The reason you come here is to grab Cool Run (heat dissipation), you don't need anything else. You might be tempted by Heat Containment (which is heat capacity), but remember that your mech's damage output is at the mercy of how fast it can
dissipate the heat it generates, so heat
capacity is meaningless as long as your mech can afford to fire at least one single alphastrike. Besides, later on we'll pick up Coolshots, which increase our heat capacity by up to 120%.
Some mechs can skip this tree entirely if they already run virtually heat neutral loadouts (like dual gauss, quad qauss, sometimes dual LB10, or similar).
Why is Cool Run more effective than Heat Containment?
Cool Run gives you more heat to work with in engagements of (generally) 30 seconds or longer. The term "engagement" I define here as the duration of time during which your heat is above minimum. So whenever your heat goes all the way back down to 0%, then your next shot will be the beginning of a fresh new "engagement." One of the first tips I offer newer players is "never let your heat hit bottom; it if does, then you're just wasting potential." So the logic is, if you're shooting more often than not (like you should be), then you'll get more out of Cool Run. And really, if you're in an "engagement" that is shorter than 30 seconds, then it's not a real engagement, is it? You're probably not committed, you can probably afford to go back to cover and cooldown before re-engaging. But if you actually
commit yourself to a fight, you're probably going to be in it for longer than 30 seconds, and you'll want the heat
dissipation.
This graph shows that you have more heat at your disposal if you take Heat Containment, until approximately 30 seconds into an engagement, after which Cool Run pulls ahead:
Here are some of the specific durations after which Cool Run is more effective, as they depend on your heatsinks:
|
| (7)+3 | 37.1 seconds |
| (10)+0 | 33.7 seconds |
| (10)+3 | 30.7 seconds |
| (10)+6 | 28.5 seconds |
| (10)+10 | 26.5 seconds |
| (10)+15 | 24.7 seconds |
| (10)+20 | 23.4 seconds |
The numbers can be slightly different for Clan and IS if their heatsinks have different cooling values, however at the time of this post Clan and IS are the same. Here is my spreadsheet with calculations if you really want to look at the nitty-gritty:
https://docs.google....t#gid=666808725
13 Ops (standard)
You have a choice at the bottom between the two yellow options. They're both pretty worthless, but if you're a light mech you might prefer Speed Retention if you think an extra 4 kph is life or death, or if you foresee a future where you are hobbling toward a game-winning cap point before time runs out in a match. Rare, but I've seen it happen.
13 Ops (hill climb)
Do it this way if you don't have jumpjets, especially if you're a light mech (yes, that includes Ice Ferrets and Cicadas...)
17 Ops (expensive, max cooling)
No matter which path you take above, you can invest four extra points (pink) to get another Cool Run. Generally, I would avoid this. But you can do it if you have a build that runs too hot and you already have max Heat Gen in the Firepower tree.
Edited by Tarogato, 10 June 2017 - 03:56 PM.
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