MischiefSC, on 10 March 2016 - 01:03 PM, said:
So I spent an afternoon playing with missiles based on something I saw on Saders twitch and some things he'd said.
LRM5As are a 100% success rate with 4 of 5 missiles per launcher hitting CT when chain fired. When group-fired it's only 2 out of 5 and 1 in 5 MISSES COMPLETELY.
Chainfired however.... it's a drill. Each LRM5A, with line of sight, like a CT-seeking CUAC5. It's a dirty, terrible truth. I hate it and it irks me because as a given rule LRMs are terrible, they lack synergy and they promote bad habits (like playing from the rear).
That TBR build is functionally an LRM brawler. The LRMs are a secondary weapon that's pooping 15 pts, 12 of which always to the CT every 3 seconds. Three of them is 6 tons, an CUAC5 is 7. However they are more ammo-hungry however the ammo is more reliable - LRM ammo is 180pts of damage/ton, UAC5 is 150 and the LRM5As are putting 100% of damage on target and 80% to the CT without AMS in the picture. The LRM build is 2x as hot as a single UAC5 but does 50% more DPS and, again, it's CT-seeking and barring AMS has a 100% hit rate with LoS. Unless the other team has AMS in bulk it's actually an excellent setup. In pug queue the 3xLRM5A+UAC10+CERMLs build is a frankenbuild I would mock if I saw it but for actual killing power and efficiency I'd say it's one of the best pugging TBR builds.
You've all heard me rail against LRMs and I still stand by LRMs being an inferior weapon to direct fire AS A GIVEN RULE. ECM and AMS being hard counters even with LoS makes them unreliable.
However, 3 (not more than or you lose efficiency in weight and they need chain-fired to work this way so more than 3 and you're unlikely to get all the missiles on target) CLRM5As on a Clan mech in addition to a healthy direct fire loadout is actually an excellent setup. On a TBR or EBJ. Unsure of its efficiency on other mechs, I think you give up too much in pods trying it with say a Warhawk.
Not LRM15s or 10s or 20s. 5s, with Artemis and Line of Sight. Sader is correct, that specific setup is excellent both on paper and in practice. Dubious against AMS but in pug/group queue and even CW most the time? Yeah. It's an excellent build.
To add to this:
The build has the decided advantage of being Lightweight, Lowheat and ammo efficient. It's so low weight that even a Mad Dog can effectively field the build making it an extremely capable mid range boat for
only 60 tons. Not to mention recent buffs to to the mad dog (free arm armor and structure, 10% rate of fire for LRM torsos, nerfs to ECM range so that BAP is now unecessary the build has become more effective not less.
The biggest weakness of this build is AMS. Boated AMS can destroy 3x LRM5 quite easily compared to a regular LRM15 launcher. I'm not sure why this is, I can only chalk it up to poor coding on PGI's part.
That being said, the LRM5's are only a third of your weapon systems, and you're effectivly carrying the firepower of most Medium Laser / guass builds before you even factor in 3 LRM5's anyway.
Oh and the most important factor:
Juggling all these weapons is both fun and challenging, you have to do a lot of work to make this build work. That may turn off some people, but its makes this build a lot of fun for me while still giving you near double the dps of most laservomit mechs.
Edited by Sader325, 10 March 2016 - 01:17 PM.
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