61 replies to this topic

[Sug]

Anyone else seeing this? Well maybe not dominating but as a pilot of a founder's Catapult I'm having a MUCH easier time getting kills.

Seems like LRMs are much more effective now that people can hit the ECM light mechs.

[KuruptU4Fun]

People are just getting over the ECM power bug, it was used to dominate. But dominating for long periods of time simply gets boring. I'm betting the lagshield has been dealt with in a big way ECM will take another spin on the top for a while, but not as long as previously made.

[Solis Obscuri]

• Some people began to get bored with ECM
  
• Most LRM carriers have TAG now
  
• Teams with ECM scouts/Atlai could always spam LRMs just fine
  
• Those other two Raven/Atlas variants don't acquire their own XP sitting in the hanger

[Nuwa]

Solis Obscuri, on 23 January 2013 - 09:17 PM, said:

• Those other two Raven/Atlas variants don't acquire their own XP sitting in the hanger

naw but I think most people took care of that during double xp weekend. I know I capped out my hunchies and am down to 1 more spider. To bad I couldnt afford the 5k when double xp was going on....QQ

Also I think people are getting bored piloting 1 of the more common ECM variants for weeks on end. I know I havent touched my raven or cicada in a few weeks. Been playing my hunchs and cats mostly with the occasional stalker

[Tennex]

its still very unbalanced in terms of effort on the giving end to land a hit and recipient end to avoid damage.

[Ralgas]

Tennex, on 23 January 2013 - 09:29 PM, said:

its still very unbalanced in terms of effort on the giving end to land a hit and recipient end to avoid damage.

^this, but it's also symptomatic of the lack of an effective fast coms (edit: and a method to censor those that abuse it) method and the lack of cohesion that causes to a team based game. This applies to both sides of this argument

Patience little one, the patches will come

Edited by Ralgas, 23 January 2013 - 09:53 PM.

[Blue Hymn]

Well, instead of lrms dominating against, I've been seeing more of a recurrence of Gauss Catapults, AC20 Catapults, and a lot of ballistics by Cataphracts. Don't know why but - it gets pretty difficult trying to take them down when there's a crapton of them in groups. xP

[pcunite]

WIth the TAG buff LRM's are doing pretty well now. In fact, ECM is the counter to that, sorta because they can't TAG everyone fast enough. When my team does not have ECM, we get LRM'd to death, when we have ECM, its a brawl.

[Joseph Mallan]

Sug, on 23 January 2013 - 08:46 PM, said:

Anyone else seeing this? Well maybe not dominating but as a pilot of a founder's Catapult I'm having a MUCH easier time getting kills.

Seems like LRMs are much more effective now that people can hit the ECM light mechs.

I think and you can quote me on this. We are moving slower. I know I don't feel as fast in my Atlas when I am using 350 engine as I felt before the patch. maybe it is the upgrades in the patch, but I distinctly feel... slower.

[Yokaiko]

pcunite, on 24 January 2013 - 06:47 AM, said:

WIth the TAG buff LRM's are doing pretty well now. In fact, ECM is the counter to that, sorta because they can't TAG everyone fast enough. When my team does not have ECM, we get LRM'd to death, when we have ECM, its a brawl.

Most LRMs deaths are due to people not having the patience to sit behind cover and going out in the open.

...or just target fixating and chasing something into the open.

[Dmoose]

Not dominating but definitely doing better. I think things are just opening up again as people try new builds. I tried TAG on my Commando for the first time last night because a mate wanted to run his LRM mech again.

[GODzillaGSPB]

Yokaiko, on 24 January 2013 - 06:51 AM, said:

Most LRMs deaths are due to people not having the patience to sit behind cover and going out in the open.

...or just target fixating and chasing something into the open.

This!

And I tend to do that, too. I've gotten better, but from time to time I get rained to death just because I thought I'd engage that single Hunchback in the open.

Feels absolute right btw. As it should be.

LRM-boat-pilots should also not be frustrated by the lack of clean hits (because I saw that in another topic). They should know that just by firing those LRMs they suppress the enemy team. Or me. Supressing fire might not get you the kills, but it might get your team the win, which gives more cbills and much more xp!

[FLAKPANZER]

I was actually using my LRM boat to good effect before this latest patch with TAG. I think a lot of people just stopped using them for flavor of the month builds, but they were still effective (if you had scouts with ECM and someone to stay back with the boats and help keep the streak lights from killing you).

