16 replies to this topic

[DrCyanide]

I'm looking at smurfy an comparing SRMs to SSRMs, but there's got to be something I'm missing. SRMs deal more damage and weigh less than their SSRM counterparts, apparently with no listed drawbacks. SRM + Artemis costs 1 more slot than the SRM/SSRM and requires the Artemis targeting installed on the mech to give you better clustering.

What's the detail that makes this all click, because right off I'm not seeing any reason for SSRM to exist.

Edited by DrCyanide, 29 March 2018 - 09:39 AM.

[Eisenhorne]

SSRM's lock onto a target and home in on it, SRM's do not, they are dumbfired. You cannot fire SSRM's without a lock. This means SSRM's are useless if they are countered by ECM.

SSRM's cannot target specific components, when you fire them they just hit random areas on the enemy mechs, but they deal good damage. All this adds up to SSRM's being best against light mechs that are hard to hit normally, and SRM's are way better if you have good aim or are firing at large stationary targets (like assault mechs).

Edited by Eisenhorne, 29 March 2018 - 09:44 AM.

[Koniving]

Wtihout going into lore and what's completely missing from MWO that justified some of the differences...

Streaks lock on, and have almost 100% chance of hitting... Probably like 95% if you factor in all possible scenarios like obstacles and other issues (such as bugging out into spinning until out of fuel).

The "Streakspin"



SRMs are, in MWO, basically rocks.
And Artemis in MWO basically makes SRMs.... a tighter spread of rockets.

This is NOT how they are supposed to work according to the source material, however this is effectively how they have always worked in non-pen-and-paper-or-board "Mechwarrior" game titles.

But as I said I'm not gonna go into all the stuff that's so wrong about it all. Lets just say what we have in MWO should have been this which is an ammo type for LRM and SRM launchers...and is one of many things confirming that SRMs had basic tracking capabilities (as why would you create a dumb fire ammo type that trades tracking for 3 damage per missile when you already have missiles that according to MWO have no tracking for 2+ damage) and isn't "dumb" in its source material; the Kintaro's entire design revolves around SRMs that track a NARC missile beacon but in MWO, since SRMs can't track any target let alone a missile beacon...it just doesn't make sense here).

Edited by Koniving, 29 March 2018 - 10:00 AM.

[Damnedtroll]

Clan ssrm have longer range, they are tailored to hunt light or medium mech. But you need to bring an active probe and at least a level 1 targeting computer for them to be useful. A UAV is useful too. They spread damage a lot but multiple lauchers can wreck most light in one shot or two. Still most of the time SRM will bring more damage but you need good aim for light.

For IS, SSRM have the same range than standard SRM and for the weight it's a lot better to take SRM with artemis. Still pairing ssrm with lrm can be interesting for an lrm boat has backup short range weapons.

I have a Catapult with twin alrm15 with 2 SSRM2 and two medpulses. Light are surprised when they come close for an easy kill and are shredded with constant fire. It's my only IS lrm carrier and i use it on the front line.

Edited by Damnedtroll, 29 March 2018 - 10:00 AM.

[DrCyanide]

Eisenhorne, on 29 March 2018 - 09:43 AM, said:

SSRM's lock onto a target and home in on it, SRM's do not, they are dumbfired. You cannot fire SSRM's without a lock. This means SSRM's are useless if they are countered by ECM.

SSRM's cannot target specific components, when you fire them they just hit random areas on the enemy mechs, but they deal good damage. All this adds up to SSRM's being best against light mechs that are hard to hit normally, and SRM's are way better if you have good aim or are firing at large stationary targets (like assault mechs).

Interesting. I started looking into missile options while considering ways to customize my Raven 3L. One of the things I want to try is Stealth Armor, but I know that interferes with your ability to get a lock. Is the Stealth Armor sensor range still good enough to use SSRMs or is that a case where you'd 100% want SRMs?

(I'm currently running my Raven with 3x ERLL, so this is going to be a very different play style. Any advice is welcome.)

Edited by DrCyanide, 29 March 2018 - 10:07 AM.

[Throe]

[removed by user]

Edited by Throe, 05 October 2023 - 11:43 AM.

[Tier5ForLife]

A tag is needed.

[Zergling]

Primary reason to run Streaks: to hunt light mechs.

[jss78]

You gain lock on ability in exchange for extra weight.

You'll need some method of cutting through enemy ECM, to get a lock. Ways to achieve this are Active Probe, ECM (switched to counter mode), UAV's, TAG, PPC hits ... Some carry TAG, prefer to just run a BAP.

Honestly I don't run Streak SRM's a lot. I find them frustrating especially when you get close, where you could just plow those regular SRM's to a specific part of the 'mech.

I like Streaks on 'mechs which have lots of arm lasers, but missiles on the torso. (For example some Shadow Hawks and Kintaros). I find these 'mechs awkward with regular SRM's because I can use the arm reticle for lasers, but need to wrestle that torso reticle to bear to aim the SRM's, With streaks I can use the arm reticle to aquire Streak locks and become totally independent of the torso reticle -- it translates to a very enjoyable agility.

Edited by jss78, 01 April 2018 - 11:51 AM.

[Rogue Jedi]

DrCyanide, on 29 March 2018 - 10:06 AM, said:

Interesting. I started looking into missile options while considering ways to customize my Raven 3L. One of the things I want to try is Stealth Armor, but I know that interferes with your ability to get a lock. Is the Stealth Armor sensor range still good enough to use SSRMs or is that a case where you'd 100% want SRMs?

