63 replies to this topic

[Dodak]

Guys help me out here. Are there any real advantages to the shottgun weapons? An Lbx20 does the same dmg as a standard 20 but with a spread? What advantage is there to spreading the damage over several components or over the entire mech? I cant help but feel that i am missing something vital with these weapons.
So you have to get close to have all the pellets hit one area. Do you then not simply accomplish what the standard 20 could have done both at range and up close?

[Metus regem]

Well, the problem is, the LB series isn't working right. They should be able to use solid or canister shot, but PGI can't get ammo switching down.... If they were working right, you wouldn't have normal Clan AC's, and the IS AC/10 would be obsolete.

[thehiddenedge]

There's no real advantage to spreading damage. I've heard some people say they're good for hitting fast lights, but meh... I guess they're supposed to have a higher crit chance, so there's that... I don't know if it even makes a difference though.

but yeah... there's a reason you don't really see them too often.

Edited by thehiddenedge, 11 March 2016 - 10:45 PM.

[RestosIII]

[Pjwned]

The problem is LBX cannons are supposed to be good weapons for getting critical hits, which would be fine, but they actually end up being worse at getting critical hits because critical hits and equipment health are implemented so piss poorly.

[Dodak]

Thanks for the info guys. This weapon type was really confusing me. Funny that the LBXs guns are some of the most expensive weapons too.

[wanderer]

They're quite decent in tabletop, being a "next-generation" autocannon.

MWO simply took a big steaming dump over the original system, rendered LB-X's unable to even fire half their ammo types, and left it as a crippled "shotgun".

[Lucian Nostra]

Some other BS you'll hear people try and throw at you is "It's a giant mech shotgun!" Yeah except each pellet does a point of damage so there's never a benefit to firing them up close over standard ACs just penalties for firing them at range as some pellets miss..

Ya know if PGI buffed the pellets up to like 1.1 - 1.3 dmg per... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Narcissistic Martyr]

LBX20 works reasonably well as a secondary weapon on high heat clan builds. Use your LPL to poke a hole and then hit them with the hammer.

[Y E O N N E]

wanderer, on 11 March 2016 - 10:59 PM, said:

They're quite decent in tabletop, being a "next-generation" autocannon.

MWO simply took a big steaming dump over the original system, rendered LB-X's unable to even fire half their ammo types, and left it as a crippled "shotgun".

LB-X fire literally half of their ammo types right now.

It's Standard ACs that have the variety of payload options. It's the one thing preventing them from being totally obsoleted by LB-X, HVACs, UACs, and RACs. LACs can also use the ammo types.

[Metus regem]

wanderer, on 11 March 2016 - 10:59 PM, said:

They're quite decent in tabletop, being a "next-generation" autocannon.

MWO simply took a big steaming dump over the original system, rendered LB-X's unable to even fire half their ammo types, and left it as a crippled "shotgun".

It's not even half the ammo types, it's a crippled version of half their ammo types...

It should be a canister round, that explodes into the pellet burst 50-100m from the target. If they did that they might actually be okay a range beyond 150m

[Trauglodyte]

LBs are amazing, just like SRMs, if your opponent is a potato and allows you to creep up behind them at point blank range. Then again, you don't need to do that with a normal AC10 do you? The LB was supposed to be an amazing weapon because it allowed versatility - do you need the spread or do you need the pin point damage? Not to let PGI off of the hook, but I often wonder if the game engine limits what they can code and, as such, we were forced into the "mech shotgun" garbage that we have today. The truth is that the cluster LB round should act like an anti-aircraft round or, if you will, similar to what Air Marshalls use while on duty. For the former, you would fire a solid round that, upon nearing the target, would then air burst causing several clusters to spray the target. With the latter, it is a solid round that would do single impact damage on the outside but would cluster fire internally. At any rate, if the engine allowed it and I don't know if it does, PGI should be able to change it so that it fires like a normal AC round but then gets treated like the Clan ER PPC - you do X amount of damage at the center and the rest spreads. As it works now, though, it is complete and total garbage. There are only 2 mechs in the game, could be only 2 IS mechs as I don't look much at the Clan stuff, with LB -spread quirks. So, how am I supposed to make them better when the game doesn't even support me being able to do so?

[Monkey Lover]

I loaded up a cn9-d with the lbx mega quirks. I was fighting and a locust started to core out the back of a teammate . I fired 5 shots hitting him center mass from around 150-200m. He finished coring out my teammate and ran off. After this match I stripped the mech . No lbx for me, I will stick with AC10

[Y E O N N E]

I do alright with LB-10X. I dunno, but I guess when I play them I'm subconsciously aware of the drawbacks and my play style changes accordingly. My Firebrand with twin LB-10X was a pretty reliable killer, and my Legend Killer with the same build is even better.

I feel like LB-X scatter shot would have a place if they tightened up the groupings by 20%, and either kicked the damage up to 1.5 per pellet or increased the rate of fire by 50%. I don't have any math for that, but just from playing with them when quirked and seeing the difference 10% spread and 20% rate of fire makes, that's my intuitive notion.

[cazidin]

Both the LB-X and PPCs were originally intended to be buff in this upcoming patch but weren't due to time constraints. Also, the Command Console buff has been either forgot about or completely scrapped so while the Clan Targeting Computers are now slightly more powerful the Inner Sphere is left with a 3 ton paperweight.

[TheMadTypist]

LBX aren't even good at their "crit" role. Gauss, PPC, and IS-AC10 and sometimes IS-ac20 seem to be the best critting choices, because they actually remove an item when they get a crit. Hell, not just one- they have a chance to crit, and knock out, as many as three components in one hit.

In addition to LBX only sandpapering off armor, Items that have 1-9 points off their 10 point health pool aren't any less effective, but anything firing above 10 damage removing 1-3 items (hell, with the same shot that breaks the armor, it can still crit for full effect even if the projectile only did 1-2 structure damage) is an immediate effect.

But we'll get a line about LBX "shredding" components like they said about machine guns and that will be the end of it.

[Nyte Kitsune]

I do rather well with the LB10x on my Centurion, Shadow Hawk, Legend Killer and DDC Atlas..... thing you have to remember about them is its more of a "Finisher" weapon, Weaken your targets armor with other weapons, then hit them with LB10x's after you weakened their armor or opened them up. By itself though.. not a very good weapon.. UNLESS they add the different ammos later.. then it'll be good.

[Triordinant]

PGI doesn't want to do anything that'll make the AC10 obsolete. That's why the LB10X will never have a slug.

[FupDup]

On the topic of ammo switching, I feel like doing that is a cop-out because it doesn't actually balance the cluster rounds ammo type. If we did somehow get them to switch firing modes, nobody in their right mind would use clusters. Everybody in their right mind would use 100% slugs all day every day.

Find a way to make clusters viable instead of just making clusters even more obsolete than they already are.

[Jackal Noble]

IMO the lbx(especially the 20) should not take up that additional crit space, it cripples a lot of builds