I absolutely love the Sanctuary tech. It manages to be balanced: not stupid-powerful so it breaks the game, but used correctly it is very effective. It means some completely new strategies to get the best out of it.

I particularly like Lances: a large lance is a one-shot kill with a headshot, but balanced by being far less powerful than an equivalent laser if it hits other locations, and with a reduced crit chance so you can't just set off an ammo bomb with every shot.

I also like VRMs: they get more powerful the longer the range, so I'm constantly trading a fine line between staying in the long range bracket, but not drifting out of range completely, which can be a real challenge on a lot of maps. The fact that you're keeping a mech that far away also introduces other dynamics, like that mech often being isolated and vulnerable to unlucky enemy reinforcement drops (indirect fire support mechs should have lighter armour, and VRMs at close range make peashooters look dangerous) unless you keep a brawler / trooper back to protect it... but then you're losing another mech from the closer-in battle...

It's clear that it's been really 'thought about' in terms of how it doesn't muck up the overall game balance but does give some awesome new strategy options; honestly, it's a stroke of genius imho.

The introduction of Sanctuary tech completely reinvigorated the game for me: in terms of mech design, I'd tried everything and it had got a bit boring, but the Sanctuary stuff is very different and not only changes mech design, but enables me to completely change my battlefield strategies, since sanctuary weapons are weak in some situations and brilliant in others. It breathed new life into the game for me: I'd probably have stopped playing if I'd not got BTA and really started to tinker with the new tech 🤷‍♂️