Victor Morson, on 10 November 2013 - 06:01 AM, said:
The current meta is AC/5s + PPC, which can hardly qualify as "boating." There are no extremely viable builds for the Jester at present time. There are literally several 'mechs that are more effective per-ton at the energy role. Much of this has to do with the ridiculous 2 cap on Large Lasers; it just can't carry enough firepower to compete.
If the Ghost Heat Large Laser limit got buffed to 4 tonight, the Jester would upgrade to.. one of the alright heroes. Not one of the great ones. That's because the only config you could effectively run on it (4 large lasers) you can also jam 'mechs in the weight range, like the recommended Quickdraw, and get better results.
The second you suggest a 65 ton 'mech with 6 MPLs, a weapon known for being lackluster in all but the smallest of quantities, says precisely how much you know about game mechanics yourself man. I'm sorry but that's an awful loadout.
Keep in mind that Jaggermechs in that range are sporting twin AC/20s, missiles, etc. Even the Firebrand proves to be a far, far superior hero to the Jester due to high mounted arms and the ability to carry typical ballistic loadouts.
I've got to be blunt here, everything you said has absolutely zero tactical merit right down to the fact the Catapult's problems is the arm/head hitboxes, not the CT hitbox.
As for 2 ER Large, 4 meds? You can get one laser shy of that on a 50 tonner without heat problems. In fact, you could probably run that on a Blackjack effectively. And it's not even very good on them. Running it on a 65 tonner is silly and if you really wanted to, I believe there's several superior options for it.
Just remember: For 5 more tons you could be in a Cataphract with three times the firepower. For 5 tons less you could be in an equally speedy 'mech with also superior firepower.
EDIT: I am serious though, 1 ballistic slot on this thing = would 180 it and fix the design entirely.
1: If you think that's the current meta, maybe you should rank up your ELO a bit because I can tell you that in the higher level matches, literally every weapon gets used--even LRMs--which is actually most surprising as everyone at that point knows how to avoid them.
2: Literally all those builds are viable. I know because I've used them and done plenty well with them.
3: You can run a 3-4 large laser build just fine, you just can't alpha with them, which is also fine because your dps is through the roof.
4: Is the quickdraw better at 3? Probably. Does it get impunity to missiles in an open field brawl like the jester does? No. Does the quickdraw transfer that impunity to every mech within 90m or while positioning itself proximal to, or in the path of missile boats? No.
5: Mpulses lackluster? They're one of the most effective weapons in the game, especially with the current state of the HSR. I even wrote a whole post about them and srms where I experimented and the results show them to currently be one of the best weapon choices you can make.
6: You're just talking out of your butt now because I pilot mediums almost exclusively and I can tell you they are definitely not stable running that many lasers(at least without making serious sacrifices to speed), especially the BJ. That being said, the energy variant of the BJ tears **** up with 6 Mpulse's if you know how to in and out brawl--and the jester is even better than it.
7: Cataphracts have more applied firepower potential than most everything in the game so that's not really a valid point. Further, they don't get dual ams making their brawling more risky, have low slung weapons which make them ****** hill peakers(except for ppc builds in the torso mounts), more prone to getting side torsi blown off making them worse at running builds that require an XL engine, tend to turn more slowly, and have a harder time applying the vast majority of their damage potential (mostly ballistic) against lights and fast mediums. In addition, due to their loadouts they are more prone to being popped early as even if you only store ammo in your legs, when the ammo explodes it's going into the similar sided torso, which can easily crit the XL engine the majority of these high damage cata's you're espousing will be running in order to carry that higher damage.
8: 0 Tactical merit? Good luck headshotting a catapult while it's circle strafing you or sniping while jumpjetting. You make me laugh.
9: Jeagermechs, in my experience, are much easier to kill than catapults, especially the ones that try to brawl. AC/40's especially. All you have to do for those is munch one, and then pop off one of their side torsos in that time. If you can't, JJ and they'll hit something other than what they hit the first time at near best, and then you land and focus that same spot while their HUGE duration between shots takes place. The only time those become even remotely dangerous is when you are brawling with other mechs and then suddenly start eating that much damage, or at the end of the round where even a duck farting in your general direction can pop you. As a result, most intelligent people just primary jeagers and then go back to business as usual, or put themselves in a position where range will make an ac/20 shot tickle at worst. Which, for all you people that like to shoot AC/20's past 500--don't. When you hit me you do literally 2-3 damage (if that), which at 7 rounds a ton is a waste.