Posted 24 January 2015 - 06:15 AM
The thing that makes the Firestarters OP isn't any one particular issue(hit registration issues are a separate issue and should be treated as such), but simply the fact that they are better than every other light in every area.
Defensively, the Firestarters are the strongest light as they have the armor of a 35 ton mech on a chassis that rolls damage extremely well. By comparison, the Jenners have their huge CT that soaks up most of the damage they take, and can hardly roll damage at all, while the Ravens have their crunchy, easy to hit legs and lack of jumpjets that limit their defensive mobility options. The Firestarters have no such weak areas, while carrying the same amount of armor, paired with top tier mobility that put together make it the best light in terms of defense.
Offensively, the Firestarters are also the strongest light as they can take ANY laser option that the other lights can, and run them better. The 8 SPLAS and its incredibly high DPS isn't even close to possible on any other light, the 5 MPLAS FS9-S runs far cooler than it would on any other light that can take it, and even the classic 6 MLAS JR7-F build runs cooler on the FS9-H or FS9-S.
With these things put together, there's simply no technical reason to take any other light over a Firestarter, as it is simply the best light mech in terms of offense as well as defense. The Jenners have their sponge-like CT and lack of quirks, the Ravens have their crunchy legs, lack of JJs, and low number of hardpoints, the Spiders have their extremely limited weapon options on top of less armor, the Commandos and Locusts have tiny amounts of armor and limited weapon space, and the Clan lights are all much slower and more vulnerable. Every light has a blatant weakness EXCEPT for the Firestarters, which is what really makes them OP.
That said, hit registration issues do cause some of the problems in dealing with this mech, but that's a separate issue that affects ALL lights and should be treated as a separate issue entirely, as it will go away when those issues are fixed. It only seems to affect the Firestarters more because they don't have weaknesses to start with. With that in mind, light mechs are not OP in comparison to other mechs at all, even the Firestarters, so nerfing is the wrong idea entirely. The proper course of action for this is not to nerf the Firestarters, but to buff all of the OTHER lights into comparative usable states. As it stands there is literally no technical reason to take any other light because the Firestarter does whatever they could do, only better, unless you feel like taking an ECM and playing a supportive role.
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