Whatzituyah, on 23 November 2013 - 12:11 PM, said:
I have been using energy weapons for a long time and as long as you have double heatsinks and stand still in a safe place to not get shot to cooldown aswell as take some fireing dissipline you will be fine. Turns out standing still actually makes the heat dissapate faster you know why?
No, it doesn't. Moving generates an amount of heat equivalent to the speed your mech is capable of moving.
Standing still doesn't make you dissipate heat faster, it makes you generate less heat.
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ER PPCS and PPCS are the ones needing a buff in reality of balance everything elses seems fine with some fireing dissipline.
This view is very dependant on playstyle and mech size and is not a "universal truth".
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I hope you learned something from me.
No, I didn't because this isn;t anything that's not been covered quite a lot. The simple fact is that AC mechs are far better at sustained firepower than Laser mechs. Why? Well, it costs you 12 tons for an AC 10 giving you 4 DPS.
It costs you 10 tons for 2 Large Lasers giving you a DPS of 4.24.
Both have an optimal range of 450m.
Medium lasers are still dealing damage at 450m so you can add a little more damage if you like. OR you can just add 2 medium lasers for them to be there. Then you trade out one large laser for an ER Large laser.
You now have one weapon firing at long range and fired solo so it's no heat issue allowing you to at least throw something back at the AC 10. You then get into the midrange and now fire the ER Large and the Large laser to get a DPS advantage.
Then you get into short range and you fire the Large LAser and the 2 Medium Lasers.
Long range: You potentially lose to the AC in DPS but a miss isn't a miss, you can drag the laser onto the target for partial damage.
Optimal range: You now have a higher DPS than the AC 10.
Short range: Medium Lasers have a DPS of 1.25 (x2 = 2.5). You fire 1 large laser and 2 medium lasers for 4.62 DPS (again you win) which the same heat as the ER Large BUT offers a higher DPS. You ALSO have the option of burst firing at 6.74 DPS.
The AC 10 is just 4 DPS no matter what.
The problem? The AC10 takes ONE hardpoint where the Laser setup takes 4.
This is why lasers are USUALLY backed by either missile or ballistic weapons except on rare mechs. These rare all-energy mechs are actually the only real issue.
The game simply doesn't allow all-energy wepaon mechs to be competitive above Mediums outside of a very narrow range of gameplay. You CANNOT build an all-energy weapon mech that will go toe to toe with a ballistic-heavy mech of the same size. The space and hardpoints required simply force you into inadequate or under-cooled setups that only work in the most narrowest of circumstances.
The ideal is that you avoid 100% Energy Weapon mechs completely unless you have a very compelling reason not to. They aren't for everyone and I doubt they ever will be again. If you want to go toe to toe with an AC mech? Take an AC mech. It's kind of that simple (though more experienced players will push the boundaries of that statement significantly).
That being said? Energy weapons aren't that bad. They only look bad when in isolation. When considered as
part of a viable setup? There's many mechs making very good use of them.
Edited by Greyboots, 23 November 2013 - 06:25 PM.