The Scumbag Showdown — What's the best streak boat?

Is it time to farm easy damage, make bank while looking good among your friends? Do you absolutely and positively have to kill lights — perhaps in CW? Do you feel like making lights' lives even more miserable as if they're not so already? Then, my friend, it's time to reach for your streakboat.

We've come a long way from the days of the Raven-3L's, Streakcats and Kintaros. Raven's absolutely ravaged the battlefields for a long time with the CT seeking SSRM2s. Streakcats survived longer after the SSRM nerf simply because they had the most amount of missile hardpoints for a long time. Kintaros (especially the 18) found some brief use as fast SSRM boats. Though after the Clans, the days of the SSRM2's are now over. The C-SSRMs upped the streak game quite considerably and indeed they possess the most fearsome streakboats out there.

Since my latest video stirred up some interest, I thought I'd share and compare my favorite SSRM boats. I'll try to keep this article as brief as possible (a promise I rarely keep) to make it an easy read.

There are three candidates with various degrees of popularity. 

Mad Dog

The Mad Dog is the missile boat in this game. With the possibility of having 6 missile hardpoints and 5 energy hardpoints to back them up, it sports the most devastating alphas after a Dire.

It's a vicious streakboat as well. It comes with 26 tons of free tonnage with full armor and therefore it can comfortably mount 6xSSRM6'es with ample ammo.


An SSRM blast from this MDD does 72 damage every 6 seconds (5.3 with the cooldown module). The damage is of course spread out on the enemy 'Mech, but the raw damage output is so ridiculous that it's not uncommon to outright kill damaged lights or at the very least remove a limb completely. 

Considering that a Firestarter comes with 238 armor and 119 structure (full), you're nearly removing 1/5 of the health of that light with every blast. Believe me, you'll get most of your kills with just 1-2 blasts though. You'll probably leg the light after the second alpha and a legged light is pretty much a dead one. You'll be effective against mediums and wounded heavies as well, but don't bother with the assault other than an alpha here and there for farming damage for C-Bills.

The MDD needs this sheer damage output because it's the least mobile streak boat out there. At the standard 89.1 KPH clan heavy speed, it'll have troubles chasing lights and will have to rely on ambushes solely. Furthermore a MDD is not a particularly tanky target, it's very easy to tear off a torso (even as a light) and 3xSSRM6'es are a lot less scary than a full complement. 

Pros
  • Monstrous alpha
  • Plenty of ammo
  • Decent mobility
  • High mounted hardpoints
Cons
  • Has to rely on ambushes
  • Lack of JJs (line of sight problems
  • STs will drop at the slightest breeze

Stormcrow

The Stormcrow is probably the most popular streakboat out there. It's the go-to "light exterminator" in CW. It's very fast, tanky and has a lot of free tonnage for a medium. It can also mount 5 missile hardpoints, although the hardpoint distribution is unfavorable compared to the MDD. Nevertheless, it's actually a better option for dealing with lights due to its speed and low profile.



Due to the loss of a hardpoint the alpha drops to 60, but it's still enough to seriously cripple a light. Plus additional speed allows you to actively chase those lights rather than relying on sudden ambushes. The only problem is it has less ammo compared to the MDD, but I really doubt you'll live that long or have LOS long enough to spend all of them.

Pros
  • Speed allows you to chase
  • Plenty of ammo
  • Survivable chassis
  • Decent alpha
Cons
  • Less one hit kills/mobility kills
  • Weak limbs, arms will melt under fire
  • Lack of JJs (line of sight is still a problem)

Summoner

The Summoner is an amazing chassis. It's one of the hardest 'Mechs to take down in this game, it has amazing air-time and it has mobility quirks that make it very responsive. Unfortunately these traits are balanced by very unfavorable hardpoint layout — reliance on arm hardpoints and a shortage of free tonnage. However there's one thing that makes it the premiere light hunter for me, the JJs.

Let's take a look:


The firepower is even less than the Stormcrow; we're down to 56 alpha. The lack of Endo-Steel and 5 locked JJs also takes their toll and we can only bring 600 ammo to the field with this. Pretty hefty trade-offs for JJs compared to the previous options.

BUT the JJs change everything when it comes to streaks. As you know, the streaks follow a direct route to target as soon as you fire them. This means they don't follow a lofting trajectory like LRMs, they just go for the target. However there's rarely a clean line of sight to a target save for a few "in your face" moments. There are either friendlies in the way or some map clutter that keeps eating your missiles. Clan SSRMs are also pretty slow. Despite the ease of use, you're constantly fighting against the limitation of SSRMs and a good light pilot will constantly put stuff them and your missiles.

The Summoner allows you to circumvent this by gaining altitude. When you fire from above, cover means less and you'll have a better line of sight. This means more chances to fire and generally more missiles on target. 

The mobility quirks also means the SMN is incredibly good at giving chase. You can quickly change direction, blast off into the sky and make use of the range of your missiles to their job. You can prepare great ambushes by climbing on top of platforms/buildings/mountains. This results in especially hilarious kills against sniper lights as they never expect a SMN to pop up behind them in their hard to reach perch.

It also has 14 internal heatsinks which will make sure you keep yourself cool between alphas (SSRMs have ghost heat). Despite the lack of ammo this is an amazing streakboat, the best one in my case.

Pros
  • JJs will let you fire more often and more accurately
  • Amazing mobility
  • Very hard to kill
  • Light tears
Cons
  • Holds barely enough ammo
  • Lowest alpha of them all
  • Arms tend to fall off, depriving you of firepower
  • Low mounted hardpoints

What else do I need?

  • Always bring Artemis with streaks. Intended or not, they decrease your lock-on time by 50% which means on-time and accurate shots. Artemis with streaks is a straight upgrade with no downsides (no extra tonnage or slots) so it just doesn't make sense not to bring it.
  • Also, advanced target decay module is mandatory. It'll give you 3.5 seconds before a target lock breaks, which is very handy in close quarters.
  • TAG is a personal issue. I personally despise the TAG usage, it makes you stare at things which not only screws up your situational awareness but also lets your enemies damage you more accurately. There will be times when your CAP won't be enough to cancel ECM (when you have more than one ECM source around) but in my opinion they're pretty rare and can be avoided by pulling to range. Believe me even if the lights have the ECM advantage, they'll most likely to just disengage as soon as they get a readout on your loadout.

Conclusion

Now you know the tools for extreme light removal. Just know that this is considered a very cheesy way to play MWO and it's usually frowned upon. Don't go around posting "Hey guys check out my 900 damage 5 kills game in my streakboat!", you'll be ridiculed.

Note: I didn't consider the TBR and the EBJ since they only come with 4M hardpoints at most. Also making them streakboats would be very wasteful when they can do so much damage otherwise. They're best used fighting mediums, heavies and assaults. Also, no IS 'Mechs for obvious reasons.
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About Rak

I'm an engineer who likes to write extremely long articles about games that border simulation and mainstream.
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