215 replies to this topic

[FearNotDeath]

I've done about 150k dmg with the gauss rifle although most is with the old gauss a fair bit is with the new rifle and it is still a great weapon. I think it's a far better weapon with the increased speed they may have even buffed it with the change. It's a scalpel and very fun to use like the sniper rifle in gears of war. Get's an A+ from me and I'd probably quit mwo if it didn't have it.

[Morderian]

well 3 weeks after the Gauss charge i know see what i expected, no Gaussrifle in mixed builds or as single weapon in fast mechs with lasers (champion mechs dont count)

most people just run around with dual Gauss, dual AC20 or dakka dakka, rarely somebody with Gauss PPC builds (thx to minrange and heat)

well now the Gauss is an weapon that needs no skill when used 2 or more,
because you just put it in all weapon groups and get a big green light when its ready,
you use the same guns so no need to adjust aim (the Gauss nearly flys fast enough that you can directly aim on an enemy at 600m exept lightmechs)
and advanced zoom, tweaked configs and an good PC does the rest (hey i can see and shoot you on 1000 meter range with no smoke, trees or anything else making it hard to see you)

if you try to use it as an single weapon it needs skill to be used but hey who really uses something that needs skill when he can get kills and damage cheap and easy by using two

things i think that are needed to improve the Gauss so it can be used by mixed builds without training much:

1: change the Charge so you load it with one click and fire it with another (will be much simpler to use and people can put it on diffrent devices then the mouse and will also make it more vialble for mixed builds cause you get your hands free if you use it on keyboard)
2: higher the time it is charged, maybe make it an mech quirk faster mechs could get a longer time for firing it

Edited by Morderian, 21 November 2013 - 09:10 AM.

[Almond Brown]

JigglyMoobs, on 24 September 2013 - 10:25 PM, said:

This.

The dual gauss+advanced zoom= stupidly effective. I built a jager right after the patch and it's basically become the mech I used 80% of the time.

Like Alistair I also had a 6 kill game today. The amazing part is that I did only 296 damage. At least 4 of the guys were one shot kills. First 2 kills were a stalker and a Victor, both healthy, and both cockpitted on the first shot within about 5 seconds of one another.

I have 70-120 ping with pretty decent aim honed through years of Counterstrike and Quake. In the hands of somebody with 30 ping and good aim.... *shudders*

PS - like Alistair I've also stopped using it on my other mechs. Gauss now is a niche weapon for the dual Gauss sniper, period.

So the de-sync was totally effective and a very long range 30 pt Alpha works? If you put your Gauss in its own weapons group, what is the issue with its use again? You can't Alpha strike....?

[Amsro]

Almond Brown, on 21 November 2013 - 09:28 AM, said:

So the de-sync was totally effective and a very long range 30 pt Alpha works? If you put your Gauss in its own weapons group, what is the issue with its use again? You can't Alpha strike....?

I agree with you 100%

That seems to be the biggest argument against Gauss, you can't mash all the weapons into the same group and spam the trigger.

If your Gauss rifle isn't in its own weapon group, stop posting here.

[Dock Steward]

This is a pretty divisive poll. I for one gave up on the Gauss after the mechanic change. Then about two weeks ago, I decided to at least try learning the new mechanic. It's okay. I still kinda hate it. It totally works fine if you are in a smaller mech and basically just have the Gauss, or if you're in a Cat or Jager and have two Gauss (so you still basically just have the Gauss), but if you're trying to fire the Gauss and other weapon groups, it starts to feel like it's just throwing off everything. At least for me. Like I said, I'm still getting use to it. Simple math though, will tell you that the cooldown time plus the charge time, makes it so you need 4.75 seconds to get off a shot. That's too long, especially considering how quickly the charge goes away.

[Snoopy]

IMHO the IS just got a big nerf in the upcoming IS vs Clan war.

I find it strange that the best anti-Clan weapon was changed from "normal" firing mechanism to something completely different and not intuitively.

# IS energy weapons : more heat, less damage, less range
# IS LRMs : minimum range, more tonnage, more space
# IS ballistics : more tonnage, more space
# IS Gauss : same range, heat, damage with little bit more tonnage

The Gauss was the only IS weapon (speaking of weapon choice in the 3050 era, not Jihad) with high damage/low heat, no range disadvantage compared to its Clan counterpart. It was one the better weapons to field and not being handicapped automatically.

Every other IS weapon has a inferior weight/space ratio, lower range, and/or worse damage/heat ratio compared to the Clan version.

IMHO if almost half the community stops using a weapon because it is not usable anymore for them and the rest boat's it to be effective or wants a change (shorter delay, more damage, no explode mechanism, ...), something is strange.

Concerning my inital statement :
I'm not talking about the less than 10% elite-players here, they may use it effectively or not. I relate to the standard player with average ELO / skill / what-ever like myself.

The Clan's do not have to use the Gauss, they have many good other weapon systems. IS does not have this luxury and in CW every win will count, not only the top-level elite player matches ...

