Der Hesse, on 25 December 2015 - 07:26 AM, said:
Are you serious that this shall be viable build that can outperform a 4 C large pulselaser Warhawk (why would you drive that anyways)?
You do realize that the 4cLPL PeaceDove is among the most powerful builds for that mech, right? And 3 for the 9SE (or 4 if you choose XL). 5 is overkill.
As for IS to Clam balance, PGI has chosen their stance.
They will quirk mechs into competition for God Tier status, while keeping Trash Tier mechs Trash Tier until quirk changes.
Whether that Trash Tier mech is Spheroid (Vindicator) or Clam (SadCat) is irrelevant in this period of the game. The BlackJack beats both of them handily, with better hardpoints, better hardpoint locations, better hitboxes, and better quirks on top of all those advantages.
It compares to the DoomCrow, a mech 10 tons heavier. Both are God Tier.
Remove the BJ quirks? It slips down, to still better than the SadCat and Vindi, but worse than the Crow (cXL+60% damage reduction, on top of more armour, means a far better robot).
PGI will do what they will do. They don't seem interested in balancing the factions, but just quirking everything until it's adequate.
That's as opposed to balancing the techs, then quirking the underperformers (such as the Vindi to BJ comparison, BJ will always be superior with the same tech).