Others point most of this out nicely, but I'll restate it together, as it’s spread out between multiple posts with loads of debate. As with many of the other posters, this is coming from someone who loves dragons and does great with them in pug drops.
The Dragon is a heavy, this means that you're taking a slot that could be used by a CTF or CPLT (in league play, or when the pug matchmaker is working per stated design). Thus, you can compare it directly to these other two chassis. For any role you want to have it fill, the detractors outshine the benefits.
Brawler w/ STD: The dragon is poorly suited for this since it doesn't get much mileage out of STD engines. Its large CT that you can't protect with a 90 degree torso twist is almost always going to lose its armor first, negating the benefit of a STD. Alpha isn’t tight enough - it doesn’t match it up against the stronger CTF and CPLT bruiser builds - the only chassis capable of AC20 is the flame (and you can put two on a K2...), and you can at most put two SRM4 on the 1N. It is also outperformed in this role by medium CNs and HBs. At the end of the day, a dragon brawler with a STD engine isn't capitalizing on its one advantage: being able to run a big xl without extreme additional risk. If gameplay tweaks were made that end SRM domination of brawling, the CT geometry/hitbox were changed, or DRG hardpoints were reworked, they could end up valuable here someday.
Brawler w/ XL: Again, can't pack a large enough alpha (45 in a 1N w/ 2SRM4, Gauss, 2ML; 50 in a 1C w/ 1SRM6, Gauss, 4ML) - with the current implementation of SRMs, this is why the A1 is king of this role (90 w/ 6 SRM6). XL brawlers in 8 man are very high risk, and need to be high reward to be worth fielding. Good teams will successfully poke into your sides (if they care to bother given the giant nose target they can hit from nearly any angle). Finally, the convergence issues with arms make it hard to incorporate ACs successfully (exception being the flame) - even with really good pilots this still adds a mental load that you could avoid with another chassis. If gameplay tweaks were made that end SRM domination of brawling, increase the value of speed, reduced the overall size of the chassis, and/or tightened their turn radius, they could end up valuable here someday - simply because they could exploit weak panels better than anything else and would be a solid solution to light stingers in the fray.
Striker (fast XL with longer/mixed range weapons): This is its most fitted role. 1C or Flame with 4LL, or 2LL 2ML SRM6, or 2PPC 2ML SRM4. Very strong in this role, and will shine in pugs; but this role doesn't fit in well in the organized team meta. While certainly strong in this role, a K2 2/ 2UACs + 4ML, or C1 w/ 2LL, 2ML, 2SRM6 are stronger replacements loadout-wise, but slower; If gameplay tweaks were made that increase the value of speed, they would dominate this role.
Sniper: Completely wrapped up by the 3D right now with its 35-40 pt alpha with JJ. Even if that weren't the case, the CPLT has stronger hardpoints (symmetry and vertical placement), no convergence issues, and 5 extra tons for this role.
Other Heavy Fire Support: Hard to compete with the UAC5, PPC and LL boats available in the CTF and CPLT lines that devote their greater tonnage to firepower and/or survivability because they’re rolling with the assault group. Plainly not viable as a LRM boat.
Ending note: Some of the above considerations could be cleared up by ending the simplification of matches by weight ‘class’ in leagues and the match finder, and base everything solely on total tonnage. If taking a dragon over a cataphract meant you could take an atlas over a stalker that alone would increase its viability. We might see the dragon and some other fringe chassis resurge and lose some of their negative stigma if this were the model. Even if that were the case, the Dragon would still only be fearsome in the striker role, which isn’t currently showing great results in 8 man - but might if speed becomes a bigger deal than being able to turn, twist, and target faster. Right now a heavy in that role might be able to help the scout team in some situations, or feed itself into the maw of the clustered 60 - 98 kph mechs that never lose sight of each other and answer to 36 dmg (high visibility and 1 sec burn time) LL poke with 70 pts of instantaneous focus fire from paired 3Ds that can fly.
Edited by Dino, 18 March 2013 - 05:11 PM.
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Colonel Pada Vinson, on 18 March 2013 - 02:55 PM, said:
