23 replies to this topic

[SOL Ranger]

Now if only they gave the MG and HMG functional medium ranges as well I would be so happy.

[Coolant]

i really want to like the Light MG's because of the range...but the damage is still too little.

[Wintersdark]

Coolant, on 24 July 2017 - 02:27 PM, said:

i really want to like the Light MG's because of the range...but the damage is still too little.

Not really.

You need to mass them, but given the range you're able to actually deal a substantial amount of damage with them.

I've been playing with a 2HLL/6LMG Shadowcat, and very successfully: Moreso than I did with 6HMG's. Mostly because at ~300m range once skilled up, while you do very little damage against armor the bonus crit damage+carrythrough pushes up your dps vs. structure rapidly. Per MG, you're still doing less damage than an HMG, but not a lot less.... What's important though is as McGral says earlier, you're doing damage with LMG's in a lot more situations than you're able to use the HMG's at all, and Some Damage > No Damage. 0.7dps * 6 = 4.2damage per second at ~300m with zero heat against armor.

4.2dps is approximately what your average mech deals sustainably; so being able to output that at Medium Laser ranges at zero heat is not insignificant.

But against structure, given 1.88 dps per gun * 6 LMG = 11.28 DPS once you're tucking into structure. 11.28dps. At zero heat and 300m range. This is absolutely significant, and because MG's are hitscan, you can *wreck* lights with this. While 6xHMG hits quite a bit harder, that 80m optimal is very difficult to get a decent amount of uptime with - at least, without endangering yourself.


Thanks, McGral. I'd dismissed the LMG as kinda junk without trying it or running the numbers, and I'm really happy I was wrong. I'm actually quite pleased that we've got a range of actually useful machine guns now; makes a huge difference for the viability of lights/mediums with lots of ballistic hardpoints... And even makes those stock heavy/assault builds with machine guns look less stupid.

I'm trialling 3 LMG on my Timberwolf now. Tried HMG before and while it certainly hurt stuff up real close, in a lot of matches I just never really got close enough to use 'em. LMG's cost (a tiny bit) less tonnage, get way better ammo efficiency, and will allow contributory damage at longer range. Squee!

[Vesper11]

How does -crit skills work? If mech has -7% crit does it subtracts 7% chance from single, double and triple crit? Because some mechs (CT) melt almost instantly to MGs + SPLs while it takes a while for others.