I'm looking for some insight as to which yall think are better and why. I keep wanting to use the gauss but the 20 beats it on so many important levels...so why should i ever use a gauss?
Less Hitpoints Can blow up and take your Mech out Seriously, it depends on the role... the AC20 is for the brawl, the up close and personal. The Gauss is best used in an arm or with a Std Engine including CASE in the side torso to avoid having your Mech blown to smitherns while you snipe from the distance.
Others have said it but I will reiterate. It all depends on what role you play on the battlefield and actually which type of battlefield can also play a role. Short range city fighting? AC20 Long range open spaces? Gauss Brawler? AC20 Sniper? Gauss Each weapon has it's specific strengths and weaknesses just like each weapon caters to a specific style of combat.
The AC20 is better (more damage) out to 400m, and pairs well with Medium Lasers in my experience. There's nothing like a CTF-1X with AC20 and 5xMLs for short-range potency - and being lower on everyone's target priority than 2xAC20 boomjagers and NxPPC 'Mechs of all kinds. The AC20 causes a greater cockpit shake. Gauss rifles are heavier, but take up less critical room and so can be mounted on a wider variety of 'Mechs. The explosion risk can be overestimated (it happens often, but the damage is quite low). Ammo is usually plentiful and heat contribution virtually nothing. The ammo can be used to crit-pad - whereas AC20 ammo cannot. Because it's used more often at range, my hit chance with a GR is about 5% lower than with an AC20. I think this is because the GR turns itself more towards pot-shots - whereas the AC20 encourages you to get close and make every shot count. I am happy with both - to be honest.
The gun itself is heavier, but does not require any heatsink. AC/20 builds a lot of heat, and finally becomes heavier than the gauss when you added the HS you need. But as already written, the weapons fit two different purposes. I like the brawl and big booms, so I go for AC/20s. But both are good weapons.
Running a gauss in the side torso of a 'mech with an XL engine is a risky move, running it in the arm is a much better option. You need to crit-pad the Gauss (due to its fragility), but not the AC20. When it comes down to it, when you need an AC20, a Gauss just wont cut it and vice versa.
I like the idea... ACGauss 20: Slots: 7 Tonnage: 14 Damage: 20 Heat: 1 Cooldown: 4 Hitpoints: 18 (does not explode) Ammo Type: ACGauss 20 Heat Damage: 0 Rate of Fire: NA Min Range: 0 Long Range: 660 Max Range: 1980 Seems like the perfect blend to me
For me Gauss is much better than AC/20 . It has more pros like Verbosity said above. Plus drop on a big map (+ hot one) and with AC/20 you are sometimes useless.
When you drop in a hot map and your AC/20 is the weapon making you useless, I have to question your heat management or your initial heat treshhold. I was able to run an Atlas RS with 4 LLas and an AC/20 and the weapon giving me the heat issue was not the AC/20. Despite this, I did not feel useless at all. Chain fire, timing and a bit of patience is all you need in those moments when heat hits you. That said, to remain on topic: The Ac/20 does run hotter and has less ammo, but it deals more damage and is by itself an "oh shit" moment when the sound roars over the battlefield. The Gauss has longer range and works oh-so-well with the current ER/PPC + Gauss Meta, but it is such a glass cannon... I have seen an Atlas the other day sporting one and as we took his side off, his CT turned from "slightly orange armour" to "armourless and with orange interior". Granted, that was a flaw in the design, lacking CASE, but none the less... the Gauss has no place on a brawler Mech, with the exception of being arm mounted maybe, because the explosion has the potential to rip half your Mech apart. And believe me, it has happened to my Misery a few times that I have lost my arm due to Gauss Sidetorso explosion, even though the shoulder would have remained intact despite losing the weapon. Am just glad I put CASE in there from start.
lotta input guys, thank you. i guess theres just something psychological about the a/c 20 when it fires with the big noise and shell that i like, and with the gauss sometimes i question whether i even shot the damn thing or not.
i did want to mention on this part though. less heat: both weapons are so low on heat its almost a negligible advantage except on extreme heat builds. more ammo per ton: both weapons r so powerful you dont need a lot of ammo unless you have 2 of them. in most cases the extra weight of the gauss itself makes the "less ammo for a/c 20" part also not valid, imo. longer range: this is the one and only true area i can say the gauss actually shines. unfortunately, the actual projectile speed can make it a bit harder to hit targets the longer the distance. ERPPC fits this area much better i would think ( but i do understand hardpoints so thats not a valid argument, just worth mentioning) aside from the distance, the gauss only actually beats the a/c 20 on how many slots are needed to carry the damn thing. also, the biggest dynamic to also consider is what map we are fighting on. on NO map has the a/c 20 not been helpful for me. i can always find a way to get within range or have them come to me. but with the gauss, half the time theres crap in the way of the long shots or people are taking cover. and once you get in close, the gauss is more of a bane than a boon as you damn near kill yourself just by having it. also for the alpha strikers out there, 2 a/c 20s end up making a MUCH bugger boom than 2 gauss. a 30 point alpha is what i would consider to be a decent to average alpha, while a 40 point bumped it up to above average and it would take 4 PPCs to compete with that strike or a 3rd gauss to gain only 5 points of damage. not worth the weight it would take (and not possible as far as i know atm). now lets add the psychological effect. a giant, loud, visible high damage round will cause people to retreat or find cover, effectively removing them from the fight for a few seconds or killing them, much better than a gauss which half the time due to a low sound, lower visibility projectile people wont even notice so they end up advancing ( which most times people want to advance, but they wont unless someone else does first). Now, the gauss' low sound/visibility can be a good thing as people wont move and keep taking the hits and will lead to a quicker death, BUT, as stated, typically if one person advances and keeps going, the rest will follow. So now its not just that one guy coming but 4. You cant gauss em all down by yourself, although id sure as hell try. again, thank you for all the input guys, and i will for sure try to implement gauss more since so many of yall seem to like it. I just wanted to throw my arguments FOR a/c 20 since most people seem to be defending the gauss.
Buy a Jager and mount one of each! My Firebrand often dishes out 600-1100 damage with: 1. AC/20 28 rounds 2. Gauss 40 rounds 3. 3 ML XL225 Why limit yourself to one?
