I had trouble yesterday with my Pics so a re-post is in order~
sorry folks, but here ya go!

The Pitbull

I decided to give the mech a check up today because there are several mentions of it in the MekTek Forums. People are saying what it needs and what it has and so on, so I thought I would give you Vettie’s View on the Pitbull.

The Pitbull derives its name from probably one of the most feared animals on the planet. A Pitbull, although humble in nature and generally a docile dog can be one of the meanest, relentless fighters on this earth. The have some mechanism in their jaw that locks up and doesn’t let go unless they decide to make it so. I got to tell you right now, I am an animal lover, but even as harmless as they may seem, I would not want one or want to be around one. I simply don’t trust them.

Does the MechWarrior Mercs Pitbull live up to this? Well, lets find out. We’ll start by examining the mech including its stock config and we will go from there.

Out of the mech lab, the Pitbull is a 70 ton, Heavy Class, Clan Tech battle mech. Loaded with Jump Jets and LAMs it also offers Enhanced Optics and Advanced Gyro. The Speed is set pretty slow @ 62kph (Vettie always rounds down to the whole number, the actual speed here is 62.6kph) and 7 heat sinks. As loaded, the heat efficiency is @ the 59 mark on the scale (low yellow). Built on an Endo Steel Frame, the Pitbull is loaded with 12 ton of Ferro Fibrous Armour but it is not completely full. For weaponry, it comes stock with and LBX20, 2 Heavy machine guns, 2 LtPPCs and 2 Heavy Medium Lasers. Not a bad load out as the LtPPCs give it some defensive ability at range while everything else is geared for brawling. With a name like Pitbull, you would expect to see some brawling going on.

As many of you know by now, I like to strip away the weapons and fill the armour while plugging in all of the electronics. Doing so with this mech gives us 14.5 tons for armour (Ferro) and leaves us with 32 tons for weapons and speed upgrades.

The weapons slots on this mech remind me of the Ares except the ‘big slot’ here is a 4 slot ballistic rack for the dorsal gun. Each side torso has a 2 slot beam rack while the arms each house a 2 slot beam rack and a 2 slot ballistic rack. No Omni slots.

The speed range on this mech is from 57kph to 92kph. Because it is on an endo steel frame, the upgrades for speed increase (better engine) are relatively cheap. 62kph is too slow in my book for this mech. 2.5 tons worth of engine upgrades get you to 72kph and still leaves you 29.5 tons for weapons. Depending on what you plan to do with this mech, jump jets are optional and if not taken give you 4 more tons to use.

Continuing to set up our Pitbull, the Dorsal gun offers a 4 slot option for ballistics. All my configs are puretech and you will notice that the Clans do not offer a 4 slot ballistic weapon. This means a 3 slot weapon, or 3 slot plus a 1 slot, or 2 2-slot weapons or 4 1-slot weapons or whatever combo you decide, but you get the idea. No Heavy Gauss for jooo! There are many options here, you just have to decide what you want to do with your Pitbull.

A simple, yet effective config is to put a CUAC5 in each of the ballistic slots and an ERLL in each torso. The CUAC5s offer steady damage and considerable knock with a rapid recycle rate of 1.5 second. Chain these and the enemy wont stock rocking until you run out of ammo. Throw in a laser shot here and there just to continue to strip away the armour. This little config covers you up close and out to 750 meters with ballistic rounds and 800 meters with the ERLL. You can fight back at a distance, but closing in will put the hurt on en enemy mech. The speed is set to 62 (very slow) and I knocked off the Enhanced Optics to add 1 heat sink. This one tends to run a little hot but it does chew away at the enemy.

Another semi brawler config I have is more of an aggravation than a brawler but still effective. It is loaded with 8 Clan Machine Guns and 4 ERMPLs. At 400 meters or less, this thing will chew through anything. It has enough heat sinks (9) to keep you from shutting down under continuous fire and it offers Jump Jets, LAMs, and Advanced Gyro with full Ferro Armour.

A Brawler version offers a LBX20, 2 LBX10s and 2 HMLs @ 67kph with Jump Jets and LAMs and near full Ferro Armour. Nice little brawler this one.

Well, its time to put this mech to the testing grounds. I want to see for my self what it can do and what it will do. So its off the server we go. First round our testing will be the Pitbull in 2 different configurations against a config of all the other 70 tonners in the game.

The map is set to Coliseum with normal radar and waves fro 30 minutes. The type of battle is Destruction because all we (me anyway) are interested in is the number of kills this thing gets vs the other chassis. I set up at least 1 of each of the other chassis using what I would consider to be standard battle configs for anything EXCEPT brawling. Brawling will come later.

The cast of characters are all loaded with Ferro Armour maxed (or very mininmal shaving) and all the electronic options offered except enhanced optics. Speeds were all pretty close to the same.

Pitbull Gauss LtPPCx2

Pitbull2 UAC5x3 ERLLx2

Archer ALRM20x2 ALRM10x2

Blackheart Gaussx2 LXP

Bowman ERPPC LtPPC ArrowCluster

Avatar LtGaussx2 LXP

Grizzly Gauss ERLLx3

Nova Cat ERLLx4 *This one did have reflective armour*

Thor Gaussx2 ERLL

Warhammer AC10x2 LLx2

And the scoreboard

I was surprised at how well the Pitbull did, but moreover, I was shocked at the Bowman. That thing was a beast. As you can see by the scoreboard the Pitbull with a Clan Gauss and 2 LtPPCs faired well against its own weight class.

