24 replies to this topic

[Rat of the Legion Vega]

Colonel Pada Vinson, on 29 April 2013 - 09:34 AM, said:

Long range weapons are useful too and lights make great little snipers.

I'm unconvinced. Seems to me they make pretty bad little snipers in that they can only only do 10-20 damage per shot and one counter-snipe from a heavy sniper will destroy them.

[stjobe]

Rat of the Legion Vega, on 29 April 2013 - 02:05 PM, said:

I'm unconvinced. Seems to me they make pretty bad little snipers in that they can only only do 10-20 damage per shot and one counter-snipe from a heavy sniper will destroy them.

Yeah, they don't make good snipers (as I can testify from running an ERPPC+ASRM-4 COM-1D for a month or two). Too fragile, and too small alpha, as you say.

They do make great ranged harassers though. Basically the classic light harasser role; flank them, punch them in the side, and use your superior speed and mobility to move to another firing position. If they focus on you, your team will kill them. If they ignore you, you will kill them.

Just like we've always done, but now at ERPPC range.

(As an aside, I made my first ERPPC Commando back in closed beta; I'm a big Panther fan from way back in the BT days. People laughed at me, and rightly so, the ERPPC Commando was a joke build back then. But after the PPC buff and now the energy HSR, it's actually a nasty little build).

Edited by stjobe, 29 April 2013 - 02:18 PM.

[Deathlike]

stjobe, on 29 April 2013 - 07:49 AM, said:

2. The power-balance between light chassis. Currently there's the RVN-3L, below that is the JR7-F, and then the other JR7s, then the COMs and the other RVNs, and lastly there's the SDRs. The power-gap between the RVN-3L and the SDR-5K is astonishingly large.

Actually... the 5K has the biggest dropoff vs anything you choose, unless you give it a pulse large laser or ER Large, and operate it similar to the 5V.

ECM mechs as far as I can tell is the dev's meta-game. There is no doubt in my mind. The difference is that after you leave the ECM mechs, the non-ECM lights are a lower tier, and the Spider-5V and 5K are the lowest of tiers. It's a lot more significant at the moment.

Right now, I'm still running a 3L, but I've had to upgrade my 280XL engine to a 295XL, just to complete with the other lights, and although I've dropped back down to a 285XL (it's enough IMO), I've really pondered putting in more than the 1 LL that I've added to it (replacing 1 med), and wondering if I should go PPC all the way. This is not a subtle change.

What has to change is the PPC... for whatever buffs it got to "counter" non-HSR, it now needs to go back closer towards non-HSR values, like projectile speed (which right now is more than capable of shooting lights... Gauss does not have the same influence as the PPC), heat (maybe not to original levels, but an increase closer to the current ER Large), and perhaps a cooldown increase...

For the cooldown increase.. it needs to be increased to 3.5 seconds. Note that 2 meds take 3 seconds of cooldown, but requires a 1 second delay through its duration... for reasons beyond me, the PPC can be a better brawler weapon until you close the gap under 90m.

Anyways... HSR has affected them a lot more than it should (the Raven leg hitboxes change is perhaps more significant than originally though)... so there may be a real need to change PPC/ERPPCs for the better.

Although... something says that PGI will manage to overnerf the PPC like they did with missiles..

Edited by Deathlike, 29 April 2013 - 03:41 PM.

[Elizander]

Light mechs had more of a role to play when LRMs were popular simply because the LRM boats sitting behind hills needed someone to lock for them.

Right now a light mech can 'spot' and locate the enemy team, but for what purpose? There isn't enough communication going on in a pug game and there are chances that you won't have an LRM boat with you on your team to capitalize. Missile trajectory right now is also quite horrible for sitting behind hills and there's almost no point in shooting a target that you don't have direct line of sight to.

When I pilot my Jenner I mostly just get the standard 1-2 caps at the start of a conquest game then hunt down lights or harass the enemy snipers if I can. I don't really think about spotting or scouting much because the direct and immediate benefits of doing so are nearly non-existent.

Scouting is beneficial in situations where your team finds out where there team is first and your team will get a huge benefit if that happens. I am not sure if that is the case right now. We probably need those light / scout modules to be bumped up in the production line.

[Denolven]

Elizander, on 29 April 2013 - 07:32 PM, said:

Scouting is beneficial in situations where your team finds out where there team is first and your team will get a huge benefit if that happens. I am not sure if that is the case right now. We probably need those light / scout modules to be bumped up in the production line.

To be honest, the current situation isn't even a big problem, just a minor one. There are several missing pillars, like the very limited ingame communication or the indifference of Mechs. And as long as those basic pillars are not implemented/changed, I see no point in complaining about the absence of a scout role. There are more important things to do, and that's perfectly fine. We just shouldn't expect to find an awesome scout build. Lights are skirmishers, that's it.

Once the role warfare gets higher priority, and the basic systems are fleshed out, I'll take my TAG Spider for a ride again. Until then, I'll keep biting legs with my little Chihuahua Jenner.