Posted 02 December 2015 - 04:14 AM

I wouldn't say that the IS are blatantly better than the Clans. I often forget how helpful some of the perks to clan mechs are, like the reduced weight on everything, no single ST deaths, generally faster mechs, and longer ranges. It's a slightly different ball game with each side, but you can play them both just as effectively in the end.



We're in the middle of a big balance change so I don't want to say much about the game's IS vs Clan balance right at this exact moment, but the general trend I've seen up to right now is that if you play to an IS mech's quirks, you will beat a Clan mech in that given category, unless the chassis is just bad to begin with.



For instance, clan "range advantage" is non-existent if you pick the IS mechs quirked specifically for distance. IS mechs, like the Zeus 9S iirc, had longer erLL ranges than Clan mechs.



Another example:

The IS MPLs used to have no ghost heat, and the TDR 5SS had an MPL quirked range + modules only a few meters short of clans as well as a massive heat gen and cooldown reduction. This meant that the TDR could boat 7 MPLs, and fire them all with very little heat and very fast cooldown in comparison to any clan mech. Of course, if you tried some funky ranged build, you probably wouldn't have much luck, but hey, that doesn't matter if you're playing to its strengths.



Other mechs with huge quirks allow them to play in a style that you just can't do as well with any other mech, Clan or IS (I'm looking at you Locust 1V.) You're kind of narrowed down into beingreally good at one thing.





I would like to sum up that it really feels like the game is divided into 3 mech categories, which are Clans, heavily quirked IS mechs that are just ridiculous in their given category, and all the other IS mechs that don't get nearly as much love.

