38 replies to this topic

[Lily from animove]

well 2x the tonnage for what to be better in? not worth it.

light emchs dont have the tonnage for these toys, and big mechs usually do not hug you THAT close.

[Rogue Jedi]

I use SPLs on my "Light hunter" Light and medium mechs, the faster duration makes it far easier to land the full damage against a fast moving target compared to MLs, and gives you an advantage in light vs light dogfights over other laser types.

For most other purposes the extra range makes MLs or MPLs more useful

[Tahribator]

SPL's are great of you can get at least 6 of them on a very fast mech, so that the range is not a problem. It dumps so much damage in such a short time that it becomes a great harasser at close range. It's great on a Locust-1E(with the added benefit of being small), Jenner-F and a few of the Firestarters.

[Gwydion Ward]

I know its a Clan mech, and im using Clan SPL's. But one of my Timber's has 3x CSPL's and 3xMG's as its 'close in' weapons.

Im not sure how usefull SPL's are in league matches or 12v12 fights with full 'groups', but in single or small-group drops, they actually work better than you'd think they would. Mainly because no one thinks they can do as much damage as they can when you have the ability to fire them over and over again without risk of overheating. Ive lost count of how many 'face-to-face' fights ive won in my Timber, NOT because its a clan mech, But due to those 3 SLP's and 3 MG's firing faster than the other guy's ML's as he is practically hugging me.

Most 'experienced' players will stay back from a enemy mech around 200m or so (outside the effective range of SPL's.) But plenty of other players will try to practically 'hug' your mech in their mad rush to kill you (lights are especially guilty of doing this.

SPL's on anything but a 'light' mech, are just like MG's. Their 'situational', But when they find themselves in their element, they are much more useful than a lot of people give them credit for. Want an example? Pick up the Locust with 5 energy slots, and fill up all 5 with SPL's, and the rest of your tonnage with DHS (or even single heat-sinks). Learn how to hang back for the 'brawl' to start, then do mini 'strafing runs', on the backs or sides of enemy mech's who are more focused on your bigger buddies.

[salkeee]

I always liked pulse lasers all of tham but to be honest when ever I build anything with pulses they just seem tooo heavy too much sacrifice for that shorter beam duration too many sacrifices more heat+less heatsinks,range (ok spl same range) and just too heavy I wish if SPL and MPL would be half ton lighter and LPL one ton lighter than I would use tham much more often and even than I would still use normal lasers on many builds but I would have some with pulses too.

[RazorbeastFXK3]

Pulse lasers make it easier to leg light mechs 'cause you don't have to hold them onto the target as much as you do with regular lasers. Instead of having all pulse lasers you could have two small pulse and four small lasers. On one of my jenner configs I had two medium lasers and four small pulse but eventually swapped out the two medium lasers for small pulse 'cause of heat problems. That, and it's usually just easier to get into the mix, unload upon the opponent then retreat instead of finding a spot to peek out from and risk getting blown away 'cause of poor surveillance.

[InspectorG]

Spokes, on 12 July 2014 - 10:22 AM, said:

Still brings the party!

[Mothykins]

Signal27, on 08 July 2014 - 06:05 PM, said:

I'm considering swapping out all my medium lasers, in one of my fast light mechs, for all small pulse lasers. I was just curious if a build like this has been good for anyone else or if hardly any damage can be done with it?

Despite what others say, they have their place; here's why.

Small Pulse lasers have a short duration, meaning they blast their 3.4 damage in just 0.5 seconds. Recycle time is 2.25s.
So six is the same as an AC-20 for damage, and you can fire it every 2.75 seconds; The AC-20's recycle time is 4 seconds.
The burst duration makes it almost as pinpoint as the AC.

You shoooould have about 23 seconds of firing time (Assuming 13 double Heatsinks), meaning eight shots before needing cool down.


Let's compare to Med las.

Duration is 1 second. Cooldown is 3 seconds. This means you have 4 seconds between bursts. Damage is 5 per laser: 30 Damage per hit! Thing is, on a light, you're probably gonna spread that damage about in that one second.
Using the same amount of heatsinks as the small pulse, you have just 17 seconds of firing before heat issues arise; 4 shots.

So before overheat, you have the small pulse dealing 160 damage in half the spread of a medium laser group, and the medium laser dealing 120 over a larger area most likely.

Advantage for sheer damage is Small Pulse. You can harass much longer, which can mean the world in a fight. Just because of Heat management, you have a DPS advantage.



Range wise, you need to play smarter. Medium lasers have a massive range advantage; 70 meters more than the small pulse MAX is the NOMINAL range of the Medium Las. When you think about it, this can be huge; If you are even slightly slower than your opponent, they have 340 meters on you. Even with the range module, you only gain 20 meters; 310 is still massive range. You need to stick near friendly units, keep every escape route in mind, and chase less; Early game, if a group spots you alone, you can't respond in time.


You need to pick your battles.

Anyways, i hope this was informative, and I wish you luck.

Edited by Cavale, 08 September 2014 - 04:15 PM.

