Sifright, on 17 March 2013 - 01:04 AM, said:
Okay I have a problem with the middle portion of your post because it's patently not true.
Lets give the example of say the SRM4
It does 2.67 damage per second with 3.75 seconds between shots.
Thanks to it bursting and putting all the damage up front i can now duck behind cover and the enemy wont even know where i was. Come out again a second or two later and smash my missiles into him again.
With the MG i have to sit pretty allowing any one to come up behind me and just blast me away whilst i focus on a component.
1.2DPS still makes the small laser more effective in every way basically.
MGs need ammo and risk ammo explosions. MG have a horrible cone of fire meaning your shots scatter all over the mech where as the SL is pinpoint precision.
I'm not downplaying the critical value of burst damage, but it seems that many are only comparing weapons in a best-case usage to balance against, as if infinite lasers could put out their damage at their maximum ROF indefinitely, where in reality they couldn't sustain their maximum ROF over 2-3 minutes like a powerful MG could when battles devolve into furballs.
There are many situations when continuous/no-heat streaming damage is actually advantageous, so it doesn't make sense to solely consider that as a disadvantage that needs to be additionally balanced or compensated for. There are different weapons for different roles and situations.
It's not always best to duck behind cover between shots, or take a shot and twist away. Many times in battle there are opportunities to stay on target and apply damage up until the point of destruction, where having to cool down or wait a crucial few seconds for the next shot would be detrimental or even fatal.
A viable streaming weapon would be ideal in such situations, but a 2DPS/1.5ton MG would be a bit too effective at exploiting enemy cooldown/heat/positioning when boated on fast mechs, IMO.