Thought that i'd give my two cents here too.
Actually, using kits to keep your heat down isn't complete... (whatever you said).
You don't have to buy the best kits for your mech, just buy those that benefit you. (E.g. if your mech heat capacity is 75 then buying cooling kit that reduces your heat by 100 is useless. Better buy a cooling kit that reduces your heat by 70-80. Same goes for rockets, if your mech holds only 30 rockets, using a kit that will give 40 rockets is also useless. Etc etc.)
About pros, it's a great way to learn which items in the game are the best. You can also study their strategy so you can use it later on.
For example, when i was about lvl17 player, i saw that Solider torso was quite unbeatable, especially with heat weapons. I learned from it and ended up buying myself the very same Solider torso which had beaten me several times before.
Oh, if you find NPC very easy then how about trying to beat several in a row? NPCs will get tougher as their level goes up. Also, fighting against NPCs is also a great way to test out new weapons/builds and strategies.
It's probably just me, but in my opinion, NPCs are somewhat better than real players (tactics wise).
Btw, your statement about "...the more people who get to high levels the more Lucifers there will be." is incorrect. It's true that in range of lvl22-lvl26 there are mostly Lucifer torsos but when you go above that point, you will meet different torsos (e.g. Gladiator, Shielded etc).
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Aeacus