The Complete Dummies' Guide to MechWarrior 5: Small Lasers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ม.ค. 2025
- This is the first of MANY episode coming to the channel, hopefully they are comprehensive and easy to learn so you can be a master pilot too!
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Seems weird not to consider heat efficiency when talking about weapons. 5x Small Lasers is a terrible primary battery on a 70 tonner, but if you have a lot of heat demand from other weapons (ie, you have one of the mechs with one or more PPCs for primary long range fire and an array of lasers), then 5x Smalls might be a way better secondary weapon set compared to 5x Mediums since shooting those might just put you into shutdown. Until you get Doubles anyway.
While normally you are correct on all fronts, i am setting up this series to be a starter guide for newer players if they happen to find the game and these videos at the same time. And if we're being honest, small lasers don't really matter with heat management unless you have a fully kitted omnimech 😆😆. I appreciate the comment, i have lots more videos coming about all the items in the game!
Medium weapons would be viable with that kind of build if you don't mind carrying around the ammo to use chemical lasers. You might even be able to make it work with a pair of large chemical lasers, if you have the hardpoints for them.
That could work, and honestly i don't think I've used chem lasers all that much simply because they have ammo requirements. I might tinker with them a bit to get more familiar
I learned to love (ER) small lasers when I realized the Locust could mount 3 of them plus a medium laser for 165 damage in the HBS battletech. few things are more terrifying than a mech that can reserve until the end of the turn, unleash a salvo, end turn, unleash ANOTHER salvo, and then road runner away to safety.
Thatsl sounds like an awful time for the enemy team 😆😆😆
Thank you for this comment, I bought the game because I am obsessed with the locust 🤣
Now I know what I want to do when I acquire one.
Modded Locust builds are nightmare fuel as well, finding a special variant that can mount 8 Small Lasers is a real treat 😁😁
@@Void_Emotion_Adventureif I can get the variant that has MASC I'll settle for three ER smalls and a medium.
@Wearywastrel oooooh speedy little pest with moderate firepower? I like it 😆😆
Great video. Im keen to see more. S Lasers have about the same DPS as a M Laser due to their higher ROF, but at half the tonnage. However, their short range means that the more heavily damaging Flamers are usually the better pick for a small energy hardpoint. S Lasers do have a niche use on LRM boats like the Stalker 3H, which can mount 3 in addition to a TAG. This allows it to finish off already weakened enemies who get inside its minimum LRM range, at a very low cost to its already tight tonnage.
I love missile boats, particularly the Catapult in the thumbnail, i have used it to great effect. Appreciate the comment, and i am taking notes from the comments to make better videos 😁👍
There's something charmingly archaic about your jarringly loud 40 second long channel intro.
@agentoranj5858 I've wanted to use that song for the intro forever so once i got more comfortable with editing and all that, i made my own intro with that song and i really love it 😁😁😁
No offense intended, but this is gonna be a hyper critical comment.
This sort of video is probably a lot more informative if you break it down into a positives, negatives, and applications/alternative weapon options, like why a small laser is preferable (or not) to a flamer or a machine gun.
Showing the small laser's destructive capacity against buildings is kind of a weighted comparison because lasers in general do really poorly against structures but small weapons get a damage boost versus structures. Like a comparatively tiny number of small lasers can knock down a wall section when compared against medium or large lasers. Just something to keep in mind for your next showcase.
As far as just talking about the small laser, it's a backup weapon that you'd take to fill out tonnage when you've already equipped a primary. They're very rarely employed as primary weapons (the Charger's primary weapon is actually being a fast 80 tonner with fists). In MW5 specifically, with any energy weapon, you have to talk about the range/damage/heat efficiency ratios. 3 small lasers provide roughly the same punch as 2 medium lasers with better heat efficiency, a higher cyclic rate, and free up a half ton for other uses. They're also heat efficient enough that you rarely need to invest in extra heat sinking to support them. On something like a Catapult or Archer, "downgrading" to small lasers will net you higher DPS if something gets inside your LRM minimum range, and you've freed up 2 tons for armor, ammo, or heatsinks.