[K0M3D14N]

What the above guy said. Below is a game I played earlier in my Locust 3M. If my team had held on another 30 seconds or so, I could have potentially also killed an Atlas-DDC and a Blackjack on top of the Catapult I'd killed earlier in the game. Almost ten times my tonnage (if I'd have killed the badly red-cored DDC and the Blackjack).



5x SPL on this mech is practically an AC20 at 150+ KPH. The downside is that you have to be a knife fighter. They definitely have their place though.

[Mothykins]

One last thing; this is what a properly driven 'Mech with Small Pulses can do.

[Tim East]

Yeah. Yeah, I think they are. Got my creeping death in a Locust. Heheheheheh.

/edit: Oh yeah, and that was totally on Alpine. Screw y'all's range advantage. I have a Locust.

Edited by Tim East, 18 September 2014 - 04:19 AM.

[Gangnail]

Love this mech! Having a great time with it. Most assaults totally under estimate your "tiny" lasers until its too late for them


Smurfy
FS9-A

Edited by Gangnail, 19 September 2014 - 02:04 AM.

[Bloodweaver]

They should really have their beam durations lowered even more. 0.5 seconds should be what the LPL gets, 0.3 for the MPL and something ridiculously small for the SPL like 0.1. Still, they are fun. They really shine when you have any combination of the following: a lot of energy hardpoints, fully actuated arms, a lot of jump jets, and high speed. The -5J Trebuchet makes a great SPL boat. Sparky might be good for them too though I don't have one.

[Tim East]

Holy moly, if SPLs had a duration that low, I'd never need another weapon. Mega-unbalanced. I already get to do 17 damage every couple of seconds, and unless you're in a fast-moving light, it's going in the same hit location already. The last thing I need is an instant win button against my fellow light drivers that lets me two-shot any given leg.

[Bloodweaver]

Unbalanced? I don't think so. The medium laser still out-DPS's the SPL, and they have (as noted) a massive range advantage. Not only do they have a (slightly) higher DPS for a (equally slightly) higher heat output, they also have much more range in which to exercise that DPS advantage. In short, there is no true benefit to the SPL. The 1/2-second burn time is nice, but it's still not enough to truly differentiate it from standard lasers. Considering you can mount two SLs for every ton of SPL, even the SL is better in total damage output per ton, hardpoints allowing.

Just because you have been able to gain talent in using the SPL does not mean it's a balanced weapon. Koniving does pretty well with his flamer builds, but the flamer still blows. All pulse lasers need their own particular niche, something beyond simply "a slightly different take on normal lasers."

Consider all the buffs given to the LPL. They increased the damage, lowered the heat, and increased the range... whereas, if they had simply made it use completely different mechanics from the start, all those buffs would never have been needed. Personally, I would have thought an implementation of pulse lasers as constant-fire (or indefinitely repeating) versions of standard lasers would be the most obvious and acceptable route to take... but PGI has chosen the route of shortening beam durations instead, making them more accurate. In theory. Truth is there's not that much difference between a .5 second and a 1-second burn time. Yes, it's fifty percent - but it's also only half a second. SPLs should have extreme range limits, as they currently do. But, within that range, they should reign supreme and be a clear upgrade from both MLs (which have something like three times the range) and SLs(which weigh half as much). Extremely short beam durations -virtually pinpoint- make that possible. They become competitors to all sorts of other weapons with that advantage.

EDIT: Here's another way to look at it: both the MPL and LPL have a burn time of .6-seconds, if I'm not mistaken. And the SPL has .5 seconds. I could be mistaken, I don't feel like checking smurfy right now(a couple of beers and I want to get into the game ASAP). That gives you an "advantage" of just one tenth of a second less burn time. That is not in any way going to make any real difference in-game. I refuse to use MPLs personally, I just get so tired of seeing green lasers. The only truly logically sound reason to select the SPL over the ML (or even the MPL) though, is for fun. For the challenge and/or the fact nobody else does it. Which is all well and good, but it's hardly balanced.

Edited by Bloodweaver, 19 September 2014 - 10:32 PM.

[juxstapo]

One second becomes a rather long time when desperately twisting to spread damage and/or juking around at 150+

But, I stand by my previous allegation that experiences vary and everyone should try them for themselves... after all, wouldn't this game be really dull if we all agreed on something?


timberwolf rocks

[Tim East]

I'm still perfectly happy with them as they are, and will take them over mediums for the same weight more often than not. Call it a preference thing. Addressing the thread topic, my answer remains an emphatic yes.

[Jon Gotham]

I've boated them on Jenners and Firestarters, both time having REALLY good results. I also used them on a HBK 4P to good success.
But you can either get into position or you can't. If you are the type of player who can't, then they are not worth it. Now in a lancer where at least 2 of you will be brawling and you are free to flank and backstab, they are just savage....

[UrsusMorologus]

I used them in the 2 torso slots of an FS9-K build (MLs in the arms), kind of like an energy MG setup. They worked okay like that esp with the group set to chain fire and keep one of them firing at all times. It would be nice if they had the same kind of crit rolling as MGs.

I will have to pull that little mech out of drydock and try running it with the full 8 instead. Could be just the thing it needed.