Harrison Kelly, on 26 February 2015 - 02:28 PM, said:
The hiccup of being outgunned at any given range by a specialist sniper/brawler/LRM boat? How does practice help you overcome that? Look, I'm not talking about intelligent 75/25 splits like bringing backup lasers on a sniper. But things like bringing a single LRM rack or having 5 different weapons groups with wildly different firing characteristics and ranges is not a hiccup. It's handicapping yourself. There's a very good reason why nobody puts one of each type of laser on their Mech and calls it a good build. The taste-the-rainbow colors might be pretty, but wow is it impractical.
If you choose to do that, I respect your right to build that way. All I ask if you don't try and tell me how your way is better when by every measurable metric, it's not.
Teamwork will trounce specialized builds no matter what.
If you have a full team, working together with mixed builds. You can trounce a team that's using all the broken mechanics. I've seen it work. [anicdotial evidence I know, so whatever]
But let's be real, seeing a mech run around with ALL medium pulse.. or all large/medium pulse, or x4uac5 or whatever... It's all just, kinda lame. There's no real tactics to a laser boat other than "find enemy, laze enemy, watch enemy die."
There will always be a place for specialized builds... else mechs like the Nova wouldn't exist. The HBK is a great example of a brawler... ect. There's good reasons for these mechs to exist, and yes, they are effective in their role... but not EVERY mech should fit this mold.
I have to wonder how skilled a person is when they can't deal with multiple weapon ranges on their mech, when they have to have everything range optimized, or when they only use a single weapons system in mass. Because then you're not learning, you're not evolving... you're not adjusting for anything. You're simply abusing the customization mechanic and stagnating your playstyle.