Posted 15 June 2017 - 05:56 PM
I'm going to make a remark that I've recently realized has been happening here and in other LRM based threads... I'm going to say it and let people make what they will of it.
What I've been seeing is a case of "raising the bar". What I mean here is, people discuss in a thread and at some point say something along the lines of (for an example) "A W/L above 1.0 is an indicator of helping the team to win." After that statement is mentioned and it "shoos" away some of the crowd of (in this case) LRM users. Then, someone eventually comes around with "I have a reasonable W/L with my LRM mechs" which happens to meet the bar of "above 1.0".
Now, instead of going "yup, you are being a help to your team", I end up hearing "What? That sucks. You aren't carrying hard enough unless you have a 2.5 or higher W/L." Thus this places the bar higher to those who wish to prove that LRMs can be used effectively (even if everyone else doesn't manage it). Eventually, someone else comes along and goes "I got that".
Then the bar raises again "Well... You don't have a K/D rate above 1, so you don't count. You are still a detriment to your team." Once again, the bar goes higher. Eventually, someone counters with "Well, I've got a K/D above 2", and I've then heard "but your W/L on the leaderboards (really starting to hate those things) is under this bar" or "but your average match score is under X"..
I'm starting to think this is like the tallest kid on the playground deciding to be a bully and taking stuff from shorter kids. "You can get it back if you can take it from me at this height", and then holds it at their shoulder level. The kid tries to get it, but has to jump. They almost reach it, and then the bully lifts it to their head level "I meant if you can get it from here". The kid cries and someone else comes to help. When they try to reach it, they almost get it, but the bully lifts it above his head now, "I really meant if you can get it from here". This continues and as they are the tallest kid on the playground, no one can take it from them (especially if they start to throw it up into the air or on top of a roof).
Now, I've never said LRMs are the best, but I disagree that they are the worst. They have their uses. Some people can use them to more efficiency (called using them "skillfully", which is a thing) than other people. There are some others whom, though they may not be the best players around, for their level of play (and enjoyment) they feel they do well with LRMs.
I for one will use LRMs less if I ever start to see my direct fire builds actually out performing them (and/or they stop providing me enjoyment). Until such a time comes (if it does), I'll continue to use LRMs and continue to believe I am being more of a help than a hindrance to my team by using them. So far, I've been getting reasonable results from them. If other people are not (and I know many people really don't play LRMs very well), I can't vouch for them. All I can go by are my own personal stats and adjust my own play from those stats. So far, only a single mech (with over 100 matches in a single build) has exceeded my LRM mech's W/L. Sadly, though it performs well, I enjoy other loadouts better and don't use that specific build as much as I probably should... (This is a game after all, and the end goal is to have fun, right?)
As a final note for this post, I'd also like to remind people that the Leaderboard records all stats from the player. It does not distinguish between a player using an LRM based mech or when the same player decided to change to a direct fire only build. As I know I switch between the two readily depending upon my own mood... I know personally that my own leaderboard stats are not indicative of my individual LRM performance vs my Direct Fire performance. (Which is why I presented individual mech stats with their near permanent builds.)
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Vxheous Kerensky, on 15 June 2017 - 11:16 AM, said:
