The Avatar

Seemingly, one of the toughest battlemechs to kill is the Avatar. The Heavy Class Inner Sphere mech is one tough bird. Owning a very good electronics package, lacking only ECM and IFF Jammer, the Avatar has the potential to do it all.

The Stock Configuration has full Ferro Armour, some 14.5tons of it and a speed of 69KPH, LAMs is the only option installed but BAP, JJs and Advanced Gyro are there for the picking. The stock weapon load out is a mish mash of items that appear as if the designer did not know what to do with this mech.

If you strip away the stock weapons and add in all the electronics while bumping the speed up to 75kph, you still have 29tons of armament you can add. The weapons slots for the Avatar are decent. Each torso houses a 2-slot missile rack while the ct house a special slot listed as beam rack. The Beam Rack is a 2-slot energy. The Left arm is a 3-slot omni while the right arm holds a 3-slot ballistic and a 3-slot energy.

Because the Avatar is only 70tons, you will not be able to pack on too much of anything thing, but it can certainly take some power configs. The dual PPC and a light gauss is a popular config making the Avatar into a pop sniper with some punch. Some tweaking of speed and armour and you can get a dual gauss rifle load on this mech. Two HVAC10s are also very nice on the Avatar.

One thing you don’t see, but maybe more should look at, is the ability of the Avatar to boat missiles. The Omni slot can carry either of the Arrow options as well as a Heavy Rocket Launcher or any of the missile systems. The Avatar is often used as an Arty boat in mission play maps.

The Avatar is built on a standard frame. Although the arms are probably the weakest point of the mech, the torsos are rock solid. I have seen almost as many Avatars ‘hudded’ as I have with a crit ct. The body of the Avatar is as tough as almost any other mech in the game and takes lots of abuse before caving in to enemy fire. The problem with that is that most battle configs will have 2/3s, 3/4s or all the weaponry in the arms. I am not saying the arms are brittle or fragile, just that they are the weak spot of the Avatar and also where a majority of the weapons are housed.

The avatar is a tall mech with the cockpit mounted way up on top of the mech. The arms are mounted just below this giving the pilot good visibility for hill humping and you can fire rounds without blasting the hill in front of you. Personally, I think the shape of the Avatar is funny looking and it sort of bounces when it walks. It is almost egg shaped mounted on those long legs.

The Avatar handles nicely but the accel and decal rates are not as quick to respond as other mechs. If you bump the speed up to 81, these rates are improved but only slightly. The Avatar has a top speed of 105, but that only allows you 16.5tons of weaponry to be added.

I have tried many times to use this mech and to like it. Using and Avatar in the opens is becoming harder and harder on normal radar maps. So many pilots choose to go for an assault and the Avatar simply cannot pack enough smack to stand up against multiple assault mechs.

In its weight class, however, the Avatar is a fine mech. There are other 70ton mechs that can pack more weapons or speed. The Avatar is tough and holds its ground well. On weight limited maps or league drops, the Avatar can fill multiple roles and is very likely to be one of the last mechs standing.

Vettie’s View? I rate this mech at 3 ½ minutes. Just above average for its weight class. The rating comes mostly because it is hard to kill. It can be rendered useless by blowing away the arms. I feel the Avatar is mech looking for its niche.


MP3 Avatar

Today I plan to review the MP3 version of the Avatar. I paid this mech a visit earlier in life and I gave it a decent review. Since that time MP3 has been issued and we have been playing this version of our beloved game for a while. I like to go back to the earlier renditions of the battlemechs and see what the changes are to note any big changes and / or improvements. It’s a shame I was never able to get all the mechs reviewed before MP3 was released. My intent is to get them all reviewed. I don’t have a particular order, I am just scouring the mech lab and picking a mech, I guess similar to the way Ghengis is choosing the ‘mechs of the month’.

As with most of you, when I choose a mech, I start with armour, electronics the finally weapons load out unless I have a specific objective in mind with a particular mech chassis. Having said that, I will review the mech in that order.

The Avatar comes from the Mek Works with full Ferro armour, some 14.5 tons, not even .10 ton shaved. In the electronics category, this mech has LAMs pre-installed but offers BAP, Jump Jets and Advanced Gyro. The speed is set to 69 KPH and it has 3 heat sinks. When we look at the weapons load, I can think that the designer had brawling in mind with a bit of long rang support. It has a LBX10, a LAC5 (Light Auto Cannon 5), 2 Medium Lasers, 2 Medium Pulse Lasers, a Small Laser and a LRM15. The LBX10 and LRM 15 both have double ammo loads. I mention the heat sinks and double ammo loads because these can be turned into another weapon or speed or extra electronics.

