So generally you want your deck to be 1 of 3 things, brawl, skirmish, or extreme range. Brawl and Skirmish is picked depending on user preference and will be your deck for maps that aren't huge and open such as polar highlands. IS tends to brawl and Clans tend to skirmish, but both sides can build a deck of either. Brawl decks look to close range with the enemy quickly and deal high damage and spread incoming damage. Skirmishers look to deal damage at mid range and dodge damage through use of cover and peeking. Extreme ranges look to be able to fire at long ranges but otherwise function the same as skirmishers.

Often in FP you'll have refined decks that use multiple copies of the same mechs. Like the common Clan Skirmish deck is 3 Hellbringers and a Shadow Cat. An example IS brawl deck could be 3 Archer-5Ws and a Bushwacker.

Generally speaking you want to have 2 decks, one that is either brawl or skirmish then one for extreme range. This is because a brawl deck is just suicide on an extreme range map and you'd do much better in something that can hit the enemy before being melted down at 800m.

Brawling falls into 3 main categories, big AC+Missiles, full splat, and medium pulse lasers. You have budget versions of the builds and full builds, budget builds use a lighter mech for a similar build so that it may be fit into the deck. Some builds will have higher or lower max and min weights than other classes.

Big AC+SRM: Focus on instantaneous, no face time damage and sustain
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

Big AC+MRM: Focus on extra high damage with minor face time but less sustain
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

Full Splat: Focus on light but high damage weapons with no pinpoint. Often has ghost heat.
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Semi[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

MPL: Focus on high precision damage at close ranges. Often has ghost heat over 6 lasers.
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Semi[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]


Ok, now that we have a few build options out of the way, note that there are still many more combinations, we come up with a deck based off of these.

Full splat builds are pretty brutal. You have 265 tons free as IS. You could bring 3 archers and one bushwacker to max your tonnage out. Alternatively you could bring out 2 Victors, 1 Archer, and 1 Wolfhound, pulling from all the classes but giving you a primarily AC+MRM deck. If you prefer precision then you could go with 3 Black Knights and one Wolfhound and have 5 tons free.

So your dropdeck really becomes a bit of preference at this point, do you perform better using builds that use massive damage to outweigh inaccuracy (full splat), builds with a focus on precision (MPL) or a mix between (AC+SRM/MRM)? Do you prefer to bring assault mechs, or would you rather take the more agile yet armored heavy classes?

For long range there's 3 main options, ERPPCs, ERLLs, and UAC2s. ERPPCs are used in sets of 2 or 4 at long ranges, firing a projectile that lets you aim at your target, fire, then quickly get back behind cover before taking too much damage in return fire. ERLLs are hitscan and let you just aim at the target and you will hit it if you fire but you have to hold the beam on target, leaving you open to attack, they are rather easy to use though and effective. UAC2s are very rapid fire and work well for overwatch positions, sitting in a position of power where you can shoot at any enemies who try to peak out of cover and suppress them. Extreme range builds rely a bit more on mech quirks for the IS side. UAC jam chance quirks, weapon range quirks, and PPC/energy heat gen quirks are the most important. With dual ERPPC builds cooldown quirks become more useful so that you can put out some extra damage rather than just sitting cold.

Builds:
ERPPC: Longest range possible, runs very hot with the 4 sets, not too hot with two.
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Semi[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

ERLL: Easy to use, reliable, high damage output for trading shots
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Semi[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

UAC2: Ultra high DPS, suppression, not much damage per shot, relies on positioning
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Semi[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

If you wanted all ERPPC focus you could go with 2 Awesomes, 1 Warhammer, then use a WLF-2[mwo.smurfy-net.de] with 3 ERLLs as a filler mech. If you'd rather keep yourself in heavy armor the entire match you could go with 3 ERLL thunderbolts and a GHR-5J[mwo.smurfy-net.de] fit with 5 ERLL. For a more ballistic focused deck you could bring out a single 6 ERLL Battlemaster followed by 3 UAC2 Dragons. There's many combinations available, and just because you can't fill up the tonnage with just the builds listed here doesn't mean that there aren't other filler mechs out there to refine your deck with.

When making builds for extreme range you can cut a bit more leg armor off than usual, as most of your fighting will be done using cover and hill peeking, so your legs will not be exposed often, it also doesn't matter much if you lose one, as those long ranged fights don't have a whole lot of repositioning once you've found a good spot.

The last class I'll be talking about would be the Skirmishers. These builds attempt to avoid damage wherever possible through a variety of means.

One is the high alpha trader, a very common pick for the Clans. This type of build uses very high damage attacks so that it does not have to make as many attacks, thus saving itself from taking damage. The high heat of some of the builds prevents them from being able to attack frequently. Think of them like the KV2 of World of Tanks.

Another option is the low face time but low damage trader. This type of build uses mechs with quick acceleration and deceleration with low duration weaponry to make lots of little trades while trying to dodge any incoming damage by getting back into cover before the enemy can react.

Lastly we have poptarts, these take the low face time low damage trader to the extremes. The goal is to strap some jump jets onto your mech and pop up to hit the enemy, it will take a bit of getting used to if you haven't done it before.

Now for the builds:
High Alpha: High damage, High Heat, Long waits
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Semi[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

Low Duration: Death by a thousand cuts.
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Semi[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]

Poptart: Pop up, pop off
Full[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Semi[mwo.smurfy-net.de]
Budget[mwo.smurfy-net.de]


As always, watch out for the ghost heat on these builds. You can still fire all 5 large pulse lasers at once, but you'll generate extra heat doing so, if you aren't being focused I recommend firing them separately, if you need to get in and out quickly and you are on resting heat then an alpha strike would be a good option. Also be weary of the minimum range on the PPCs, don't let enemies get within 90m of you, or at least stay near your allies so they can help you out if enemies try to do that.

One of my own favorite decks is 1 Battlemaster 2C and 3 Dragon 1Cs. Those mechs all have very powerful defensive quirks that when paired with the skill tree's survival section only get even more powerful. Health is the currency that you make trades with the more you have, the more you can take and the more aggressively you can take it, fitting right in with the low duration high attack rate builds. The large pulse laser duration is so low that it works well against even the quickest of mechs.

Another option would be to bring along 3 high alpha Black Knights, then on the final wave you bring along a brawler ASN-21[mwo.smurfy-net.de], last enemy waves are usually light and light medium mechs on the Clan side, high alpha builds aren't ideal for fighting those type of mechs, but an Assassin has the speed to catch them and the armor and firepower to take them out once it gets there.

If you really wanted to take the least amount of damage possible and are up to the challenge of hitting enemies while you're flying through the air then you could go with a deck of 2 Grasshoppers and 2 Quickdraws. If your aim is true then light mechs will learn to fear your name, though you'll have to watch that 90m deadzone.