The Best Assault Mech | Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries 

The Battlemaster is fun to use early-to-midgame, but lacks the necessary stopping power at range. Two or three alphas from a real assault (just one going for the cockpit which is good to get at a BM) and it goes down before it can even shoot back in earnest. That one laser toothpick is doesn't make the cut. Assault Mechs are made to kill, not to dance.

URBANMECH IS THE BEST MECH

Nah Annihilator with 4 LBX 10 solid shot. May take it's time getting there but good luck stopping it.

The Atlas seems like a solid go to for me personally.

Once i got 4 Stalkers with 4 LRM and 4 ML speed was no longer that important.

Heroes of the Inner Sphere cemented the Battlemaster 1G as my favorite. I swap the LRM 15 for an SRM 6, the regular mediums for Short Burst lasers, and swap the large laser for a PPC. I feel like the SRM supports the close up brawling with the medium lasers a little better. Boil away the armor with the 6 lasers, and then follow up with an SRM burst to core them out. The PPC is sort of my "nah bruh" button for dealing with missile boats until I can close the distance, as well as my chopper sniper.

Battlemaster is pretty good for what it does It has armor It has basically all energy, so you dont need to worry about ammo It moves pretty fast for an assault

Heres a major tip that a lot of people tend to overlook. Take any great sniping mech and flank it with 2 mean mechs with ams systems in your 2 and 3 lance positions, you can get those guys to walk just in front of you, giving you a beautiful protective shield from lrms while you snap shots and crush cockpits

The Cyclops with twin-Gauss is a fast, long-range assassin.

I have 3 sayings when it comes to mech design. "Speed kills but bullets kill faster. You cant run faster than a laser or cannon shell" "Armor is better then chance. You can and will be hit so you have to be able to take it" "When in doubt more medium lasers"

There's a maneuver called a "Highlander burial" named after the Highlander. Because of that maneuver the Highlander is my favorite assault mech (at least in MW5, my favorite in all of mechwarrior/battletech is a Blood Asp). If you've never heard of a Highlander burial and want to know what it is your first guess will probably be right lol

I've had the game for four days and just got the Battlemaster this morning. I was thrilled and shocked at its effectiveness. So seeing this video in the feed was outstanding.

Just to note that the gaming reason for the arm based weapons is that, in table-top, if you torso-twist the arm mounted weapons on the relevant arm can fire into the rear arc.

As I play modded (YAML) I swap in a second torso mounted large laser, down sizing the LRM10 to a SRM6 and double heat sinks to balance it out. I seldom use LRM's on my own ride - the time locking on to a target is better used killing the next one. I direct my support mech to LRM out of direct fire targets instead, or switch into the support mech and take care of it. Then again, since I'm playing modded, XL engines, a mobility gyro, and Wardog speed boost's get my AS7-RS dancing at 71KPH with a 360 core while busting out 110+ point alpha strikes.

Good video, the speed of the Battlemaster is tempting. I have tried running a Stalker with 4 SRM 6's and 4 medium lasers it wreaks almost anything fairly quickly but it is SLOW at 48 KPH. Your video inspired me to try out the Battlemaster (used to be my table top favorite). Thank you!

Nightstar with two tier 4 gauss specialising in headshots from over a kilometre away and an ERPPC to cauterize the wound . My all time favourite Assault Mech.

Back in mw4, my favorite was the daishi, with 6 er large lasers and 2 ultra ac20s, absolutely nothing could match its destructive potential, not even the fafnir mechs rocking their signature dual heavy gauss! Downside was nasty though, in order to free up enough weight for weapons and heat sinks, you had to strip the engine and a hefty chunk of armor. But damn if it wasnt a blast!! You could core a sunder in one alpha shot!

I run the Battlemaster as well. The speed and maneuverability is huge. I set mine up different from you though. I slap on as many medium lasers as possible, srm's, and a boat load of heat sinks. Tanks at range are hard and I usually rely on lance mates for that. Helo's that get in close die. Mech pretty much melt medium range and in. Any medium range and in and you're golden. It brawls well. Its just longer range engagements that you're not so great at. Tanks and Mech will hit you at long range if you're not mobile or have no cover. Helo's always come in close before shooting. I don't find the lack of long range to be too bad, but the mech dishes out brutal damage mid range and in.

