I always used to have at least a pair of MLs on my builds, but I've since just used that tonnage to add more ammo, on the basis that if I run out of ammo, the enemy team is either dead, or close enough to it that a pair of medium lasers isn't going to swing the fight. In my experience, 99% of the time, the extra ammo is worth more than the MLs would have been. In any case, I bring this up because I saw on chat last night where a guy was getting berated for running out of ammo and not having lasers. In my opinion, he just didn't have enough ammo.
Completely agree. A match only lasts so long, so with Backup lasers you have a chance to equip too little ammo to use those ballistics all match, decreasing your presence in the late fights. If you equip enough ammo and then ML you can just equip more ammo to suppress people with ballistics, most ballistic builds (AC40 excluded) are more than capable at range and you only put yourself in danger when you get close enough for the MLs If you have enough ammo for that AND ML, it's time to consider adding more/heavier weapons because you apparently really lack effective tonnage usage to equip those sub-optimal MLs. OFten you can just get another AC2 with mingling around with the armor limits a bit, which is a much better investment than MLs in my opinion due to the range, DPS and harassment. Besides that, most MLs generate heat that AC builds are not equipped for, since the only real heat generating AC is the AC2. AC20s when fired staggered are ridiculously nice to your heat scale, so most builds just run the standard 10 engine DHS. if you add 2/3 MLs to that, it's easily too hot already to use in a pinch.
Depends. Imho, backup weapon as "weapon is will use when i have no more ammo" is useless. Better load more ammo. But backup lasers as "secondary weapon system" like on a 2 gauss and 4 mediums, it's great.
I edited this poll a bit because it really depends on the build. I run a Shadowhawk (and now a HBK as demonstrated in the Benefactors Exclusive video being released later today) that runs 3x AC2s with no backup weapons. I defy anyone to tell me I am not effective in that build scoring 800, 900 and over 1000 damage in it. It has zero backup weapons.
While it varies from build to build, my personal preference is to always have back-up lasers. Ammo runs out, ammo can be destroyed. Having an alternate weapons system is a fair trade in my mind.
I voted yes, if the chassis permits a couple of mlas, I usually take them. Remember what I wrote about my garden hose cat-a1? 11 tons of ammo all shot up and I was in a skirmish (not my fav. game mode.) without being able to win by cap I had to resort to running into/jumping and landing on top of my enemies. While hilarious I really -really- wished I had a pair of mediums then.
Depends on the build and your playstyle. Sometimes you have multiple (maybe hot) ballistics and you have to decide whether to have more necessary ammo or more unnecessary heatproduction. Generally said it's good to have some lasers for Backing up your primary weaponsystems, if you have enough Heatsinks to run it efficiently.
Depends on build. We have numerous builds with a Ilya carrying 3xAC5 and 2-3 MLAS with the goal to be a DPS potato peeler.
Well the ilya just can't fit more ballistics because of hard points. There's the 3xAC5 1xAC2 jager that does great Even with those hardpoints the ilya could (and should) run AC10 instead of AC5 (maybe only swap 1 if you want to retain speed and armor). It depends on the build, but unless I'm running dual gauss/AC40, there's always the option of just fitting more ammo for more spam, or more heavy weaponry if you have enough ammo already. MLs as clutch 'backup' and not as integral part of your damage as often too hot and a waste on those mechs, and should be considered for earlier mentioned better options. MLs equipped as dependable 'secondary weapon system' with enough DHS and usage to classify them as such are in my opinion different and useful.
Depends on the build really. AC boats are probably fairly well off without, given their weapons are fairly multirole and flexible. Pack more ammo, make your shots count more and it shouldn't be a problem. There are some fairly trigger happy people out there and honestly, no amount of ammo would be enough so they might be better off easing off the ballistics and getting a few lasers for the mindless pew pew exchange. But when you start to boat LRMs and PPCs, they do have a distinct minimal range weakness. And it'd be nice to have a few MLas at least.
