448 replies to this topic

[Odins Fist]

Onmyoudo, on 13 March 2013 - 12:46 AM, said:

Attention: Atlas Pilots, I am still jealous...!!

.
YUP

[Commander Kobold]

Dear Atlai please keep your derpy cousin the Banshee away from here.

[Scryed]

Omni 13, on 17 March 2013 - 09:24 AM, said:

Dear Atlai please keep your derpy cousin the Banshee away from here.

Daggummit now I want a banshee...........DA FUDGE!!!!

[Josef Nader]

Khobai, on 17 March 2013 - 09:14 AM, said:

Whats he gonna do? Walk at you sideways and shoot you with his arm laser? The majority of the Atlas' weapons are torso mounted, and mounted low in the torso at that, so its impossible to shoot anyone without exposing your center torso... unless theyre distracted by something else... which only further reinforces the idea that Atlases should not be the frontline mechs.

He's not going to walk directly at you.

He's going to use cover, make his approach, use burst damage to knock holes in your armor, and generally force you to pay attention to him for as long as possible while minimizing the amount of return fire you can lay on him.

[Commander Kobold]

Scryed, on 17 March 2013 - 09:25 AM, said:

Daggummit now I want a banshee...........DA FUDGE!!!!

why Banshee when you can have ZZEEEEUUUUUUUSSSSSS

[Josef Nader]

That's a strange way of spelling King Crab.

[Rizzwind]

Atlases take 40% more damage from LRMs. That alone means right now using said atlas as a meat shield is going to fail.

[Royalewithcheese]

Rizzwind, on 17 March 2013 - 11:44 AM, said:

Atlases take 40% more damage from LRMs. That alone means right now using said atlas as a meat shield is going to fail.

LRMs are not really a significant threat to a well-positioned Atlas, tho. Lurms are countered hard by cover and by getting within 180m, which are the two situations an Atlas wants to aim for in the first place.

[MischiefSC]

Royalewithcheese, on 17 March 2013 - 11:47 AM, said:

LRMs are not really a significant threat to a well-positioned Atlas, tho. Lurms are countered hard by cover and by getting within 180m, which are the two situations an Atlas wants to aim for in the first place.

All weapons are countered by hardcover and since a brawler atlas is a killing machine up close getting within 180m of an Atlas and being its primary target is always dangerous.

Quit pretending that LRMs are just no threat to anyone and never kill anyone unless they are 'bad players'. If that were the case nobody would use them and you wouldn't see them comprise at least 40 to 50% of the mechs in game right now pretty much across the Elo board.

An atlas alone isn't a tank. It is a solid anchor and damage magnet though and so works well in a charge. The point though is that generally against even a moderately skilled team the atlas is gonna get killed - the question is, was it worth it? That's the problem. Most teams are too scared of getting shot to take advantage of it. The atlas is buying you 2 or 3 free shots against the enemy and it's paying that price with its life. You need to exploit the sh**t out of that. If you haven't dropped 2 or 3 mechs to dead or near dead and running by the time the Atlas pops you just wasted it and deserve to lose.

An atlas is not the 'tank'. It's the pawn sacrifice of a rush. If the pilot knows that and plays it well you'll kill a$$. Atlas pilots your job is not to focus fire down the enemy. It's to shoot the crap out of as many people as possible before you die so your team can easily finish them off. Just charge, face-hump until they turn away or run but don't chase! Turn and do it to that Hunchie who's standing there hoping to get the killshot on you, motionless and flat-footed. Turn and unload a 90pt alpha right in his face. He'll freak and run only to be slaughtered by your team. Rinse and repeat.

With a good team the Atlas, especially if he's not the only Atlas, won't die. It'll turn into a total roll, a 1-sided slaughter as the Atlases break the other team who turns and runs only to be ridden down by your teammates. The enemy assaults can't run so will just back up, getting focus-fired down one at a time in quick succession until there's that last Medium sniper who was in the back or that Light who was trying to backstab left.

It'll take longer to run down and kill that last little bastage than the whole rest of the rush took.

Stick with your atlas and that's what 90% of your games will be. Play defense only or abandon your atlas and the opposite of that is going to happen to you regularly and you're going to pretend it was a premade teams and not just pugs who stuck to the plan even when they took some fire and followed through.

Don't be a p***y. Stick with the Atlas, take some shots, don't chase until the enemy is half gone, you'll win like it's going out of style.

[Rizzwind]

Royalewithcheese, on 17 March 2013 - 11:47 AM, said:

LRMs are not really a significant threat to a well-positioned Atlas, tho. Lurms are countered hard by cover and by getting within 180m, which are the two situations an Atlas wants to aim for in the first place.

yes in a 8 man team game. But pugs seem to lean more to open ground. How many times have you seen a full team run out to the water side of a map to just be LRMed to death. Right now the only Atlas worth it's wight is the DDC and do you really want to waste it as a meat shield.

