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Personally, I like medium to heavy mechs with close range capability. I've been developing my skills and tactics towards this end. It started with the Yen-Lo-Wang purchase and continues through elite level Centurion mech trees. My Yen-Lo-Wang is only about 15k from getting the Master Slot.
During my weapons load out tests in pick-up groups the easiest time I have is with the missile boat centurion formula. In fact, it's stupid easy. Downright dumbing, if you ask me. In my 3 missile slot Centurion I routinely score 300-500 damage sitting back. In my SSRM and/or AC/20 mechs, I'm lucky to get 150 before my mech gets blown apart after a few salvos. Heck, my Yen-Lo-Want has Ferro armor and the buffed endo-skeleton. It just doesn't make enough of a difference. I might be able to survive 4 salvos instead of 3.
I realize there's a lot of people out there dealing upwards of 1500 damage in missile boats who think they are absolutely the bomb at this game. Nothing could be further from the truth. Missile boats are the easiest mechs to pilot and deal damage with. On a scale of 1 to 10, I put the skillz level needed to be about a 2.
You sit there 1000 meters off, waiting for a target lock that barely moves at that distance. Seriously, you're targeting window is absolutely HUGE compared to a close-range mech. You even get a nice handy red bulls eye to tell you when to press fire. It shouldn't be that easy.
This is where I feel changes are necessary. It's not necessarily the damage dealt per missile that is problem, but the extremely small targeting window close range mechs have to deal with when they do make into the 250m range.
The best way to balance this, in my opinion would be to make close range ballistic weaponry more accurate, a close range artemis, if you will that levels the playing field a bit. The amount of twisting and turning necessary to get critical hits just takes too much time when you have an active defender. If this game mechanic were changed somehow, perhaps allowing a greater sized chance of a close range ballistic shot actually landing even if your cross hairs are off as you get closer, it would even out the odds for brawlers and other close range fighters who in the current patch have little chance other than serving as flanking, spotters (if you're fast enough) and LRM fodder.
Anyone who thinks they've developed "elite" skillz in MWO playing a missile boat are really fooling themselves. You've got the easiest job in the entire game.
My only real counter as a medium mech driver is to load up either missiles if I've got that sort of variant, or load up the biggest engine I can buy and run like crazy grabbing as many spotting assists as possible before my mech falls apart. So far, even in a losing fight, I can usually rack up 200-300 exp using this approach. But I'd rather be able to use my mech like it was designed: brawl.
Edited by Swervedriver, 08 November 2012 - 07:39 AM.
