Anyone else like the Heavy Rifle?

[Cor.]

Managed to snag one off the black market with a good chunk of normal and half ammo.

I was worried about the reload on it, but for a medium slot weapon thats close to an AC 20 for damage per shot (18 vs 20), I'm liking it ALOT.

[Hykril Tynyx]

Mom, can we have a Gauss Rifle?
No, we have a Gauss Rifle at home!
The "Gauss Rifle" at home:

[Wayz]

TBH, I kinda love it except the ammo count per bin but I find it quite satisfying.

[pRaX]

I'm literally the founder of the holy church of the Heavy Rifle.
The reload doesn't matter. DPS peasants will never understand.
Only the based followers of the Burst do.

[Steve]

Put a pair on a MAL-2P because I didn't really have anything else to put there. No regrets.

[Aki87]

H. Rifle is pretty good. My mid game sniper is a jager with 2x heavy rifles, max armor, and 4 tons of ammo. With a double headshot, i can kill some heavies and even assaults with a click. If i at least pen the armor, then i have 2x machine guns and 2 med lasers to finish them off in close range. With max armor you can even brawl by closing into ~150m range and aiming for the head.

[Stalectos]

personally not a fan of rifles but will occasionally use them to fill out a ballistic slot if I don't have the tonnage for a proper autocannon and don't want to use an MG or MG Array. if I want a weapon with low cycle time but high power I'll typically just actually commit and use a Gauss.

[Nishi Kinuyo]

Since I use YAML&Co... no.
Maybe if enemies were running around with Commercial armour, but not against anything Industrial/Primitive BattleMech armour or better. (TT rules make it quite clear that the heavy rifle is, essentially, inferior to the AC/5.)

[Stalectos]

Originally posted by Nishi Kinuyo:

Since I use YAML&Co... no.
Maybe if enemies were running around with Commercial armour, but not against anything Industrial/Primitive BattleMech armour or better. (TT rules make it quite clear that the heavy rifle is, essentially, inferior to the AC/5.)

that's because tabletop rules are different. heavy rifles do 8 damage not 18 and all rifles do -3 damage to mech armor meaning the light rifle literally can't hurt a battlemech unless it has commercial armor. they are a significantly more viable option in MW5 as a result.

[Gailim]

situational. most of the time you are better off with an AC-5. much longer effective range, practically no heat, easier to keep fed with same tonnage of ammo.

but if you need an armor cracker with low tonnage then a HR will do the job

it really depends on what else is on the mech. if you have a bunch of hot weapons already on the mech then adding a hot heavy rifle is a terrible idea. but if you have a bunch of DPS weapons and need something with more kick then add the rifle

of course, when you get the KGC-CAR you can just say "why not both?" and pair two Heavy Rifles with two AC-5s. best of both worlds

[Thundercracker]

i keep one on a marauder i'm pretty sure. it's been quite some time since i've used that particular one, but i never regretted mounting it.

[Fendelphi]

The tier 5 version is great. The others have too low DPM/heat issues.
The jump from tier 4 to tier 5 is pretty noticable in this case.

I overall prefer the Heavy Rifle over the Gauss(both tier 5), although it depends on the mech. Gauss has minimal heat and better ammo tonnage, but weighs 7 tons more. If the mech can manage the heat, I take the Heavy Rifle, put on a couple of extra Double Heat Sinks, an extra ammo bin, and then I still have 4 more tons to work with.

Being medium sized also means that a lot of mechs can actually have 2(or more) on them.
Having 2 Heavy Rifles(tier5) with good aim, taking headshots or legging mechs from 700-800 meters away is not a big probelm.

As for the AC5 compared to the Heavy Rifle(both being tier 5), I would say that the Heavy Rifle wins out if you have good aim and goes for headshots. It only takes 2 shots to kill a mech. 1500 Meters per second for projectile speed is pretty dang fast, and the alpha damage is nuts.
If you miss a lot of shots, it hurts less for the AC5 though. The Heavy Rifle have very little ammo per tonnage and a low rate of fire. You lose a lot of damage potential for each wasted shot.
The AC5 is also more flexible when dealing with softer targets(less overkill) and it is easier to manage the heat.

[Bovril Brigadier]

Originally posted by pRaX:

I'm literally the founder of the holy church of the Heavy Rifle.
The reload doesn't matter. DPS peasants will never understand.
Only the based followers of the Burst do.

As it was written in the sacred texts of the Terran Alliance!

[Von Gromenauer]

I'm liking the heavy rifle on my Rifleman with 2 of those in the early 60-65 rating missions. I had to strip some armor to add extra ammo and some more heatsinks, but totally worth it when you need to drop enemies quickly... as long as you keep your distance. I guess they'll be obsolete the moment I get something that can carry twin AC/20s or two PPCs and a gauss gun, which in previous games used to be either an Atlas or a Loki.

[Stalectos]

Originally posted by Von Gromenauer:

I'm liking the heavy rifle on my Rifleman with 2 of those in the early 60-65 rating missions. I had to strip some armor to add extra ammo and some more heatsinks, but totally worth it when you need to drop enemies quickly... as long as you keep your distance. I guess they'll be obsolete the moment I get something that can carry twin AC/20s or two PPCs and a gauss gun, which in previous games used to be either an Atlas or a Loki.

assuming you are playing vanilla most Atlas variants can't even carry a single PPC anymore. it needs either a PPC or a large laser in that slot by default to PPC at all. as for the Loki it's not in the game by default being a clan mech. if you ever find yourself running Yet Another Mechlab then your Rifleman would be able to carry 2 AC/20s or 2 PPCs because it removes slot size restrictions. as for what can carry the loadouts you are looking for in vanilla I don't know any twin AC/20 mechs offhand other than maybe the Annihilator but having multiple PPCs is a job for the Awesome usually.

[Thundercracker]

Originally posted by Stalectos:

as for what can carry the loadouts you are looking for in vanilla I don't know any twin AC/20 mechs offhand other than maybe the Annihilator but having multiple PPCs is a job for the Awesome usually.

don't we have the king crab that can put them in the claws?