They had a mechanic on the PTS before The Great Rebalance that made it so lasers did less damage outside a specific range if you didn't have the target locked. Paul thought it was a wonderful idea, and the universal response of "this is a game-killing clusterfuck" was only matched by the mounting of Gauss/Laser meta combos that got around the mechanic at most ranges. It was removed after one PTS round, and never revisited. But the community took to calling it Ghost Damage, because that's what we do
Oh, right, I do remember that now. One of those times they realized alienating their entire playerbase and encouraging Gauss pairing cheese would actually HURT the game (and their revenue). I gotta wonder about Russ, sometimes, man. I actually appreciate the willingness to throw ideas out there, but he gets that mentality...blech. I know it's probably more complicated than that, but he makes it really hard to not see things that way.
Not entirely sure I see the huge advantage of: BJ-3: PPC Velocity Quirk increased to +50% (from 40%). Compared to the massive nerfs hitting every blackjack... The Panther buff is ok for the extra options but realistically it doesn't make a poor mech much better.
Nerfs are good, BJ were stupidly (over)quirked. Actually, I wish they went back to the old quirks, with no structure but with offensive bonus, the BJ (especially the 1X) was great as a glass cannon.
As epikt stated, the BJ was ridiculously overpowered. Now it will tank like a mech of its size should,... PPC wise, the BJ-3 was already strong with the old speed quirk. Now it gets Warhammer style highmounted fast PPC bolts. On a jump capable mech. Need I draw a picture?
Problem with that argument is its just a 10% increase... for which it sacrifices survivability heavily and its supporting energy weaponry is dumped through the floor. Its impossible to argue its a buff which you seem to be trying to do.
Gaaaaah. I'm saving up for a Mad Dog, and today I learn that the Jenner IIC is available for C-Bills.... I want both, but the Mad Dog DOES have more versatility with the omnipod switching. Jenner is half the price though.
Haven't test the BlackJack-3 yet, but the Panther-10K is just great with the new generic PPC quirks. PS: damn those Jenners IIC are squishy.
Yeah, but still a monster. Contrary to the Oxide you can't get away with a XL 280 on the IIC (or any other of them) in my opinion, but rather need the speed granted by a 300. IIC is a murderer with XL300 and 5 SRM4 (did I already present that build here?), allthough the alpha strike of the XL280 / 6 SRM4 builds is nasty for sure.
Too bad then I bought a 280 After buying the Jaguars and lots of duplicate modules I didn't notice I didn't have enough money, so for the moment I only tested the 6 ERMLas variant. Still need to get used to it, and indeed it probably needs more speed.
You can easily use the stock engine (XL 315) on several builds similar to classic IS builds, for example 4x cERSLas + 2 cSRM4 on the IIC-3.
As much as I like my Jenner IIC's they do feel very squishy but perhaps that's just because compared to certain other current lights its bulky and relatively hard to effectively spread damage to a non important location. That said my main Jenner IIC problem is running out of SRM ammo even with 500 rounds.
TBH, it's one of those "better than nothing" things. That said, the BJ-3 was (and still is) one of the best PPC poptarts in the game with its quirks, the 50% velocity increase only makes it better. Of course, multiple people have noted the problem with that: if you need PPC velocity quirks to make PPC builds viable...it means velocity needs a buff across the board, not giving mechs bigger and bigger velocity quirks to make them the only ones worth using the weapon on...
But on the other hand, I think they do that so our beloved 6xPPC monsters won't make a comeback... even with ghostheat firing 6xPPC in pairs of 2 is still pretty deadly if the PPC projectile speed is buffed.
Not necessarily. I'm personally very happy some weapons are only effective on selected mechs. The more they add mechs the more specialisation is needed (Black Knight and Grasshopper, what's the difference? what's the point if you can do the same loadout on all mechs?), and actually I wish it was the case on other weapons too: base weapon is mostly crap, and mech-specific buffs would make it "viable".
I'm all for diversity, but I am a bit jaded over the whole per chassis quirk thing. I'll take advantage of it, but it can too easily turn into a tool for the sale of new mechs. Once they reach their numbers and decide to release a new one they pull out the nerf bat and gimp the mech. I'm not being cynical about it, it's just what I see.