I have said my piece. I think the vast majority of people in this thread agree with me (or I with them, however you want to look at it). I am done.
Edit: to respond to the OPs post above mine:
My point is that the SL does it's damage much faster than the MG, which changes the damage profile significantly. In TT all weapons were effectively "hit scan", meaning that they all did their damage at the instant that they fired. There was no "damage over time" effect on regular weapons. In MWO lasers are DOT weapons, just with a very short window in which they apply damage.
It is very rare for any laser in MWO to do all of it's damage to the same location on the mech you are shooting. There is almost always some "scatter", and those lasers have a beam duration of 0.5-1.0 seconds (small **** laser is 0.5, small laser is 0.75) It is not that hard to keep a small laser on target for 3/4 of a second, even if you do spread that damage around a bit. And the laser damage is "front loaded" meaning that it will do its damage and then go on cooldown.
The MG is also a DOT weapon. But it has no cooldown, so to acheive maximum DPS you need to remain on target for the entire time it takes to do your dps. It is MUCH harder to keep your target under your reticule for longer periods of time. It takes an MG 3.75 seconds to do the same damage as a small laser (3). By the time the MG has fired for 3.75 seconds the SL has already fired again, doing another 3 damage. And the chances that your MG did all of it's pitiful damage to the target (not even thinking about all damage to the same location) is pretty low.
That is why I think that the MG should have a slight edge in "raw" dps compared to the SL. It is harder to do max damage with the MG with the current implementation.
Edited by Tickdoff Tank, 17 March 2013 - 02:26 PM.