Shifty McSwift, on 14 April 2017 - 10:23 AM, said:
True in most cases and certainly true enough in principle, which is why I think MGs aren't meant as a weapon for that role, they are a finisher weapon, a desperate, low heat low damage (decent potential with crits) most particularly meant for efficiently ending people in specific circumstances (running down/through a near death mech). Having no cooldown and minimal heat in its dps dispersal gives it enough viability as a weapon on paper (it just seems you need to have a whole bunch for that to be noticeable).
The higher damage lower range MG for example makes a potential combo for an srm boat, in conserving heat and missiles in circumstances that may require minimal damage, and for peeling out extra dps at your discretion.
It does seem like it would pair well with stuff, but the extremely low range and requirement to stare at the enemy is rather suicidal. It would disrupt the damage spreading that an SRM brawler would do if you were actually using them in a meaningful way. At 2 DPS it would take a full second of stare to deal 2 damage, usually an SRM brawler would only stare at the enemy aboud half a second, at that point you'd deal about 1 damage compared to an IS SPL's full burn or 2/3s of the CSPL's burn, 4 damage in either case. You'd generate heat but would deal 4 times the damage in that time while also weighing less due to no ammo requirement so you could bring more heatsinks which would supplement your lasers and your missiles. Not to mention the lasers having a longer range.
With C-SPL boats you get about 1.5 seconds of stare on the enemy when firing the SPL groups so the HMG gets about 3 damage off in that time, making it somewhat useful but still it is up in the air over whether you'd want to bring heatsinks to get that one extra blast off with the SPLs or the HMGs to increase burst damage and have a no heat option when overheating.