Jman5, on 30 May 2015 - 12:07 PM, said:
You can out trade almost other weapon system because you can often fire from almost total safety. Hit efficiency is much less important when the enemy can't hit you back.
The problem with the conversation about LRMs is too much hyperbole, unlike your accurate assessment above.
What makes them "easy" is the fact that you don't need to expose yourself to damage to score damage yourself, you can piggy back off of the effort of others. (low skill floor, low risk, low to high payoff)
What makes them "easy" is that they require zero aiming onto specific components of any kind.
What makes them challenging to hit the skill ceiling with is the number of factors that can work against them that are out of the players control (enemy ECM, flight paths, etc) - and the fact that you can't target components even if you wanted to.
What makes them a bad weapon (for the game overall), is that new & mediocre players are drawn to the first 2 aspects of them but end up learning a lot of bad habits, they don't ever learn how to trade properly, they can't torso twist while using them, they don't learn the value of aggression and seeking key positions.
This flips when someone who already knows those things (like Jman) gets ahold of a LRM build and squeezes out its max potential (and terrorizing the PUG queue in the process).
It's also problematic when the PUG queue lotto sees on team with a crapton of LRMs, on just the right map, with no friendly ECM. It's too much force multiplication for too little effort.
Indirect Fire can have way too much payout for the effort required, it can also have an atrocious payout where many players can't even utilize their weapon system.
Direct Fire of LRMs has similar swings, the payout is balanced through the investment into things like Artemis and having to deal with counter-tech mechanics but it can also be atrocious if your opponents are good at facing LRMs and don't have too many bad-PUGs on their team who can't protect themselves.
There are situations where LRMs are OP, there are situations where they are one of the worst weapon systems in the game.
It's for all of these things and more that I dislike them as a weapon system, and think they should be redesigned - both IDF and DF modes.
Edited by Ultimatum X, 30 May 2015 - 12:21 PM.