They give you 1 extra head and leg slot, another bonus as well as increased mass, meaning speed.
It's like T4 gear, its expensive but for some its worth it. For others standard gear works out.

A note one might easily skip over, Mk2's have more mass.

more mass would mean they get lower top speeds unless im doing math wrong

More mass means any additional modules mass will be diluted.

Meaning that fully loaded, the mk2 will go faster.

Fitting tools for the win. Mk2 robots are amazing is cost means nothing to you. The CT's are a pain but that's the hardest part.

Whats the waspish mk2 bonus then and ext.. i cant get in game for like another 2-10 days due to work gaming system refit. you know you want to tell me siddy because im going to have to buy one from you in the end... and a bunch of t/pt4 fittings, because im crazy like that.

same as all other combat bots except mechs:
1% damage per pelistal robot control extension (note: its not bound to a specific weapon type)

four headslots and three legslots + another damage bonus.

if your still specialized in small green bots, this should be your killermachine.

Is there any demand for the Laird MK2 ?

Mk2's are rather useless but some of them are very powerful. I can't say which ones are overpowered because then everyone one used them and it would be a nightmare but they're not exactly balanced. This is due to their Mk1 counterpart not being balanced however.

They're expensive and they can be ganked just as easily as any other robot being you WILL lose it at some point if you use it. It's not worth it without an armour increase.

booo and im still having to work and wait for my tests to finish so i can use my system again no fair

hmm, about the riv mk2:

how high are the bets that a m2s member alt will be the first one to drive one?
Industrial Robot control lvl8 to lvl10 needs 60d and 6 hours if you have no spare points.
(total EP neccessary to drive one: 140.386 = 98 days, only for activating it, not equipping)

I can't see them used on ewar as if you ever used that many slots you would need brutal skills and be slow as hell. Nobody uses assaults in pvp. For mechs they could be useful only if they remove the two amp cap and made it diminishing returns as mechs routinely fire out to max double amp and nexus range even with modest skills and equipment. The 8% / 8% bonus a tuning would give you is not worth the loss of speed nor extra cost. Heavies won't be used as the extra skill needed is brutal and until peeps get a lot more skills that ep is much better spent in other areas.

My recommendations would be to remove the two amp cap and replace with diminishing returns.

Secondly make it +1 skill level rather than two.

Thirdly change the bonus reflective of the bot class:
Ewar should be speed
Assaults should be surface hit size
Mechs should be locking range
Ewar mechs should be their ewar range
Heavies should be damage