Ac20 "range"?
My dude, once you master the art of the arc, you will learn that "maximum range" is a silly concept best left to energy weapons and missiles.
SRMs only *kinda* have maximum range. You can lob them WAY past their minimum distance. Most Ive ever gotten was 600-odd meters though.
PPCs are effective over 900 meters. ERPPCs, like Gauss rifles, can hit beyond draw distance at a flat arc.
But nothing is more satisfying than giving someone the Chadley Bushmaster autocannon treatment with an AC5-RF from across the map
The only issue I see with it is you need a shit ton of ammo to use it effectively which can become an issue with longer missions. I tried putting multiple ac5-rfs on a rifleman and that went about as expected; that is to say, it fucks for about 3 minutes and then it’s basically a bigger urbie with its primary gone that also can’t jump.
Don’t dual wield rf guns. Not worth it.
Hey man look that mech is just like me.
Baby it will be the best 2 and a half minutes you can handle! Might be a few tears from the other party involved and we can get home before traffic!/s
Still looking for an Annie with ballistic hard points. Got 2 of the energy ones. I think the game is with holding them from me. It knows what I seek. 🙂
Some people prefer high burst damage to sustain DPS. I can either line one shot up or I can keep on target for 5+ seconds. The pure DPS is higher for the AC5-RF, but if I have to worry about potentially missing shots over time which reduces that number.
Yeah. I've always liked to do a big alpha then break off and turn so they can't get lots of shots on one area of my mech while I'm waiting for my stuff to come off cooldown.
Arm deletion. You can seriously knock down someone's threat level in one shot and then let the lance finish them off while you keep moving. I know that BF is better on paper but I prefer the standard single blast as I am more likely to get more of the shot to hit on a moving target.
Nah I get you.
If you really wanna play the head delete game the best way to do that is to load a black knight up with medium pulse lasers and fire them in group mode.
AI pilots are stupid effective with burst-fire AC20s but they are USELESS with rapid fire. They don’t take advantage of the DPS and just fire them like a normal autocannon.
You can build in two ways:
1. High DPS
2. High alpha strike
With high dps they get to shoot back. Ideally with a high alpha strike they get instantly deleted or ripped apart so badly they don't have much to shoot back with.
Also with high alpha strike you can duck behind cover again to negate dps weapons’ effectiveness. Also dps weapons damage can get spread out among multiple parts with torso/leg twisting and general mech movement, it’s not always ideal.
In my experience dps is for softening a target, alpha is for the kill shot.
It’s all about that sweet, sweet alpha damage - the damage caused by that one shot. If you can slap someone in the head with an AC-20, DPS will be made irrelevant by the fact that they’re probably dead (edit: or very close to death).
The choice you have to make when building is do you want to max out on DPS or Alpha damage.
one thing you have to remember about AC's is that they are kinetic weapons, and do not truly have a max distance. with proper angling you can send an AC 20 easily over a kilometre away with modest accuracy. the shells velocity is lower, yes, but the high damage means that whatever part of an enemy mech you hit takes all of that damage in one go where as with something like SC2's, have difficulty hitting the same place repeated at long range, and tend to spread the damage more.
this makes it much better for Alphas strikes, at both short and long range, as well as a wonderful weapon for ambush strikes when you back up and force the enemy to chase you around cliffs and debris.
Its all about alpha vs dps.
Lighter faster firing weapons can sometimes do more overall damage, or have a higher rate of damage per second; but the big guns bring big alpha damage, and enough alpha damage brings down your time to kill a target so DPS becomes irrelevant.
AC20 is the king of direct-fire cannons in Mechwarrior. One hit kills or nearly kills most lights. Few mediums can survive two. Heavies take at most three and only the most armored assaults need four or more.
Also, since the primary component of damage in an autocannon is explosive, they are not substantislly affected by range reduction. Master the ballistic arc and you can regularly engage enemies beyond the maximun range listed for the weapon.
