Artgathan, on 28 October 2014 - 09:20 AM, said:
This is actually an interesting result of their mechanics. LRMs don't NEED to be boated per se - their problem is that they don't synergize well with other weapons, which pushes LRM users to use only LRMs or else deal with clunky mechanics that impair their ability to fight.
Consider:
On my TDR-5S I use ALRM10+15 and a PPC as my primary weapons. I primarily play it as direct fire support, using nearby Assaults to distract away from me. If the enemy focuses on me I have a problem - I can snap fire the PPC, but if I want to torso twist to spread damage I can't fire the LRMs (because then I'll have to 1: Get Lock, then 2: Maintain Lock, face tanking the whole time).
+1 for the TDR-5S as a LRM mech. Love it. I run mine w/ MLs instead of the PPC. More ammo for LRMs. You're right tho. LRMs have zero synergy with any other weapon system. But, also you point out correctly, you can boat them or not boat them.
On my BLR-1G, which is mainly an energy boat, I pack a LRM10 and PPC. Why not? I'll use the PPC or LRM (or, and rarely, both) while I close then switch to the six MLs on the beast.
LRMs can be the main focus of your mech, or a compliment to your build, if you have open tonnage. That's about it.
Either way, I balance my LRM builds with some kind of secondary weapon system. One ML won't cut it, but three or more will, or large lasers, they show up on my 75 ton heavies and assaults when packing LRMs. Too many times I've run into some LRM focused mech that has no other weapons (I'm looking at you CPLT-A1) or a token backup weapon. When they run out of LRMs, they're useless.