Tarogato, on 10 June 2017 - 03:51 PM, said:
Yeah, this I don't know about. When in doubt, trust what PGI directly says. But if the guide you linked is correct, and Heat Containment ONLY applies to the base 30 capacity, then that means Cool Run is all the more a clear winner.
However, I don't know when PGI has stated anything on this, nor do I have evidence either way. Do you have any other information?
So considering
this information, it's a bit less certain what's better,
CoolRun(CR)/HeatContainment(HC)...
On my end, I'd definitely advocate
HC along the way to some
CR. The question is if the additional SPs needed to reach the last 2
CR nodes is worth it compared to
HeatGen(HG) nodes.
Considering the way things are setup, I would almost always setup
Survival+Misc tree first,
Firepower next for maximum
HG nodes and
Cooldown nodes to bump up DPS, then focus on
HC/CR. By the time I'm looking at
Ops tree, I'll usually be left with at most 27 SPs so depending on the role of the build, some of that might go to
Firepower or
Mobility. HG is literally number 1 on most builds. Only dual Gauss builds paired with something else, need it less.
Tarogato, on 10 June 2017 - 02:33 PM, said:
My conclusion is (very generally): Cool Run is a better investment than Heat Containment IF: you are engaged with the enemy for at least ~30 seconds. I've added details in my OP at the top of this thread, so you can see the reasoning up there.
Now that I've looked at Oni's approach, his error is relying on "consecutive alphas until heatcap" as a measuring stick. In a real game, you rarely fire alphas consecutively, there's usually some time to cool in between shots, where you're waiting for the next clear opportunity to shoot the component/mech you want. OR, you're committed to a full engagement. And when you're committed, then you're commited - you'll probably be fighting for longer than 30 seconds. Oni's method seems to cease measuring once you've reached heatcap, which often happens rather early. My method looks at available heat as a function of time.
It's true, I focused on max DPS rather than sustained. YMMV but in my calculations, I look at the ROI on SPs invested and also considered that most of my solo gameplay allows for me to hold back in between trades to cool off.
For sustained DPS situations, I find that there are usually 2 types, i.e. being pushed by more than 1 enemy mech or pushing into an enemy front/flank. In both situations, I'd have my overheat shutdown overridden already and hopefully have a standby Coolshot ready. In the above 2 situations, unless I'm lucky and ignored, rarely do I find that I'm able to be engaged for more than 20 seconds. Not saying that it doesn't happen, but when it does, I find that the SP investment on the Coolshots is better return than that extra 4-6% of CR,
especially if you don't boat heatsinks.
Conclusion is, if you have spare SPs to spend on getting last 2-3 CoolRun nodes, AFTER getting as much HeatGen nodes as you can, AND if you boat heatsinks (15 DHS or more), yeah, go ahead and get CR all the way. But if you ignore most of the HeatContain nodes, it's to your detriment as you can't maximise the use of your CR skills when you reach heatcap faster than 20s.
P.S. I downloaded your s/s and noted that your theorycrafting seems flawed. When your 13 SP CR pathing is already 1 SP away from the next 1-2 HC nodes, why do you not use that as a logical path? For eg,
you path a 8% CR and 3% HC Ops tree but
2 HC nodes are available for just 2 SPs. Wouldn't it make sense to just spend the easy SPs and compared a balanced path?
Similarly so for your
13 SP HC pathing, I can
easily grab 3 CR nodes for 6% CR to boost the build's heat efficiency.
P.P.S. Your 17 SP pathing for 6% CR and 15% HC is wasting 2 SP. I got
same efficiency with 15 SPs here.