Last Updated: 6-May-2016
The Wolverine is ridiculously adorable and quite vicious. Well, the animal is. The mech, not so much.
Overview
For a brief period, the Wolverine was an incredible mech, but now it is merely decent. Honestly, I’ve never really liked the mech – its arm is low and wide, it feels bulky and squishy, and the hardpoints are just poorly placed, but it is well-quirked (though somewhat less-well than it once was).
The most deadly and most attractive variant in the current meta is the WVR-6K, which sports some pretty good laser quirks and has solid medium-range firepower for a medium. The WVR-6R functions as a dakka version of the WVR-6K, at a similar level of viability but a bit lower for various reasons. The Quarantine is the third best variant, but isn’t worth the MC, making the WVR-7K your next logical choice as a serviceable SRM brawler. The WVR-7D is the worst of the bunch despite its MASC.
Chassis-Wide Information
Strengths
- The quirks aren’t as ridiculous as they used to be, but they’re still pretty good.
- Loadouts tend to be very, very asymmetric.
Weaknesses
- Pretty bad hitboxes – thick legs and a barrel chest make it very easy to hit and thus kill – plus its arms don’t make terribly effective shields.
- Arm hardpoints are low and wide, making it difficult to use them safely.
- Low number of hardpoints overall and of each weapon type, forcing you to boat larger weapons rather than smaller ones.
- Not particularly maneuverable, with only a small torso twist speed quirk to help it out.
Generic Tips
- You go down fast, so try not to be in the front and avoid poking if you think the enemy might be pre-aimed at you. Generally use your maneuverability to keep poking them from weak points and escape sticky situations.
- When making your own builds, the math frequently does not work out well and leaves you with awkward results – just keep at it if you really want to make a particular build work. This is more of a warning than a tip, though.
Builds
For those of you who are not familiar with the general format of these, here’s how it goes: I will go over each variant one at a time, examining at least one build for each of them and going over the details of the builds. In general, there will be two paragraphs for each build – one describing the values of the build itself, and the other about its optimal playstyle. In general, the builds will be labeled according to their armament, but occasionally I will name a build if it is particularly badass. Also – the consumables I’ve listed are the ones that are best for normal play, but while leveling the mech you may want to swap the less important one out for a UAV, if you can afford to use consumables at all (they aren’t necessary, just nice). Now then, on with it!
WVR-6K
The best variant by a significant margin, the 6K has range and firepower in vast quantities. The variant is made by its quirks – 10% to heat gen and range, and 20% to laser duration. It also gets 18 structure in the RA, 40% accel/decel, 35% turn rate, and 25% torso twist speed.
The quirks on this mech make this a pretty good build. The Medium Laser is purely there as backup, but can be used on resting heat, or can be swapped for a flamer even. For the most part, you’ll be using your Large Lasers constantly. You’ll have to fire your lasers in groups of 3+1 or 2+2 in order to avoid ghost heat, but alpha striking is alright when you’re trying to get the safest trades possible.
Poke out from the right side of everything you find, and shield with your left side. That is the core element of this mech’s gameplay, as it is effective at pretty much all engagement ranges and syncs well with most team comps. Beyond that, try to generally keep your range at over 500m if possible, avoid getting focused, and never overheat. Your lack of jumpjets really does hurt, but usually you can avoid getting into such engagements. For more on this type of build, check out the Laser Vomit guide.
Mech Modules: Radar Deprivation, Seismic Sensor
Weapon Modules: Large Laser Range, Large Laser Cooldown
Consumables: Cool Shot, Air Strike
This has great DPS and speed, but is a bit wimpy for a 55-tonner.
This build loses out on a bit of range, but the low duration is sweet and it’s more more easy to manage the weapon groups. The lack of range does make you more vulnerable, too.
Weapon Modules: Large Pulse Range, Large Pulse Cooldown
WVR-6R
The primary Wolverine variant, this is the main ballistic boat, with quirks to help in that area. It has 20+10% cooldown for ballistics+AC/5, 15% missile cooldown, and 10% missile velocity. It’s also got 18 structure in the RA and 25% torso twist speed.
This build takes advantage of the variant’s AC/5 quirks to spit out a load of shells as quickly as it can. The Medium Pulse exists purely as a backup weapon, but if the enemy gets close enough it will really help you tear down the threat quickly.
In general, you definitely want to keep to range and use your AC/5s as much as possible, picking out isolated mechs to shoot at so that you do not have to trade with the full team. As with the WVR-6K, you want to use your team as a distraction while you DPS, but the 6R is not capable of doing as much in a single alpha (and doesn’t have much more sustained DPS either), meaning that it will be easier for the enemy to trade favorably with you. If you can manage to not get focused, however, you should be able to put out some crazy damage. Just keep up that right side poke.
Mech Modules: Radar Deprivation, Seismic Sensor
Weapon Modules: AC/5 Cooldown, AC/5 Range
Consumables: Cool Shot, Air Strike
This version adds quite a bit of up-close DPS, but it actually gets a bit hot at short range. I still really enjoy it, though.