You'd basically take small lasers over flamers for the weight and range advantage, and you'd take them over machine guns to avoid ammunition reliance. Quite simply, they are the single most efficient use of weight for a small support weapon.
I love this analysis of the video, and i take no offense at all! I love hearing input that can help me make a better video in the future, i think definitely testing more broadly than one building section will benefit greatly in a showcase. I really appreciate this level of criticism and i hope you stick around for the next few episodes to see if i improve 🫡🫡🫡 cheers friend!
Nice video and good intro for newcomers to battletech! Thanks!
It might help to make an outline of the main points you want to make in the video and then write the script to fill out the details, including your experience with the various topics (such as when you pointed out using the pinpoint accuracy of the lasers to pick off the arm on the Pheonix Hawk that housed the dangerous Large Laser).
A very great point, i recently started just scribbling down points to go over and seeing whay sounded good on a recording, a year ago, i would not even consider writing down ideas 🤣🤣 now making a video is much more complex but so much more worth it in post 💚💚💚 i appreciate the comment and i hope to see you in future videos 🫡
I used to think that "Anti Pigeon Lasers" (small lasers) were useless until I slapped 6 on a locust and started hunting legs from behind lol, I still avoid them on tabletop as the range of 1/2/3 for short/medium/long is quite terrible
I use them a lot on tabletop because they're very efficient in that stage of every game where the shootout has devolved into a melee. I also use use enough MGs to make me completely uninsurable.
@@agentoranj5858 might have to try that lol, just face tank with SLs
Small lasers is my go to for melee mechs who cant mount srms. They need that standoff weapon for fodder units like armor and close range vtols trying to block my way from applying a 4-8 tons of pain. Also a great way to amputate a maimed component quickly
The amount of hate a few small lasers can apply is staggering in the right circumstances 😅😅
Honestly the YAML/YACW/YACM mods opens up a lot of possibilities for nightmare fuel builds with the small laser.
The Nova Prime goes from “the shutdown’o’matic 5,000” to death, the destroyer of center torsos with a decent compliment of ERSmalls for example.
I've used that exact setup before with mods! 🤣🤣 I've also used a fully loaded machine gun Nova and it slaps, but because machine guns, i have to hide behind anything longer range than me before i close in
Obligitory "Back in my day" comment, but one of the fun things in Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries was loading something like a Crab up with like 10~ small lasers and just slicing the AI open with inpunity.
Alone they arent very powerful, but when you have enough, it doesnt really matter, and because of how "Weak" they are, they dont consume resources like other weapons do. At .5t and a whopping 1 heat per laser in the Table Top game, you dont need many heat sinks to offset the risk of running alot of them.
I really do wish Mech 5 used a similar slot system as Mech 4, as it would open up alot more fun to players who wanted to try something like the aforementioned Crab. Or the Machinegun Anihilator.
The glory that mods will present, specifically the omni slots mod and increased loadouts mod. Omni will let you mount any weapons on ANY hardpoint. And increased loadouts will do basically the same thing but without the open slots of omni. But you could fit a large laser in a small hard point with it.
Oh yeah, no mods are great. But the way slots worked back in Mech 4 was significantly different.
Each weapon consumed a number of slots, so for instance a HBK-4G would have a 1 slot laser hardpoint in its arms and head, but a 10 slot ballistic hardpoint in its Right Torso.
This meant if I wanted to, I could use one AC20, or a couple AC5's, or 10 Machineguns. It allowed for alot more flexibility, something that you cant really do in Mech 5 with the way its hardcoded. Alot of that is thanks to MWO and how it handles things, as the two games have alot of parity between them.
Not that Mech 5 should be Mech 4, if that were the case we'd be down bad like those Maden/Fifa folks: Buying the same game with an updated roster year after year
@irishijo1 yea i get what you mean, i really hope MW5 Clans has a better weapon attachment system.
It would be nice, I would like a system like Mech 3, which just let you put anything wherever it would fit like the TT, but if it keeps Mech 5's (Which givien its called Mech 5 Clans) it wouldnt be the worst. I just hope they add back in the ability to swap structure, armor, and engines like Merc Tech and the YA set of mods do.
I had a Sunder with six of them as a close-in finisher. That was a fun 'Mech, fast and easy to handle with all the space I needed for my gear.
Isn't the DPS on the small lasers equivalent to the medium lasers? You sacrifice range but can still tear things up in a Firestarter or Discoback loaded up with small lasers.
A small laser vid with no Charger? But I need an 80-ton assault mech with 5 small lasers and no other weapons except its fists. Glad to see the Grasshopper can do basically the same thing. Good video. Maybe a little more explanation of heat efficiency and some direct comparisons with footage of other weapons might help.
This is true, I'm setting up this series to start with the very basics before going to comparison and more complicated build options, specifically for newer players, but trust the process, this series should have a bit of everything for any player as time goes on 😁😁😁
Lovely video, but since you appear to be grouping the weapons into classes rather than covering each type separately it could be nice to have a bit on things to look out for when picking weapons from that class or how the different types stack up. That would get repetitive though so it can probably go in it's own video for each major classification (energy, ballistic, missile), so that's more a video idea than a change to make to the videos.
While technically yes, i am grouping somw items into their own category, that does not change the path the videos will take, with every new video i learn a bit more on how to structure them and explain in their own details how they differ from every other item. And i think i get where you're coming from, find a bit that could be a 'make or break' thing for the weapons. I appreciate the your view and I'm happy you put in a comment so i can learn to do better 😁👍
Just mount 6 of these on your dedicated infiltration light mech, if you are out of weapon range, you are most likely out of detection range as well.
That is a very interesting take on that 🤔🤔🤔🤔 i like it
One of my favorite mechs is a Black Knight. Pre-DHS upgrades I'll run 2 PPCs and 7 small lasers? With DHS I'll run 2 PPCs and 7 SPL? You can murder anything in the game pretty consistently with PPCs and Small lasers.
Another build i gotta try out if thats as fun as you're making it seem 😆😆😆 cheers!
Check out some of XboxAhoy's old weapon guides, especially the ones he did for Black Ops 2. Obviously you're not an expert graphic designer like he is, but the information presentation structure works well even without the cool graphics.
I don't know the first thing about graphic design 🤣🤣🤣 but I'll definitely check out a couple videos and see what i learn for structuring future vieos 🫡🫡 cheers!
@@Void_Emotion_Adventure Also check out Matt Cole Gaming's weapon guides for Halo 4. Very in-depth on breakpoints, ideal ranges, quirks of how the weapons handle, etc.
yea i will kill and Urby over a centering normally because those things will have ac 20s sometime there was one with a ac 20bf its probably do to a mod but those scare me and so much armor
Yeah urbanmechs are annoying at the best of times, and no mods are required for one to come equipped with an AC20 BF. That also means the AC20 urbies have less armor than an AC10, remember that. I always try to disarm an urbanmech right away then focus on other tasks, once an urbanmech loses its cannon its a walking turret.
I can't watch the whole video at work, so maybe I'm missing something but... Have you considered the pros and cons of giving small lasers to your AI lancemates?
I vote 'No, don't do it'. Your AI minions won't use SLs as a back-up or secondary weapon. Whichever weapon has the shortest range, that's how close they'll get to the enemy. If it means their LRMs go to waste, they don't care. They aren't nearly that smart.
I've stopped giving the AIs machine guns, too.
Yeah, the AI is pretty braindead in vanilla, but once you get mods on, specifically ttrulez ai or something similar, that pretty much fixes that issue entirely. If i can help it in vanilla, i give everyone either AC5 and mediums or SRM 6
In MW4 Mercs I gave the AI things like pulse lasers and rotary autocannons to compensate for their horrible aim, but mostly loaded them up with LRMs because I could aim those myself with NARCs. It essentially let me aim for them and that made the campaign so much less frustrating.
I kinda like having a couple on the arms for annoying helicopters.
Just stop saying you are terrible, stop highlighting your cons and stick with you are good! Nice vids, btw.
Thank you 💚💚💚💚 i have been trying to convince myself that i don't need to be perfect at everything. I can improve as i go. 🫡🫡 cheers
I thought the small laser existed for emotional support in case you ever need that extra 3 damage
May as well be if you can't find medium SB's 😆😆😆 they're still fun though
the small laser is much better in the Tabeltop... it dos not metter if you trigger a crit whit a AC20 or a Small Laser.... its one changse more to blow off some Amonition and thats even worse in the tabeltop , mostly complete killing even a hevy mech....
You know, I've never played the tabletop game, and i have a few starter kits and a bunch of minis 🤣🤣 i don't know what to do with all of it, I'm the only one in my house that is into the franchise.
try the name with your hometown and tabletop community.
But I admit that finding players for Battletech isn't always easy... many want 40k or are put off by the complexity... and when you come into a round as a newcomer... Battletech is extremely complex... and it It's about optimizing everything in order to land predictable hits and not just shoot in the direction and hope for a lucky hit. Alphastrike is less complex but ideal you need a gaming table whit 6mm terain... thats maybe hard to find and not compatle to the more commen games.
If this series kicks off something really good for me i might start actively looking for veteran players to teach me live so i can use that information for everyone else as well 😁😁 might be fun.
That and they are a cheap way to splat infantry. Not as good as the MG is but doesn't require ammo which can explode and cheaper/lighter/less heat than a small pulse laser.
@RaspberrySuprise
Yeah
The machinegun is in a really sour spot as a minor weapon, and this is mostly true regardless of which format you approach Battletech. As close range firepower, the small laser has it beat, the Flamer has it solidly outclassed as anti infantry, and the machinegun can't even weigh in on anti vehicle discussions, ecen before the flamer's heat buildup is accounted for, and the downside of ammo for something as minor as a machinegun is a HUGE downside.
The only niche of machineguns is to be stacked in absurd quantities since they fire for zero heat... which is pretty much only a thing on tabletop where you aren't limited by hardpoints, and actually can slap 50+ machineguns on a mech
How the hell can you mount a small laser on a missile or balistics hard point ? you need to go back to sachool. Leona
I did add a bullet point on screen when i said that, indicating that a small laser can be mounted on every * energy hardpoint * like so. That script was already recorded and i did not notice that until editing so thats why there's the bullet point on screen instead. 😆😆 threw me off too when i first noticed it
@@Void_Emotion_Adventure And people do listen to pod casts on a 7" phone screen while walking to the shops. I hate reality to. have a nice day. Leona
I wish i had a 7 inch phone screen, i don't know if it would fit in my pocket though 🤔🤔 anyways, sorry your day is still going rough. Hopefully it gets better. I've been looking for a good podcast to start listening to as well, would you have any recommendations?
They are fodder.
Get real, boat them like hell or dont use at all.
Imagine a fully loaded small laser Nova with a crap ton of double heatsinks. alpha all the time, every time 🤣🤣
@@Void_Emotion_Adventure I've seen stuff like that in MechWarrior Online videos.
TheB33f used 9 SPLs to make the "PartyBack", and used 6 on a Nova that had all flamers on one arm, and all SPLs on the other.
And a video or two has shown a Gargoyle with 16 ERSL.
A Gargoyle with small lasers?? That's a very interesting kit option 😆😆😆 i might try it with a mods on MW5 later on.
It's fine but I'd get to the point no intro