No doubt they might be more effective after the patch, but I was still able to get several kills a round with them before.

Edited by FLAKPANZER, 24 January 2013 - 07:23 AM.

[Jason1138]

i got 2 kills last night with 3 LRM salvo's in total, early in the match

it seems like the LRM arc is higher and more of them are hitting the head and torso than before, but maybe that's just my imagination. either way, yes i seem to be getting easier kills with LRMs than i was before. could be missile grouping or arc angle or just better hit detection, i don't know, but something seems to have changed, other than the obvious changes to ecm and tag and all that, i mean

[Mr 144]

Joseph Mallan, on 24 January 2013 - 06:49 AM, said:

I think and you can quote me on this. We are moving slower. I know I don't feel as fast in my Atlas when I am using 350 engine as I felt before the patch. maybe it is the upgrades in the patch, but I distinctly feel... slower.

Maybe...something 'feels' different.

For me there is also a problem with the animations sometimes. Randomly a mech will now 'glide' along instead of the normal walk. They are not static...the legs still 'twitch' but the actual movement is no longer 'stompy'. I had a teamate comment that I was stuck in the shutdown animation also, but moving fine. I'm guessing when this happens to a mech, the hitboxes change as well..i.e. not bobbing and weaving, making spread damage inadvertantly more focused on specific sections.

Mr 144

Edit: and I DID quote you on this

Edited by Mr 144, 24 January 2013 - 07:40 AM.

[Yankee77]

LRMs are certainly not dominating. They are effective if your team is built to use them, namely you load a lot of ECM to counter theirs, along with tag for the brawlers.

But LRMs are still severely affected by ECM. The disrupt effect will still completely neutralize them, which effectively means the only truly useful LRM mech is the DDC, as it can counter the ECM so it can at least resume lobbing missiles.

Before ECM, having a light hit your LRM mech was a major issue, but you at least could still keep firing on another target while your buddies beat away the light mech. Now the moment one comes close you are essentially rendered useless.

Which is really the main issue with ECM IMO: the disrupt effect is not only a massive irritant (messing up your hud), but it also makes LRMs useless, even if you are tagging your target.

If you could still shoot LRMs at targets (and expect them to hit) while being disrupted, LRMs would be in much better shape. As it is, LRMs are a heavy, ammo-intensive weapon system with a 1.5 ton hard counter, that requires a purpose-built team to be made truly effective. That's as nerfed as something can get without being entirely useless.

Solutions? Aside from nerfing the Disrupt effect entirely, I'd say allow TAG to keep locks even when being disrupted. So if I'm tagging a mech while under enemy ECM I should still be able to lob my missiles. If that's not an option, then LRMs should be greatly sped up to make dumbfiring a viable alternative (might even make them speed up only when dumbfired).

That's my 2 cents, at least. Thank you.

[Ngamok]

Nuwa, on 23 January 2013 - 09:22 PM, said:

naw but I think most people took care of that during double xp weekend. I know I capped out my hunchies and am down to 1 more spider. To bad I couldnt afford the 5k when double xp was going on....QQ

Also I think people are getting bored piloting 1 of the more common ECM variants for weeks on end. I know I havent touched my raven or cicada in a few weeks. Been playing my hunchs and cats mostly with the occasional stalker

Yea, I capped out 3 Stalkers during that weekend and got 2 Hunchbacks to Elite and 1 Cicada (yes, the 3M) to Elite. Now have to get them to Master.

[Joseph Mallan]

touche' Mr.144

[Agent of Change]

Lrm's aren't dominating right now as you said... and then retracted and softened. Nice rhetorical technique.

Any way they aren't dominating they are pretty damn well balanced right now considering all the things they have going against them: ECM, giant freaking warnings, slow flight path, gentle flight path, Weight, and Crit slots. Right now if you play smart you are rarely gonna get more than pinged or suppressed by LRMS and if you don't you are gonna get punished by them.

They are now primarilyin the role of making sure you pay for every inch of an 'open ground shortcut' you try to take, also sniper suppression.

[Elkarlo]

Today i went into a brawl with my Jenner JR7-F against a Raven and a Spider, i was supported by a Teammate without HUD in his Spider...

We went out victorious.

Thats why LRM now work again.
Because Hunter Killers with Lasers can now hunt the ECM lights.
One of the Major Reasons of the Drop of ECM lights.
As non ECM lights have now their roles too and are more competitive again.

Thanks PGI for fixing the Netcode !