Let me give you two words: Theory and Practice.
A C-ER LL does have an much longer effective engagement range of 900m for full damage vs the IS ER LL's 675m however most of the fighting in MWO takes place at less than 500m. That being the case, the range advantage of the C-ER LL in practice, is negated as a significant advantage under most conditions.
Second, we all know that the ability to concentrate maximum firepower on a specific target, usualy the CT, is the most effective way to kill an enemy mech. We also know that Lasers has a tendency to spread damage due to the pulse duration of lasers. We also know that the longer the pulse, the harder it is to keep the entire pulse on target. So lets look at that aspect in comparison.
The IS ER LL can do 9 damage in its one second pulse, where as the C-ER LL can only do 7.5 damage in that same 1 second duration. That is a 20% reduction in damage over 1 second when looking at the C-ER LL. The conclusion here is obvious, the IS ER LL is superior at concentrating damage.
Then let talk about how the pulse duration effects rate of fire. Obviously the the IS ER LL with the shorter pulse means that once you fire, the cool down starts a full half second faster than the C-ER LL. This means that the IS ER-LL can fire 3 times for every 2 times the C-ER LL fires. So then, the IS ER LL fires 3 times for a possible 27 damage. C-ER LL fires twice for a possible 22.5 damage. That is ANOTHER 20% reduction in damage compared to the IS ER LL.
So tell me again what advantage the Clan ER LL has of the IS version? Oh yeah, 225m greater range that it only get to take advantage of it is happens to be fighting on Alpine.
Now back to the original two words I mention, Theory and Practice.
Theory: Clan ER LLs have longer range and do greater damage.
Practice: Clan ER LLs cannot usually take advantage of their longer range and under practical combat conditions, actually do less concentrate and sustained damage as compared to IS ER LLs.
We can do this comparison with LRMs, ACs and many, if not the majority, of other Clan weapons. The only notable exceptions are the Clan ER ML and the Clan MG both of which are superior to their IS counterparts. However that is small compensation when everything else is at best equal and in most case inferior to IS weapons.
Honestly, my opinion is that PGI released the clans with ultra conservative numbers and many weapons need significant boosts to bring them up to par, most notably laser weapons and ACs.
Most Lasers need durations drasticaly reduced such as the Clan ER LL pulse being reduced to around 1.2 instead of 1.5 which is still 20% greater duration than IS. All Clan pulse lasers need a reduction down to about 0.8 or 0.9 (still significantly longer than IS version by 25-30%). The exception is the C-ER ML which should probably have its damage reduced by 1, but ONLY if all other suggesting in my post are implemented, otherwise the damage is needed to compensate for the other crappy weapons.
IS ACs probably need to be changed to burst fire like the Clan ones operate or perhaps the Clan Standard ACs need to fire a single slug.
Clan LRMs are significantly less effective than IS versions due to their ripple or stream fire effective, however we can leave them alone because the lighter weight of the Clan launchers means a Clan mech can, if they choose, typically bring more tubes to the party to make up for the missiles being less effective.
Edited by Viktor Drake, 03 July 2014 - 05:41 AM.
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bluepiglet, on 03 July 2014 - 05:08 AM, said:
