The primary reason mixing weapons (with a few rare exceptions such as gauss+lasers and before its death, gauss+ppc) really doesnt work is because you will almost always be in a situation where at least some of your weapons cannot be used to good effect or where your weapons dont really complement each other. For optimal combat, you are going to want a mech that is specialized around ONE range bracket (with medium range being the most popular since there are too many drawbacks to sniping and brawling doesnt really work well on like half the maps), and that allows you to use all of your weapons simultaneously to deliver as much damage as possible in the opening salvo (the first shot is usually the most important since the enemy may be unaware of you or not prepared to shield the second you fire).
This is why the vast majority of builds are laser vomit. On IS its almost always LPL+ERML since those 2 are perfectly synced, have same effective range, and at least the LPLs are more or less PPFLD which is a huge premium well worth the tonnage in this case (only time youd ever use ERLLs is when you need every ton or absolutely have to have range). Clan side, its pretty much the same idea but with different guns, since clan LPLs have been sorta nerfed to the point they arent that great (and 1.1s burn time isnt short enough to justify the weight), so its mostly 6 ERMLs with 1-2 HLL/ERLL (ERMLs are perfect range wise and weigh nothing for the damage they do). Ofc you do still get alot of gauss vomit (since gauss with energy is almost always more alfa and more sustained DPS with 15-30 PPFLD portion), but things like dakka vomit doesnt really work (dakka requires facetime, and cannot be fired at the same time unless target isnt moving at all). Also, since mid range poke is the dominant strat right now outside of coordinated drops, laser/gauss vomit is the go-to build. Really was sad to see gauss-ppc go, it was the only alternative to laser vomit in the pokefest that MWO has turned into (not that you cant do other things, but brawling just isnt so strong that pokers cant put up a good fight even in shorter ranges).
Unless some massive overhaul is made, i dont think we will even see "mixed" builds appear on the competitive scene outside of a few niche circumstances. Its always better to take a mech thats super focused on one role and does that role better then the competition (whatever it it be it brawling, mid range poking, sniping, ect), and i dont think any thing besides removing the ability to customize the mechs (if that ever happens im done with this game as the main reason i like this over other vehicle shooters is the ability to customize your ride) will actually result in the dissapearance of "boating" as a primary tactic.
Edited by panzer1b, 15 September 2017 - 05:02 PM.
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ACH75, on 13 September 2017 - 08:51 PM, said:
