Please give the cannons some love!
Reduce the weight, load times, and/or power consumption of the Mammoth. Currently these cannons are absolutely not competitive anymore, at least not on non-hover builds.
Before the update it looked much better for my main build:
- Fused Deadman (For more power)
- 2 fused Mammoth (For weight reduction)
- Fused KA-2 Flywheel (For weight reduction)
- Fused Eagle (For weight reduction) or fused Colossus (For weight reduction and power gain)
- Fused big ammobox (For weight reduction)
- 6 fused Omnis (For more power and some weight reduction and some tonnage increase)
One of the deciding factors will have been the 500 kg mass bonus from the co-pilot ‘Master Jack’, which is now gone. Grizzly only brings 260 kg in a deadman, which Jay absolutely outperforms with the weight reduction of the Ammobox and its perk ‘4 times 7% more damage’.
The 500 kg is absolutely lacking if you want to use a fast Mammoth build.
But that’s far from all.
The Shotgun, Destructor and especially now the ‘Machine Gun’ builds even at medium range are absolutely deadly for Cannon builds - they literally eat through the Mammoth’s hard frames and armor. Even more so when you hardly have any armor left or are forced to do without it.
Still, in my opinion, mobility is more important than armor plating - at least that’s absolutely the case right now. A slow Mammoth build is dog food, while fast Mammoth builds are currently fodder for Destructors and Machine guns at medium range - so it doesn’t help much if you have a 100 km/h build. You can’t reload or flee as fast as the MG- and Shotgun- but also Destructors eat through the Mammoths - an exposed cabin is gone in no time.
You also have to realize that Cannon builds usually require a lot more skill than, say, Shotgun or MG builds. Shotgun and MG builds also now benefit greatly from the Phobos perk, for example, which grants 25% more damage for 5 seconds if you are only within 35 meters of an enemy. After the 5 seconds the perk is deactivated, but reactivates after 2 seconds - and for this you only have to be within the 35m distance.
Compare this to the Jay perk, which gives a maximum of 4x7%, for a total maximum of 28%, more damage when you hit 4x from a distance of 80 meters, if there are at least 3 seconds between the 4 hits. 4x3 seconds equal 12 seconds, if you miss or fall below the 80 meter distance the perk will be gone.
You have to admit that this is out of proportion - on the one hand not in terms of income, and on the other hand measured by effort and skill level - apart from the general damage per second due to the short loading times of the cannons.
It would be fairer to remove the distance from the jay perk and reduce the delay from 3 to 0.5 seconds. Even if you did that, the Jay perk would still require 4 hits, while the Phobos perk would only require a 2 second presence within the 35m distance.
Best regards