49 replies to this topic

[Lord Letto]

All hail the Mighty LRM Atlas! i havd my D-DC as a LRM Boat, I forget the exact loadout though, I'll check and post a smurfy later.

[Kjudoon]

40 tubes without artemis? Use two 15s and two 5s. With artemis? Two 20s.

Of course since the atlas S cannot fire more than 10/6/6/6 In a single salvo, none of these options are good.

I still haven't found my happy place with this mech but even LRM 5s can't do the trick. So far my best but still unsatisfactory build is 3LPLs and 4 SRM4s.

Lots of 'meh' to it.

[OznerpaG]

JagdFlanker, on 13 February 2015 - 05:34 PM, said:

sounds like the hate i got when i was leveling my crab with LRMs vice ACs haha

best route - LRM20/dual LRM10. too much ghost heat on 4 LRM launchers, and since your salvos are broken up with the limited tubes this'l give you a group of 22 and a group of 18, each of which will penetrate most AMS

my only other advice is ditch the BAP and throw a TAG on - BAP only works out to 200m or whatever it is now, while TAG nullifies ECM out to 750m+

but if you do keep the BAP, throw the MLs in the CT and strip the arms for more LRM ammo

[Lord Letto]

Current D-DC Build: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b8fe0e2b95b0d73
2xLL, AC/20 with 2 Tons ammo (14 Shots), 1LRM10 and 2x LRM 5's with 8 Tons of ammo (1440 Missiles), ECM & BAP, Stock STD 300 with 2 DHS in it & FF Armour, Extra Point of Armour in RL
a older build from back in May 2014: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...d4878543025965b
Gauss with 4 tons of ammo (40 shots), Extra DHS in RT, half the LRM Ammo (4 Tons, 720 Missiles), Extra Armour point in RCT instead of RL, Rest as Current.

apparently with the old loadout, I had over 550 Damage & 2 Kills per Match in the 1st 2 matches with the loadout, one of them was on Crimson Straits Assault, was me and a Jager (@ 20something% & Stripped of Weapons & Equipment), I took out 5-6 or so defense turrets and started capping the base then 3 Stalkers appeared, I took down 2 but the 3rd got me with the base half capped.

[Shabahh Kerensky]

Just try them out and see which are any fun to you.

Edited by Shabahh Kerensky, 13 February 2015 - 08:08 PM.

[Orbit Rain]

I had to skip the wall of test post and then start skimming in reasonable chunks... Given your builds, you don't really *want* to have line of sight that much, so not sure I'd put artemis on it. You should front-load the armor more if you're going that route with it (and probably front-load it anyway). I'm guessing you must have a standard 360. If you don't, use a 350 instead, move the bap and add two CT ML's and some ammo.

If I were to franken-lrm this thing, i might do this: link

20 and 5 in first, and fired the first group (15,10) salvo...the two 15's in the second lrm firing group (12, 12, 6) salvo's...

::flamesuit on::

[aniviron]

reddevil, on 13 February 2015 - 10:40 AM, said:

But what about just general efficiency? Is it better to have two LRM20's or 4 LRM 10's? Are 15's the sweet spot or irrelevant?

The smaller launchers are pretty much always better, if you can take more of them. First, the tonnage math is just stacked in their favor: an LRM20 is five slots and ten tons, but four LRM5s are four slots and eight tons- you get the same number of missiles for less of a tonnage and slot cost.

Next, the lighter launchers fire faster. The LRM20 has a 4.75s delay between shots, whereas the 5 is only 3.25, with the others between. Again, pretty much a no-brainer.

Finally, the biggest advantage of lighter launchers is that they have tighter groupings. The 20s have such a huge spread that they will not even hit every single missile on an Atlas or Awesome, meaning you're going to do about 15 damage per shot at most, much less if you're firing at something smaller. LRM5s, by contrast, can hit most mediums with every single missile, and all the missiles will hit the torso components, meaning that not only are you doing a better fraction of your potential damage, it's hitting useful areas.

There are a few reasons you see mechs with more than just LRM5s, though. First off, you would need more missile hardpoints than any mech has to get enough tubes to really deal high amounts of consistent damage- even through the LRM5 fires faster, two LRM20s will put more missiles downrange in a limited time window than four LRM5s.

