Soeth, on 14 May 2013 - 03:28 PM, said:
Possessing mathematical superiority =/= lacking skill.
If anything, it means more skill because good players look for mistakes in their playstyle and seek to correct them to become better. For instance, maybe they notice that they don't check behind their back often enough and thus get ambushed often--in this case, they would pay more attention to their surroundings to improve their skill. Or, perhaps they run off without their team too often. Or maybe they stand out in the open too long. Maybe they notice that their aim is too twitchy so they try to practice stabilizing it. In games with customization, one of those mistakes is not taking the best gear for the situation--don't bring a knife to a gunfight, in other words. Let's look at the BJ:
Blackjacks seem to have a body type optimized for sniping. There are currently other mechs in-game that are better at sniping than the Blackjack; namely the Cataphract, Stalker, and Highlander. Sniping with a BJ gives you fewer weapons than those aforementioned heavy and assault mechs. The advantage of somewhat smaller hitbox size is diminished due to the sniping playstyle providing ample cover to hide behind--which offers more reliable protection than being small. Furthermore, mediums in general are physically too large--a Centurion for instance is the size of a heavy! The BJ probably won't be smaller by large enough of a margin for its body size to make any significant impact. They are very close in size to heavy mechs, but can't carry nearly as much armor. As a result, you will die faster to both snipers and flankers (lights in particular will love your weak armor). Taking a lighter mech doesn't free up tonnage or anything else for your team, so in a nutshell it is a waste to use it when there are other mechs that do the same job better.
If you try to use the Blackjack for brawling, then you won't have enough armor, firepower, or speed to make a tangible impact.
TL;DR: Using the Blackjack in MWO's current circumstances is very much similar to bringing a knife to a gunfight. The "you're a bad player if you can't win a gunfight with knives" argument (strongly exaggerated, you didn't say that explicitly but it was fairly implied) is seriously annoying. Note that this doesn't make it impossible to r@pe face with knives in a gun zone, it just makes it impractical and unlikely--especially when your enemy plans on making very good use of his guns.
Soeth, on 14 May 2013 - 03:28 PM, said:
Cheers-
The SHS question was intended to probe just how dedicated to the "play 4 fun" cause you were. There are seriously some people out there who say that SHS fit their playstyle better than DHS and I wanted to see if you fit into that demographic (apparently not, I would've had some serious fun linking exaggeratedly horrible builds on Smurfys).
Edited by FupDup, 14 May 2013 - 04:29 PM.