Zergling, on 06 July 2017 - 11:11 PM, said:
What would you propose then? All PPCs (not including ER PPC) having the same damage/heat ratio?
As for SN-PPC, it really doesn't compete with the other PPCs due to much shorter optimal range and no minimum range.
It compares more with Medium Lasers and the Large Pulse Laser. Beyond its optimal range, the SN-PPC is really terrible.
Well, there are several options. A heat drop across the entire class is one. Increasing the value on other stats is another option. Some combination of both, too, i.e.:
LPPC = 5 dam, 4.5 heat, 540 m, 3.5 s cooldown, 1300 m/s velocity, hard 90 m minimum range
PPC = 10 dam, 8.5 heat, 650 m, 4 s cooldown, 1300 m/s velocity, exponential minimum decay
ER PPC = 10 dam, 12.5 heat, 810 m, 4 s cooldown, 1600 m/s velocity, no minimum
HPPC = 15 dam, 15 heat, 540 m, 4.5 s cooldown, 1200 m/s velocity, no minimum
The BJ-3 is my measuring stick for where the PPC and ERPPC ought to perform, the rest revolve around it.
SN-PPC at 8 heat is probably fine, or even 8.5 heat. What it really needs after that point is lower cool-down, i.e. 3.25 seconds similar to the LPL. They don't share range, they don't share ease of use, there is little danger of one straight-up obsoleting the other. I wouldn't take SN-PPC on a laser boat, for instance, especially not when it's capped to 270 meters. I would take it on an SRM bomber, though, since it would be a better fit than the LPL.
Quote
Near as I can tell, the niche for Heavy Lasers is supposed to be high alpha. Compared to ER Lasers, their drawbacks should be higher beam duration and shorter range for sure, while the Heavy Small and Heavy Large indicate they should also have less DPS than Clan ER Lasers of the same size (Heavy Medium somehow has higher DPS and Damage/Heat than the Clan ER Medium).
Given their shorter range than Clan ER Lasers, damage/heat ratios for the Heavy Lasers should also be higher than Clan ER Lasers; they'll be forced into brawls more often where that ratio is important (see regular IS Lasers versus IS ER Lasers for precedent for that).
They shouldn't be as high as Clan Pulse Lasers though (and pulse lasers should be superior in DPS/ton too).
Eh, not really how I see them. I see their niche as being superior firepower per hardpoint. They are the solution 'Mechs like the Shadowcat have been waiting for if they want to go energy-centric. On that note, 2x cHLL ought to have the capability of similar DPS to 4x isLL...if you can mount the cooling to keep it there. Which you can do, if you don't boat them and leave enough room for the appropriate amount of heatsinks.
For the brawl question: I don't think that's the way to think about it. Nobody brawls with isMedLas or isLargeLas, they strike with them. As in, hit and run, poke, or a short-range push for the kill. I see Heavy Lasers operating in that same mode. Their chief competition comes from the cMPL, which also works in that mode.
Quote
As for the Heavy Small, doing 6 damage versus the ER Small at 5 just isn't enough of an advantage for the drawbacks of higher beam duration, shorter range and less DPS.
Even if the weapon was adjusted to have a higher damage/heat ratio than the ER Small (but lower than the Micro Pulse), it still wouldn't offset its disadvantages.
Eg, here is how the ER Small, Heavy Small and Micro Pulse compare now:
ER Small = 5 damage, 1.30 DPS, 1.67 damage/heat, 1.1 duration, 200 optimal range,
Heavy Small = 6 damage, 1.18 DPS, 1.41 damage/heat, 1.2 duration, 100 optimal range
Micro Pulse = 3 damage, 1.25 DPS, 1.76 damage/heat, 0.5 duration, 90 optimal range
The Heavy Small is just about worthless; for 20% higher alpha damage it is worse in all other areas.
Reducing cooldown and increasing the Heavy Small's range isn't much of a way to get it to compete with the ER Small; all that is doing is turning it into another (but still inferior) ER Small.
If the Heavy Small received 3.00 second cooldown, it'd have 1.43 DPS; it'd be beating the Micro Pulse then, and pulse lasers are supposed to be the best when it comes to DPS (according to PGI's recent laser re-balance, anyway), so that's not an option.
See, we're encountering what I call a "crunch" at the small, close-range bracket. There simply isn't enough battlefield diversity to support so many guns with such similar traits.
The way I look at it, the ridiculous tonnage savings of Micro lasers is why you take them. On something like an ammo-dependent Light, you might be able to fit some of them and deal some non-trivial supplemental damage without digging into your ammo reserve too much. That is their strength. It's not in the damage, DPS, heat, etc., it's in the weight. Less so the Micro Pulse, which may actually have merit as a brawl weapon on its own, but still.
For the ERSL and HSL, the problem the HSL has even up close is follow-through. The numbers don't tell you the whole story, especially when you consider that you aren't ever really firing your lasers as fast as you possibly can. But, in practice, the cool-down and long duration on the HSL forces that gap to be longer than the acceptable cadence at face-grinding ranges. You sit there and eat two volleys from ERSL before you can get your second HSL volley out, and that's a problem.
Personally, what I did for
my laser variables was have a hard rule where all Clan lasers had a max range of 1.75x optimum. That A.) allowed better balance against IS lasers with weaker damage ratings and inferior optimums and B.) constrained the more diverse Clan lasers to more tightly defined range brackets, giving each of the options greater meaning. When you went from Micro Pulse to HSL, you traded great DPS for twice the up-front damage. When you went from HSL to ERSL, you traded damage away for range. Granted, I may have made the MicroPulse a little too good, but it also has the worst range of every laser on that chart.
Edited by Yeonne Greene, 06 July 2017 - 11:56 PM.
0
