Weapon arms

[Lord_Leperman]

In short, less than half of them yes, they are still useful (and some, very useful). The other bigger half ,useless.

SYURA (Laserblade arms): Well, if you were a fan of blading then maybe you'd use this. But since its focused on blading, expect to see the advantages and disadvantages of using a blade in combat.

WA69MG (Machine gun arms): A once very dangerous weapon system is now reduced to being sub-par in LR standards. The shots scatter too much, and with only 300 rounds of ammo, you'd have to conserve each shot on a very inaccurate weapon system.

WA69MS (Dual-inclined missile launcher arms): Launches 2-4 missiles in an inclined pattern. The missiles travel fast, but have very poor homing performance and can be easily dodged at closer ranges. On a good note, these are the lightest weapon arms available. (I see "some" potential here, but it needs some vs. testing)

TAURUS (Dual-direct fire missile launcher arms): A very good missile launcher set with plentiful ammo. Its mode 2 missiles home in better than its mode 1 counterparts, making it ideal for medium-close range combat (around 200M). Fast and multiple locks ensure a large salvo of missiles, and in turn, a large amount of damage.

WA75MSP (Dual large-missile launcher arms): Too heavy and with very little ammo for what it can do.

WA77MS/V (Dual vertical-missile launcher): HOLY HELL! These are probably one of the best, if not, THE BEST missile system in the game! Mode 1 fires verts in a standard fashion but the weapon system shines in mode 2 where the verts travel at a lower arc, but have homing capabilities almost to the level of the SYAKATSURA! Great for chasing down opponents!

WA91MSM (Arm mounted, Micro-missile launcher): Fires missiles at a wide spread which makes them almost undodgeable at close ranges. However, ammo runs out pretty fast.

WA69BZ (Dual Bazooka-arms): A pretty good arm set, however the ND lock will seriously affect your aiming ability, as this is meant to be used in close ranges because of the BZ rounds' slow shot velocity. By the chance you do land hits with this weapon, your opponent will be in a world of hurt as it can do 5200 points of damage if all 4 shots connect.

WA74BZL (Dual spread-bazooka arms): Not as good as its heavier counterpart, the shots travel slower than standard BZ rounds, but they have a much higher damage potential due to the 72 rounds of ammo it packs. The shots spread quite a bit however, making precision strikes difficult.

WA74GR (Dual grenade-cannon arms): A bit heavy, but has plentiful ammo that is good enough for prolonged encounters. I suggest using mode 1 since the lock ping time is much faster than mode 2's dual shot, allowing you to track faster opponents easier but mode 2 is great for damage racing against slower opponents.

WA78GRL (Dual light grenade-cannon arms): The WA74GR's smaller cousin. Fires grenades faster, and has slightly more ammo. I suggest using mode 2 on this one since the reload rates of mode 1 and 2 are close to each other.

CETUS (Dual linear-cannon arms): The best direct-fire weapon arms set. This weapon system is light, able to fire fast, hit hard, and aim accurately. Mode 2 seems to be a better deal because of its high attack power than mode 1's high heating potential. The only drawback seems to be its high equip drain and the ND lock, which seems to be the balancing factor.

LEO (Dual plasma-cannon arms): The CETUS' energy based brother. It drains a lot of energy from an AC's generator to be used effectively though. Even with energy packs, this thing is almost unusable because of the shot drain in both firing modes.

ARIES (Dual spread-laser arms): High heat per shot, but suffers the same problems as the LEO.

LUPUS (Dual orbit-cannon arms): Ewwww...

So what's useable in my book?
(In no particular order)

CETUS
Both grenade cannon arms
regular BZ arms
WA77MS/V
TAURUS

[Black Dragon]

Hmm... Well I use MG arms on a light weight along with EO and it works pretty well.

TAURUS rocks as missile arms (the high precision mode), the firing interval is great for putting pressure on your enemy.

LEO's problem is on usage drain, however, it does seem to break parts easily. I always stick to normal mode, the high attack mode seems to be too drainy to use in a prolonged battle

CETUS mode 2 is more usable in more situation than mode one, high heat mode is great, however the interval and the damage doesn't stack up quite well...

MS/V is good for me too, though it doesn't seem to have the pressure ability like that of TAURUS (for me at least)

GL arms is 'nuff said XD

Well, those are some of my thoughts

[rober2]

On my first AC game, I used weapon arm parts. but now that things have changed, I no longer use them... exept 4 fun.

[wanzerfreak]

some weapons arms are fun to use with jousting/OB:

dual BZs
GR
CETUS
TAURUS or dual verts (get a full lock, then split! enjoy watching the flight arc of your missiles )

[Grim]

Weapon arms are one of the areas where either From gets it right or screws it all up.

In one game you find that the 69MG arms are god, but in the very next release you see them being nerfed big time. Hasn't From ever heard of a thing called a median? I guess not.

Anyway, weapon arms have great attack power, mostly. That's one thing that's going for them. Some even have the capacity to knock out other ACs with a few well-timed shots (lol MSP on mode 2 = 2 shot kill if all missiles connect). What they do not have is sufficient ammo. Once they run out, they're out. And whaddya know? No hangers. Not droppable for any speed boost either. I guess it would look weird if your AC could just drop its arms at will.

Most of the arms have midweight defense, but lightweight drain. That's OK, since you're not going to put any other weapons on your AC soon, disregarding backmounts.

So, final verdict? Same as Lord_Leperman. Some are very fun/useful, some are just plain garbage. My list:

Syura (against bladers only)
Taurus
MS/V
BZL (joust with 'em on mode 2... bam! ))
GRL
Cetus (mode 2 lolzzz)

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot, weapons arms can't be tuned, so no buffing of shell or energy defense. Still, they have sufficient and comparable AP to the rest of the arms to make up for this.