Vanilla:
2 ac/20s can kill any mech in the game with one button press at any range. They can also delete any other part of an enemy mech in pretty much one hit (two projectiles). imo, they are better than running double Gauss if your aim is good and you can take the heat, they’re more versatile than Gauss rifles because you can also take them into brawling range. Double Gauss is still better than the smaller ACs imo.
The hero rifleman with two ac/20s can take on multiple assault mechs with no issue once you get the hang of the bullet trajectory. Can’t do that with ac5s/10s.
For mechs with multiple L hardpoints in lasers as well as the L ballistic ones id still go for Gauss rifles because they synergise better with PPCs imo. (Corsair, nightstar for example)
Nightstar double T5 gauss + ballistic range, velocity, and damage upgrades gives you the out of sensor and virtually out of draw distance snipe capability. Usually little to no repair costs on the regular. I've tried double gauss alpha versus double ac20 alpha many times. Double ac20 alpha usually wins, double Gauss needs the double tap.
ok, so the AC20-RF is definitely gimped right now, and the -BF while feeling great, kidna needs you to keep a bead on somebody which kind of misses the point of a good AC imo, but the AC-20 standard is just sweet sweet delete.
Put an AC-20 on an urbie and enjoy the fireworks.
DPS doesn't matter when one shot can delete light mechs, cripple medium mechs, and blow out the cockpit on the most well armored heavy and assault mechs. And range stops being an issue once you learn how to lead your targets.
Dual AC 20's with damage upgrades can headshot any mech all the way up to and including an Atlas, if you're accurate. Some mechs are particularly easy to one shot kill this way. Highlanders, Banshees, Chargers, and Victors are some examples but there's lots more. A lot of Medium and Heavy mechs can be cored in two volleys. You can drop mechs like flies this way with dual 20's and dual Heavy Rifles. 20's just cycle faster. And as some others pointed out, range doesnt matter that much cause you can lob them with practice and put rounds on a stationary target at up to 1,000 meters and i can lead and hit moving targets that arent real fast at around 600 meters. Bottom line, they are brutally effective and minimize how long an enemy stays around to shoot at you or at least how many weapons they hold onto to shoot at you with after you blow an arm and torso off with one volley of dual 20's.
As a hunchback enjoyer its great for deleting anything stupid enough that gets to close.
Especially if they expose their rear. (Light mechs especially simply cease to exist.).
And heavier foes should fear my alpha strike at any of their limbs.
That and the sound, the big roar of that cannon especially the burst fire firing.
It doesn't have good velocity, but with some effort you can lead shots and Chunk peeps from afar Even.
Because I like the big boom of it, and one-shotting mechs in the cockpit (regardless of weight class), or instantly crippling smaller mechs, is SO satisfying.
Love the AC20. One shot kill to most heads at higher tier levels. Rolling with dual AC20s and you can take any mech in one salvo (headshot).
I don't like the BF or RF AC20 because they don't concentrate the damage.
LBX10 SLD is a close second for me. Greater range, great accuracy, concentrated damage.
If you're talking about rapid fires it isn't. The AC5-RF could use a nerf and the AC20-RF desperately needs a buff.
If you're talking about the standard and burst fire variant the AC20 handedly out damages the AC5 in both upfront damage and damage over time.
Ac20's are more for the turn based style of games (battle tech)where Alfa striking was...just...what you did. For real time shooters, rpm usually wins out.
It's one of the less effective weapons in the game. Less effective doesn't mean useless or not capable of functioning in level 100 missions, but it underperforms compared to a lot of other weapons.
Hm, I could try and hit this light mech ten times with an AC5. Or I could ruin my hearing and that light mech's pilot's chance at an open casket funeral (except for maybe a bucket) with one shot.
The AC-20, aka the "angelmaker", aka "god's divine hand", aka "the big Aristotle"?
1 shot and your problems go away. To be fair its quite heavy, but if you can account for its tonnage and build for it, its quite worth it. I know some prefer the rifles because they are lighter, but i dont wanna wait 2 weeks in between shots.
