Don't get me wrong, but cutting the DPS of a glass cannon type of weapon in half seems like a retarded idea. I mean, people will use it, but it will hurt the team more than it will improve their situation. If the player can exit the Exo to somehow or another repair it the DPS loss is only temporary, which seems a lot more sensible considering damage is the Exos only merit point.
But it wouldn't hurt the team if the Exos required less support, freeing up other team members for defense or second attack while the undying Exos welded eachother and acted like a living roadblock.
Let's take a look at your idea: First of, the current setup:
Two Exos and 2 support Marines can easily hold a Roadblock, marines can use flamethrower or gren launcher from behind for extra firepower, the can also cover the back or repair with welders.
And now your setup:
Variant 1: Two dual minigun Exos supported by 2 welder Exos: Same firepower in the front, but less firepower in the back. The Two Exos in the front will block their friendlies from shooting, making their only option to weld and watch the back. No player is freed up in the process.
Variant 2: 2 welder Exos: Half firepower in the front, noone to watch the back, when one Exo is healing the firepower is only 1/4th of what it was in the current setup. Those two Exos might not fall as easily as regular Marines, but they won't stop mid to late game alien assaults either, as they cannot shoot and weld at the same time and only have a very low damage output to begin with.
Variant 3: 4 or more welder Exos: Same overall Firepower in the Front as in Variant 1, if you have the space to place the Exos next to each other. Which is not possible in most areas. So still half the firepower in the front. At least they can cover their backs now, but they still used the same number of players as in the current setup.
As I see it the heavy welder would do nothing to free up team members and instead just reduce the available mid- to lategame frontline firepower substantially. And I don't think marines really need that.
Comments
Two Exos and 2 support Marines can easily hold a Roadblock, marines can use flamethrower or gren launcher from behind for extra firepower, the can also cover the back or repair with welders.
And now your setup:
Variant 1: Two dual minigun Exos supported by 2 welder Exos: Same firepower in the front, but less firepower in the back. The Two Exos in the front will block their friendlies from shooting, making their only option to weld and watch the back. No player is freed up in the process.
Variant 2: 2 welder Exos: Half firepower in the front, noone to watch the back, when one Exo is healing the firepower is only 1/4th of what it was in the current setup. Those two Exos might not fall as easily as regular Marines, but they won't stop mid to late game alien assaults either, as they cannot shoot and weld at the same time and only have a very low damage output to begin with.
Variant 3: 4 or more welder Exos: Same overall Firepower in the Front as in Variant 1, if you have the space to place the Exos next to each other. Which is not possible in most areas. So still half the firepower in the front. At least they can cover their backs now, but they still used the same number of players as in the current setup.
As I see it the heavy welder would do nothing to free up team members and instead just reduce the available mid- to lategame frontline firepower substantially. And I don't think marines really need that.