There are bigger mechs and more heavily armed mechs. But i just like the speed and the hardpoints in the battlemaster for some reason. Always end up going back to it.

I find the highlander to be my favorite, due to it being kind of all around.

I ended up really loving the Battlemaster 1G as of recently. I thought it was not half bad after the first couple of drops- but then my single neuron fired and I decided to drop the missiles so that I could upgrade the boring medium lasers into 6 tier IV medium pulse lasers. Mechs like the Orion and Warhammer who generally have more broad sided center torsos than other designs pose a lesser threat than light Mechs when I'm taking it out for a spin. Also the addition of Assault fists just puts the cherry on top.

Hard to argue with the Battlemaster, but my personal fave is a Stalker with 2LL, 4ML, and 4xSRM-6s with Artemis IV. It takes a serious investment of hardware and double heat sinks to make it work, but once you have enough cooling there's not much that can stand in your way.

To be honest, with Assaults, I learned to accept the slow speed as part of the deal, so going 48km/h is not really a major issue in my opinion, unless artillery strikes are a thing in a specific mission. As for Assault Mechs themselves - because assault mechs are at BEST going to go at average speed, they will naver really be able to dictate the pace of the engagement, so I find a mech that covers a good range brackets is a nice idea. I personally adore Stalkers - LRMs for long range, LLs for medium range, and MLs and SRM for short. And pretty devastating alpha strike potential. The only problem is heat management - Stalkers like to run very hot very quickly, so chain fire is often a good idea. Good machines for slow and steady approach. I don't take lack of ballistics as a bad thing. I personally prefer fewer weapons that can run out, honestly. Awesomes are also under-appeciated - a good old PPC boat variant works well as an anchor unit. Sure, you can go with PPC Warhammer for example for far less tonnage, but Awesome packs one more and does not overheat as quickly. But it is very vulnerable up close. You also have LRM variants, so there is that in a pinch. You can't go wrong with Atlases either - very heavy armour and weapons for every possible occasion, including some very hard hitting stuff. The only thing I find annoying in them is that massive variety of weapons may make grouping them a bit annoying at times. Obviously, you can't really go wrong with Battlemaster either - it is kind of in the name, isn't it? I mean, 6 ML volley melts anything lighter than it, so there is that. Hihglander is iconic, because it is your go-to option, if you somehow want assault mech with jump jets. Deceptively mobile, but it does sacrifice firepower. As for King Crab - I like the PPC variant - that is a stupid amount of long range firepower and no ammo dependency. There is always heat, though.

You are right. I am a big Battlemaster fanboy too.

Stalker 3f replace righ torso large laser with a PPC the left torso large laser with a medium laser add one more ton of LRM and SRM ammo. If I can replace all heatsinks with 6 double heatsinks add 3 more tons of LRM and SRM ammo and max out armor. Or just an Atlas D with stock loadout and replace all heatsinks with 6 double heatsinks.

I pilot Kintaro with max tier Srms and let AI use atlases with gauss and ppcs & srms with Ams systems. Any light mechs trying to chew our asses are dealt with quickly if they survive the long range barrage. For heavy and assaults enemies they usually seriously crippled if not killed at range and are instantly killed with my Kintaro 28srm missiles should they get in range. Kintaro is OP, I have managed a 93 difficulty warzone mission solo with it, 22 mech kills and dozens of air and tanks all by a 55ton mech.

Atlas-BH 6 medium lasers, lb10x autocanon Streak SRM6 Buttload of armor and a LOT of space for Double heatsinks. Stomping anything in it's path flat wile cruising at 64 kph. Combine with range of heavy and assault mechs with the same speed like archer/marauder/battlemaster and you pretty much set.

