Trauglodyte, on 09 June 2014 - 11:44 AM, said:
I definitely understand that thought process. Where I struggle with it, though, is where people feel like taking an LRM40+ and use it as supression. I can supress with an LRM5 as well as I can with larger racks. Furthermore, I can surpress equally well, if not better, with PPCs. I don't buy into the whole "support" adjective associated with LRMs because they're as good in support as they are in direct damage dealing.
Well, it's not so much taking LRM40+ and use it as suppression. It's taking LRM40+, and having the
flexibility to use it as suppression, on top of everything else. Sometimes a situation call for massive focused damage dealing, others call for sustained dumbfire spread. Having -- and knowing! -- how to do both with the same weapon system is part of getting really good with it.
A 6xLRM5 build is admittedly better at suppression (a bit too good IMO), except for two details. One, it rely on the target being ignorant that it's a LRM5 rack; I have stepped up in the face of a LRM5 streamer to deliver damage to something else, simply because I know between my AMS and armour, I can take the damage for the short while I need. A LRM40+ packs both suppression and damage into the fire, which really, really makes people not want to step outside.
Two, at the end of the day a 6xLRM5 build is still at most a LRM30. While it is great at sustained fire, it simply doesn't have a good burst punch that a LRM50 can throw out at one go. Being able to seize a situation where there is a weakened red CT and eliminate an enemy mech in one launch is important, and I'm not sure a LRM30 can actually achieve that -- I get varied results. A LRM50 full deck launch is pretty much the nail in the coffin -- and does it fast.
And in my experience, direct fire weapons do not suppress as well as a LRM -- or more accurately, direct fire weapons don't suppress as efficiently as a LRM from a per-shot/ heat perspective, nor can it sustain the suppression as well. That's really because the suppression isn't from damage anyway, it's more from Betty and player psychology. Since direct fire weapons don't trigger Betty, they simply don't suppress as well.
A player who has no fear of LRMs and adequate cover along the route can break free of any form of pinning and advance into the enemy despite suppression fire, it's usually the players who are psychologically conditioned to seek cover the minute the missile warning sounds that are vulnerable to pinning, whether it's from a LRM1 or a LRM100. Having a LRM40+ doing the suppression is just giving more bite to any hits you can get in.
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