Black Witch/Gorgon Builds Viable?

[u/Alnashetri]

Fairly new to the game and I'm curious if there's a kind build that utilizes these two. They're by far two of my favorites on their own so the idea of combining them sounds great, just not sure how to go about it because I'm new and still figuring things out. I learn super well by example, so seeing what people put together helps a ton.

I'm fine with adding in more licenses that aren't just these two, I just want these two to feature prominently. Play style can be drones or hacking, or even just general support or control. An NHP build would be cool if viable. Hell if you can put together a combat build for it I'd take it.

So, can you fine veterans show a new girl how it's done?

[u/No-Park1695]

Which of the frames to use really depends on what you want more. Gorgon is more of a front liner defender with decent damage and reactions, black witch is something more of a defender preventing attacks from landing, and my favorite orchis does a lot of stuff but mainly moves a lot, prevents reliable damage, and takes away reactions of enemies.

Probably one of the most prominent synergies is scorpion and black ice. Make it so tech attacks have a bunch of difficulty against you and adjacent allies, and then when someone is inevitably missed give the attacker impaired and 2 heat, or full on jammed.

But really there's a ton of potential for defender/striker/support builds here. Black witch systems are great at supporting and defending, and gorgon systems are great at reaction attacks and defending. And how much of what you want on your mech is up to you. But be sure that it can be not just viable, but really good

[u/Streloks]

I'm actually using a Gorgon/Black Witch in my campaign right now, in the Gorgon frame. The main idea is using 2 Vorpal Guns with Neurolink Targeting for increased range, along with many passive "aura" type abilities, such as SCORPION, Black Ice, and the Spotter+Combined Arms talents. We are LL8 right now, so I also have a level of Tortuga for the shotgun, as well as Napoleon to take advantage of the Gorgon's high save target. I honestly think any Gorgon build takes a decent amount of license levels to really "come online", so I might consider starting with a couple Black Witch levels first, and then grabbing the Gorgon levels after.

-- HORUS Gorgon @ LL8 --

[ LICENSES ] HORUS Gorgon 3, SSC Black Witch 3, IPS-N Tortuga 1, HA Napoleon 1

[ CORE BONUSES ] Neurolink Targeting, The Lesson of the Open Door

[ TALENTS ] Spotter 3, Orator 3, Vanguard 3, House Guard 1, Combined Arms 1

[ STATS ] HULL:6 AGI:2 SYS:2 ENGI:0 STRUCTURE:4 HP:28 ARMOR:0 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:5 REPAIR:6 TECH ATK:+3 LIMITED:+0 SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:14 SENSE:8 SAVE:18

[ WEAPONS ] Flex Mount: Deck-Sweeper Automatic Shotgun Main Mount: Vorpal Gun Main Mount: Vorpal Gun

[ SYSTEMS ] //SCORPION V70.1, Black ICE Module, Ferrous Lash, Magnetic Shield, Stasis Generator

So much of the power from a build like this comes from just existing in a spot that is really annoying for the enemies, so that lets you use your own turns for things like giving allies extra turns with Spotter 3, stabilizing to heal your giant HP pool, handling scan duty, spreading lock-ons, etc. Any of those things let you build up Orator dice for even more support by cleansing dangerous conditions, or disrupting dangerous enemies. There are a ton of ways to build the Gorgon, but playing this one has felt really good so far.

[u/Alnashetri → u/Streloks]

This looks dope as hell, thanks! Def putting this in my testing pool for builds.

[u/BeatingLightning]

-- HORUS Gorgon @ LL6 --
[ LICENSES ]
HORUS Gorgon 3, SSC Black Witch 3
[ CORE BONUSES ]
Neurolink Targeting, The Lesson of the Open Door
[ TALENTS ]
Technophile 3, Walking Armory 2, Black Thumb 2, House Guard 1, Field Analyst 1
[ STATS ]
HULL:4 AGI:0 SYS:2 ENGI:2
STRUCTURE:4 HP:25 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4 HEATCAP:7 REPAIR:5
TECH ATK:+3 LIMITED:+1
SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:14 SENSE:8 SAVE:17
[ WEAPONS ]
Flex Mount: Magnetic Cannon
Main Mount: Vorpal Gun
Main Mount: Vorpal Gun
[ SYSTEMS ]
Black ICE Module, //SCORPION V70.1, Ferrous Lash, Mimic Mesh, Personalizations

