89 replies to this topic

[GreyGriffin]

Is it just me or is the MLas pretty... worthless? By the time you get in range you're being hammered by rapid AC's, if you stack them up their heat rapidly jumps off the chart as if you fire in conjunction with your other weapons, and they seem to take forever to put anything down.

Shouldn't the most common of all weapons be at least marginally effective above Lights?

Edited by Egomane, 28 April 2014 - 01:03 AM.

[Deathlike]

Say what?

All I can say is... you're doing it wrong if you're not having success shooting lights with medium lasers. Sure, the damage will scatter, but the weapon breeds a lot of patience.

TL;DR, you're doing it wrong.

[Kilo 40]

it's just you

[GreyGriffin]

Deathlike, on 27 April 2014 - 10:33 PM, said:

Say what?

All I can say is... you're doing it wrong if you're not having success shooting lights with medium lasers. Sure, the damage will scatter, but the weapon breeds a lot of patience.

TL;DR, you're doing it wrong.

I think you misread. I can hit Lights just fine (well, just as well as I can hit any other 'mech), but when the battle comes to grips in a brawl, heavy on heavy or even heavy on medium, all the MLas seems to do is spike my heat, not kill the other guy. I run a Jester with 4 ML's and 2 ERLL's, A C1 with LRM's, 3 ML's and a TAG, and plenty of other 'mechs with 1-4, and it feels like I am firing confetti at the other guy.

[Kilo 40]

GreyGriffin, on 27 April 2014 - 10:38 PM, said:

all the MLas seems to do is spike my heat, not kill the other guy.

They do kill the other guy...over time. just like every other weapon in the game.

[Troutmonkey]

IMHO Medium lasers are one of the best weapon in the game, and I regularly boat them (4+) on most of my mechs.
My Stalker runs 6xMLas and wrecks face, the trick is getting close and bringing enough heat sinks.

[Lobot]

Yes, they generate alot of heat. You will need alot of heatsinks when using them on heavies. On lights and mediums they are the main damage dealer. You have the speed to disengage for cool down if you don't have the heatsinks.

[Flaming oblivion]

Medium laser are only 1 tonne and cheap and not to awful damage wise, There just way out classed by the meta builds that almost everyone's rolling, They'll kill you 6 times over before you kill them (balance) , ML's aren't a serious weapon in the current game as things stand, Just a low tonne back up for your range weapons if you let them get to close / need a bit of extra whack.

[Mycrus]

It's just you.

[McQueen]

Medium lasers are the most common weapon in the game for a reason. their cheap in weight, slots, and heat generated. They make good backup weapons for heavys and assaults and boating weapons for mediums and lights. If they didn't work people wouldn't use them. But I still see lots of green beams in the matches I play.

[Pygar]

GreyGriffin, on 27 April 2014 - 10:28 PM, said:

Is it just me or is the MLas pretty... worthless? By the time you get in range you're being hammered by rapid AC's, if you stack them up their heat rapidly jumps off the chart as if you fire in conjunction with your other weapons, and they seem to take forever to put anything down.

Shouldn't the most common of all weapons be at least marginally effective above Lights?

Medium laser is one of the best damage per tonnage weapons there is. For what it lacks in capability, you just need to remember, it only weighs one ton.

[Aresye]

4 medium lasers pack the same amount of damage as an AC-20, so an 8 medium laser build is essentially a dual AC-20 build, although with no lead, considerably less weight (more heat sinks), no ammo requirements, and longer range.

The only reason you don't see as many medium laser boats as you see AC-40 builds is because the damage often gets scattered, but if you develop a good aim with them, they can really, really hurt.

[Hans Von Lohman]

medium lasers are the most common weapon in the game, just behind foul language.

[Flaming oblivion]

Aresye, on 27 April 2014 - 11:18 PM, said:

4 medium lasers pack the same amount of damage as an AC-20, so an 8 medium laser build is essentially a dual AC-20 build, although with no lead, considerably less weight (more heat sinks), no ammo requirements, and longer range.

The only reason you don't see as many medium laser boats as you see AC-40 builds is because the damage often gets scattered, but if you develop a good aim with them, they can really, really hurt.

Would be true but as far as I understand it due to pin point damage 2 ac 20s would kill u llong before 8 ML's, I could be wrong though.

[Karl Streiger]

A single Medium Laser IS worthless...like almost every weapon in this game...
What makes him to powerful is the damage you can deal with >4 MLAS.

They are the main weapons for my BattleMasters or my TDR-5S - you got the hell of firepower by stacking this weapon system.
But on the other hand - the head MLAS on my Wolverines is a waste of heat and tonnage - i replaced it with a TAG

[Deathlike]

GreyGriffin, on 27 April 2014 - 10:38 PM, said:

I think you misread. I can hit Lights just fine (well, just as well as I can hit any other 'mech), but when the battle comes to grips in a brawl, heavy on heavy or even heavy on medium, all the MLas seems to do is spike my heat, not kill the other guy. I run a Jester with 4 ML's and 2 ERLL's, A C1 with LRM's, 3 ML's and a TAG, and plenty of other 'mechs with 1-4, and it feels like I am firing confetti at the other guy.

I ran a 1 ERPPC+5 med Thunderbolt-9S when grinding that mech out. Believe me when I say... you need to pick your fights better. You can't just be expecting stuff to "just work magically" w/o putting together a decent plan of attack/engagement.

Hell, I ran the Thunderbolt-5SS like a mini-Awesome (2PPC+5meds). It was the best k-d mech of all the Thunderbolts that I had grinded out. Even though most of the sniping requires the PPCs, but the real part of the effectiveness came from using the medium lasers effectively. Sad thing is that it does put the Awesome-8Q to shame...

So yes, it's pretty much a L2P issue.

[Demuder]

GreyGriffin, on 27 April 2014 - 10:28 PM, said:

Is it just me or is the MLas pretty... worthless? By the time you get in range you're being hammered by rapid AC's, if you stack them up their heat rapidly jumps off the chart as if you fire in conjunction with your other weapons, and they seem to take forever to put anything down.

Shouldn't the most common of all weapons be at least marginally effective above Lights?

Medium lasers are certainly worth more than their weight in gold. 4 of them carry the same punch with an AC/20 for a lot less weight.

I think you believe them to be subpar, because they work in a totally different way than ballistics at that range. WIth an AC/20 you can "snapshot" for full damage on a location, the only caveat being that you must hit the target. But with lasers, both you and your target must be effectively still for the duration of the beam, which rarely happens. Thus the damage is spread all over, and it looks as if it had no effect. Maybe an extremely skilled pilot can track the same location through both mechs' movement, however that is pretty rare, if possible at all.

[Impyrium]

Naw, ML are really good for their role. Stack them together, you have quite significant damage output. In pairs or even quads they are still quite effective weapons, though obviously by themselves they're not entirely useful (unless you're running a light).

My Hunchie 4G is the stock build, it provides a welcome damage boost when I'm slicing away at my enemies. It compliments the AC20 nicely.

[Kissamies]

Boring, but practical. I tend to go for more flashy weapons systems and leave mlas as single backups and that's probably why my kdr is so abysmal. I don't care if I die as long as I look cool doing it. Recently I have begun to discover the joy of massed medium lasers in some builds, though.

[Mycrus]

It's also the go to weapon for higher pings when you are looking for the red reticule