Whats the difference between tanks?

[~SJ~ Xarg Talasko]

I've never had any luck with any of the LBX assets in the game, including the Beat Stick.. is there a trick to using LBX's that doesn't involve being within handshake distance of the target?

[Arghy]

Aim at their cockpit--its the best weapon for gibbing cockpits.

[~SJ~ Xarg Talasko]

Is this still at trading punches range? I've found the UAC20 very good for cockpit kills too, via splash from high CT hits. Might have to try playing around with a Beat Stick later.

[Temphage]

Well if you land all the shot in one location it does 2000 damage, more than the UAC20. But that doesn't really happen.

It's hard to find a way to make LBXs more useful without making them too useful at close ranges.

The only practical solution I can think of while still keeping LBXs shotgun-like is to give them better firing rate, heat, weight, or ammo capacity or whatever! than UACs.

Especially the LBX-5. What's the deal with that?

[~SJ~ Xarg Talasko]

Maybe tighten the spread a little? The only time I've seen LBX's do anything, is point blank ramming the other guy. Consequently, I don't use them, and I don't see many other non-Oro players using them either.

[~SJ~Azov]

i tend to shy away from using the lbxs. I will 9 times out of 10 go for a UAC or AC variant.  as par my favorite tank would be the demolisher prime with the dual AC20. Earlier i took out an Uller, Scat, and finally a madcat C before bailing. I basically one shot the Uller. i shot off the torso of the scat, then hit it from the side straight into the center torso. the Madcat really hurt me though, He was chain firing so it was a constant barrage, and hard to keep aim on him.

[Temphage]

Maybe tighten the spread a little? The only time I've seen LBX's do anything, is point blank ramming the other guy. Consequently, I don't use them, and I don't see many other non-Oro players using them either.

The point of the LBX isn't to dump all the firepower into one component, it's to spread it out. Unfortuantely while this is awesome in CBT where you can't 'really' aim, as this ups your chances of hitting the component you WANT to hit, it doesn't become nearly as useful in a game where you want to put as much firepower in the CT as fast as you can, and you CAN control the aim. Because of this, the AC20 will win out every time.

I suppose it can also be used similar to a shotgun in that you don't really need to aim it, so if you want to get tricky leg shots, the LBX is your man... except... again, the AC20 outperforms, because it has MASSIVE splash damage that it too doesn't really need to be aimed, and it also damages multiple components (maybe even better than the LBX does).

The AC20 splash is so awesome that it also becomes an excellent anti-BA weapon. My Scat-A om nom nom's BA. The LBX, again, not as useful at this.

Okay so... basically the AC20 is better in every conceivable way than the LBX20. fapp.

[~SJ~ Xarg Talasko]

In MW4 (yes, I know already) the LBX fire spread was very tight, which I found odd. In MWLL, its quite wide. A slight tightening of shot pattern could up damage to every area affected without turning the LBX into a renamed AC. Beyond nerfing the splash on the AC/UAC (please don't, they're awesome!), I can't currently think of many other ways to make the LBX better.

The only other idea I've got floating around, would be to see if you can make it do more damage to certain assets (change the damage type) but that might go against the 'spirit' of the LBX, and isn't a change I think I'd support.

[Temphage]

Honestly I don't even know why the high-bore ACs even have splash. The entire balancing aspect of autocannons vs. LBX is that the autocannons only hit one thing, so if you miss, you miss. The enormous nuclear blast the AC20 has just invalidates this weakness altogether. If you removed the splash from the AC10/20 entirely, LBXs are now fixed (though it probably still wouldn't hurt to tighten the spread up a bit, just to take it out of breath-mint-range so I don't have to ram my mech into enemies to use it). But I have a feeling that removing the splash is going to be insanely unpopular.

On paper, the LBX is superior to the AC20 in every way. Better heat (well, it's actually the same, but the UAC20 fires two shots instead of one). Better damage (2000 potential if every pellet hits the same spot - honestly I don't think this EVER happens, even at super-close range). 4:3 refire rate advantage over IS autocannons (less so vs. CUAC20). The AC20 has massive splash damage, much better range, and, ultimately, precision.

Maybe you're right, the enormous spread might be hurting them too much. Right now it's like sawn-off shotgun vs. rocket launcher. What I don't want to happen though is the LBX becomes TOO powerful in breath-mint range, which may have to happen. And again, LBX-2 and LBX-5 exist (2 isn't used yet), I can't see any point to these guns at all Though with the AC2/5 nerf vs. mechs they might end up being much better choices as a result.

This is getting a bit rambly - I'm going to bed with one final note - LBX20s would be freaking awesome if mech knockdown was in-game

[(TLL)Sky_walker]

f you removed the splash from the AC10/20 entirely, LBXs are now fixed

Good point.

Why ACs have splash damage anyway? I mean... it's uber-unrealistic...

[Brainwright]

Because high-explosive shells are standard, not armor-piercing.

My main problem with LBXs is that the shot tends to act as one shot, not a spread.  That is, if I don't aim at that magic point, all the buckshot animation spreads around my target, or the shot is blocked by some environmental factor without any sort of spread.  Someone needs to fix that.

[Arghy]

Heh if you've seen the 105mm depleted uranium shell in action you'd realized that theres honestly not much you can do to stop it from ripping through your armor. I imagine mechs armor is a shingle type to prevent full penetration but its going to fapp up whatever it hits and same with the gauss cannon.

[Shakes]

LBX in CBT are crit seeking weapons. They excel in getting TACs (through armour criticals) and also critting mechs that have little or no armour in one section. They are also particularly good at messing with lightly armoured things for the same reason.

How should this translate into MWLL? Well, with the lack of a full CBT style crit system (ie in MWLL you have to make a section black, upon which all weapons in that area are ruined), they should really be good at making mechs with a lot of orange or red sections into mechs with a lot of black sections. At the moment they are actually pretty good at this. Only problem is, so are normal ACs

For this reason I really have to agree with Temphage about removing splash damage from regular ACs. People wont like it? Maybe not. But not every weapon should have everything. The whole point of regular AC is to blow a very large hole in one section of the mech, without having a chance at touching other sections.

I think once people better understand the purpose of each weapon and have the mechbay to play with, they can make variants that use the LBX for its intended purpose - crit seeking. But the devs do need to tweak the weapons still so they actually fit into their intended niches.

[~SJ~Azov]

the only time I find the lbx useful is when on hot maps and I can light them up with flamers. The oro C and Madcat C are perfect examples. I agree with all the points said about be in your face with them. The best method is to decomission them to shutdown and the go to town with the LBXs on the rear torso.

I would honestly replace the lbx demolisher for a uac variant. There is enough tonnage, just don't know about criticals....or better yet....4 UAC10s.