[Royalewithcheese]

Rizzwind, on 17 March 2013 - 12:02 PM, said:

How many times have you seen a full team run out to the water side of a map to just be LRMed to death.

Too many times haha. But IMO a lot of things are OP against ppl who don't use cover

[Scryed]

Omni 13, on 17 March 2013 - 09:34 AM, said:

why Banshee when you can have ZZEEEEUUUUUUUSSSSSS

Look at the amount of hard points on a BNC-3S, totally outclasses a Zeus.

[Josef Nader]

LRMs aren't a threat to anyone unless they're a bad player. I can count the number of times I've died to the most recent iteration of LRMs without taking my socks off, and I play every weight class and almost every mech in the game.

LRMS are not a threat to anyone. Stop trying to cross open ground with no cover. Get within 180m of the boat. Pull the boat's engine out through his exhaust port.

[Commander Kobold]

Scryed, on 17 March 2013 - 12:11 PM, said:

Look at the amount of hard points on a BNC-3S, totally outclasses a Zeus.

the spider proves that PGI doesn't care about which mech is more usefull than the other firepower or hardpoint wise.

edit:also the zeus looks cooler,and we don't need another (thinner) atlas.

Edited by Omni 13, 18 March 2013 - 02:40 AM.

[Grimnir79]

Mr 144, on 13 March 2013 - 02:01 AM, said:

Heavy Brawlers....I hate you.  You shadow me, using my bulk as cover as I plod along.  You give me a sense of security, backup, a force multiplier.  As soon as the engagement starts, you run away from me, most times withdrawing completely from the brawl when it gets tough.  You don't shoot the same things your Atlas is, you don't protect him from faster flankers while he handles the meat of the oppostition.  You leave your Atlas alone...high-and-dry...stranded...at the slightest scratch of your heavy's paint.

Next time you run from a fight and leave me to 'tank' an entire team solo, I will spin in circles spamming fire in all directions...God knows I can't disengage to TK ya...you've already ran.

Please be useful for the Atlas if you expect him to tank.

Sincerely yours,

An Atlas Pilot

^^ This! As an Atlas-pilot I can't count the number of times where I have been stranded alone despite trying to stay with the rest of the team. As soon as medium/heavies start taking fire they flee, leaving me alone with entire enemy team.The role of the Atlas is, IMHO, to be in the frontline doing damage; but the Atlas can't do all the work himself.

[Jay Kerensky]

Everyone who keeps using the term 'Atlai' annoys me. Stop trying to sound smart - you're not. The plural is and always has been Atlases.

There were arguments.

Everyone who used 'Atlai' lost.

Some don't even know they've lost.

Well you have - lost, that is. So just cut it out and go invent a new word like 'Irregardless' or something and talk to each other about how smart you are at plurals and collective nouns.

Perhaps you could have an 'Atlai' of Atlases. So take your new collective noun, go forth and syndicate.

[Khobai]

Quote

He's not going to walk directly at you.

He's going to use cover, make his approach, use burst damage to knock holes in your armor, and generally force you to pay attention to him for as long as possible while minimizing the amount of return fire you can lay on him.

Again... if an Atlas can shoot you, you can shoot its center torso... if youre letting an Atlas unload on you, without focus firing him back, youre failing at the game. If an Atlas pokes out of cover, we all just target him and put like 2 ppcs each into him, and he dies very quickly.

Generally the only way an Atlas can do damage, without taking damage in return, is to hide in cover and let all the light and medium mechs engage first and distract the enemy, while the Atlas functions mostly as second-wave/cleanup crew. This strategy is very viable for assaults. However having Assaults leading the charge is just dumb... because they drop to focus fire so quickly. It's much better to let the lights tank the damage because they have crazy evasion and damage spreading.

Quote

LRMs aren't a threat to anyone unless they're a bad player

Depends on the map. On a map like forest colony conquest... good luck getting theta or kappa when the other team has LRM and ECM/lightmech superiority. Its just not gonna happen. On a map like frozen city, lrms are pretty useless.

Edited by Khobai, 18 March 2013 - 05:02 AM.

[Rushin Roulette]

Well, the best way to utilize your Atlaiis to keep the opponents buys by not hitting you. Keep close to cover if you encounter more firepower than you can surpress, but open enough so that you can use all of your firepower if anything else shows so that you can push them back behind cover again.

Once the opponent has been shot up, it is the job of the Atlaseneses to go ahead of the team and soak up damage while the others can fan out and deal damage to the preoccupied opponents.

P.S. who the heck cares how the plural is as long as it is understandable? It is a name for gods sake, not a general noun... you dont write Rushin Roulettes or Jay Kerenskies do you? So stop being so damn pedantic.

[Ulric Kell]

He who fires first dines first.

[Ryllen Kriel]

I prefer "Atlaseseseszai-tok-tok-wutang'yeehaw69" as the proper plural form of Atlas.