Rotary Autocannons?

[gunner]

Hi guys, sometimes when I get fragged I watch my allies play and notice a pattern?

It seems Heavies with Rotary Autocannons usually get fragged, Assaults survive most of the time.

Is it a suicide to arm Inner Sphere Heavy Mechs with Rotary Autocannons, or is it just a luck thing?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Not a suicide, but RACs require a lot of facetime so you'd better be ready to tank serious damage - or else fire them in bursts and reposition.

[Super-XIX]

RACs require a ton of facetime, and the longer you are looking at your enemy, the longer they have to focus down your mech's precious components. They can definitely be used to decent effect, but they are far from being good.

[Solarrus]

Rac have problems with fast moving targets. During promotion of trunks, fast mech can hit you and run away.
Also 2xrac5=10 dps. Front armor 130. You need 13 sec of frontal atack to kill enemy.

I think it is fun, but useless.

When i will mount 2xrac20 - that will be really fun weapon.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by gunner:

Is it a suicide to arm Inner Sphere Heavy Mechs with Rotary Autocannons, or is it just a luck thing?

Not suicide, but you severely limit your options. The wind up prevents you from taking potshots at people that peek and retreat, but you can punish anyone that stays in the open for to long.

Its a fun weapon, but not really useful overall against people that aren't static. I imagine they are a lot more OP in lower tiers tho, when people still don't use cover and think they are invincible.

I have had my marauder set up with one for a while, but i went back to an uAC10. Much better for punishing people that break cover. My Cyclops still uses rACs, but it has an ECM and i can 'ambush' people.

[Xevius]

2x RAC5 = 10.9 x 2 dps = 21.8 dps
so only 6 seconds
with some skill you can keep RAC 'ready to fire' tapping the mouse button.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Xevius:

with some skill you can keep RAC 'ready to fire' tapping the mouse button.

Still takes longer to get started firing as when you just fired 2 uAC5s.

[Super-XIX]

Originally posted by Xevius:

2x RAC5 = 10.9 x 2 dps = 21.8 dps
so only 6 seconds
with some skill you can keep RAC 'ready to fire' tapping the mouse button.

This makes your jam bar go up, and therefore likely isn't even worth the effort.

Furthermore, that damage is only if they sit still and let you focus a specific component. The counter to RACs is to just torso twist and spread the damage all over your mech, where it will be mostly neglible.

[83athom]

Originally posted by SoF Solarrus:

Rac have problems with fast moving targets. During promotion of trunks, fast mech can hit you and run away.
Also 2xrac5=10 dps. Front armor 130. You need 13 sec of frontal atack to kill enemy.

I think it is fun, but useless.

When i will mount 2xrac20 - that will be really fun weapon.

Um... your math is a bit off there. 1 RAC/5 has 10DPS, so 2 would have 20. And wtf is a RAC/20?

Also, only certain mechs actually can run RACs well. Ones with armor quirks, like the Orion or Atlas.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by 83athom:

Originally posted by SoF Solarrus:

Rac have problems with fast moving targets. During promotion of trunks, fast mech can hit you and run away.
Also 2xrac5=10 dps. Front armor 130. You need 13 sec of frontal atack to kill enemy.

I think it is fun, but useless.

When i will mount 2xrac20 - that will be really fun weapon.

Um... your math is a bit off there. 1 RAC/5 has 10DPS, so 2 would have 20. And wtf is a RAC/20?

I think he hopes for an AC20 version of it... (only 2 and 5 were ever developed in the background to my knowledge so there won't be a rAC10 or a rAC20)

[Super-XIX]

There were Clan RAC10s and RAC20s in MW4. I don't know if they were real or something that was made up for the game. Or if they were added by MekTek.

[gunner]

Let's not talk about MW4, no one I know touched MW4...

[Dakota]

Originally posted by gunner:

Hi guys, sometimes when I get fragged I watch my allies play and notice a pattern?

It seems Heavies with Rotary Autocannons usually get fragged, Assaults survive most of the time.

Is it a suicide to arm Inner Sphere Heavy Mechs with Rotary Autocannons, or is it just a luck thing?

In general RACs aren't that great for killing things, and are more of a support weapon. You won't really win any trades with them, but you can blind your target and often cause a retreat. Its a decent weapon during a push to support your team. It may be best to put on assaults compared to heavies since many assaults tend to be pushers while heavies tend to be traders. Heavier assaults have slow torso twist speeds, making the inability to torso twist when firing RACs not as bad of a loss, as you wouldn't have spread much anyway.

[Kyso4ek]

RAC have crazy dps per hardpoint spent. Really crazy dps.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Max Damage:

RAC have crazy dps per hardpoint spent. Really crazy dps.

rAC5 is only 3 points higher than uAC5*, but uAC5 will deliver all its damage to one point, where the rAC5 will need the full duration doing minuscule damage.

If you factor in the windup time of the rAC5, i wouldn't be surprised if the uAC5 came out to the same DPS in a 5 second window. If you fire the rAC5 that long you should be close to overheating too.


*without accounting for its ability to fire twice, its DPS is 3,x with a 1,6s reload. If you use its ability to double fire, you will double the DPS, which would mean 6something (thus about 3 points below the rAC dps of 10). And since both weapons can Jam, you can't even say that the rAC is better in that regard.

I think over all the rACs DPS is deceptive. It doesn't factor the wind up and the heat build up. And uAC5s are even better in terms of slots and tonnage.

[ScrapIron Prime]

I use a Cataphract 3D for dual RAC/5. It has the toughness quirks to survive staring at the enemy and a massive cooldown quirk for the RAC's.

That said, positioning is everything. I can right side peek with that build and I try not to expose to more than 2 enemy targets at once.