TheArisen, on 26 January 2019 - 01:38 PM, said:
I didn't miss it, that was generic discussion not specific to the DFire. In 2019, the DFire has little going for it over existing 'Mechs and to try to bill it as if it did is being dishonest. Half of the discussion in that PM exchange is now obsolete, since we aren't stuck with XLs, Gauss+PPC is irrelevant, the skill tree is a thing, hardpoint-efficient weapons for IS now exist, lighter 'Mechs often have as much armor as heavier 'Mechs, and the Clans have been nerfed three times over.
As for whether or not this exchange is the only reason for pushing the DFire, who cares? It is the reason you made the first public posting for it, despite annoyingly diluting that thread supposedly focused on being top-meta IS with less-than-meta IS alternatives that we said should not be there.
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We hardly focused on the Nightstar, only briefly comparing it to the Saggy and KGC. There was more talk about big dakka assaults like Thunderhawks and Gunslingers, Lights, and useless YouTubers.
Also said in that exchange that there were alternatives to new 'Mechs (in that specific instance, the Dragoon) in variants for existing chassis we don't have. That fact hasn't changed, is relevant now more than ever, and is coming back to haunt this thread.
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If you can see it in a WHM, you can hit it with the torso mounts, they are that high. The total amount of 'Mech mass exposed is what matters and, looking at all renditions of the DFire, it's not going to expose any less of itself than the WHM.
The fact that you need to leave your arms armored for the firepower is doing more harm to this 'Mech than the Warhammer having a cockpit a little bit over its otherwise superior torso weapon placement.
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That's an XL, though. There is a reason almost nobody uses an XL in a GaussHammer and those that do are either top 1% clubbing seals or easily killed. I am not going to advocate a 'Mech with long STs running a slow XL just to get a barely-better alpha than an LFE280 Warhammer, to say nothing of the fact that pure lasers are more effective than Gauss+Lasers for both Clans and IS and, for IS, can easily exceed the alpha you get with Gauss+Vomit on the Heavy class in alpha size.
Pure lasers are so much more effective that the mount height doesn't even matter when comparing against Gauss+lasers. IS lasers burn so fast that the exposure time needed to acquire a target and spool a Gauss for it is a hindrance and missing a pre-spool means your lasers-only shot loses the trade.