Next is AMS. If you shoot one big group of 60 LRMs in one shot, the AMS is going to shoot down very few of those missiles. If you fire 12 volleys of five over 10 seconds, the AMS will go to town on those, and shoot most of them down.

Finally, if you've got lots of small launchers, you're pretty much required to fire them separately, as they all have ghost heat, and it kicks in pretty hard even on smaller launchers.

As an additional thing to keep in mind, many mechs have quirks for specific launchers, which can make taking one size or another more appealing.

Overall, it's generally best to take a mix of 10s and 15s if you're going to take LRMs, but really what you should take depends on what your needs are.

[Trolzylulzy]

I'm just gonna drop my two cents.

This is a build that I've seen work fairly well in the past. You have some LRMs to help suppress things from far away, and enough close range punch to hurt anything that comes too close. Hell, you can even do some massive damage if you can trap the enemy in the 180-270 meter rqange.

[_____]

LOL last time I posted my opinion that LRM Atlases can be effective, I got so much hate from, well, players who probably just couldn't get it to work for them. Some of them even went on to ignore me on the forums

That said, LRM Atlases aren't the "ideal" setup, but they can do a lot of work as long as you use the other hardpoints in conjunction. In general LRM 15s are the most efficient launchers in terms of a combination of DPS, missile spread and weight.

[Macksheen]

You're not looking for "Don't do LRMs on the Atlas", so I will try to respect that.

If I were to run LRMs on the S, I'd run 4xLRM5. Given only your three choices, i'd run the 10s - but if I were to run LRMs, like I said, I'd go with the 5s.

[TercieI]

Macksheen, on 16 February 2015 - 07:53 AM, said:

You're not looking for "Don't do LRMs on the Atlas", so I will try to respect that.

If I were to run LRMs on the S, I'd run 4xLRM5. Given only your three choices, i'd run the 10s - but if I were to run LRMs, like I said, I'd go with the 5s.

But don't do LRMs on the Atlas.

(Don't worry, OP, I'm trolling my buddy Macksheen here, not you)

[Lochwuzz]

LRM-Playing requires not such a high player skill and seems at the beginning attractive. You can do an accaptable amount of damage and even kills, but it doesn´t improve your own personal playing skill.

In the long term you will be frustrated. You simply cant reach the stats, skill level, etc. of the "top" palyers with an LRM boat.

For mastering a Mech you need hours and hours in this one chassis. Pugging with an LRM boat doesnt help much to learn the reflexes of this individual chassis.

Have a nice day.

Edited by Lochwuzz, 17 February 2015 - 06:54 AM.

[Macksheen]

Terciel1976, on 16 February 2015 - 05:15 PM, said:

But don't do LRMs on the Atlas.

(Don't worry, OP, I'm trolling my buddy Macksheen here, not you)

And so well ...

Here are some points for you OP

• I would not run LRMs in an Atlas because at their core, Atlas get brawled. People get in their face, run around them, etc. A few LRMs may be nice as an add on (say 2 LRM5 on an RS) as you are walking your slow butt to the front line in solo drops, but in more serious stuff you're going to need to pay attention to your role and while there are good LRM mechs out there (HBK-4J, CPLTs, AWS even w/ the new quirks, TBTs, etc.) the Atlas isn't on that list.
  
• If I were to run LRMs on an S, I'd pay attention to the tube count and run 5s.
  
• Given that the S has four missile points, it means it is probably the best Atlas brawler, the thing an Atlas should be good at - and putting LRMs on it is weakening that aspect.
  
• If you really want to do something different and put some guidance on the S, throw in 4 Streaks; I'd rather do that than LRMs

[Macksheen]

BTW OP - are you familiar w/ what we're talking about "tube count"

If you go to smurphy and fire up an atlas S in the left torso you'll see the green "missile" hard point indicator and some numbers.

It looks like this: 4M (10,6x3)

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b#i=241&l=stock


That means that there are 4 missile hard points and, when fired, the first can fire 10 missiles at once and the other 3 only 6 missiles each. If you put an LRM 20 in one of those other spots, what you'll get is it firing 6, then 6, then 6, then 2 when you click the button - and then rearming. It's very slow, and bad for missile grouping.

