8 replies to this topic

[Cleverbird]

I'm just curious what the differences between these two are, aside from ammunition/heat.

Do lasers do more damage against armor? Are ballistics better at stripping off parts? Surely there are pros and cons to both?

[Satan n stuff]

Ballistics take time to reach their target and deal damage in a single hit, lasers hit instantly and deal damage over time. For ballistics quick aim is required, for lasers you need to keep the beams on target for as long as possible.

[KageKaze]

Lasers have a "burn" time so they are easier to hit with. The problem is that they do their damage over time and not all in one shot which means you might not do as much damage as your weapons have potential. The benefit here is that it's easier to hit moving targets, especially ones that are traveling at high speed.

Ballistic weaponry have a travel time, but they also do their damage all at once. If you hit someone with an AC/5 or AC/20 you can be sure that 5 and 20 damage all got done to the part that was hit. Autocannons also have mass and weight behind them so they can rock a mech's chassis making it harder for them to aim. A tactic that I've seen is for mechs to load up on smaller AC's and just chain fire to keep enemys from being able to hit.

Missiles have the same effect, making missile weapons a great harrasment weapon, when an emey cockpit is shaking it also has something of a psychological effect making them want to get out of it more, putting them in a hurry and can cause them to make mistakes.

Now when it comes to Pulse Lasers, they have a middle ground between Ballistics and Laser. They have a much shorter "burn" time so it's easier to do full damage if you hit, however they still pulse and spread the damage out a bit which can make it easier to hit fast moving targets.

Those should be the biggest differences. To summarize, Lasers spread damage and are easier to hit with, Ballistics are harder to hit with but do bursts of high damage, and pulse lasers are inbetween.

[Cleverbird]

Thanks! So from a damage perspective, neither gets a bonus or anything on specific targets.

I'll give ballistic weapons a chance, once EU servers are opened (leading due to firing delay + movement speed of target + lag delay = not much fun to use).
Might try pulse lasers

[Teirdome]

I'm going to shamelessly plug my own guide for lasers here:

http://mwomercs.com/...-melt-properly/

KageKaze's summary is spot on though.

[Smudge504]

just be aware that some ballistic weapons have a delayed firing time, but it is very easy to learn how much lead you need over distance. Be aware that A/C rounds drop over distance a good tactic is to place your cross hair on the top of a enemy mech at range, if he is stood still; fire and look for the point of impact (nice big explosion) and adjust your point of aim for a torso hit. Again you'll quickly learn how much you need to adjust to hit targets at great ranges. Also Gaus doesn't fall off like A/C rounds do, they are point and click, they fly pretty straight and true all the way to the target and travel quite a lot faster than A/C rounds too.

[Cleverbird]

Teirdome, on 06 November 2012 - 01:52 PM, said:

I'm going to shamelessly plug my own guide for lasers here:

http://mwomercs.com/...-melt-properly/

KageKaze's summary is spot on though.

Your guide makes me wish I had my Atlas already, so I can run large pulse lasers *sigh*

[Storky]

BIG question for peples living far from server!
Is ping affects on beam and do I have taka a advance for crosshair to compensate it?

[MagicHamsta]

Storky, on 17 November 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

BIG question for peples living far from server!
Is ping affects on beam and do I have taka a advance for crosshair to compensate it?

All weapons be affected by ping.