83 replies to this topic

[Talorien]

Wintersdark, on 27 May 2016 - 06:34 AM, said:

For every sniper, you have one less mech on the front lines. With every mech less on the front lines, the remaining ones are going to take more damage. The more damage they take, the sooner you're going to lose the firepower of individual mechs, reducing your team's ability to push damage out. This can quickly lead to the other team being able to put more damage out than your team, and your team having fewer mechs to share that damage - enter combat loss grouping and what quickly turns into a stomp.

There are two variables to how much damage a team takes/can take:

• The number of shots which defending mechs absorb (through armor/structure/dodging)
  
• The number of shots the enemy team puts out

A good sniper can easily make an enemy assault pause, turn around two or three times, or even move towards the enemy rear (and then have to walk back again afterward)

In this case the 'health bar contribution' of the sniper is the number of volleys that assault didn't fire at the team

This can be a huge amount of damage lost by the other team. It is very discomforting to be taking cross/rear fire.

Edited by Talorien, 29 May 2016 - 08:25 AM.

[Wintersdark]

Talorien, on 29 May 2016 - 08:23 AM, said:

There are two variables to how much damage a team takes/can take:

• The number of shots which defending mechs absorb (through armor/structure/dodging)
  
• The number of shots the enemy team puts out

A good sniper can easily make an enemy assault pause, turn around two or three times, or even move towards the enemy rear (and then have to walk back again afterward)

In this case the 'health bar contribution' of the sniper is the number of volleys that assault didn't fire at the team

This can be a huge amount of damage lost by the other team. It is very discomforting to be taking cross/rear fire.

No argument. At no point have I said snipers are bad. Just that TOO MANY snipers are bad, and assault snipers in particular are problematic.

Basically, if you're going to have a sniper, you're way better off with it being a light or medium because that way you get to have your cake and eat it too.

You get distracting fire, the sniper is fast and can reposition/evade if necessary, and you don't detract from your teams front line "health bar".

[Talorien]

Wintersdark, on 29 May 2016 - 08:28 AM, said:

No argument. At no point have I said snipers are bad. Just that TOO MANY snipers are bad, and assault snipers in particular are problematic.

Basically, if you're going to have a sniper, you're way better off with it being a light or medium because that way you get to have your cake and eat it too.

You get distracting fire, the sniper is fast and can reposition/evade if necessary, and you don't detract from your teams front line "health bar".

Fully agree

[JigglyMoobs]

Specific heavy mechs can be great snipers. My favorite is the erppc Gauss Timby. It's good for punching out a few hundred meters out the flank and moving back to support as necessary.

You can also take a Gauss Jager, but that thing is so fragile you really can't be a front line mech.

Probably the most annoying sniping heavy is gmans ultra long range erll Gauss Timby build. That thing has such long range and high mounts that it can harass from just about anywhere.

It's weakness though is it runs so hot and turns slow it cannot fight well at brawl range.