Noobzorz, on 09 March 2013 - 11:10 AM, said:
Empirical evidence clearly demonstrates that generalists and inferior to specialists. The only time this is ever true, ever, is when MM rolls you too many of the same kind of specialist and the enemy capitalizes.
See: Dragon (all variants) vs. Boats and brawlers.
I'll happily argue this any time. My Flame sports an LRM10, 2 Large Lasers, and 2 Medium Lasers, at 105kph.
Brawler? I stay long. LRM boat? Inside 180. Light? I'll see my armor and 4 lasers vs. silly streaks any day, and with a 350 engine it's a piece of cake to hold a bead on a 150kph light. Most importantly, all my weapons are usable from 180-~450m, and I can bring most to bear either very close (leave out the LRM's) or long (leave out the ML's). And up close, in a 100kph brawl, it's
very easy to spin wide and get the needed 180m, particularly when if relative vectors are good you can hit and damage firing from ~150m. All with easily enough speed to disengage from someone who's just too hard to take head on.
You can play rock paper scissors, or you can roll a decent generalist build and take on everyone. The key is to engage at the range band that most benefits you. When you're faster than your opponent, this is entirely manageable.