BSW-P1 "Mid Range Madness" (6xMRM10, LE300)

20 full salvo's is a bit too few for most games imo, especially without backup weapons. With skills it's 24, which is still a bit short of my comfort zone.

I've downgraded the engine (LE285 or LE280 are both great value-for-tonnage if you're not using the engine heat sink slots) and upped the ammo. Too much ammo could make you too explodey, so I also put in an extra DHS to help with the heatmanagement, though chainfired groups should make it relatively easy to handle. I might even suggest just 2 chainfiregroups like an ERLL boat,

 

If you fire them staggered, you still use the same amount of ammo as when firing them as an alpha, while generating less heat. MRM10s can be fired with up to 4 at a time, so I'd personally just get a group for alpha Torso and alpha Arms, or chainfire both groups and fire them together for 2 pods fired at the same time.

 

Noticed people running builds like this in QP matches, with multiple MRM10s, and I felt the need to point something out. This thread seemed as good a place as any.

Normally you'd expect that running multiple smaller versions of a weapon type should yield some advantage over running fewer, larger versions. If you look at LRMs, SRMs, Streaks, etc. you will generally always notice some sort of bonus or advantage to running the smaller versions. Usually this involves reduced cooldowns, at the cost of damage/heat efficiency, and/or increased damage/ton efficiency.

In the case of MRMs, however, that is technically not the case; there is a certain argument to be made for running MRM10s in certain, very specific circumstances; but normally, it doesn't seem worthwhile.

(All MRMs have the same range and velocity, so I won't address those aspects here.)
I'll compare 4xMRM10 to 1xMRM40. This amounts to the same damage, at the same range, at the same velocity, for the same weight/tonnage.

Now here's how they differ:

• 4xMRM10 = 8 slots ------------------------ 1xMRM40 = 7 slots
• 4xMRM10 = 16 heat ----------------------- 1xMRM40 = 11.5 heat (this is the big one, in my opinion)
• 4xMRM10 = 4.3 sec. cooldown ------------ 1xMRM40 = 4.75 sec. cooldown (significant, but minor)

So here's the thing. You run 4xMRM10, and you're producing 4.5 more heat with every volley, than if you ran a single MRM40. And the only real advantage you have is the slightly lower cooldown, which is nice, but once you reach your heat-capacity, will make almost no difference, as the determining factor for your DPS in that scenario will still come down to heat efficiency, which (remember) the MRM40 still does better.

So the takeaway, at least for this build, is that it's probably more worthwhile to take a single MRM40 and 2xMRM10, rather than 6xMRM10. Although this will affect the cooldowns, it will increase the heat efficiency of the build rather significantly. And it won't even affect the ghost-heat on an alpha, since MRM10 penalties are higher than MRM40 penalties anyway.

In the end, I'm not criticizing the build; I just wanted to point out how inconsistent PGI has been with these weapons, and how it's actually not always better to use the smallest when possible.


There is one obvious exception to all this, and that's where a given build lacks sufficient slots to fit an MRM40 (for example, if the MRMs are backup weapons alongside something else). In that case, MRM10s may be your only option, and it would then be advisable to equip them if it fit the intended build design.

 

@Falconium you should make a guide on this

 

Thing is, there alot of weapons that have similar comparisons. So maybe I will do a guide or 8 (could end up being more - I don't know), to demonstrate the various decisions one can make in choosing between weapons WITHIN a given weapon-type.