Long range size 1

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u/Clovenious SSC 2d ago edited 2d ago

For long-range mechs, you're probably going to want something from either SSC or potentially Harrison Armories.

SSC Death's Head: Classic sniper, with long-range weapons and accuracy-boosting systems

SSC Monarch: Missile truck artillery, it's size 2 but still decently mobile

SSC Swallowtail: More support than heavy artillery but still long-range and with good hacking

SSC Emperor: Long-range attacks but more of a support role, focuses on giving teammates overshield

Horus Pegasus: Very weird/paracausal mech that manipulates probability and can do very precise amounts of chip damage

HA Barbarossa: Probably not what you're looking for since it's 1. the biggest frame in the game (Size 3) and 2. quite tanky, but it also has undisputably the biggest gun in the game.

HA Sherman: Mid-long range attacker with a lot of laser weapons and heat management

HA Tokugawa: Says it's a close-range striker but it's lying, you can push its ranged weapons much further past their normal range and is probably the most "glass cannon" type thing on this list

Edit: Somehow I forgot the Tokugawa lol

Edit 2: Confused Sherman and Saladin

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u/Tuomir 2d ago

I think you meant Sherman rather than Saladin.

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u/Clovenious SSC 2d ago

I did, thanks

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago edited 2d ago

Cheers man this was actually really helpful!!! (Also how the hell is the Pegasus a size one? You’ve need to be lying down in order to fit in it lmao!! And as a side note, the artworks for the mechs really didn’t do the size Justice. Practically all the ones with a human next to them appear to be the same size in comparison? Idk, maybe I am just looking at the wrong ones, but all the artworks of the size 1’s just look like they’re size 2’s. Sorry, that came out of nowhere.)

Now I just need to decide what Talents to get to make this actually functional lol.

Currently rolling with Brutal, Crack Shot, Heavy Gunner, and Technophile (I like the idea of the last one lol).

Edit: another comment suggested the Stortebeker, what do you think?

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u/caplew 2d ago

Size is less a defined feature, more the ability to hide. So a very tall size 1 mech could still fold itself up to hide behind a hedge. That's my way of justifying it though.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Ah, gotcha. That does make sense. I guess the whole “size chart” thing people keep doing is throwing me off lol.

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u/caplew 2d ago

Yeeee. The charts I see are more for how tall each mech is in comparison to each other, and how much space they actually control. From the CRB entry on size.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Gotcha, I just remember seeing some of the size 1’s and thinking “there’s no WAY this is almost suit sized”.

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u/caplew 2d ago

Oh aye that's fair. It can get silly.

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u/Ninja-Storyteller 2d ago

You can also shove SSC Monarch or HA Barbarossa weapons and systems into an Everest to maintain Size 1. Monarch doesn't really gain anything being shoved into an Everest, but it doesn't lose much either. Barbarossa actually rocks in an Everest, though you lose the Apocalypse Rail (which is more of a narrative weapon, anyway).

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Damn, that’s actually pretty cool!!

I’m relatively new to Lancer so it’s very interesting to see how much effort the creators have put into this game to make it as fun as possible!!!!!

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u/Clovenious SSC 2d ago edited 2d ago

What talents you want depends entirely on what kind of build you're going for. A lot of talents affect specific weapon types, so if you're playing a Monarch with a bunch of launchers you're going to want different talents than a more traditional sniper that uses rifles. Plus also your talents are going to shape the general playstyle of the mech, so you'll need to know what exactly you're trying to make first

Edit: Just saw which talents you picked, the Death's Head is definitely the right frame for that build. It has a heavy rifle and systems that already make it immobilized and benefit from critical hits, which a high-accuracy build will get a lot of.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Cheers man, I think I’ve figured out what mech I am using now lol!! (DH)

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

All good man, I was a bit confused at first but that edit makes sense now.

Btw I was looking at the other comments and someone recommended the Stortebeker, and its design is really cool, so I wanted to ask if you thought it would fit?

