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De La Fresniere, on 09 January 2013 - 10:31 AM, said:
Unless there's a Gauss in that section... no, they won't.
Assuming you get a lot of them to hit an exposed section, pellets can and will crit often just because there's many of them, but they won't break anything. They only do 1 damage per crit and those get randomly assigned to any item in that section.
Say you get all ten pellets to hit (you won't, but let's say you do) an exposed section with two items in it. You get 6 crits (2 singles and 2 doubles, pretty average). You've now done 6 item damage, assigned randomly to one of two items. Items have 10 health. First shot, you're pretty much guaranteed to *not* destroy anything (it would take a highly improbable crit rate).
Then you fire again and get all ten pellets to hit a second time in a row (no you won't, but let's say you do). Average 6 crits again. You've now dealt 12 item damage... randomly assigned to two items. What are the odds that 10+/12 pellets all hit the same item? Two full 10-pellet shots right into the same internals and you're still unlikely to have broken anything because they've spread their damage around, even inside the internals.
Sure, now that the items are quite damaged, when you get 10 pellets into those internals for the third time in a row (lol, sure you will), you're very likely to break something... on your third shot, and by now the section's either destroyed already or about to be.
In comparison, an AC/10 has only 42% chance to crit every time it hits, but if it does crit (and hey, 42% is still pretty damn good), it *will* destroy something automatically because it'll do all its damage to one item instead of spreading it around.
Pellet crits are like noobs; they don't focus fire.
You misunderstand me.
If a mech is taking damage, and certain components are already damaged from long range fire (LL, PPC, LRM, etc). That spread will guarantee more damage to those components.
Example: If you're fighting a mech that has taken a beating from you and your team, and he is torso twisting to spread damage away from his exposed areas, you will likely still hit those exposed areas, making critical hits easier and still reducing the health on components.
Whereas if you aim at his exposed CT with an AC/10, and he twists and you hit his relatively fresh LT or arm, that's basically a wasted shot.
However if you aim at the same mech with an LBX lets say 5 out of 10 pellets hit the CT, and cause damage to the engine. You're now a step closer to killing that mech.
It's not a do it all weapon like in TT.
