IraqiWalker, on 28 July 2014 - 06:06 AM, said:
Because that particular weapon set has a reduced skill cap for it to work, and is a fire and forget weapon. One that can be fired without any hope of retaliation or return fire. Ballistics weapons' "dominance" is counteracted by their weight, ammo dependency (can't use the same argument on LRMs since you can pack so much of them), and their absolute reliance on manual aim. Not to mention that missing a shot doesn't let you deal partial damage like with lasers, but rather you lose all the damage from that shot, and heat.
Much of the chance of being hit by a slow moving projectile is up to the target. LRM's are the slowest moving projectile in the game, and you even get a warning that they've been fired at you! There is no reason to take a lot of damage from LRM's other than you screwed up and were far away from cover or you were simply outmaneuvered by the enemy team and they managed to just about surround you (which also means your team are probably already dead).
LRM's are also not fire-and-forget. You need to keep the lock for the whole travel time. Imo they should be fire-and-forget.
You can't use weight and ammo count as an argument for ballistics but not LRM's, as LRM's are also heavy and you can pack enough AC ammo to last an entire match (10tons for a Jager with 4xAC's).
Manual aim? Point>click. It's not hard, and at least you get to choose which component on the enemy mech to shoot at, unlike LRM's.
My most used mechs with regards to ease of use (all stock weapons):
JM6-S - Ridiculously easy. Great short-mid range brawler. 4-6+ kills, 800-1000+ damage not unusual, average probably around 3+ kills, 600+ damage.
CPLT-K2 - Usually low-average damage due to the heat stopping the PPC's from firing. 1-2 kills, 300+ damage in a decent match.
CPLT-C1 - Depending on the enemy team (tactical piloting skills and use of ECM) matches vary from bad (0 kills, 100+ damage) to good (4 kills, 600+ damage, but average is probably around 2 kills, 400 damage which i have to really work hard to get.