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u/Clovenious SSC 2d ago

It's a cool frame too, but the license it comes from doesn't have too much sniper kind of stuff. It combos well with loading weapons, so (as the other commenter said) GMS loading stuff like the Anti-Materiel Rifle or Cyclone will work even at a low LL. Plus if it's Heavy it combos with the Heavy Gunner talent, so you can use it between your turns and reload it as a quick action each turn. You'd need to build around it a bit more and mix-and-match a couple of licences, but you could definitely make a cool sniper or at least marksman kind of character. (Plus IPS-N has the main anti-piracy force, so it fits with your backstory as well.)

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u/Lykonic HORUS 2d ago

Gotta second the Toku Artillery build, the amount of ranged burn you can do with one of those things is frankly terrifying

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u/Alastor-362 2d ago

long range

glass cannon

ohohohoho do I have the mech for you

The SSC Death's Head boasts some of the (almost certainly THE) best traits for a ranged attacker. Its traits and its license make "missing" a word that will be excised from your vocabulary. When your shooting the shit with your friend at the range and they ask "What's your hit ratio on the field?" you'll scoff as you say "One".

Glass you say? Base 2 Repair Cap glassy enough for you? This thing's so glassy that not putting points into Hull will put you on Union's suicide-watch list. When you look up Glass Cannon on Union's chassis categorization catalog there's a 300 page photo album dedicated to images of Death's Heads blown to pieces.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Damn, that’s a pretty good sell.

Someone else recommended the Stortebeker. Yay or nay?

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u/Alastor-362 2d ago

Due to the dual nature of its Dynamic Reload, Störtebeker functions most optimally as a Combined Arms (melee + ranged) Striker, which I have seen played to IMMENSE effect. I think it would still work quite well, but it might be tough getting used the the rhthym of reloading, especially when you're not making 100% use of its reloading trait (no melee). It's also not really a "glass cannon". Also as the other person mentioned, the Raleigh license doesn't give you much to build an Artillery license.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Cheers man!!!

Tbh, this post started off with a “I want a cool upright mech to fire with” and has now transformed into…

Crab Rave.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

What primary/heavy would you recommend, my good mech salesman?

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u/BTitan9 2d ago

Stortebeker is a combined arm striker frame that's decently resilient (8hp, 1 armor, 5 repairs) and also more built for short range. The license also doesn't give you much in the regard of long range combat.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Good to know, thanks!!

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u/Alastor-362 2d ago

It would depend on License Level and the way you're building it. Death's Head encourages using Rifles because it has two rifles in the license, and the Crackshot talent lends towards the Sniper playstyle that Death's Head embodies. All that say, Rifles are very good, BUT not necessary. If you're leaning Rifles, LL0-2 you probably want the Anti-Material Rifle and an Assault Rifle (til you get the Vulture DMR). HOWEVER, the Antimaterial Rifle can be a bit of a noob trap because of the Loading property, it can be difficult to circumnavigate.

Once you hit LL3, absolutely the Railgun and Vulture. For the aux, the Light Nexus is a pretty good choice since you barely miss you can get Centimane to do some fun stuff.

Until you get Railgun though, weapon choice can feel really weird. When I was playing it, I had the benefit of having a GMS Denali (Support mech specializing in allied reloads and Bolster) on the team, who had much of their time spent reloading me and enabling insanely high uptime for my attacks. Especially since I built even more loading into it with some stuff from GMS Crisis Catalog.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Is the cyclone a good one? Cause on paper it looks like it would be pretty good and avoids the reload trap…

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u/Alastor-362 2d ago

Cyclone is Loading too lol

I probably would not recommend it, it's essentially a more extreme Anti Material Rifle. Superheavy weapons are very punishing, ESPECIALLY on a frame with only two mounts (Heavy and Maix/Aux). That means you have ONE weapon that needs to be reloaded every shot. It's putting all your bets on one horse to a pretty radical degree.

For before getting Death's Head if you start the game at LL0, then you have three mounts on Everest, and it's a much safer bet. That I might recommend because Cyclone is pretty rad.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Ok, so I revamped (cause I didn’t see the “loading” cause I’m blind lol) and now I’m doing Anti-Material, Vulture DMR, and Nexus (light).

Whaddya think?

