2
Mauler
90 Tons
No overwhelming uber quirks*
Mixed type hardpoints
Same engine cap
Similar, decent hitboxes
*The one HGN does have some substantial durability quirks
Recently I aquired Maulers. I immediatly jumped into them, experimenting with loadouts and leveling them through basics. Good fun. Some drawbacks, but playstyle adjustments(mostly positioning) can overcome. I ran all 4 to 8/8 basic, and got two of them up to full elite. I used no missiles, but the Mauler allows for that easily. Outside of that, I used anything from small to big ballistics, and anything from ML to ERPPC on them in varying combinations. Some loadouts clicked better then others, but in general, anything i slapped on there was good for a minimum of 300 dmg even in a stomp loss.
I then went back and looked at my dusty Highlanders. See, this one forumite is putting on a give-away, and I thought "hey, sounds like an excuse to at least get the two through basics". See, WAAAAAAAYYYYY back when, in that one sale where Heavy Metal and Pretty baby were on sale, with Purple and White colors(I forget the name of sale, something about lighting or thunder) I bought HM. I ran it a lot, then sporadically(like once every 3 months) but in the end, it was sitting in it's bay with 8/8 basics and 30,000XP. So hey, I bought two other ones when they went on c-bill sale a while ago, lets do some basics!
This is where the comparison goes wrong. I picked the HGN that could mount AC20 in right arm, and the newer durability quirked one. I have finally gotten them through 8/8 basics, after a few nights of play. Exercise in frustration. Even when I knew, going in, the HGN was not in best form, when I knew it was going to be challenging, when I knew it had been leftin the cold for a long time now.
These two 90 tonners, they have been released a loooooong time apart. Despite the similarity of the chassis, it is ******* obvious the HGN was put together during a different era of the game. The loadouts, at no time, were intuitive to put on the mech. Even though the two have similar pod space, the Mauler was pretty easy to pick some stuff and go, while every loadout I started on on the HGN left me scratching my head as to what to do with like 5 extra tons, or how to find 6 more. They either were too wimpy for the modern game, or hot enough to thaw out frozen city, or range limited/pigeon holed into a role the chassis is mediocre at.
I had tonight(after event start so I guess I should have known) a 37 dmg game in my brawl loadout HGN. Sure the team folded like paper around me, but....37? I havent had one of those since the first month I played. I had a potent close range loadout on the AC20 arm variant, but got insta ganked in the middle of fireing an alpha strike, happened so fast my SRM didnt even register because I was dead before they hit.
See, even though these two mechs share so much stats on paper, the Mauler can build around it's limitations. The HGN, well if you run an XL, you are made of paper, and if you run a STD, half the mechs in the match will have more firepower then you, and run at the same temps.
The Mauler, can run multiple ballistics for a cool running loadout with little range limitation. Sure, the facetime is there, but you can adjust for that. It can run multiple lasers, one variant has enough hardpoints for laserbarf. The loadouts are symetrical if you want, hardpoints are not split between arms and torsos by type, and it is easy to make a loadout with different weapons with complimentary ranges and still maintain a passable heat rating.
The Highlander, can not run any symetrical loadout, has missile points split between arms and torso, has enough ballistic room to run 2 small or one big ballistic. If you run torso lasers to go with the ballistic, you almost are forced to run arm lock to maintain decent convergence to fire while you move as the arms tend to move at three times the speed of the torso. Same with the missiles, SRM? If you want them to hit in a nice cluster, you have to lock the arms, and then you limit mobility of your ballistic arm(possibly an AC20) to do it.
Highlander, one would think the one with durability quirks would make a solid brawler. But you can't run the AC20 in the arm. That perk goes to the variant with much less durability, and limited energy points and split arm/torso missiles.
Truth is, Highlander in what would have been a scary as hell brawling loadout 2 years ago, gets vaporized by laser puke pinpoint dmg nowdays. Adding a long range loadout either means a single gauss with some lasers for paltry damage output and hilariously underwhelming close range performance, or uberhot running multiple PPC's, with similar bad close range performance, as the only self defense hardpoints available are limited missile hardpoints if you use the single ballistic in the arm and laser points to compliment it for range. Alternatively, LRMs, with an AC20 backup arm leaves you with...LRm's, and a single AC20(and maybe 2 ML) OR, a single AC10 even.
So, whats the point of this text wall of HGN bashing? Our new balance pass, the imbalance of the weapons in game, and even the chassis.
Lasers are, without a doubt, the easiest to use, most potent weapons in the game once you stack some up. Chassis like the HGN, can;t mount cool running weapons to at least "outlast" laser barf mechs, and can;t mount their own lasers power to fight back. You are left with a Jack of all mech that has a limited engine cap and relies more heavily on it's team then any assault I have run in a long time. No matter what loadout you run on a HGN, there will be a weak spot, in range, in heat, or in durability, that will force you to rely on the team to cover. For a chassis such as this, no amount of info or structure quirks is going to overcome the fact it's hardpoints are just inferior in everyway to it's class-mates. Because, despite the apparent developer response that weapons are balanced and done, there is an obvious dispariy in weapon systems and how they can be leveraged.
Yeah, that's old news, but my experiance running these two HGN's through basics has made it so apparent, so overwhelmingly obvious, it drove me to come here and make this. When you can take a Mauler, with such similarity, and the hardpoint location and count alone allows it to outperform the Highlander 2:1, you can't tell me weapons are balanced outside of anything besides a 1 to 1 comparison on some spreadsheet. Real application in game of the weapons screams otherwise. I mean, one can look at a gauss. Single unquirked gauss? LULZ. Twin gauss? Creates enough nerdrage to spawn threads here.
And that is how the Mauler and Highlander differ: similar chassis that can mount the same weapons, but not apply them the same. gauss is a perfect example for it, but lasers and even missiles show it too.
Edited by Eldagore, 17 September 2015 - 08:32 PM.