I've found that mauler flanked by 2 Stalkers loaded up with SRM's and large energy weps, and backed up by Death Knell or Kintaro 19, seems to do pretty well on majority of 300t+ missions

The battlemaster 1g is the best one even better then the hero version

I pilot a CPL-J it’s fast (73 KPH) has decent armor and it’s got 2 PPCs plus it’s got dual AMS and Jump Jets. I don’t need an assault mech I have a catapult

Battlemaster is a good mech, personally i favor the 8Q Awesome

3 Stalkers for my Lance mates and I go in with a Battlemaster is hella fun.

This seems like such an awesome and effective build for the Battlemaster! Now I DEFINITELY need to get this game! 😭

For me, the double gauss Cyclops CP-S is by far the best mech in the game. It's fast at 64kpm, the ballistic hardpoints are well protected in the torso, and the three medium lasers are decent for helicopters and the vehicles that managed to survive a single gauss shot. Also, heat is basically a non-issue unlike the battlemaster.

lol i check out your videos to get a different on some of the mechs i poo poo but this is the one i use all the time lol

i hate how the devs dumbed down the hardpoint slots and customizability of the mechs, in both mwo and battletech the video game, the awesome had more than just 4 hardpoints, i remember my go to awesome having 2 ppcs, 2 large lasers, 3 medium lasers and a laser ams, but now i cant do that in this game anymore.

I've always been a fan of the later era Banshees... Frequently run a pair of 3S's in MW5 to great effect...

I'm still at reputation 8. Still trying to find my Kintaro Golden Boy.

I personally prefer the 1S equipped as a brawler - that thing rips any mech apart real quick. The only downside is the heat - you need DHS for it to work.

This post was made by the Hanse Davion gang

I prefer the Highlander as my assault mech

i consider assault with less than 56 kph as slow, heavy with less than 64 kph, medium with less than 72 kph, and lights with less then 80.

Yes its good but in my opinion the Annihilator is better

I am surprised ac 2 instead of the machine guns didn't make your build. I use it on my Warhammer and battle master

Nightstar all the way. Just completely destroy virtually all mechs in a few shots with the double gauss.

Late to the party, but I agree with ya on the kinataro, and Warhammer, but battlemaster? Gonna go find one now.

I rock a King Crab with dual Gauss Cannons and an E PPC. I don't run a missile launcher and instead go for higher heat sinks/ammo. It's a monster and I love it.

Considering I loved the Battlemaster in MechWarrior (on DOS) as a kid, a long with a Locust, I'm cool with this option.

Slepnir. Fast, powerful, great hardpoints and hitboxes.

I agree with the battle master to.

AS7-D with substituting LRM10 for stock SRM6.

Save yourself the C-bills and just go with a Black Knight, it's basically a 10t lighter, 2 mil cheaper, and better armed Battlemaster, and being fully energy it has no ammo to worry about.

I tried a 64 kph only squad, Zeus Victor cyclops hero Banshee Battlemaster, but quickly went back to Stalkers and Atlases (with hero Banshee). LRM is so handy. I also like the quad UAC5 Mauler.

my fav assault is Highlander Rs, because I go to close combat pretty often, so I put an assault axe, smash enemies with one-two hits, than go the next kill, works most of the times.

I built one and put my lance pilots it, and it keeps beating me on kill count. Awesome. 4 SRM 4s, 6 MLS, maxed out armor with mod plates… +damage & range upgrades…. Thing eats all the vehicles & half the mechs. Great mech! Gonna clone it for myself. I also built one with 148 dam for an axe which is finally ready to try in the field, lol.

I tend to prefer arm mounted weapons for the ease and quick response in aiming, but I have to say that the Battlemaster is pretty damn good. The stock 1G is damn near perfect and DHS only makes it better.

Has the Heroes of the Inner Sphere DLC changed anything about your "Best Mech" evaluation?

battlemaster with MP Lasers amazing brawler with amazing DPS. On a side note letting my AI squad use it with high skills i found he was keeping damage up close to me at end mission

So far I’ll say it’s Archer and Battlemaster

I’m the same, a Brawler since the 1990’s table top and every PC game released! BUT, oddly enough my favourite mech is the Clan MadCat II.

I really like the ECM battlemaster. yes i'm really weird. but cutting out two medium lasers for ECM capability really helps out my friends in coop. especially when we swapped out the defaults for BAP and gaurdian to save weight and increase effectiveness.

