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[Daurock]

After running my second set of Rounds on the PTS, my thoughts -

General Observations -
- Fewer people on test than last time around. May just be the time i'm playing.
- More IS mechs than last time around. Last time, it was roughly 85-80% Clan mechs. probably closer to 50/50 this time

Thougts from playing various mech types -

IS / Clan Brawlers - Much like last time, Massively powerful, probably due to the format. UNLIKE last time, the biggest armored IS mechs aren't quite as armored. This means that my clan brawlers take them on just fine. My MK2 was running quad SRM6, Twin LBX 20 and wrecking face, including the annihilators and fafnirs that came to play.

IS / Clan Dakka - The armor decrease on the many IS dakkaboats made them feel really Similar in Power. My Dakka Whale didn't feel notably worse than my Dakka Anni. So, the armor nerf was probably a step in the right direction.

Clan Laser Vomits - It felt like i was doing quite a bit more damage than the last PTS, nearly the same as I could do on Live. The Duration being longer did NOT have much effect on piling on damage. However, I did note that I was taking quite a bit more return fire than on live, and on the previous test. I don't know whether it is due to the more brawly nature of 4v4, or whether the duration is the main culprit. probably a bit of both. My gut feel is that my clan lasers feel still more powerful than IS ones on this patch, but they are cumbersome to use, and do make the mech feel fragile.

IS vomits - I took less return fire in these mechs than i did in clan one, and due to quirks, felt quite a bit more durable, but I still had to poke a lot more to do similar damage. I will be honest though - these guys probably felt more enjoyable to use than the clan ones, even though I think i may have been less effective overall. Being precise, and being rewarded for it is good, as is being able to maneuver after firing.

Clan Lights and mediums - The MG ones did their MG thing just fine. Possibly even beter than live due to the amount of laserboats around, which are natural food for a mg light, added in with the damage/tic nerfs, which made it hard to actually pile laser damage on said lights. The ones relying on lasers though . . . . just awful. Duration increases hurt these guys FAR more than it does the vomits. IS laser lights just maul these guys now, as opposed to the slight edge they had before.

Overall thoughts -
While the clan lasers on this patch feel much more powerful than found on PTS 1, I didn't feel they were as enjoyable to use as the IS vomits. Given a choice between the two test servers, I'd probably take the clan lasers from PTS 1, with a slight tweak to heat to make them have that as an edge over IS equipment. (on PTS 1, i felt the Clan vomits actually fell behind the IS ones slightly.) The lasers on this test just hurt fast mechs too hard, and don't do enough to bring down the big alpha dealers.