Weird build of the day - STK-5M "Zapper"

Today I was playing with my AWS-8Q, which I faithfully fitted to be as close to stock as possible with 3xPPC and one SL. You'd be surprised how well this build still does. Staggering those 3xPPCs creates an irresistable suppression effect on the enemy and with some persistence, I turn the battlefield into a "whack-a-mole" game for myself. People are terrified of getting hit by PPCs after all the horrors of poptart lances tearing through pugs. Though, as I played with it more the sudden urges of the mech builder in me started to take effect. The Awesome doesn't feel sluggish and does a good job at being a PPC machine gun, but could it be done better?

What supersedes an Awesome when it comes to PPCs? Battlemasters? Not really durable for hillhumping. Banshees? Too slow for repositioning and has trouble defending itself at close range. Well, you know the answer, Stalker. Stalker with its hitboxes perfectly suited for facing your enemy and high mounted hardpoints mean a really bad day for the enemies. So, quickly into the Smurfy mechlab!

It turns out you can squeeze one more DHS in a Stalker-3F with the same build(2xPPC and 1xERPPC) and it does a good job at being a PPC machine gun. I played two rounds and while I did great damage and kill-wise in both of them(e-peen activated!), I was constantly harassed by lights and it ended me caught in a brawl which a single ERPPC didn't matter much. I needed some raw firepower!

Hmm how about those missile slots? Stalkers have plenty of missile hardpoints. If I could utilize them, maybe nothing would dare getting near me. Streaks would do just fine. Though if I wanted to keep those DHS, I needed to comprimise on my PPCs. After some consideration, I decided to lose my ERPPC and put 4xSSRM2 in my 3F, along with 21DHS. This turned out to be the killer combination, a lot of ranged damage combined with 20 raw SSRM2 damage at close range, pumped every 3.5 seconds.

This isn't enough though, can I turn it to 11? It turned out I can, I had a 5M laying around that was basic'd and never used again, which had an extra missile slot. It was only basic'd and felt slow and clumsy, not to mention its terrible torso yaw which is limited to 60 degrees. Considering I just wanted to hillhump with this beast and not brawl, it was still perfect for the job. After a few rounds, this guy was the result:

It's definitely not bad. I just keep firing with the PPCs during the round and whenever something comes close, I either alpha my SSRM2s or chain them to make the opponents really uncomfortable. With this build, any lights who are stupid enough to engage this mech will regret that decision in two volleys. When they try to get away, they can be zapped again with PPCs. It's especially deadly when PPC and SSRM2 ranges overlap between 90 and 270 meters. It's a really fun build so far, I highly suggest it if you want to try something else.

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About Rak

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