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Viktor Drake, on 07 September 2013 - 08:03 PM, said:
Well I never could use ER PPCs with abandon even when they were at 11 heat which is probably why I find that 15 heat makes them unusable.
Also the reason I feel we have reduced options is that in every case where I used to mount PPCs or ER PPCs, the LL is now hands down a better choice so now every mech I own mounts LLs. Where before I had builds that mixed in PPCs or ER PPCs for variety and a change of pace, now all my mechs have a generic feel to them that makes owning different variants kind of feel very redundant especially if I am forced to use only a very few weapon types to accomidate my playstyle.
I guess that it the big issue for me. Once they "fixed" the heat and got it down to reasonable levels on the PPC and ER PPC, I never really felt constrained in my weapons choices. I could pretty much interchangably use a PPC in place of a Large Laser at any point and not feel I was giving up sustainability, dps or performance. Now with all the changes, I find myself using only LLs, UAC/5s, LB-10Xs, SRM4/SRM6 and MLs. Sure I have one or two mechs that use LRMs and even one using LPLs but other than that I have zero diversity going on in my builds and don't feel I really have options with the current PPC/ER PPC heat nerf, Steak Nerf, Gauss Nerf etc. The game is just not alot of fun when every mech is using the same weapons and I don't enjoy playing substandard builds just for the challenge.
thing is, Large Lasers aren't better for sniping than ER PPCs, even ER Large, because they can't come close to the range, plus the shoot and scoot nature lets a good sniper be re-positioning before the PPCs hit. And one could technically, probably compare er larges and standard PPCs, since the ranges and damage are similar, but the PPC still has pinpoint damage in it's favor. Where the Large Lasers shine, as the should is as medium range alternatives. (Even they can get a little hot for CQB with a wolf pack, IMO). The PPC family has been relegated to stand off weapons and rnaged fire support, for the most part, though one can certainly fire on the way in to do bad things up close. But once you start closing, the heat does become an issue. I railed against it to, at first. You and I both argued with Geaux over PPCs before this patch.
There are IMO, 3-5 weapons that are all purpose, jack of all trade guns now, those being the AC/2, 5, 10, UAC and Large Laser. All can do reasonable damage out to reasonable ranges for manageable enough heat to be useful in furballs.
Then you got CQB guns, like the AC20, LB-10X, MGs, Mediums, Smalls and Pulse Lasers and SRMs/SSRMs
Then support weapons in the PPC, ER PPC, ER Large Laser, Gauss and LRMs.
Biggest thing now is that Gauss, PPCs, ER Larges and LRMs all act significantly different in their roles, as do the other weapon range classes. That is the role diversity to the weapons. While it has limited some of the builds I ran, it also has much more limited the metarapists, and IMO, has actually made building mechs a more thought out process then the easy answers. Because to me, in certain roles, the Large Lasers are NOT plainly better than PPCs. But in others, they are. And after a little reflection on it, I decided I actually like it that way. Would it hurt my feelings to see ER PPCs get a slight heat reprieve, especially with their projectile speed nerf? Not at all. But in truth I would rather keep the heat and see them sped back up, but to a different speed than Gauss.
