7 replies to this topic

[Wid1046]

The one weapon that I've noticed is completely lackluster this patch is the clan heavy medium laser due to the large buffs made to the clan ER medium laser. While both HMLs and ERMLs had their cooldown and duration decreased, ERMLs also got a 14.5% decrease to their heat. ERMLs were already more common than HMLs before the change and are now far better.

Heavy mediums do more damage per laser, but are double the slots, have a shorter range, require greater face time, and spread more due to their higher duration. HMLs do have a higher alpha by 1 damage at optimal range (40 vs 39 without ghost heat), but it will be more spread out due to their higher duration and you'll have to risk taking more return fire due to their shorter range and higher duration. Also, since ERMLs have a longer range they will often be doing more damage than the HMLs due to their damage drop off (at 277 meters four HMLs will have already dropped to 39 damage, so ERMLs will have a greater alpha at any range beyond that). Due damage drop off, and being practically identical in alpha in the first place, HMLs really don't have an advantage in alpha.

Heavy medium lasers need a minor buff to either their damage or heat to make them a competitive alternative to ER medium lasers. Even increasing their damage from 10 to 10.5 (their maximum alpha would go from 40 to 42 and they would have a better alpha than ERMLs out to 289 meters) would likely be enough to give them a niche again. Increasing their HSL by one would also work, but I think that would lead to their alpha being too high when combined with other weapons.

[ScrapIron Prime]

I've never thought of them as weapons you boat. ERMLs were better for that even before the patch. Rather, I think their main use is in those builds which have 2 energy hardpoints left over and want to add some more DPS up close. A SRM or SSRM build, for example, really benefits from two heavy mediums.

[Gas Guzzler]

I was thinking along a similar vein of letting you shoot 5 of them without ghost heat, but I brought it up on the Comp discord and was completely outnumbered in those that thought that they would be OP if you could fire more than 4.

[Navid A1]

Gas Guzzler, on 05 May 2021 - 10:40 AM, said:

I was thinking along a similar vein of letting you shoot 5 of them without ghost heat, but I brought it up on the Comp discord and was completely outnumbered in those that thought that they would be OP if you could fire more than 4.

By themselves firing 5xHMLs is fine on most mechs.

The problem begin to show when you pack them with stuff like 3xLPLs on mechs that go 65+ kph.... or ECM lights that can one-hit a heavy in rear CT from 300m+

Edited by Navid A1, 05 May 2021 - 11:19 AM.

[pbiggz]

A reduction in heat would probably be a reasonable change?

[Wid1046]

Navid A1, on 05 May 2021 - 11:18 AM, said:

By themselves firing 5xHMLs is fine on most mechs.

The problem begin to show when you pack them with stuff like 3xLPLs on mechs that go 65+ kph.... or ECM lights that can one-hit a heavy in rear CT from 300m+

I agree that being able to fire 5 HMLs probably wouldn't be the best solution. However what about lowering the heat or slightly upping the damage?

My preferred solution is to go from 10 damage per laser to 10.5. It would bring a full alpha of HMLs up to an alpha of 42 versus the 39 of ERMLs and would also slightly increase the damage/heat ratio.

[Meep Meep]

HML have always been filler weapons for me on mechs with extra energy hardpoints to get a bit more punch. Their other main use is for laser vomit builds with heavy large lasers to bypass ghost heat limits and still keep a huge alpha strike. Since clans have such a large selection of lasers you get more niche fits with them unlike IS who still more or less revolve around mediums and medium pulse for the most part though large lasers did get a nice buff.

[Saved By The Bell]

Well, usable but it still need too much time to shoot.