46 replies to this topic

[Speedkermit]

Tesunie, on 05 January 2016 - 09:35 AM, said:

Yes, and no.

LRMs do a lot of spread damage. This results in LRMs dealing upwards of 1000s of damage even, yet sometimes not actually being effective.

When you can drop most mechs with only 100 damage to their CT (or less) compared to peppering them with 300-400 damage with LRMs splattering them all over the place before they drop...

Yes, every point of damage is a good thing to bring down the enemy. However, were the damage is applied is also important to. Damage applied to a shield arm (an arm with no weapons) is almost waisted damage at actually trying to destroy that target. Where as even half that damage on a leg, side torso or CT would be more effective at dropping that target that much sooner.


The person you are quoting is only partially true, but also not correct at the same time.
For his specific line of LRM5 boated mechs (and I'll say now I don't overly like them and feel they aren't always very effective) , they can be effective and valuable to the team. They deal damage (any amount of damage is good, but as mentioned previously, not always "great"), but they also repress the enemy, shake and blind them... They are support, and they can do that well.


Normally, when discussing something, the truth lies someplace between the two sides of the argument. (Consider it like a coin. You have the head and the tails side of one coin. The truth is often the rim of the coin.)

Thanks for the explanation.

I've been playing for less than 2 weeks and I run a MAD-5D with 2 LRM15+A. It's been my best performing mech so far. Perhaps that's just because I'm new and bad, but I've been getting good damage with it and a good number of kills and do feel like I am contributing to my team.

Admittedly I am quite aggressive and like to get stuck in. Quite likely I do as much damage with the 4 medium lasers as I do with the LRMs.

I know being on the receiving end of LRMs isn't a pleasant experience.

[Tesunie]

Luke George, on 06 January 2016 - 01:55 AM, said:

Quite likely I do as much damage with the 4 medium lasers as I do with the LRMs.

And that's how I play my LRM mechs (notice I said mechs, not boats) myself. I try to stay within 600-200m range band.

Despite being called "Long Range Missiles", LRMs are actually far more of a mid range missile in this game's implementation. Outside of 600m, they start to get questionable on if they will hit.

[Luscious Dan]

Sonny Black, on 05 January 2016 - 04:35 PM, said:

TAG: Mandatory

Could not disagree more. TAG goes both ways. You might as well have a big sign saying Mech Here.

A big arc of missiles is also a dead giveaway. Depending on the mech, you can give away your class at times based on the spread and firing patterns when facing a clever opponent. Either way, most LRM boats aren't very stealthy and if you have the space/tonnage for a TAG laser it's not a horrible upgrade.

Generally I appreciate the knowledge in this thread and wish more people would do the research. Just the other day in pugland I ran into an enemy Ebon Jaguar-C with quad LRM15A and no backup weapons. Towards the end of the match he was still pretty cherry. He didn't like running into a light with small laser spam. Not one bit. Waste of a good chassis IMO.

I'm with TheRAbbi on this one, taking an EBJ with 4-5 ER mediums and a pair of LRM15s is a much better setup. You can use your mobility to good effect with those mid-range weapons, you can shoot down UAVs hovering over your front line, you can do some rapid pinpoint damage to take a vital component off an enemy mech, you can actually defend yourself at point blank range, etc.

LRMs can be useful as a suppression weapon, forcing the enemy to change their behavior and/or getting individuals to abandon a push. They can also soften up enemies a bit, or finish fleeing enemies off, but IMO their biggest benefits are "indirect" and don't show up as kills/damage on the score sheet. As such, you should also have a decent direct fire setup to allow you to contribute in a more traditional sense.

[Dawnstealer]

MavRCK, on 08 December 2015 - 06:40 AM, said:

This is an advanced point which 99% of MWO doesn't understand and only the top 10 competitive teams do:

- (your team's COMBINED effective health + damage taken) if greater than (your enemy team's combined effective health - damage DONE) = win

The problem is LRM boats is that you remove your armor / structure / attention to draw enemy damage from your team's COMBINED effective health.

So unless you are taking fire and rolling damage, your team is at a disadvantage with you playing LRMs (at this current meta / moment).

My strong suggestion is to not play them but if you are, look at the lightest most tonnage effective mech to play them, ie a medium mech like the Hunchback-5J. And get your own locks with tag.

This is my take, too. The most effective TEAM LRM boats are the ones that move up with the team. Even a pure Lurmer can succeed here: 180m is surprisingly close and it's not too hard to keep an engaged enemy there.

[Havyek]

Novakaine, on 08 December 2015 - 03:57 PM, said:

Novakaine approves of this guide.
I would only add these gems
1. Never shoot into the ECM bubble kill everything outside of them.
2. Let your team know what your'e launching on to concentrate your firepower.
3. Hold your fire until the brawlers engage less chance of your getting focused on.
4. Fire at every mech you see Bitching Betty is your best friend
6. Ignore the above poster.

And here's why.
Not a single mech bothered firing on the lone Hunchback on their flank.
My team keep their attention face forward while the attacked up slope.
By the time they realized what was happening the match was pretty much won.
The first five were lrm kills and the last two were laser kills.

This was done with a 6MG ShadowCat, so clearly, MGs > LRMs

[Havyek]

The only way to be "effective" (and I mean not a complete hindrance to your team) with a LRM heavy build is to stand with your team.

As has been said before, one of the most important parts of this game is taking damage for your teammates, not just doing spread damage from the safety of a ridge.

A single Gauss round to a CT is almost always more effective damage than 5 LRM15 shots to the entirety of a 'Mech

[Tesunie]

Dawnstealer, on 06 January 2016 - 10:35 AM, said:

This is my take, too. The most effective TEAM LRM boats are the ones that move up with the team. Even a pure Lurmer can succeed here: 180m is surprisingly close and it's not too hard to keep an engaged enemy there.

True, but it can also be hard to keep people out of that bubble as well sometimes.