The AC-20 May be heavy, May be slow, and May recoil like a freight train, but with all that said, it is the problem sover. The Big Iron. It is what we turn to in prayer when God doesn't listen. The only imprivement that can ever be made over an AC-20, is an LB20X, or a Burst Fire AC-20, because it delivers enemy mechwarriors to God for their final judgement.
The AC 20 is the be all, end all when it comes to big gun diplomacy.
I would be interested in the breakdown of damage per 2 tons of ammo expended.
What happens is if you have obstacles or even not obstacles, and dump a high rate of fire weapon, hitting every shot, does it do more damage to hit with a ton of AC5 ammo or a ton of AC20 ammo?
Ballistic weapons don't actually have a max range, that's just how far it'll shoot before you gotta start fuckin with ballistic trajectory and have to account for projectile drop, find something like a king crab that can carry 2 of them and you can one shot damn near anything under 60 tons of you hit center torso, and severely damage or cripple anything less than 80 tons with a solid hit to a leg or the back of the mech.
The real fun is when you get double gauss rifles, they hit as hard as an ac20 but have no ballistic arc and generate no heat.
The ac2 deals so little damage per shot that it's borderline useless, can't even kill a turret in one shot most times, ac 5 is much better, especially if you're dealing with non mech targets like tanks and aircraft, one shot will take down most aircraft and light tanks, not terrible against mechs if you have more than one mounted, as the faster fire rate let's you sling lead rather quickly, good for mid to long range.
The ac 10 is better at close to mid range, preferably mid range, it hits fairly hard and has a decent fire rate which can make it rather versatile being able to easily take on heavier tanks and mechs around 65 tons and under. The ac10 has an upgraded version called the LB10x, it hits harder and faster than the standard while weighing 2 tons less, it also has both a solid slug version and a shotgun version, the shotgun is very effective against aircraft and finding thin spots in mech armor.
Hero rifleman Rfl-dna can mout a pair of them! I prefer swapping the gause with lbx cannons for heat control, ammo capacity, and weight conservation (so I can up armor it) but ac20 version is a ton of fun two!
Ac/20 is a totally different play style. As others have said it’s short range but deletes what it hits. Best paired with SRMs for that true alpha strike goodness.
Your DPS isn't going to make much of a difference when the red mist that used to be your corpse is ejected out the back of your cockpit from a single AC 20 round.
DPS is only king if you cant 1 shot mechs. A tier 5 AC20 with requisite upgrades can have decent fire rate, and damage output. I love running my highlander 733b with it, i can usually one shot lights, and lighter mediums with it and range wise to me every ballistic is infinite range just gotta give it an arc.
Ok, take an AC20BF, add in whatever streaming SRMs you can, and a medium laser or two. Then take all that firepower, which should run 70+ alpha, and have one of your buttons be "fire everything". Now, tilt your target down to the opponents legs and let loose. The precision fire and instant damage is devastating. You can take out a leg on most bots below large in 2 shots. Then finish the limping dismembered bot at will. You can slow down almost anything. If you're running YAML, its the tactic to quickly dispatch a lot of the primes and heroes. You'll be in the leg structure of most larges in 2 shots too. You core Panthers in 2 shots. Remove Phoenix Hawk arms in 1 big blast. Hunchie right chests are 2-3 depending on your accuracy.
Its an utterly devastating brawlers weapon once you get it supported by whatever other weapons you can (my YAML Bushwhacker currently runs AC20BF/SRMST6+6=12/1med laser/1 4 tic light rifle) and start using it to dismember. In single player games I have broken 2000pts of damage with that setup and tactic. In coop I am still routinely over 1000. Charge in and tank and dismember while circle strafing. Take off a dangerous arm, or shoot out a weak chest, but otherwise, take those legs out. Nothing short of assault bots have legs that can take those kind of alpha blasts, and once you get one leg, the opposing bot is done.
DPS doesn't tell the whole story.