Stripping the weapons and heat sinks yields 36.5 tons in which to create your Avatar variant. Adding BAP, Jump Jets and a single speed increase gets you up to 75 KPH (remember I always round down on the speed even if it is over the .5 mark. The reason is that various terrain can cause the battlemech to go a bit slower, like snow or water and certainly up hill.) That leaves you 30.5 tons for weapons.

The Slots are a bit different than I remember for the original edition of the Avatar. Each side torso has a 2-slot missile rack. The Chin Rack (I think this is a special slot, but I could be wrong) has a 2-slot energy rack and a separate 1-slot direct fire rack allowing for energy or ballistic weapons. The right arm has a 3-slot ballistic rack and a 3-slot energy rack. The Left arm has a 3-slot omni rack. Overall, the Avatar has a very good slot layout allowing for many varied types of uses. I will remind you that the Cockpit of this mech is way up high on the center torso and that the arms and missile slots are also mounted high. Hill clearance is a snap with this chassis.

I mentioned that the slot layout was good and it allowed for many varied weapons platforms, or, if you prefer, many ‘boats’. The problem with the Avatar, as is with many, the majority of the beam or ballistic weapons will be mounted in the arms. The arms are the weakest part of the mech taking only 42 to 43 points of damage before being destroyed. The damage points are exactly the same as that of the Clan Thor. Thor pilots out there know too well what its like to have a couple of gauss rifles and then have a Canis hit you in the arm blowing away your gauss in 1 shot.

In the 1st review I touched on the ability of the Avatar to be a missile boat. Don’t discount this. The avatar has 2-slot missile racks in the side torsos and a 3-slot omni arm. With BAP in the electronics mix, this thing can be a very nice jumping missile boat. A pilot can load an ALRM10 in each torso, an ALRM20 in the arm with extra ammo, a PPC for that loving touch and 81 KPH on top of the BAP, LAMs and Jumpies, you don’t even have to cheat the armour anywhere. BAP and Artemis offer you almost insta-lock, so a jumping missile sniper is born. OF course there are many other missile layouts that are possible.

One of the most infamous uses of the Avatar is to be used as a base killer. With the ability to move at 105 KPH and to pack 3 Artillery Beacons each with extra load of ammo, the Avatar is probably the most devastating base killer. The chassis is rock solid and can take lots of hits. The speed, at 105 KPH, is very fast, faster than a lot of light mechs with weapons. It can jump walls and hills and just run away while you are trying to pummel it.

As an energy boat, the Avatar can pack 3 Large Lasers, or 3 of either of the Pulse or X-Pulse lasers and load on plenty of heat sinks to make it a cool ride. Another thought is to add 2 PPCs and a Laser or Pulse laser of choice. It handles heat ok, but you will need heat sinks so don’t skimp on them unless you are very good at heat management.

All those ballistic slots, including the omni allow for some fun and excitement in the ballistic category. A couple of HVAC5s (Hyper Velocity Auto Cannon) and a PPC will knock the crap out of enemies at ranges up to 1000 meters. HVAC10s a or any of the Gauss family except the heavy can be used. LBXs can be fitted if you prefer a brawler. Let us not forget the machine gun group, this mech can pack them on with room for lasers.

Overall the Avatar is a very tough battlemech. I am not a big fan of the way it looks, but I am a fan of the staying power. The arms, while high up on the mech, don’t protrude far from the main chassis so it does not present itself as a wide target. The hit boxes are very tight. The legs are long and do present themselves as a target, but they are tough if loaded with armour. The weak spot is the arms which unfortunately is where a majority of the weaponry is housed.

I have tried the Avatar and I find it a good mech. It doesn’t need special armour although I have a config or two that utilize spec armour making this mech even tougher. When opponents see an Avatar it may not be their first choice of targets if larger mechs are in the same vicinity. That could be a deadly mistake. The Avatar can bring some firepower to the match and it can stand up to some serious fire in return. I don’t suggest standing still and taking shots, but with proper twisting and maneuverings, it doesn’t take a lot to spread the damage around.

In a recent MWL match one of the opponents was in an Avatar. This pilot was very good and he did more damage than any other pilot on the team including the guy driving a Gladiator. The mech was hard to kill and it packed a punch when he shot. He did a very good job and my respect for the Avatar went way up.

Originally I rated this mech at 3 ½ minutes, slightly better than average for a heavy class mech. In its class it is one of the best. In a free weight game such as Sunder it can be a dangerous threat but it will also die in a hurry under fire from several assaults. If used properly, the Avatar can be one of the toughest mechs in the game. IF loaded properly, you can put a hurt on enemies but it lacks that singular punch that makes the enemy say wtf was that? It needs speed to survive. The rating stands. In weight restricted maps it can be the biggest threat on the map, in unrestricted maps you must be more careful. Try an Avatar, post your configs and tell us what you think.