I like Atlas K variant or Annihilator 1E variant for long range engagements and Annihilator 1X or 1A for medium to short range engagements.

I'm liking the Nighstar with duel gauss and 3 ER Large Lasers. Head shots all day. I also downloaded a mod that corrects the heat sinks and opens up hardpoints for other lore friendly variants.

Bit of a long comment ahead. So I actually have two Battlemasters, a 1G and a 3M, not my favourites to pilot but I've found them to be extremely reliable Lancemate mechs. Running both without the ballistics hardpoints, and until recently getting a huge amount of Double heat sink's I also had 2 less M Lasers on them, both at 2.2 cooling rate and 496 armour. I often do stuff like this or using medium rifle's instead of AC 10's/20's to reduce weight, as I much prefer heat dissipation and armour over sheer number of gun's, which has worked wonders for me in terms of survivability and the ability to pack in extra ammo for long missions with lots of mech target's to deal with. The 1G currently has an ER PPC (at lvl5), 6 M Lasers, and an LRM 10, all lvl4. The only difference for my 3G besides having more upgrades is that it has a lvl5 LP Laser instead of the ER PPC. Personal favourite Assault mech is either the Victor Basilisk, which I've swapped out all the weapons for apart from the M Lasers. Currently running with a lvl4 AC 5, lvl3 LB 10-X AC, a lvl5 and a lvl 4 LRM 5, a decently high amount of ammo and a cooling rating of 2 (before upgrades) ensure I can fire for age's without overheating, while putting out an often devastating hail of fire. Or my Mauler 2P which I tend to use in a similar manner, or to defend Lancemates during demolition style missions so they can blast buildings to rubble, 2 lvl4 Medium rifle's, a lvl5 and a lvl4 LRM 10 (looking for the elusive second lvl5), 2 lvl4 L Lasers, cooling rating of 2.52 (tyvm heat related upgrades and dual heat sink's), and a grand total of 555 armour. (though I'm looking to find a better variant to modify the crap out of and possibly replace it). P.S I sold the hero King Crab "Carapace", because while really cool looking and definitely faster than an Annihilator, it struggles to shoot over anything including the smallest of bumps in the ground, and with how immensely wide King Crab mechs are, the Annihilator actually takes less hits and generally gets to shoot at thing's from much further away, which made it far easier for me to use as a command mech. My first time use of the titanic sized Annihilator with M Lasers, Medium rifle's and LB 10-X AC's led to coring a freshly spawned Atlas 7D in 5 second's from about 200m... Needless to say, I was absolutely mind-blown by the sheer damage output it could potentially send down range. Final note: I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a Cyclops 11 P or 10 Q, any ideas for how to build them or should I stick to my usual build style?

I make wubmaster.

I just started playing and have 2 battlemasters and a bunch of other mechs but i keep coming back to the battlemasters lol (one is hero variant, but they each serve there own function)

What, no marauder 2? You can at least get it as salvage from 2 scripted missions, guaranteed, early on and long before you find it in shops.

I love the atlas AS7-D. I found it early on, exploring up in north western kurjita space when I was at reputation 4 or 5 in campaign. 11.8 million credits. sold about 6 or 7 mechs from cold storage I collected just to get enough to buy it, and make a trek back to the davion/kurjita conflicted space to earn some credits to pull myself back above a million. Switched out the ac20 for a ac10 BF, added two double heat sinks (that I got as salvage from later on) and extra single heat sinks. Because tigger happy logic. it has been carrying me since. Its speed does get to me every now and then. but I really don't mind it.