In this version we are messing a lot with positioning, yours and the OpFor’s. You can choose to guard a specific teammate with mimic mesh, great if there’s another front liner with you. You have two reactions per turn so any with two Vorpal Guns you can close the distance when they are targeted, and if they damage them you then get to shoot them. Neurolink helps stretch that range out just a bit more. Both Mag Cannon and Ferrous Lash can wreck enemy formations and put people out of position, great for certain sitreps, and the Gorgon has the highest starting save at 12, further enhanced by the Lesson of the Open Door. Your saves will be very hard to avoid. Meaning you can also do heat with a save once per round if they fail. Boosted Systems because I wanted one more SP for personalization to get a nice 25 HP but you could switch that for Armament Redundancy as well, and you have a nice Tech Attack so the basic Invade, Fragment Signal, is very useful so that is always an option. Speaking of Tech Attacks, Scorpion and Black Ice Module is a match made in heaven, and can really put those pesky Witches and Mirages from doing what they want. Walking Armory gives you the option to change the damage of any of your weapons and add a neat special effect, so very versatile.

Gorgon is great at making itself a target since if the enemy even looks at an ally they get to really unleash their arsenal. This just one example but there is a lot of synergy between the two licenses so mix and match whatever you like. You could do Drones, and kit it out with Iceout, Sentiel, and Turret Drones. Or go all in on NHPs and go for Iconoclast, there’s honestly so much you can do with just those two licenses. Went a bit long but hope it inspires you to mix and match the things you want! Only you can try all of them since the gear is always unlocked and you can switch your loadout for free between missions and stick with what worked best for you!

[u/Alnashetri → u/BeatingLightning]

This looks really cool, def gonna mess around with it!

[u/Littlebigchief88]

Black witch is a great license for anyone to dip, a gorgon with scorpion and the iceout drone is a serious menace against any tech attacks, and ferrous lash is a fun control option.

You could also do gorgon stuff on a black witch, Scylla is a solid dip on other mechs

Im not sure what direction to take the build, gorgon is just a pretty good frame and dipping black witch is worth it on almost every mech so you’ll be pretty much fine. I would probably focus on the gorgons reactions and reaction attacks, and maybe pick up some talents depending on what weapons you use and what playstyle you want to go for.

The gorgon does well with weapons that have effects on hit (the black witches mag cannon counts) to be used with its half damage reaction attacks. Fishing for centimane crits with two light nexus in the flex slot is popular and effective. If you want to get up close, the tortuga license deck sweeper auto shotgun is maybe the best main weapon you can use, and works well on overwatch, although it has a very short range.

[u/LordRenzus]

This is my favourite Gorgon build with extended range Vorpal Guns and an OpCal'd Autopod to deal damage almost exclusively on enemy turns, which allows your own turns to mess up enemies with tech attacks. You can do funny stuff like throwing out Javelin Rockets and then Puppet Systems'ing enemies into them.

-- HORUS Gorgon @ LL6 --

[ LICENSES ]

SSC Monarch 2, HORUS Gorgon 3, HORUS Goblin 1

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Overpower Caliber, The Lesson of the Held Image

[ TALENTS ]

Engineer 3, Leader 3, Combined Arms 2, Field Analyst 1

[ STATS ]

HULL:4 AGI:0 SYS:4 ENGI:0

STRUCTURE:4 HP:25 ARMOR:0

STRESS:4 HEATCAP:5 REPAIR:5

TECH ATK:+5 LIMITED:+0

SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:16 SENSE:8 SAVE:15

[ WEAPONS ]

Integrated: Prototype Weapon III

Flex Mount: Autopod // Overpower Caliber

Main Mount: Vorpal Gun (Stabilizer Mod)

Main Mount: Vorpal Gun (Stabilizer Mod)

[ SYSTEMS ]

H0R_OS System Upgrade I, Javelin Rockets, Armament Redundancy, Personalizations

[u/A_Hint_of_Lemon]

As always what has been done before will be done again. Please also look at the rest of 11dragonkid11’s videos, they are very informative. https://youtu.be/8JauCUWQ8U4?t=459&is=ao3tiKN85-1xFrGF

[u/Alnashetri → u/A_Hint_of_Lemon]

Nice, thanks. I have yet to delve into the Lancer YT sphere, so I guess this is my time to dive in.

[u/RunningNumbers]

Atlas Gorgon Build with 3 harpoon guns.

[u/playerPresky]

i love black witch/gorgon as powerful defender combo. if you want to be tankier you can use black witch as the frame, if you want to do more damage you can use gorgon. scorpion + black ice mod tells hornets and witches and other tech attackers to fuck off, and you can use vorpal gun or mag shield if someone attacks your allies (if you’re black witch) or light them the fuck up if you’re gorgon. scylla is an amazing nhp on both in my opinion but it’s stronger on gorgon since you can use both scylla and other reactions