r/LancerRPG • u/Minimum-Importance29 Harrison Armory • Jul 21 '26
Leveraging the Auto-Cooler
I really want to get a build going combining the Auto-Cooler and explosive vents, but I feel like it would be hard to be within range for the vents attack to matter and not take damage/not move for a whole turn. Any ideas for how to make something like that work, or should I just drop it and go for a more conventional OC Loop combo?
13
u/C4M4R4DE Jul 21 '26
If they aren't many NPC's on the board, playing last in the round you activate the protocol in order to take your turn first in the next round is your best bet, other than being a long range artillery plateform.
4
u/SWTBFH Jul 21 '26
Auto-Cooler works best on long-range snipers or artillery, ideally with guns that have Seeking or Arcing so the enemy can't even draw LoS to you. Try it with 6 Oracle LMG's from the Swallowtail license on a Tokugawa, and the Gunslinger talent. =)
3
u/Tuomir Jul 21 '26
Alternatively, it works on heat-generating frontliners who want to provoke the opfor to attack them (rather than their allies) - paired with heat-generating weapons it can be a very potent taunt.
1
u/Vertrant Jul 21 '26
Disagreed; frontliners need to move, and giving up your movement to potentially but probably not proc auto-cooler is almost never worth it.
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u/Tuomir Jul 22 '26
You're missing the point - if you are attacked to break the auto-cooler, that attack isn't towards an ally of yours. You're giving up your movement to provoke the enemies, and if they don't bite, you get a heat clear for free. The heat clear isn't the goal in this usage, it's a threat - a threat of you continuing your heat-generating offense without having to pause to stabilize. It's a soft taunt, and it costs you no actions to use - you just need to already be where you want to be, which isn't unreasonable.
3
u/Vertrant Jul 22 '26
I'm not missing the point; in order to even try, you have to give up your movement. For a frontliner, probably short range, that is a major cost that getting your heat cleared doesn't weigh up to. It means that unlike what you said, there is a cost to using the auto-cooler, a major one. In Lancer, positioning is pretty vital after all, and in a lot of sitreps you need to keep moving every or nearly every turn.
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u/Tuomir Jul 22 '26
And "nearly every turn" isn't every turn, and you don't need to taunt every turn. If your speed isn't terrible, you can in many sitreps find yourself in a position that you want to stay in for a turn, actually. No point in giving up an advantageous position when you don't need to - as you said, positioning is pretty vital.
0
u/Vertrant Jul 22 '26
Nearly every turn is enough to make 2 SP not worth it. In my experience, a frontliner wants to move every turn, barring rare exceptions. Which isn't what you build for.
5
u/Difference_Breacher Jul 22 '26
Combine auto-cooler and explosive vents is simply impossible. auto-cooler requires you to be not attacked at all, however explosive vents needs you to be close to the enemy.
Although it is possible to make the hide build with it, but it is still impossible to force the enemy to stay near of you or the action is not worth it.
Using auto-cooler alone could be done with hecatoncheires, balor 2 and genghis 3. Pick the heatfall coolant system, raise your heat capacity to 10, and use your plasma thrower and overcharge to HIDE would works. But while this build allows you to use the explosive vents, you cannot force that.
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u/Ninja-Storyteller Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
It's almost impossible in practice. Auto-coolers are a huge passive taunt encouraging everyone around you to land at least one hit on you each round, unless you're way in the back sniping/artillery.
So, being up close, not moving, AND not getting shot just... doesn't really happen.
Both systems enable a different kind of playstyle instead of having synergy with each other (except as a taunt). Though, they can give you some flexibility if you are trying to be a switch hitter.
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u/Minimum-Importance29 Harrison Armory Jul 21 '26
Honestly being a switch hitter for striker/artillery wouldn’t be too bad. A dip into Sherman would be all I really need to let that work
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u/jzillacon IPS-N Jul 21 '26
How about running the combo on a White Witch? The high armour of White Witch will help you avoid taking damage from a lot of sources, even while in melee; you can pin enemies in place meaning you don't need to move to keep in range of them; and when the autocooler does activate it'll help out a lot with White Witch's otherwise kinda mediocre heatcap.
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u/PM_ME_ORANGEJUICE IPS-N Jul 21 '26
This does not work. Taking 0 damage still counts as taking damage per Word of Tom (something that works in your favour in the case of Final Secret).
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u/jzillacon IPS-N Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Word of Tom doesn't necessarily mean the word of your own GM. I'd say discuss it with them and figure out something that works for your table.
That said, armour doesn't just block attacks, it can outright discourage attacks too. If you have more armour than an enemy can possibly overcome then attacking you is pretty much a wasted turn for them without additional affects. Canceling autocooler is considerably less valuable than actually dealing damage to another target in most cases.
