How does one get 700 damage done in a round?
700 is average. I can do upwards of 1,000 in my 35-ton Jenner D. With a speed of 150kph you are really hard to hit, especially while constantly ducking in and out of cover from unexpected angles and directions (JJ help). Even better while fighting at short range for maximum damage potential.
Jenner builds can have an alpha strike in the 30-40 range, which is as good as many mediums/heavies who can't survive direct combat as long because they're slow by comparison. Streaks are good for guaranteed hits on light mechs, but they're *not* good enough if you really want to take down bigger mechs. (They used to be much better, but after the last nerf no longer always hit the CT regardless of angle.) Calculate it out: Say you hit for only 25 damage per volley, then you only have to hit 30 times in a match to reach 750. Say a match lasts 7 minutes (pretty average), and the first 2 of that are maneuvering, so in 5 minutes you'd have to hit someone every 12 seconds to reach 750 dmg. 12 seconds is a lot of match time to
not be shooting, especially in a fast-moving light
When matches play out longer you have even more leeway (or more damage).
In a Jenner medium lasers are your most useful weapon. Fairly good range, and not too heavy so you can pile them on. Pinpoint whatever components are seriously damaged, or go straight for the CT. Then I also carry (standard) SRMs which I use to smash enemies at literally point blank range during a run/fly-by so that *all* of the damage hits.
With that speed you can always be very careful about picking when and where to fight the enemy. Don't do it unless you have the clear advantage. (I've been playing since closed beta, and played all the BT/MW games before it, so I have a lot of experience with MW tactics which helps.) Lone assault mechs are easy kills since you can hide behind them and shoot out their rear armor before they can even get a bead on you.
I find it much more difficult to get above 800 damage in larger mechs.
The only other mechs in which I can pretty easily reach 1,000 damage are Jaegers, which is why you see a lot of them out there--they're pretty awesome. High-mounted arm weapons for shooting over ridges without being shot, and a great max pitch angle for hitting targets up/down steep slopes. Currently one of only three types of mech that can carry dual AC/20s, which is a lot of fun and with good enough aim will rip enemies to pieces in no time (and they do it best). Also used to play Catapults and Stalkers and do pretty high damage with those, but got kinda tired of them and now everything feels too slow since I started playing the unstoppable Jenner (I'd mastered 3 other light mechs before that, but none are as deadly as a Jenner, not even a Raven 3L). Hard to go back.
I don't normally take screenshots, but since this thread was active I played a couple matches yesterday and took some:
Spent one match dropping mechs by sneaking up behind and ripping through rear armor (with that speed and damage)--killed 2/3 of the other team with that tactic. Most mechs have really weak rear armor compared to a Jenner alpha... Don't get to do as much total damage because you spend too much time maneuvering, but it works.
Next match more or the same, but downed fewer mechs in favor of more frontal assaults.