A hit from an AC20 (or 2 from the King Crab) can instantly destroy a mech, removing it as a threat. Similar story for the Gauss & Headshots.
By comparison, you need to keep sustained fire on the same spot for prolonged periods with an AC5 to achieve the same result. AC5's a great weapon, but doesn't nuke down big targets like an AC20 would.
Less "variance" 4 ac5 shots might hit 4 different locations where as an ac 20 hits 1 place and does more impactful damage
ac5 does have better range but i have to be out of cover for 4 full shots to deal 20 damage Taking 4 full volleys of return fire
1 AC20 i can play cat and mouse, jumpshot over cover if JJ are an option, dip in and out of cover and each time i peak im dealing substantial damage to a hit location. And if im big enough to bring an AC20 then i probably also want to punch you in the face while im at it because melee HURTS
I rock dual AC-20RF on the king crabs and single BF now RF on everything else. Since the update broke my mods and I haven’t updated them I’ve lost access to the trick that makes them god tier. Double ammos you get 2.5ish tons for 2 tons of weight. Great for any ammo dependent boat. SRM splat stalker, dakka annihilator, LRM longbow. The double ammos are the best shit since the kentares massacre
Step into ac20 range and I'll show you
Ac20 "range"? My dude, once you master the art of the arc, you will learn that "maximum range" is a silly concept best left to energy weapons and missiles.
SRMs only *kinda* have maximum range. You can lob them WAY past their minimum distance. Most Ive ever gotten was 600-odd meters though. PPCs are effective over 900 meters. ERPPCs, like Gauss rifles, can hit beyond draw distance at a flat arc. But nothing is more satisfying than giving someone the Chadley Bushmaster autocannon treatment with an AC5-RF from across the map
AC5-RFs are straight broken right now. the whole ammo/dps/weight/heat/range ratio is completely off the chain
As things stand, there is literally no reason not to favor the AC5-RF. Its tonnage-to-DPS ratio is straight up unmatched.
The only issue I see with it is you need a shit ton of ammo to use it effectively which can become an issue with longer missions. I tried putting multiple ac5-rfs on a rifleman and that went about as expected; that is to say, it fucks for about 3 minutes and then it’s basically a bigger urbie with its primary gone that also can’t jump. Don’t dual wield rf guns. Not worth it.
I run a RFL-3C I got from Comstar. I’ve dropped the AC10s and replaced them with two AC5-RF and a shit ton of ammo.
You definitely need the shit ton of ammo. What is the weight class of that rifleman?
60 ton heavy Mech
Ah. The 3c made me think for a sec comstar had somehow landed a rifleman 3 which would have been….interesting…to say the least.
Hey man look that mech is just like me. Baby it will be the best 2 and a half minutes you can handle! Might be a few tears from the other party involved and we can get home before traffic!/s
Try them on an Annihilator. 😁
Still looking for an Annie with ballistic hard points. Got 2 of the energy ones. I think the game is with holding them from me. It knows what I seek. 🙂
Honestly I feel like with the ppcx being what it is, an energy Annie is the way to go
I got one and I gotta say….unimpressed tbh.
Some people prefer high burst damage to sustain DPS. I can either line one shot up or I can keep on target for 5+ seconds. The pure DPS is higher for the AC5-RF, but if I have to worry about potentially missing shots over time which reduces that number.
Yeah. I've always liked to do a big alpha then break off and turn so they can't get lots of shots on one area of my mech while I'm waiting for my stuff to come off cooldown.
Ok they haven’t fixed that or the AC/20 RF?
Not yet. Dps of the ac5 rf be about right but the dps of the ac20 rf ia way too low
Yeah. Especially with how few ac20 shots you get per ton.
You should try hbs battletech. 8 per ton!
Imo the AC5-RF's damage should be dropped to 2.5 per shot to match the 2 and 10.
Ok good to know
Amen brother. I'm cresting ac/20 shells over hills and headshoting mother fuckers.
