i do not agree with this....
Slepnir is unfortunately MC so even tho he has +/-ok mounts he is not gonna be in everyone's dropdeck
Also... how is IS supposed to keep up with clan in range?
Battlemaster gives 10% range quirk but Clans have quirks too for their lasers / energy so lets look at flat values first
Still IS gets ERL's with- 9 damage
- 8.75heat
- 675/1350 range
- 5tons
- 2crit slots
While clan gets ERL's with- 10.75 damage
- 11.8heat
- 740/1480 range
- 4tons
- 1crit slot
It does not seen like IS can compete in any way above 700 meters due to damage falloff
Also clan gets lighter and smaller weapons, and that means that You can stack more heat sinks, so weapons being hotter is not that strong argument here
Above a battlemaster with 6 ERL's was shown on a picture, lets compare than 6 Er larges of IS and Clan (i am aware you can shoot 2, not 3 or you wil get ghost heat, but bare with me)
IS gets ERL's with- 54 damage
- 52.5heat
- 675/1350 range
- 30tons
- 12crit slots
While clan gets ERL's with- 64.5 damage
- 70.8heat
- 740/1480 range
- 24tons
- 6crit slot
SOooo.... Thats when You snipe and messed up as clan and got third sed of ERL's instead of ER-PPC for example (and those deal 5 more damage than our doing same heat.... they really do break the form with higher heat in clan tho keep higher damage).
You are stil not in a bad spot
You get bonus 6 slots and tons, so 6 heat sinks / 3 doubles (cauuse IS double heat sinks are twice the size and same efficiency)
Moreover around 1000 m range You vastly outdamage IS
Above 1200 we only mark You doing about 1 damage per ERL... and above 1350 IS gets shot at for free....
Question is how much damage this suboptimal build could do at that range
Hmm---about 3~2 per ERL...so yes, it is not best... but You keep that advantage of damage that You start acumulating as soon as we are (no quirks counted) 1500m away, and through poke You get 12-18 damage per salvo in ranges avove our range
Than still keep advantage til we get to range of 675 when finally we get to use our lasers in full.... still we got damaged a lot on aproach and often it already is a 9v12 cause the more sturdy mechs we have the slower they are, so we can not counter this by armor or the speed cause we have to sacrifice one for the other.
ahhh last thing... clan stil gets to have backup weapons or heat efficiency cause double heat sinks and get to move faster THX to XD without risk of dying to shoulder kill.
Say what You want, but THIS is not "IS being able to keep up on long range"