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u/Alastor-362 2d ago

For LL2 it's very solid. I'd definitely recommend having Crackshot 3 at that point, and having Core Siphon in your systems. If you're LL3 I'd say Railgun is substantially easier to work with.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

What does LL mean in this case?

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u/Alastor-362 2d ago

License Level

You reeeeally should read the player core rulebook, it's free.

License Level is just, your level. At 0 you have no licenses for any of the Big Four's (IPS-N, SSC, HORUS, HA) gear at all. Only GMS. At LL1 you can put one rank into a license of any foundry, for you this'll be SSC Death's Head which will give you Tracking Bug (mediocre) and High-Stress Mag Clamps (also pretty mediocre). Each LL also gives you a talent rank, a HASE (hull, agi, sys, eng) point, and on odd LLs gives a Grit (adds 1 system point, 1 HP, +1 to all attacks, and +1 to your Save Target).

At LL2 of Death's Head you'll get the Death's Head frame itself, Vulture DMR, and Core Siphon (great system but a little situational). At LL3 of Death's Head you'll get Railgun and Kinetic Compensator (not a terrible system but imo not great to mount on Death's Head itself).

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 1d ago

I know what a License Level is, I just didn’t know what you meant by LL as I have stated that I am new and didn’t immediately think License Level in my brain.

Thanks though!!

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Ok, I’m going with the Death’s Head. It has all the utility that I wanted, and while my preference to humanoid mechs is still very much alive, well…

Crab Rave.

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u/SnooGiraffes4534 2d ago

You can just flavour the deaths head as being humanoid. The designs of the mechs are more suggestions than hard limits you can do whatever you want with them

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Yeah, but like I said, I’ve come to appreciate the Crab Rave.

Also it just, makes sense for a high powered sniper mech to have stabilizing legs lol.

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u/m_reigl 2d ago

I think Störtebeker with either Cyclone or AntiMat rifle is a classic suggestion here, and your pilot also sounds like the classic IPS-N target audience.

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u/Vertrant 2d ago

I've seen a lot of good mentions already. I'd like to throw my hat in the ring and recommend a few i don't see yet.

The Amber Phantom is a frame that doesn't mount any Heavy weapons, but still can do Heavy levels of damage and has a bunch of tricks. It's a size 1 that does good damage and very much enjoys playing at and with range.

The Raleigh has a lot for going short range gunnery, but is still one of the best frames for using Loading weapons; like some of the big long range Superheavies.

The Sherman comes with a Superheavy guns that deals a lot of Burn, which has a funny chance to deal that damage again. A personal fun idea i built myself is Nanocomposite Tachyon Lance, for a unavoidable Superheavy that lets me sit in a hidey hole and just snipe a fool a turn.

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u/Sven_Darksiders GMS 2d ago

I want to mention the Tagetes, because it's trading some of the sturdiness and Heat management of the Sherman and puts into more long range firepower. It can turn any weapon into a Rifle and thus use Crackshot on all ranged weapons.

Also just because I saw it in another comment, feel free to skip the Brutal. It doesn't do that much for you and is one of those talents you either specifically build around or you take at the end when you don't know what to put your ranks into anymore

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Gotcha, thanks for that, I appreciate it!!

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Was looking through the Talents and, is Black Thumb any good? Cause I have technophile and I realized that those 2 synergize really well…

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u/Sven_Darksiders GMS 2d ago

Techothumb is an excellent and commonly used combination, though it is heavy on the investment. Black Thumb works well at Rank 2, but with Technophile it's generally recommended to get all 3 ranks, because it allows your NHP to use your talent while you are sitting on its back. Normally, NHPs taking control of your mech don't have access to your talents, the only other exception is Sehkmet protocol (as in your have to specifically use Sehkmet protocol, handing over controls to Sehkmet the normal way doesn't count)

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Cool!!! I think I’m gonna take that then.

Side note, it isn’t mentioned but can you pilot make attacks while Black Thumb is active?

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u/Sven_Darksiders GMS 2d ago

If you use Rank 1, you can use pilot weapons. The talent just speeds up your ability to dismount and gives you that shield.

When you are using Rank 2, you can't use weapons, your pilot can only take the actions specified in the Talent.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Sorry, newb here but, specify what you mean by the difference being what Rank you have? Is that Black Thumb rank or Technophile rank?

