Lyoto Machida, on 25 June 2015 - 08:00 AM, said:
Lights have a pretty decent chance of getting outside SSRM range if they pilot well enough.
That's a very poor excuse. Extemely actually and i'm sad that many people feel that way. An Awesome has less chance of turning a corner against a DWF because Assault combat speeds progress at a much slower rate than lights. Light's job is to tell you if there is a DWF around that corner, but who is going to tell the light that there is a Streak Boat around that corner? Can't, because that's THEIR role. The light mech is supposed to be getting in close (definitely within clan streak range), gather intel, and draw attention (situational).
The last time I hopped in my Locust, I decided to go quickly along the flank of Terra Therma and see which ramp the enemy was taking to center, hopefully stall them and allow the team to enter center. BUT low and behold I am running across one of the many open areas and a Streak Crow pops up directly infront of me, in the middle of nowhere. He said he was intentionally looking for light to do that. Two shots. Dead. No chance to dodge or take cover. The hill he came over was 150m infront of me. I can't turn and put ~400 m between me and him before I die. There was absolutely ZERO solution to it. Game over.
Pre-clan SSRMs, and IS Streak boat would have scared me, I would have been able to put distance before getting rekt. I would have skirmished with him, find a way around, or regroup with team. His purpose and role would have been fulfilled without killing a mech that would have had zero chance to survive.
Saying that Light mechs have "Pretty decent chance of getting outside SSRM range if they pilot well enough" is bogus. You can't dodge SSRMs until you're out of range. You WILL take an alpha and you WILL be crippled by it. If that didn't kill you, the next will unless RNG gods are completely in your favor. It's a huge restriction against light mechs, a weight class that already has to rely on skilled piloting to survive without SSRMs existing at all.