The Highlander is so incredibly good that any time you can fit one into a competitive drop you do. There is a grand total of 0 quality competitive teams who wouldn't take a Highlander if they could. Highlanders crush lights 1v1 due to JJ turn rate, they crush heavies, other assaults, and mediums 1v1. They have literally no weaknesses whatsoever. They have high-mounted energy points, and quality hitboxes. They can use max engine and go fast enough, and JJs of course.
My suggestion is to lower
all assault Highlander turn rates drastically. Lower the turn rates by 30% or more. This will allow HGNs to do most of the things they typically do, but they won't be able to be one-size-fits-all solutions to every single game regardless of situation. If a medium mech for example can get within brawling range, the Highlander should be in trouble keeping up instead of making the medium the next notch on the bedpost in about 5 seconds regardless of how well the Medium plays it.
The big question: Why do we spend our time in gameplay balance complaining about Spiders (which are bad, rarely competitively used and even more rarely competitively successful mechs, EVEN CONSIDERING THE SO-CALLED HIT DETECTION PROBLEMS), when there is universal agreement that Highlanders are the best mech in this game at almost everything? I think the reason is that everyone is fine with riding this gravy train, so they are keeping quiet.
EDIT: Agreed with the suggestion below, and edited my post.
Roland, on 19 October 2013 - 08:56 AM, said:
I tend to agree with your assessment of the highlander being stronger than most other assaults, but nerfing all of the assaults would still leave it at the top of the pile.
Perhaps focus attention on the highlander specifically rather than assaults in general.
Edited by PEEFsmash, 19 October 2013 - 09:11 AM.