70 replies to this topic

[Weeny Machine]

Today I decided to dust off my Trebuchet and try my lrm boat which I haven't had played for quite some time.

To make it short: it was a horrible experience. I played about 8 matches and each team seemed to have 3-4 ECM mechs. However, adding to the balancing problems which ECM and missiles have had...I felt that the LRM ammo is an issue now. So many shots miss due to the ECM influence (e.g. the lock gets lost sooner)..it isn't funny anymore.
Which leas to the following issue:

Adding support weaponry to the e.g. Trebuchet means that you have even less LRM ammo...which means your launchers run dry even sooner and you are forced to do battle with MLasers.

Leaving support weaponry and adding ammo means...well, many shots miss anyway and you will be useless soon also.

This ECM inflation hurts LRMs dearly and I think that an ammo increase, like the autocannons got, wouldn't be too wrong so LRM mechs could run some backup weapons. Bear in mind please that I do not have any experience with assault LRM boars (I just have my Treb)

Anyway, I won't touch my Treb anytime soon.

[FupDup]

All ammo based weapons in MWO tend to require more ammo mounted than their BT counterparts. On the same token, energy weapons require more heatsinks in MWO than BT, which makes it "fair." (But not ideal).

[Monkey Lover]

Lrms are the worst weapon in the game don't use them unless you're bored. Ecm is only going to get worse with more ecm mechs on the way.

[FupDup]

Monkey Lover, on 15 May 2015 - 03:14 PM, said:

Lrms are the worst weapon in the game don't use them unless you're bored. Ecm is only going to get worse with more ecm mechs on the way.

Scatman and Arctic Cheetah Cheater in July...

[Clownwarlord]

Good rule of thumb:

- 3 tons for one ballistic and 2 tons added for every ballistic added after that. So example you have 4 AC5s which means 9 tons of ammunition (give or take one).

- SRM/Streaks 1 ton for every launcher over 4 tubes. So example have 2 SRM2s and 2 SRM4s you only need 3 tons. 1 for the 2 SRM2s and 1 each for the 2 SRM4s.

- LRMs if you do not have 5 tons for 20 lrm tubes than you need more. Then add 2 tons for every 10 lrm tubes added. So example you have an lrm 50 tube mech, which means 11 tons. Give or take 2 tons of ammo.

I use these rules to help ball park living and shooting through out the entire match. Some times you run out on the last mech in the match some times you die and never used half of it.

[bad arcade kitty]

consider that lrm usually have accuracy of 30%, 40% is very good

[Clownwarlord]

Just to give you some numbers:

11 tons for 50 tubes

11 tons = 1980 missiles

1980missiles / 50 tubes = 39.6 salvos

To conserve ammunition use chain fire but 40 trigger pulls is pretty good for one match.

1980 * .35 = 693 missiles should make contact which you get around 1 if not more for each missile. If you hit less you still doing good and if you hit more well them you smacking the **** out of the enemy.

[Flutterguy]

Monkey Lover, on 15 May 2015 - 03:14 PM, said:

Lrms are the worst weapon in the game don't use them unless you're bored. Ecm is only going to get worse with more ecm mechs on the way.

To be fair the Flamer is probably the worst weapon in the game. LRMs are just the worst weapon people willingly use.

[Clownwarlord]

Flutterguy, on 15 May 2015 - 03:39 PM, said:

To be fair the Flamer is probably the worst weapon in the game. LRMs are just the worst weapon people willingly use.

Yes worst weapon in the game is the flamer ... can never send a mech in to over heat only up to a point and let them do it to them selves (the enemy). It also does little damage like the mg but it does not get the crit ability like the mg. It causes you to over heat like an sob. It literally has nothing going for it.

[bad arcade kitty]

usually 1000 missiles is enough for a light/medium lrm mech

clownwarlord, on 15 May 2015 - 03:50 PM, said:

Yes worst weapon in the game is the flamer ... can never send a mech in to over heat only up to a point and let them do it to them selves (the enemy). It also does little damage like the mg but it does not get the crit ability like the mg. It causes you to over heat like an sob. It literally has nothing going for it.

it's because flamer's heat raises non-linearly and you should chain fire two of them

[El Bandito]

Current LRMs are bad, and I do not mean it just because of prevalence of ECM. Even with 41% accuracy, my CLRM15s took soooooooooo many shots to kill a mech, that 8 tons of ammo (1440) I had was spent before only two enemy mechs died.

