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BS Info: Ive been playing since before Founders Beta. I have played all mechs types since, excluding a few made this year, and after playing this most recent PTS all day long (pissing off my fiance in the process) and I have to say I like what I see. I have tried 20 different mechs* with different set ups, movement types, speeds, etc.
These are my notes:
Mobility: Those that have been changed work wonderfully. Assaults can torso twist as they should, Mediums and Lights are moving enough to be harder to hit but not hard enough that they are impossible to hit. The ones I noticed the best out of the 20 I tested were: Stormcrow, Jenner, Blackjack, Summoner, BloodAsp, and Firestarter.
Would Change: Helping a few more mechs (Mostly lights and mediums) on both IS and Clan with increased mobility would be great. It really helped balance the mech fighting.
Heatsinks: For the most part a wonderful change. The light mechs can fire more with their less firepower, and the heavier ones can still fire Alphas but then, after the first or second shot, something magical happens...you cant Alpha until you fully cool. Some might not like this, I know, but it made it feel more like Mechwarrior/Battletech. You can still Alpha, but now you have to tactfully plan that Alpha, just how Mechwarrior and Battletech was normally intended. Assaults are still stronger but they are now closer to the lighter mechs in the sense of balance.
Would Change: Both kinds of IS Hinksinks need a little more buff, From the players I encountered on PTS we all agreed it was just a tad off to balance them close to clan. Very small buff needed.
META MECHS: Besides adjusting the way I played with them, not much weaker. Just different. I am noticing instead of a "94 Alpha Mech", It drops to around 70-80 Aplha. Im ok with that. That was the point, and with the mobility it helps these mechs to survive a little better.
Weapons: I played with all that I could out of 20 mechs. Got close, but not all. So here we go:
IS Lasers: Work great. No issues. Work a lot better infact. 6 ERM are amazing.
Clan ER Lasers: 6 ERM is the max you will equip before hitting 80-90% heat, no need ghost heat anymore. Its at a good place. Same with ERLL. No need Ghost heat. Good place overall.
Clan Heavy Lasers: TRY 4 WITH 10 EXTRA HEATSINKS! It will fully cool before you fire again. I think this is awesome. Its 40 damage with no heat issues at all. I think its a cool balance. The HL is fine too. Saw no real issues. Needs more testing before I am solid on what I think.
IS/Clan PPCs: All kinds worked better. I like that. I will explain after Weapons why, but they are at a great place. Heavy PPCs worked very nice since you cool faster.
Flamers: BROKEN good/bad. Need to be changed. Too much heat both given and received. Maybe its time to reduce and give it a DPS of 1 dmg again, or something. Need change.
LRMs/ATMs: First, LRM5s...WOW! Actually useful for both sides (if you are not sitting in the back and boating them) since you can deal constant light damage. This is good since all other ones CANNOT DO THIS ANYMORE! This makes me happy. Im ok that LRMs over the 5s cannot hit you constantly forever. They have to stop to let that cool down happen. This means you might get hit by a huge amount of them at once, but then they have to cool down as you run for cover. THAT IS A PERFECT direction to help stop the LRM spam. They lose lock faster because they have to cool down first. ATMs seem to be in a good place, no real loss.
Clan UACs: WAY BETTER and super good too. No heat issues at all. maybe too good?
IS UACs and RACs: HORRIBLE. They heat up TERRIBLE and need help. The UAC/10 is the worst. Dont use it. You will get nothing out of it besides of the Lava in your cockpit.
MRMs: No real issues, a little better but not by much.
Heavy Gauss w/ Lasers: Same but a little lower damage overall because the lasers need to cool more and so it actually hurts the Heavy Gauss a little since you only want to fire then pull away.
My Personal Thoughts: The Snipers are better, but so are the Brawlers and Skirmishers. Example: The snipers can really get their hits in (like with PPCs) but now the Brawlers and Skirmishers will wreak the snipers if they get close. Its because snipers can fire once, hide, cool, then fire again better than before. Against a Brawler they cannot deal enough in a short amount of time. Where the Brawler does not need as much time to cool with Brawling weapons so they can deal more up close than before. Similar to that, it seems a lot of different gaps in what is good to bad balance is getting better, AKA proper Balance with these changes in this PTS.
That was my day. I have gotten a lot of different but positive views on this PTS and am glad PGI listened to the Players on this one since I have hear these options for change from Players for over a year now. Perhaps we can get more of what we want...if we ask nicely.
*The 20 I used: Stormcrow, JR7-D, PIR-2, MK2-DS(G+ERM,META)**, BJ-1X, Nova(ERS,META), ShadowCat(ERLL,META), ARC-5W, ANH-1X(HG,META), STK-M, IV-FOUR(MRM,META), Summoner(PPC,META), FS9-FS, DireWolf, CP-S(UAC-5, Meta), BAS-A, SNV-A, WHM-BW, UZL-3P, HBK-IIC-A.
**META: One of the Meta builds used commonly.
