it is easy for a light to get caught up on terrain or pinched into a tight spot so it’s not the best.  

Summary:  While this is a pretty nice mech and would probably be a great mech in the hands of a pilot who likes this kind of build I feel it makes a very poor trial mech.  SRMs are difficult for new players.  They require a lot of aiming and close fighting in this light and fast mech.  I just don’t think it is going to be appealing to new players.  It is also a Clan SRM boat so it runs hot and of course dies easily when it shuts down because it is a light.  

It is definitely a striker mech.  It’s fast and had a decent alpha with short range weapons so it is good for delivering a punch to the brawl.  It is not a good anti light mech but is great for harassing big mechs.  It’s too big and cumbersome for scouting so stay close to the pack and wait until the brawl gets stuck in before striking at close threats.  

Panther 10K

The Panther 10K is a 35 ton Inner Sphere light mech armed with two PPCs with a top speed of 108.8 kph and 215 points of armor.

Game 1: Grim Plexus, Domination. 9/3 win by Domination.  I did 277 damage with no KMDD.  Did some jump sniping but mostly just ranged sniping and suppression.  PPCs recharge very quickly.  Was lucky not to be charged by a light.   

Game 2: Caustic Valley, Domination. 12/7 win on kills.  I did 211 damage.  The low slung arm was really a problem for me on this map.  I had to jump snipe while being chased around in close quarters with no defense against close brawlers.  Without a lot of speed I’m surprised I survived the match.  

Game 3: Grim Plexus, Skirmish.  2/12 loss.  I only did 168 damage.  The team really folded on this one.  A few of us were trying to give direction but for the most part everyone spread out and did their own thing while the enemy team stayed cohesive and reacted as a group.  It’s a good map for this mech but an unsupported support mech is not much use.  Found myself scouting because no one else would.  Also the enemy team had several LRM boats with narcing and tagging lights so they got lucky with match maker.  

   

Game 4: Alpine Peaks, Skirmish. 10/12 loss.  I did 479 damage with two kills and one KMDD on what is probably the best map for this mech.  I was able to stay at range and knock the crap out of large targets which is what this mech is best at.  

Summary:  This is a nice sniper/skirmisher with a good alpha for a light and pretty good speed for a panther.  It is however a really bad trial mech.  Boating two regular PPCs will leave new players splashing a lot of useless shots against mechs that are way too close.  It is also not nearly fast enough to escape fast strikers.  The low arm mount on a light mech means you have to get up over a lot of terrain to fire while exposing your mech.  The mech is tough but it is still a light and can’t take a lot of punishment.  It’s decent as a jump sniper but doesn’t have a great jump either.  Another bad feature for a trial mech is that it has all it’s weapons on one arm and the arm is big and easy to hit making it easy to render the mech useless.  

 

It works better in the skirmish role using your own assaults and heavies for a screen as you jump up and shoot the enemy assaults and heavies while being largely ignored in favor of of bigger targets.  It is very susceptible to fast flankers however.  Staying too far back in a traditional sniper mode makes you too much a target to counter snipers especially since you have to expose over half your mech to shoot.  You should also use your left arm to shield enemy attacks.  If attacked by enemy lights or medium strikers you should run towards the largest mass of friendlies who you should never stray far from.