John McClintock, on 22 April 2019 - 07:58 PM, said:
I'd sooner delete my head armor (not a fan of that) and a point from each arm to get that extra half ton of ammo, then lose my two heavy mediums, or even drop a couple machine guns for that extra half ton. I'm running 2.5 tons of ammo anyways, that extra half ton vs the increased range of the heavy mediums? I don't think so. The three heavy smalls do 0.5 less alpha (not a big deal) and radically decrease your tactical flexibility (that's more important). I don't get how people can justify all short range builds outside of Solaris, when there are SO many opportunities to do damage at mid range, and not be stuck doing nothing while waiting for a good opening.
The reason is that, on the PIR-1 at least, the MGs- making up the bulk of your tonnage and crit investment in weapons- should be your
main weapon, with the lasers only serving as backup. HSL is favored in PIR-1 builds because it has better synergy with MGs than HML does- its optimal range is nearly identical to the MG,
3xHSL is heat-neutral with DHS (at least since the dissipation changes), and it consumes less of the tonnage which should be devoted to MG ammo. Waiting for a good opening is pretty much the PIR-1's ideal MO. It is rather terrible at fighting other lights, or mediums for that matter, so it is best served staying out of the fight completely until either one of two things happens: a lone heavy or assault gets isolated from its team, or a larger engagement begins where the Piranha can attack and sustain fire more or less unopposed.
Most of the people I know who run the PIR-1 with any regularity in high-level play do so with 3.5-4.5t of ammo... and they usually go through all of it. Even though that only leaves 2-3 HSLs as backup, by that point they've dished out 800-1k damage and crippled or killed several heavies or assaults, precisely because they waited for the best possible moment to attack. The PIR-1 is not a good laserpoking 'Mech- only one of its hardpoints is decently placed for that playstyle, and it has the weakest mobility stats of any 20-tonner.
Can it do well with a build and playstyle relying more on lasers? Well... yeah. Anything with energy hardpoints
can do laserpoke. It's just not what the variant does best, and you can get
much more out of the 'Mech when you play to its strength: sustained close-range DPS. That means being very, very patient.
Poking at range with a PIR-1 often means taking hits that will prevent you from taking greater risks for MG damage opportunities... and while a pair of HML can potentially land you 20 damage, you won't be getting any use out of your MGs at safe poking range, and that means you're wasting the greater part of your firepower. Think of it this way: HML takes ~7 seconds to fully cycle, unskilled, and no less than 6s fully skilled out with cooldown and duration nodes. In the same time 2xHML can cycle to throw 20pts of damage downrange, 12xMG can take a leg or a rear CT- especially stacked with a few HSLs. Better to wait on good pounce opportunities for crippling or killing attacks three or four times per game, than to chip away at the enemy one poke at a time and only use your
full potential as a finishing move later on. It is the epitome of a high-risk, high-reward 'Mech.
Anyway, that's the rationale behind running shorter-ranged lasers alongside the MGs.
...which is not to say that HML doesn't have a place on the PIR-1. But, when used, it should be used to supplement the MGs and maximize
their killing power, rather than treating the MGs as secondary to the lasers. Using a single HML in the CT, for example, is a good way to shoehorn a
full 4t of ammo into the PIR-1 for sustained output while maintaining a good initial armor-stripping burst. A single HML is also heat-neutral even with
single heat sinks, so once you go full engage you can basically just tape down your fire button until something dies.
With 2xHML, you might consider going to
LMGs instead of MGs, since their greater range (250 optimal to the HML's 270) and higher ammo-per-ton would offer better support for the lasers. At safe poking ranges, LMGs can actually contribute alongside the HMLs, whereas standard MGs will be doing next to nothing that far out. It is always better to try to range-match your weapons, when possible, rather than have
any of your weapons sitting idle while the others do all the work.
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