9 replies to this topic

[Urdasein]

If i take my long range stalker -> i'm put in a fast medium/light team that leave me far behid (and let me die with a spider in my ***)

If i take any short range assault -> alpine peaks of course. The trek simulator.

If i take some laser boat -> terra therma, what else ?

If i take my light -> river city, the small map where top speed isn't that usefull.

If i take my dakka -> forest colony or frozen city. Two Maps with fog and plenty of cover...

...

and so on

I would really appreciate if we could choose our mech before landing...

- Sir i have a mission for you and your mech. Briefing time !
...
...
...
...
- Errr. Yup ? So what about that mission ?
- Nothing
- Mmmkay, so where is it ?
- Dunno
- My team will try to outspeed or outweight the ennemy ?
- Dunno
- Mkay, so i will go now
- Good luck sir.

[Biglead]

Balanced...Loadout?

[lshtaria]

^

I try and build my mechs as balanced as possible because MWO is like a box of chocolates, you never know what... yeah.

My most balanced of my balanced mechs at the top of the balancing balancifier is my SHD-2H(P).

• 2.83 k/d
  
• 518 avg dmg per match
  
• 73 matches played

Specialising, boating and min/max gameplay really needs to die in the fires of Terra Therma.

Edited by Kyocera, 25 November 2013 - 07:23 PM.

[Alistair Winter]

The answer to the OP isn't "balanced loadout". It's "clever boating". Don't boat SRMs or AC20s, boat AC2s, AC5s and UAC5s. Or get a combination of LLs and AC5s, or PPCs and AC10s.

The current meta favours medium / long range weapons that are effective at close range too. Bringing weapons that are effective at different ranges means you're wasting tonnage. SRMs are a waste at long range, LRMs are a waste at short range. How many Highlanders carry a combination of ballistics, missiles and energy weapons? Quite few.

[Joseph Mallan]

Alistair Winter, on 25 November 2013 - 07:34 PM, said:

The answer to the OP isn't "balanced loadout". It's "clever boating". Don't boat SRMs or AC20s, boat AC2s, AC5s and UAC5s. Or get a combination of LLs and AC5s, or PPCs and AC10s.

The current meta favours medium / long range weapons that are effective at close range too. Bringing weapons that are effective at different ranges means you're wasting tonnage. SRMs are a waste at long range, LRMs are a waste at short range. How many Highlanders carry a combination of ballistics, missiles and energy weapons? Quite few.

That isn't just Meta Alistair, it's just plain smart. And we don't have to boat weapons to have an effective build using this style. My (F)Atlas has:
2 AC5
1 Large
2 Medium
2 SRM6

I have not given up on SRMs yet.

[Biglead]

Alistair Winter, on 25 November 2013 - 07:34 PM, said:

Or get a combination of LLs and AC5s, or PPCs and AC10s.

You're right. That's completely not a balanced loadout...

[Roadbeer]

Alistair Winter, on 25 November 2013 - 07:34 PM, said:

The current meta favours medium / long range weapons that are effective at close range too. Bringing weapons that are effective at different ranges means you're wasting tonnage. SRMs are a waste at long range, LRMs are a waste at short range. How many Highlanders carry a combination of ballistics, missiles and energy weapons? Quite few.

Awesome, the Meta has caught up to how I've been playing all along.

Balanced builds.

[Bront]

A variety of maps that encourage a variety of playstyles means that not every playstyle will work on every map. Trying to be too specialized will get you into trouble.

On a side note, speed is always useful. Lights on River City can use terrain better than other mechs due to size and speed, and when PUGging, faster mechs are more useful in general (Ie, don't build the 30 KPH Atlas for PUGing)

[Alistair Winter]

Joseph Mallan, on 26 November 2013 - 06:19 AM, said:

That isn't just Meta Alistair, it's just plain smart.

Well, the Meta is usually smart. It was smart to boat PPCs when they ran cooler and didn't do 0 damage below 90 meters. It was smart to boat Streaks when they did 2.5 dmg per missile and shook your cockpit like an AC20. So yeah, it is smart. I would prefer if the gameplay balance worked in a way where it wasn't so smart.

Joseph Mallan, on 26 November 2013 - 06:19 AM, said:

And we don't have to boat weapons to have an effective build using this style. My (F)Atlas has:
2 AC5
1 Large
2 Medium
2 SRM6
I have not given up on SRMs yet.

Yeah, the Atlas builds I see are usually pretty balanced, in the sense that they use different weapons with different characteristics. But it's less common to see that for other Assault mechs. Lord knows, I don't have any room for SRMs or LRMs on my Victors either.

Biglead, on 26 November 2013 - 09:17 AM, said:

You're right. That's completely not a balanced loadout...

I honestly don't know what you're saying here. Potential sarcasm overload. But yeah, you could say that the PPC / AC10 combo is balanced. It's balanced in the same sense that PPC + Gauss used to be balanced, or the same sense that LL boating used to be balanced. It's balanced in the sense that it's effective at any range, so it's not a one trick pony like the AC40 Jager. But I wouldn't say this is an indication of healthy gameplay.

Roadbeer, on 26 November 2013 - 09:21 AM, said:

Awesome, the Meta has caught up to how I've been playing all along.
Balanced builds.

Well, apart from the whole Splatcat, Jagerbomb fiasco, the Meta is usually quite balanced, as I mentioned above.

[Trauglodyte]

Joseph Mallan, on 26 November 2013 - 06:19 AM, said:

That isn't just Meta Alistair, it's just plain smart. And we don't have to boat weapons to have an effective build using this style. My (F)Atlas has:
2 AC5
1 Large
2 Medium
2 SRM6

I have not given up on SRMs yet.

The thing is, though, that the "medium" range isn't 270m. Its more like 400+. Because this game is so heavily tilted towards big bangs, the light weapons intended for what we consider medium range are now being replaced in favor of Large Lasers. So, the actual short ranged weapons are being discarded because the users don't want to get that close in favor of sniping and jump sniping. LRMs aren't used cause it goes against the concept of staying hidden until you hump/jump the ridge. And medium damage ACs (read, NOT AC2s) are used in conjunction with PPCs due to projectile speed as well as fast fire for situations where you can exploit a pilot error.