My best Assault Mech is the Stalker-4N. I set it up with 2 LP Lasers, 4 med lasers, and 4 SRM6-st. This thing melts mechs faster than any other Mech in my garage. I cycle my medium lasers at the same time as my SRM6-st. I loaded it with as many double heatsinks as it can carry, 20% extra damage upgrades, and saved 1 slot for 7.5 increased missile velocity/range. The med laser plus SRM combo can chew through parts in a few seconds at range, and then the dual LP Lasers breaks them. It cripples mechs in under 3 seconds most of the time. I should really measure it..

now i dont know if this is possible in vanilla because I refuse to play without YAML, having weapon choice be limited by slot size instead of tonnage and crit slots is just dum and boring and other MW/BT games just doesnt do that but 6 medium pulselasers 1 LMR 15 supercharger XL engine or clan XL hardened armor ( works on 2 different variants, slots wise ) Is a blast with the battlemaster LRM while you close the gap Supercharger to temporarily reach 90+ km/h to rush in pulselasers to shred any armor

I like Atlas with 1 Gauss, 1 LRM 20 Artemis, 1 SRM 6 Artemis and 4 medium Lasers. Though slow it works great at all ranges and has no heating problems.

Cyclops CP 11P is one of my new favorites I equip it with duel Heavy rifles and 4 medium short burst lasers. it can kill most mediums and heavies with one or 2 shots of the heavy rifles even center torso and if they are still hanging on because a shot goes wide and tags a shoulder a follow up of M lasers pretty much ensures destruction. The ecm also really helps to keep the mech safe. The lasers are in the arms so they work well at downing Vtol and vehicles while the heavy rifles are mounted in the shoulders which is fine since they are mainly for targeting mechs only time i had issues was when I was on a hill and a mech was nearly under me. One tactic I found that works well with the vehicle is using the severe spike damage to get a enemies attention at range duck into cover and have my squad mates finish off the wounded mech.

I like his reasoning and actually agree with everything he said but... the build has a fatal issue... its straight up just too inefficient for any mission past 75 difficulty. The single heatsinks (or heat-stinks as i call them) make me physically ill. The lack of ammo is also just devistating to see. I would have liked for him to mention how many CT slots there are as a positive or negative for mechs too cause the battlemaster has an absurd number of CT slots for ammo.

Battlemaster with 6 m lasers, 2 machine guns can bully other mechs… i always use it to rush other mechs and take out their pilots. It makes short works of pretty much every mech… save for the big ones like atlas. Battlemaster when used properly can really be rewarding with its instant kills, Awesome is the long range bully and usually takes out most mechs even before they can get close to it.

honestly I love playing in co-op with friends and being a sniper/kill mech. It's unfortunate that when playing solo, AI's do not know how to properly use mechs (like rifleman) and will have suboptimal play. I mean, I never expected them to be as good as players but god damn do they just make poor decisions.

Stalker with 4x SRM-6 and 4 Medium lasers. Its slow but brutal

Cyclops - Q is the best untill the very end of the game due to lack of tonnage. Then you're stuck with a bunch of unsatisfying alternatives.

I've been a massive fan of battle tech since I bought the second edition fasa. Back in the 90's... I think my favoitre is the warhammer. The duel ppcs are good for long range wear them down... Or out right sniper shots on small mechs because they generally carry short range weapons. Medium laser when they get to moderate range. The srm 6 further dents mechs when they close and the fire linked small lasers with machine guns up close. If you manage you heat you'll probably be at the higher end of the scale and you'll be in a knife fight with mechs that would be heavily damaged by the time they got up close. So the machine guns linked with small lasers means you can keep up with the hits without over heating. Just a point about machine guns it becomes easier to deal ahead shots when you keep the trigger held and hose the cockpit area with bullets. The machine gun builds up no heat. In mech warrior 2 (yes I'm that old and a geek)... I used to outfit 100 ton dasher/dire wolf with MASC and jump jets as many machine guns as possible... I think at least 10. It would only take a couple of of seconds on the trigger to destroy a mech and build up no heat.

Arm loss happens too often, crippling ur offensive capabilities. Better to have ur main weapon b torso mounted.

I think this video is spot on. I got a Battlemaster for my first assault mech in Roguetech and I still use it after thousands of hours.

knight: assaults' are very rare and may never see one *me fighting atleast one a lance*

I got this bad boy a few days ago and I've been using it off and on whenever I can lmao. Thing fucks on everything I go up against.