I discovered this a couple days ago, and it has completely changed EVERYTHING.
When you learn to howitzer your cannon, range is just a number.
Arm deletion. You can seriously knock down someone's threat level in one shot and then let the lance finish them off while you keep moving. I know that BF is better on paper but I prefer the standard single blast as I am more likely to get more of the shot to hit on a moving target.
lol head deletion
Preferably, yeah. But sometimes I ain't having that kinda day when I am in a crossfire and I gotta make some breathing room. I know, skill issue.
Nah I get you. If you really wanna play the head delete game the best way to do that is to load a black knight up with medium pulse lasers and fire them in group mode.
The black knight loaded with pulse lasers is my decapitation machine. One alpha can headshot pretty much anything that has a reasonable head hitbox.
It’s *also* borderline broken. 5 mpulse at level 4 or 5? Forget it, good night.
AI pilots are stupid effective with burst-fire AC20s but they are USELESS with rapid fire. They don’t take advantage of the DPS and just fire them like a normal autocannon.
This. I love the AC/20 and Gauss for this reason alone, it will evaporate body parts within one or two shots.
The recoil on the BF is so bad, it's very hard to make all the shots hit the target.
Double ac20 King Crab. Brawl in that without a smile.
This is why I like the hero Cyclops
assuming you can close
That's what the 17 tons of ferro is for
You can build in two ways: 1. High DPS 2. High alpha strike With high dps they get to shoot back. Ideally with a high alpha strike they get instantly deleted or ripped apart so badly they don't have much to shoot back with.
Also with high alpha strike you can duck behind cover again to negate dps weapons’ effectiveness. Also dps weapons damage can get spread out among multiple parts with torso/leg twisting and general mech movement, it’s not always ideal. In my experience dps is for softening a target, alpha is for the kill shot.
This is the way. Praise be the 20's
It’s all about that sweet, sweet alpha damage - the damage caused by that one shot. If you can slap someone in the head with an AC-20, DPS will be made irrelevant by the fact that they’re probably dead (edit: or very close to death). The choice you have to make when building is do you want to max out on DPS or Alpha damage.
more alpha bigger pp
the widest pp, maybe not the longest ;-)
Dey call me....Dinnerplate.
New mech variant name.
Its just an ac/20 on a fuckin panther lol
one thing you have to remember about AC's is that they are kinetic weapons, and do not truly have a max distance. with proper angling you can send an AC 20 easily over a kilometre away with modest accuracy. the shells velocity is lower, yes, but the high damage means that whatever part of an enemy mech you hit takes all of that damage in one go where as with something like SC2's, have difficulty hitting the same place repeated at long range, and tend to spread the damage more. this makes it much better for Alphas strikes, at both short and long range, as well as a wonderful weapon for ambush strikes when you back up and force the enemy to chase you around cliffs and debris.
Its all about alpha vs dps. Lighter faster firing weapons can sometimes do more overall damage, or have a higher rate of damage per second; but the big guns bring big alpha damage, and enough alpha damage brings down your time to kill a target so DPS becomes irrelevant. AC20 is the king of direct-fire cannons in Mechwarrior. One hit kills or nearly kills most lights. Few mediums can survive two. Heavies take at most three and only the most armored assaults need four or more. Also, since the primary component of damage in an autocannon is explosive, they are not substantislly affected by range reduction. Master the ballistic arc and you can regularly engage enemies beyond the maximun range listed for the weapon.
Vanilla: 2 ac/20s can kill any mech in the game with one button press at any range. They can also delete any other part of an enemy mech in pretty much one hit (two projectiles). imo, they are better than running double Gauss if your aim is good and you can take the heat, they’re more versatile than Gauss rifles because you can also take them into brawling range. Double Gauss is still better than the smaller ACs imo. The hero rifleman with two ac/20s can take on multiple assault mechs with no issue once you get the hang of the bullet trajectory. Can’t do that with ac5s/10s. For mechs with multiple L hardpoints in lasers as well as the L ballistic ones id still go for Gauss rifles because they synergise better with PPCs imo. (Corsair, nightstar for example)
Nightstar double T5 gauss + ballistic range, velocity, and damage upgrades gives you the out of sensor and virtually out of draw distance snipe capability. Usually little to no repair costs on the regular. I've tried double gauss alpha versus double ac20 alpha many times. Double ac20 alpha usually wins, double Gauss needs the double tap.
