northpow, on 10 April 2016 - 08:45 PM, said:
For the record, and this is highly liberating, I am actually *way* better at light mechs than heavy ones. I shied away from them because they're "weaker" but I decided to try a trial light, and I am getting about 2x damage compared to what I got in heavies.... not bad considering I only have Small ER lasers.
And that is 2x in "Trial Light" compared to "Mastered Heavy"!
I guess to each their own.
Then maybe you should spend a little more time with the light mechs, and see if that's not your niche to carve out in MWO. GOOD light drivers are a little tough to find these days. (By 'GOOD', I mean, 'contribute disproportionately well to the PUG team effort on a consistent basis.') I recently (today) bought a JR7-O 'Oxide', and it's instantly become my top damage/match mech. (In fairness, that's only because I had some rough group queue matches with the Black Widow, who YESTERDAY held a higher damage/match average.) Still, EASILY pulling over 400/match in a mech I've never played before today and that has fewer than half of its BASIC skills unlocked? And this being the first time out in ANY IS Jenner since 2014? Yeah, I dig it. And therefore, the JR7-IIC(O) is gonna get dusted off soon too. Is this what I've been missing?!
Even a JR7-D with 2x SRM-4, 4x SPL (or ML if you like 'em a little toasty), XL300, 1-2 JJ, and maybe a spare DHS, can be quite fun. The ACH is an OP beast right now, even after having some of its defensive quirks rolled back. The JR7-IIC chassis is pretty damned good, and FASTER than the IS JR7 by a good half-step or more. And I personally LOVE the Wolfhound, even if it does lack JJs and ECM, and 3/4 of them are slower than the JR7. They're the alt-account of the Firestarter. Try a WLF-1A (I think that's the one) with 5x SPL in the torso, and a LPL in the arm. Thank me later. And they can even run legit STD engine builds, which is just STUPID fun since most people ASSUME that a quick light MUST be running an XL. Making the enemy hit you through a destroyed LA and LT means taking 84% of their firepower away from them before it hits the most structure-dense part of your mech. FUN! TANKY little monsters. And they have cute little doggie ears on their heads.
Hey, go crazy with the lights. There are some MONSTROUS ones out there, and it's even MORE fun to do well in a low-tier light mech IN SPITE OF the naysayers. If you can wreck in a Commando, you can wreck in anything.
And Urbanmech is SO nuts!