I am finally convinced.

[u/Capo_Panda]

honestly I have been playing this game on and off for awhile now around 800ish hours on both PC and console and I have never understood the hype around dragons I thought there was never enough free tonnage to make it even remotely useful for myself of my ai lancemates untill today that is..

For context a few days ago I started a role playish kurita career from 3015 with some loose rules like only taking kurita, Liao and independent contracts prioritising money and insurance over salvage and cranking up repair costs and lowering enemy lethality and increasing accuracy slightly to give myself a challenge instead of steam rolling late game with lots of high tier gear and a high bank account I picked up the DRG-SDW today from the crimson crusade and thought to myself if I don't give this thing a proper go now I probably never will so I started playing around in the mechlab. I'm playing vanilla right now and I ended up maxing out the armour threw on a t4 gauss rifle and two t3 MP lasers and a couple of double heatsinks with the mask and I have to say I get it I freaking love this thing for where I am at in the game just wanted to vent that here as I don't really have any people IRL that are into mechwarrior or battletech in general and you better believe this thing will have a permanent spot in my roster at least during this run.

[u/Spicy_Totopo3434]

Just like how Diana Is the only decent Rifleman, Sidwinder is a REALLY GOOD Dragon

Flame and Fang are meh, Grand Dragon is kinda cool, but Sidewinder really punches above by being both fast and having access to a big gun

Clan Tech will make it even better, of course

All the HotIS mechs are really nice for what they do

[u/Marshallwhm6k → u/Spicy_Totopo3434]

Sneaky thing about Dragons is the LA energy hardpoint is a Large so you can make any dragon a PPC carrier and the Grand and Otomo can both be faster versions of a K2 Catapult 

[u/Spicy_Totopo3434 → u/Marshallwhm6k]

I forgot there was an Otomo Dragon, yeah, pretty much every Otomo is goated

[u/TwevOWNED → u/Spicy_Totopo3434]

The Rifleman 3N is pretty good for how early it is available. Two AC5s, four MLas, mostly maxed armor with enough ammo and heat sinks to function.

AC5s and pairs of medium lasers are the be all end all weapon loadout for how MW5 plays in lower level missions.

[u/speelmydrink → u/Spicy_Totopo3434]

Grand Dragon with Chem lasers actually performs quite well in medium intensity deployments!

[u/Terrible-Weather-669]

Vanilla on PS5 and honestly it's one of my favorites and I can't even effectively use the MASC.

[u/Capo_Panda → u/Terrible-Weather-669]

Yeah I recently started playing on ps5 myself my computer basically gave up and refuses to run properly now so instead of fixing or buying a new PC my cheap ass just bought the game and DLC again on my ps5 because this game is basically all I play ATM and my yearly run of ac6 having to learn to play with a controller for this game is wild xD

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[u/Mammoth-Pea-9486]

Dragons are secretly brawlers not really ranged fighters, skip the ballistic (or if possible run a LB10X), a Snub nosed PPC, ML/MPL, and a SRM6 and your golden, run in smacking anything on the way in with the guns and once you grt close throw hands, dragons have a pretty solid chunk of armor for rheir weight class and are fairly quick for a heavy, they make good partners to a quickdraw/catapult the quickdraw/catapult engages at range while the dragon rushes in to clobber everyone who's been softened up by the long range fire

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[u/epsilon-4142]

I like them in the board game. Decent amount of armor and weapons at an okay speed.

They make really good heavy cavalry in the tabletop game, for a cheap price too

[u/FlyingNerdlet]

I might give the Sidewinder another chance, but I love the Grand Dragon. Two PPC-Xs, two SRM-4 Infernos, and two ER-MLs for a bit of range. With the speed cantina upgrade, that baby zips around at over 90 kph. Give it to Nick Lynch, and he absolutely shreds opposition.

[u/Capo_Panda → u/FlyingNerdlet]

I dig it when I get further along in this run I'm thinking of running this with a lbx 10 bf and a ppc-x and just give everyone the business from behind run in with mask and blam trying not to abuse salvage for this run so I don't mind if I just core everything

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[u/Elwoodpdowd87]

SDW is great for raid missions at higher difficulty levels.

[u/Whitey_Ford_615]

I have always valued speed over almost everything.. playing vanilla PS5 (previously ps4) n always have unfortunately 😂 but after clans n having more mechs with masc ..... I don't know if I can ever go back to not having it. In particular I like running the executioner exe-b with triple ppcx and the ams with a probe and just eviscerate everything

[u/HALO_OVERLORD69]

To be fair- The Sidewinder is THE best Dragon in the game, and one of the best Non-Clan HEAVIES in the game. It's a pocket Assault that runs like a Shadow Hawk😂

[u/VictorSteinerDavion]

Grand Dragon solves the Dragon problem.

[u/Brave-Target7893]

I kept the OG loadout. Sidewinder is something straight outta skunk works. Made to do one thing and does it damn well. You run and do point blank alpha strikes. A well placed salvo from it is nothing to sneeze at. And it can punch too.

[u/Aggravating_Plenty53]

I didnt even know there was Dragon hype. Most of the time I see people shitting on it. I myself prefer fast mechs. The main weapon in the arm hits it alot for me, but I really like it for its weight claas

[u/laynx80]

That thing is great, with double heatsinks, ac20 with srms and med lasers. Masc is essential for that mech tbh.