Almond Brown, on 04 March 2014 - 09:27 AM, said:
So you wish your LRM5 to do a guaranteed 5 points if all you have to do is get lock on any target after 1-3 seconds and then pull the trigger? Guess what, even your AC5 (super OP Ballistic) doesn't guarantee you 5 points every pull.
Unless you wish to expose yourself, LRM's are effectively a "tag team" weapons system. Pardon the pun. We have all seem LRMAgeddon. Not many wish to see it again. Missiles work great by those who "understand" how best to use them. Make them to Newb friendly and everyone will once again suffer there wrath.
This is a perfect case of "be very careful of what you wish for".
Well... your opening paragraph started directly with pushing arguments onto me for which I did not make. Please try to understand that not everyone is wielding a sledgehammer in this debate one way or the other.
My point is that the LRM only fills two roles/needs as of right now in the game. 1) Indirect fire. It's the only weapon that can do this. 2) To fill missile hard points on a chassis for long range combat.
To start with point 2, I don't believe that any weapon should have it's worth weighed by it's ability to fill a hard point class. My opinion is that it is a sloppy and lazy means of building your weapon/balance structure for a game.
To point 1, indirect fire; yes, here it does serve a roll. I would argue that the investment of tonnage into the mech (or most likely, mechs) to pull off this indirect fire is simply not worth the risks on the whole. Yes, there are cases where someone got wrecked by indirect LRM fire. But, my experience to date is that this is an edge case. Most teams that I know of, those that group together in 4 or 12 mans, tend to avoid the overly complex, high risk tactics needed to utilize it as anything more than opportunity fire. If you get it going, great... but better have a Plan A to use first. In PUGs, it's a complete die roll as to if you can pull it off.
As a decent light pilot, I'll say that trying to TAG an enemy mech and then hold that TAG long enough for the missiles to track in is asking for a quick death. I've tried it. I've pulled it off. But, again, high risk, very low return. If you have had better luck standing relatively still for 3 to 10 seconds in your Spider in-game... well, good for you.
I have no issue of making LRMs a high-risk / high-reward weapon system. I don't want everything to be flat and equal. But as it stands now, if most of the veteran players are being honest with themselves, they will say that the LRMs as they stand now are high-risk, low returns. Especially for all the equipment, ammo, modules and teamwork you have to invest to get that low return. Oh, and before assumptions are made, I've used LRMs, I still try them out from time to time in single and boat form. I can work them. But I am not a LRM guru or anything. I don't pine for the 2 days following Artemis implementation in CB. They just are not my play style. I would, however, like to see them find a better place in the current game.
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