Armor damage is repaired automatically and for free. Structure damage has to be repaired for cbills and time. Overheating damages structure inside the mech, so don’t go over the overheat limit unless it is a strategic necessity like a killing blow before being killed or the like. If you are in a bad spot and super hot use your Vanguard morale skill to protect the mech and clear the heat.
Each pilot will get three skills - two from the four in the first column. and one from the four in the second column.
Bulwark is widely considered the best skill by far. It gives you a free Brace when you don’t move the mech. So if you stand in a forest hex and shoot away it will give you a free brace which protects you when you get shot back. Every pilot should have it unless there is a good reason to not, and there is only one -
If you have a pilot whose job it is to move a lot you would go with Evasion in the first column instead. Evasion and Bulwark don’t work well together for obvious reasons: Evasion gives a bonus when you move, Bulwark gives a bonus when you don’t. It’s not that you can’t put them together, but you would be missing out on the symmetry of another skill for that pilot.
A good Bulwark pilot would be: Bulwark | Sensor Lock | Master Tactician for an LRM shooter or pair it with MultiShot | Breaching shot for a brawler.
A good Evasion pilot might be: Evasion | Sensor lock | Ace pilot so they can move to contact with evasion pips, sensor lock unknowns for LRM fire, and then shoot/move/hide when things get hairy.
My lance always has one pilot with evasion (the rabbit) and three pilots with bulwark, the LRM pilot (Artillery boy) with Tactics pips, and the brawlers with Gunnery pips.
Juggernaut looks like crap. Don’t know for sure, haven’t dedicated someone to it to see, but I hate melee. I like shooting the weapons with the pretty colors.