Basically, here are two builds for the 5SS variant, and I'm really just wondering which of the two would be the preferred build of y'all. STD300: STD275:
2% heat efficiency versus that 7kph speed? I'll take the speed. It helps with several things; torso twist, movement to a location, ability to hunt faster targets that are on the run.
Those are the reactions I was expecting, and that's the build I've personally been using. I was just curious if there were any of us who cared enough about heat efficiency to forego the speed in favor of a single DHS. And apparently not!
If you were looking at more than a 2% (unelited) difference, it might've been more of a question...but 1 DHS just changes things so little in most cases that it's not worth losing the speed. Now, if you took a small-ish speed loss for 10% unelited...then my answer changes.
Well exactly, it's all about degrees. Large gains for minor losses = definite approval. But minor gains for large losses . . . not such a great idea.
Heh looking at the fully elited stats, it actually is an even worse tradeoff later on...with no basics, there's a 2% heat difference, but full elite it falls to only a 1% difference, so yeah, the extra DHS looks even worse in the long run. Really, I've started to only make that sort of tradeoff on Clan mechs a lot of the time now...since you can't change the engine, the negatives for adding a DHS are often less (ie, taking off some leg armor on a non-light mech that's never been legged in any game you've played) and thus more justifiable. I would also say that the easiest mechs to make this tradeoff on are going to be assault mechs...ie, if you downgrade an engine on a King Crab, you might only lose 1-2 KPH in comparison for some extra tonnage. As Falc said, it's all about the ratio of gain vs loss.
STD300, no contest. The speed is worth that one DHS. (not to mention more armor.) I would even think of taking out even more DHS for an SRM4 also. But that would be another build.