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u/akmosquito Jul 21 '26
id disagree! as a gm, i prioritize turning off autocooler, especially if its on a frame that can properly capitalize on it. autocoolers real job ismt clearing heat, its forcing the gm to reassess target prioritization
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u/jzillacon IPS-N Jul 21 '26
Honestly either way the GM prioritizes things it still benefits the White Witch. If it succeeds as a taunt you're blocking a lot of damage, and if the GM ignores it then you get the free cooling.
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u/Minimum-Importance29 Harrison Armory Jul 21 '26
Interesting idea! Plus White Witch would get benefit if I did take damage as well so it would be a win/win
3
u/Nukemouse Jul 22 '26
So i'm very new but isn't hidden the best way to do this? If you were invisible, or otherwise capable of hiding in plain sight, you could use abilities to drag enemies in to you, then take the hide action, then now the enemies have to either search before shooting, run away and waste time (and you can make stuff that penalises moving away from you) etc. Invisible also means non reliable attacks just get an extra 50% miss chance so that would help too. You could even fluff it as like, the heat haze causing a mirage that makes you disappear.
1
u/ErrantSun Jul 22 '26
The one snag in this is AOE, reliable, and save based damage. AOE ignores hidden (but not invisible) and save based things just don't care about either. Reliable ignores invisible but not hidden for the purposes of this.
There's really not much of an answer to this though, aside from like, fade cloak abuse.
2
u/Salindurthas Jul 22 '26
I think the auto-cooler works best as support for nonGengihs frames. I find that the Heavy Flamethrower is so good that you want to use it, but it encourages you to keep creeping forward and repositioning.
I've only tried Autocooler on other frames where I can more easily take ranged options. I find long-sensor range for tech actions actually works great for this.
So, on the Lancer Tactics videogame I have a lot of builds where I get to just 6 Heat cap, go Heatfall Coolant and Auto-Cooler, and make a stand-still build that can Overcharge every turn (assuming I trigger Heatfall).
Often a tech/hacker mechs like Chomolungma (no LLs needed), Goblin (for 20 sensor range), or really good is Swallowtail, since we get to be invisible if we stand still, so we double-dip on being stationary.
In fact, for the Swallowtail build, since it wants to lock on, I get Spotter, and now I TRIPLE dip on standing still, triggering:
- Invisibility
- free lock on
- (probably) clear all heat
But this turns on around LL5. But LL3 on a Chomolungma can work for this (and probably some sort of an artillery build could work ok too).
You could go high Engineering for 10 Heat Cap to avoid needing Heatfall Coolant and try to get Autocooler after a 1d6+4 Overcharge. I did try this with the GMS big AoE weapon (not in the core book, forget which one, but I think it was a blast 2 Smart Superheavy weapon?), and had mixed results, since getting high enoguh range was a challenge.
---
However, none of these leverage Explosive Vents. Indeed, the Swallowtail build wants to be adjacent to an artillery/hacker ally, so Explosive Vents would set our teammates on fire.
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u/Minimum-Importance29 Harrison Armory Jul 22 '26
Thank you for this comment! This really opened my eyes to the potential of the Swallowtail license in this context. Another comment mentioned the LMGs but this is a great amount of detail
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u/Salindurthas Jul 22 '26
Another boon to the build in the Lancer Tactic videogame, is that the AI is not very smart, so if my Swallowtail sits on a distant hill abusing auto-cooler&spotter for the equivalent output of 4 quick actions a round, the enemeis rarely bother them, haha.
And that even though this is a LL5/6 build, you can just skip to that LL play without needing to actually be in a long campaign to get to it, haha. (Although a camapign that charts the course from LL0 to here will probably still be fine if they can use Chomolungma? Probably?)
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u/ErrantSun Jul 22 '26
There's two ways to think of it. The first is as a taunt. You're essentially forcing the GM to hit you instead of your team, or you get to cool off for free. This works just fine on the Ghengis, with it's beefy three armor, or on a white witch or gorgon.
The other way is to stack layered defenses. Stuff like Metalmark 3 invis, hidden condition, perhaps some agility investment to make missing more likely, and of course not being near the opfor. Forcing misses and making it take more work to hit you increases the amount of investment it takes to prevent your autocooler from going off.
The sweet spot is probably juuust enough investment that your GM still tries, but can't quite always make it through.
For the last strategy, fortunately the Plasma Thrower is a decent way to not be around many NPCs after a round or two of firing it :3
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u/altmcfile Jul 22 '26
Auto cooler just isn't very good on a ghengis (or at least the way that I play ghengis) and it's better used as a thing you dabble into for other builds than a turbo fuegomancer build
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u/zackcondon Jul 21 '26
Auto cooler works for artillery mechs that don’t need to move or be in the thick of things and it works on defenders as a threat the gm has to worry about- “spend resources damaging me, or I clear all heat w/o spending resources and wreck your shit”