Ozealot, on 05 July 2015 - 11:14 AM, said:
I never wrote I'm barely moving. I wrote I avoid enemy fire by closing distance and getting into touching distance.
That works when you catch someone out of position who isn't paying attention and is too isolated from his team to have effective support.
It's very difficult to keep your motion perpendicular to two or three targets while remaining tight enough to your primary target to stay ahead of his firing arc. When I notice things like a Raven blasting SRMs at one of my team mates at close range, I generally wait for his line of motion to come parallel with my line of fire, and open up on the waist/leg - although with a solid hit, it really doesn't matter what it connects with - the Raven's fun just ended.
Quote
But reading about your angry statements about "facehuggin", Embers being "piles of crap", "Light swatting" and stuff I start to think you are a member of the famous OPFOR unit.
The way you said it does strongly imply 'face hugging.'
Though we are all essentially members of the opposition force at any given time.
Quote
Well it can't be me, we never seen each other ingame - playing a different game and all.
Honestly, I don't look at the names very often, or expect other people to. Occasionally, a name will jump out at me that I recognize. Like FupDup last night. Twice, actually - once on the same team, another time on opposing teams (where his team rolled mine on Caustic).
Quote
Or maybe you should just start to make actual hot drops instead of going for a walk in the testing grounds or sniffing around in the tutorial, that may rise your chance to swat me.
Frankly, I wouldn't remember your name if I already have.
I doubt he would, either.
Quote
You may then start to notice that skilled LRM boat players can be a problem - either by denying your team mobility and making it vulnerable for flanking maneuvers or just doing severe damage with the help of a clever spotter.
See - when you clear a room, you stack up on the entrance and everyone goes through the door. The point man likely takes a face full of lead and the team behind him literally pushes his body through while bringing their weapons to bear from behind it. Preferably - you have something like a flash, frag, or concussion grenade to give the point man a chance at life, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Likewise - when an organized team makes a forward push, they are flooding the opening with bodies and incoming firepower to overwhelm the temporary resistance while using the first couple mechs in the line as a bullet sponge. Disorganized resistance teams will spike their heat and limit their fighting capability as the rush focuses down the defending team.
The reality is that LRMs don't really deny much territory that a dual gauss build or multi-PPC build doesn't, already. They don't offer the kinds of damage delivery to blunt advances, and their time on target is a further obstacle to effectively use them to reinforce units on a flank.
I'll ignore dual LRM-20 salvos when the team is pushing. I can eat a few of those in most of my 'mechs before the damage starts to add to anything.
They -can- be used in a manner that is most effective given their operating mechanics. However, when compared with other weapon systems and other battlemechs that we are completely free use as individuals or when constructing a team, there's little reason to use LRMs as they are not competitive with the capabilities of other weapon systems.
This is before you add other dimensions to the field - such as ECM. Against any organized team, they are going to have ECM simply because it enhances the ability of direct fire 'mechs to strike at opponents without a red box ensuring the threat is recognized as not being part of the terrain.
Basically "clever spotters" have to peel away from the team to get good firing angles. This makes them vulnerable to maneuvering by the opposing team, particularly other light mechs. While UAVs have made it possible to spot without having to stare cross-eyed and drooling at enemies (possibly with a conveniently visible laser jutting out of your head), it's still a role that places considerable tonnage on your team in a state of dependence upon the survival of a typically very light and fragile 'mech.
We would call this "many moving parts" and "a point of failure."
There's no reason for a team to incorporate LRMs into their strategy within a competitive environment. They can be run in such a way as to not be completely and utterly useless, but if a player can run LRMs competently, they can likely run lasers and ballistics relatively competently, too - and for much greater effect.
Quote
You may also notice that an enemy Mech with six CSSRM6 is to be considered a threat, even when not in a light and a preferred target at that.
The main reason it isn't a threat worth shifting everyone's attention to is that it is considerably hampered by range and limited in what targets it can be effective against.
I've run a few 4xSRM6 builds, and while the SRMs are not to be forgotten about, they really aren't all that effective unless I have something like 3 large pulse lasers providing ample point damage to give the SRMs something to work with. Generally speaking, those builds, even with the 3 large pulse lasers, don't have the point damage delivery to really do much to drop an incoming advance or to make an effective exchange during an advance of its own.
That isn't to say that they aren't useful - but that they are a far cry from the old "splatcat."
Quote
And the possibility is higher that your armor gets stripped when somebody is shooting back at you so that an LBX can make short work of your components. But you are a Medic eh? RP and all, I get it.
Generally speaking, you're better off with a UAC5 than an LB10. While there are circumstances where the LB10 offers advantages over the UAC5, you can peel more armor off with the UAC-5 and have more internal components exposed to weapons fire in the first place, rather than carrying the LB10 for the advantages it has when armor has already been stripped.
It just doesn't make sense to build for the conditional scenarios beyond your control.
That said - I've built fun "scatter" builds that were just LBs and SRMs for the sake of just casting a wide net. They aren't what I'd term 'optimal' builds by comparison to others - but they are fun and can be effective in the right circumstances.
5
while not effective would add a ton of fun and dakka to the game. Peace 
