IraqiWalker, on 06 October 2014 - 01:52 PM, said:
Charge should never be removed. It is literally the best fix ever implemented by PGI.
Gauss is supposed to be a sniper weapon, when Gauss charge is removed, it will be an OP weapon again. Do you remember back when Gauss used to be pretty much the brawl weapon of choice, and pretty much any mech that could fit it, did? A sniping weapon should have draw backs at short range. Without charge, it literally has no drawbacks. No, exploding doesn't count, since your opponent has to go through your armor to get to it first. While they are doing that, you have a 15 point instant shot 1 heat weapon hammering at them.
Gauss was too powerful without charge, it's at least balanced now.
While the charge is mildly annoying, the reason I dumped my Gauss after the change wasn't because of the charge, it was because adding the charge without decreasing the cooldown decreased the Gauss' DPS significantly. It's a 15 ton (12 ton for clans) weapon that does 3.16 dps, which isn't enough for a medium mech like my Blackjack. A pair of AC2s (or C-UAC2s) have the same projectile velocity, longer range, less tonnage (12 IC, 10 clan) and do over 5.5 dps.
Keep the charge and drop the cooldown to 3.25 seconds and I'd be happy (this is coming from someone who usually only mounts one Gauss, though I do have a Jagermech that can mount two).
I don't know if this is possible (or if the idea has been suggested already), but how about making multiple Gauss mechs charge their Gauss Rifles consecutively rather than concurrent? A single Gauss would have a 0.75 second charge and a 3.25 second cooldown (15 point alpha, 3.75dps); a dual Gauss setup would have a 1.5 second charge with a 3.25 second cooldown (30 point alpha, 6.32dps), and (if we want to go back to firing more than two Gauss at a time) a triple Gauss setup would have a 2.25 second charge and 3.25 second cooldown (45 point alpha, 8.18dps).