Green Mamba, on 03 April 2014 - 08:29 AM, said:
Aiming, adjusting for speed of target,distance of target and whether target is moving on a slant ,allowing for drops or hills of terrain to get a hit is easier right than just pressing "R" and waiting for target to lock with follow through once lock is achieved Right?
Sure.. nothing like
1) needing a spotter to target for you in the first place. Try getting people to regularly target,
2) praying that people can actually hold a target so your LRMs actually hit something. You do not need a target lock to shoot direct fire weapons and the lock itself takes a couple of seconds to achieve,
3) people diving into cover just like they do against direct fire weapons,
4) 1 ECM mech shutting down your entire weapon system,
5) having to get into direct LOS quite a lot because of the previously mention lack of target locks and ECM. Only alternative is to expose yourself to use TAG (with its limited range) and get cored from all the ACs, PPCs and LL. I direct fire quite a lot which is ironic since so many people complain about LRM mechs not doing that.
6) despite the "long" range, LRMS are best used at 400-600 m because of flight time and the arc. Most direct fire weapons can hit you multiple times before your LRMs arrive,
7) AMS has a longer range now and is better at shooting down LRMs. Wise players are taking AMS systems now which is a good thing overall but a relatively close group of mechs can cover each other pretty well,
8) Every mech in the game gets an immediate warning that LRMs have been fired. If you are in a moderately fast mech you can look up and see the inbound missiles and twist to limit damage or simply dodge them. Frankly only AMS equipped mechs should get a warning.
Want me to go on? I find that at least 50% of my LRMs go to waste in a match because of broken locks, cover, having to move and so forth. ECM is the worst because I can't do anything pretty much the entire match. That is boring as heck. The LRM boost and making NARC useful really boosted role warfare because a lot more mechs ran TAG and NARC. People who like playing the role of scout and spotter actually got something to do.
The idea that running an LRM mech is simply easy mode is laughable. Just sitting back and firing is far less effective than people think. A good LRM pilot manuvers to best help the team and has to get in close to be really effective. That makes you more vulnerable to light mechs and brawlers, again contrary to popular belief.