Tiers are not so important. :)
Certainly, but because of how matchmaking usually works, how people play and what ’Mechs people bring at different tiers can paint one's perceptions. Just weeks ago, I voiced that there seemed to be a distinct lack of
Vindicator pilots around; suddenly, recently, I've seen more than a handful, including a "St. Ives Blue" at one point. ;D
All these OmniMechs are still good, maybe with the exception of the Thor. The Thor lacks pod space, since it lacks endo-steel and has locked jump jets. The Black Hawk has the same problem, but it gets around it by boating a lot of light energy weapons. The Thor can not do even that.
Perhaps, but what the
Summoner does bring to the table, at least in a Prime or M config's stock loadout, is a graceful simplicity such that, while it might not be scoring a lot of kills often, it can definitely deal significant amounts of damage quickly with its cooldown quirks, especially with the LB 10-X autocannon. Its real strength is in mobility. As one of my friends pointed out once when I brought up the specific issue of its lack of firepower, it's basically an oversized
Griffin, for better or worse, with all the strengths and weaknesses that entails. (Except for the option of removing jump jets, though; on a
Summoner, those are there to stay.)
That stuff might not count for much in a T2-1 game where everyone's (probably) running their best kill machines, but down where I'm playing? I do get dumpstered sometimes, but more recently and more often, I'm dancing around with it and holding my own as I work closely with others in my team, and a smile comes to my face any time I drop in my
Summoner M and hear Nicolai Malthus in the matches where I do actually score at least one kill. And that's the
real victory. ;)
For clarity, I have no delusions about
Summoners being top, or even high, tier ’Mechs, especially in the way I play them; of all the ’Mechs I play, my
Warhawk is actually my top performer, and my
Summoner games are too inconsistent. But I have definitely had some very fun and satisfying games with my
Summoners these days, and my PSR hasn’t been going down as often as it used to even while using them. ;D I’m tempted to spend the next month doing nothing but playing either my Prime or M configuration
Summoners and seeing what happens.
