I'm gonna make this quick, because I noticed a few people bring it up:
Anyone that argues for removing gauss charge should have their posting-on-balance-things privileges removed.
Look, Gauss deals 15 damage instant, PP FLD wherever you want it. Without charge, it is hands down the best ballistic weapon in the game, at all ranges, by a mile. At least with charge, the other ballistics can have a place.
Long cooldown means diddly when you're pumping 15 damage. Especially at zero heat.
So far. Gauss charge has been the BEST balance decision ever made by PGI.
Now, on to why I think 15 PP FLD on C-ERPPCs is bad for the game:
1- We don't need more burst damage
2- Increasing cooldowns means squat at long range engagements. Same with heat. Especially on very mobile weapons platforms like clan mechs, that average 90+Kph across all chassis. This means that short of IS lights, nothing in the game will catch them, and they can always dictate the range of the engagement, allowing them to cool off at their own leisure, and fire at their own leisure.
3- C-ERPPCs are already the best PPCs in the game. Heat efficient, Best damage from a PPC weapon, and lighter and smaller than their IS counterparts. They really don't need to be improved.
Now, when trying to balance long range weapons, increasing heat, or cooldown are ineffective, or downright bad decisions.
Long range weapons are NEVER about DPS. Not a single one of them cares about DPS. Except for the ERLL. All other deliver burst damage, that's what really matters. So they pop up. Shoot you, and hide. As long as they keep you at range, heat, and cooldown are ineffective, and have zero impact on them.
So those two factors are already ineffective to begin with, but they are more so with clan mechs, who tend to be on the fast side overall (DWF excluded).
Being able to hit you only once every 10 seconds is irrelevant when I can always hit you, and you can't hit back at all, and if you do get to hit back, you hit back for a lot less (33% less, or from the other side. I hit you for 50% more)
When balancing long range weapons, find a way to make them not outperform literally every other weapon at every range.
The Gauss Rifle was just flat out superior to all other ballistics at the ranges where they were supposed to be good. So we slapped a charge mechanic on it. That kept it true to the flavor of the weapon, and it's purpose, while making it difficult to use in short, and medium range (a good way of representing then minimum range it had in TT).
So find something like that for C-ERPPCs, and giving them 15 PP FLD might become reasonable.
All I can say is that you won't get results by tweaking the stats. You need a mechanical modification on the weapon. Like making it fire 2 bolts, in very rapid succession, or something else that I haven't thought of.
LordKnightFandragon, on 14 July 2015 - 01:59 PM, said:
Cuz our hard point inflation, TTK, quirks and all that is seriously outta wack. When PPC,s the most powerful energy weapon in the game are mostly a joke, something is off horribly.
I'm sorry, but PPCs have never been a joke. Even when they were slowed down considerably, they were still very powerful. My 2xGauss 2xERPPC King Crab can attest to that. Got over 150K in mech XP on it with just that build, and I haven't piloted it in that config since before they buffed PPCs, and ERPPCs in this last patch.
Edited by IraqiWalker, 14 July 2015 - 03:49 PM.
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