Heya, the group I am part of will start Lancer in the coming weeks and I was wondering if anyone has build tips because I am trapped in choice paralysis.

Here is the cliffs notes: We will play using lancer rules and mechs, but not in the full setting. The main difference is that we all want aliens in the game, so we will have aliens. This will not mechanically matter, it's just flavor/preference.

The only rules change we agreed on is that license level 0 will allow you to choose any mech, but won't give you any of the license stuff for those mechs.

I know that one player is making a melee striker using a Zhang and the other is wanting to make an agile scout/hacking character. They also both said they would like me to be a leader-type character, which I have no problem with.

What I do have a problem with is deciding what kinda mech and skills I want though! The system has a real way of presenting about 5 times as many enticing options as I can pick! So far I am leaning towards a high pilot (for the evasion, because it seems very good to get hit less) fire support mech role, but that still leaves me picking one of, like, 7 good options for a mech. Either that or go for CQB and area denial...or the drone mech...see I can't even decide in this post >_>

So yea, can anyone share some insights into what worked well for them in the game?