Well I will let the debate rage on without me for a while, but first I will list some final points to add to the fire. You managed to label all the bad points and none of the good points to using Acid. As one of the few Ranked players using Acid Cannon at least every second game, here is what I find works out.
Almost every game I play has at least one earth, sky Tank, hunter, demon or frost. "T3" tanks seems to be overpopulated with mainly Earth + Hunters in particular and LR is incredibly effective against these 2 tanks. LR is at a disadvantaged to Demon/Frost/Fortress though. This bit may sound a bit out of whack, but you really should not buy T4 Tanks (Sky/Inf) if you plan on playing Long Range during T4 Stage. These tanks costs way too much and will reduce your DPS way too low. You really don't need the extra HP, or even the damaging skills for that matter if you choose to play LR at T4. Arguably T3 Tank skills have better synergy for Long Range than T4 Tank skills anyway.
Yes almost all T4 battles are on CP, the disadvantages are obvious:
- You can't share damage so you will suck when defending CP's.
- Playing LR tends to paint a huge target mark right on your head, people almost always try "suprise kill" the weak LR guy.
- LR sucks VS air (You lose your speed advantage)
- LR sucks VS 1050 Range (Hard to maintain range advantage)
- Lower AOE skill damage during CP battles
- LR has poor synergy with your team if they have mostly mid-ranged weapons
- "Anti-LR-Die-Hards" will always call you noob and cannot be reasoned with. Many will try kick you or even ban attempt you (yes, even if you carry them to victory).
- Buying LR is always a risk, you may lose a game for your lack of CP defense
- There is no better LR weapon than Acid Cannon, so you cannot plausibly use Long Range after T4. This is unfortunate as it makes T5 a boring supercell-fest and I hope this changes.
Now time for the good news:
- DPS is not a disadvantage, since you spent more money on weapons than HP... your DPS tends to be quite high anyway.
- Escaping enemies on Low HP have a much harder time not being killed
- During drawn out CP battles you can attack others while they can't attack you, this more often than not leads to the LR tank being the "last-man-standing" and capturing the CP.
- IMHO over 50% of the damage from CP battles is from skills rather than weapons. Skills are not share-damage. Avoiding AOE kill zones provides a contingency for your team when attacking/defending CP's.
- Certain LR builds and styles (mostly invented by my insanity, so I dunno why some people copied them) don't require wasting money on teleport/speed packs to be effective. Even in late game..
- LR is a great alternative to anti-ground weaponry
- Enemies (especially Inf's) cannot get in range to "fake" attack a CP without being punished by your acid cannon. Every failed advance will soften them a little.
- LR has high synergy with your team if they are mostly Short-Ranged
- If nothing else, being LR is quite an annoying distraction for your enemy. They will quite often suicide to try get an "easy kill" out of you. Also they will waste money and skills trying to specifically counter you. If your team are evil they can use you as bait..
Titan and/or T5 usage of Long Range weapons is irrelevant, since there is currently no T5 Long Ranged weapons available.
(Hopefully this changes as there needs to be more options other than ye old boring supercell. Perhaps the "1200" range suggestions may come into play here?)
Almost every game I play has at least one earth, sky Tank, hunter, demon or frost. "T3" tanks seems to be overpopulated with mainly Earth + Hunters in particular and LR is incredibly effective against these 2 tanks. LR is at a disadvantaged to Demon/Frost/Fortress though. This bit may sound a bit out of whack, but you really should not buy T4 Tanks (Sky/Inf) if you plan on playing Long Range during T4 Stage. These tanks costs way too much and will reduce your DPS way too low. You really don't need the extra HP, or even the damaging skills for that matter if you choose to play LR at T4. Arguably T3 Tank skills have better synergy for Long Range than T4 Tank skills anyway.
Yes almost all T4 battles are on CP, the disadvantages are obvious:
- You can't share damage so you will suck when defending CP's.
- Playing LR tends to paint a huge target mark right on your head, people almost always try "suprise kill" the weak LR guy.
- LR sucks VS air (You lose your speed advantage)
- LR sucks VS 1050 Range (Hard to maintain range advantage)
- Lower AOE skill damage during CP battles
- LR has poor synergy with your team if they have mostly mid-ranged weapons
- "Anti-LR-Die-Hards" will always call you noob and cannot be reasoned with. Many will try kick you or even ban attempt you (yes, even if you carry them to victory).
- Buying LR is always a risk, you may lose a game for your lack of CP defense
- There is no better LR weapon than Acid Cannon, so you cannot plausibly use Long Range after T4. This is unfortunate as it makes T5 a boring supercell-fest and I hope this changes.
Now time for the good news:
- DPS is not a disadvantage, since you spent more money on weapons than HP... your DPS tends to be quite high anyway.
- Escaping enemies on Low HP have a much harder time not being killed
- During drawn out CP battles you can attack others while they can't attack you, this more often than not leads to the LR tank being the "last-man-standing" and capturing the CP.
- IMHO over 50% of the damage from CP battles is from skills rather than weapons. Skills are not share-damage. Avoiding AOE kill zones provides a contingency for your team when attacking/defending CP's.
- Certain LR builds and styles (mostly invented by my insanity, so I dunno why some people copied them) don't require wasting money on teleport/speed packs to be effective. Even in late game..
- LR is a great alternative to anti-ground weaponry
- Enemies (especially Inf's) cannot get in range to "fake" attack a CP without being punished by your acid cannon. Every failed advance will soften them a little.
- LR has high synergy with your team if they are mostly Short-Ranged
- If nothing else, being LR is quite an annoying distraction for your enemy. They will quite often suicide to try get an "easy kill" out of you. Also they will waste money and skills trying to specifically counter you. If your team are evil they can use you as bait..
Titan and/or T5 usage of Long Range weapons is irrelevant, since there is currently no T5 Long Ranged weapons available.
(Hopefully this changes as there needs to be more options other than ye old boring supercell. Perhaps the "1200" range suggestions may come into play here?)