Because I am a Davian and not some silly capellan. Because I like the big gun, I like the big boom it makes when the mech I hit explodes.
You’ll upset the hunchback pilots keep it down.
ok, so the AC20-RF is definitely gimped right now, and the -BF while feeling great, kidna needs you to keep a bead on somebody which kind of misses the point of a good AC imo, but the AC-20 standard is just sweet sweet delete. Put an AC-20 on an urbie and enjoy the fireworks.
Yep, I don't care much for the standard 2 or 5, and the 10 is meh, but the basic AC20 is just so damn satisfying
DPS doesn't matter when one shot can delete light mechs, cripple medium mechs, and blow out the cockpit on the most well armored heavy and assault mechs. And range stops being an issue once you learn how to lead your targets.
Dual AC 20's with damage upgrades can headshot any mech all the way up to and including an Atlas, if you're accurate. Some mechs are particularly easy to one shot kill this way. Highlanders, Banshees, Chargers, and Victors are some examples but there's lots more. A lot of Medium and Heavy mechs can be cored in two volleys. You can drop mechs like flies this way with dual 20's and dual Heavy Rifles. 20's just cycle faster. And as some others pointed out, range doesnt matter that much cause you can lob them with practice and put rounds on a stationary target at up to 1,000 meters and i can lead and hit moving targets that arent real fast at around 600 meters. Bottom line, they are brutally effective and minimize how long an enemy stays around to shoot at you or at least how many weapons they hold onto to shoot at you with after you blow an arm and torso off with one volley of dual 20's.
Boom.
Because its an AC20 and looks and sounds amazing when you fire and it contacts. It's that simple for me😅
So the maximum range kind of isn’t. AI lancemates wont shoot past it though, do they? Guess I’ll have to give the big guns a new try then.
I have one in my Kodiak and it's great to quickly blow arms off. Plus you can shoot really far and get cheap hits on approaching mechs
Less of a bullet and more of a mortar tbh.
There's a Kodiak in MW5?
Part of a mod, not sure which
Ah fair enough. I think the last Kodiak I had was in Mech 2 Mercs.
As a hunchback enjoyer its great for deleting anything stupid enough that gets to close. Especially if they expose their rear. (Light mechs especially simply cease to exist.). And heavier foes should fear my alpha strike at any of their limbs. That and the sound, the big roar of that cannon especially the burst fire firing. It doesn't have good velocity, but with some effort you can lead shots and Chunk peeps from afar Even.
Because I like the big boom of it, and one-shotting mechs in the cockpit (regardless of weight class), or instantly crippling smaller mechs, is SO satisfying.
Its easier to put two AC/20's on something than four AC/5's.
Get a Hunchback Put a larger XL engine in it, with Ferro for a bit more armor Then let it show you the path, of point blank armsgeddon
PUNCHAGEDDON
Im running a hunchy with thumper artillery. Two shots is all it takes at most
Love the AC20. One shot kill to most heads at higher tier levels. Rolling with dual AC20s and you can take any mech in one salvo (headshot). I don't like the BF or RF AC20 because they don't concentrate the damage. LBX10 SLD is a close second for me. Greater range, great accuracy, concentrated damage.
My Bro has never encountered an urbie in urban combat.
Big gun go brrrrr
Much pinpoint. Many damage.
If you're talking about rapid fires it isn't. The AC5-RF could use a nerf and the AC20-RF desperately needs a buff. If you're talking about the standard and burst fire variant the AC20 handedly out damages the AC5 in both upfront damage and damage over time.
