Viktor Drake, on 29 June 2013 - 08:55 AM, said:
I so disagree with you that mediums are useless. They are only useless because people are lazy. Let's face it, it is much harder to manuver and hit things at higher speeds so to compensate, a medium pilot has to be BETTER at aiming and piloting with alot more situational awarness than someone piloting a Assault. Therefore because it has a higher skill cap, less people are either willing to learn to get the most out of them or even can get the most out of them.
For example, I bought a Staker a few nights ago and remember thinking how boreing it was to play. I even commented on it in game. Basically I just plodded along and when I saw an enemy, I would either just keep mashing the LRM button or stop and line up my Quad LL and fire. It is easily my most successful mech but it was so easy mode to play it, it wasn't funny. It just didn't take any real skill to be effective and we are talking from match one. Fast forward to my QD, my second best peforming mech (which technically not a medium, it has the general speed and firepower of one). I still pull great damage and have comparable games to my Stalker, but damn I have to play and play hard to do it. It also took me 30+ matchs to not suck in it because I had to learn how to take advantage of its JJ mobility as well as good speed and agility.
So I ask you, how many people pick a medium mech and then devote 40-50 sucky matches to it to learn how to be effective with it? Probably not alot. Instead, they pick a medium, maybe play a dozen matches, quit and then post how bad mediums are.
This is because people are lazy and want the easiest road to success. Want the easiest road....go Stalker, give it 4 ER PPCs and wala.....instant success with very little skill required.
I am pretty sure I didn't say they were useless.
And, in fact, I believe I then noted that to be successful in them one HAD to become a better pilot. That said, since Closed Beta, the Mediums have been the odd man out for the most part, as if you take a person of "equal skill" in a Medium, and face off against and "equal" in any other Weight Class, the Medium is at a disadvantage overall. Most Mediums cannot match a light for speed, nor are they small enough to take advantage of the wonky hitboxes, making it risky to mount XLs. Nor can they carry near the armor and firepower of heavies and assaults.
That said, before discovering my love for the JM6 chassis, I was almost entirely a Medium Pilot, and one of the EARLIEST champions of the Centurion in this game, long before the Zombie became popular. And am STILL a card carrying member of the YLW club, and generally not up to Koreanese level, but am a holy terror with my HBK-4P. (never have really found an ideal Cicada or BJ for my style though). And I for one, am salivating over the ShadowHawk.
It's also why I can run my GlassCannon (AC40 JAger) decently well in High ELO 8 man, because I think and drive like a Medium. (I treat it like a slow YLW, and treat it not as a brawler, but the ultimate Ambush Bug).
But all things equal, Mediums are still a compromise.