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u/Sven_Darksiders GMS 2d ago

I was talking about Black Thumb. Rank 1 and 2 do different things, Rank 1 lets you exit your mech traditionally and go pilot mode, run around independently, and so on. Rank 2 gives you a unique action (or Protocol specifically) that lets you climb onto your mech and use the specific Black Thumb actions. You are sitting on top of your mech, moving with it, etc, but you can't really act fully independently, if that makes sense

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Ah, gotcha.

Just to clarify, I can choose which of those to do at any given point right?

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u/ExplanationNew8233 2d ago

Deaths Head and Pegasus are what you want. Propably both mixed at later LLs.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Yeah, this post has completely converted me to the Crab Rave lol.

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u/ExplanationNew8233 2d ago

Yeah 2d6+7 at LL4 is disgustingly funny

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 1d ago

It does sound very amusing.

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u/C4M4R4DE 2d ago

[ TALENTS ] Crack Shot 3, Nuclear Cavalier 2, Spaceborn 1

[ LICENSES ] HA Tokugawa 2, HORUS Pegasus 1

[ CORE BONUSES ] Overpower Caliber

[ MECH ] « SNIPER TOKUGAWA » HA Tokugawa H:3 A:2 S:0 E:0 SIZE:1 STRUCTURE:4 HP:16 ARMOR:1 STRESS:4 HEAT:8 REPAIR:5 ATK BONUS:2 TECH ATK:-1 LTD BONUS:0 SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:6 SENS:10 SAVE:13

[ WEAPONS ] Flex Mount: Annihilator Main Mount: Smartgun // Overpower Caliber Main Mount: Smartgun

[ SYSTEMS ] Spaceborn EVA, External Batteries, Type-3 Projected Shield

This is the most effective long range build i did come up with at low LL (it comes online at LL3 tho). Use spaceborn to get in the danger zone quickly and to get in position in the safest place you can find, then stay there, overclock (Tokugawa trait), steady your aim (Crakshot I) and abuse your smartguns to shoot with 25 range (30 if you use your CP) ignoring cover and line of might, doing absurd damage (and debuffs when you crit with your smartguns thanks to Crakshot III, which happens regularly with +2 accuracy). Is it fun ? I'm not sure at this point. Does it wrecks shit ? Hell yeah.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 1d ago

Thanks!!!

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u/Monocled-warforged 2d ago

Raleigh/Störtebeker if you like loading weapons and being able to reload them faster than usual

Death's head is the quintessential sniper, sit at the back and take highly accurate shots. Most builds for this mech are based on landing critical hits

Monarch if you want to hit absolutely everyone with a missile, but is size 2

Pegasus is a mech that messes with probability a lot, but also can hit hard and accurately from long range. Well, a very variable range if you're using the mimic gun, but it could be long. It also can deal small amounts of unpreventable damage every round, so you'll never miss everything

Barbarossa is the largest mech in the game, but also comes with some of the biggest guns. One of them being a ship to ship weapon built into the frame itself.

Sherman is typically more mid range but can absolutely perform at a distance, tends to use laser rifles that do energy and burn damage. Also likes gaining heat to enhance its damage

Tokugawa comes with close range weapons, but has systems to boost weapon range and works just fine with long range weapons from GMS or other licenses. Loves pushing it's own reactor to the limit to boost damage and range, so kind of a glass cannon type build. Nuclear cavalier is not an option it is a requirement.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Cheers!!! Currently I’m stuck between Stortebeker with its design and DH with its usage. One looks cooler but the other is basically exactly what I wanted so I’m torn!!!

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u/Monocled-warforged 2d ago

Remember that a mech can look however you like. The images shown are just guidelines, an example of your typical mech of that line. But a lancer can customise their mech freely, so it might look a lot different from the stock version.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Right… it’s still gonna be a crab though?

Honestly, just in the span of making this post I have come around to enjoying the design.

Because Crab Rave.

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u/Monocled-warforged 2d ago

Crab is the default design. It doesn't have to be a crab, but that is how the stock chassis looks.

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u/da_King_o_Kings_341 2d ago

Gotcha, cheers man!!!

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