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[Grimm Peaper]

Ok PGI,

You guys have talked about role warfare for mechs. You've stated that you really wanted the role for Gauss weapons to be as a sniper weapon. You've stated that you want weapons to be different and not just another weapon in your weapon group. Have you thought about what roles you want for weapons?

Things like, perhaps the opposite of a sniper weapon? i.e. a brawler weapon? Maybe you could make pulse lasers be the premier brawler energy weapon as a distinct role. Their range is shorter, so there should be a trade off. Right now you have them fire faster, but c'mon, they don't really act all that different than normal lasers. Here's a few examples of things you could do instead:

a) Have them fire continuously. That's how they fire in lore BT. They are short range already, just let them be the kings in close range for energy weapons and let them fire continuously so long as you have the heat to spare.

Have them be a "laser shotgun". Yeah, sounds kinda ridiculous, but then the pulse lasers are supposed to be easier to aim. So you could just make them a laser lbx in a way and fire in a cone, but not have pellets, just a laser cone that damages multiple spots at once. If the enemy is damaged in a spot and missing armor, well, you're going to hit his entire mech so you'll hit his weak spot too. The net affect is easier aiming. Give it a crit bonus like lbx.

Another possibility is to have a sniper energy weapon. Right now it's the ppc, but you could have it function differently for more of a sniper role. You could for instance have the shot be nearly invisible and hard to detect. Have it fire over time so that it spreads out the damage like a laser does. This helps reduce the "alpha strike" issue with ppcs. Another possibility is that it could heat up or scramble the enemy targeting computers.

You can have high effiency energy weapons with low damage for suppression. You could have high damage high heat for burst firing. You can have AC2 have lots of shots per ton so that it fills the suppression role. The ac20 could be the big knockback weapon that significantly shakes their cockpit. Maybe it could have a bonus of knocking down mechs that are in mid-air jump jetting.

Think about the different roles that weapons fill today and where mwo's weapon can fill the same roles:

1) CQB
2) Sniper
3) Suppresion
4) Indirect fire
5) large area affect