its a point of no return, they spammed game with EMPs, guided weapons and whats not, you cant reverse it back. Mechs purchased money paid. I agree to some people who are saying you are now being in frozen state under some EMP effect from 100 directions half of the battle.. its not a shooter like Cod anymore, its a different game. 

To remedy the mess they could create a separate battle mode with just common, rare and uncommon mechs.. and actually add more of such mechs like something proper basic as wall climing etc, instead of trying to make a new super strong frankenstein that freezes the time to kill everyone around with one sight traveling into matrix armaggedon. 

As for how to deal with Volti with common mechs, even i am sceptical :) you just die. Whether its an issue or a feature i dont even know :) you can beat any legendary with common,rare etc but not Volti hahahaha

As for your orion, you will not like to hear me.. i played about 5 months and i have Salvor, Dreadnought, Vortex, Solis, Hemlock, Outlaw and Bastion.. And just a month ago i barely had any legendary mechs at all. If you spent a year and still dont have good mechs then i must ask if you been playing at all!? Because my complaint is rather how fast they are giving out legendary mechs and weapons and not the other way round.. As soon as i figured out that saving a-coins and credits is a way to go life changed for me. Took me a while i admit.. But Volti cant do anything against Salvor.. But common, uncommon, rare have no chances vs Volti, i agree 100 %, but only until they make a sniper weapon that hits through all walls you cant win that matchup.. just come back in a year, obstacles will not be a thing anymore, there will be 25 weapons shooting through walls and give EMP effects with 30m radius blasts

When I first read the OP I had the same thoughts that Papa expressed. Fully agree with him. We have to assume that matchmaking is not going to change to address this kind of problem. So what to do?

As an f2p your best weapon is patience. What this means:

* Ride out this initial rough patch of facing overpowered opponents.

* Save your resources. Resist upgrading low tier gear.

* Avoid buying legendary stuff for acoins from the gear hub. Wait for ECRs.

* Don't gamble in ECRs. Participate only if you can guarantee the rewards and if you really want what is on offer.

It takes time but in the long run gets you to your goals faster.

Even I have the same issue. The older mechs and weapons are of zero importance when compared with the newer content released these days. Initially it was a game of skill and strategy but now it's a game of endless spamming with campers and tankers. Though I hate to be one, but as time changes, we have to change our Hangars and as "tar" said, we should only focus on saving up and buying the meta from ECRs

Old weapons and mechs also get buff to stay relevant. Some newer items are not good like Silverthorn and Varsa. Mech Arena uses advanced mathematics on excel to balance mechs and weapons. It is hundred line formulas taking all things into account. And afterwards based on the real-world performance after thorough monitoring and evaluation, they make changes to make the game fair. Like for the first six months revokers did not take traction. Then they exploded in popularity. After 1 year they were nerfed appropriately to make things balanced and widen the Meta for a fun gameplay. 

I can't completely agree with you, because Versa is really powerful at higher rank, and Silverthorn would be a decent competitor against poor performers like Onyx and Scorpius. To make this argument simpler, ask any random player which mech and weapon combo they like the most. I CAN GUARANTEE YOU THAT ABOUT EVERY 95 of 100 PLAYERS WILL CHOOSE NEWLY RELEASED CONTENT. In previous comment, I used the term "old" to mean mechs and weapons which are in the game long before the gear hub was introduced. 

Such old content and new content have insanely great disparities, starting from damage to magazine size, reolad speed, playstyle and so on. And for the revoker popularity: Revokers became popular only after it was available to all players for in-game resources. It was so overpowered that no weapon can defeat a revoker player if someone plays against them. Revokers actually deal damage two times (first it'll deal some damage when it hits the target, then while coming back it'll come from the back, hitting the opponent's flank which deals 2x damage than original shot and then it returns). And for mechs like Surge, Eclipse, etc... Revokers would be completely unstoppable and to promote other new content, Revokers got nerfed. That's what the real history of revoker is

I acknowledge the hardwork developers had put into the game, but recently many such newer mechs and weapons are in the meta. After a very long time, Redox has come into the meta just because it received a lot of buffs. People at that time would not accept Redox even if it's given for free. Such a worse mech it was before. I really want other promising mechs and weapons which were introduced before Gear Hub should be competitive enough so that they'd not become useless

Before commenting me again, please try to learn all incidents properly before giving a reply