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The protruding CT, in combination with the somewhat small ST's and large Arms were making the mech special, and, if you learn how to use the mech, could give you huge advantages.
First, damage distribution and preservation of firepower. Which is somewhat ironic, since the reason for the change were complaints about dying by loosing the CT. To avoid this, you just had to move a bit. In many other mechs, you might loose the ST's first, before even getting to much damage to the CT, which actually is a disadvantage. With the Orion, I lost multiple times all armor, with only small ammounts sometimes remaining at an arm, leg, or rear torso - but not loosing a single component! This alone should be a hint, why the pre-patch Orion was a great machine. Because i actually still had most of my weapons and equipment at the end of the round, even after engaging multiple times in close combat, and survived most fights just by moving a bit. The ST's might not be vulnerable, but actually great for damage distrubution, when the arms are relatively easy to hit. I don't know how so many people just overlook that fact.
Second, XL-Engines. And that is (or was) the other thing making the Orion special. It's the biggest Mech, which is able to effectively use XL-Engines. I wrote above, how easy it is to distribute damage, if you keep moving. That's perfect for using XL's. A common mistake of less experienced players is to assume, an easily hit CT is the best hint to choose an XL. And wrong at the same time. Because a big CT makes you easy to hit - this is why dragons are dying so fast. You want a mech, which is perfect at distributing damage, using every part of armor you can get, before dying by getting a torso killed.
Even more, the place in the engine weight/speed-formula makes the mech predominant contender for a fast, heavy mech using an XL. You have a large ammount of free tonnage, get even more advantage from XL, and even the internal dhs-ammount is in a perfect place, with 12 (XL300) and 14 (XL350), while still reaching a good speed without real tradeoffs (75 at XL350, 83 with Tweak). And i didnt even mention the great weapon-hardpoints, which compliments the Orion as an XL-Mech even more.
With my Orion-VA, i ran XL350, 2xLL and 4xASRM6. And although i thought of it as a joke-mech, i got in almost every match - even in defeats - more than 400dmg, usually above 600, and sometimes up to 1000+. My best Mech, I had enough mobility to use cover, and enough armor and weaponry to engage assaults. Most of all, it was an incredible fun config. Now that things just dies by loosing an ST.
My other XL-Orion is an K-Variant, running an XL300, and Gauß, 2PPC, 2LL. A whole bunch of weapons not seeming to compliment each other while steadily melting the mech. Againt, it was more made of humor than everythings else, i even started on the hot crystal-desert map. And got almost 700dmg on my first try, hardly even knowing what to do. As i accidently found out, it's the best mech to hunt support mechs like Jägermech's, or go for enemie weakpoints. Now People don't even miss the ST's at long range.
First, thank you for reading that wall of text. Please excuse grammatical mistakes, since english isn't my first language
PGI, even if it's probably not going to be undone, please just revert it. Although i wasnt sure about the Mech at the beginning, this Mech was one of the most fun elements in the game. Before i tried it, i unfairly thought of it as an incredible generic mech, an smaller atlas without noteworthy advantages. And now it's actually quite a bit more in that direction. The Orion surely isn't the easiest mech, but until now, it was one of the most rewarding one's to me. I could actually control to some degree which part of my mech was getting hit. Now it's just a case of the enemy fire usually just hitting everything, without much abillity to use any skill you might have aquired before. If that's not a step back, what else is it?
Edited by Averen, 24 November 2013 - 05:06 AM.
) still one of my fav mechs
