Ultimatum X, on 22 July 2014 - 10:41 AM, said:
It's a combination of little things that add up to a lot.
Clan XL
Clan ER MLAS
Clan ultra lightweight missle launchers (this is huge)
Excellent hard point locations (torso mounts are perfect for sniping)
can do energy build with 20 or more DHS
Clan XL - 10% advantage since most most IS mech kills come from a CT kill. Also don't often lose my side Torsos on the Stormcrow.
Clan ER-ML - Great range advantage but 30% greater burn time, hotter and slower re-fire again thanks to that 30% great burn time. Advantage at range but disadvantage under 300m.
Clan Ultralight Weight launchers - you still only get 3 missile hard points unless you devote the arms to missiles. Fixed crits i the Stormcrow also have more limitations on build than IS mechs.
Excellent Hardpoint location - All the hardpoints except the torso launched missiles are located very low in the torso. Not excellent for sniping because by peeking over things, you expose 50% of your mech to enemy fire, before you can even see over the hill or whatever.
Can do an energy build with 20 or more DHS - Again typically hotter weapons. IS Standard LL, ML and PPC are much cooler than Clan ER versions offsetting any difference in DHS amount. Clan gain range advantage but once IS weapons reach effective range, they are typically superior with faster re-firing rates, shorter burn times, etc.
So that gives the Stormcrow two non-situational advantages. Laser range and less vulnerability to death by XL. These are definitely advantages but when you consider I was comparing the Stormcrow to two of what people consider the worst IS designs, well yeah obviously the Stormcrow is better. However what I found ironic is that when you really analyze things down, they just aren't that much better than the QD and KTO.
Honestly I think alot of it is simply people think they are better so they end up being better. I mean if you go into a match with the mindset your piloting a gimped mech that is designed to fail like most people do with the KTO or QD (I never thought that way and the QD was a top performer for me, breaking a 2.0 K/D rate), chances are your going to do poorly. However with the Stormcrow, the mindset it is Clan tech and OPed (whether it is or not) and all that comes to the fore, so you just know its going to do great when you enter into a match.
Confidence, after all, makes a huge amount of difference in how well you play so I think some of their performance (and other clan mechs) come straight from the human psychology perspective.
Edited by Viktor Drake, 22 July 2014 - 11:25 AM.