Damn it, my post never got sent...
Anyway...
The IS has a lot of advantages (some of them insane) that the Clans do not, but many don't seem to realize this. All of these advantages have nothing to do with quirks.
- First and foremost, the IS is the only side with a simple two weapon combination that can instantly kill Any and Every 'Mech with a single shot -- twin AC/20s to the cockpit. The Clans do not have such a combination.
- IS LRMs fly in groups, ensuring that AMS is less effective against them as opposed to Clan LRMs.
- IS weapons are almost universally colder.
- IS weapons are more lax in the ghost heat department, with fewer restrictions and less ********.
- Even without quirks, all of the IS weapons are universally faster (except SRMs and Streaks). Even when the cooldown is identical, as cooldown doesn't begin until the weapon has finished firing.
The way IS weapons are set up is to encourage "pop-and-squat" tactics at range and encircle-and-dispose tactics to get close where the IS advantages really pay off.
Examples
The way Clan weapons are set up is to be able to engage 'campers' at range while aggressively enclosing so that the IS threat is overwhelmed and destroyed before the Clanner gets
too close.
A prime example.
Though Clanners have tremendous range advantages, their required beam times (which used to be a lot more forboding than now; thanks to all the blanket enhancements Clans have gotten to combat the ever growing threat of total IS superiority through quirks) actually made long range combat very non-preferable for Clan mechs due to the prolonged exposure times where a pop-and-squat IS mech could snipe them out using Gauss or ER PPCs or their much shorter ER LLs.
This video by the Perfect Screenshot thread's Lordred, while it lacks a musical score, unintentionally showcases exactly what I mean on both sides. Despite the fact that this is a group queue fight before most of the game's quirks, the IS and Clan mechs are mostly on par with each other and the mechs are being played to each side's strengths. The Clan mechs seem to prefer to be mostly in the open, hunting campers. The IS mechs generally try to find spots to camp and shoot from while some of the IS mechs that are more suited to brawling are holding off the Clan hunters. The Clan mechs that are not good at hunting resort to more long ranged roles to potshot at IS campers and brawlers.
Another quality example. Lordred's video again. Prior to IS quirks and Clan blanket buffs, we all preferred IS mechs despite the fact that a fan pumped out 240 dollars to make sure I had every Clan mech for the time. Time Index: 1:47 "The Inner Sphere is overpowered, I officially decree it." December 2014. 2 IS mechs had quirks (the worst ones),
2 more IS mechs had massive negative quirks (Victors and Highlanders), all Clan mechs had Omnipods where some had no quirks, some had positive quirks (encouraging FEW hardpoints) and negative quirks (discouraging MANY hardpoints).
Ways to deal with Clan mechs...
Go for the oversized center torsos. Every Clan CT can be hit from the front and sides. Take advantage of this weakness; their twisting is meaningless if you know where to shoot.
All Clanners (with two exceptions; Hellbringer funny enough being one of them) have
GIGANTIC COCKPIT HITBOXES that you can see from Outer Space! Load up twin AC/20s and shoot 'em, one shot one kill. For extra fun, only bring 2 tons of ammo. Bam, enough ammo to kill everyone.
For those Clanner mechs that have high speed, well those legs look mighty pretty -- all the better to gawk at when they are broken!
Is the big bad mech gettin' scary? Well it's okay, most scary Clan mechs can't use their arms to go left and right. But
almost all IS mechs can! Circle 'em!
Did you know that all chicken walkers have huge front hitboxes? The Clans have a lot of them, and so they unnel almost all that armor to the front. That's why they seem to be so tough to kill. Guess what usually has very little armor? Their backsides. This is true of both teams but Clans have more chicken walkers than not, so it is really worth pointing out.
"
War, war never changes." (Link is for the reference.)
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