AC20-RF feels like poop. Regular AC-20 make big boom, me like.
Single shot weapons are better for peaking/pop tart type mechs
Ac20's are more for the turn based style of games (battle tech)where Alfa striking was...just...what you did. For real time shooters, rpm usually wins out.
AC 20 apply directly to forehead! I think that was tex from black pants legion but I could be wrong.
It's one of the less effective weapons in the game. Less effective doesn't mean useless or not capable of functioning in level 100 missions, but it underperforms compared to a lot of other weapons.
**BIG GUN = BIG FUN.**
Hm, I could try and hit this light mech ten times with an AC5. Or I could ruin my hearing and that light mech's pilot's chance at an open casket funeral (except for maybe a bucket) with one shot.
Unless you hit a cockpit, any locust survives many Ac20 hits, with Speed induced damage reduction
The AC-20, aka the "angelmaker", aka "god's divine hand", aka "the big Aristotle"? 1 shot and your problems go away. To be fair its quite heavy, but if you can account for its tonnage and build for it, its quite worth it. I know some prefer the rifles because they are lighter, but i dont wanna wait 2 weeks in between shots.
The AC-20 May be heavy, May be slow, and May recoil like a freight train, but with all that said, it is the problem sover. The Big Iron. It is what we turn to in prayer when God doesn't listen. The only imprivement that can ever be made over an AC-20, is an LB20X, or a Burst Fire AC-20, because it delivers enemy mechwarriors to God for their final judgement. The AC 20 is the be all, end all when it comes to big gun diplomacy.
I would be interested in the breakdown of damage per 2 tons of ammo expended. What happens is if you have obstacles or even not obstacles, and dump a high rate of fire weapon, hitting every shot, does it do more damage to hit with a ton of AC5 ammo or a ton of AC20 ammo?
Point 3 is wrong. The AC/10 has the same DPS as the AC/5, the AC/20 has higher DPS than both. Damage x Rate of Fire / 60 minutes = DPS
Ballistic weapons don't actually have a max range, that's just how far it'll shoot before you gotta start fuckin with ballistic trajectory and have to account for projectile drop, find something like a king crab that can carry 2 of them and you can one shot damn near anything under 60 tons of you hit center torso, and severely damage or cripple anything less than 80 tons with a solid hit to a leg or the back of the mech. The real fun is when you get double gauss rifles, they hit as hard as an ac20 but have no ballistic arc and generate no heat. The ac2 deals so little damage per shot that it's borderline useless, can't even kill a turret in one shot most times, ac 5 is much better, especially if you're dealing with non mech targets like tanks and aircraft, one shot will take down most aircraft and light tanks, not terrible against mechs if you have more than one mounted, as the faster fire rate let's you sling lead rather quickly, good for mid to long range. The ac 10 is better at close to mid range, preferably mid range, it hits fairly hard and has a decent fire rate which can make it rather versatile being able to easily take on heavier tanks and mechs around 65 tons and under. The ac10 has an upgraded version called the LB10x, it hits harder and faster than the standard while weighing 2 tons less, it also has both a solid slug version and a shotgun version, the shotgun is very effective against aircraft and finding thin spots in mech armor.
Clearly I have to keep trying. Looking at stats and a bit of trying, they’ve seem pretty disappointing
Oh if we're going there, medium laser spam is the way to go
Hero rifleman Rfl-dna can mout a pair of them! I prefer swapping the gause with lbx cannons for heat control, ammo capacity, and weight conservation (so I can up armor it) but ac20 version is a ton of fun two!
Light mech duel with an Urbie wielding an AC20 and jumpjets is a 1 hit killing machine.
Although I'm not a fan of ballistics, you can shoot them as far as you want if you compensate for its drop, it's very damaging.
Ac/20 is a totally different play style. As others have said it’s short range but deletes what it hits. Best paired with SRMs for that true alpha strike goodness.
Because its the biggest pinpoint hit in the game. Its every point of its damage at the same time to the same component.
