Roland, on 24 July 2014 - 05:37 PM, said:
Folks who seem to think that the range of ppcs and Gauss don't matter because every fight happens at close range must not have been playing this game for the past two years.
Regardless, I think some of you are so fearful of them dwolf getting nerfed that you are taking up ridiculous positions, like presenting an lbx atlas build as though it were good.
I mean, there are other assault builds that could perhaps be presented as better than the dwolf giant alpha build.. But an lbx atlas is not one of them.
And some of you are flailing around so much to try and protect your shinies that you can't even acknowledge the obvious truth that being able to nail something with two ppcs and two Gauss is incredibly powerful... And trying to pretend like it's not make you look silly.
Frankly, most dwolves on the field are garbage.. Partially because most of them are mounting terrible builds, but mostly because the vast majority of them are piloted by some of the worst pilots in the game. They are easy to kill because those go is have no idea how to actually leverage what the dwolf does well.. They don't know basic assault maneuvering skills, and their Sim is garbage. In the hands of those guys, basically no mech is dangerous, an a dwolf is actually less dangerous than average.
But when piloted by a good pilot, the dwolf is a beast.. Just because anything that can drop 50 damage on a single location from across the map is a beast, if you can aim.
Not necessarily overpowered, but you doing silly when you try to flail around and act like it's not even that good. It's like Victor Drake when he says clan xl engines aren't even that Good, because no one gets shot in the side torsos.
Coming in late to this debate but I am sorry, range can almost always be negated with good piloting and a little patience. the only map I ever have difficulty negating a range advantage is on Alpine and even then, if your patient, the fight will almost always degenerate to under 500m. I know this because many of my best builds/mechs are built to fight in the 200-500m range and have learned through alot of trial and error, how to go about insuring my mechs get into this range with the least amount of damage.
Also, 90% of long ranged combat takes place between combatants that want to take place in long range combat. Most of those targets your firing at beyond 600m are targets only because they are also equipped to engage and do max damage at beyond 600m. Basically they only exist as targets BECAUSE they are trying to target you. On the other side, those who do not want to engage at those ranges will do everything in their power to avoid making themselves a target at those ranges, even if it means they have to take the scenic route. The only ones who don't do this are those player that are unskilled and/or no grasp of tactics.
To finish this, let me give you an example of how I deal with Alpine while piloting my Stormcrow, only armed with C-ER MLs and SRMs.
First I follow everyone else up to the top of that damn mountain, however I do not peek over and every try to engage enemy targets down at the bottom of the ramp. Instead, I position myself well behind the reverse slope and way to the left or right of the ramp. Then I wait. After a few minutes, of letting those with long range weapons engage each other, I slowly work my self forward along the covering peaks on each side of the ramp. Almost inevitably by this time, some of the enemy team has gotten impatient and is trying to force their way up the edges of the ramp. Also inevitably they are almost always focused on those long range mechs that are playing peek-a-boo over the center of the ramp which means I can tear into them without reprisal. Then if/when they notice me, I fall back down the reverse slope.
At this point one of two things happen. One, they force their way up the ramp and attempt to gain a foothold on the top or two, they take too much damage and fall back into cover around the edges of the ramp. In for former case, when they crest the top of the ramp, they are all within 200-400m of me and ripe for the picking. In the latter case, they are suppressed which allows me to edge around the corner of the ramp and again engage them at ranges of less than 300m. If they manage to flank around the top edge, that is fine too. I just drop down to the bottom and hug the inside of the crescent between the complex buildings and the ridge line and again catch them at ranges of 200-400m
The key here is at no time did I ever once expose myself to enemy long range fire and have totally negated any and all range advantages someone mounting ER LLs or ER PPCS has over my much shorter range weapons. This is called tactics and why the range advantage Clan weapons have is mostly vaporware IF a canny pilot wants to avoid giving you that advantage.
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