I know its a hero mech, but you get it from a mission so you can get it reliably in a playthrough. The Victor-BSK is definitely my favorite Assault mech in MW5. I set it up with; 2x T5 UAC/5 on Right Arm 2x M Lasers on Left Arm 2x T5 LRM5-ST on Torso 1 SRM-4 ST Artemis V on Torso the two T5 UAC/5's on the right arm just melt everything and there's still enough room for carrying 4.5 tons of UAC/5 Ammo while still having the max 506 Armor. In total they do over 2x the DPS of a T5 AC20-BF while having around 3x the range and 5x the velocity. And that is before you start adding the additional upgrades to the mech, which can boost your ballistic damage by 20%. I usually do between 1500 and 2000 DMG a mission, and take less than 100DMG. I can count the number of times I've lost that arm on one hand, and if that happens you can just restart the mission. But you kill everything so fast it's really not an issue. Especially if you are playing on PC because of the speed at which you can aim.

I prefer the all energy Banshee with MASC over the Battlemasters, even the hero variant. It sprints at almost 100 kmph, can solo other mechs and shoot while using MASC, and brawl against smaller targets. It's like a bigger Wolverine. That said, I do bring a Battlemaster with the ECM/ BAP combination as a utility mech for defense, but it shows the weakness of the Battlemaster series at mech vs mech combat since it usually has the lowest damage on the team despite not being undergunned

I have not completed the Game as yet but Victor is my Favorite cause it has the Large Turret mounting for Gauss rifle.

The Battlemaster is my favorite

Hero mech being rare? I have the black widow Warhammer and keep coming across purchase opportunity for other hero mechs but I don't have a need for them cause most are light mechs

I really like the Stalker. It's been my go-to long-range mech and I just love the amount of pain it can dish out with those dual-large missile slots. I can't remember which variant it was but I redesigned one with 2, LRM 20 ST's and another 2 L ER lasers and it kills efficiently. I'm more of a sniper guy and as a result I can keep myself out of harm's way most of the time, sending my lancemates in front of me to screen others from getting to me while i'm in a favourable position. Most defense contracts are a breeze for me as a result. Not recommended in CQC though.

It not offen that assault mech have speed in mind though there are some exceptions it just matter of what willing to sacrifice to make mech work. Then again I prefer use assault mech as dange sponge and have light and medium mechs flank or deal the damage.

Why are so many of the comments acting like the AI is smart and will target your weapon systems? AI in this game spreads damage all over...

Love me the annihlator with the shotgun thingys

I Love the King Crab, all my homies run King Crabs, Dual AC 20s are the way to go, no greater feeling than blasting a mech to scrap in one salvo as they jump over you.

I like to run a Cyclops 10 Z with double ac20 burst fire and srm6s for a mech core brawler that can also go for the legs and works well for anti-armor and air when using weapons grouped individually.

I'm, actually, running a similar build on my Battlemaster, only I have SRM6 instead of LRM10 and PPC instead of Large Laser. I, also, have plenty of double heatsinks thrown in. I've tried double AC2's in the left arm, but that was too much weight and I had to sacrifice both armor and heatsinks-bad idea. Overall, I'd say that Battlemaster is a step-up from Stalker, even though my lancemates are always riding Stalkers. Also, funny enough, whenever I run PPCx3 Awesome, my lancemates seem to go out of their way to shoot all the small flies-vehicles and helicopters.

Highlander?.....The fucking Black Watch approves.

run it with med pulses and SRMS it becomes a great brawler

Mauler mx90 4 ac2 2 srm 4 art and 2 medium lasers is unrivalled for destruction and raid missions

These vids have been a real help... I also love the brawler style of gameplay, as you put it, so these mechs are quite well suited to me. I have an AI mod so my lance mates aren't that dense anymore, but what are some mechs you'd recommend for them? I just use mechs that have a massive amount of missiles as artillery while i do my thing

My fav. so far is the Marauder II with 3 ppc and 2 m-laser. I finaly salvaged this battlemaster g1 in a demo mission and will give it a try. i'm still missing a annihilator, kingcrap and mauler after playing 55 h xD After the DLC is out, do you still prefer M-Laser or rather chemlaser or puulselaser ?

Battlemaster is the best mech in the game period, it has such a wide utility and you can mow down pretty much anything