Next I set up a brawl fest, creating some brawler configs for each of the 70 tonners. Again, the map was the same, Coliseum, waves, 30 minutes. All (yes even the Nova Cat this time) the mechs were dressed in Full (or darn near full) Ferro Armour with whatever toys were available except enhanced optics.

Archer LBX10 MLx2 SRM4x6

Blackheart AC20x2 MLx2 SRM6

Bowman LBX20 LBX10 HMLx2 CStrk4x4

Pitbull 1 LBX20 LBX10x2 HMLx2

Pitbull 2 CMGx8 ERMPLx4

Avatar AC20 LBX5 MLx2 SRM4x2

Grizzly LBX20 LBX20 HMLx3 CStrk6

Nova Cat LBX20 HLLx2 HMLx2

Thor LBX20x2 LBX10 HML

Warhammer LBX10x2 MLx6 SRM4x2

And the scoreboard

Altho this is where the Pitbull should shine, you can see by the scoreboard that it didn’t. In fact, it didn’t do very well at all. I repeated the brawl fest to see if it was a fluke and the scores were nearly the same except the Pitbull 1 didn’t do as well. DOH!

Finally, I took it for a couple of road test. I wanted to see if I could do any better and I wanted to get a feel for how the mech handles. In the Coliseum, I did a little better than my auto mated friends, but I still died way too much and way to often.

The mech handles very slowly. One of the complaints has been about the torso twist being too slow and not far enough. I use a mouse for this function and I didn’t really have an issue with how quickly it rotated, but I understand what they say about the twist being to small (80 degrees I think). Things I did notice were how slowly the Pitbull responds to acceleration. Once you are moving, its ok, but from a dead stop you almost have to get out and push thing to get it going. On the reverse side of that, the decel rate is great. This thing will almost stop on a dime, well ok, a big C-Bill note, but it does stop quickly or go into reverse quickly.

The Pitbull actually seems to handle better in reverse. I felt like I had more control when I was moving backward. Moving forward, it felt like it was lumbering along, almost struggling to make that next step, but going backwards was smooth and easy.

I fought these rounds in the Coliseum because that is an enclosed (except for the roof) arena and it keeps the bots from wandering off to explore things. I also chose it because it is 100% heat efficient, what you see is what you get. IF you think your mech will run hot, try it here. I gotta say the Pitbull is not so heat efficient. Using the LBX20, LBX10, HML combo had the heat index around 59, low yellow. It didn’t take long to heat up and require flushing. Of course I had no heat sinks, but I didn’t really think I would need them on this map. I never shut down because of heat (except when one of the mechs splashed on me), but I did use my coolant and lasers wisely.

The overall toughness of this mech leaves something to be desired. It did not hold up well under fire. I was fighting other 70 ton mechs remind you, not the usual fare you might encounter on sunder or other open servers. Although the Pitbull by name and look should be a good brawler, I was very disappointed.

After the brawl fest or three, I took this baby out for a ride where it could see some open territory and maybe even have some cover to play in. Loaded with a Clan Gauss (double ammo) and 2 ERLLs, I took off against the crew listed in the first battle. As a range mech, it works better. I was quick enough, 77kph that I could move to cover or safety and still get my shots in. I did much better using this mech at range.

See the scorecard.

So maybe brawling isn’t the calling this mech needs to follow, despite its name and appearance. It could use a boost in toughness but it does NOT need to lose the jump jets. This is a big plus for this mech, allowing you to jump snipe or hide behind a hill and pop snipe just over it for a quick second. It doesn’t roll up very well, or maybe its me, maybe I could not get it to roll up, so I don’t like it for hill humping. Its just too slow to get started. Rolling back was fine, but what good is it if you get waxed on the way up.

The big dorsal gun is another area I would like to address. It comes off pretty easily. I am not sure what the damage number there is, but it doesn’t take much for a 70 ton mech to knock it off so bigger mechs wont have nearly as much trouble doing the same. Don’t be afraid to put weapons in there, chances are you wont live long enough to regret it!

The arms are relatively tough but they hang a bit low. Again this is where the jets help, just a small tag on the jets and you can rise above the little cover in front of you and blast away falling back down safely under cover.

All in all, I was not overly impressed by the mech. I should be a brawler, but I found it to be weak. It worked better at range for me and it can take a decent load of weapons for ranged fighting, ERLLS, LtPPCs, CUAC2s or 5s, or a Gauss Rifle. You wont be packing any ERPPCs or missiles with this one.

Well its time for my rating. I was on the fence on this one before I drove it. I was not especially fond of it and I considered it a brawler mech. After trying it and taking it through some paces, I decided that it was not a brawler (At least not one for me to drive if I expect more than 1 or 2 kills per round), but it was better used as a range support mech. The torso twist is fast enough just not deep enough. Its terrible to make it get moving and it cant shoot upwards very well. If you use beam weapons carry heat sinks or you will shut yourself down. That is not a good state to be in while inside this weak mech. I rate it at 2 ½ to 3 minutes overall. Not good for a 70 Heavy Class mech. This experiment by Clan Jade Falcon needs a few tweaks.