(I'm currently running my Raven with 3x ERLL, so this is going to be a very different play style. Any advice is welcome.)

with Stealth armor active you cannot get locks and you cannot normaly be locked ^{(I think a TAG or NARC on you enable you to be locked if you have stealth armor active)}.

[Tier5 Kerensky]

If you got perfect aim SRMs are superior, even Clan Streaks with their better range are weaker than SRM. Most people don't got perfect aim.

SRM are much better with brawlers, they allow you to torso twist and fire much faster, than streaks requring staring at the enemy for longer. SRM also work great in combination of particular LBX10 and LBX20 and other fast firing fast cycling brawling weapons.

Anytime there is a event, particular for FP event, requiring a fairly good match score, people then to switch to streaks as they allow farming damage and thus match score much easier. Not really needed with QP events as there's always bigger slow targets around which won't benefir from the tracking of streaks.

DrCyanide, on 29 March 2018 - 10:06 AM, said:

Interesting. I started looking into missile options while considering ways to customize my Raven 3L. One of the things I want to try is Stealth Armor, but I know that interferes with your ability to get a lock. Is the Stealth Armor sensor range still good enough to use SSRMs or is that a case where you'd 100% want SRMs?

Steal armor allows you to lock, it will however cut your sensor range down to 250 meters I recall. Enough for streaks, not enough for LRMs. I don't know if it's hard cut or can it be further increased by probe or skill nodes.

It will also prevent you from getting targetting data from friendlies. (or possibly friendlies further away, but I think it will prevent it all)

But, streaks and slow and hot. Using stealth armor same time is kinda pointless, because your cooling is disabled. You will quickly get too much heat and firing even two full volleys(of typical 4 launchers) will take alot of time. While you can use stealth armor to charge with SRMs it's about useless to try to do the same with streaks, and even with SRMs you need to turn off the stealt to continue attacking, or run away.

[Alexander of Macedon]

Also worth noting that right now SRMs are in a bad spot and have awful spread even with art, while streaks just got a buff to their component targeting. In the current balance situation you're better off just running MRMs if you want dumbfire since they at least get more range, damage, and cursor tracking to make up for their spread.

[Tesunie]

Damnedtroll, on 29 March 2018 - 09:59 AM, said:

But you need to bring an active probe and at least a level 1 targeting computer for them to be useful.

Umm... Why would you need a level one TC? A TC does nothing for SSRMs as far as my knowledge goes... (Hint: If you are look at "Increased data gathering" or "increased lock on time", it doesn't effect "missile lock on speed". It's a common misconception.)

[Deeber]

Teer Kerensky, on 01 April 2018 - 04:52 PM, said:

If you got perfect aim SRMs are superior, even Clan Streaks with their better range are weaker than SRM. Most people don't got perfect aim.

To add to this, SSRMs can be more effective than SRMs if you have a poor network connection, in my experience at least. The homing capability of the SSRM gives you some chance to hit ... whereas the accuracy of the SRM depends heavily on both your aim and the state of your network connection. If you have a fast, reliable network connection, then SRMs would probably serve you better than SSRMs.

[Dragonporn]

I wouldn't say your own connection quality is everything. More like ping of opponent can screw you over, some server side hiccups and etc, so you can easily "miss" even when you landed perfect shot and have very good connection with SRMs.

It really depends on build. With any light I'd be golden with SSRMs. Plus count less ammo needed, since you won't be wasting it, like with SRMs. On the other hand, with some beefy brawlers, when you go face to face and need strong alpha, so SRMs might be a very good option, although, I would still recommend MRMs, or at least LBX, in case you don't have access to the former.

[NeoCodex]

Streaks serve as a supportive anti-light weapon, they're not really your typical brawling weapon.

Say, if you're doing a brawler build with LBX then you'd minmax that and go with regular SRM+artemis for maximum brawl punch where you can still target components and your streaks also won't be countered by ECM.

And because streaks get countered by ECM so easily, they don't boat as well as SRMs can. Where a full-on SRM splat build is always a viable option, going full streak is a bad idea. So, mostly a supportive weapon, specifically against lights.

Usually when you choose streaks, it's a good idea to just make it an anti-light focused build; fore example a combination of medium pulses and streaks works very well, and then you just play as that role and protect your heavies from light flanks.

When streaking I mostly use them on the Clan mechs, as theirs have longer range (360 vs 270) but do come with longer cooldown, so they can be used as a medium ranged missile poak, that can get a more reliable hit at longer ranges than regular SRMs. I don't see much point in IS streaks with 270 range, I just use regular SRMs on the IS mechs instead. But on the Clan side, it's quite a different weapon.

Edited by NeoCodex, 03 April 2018 - 12:43 AM.

[Tesunie]

NeoCodex, on 03 April 2018 - 12:35 AM, said:

And because streaks get countered by ECM so easily,

Take an Active probe. It will counter a single ECM nearby. If you are being swarmed and effected by more than a single ECM, you probably aren't going to have a nice day.

ECM is so easy to counter now that any SSRM based mech (boat or not) should have little difficulty getting locks, especially if you also too Artemis with your SSRMs (which will reduce your missile lock on times). It can get even faster if you also took a TAG too...