I'm going to go out on a limb and guess this is better as something like an arm/leg stripper. Either long range harassment or taking off the weaker limbs to make stuff less powerful as it comes in to fight your allies. Maybe not kill, but disable. Plus it can be easy to strip arms with the normal turn and run method of avoiding stuff at range. If not you could core some armor bits for others. That or really weird cockpit kills at range to anything with a super large one.
This could also be good at legging things at extreme ranges and running if they are not paying attention and then leave it to others. Sort of a hit and run on things in a battle. Especially against assault mechs.
If you stick to things the 43-86 damage could cause long term harm to it might be useful. You only need to core or kill a leg once on a mech and leave it to die. Last checked(albeit 3 years ago.) leg stripping was not as common as it could be! 8)
If not light mech killing duty. 86 damage to chest of a light mech at range does not require a lot of accuracy to severly expose/disable them or outright kill them.
So, a specialist in attacking certain targets/mech parts and picking your fights well and being sneaky? If the target can't move fast he can't get into cover fast either! ;d (or back into it)
Again, the 1800 max range and 43 damage could mess up a light mechs day. And it could be fun and effective to be a counter to your counter.
I'm assuming you use other mechs as distrations. You only need to get in so much attack time to do harm. If you mitigate damage and then fire between shots you can get in most or all of that 4.32 seconds of fire then move(or only partial fire when needed.). Depending on the CD. Or just bail when needed. I would think most quick match games it's easy to find distracted units though.
BTW, you can forward tank by looking at the enemy and swinging about 45 degress to each side instead of 90 degress to the arm and spread across the CT,RT,LT,RA,LA and it mitigates damage better(particularly on mechs with long forward facing arms that get in the way*wink*wink*). This is faster to return fire and it spreads across more components(Takes less time to move back 45 degrees than 90 degrees). The SNV is good at this. And when you do that it gives a nice long time afterwords to return fire. Good against single targets and most players as they have no ability to straggle damage or counter it inteligently. And it can help mitigate against multiple targets easily if you average out the damage well. I use this tactic with mechs that can quickly kill enemies to remove the incoming damage to tank multiple oponents. But it's also good for long range and this type of weapons build if used correctly. It can give you the fire time by waiting for them to fire at you, focusing on spreading damage properly across all 5 components, then only firing between opponents shots. It's good for long duration stuff as it fits between the CD of a lot of nastier weapons. If not you can can only fire 6 shots when needed and use surprise or other elements to get in all the damage. It's just a matter of being smart about it.
If you use those methods with a mech with a more focused purpose it could be effective. Coring them then running could be better than trying to kill them. Or legging as many people as possible could be better than sticking out fights.
And you don't need all 8 weapons all the time. But it gives you the option.
Edited by Arugela, 28 April 2020 - 08:11 AM.