sensen, on 23 January 2016 - 09:32 PM, said:
The Urbanmech, Adder, Kitfox, Mist Lynx, and Panther disagree with you- all are comparable in speed to mediums, or slower. For good reason, but we'll get to that.
sensen, on 23 January 2016 - 09:32 PM, said:
2. Light mechs are scouts.
Scout 'Mechs (Locust, Commando, Spider, Myst Lynx, Arctic Cheetah,
some Firestarter variants, and
only one Kitfox variant are light scout 'Mechs, per lore- even the RVN-3L, which is the dominant scout in MWO, was meant as an Electronics Warfare platform, not a scout) account for
less than half of the light 'Mechs in MWO. The rest are designed to be snipers, assassins, close-range brawlers, fire support 'Mechs, flamer carriers, and EWAR platforms. For the most part, lights serve the same purpose as any other 'Mech class: to engage and destroy enemy 'Mechs. Their loadouts reflect this. Even those 'Mechs designed to be scouts sometimes acquired reputations as deadly opponents in their own right- the Arctic Cheetah is an obvious example, and the Commando was long considered the best scout in the Inner Sphere for its ability to carry a disproportionate amount of firepower for its size, acting as a mobile striker in addition to its primary role.
The notion that light 'Mechs are meant for scouting is erroneous; there are nearly as many medium scouts in BT lore as there are light scouts... and most of them aren't in MWO. Other 'Mechs, like the Jenner, were built from the ground up as 'Mech killers, and were so feared as such that other factions actually built other 'Mechs (the Wolfhound being one example) to hunt them down and kill them. Many were designed to carry heavy weapons- the Panther, Urbanmech, Adder, and Kitfox had variants carrying Gauss rifles, PPC/ERPPC, AC10/20, and LRM15/20, and were also designed to directly engage and kill enemy 'Mechs larger than themselves. The Hollander, which is not yet in MWO, is another famous example of a light 'Mech built around a heavy weapon (a shoulder-mounted Gauss rifle); the Toro, a design from the Taurian Concordat, mounted a PPC and two LRM5s.
All that offensive potential usually comes at a price, hence why the KFX, ADR, and UM all move like slugs compared to the rest of their class; the PNT is a bit faster, but still no speed demon. Like heavier 'Mechs, they trade a smaller engine for more firepower. Other lights geared towards offensive roles, like the Jenner and Wolfhound, rely on clusters of smaller weapons to make up the difference to maintain their speed, which usually results in a high per-alpha heat load, or shorter range, or both. There are
always tradeoffs when you have limited tonnage to work with.
sensen, on 23 January 2016 - 09:32 PM, said:
3. Light mechs lack armor.
True! Which begs the question... why do you think they're OP? Peg a light with your full alpha in a heavy or assault, and they're down for the count. So... increase your situational awareness. Shoot them before they get behind you. Call your teammates for help if you can't hit them. Whatever you need to do.
However, don't cry that lights are OP. The fact that the light queue is consistently smaller than all three other weight classes despite lights being the cheapest to purchase and equip belies your argument; if they were really as crazy as you make them out to be, then the light queue would have long ago taken the heavy queue's place as the largest. The fact is that it is
hard to do well in a 'Mech that can die from a single bad hit, that mounts a smaller alpha, and generally has to get closer to deliver it. Even the most powerful lights in the game (at the moment), the FS9 and ACH, are peanuts compared to a TBR's laservomit alpha that deals twice the damage at twice or three times the range.
If you are having trouble killing light 'mechs, consider this: when you hit them, did all of your damage strike the targeted component, or did some/most of it miss? If you rake a light's legs with a set of lasers, you will appear to be doing less damage than you think you should... but it's really just because the legs are moving quickly, and you can't adjust your aim fast enough to keep up with their motion. Even if the reticle turns red, that doesn't mean 100% of your damage found its mark. Hit detection on some weapons can be wonky as well- SRMs and PPCs seem expecially vulnerable to this... but that issue affects hits on larger 'Mechs as much as it does on lighter ones. If you're having that problem,
switch weapons until PGI gets around to fixing things again.
But...
goodness. Don't beat on the "lights are scouts" dead horse. All that does is show everyone just how little you actually understand the source material. Basically,
read the lore before you pigeonhole a whole class of 'Mechs into a single role. That mistake leads you to underestimate 'Mechs that, in reality, are exactly as dangerous as they were always meant to be. Treat them as a credible threat, and you'll find that you don't get embarrassed by them quite so often.
*edit- roles should not be based on tonnage, but on the individual strengths of a chassis. They should receive bonuses, quirks, etc, based on what they were designed to do- not based on how big or small they are. LCTs, COMs, MLXs, etc, absolutely should be excellent scouts, and weaker in other areas, and KGCs, AS7s, DWFs, etc, should
absolutely be fearsome battlewagons... but lighter 'Mechs focused around firepower, and heavier 'Mechs focused around support (the Cyclops, for instance, if PGI ever gets around to adding it), should
not get crapped on because of that. Balance between the different weight classes is better in MWO than it has ever been in any Mechwarrior title... it can be made better and more nuanced, but
not by steamrolling all of the depth of character out of the 'Mechs we have in the game already and implementing some kind of asinine "rock-paper-scissors" balance or top-down heirarchy in place of
real role-based warfare.
Edited by WrathOfDeadguy, 24 January 2016 - 01:54 AM.
11