[Lightfoot]

Alistair Winter, on 24 September 2013 - 07:09 AM, said:

NOTE: This poll is not for discussing the merits of the charge mechanic, it's only about whether or not the gauss is too strong or too weak compared to other weapons.

Now that people have had plenty of time to use the gauss rifle, I want to see a poll. We've had plenty of discussion, I want to see some actual numbers. My suspicion is that most people are fine with it, or even think that it's too good.

At the risk of making this poll biased, I will say right now that I think the gauss rifle is too good, especially when you have 2 gauss rifles. If I put 2 gauss rifles on my Cataphract, I almost feel like I'm exploiting the game. It was a steep learning curve at first, but now that I've learned to use it? Forget about it.

So, without getting into a long discussion about the charge mechanic, tell me right now:
Do you think the gauss rifle is too effective, not effective enough or just right?

Note: Added public vote

It's not worth using because of the charge mechanic, which doesn't work for half of MWO's players. You can't seperate the two because your ability to work the weapon or not is directly related to how balanced the weapon is. To me the Gauss Rifle is 18 tons of junk, worthless.

[Kotzi]

Great, fun weapon. Chargemechanic is ok, you get used to it, i dont know the previous Gauss though.

[Scandinavian Jawbreaker]

I still can't use the damn weapon with the new mechanics I need to practice it... Even if it is painful.

[Kotzi]

I always listen to the sound might loose some minisecs but it lets me keep focus on the enemy.

[Thorn Hallis]

I like the current Gauss. The charge mechanic allows for final readjustments before the shot goes off, just like this ballistic weapon fire delay back in closed beta.

[Lightfoot]

I don't see how this charge mechanic is needed when I can load 2xAC5's and do 60% more damage at the same range or 2xUAC5's and do double the damage at the same range. The whole thing is a farce based on incessant whining from some forum users and not the actual gameplay data. And yes I combine PPCs and AC5's all the time and it's much better than the Gauss+PPCs were and are. Headshots, coring Light mechs even better than before.

So no the Gauss is too weak to require a charge mechanic, but it could be made usable if players were given 5 seconds to aim and fire. And that is only fairplay and leveling the field of play for all players. But the damage needs to be increased if they keep the charge mechanic, but that would definately not be balanced.

The only value the Gauss has is it only uses 1 hardpoint and 7 criticals, not the damage, which is lower than other similar weighted payloads. That extra shell velocity is mostly meaningless. By the way, the correct balance for the Battletech Gauss Rifle is it has a longer recharge than the AC20 class of weapons. That's all that was ever needed.

[AC]

JigglyMoobs, on 19 November 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

But...



Doesn't this mean the changes have successfully made Gauss into a sniper only weapon and created a niche for sniper mechs armed with two Gauss Rifles?

Blackadder, on 19 November 2013 - 04:18 PM, said:

Making the weapon not work well with any other weapon in the game is counter productive. while it was op in conjunction with energy weapons, like most other fixes all it does is encourage players to migrate to the next best thing, and really solves nothing long term.

PGI has stated that they want to encourage mixed weapons loadouts. The gauss mechanic does exactly the opposite. The only issue with gauss was gauss + ERPPC. They could have done something to address only that combination of weapons, but instead used the nerf stick (once again) to punish gauss in combination with ALL weapons.

[Asmudius Heng]

Just make the hold time a lot longer and remove the Gauss fragility (which was never a major nerf anyway)

I think the idea of the mechanic is fine and does what it is intended for, its just too heavy handed at the moment.

I have found a fair bit of gauss success now, i kinda wished it had longer range now though but thats not a major deal.

[Funkin Disher]

The charging mechanic is... awkward.

The gauss itself was (and is) powerful and effective, but that charging mechanic just rubs me the wrong way.

[Fooooo]

I only just tried out the gauss since its mechanic change a while back and..........

I don't see what everyones fuss is about ??


I pretty much prefer the way it is now tbh.

Its still easy as hell to hit with at range and up close. As a bonus if I cant get the shot I want I just dont let go of the trigger and save myself a shot of ammo (the guy just got behind a building etc)........

I cant do that with my ac's (once I press the button its gone, even tho its pretty much the same as releasing and its gone ) and I end up wasting a few shots here and there sometimes from trying to squeeze in a shot b4 they get behind something. (not a huge bonus but still a bonus... )

I agree maybe the sound for chargeup should be much louder, I can barely hear it but its not really hard to get the timings right. I had it down after 2 or 3 shots.........simple.

Its also easy to alpha with other things also........(left shift is my fire group 6 and the gauss is in group 6)

Press and hold leftshift, aim at target, press mouse1+2 and release leftshift........


Really imo, the weapon has barely changed. Maybe if the charge time was 4 or 5 seconds then ok we should look at some changes.......

.....actually now that I think about it, its still just as effective up close as it always was.....wasnt that one of the reasons for the charge mechanic ?

That and trying to desync with ppcs or something..........so yea ok maybe it does need some changes.....its needs a min range

Edited by Fooooo, 25 November 2013 - 12:47 AM.