There's a poll on the MWO forums, asking who's willing to swap a standard engine for an XL engine. Judging from the results, I'd recommend shooting at people's side torsos in public matches, just to see what happens. After a couple of laser volleys or Gauss rounds to peel away the armor, it looks like your odds are better than a coin-toss that you can finish off the mech with just a bit of MG fire.
Also, intuition tells me that the kind of person who mounts an XL engine isn't the kind of person to "waste" tonnage ensuring that CASE accompanies all of his ammunition stores, so seek out those ammo bins! (Either that or take some Flamers and watch the fireworks.)
I've got a feeling that this isn't going to be as big an issue in competitive play. Presumably, there will be greater expertise and familiarity with the game rules at that level, so that they'll understand and be more likely to avoid the massive increase in vulnerability that comes with an XL engine. Still, when you're pubbing for C-Bills, the appeal of the XL engine to the naive is something to keep in mind.
XL Engines
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