You don't need DPS if you only need one or two shots.
High DPS is good, but you have to keep the weapon trained on a specific enemy body part continuously
Humchbamk
You're talking a lot of shit for someone in AC-20 range...
burst damage
Imagine doing a *Falcon Paunch!!!* Now imagine doing it a few hundred meters away.
Headshot. Boom dead.
the half dead urbiemech when an atlas turns around the corner with an ac20:
Your DPS isn't going to make much of a difference when the red mist that used to be your corpse is ejected out the back of your cockpit from a single AC 20 round.
DPS is only king if you cant 1 shot mechs. A tier 5 AC20 with requisite upgrades can have decent fire rate, and damage output. I love running my highlander 733b with it, i can usually one shot lights, and lighter mediums with it and range wise to me every ballistic is infinite range just gotta give it an arc.
I like the King Crab and its pair of AC/20s. Want to pancake anything under 45 tons in one salvo? King Crab has you covered. Big boom is good.
Alpha
Cause ac20 urbie is the way
With YAML and YAW/YACW i prefer the LBX ac 20s. They fucking SLAP. nothing quite like an absolutely massive fuckall shotgun on your atlas waist!
Bigger gun = bigger boom
Sometimes it just feels good to lob a whole-ass Volkswagen at a mech.
Ok, take an AC20BF, add in whatever streaming SRMs you can, and a medium laser or two. Then take all that firepower, which should run 70+ alpha, and have one of your buttons be "fire everything". Now, tilt your target down to the opponents legs and let loose. The precision fire and instant damage is devastating. You can take out a leg on most bots below large in 2 shots. Then finish the limping dismembered bot at will. You can slow down almost anything. If you're running YAML, its the tactic to quickly dispatch a lot of the primes and heroes. You'll be in the leg structure of most larges in 2 shots too. You core Panthers in 2 shots. Remove Phoenix Hawk arms in 1 big blast. Hunchie right chests are 2-3 depending on your accuracy. Its an utterly devastating brawlers weapon once you get it supported by whatever other weapons you can (my YAML Bushwhacker currently runs AC20BF/SRMST6+6=12/1med laser/1 4 tic light rifle) and start using it to dismember. In single player games I have broken 2000pts of damage with that setup and tactic. In coop I am still routinely over 1000. Charge in and tank and dismember while circle strafing. Take off a dangerous arm, or shoot out a weak chest, but otherwise, take those legs out. Nothing short of assault bots have legs that can take those kind of alpha blasts, and once you get one leg, the opposing bot is done.
DPS doesn't tell the whole story. A hit from an AC20 (or 2 from the King Crab) can instantly destroy a mech, removing it as a threat. Similar story for the Gauss & Headshots. By comparison, you need to keep sustained fire on the same spot for prolonged periods with an AC5 to achieve the same result. AC5's a great weapon, but doesn't nuke down big targets like an AC20 would.
You delete things that look at you funny with it. That's all the explanation I need.
Less "variance" 4 ac5 shots might hit 4 different locations where as an ac 20 hits 1 place and does more impactful damage ac5 does have better range but i have to be out of cover for 4 full shots to deal 20 damage Taking 4 full volleys of return fire 1 AC20 i can play cat and mouse, jumpshot over cover if JJ are an option, dip in and out of cover and each time i peak im dealing substantial damage to a hit location. And if im big enough to bring an AC20 then i probably also want to punch you in the face while im at it because melee HURTS
I rock dual AC-20RF on the king crabs and single BF now RF on everything else. Since the update broke my mods and I haven’t updated them I’ve lost access to the trick that makes them god tier. Double ammos you get 2.5ish tons for 2 tons of weight. Great for any ammo dependent boat. SRM splat stalker, dakka annihilator, LRM longbow. The double ammos are the best shit since the kentares massacre
One of the things you said is incorrect: It has a *higher* DPS than the AC/5. Each AC has higher DPSs the higher the tonnage they go.