[mogs01gt]

Night Wind, on 13 February 2015 - 10:23 AM, said:

I have three smurfy builds I'm looking at.
I was wondering, what's better,
4x LRM 10's
3x LRM 15's
2x LRM 20's
Thanks!
Here are the links to the builds:
LRM 10: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...5adf66928ad7f4d
LRM 15: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...1ccfe261c5a3fe5
LRM 20: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...64407dfd257f5ad
I read a guide suggesting LRM 15's are superior, but I'd love to hear multiple opinions. Thanks!

Like all of the good players have already stated, LRM Atlas hurt their team more than they help them! Also, you are using the wrong Atlas to boat LRMs. Look at the tube count.

I've never built an Atlas S before, that mech has some odd hardpoints. If you want missiles, this would be the most efficient use of the mech with its perks.
AS7-S

Edited by mogs01gt, 18 February 2015 - 06:50 AM.

[Enigmos]

reddevil, on 13 February 2015 - 10:40 AM, said:

But what about just general efficiency? Is it better to have two LRM20's or 4 LRM 10's? Are 15's the sweet spot or irrelevant?

Depends on you, frankly. For me 15s are the most effective.

Tell you what: go into your stats and record the number of missiles fired, the number of hits, and the damage for 10s, 15s, and 20s.

Now go equip each build and drop for a set number of matches (to obtain sufficient sampling).

Then go back into weapon stats and record the new numbers for the categories mentioned above.

Subtract the old number of missiles fired from the new number of missiles fired. This is your throw weight from those matches.

Subtract the old number of hits from the new number of hits. This is how many of those you fired actually hit the target.

Subtract the old damage done from the new damage done. This is the total damage from your test.

The ratio of missiles fired to missiles that hit (expressed as percent) is your accuracy with that weapon system. Recognize up front that your performance will depend heavily on your teammates holding lock, unless you don't fire until you see the red of their sensor suite, and also by the amount of AMS your missiles had to fly through trying to reach the target, and also by the agility of your target reaching cover.

Damage done, divided by the number of missiles that actually hit, will tell you the damage potential of each missile from each weapons system. Multiply that value by the number of missiles you fired to see what the damage potential could have been had all missiles reached the target.

Compare, and it should be evident to you which missile system is best for you, given the players you drop with, the builds you play against, and your overall style of play.

This method works for all IS weapon systems. Clan ballistics are... rather more complicated.

Edited by OriginalTibs, 23 February 2015 - 10:55 AM.

[Enigmos]

There is also the question what are you attempting to accomplish with these missiles on your Atlas? The advice promoting LRM5s is quite sound when chain fired if your objective is to blind and intimidate your apponent as you lay into him with serious weapons.

[Mad Ox]

Single LRM10 to get assists during start of battle when people are hiding and give yourself something to do. Then SRM's of your choice for rest.

I pretty much always throw on LRM 10 for assists and to give me something to do at battle start. This keeps me from getting bored and rushing into Brawling right away which at battle start pretty much guaranteed focus fired death.

Then up close Med Pulse or Standard with AC20 and SRM's just crunch things. Not using all or almost all weapon slots on an Assualt is really a waste. And in case of Atlas using it as missile boat for long range is a bit silly too ya can do it but your really hurting your team with it. your an Assualt have armor to soak up hits for team.

[Telmasa]

I'm with you on using LRMs on Atlases. The weapon locations are not ideal for brawling, you're fat and slow, and the missiles just happen to be mounted quite high on your shoulder....

I like mixed loadouts best with Atlases; as long as you pack other goodies in along with that LRM rack (or two), and don't stand around typing "locks plz", I think you're doing it right.


The problem is it takes an Atlas pilot with a clue about how effective use of LRMs works - or rather, how to avoid being ineffective with LRMs.

The typical experience in pugs with LRM atlases is that they stand around, in the back, not helping the team with their armor or 'secondary' weaponry until it's all ogre anyway. Which is why everyone in this thread is dumping in the idea of LRM atlas & crying out for SRM brawlers - it's easier to team up with assault players that push to the forefront (and brawling assaults kinda are forced to do that).

If, like me, you've had extensive experience in the Catapult and other LRM mechs where true success lies in far more than standing around as an indirect-damage wallflower, then LRM-atlas will work out great.

Edited by Telmasa, 01 March 2015 - 12:40 AM.

[Arctourus]

I run four alrm10s in my awesome 8r. It gives me good alpha or fast chain fire. More often than not, targets will move to cover or break lock when you fire.....super large alphas of missiles are often wasted.