McHarg, on 22 September 2014 - 11:35 AM, said:
In a game like this a big part of the skill starts in the mech lab. It's common sense to put together and use the best possible builds available. More people should do this instead of running around in weak mechs with weak loadouts then whining about FoM, or poptarting, or laser boating.
You're half right.
My "weak" commando, has mopped the floor with the top of the line jenners, firestarters, and ravens (even back when ravens dominated and had awesome leg hitboxes). Not to mention a few mediums as well.
You're basically saying "play the FoM mechs" I see that as bad piloting. Those currently OP mechs will not teach you to be a better pilot. No, they'll help mitigate your mistakes, mistakes you're oblivious to.
It's a big part of the reason why I always recommend the HBK-4SP as the starting mech for new players. Everyone talks about the SHD, but if you want to train an actually good pilot, you don't put them in the SHD, you put them in the Hunchback, where they don't have JJs, and don't have balanced hitboxes, or hard to hit hunches.
Your methodology ends up with okay pilots that will be awful pilots when put in "bad" mechs, instead of good pilots that can perform very well in those bad mechs, and be excellent in the good ones.
Especially considering all those FoM mechs can become suck-tacular over-night. Remember the Highlander. I remember seeing Xie Belvoule wipe out 7 mechs (back when it was 8v8) by himself with a Gauss+2PPC HGN poptart. The guy was a devastating pilot in any mech you put him in. The HGN was the best mech of the time. One round of nerfs to it's JJs, and now you never see one on the field. Those pilots, especially the mediocre ones that deceived themselves, and were deceived by their mech's performance, ended up struggling (some even quit altogether), trying to get back into the game. Because they weren't good. Their mech was, and when the mech was nerfed, they ended up in a higher skill bracket than where they should be, and just kept getting pummeled.
Getting actual experience in a mech, hundreds of matches, can teach you how to pilot that mech to the point where you match, if not out-perform the top of the line mechs. That's why I'm never worried when I'm in Commando. On the other hand, I still can't comfortably replicate those results in my FS9s.