focuspark, on 24 September 2013 - 08:23 AM, said:
Lasers offer pinpoint accuracy and only require a few tons and a few critical slots. Ballistics are heavy and most are large.
Lasers take up much more space when you try to fit in the amount of DHS you need to run them, and i don't see the difference between having to aim at the target or in front of it. Either way you have to aim at a certain point, but with lasers you need to keep the beam on that point. Lasers are much harder to use than AC's.
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Pilots need to lead their shots with ballistics, but since they all travel at different velocities you can either only have one kind of ballistic or keep adjusting your lead (this is actually very difficult and bravo to those who can do it successfully). The downside of lasers is that they're hot and take time to apply their damage.
My Jager has 2xAC2's and 2xAC5's and i only group fire them. It takes around 15 seconds to overheat, and under 10 seconds to kill an Atlas, during which time he can barely see me due to the smoke/shake, and it's almost as easy to hit a target at 1000m as it is at 100m, and up to 1500m isn't difficult.
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IMO ballistics are quite balanced with lasers. PPC are currently a little broken, and Pulse Lasers are kind of useless.
Missiles are borked, but they've always been borked because PGI cannot seem to design them right. They either work spectacularly or not at all - they're not terribly reliable but work great to keep opponents pinned down.
I think PPC's are slightly too hot, but not much (compared to lasers, not AC's) and pulses are way too hot for the limited range. LRM's are just a terrible weapon that only really works well if you have a spotter.
Unfortunately pulse lasers and LRM's are my favourite weapons from the BT universe (one of my favourite mechs is the Mad Dog) and i can't bring myself to use them without drastically nerfing my performance because they're basically rubbish compared to AC's.