Part 161: A Guide to Wanzer Construction by Dr. Video Games 0071

First you rig a character vote blatantly in favor of a rifle user, and then when someone asks for wanzer building advice, you tell them to fuck off. Combined with your terrible trigger discipline with flamethrowers, I have to wonder exactly how much of your suffering is self-inflicted, Mr. Dynamo.

Anyway, since I'm bored and I feel like sperging about something, I'll write up a little guide to effective wanzer building. After all, a better-informed audience will probably build better wanzers. Of course, somebody could do the exact opposite of everything here to makes something terrible, but then everybody else would know they're being terrible on purpose and make fun of them.

Guy with a Terrible Username's Wanzer Building Guide
First of all, pick your weapons. Your choice of weapons should generally be informed by the pilot's weapon proficiencies and skills, unless they're only proficient with something shitty like rifles, in which case your choice of weapons should be anything that isn't rifles.
When you're picking weapons, don't go overboard. Using two in-hand weapons is generally a waste of weight and survivability unless you're using Double Punch/Assault/Shot. Giving a missile wanzer an in-hand weapon or another launcher as a "backup weapon" is generally wasteful, especially compared to just using an item backpack to refill your missiles.
Finally, use a shield if at all possible. They don't weigh much, and they serve a dual purpose of reducing damage and diverting it to a useless part.

Once you've picked your weapons, you need to pick your parts. In general, there are three kinds of parts: melee, mid-range, and missile. Melee parts have high HP, missile parts have low HP, and mid-range parts are in the middle. There are some odd cases (Zenislev parts are somewhere between melee and mid-range, for example, and Hoshun parts have pretty much the best aspects of all of them), but most of the parts fit into these categories. As a general rule of thumb, the different parts are good for melee, burst fire, and missile builds respectively, but it never hurts to tweak.
When picking parts, always keep skills in mind, both those of the parts and of the pilot. If you're building a wanzer for a fresh-faced shotgun rookie, definitely slap some Kyojun arms on there for ROF Up I. If your pilot is a grizzled shotgun veteran with 4 to 6 ROF Up I's under his or her belt, feel free to switch them out for something with more HP or a better skill.

Let's start with the easy parts, backpacks and computers. If you aren't making a missile wanzer, use a power backpack. It gives you more weight to work with, which means more HP, which means less dying horribly. They're even a good choice for missile wanzers if you avoid skill combos and Salvo.
The computer you pick is based on the pilot's and the wanzer's skills. If the pilot has a bunch of 1-cost skills like ROF Up I, Zoom I, or Shield Attack I, pick a computer that increases combo chance. If they have high-powered skills like ROF Up III, Aim Body, or Shield Attack III, pick one that increases activation chance. And if their parts have an awesome skill that they don't have yet, pick the one that increases acquire chance.
Now pick your body. Melee bodies have lower power, missile bodies have higher power. Pick the body with the highest HP you can get away with. For a melee wanzer, this is easy. If you're dual-wielding guns or packing a flamethrower, you might have to pick a mid-range body, but their skills synergize with burst fire weapons anyway. Avoid missile bodies like the plague unless you need the capacity and you're absolutely certain you'll never be in the thick of combat (they all have terrible skills anyway).
Next, pick your arms. Melee arms have lower weight and lower accuracy, missile arms have higher weight and higher accuracy. Melee wanzers don't really need accuracy, so give them melee arms. If you've got a shield, it's usually a good idea to put it on a melee arm. The accuracy is meaningless, and they have higher HP to absorb more hits. For other weapons, it's generally best to use mid-range arms. Only use missile arms if you want the skills, need the extra accuracy, and/or are staying on the edges of combat.
Finally, pick your legs. Melee legs have higher movement, evasion, and weight, missile legs are the other way around. Always pick the heaviest legs you can get away with. Missile legs have no upsides whatsoever, and if you're forced you use them, you probably did something horribly wrong like make a wanzer with two grenade launchers and a flamethrower and you need to start over. Only use low-move legs if they have a skill you want and you're okay with never actually being near an enemy wanzer ever.

Now do all the math and make sure your wanzer isn't overweight, If it is, you messed something up because you're an idiot, so fix it. If it isn't, congratulations, you've built a wanzer that maybe isn't a terrible piece of shit!