It occurs to me that I've been arguing the wrong way. Regardless of whether optimal is nerfed (which I still maintain that I'm correct until proven wrong), I have gone ahead to make a chart illustrating the change.
This is taking several assumptions: equivalent heat (21 ~= 20), no quirk, no duration. (Not going into GH penalty, as 3 cLPL is 2 Alpha shutdown, so it's pointless to go up that much in heat scale)
Now, under the old system, clearly, the cLPL is essentially unchallenged beyond 460m. Meaningful dmg (1/2 of effective dmg) ends at about 870m. Anything beyond that, pretty much just trolling.
Assuming new system (600 optimal, forum assumption), the cLPL breaks even still at 460m, with Meaningful dmg now at about 730m. (let's call this FcLL) That's 270m operating distance where cLPL will have advantage over any other lasers on this comparison.
My assumption (420 optimal), the cLPL never breaks even against IS LL, and only exceeds IS LPL at 480m. It's meaningful dmg ends at ~640m. (let's call this, RcLL)
By comparison, IS LL will completely outclass RcLL, and will only lose out to FcLL at range between 480 and 760m. (50% at ~670)
IS LPL 50% at ~540m.
Conclusion:
I hope forum is correct over my assumption, as even at my best case scenario, RcLPL will only have about 60m advantage over the IS counterpart.
(assuming we are operating at 50% efficiency and above)
That advantage stretches to 190m when using 600m as optimal. (FcLPL)
IS LL is the most beneficiary of the cLPL nerf. It will straight outclass RcLPL and only lose 90m to FcLPL (though not surprisingly, the better tail end allows regular LL to poke/troll ~140m better)
Note, none of these range figures are that far apart. ~100m closing distance is quite rapid (maybe a few seconds or less, depends on trajectory of movement)
Certainly, in terms of first volley value concern, cLPL, regardless of change, remains a poor choice for short-mid range engagement. However, the nerf now essentially draw equal in mid-range engagement, and essentially eliminated the extreme range fights that we Clanners use cLPL for. (750m out)
If you are going to fire FcLPL, because of the rapid decay, you now have a small window between mid efficiency and trolling (just ~110m) Meaning, if you carelessly shoot at 770, 780 thinking you are not that far off from 600, you are going to be sorely disappointed. This is in stark contrast with OcLPL where 170m drop might mean losing mere 20% than 50% dmg)
Again, this is not taking into account quirks (often 10~15% range) and duration (25% faster for IS LL and 50% faster for IS LPL), meaning in multi volley scenario, in 4.5 seconds before falling back to cover, ALL IS Mechs will do 2x dmg as the chart compare to cLPL.
(If you expand all the above values for IS by 2x, then it's really a no contest)
How I figure 4.5 seconds engagement? ~3.5 cooldown + 1 duration for Clan (1 volley), during the same, IS can fire off 2 volleys.
I chose not to use 1 volley ceiling restriction to do dmg analysis cause... well, IS wins no contest. But interpret this anyway you want, the data is there. The nerf removes the specialty of Clans fighting at a distinctively range advantage without compensation buff, which ultimately will be disastrous.
Edited by razenWing, 12 November 2016 - 06:41 AM.
4
razenWing, on 12 November 2016 - 02:04 AM, said:
