Frechdachs, on 20 January 2017 - 03:29 PM, said:
Well, it currently is the best IS 70t mech, and you do see a lot more Warhammers in dropdecks than Phracts and Archers. Comparing it to a Clan heavy makes little sense, especially to ones 5t heavier. It's not the biggest nerf, and I'll wait and see what it does to performance. As for Clan vs. IS balance, the tech upgrade will benefit IS more than it will Clans, another thing where I'll just wait and see. I'm pretty sure a dual UAC10 Warhammer will be brutal, with or without structure nerfs.
Why is that though, seriously? In a post-3050 environment vs Clans it is either lots of short range energy weapons taking advantage of energy quirks vs platforms built around missiles or ballistics, more so ballistics that heavy and do not blend well with energy weapons, and that usually require a fragile isXL engine. Tis like having stamped on your torsos with a bullseye, XL here <<>>. I was able to make a T-bolt w/GR and 2ERLL/3ML sorta work (got a headshot!!) Once they had a lock to see the payload, my CT still had yellow armor on it while LT was yellow IS by the time the RT was gone. If the isXL functioned like the cXL but w/different penalties I would still be fighting, reduced to firing 1ERLL/GR at a time, but still fighting. And if I could used a ST as a shield like one tries to do with the arms to reduce incoming damage, the LT would likely still had armor on it.
Even if IS gets its own UAC10 and LFE, that is tonnage being left on the table for the technology where the weapons are heavier and bulkier than the Clan counterparts. And quirks that get changed at the drop of a hat.
Essentially, keeping IS in energy boats favors the Clans. The Clans are able to boat up on ballistics/srm and shorter range cooler energy weapons, and with the speed that the cXL provides force confrontations that IS forces used to do when Clanners were using med/longer range energy weapons while IS forces were using shorter range but cooler running energy weapons w/TONS of quirks, not just from range but cooldown, duration and reduced heat generation.
The Black Knight, Warhammer, Grasshopper, Battlemaster all revolve around energy quirks with only the Warhammer and Battlemaster w/ballistic hardpoints. And the Black Knight and Grasshopper have horrible hardpoint locations. They only worked due to quirks and the advantage due to speed only provided by the fragile isXL, the same advantage Clans have with their cXL but without the fragility. And the Black Knight had its quirks hit a high point when it was released for MC then a few months later after it was available for C-bills where the offensive quirks castrated.
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