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Blood78, on 25 July 2013 - 10:59 AM, said:
Some of this idea that certain mechs like Centurion, Spider are tankish is actually false. Its not that they are tankish, its more that they have small hitbox and are typically fast moving so its hard to get a good laser burn or a solid hit so they are hard to kill because they're hard to hit. Not because they can take a lot of punishment.
You are way off target - Cent can take a lot of punishment not because it's small (it's actually bigger than Hunchie), but because of its hardpoints and ability to shield itself with arms.
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Hard to hit mechs are mechs like Centurion and Spider. Because of their hit box and agility. Cent with STD engine that runs 90+ kph and has missile bay door closed can easily go down below 20% and still fight.
Way off target again - closed missile doors give damage reduction to components behind them, not internal structure itself. It takes exactly the same amount of damage to take out a Catapult's "ear" regardless of the state of missile bay doors.
RF Greywolf, on 25 July 2013 - 11:07 AM, said:
The Catapult is an offense oriented, second-line fire-support BattleMech initially produced on a limited contract for the Terran Hegemony.
"two Holly LRM-15 launchers which allow the Catapult to give friendly units fire support"
"two Holly LRM-15 launchers which allow the Catapult to give friendly units fire support"
If you think about it, there's nothing at all about Catapult in TT that says "support" - C1 packs two LRM15s and 4 medium lasers, which gives it 20pt short range alpha and 30 pt (comparable) long range alpha. It's also unable to stay at long range for long, as it runs out of LRM ammo fairly quickly.
Besides, Sarna calls K2 a "fire support mech" too, so I guess PPCs are as "supportish" as LRMs...
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I guess it depends on how you define fire support. I always seen fire support as any long range weapon that is used to support the main battle line. 6 of one, half a dozen of the others I guess. 
Yeah, for me "support" means "can't operate independently (or is ineffective in that case)".
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By canon, any assault is considered "tanky" due to the amount of damage they can take. Unfortunately MWO changed this a bit with some of the hitboxes of the assaults here...
That's certainly true.
Enieles, on 25 July 2013 - 11:41 AM, said:
In my experience that first mech that crests the hill, or engages the enemy team is usually destroyed very quickly as the entire enemy team focus' fire on it.
That's pretty much the definition of being a "tank" - you absorb as much damage as possible.
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As a mech pilot you really don't want more than one or two enemy pilots focusing their attacks on you, even in an Atlas, you want that damage spread out, thinking you are your teams "tank' is a good way to get yourself killed in a hurry.
Yep, you don't. Unfortunately the opposing team usually has other ideas about this, so it's not really up to you.
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The best practice is not to be the first over the hills, through the breach, etc., but to simultaneously engage the enemy with as many mechs as your can. Give them more targets than they can shoot at, and focus fire on one of them at a time.
That works both ways - the OPFOR tends to focus fire on one of you at a time too (or at least try to do so). If you are focusing their Atlases and they are focusing your heavies or smaller assaults, you will end up in a world of hurt very quickly.