If I was playing with DF weapons such as lasers or Gauss, I coulda killed the enemy much faster, and contributed better for my team. So yeah, PGI had over-nerfed the LRMs. More like long range nerf-darts now.

Edited by El Bandito, 15 May 2015 - 04:44 PM.

[Dukat281]

The Trebuchet is too light to fulfill the requirements of LRM warfare in times of the Clan Invasion.

'Modern' LRM boats mount launchers depending on the quirks given for the mech. Then you need lots of ammo and equipment while mounting a decent engine in oder to stay with the group. Command Consoles, Advanced Sensor Range Modules, Beagle Active Probes and LRM Cooldown modules are mandatory. Accordingly versatile mech chassis start at 65 tons upwards.

[El Bandito]

Dukat281, on 15 May 2015 - 05:04 PM, said:

The Trebuchet is too light to fulfill the requirements of LRM warfare in times of the Clan Invasion.

'Modern' LRM boats mount launchers depending on the quirks given for the mech. Then you need lots of ammo and equipment while mounting a decent engine in oder to stay with the group. Command Consoles, Advanced Sensor Range Modules, Beagle Active Probes and LRM Cooldown modules are mandatory. Accordingly versatile mech chassis start at 65 tons upwards.

Dukat281, on 15 May 2015 - 05:04 PM, said:

Command Consoles

I don't even...

[Thorqemada]

LRMs are a Spam-Type-Weapon and that is bad gameplay - PGI should increase the lethality and usabiliy of LRM and restrict the Ammo to balance it out.

[El Bandito]

Thorqemada, on 15 May 2015 - 05:07 PM, said:

LRMs are a Spam-Type-Weapon and that is bad gameplay - PGI should increase the lethality and usabiliy of LRM and restrict the Ammo to balance it out.

Or increase the damage and cooldown so when it hits it will hurt, but not as often.

[OznerpaG]

TAG nullifies ECM out to 750m

best advice i can give you is to pair TAG up with LL/ERLL - when you see a target blast it with the LL/TAG, and by the time the LL is done firing you have lock and can launch an LRM salvo

if you are not willing to TAG your own targets then LRMs might not be your best bet, but if you take the time to learn LRMs + TAG inside and out they are a blast

Edited by JagdFlanker, 15 May 2015 - 05:16 PM.

[Kilo 40]

Meh. I use LRMs all the time, and I tend to do fairly well with them. You just have to choose your shots better.

My rules are, 1.5 tons of ammo for every 5 tubes, and I almost never carry more than 30 tubes. HOWEVER...when I run five or six LRM5s, I pack as much ammo as I can carry.

[Jman5]

The thing about LRM mechs is that they are gear reliant. You need TAG or NARC, you need advanced Target Decay, you need LRM weapon Cooldown level 5, you need enough ammo to get you through 90% of matches, you need back up weapons, and you really should use Artemis upgrade unless you're LRM-5 spamming.

The problem with a lot of players is that they skimp somewhere along the way. Then they wonder why they struggle with locks, or holding target long enough to do some damage.

One thing I will say is that the trebuchet LRM boat is tricky because fitting 2 LRM 15s on a 50 ton mech is hard.

However, there is another...

[Romeo Deluxe]

My Treb is one of my cbill and GXP farmers. It makes me quite a lot of money.

Build? Tactics? Many, not necessarily saying you, LRM users don't actually know how to use them effectively.

[Chuanhao]

I enjoy LRMS as well and share your pain with the multiples of ECMS.

However, more ammo is but an indirect approach to the issue. And just leads to power creep. More LRMs > More AMS > More LRMS etc.

I have gone for the option of using mobility to overcome ECM, at least for Solo queue. Using speed, I will manoeuvre my Orion-V into the most optimal position to exploit ECM gaps in the enemy formation. And have also used blind firing on stationary mechs.

Unfortunately, for CW where there is a bottleneck at the gates, and when there's blanket coverage of enemy ECM at the same place, LRMS are really not so good, and I dont use them in CW.