Build 2:
It’s not the best, but it is one of the better brawling options on the Wolverine. Your AC/5 is useless for trading, but can get free shots in and adds quite a bit of DPS in a brawl. For the most part, this just makes up for the fact that you have only 3 SRM6s instead of 4.
You can sort of poke in the early stages, sticking your RA around a corner and spraying at people that aren’t looking at you. If you are taking a lot of return fire, you’ll want to stop that ASAP and look for ways to get closer to unleash your SRMs. Close on the enemy in whatever way possible, and just jump around dealing as much damage as possible.
Mech Modules: Radar Deprivation, Seismic Sensor
Weapon Modules: SRM6 Cooldown, AC/5 Cooldown
Consumables: Cool Shot, Artillery Strike
Quarantine
The Hero is the third best variant, but it’s a pretty considerable gap and it’s not worth the MC, so feel free to skip to the WVR-7K (unless you really like the chassis, in which case feel free but don’t say I didn’t warn ya). It gets 25% to ballistic cooldown, 10% to energy cooldown, laser duration, and missile velocity, 15% to missile cooldown, and 5% to energy heat gen. It also gets 5% accel/decel, 10% turn rate and torso twist speed, and an extra 5° of torso twist angle. And defensively, it gets 9 armor in the CT, 13 armor in the RT, and 18 armor on the RA.
Build 1:
This is a slightly-gimped version of the WVR-6K, but it does have a few advantages. The jumpjets are pretty great, and it’s much tankier, but it’s quirks just aren’t nearly as good. It is still your best bet for the variant, though.
This plays a lot like the WVR-6K – find a corner that you can peek out to the right of, and get repeated pokes off for as long as you can. Reposition whenever you start to lose trades, and remember to shield. Seriously, as soon as your beam duration ends (or maybe before), swing that torso to the right to block damage with your left side. For more on the build, refer to the WVR-6K section and the Laser Vomit guide.
Mech Modules: Radar Deprivation, Seismic Sensor
Weapon Modules: Large Pulse Range, Large Pulse Cooldown
Consumables: Cool Shot, Artillery Strike
Just 3 Larges is super-wimpy on its own, so I added in some short-range firepower. You can go for pure laser if you want, but…seriously. Wimpy.
Weapon Modules: Large Laser Range, Large Laser Cooldown
I mainly did this for a STD option, with a massive shield side and a tanky important side. It plays like a full-on brawler (with the option to poke around on the right side), but it’s not good enough for me to want to talk about it much.
Weapon Modules: SRM6 Cooldown, Medium Pulse Range
WVR-7K
The high mounts and decent quirks make it a good brawler, but it’s not quite great. It gets 10% for missile range and velocity and energy range, and 15% to laser duration and missile cooldown. It also has 30% accel/decel and 10% turn rate and torso twist speed.
The theory behind this is pretty obvious – it fires SRM6s as fast as it possibly can. By the numbers, it is pretty good, but in practice the convergence and shitty hitboxes let you down. Still, it handles itself well in a brawl, just not as well as the competition. It’s also worth swapping out one or more of the lasers for flamers, if you like that style.
Play this as you would any other brawling medium – keep your head down during the poking phase unless there’s anyone close enough to shoot at, then go wild when the brawl breaks out. One special thing to this variant is that it has very high missile mounts, which allow you to poptart at 300 meters or so, though it still carries with it a certain risk. Watch your heat too – the cooldown quirk means that even just firing your SRMs will overheat you.
Mech Modules: Seismic Sensor, Radar Deprivation
Weapon Modules: SRM6 Cooldown, Medium Laser Range
Consumables: Cool Shot, Air Strike
The low speed and ammo issues cause serious issues, but it does get the extra survivability from a STD engine.
Eh.
Weapon Modules: LRM10 Cooldown, LRM10 Range
WVR-7D
This is the worst variant to be sure, but it does have MASC and jumpjets, making it the most maneuverable of the bunch. It has 20% to ballistic and missile cooldown and ballistic velocity, 10% to energy range and missile velocity, and a 30% UAC jam chance reduction. It also gets 18 armor in the RA.
Straight-up just like the WVR-6R. It has 10% less cooldown quirk (pretty important), and it lacks a lot of the agility too, but it’s the same fundamental idea. Ideally, I imagine that PGI wanted the MASC to make up for it, but it’s just not enough. For the rest of it, you can directly refer to the stuff I wrote about the WVR-6R.
Mech Modules: Radar Deprivation, Seismic Sensor
Weapon Modules: AC/5 Cooldown, AC/5 Range
Consumables: Cool Shot, Air Strike
Pilot Skills
I’ve figured that this is the best skill order for pretty much any mech, and so I’m just going to customize it for mechs that have to emphasize unusual pilot skills.
Basics: Cool Run – Heat Containment – Hard Brake – Kinetic Burst – Twist Speed – Twist X – Anchor Turn – Arm Reflex
Elites: Speed Tweak – Fast Fire – Quick Ignition – Pinpoint
Then just master it. I’d only hold onto the WVR-6R if you particularly enjoy it, but the 6K is great and usually the 7K is worth having as well, just in case.
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And that’s that. I hope you enjoy your mech, let me know if you have any questions, and as always glhf